Audio Log: Walk in the Woods

This musical composition is based on an idea I recorded early this year (the first vocal track that appears in the piece). I recently started organizing my database of vocal and instrumental ideas from the last few years, and this is the first of those to make it out of the perverbial gate. "Walk in the Woods" will be a confusing title for those who are familiar with my field recordings, but the name just seems to fit. 111 BPM. Seven tracks including midi piano, midi drums, midi bass, vocals 1, 2 & 3, and guitar.

Audio Log: Frog-ness

This recording is from spring 2007 in the Woodland Cemetery in Keene, New Hampshire. At that time, I was living about a quarter mile from the cemetery and could hear the frogs very clearly from my apartment. When I got down to the site and put the headphones on I was nearly blown away by the volume. As I listened longer, an eery quality began to emerge. The frog species featured in this recording include spring peepers (above), and wood frogs (below). The peepers are the higher-pitched peeps, and the wood frogs are the lower cluck calls.

Word Strings

time to do it up with a smile on my face can you place it when it's racing by flying higher than a hawk beak curved swerve right while in flight it's a diet of mice with eyesight that can slice the air with a minimum of staring don't look long when the sun is glaring at you through the red-tinged feathers

filleted fish swish back and forth with their tales of woe pro or con something doesn't belong hang low submerge your toes in a cold bath the path to righteousness is paved in dirt and grass shaggy manes popping out after a prolonged rain ask the wrong question and you might just get your answer

Audio Log: Heavy Surf

This recording is from Maine's Mount Desert Island in May 07'. I was there for a field course on the ecology of the island, and captured this recording from the Black Woods Campground in the early morning before the day's planned adventure. The waves were roiling wildly following an intense storm from the day before, with lots of heavy breakers and regular spouts of fifty-plus feet. I remember feeling an intense trance-like state upon pulling myself away. The total time for this recording is four minutes.

Audio Log: Update

I recently upgraded the audio player for this blog from Fabricio Zuardi's original XSPF music player to Lacy Morrow's first updated version, and plan to upgrade once more to Lacy's most recent XSPF jukebox very soon. Some of the benefits of the first update include a snazzier appearance, the ability to scroll through audio files, a shuffle function, and the remaining time for the cued track is now displayed in the upper right corner of the full player (haven't set this up for the slim player yet). The next update will allow me to more easily stay abreast of future developments for the player, and provides greater control over the player appearance through skinning, but there is a slight learning curve involved with this transition.

The initial reason I went with Zuardi's XSPF player is that it gets the job done with a minimum of self-assertion. It's also nice to have control over how audio content will be accessed, rather than submitting to the whims of whatever software happens to be the default on a viewer's computer. Also it used to be possible to hide the right-click menu for Zuardi's player using html, but unfortunately this is no longer working on FireFox. Luckily, Lacy's updates to the player include a revised menu that removes undesirable menu items.

Update to the update: the XSPF Jukebox is now in place. It's a bit tougher to go back and replace each player with a jukebox, so rather than spend a lot of time upgrading older posts the jukebox will be implemented from the post, "Audio Log: Phoeverb" on.

Audio Log: Phoeverb

This recording is from early summer 08' in a friend's backyard on George Street in Keene, New Hampshire adjacent to Robin Hood Park. I was tenting out and had my recorder handy. As I was drifting out of sleep in the morning the sounds of the eastern phoebe (pictured at right) and the distant woodthrush inserted themselves into my dreams, wherein they became the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard. You can imagine my delight upon finding them to be just as beautiful in full wakefulness. This location has a wonderful natural reverb that adds an amazing flourish to the clear crisp calls of birds. The total time for this recording is approximately six minutes.

Audio Log: Learning Development

7/4. 95 BPM. Eleven tracks including midi piano, midi organ, midi drums, midi bass, guitar, mandolin, and vocal tracks 1-5. I started this track with the opening vocal, and got the bass and piano where I liked them. I then composed the harmonies, which made the whole thing sound like it was evolving toward a major shift. That led me to develop the organ for the B part, and I then revamped the bass and drums to match this section. The choppy delay organ came later after I realized the full organ sound (while strong and awesome) gets a bit dull with too many repetitions. This tune is my most complex to date in terms of the number of components and transitions, as well as the key change. It took a long time for me to hear where this song was taking me.

Audio Log: Latin Flavor

126 BPM. Six tracks including midi piano, midi organ, midi drums, midi bass, djembe, and guitar. I started this track with the midi drums with the intention of composing something with a latin flavor. I then created the bass and organ parts and built out from there.

New Tuque!

Finally finished the new hat just in time for a dose of winter weather. I had to start this thing a few times because of unfortunate mishaps. The worst was realizing that the free pattern I found on the Internet was about twice the size of my head. Didn't figure that out until the hat was three to four knit sessions along and could've passed as the body of a child's sweater. In the end, I measured the result of this mistake against my head to get an accurate count of stitches to CO (that's Cast On in knitting code) using size 6 round needles.

My basic pattern (developed through much trial & error):
CO 76
K2 (knit two), P2 (pearl two) - 23 rows
K - 29 rows
K 17, K 2 tog (knit two together) - 1 row
K - 6 rows
K 7, K 2 tog - 1 row
K - 1 row (repeat after each successive decrease except the last)
K 6, K 2 tog - 1 row
K 5, K 2 tog - 1 row
K 4, K 2 tog - 1 row
K 3, K 2 tog - 1 row
K 2, K 2 tog - 1 row
K 2, K 2 tog - 1 row
K 2 tog - 1 row
Thread through the remaining stitches and tie 'em off. Don't forget to weave in your wispies!

The hat is snug at the moment, but I anticipate it will stretch to perfection with regular use.

Audio Log: Bumblehum

This recording is from late spring 08' at Antioch University New England. I happened to notice a large number of bees (dare I say a swarm) gathering pollen from an ornamental shrub in the main quad after a morning class. It sounded so lovely that I biked home to grab my recording equipment and was back to record within fifteen minutes. There are quite a few genera of bees represented in this recording, but most of the buzzing is from species belonging to the Bombus genus, more commonly known as bumblebees.

Audio Log: Tin Roof Rain

This recording is from early summer 08' at Crider Shelter on the Monadnock-Sunapee Trail. The roof of the shelter is tin and it was raining lightly as I woke up, which made for an awesome start to my day (really!). The rain gradually gets heavier and louder as the piece progresses. I set up my tent screen inside the shelter in order to keep the insects at bay. At one point during the recording a songbird (sorry, don't remember the species) landed on the floor of the shelter to get out of the rain. The tent screen prevented the bird from detecting my presence, and for a few moments it felt sort of familial. The entire recording is just over ten minutes.

Sourdough = Yeast Feast

Continuing with the theme of microorganisms from the last post, and to follow up on a reference from the much earlier post titled, "Fun Guy!!!", three days ago I started brewing up a sourdough culture using nothing more than flour, water, a mason jar, and an apple. First, I whipped up a watery batter mixture (flour & water) in the mason jar. Next I placed the apple over the jar opening so that it was suspended above the mixture (AKA sponge), sort of like a poor-fitting cork. Over the intervening three days I stirred the sponge two to three times a day, and VOILA!!! It's smellin' pretty derned good! Next stop, Loaf Town!

So how does this all work?! From what I've picked up over the years, fruits tend to host a diverse community of yeasts - the active party in a number of cultured foods such as bread, beer, and other baked goods. By placing the apple (pears, dates, and other fruits should work as well) over the sponge, I'm basically promoting an exchange of yeasts between the fruit and the sponge. You know something is eventually going to infect the sponge. With this technique, you're stacking up the odds in your favor that the infecting organism is going to be a dinner party (sourdough) instead of a frat party (moldy beast!). Eventually the yeasts settle in to chow on the batter, and if it smells sweet and delicious - we're in business!

Thanks for joining me on a mini adventure to the wonderful world of microorganisms. Check back next week for a progress report on those bread loaves.

DIY Compost Bin

Finished building my second compost bin (hopefully many more to come) last Wednesday afternoon, just in time for Thanksgiving. As with everything practice makes perfect, and this second bin is quite an improvement over my first attempt. The bin was constructed using five wooden pallets, four pieces of masonry, two rolls of chicken fence, four door hinges, two metal handles, and many nails.

The first step for making the bin was to level out the area where it was constructed to give a stable base. This process was mostly easy except for one large root of a nearby white pine. We excavated around the root and then sawed and hacked until we were able to yank out the interfering piece. Next I leveled out the ground and set in masonry on the back corners to protect the wood from rotting out too quickly. It wouldn't do to go to all this trouble building a compost bin to then have to re-do it after only a few years. The front corners were already resting on masonry, which made the job that much easier.

Next we laid out the pallets to get a sense for how everything would fit together, and then cut the two top pieces and the front door down to the appropriate sizes. Once completed, I attached chicken fence to the in-facing sides of each panel using a dearth of nails. Pallet wood has a tendency to be extremely dense and hard, and also to split easily when nailed. The best compromise I've found is using thinner nails that are less likely to split the wood, but which are in turn highly susceptible to bending on impact with the hammer. Once everything was fenced, I started nailing pallets together using the previously-determined layout. I then attached the two doors with door hinges and finished by trimming back the chicken fence where it was sticking out.



This compost bin has two doors - one in front, and one on top. The top door is where the compost is tossed in. It's made up of about a quarter of a pallet, and it's hinged and has a solid metal handle.




The front door allows access for turning and removing the compost, and it's approximately three quarters of a pallet, hinged and handled. I call this model the DeLorean of composting because of the way the doors are constructed.



Total cost: about $50 plus time. The pallets and masonry were free, and I'm sure many other components could've been as well had time allowed.

Microorganisms at Work

By next year, all our fruit and veggie wastes will be an awesomely rich fertilizer for the garden. Thanks to the front door on the bin, we'll be able to extract the goods with a minimum of effort.

Audio Log: Beaver Pond

This was recorded on a friend's property from a small screened shelter overlooking a beaver pond. I spent the night in the shelter and set up the recorder before going to bed so it'd be as easy as rolling over and pressing the record button. There's a really nice mix of sounds in this piece including frogs, insects, many species of birds (winter wren, veery, oven bird, nuthatch, and others), and possibly a mammal or two (besides myself). I do make an occassional rustling noise in the right channel. The entire piece is just over fifteen minutes.

Audio Log: Harmonies

4/4. 71 BPM. Seven tracks including vocal1, vocal2, vocal3, whistling, midi drum1, midi drum2, and midi piano. The whistling track came to me while cooking dinner. I stepped out for a minute to record before losing the idea, and then drafted the rest over the last few days.

Audio Log: Winter Stream

This is my first ever field recording using a professional audio recorder (PMD 660 Advanced) with a decent mic (Rode NT5). This recording is from Pisgah State Park in southern New Hampshire in late winter 2007. The sounds in this piece were recorded on a small stream that was mostly covered over with snow and ice with the exception of this one small opening. I used one microphone because the size of the opening caused this to be a truly monaural sound.

A couple notes from my journal:

This (recording) system has been amazingly more user-friendly than the M(ini)DV (camcorder), and provides much better sound quality.

There is quite a lot of depth to this seemingly simple sound, and it's even a bit trance-inducing.

Audio Log: Gap Mountain

This is my first ever field recording. It was recorded at Gap Mountain in southern New Hampshire in mid February of 2007. This was before I possessed or had access to real recording equipment, so I wound up using a miniDV camcorder with the stock external mic. I hadn't really thought through the use of this recorder or I would have taped down the record button. As it was, I had to hold the button down firmly with my thumb through the entire recording - not an easy thing to do when the temperature is in the teens. The fact that the button was on the mic was also problematic as I had to hold my gloved hand completely still so as not to disrupt the recording session. All in all this isn't the best recording, but it shows that you don't necessarily need a high-end recording device to record some interesting material. The sounds in this piece were recorded on a small stream that had frozen over, and the microphone was placed directly on the ice. You can also hear wind in trees, a nearby creaking tree, fluttering leaves, and a few jets passing nearby. The original recording was in mono, and I've "improved" it a bit to make it more dynamic.

Audio Log: Overtone

Time signature's a little funky on this one, but mostly 4/4. 130 BPM. Four tracks including vocals, mandolin, midi drums, and midi bass. In this piece you can hear my interpretation of the sub-class of overtone singing known as kargyraa. To learn more about overtone singing, check out Sed's Khoomei page.

Audio Log: Organ-ic

8/8, 130 BPM. Four tracks including midi organ, midi drums1, midi drums2, and midi bass.

Sheer Doodles

Unfortunately I don't have any before-and-after shots, but I just shorn my first dog - a Goldendoodle (half golden retriever, half poodle) named Fenway. Any dogs of the Doodle lineage are said to be hypoallergenic due to the claim that their hair doesn't shed, but I'm not so sure about this. The interesting thing about shearing a dog is that they're totally happy to receive the attention, and they have absolutely no idea that their hair is being cut. I was tempted to make a mohawk or a spiffy moustache, but figured Fenway might not appreciate a lot of laughter at her expense. The hardest part of the dog sheering process is trimming around the head, which moves around quite a bit. The best method I found for countering this tendency was to hold up Fenway's head from underneath, which helped her to sit still for long enough that I could do some serious whisker trimming. The whole process took about an hour. All in all, Fenway's new 'do came out pretty well and we saved a pretty penny on grooming costs. I threw the shorn hairs into the nearby woods, where I suspect they'll be coveted by the squirrels at which Fenway loves to have a good bark.

Audio Log: Lead

9/8, 120 BPM. Seven tracks including guitar1, guitar2, guitar3, lead guitar, midi bass, djembe, and midi drums. I woke up with the right channel guitar line in my head last Thursday at about 5am. I originally recorded it as a vocal track so as not to lose the idea, and then whipped up this version over the last two days.

Dec. 23 Update: I revisited this composition and found the right channel guitar line to be redundant and blocky, so I removed it. Funny how the initial spark didn't carry over to the finished piece. I also cleaned and polished the rest of the tracks to bring the composition up to speed with my newly developed audio engineering abilities.

Audio Log: Dub

8/8, 160 BPM. Three tracks including guitar, midi bass, and midi drums. Influences: Mad Professor. I'm also hearing horns over this - I'll keep you posted. The bass line for this was translated from a vocal track I recorded. The guitar rhythms were originally longer and more complex, but they sound much better stripped down to their essences - similar to carving a piece of wood or editing an essay.

What Animal?

I believe that for most people there is one animal s/he most closely resembles in terms of appearance and mannerism. It's not always easy to make such distinctions (there are lots of animals out there!), but with the right kind of eye and a bit of patience it may eventually come together. I've had friends who are mountain lions, owls, crows, wolves, bears, horses, foxes, ducks, snakes, rabbits, and many other animals besides. In my case, there are a few animals I gravitate toward and one that sort of stands out as the animal.

Starting with ermine, weasels in general are pretty tough for their size. They have incredible speed and reflexes, good night vision, and excellent camouflage abilities. Weasel people often get a bad wrap for their ability to be sneaky, or for sometimes appearing suspicious. But the flip side of these attributes is that weasels often see what is hidden in others (both positive and negative). And since weasel people are aware of the pathways of personal exposure in speech and action they tend not to expose themselves lightly, even though there may be nothing to hide. Come to think of it, I feel a bit exposed sharing all of this information. One thing from the weasel mix that I possess only selectively is quick reflexes. I remember as a kid when the doctor performed the knee-tap test on me, and my leg wouldn't flinch. I'd have to consciously move my leg by anticipating when I thought my knee would be struck by the little plastic hammer just so the doctor would approve and move on (or maybe this is just a bunk test?). I'm also frustratingly terrible at the card game, slap. Somewhat conversely, I'm great in dangerous situations that require split-second timing, like seemingly imminent threats during winter driving. Go figure.

I have a general love of the corvid family (ravens, crows, jays, magpies), but I specifically love ravens for their playfulness, group dynamics, and problem-solving abilities. A great book for learning about ravens is Mind of the Raven, by Bernd Heinrich. I love puzzles and riddles, and I'm often thinking of ways to play gentle tricks on my friends and family. One really cool thing from Mind of the Raven is the connections drawn between ravens and big game hunting animals like wolves, coyotes, and humans. In some areas, it's speculated that ravens have learned to lead hunters to potential game in order to capitalize on any leftovers. Quite a symbiosis! I also love blue jays for their strong protective qualities. They are quite perceptive and often warn other species of approaching danger such as hawks and other predators. All corvids are known for being incredibly adaptive and intelligent.

Orcas (also known as killer whales) are sort of like wolves of the sea. I've never seen an orca either in the wild or in captivity, but they visit me in my dreams every so often. Orca people are said to have a gift of bringing balance, cooperation, and camouflage. Orcas make amazing sounds:

The last animal I'll list in this post is the red-tailed hawk. This is the animal that I generally feel most closely aligned with. My facial features are somewhat hawkish and my long hair has red highlights in the sun. I enjoy coasting on thermals, and eating small rodents (oh wait... that's the hawks, not me). Hawks are known as messengers in a number of cultures, and hawk people are said to be good advisors for their ability to honor multiple perspectives.

So that's my basic run-down. Maybe I've inspired you to consider some animals you walk with. Or maybe you think it's just a bunch of malarky. Either way, feel free to share your thoughts.

Audio Log: Groovy

7/8, 95 BPM. Five tracks including guitar1, guitar2, guitar3, guitar4, and one midi drum track. Influences: Parliament, John Scofield, and The Allman Brothers. This one will probably get a little lead treatment sometime real soon.

Audio Log: Rockin'

6/8, 124 BPM. Five tracks including guitar1, guitar2, guitar3, and two midi drum tracks. Influences: Fela Kuti and Talking Heads. It's getting much easier to maintain a steady rhythm for recording. This time I kept everything very straight-forward. No fancy stuff. I'll likely clean this up a bit and throw in a vocal track or three sometime in the near future.

Rhythm and Perspective

Library rhythm: There are giggles and barks, but only because it's Halloween. There's clicking, tapping, silence, the hums and wheezes of various machines. Other rhythms are slower or pulsed - an occasional deep breath following a period of concentration, a door shuts, a book is placed on a table, sliding paper, furniture rumbles upstairs. Everything is crisp, bright, organized. Inhaling is like biting into a fist-full of stale chips. I'm surrounded by row after row of shelved books - old books, new books, Setterberg and Seuss books.

If I could direct your attention to the photo on the right. What do you see? A road, buildings, traffic. It's a night shot. Interestingly the traffic is clustered in the top half of the visible road. A pessimist might say the road is half empty, unless she happens to dislike traffic in which case she'd still say the road is half empty, but with a slight smile. An optimist would say the road is half full and smile regardless of what he thinks about traffic. A driver of one of the cars in the photo is thinking it's time to switch to a bike. A biker is probably worried about getting "doored". If I were there I'd probably say something to the tune of, "What a lovely evening. Pity about all the noise. And the road is at half capacity. Get over it!"

Note: This blog is three days away from it's one-month birthday! Yay! Unless you view that as a bad thing. Boo! (NOT a reference to Halloween)

Fun Guy!!!

Sorry about the bad joke, but if you know me or if you've read any of my previous posts, you're probably already familiar with my passions for music, digital media, and writing. For those that don't know me, fungi, biking, and baking will come as somewhat of a surprise, possibly even a shock (but hopefully not a shock). If in the past you've used any detective skills to learn more about me, you may have wandered over to my personal website (linked from my User Profile). There you can find both a fungi gallery and a guidebook to polypores, the latter of which admittedly needs some work (I'm planning a re-write from more of a literary approach). The fungi gallery was created more recently from photos I shot while doing field work for the guidebook. The guidebook was part of my senior project for the University of Vermont.

I haven't been biking regularly for a while, but when I'm rooted in a place I prefer to commute by bike whenever possible, especially in winter. Last spring I was sort of miffed when everyone suddenly started biking again, and trafficking up my regular routes(!). Seriously though, I wish everyone could prioritize alternative modes of transportation such as biking, mass transit, and camel-back riding. Recently, I've been baking even less than I've been biking, but I've been known to whip up a mean loaf of sourdough and plan to get back to it once things settle into a steady pattern for the winter.

'Nother Noodle

Just to reiterate, "noodles" are fast flowing free association writing with little to no filter. I've been reading Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, on and off for the past couple of years. It's been a real pleasure to read and very inspiring of this material. Keep your ears peeled for a recorded noodle one day soon.

Here's a shorty from a few weeks ago:

Hand beam fan of green peas can't believe my sleeve is on fire bare witness flare up the glare on a west-facing windshield peeled banana flannel pajamas camels in the heat soccer cleats peat bog nod off scoff at the other team broken femur where does he dream this up?

A longer riff with non-words written more recently:

clam bam dam man sam flammulated scan the horizon tan cram and Nam it's a hard road no it ain't Saint Benedict flipped a burger far-fetched narwhal hardy har har and a ho hum hum numb fingers sand piper diaper nipe pipe down amp famp damp clamp ambulated stamped hand clandestined festooned oon loony tune chune remove sooth scoop undiloot mooky ook ushi u oo bwee bwee imo land stand rubber band planned to remand the ulapo martique pole man fanny fandango purpur murmymur apple sap sample maple table manners hear hairy hammock ant amok Kirkuk her blabberberber

And here's one from the last few days:

Symbal trimble nimble as a goat soak your feet in a beet juice soup troupe of thirty it's nerdy to compute with your socks on foxes are red unless they're grey bed down clowns are renowned for their round visages

Audio Log: Take Two

Had a little fun putting together an audio composition today. It's four tracks including guitar1, guitar2, djembe, and vocals. This composition is mostly influenced by Ethiopian funk, but maybe you have some other thoughts? With this project I realized how difficult it can be to stay in sinc with a slow rhythm (75 BPM) when you're really getting into a vibe. The recording and editing took place in a studio using a Marantz PMD-660 Advanced with one Rode NT5 mic, and Cubase 4 respectively.

Note: Playing "Audio Log: Take Two" and "Audible Noodles" together creates and interesting mash-up. If one of the posts is not visible on the page, try tabbing both posts in your browser window to achieve this effect.

Minor Design Upgrades

Today I implemented a few minor design tweaks such as the favicon viewable in the address bar (it used to be the standard Blogger icon), a new banner image and background image, and I altered the texture under the menu and the horizontal bar below the banner. All of these tweaks and many more are explained at Tips for New Bloggers. Sorry about all the concrete, but I was fascinated by the many textures.

Audio Log: Test

Here's the first audio submission to my blog (click on the slim grey box above to start the player). Hopefully there will be many more audio tracks to come, as the purpose of this first submission is mostly to establish a process for posting audio here. This track is a straight take on an electric guitar with a bit of reverb, and it will remain untitled. Sorry I'm a bit out of practice.

For those who are wondering how to implement this player, it's the slim XSPF Web Music Player by Fabricio Zuardi. You should be able to copy-paste the source code, and then make sure to change the web addresses to your own player, playlist and mp3 files.

"Cold Feet" Experiment

"Cold feet" is generally used as a metaphor to signify misgivings about getting married, buying a house, or some other large commitment. Recently I set out to discover how this metaphor actually works by subjecting my feet to near-freezing temperatures for an entire night. Sleeping in a state park in an old and compromised sleeping bag, I was able to maintain a consistent temperature of forty degrees Fahrenheit for my feet over a period of seven hours while the rest of my body was kept quite warm. The first thing I noticed through this experiment was a large measure of unpleasantness in and around the area occupied by my feet. As expected, this sensation continued for the duration of the experiment and beyond into most of the next morning. As for the metaphor, I can certainly see a correlation in the degree of unpleasantness conferred by the two types of experiences involved. But while actual cold feet are unpleasant for one or at most two people only in the area of the feet, metaphorical cold feet are unpleasant all around. Also, metaphorical cold feet tend to manifest at a critical moment, while actual cold feet can happen whenever feet are inadequately insulated. Despite it's misgivings, "cold feet" has been part of the English lexicon for more than a century now, and it remains an apt and virtually indisputable metaphor. For anyone thinking of using the above methods, I strongly caution you to not get cold feet. No wait... I mean do get "cold feet" when it comes to getting cold feet.

veryluciddream

I had this dream a couple of weeks ago where there were a bunch of tarot cards appearing, all of them providing information of various sorts. From what I can remember of the cards in the dream sequence, one read, "put on pants," and another read, "vtmidget". Upon waking (at 2:30am), I proceeded to put on a pair of pants before rolling back into bed and then slept soundly for a few more hours. Two days later I remembered the "vtmidget" card from the dream, and set out to perform a serious Google search for the term. My thought process was something like, "Maybe somebody in Vermont (my home state) will have 'vtmidget' as a user name for a blog or forum." As you can see for yourself from the Google search link provided, someone is in fact using a very close approximation of "vtmidget" (verytallmidget) as their user name in the forums at achieve360points.com/ (thanks Google). Upon closer examination of verytallmidget's user profile, it appears that he's also set up a MySpace page. Now before I go any further, I'd like to remind my readers that this is all based on a random dream. I'd also like to point out that the term "vtmidget" never crossed my mind before said dream. This is all just too strange, so I've decided to try contacting this person to see what on earth this might be about (if anything). Stay tuned to find out what happens next...

Update from the Road

Sorry about the delay since my last post. I know everyone must be dying to read another installment.

My mother is in town on a two week jaunt, and we've been traveling all week visiting with family and friends. It's been about a year since she's been back for any length of time, so there's a lot of catching up for her to do. Me as well, since I've been extremely busy with grad school for the past two years.

Before the road trip with Ma, I was at the wedding of a good friend from high school (pictured at left). The ceremony was beautifully and simply executed. It was a full weekend event with hiking, dinner parties, camp fires, and good conversation. I played a few traditional tunes on the mandolin during the ceremony, which was a wonderful honor. Most of the catering was provided by a local crew that made pizza in a portable wood-fired oven. Mmm-Mmm.

Look for both more and less on my evolving life adventures in pending posts. And definitely take a few steps into the world of noodling if it strikes your fancy.

Stats

You may be wondering, "Why do I have this strange feeling when I visit this site now? It's almost like I'm being watched or something."

You'd never know it to look at the main page, but I've set up a Google Analytics account to get a rough idea of how my audience changes over time. I also thought it might be fun to share any interesting statistical trends as they emerge. There are statistical engines on most websites these days, so if you're concerned about privacy then you'd best think about leaving the Internet behind altogether. At least here you get a bit of forewarning.

Planet Noodle

A while back, Richard Wagner and I started an environmental news audio podcast called Planet Home. Grad school robbed us of any free time and we were forced to give up after recording a handful of episodes, but I have plans to pick up this thread again one day soon. I plan to edit and release the best of the material we've recorded, and then check with Richard to see if he's into continuing the show. I'll keep you posted.

While in grad school, both Richard and I took a course called "Environmental Writing" led by Fred Taylor. It was a great class that helped me to find my voice as a writer, and to identify a writing process that works well for me. One of the requirements of the class was to keep a daily journal in which we could write whatever we wanted so long as we wrote something. One of my favorite journal activities was a subclass of free writing that I've come to call "noodling" or "noodles". It's nearly total free association, with a sprinkling of steering and editing. Following is an excerpt of a raw noodle:

malleable parable song cast Carlotta Maracino cherries Horn of Plenty David caramel terrible parlor talk nap time four sanguine elephant tusk musk ox box of rocks top of the heap sleep well mellow tell nobody ailing health self-perpetuated myth slip and slide ride on a ship stock tip flip your lid hankering spanky hope cellophane

I may post a few more of these in the future. Maybe I'll even make one up on the spot. It sort of reminds me of the message body of certain types of spam, but it's more alliterative and less pornographic.

Fanning the Flames

This video is of a soundscape activity I led during commencement '08 at Antioch University New England.

Links and Winks

I added some links to the sidebar at stage right:
ArtistConk is my personal website, which I've been developing on and off for the past few years. It's kind of fun to have as a back pocket project for rainy days or periods of down time. At this point, I've pretty much outgrown the original server space I purchased for the site, and I'm in the process of migrating to a larger space that will allow for video upload, a site index, and a bunch more audio. The new server will also be solar powered ;)

Voice of Monadnock is the outreach and marketing arm of my Master's project, the goal of which is to promote and present Mount Monadnock through audio. It's an ongoing project, and very interesting work. I've met some great people, and heard lots of interesting stories and beautiful sounds. Hopefully some of the richness I've experienced will translate to the final product.

Whole Terrain is a literary journal published by Antioch University New England. It's a gorgeous publication printed on 100 percent post consumer paper with veggie inks. The journal is soliciting for it's 16th volume (wink-wink, nudge-nudge writers), and the cover price is literally a steal.

Another Day, Another Post

Took my first stab at a design upgrade for the blog by creating a new banner (look up). It's a little better, but still has a long way to go before I'll be fully satisfied, but for now I'm at least satisficed.

You may be wondering, "What's the deal with the blog title, Grey by Design? 'Grey' is usually spelled g-r-A-y in America, and besides, it sets a totally depressing tone."

I'm glad you asked that, because I'd like to use this opportunity to explain a few things:
First, I love grey. It has always comforted me. My eyes are a grey hazel (occasionally green or blueish), and I have it from a reputable source that my aura (the energy field that surrounds our physical body) is also predominantly grey. Think grandparents, thunderstorms, morning mist, a bald mountain top.

Second, grey has the unique property of containing all of the colors (same as white - you may know the old rainbow from a crystal trick), and additionally the non-color, black. To me, this signifies acknowledgement, welcoming, honoring of all perspectives - never an easy charge, but often rewarding.

Third, g-r-e-y ellicits an emotional tone that is much closer to my relationship with the word. It feels older, and a recent search of the Online Etymology Dictionary provides some confirmation for this.

Lastly, I like to design things. Hence, Grey by Design. Hopefully you're satisficed by this explanation (I consider myself sort of satisficed), but if not (or even if you are) feel free to leave a comment.

First Post, Second Blog

This is my first post on my second blog. I have another blog that I started before this one, but it doesn't have any posts (just music). You can view it here. I've also administered blogs for others in the past, but this is a little different in that this is my blog. I'll probably be tweaking the design of my blog as I go along by adding a custom banner and better style elements to make things a bit more attractive (but then I guess beauty is in the eye of the bee-holder, now isn't it). I'll likely embed some photos, and audio & video files to hopefully enhance your understanding and entertainment level. And then there's the text, of course.

At this point, some of you are likely wondering what sort of content this blog will contain. And rightly so! I mean, "What can I expect to get out of this experience? Right?!" Heck yeah! I wish I could answer this question. I always feel more productive, grounded, stable, accomplished when I have an actual goal in mind. Maybe some of you will tough it out with me. Most will probably move on to some other area of the blogosphere. And all of that will be just fine by me. So stick around if you want. If not, have fun clicking your next button. Either way, thanks for sharing this virtual space with me.