|| default || § ¶50 Images on Photo Blog
Fifty images now up on my photo blog,
and still more to go. If I only put up 10% of all the slides and
negatives sitting under my desk in boxes, that's 700 images. 3 weeks, 50
images, I might make it in less than a year. What dedication! But at
least people are getting to see some of these pictures. Over 500 visits
so far since September 1.
|| default || § ¶Other Minds 2005-2006 Season
We've announced the next season of events for Other Minds!
There's a New Music Séance
featuring five hours of solo piano
music performed by Sarah Cahill, with additional performances by Kate
Stenberg, violin, and Swiss pianist Eva-Maria Zimmermann. This will be
at the little Swedenborian Church in S.F. on December 3rd, with
performances at 2pm, 5.30pm, and 8pm.
And then the Del Sol String Quartet reunites with Daniel Bernard Roumain
to perform all four of his quartets, with electric violin,
laptop, and Hip Hop turntablist. That will happen at the Jewish
Community Center in S.F. on March 6, 2006.
The OTHER MINDS 12 Festival is still being planned and under wraps right now. It will be in December of 2006 and at the Jewish Community
Center this time. Stay tuned.
AND, there's the Brink series at the Hemlock Tavern on the last Wednesday of every month! Coming up next Wednesday: saxophonist Brian Sacawa with Dorsey Dunn. Next month (Oct 26) Bonnie Barnett returns to the Bay Area. And in November (Nov. 30) Fred Frith is featured.
Very exciting stuff.
|| default || § ¶League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots -- LEMUR
Robots playing music? LEMUR is a group of robotics engineers who are also musicians. And they've designed the most intriguing musical instruments that play themselves. (Video) (See also Trimpin)This is really amazing stuff.
|| default || § ¶Blitzstein in Berkeley
The UC Berkeley drama department will be presenting Marc Blitzstein's THE CRADLE WILL ROCK October 7-16. More information is here. Other Minds featured Marc Blitzstein's music last year on his 100th anniversary. This performance at UC Berkeley will feature Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of American History, Leon Litwack, as Professor Scoot.
|| default || § ¶UBU WEB is Back!
UBU WEB,
the wonderful website from the University of Buffalo (UBu) containing
many many hours of copyright violations (just kidding), is
finally back online after a major move all Summer to new servers. The
website is a treasure. I'm particularly enjoying re-listening to the Music With Roots in the Aether series
that ran at Mills College in 1976. Great inteviews with Gordon Mumma,
Phil Glass, David Behrman. (Gee, during those concerts one of my
electronic pieces played, Four Pole Neuromagnet with Double Cross .. wonder why it's not mentioned... *sigh*).Do spend some time surfing around the UBU website. But I hope they got copyright permissions for all that stuff.
|| default || § ¶More Seen
 |
32 pictures now up on the photo blog. More coming. |
|| default || § ¶My Thoughts Exactly
|| default || § ¶All I've Seen
 | Making progress with my photo blog.
Two dozen pictures are now up, dated from 1966 to last month. I've got
the Movable Type blog templates set up so that I can create a new page
in just a few minutes. I'm able to scan and upload one or two pictures
a day from those boxes of slides sitting under my desk. I'm glad
finally other people are getting a chance to see these pictures. What do you do with 7000+ slides taken over 41 years? |
|| default || § ¶Once Again, Hams to the Rescue!
As with 9/11, once again amateur radio (ham radio)
operators have come to the rescue in an emergency. When all the various
local, state, and federal agencies are having trouble talking to each
other because their radios aren't interlinked, amateurs are able to
coordinate responses and mobilize communications. Read the official news here from the Americal Radio Relay League (ARRL).
Read about activities here.
The sad thing is that we hear more and more often about how the internet, and the general lack of interest in radio as a "hobby" (I hate that word), is killing the amateur radio service. The number of licensed radio amateurs is declining and the community is greying fast. How do we get more young people turned on to amateur radio? I was one one of those fascinated about being able to send a signal around the world with less power than a light bulb. And, I'm still fascinated by it all.
As these emergencies indicate, there still is a need for the amateur radio service. But it is under constant threat. The power industry want to put the internet into the power grid... use the power grid to send digital data over your electrical service. Trouble is, the radio interference this would cause would effectively put an end to ham radio. (See this.) So far, this "broadband over power line" is proving to be uneconomical where it's been tried. But it is still a threat. And so are commerical operations that petition the FCC to take away more slots on the dial reserved for the amateur radio service.
|| default || § ¶Pathetic
Yesterday's NY Times Editorial:Waiting for a Leader
George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday,
especially given the level of national distress and the need for words
of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this
administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed.
He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day
celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and
blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public
that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised
that everything would work out in the end.
Read all of it at the NY Times website.
|| default || § ¶Air America's Coverage of the Gulf Disaster
 | Air America's
coverage of the disaster in the Gulf is outstanding. They are
uncovering the total lack of coordination and leadership demonstrated
by the Bush administration, who have been late and scrambling to look
in control. Obviously, as in Iraq, they are way over their heads. I was
worried that the mainstream media would cover things up, but tonight's
CBS Evening News was extremely critical. One man who barely survived
questioned why there is no visible sign of aid and support in the Gulf
states when we were so quick to help people in Iraq. Randi Rhodes on
Air America pointed out that our Homeland Security chief denied on TV
that there was a problem at the SuperDome (now called the Thunderdome!)
because he hadn't heard anything and if there was a problem he would
have heard about it. The press core had to broadcast video footage
before a staffer would admit that there actually was a problem in New
Orleans. Start listening to Air America. It's on 960 AM in the SF Bay area and 69 other stations. |