Red Wine Rage

Ojai Envy

2009-06-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm not going to the Ojai Festival. Didn't know until yesterday whether I would or not. The marathon concert for tomorrow sounds magnificent. They'll be playing both Steve Reich's masterpiece Music for 18 Musicians, which I've never heard live, and his new, un-recorded, Pulitzer-prize-winning Double Sextet.

And I'd really, really wanted to see the new piece with Rinde Eckert on Friday. I've had the good fortune to see him perform Slow Fire twice, and he is truly an amazing performer. The set design, wherein he makes the most out of a few simple props, was equally impressive.

But, alas, I couldn't quite make up my mind to drive all the way down there.

Reading all the descriptions and reviews, I'm getting mighty jealous.

I'm even still uncertain whether I'll go to the Cabrillo Festival this year. That is a lot closer, but hotels in Santa Cruz are ridiculously over-priced.

On the other hand, I have made firm plans to go to a few performances of the Santa Fe chamber music festival this summer. The main concert I'll be seeing should be good, but I also decided to go because it corresponds with the big Indian Market ™. I should finally get to meet Sheldon Harvey, who is one of the few artists from whom I've ever bought a painting. He won best-in-show at last year's market in both painting and sculpture categories, so people should be closely watching what he turns up with this year.

I'm using frequent-flier miles, and I was planning to use a gift certificate for the hotel, so it wasn't going to cost much at all. But the hotel has gone out of business, so I had to scramble to find some other place to stay!

I drowned my Ojai-missing greif by cruising YouTube for Rinde Eckert performances. I also stumbled-upon this lovely concert (which is not by R.E., but so what?):

About last night...

2009-05-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

Last night, I got to go see a new piece by local composer Mason Bates. I've written before about a performance of his lovely Sirens, written for Chanticleer. And I've seen two of his pieces performed at the Cabrillo festival in years past. (One wonderful, the other "just a[lr]ight, dawg!")

This one, too, was just alright for me, though I'd like to hear it again. Here is a bit of the last of five mostly-unrelated movements, performed by the YouTube orchestra:

Though there is no evidence of it in that video, the percussionists really got a workout in this piece. They played all sorts of things, including a typewriter and a broom. My favorite bit was when a xylophone, a marimba, and a glockenspiel were all playing at the same time. You don't see that everyday!

In the pre-performance talk, Bates talked about the differences between performing in a club (as DJ Masonic) and writing for the symphony. He said he feels that a strong beat, greatly appreciated in a club, gets tiresome in a concert hall. To some extent that is true. I don't want a constant disco beat with my symphonies. At least not usually. But the after-intermission piece, Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto, has a pretty constant beat throughout each movement, and it is invigorating.

Yuja Wang (Wáng Yǔjiā) was the pianist. And it was a fiery performance. It really got the audience on their feet. So much power in such a little body. Oh how I wish I could play like that! Or even play like she could probably play at age 5.

Yuja Wang - Prokofiev Piano Concerto 2, Mvt. 4.

After the show, they turned the top-floor lobby into a little club with DJ Masonic spinning his platters and seamlessly (so they said) segueing into acoustic performances of pieces: Call by Berio, The Light Within by John Luther Adams, Calm like a Bomb by Jesper Nordin, and ending with Steve Reich's classic Eight Lines. The keyboard part in that looked much harder than it sounds!

As with the other pieces, they began playing Eight Lines while the DJ was still spinning. The effect was something like this:

Remember how when I wrote about Sirens, I got May and June confused? Well, this time I got the Sibelius 4th confused with something else. I went to this show in part because I thought the Sibelius 4th was one of my favorites. It isn't. I was confusing it with one of his others. The 4th is odd. The pre-performance talk, program write-up, and MTT's little intro all basically said the same thing: not very many people like this one because it is slow, depressing and goes nowhere. Actually, it isn't bad at all, but certainly isn't the one I thought it was.

Incidentally, the first person I ran into at the show was my neighbor R. I had no idea, but she apparently has been working there for 20+ years. She said that if I ever need a ticket I should just ask her. So perhaps there will be more posts like this to come, provided, of course, that they offer more programs like this one.

2009-05-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

One of the fun things for me about playing Hovhaness' 12 Armenian Folk Songs, which I introduced in my last missive, is that the scales and rhythms are out of the ordinary for me. So, along with sharing a few more of my (very non-professional) renditions, I'd like to give a bit of info now on what is going on with these scales. A later post will address the meters.

Eight of these twelve songs are in Dorian mode. Take number 1 as an example.
Armenian Folk Songs #1

The most common scales (or modes) in Western classical and folk music for the last few hundred years have been the Major (Happy Birthday To You) and the Minor. (Blues and Jazz are a whole 'nother story.)

But Dorian mode is not uncommon, even in European and American folk music (e.g., Yankee Doodle). To understand why that is so, suppose you had an instrument that could only play a diatonic scale (like the white notes on a piano) over the following range:
BC—D—EF—G—A—BC—D—EF—G—A—BC—D

The dashes represent the black notes on the piano, which you don't have on this instrument. The dashes also show that the distance (frequency ratio) between D and E is larger than the distance between E and F. This is an imaginary instrument, but there are real instruments (simple flutes or harps) with similar restrictions.

If you want to play a piece in Major you've got two full octaves to work with.
BC—D—EF—G—A—BC—D—EF—G—A—BC—D

If you want to play a piece in Minor, you can use A Minor, but you are limited to one octave with some bits and pieces above and below.
BC—D—EF—G—A—BC—D—EF—G—A—BC—D

Minor sounds different from Major because the distances between the notes are different. Most importantly, the distance from the first note to the third note is 5 semitones for Major (C—D—E) and only 4 semitones for Minor (A—BC—). Why this smaller distance makes the Minor sound sadder than Major is a complete mystery to me, but most people agree that it does.

If you want to play a song with that sad, Minor sound, you get a lot more room if you switch to Dorian mode. In fact, you get two full octaves.
BC—D—EF—G—A—BC—D—EF—G—A—BC—D
Note that the spacing of notes is pretty similar to Minor. The distance between the first and third note is identical; only the distance between the first and the relatively-unimportant sixth note is different:

1—2—34—5—6—78 (Major)
1—23—4—56—7—8 (Minor)
1—23—4—5—67—8 (Dorian)

Enough theory. Here's another piece in Dorian mode.
Armenian Folk Songs #2

Now, if you have an instrument like the piano, with access to all 12 semitones (the black and the white keys), there is no reason you have to play Dorian mode starting on the key D. Both of the pieces 1 and 2 above use the Dorian mode starting on A, which looks like this on the piano:

Piece number 7 also uses Dorian mode, but starting on G:

They look very different on the piano keyboard, as well as in Western notation, but they sound very similar:
Armenian Folk Songs #7

I can not simply look at or listen to a piece and immediately know what scale or mode it is in. I often have to do a bit of research. The piece that gave me the most trouble was number 12. It is interesting both for the scale and the meter. I'll talk about the meter later, but for now just consider the scale: "E F G# A B C# D E".

I had to do lots of digging-around on the web last week to find out what scale this is. It turns out to be the "Harmonic minor inverse", which I'd never heard of. That is the Western name, but I'm sure it is called something different in Armenian folk music. In Arabic music, this appears to be called Maqam Zanjaran (Zankulah), and in neighboring Turkey it seems to be Makam Hicaz (video musical example). Of course Turks and Armenians don't really get along.

So here is number 12. Notice how very unusual the scale sounds to a Westerner.
Armenian Folk Songs #12

For me, this is a fascinating sound. Hope you enjoy it, too.

Since I did my digging last week, a new toy has become available called Wolfram Alpha. With it, my search for scale names could have gone a lot faster. All I would have had to do is type in "e f g# a b c# d e" and it would spit-out the answer "E Harmonic minor inverse scale", along with pictures and a button to let you listen to an example.

In summary:

1-2 are in Dorian on A;
3-5 are in Dorian on C;
6 is in Mixolydian on A;
7-9 are in Dorian on G;
10 is in Phrygian on D;
11 is in Full Minor on F;
12 is Harmonic Minor Inverse on E.

(PS: The copyright issues around Happy Birthday To You are both fascinating and disturbing, so be sure to follow that link.)

Cinco de Mayo

2009-05-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

It's "Cinco de Mayo" today. In honor of this special occasion, I thought I'd offer you a few Armenian folk songs.

Armenia is in South America, right?

#3

These pieces are by the very prolific Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness, from his collection 12 Armenian Folk Songs (Opus 43).

#5

While this is among the easiest of his piano works, it does offer some challenges to me. Unusual scales and meters, for instance. I have no doubt I've totally botched some of these.

#8

Nonetheless, I've had great fun learning these. I'm sorry I neglected Hovhaness for so long!

#11

The rest of the collection is coming soon, along with some commentary. But I really need to go watch American Idol now!

The Miracle of Easter

2009-04-11T10:13:00.001-07:00

For years I've been having a problem with my mailman. First off, it isn't the same person every day. My real mailman, who is good, has been on reduced shift for about 5 years now, and there is always some new temporary flunkie walking my route.To reach my mailbox, it is necessary to climb 2 steps. Most of the time, that is too much of an effort, so they just walk on my flowers instead! I call this the Killing Field.

This year, it got pretty bad. I went out one morning and found 3 of my iris had had their heads chopped off. The next day I found another 4 stalks broken. To save my remaining flowers, I ripped the mailbox off the wall and hid it. I also considered investing in a pitchfork. I left the dying stalks lying around on my porch for a week before finally throwing them in my compost bin.

On Good Friday, a few of my remaining flowers started to bloom. I was glad that some survived and that I got to see them before my vacation.

But when I went to empty my compost bin, lo! and behold! three of the decapitated stalks were showing sings of blooming, despite having been cut off from the plant for more than a week. It is a miracle, I tell you!

Adding to the miracle, these iris always bloom on Easter, no matter what time in the year that occurs. Last year, Easter came very early. Only one stalk bloomed; the rest decided to hit the snooze button and wait for an Easter at the appropriate time of the year. I would have done the same thing.

Odyssy

2009-04-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

The cruel taskmasters at the office have finally allowed me some time off.

I've always wanted to spend April in Paris, so I'm going to Nice instead!

With the economy in decline and the fact that it isn't high season, incredible deals are available. I couldn't resist.

Unusually for me, I planned in advance this time. Almost 2 whole weeks in advance!

Somehow, that almost wasn't enough time. After buying my non-refundable ticket, I realized that I couldn't find my passport. I looked everywhere for it, even in the place where it was supposed to be. I turned my whole house upside down for two days looking, with no luck.

I had to quickly research the shady world of passport expediting services. If you happen to live close to one of the passport-issuing offices, you should be able to get an emergency appointment for a renewal when you are traveling within two weeks. If you don't live nearby, you can hire one of these services to stand in line for you, for a big fee.

Fair enough. That serves a legitimate need. The problem is, these guys get priority treatment at the passport offices, and they scoop up many of the appointments. When I tried to get one for myself, there was no chance. So I committed myself to using the service, and started getting all the paperwork in order. Luckily, I still had an old passport to prove my identity. (Otherwise it would have been a major ordeal.)

I had a day off last Friday, and I wanted to get it done that morning. Plus, I realized that Thursday was the absolute last day to get my smog check without paying a fee, so I took my car in for that around 4, and headed off for passport photos. First I had to get a haircut, another thing I've been too busy to do; can't have bad hair on a photo I'll be carrying for 10 years.

When I got those pictures back, man I was speechless. I knew I was ugly, but come on! I was wet (from the cheapo haircut), pale and puffy like a corpse dragged from a lake, with big raccoon-like bags under my eyes.

I almost canceled the trip just to avoid using those photos.

Started again Friday morning. Got new photos, not quite as ugly, and went to the post office to get my forms "observed" by the agent. I'm trying to rush so I can get the forms sent to the expediting service on time and still have some time to enjoy my day off. No luck. The lady at the post office explained to me that the lady who does the passport papers is off that day, and that while there was a temporary replacement for her, I'd be a fool to let that lady come anywhere near my paperwork. So I took her advice and looked for another place to take my papers. I discovered I could go to the clerk's office in Albany. But I had to hurry. Due to budget cuts, they'd be closing early.

Once there, though, things finally got better. A very competent and helpful clerk told me there was no need to pay through the nose for an expediting service. She could call the passport office manager and get me an appointment for Monday, and she did. (She also told me that the professional passport photos I'd paid for, both the ugly and the less ugly sets, didn't actually meet the specifications and might be declined.) Of course, that meant I had to go to the city on Monday to deposit the forms and then go again on Wednesday to pick it up, but finally it was done!

(So, if vacations are supposed to relieve stress, why are they so stressful?)

Rubato, ma non troppo

2009-04-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today a cool toy called the Echo Nest BPM Explorer was released. As discussed here and here, this makes it easy to analyze a piece of music to determine whether the performer used a click track or metronome.

Since my last post on music in 5/4 included one track with and one without a metronome, let's give it a test.

Here is a BPM chart for my rendition of the Bartók piece.
There is some variation around the beat, but not much, because I was sticking close to the metronome. (Something I rarely use.) The scale bars show that this variation is confined to a narrow range. The green line is a smoothed-out version of the instantaneous BPM, shown in white.

Here is the BPM chart for my rendition of the "Serenade".

There is much more variation going on there. Some of that is intentional rubato, though partially subconscious. But there is also a gradual increase in tempo from beginning to end. That is not intentional, but is probably common when I make recordings. Near the end I start thinking "Hey, this take seems ok! I'd better hurry and finish it before I goof up."

Finally, a more interesting example from Candlefire.

There is the same gradual speed-up as before. I often have that problem with Nyman, because his tempos are absolutely glacial in some cases. But the more interesting thing is the way the white line wiggles up and down regularly. As I explained before, this piece shifts back and forth between 3/4 and 4/4 in an interesting way which gives the impression of speeding-up and slowing-down. It appears that Echo Nest is fooled, just like a human listener would be. Though I'll need to study this more closely to figure out where it really thinks the beats are.

5/4

2009-04-05T20:34:00.001-07:00

It's the fifth day of the fourth month. What better time is there to celebrate songs in 5/4 ?

About a year ago, when I was 100% determined that I was quitting my job, the song of the moment for me was When Your Minds's Made Up, from the movie Once.

When Your Mind's Made Up.

(My mind truly was made up. Why I didn't actually quit is another story, but at this moment I'm glad I didn't, because things got better there and got worse elsewhere.)

That song plays a central part in the movie, and we get to see it built up bit by bit through a long recording session. Though the 5/4 signature is rare, and has a reputation for sounding odd, when it is done well it can sound just as natural as 3/4.

Since it is a rare meter, it is rarely done well, especially by non-professionals. To prove that point, here is me doing Serenade by Emma Lou Diemer. (MP3)

I don't know much of her work, but the piano scores I've looked at look right up my alley, but mostly too hard for me. Very rhythmically interesting, with what appears to be an influence from Khachaturian.

The first piece I ever learned in 5/4 was In Mixolydian Mode from Bartok's collection Mikrokosmos. I had a hard time learning this one. For a long time I thought that was because it was in 5/4. I understand now that it was really hard because Bartok was making it hard on purpose. Though it starts out with a strong 5/4 feeling, very soon he starts playing with the stress, hiding the downbeats and subverting the rhythm so much that it is very hard to keep the feeling of 5. This is one of the very rare times I recorded with a metronome. (MP3)

If that doesn't sound good to you, you are not alone. I think Mr. B was thinking more of challenging the piano student more than making something that sounds good.

A few more famous examples of 5/4 actually done well are, of course, Take 5 and the theme to Mission Impossible.

Less well known, but good, are:
Science, by Sevish.

English Roundabout - XTC

River Man - Nick Drake

All I can say is, I'm glad this isn't the 7th day of the 8th month, because it will be a good while before I can play Hovhaness' Macedonian Mountain Dance at the right speed!

Stuck inside of Berkeley with the Macaron Blues Again

2009-03-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

Macaroon day is finally here. Why am I not in Paris! Damn my lazy, non-planing-ahead ass!

This year the selection of Pierre Hermé includes the same-old same-old "Chocolate and Foie Gras", two different kinds of rose, jasmine, avocado-banana. Boring! But he's also started copying me by making one with safron and one with Campari. I'm sure his will be OK, but I did it first!

I'm still ahead of him, though. I'll be he's never made lavender-flavored, mardi-gras colored macaroons (with fleur-de-lys on top.) So there.

And oh, I just whipped up another batch for a French party tonight. Can you guess the flavor? Vanilla!

Sirens

2009-03-19T21:10:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, I know I was supposed to be getting drunk on green beer, but somehow I took myself to a Chanticleer concert instead.

They are definitely great singers, but their normal repertoire isn't really my cup of tea. But this time they were serving up a three-course meal of young (only 30!) composers. There were pieces by Tarik O'Regan and Shawn Crouch, and they were fine, but still not getting me all worked up. And then the piece I was waiting for, Sirens by Mason Bates.

I've heard his work before twice at the Cabrillo festival. (One I loved, and one I didn't.) Both of those pieces involved electronics and orchestra. This one was pure voices. And lovely it was. There were bits with clusters of close-spaced pitches, like Ligeti's Lux Aeterna, for example:

Lux Aeterna - Ligeti

and pulsing bits that reminded me of Reich's Desert Music

Desert Music - Steve Reich

Then the movement in the Quechua language came from some other place entirely, with maracas and a bit of extended vocal technique. Overall, it was most enjoyable and I hope they record it soon!

Although the first piece was entirely in English (with text by Samuel Becket), I couldn't understand a word when I wasn't looking at the program. It could have been in Martian. I did only a little better with the second piece. But Bates set his text so clearly that I had no trouble at all understanding the English parts, and for the parts in other languages I could at least tell which language it was in. (Except, naturally, Quechua.)

I thought I might be able to go to an SF Symphony concert this Friday combining a work by Bates with the Sibelius 4th (a nice pairing), but I'm confusing March and May again!

Compuers Scare Me: part 2

2009-03-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

I got an e-mail from e-music this morning asking me to check-out the new album by he group 0.43888888888889. What? It turns out the group is actually called 10:32 (don't ask me why) but the computer has interpreted the number wrong.

This sort of thing happens all the time with computers and it freaks me out. They control so much of our lives.

Even at this very moment my screen is blinking in and out.

Let us clear our heads with some music from a simpler era. Here is the B minor Prelude of Chopin.

Complaints

2009-03-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

I knew it would happen sooner or later. Obama has disappointed me. At least it happened later that I thought. He sure lasted longer than Clinton, who disappointed me almost from his first day.

Despite claims that he wants to make government more open, he is refusing to release details of negotiations on an insane copyright law extension by claiming that to do so would endanger national security! Even if the proposed treaty made sense, and it doesn't, the appeal to national security is ludicrous.

Copyright is a useful concept, but it gets ridiculous at times. People who had no part in the creation of a work can fight for years over who can get paid for its use. Relatives of a deceased celebrity get to say who can or can not perform one of his pieces or can stick his name on a can of spray cheese, as may soon happen to Bob Marley. While at the same time living celebrities can do next to nothing to stop their image being plastered all over the place, and products like "Obama Fingers" can be legally sold. (I'm not sure why there were never any "Bush Nuggets" or "Clinton Balls".)

Now, for no particular reason, here is me playing "A Doll's Complaints", by César Franck. IMSLP claims it is in the public domain, if there still is such a thing.

Missing something?

2009-03-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

Is your music missing something?

Well, if that something is cowbells or Christopher Walken, help is on the way. Through the miracle of modern technology, you can add cowbells to any song! Here, give a listen to Friend by Legendary Pink Dots.


	Make your own at MoreCowbell.dj

This is seriously cool. Because before adding anything to the song, it has to be analyzed to find the beats and the sections and so forth. There is now an open-source api called EchoNest Remix that lets you do that sort of analysis. It is almost enough to make me want to learn to program in Python!

Repetitive Stress

2009-02-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

This is a long post. Your listening assignment for today, Metamorphosis 4, is also pretty long. So you may as well download the mp3 now and listen while you read.

I'm all excited because Monday I finally get to hear Philip Glass' Music in 12 Parts played live.

This is a massive work. The concert will last 5 hours, including a one-hour dinner break. I was a little nervous about buying a ticket and committing myself to sit in a chair that long. I've never even listened to the whole thing at home. In the end, I couldn't pass up the only chance I'll likely ever have to hear a complete, live performance. Though written in the early 70's, this is one of the few times it has ever been performed in its entirety, and the first on the West Coast.

The effect of his early music, whether Glass likes to admit it or not, is to put the listener into a trance. It can be sheer bliss for those who enjoy it, or a maddening hell for those who don't.

Up to this point, his music really was "Minimalist", though that was never the point for him. Yes, he had removed lots of things that we had come to expect, like melody, harmonic tension and release, and big emotive gestures. But the point was never what was taken away, but what was added in rhythmic complexity, with simultaneous meters as well as abrupt sequential changes in meter and rhythm. Melodic motifs were very short, but would gradually add and remove notes, disrupting our expectations of a smooth pulse.

This piece was a comprehensive index of all those rhythmic techniques created up till that time. For ever after, he has been gradually adding back all those things (except serialism!) that were thrown away before, beginning with harmony in Another Look at Harmony. His recent film scores seem conventional enough that most film-goers hardly notice them. I've overheard lovers of more conventional opera surprised by the "normalness" and "hummability" of Appomatox. The CD Songs and Poems for Solo Cello has won rave reviews for its overt romanticism, while also being compared to Bach.

I've often heard fans of "old" Glass music lamenting the changes and complaining that he has gone too conventional. Not so! Other composers have incorporated some of his ideas, as well as ideas from Reich, Riley, Adams, and others who once wrote mimimalist music, so that such music now is pretty conventional. But nothing has been lost in Glass' music. Everything good in 12 Parts is still there today. But so much more has been added, and the changes come faster and faster.

Performing such a work presents many challenges. There is a great deal of repetition, so it is easy to get lost and forget what you have or haven't played yet. Parts are very fast and relentless, with no stops for breath for the soprano or winds and no rests for the keyboards either.

Back in the 90's, when I was at university, I got a copy of the music for Metamorphosis for piano. Even though this is not one of my favorite Glass compositions, not by a long shot, it was one of the few for solo piano, so it was all I had to work with. I played it over and over and over, trying to get it right.

I was also playing lots of Hanon exercises at that time, as well as some other highly difficult music. The end result was, I very much damaged my hands. I'm not sure whether it was simple repetitive stress injury, or the onset of focal dystonia. But I would get pains in my wrists, and my fingers would simply refuse to obey my commands.

So it was probably a good thing that when I moved to California, I had to give up my piano. (I still found one to practice on; just not as often.) I eventually bought a digital piano, but by then I'd learned my lesson. I listen to my hands when they tell me they can't take any more, and I stay the hell away from Hanon. Plus, after a year of jazz piano lessons, I'm much better at seeing notes as parts of chords, rather than just as individual notes, and that reduces the stress on my brain in those fast bits.

A few weeks ago, I started playing Metamorphosis 4 in the morning. Through some miracle, I actually made it through the whole thing with no significant mistakes, except some accidentally skipped repetitions near the 10 minute mark. Because of my experience with injuring my hands before, I will not attempt it again trying for perfection. This will have to stand as my last word on this piece for some time.

In fact, I shortened the piece for the web to about 7 minutes, so you won't even get to hear the part where I skipped a bit, not that you would likely notice it anyway. Even so, this is almost at the file size limit that my host will accept!

Enjoy!

If you want the effect of the full piece, you can play it twice in a row! The full version has the form xAyBxAyBxAx, which I shortened to xAyBxAx.

Parts x and A are nominally in 4/4, while y an B are in 3/4. I think a certain ambiguity is part of the point of this piece, so I intentionally do not emphasize the first note of each measure. As there are distracting other rhythms going on, you won't likely notice that change from 4 to 3 explicitly. But you will notice that the center section seems much faster than the rest, though the pulse is constant throughout.

Although this piece takes 7 pages in normal notation, I was able to compress it comfortably onto two hand-written pages, though I use some unconventional notation. (See image). When I first realized that was possible, I was dismayed to find there is seemingly so little there. But there must be something there, since I'm still enjoying playing 15 years later!

Rage

2009-02-12T19:40:00.001-08:00

The Hut martini glass sign
Originally uploaded by The Real Devil Doll

I was at a wine tasting this weekend. When I went for my refill, I got to hear the pourer give a long talk on proper pouring technique to someone. Why I had to listen to this, I don't know. That lady's glass was full and mine was empty. Shouldn't the pourer have been pouring for me rather than yakking away?

Any-hoo, apparently proper technique dictates that you fill only to the widest point of the glass so as to maximize the aroma.

Well, la-ti-da! I know what kind of glass I'm taking next time.

Colored Music

2009-02-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

I've just spent the last few hours reacquainting myself with some obscure, compact, rhythmically and finger-twistingly complex pieces of Hindemith. But I'll save those for another day....

We've all see movies where musicians go into a studio and spend hours and hours playing the same song over and over until they finally get it right, or at least good enough. (If you haven't, then go rent Once right now!) Coffee is consumed. Nerves get frayed. Yelling ensues.

Well, that is just what I went through to record these little pieces. But no amount of effort is too much for you, dear readers! It is precisely because they are short and fairly easy that I become such a task master. For the long, difficult pieces you will just have to take what you can get!

So here, without further ado, are two pieces by Robert Starer from "Sketches in Color". One of them actually sounds interesting, though I won't say which one.

and

These are the only two pieces from that collection I have, though I'm just dying to know what some of the other colors sound like.

A little night music

2009-02-05T13:12:00.001-08:00

We now consider the curious Nocturne of Benjamin Button. I mean Benjamin Britten. I always get those confused! But so, apparently, does Susan Sarandon.

Here is my performance (mp3) of the Nocturne from Britten's Sonatina Romantica.

Britten apparently rejected this composition. But, it isn't so bad. It is odd in parts, and seems too load and fast for a Nocturne, but it sure looks pretty as a piano roll.

My Private Dance

2009-02-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

I had a big weekend of high culture.

First, I went to see John Vanderslice at the Great American Music Hall.
John is an SF musician, and a great song-writer. He runs the tiny telephone studio in SF. What made this concert special was that he played along with a 30-piece orchestra comprised of members of the Magik*Magic Orchestra.

They're a local groups trying to shake-up the music scene by including contemporary classical music and rock music in the same concerts. I'd already seen their first concert at Herbst theater, where they played Johnny Greenwood and John Adams, and at a show where they did some modern miniatures and then backed-up 2 Foot Yard.

I have no video of Friday's concert, but here is a clip of Sufjan Stevens doing something similar in Berkeley a few years ago. It is one of the few songs of his that I really like. The rhythm in this piece is pretty complex, borrowing ideas from Philip Glass and others.

Instead of a video clip of the show, I give you an mp3 of They Won't Let Me Run. This song worked really well with the orchestra. (The mp3 link is from JV's website. He's remarkably open about sharing his songs.)

Going to a concert alone can be tricky, but I got lucky. I found a perfect seat in the rear balcony, and had a nice long conversation with a composer from Berkeley who shares many of my musical biases. (No, not John Adams.)

Saturday, I went to see a ballet at Zellerbach.

Back in grad school, I would always sit very near the stage for ballets. At that theater, those were the cheap seats! The idea was that you couldn't really appreciate a ballet if you were too close. At Zellerbach they don't do that. This was a full-price ticket. I thought I was getting a fifth row seat, but it turned out to be front row (because of the orchestra pit.)

Imagine my shock when the lights went down and this is what was right-up in my face:

The video shows the girls wearing shorts and tops, but this piece starts with them spread-legged in nothing but bra and panties. And only 10 yards from my face! I felt like I was getting a private dance I hadn't even asked for. Well, it was worth it to sit through that because then the men come out in their tighty-whiteys and do the same thing. But, sadly, on the other side of the stage! It was a dance full of simulated sex of all sorts, becoming a bit more sedate as they slowly put on clothes and prepared for a wedding. (The music was Stravinsky's "Les Noces".)

As exciting as that may sound, I much preferred the two pieces after the break, both set to music of Ravel. The first, set to "La Valse", goes back to Ravel's original meaning of the piece, to show the decadence of Vienna before the war. It was great. I'll never be able to hear that piece again without seeing it in my head. Then there was a great, mostly abstract, dance to "Bolero". It is amazing how that piece, while apparently so very simple, never loses its power.

I haven't sat that close to a ballet since grad school. But it was great. I'm going to try to do that again whenever I can.

Candlefire

2009-01-29T19:52:00.000-08:00

Next up for your enjoyment, my recording of Candlefire by Michael Nyman.

Yes, it is supposed to be that slow! Slower, actually. It should be one beat per second, but I like it a bit faster. With many Nyman pieces, I have to be very careful to go slow enough at the beginning because he will often double the tempo once or twice before the end. Not this time, though, so I can speed it up a bit.

Nyman is most well-known for his scores for the films of Peter Greenaway, but they had a falling-out. This song was written for a Japanese anime version of the Diary of Anne Frank, called Anne no Nikki.

The bass line is block seventh chords, one per beat, descending stepwise through the F minor scale. The melody is simple, but is made interesting by constantly switching between short notes (written as 4/4) and long notes (in 3/4). There isn't much emphasis on the downbeats, and the right hand often avoids the downbeat, so it doesn't feel like you are switching meters so much as just slowing-down and speeding up.

This is a waltz?

2009-01-27T19:57:00.000-08:00

Next up for your audio pleasure (?) is my rendition of Philip Glass' Modern Love Waltz.

This brief piece was written for The Waltz Project, a set of short, contemporary piano waltzes by a variety of composers created in 1978. It was made into a ballet in 1981. I saw that performed many years later in Berkeley.

Although the piece is indeed in 3/4 time, Glass makes you struggle to hear that! The basic rhythm is simple, but ambiguous. Then he adds every trick in the book to disguise and distract you from that rhythm.

The left-hand line is a short basso ostinato, repeated constantly throughout. It consists of two measures of six eighth notes, grouped into 4 sets of 3. Already that does not sound like a waltz! It is ambiguously in 3/4 time or 6/8 time, but sounds more like four beats (two per measure). The chord changes from A to B♭ and back again over and over, giving an additional impression of two slow beats.

On top of that, the right hand bounces along trying one rhythm after another. Sometimes reinforcing one of the possible interpretations of the bass rhythm, and other times confounding them. In this two-measure example, the right-hand is playing 4 beats per measure, with each beat divided in three.

Lots of composers have created pieces with much more complicated poly-rhythms or poly-meters. To keep my sanity, I keep my distance! At any given time in a piece by Glass, the tempo ratio between the beats in any two voices is rarely anything other than a simple 1:2, 2:3, or 3:4 ratio. But there can be four or more of those voices and the time signature and the relationships between the tempos of the voices can change suddenly and frequently.

It isn't important for the listener to be aware of all that is going on at each moment. In fact it may be better to just let it wash over you.

This is a pretty early piece for Glass and not one of his best. But it is fun to play, and I hope it isn't too hard to listen to!

Give me my red envelope!

2009-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

The new year finally begins today. And not a moment too soon!

This is a year of the Ox.

Obama is an Ox.

So lets consider the attributes of an ox:

The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work.

Damn, I was hoping it was gonna get easier.

[Photo by Li-Ji.]

Dirty old man

2009-01-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

The Magus by John Fowles

Update to my post on the bookshelf meme. I have actually managed to finish "The Magus".

I take back my suggestion that it should be made into a film. Apparently, it already was. Woody Allen is claimed to have said:

If I had to live my life again, I'd do everything the same, except that I wouldn't see The Magus.

Here is my book review.

Audio Torture

2009-01-25T15:00:00.000-08:00

I've finally got myself set-up to record songs from my piano to my computer. So you'd better watch out!

To test this out, here is a fairly simple and inoffensive lullaby by Alfredo Casella.

Click to download: Berçeuse.

This is from his collection Undici Pezzi Infantili. My Italian is rusty, but I think this translates to "The Idiots Guide to The Toy Piano".

Seriously, this is a set of pieces for "children". Some pieces in this collection actually could be played by children. But, in the world of classical piano music, any piece not intended for a virtuoso is labeled "for children". Quite a few sets of "pieces for children" are near the limits of my abilities.

This piece not only allows, but actively encourages the use of every lazy pianists favorite trick: hold the pedal to the floor. So if it sounds all run-together, that is, in this case, the composer's intent. This lullaby should sound somewhat like a celesta.

Equality

2009-01-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

I watched a good bit of the innaugural concert yesterday.

HBO really came through for us. They unblocked their channel to let us see this show, and really topped it off for me by pairing it with "I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry".

It was very slickly produced. Almost scary, in a propaganda way. I felt like it was shouting "Hey everybody, try some Kool-Aid!". Pep-rallies of any sort make me feel that way. Since I like Obama, and am hoepful that things will turn out well, I allowed myself to get swept up into it a good bit.

The theme of the show seemed to be "coming together". The performers were paired off into "diverse" groups. Jon Bon Bovi with Bettye Lavette. Sheryl Crow with Will.I.Am. James Taylor with John Legend.

Notice a trend? That's right, they all come from backgrounds in different musical styles. Soul plus Rock. Crap plus Rap. Opera plus military band. Everything the young people will enjoy.

Just about the only combo they didn't have was Free Jazz plus Chinese Opera. (Maybe next time....) [Oh wait! That does exist! I wish I didn't know that.]

They over-did the Copland a bit. "Fanfare for the Common Man" - perfect. "Lincoln Portrait" - too long for this event.

On an unrelated note, does anyone want a used calculator? All the buttons work perfectly, except "equals". (It is the exact opposite of the one in the picture (by OndraSoukup).

You Go Girl!

2009-01-16T18:08:00.000-08:00

I just found out today that Bettye Lavette will be performing at the innauguration of Obama this weekend! And supposedly HBO will be unblocked on comcast for the show!

That should be a pretty good show all-around. I did notice that no American Idols were invited to perform. Do they have something against voting?

Anyway, I'm so happy for Bettye!

I went to her show at Yoshi's back in November, and I almost posted about it then. The 8pm show was almost full, but the 10pm show wasn't, so they let me sit through both shows! Which is great, because she didn't do my favorite, "Little Sparrow", until the second set.

She'll be singing "A Change is Gonna Come". I just know she's gonna tear it up!She's had lots of hard times through her long career, which is sad, but maybe that is what lets her get so much emotion into her songs. A great change has come to her career recently, so she should be able to really feel the song.

Another great performance, of a Who classic, is here.

The only thing more I can say is:

It hurts already!

2009-01-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

I did not want to get up this morning.

I've had 11 glorious days off work for the holidays, but I had to start back again today.

It doesn't matter that I work from home. Getting up that early just ain't right!

After only one day sitting at the computer, I have a back-ache already!

Christmas better come again soon! Hurry Christmas! Don't be late!

Happy New Year

2009-01-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

By wackystuff

I hope all are expecting a happy new year.

I don't eat black-eyed peas, or make top-ten lists. I'm incapable of singing Auld Lang Syne. But there is at least one New Year's tradition I can't skip.

In Berkeley, New Year's Day marks the start of the great calendar sale at Pegasus books. The whole town shows up at 10 am sharp to start the brawl.

I managed to find an acceptable calendar fairly quickly, and only had to spend two hours in line. The clerk was shocked to find that I also bought some books at the same time. (Some cheesy-looking 1960's Sci-Fi paperbacks.) I didn't think of it 'till later, but I'll bet I was influenced to buy those because the calendar I picked was of movie posters of old cheesy Sci-Fi movies.

2008 will go down as the year when I finally made a perfect macaroon! I wish I could say I learned how to make a perfect macaroon, but the truth is I still have no clue. It is just hit and miss. These lavender ones were scrumptious, though.

Last year I resolved to finally purchase a cell phone. Didn't happen! So this year, my resolution is this: "I will waste more time on the internet!".

OMG!

2008-12-29T14:38:00.001-08:00

OMG!

(To be continued....)

A Tree Dies in Berkeley

2008-12-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

The day before xmas, I went to Andronico's to stock up on provisions to last me through that long, cold day where everything is closed.

On my way out, I stopped by a presentation of marked-down xmas greenery. I was half-thinking of buying a poinsettia to plant outside. In the right conditions, they can grow into a big, lovely bush which brings a nice bit of winter color. There is one in a yard down my street.

A store manager caught me lost in contemplation. Mistakenly, he must have thought I was trying to decide whether to buy one of what must be the ugliest little xmas trees I've ever seen. In fact, my thoughts had already wandered elsewhere, as they are wont to do, and I remained present in body only.

Perhaps fearing that the $2 price tag was beyond my reach, he absolutely insisted that he give me one. There ensued a very confused minute or two as he tried, by shouting across the store, to get an un-comprehending bag-boy to put one of these hideous things into my un-willing hands. I accepted so as not to prolong the scene, but I swear it just just like "the gift of the magi". (OK, actually not.)

I thanked him as best I could, in memory of all the nice things Andronico's has come to represent for me, and took the damn thing home.

Now I have a sad little pine tree on my hands and I don't know quite what to do with it. I believe that in Berkeley one can be jailed for cutting, harming, or allowing by way of inaction, harm to befall a tree.

Tedious, Cruddy Meme

2008-12-21T19:50:00.001-08:00

Here, for no particular reason, except my hidden agenda, is my contribution to the
bookshelf meme, slightly modified.

Book That's Been On My Shelf The Longest.
"Baptist Hymnal", edited by Walter Hines Sims. Contains such hits as "How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours" and "There is a Fountain Filled With Blood".

Most likely my father picked this up when the church was changing to a new hymnal. One with less tedious and bloody hymns, no doubt.

I used to play Xmas songs from it. Now it is mostly gathering dust.

Book That Reminds me of Something Specific in my Life.
I can't remember anything specific in my life.

A Book I Acquired in an Interesting Way.
The Ring, by Richard Chopping.

In a coffee shop in the Haight, I once came across an old, yellowing book that caught my eye. No doubt because of the cover.

It remained there for weeks, so I took it home. I doubt I ever would have found it otherwise, but I quite enjoyed it. Beware: it "is a novel that deals frankly and unsparingly with the homosexual world of London. It is not for the squeamish or for those unwilling to face the facts about the desperate underground activities of the gay world." One of those unfortunate facts is that if you like a bit of rough trade, you are going to get a bit of roughing up. It was published in the 1960's, part of the gay paperback explosion, so I'll leave you to guess how it ends.

Chopping lived with the same guyfor 70 years, so I guess the book wasn't terribly autobiographical. The fact that it remains on my bookshelf means I liked it and intend to read it again some day.

He is much better known as the cover artist for the original James Bond books, but he didn't draw the cover for this one.

After reading this anonymous review, posted by none other than Paul Di-Fillipo, I feel I simply must read his other novel "The Fly"!

Book That's Been with me to the Most Places.
Has to be my LAROUSSE Concise French-English dictionary. One never knows when that might be necessary.

The most recent addition to your shelves.
I don't add books to my shelves often. I tend to get them from the library so they will go away after I'm done with them. But for unknown reasons, I did buy What the Nose Knows, which wasn't bad, but which also led me to the much more interesting library books The Secret of Scent and The Emperor of Scent. Both tell exactly the same story, but from different points of view. I highly recommend both, though "Secret" would be tough if you don't like chemistry. "Emperor" gives a very depressing look at the petty in-fighting that really does go on in the research world.

The book whose loss would traumatize you the most.
My collection of sheet music. I know, because I once lost my collection of piano sheet music, and I was very traumatized. I had lots of hard-to-find modern pieces. I still haven't been able to replace many of them.

A bonus book that you want to talk about but doesn’t fit into the other questions.

Cruddy illustration

I love, love, love Cruddy! Dark, dark, dark, and over the top, but such great well-observed descriptions of mostly despicable people.

Extra questions.

Book you most want made into a movie.
Easy: The Magus. So I can stop reading it and still find out how it turns out! Seriously, it is a great story, but it is a little slow.

Half-read forever. Finnegans Wake. O.K. quarter-read forever. I used to enjoy challenging myself with tough works. But I'm older and wiser now.

Most read book.

A tie.

Ulysses. Read it three times in my first years in college. Didn't understand a lot of it, but really liked it.

The Little Prince. Read it twice by choice, and then again as part of a French class in high school.

Possible Tie-breaker: Some friends were recently discussing how "The Little Prince" isn't really a book for kids, and used the story of the rose and the thorns as an example. Since I don't remember that part at all, I guess I need to re-read it. And nowadays I could actually understand it easily in French.

Most books by the same author.
Don Webb.

Seven so far. He is one of those exceptions; someone whose books I will actually buy and actually keep. It isn't that he is so great, though I like his work a lot. It is that his books aren't easy to find, and aren't sufficiently appreciated. I don't want to just throw away my first editions of what, someday should be, in any rational world, collectors items.

Everyone should at least read A Spell for the Fulfillment of Desire

Guilty pleasure.I don't feel the least bit guilty about reading them, but I am careful in whose company I'll mention comic books in the same discussion as real books.

There are quite a few I like, but I'll just mention Hate, the Simpsons, Stuck Rubber Baby, and The Desert Peach.

Some writers tell stories better with pictures attached. Deal with it.

Hidden Agenda. It is true. I do have a hidden agenda here, which is to introduce my Goodreads profile. You can subscribe to this feed if you want to keep up with all the exciting reading action going on in my world.

Computers scare me

2008-12-21T12:12:00.000-08:00

Computers do the darndest things!

Impala
By Nemo Gould

I write programs for a living, but I still don't understand why they do what they do sometimes.

There is a program I wrote last year that is being used in various labs across the world. A few months back, a small number of users started reporting an odd problem. When the program starts, it is supposed to read three sets of reference data which the users will then compare to their own data. The three reference data sets come from the same single archive file. But for these few people, the program only reads two of the data sets, and gives no indication of why it isn't reading the third.

That is odd, but there could be many possible causes. Sadly, we could not reproduce the problem on any of our own machines, so we couldn't help much.

Finally, this week, I found a copy of the program on my machine that did this bad thing. Great! Now I had something to test with. I could try varying things and see what effect it had on the program. Before doing that, I copied the directory containing the program to a new directory so I could leave the first copy untouched while modifying only the copy.

Much to my surprise, the copy of the program behaves flawlessly! All I did was copy it. Now I have one copy that is broken and one that works. But they are identical copies! My boss suggested the files might have different "permissions" set on them before and after the copy, so I've investigate that, and there seem to be no differences. Anyway, the three pieces of data that are supposed to be loaded at start-up all come from a single file, so any permissions problem should affect that whole file and not just part of it.

I'm completely stumped. And scared. If you program a robot to obey Asimov's 3 laws, what will happen when it makes a copy of those laws? Will only 2 of them continue to apply?

Giving Thanks

2008-12-07T14:39:00.000-08:00

I'm buying a house!

No, not that one!

Due to the current market slump, my mother can no longer afford to make the payments on her current house. She isn't broke, but would have to cash-out some undervalued stocks to keep making payments. So I'll be paying them instead for a while. Who knows how long. In return, I'll get a partial ownership and should get some money back when they eventually sell.

I never thought I'd need to do this, didn't know I'd ever be able to, and wasn't sure I would. But life is surprising. I now need to, can, and will.

Despite the grim news I see whenever I accidentally run across a news broadcast, I have lots to be thankful for. I still have a job in tough times. It pays well, is fairly secure, and I get to work on things that I enjoy. I get to live in a cool area, with lots of live music, and get to travel frequently.

I got to see some close friends that I don't see nearly often enough. P came down from the frozen North for a few days. I got to see Li-7 during her tour through with the dots. P's other half should be here soon, though he hasn't sent the details yet.

I got to spend a long weekend up in Mendocino with friends for the holiday. We rented the house pictured above. A considerable amount was consumed.

The weather was unseasonably warm and dry, so we could enjoy some hikes, and we got to see the American porcini in its natural habitat.

I wonder what I'll be thankful for next year....

Butter Hole

2008-11-16T11:18:00.001-08:00

Microwave ovens sure do weird things to butter.

This was a perfect cube before I zapped it.

I want to believe

2008-11-14T17:44:00.000-08:00

I want to believe in the nobility of the human spirit and all that. But you've caught me at a bad moment.

This morning, while I was browsing away on the web, and getting geared up for tonight's Legendary Pink Dots show, suddenly I heard a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, I spied a thing of evil! A thing of evil from night's plutonian shore.

Some fiend was trying to steal my bike from beneath my very nose! As you see he was able to separate the front wheel from the frame, and had partially separated the rear one when I caught him.

My rear wheel is not easy to get off, since it is bolted on, but he had a wrench.

Anyway, I startled him, so he quickly left on "his" bicycle. He did manage to get my seat, but nothing else.

A belief we can all change

2008-11-02T18:25:00.000-08:00

The votes are in! The flavor of the year is:

Don't believe me? Then you haven't been to VooDoo Donuts.

Shred, baby, Shred!

2008-10-31T08:51:00.001-07:00

Theft
Originally uploaded by ibcbulk

I don't have a paper shredder at home, so I keep two separate piles of paper: one for recycling, and one to take to the office to get shredded. I often think, "What's the point?". The chances of anything happening are small and I can deal with it if it does.

On Wednesday I checked my bank account on line to see if there was any money left, and I found three very unexpected charges in the last 3 days. Once per day, someone has been using my card number to pay for a test of English as a foreign language, at $150 each!

This is odd for many reasons. Apparently someone knows enough English to hack into my computer and steal my card number, but not enough to pass a test. And if he failed the test on Monday, and failed it again on Tuesday, why would he think he'd pass it on Wednesday?

The lesson: you can never be paranoid enough!

Sale Pending!

2008-10-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all the people who sent me advice, by e-mail or here on the blarg, on whether I should buy my condo or not. I got lots and lots of e-mail, and it was really helpful.

It was a tough decision, but I finally decided to procrastinate until someone else would buy it. And someone finally did!

I was riding by on my bike last Thursday, and it had a sale pending sign up.

Seriously, I just decided that I don't feel comfortable right now getting that deep into debt. Psychologically, I don't handle debt well, and the recent market turmoil also gave me pause.

I do not mind renting indefinitely. And it might even make sense financially.

Maybe I'll look for a nicer apartment someday, but this one is really fine for me.

On the road again

2008-10-12T17:51:00.000-07:00

No green dots here.
Stare at cross
Explanation.

My good friend Li-7 is about to be going on a big adventure. She will be going out on tour as a roadie and merchandise-bunny for one of our favorite bands, the Legendary Pink Dots. I don't exactly envy her for traveling all over the country with a bunch of vegetarian men with questionable hygiene who keep odd hours. But she can better tolerate the uncertainties and vicissitudes of such travel than I. I'm sure it will be tons of fun for her, and I am a little jealous.

Since I need a vacation, love exploring new cities, and love this band, I decided to meet her at at least one stop on the tour. But which one? For that I have to back up to how we met.

I had just moved to SF. The day I arrived, my complete CD collection was stolen out of my car. (Yes, I was an eedjet to leave it there in the first place.) I was making little money at the time and SF was (is) expensive, so for a while I was reluctant to buy any new CDs. When I finally did, the first one I re-acquired was Malachai, Shadow Weaver Part 2. I couldn't live without it. (For the record, the second CD was Too Dark Park.)

Through the cloud-zero mailing list, I met Johnny Seitan (not his real name), and he let me make casette copies of the discs that had been stolen from me, and we traded other musical reccomendations. Hard to believe, but MP3's didn't exist yet!

When the dots fall tour came around, Johnny and I talked about going to several shows along the west coast. I then posted a note to cloud-zero asking if anyone else wanted to join us and share expenses for the shows in Seattle and Vancouver. As it turned out, Li-7 and Blondie, who had never met, decided to drive all the way from the other side of the Rockies, in winter, to join us. Johnny couldn't make it for the Seattle show, but was to join us for the Vancouver one.

Now, the Prozac must have been the un-cut real stuff at that time, because this is the sort of thing I just don't do!

Anyway, I reserved us a place at the Hippy Hole in Seattle. They have since moved to better digs, but at the time it was in a crumbling old house.

I was to meet them at the show. When I arrived and found them, I found out that at the Portland show the day before they had met the band and Niels had apparently developed a crush on Li-7. Moments later, there he is sitting with us. This is like freaking me out, but in a good way. I'd been listening to this guy's music almost every day for several years.

They did a great show in Seattle. The next day, we go pick up Johnny at the airport and drive to Vancouver for the show. At some point we realize that there might be some items in the car that shouldn't cross the border, so we find a spot and bury them. Our plan was to go to the show and then drive back to Seattle to sleep. But Johnny just can't restrain himself from going backstage after the show, so we all do. I totally felt like they didn't want me there, though Niels wanted to keep talking to Li-7. So I was uncomfortable, but I did get to talk to cEvin key, and share his rather large cigarette. Since he had been involved in several bands that I loved, like Skinny Puppy and Cyberaktiv, that was also fun.

Anyway, we finally leave and drive back to Seattle, picking up our lost cargo along the way. When we get back in our room, we find that there are like four more people sleeping on our floor! Even though I'd paid extra for a private room! Never trust hippies!

Anyway, it was ok. The next day was Thanksgiving day, and we got to share a big, free hippy turkey dinner that we hadn't been expecting.

Now I was completely oblivious to this -- probably because I was always looking at cute, straight Blondie -- but it turns out that Li-7 was love-struck by Johhny at first sight. So it was a complete surprise to me when she later moved to SF to be with him. But that was great because we gradually became good friends.

So now that Li-7 is on tour with the band on this tour, I had to pick a spot to meet her. I thought about going back to where it all began in Seattle or Vancouver, but I've been to those places several times already. So I decided on the one spot I skipped that time, Portland.

Of course, they are also playing November 14 and 15 at the Café du Nord, and I wouldn't dream of missing either show, and neither should you! They changed my life. Might they change yours?

Je suis un geek!

2008-10-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

It's official. I am now a geek!

While you may have suspected this already, I've passed my final initiation. I've now played Dungeons and Dragons!

Ok, not technically D&D, but the French version, jeu de rôle.

I signed-up for this class at the Alliance Française de Berkeley thinking we would be doing role-playing using extracts from theater pieces. But this is fun in its own way.

Unlike D&D, the French version does not usually take place in a dungeon and there aren't any dragons. Our game takes place in Paris in April, 1900, at the time of the Exposition Universelle.

I am Paul de Mori-Sophrat, a 19-year old student of Egyptology at the Sorbonne. (The prof even drew me a picture.)

The game leader provided a little back-story that I am a the teachers pet of my Prof. The dice provided my relative abilities. I get to fill-in the rest.

So far I have decided to play him as an arrogant suck-up with no real talent other than sweet-talking the professor. I haven't quite decided whether I'm supplying him with opium or the other way around. I'm probably blackmailing him so his wife won't know what really goes on between us.

Anyway, Paris in 1900 was an exciting time. They finally had a semi-functional government, money was starting to flow again, there were exciting new inventions (like moving sidewalks!), and construction was going on all over the city. The city was also host to the 2nd Olympic Games at the same time as the expo.

The story so far: the professor left me a note with a librarian telling me that his life was in danger and I should go to his office and burn all his papers. I went there and found that someone had already ransacked the place. I decided not to destroy the papers. Then I took my bike over to the professor's house. There, I found the concièrge dead in her apt., and someone chased me with a gun. I reported all this to the police and they locked me up! The nerve! And with a boozing bum to boot.

My character doesn't know it yet, but the professer is hiding-out in a hotel, where there are also two experienced adventuresses who have come to Paris for some mysterious purpose, along with their majordom. An apparently insignificant painting was stolen from the Egyptian pavillion. The only clue is a mysterious insignia on what remains of the frame.

I fear that I may get stuck in that jail cell for the rest of the game if I don't stage a break-out. Good thing I've got some congac to bribe the bum to help me. (Lesson: never go anywhere without booze.)

Table for One

2008-10-04T17:51:00.000-07:00

Ever since I wrote my bit on my other piece of art, I've been meaning to write about this one. And I guess I'm now finally getting around to it.

Voilà! "Table for One" by David Fink.

I met David soon after I first moved to San Francisco, which seems like thousands of years ago, and also like yesterday.

I loved his art right away. And when he had a show, I fell in love with this one when I first saw it. JP was with me and she loved it too and helped me decide to buy it. My first art!

A lot has to do with the colors. I'm a big fan of warm browns and oranges and southwestern desert colors.

Untitled (Green, Brown, Orange)
By Dyna MoAlso when I saw it, I immediately thought of a Rothko painting.

No not the one Mr Cooper had in his office on Mad Men (fabulous show), but another one. Same style, but different colors. Similar to the way David's painting has three big blocks of color.

It wasn't until several years later that I learned there was a companion piece. David and I had gone sky diving with two other guys -- no, I'm not lying -- and afterwards we went by one of their houses. There on the wall was "Table for Two".

Some would say that the table for one is depressing and the table for two is happier. (It is brighter blue in real life, if I remember right.) But I've never found mine depressing. I see it mostly as some blocks of nice colors. Besides, I remember that table. And at the time, David was making some really depressing paintings of scary angels.

Be sure to check out David's paintings of hydrants. Maybe an odd subject, but they are great!

Huge Debt

2008-09-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

I had given up looking for a Condo in Berkeley, but while out on my bike I rode by a place that looks perfect. (Isn't that always the way it is?)

I took a tour on Sunday, and I'm almost ready to buy.

But it is scary. Do I really want to go that far into debt?

Would the eventual earthquake in Berkeley wipe out everything I own?

Shouldn't I be putting my money in the stock market instead? (It is down, you know. That is when you are supposed to buy.)

Up till now, I've always chosen freedom over commitment. Without a mortgage hanging over my head, I am free to quit my job and join the circus any time I want.
Rent on my cheap apartment costs far less than I make each month. The extra money goes into savings and earns interest and I can grab some any time I want to go on vacation or buy a car or take time off from work.

The condo would give me a garage to store big stuff in, like the kayak I've long wanted. It is much closer to BART. It is across the street from a park, on a bicycle-friendly street. It has a much nicer kitchen. It is much nicer looking in general. I wouldn't be as ashamed to show people my place.

If I get a mortgage, I'll need to keep a job for a long time. I would be responsible for repairs. (Full disclosure: I'd probably just let the place fall apart.) Would it become a money pit?

The biggest question is, will I procrastinate so long that I won't even have the chance to make a choice?

Will I be relieved that I no longer have to make a choice?

What should I do?

Minty fresh

2008-09-21T16:32:00.001-07:00

Hey!

I think I'm getting the hang of this macaroon thing.

Don't these look pretty!

Flavor? Fresh mint. And they are so minty fresh there is absolutely no reason to brush your teeth afterward. Nope, no reason whatsoever.

(Honestly, the basil ones tasted 10 times better than this, but I'm doing one for the traditionalists.)

Gone, all gone.

2008-09-17T17:34:00.001-07:00

It seems I have been remiss in not keeping you up to date on all my macaroon adventures. Well, I'll just fix that right now!

I had limited success with black sesame. Delicious, but wrong texture. Pictures will not be forthcoming.

Saffron and allspice macaroons came out very nice. The allspice tasted almost like pumpkin pie. Sometime in November I'll have to re-do those with a full complement of pumpkin-pie spices.

Since those came out so well I decided to raise the difficulty level and go for basil macaroons again. It is difficult because basil is moist, and moisture makes steam in the oven and that is not a good thing for a macaroon. I solved that problem by using dried egg whites and re-constituting them with less water than was called for.

They were yummy, yummy, yummy, but now they are gone!

I've just found out that Pierre Hermé has a new recipe book all about macarons. I suppose I'll just have to buy it, if only so I can laugh at his recipe for ketchup macaro(o)ns. (Silly french chef!) And also according to Paris Breakfasts there is still time for me to get over to Paris for the opening of his newest store. I'll be checking airline prices tonight.

Though, really, he does seem to put too much gunk in his trunk. I think a little dab will do ya, and more is not better. Before Laudrée in 1930, no one would have dreamed of sticking goop between the cookies. Now, less than 100 years later, the goop is in danger of taking over.

The crush

2008-09-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

Friday I took the afternoon off from work to go visit a local winery. (Don't worry, I'd worked lots of extra hours the night before.) Periscope Cellars is located just a few blocks from my office, so I've always wanted to go give them a try. Friday, I finally did.

I talked my friend C-- into going, since she also works in Emeryville, and she brought along one of her friends and we met there at noon.

I fully expected that we'd go in, taste a few wines and be out again in 15 minutes. I really wasn't all that excited about going. But it turned out to be very cool.

Just by chance we were there for crushing day. They had just unloaded a bunch of grapes and were putting them through a juicing machine. Stems were flying all over the place.

We got to taste some of the fresh-crushed cabernet grape juice and it was amazing, despite the bits of stem. The best grape juice I've ever had! Seriously, it tasted very, very fresh, which it was. (Much better than what they served for the Lord's supper in baptist church!) Still it is way, way, way too sweet for normal drinking. And who knew that cabernet grapes were so small?

There were also vats filled with a different type grapes that had already been through the crusher and fermented a little. They were giving off the most heady aroma.

The guide was quite amiable. She told us lots of interesting things about the spot and the events they have there. Not only was this place once used as a submarine-repair facility, but it was also the place were season one of Top Chef was filmed. (Although the show claimed they were staying in a fancy San Francisco hotel, the chefs were often just sleeping on the floor there in Emeryville.) And now they use it as an art gallery and host a variety of interesting tasting events, such as a combination wine-tasting and yoga night. Don't worry, not hard balance poses! Instead of downward-facing dog, you can do downward-sitting couch potato.

One of the owners is also into packaging and she showed us some cool ideas they have for alternative packaging.

We ended-up staying almost 2 whole hours, and it was a hoot!

Storm

2008-09-01T19:17:00.000-07:00

Since I'm from Louisiana, everyone is always asking me -- sometimes as often as once a year -- if I know people in New Orleans and how were they affected by Katrina. The answer is basically, no, I am only still in contact with one friend from there, though I recently re-connected with my high-school roommate through linked-in.

Anyway, C's husband has been writing a blog about all the effort that they've put into repairing their house after Katrina. If you need a reminder that "it could be worse", look no further than This Old Moneypit.

I can't smell!

2008-09-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

I can't smell anything. At all.

Very, very bizzare.

I've had a cold for a few days, and when I got up this morning, I noticed I can't smell a thing. Although I'm breathing fine through one nostril, I can't smell my coffee. The cookies that were so strongly flavored last night now just taste like sugar.

I got out some of the most strong-smelling things in my cupboard and took a whiff. Nothing registers at all except one thing. I have this orange-oil based ant poison that normally smells like an explosion in an orange grove. I can very, very barely detect an orange scent in it this morning.

This has never happened to me before. It had better right itself soon!

Where to begin

2008-08-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

When eating this cake, where would you begin?

With the head, of course. But should you dig into the brains with an ice-cream scoop or should you extract an eye and go in through there?

For more like this -- and you know you want it -- subscribe to cakelava or cakewrecks.

I've got a friend

2008-08-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

Wow! The internets sure are neat!

This morning, there was a note in my mailbox from julienash asking to be my "friend" on Last.fm.

At first I was like, who the hell is Julie Nash and what does she want with me? Then I realized it was Julien Ash, the man behind the band Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites.

I realize it is nothing personal, really. He is just trying to promote his music on the internets like everyone else. But still it is neat. I've been a fan of his music for quite a few years now. I have more than 10,000 plays registered since I joined Last.fm, and he comes in at number 2 in number of plays, right behind Philip Glass, and somehow amazingly ahead of Legendary Pink Dots.

I'm a bit surprised to learn he is a fan of eminimen, but not at all surprised that he's into Michael Nyman and Wim Mertens. And from his page, I followed a link to Helios Creed, and was amazed. How could I not have listened to him before. Some of his stuff is great!

And my good friend Lisette just launched LegendaryPinkDots.org today, so be sure to check it out!

V for Victory

2008-08-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

Set your VCR!

Varla Jean Merman will be on Project Runway on Bravo this Saturday morning from 8-9am. I know you won't be up that early, so be sure the VCR/DVR or whatever is ready!

If you don't want to know who won, don't google it and don't visit Varla Online, because this will be a re-broadcast from Wednesday night's show, so the result is already known.

The contestents had to design clothes for Varla and her feeble imitators. Ru-Paul judged.

Thanks to J-- for this juicy tidbit. I wouldn't have known, otherwise. Wednesday night I was foolishly watching the men's swimsuit competition on the olympics. If only I'd known!

Feet at Last!

2008-08-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

Finally, some fetish-worthy feet!

The first few times I ever made macaroons, I got lucky and they came out just right. But I've never really replicated that success. I've made some delicious ones (basil!), and some with fascinating textures (ginger!), but they never get the little feet they are supposed to have.

I made another batch this weekend, and this time I did some experimenting with ratios of dry ingredients (sugar and almonds) to wet (egg white). The ones that I was absolutely sure were too dry were the only ones to develop the feet. So now I know. That doesn't mean I'll be able to replicate it, but I will try!
(They are still a little lumpy, but that just means I need to grind the almonds finer.)

The flavor, by the way, is powdered Sassafras root. They taste remarkably similar to the root-beer flavor of bottle caps, and apparently sassafras will cure gonorrhea, just so you know.

I made a batch of Sarsaparilla bark ones at the same time. The flavor was much more subtle. A bit like cream-soda, really, but mostly it just emphasized the flavor of almonds. That flavor would mix very, very well with candy-cap mushroom.

Last week was Sesame. Tasted like toasted marshmallows (Yum!).

I guess I'm in the "S's" now, so I'll have to try savory, saxifrage, saffron, ...

Fluffy clounds

2008-08-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

Some folks didn't find my last post sunny enough. So here are some pictures of clouds and rainbows.

I took these on Aug 5. The sky was fully of odd, wispy clouds, but it was the opalescent clouds that really caught my attention. It isn't really a rare phenomenon. I notice it about once a month. But it is hard to get a good picture. I took about 10 shots with different exposures and that one above is about the best I could do. It doesn't really capture how pretty it is in real life, but it is the best I've done so far.

Once in Paris I was out on a rented bike and I saw some beautiful clouds like this right behind the Eiffel tower. I took a bunch of photos from different spots, but they were all over-exposed. Too bad, because they would have been really pretty.

I even once was lucky enough to see this phenomenon during a solar eclipse! For the 15 minutes before totality the clouds near the sun were green and purple. And they were very thin clouds, so they didn't interfere with viewing the eclipse. It was amazing!

One more picture, this time with an airplane.

Memento mori

2008-08-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

Memento mori

As William Shatner says:

You are gonna die!

Is this how you want to be remembered?

Update: I've updated the link because the original was pulled off-line.

By the Time You Get to Phoenix, I'll Be Gone

2008-08-14T20:45:00.000-07:00

Yippee! I won!

My picture of my Sheldon Harvey painting has been selected to be included in the Schmapp Phoenix guide.

It is one of several images representing the Heard Museum.

But since I bought my picture there, it isn't at the museum anymore. But I guess they still have one or two interesting things, such as this traditional Native American Harry Potter bowl.

One of my other pictures is short-listed for the Paris guide. Vote for me!

Orwell's Diary

2008-08-10T16:50:00.000-07:00

I just found out about the Orwell Diaries.

What a neat idea! They are publishing the diaries of George Orwell as if they were a blog, with each entry posted exactly 70 years after he wrote it in his diary. The first two entries are rather dull, but I'm sure this will be an interesting thing to read as the days go by.

More music please!

2008-08-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend I took a little vacation down to Santa Cruz for the Cabrillo festival of contemporary music, just like I did last year. I had wanted to stay for the whole weekend and go to 3 concerts, but my lack of planning led me to only get to see one.

Oh well, it was a fun concert and it was nice to get away from home for a bit. You can read my review over on Last.fm

One of the really neat things about these concerts is that I can get so up-close with the composers and performers. When I was younger, composers were like some mythical beings that existed in another realm. The idea that I could see them standing 5 feet from me, and in a few cases actualy meet them, wouldn't have seemed likely. But the world really does seem smaller now. I've been in spitting distance of some of my favorites, like Philip Glass, Terry Riley, and Steven Stapelton, several times. I've met and talked to the members of my favorite rock group multiple times. I've e-mailed with composer Douwe Eisenga, and we are online "friends". Even just subscribing to the blogs of Nico Muhly and David Byrne is exciting. It makes me feel connected to them in some small way.

If I had stayed for Monday, as I'd planned, I would have met-up for lunch with a friend and former co-worker who now works at UCSC and she was going to show me her lab. She works with people on the UCSC Genome Browser, which I reference quite a bit in my own work. I had also previously visited her lab in France. But I didn't stay until Monday, so I sadly didn't see her. Even worse, someone exploded a bomb in her bosses car on Saturday, so it would have been an awkward visit! It was probably an animal rights activist, which is odd because her boss, whose name has not been published, doesn't do animal research.

Unfortunately, I've had my own run-ins with animal activists when I worked at UCSF. I also never experimented on animals, but I worked around and with people who did. I'll have to make a separate post about that....

Pray for me!

2008-07-28T22:28:00.000-07:00

Oh my!

Prayer does work after all!

I'm famous!

2008-07-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

I'm famous!

Well, not really, but if you go to this link you can see, very, very briefly, as screen-shot from a program that I wrote that is used to detect chromosomal abnormalities.

Our company stock is the pits right now, but this product is doing well, and I'm busily at work on improved software. I really love that I get to work on software that is used in cutting-edge scientific research, rather than just buying and selling widgets on the web.

Time is passing

2008-07-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

Time is passing. And there is nothing I can do about it.

Oh well. At least that means lots of fun things, like renew my driver's license! I had to actually go to the DMV this time because I was supposed to take a vision test.

I was nervous, so I practiced a lot in advance, looking at all sorts of things real hard. I didn't want them to decide I would have to wear my glasses while driving, even though I always do, anyway. But then they forgot to test me anyway. They just asked me whether I wear glasses while I drive. I said no, and that was that. (They had eye-charts all over the place and I could read them fine, so it doesn't matter.)

I also got to spend the big day up in Mendocino in this house and drink organic Argentinian bubbling booze and eat mushroom ice cream!

And to top it all off, I got a BOX! In the mail!

I wonder what's inside! It has a fish theme, so maybe it will be fish.

Mmmmmmmm!

Gateau Basque

2008-07-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'm going to a BBQ today with some French folks, and I'm supposed to bring a dessert. I just watched a show recently that showed a Basque chef making a Gateau Basque. I remember liking those in Paris, so I decided I'd give it a try.

At the bakery in the 10th arrondissment where I'd get mine, they were available in pistachio and plain. But apparently the traditional filling is either sour cherry or pastry cream. I decided to go with sour cherry.

I couldn't find online any recipe that looked quite right to me, so I took one and made substitutions. That's just like me; even on my first try I'll be changing things. In this case I swapped almond meal for half of the flour.

That made a dough that was very difficult to work with. It didn't want to stay together. Oh well, I'm just sure that the ones I ate in Paris had almond meal in them.

The one on the TV show was decorated with a big lauburu. I wasn't ready to go that far for authenticity, since it might be misinterpreted. so I modified it into something a bit more swirly (and backwards).

All considered, it came out looking OK. Let's hope it tastes good.

Crumbly Fruit

2008-06-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

Ahhh! Summer is here! Bringing with it two of my favorite things that go so great together: peaches and fog!

Just about every week, I find myself throwing together a batch or two of my fruit crumbles.

So easy and so good.

All you have to do is throw some peaches in a dish. (Or nectarines. Peach skin is creepy!) Cover them with crumble mix, which you should always keep on hand, bake and eat. The hardest part is waiting for them to cool down.

For crumble mix, just use approximately equal volumes of flour, sugar, and softened butter. Mix it with your hands. It should look and feel almost like wet sand.

Put your fruit in a dish. Little left-over duck or rabbit rillettes containers work quite nicely. Toss crumbles lightly on top of the fruit. Bake at 425-ish for 25-ish minutes until bubbly and brown.

Just about any fruit will do. But the best seems to be:

nectarines
blackberries 'n' sage
blueberries 'n' fennel seeds
apples

Plums are ok; leave the skin on or else they're a bit too sweet. I've even done seedless red grapes. Oddly, it tasted just like McDonald's so-called cherry pie filling. I wondered how they got cherries all year round.

Frightful Frets

2008-06-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

As if learning the guitar weren't hard enough !

Check out these crazy frets.

Apparently playing on one of these things will make your head snap back in a very uncomfortable-looking position.

Smarter than SmartBoard

2008-06-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

The new recipient of my SmartBoard was happy to receive it. But I've moved on to an even better keyboard. Behold the jeans keyboard !

My laptop, with stickers.

2008-06-10T21:40:00.001-07:00

computer with stickers
Originally uploaded by Red Wine Rage

I tried to enter this picture of my computer as an entry in the contest for stickergiant. But I fear I was too late. I think I am number 26 and the contest ends with number 25. Anyway, pray for me!

Any suggestions for the final sticker?

The World Won't Listen

2008-05-21T19:28:00.001-07:00

The time has finally come for me to give up hope.

The SmartBoard will never catch on. And that's really sad because it is the best keyboard ever!

Almost 10 years ago a friend, who had a friend who worked for the company, gave me
a Darwin SmartBoard. It totally spoiled me. No other so-called ergonomic keyboard will ever satisfy me again.

What's so special? First look at how the keys are layed out for the left hand. They slant up to the right, the way they should!

Those of us who learned touch-typing were taught that the index finger of the left hand is supposed to be used for the keys V F R 4 while the index finger of the right hand is used for M J U 7. On most "ergnomic" keyboards, the keys for the right hand are arranged properly so that you can reach all of those keys with natural movements. But the keys for the left hand are slanted to the right so that when you curl your left index finger you land somewhere between C and V, and when you extend that finger you land between 5 and 6. Nowhere near the 4 that you should be hitting. On the smart board, the keys that you are supposed to touch with your left hand line up naturally.

Second, notice that the far-away keys that are pressed with the pinkies are larger than normal. That is because your pinkie isn't very accurate so you are allowed more range for errors on those.

Third, look how the board slants. It slants down away from you, not up. If your keyboard is located anywhere below your neck, then slanting it up at the back will make your carpal tunnel problems worse! (Ask any ergnomicist you happen to meet!) But that is what every other ergonomic keyboard does.

There are a few small problems. Most notably, the keys are loud.

It also has one of those evil Shift Lock keys, but so does every other keyboard, and that is easily remedied with a screwdriver!

Because this keyboard is so different from a normal one, it takes a while to get used to. But once you do, typing is a dream. I was so much faster and more accurate when using this keyboard. I absolutely loved it.

I only stopped using it because I got too spoiled by it. After typing on it, it is hard to go back to a normal board, either an ergonomic one or a regular one. And since they are uncommon, I was constantly having to make the transition from my nice board to all the other bad ones out in the world.

It has been sitting on my shelf for years now. But thanks to the miracle of the internet I found someone else who loves this board as much as I do and still actually uses it. I'm going to send it to him.

Alas, as with the Jankó keyboard the world doesn't recognize a good idea when it sees one. Hey, maybe I will buy me a Jankó keyboard and re-learn to play the piano! It's only taken me 30 years to get semi-good on the normal piano. How long could it possibly take to learn this one?

Vampire Gnats

2008-05-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

vampire
Originally uploaded by NeedleNoodles

It seems like I brought something back from Arizona besides my art: an infestation of blood-sucking vampires!

I woke up last week with little pin-pricks all over my arms. I first suspected the huge spider that has been hanging out in my bathroom. I figured he might have gone wandering and accidentally got into my bed. Then when I rolled over he got mad and bit me. That's fair. I can live with that. I allow spiders to stay in my house, so I have to live with the consequences.

But when the biting was repeated the next night, I realized I had a bigger problem on my hands. Well, actually on my arms. They haven't bitten anywhere else. But its like 50 bites per arm, and in little lines.

I remembered reading about how horrible little things I will refer to as vampire gnats since I can't bring myself to use their real name have been showing up more and more often in hotels and catch a ride home in your luggage. I was in four different hotels recently, so I put two and two together and came up with the idea that that was what must have happened to me. (The great thing about being paranoid is that it is really easy to put two and two together. Sometimes too often.)

I immediately went out and bought two different insecticides. I washed my sheets in hot water and dried them in hot air. I threw out my blanket. Drenched my mattress in toxic chemicals. Put sticky stuff on the legs of the bed so the critters can't crawl up. Carried my suitcases outdoors, covered them in poison, and left them out there.

And all that without having ever having seen even one little visitor face to face.

So far, that has done the trick. No more bites for 3 days.

On the second morning after the treatment, I did see one climbing the bathroom wall. Tiny little thing, half the size of a small ant. Just one. But that is enough for me to be pretty sure I didn't imagine the whole thing. I flushed him. Damn lazy spiders aren't doing their job!

These things have a reputation of being hard to get rid of. Immune to just about everything. They can't fly, so as long as they can't cross that barrier on the legs of my bed I should be safe. And they can't live on anything other than blood, so they should die out without me to feed on. Unless they go into hibernation, in which case they could last six months or more.

I guess it could be worse. There are some crazy ants down in Houston that have learned to "pile up the dead, sometimes using them as a bridge to cross safely over surfaces treated with pesticide." Then they crawl in your computer and make it stop working.

Problem is we've got a couple of "unseasonably warm", by which I mean horribly, horribly hot, days coming up. Like a good Berkeleyan, I have no air conditioning. The heat makes it hard for me to sleep and makes me itch. So I'll lying there all night scratching my skin off and imagining bugs crawling all over me. It'll be just like losing myself to meth! (Not that I would know, of course.)

That reminds me. I've got to go buy a fan.

Asexuality

2008-05-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

My orchid had a baby! And it is doing it the way God intended: asexually!

I've never been a particular fan of orchids. They have a reputation of being difficult to grow, and I've never found the flowers very interesting.

But I have a neighbor who works for a service that installs plants in peoples homes or offices. When she has an extra plant, I often end up with it. And that is how I got my Phalaenopsis.

The blooms were dying back by the time I got it, so I thought that would be it for blooms. But after a while it starting making this little bud. Then the bud grew a leaf. Then another leaf. Then the leaves grew a stalk. I was quite surprised. I never expected such a thing.

According to wikipedia, this thing is called a Keiki.

Now, several months later, the new stalk is blooming.

I guess orchids don't deserve their reputation as difficult plants, because I keep mine in the dark most of the time and don't water it much.

Where's my sykkelheis?

2008-05-06T17:19:00.001-07:00

Hey! How come there's not one of these in Berkeley?

I can't ride my bicycle

2008-05-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

I'm still waiting for my new bicycle to be delivered. In the meantime, I have to keep riding my old one.

I went for a ride up Tunnel Road today. I never quite made it to the top because I started to get one of my headaches. I know from experience that it is best to stop as soon as the headache first starts. Otherwise, it will get pretty bad.

So I turned around and started down the hill. I tried to shift into high gear but I couldn't. For some reason my front derailleur refused to cooperate. I couldn't figure out why not.

Soon I met ANT who was on his way up the hill, so I asked him what could be wrong. He showed me that my cable was frayed and rusted. Apparently that is not a good thing! How was I to know? I don't remember anyone telling me that before. I thought it was supposed to be like that.

Anyway, it is a good thing that I already have a new bike ordered.

Another reason to avoid the office

2008-05-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

I'm always glad that I work from home, but I'm especially glad I don't have to go to the office tomorrow. It is National No Pants Day. I don't even want to think about what I might see.

"Otter Skin" by Sheldon Harvey

2008-05-01T19:41:00.001-07:00

"Otter Skin" by Sheldon Harvey
Originally uploaded by Red Wine Rage

My painting arrived today! I'm so excited.

While I was in Phoenix I went to the Heard Museum. They were having their twice-yearly sale at their store. I had not known about that, I was just really lucky.

I had planned to buy a Navajo rug while in Phoenix, and they had some good prices at the museum store.

Much to my own surprise, I bought a painting instead! I can't explain why, but when I saw this painting, I just knew I had to have it. In part because I just love the colors. But there is something more that I can't explain.

After I showed a interest in this painting, they took me into a storeroom where they had four or five other paintings by the same artist. They were nice, but I was stuck on this one.

Maybe I was drawn to this one so much because I've recently re-discovered Paul Klee and I noticed something similar here. I've done lots of Google searching after buying this to find out more about this artist, and several sites mention the influence of Klee, among others. To the right I've added an image of "Crystal Gazer", which is another Locust, but with a more clear nod to Klee.

All I really know is that this character is Locust. In traditional stories, Locust was the first to come into this world, before the first man and woman. The title of my piece is "Otter Skin", which I assume refers to what he is wearing.

I notice a bit of comic-book influence in some of his paintings, such as "New Look Connection", to the left.

Now I just have to find a space to hang this!

Phoenix show review

2008-04-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

I've posted a review of the Phoenix show by "The Swell Season" over on my Last.fm journal.

Check it out!

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

2008-04-28T17:58:00.001-07:00

I Want to Ride My Bicycle
Originally uploaded by oybay

Yesterday, I decided I needed a new bike. Mainly because I've left my current bike outside too long and the metal parts are rusty and the rubber parts are disintegrating.

Mike's Bikes was having their annual sale. I was only back in town for the last day of the sale, so I had to do all my research and shopping in one day only. This caused me some stress until I remembered that all bikes are exactly alike. What this really means is, it doesn't matter what I get because I'll get used to whatever it is after a while. No matter how light or high-performing the bike is, the limiting factor in my ability to get up the hill is still my own fat out-of-shapeness.

I did a little research online, and asked ANT for some tips. I decided that the 2007 CannondaleAdventure 800 shown on Mike's website was pretty interesting, mainly because of the SRAM Dual Drive. I'm still a little unclear on how that works, but basically it means I can have my 24 speeds and yet not have a front dérailleur. One less dérailleur means one less chance to get derailed! That also means I should be able to shift even while stopped at a stop sign, which is apparently something that one is supposed to do at stop signs.

I went down to Mike's Bikes, where a guy named Mike reluctantly agreed to help me out. He tried to pass me off on some other clerk who would have none of it. I'm a terrible shopper, and I guess it shows!

At a bike store I always feel just as bad as most people do at a car dealership. I just know I'm gonna get ripped off because I don't know a wheel from a tire from a tube. But I tested four bikes. I liked the last one best, probably because it is the most similar to the one I already have and am used to. It turned out to also be a Cannondale Adventure, but a different model. The one shown on their website was the only Adventure 800 they had in stock, at a different store. Luckily it was my size.

Though I hate to make snap decisions, I went ahead and decided to go with it sight-unseen, just based on having tested the other Adventure.

Today, I got a call from the store. It turns out that they goofed and had already sold that bike to someone else. But they are going to order one for me and give it to me at the same price. I'm not clear on whether that will be the same 2007 model or the 2008 model (which is now called the Adventure 2). I think he told me on the phone, but I immediately forgot.

Now it will take a few weeks for the order to come in. So I'll have to keep using my old bike 'till then.

Phoenix

2008-04-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like I'm heading to Phoenix next week.

It's just one of those spur-of-the-moment decisions. A few weeks ago I was looking around to find out when Calexico might be doing another concert near me. Sadly, they don't have anything planned. But their website did say that two of the band members would be performing along with Glen Hansard in Phoenix.

I had wanted to see Glen Hansard in Oakland, but couldn't get a ticket. So I said, hey, why the hell not go see him in Phoenix. I've long wanted to see Phoenix, and I need a vacation.

It wouldn't really be fair to say I'm going there for a concert. I just needed to go somewhere, and I couldn't decide where. It takes a little random something like that to make me make up my mind.

So I'll be spending a few days in Sedona and a three nights in Phoenix. I've seen the Grand Canyon already, so I won't go up there. Maybe I'll drive down to Nogales for the heck of it. Hard to say.

Though it is only April, it will probably be unbearably hot in Phoenix, in which case I'll spend all my time indoors or in a pool, which is perfectly ok. Sedona should be comfortable, at least.

I almost saw Obama

2008-04-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

After hiking on Sunday afternoon, we were driving down Divisadero from the Marina. We randomly decided to drive by the house with the robot, because I'd never seen it.

There were lots of reporters hanging around nearby. There is even one in this photo. We didn't know why. Now we know.

Mr. Obama was going to a party down the street at the Getty's house. It was a secret visit to SF.

All the details, and lots of pictures, over at zombietime.

Camparoonies!

2008-04-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

Still searching for the perfect macaroon. Since my walnut macaroons were such a horrid, but delicious, failure, I decided to increase the difficulty level.

Can you guess the secret ingredient in these egg whites? Hint: It is pink and it tastes vile! No, it isn't pepto bismol. (That tastes good.) It's Campari. I evaporated off the alcohol first.

I don't like Campari much, but tomorrow I'm visiting some friends who do. They should be impressed.

They won't have the slightest idea how much harder it is to make a macaroon with a liquid ingredient. In fact, I think it is impossible to make a proper one with liquid in it. But I won't let a little thing like that stop me.

I used one more egg white than last time. (So that is 3 if you're counting, along with 1 cup each almond flour and confectioner's sugar. And the zest of one mandarin, to make the Campari taste better.)

The batter had almost the right feel to it, and I managed to get some nice roundish drops. I let them dry for about an hour, hoping to get the shiny top. No luck. I'm sure it is because of the liquid ingredient.

Anyway, they cooked-up pretty good. The didn't spread-out like those horrible walnut monstrosities (that tasted real good). Still, they aren't too bad.

For the filling, I made a simple buttercream with more Campari. Grapefruit would have worked well as a filling flavor, but I didn't have any around. Here they are all ready to go. I have no idea how I'm going to transport them. They are somewhat fragile.

And the taste? Well, these aren't likely to become a big seller at Laudrée any time soon. But they aren't bad. And the texture is actually very, very close to correct.

After going to all this work, I understand why these things cost 2 euros each in a cheap neighborhood patisserie. Let's see, 16 filled macaroons comes out to 32 euros, or about $50. Somebody better appreciate this!

Mmmmm.

Walnutroons

2008-03-30T17:57:00.001-07:00

I finally got back into the macaroon-making mood. But I decided to experiment with walnut meal instead of almond meal.

I left the egg whites sitting out overnight, just like you are supposed to, to let them dry out. It made quite a difference in how easy it was to beat them up into a foam. I think I may have gone a bit too far, though, and beat them a little too long.

I could tell that the batter was too thick, but I set decided to go right ahead anyway.

The raw cookies looked pretty good. When the batter is thick, it is easy to make nice rounds. I figured I was leaving too much space between them, since they are supposed to grow up, not out. But I suspected trouble, and I got it. They grew out into horrible, monstrous shapes:

They still taste good, but boy are they ugly. I can't in good conscience call them macaroons.

If they had come out right, I would have glued them together in pairs with some sort of banana paste. Maybe next time...

My Office

2008-03-30T15:14:00.001-07:00

My Office
Originally uploaded by Red Wine Rage

This is me working in my "office". Got my big-screen HD TV, with my personal laptop displaying on it, and using remote desktop to see my work computer. Finally, I can work with my feet up!

Life sure is hard.

My chin

2007-12-27T14:27:00.000-08:00

I've had a little goatee for a long time now. So I decided to shave it off just so I could see how many chins I now have. Surprise! I still only have one! I was glad.