Live, learn, leave
We have a new neighbor. It’s a red-tailed hawk. I spotted him Saturday hanging out on a fence at the end of our block, eating a squirrel. He must have been pretty hungry cuz he let me get right up close to take some pictures. I saw him the again on Sunday, eating some other animal. This time I guess he was tired of me and flew off into a nearby tree.
The school musical was last weekend, and it was a smashing success. Lizzy was one of the leads, playing a young lady name Melody who comes to New York City in search of fame and fortune in the music biz. She had six songs. The show was entitled “If You Can Make it Here”, and revolved around people coming to NYC to make it in show business. It was custom written by Ms. Gizzo, the musical director, and was well crafted to take advantage of the talent available at the school. There were six leads and multiple supporting roles, a team of dancing girls, and a class on a school outing played by the younger kids. They all did great. I was very impressed at how it all came together.
The costumes and sets were impressive as well. In particular the dads who made the sets created a double-decker bus for one scene.
I played in the band. Mainly sax, but a bit of guitar too. The book I had to read during rehearsals was Hackers and Slackers, a chronicle of NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program in the early 90’s, and the rise of the “New Media” industry. I knew the author back in the day and pretty much everyone who appeared in the book was a friend of mine. It took on a whole ‘nuther layer of meaning, reading it in play rehearsals, because at the time I had just moved to NYC to try and make it in the entertainment industry. One chapter, based on a lecture I attended that had a big influence on me at the time, featured Jaron Lanier comparing virtually reality to theatre some pretty deep and specific ways. It was pretty mind blowing.
Anyway the show went over well, and the songs were really fun to play. By the end of the second performance everyone knew what they were doing. Here’s a set list. We also got to stretch out and jam between scenes as the rearranged the scenery.
Act I:
Not For the Life of Me
New York New York (Bernstein)
On Broadway
Manhattan (Rodgers/Hart)
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Lullaby of Broadway
The Boy from New York City
Act II:
NYC
It’s Christmas In New York
New York State of Mind
42nd Street
I’ve Never Been in Love Before
Your Song
I Turned the Corner
Theme From New York New York (Sinatra)
I’ve been jamming on the videos to go along with my book. I few weeks back I perfected the setup with the lighting and camera, and did a few tests to get up to speed. Now I have eighteen of twenty-two models in the can. Of course the four remaining include three of the hardest in the book. My publisher pointed out that I tend to pick the model up of the table sometimes, when executing complicated 3-D steps, and this makes it hard to see what’s going on. So I may go back and shoot some extra footage to cover these spots. I’m already shooting most models in several parts. I’m thinking I might go ahead and edit together the parts with crossfades, and while I’m at it tighten up the pacing, so I know it’ll come out the way I like it. I’d also like the improve the audio with some dynamic compression and a noise gate.
My problem now is the only video editor I have is iMovie and Quickitme, both of which kind of suck. I used to have Premier and After Effects, but that was years ago, and I don’t want to shell out thousands of bucks for a new video editor. I’m wondering if there’s a decent quality video editor out there for free, like Audacity is for audio. So far nothing has turned up.
A fun side effect of doing this video is that Michelle has been watching me, as she likes to take an interest in most of my studio things. Now she’s inspired to get back into origami, and has folded the Octopus and the Narhwal from my book. She wants to do one of my models for OBC this year.
It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve posted, and I’ve been keepin’ on with my various projects and stuff. Work has been busy. It feels like everyone is waiting for spring to arrive now. The kids were originally supposed to have the whole week of for Prez day, but they had only two days off so they could make up days they lost to Hurricane Sandy. Jeannie and the kids and I went up for a quick visit to our friends Seth and Cathy in the Berkshires last weekend. Jeannie and Michelle went skiing with our hosts, but Lizzy and I hung around the cabin for the day. It was bitter cold and I didn’t think I’d enjoy it much. At least I had a nice day to relax, and I did go for a nice hike in the woods. Maybe there’ll still be a chance to ski in March.
I put up another big update to my web site a couple days ago. This one brings us most of the way to new origami presentation, with view-by-subject and view-by-year in place. It also updates the nav bars and headers to make the layout nicer and save space. And of course as I go, bit by bit I’m converting things to divs with style definitions to make it all more flexible and modular. The next update will mainly focus on the module items in the origami section. I want to put back multiple images per item, and I want to introduce some kind of inline image viewer. I also wwant to put up some new pages for my various books and publications.
The kids’ school musical was supposed to be two weeks ago was postponed because of a snowstorm. It was rescheduled for this coming weekend. I went to a dress rehearsal today, and there’s another Friday with shows on Saturday and Sunday. Lizzy is really good, and so are the other leads. The band consists of me on sax and two teachers from the school, one on piano and one of drums. I’m also doing a bit of guitar. The music itself is really fun. They still need to work out some of the logistics of getting the little kids on and off the stage in a timely fashion, and moving around the scenery between scenes, as well as getting a good mix from the wireless mics the leads are wearing. Hopefully it’ll all get ironed out.
My friend and former colleague Leo Villareal is an artist who works in sculptures of computer-animated light. Over time his work has increased in scale. His new project is lighting up the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge. The grand lighting is only a few weeks away. You can learn more about it here.
January is always the harshest month of the year, with the cold and the dark, but we ended it on a high note. Jeannie and I took a quick getaway to the Bahamas her birthday. Three days of sunshine, beach and open bar. We made essentially the same trip five years ago, and had great time, and we couldn’t find an alternative to beat it. At the time we pledged to make a winter getaway every year, but you know how life can be. It took a few years to get back to it.
We stayed at the same hotel, Breezes, which is nice and cozy and has several pools, bars, and restaurants, with great food and open bar and is right up on the beach. It has a very friendly and relaxed vibe. The place is really a little gem.
This time around the vast majority of the guests were Canadian, and most of those from the Toronto area. So it felt a little like going home. And you know, those Cannucks are all so darn nice and friendly. Most of them seemed to assume I was Canadian too. At one point one said “Is there anyone in this hot tub who’s not Canadian?” Then she turned to me and said, “You know an awful lot about Canada for an American.” One evening we gathered ‘round and watched Hockey Night in Canada. (The Leafs lost, eh.)
The day we arrived the weather was great, sunny and warm, and we went straight to swim in the ocean. Towards evening it turned stormy. The next day it was overcast and windy, too rough to do anything out on the ocean. After breakfast I wandered into the piano bar, which was empty, and practiced for an hour or so. I did some of my originals, some covers, and Jeannie sang harmony on My Old School. I guess you could hear it from the next room cuz all day people were coming up to me saying I sounded good. So ’round midnight, after the main entertainment was finished upstairs, I went back and there was just the piano player there, and maybe a few people. He was playing a Monk song (Bud Walked In) when I walked in, so I requested ‘Round Midnight. He didn’t know it, and asked my if I knew it. So I hopped up on the piano again. I did 4 or 5 Steely Dan songs and some other things. This time I attracted a bit of a crowd. Since there were so many Canadians around I closed my set with Subdivisions, which was a big hit.
We also spent time exploring the island. Nassau is great, easy to get around, and everyone we met was really friendly. One afternoon we took the bus into town, but the bus got “hijacked” by an itinerant local tour guide, who took us to this place called The Caves, which was bunch of caves where pre-Colombian Bahamians lived over 1000 years ago. Really cool. We walked around Nassau and watched the cruise ships take off. We went to Fort Charlotte, build by the British in the 1700’s. BTW, there’s a giant monstrosity of a new hotel under construction just down the beach from Breezes. Apparently being built by Chinese labor with Chinese financing to the tune of $2 billion. Our guide had a lot to say on that topic and the political and economic implications for the island.
It was a great break from the winter and from everything going on, but it was over much to soon. Now we’re back and the main thing this week is the kids’ school musical coming up this weekend. Lizzy has one of the leads, Michelle is in the chorus, I’m playing in the band and my first rehearsal was yesterday, and Jeannie is acting as producer.
Coming soon: pictures!
Here’s part two of this winter’s updates to my web site. I’ve added two new links to my origami section to view Models By Subject and Models By Year. All the models templates have been updated to fit in with the look I’m using for the rest of the site. I’ve also added five new models and pics of a bunch of others. Some of these pics I took, and some were by Bob Plotkin as part of the photo shoots for my upcoming book.
I haven’t removed to old views yet, because I have yet to update the main origami page. So it’ll remain in a bit of a hybrid state for the time being. There’s other stuff to do too, so there’ll be a second update sometime soonish. I want to update my model templates so show multiple images, and create something like a gallery viewer for the full size images. I also want to create a publications section.
But that will have to wait. I’ve been working hard since new year, and coping with the darkness and the cold. It’s time to take a break and spend some time away from the computer.
I’ve be working on my origami site, adding new photos, new models, and updating the site templates to create new and improved layouts and to provide new ways to access the models by subject and chronologically. This isn’t done yet but should be along pretty soon.
I took new pictures of many of my tessellations. This is part of my getting-to-know-your-camera-better campaign, and while I was at it I shot some more test video for my book. I think I have a setup worked out now. One important change is I moved from my kitchen down to my studio to avoid having to break down every time it’s time to eat. The reason I was in the kitchen in the first place is that it gets lots of beautiful natural light. But this time of year I’m never even home in the limited daylight hours, so it’s a bit moot.
So now, down in the studio I have the camera on a tripod on the table, pointed straight down, and I have a sheet of light grey marble Wyndstone under the work. This is a nice, clear look. The thing that amazes me is how much light you really need. I opened of the f-stop, lengthened the exposure, and went to a higher (virtual) film speed, but my shots were still coming out dark. I turned on all the lights in the room, and ended up bringing in three 250-watt lights. One was from my living room, so I think I may go out and get a couple studio lamps going forward. Even so, this did the trick and I was able to capture clear, sharp video and stills.
One more thing I have to master with this camera is color balance. I left this on auto and it seemed to skew toward the warm side, as if it thought it was shooting in daylight. Another interesting side effect can be seen in the images here. The background is a neutral grey, but the camera skews it to be a weak complimentary color to the subject, which in this case happen to be strong, single colors. Very interesting.
Still lots of stuff going on. The weather last weekend was warm and beautiful. It got up to near 60 on Sunday, and I even took my Mustang out for a drive. I also played some sax, learning the music for the kids’ school musical. I got the sheet music, which makes it much easier.
I’ve pretty much moved in to my new computer. I gave my old computer to Lizzy; she’s happy and excited about it. I began work in earnest on Lou’s record, laying down click tracks and basic piano parts for three of the songs. I’ve been developing the arrangements, adding intros and instrumental sections, changing the chords here and there, figuring out direction fro the groove and plan for the instrumentation. I also came up with a new song he can use if he wants to, called “Why Not Zed?”, sort of riff on the classic alphabet motif.
Then Monday the weather turned cold, and I mean bitter cold. The high today was just eighteen, and the low was eight or so. Between that and the darkness, it really makes you want to not go outside. Although the days are starting to get longer again. It’s still dead black when we get up in the mornings, but yesterday it was not quite fully dark when I left work. It’s supposed to stay cold like that the whole week. I understand they’ve been getting snow upstate. Sunday it may get up to 30 again.
Been working on a bunch of things. Settling into the long winter and trying to be productive. Starting in or continuing on project that will take a while.
First off, my open mic the other night went pretty well. People told me I sounded good at least, and they like my songs. Before I’d played in a duo with Erik, but this was my first time as a completely solo artist. It’s not easy keeping both hands going and singing while no one is backing you up. Plus there’s always things on the stand the you don’t necessarily think about but you have to adjust to ont he spot: the sound and feel of the piano, the placement of the mic, the lighting. And there’s no sound check or warmup, you just go for it. Anyway I think I did pretty well.
I played two originals, Checker Cab and Get On Back 2 U. I’m trying to do one new song (as far as me performing it live is concerned) per show, and Checker Cab was it this time. On Checker Cab the left hand art in the chorus was a bit off one time thru, and I decided to skip the instrumental section in the middle for the safety of the groove. Still the vocals were strong on the groove was swinging the whole time. Get On Back 2 U went fine, no particular problems. I’m more comfortable with it, and maybe I should have opened with it but, ah too late now. When I debuted GoB2U live it was a bit shaky too, but now it’s solid and can focus on delivering a performance rather than worrying about messing up.
I can’t go to the open mic next month cuz of the kids’ school musical, but for the one after that the plan is to debut my version of Making Miles. Also gonna start looking for other open mics and try and find a rhythm section soon.
It looks like I’m mainly over the hump as far as moving into my new computer goes. It’s a Mac workstation with a great big screen, to replace my older mac workstation with a more moderately sized screen. Of course this means have to update all my software and everything. I really only use this computer for two things. One is software development on the days I work from home, and the other is music production on ProTools. The ProTools in particular took a while to migrate because of driver updates, and having to re-register all my plugins. But that seems to have all worked, and I can see lots and lots of channels in the mixer on the new screen. The last big thing remaining is to migrate my old windows partition to my new machine via VMWare. In fact I even started working on music on the new rig, add click tracks and stretching the chords on Lou’s songs. Soon hope to lay in the rhythms sections.
I’ve also been experimenting with recording video for my book. The idea is to demo folding the models. I’ve been learning more about my camera because I can use to shoot video in HD, so I want to try and use that rather than my miniDV camcorder. I’ve hooked it up to the computer and can see the viewfinder image on my monitor. I’ve also left the safety of fully automatic mode and am learning how to independently control the ISO, F-stop, exposure and focus, and started coming up with setups that work. It’s a bit tricky, because I need to be zoomed in pretty tight by still have a large depth of field. Adding more light helps. The next I’m gonna do is change my setup around so that the camera is looking down over my shoulder. For my first go I had the camera opposite me, but this made it harder to explain clearly because the audience POV was opposite my own. Also have to make sure I’m capturing good audio. I might add an external mic.
So look forward to progress on all of that and more in future updates.