And the Cradle Will Rock

It turns out it’s alot easier to listen to all the Van Halen albums than all the Rush albums. There were only six of ’em back in the day with Diamond Dave, and many of them are barely over a half hour long. I guess I’ll try some of the Van Hagar stuff to, since I stopped following them after 5150 and only came back for A Different Kind of Truth. In other listening, I’ve been getting into Mingus, Gershwin, Ravel and Franz Liszt lately.

The patio project is on! Two weeks ago Friday I went down to the stoneyard and met with the guy and placed an order. A couple days later he called me saying he didn’t have all of the big 2’x’3′ stones in inventory (yeesh!), so I had to adjust my plan. A week ago Friday the stuff was delivered.

Last Saturday I started digging out the area, down 8″ or so. Shoveling is probably the hardest single job because dirt is pretty heavy and after hundreds of reps the stress accumulates on lower back. So I decided from the beginning to mainly work in sessions of a couple hours every day.

Since the project involves alot of heavy lifting, I’ve temporarily modified my workout to reduce the number of reps and amount of weights I’m doing. Unfortunately I haven’t been doing much biking recently cuz the time I would spend doing that is going toward the patio instead. Ah well.

Sunday I started laying in the stones to form the edge. I’m using 16″ x 8″ concrete pavers for this, and need 21 of them for my perimeter of 28 feet. The work involved more digging out, and lots of measuring, as well as actually seating the stones and packing them in with dirt and fill. So the first session I only got three done. Next day my pace improved and I got five in. The day after there was less measuring, just filling across in a straight line, so I got six done, and the last seven on Wednesday.

Thursday I took a day off. Friday I pulled out the old stones on the edge of the patio where I’m extending it, leveled out the bottom, and started filling in the fill. This was an extra long session, three or four hours. I got 10 wheelbarrow’s worth of fill in, probably half the total if you include what I brought in to seat the edging stones. Sunday I was hoping to finish the fill, but it got harder to shovel as the pile got lower, so I stopped after another nine wheelbarrows. I have about that amount remaining.

Today it rained all day, and it’s supposed to rain tomorrow too, so I’ll get back to it in a few days. After putting in the fill I have to tamp it all down, then start in with the sand and the actual stones. Finally there’s some landscaping, moving a shrub, grading the edges, filling in low spots in my yard with leftover dirt, putting down grass seed. I’m hoping to be all done by the end of October. Jeannie is already shopping for a fire pit to put on the new patio.

The weather had been super nice the last few weeks up to today. September just kinda slid into October without us even noticing. It’s been sunny, in the low 70’s and dry; we haven’t had rain in weeks. Last night was the first night it got cool and today I even ran the heat for a little bit. I’ll probably take out the air conditioners this week.

…

My recording project is proceeding apace. I tracked the bass parts for Why Not Zed? and Heavy Water. Once the bass part is down, the song feels reel because it’s the first audio (as opposed to MIDI) instrument. No more going back to change the tempo or key or structure or feel. I’ll usually practice and do a few takes over a few days, to really get a feel for the song. While I’m at I’ll tweak the drum part if necessary to make it groove better here and there.

This evening I also laid down the guitar part for Why Not Zed? Y!Z is a heavy rock song, while the others are jazz ballad and a sorta funky fusion number. A few months ago I did the guitar for The Story Lies. It felt so laborious and involved alot of experimentation before I got the setup right. This time it couldn’t have been easier. I split the output of the guitar and recorded one channel clean and the other thru my stomp box. I used preset #60, a basic heavy distortion, very meaty. The part went down just like that, in one take. I discovered a great voicing for a 7#9 chord to end the song on. I recorded a second take, even though I probably didn’t need to, just cuz I was having fun. I almost feel like the guitar is secretly easier than any other instrument, at least at a certain level. Maybe that’s why there are so many mediocre guitarists out there.

Anyway, next up is vocals for Y!Z, then it’s on to saxes on all three songs, and then whatever synths and keyboards I need to round things our.

Meanwhile, my drumming is continuing to improve. I’m up to 5- and 9-stroke rolls in my rudiments, and that’s also really improving my long roll. I can jam thru all kinds of basic rock grooves with different patterns on the kick drum, with more endurance, precision, dynamics and phrasing, and I can sustain faster tempos. Also learning my first Latin patterns, and some grooves in 5/8 and 7/4.

…

I’ve been learning Drupal for the OUSA web project. Recently it’s been alot of reading documentation cuz there’s alot of baked-in concepts, and bit of poking around and experimenting. Then the other day my friend Mark up in the Adirondacks called me up (yes they’ve already had snow) and asked if I wanted to help him with a freelance project. It’s in Drupal too, so this gives me a chance to sink my teeth into something way less complex, leveraging what I already know. The timing couldn’t’ve been better.

Lastly, Jeannie and actually left the house to do something social. We didn’t feel like going to a restaurant or anything for our anniversary. But then my friend Nick out on Long Island had an Oktoberfest party. He usually has a few parties a year, but not so much this year. This one was greatly scaled back, just a dozen or so people, and was all outside. We ended up staying late and talking half the night. Good to catch up with friends, but these are strange days and lots of people are going thru different things.

And the Cradle Will Rock

It turns out it’s alot easier to listen to all the Van Halen albums than all the Rush albums. There were only six of ’em back in the day with Diamond Dave, and many of them are barely over a half hour long. I guess I’ll try some of the Van Hagar stuff to, since I stopped following them after 5150 and only came back for A Different Kind of Truth. In other listening, I’ve been getting into Mingus, Gershwin, Ravel and Franz Liszt lately.

The patio project is on! Two weeks ago Friday I went down to the stoneyard and met with the guy and placed an order. A couple days later he called me saying he didn’t have all of the big 2’x’3′ stones in inventory (yeesh!), so I had to adjust my plan. A week ago Friday the stuff was delivered.

Last Saturday I started digging out the area, down 8″ or so. Shoveling is probably the hardest single job because dirt is pretty heavy and after hundreds of reps the stress accumulates on lower back. So I decided from the beginning to mainly work in sessions of a couple hours every day.

Since the project involves alot of heavy lifting, I’ve temporarily modified my workout to reduce the number of reps and amount of weights I’m doing. Unfortunately I haven’t been doing much biking recently cuz the time I would spend doing that is going toward the patio instead. Ah well.

Sunday I started laying in the stones to form the edge. I’m using 16″ x 8″ concrete pavers for this, and need 21 of them for my perimeter of 28 feet. The work involved more digging out, and lots of measuring, as well as actually seating the stones and packing them in with dirt and fill. So the first session I only got three done. Next day my pace improved and I got five in. The day after there was less measuring, just filling across in a straight line, so I got six done, and the last seven on Wednesday.

Thursday I took a day off. Friday I pulled out the old stones on the edge of the patio where I’m extending it, leveled out the bottom, and started filling in the fill. This was an extra long session, three or four hours. I got 10 wheelbarrow’s worth of fill in, probably half the total if you include what I brought in to seat the edging stones. Sunday I was hoping to finish the fill, but it got harder to shovel as the pile got lower, so I stopped after another nine wheelbarrows. I have about that amount remaining.

Today it rained all day, and it’s supposed to rain tomorrow too, so I’ll get back to it in a few days. After putting in the fill I have to tamp it all down, then start in with the sand and the actual stones. Finally there’s some landscaping, moving a shrub, grading the edges, filling in low spots in my yard with leftover dirt, putting down grass seed. I’m hoping to be all done by the end of October. Jeannie is already shopping for a fire pit to put on the new patio.

The weather had been super nice the last few weeks up to today. September just kinda slid into October without us even noticing. It’s been sunny, in the low 70’s and dry; we haven’t had rain in weeks. Last night was the first night it got cool and today I even ran the heat for a little bit. I’ll probably take out the air conditioners this week.

…

My recording project is proceeding apace. I tracked the bass parts for Why Not Zed? and Heavy Water. Once the bass part is down, the song feels reel because it’s the first audio (as opposed to MIDI) instrument. No more going back to change the tempo or key or structure or feel. I’ll usually practice and do a few takes over a few days, to really get a feel for the song. While I’m at I’ll tweak the drum part if necessary to make it groove better here and there.

This evening I also laid down the guitar part for Why Not Zed? Y!Z is a heavy rock song, while the others are jazz ballad and a sorta funky fusion number. A few months ago I did the guitar for The Story Lies. It felt so laborious and involved alot of experimentation before I got the setup right. This time it couldn’t have been easier. I split the output of the guitar and recorded one channel clean and the other thru my stomp box. I used preset #60, a basic heavy distortion, very meaty. The part went down just like that, in one take. I discovered a great voicing for a 7#9 chord to end the song on. I recorded a second take, even though I probably didn’t need to, just cuz I was having fun. I almost feel like the guitar is secretly easier than any other instrument, at least at a certain level. Maybe that’s why there are so many mediocre guitarists out there.

Anyway, next up is vocals for Y!Z, then it’s on to saxes on all three songs, and then whatever synths and keyboards I need to round things our.

Meanwhile, my drumming is continuing to improve. I’m up to 5- and 9-stroke rolls in my rudiments, and that’s also really improving my long roll. I can jam thru all kinds of basic rock grooves with different patterns on the kick drum, with more endurance, precision, dynamics and phrasing, and I can sustain faster tempos. Also learning my first Latin patterns, and some grooves in 5/8 and 7/4.

…

I’ve been learning Drupal for the OUSA web project. Recently it’s been alot of reading documentation cuz there’s alot of baked-in concepts, and bit of poking around and experimenting. Then the other day my friend Mark up in the Adirondacks called me up (yes they’ve already had snow) and asked if I wanted to help him with a freelance project. It’s in Drupal too, so this gives me a chance to sink my teeth into something way less complex, leveraging what I already know. The timing couldn’t’ve been better.

Lastly, Jeannie and actually left the house to do something social. We didn’t feel like going to a restaurant or anything for our anniversary. But then my friend Nick out on Long Island had an Oktoberfest party. He usually has a few parties a year, but not so much this year. This one was greatly scaled back, just a dozen or so people, and was all outside. We ended up staying late and talking half the night. Good to catch up with friends, but these are strange days and lots of people are going thru different things.

Eddie Van Halen

One of the all-time great musicians, Eddie Van Halen, passed away this week. I was fortunate enough to see Van Halen live twice, once in the 1980’s and once in their last tour with David Lee Roth and young Wolfie on bass. If anything Eddie got better all those years later. Also I still think Alex is one of the most underrated drummers ever.

I was of a generation where every kid learning guitar tried to sound like him and mostly failed loudly and obnoxiously. I’m a pretty basic guitar player myself, but in ninth grade I tried to work out how to play Eruption on saxophone. It was more of an interpretation than an transcription, and I don’t know if I really got it across, but I did pick up some riffs and an awareness of playing with speed. None of my friends back then were into Charlie Parker, so this turned out to be the start of of a long journey to connect what I was hearing studying jazz with what I was hearing in different styles of rock and pop at the time. Since then I’ve worked out versions of several Van Halen songs on piano, and it turns out they work great, particularly the ones with a boogie shuffle feel. I’ve yet to convince any bar band I’ve been in to give a shot at covering a Van Halen song.

The secret to Ed’s genius was not in his speed and shredding, but in his voicings, tone and phrasing. That band could swing! He really understood 7th chords and how they’re used in blues and jazz, and harmony in general, and applied it in a whole different idiom. Of course prodigious technique doesn’t hurt, but he deployed it with great feel and imagination, putting his playing among the ranks of guys like Keith Emerson and John Coltrane in terms of impact on his instrument. Or probably more closely Art Tatum – you can tell Eddie got alot ideas from him – if Art had a whammy bar on his piano!

Happy trails to you!

Party on the Patio

As sometimes happens, I’m in the middle of a number of things, all of which are at a point where there’s obstacles to moving forward.

Fall is here, the days are getting shorter and nights are turning colder. Soon the season for biking and rollerblading will be over. We ran the heat for the first time yesterday morning. Jeannie is back to commuting into the city, at least for the next few weeks. Michelle has started school. Last week she attended classes online; this week she’s going into the the school. She’s pretty happy and excited about that. I’m picking her up in the afternoons, since we don’t want her taking the bus or train under the current circumstances. I have the house to myself in the daytime for the first time since March. I’ve started getting up early again.

I narrowed down the number of songs I’m actively recording to three. They’re all coming along. This is the most satisfying thing I’m doing at the moment. Mostly it just takes time, but it’s fun to spend time on it. Doing creative work of any kind means a certain amount of thinking and exploring, which to an outsider can look an awful lot like doing nothing, and of course there’s always has the risk of coming up empty, or with an unsatisfactory result. So one must keep trying or move on to something else. Then, once in a while and idea comes together and way forward is clear, at least until the next obstacle.

For Why Not Zed? the chords and song structure came together pretty quickly and I’ve laid down a basic track with midi bass and drums. I’m practicing the bass and guitar parts to lay down fairly soon. It’s a fairly heavy, rocking uptempo number. I originally envisioned it as something like They Might Be Giants might come up with, but it’s leaning more toward Crimso Astronomy Domine with a pop-punk edge.

Heavy Water is also coming along nicely. I have the song structure, the piano part, a synth bass, and a sketch of the melody, which will weave between the sax and synthesizer. Also practicing the bass guitar part, which I’m gonna lay down at the same time as Why Not Zed?

Autumn Eyes (a.k.a. Wolf Whisper) is further along. The main thing it needs is the sax part, which I’m gonna record when I do the sax for Heavy Water. I took my midi drum part and sliced up up so I can control the level of the different elements of the drum kit, but the drums are pretty minimal on this one. I’m thinking of recording some live drums on it too, to get sounds I can’t get from a drum machine, like brushes.

Plague of Frogs and the others are on the back burner for now. I’ll continue to work on the arrangements while I track these three.

I’m improving playing the drums. I can do a roll now, although there’s room for greater speed and evenness. Working on that and a handful of other rudiments. I can play more and more beats with more solidity and consistency at different tempos. Working on solid kick drum and building up endurance, especially for double and triple hits. In addition to the grooves I’m reading out of books, I’m putting together a few in 5/8 and 7/8 time with different feels.

And – this is potentially exciting – I’ve put together a new jazz group. I think I mentioned I started playing back in July at Lagond, with Mike O. and Rich F. and a new version of the old jazz circle. I haven’t played with them for over a year, so it’s good to be back and nice the group is finding it’s sound and seems to be hitting pretty strong. We’re doing an interesting mix of material, some of which is new to me.

But that’s just a rehearsal band. So in addition, back in August I hooked up with a piano player named Steve, who was looking to get together and jam. I invited Ken on bass and Steve on drums (it seems there’s always two guys with the same name) and we had a quartet. In addition to jazz standards we’re doing some fusion things like Metheny, Joco, Michael Brecker, Chick Corea and Weather Report. Well dig prog rock too. We’ve gotten together three or four times. So far it’s pretty fun, sounds good, and it seems like everyone is on the same wavelength. Too early to really tell, but it may have legs. Or wings. On the downside, the piano player seems to have to travel alot for his job, so that may make it hard to get a weekly thing going.

Alas, the original-oriented rock group remains grounded for want of a guitar player, even though Ken and Steve are into it.

…

In other news, my origami book got to be far enough along that I’ve begun looking into publishing options. I have diagrams and page layouts done for nine models, and was working on the table of contents and planning out how many photos I’d need and of what models. The book was looking to be around sixty to sixty-four pages. I reached out to my friend John M and Marc K, who have a lot more experience publishing than I do, and they both had some good advice.

The main thing is I’ve decided to bring my book up to 120 to 128 pages or so, because that seems to be more commercially viable sweet spot. This of course means adding more models. In addition to the nine I already completed, I have five more diagrammed and ready to go; I just need to do the page layouts. Then I have three of four more designed and partially diagrammed, and another five or so that are partially designed but not yet fully worked out or diagrammed. So we’re looking at a few months at least. In the meantime I’ve decided I’m going to take some of the models and put them together in groups, essentially like a chapter of the book, and sell them as digital downloads on the Origami USA web site. So watch this space for that.

Speaking of the OUSA web site, I’ve signed on to create a new scheduling app for conventions and such, and began actively working on it in July. I’ve been working with Robert L., our webmaster, to get up to speed. The level of software to install and configure is pretty heavy. There’s Drupal, Drush, CiviCRM, PHP, a bunch of custom scripts, and whole host of other technologies on the stack. I’m the first person Robert ever tried to onboard, so we worked our thru issue after issue until I finally have the whole web site running on my local machine. Whew, it only took about six weeks.

Now I’m starting in the actual design and development. So far that’s been reading the existing code, the Drupal User’s Guide and Developer’s Guide and discussing thins with Robert. I’ve never written a Drupal module before, and the requirements are only partly clear. Ah fun.

Elsewhere in software development, the Global Jukebox proceeds apace. We’re looking to do another push to live in a few weeks, so it’ll be all shiny for the school kids using the classroom module. I recently put in a new piece of UX/UI to browse the new world taxonomy. It’s called the New Wheel, and unlike the Old Wheel, which radiates out from the center, but became too dense wit the introduction of the new Taxonomy, this one winds inward like the tumblers on a combination lock. It’s built entirely out of javascript, svgs and css and features cool animations. Very informative, intuitive and beautiful, plus the code itself is really quite good if I say so myself. After my last job at that chaotic startup, it’s so nice to able to have control over the codebase and actually write high-quality, well thought-out and well structured code.

Now we’re in the long tail of of random little bug fixes and usability issues, plus we want to get in a couple more minor features. I spent the last few days tweaking icons and going back’n’forth with Anna and Kiki about what everything things looks good and communicates the right idea.

Meanwhile Martin’s been looking at the backend, where our creaky old django/python app is in danger of being made obsolete due a pressing need to upgrade to a newer version of linux on our servers, in order to fix a timekeeping issue. Long story, big headache. Anyway he’s been doing alot and we’ll get there.

…

And lastly, the topic that was the point of this whole post, the Patio Project. Well this is actually Patio Project part II. Back when Michelle was a baby and our house was new I built a stone path around the side of the house and patio in the back yard. My dad came down and helped me with the patio part. It’s made of bluestone flagstones on a bed of compacted sand over crushed stone. It took us five days if I recall, and one of those days was making a concrete step.

Well now I want to enlarge the patio to go deeper into the yard, so I’m adding an extension of 4′ x 20′. There have been a few delays getting going on this project. I first started thinking seriously about it last summer, but it was too hot to work on it then. The fall came and went I was too busy with other stuff. Then I figured I’d do it in the spring, but then it was the pandemic and the lockdown, and suddenly building supplies were scarce and I was sick for a month anyway. Then it was summer and too hot again. But at least I made a plan and figured out what materials I’d need.

Shortly after Labor Day looked up the place where I got the stones and other supplies for the original patio. But they’re out of business, and the lot is now a parking lot for school busses. So this weekend I researched where else I might get stones and sand and all that. I found three places within a reasonable distance and sent them each an email describing the project, listing the materials I think I need, and asking for a quote. Two of them got back to me and were both helpful, although one forgot to actually attach the quote to his reply.

In any event, it looks like it’s on! Hopefully this week I’ll go to one of these places and pick out the actual stones and arrange the delivery. I figure it’ll be three or four full days of work on my own, all though I’m more likely to break it into several sessions of a few hours each spread out over a few weeks. I figure I should get done pretty easily by the end of October.

Everything is Green and Submarine

Sometimes we like to sit around the house and listen to music. I’ve been trying to educate Michelle on classic rock. Right now we’re in a Pink Floyd phase. Last year she got into Yes after hearing it in some anime, and now we’re all digging Floyd. I’m kinda envious that she can discover all this great music for the first time. There was a time in tenth grade or so when Pink Floyd was my favorite band, along with Rush, Zeppelin and the Doors. Of course I’ve discovered tons of great music since then, but it’s nice to check in with your faves once in a while.

We listened to Meddle and Wish You Were Here a few weeks back, then Dark Side of the Moon this weekend, and later on watched Live at Pompeii. The movie opens and ends with Echoes, which is such a great song, up there with the all time best full-album side track in classic or prog rock. It also has a bunch of other great early stuff like Careful With That Axe Eugene, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, One of These Days, and Saucerful of Secrets all performed live. They really had a special sound and an original take on music before they took over FM radio. Michelle says her favorite song is Mademoiselle Nobs.

Unfortunately our DVD is the directors cut from 1999 or so, and the amazing long slow zoom that opens the film is intercut with bad CG and stock footage of outer space and planets. Luckily the original version of the film is available as a bonus feature, so we watched the first and last chapter (Echoes Part I and II) agin the next might. Now everyone the family has the song stuck in our heads. Jeannie reminded me that Pink Floyd was the first concert we saw together, up in Toronto, after we’d been dating only a few weeks. They open and closed their live show with echoes that tour. It was the first time she heard it and it stuck with her.

In the home studio I’m in the middle of five songs right now on both the jazz and the rock side.

Winter Wolf Whisper is a jazz quasi-ballad I did with my last group. Lots of moody jazz chords and a strong, undulating melody. I have the drums, piano and electric bass laid down. When we did this live Jay played upright bass, and the electric changes the sound and character of the piece. But I’m digging it. It still needs the sax and maybe some synths, and some tweaks the drums. I’m thinking of recording a second drum track using my new acoustic drums. But I’m trying to do songs in pairs, so …

Heavy Water is a jazz fusion number that I wrote recently but never played with a group. Now I’m making it more studio-centric, and envisioning the sound as maybe sorta Steely/APP/Daft Punk with shades of 70s’ Herbie. It has a slow piano introduction and then mostly grooves on two sets of four chord changes in a loop. Right now I have the piano intro tracked, and map of the rest of the song with a synth bass outlining the chords and a midi drum part. I’m working on filling in the drum part to get a better sense of of the rise and fall of the dynamics and where the different sections fit. I might add another two choruses.

Plague of Frogs is my ten-minute prog magnum opus on the next rock album. I have the intro and main verse up the start of the jam section, with midi bass, drums, piano and synth. I’ve been working on the drums in the main section to get a sense of the groove and make it come alive. Next are the transitions from the intro and out of the section. This one will take a while.

Why Not Zed? and All of the Above are two short, simple uptempo songs for which I have the lyrics, chords and melody. I am writing them on guitar to keep things from getting too complicated. Next step is to get them so I can sing and play thru, then flesh out the arrangements.

Meanwhile, the computer that’s a the heart of my recording studio has been undergoing some upgrades with Jeannie’s help. A year ago or maybe more, the screen started glitching out from time to time. We got a replacement computer of the same kind before the screen gave out completely. But then the hard drive in the replacement computer started acting up, causing unpredictable crashes. We replaced the graphics card in the original computer and I started using it again, until we had a new problem where the screen goes black from time to time. So we replaced the hard drive in the replacement computer with an SSD that’s twice the size. Now it runs faster and quieter and has tons of free space. So we’re gonna replace the backlight controller in the original computer and upgrade to an SSD as well. Then I’ll have two fully functioning computers for my recording studio, although Jeannie wants to take one and put it in her office.

The Summer of George

We just got back from a mini vacation upstate. One can’t really do big traveling in these pandemic times. We couldn’t do camping this summer, and we couldn’t go down to Ocean City, things we do almost every year. So instead we planned a trip that was sort of a morph of the two. A few days of lakes and woods and mountains, and a bit of a beach resort, albeit on a lake. It was fun to get a break from our daily routine, and good for the soul.

The first day we drove up to visit Martin and his family, whom we hadn’t seen since Xmas. Good to say they’re all doing well. Charlie is getting good at origami. They have alot more ducks and chickens than they used to. We basically hung out on his porch and talked the whole time. Martin had just finished reading a book on prog rock called The Show That Never Ends, and by coincidence Jeannie and I were listening to Pink Floyd and Supertramp on the the car ride up, so there was some fun discussion around that.

We spent the next couple day at Lake George in the Adirondacks. Lake George village is a tiny town on the edge of a lake in the middle of a vast forest. And although it seems pretty dense locally, there’s only a handful of hotels, and it attracts people regionally rather than from further away. Walking around, the density of people is more than I’d seen in a long time, but the main drag is only one street, a few blocks long and it was easy to maintain distance.

We stayed at hotel called the Georgean which was like a mini resort. The rooms were like a motel and opened directly to the outside, so we felt a bit safer over that. Down by the lake’s edge was a area with a swimming pool and an outdoor bar with food, overlooking the lake, so we were able to eat outside and enjoy the view. The food was really good; we all had burgers and fancy drinks.

The hotel also has a little strip of private beach. Jeannie and I noticed they had sailboats that you can rent, so the next morning we went down to do just that. Only problem was there was no wind. So instead we got some kayaks, which was lot of fun too. In the afternoon we went around the opposite side of the lake and took a hike up to a ridge with some great views. It was a beautiful day to spend outside.

That evening we ate in the fancy restaurant attached to the Marriot across the street. All the places had a long wait for a table so we walked around town and spotted chainsaw bears. This place had outdoor seating too, and it started to get cold at night for the first time since the spring. They had a fun drink: a Manhattan with bacon and maple sugar. Yummy.

Next morning we got up and it was raining. We went out to breakfast and headed home since there was nothing to do outdoors. On the ride home we listened to Pink Floyd The Wall, an album that I haven’t heard since the 1980’s because it was just so overplayed. I must say it stands the test of time pretty well, and in some sense is surely a masterpiece with alot of great songs. David Gilmour’s guitar solos are just out of this world. On the downside, it’s a concept album about wallowing in self-pity. Roger Waters’ shrieking and quavering vocals are not exactly pleasant to listen to, sort of the polar opposite of someone like, say, Billie Holiday bringing beauty to dark emotional territory. Luckily he only does about half the singing.

Being a double album, it’s also kinda long. Sides 2 and 3 definitely drag on. (I think just about the only double album I can listen to straight through is Songs in the Key of Life.) There’s probably a great 3-sides of music in there, and someone should just cut out the all connecting bits and semi-songs where it’s just Roger and a piano or a synth and some sound effects. While they’re at it, they should edit Animals down to 22 minutes or so and put that on side four.

Since we got home earlier then expected I read that prog rock book that night. Over all pretty interesting, except the author made some pretty obvious errors describing the ELP album Brain Salad Surgery. Ah well.

Now we’re coming down to the end of summer. I must the weather in August has been really nice, especially compared to the heat of July. Lots of mornings in the 70’s and afternoons in the low to mid 80’s. Enough rain that I didn’t even have to water the lawn. Everything has been growing like crazy and I did lots of extra trimming in the yard the last few weeks. Now the days are getting shorter and the nights cooler. Michelle starts school next week.

There’s stuff going on these days with music and origami, and the Global Jukebox, but I’ll save that for another post. Also coming soon: the patio expansion project.

Dis Is Da Drum

Yes it’s true, I bought a drum set. Believe it or not my wife thought it was a good idea. Well better than getting a motorcycle anyway.

It arrived just over a week ago. I got a complete kit with all the drums, cymbals, stands, hardware, and a throne, all as a single unit. I didn’t even know that was something you could buy all together. This saved me the trouble of picking out all the individual components and the whole thing was a reasonable price. I guess it’s a basic, entry-level set but everything is well-made and sounds good. I also got sticks, mallets, brushes and (of course) earplugs.

The kit I got was from Ludwig, with Remo heads and Zildjian cymbals. It’s a gold sparkle finish, very nice. The kick drum is 22″, and then there’s two rack toms, a floor tom and and a snare drum, plus a ride cymbal, crash cymbal and hi-hat.

On the web they advertise the same kit with a 20″ kick drum and correspondingly smaller toms. This seemed like it might be suitable for jazz, but no one has it in stock, so it may not really exist. I asked one of my jazz drummer friends about the 20″ vs 22″ kick. He says back in the day jazz drummers used full size kick drums just like everyone else, and he prefers the 22″ anyway cuz it has a bigger sound and is more versatile, good for rock as well as jazz. So I stopped waiting for the smaller set to be in stock, which is just as well cuz it’s still not available after a month.

Unpacking and setting it all up was a major endeavor. I’d never done that before and I learned alot. Michelle was a big help. Then it was on to tuning the heads. Sweetwater has some videos on their web site, which was useful. But the tuning is by ear and by feel, so it’s hard to get that across in a video. I’m now in a phase where I’m experimenting to see what sounds and feels good.

Once I has it set up put together a little practice routine to get started. I haven’t played drums since high school or maybe college, and while I’m happy that I still know a few beats and basic grooves, that’s about it. So the focus on fundamentals. For on thing I’m just practicing single hits on all the drums, to get consistent control over the tempo, loudness and accents. Hitting the drums and cymbals in different places and at different angles to hear the different sounds. Getting consistent between the right and left hand. Experimenting with grip, where to hold the stick for the best balance, how tight or loose, and how to best take advantage of the bounce you get after a hit.

Next is moving around the kit, smoothly and without the sticks interfering with each other. Also experimenting with the placement of the drums and what feels comfortable. Third is patterns, mostly on the snare. I only remember a few rudiments, but I’m working on constancy, gradually increasing the tempo.

Last is beats and grooves. I must say many years of playing piano while singing has really my hand/foot independence. Again the focus right now is consistent tempo and volume. Being able to hone in on one part and not loose the others, particularly the kick drum. Putting in accents or extra hits to vary the groove. I noticed that when switching from the hi-hat to ride cymbal, the ride seems much louder. It’s a challenge to bring down the volume with keeping the kick and snare at their level, particularly since I’m playing the snare with my left hand.

One thing I never considered before is that the drum set is organized backwards in terms of high vs low, compared to the piano or other percussion in-struments like the vibes. In a basic beat the bass drum is on 1 and 3, and struck with the right foot. Then the backbeat is on the snare on 2 and 4, struck with the left hand. Compare that with a stride rhythm on piano, where left hand does both the bass note on 1 and 3 and the chord on the back beat, but the and moves to left for bass notes and to the right for the chord. I’ve known left-handed drummers who play the whole kit reverse. And there are right-handed guitarists I can think of who play left handed. I wonder if should try reversing the kit to see how that feels.

In any event, I’m working my way thru different videos about tuning the drums. After that I’ll look at a few basic videos about the issues I’m already working on in my playing, and maybe see if I can find a series of lessons online. I’ll probably also get a few books. Something like the Rubank elementary series (I wonder if they still make those), and a book of different rock and jazz patterns, beats and grooves. Everyone tells me a good samba beat is one of the hardest things to play well.

I might even try recording a drum part for the song I’m working on, but that’s still a little ways off.

The Global Jukebox 2.0

I’m happy to announce that last Friday, July 31, we released The Global Jukebox version 2.0. This is pretty much the culmination of my last year’s work, with the help of alot of people including my brother Martin, our administrator Kiki, our visual designer Alona and the project director Anna Lomax Wood.

There’s lots of exciting new stuff in it. The top three new things are an extensive style redesign, a whole new world taxonomy, and an all-new education section, including the Musical Roots classroom experience. So take some time and explore the world of world folk music and culture.

https://theglobaljukebox.org

There’s lots more in the offing, so hopefully it won’t be long before release 2.1. Enjoy!

Some Like It Hot

This has got to be the hottest July I can remember. It’s been above ninety pretty much every day the whole month, and alot of days above ninety-five. I usually like the heat but this is a bit much even for me. It’s not even enjoyable to be be outside except in the morning and the evening. No end in sight.

We took a mini pretend beach vacation this weekend. Saturday we went out to Jones Beach on Long Island to swim in the ocean and enjoy the scene. It was very nice. The water was warm and as calm as gets. Lots of fun swimming and floating. It was less crowded than usual because the parking lots were only allowing parking in every second space. We had originally intended to go to Robert Moses Beach but the parking there filled up before 10 am.

Sunday we went to an outdoor restaurant at Rye Beach, on the opposite end of the beach from the Tiki Bar and Playland amusement park, and enjoyed the sunset, some yummy seafood, and some live music with a sax player, percussionist, and a guy with a laptop computer playing loops and tracks. I’d never been to this place before but since the Tiki Bar is closed this summer we went exploring. Perfect chill vibe.

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In origami land, I’m drawing ever closer to finishing my book. The diagrams have been basically done for a while, but then I went back and picked out a harmonious color palette, with different colors for model with different themes, and re-rendered all the steps. Along the way I made a few improvements to the folding sequences and page layouts. I’m really going for a good-looking and high-quality book. Next step is model menu/TOC and then test folding and photography. Too bad it’s so hot. I might have to put in the air conditioner in my studio downstairs.

Also in origami land, I’ve resumed my scheduling project for Origami USA. If you recall, back in the winter, before the pandemic, I’d taken on managing the scheduling tool and the actual scheduling for the OUSA Conventions. The tool itself was an MS Access Database with a bunch of custom views and lots of macros. The plan was to use it for this year’s convention to get up the learning curve on the whole scheduling workflow, and then design and build a new tool in time for the new Chicago convention in the fall.

Well the OUSA June convention was replaced by the Un-Convention, which was a great success but had no need of scheduling. The Chicago convention is not happening either. But we figured we might as well go ahead and build the new scheduling tool, and hope the world is back to normal for the 2021 convention. So now I’m underway with that. First step is to install Drupal and a suite of plugins, since the what drives the OUSA web site. Next is to identify the points of integration and then come up with a design and a tech spec. Should be fun.

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Since I’m doing these blog updates rather infrequently these days, I might as well cover all the bases. We did a surprise soft launch The Global Jukebox at the end of June, for the benefit of our partner/sponsor CityLore, with whom we created an education section and interactive Musical Roots experience for use in New York City (and other) schools. However, there were a few loose ends in the app we didn’t have time to properly address. We’re just about finished with them and are preparing for the official Global Jukebox 2.0 release to live. Coming soon, very exciting. Watch this space for a future announcement.

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In the world of music, I’ve been going to the jazz jam sessions the last few weeks. All is cool so far, and it’s good to making music with other people. At first I felt pretty rusty, but now that I’ve shaken off the cobwebs I’m realizing my playing is reaching a higher level than before.

It still remains to get the new rock band off the ground, but there’s signs of hope.

Meanwhile, I’ve been continuing on working on a new batch of originals in my studio. Did I mention it’s really hot? The song I’ve zeroed in on is a medium-slow jazz number called Winter Wolf Whisper (although I’ll probably change the name) that we used to do in the Haven Street Quintet. Of course doing it on the computer requires changing the feel, so working thru that. One big thing is drums. I’m torn between making sound more natural and human, versus more electronic and machine-like. I’ve always been fascinated by bands with two drummers, or with a percussion section, so I’ll probably try combining both approached.

Still, I feel like I’ve gone as far as can with my current approach to drums. So I decided to buy a drum set. Something to practice on, and potentially record. Actually having drums has been on my list for a long, long time, and they’ll also come in handy if I ever have band rehearsals at my house again. I was pretty amaze at the kind of deals you can get these days on a new kit, complete with cymbals, stands and a throne. It should be here on Thursday, so mare on that soon.

We Jammin’

Even as the pandemic rages across other parts of the country, some things around here are getting back to normal, at least a little bit. One big portent is that my main rehearsal studio, Lagond, has re-opened. So I started asking around my musician friends to see how people feel about coming out and spending time indoors together, if the time is right. While I was mulling over the possibilities for putting together a new jazz or rock group, I gat a call from Mike, the drummer from the old jazz circle, looking for a sax player.

So I went down and jammed out. Lagond is doing all the things to keep us safe, requiring wearing a facemask coming in and out of the building, and putting hand sanitizer by every door, hooked up to a hi-hat pedal so you can operate it hands-free. We were in the big room downstairs with the piano, and we were set up so that everyone was at least twelve feet from his nearest neighbor.

It was good to re-connect with those guys. Most I haven’t seen in a year, maybe a couple years. And it was certainly alot of fun to play music with people again. Looks like I’m gonna keep going the rest of the summer, as long as the situation stays cool.

Ken was sitting in on bass. He and I were talking about forming a new rock band last winter, so we re-kindled those discussions. I reached out to the other musicians involved and they’re into it. So it’s time to start thinking about when and how. No matter what it looks a long time before there’s any gigs, but that’d give us time to develop our sound.