Origami Baluchitherium

Still catching up here. Last week, as previously mentioned, was the annual Origami USA Convention. Robert Lang led his annual design challenge, and this year’s subject was a prehistoric animal, non-dinosaur. I had considered this topic for a while, and settled on an Ice-Age mammal, a.k.a. Megafuana. I mean, how could you not like the name, Mega-fauna? It means giant animal!

I had made a start on a Megaceros (giant horns), a.k.a., the Irish Elk, an extinct deer which has the largest antlers of any member of the deer family, up to 3 meters across! I had used my Moose as a starting point, and changed the proportions to get even bigger antlers. But once I got to the point where it was time to sculpt the model it became clear this approach wasn’t going to work. It didn’t look distinctly deer-like enough, and working out the details of the antlers would require some time, and probably a deeper redesign going all the way back to the base. Else I’d just end up with a funny-looking moose.

So I put it aside for a while to give it some thought. And then suddenly it was Friday, and that evening I would be setting up my exhibit, so I if I was to participate in the challenge I’d have to come up with something fast!

Luckily I had another idea in mind: a Baluchitherium. This extinct giant may have been the largest mammal ever to walk on land! It was as tall as a giraffe and had the girth of an elephant, and although it was a member of the Rhinoceros family it had no horn on its head. So I combined the back half of my elephant with a long neck and a head with ears and snout similar to the moose. I folded one test out of a 10″ sheet of kami and then went straight on the display model, made of a 20″ square of Wyndstone. And it came out pretty well, if I say so myself.

The challenge display was full of diverse and exciting work, and I was happy to be a part of it. And as for the Irish Elk? It’s just as well I didn’t do that because Robert folded one that totally kicked ass!

New Lyrics: Vikings!

Before it recedes too far too fast I want to mention how Steely Dan reminded me about another show I saw not very long ago. It was a year or two ago, another one of those sultry late June evenings, I saw Keith Emerson at a theater in Tarrytown very similar to the Beacon, decedent with post-vaudevillian anachronistic art-demo splendor. Like the Steelies, I saw ELP once before, in a large outdoor summer concert setting, but this show was much smaller and more intimate.

Keith Emerson is one of my all time musical idols, and the only person I know of who ever led a rock power trio on keyboards instead of guitar. His piano playing, organ, not to mention his pioneering work in synthesizers. Wow! He put on a really good show, revisiting alot of classic ELP material, plus a good helping of newer stuff. He even had is Modular Moog all set up and used it to reproduce a few critical solos from various songs. To this day Karn Evil 9, 2nd Impression remains one of my favorite tunes to play on the piano.

Around this time we were finishing up the Buzzy Tonic record and tossing around ideas for songs for a follow-up. I thought it might be fun to an album-side-length prog epic, in the grand tradition of Tarkus, Karn Evil 9, 2112, Hemispheres, Close To The Edge or one of those. If you’re a prog fan you’ll know what I’m talking about. But what topic? I’ve always had a thing for Vikings, so the night of the concert I came home and came up with a lyric. The only problem is it pretty much turned out as a recapitulation of the plot of the classic Terry Jones movie “Erik The Viking”. Well I could do worse I suppose; at least it was suitably epic. However, the task of arranging and recording a twenty minute song was rather daunting; as much effort as four or five normal sized songs. So the odds me actually getting around to it any time soon are slim to none. I might do a demo of it someday, but meanwhile, I thought I’d share the lyric with you.

…

 

Vikings!


I. Overture: Looting and Pillaging

(instrumental)

 

II. Freya

Young men only interested in fighting and killing
But has it always been that way?
An axe age a storm age an ice age
Brother against brother in hatred and rage
Until the world is destroyed

Look, what do you see?
I see the world, Freya
I see the world

The winter is gone, the summer has come
Yet Fenreya the Wolf still covers the sun
So the old legends are all true
Once as a child in a dream the sky was blue
It was blue

So this is Ragnorok
What must I do, Freya
What must I do?

And will the dead ever return?

 

III. Vikings!
(including Erik, What Are You Doing?  Thorfinn Just Said That Sven’s Grandfather Died of Old Age! and Harald the Cleric)

Erik, What Are You Doing?
Thorfinn just said that Sven’s grandfather
Died of old age!
He’ll have to kill me!  He’ll have to kill me!
No he didn’t he died in battle!
Now he must kill me!  Now he must kill me!
He died of old age!
He’ll have to kill me!  He’ll have to kill me!

No wait!
There is another way!
I’m not afraid of anything

…

Harald the Cleric no warrior he
Sandals treading in the snow

Harald the Cleric doesn’t believe
In violence and revenge
Asgaard or Valhalla
Cuz he believes in something else
One god or many?
What does it matter?
He seeks serenity transcendence and wisdom
Forgiveness salvation
Yet no one will listen

Harald the Cleric pilgrim missionary 
Sandals treading in the snow
He’s sure got a long way to go

 

The Voyage
(including Sven the Berserk vs. The Dragon of the North Sea and Thorfinn Doesn’t Know the Meaning of Fear)

Earnestly Erik with Harald the Cleric
And Leif the Lucky too
Sven the Berserk and Sven’s Berserker Dad
All join in the crew
Kietel Blacksmith, Thorfinn Skullsplitter
Even Ivar the Boneless and Snorri
Start on their quest in their open long boat
That’s the last we shall see of old Norway!

Many cold days pass on rolling waves
Puke, puke, puke, puke, puke
Pursued by Halfdan the Black –
There’s no turning back
The dragon attacks!
The long ship cracks!
Frame by frame death by drowning
On the Devil’s doorway

The dreaded black sails are drawing near
But Thorfinn doesn’t know the meaning of fear
The battle is joined and Erik brings
The magic from the daughter of the King
Now you see me now you don’t ha ha!

Thorfinn falls, Sven rages on
The day won under the sun, but now
Loki shows his face, has yet to play his hand
What does fate have in store for poor Snorri?

 

V. Hy-Brasil
(including The Tee-Tum Song)

Welcome, welcome we always welcome friends
Everyone is friends here in Hy-Brasil
Being nice to each other is what it’s all about.
Here in Hy-Brasil
A thousand years of peace and love
Here in Hy-Brasil

Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum
Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum
Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum

We come from a land where there is no music
Where men live and die by the axe and the sword
Where Fenreya the Wolf covers the sun
Far from Hy-Brasil

Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum
Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum

And so human blood is spilled
And the land begins to sink beneath the sea
Murder tragic disenchants the island’s magic
The end of Hy-Brasil

Stay calm, stay calm this is not happening
I repeat, this is not happening
Save yourselves! Save yourselves!
Panic mongers!  Who do they think they are?

It’s all a question of what you want to believe

Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum

 

VI. The Horn Resounding

You do know how to play the horn d’you?

The first note to take you to Asgaard
The second note to awaken the gods
The third note to bring you home

The first note to take you to Asgaard
Over the edge of the world
Over the edge of the world

Once you’re in the spell of the horn
Hatred will destroy you
Hatred will destroy you

And she said,
You don’t have to love me
But do you believe that I love you?
Then let go, let go
Let go

 

VII. Bifrost Asgaard Valhalla (and Home)

(instrumental)

Bifrost – Asgaard  – Valhalla!
Bifrost – Asgaard  – Valhalla!

The second note to awaken the gods

Bifrost – Asgaard  – Valhalla!
Bifrost – Asgaard  – Valhalla!
The gods awake!
Better look out!

Bifrost – Asgaard  – Valhalla!
Bifrost – the rainbow bridge
Asgaard  – the hall of the gods
Valhalla – the destiny of the great warriors
Yeah we’re the lucky ones!

Now Fenreya the wolf is gone
But the fate of man
Is in man’s hand

The realm of earth is not for you
You’ve crossed the rainbow bridge
And will the dead ever return?

…

The third note to bring you home

Harald the Cleric, blows the horn
He doesn’t believe but he wants to go home

Look, what do you see?
The sun … !

Adirondack Origami

It’s been a really busy week. Last weekend was the annual Origami USA convention, which is always lots of fun but exhausting. Lots of exciting things this year, but I’ll talk about that more in a future post, once I get my pictures developed.

For now, though, another origami topic. You may remember back in May I was jamming on an origami commission and developed a bunch of new models. The project was for Adirondack Life magazine. The new issue, which just hit the stands yesterday features a 4-page spread of my work, including a moose, bear and a loon. There is also a companion feature online, which has diagrams for my canoe:

http://www.adirondacklife.com/index.php?option=com_content& task=view&id=155&Itemid=119

Thanks to Kelly for this opportunity. My first mainstream print publication for origami. Enjoy!

They Got the Steely Dan T-Shirts

I saw Steely Dan last night Friday at the Beacon Theater in NY. I used to go to tons and tons of concerts, but nowadays it’s harder to make the time, so I have to pick ’em carefully. Steely is one of my favorite bands ever with their unique combination of jazz influence, instrumental virtuosity, vivid storytelling and dark cynicism, and this show did not disappoint. The Beacon is a great old art deco theater, not too big and with good acoustics.

The band was excellent. There was Walter and Donald, a really, really good drummer, bass, 2nd keyboard, 2nd gtr, 2 female vocalists, and a horn section of trumpet, trombone, alto/tenor, and bari. Alot of the songs they jazzed up with solos and new horn arrangements. Walt and Don are both looking older but they can still play. Walt took about 2 or 3 songs to really warm up singing. He only took 2 or 3 keyboard solos (one on the chromatic harmonica), and Don only took about half the gtr solos, and alot of times just comped in the background or noodled and riffed. They played for over 2 hours straight, and only stopped between tunes a few times, which must’ve been pretty hard on the bass player and especially the drummer. All the other guys had enough time to lay out.

The set was really pretty different from when we saw them at SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center) in ’93. I would rank that as one of the best concerts of all time that I’ve seen, but this one was much more oriented towards diehard fans. And I was alot closer to the stage. They skipped alot of their radio hits, especially the earlier ones (no Rikki, Old School, Reelin’, Bodhisattva, Deacon Blues, Aja or Home at Last — all of which they played in ’93). Alot of deep cuts, played alot off The Royal Scam and Gaucho. It was actually really a very satisfying set. Let me see if I can remember it all. I did my best to remember the order, but it might not be totally correct:

Everyone’s Gone to the Movies (instrumental)
The Fez (instrumental)
The Royal Scam
I Got the News
Hey Nineteen (with Walter doing an Elwood-Blues-style rap about Cuervo and fine Columbian)
Show Biz Kids
With A Gun
Two Against Nature
(2 or 3 more newer songs I didn’t recognize in there)
Gaucho (with Walter singing)
Monkey In Your Soul
Parker’s Band
Babylon Sisters
Everything You Did
Glamour Profession
(introduce the band jam)
Kid Charlemagne
Josie
FM

encores:
Peg
Black Friday
Don’t Take Me Alive
(exit music)

They might’ve done a few more. I feel like Monkey in Your Soul and Your Gold Teeth II, but I can’t remember fer sure.  Anyway it was a good time.  Think fast!

New Mixes

I posted new mixes of two of my tunes, and updated the links on my music pages.

The new Fine Red Wine (and alternate take) includes actually mixing the faders, particularly in the intro, and moving pan pots on the horn section. They were supposed to be spread evenly across, but the tenor was standing right where the alto was, panned to the right when it should’ve been panned to the left. Much nicer now, ah.

Angel Or Alien now has a bit of vibes in the intro. This one is an experiment. I’m not sure I like the way the drums come in, so I added simple chord to back up the synth and set up the drums. I think its an improvement but I’m still not sure it’s what I’m after.  Might want to do something more with it, but maybe better just to let it go.

New Recording: Fine Red Wine Rough Mix

(River Flows Like) Fine Red Wine
Fine Red Wine (Alternate Take)

I was inspired to do a love song after Jeannie and I celebrated our Twennyversary. It’s basically a classic R&B kind of groove and the changes are all based on the 7th chords. It also has intro which uses an ostinato over descending bass line that wraps around, creating some dark and interesting chords. (This intro is a bit unusual for me in that almost everything I’ve written for this project so far and for the Brothers Zing before tend to have chord progressions that move upward. Regard this as a coincidence, or maybe a phase I’m going thru, but I noticed it and think it’s kind of intriguing.) No worries though, the main riff moves upward. As so often happens, I had a couple musical patterns I was playing around with and the lyric made the whole thing come together.

It’s a fun number to play, and fairly easy compared to a lot of my tunes. I laid down the vocals fairly quickly. The harmony was pretty spontaneous, I didn’t really try and work it out ahead of time. I just had an idea and decided to go for it. I like the way it came out. It has bit of a rough quality to it, but I think that’s part of its charm. I put a full horn section arrangement on it. Four saxophones: soprano, alto tenor and baritone. Thanks again to Martin for loaning me his bari sax. I had so much fun playing it I decided to give the bari a solo. This turned out to be great song to solo on, and I did a few takes. In the end, I mixed down a second version with alternate takes of the solos.

This is the fourth song in my current recording project, so I have a logical album side or virtual EP. I have another set of tunes ready to start in on, but I want to take a break, so I’ll probably mix and master this set before starting in on the next batch. So watch this space.

Meanwhile, Martin has agreed to add some guitar tracks to these tunes. This should be interesting and cool. I really enjoyed working with him on the BZ project. He’s a versatile and creative musician who is good at coming up with parts that contribute to the arrangement, often in unexpected ways. By the end of the BZ project our writing and arranging was growing closer, and was looking forward to continuing with that. However Martin had other things going on at the time. So I continued on my own, and it was difficult at first because: 1.) it’s good to have a creative partner to bounce ideas off of, and 2.) everything takes twice as long when your doing it by yourself, and 3.) it’s hard to make rock music without a guitar in there. But I decided not to worry about it and went ahead and made my peace with not having a guitars in the arrangements, and you know, took it as a creative challenge.  As it turns out I’m actually quite happy with this set of tunes. Now some time has gone by and Martin is putting back together his recording studio again, and says it’ll be good way to get back into recording to help me with these tracks. So I’m thinking of it something like Andy Summers sitting in on Nothing Like the Sun. We’ll see where this leads and what influence it has on the second side of the record.

Fotoz!

Before we get too far into summer I thought I’d take a moment to update my online photo galleries with pictures from last fall, winter and spring. My how the time flies. I have three new galleries. The first is a general one, covering birthdays and xmastime and various house projects and a selection of photos that Lizzy took of things that interest her. Then there’s one from our trip to the Caribbean last winter (Aaah!) and to Mohonk last spring (thanks Martin for supplying most of these). These are friends and family galleries, so the site is password protected. Please contact me if you want the password. But, people in the wider world, an update to the pubic galleries is in the offing, including all kinds of new origami (are you surprised?) and a study of the New York City skyline.

http://zingman.com/fotooz/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2007-07/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2008-01/index.html
http://zingman.com/fotooz/2008-02/index.html