How I Work

I was discussing my method of work with a friend the other day, and I didn’t have time to go into too much detail about my methods.  I decided that I would explain it here in a (relatively) concise manner for anyone who was interested.

I tend to work on things under a fairly detailed set of arbitrary constraints. I generally come up with a concept for the project (e.g. look/feel/sound) and run down a list of ideas that jump out first. Some of these are fairly abstract concepts (a colour, an emotion), others are definite and concrete (song must be 60bpm, the album must last only 35 minutes). From this point (in the case of a sound recording) I will come up with a title and track listing. I will make decisions on what each individual track must be like. This could be anything from a list of instruments to be used, to lyrics, to samples I need to create/find, to other music that will serve as inspiration and/or reference point.

The project that I am currently working on started out with a title. I was studying African art and symbology when I came across the Adinkra symbol named “Obaa Ne Oman”. This is an extremely concise way to sum up one of my core philosophical beliefs. I also instantly thought of the Order Of The Eastern Star motto F.A.T.A.L. (Fairest Among Thousands Altogether Lovely). I put these two concepts together and decided to make an album called “Woman Is Thee Nation (F.A.T.A.L.)”.

My original notes for the songs on this album were handwritten in about an hour. The second track was to be called “Auspex”. My constrants were listed as:

Thee word AUSPEX means BIRD WATCHING…
Never forget that.
Field recordings ov birds at the Aviary overlayed with:
A carryover of thee field recordings from track A1
A soft piano in thee distance
The piano should be playing pentatonic phrases on open strings.
AUSPEX should be more concréte than ambient.
Work thee reel-to-reel.
Wow and flutter are your friends.

I had constraints like this for all five tracks of the album, and over the past two years I have slowly gotten Woman Is Thee Nation into a chunk of music that I could be proud of. That is until last night.

In a fit of insanity/brilliance, I stayed up until 8 this morning working on music.  I took an album of songs that was nearly complete and dragged them into the trash can and started from scratch. I chucked it all. MIDI files. Rendered tracks. Alternate mixes. The whole lot gone, and a weight off of my chest. I looked over my notes/constraints for this project and made them a reality. What had been nearly two years of fits and starts was completed in a night. And it all sounds way better than my original versions.

Generally I go through this process a few times. Dead track or false starts occasionally show up in different contexts or albums. If all else fails and a track just won’t come together I will render the bits I like into loops and add them to my sample collection.

To illustrate the process here is the “final” version of Auspex. It was created by layering two unrelated pentatonic piano lines of about the same length with some field recordings of birds (mainly robins and sparrows) that I got from freesound. Not entirely to the letter of the constraints, but to the spirit.

Champ-Yinz!

So, PGH is the city of champions . . . We’ve got the cup, we’ve got the ring, and we have a baseball team.  In any normal sort of universe outside of the ‘Burgh, I could give a shit.  Somehow this town has infected me with this whole caring about sports thing.  I should have known something was wrong starting a couple of years ago when I found myself enjoying a beer in the afternoon.  I never cared for beer until I got here, and I never cared for sports either.  But somehow last night I find myself at one of my local watering holes for the sole purpose of WATCHING A MAJOR SPORTING EVENT.  I cannot stress how weird that was for me.  I have to cash in my chips and admit that on some level I am a sports fan.  What the fuck happened to me?

Anyhoo, the Pens won the stanley cup in the first game seven win of any sport since 1979.  (Hey Ma! Look at me.  I know sports trivia too . . .)  That of course means hords of crazed fans with penguins on their heads running down the street yelling at the top of their lungs while setting of fireworks in close proximity to trees and people and dry wooden buildings that are over a century old.  It’s a miricle that this town isn’t constantly burning like a tire fire.  I unfortunately didn’t have a camera on me, so no photos this time.  I promise to be on my game for the next big event in town. Bring on the protests, and send in the clowns!

Stupid Fucking Nazi

So, I go ahead and avoid the news for a bit and miss this bit of info.  Funny (odd not ha ha) enough this asshole is someone that I have come across in the past.  As a firm believer of “Know Thy Enemy” I have come across this cunts rants on the various Fascist, Neo-Nazi, Holocaust Denier, etc. etc. etc. forums and websites on various occasions.  Now, I am sure that von Brunn is going to be labeled as a Lone Wolf. . . that no Neo-Nazi organization in the U.S. is going to officially condone what this asshole did, but in the underbelly of the news groups and forums you have your new hero.  What pisses me off the most about this whole thing (and a whole shit ton of stuff pisses me off about all of this) is that this supposed great american patriot rolls up to the museum in a fucking Hyundai.  Are you shitting me?  I know the nips were an Axis power and all, but the modern Neo-Nazi movement isn’t really pro Japanese.  Or pro Asian.  Or pro anyone that isn’t a “White Man, Native Born”.  So why is this numb nuts driving around in anything that wasn’t built in Flint, Michigan?  As Gary Farmer is want to say, “Stupid Fucking White Man.”

And to all a good night. . .

Kobayashi Maru Bitches!

Alright… I got back from Star Trek a few hours ago, and have had time for my dinner to digest.

If you have not gone to see Star Trek, go now.  I am happy to say that (finally) something from my childhood still holds up.  I was getting scared after the whole Star Wars thing.  I don’t care who shot first.  I don’t care to see any Stars Wars film other than Episode V ever again.  But Star Trek on the other hand.  This was my childhood.  This was the show that taught me the foundations of a correct living.  The moments watching ST:TNG every week with the family are some of my most cherished memories.  Hell my dad still knows what “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra” means.  So the idea of J.J. dancing a cha-cha over my past kind of made me nervous.  Especially after the almost cool but ultimately forgetable giant bunny flick.  But all things are good.  I can safely wave my big UFP flag in public again.

They have completely retconned the whole series.  We are now in a different time stream.  What you know, you don’t know.  But Christopher Pike is still in a wheelchair (beep!).  But seeing as how the other universe everyone is still caught in the nexus so (happily) the last few Trek movies don’t exist anyway.  It starts out kind of vamping the Kobayashi Maru opener of Wrath Of Khan except this times for reals, or something.  Then more references to the Kobayashi Maru.  Then Kirk cheats.  Then we stay at the Kyriat Moriah.  Long story short, this movie kicks major ass, and they are apparently working on the sequel.  I think (hope) that sooner or later we are going to start dusting of the old Star Trek: Phase II scripts and get a new series going.

To answer the burning questions:

Sisko Sisko Sisko (He’s the freakin’ Emissary fer cripes sake)

and

Bones. Mainly because his first flick kicked all kinds of ass.  Beverly Crusher is automatically disqualified for squatting out Wesley.

PennDO(n’)T And Pot

So, I went to PennDOT today at the insistence of Michele to get a replacement driver’s licence. I still have no idea what happened to my wallet.  I was a tad on the hungover side because of the seductive good for you evil that is Guinness.  If you have never ridden public transport while praying you don’t toss your cookies, you are not living life to the fullest!  Anyway, after waiting in the little sweaty room for awhile, M has to run down the block to get a money order because PennDOT employees apparently can’t make change.  Then off to fabulous Market Square for burritos and such.

The guy behind the counter at Moe’s was kind enough to inform us that on saturday there’d be a NORML rally in Market Square.  As a supporter of complete cognitive liberty I am clearly for the legalization of marijuana.  I am also a staunch supporter of the right to bear arms, yet I’ve never had anyone randomly inform me of an impending NRA function. But the drugs? At least weekly some jackass hips me to the local scene, or tries to buy a lid off of me. (Does pot even get measured in lids any more?  Can you still get Prince Albert in a can? questions… questions…)  Just because I am under 40 and have dreadlocks does not mean that I am a pothead.  I don’t go up to random hipsters and ask them what brand of razor they use to cut with.  Why am I the one who has to be type cast.

Anyway… I am going to go see Star Trek tomorrow, and that means I’ll be either sadcakes and murderously angry at the death of my childhood or wanting my whole life to be outfitted with an LCARS interface!  Right now I am all sorts of happy kittens inside.

A Poem

We find ourselves here

    killing time

Suspect – So SUSPECT

A glow of reason

Treason to the world at large

    killing time

We joke to save our minds

We sing to cleave an ocean

We dance the dance and passion play

The Holy of Holies

    and great black dawn of day

Fuck Fuck Fuck

So Hot Doug’s is closed until May 1st.  So, not only was half the reason I came to Chicongo closed, I blew like 30 bones being driven all around town.  This is the first bad turn of the trip.  But, I guess if I look at this as a glass half full thing, it just means I have to come back to Chi Town in the near future.

I forgot to bring the SD card reader with me, so the video and photos I took on and of the train will probably not get uploaded to this until I get back to PGH.  That means that everybody gets to deal with lo-rez camera phone pics.

And speaking of the phone… seeing that things like Synthpond and FiRe and Mikey exist, I believe that I will have to upgrade to an iPhone sooner or later (at least before the cruise).  If I keep a hold on the phone I’ve got without losing it for a couple more months it’s a guarantee that this will happen.

I think I’m going to go take another nap here in a bit and then go out to the Exit tonight.  In the meantime here are some random photos from today:

The Parthenon Restaurant, Chicago

Ouzo

Ice In The John

A Fine Stout

Dalwhinnie Means “The Meeting Place”

Round Two

I have eaten a meal of fine fried Mediterranean fish and taken a nap.  I was instructed to go to the Magnificent Mile (I know in tweeted it as the Miricle Mile.  Yes, that’s in CA.  I was half asleep, deal with it), but as I was waiting for a cab I decided to catch a cab with some late 20-something guy and head wherever he was going.  I have always been a believer in the maxim that the best way to find out where you want to be is to get lost as soon as possible.  This guy was going to go to a BYOB joint with some of his graduate school friends (see Mom, I don’t just hop into cabs with anybody) to have a few drinks then go to dinner.  I got dropped of near the D4 Pub and got to have a Beamish from the tap for the first time since I was in London.  (Yes, Mother… I did drink just about every People To People trip, sorry. Though the burnt carpet in Denmark was Ryan, not me.)  Earlier I met the guy who owns the Billy Goat Tavern that inspired the “Cheeseburger Cheeseburger Cheeseburger” routine on SNL. Then Ate four whole fried fish.

The Last Head

I also found out that in Chicago they can sell Spirits at the grocery store.  Gotta hit a TJ’s then!

Now It Begins!

I am at a Starbucks in Chicago setting up this blog while listening to Blackmouth.  I just got to Chicongo and am waiting to go to my hostel.  I have joined the bastards on twitter, so you can follow me as I rediscover how much I enjoy pickles and stuff.

I am going to make an attempt to get most of this trip documented here.  But I am a Luddite, so who knows?

Here my ticket stub…

I Got A Ticket To Ride