“Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music; perhaps… perhaps… love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.”
~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea
this is amazing. thank you, creative-genius-type people. thank you.
from P I T A R U:
The Sonic Wire Sculptor (2003) is a musical instrument as well as a traveling installation. When performed or exhibited, the SWS machine is placed in a room with 8-channel speaker system, for a surround-sound experience.
In the past 5 years the work has traveled worldwide to such cities as Tokyo, Barcelona, Linz, Montreal, and L.A. In every stop, visitors recorded their works into what has now become a library of thousands of sonic sculptors (video coming soon).
The next goal is to release SWS as software for various platforms. This was difficult to do until now because the original code was written for specific hardware.
Now, with the help of good friends Zach Lieberman (openframeworks) and Zach Gage (synthpond), who are curently helping revive the Rhonda Project (which uses similar core technology), i’m positive the SWS will see the light of day soon!
WATCH THE VIDEO [I can't embed it here] and wait for the end.
happy Friday!
yesterday was shit. a complete waste of makeup and a nice outfit. a neverending barrage of crap until I stumbled home through the rain sans umbrella and collapsed sobbing into poor Miro’s arms and he tucked me into bed at 7pm with a handful of toilet paper to soak up my leaking mascara.
everyone has those days. you know what I’m talking about.
anyway, one glass of wine and delicious bowl of homemade soup later, I dragged myself out of bed and onto the couch. accomplishment! high five! while Miro kept working, I watched an episode of The Planets on the Science Channel and totally geeked out, as I often do. [you don't even want to know how many nights I have kept myself awake thinking about gravity and quantum physics.]
do you remember that very dated video called “Powers of Ten,” where they zoom out from a park in Chicago to 100 million light years away? I think they showed it to us in high school. inspired by last night’s episode on the Voyager spacecraft, I searched for the video and found a more recent version [narrated by Morgan Freeman!!1@^%#].
yesterday, bogged down by financial woes, irritated by strangers on the street, anxious about things out of my control, I forgot one thing: humans are tiny. these so-called problems are tiny. that is not to say that our emotions and experiences aren’t valid, real, or important, but… sometimes we need a little perspective. thinking about our extraordinarily beautiful and immeasurable universe will always wash away my anger about a bus being late.
I finally uploaded photos from our trip to New Brunswick. looking through them again makes me feel so relaxed and at peace– the humbling expanse of the steel grey Atlantic, a collage of crimson leaves at every turn, the warmth of family and freshly baked bread around the table. enjoy!
sorry for the hot lighting in the beginning– I had just gotten the camera [thank you, Sue and Charles!] and was trying to figure out the settings.
some of my favorites…
I was 12, going on 13… an awkward, shy nerd with a crazy Armenian ‘fro. as with most adolescents, I had lost myself in music. besides pouring my energy into my flute and piano, I started buying my own rock albums and believed that every raw guitar riff and emotionally charged lyric was written about my life and no one else’s. right?
Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill defined those weird not-a-kid-not-quite-a-teenager years. [honorable mentions: Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Nirvana's In Utero, Soundgarden's Superunknown, Blind Melon's self-titled bumblebee masterpiece. what were yours?] I had been raised on a steady mixture of classical, opera, classic rock, and blues, so I naturally gravitated toward melodic, intense alternative rock, and when I first heard Alanis I just about died. she was strong, loud, pretty, and pissed off. she was perfect.
the opening harmonica/guitar chord magically transports me back to my best friend’s bedroom, smelling a combination of terribly colored nail polish, incense, and nuclear-orange Kraft macaroni & cheese, singing at the top of our lungs, drawing boys’ names on our Converse with Sharpies and whining about the unfairness of unrequited love. aaahhh, to be young and naïve.
you know an album is profound and timeless when, as you grow older, you can find deeper meaning with each listen. same with a book, or film. at 12 years old, I thought I understood her spiritual confusion, the pressure to be perfect, the heart-wrenching anger caused by a horrible betrayal. I am now 27, and although I’ve known every single word to these songs for years, their new relevance to my adult experiences sends chills down my spine. life is funny.
enjoy one of my favorites. sorry about the karaoke-style lyrics, it’s the only studio version I could find on YouTube…
this post brought to you in equal parts by hearing the Toadies’ “Possum Kingdom” on the radio yesterday [!], and the awesome discovery of 90s Woman. thanks, Lauren. xo
I have so many awesome things to share, I don’t even know where to start. aughhgh I hate it when that happens!!1@#%!
ok: deep breath. one thing at a time.
San Francisco-based producer Jus Wan [Apple Pips / Naked Lunch / Pushing Red / really great guy] has put together a podcast for Hotflush, showcasing the freshest, deepest sounds in low-end dance music. this thing is overflowing with intense, gorgeous vibes– I can’t stop listening to it. my brain gets lost in space every time… the gently swooping basslines, the layers of abstract sonic textures, the techy percussion like confetti on my eardrums. I think the bass music blog probably said it best: this is one for the people that are at home and still up at this time on a Friday night, halfway down that bottle of rum and thinking you should probably get to bed, but knowing you’re not gonna get there until at least 4…
do yourself a big favor and check it out:
today I found this wonderful site, I Love You Because, thanks to GAFFTA’s feature about a new monthly party called Equilibrium [mixing science + art yet again... this seems to be a recurring theme here].
if you want a little dose of Happy, browse through people’s unique creations. who would you make one for? what would it look like? what would you say?
I’m trying to figure out how to create something here at work with post-its and a candy wrapper. mine would be for M&Ms and it would say: I love you because you are so delicious on Monday afternoons. nom nom nom.
ever since my recent pledge to do one thing every day that scares me [some big, some tiny], I have:
~ gone to the dentist
~ gone to the dentist again to have three decayed fillings replaced [owwww... two more next week]
~ been on two unfamiliar bus lines [!] alone [!!]
~ jogged for the first time since I broke my pelvis two years ago
~ finally stood up to my controlling and neurotic author
~ taken my car to the mechanic and DMV [$800 later, it's a huge load off my back]
~ explained my yoga intimidation to my wonderful friend Anne, who is dragging me to the Y on Monday for my first class
yesterday, our WINS group at work [Women's Initiative for Networking and Success... woo!] hosted a captivating speaker and friend, Ann Tardy, who talked about how to deal with change in our lives. she encourages us to embrace and actively seek change instead of becoming too comfortable or coiling in fear when change confronts us. many of her points align with my own philosophies, and with this book. we also worked on how and why we make excuses for things– “I don’t have money,” “I just don’t have time,” “I’m soooo busy,” “a herd of elephants squashed my car so I can’t make it this weekend,” etc. it was a powerful seminar that totally applied to both my personal and professional lives. I left feeling charged, inspired, and ready to throw my excuses out the window.
yoga, here I come! then maybe after that I’ll start saving the world. if I have time.
next time I go to London, I am bringing an entire notebook of printed maps from animals on the underground. Paul Middlewick is a genius…
elephant!
reindeer!
fish! [the little bubbles kill me]
tortoise!
puppy!
the happiest whale ever!
imagine my surprise when we descended into the Kendall/MIT T station and heard, instead of screeching trains and screaming kids, the most ethereal music… behold, the Kendall Band.
by Emily Doutre, from Not for Tourists:
Ah, the sounds of Boston: the chirping of the walk signal, the cacophony of myriad car horns when you fail to jump the red light, and–my personal favorite–the Kendall Band. A series of interactive musical metal sculptures, the Kendall Band is noteworthy not only because it was created by Paul Matisse, the grandson of French impressionist Henri Mattise, but also because of the sounds it creates. Between the inbound and outbound platforms hang the three band members: Kepler, a 125 lb. metal ring with a hammer that strikes F sharp when its corresponding handle is pulled by commuters; Galileo, a long metal sheet that creates a thunderous sound when its handle is pulled; and, the sweetest sounding, Pythagoras, consisting of several long metal tubes, tuned to B minor. When its lever is pulled, momentum builds within its swinging mallets, which then strike the tubes, creating the most soothing music, echoing through the station. It is the most beautiful sound in all of Boston.
I tried to capture it on my camera, but you have to hear it live. this is Pythagoras, and it is gooorgeous. [and so are Lauren and Dana, seen at the end of this video... hi ladies!]
Miro’s agency has started a lovely record label, Surefire Sound, run by none other than the wonderful Dean/DJG.
check out some clips of the first two releases from SoundCloud!
FaltyDL remixed EPROM’s “Never” without hearing the original first. I think Sander just sent Drew a bunch of audio clips, and he worked from there. the result is a wonderful juxtaposition of sound– from Sander’s upbeat, hypnotic dancefloor pounder to Drew’s introspective, bass-driven drum shuffle. it’s amazing what happens when you allow two talented artists to bring their own unique perspective to the same idea.
and Dean’s “Putney Says” is one of my favorite tunes of the year, hands-down.
people don’t always realize what goes on behind the scenes, but these guys work so hard to create beautiful music and make it available to audiophiles everywhere. I am incredibly proud, and very grateful. <3
thanks to Lauren’s blog post about a new educational album by They Might Be Giants, which led to the discovery of an interpretive dance about particle physics [I'm not even joking], I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of art and science lately. as someone whose education flipped back and forth between astrophysics and music, I feel completely at home in both worlds and love to see them collide. we can find art everywhere in science, from the colors of the northern lights [caused by solar wind particles colliding with atoms in our atmosphere] to bird calls [male: "have sex with me!" female: "are you biologically suitable?"]. and vice versa– even something like the composition of baroque counterpoint music is strictly mathematic.
The New York Times just posted a beautiful slideshow of the 2009 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition winners– in layman’s terms, pretty pictures taken through a microscope. I didn’t even know photomicrography was a thing? much less a real word? anyway, some of these are breathtaking.
[fish scales by Dr. Havi Sarfaty]
[anglerfish ovary by James Hayden]
[draining soap film by Dr. Tsutomu Seimiya]
[actin bundles by Dennis Breitsprecher]
no matter how different art and science seem on the surface, they are gorgeously interwoven and impossible to separate in my mind. maybe someday I’ll compose a symphony titled “Photosynthesis: from Sunlight to Organic Compound” or paint a canvas using different stages of moldy cheese, although someone might have beaten me to that last one. stay tuned.
p.s. NPR had a wonderful series on the subject.
a perfect romesco sauce, an astronomy geekout on the back porch, the smell of fog dancing through eucalyptus trees, a heavenly cookie, the hilarious birth of a fake band [Pants on the Ceiling!], a bass-y Big Up birthday party, a lazy autumn morning, an even lazier hangover, the warm comfort of good friends at a dinner table– twice–, the stomach muscle pain from a toddler-induced laugh attack, a gorgeous yellow midnight half-moon kissing the horizon, Miro’s hand in mine, his lingering scent on my skin.
finally, a cool and affordable 24-hour delivery service: TCB Courier!
their new promo video is great. god I love San Francisco. LOOK. THAT IS MY BEAUTIFUL CITY.
this will definitely come in handy when I need [NEED] Arinell’s pizza but don’t want to change out of my pajamas, beer, beer, more beer, al pastor tacos from San Jose Taqueria, Miette macaroons, toilet paper, any number of assorted household items I’m too lazy to buy myself at 4am, or if I’m in the middle of baking a pie and ran out of sugar and can’t leave the hot oven alone. it’s like living in New York, where people deliver anything to your doorstep, without all the rats and smelly air!
their map cracks my shit up.
yes, bro! YES!
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
after several years of not visiting a dentist [!], which has resulted in a broken filling and god knows how many new cavities, I finally made an appointment for next week. the poor receptionist had to deal with my neurotic rambling about how I’m really afraid of shiny metal tools and I’m sorry I’m just a little nervous and can she please ask the dentist to give me a triple dose of Novocaine because they never give me enough Novocaine NEVER ENOUGH OH MY GOD.
while browsing for the awesome Eleanor’s quote online, I landed on this great blog post. a week later, this blogger started the Be Brave Project, and it got me thinking about all the shit I keep putting off in my own life.
seriously, why did I wait three years to make one dentist appointment? [afraid of mouth pain]
why have I not scheduled my final pelvic x-ray? [what if it's still fractured]
why did I stop playing my flute? [not as good as I used to be]
why haven’t I signed up for a damn yoga class already? [self-conscious about my body movement]
why don’t I paint anymore? [all my friends are so artistic]
why why why why why? [?????]
for god’s sake, I jumped out of an airplane at 14,000 feet and swam with 8-foot sharks, but I have an anxiety attack if I am forced to socialize on my morning train. I’ve been analyzing my reasons for subconsciously avoiding certain things, and the root of the problem is always fear. I can handle the fear of skydiving or dirtbiking because my system is ODing on adrenaline, but if I need to call a doctor? or stand in line alone in public? or enroll in a class that will provide 10 seconds of self-conscious discomfort and a lifetime of benefit? forget it.
for about a year now, I’ve been making a mental list of the things I want to do– it’s somewhat related to a Life List, but it goes much deeper than that. I really think it’s time to tackle some of this stuff, a little bit at a time. so here goes! the Be Brave Project just got one new member.
tune in next week to see if I successfully scheduled my x-ray while sticking my head in a crocodile’s mouth.
