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.