The Microphones, they cried

Myth, magic, and memory in play at Yankee Stadium's curtain call

2008-09-22T10:36:00.018-04:00

Yankee Stadium got its grand send-off last night, and it was bittersweet to see old heroes returned for one last look at the place, even if they weren't my heroes. It's probably even more bittersweet for Yanks fans who were hoping for a fairytale, one-last-championship-in-Ruth's-House year that was not to come. Instead, Whitey, Yogi, Reggie, Babe Ruth's daughter and other Yankee luminaries came to share a moment with a 2008 team in transition, not just to a new home, but to a next wave of free agent talent and up-and-comers on whom the jury is still out.

I wish we could see what the stadium was like before they really butchered it in the 70s, architecturally speaking. Structurally, I'm not really sure why it's viewed as the ultimate field in the game, open though I may be to differences of opinion. But let's be realistic and note that far fewer tears like this were shed for the old Briggs/Tiger Stadium in Detroit, or Comiskey on Chicago's south side, where much baseball history also took place. It's because Yankee Stadium housed so many winning teams that it's deemed such a magical site. I can't deny the existence of this particular brand of magic, and the accumulated moments of elation, especially for the Yankees fan.

But... I've been to Wrigley Field, and from my perspective the Cubs' fan culture is as lively as that of the Yankees' while much closer to what the game is purported to be about. As an attending fan of the visiting team (and who knew Blue Jays fans could draw so much ire!), I've experienced a lot of nastiness up in the Bronx. Perhaps that hard-nosed, sometimes vicious, winners' killer instinct is part of Yankee identity, but it tends to act at odds with the Yankee class of icons from Gehrig to Jeter. I didn't see much of that ugliness in Chicago, though perhaps Cardinals fans and Steve Bartman can attest to different experiences. Meanwhile, Wrigley really seems to have retained most of its history. It courses through the ivy and is evident in the sale, at reasonable price, of a local brew (Old Style). It extends from the rooftop bleachers adorning neighborhood buildings to the unpretentious manual scoreboard, to the lack of in-game gimmickry. (Nobody ever mentions how loud the "House That Ruth Built" is -- with the cheers of fans, yes, but also with speakers mid-range-tweaked to destroy the Organ of Corti, blasting the lamentable "Cotton Eye Joe" in addition to regular reminders of how great the Yankees are.) Admittedly, one might argue that it's this humble hope against hope that has persisted since 1908 that keeps Wrigley honest, while Yankee Stadium basks in its luster.

Wrigley is also truly woven into the neighborhood it calls home. Yankee Stadium has its attendant pubs, scummy bowling alley, and shops for devotees, and its fame for being famous, but can it really boast to be part of the fabric of a town, especially after the 70s renovations that sealed it off from the community? To this writer it has always seemed so monolithic up there at 161st Street, hugged by the above-ground 4 train and Interstate 87. It towers and insulates its outfield from neighbors, while Wrigley allows those rooftop cheap-seats. Owner George Steinbrenner even emerges as one who has questioned the importance of this stadium's aura, threatening at various times to move the team to New Jersey or to a New York location deemed safer. To call this the hallowed hall of baseball undermines the fact that it's a league of teams, each representing their own towns, regions, local flavors, and above all their citizens, that keeps baseball going -- not one storied franchise or place.

I've been to better sites for seeing the game; the Orioles' Camden Yards and even my beloved Blue Jays' state-of-the-art-for-1990 Rogers Centre (Skydome) come to mind as less expensive for a great view of the field of play. Camden of course has ushered in a number of beautiful period-style ballparks that I hope to visit in my lifetime. As a good friend and Yanks fan notes, "sure, but no one is there" to see the games in Toronto or places like it. It's true that if you build a winner, and New York can usually afford one, the fans are more likely to come -- especially in the nation's largest city. But it's also true that one can simply admire the game, even with a crowd half the size that the Bronx is accustomed to, and not require the insane spectacle and scrutiny that the sports media subjects the Yankees and their largest-market brethren to. It's a spectacle that simultaneously intensifies and cheapens the importance of the stadium. That's perhaps not the Yankees' fault, at least to begin with, but they've certainly bought into it, and they most certainly sell it.

I think about the Brooklyn Dodgers, no less central to the identity of their city than the Yanks were, before they skipped town. The grounds of Ebbets Field are buried under low-income housing in Flatbush. Little but a scratched plaque reminds us of the magic, and the monumental moments, that happened there. Where the fanfare for this House Where Jackie Ran? What we saw in Yankee magic on Sunday Sept. 21, 2008 is emotionally equalled by the Brooklyn melancholy of 1957. The Mets can be lauded for resurrecting the ghosts of 'Dem Bums with a beautiful new stadium modelled on Ebbets, complete with a Jackie Robinson Rotunda. If only the admission were also a little more reminiscent of the 1950s.

But let's not kid ourselves. The Mets and the Yankees are both insanely profitable enterprises moving to lucrative new digs, with massive taxpayer help that they don't really need, considering taxpayers can't afford their own homes these days. To their credit, the Mets appear to be taking far less in the way of public funds, and they won't be forcing NYC to build new public parks to augment ones displaced by the new stadium, as the Yankees allegedly are.

Regardless, the usual rationale for throwing the gift of public stadium money at a sports team is to keep the team from leaving. That would have been a distinct implausibility when this venture was first proposed. Both the Yanks and the Mets trade on the New York location, aura and fanbase, and rely on these for their very well-being. A Las Vegas Yankees, or even an NFL-style Jersey arrangement, would never have been in the cards during the cash-flush NYC of the 2000s, if ever. Forgive me if I don't mourn for the Yankees, or if the magic of this moment is tempered by the underlying reason we face it in the first place. The team will have plenty of opportunity to re-tool its aura and make New Yankee Stadium memories with the benefit of luxury box money, further gimmicks (another Hard Rock Cafe? In 2008?) and more expensive seats.

So, when I think of Yankee Stadium, and its relative worth, I am going to do my best to consider the friends of mine that are true Yankee fans and true baseball fans of the highest order (one of whom I referred to earlier). To them, the worth of that stadium is found in memory, not in the high revenue of luxury boxes or the great value of the bleachers. It's rooted in bonding with their fathers, for together they waited through the dismal 80s to see the team win again. It's found in the experience of going to a game, ever less accessible for the average family but still deemed worth the effort and expense for many of us. It's seen in the imperfect heroes that are elevated beyond belief by the sports media, heroes that yet interest us for their flaws, because we just might for a night see something amazing.

Yankees fans need fear not -- theirs is still a fine baseball organization that will continue to succeed and produce more amazing moments, and it is an entertainment behemoth that can support that production. There is something lovely about the notion, though, that we can share these moments on the periphery of just any field (after all, the Yankees have not clinched each of their historic titles on home turf!). It's what happens that counts, after all, even as the surroundings change to mark the era (70s Yankee Stadium) or to mark power and glitz and big-letter-T Tradition (New Yankee Stadium). When the hysteria subsides, we return to that power of personal memory, which, for me, eclipses one team's ownership of many great moments in one place, on even the most cherished scrap of land.

Stay on guard

2007-11-01T00:34:00.000-04:00

Stay on guard
With your bones of glass
Making angles unnatural
Infrasound
Shaking, breaking these things not meant to fall apart

Justice, meet lack of priorities

2007-10-13T10:27:00.000-04:00

We all have our little bouts with priorities. Sadly, this blog hasn't been one of my top ones lately.

But I'm apparently not as poor a judge of priorities as the American justice system. I mean, really. Could it be more transparent that our government places a higher value on the "rights" of corporate entities to make money (under a now-foolish business model) than on basic human rights?

Excuse me while I make a futile attempt to insert logic into this picture, but does the junkie who robs a record store of hard-copy CDs (not just "intellectual property") get fined $10-grand per Journey CD he lifts? Or do we have a case of a judge who is out of his mind?

Well, score one for the good guys, whomever they are...

"The landscape is still very much what it was three or four years ago," said Eric Garland, chief executive of the piracy-tracking company BigChampagne. "It's still a one-horse race, and piracy is the lead horse."

If there is one blessing in this mess, it's that we have humble public servants like Eric Garland, Lars Ulrich and Jimmy Iovine leading our country out of a long darkness, towards justice.

Meanwhile.... Right, about torture being bad: Our legal system can't give the el-Masri case its due because state secrets are at stake. But what if the state secret is that the state is violating constitutional rights and making up its own rights as it goes along? Am I missing something here?

pulling double-duty

2007-05-09T17:57:00.000-04:00

You may or may not have noticed that I've been lured by one of the web's more attractive siren calls to multiple identities. A new blog has been started up by yours truly, with a mission, and the truth is I hope it doesn't need to be functional for too long.

You see, in the days of my youth I was taught what it is to be a man. Also, I latched onto my dad's rooting interests in my favorite sport, baseball, which providentially brought me the only sports championship for a team I've ever really cared about in the Toronto Blue Jays. Sad thing is, we're a far cry from the times of Molitor, Devon White, Dave Stieb, and C&C Music Factory. We're not even battling for second place these days, our gaze fixed upward upon the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, they who are searching for their first .500+ record.

I witnessed the events that set in motion John Gibbons' debut as interim and now manager three seasons ago at Yankee Stadium. Pat Hentgen got rocked into retirement and Carlos Tosca, no great shakes himself, joined the unceremonious ranks of ex-Jays managers. Most mid-season replacements arrive in tenuous circumstances, but I could tell a few years ago that there was little to recommend Gibbons for a secure job at the helm of Toronto baseball.

Three years later, I've not been proven wrong and it saddens and angers me, and most of all bores me to tears. So, my crusade: firegibbons.blogspot.com. Join it while the pitchforks are hot.

Useless baseball cards

2007-05-04T11:39:00.000-04:00

From the fine Jays' blog the Tao of Stieb, through a tunnel of other sources comes this link to useless baseball cards. Ruminations on Pete Incaviglia's lucky jean shorts? Eminently readable and nostalgic. Of these worthless cards, I've purchased more than a few. And I have two-thousand pounds of granite-hard bubble-gum to show for it.

And as an aside, am I wrong here, or did Fleer's late 80s/early 90s design team include a five year-old, a blind man and Balki Bartokomos? Those had to be the worst-looking pieces of cardboard ever sold to young sports fans.

Who knew?

2007-05-04T10:54:00.000-04:00

No, seriously, who knew that one of the more cogent wraps of the Republican debates would come from a site better known for displaying goth girls in burlesque-style skivvies and less? Not that I, ahem, frequent SG often, this honestly just came across when searching for coverage of the debates. Really.

A sampling:

I believe the best way for a brilliant SG editor like myself to cover the debate is to take one measly quote from each Republican that makes them seem as creepy as possible. Here we go.

How about Mitt Romney talking about Osama bin Laden?
"He will die."

Settle down. McCain then had to top dead…and he did.
"I will follow him to the gates of hell."

Have fun with that. And please tell me where the gates are, as I would like to avoid them. Speaking of the gates of hell, Tom Tancredo was asked about the day Roe v. Wade is overturned.
“It would be the greatest day in this nation's history."

Wow. What about the day we freed the slaves? That wasn’t any good? How about the Fourth of July thingy, where we became independent? No? Fortunately, that was not the dumbest answer. That award went to Mitt Romney, who was asked to tell us one thing that is wrong with America. His answer:
"I love America."

That's four men who would be President, folks, and even soft-core sites are taking more notice than a saturated news media as to how messed up this is. If that's not enough to sour the milk in your cereal, I'm not sure what is.

Requiem for football season

2007-02-10T18:40:00.000-05:00

The Super Bowl may be over, but cupcake season has just begun. I must say we earned our first victory of the season handily.

I'm not sure I got the Prince 'artist-formerly-known-as' era symbol right, but my effort has got to be good for at least a field goal.

Guy Delisle's uncommon travel writing

2007-02-10T13:57:00.000-05:00

I've just finished Shenzhen, the third of Canadian graphic storyteller Guy Delisle's travelogues. Like his recent account of North Korea in Pyongyang, it's a funny, deft and at-times slapstick survey of a Westerner's time spent in a cold and lonely place.

Some of the absurdity, and most of the menacing Orwellian nature of Pyongyang are missing from this piece, making Shenzhen more personal, more about the traveller than the place travelled to. Little of this fast-growing city inserts itself into the book, despite its title. Perhaps this is by design. From what Delisle can tell us, Shenzhen the city is a nondescript place, from the bare interiors of every apartment he is a guest in, to the plain high-rises being built up a-floor-per-day:

Panel from Pyongyang:

While in the DPRK Delisle found it impossible to turn his head without locating evidence of the Great Leader, politics are few and far between in Shenzhen. The author recounts just one exchange on the subject of communism, when a co-worker spots Delisle's Vietnamese star-logoed shirt and remarks that he is "scared of Communists." China's power and stature are never truly manifested in this story; the book is concerned far more with the micro-level dealings of the animator hired on to supervise a staff he cannot directly communicate with.

Throughout the course of the book, Delisle finds easy but solitary retreat in a Western-style gym, training his muscles for no specific use. He lusts for side trips to more Westernized locales, and finds the mold growing on his desk more interesting than the stacks of animation sequences he is hired to supervise. As boring as Delisle may find his work, the employment of the animator's eye is really the story of Shenzhen. It makes sense. The limitations of spoken and written language, and the relative richness and universality of a visual one, are the subtext of Delisle's works. While the Mandarin characters drawn by Delisle look as noisy and unintelligible as they must have sounded to him, his wide panels, his close-ups, and his gift for expression speak volumes. The story's conclusion finds the author at dinner with several businessmen and he is able to pick up the cadence and facial clues to a joke told in a foreign language. Delisle remarks, "that makes one thing we have in common." But generally that which we do not share, and an accompanying homesickness and solitude, dominates the book.

It would be easy to accuse Delisle of Lost in Translation-style orientalism, of approaching his subject with humor in order to maintain some authority and distance in the relationship between himself and that which he cannot understand. Delisle employs a healthy does of self-deprecation to soften these impressions, as when he earnestly slurps up a plate of spaghetti and meatballs in Hong Kong. And the cartoonist, for all his weariness, recognizes a colonialism in his acclimation to absurd levels of service by the end of the trip. It's a not- uncommon feeling for any Western traveller out of his or her element. There's always a feeling of that which is not quite right, and the accompanying feeling of guilt or impoliteness in pointing it out. It's a question of perspective, and Delisle is willing to re-visit his and view from others, even if in the end he makes plain which he prefers. Telescoping views and reductions, a gift for movement and motion -- these tools of cartooning serve the story so well, allowing the awkward narrator to exist simultaneously at the center of the reader's world, and in the middle of a place too big for him. In Shenzhen, Delisle has crafted endearing, problematic, rapturous reading and viewing, and the frames flow by with ease.

Alice Coltrane, RIP

2007-01-18T11:14:00.000-05:00

Jazz pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane died earlier this week. I'd be remiss not to note her passing. Plenty of others -- even Pitchfork, surprisingly -- have said what can be said about her life and work better than I can express it. Whatever the quibbles with her legacy and relationship with John Coltrane and his music -- and despite her status as somewhat of a pariah to much of a jazz community that long lost touch with innovation and the jazz spirit -- her work lives on, and much of it was transcendental in a way I think her husband would have appreciated and supported.

NPR obit & re-broadcast of segment on "Translinear Light"

NY Times obit

Meenakshi Temple and Sticky Last Day in India

2007-01-14T01:17:00.000-05:00

Hello friends,
Amidst the good news that the Ravens and Cowboys are out of the playoffs (and we're hoping the Patriots bow out, for the trifecta of hateable franchises to be knocked out of the postseason), this will be the last you'll be hearing from us in India. We board a British Airways flight to London Heathrow at 4am Monday (5:30pm Sunday, EST), wait it out a few hours at LHR, and then we make our sleepy return to New York, home around 4pm.

On the whole, our stay in Madurai was pleasant and our return ride in a second-class AC sleeper uneventful, if cramped.

Jenny did come down with a bit of food poisoning that had her reeling Saturday morning, but thankfully she recovered enough for us to go visit the city's gigantic Meenakshi Temple (you can see its four towers in the Madurai skyline photo in a previous post). It is quite a sight to take in.

South India is famed for its Hindu temples and it's really quite a privilege to get to them. As with many religious places, some parts are off-access to people who aren't followers of the faith, but there is still much to be seen. An obvious contrast is how much commercial activity surrounds the temple. Where Western religions generally hide any semblance of connection with the worldly and the economic, here these aspects of life are intrinsically linked with the temple. Markets selling religious trinkets and icons, jewelry, and even knock-off Nike gym bags and toys are within the outer walls. Here's Jenny buying some bracelets:

Even so, this was a surprise:

More temple shots:

In addition to praying to the god of their choosing, Hindus will dress and decorate the statues of gods in the temple and take a blessing:

Jenny being blessed by a trained temple elephant:

And yesterday we finally made it to Apollo 96 "bar to have world's performed light and sounds," the once-proud Madurai experiment in retro-future leisure. As they say, "make a happy flight to Venus in Apollo 96." Its 76,000 diodes seem to have lit better days, which was pretty much in keeping with the apparent downturn of Hotel Supreme (again, we'll let Rough Guides off the hook this time). I did manage a decent (or at least strong) beer though, and there were a good few Westerners in there smokin', drinkin', and killin' time. Note the triangular door; however, their airlock was broken.

Sunday our train pulled into Chennai-Egmore stati0n, and our friend Feroz met up with us there to help us catch a cab. Even after two weeks, it's a bit startling how much you can be looked at as a dollar sign (or Rs- if you want to be literal). Though we make painfully clear we're not interested in buying things or catching a ride, every available driver or hawker is interested in giving it a shot. It was nice to have him there to help us out at such an early hour, not knowing in detail the way back to Harjit and Ritu's.

So upon arrival this AM, we re-connected with our bag, which was easy because it was sticky and mildewey, as were some of the contents. What a wonderful surprise! We cheerfully did two loads of laundry and washed the bag over and over, and will be thanking British Airways ever so much for handling this matter so deftly and capably. Veins will not explode from our necks when we meet their personnel tomorrow. No, of course not.

Thanks for reading, fellow travellers. Wish us a safe sojourn that includes the safe and clean return of our luggage, with us, tomorrow, in NYC. We're looking forward to getting home so much that I actually woke up on the train from a dream about chocolate cupcakes, drooling Homer Simpson-esquely. No joke. Best to you all. And for those who have inquired: yes, this blog will continue. This trip has been a great opportunity for re-launching it, and we hope you've enjoyed keeping up with us.
Love,
J&J

Photo catch-up and Madurai pt one

2007-01-12T09:55:00.000-05:00

First are some photos to accompany yesterday's blog. These two are from Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary.

We saw some majestic elephants, before our wildly excited tour-mates decided to scare them away. Periyar could have hired a guide to get people into some nature-tour etiquette.

Monkeys, monkeys everywhere! They sure liked playing near the visitor centre. We held tightly onto our camera and ice cream cones in their presence.

This one was a little more contemplative, eating a leaf. He came pretty close to us.

The next day we took the 3-hour drive to Madurai. As we mentioned yesterday, the scenery was reminiscent of the American Southwest:

And these views are from the top of our hotel in Madurai, the Golden Park.

Today our travels brought us to Ramashwaram, yet another 3-hour drive. It is home to the Ramalingeshwara Temple, which was unfortunately closed to us. We did take some photos of the exteriors and outer hall. The outer temple is not painted brightly like many of the other temples in Tamil Nadu. From the looks of it, the inside was more colorful. Around here you can see people getting ready to drench themselves in water at each of 22 stations as part of their pilgrimage. We also spotted a monkey perched at the top of one of these towers!

The ceilings of the outer temple are painted with many of these round panels. As you can see from the second photo, the halls are pretty magnificent.

And the last stop of the day took us toward Adam's Bridge, the string of islands where India meets Sri Lanka.

This area plays a large part in Hindu mythology, and is home to a big shantytown that was another easy target for the 2004 tsunami. Poverty was evident to an extreme both there and in Ramashwaram; open sewers, every other building dilapidated or just made out of palm fronds to begin with, yet people carry on and figure out a way to make life work. We were accosted by several young Indians who wanted their picture with us, and to shake our hands. We obliged, of course. You see trucks like this overflowing with humans all the time.

We'll try to post after our temple visit tomorrow. Thanks again for reading! J&J

All words for today!

2007-01-11T08:40:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone. It's a photo-less blog for today as we're sans USB access to upload our photos. But we just wanted to drop in with a bit of an update.

We were mobile once again yesterday as the bandh was lifted locally and travel was possible. Little did we know we'd be travelling on the worst roads we've ever been on. The road from Munnar to Thekkady is about 80km (yes, we're getting used to the metric system, sort of; it's about 45-50 miles). But about 35km of that is composed of large rocks, foot-deep potholes, and sharp curves. That 35km takes about two hours to cover!

We finally made it to Thekkady thanks to our relentless driver Kabil, who, despite his preference for a sub-zero car interior and refusal to heed our semi-informed directions on occasion, is pretty much a saint. He brought us to Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary / Tiger Reserve, where unfortunately, a tiger sighting is pretty rare. We did, however, spot a bunch of elephants, lots of monkeys, some wild boar and deer (yes, we know, you practically can't turn on your car in WNY without running over a deer -- not that exciting) and cormorants and herons. It was a nice trip and a pleasant boat ride through the lake, obnoxious teens blasting Hindi hits on their cellphone speakers notwithstanding. We also managed to pick up some locally-grown spices (a big part of Kerala's success).

Today we bid adieu to Club Mahindra and Munnar, goofy and fun as it was. Our route to Madurai included a truly awe-inspiring trip through the Western Ghats out of Kerala and into Tamil Nadu. It reminds of the American Southwest a bit, where there's just flat land for miles and then some truly majestic mountains right smack in front. The experience was not hurt one bit by the fact that the roads were actually manageable for more than 20 feet at a time. More monkeys were seen, including some really tiny ones holding tight to their mothers, and we had to halt a few times for some herds of goats.

Madurai on first impression is a bustling city, yet it feels far less overwhelming than Chennai -- certainly more breathable and finer-smelling. It's known for its temples, which we're going to check out in the next few days, and is close to tomorrow's day-trip in Rameshwaram, 20 miles away from Sri Lanka.

We also swapped hotels after about an hour and 200 rupees ($4-5). The Hotel Supreme ain't as Supreme as the otherwise super-reliable and informative Rough Guide to South India proclaims. We were so looking forward to its space-age night club, a pleasure we may yet indulge. The place we've moved to is new and clean and smells of fresh paint, which we can deal with, and it costs the same (roughly $30 a night).

Look for another entry with photos before we cast our fates to British Airways yet again. Until then, best to all of you and Happy Birthday to Matt! J&J.

More from Kerala

2007-01-09T09:46:00.000-05:00

Howdy, vicarious travellers!

First off, we never let you all know, our luggage did come, but British Airways failed to process several messages from us that we're no longer in Chennai. So, most of Jim's clothes and some various gifts etc. are back there while we're in Kerala. Oh well. We'll get our revenge.

We promised more from Kerala so we're going to try and catch up here. We last left off in Cochin. A little background on the city -- it was a big hub for the spice trade and features quite a diverse mix of cultures. Kerala in general is more Christian (30%), and Cochin at one time was home to a thriving Jewish population. Like dolts we visited on a Saturday, and our Jewish friends would note this is about the dumbest time to try and check out a synagogue (it was closed).

The Chinese fishing nets in the previous blog post are a remnant of similar cultural interactions, and are still in use and fun to watch. A bustling market around it includes places to buy and cook up the fish, right there.

It's also said that most of the best dining is to be found in hotels. We've had some decent meals in most of the ones we've visited and stayed at, but they have imported 'our' music to varying effects. At the Taj Residency in Ernakulam, we had the pleasure of watching "Cochin's Only All-Girl International Pop Band," a trio of ladies from the Philippines (three vocalist, one a synth wiz) sing: "Smooth Operator," "Hotel California," and other such hits. They weren't so bad that we couldn't get a laugh out of it, and it sure beat today's panflute version of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," during which I died a slow death.

"Material Girl" count on this trip: 3.

We also wish to report that this blog is being written in the midst of a rowdy game of Bingo at the Activity Centre.

After Cochin we went on a thrilling 24-hour boat ride through the backwaters of Kerala. Here are some photos:

This was the sort of boat we rode on (though not ours, obviously). There were a good number of them on the water.

Jim looking like William Reid of Jesus and Mary Chain. Just like honey.

Jenny drinking straight from the coconut. She's a wild one.

A nice sunset and sunrise from the boat.

We also got to listen to Michael Jackson, Madonna, and some horrible ballad-y dreck before we requested that we hear nothing we could ever be assaulted with back home. Luckily we were obliged with some Malayalam hits of which the worst only had a cheesy guitar solo.

So that brings us to our current port of call, Munnar. It's a semi-terrifying 4-hour car ride from Cochin to here. Winding, curvy, one-car-width roads of varying reliability, and it's shared with buses, trucks, and the occasional auto-rickshaw that has no business driving at these grades. The city proper is a scruffy little place surrounded by the lushest, most beautiful tea plantations. The Zoroastrian family Tata owns most of the tea out here in the mountains. In addition to tea this family controls a lot of the automobile, telecom, and wireless communications in the country. And people get on the Waltons.

Saw this waterfall on the trip here.

As we hinted earlier, we're staying at this somewhat strange resort (Club Mahindra) and due to the bandh (strike) we were sort of cooped up here today. We were greeted by a serenader with a 'Givson' guitar and a harmonica in a creatively different tuning: "Welcome to your resort / You are here for fun." Today Jenny was treated to an Ayurvedic massage, an authentic Kerala experience. She recommends it (particularly if you enjoy being completely covered head-to-toe in oil by a total -though very nice- stranger). She also recommends a shower following.

It's not all been bizarre or oily. We had a rather nice 'soft trek: harder version' up the mountains with some excellent views and the thrilling experience of being in the midst of fast-moving clouds. If there's one thing this place does offer it is breathtaking scenery.

Pointsetta growing wild!

We are hoping to make it to Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in Thekkady tomorrow, with the bandh lifted. Then it's off to Madurai, which should bring its own different pleasures. Hope this finds you all well. You'll hear more from us soon. J&J.

Kerala and commies

2007-01-08T07:44:00.000-05:00

Like peanut butter and chocolate, Keralans and progressive politics go together oh-so-good. They have one of the few democratically elected socialist governments in the world, a 99% literacy rate, and this on top of some of the most beautiful terrain we've ever seen.

Reminders of this political orientation as in the above photo abound here in Kerala, and we're actually sort of victims of it for the next day, where a strike due to the arrest of a beloved political figure is making it a bit wiser to stick to the resort area and avoid crowds and the indication of being unsympathetic to the cause. We don't feel unsafe, of course. We're not resort people (those of you who know us know this) but it was booked for us by our friends Harjit and Ritu, who were to be travelling with us but didn't make it due to health issues. It is in the midst of some strikingly beautiful tea country. We'll post phots of this soon.

In the interests of chronology, here are some shots from Cochin, our point of arrival in Kerala:

The Chinese fishing nets at the shore of the Arabian sea:

Jenny at this awesome cafe, the Kashi Art Cafe, a favorite for Westerners - us included. Great coffee, ethical presentation, fine atmosphere and mouth-watering chocolate cake!

Others are breathing down our necks to use the one computer here, so more pictures coming soon! Lots of love to you all,
J&J.

India pt 3A

2007-01-08T07:20:00.000-05:00

We've been enjoying ourselves too much to post a lot lately but thought it'd be nice to give you an update. Here's the first installment, wrapping up our last few days in Tamil Nadu.

One of our days was spent in Pondicherry, a former French colony with some amazing architecture and a lively temple. This elephant greeted us outside of it:

And here's some of the beautiful European architecture -- one of the homes near the Bay of Bengal and a French-language school.

We haven't really informed you all of how we've been getting around (more on that in the next post), but having a driver is a big asset and a pretty common one around here. Driving, as in most of the former British colonies, is on the left. That's fine. But the preponderance of auto-rickshaws, seeming absence of lanes, seatbelts without buckles (nobody uses them, even when they are in fact full seat belts as in the front seats), motorbikes carrying a family of four, and random cow crossings make driving something no sane foreigner would do in India.

Though our friend Harjit drives, his wife does not, so they have hired Feroz, a guy who seems to be about our age. He can hit the gas pretty hard and he knows his way around. He also speaks Tamil and we don't, so he proved to be immensely helpful during our stay in Chennai.
Also, when we were trying to get a prepaid phone card and didn't have the passport-size photo the store seemed to assume everyone possesses of themselves, Feroz whipped his out, and got the phone in his name for us. Awesome. We got to know him a bit despite the language barrier, and he shared his favorite music and movie stars with us.

Here's Feroz, along with some other random TN driving shots:

Elephant in the slow lane:

When the Bills win the Super Bowl, you can bet your ass we're going to "Dizzee World"!

Sort of like riding in the back of a pickup truck, if less NASCAR:

India, installment 2

2007-01-03T10:34:00.000-05:00

On day six here and still waiting for one of our bags. British Airways can go do some anatomically impossible things to themselves.

That's about how we feel in the mornings when waiting for the word, then we move on to enjoying our days. To some extent that's included picking up some new clothes, but we've tried to buy some things we can't get at home, or pieces that would be much more expensive back in the US and A.

We found out when we got here that the Chennai Open, the first ATP tennis event of the season, coincided with our visit. So, avid tennis fans and Rafael Nadal lovers that we (especially Jenny) are, we forked over the $1.25 (Rs50) for tickets. The total tab for snack, drink, tickets and auto-rickshaw home was a paltry $8! It's enough to make one use excessive exclamation points, especially when compared with the $30-plus it costs for one ticket to an event such as the US Open (with its admittedly more interesting field). In addition to the dreamy Nadal, we saw highly-ranked fellas such as Carlos Moya and David Nalbandian, the fiery Argentine who proceeded to lose his first-round match for some reason.

Some photos from the event:

The stadium

Jenny's new boyfriend. I can't compete with that.

We also made it to a terrific dance performance this evening at the Madras Music Academy, the first-such one ever held there. I'll report more specifics about it another time. I'm running up a tab of over 25 cents here at the Net Cafe so I have to keep this short.

A note to world-travellers: when you pack for a place that, on the whole, doesn't use toilet paper, bring it in your carry-on. We are sad to report that we have become TP thieves. Scenes of the crimes: upscale restaurants and hotels, shopping malls, etc. I am really beginning to understand the thrill of theft.

And here's our shower:

Random observation and accompanying photo #4569: In Chennai there are temples EVERYWHERE you look. Big, big ones like the Kapalishwara Temple (famous and not accessible to westerners, though yours truly had an 'in' last time), and smaller ones for any god you can think of, like this one:

Hope this finds you all well, and keep your fingers crossed for the arrival of a giant duffle bag to our doorstep in Chennai.

India! (part one)

2007-01-02T00:50:00.000-05:00

Drowsy and more than a little muscle-tired, we arrived in Chennai on December 30. We've had some ups (exciting tours of old temple ruins, over-the-top Bollywood films, and New Year's with new friends) and downs (mainly late-arriving luggage, but also some leftover travel-cold/sickness that's not helped by the poor city air).

For Jim, the trip has been a re-awakening of visual, sonic and various olfactory memories from his stay in the city in 2000. Jenny is experiencing this all for the first time, dusty roads, colorful signs, garbagey garbage, the real feeling of being in a country of a billion people, and more.

Here are some photos from the trip so far:

Street view from top of a restaurant in Chennai.

Jenny enjoying three firsts: the inaugural piece of chocolate cake of 2007, her first such dessert in India, and her first piece of Indian clothing (well, the first one she purchased here, anyway).

Jenny and our friend and host Ritu conversing near one of the temples at Mahabalipuram, just south of Chennai.

One of said temples.

The two of us near some sizable stones that are inexplicably balanced - another pic we have shows Jenny in front of a very large rock that would be rolling towards her if we lived in an Indiana Jones movie.

Sunset at the lighthouses at Mahabalipuram.

Shantytown laid to waste and being rebuilt in the wake of the tsunami, taken on the way back from Mahabalipuram.

Coming soon: tennis in Chennai, more dance and music, and most exciting: our trip to the southwest of India - Kerala!

Sports writing for the 21st century

2006-07-14T10:20:00.000-04:00

Great sportswriting is a genuine rarity these days, as every joker with a dialup connection and an opinion is offered the chance to become an expert. And while I frequent ESPN.com for information (looking for trades that won't happen and news on the teams I follow, and often instead finding the 30 billionth article written this week on Barry Bonds), the writing is generally subpar.

So when one finds respite from the generally neandearthal analyses, and stumbles upon a couple of gents who

1) know of what they speak,
2) write about it really, really well,
3) apply a generous dose of humor in their tropes, and
4) they happen to support the team you root for...

well, it makes one happy, that's all. And I can tick off all four qualifiers for the two who pen the sophomorically-monikered 47 Million Dollar BJ (hence named for best closer in the bigs BJ Ryan, signed by Toronto for a king's ransom this offseason -- and worth every looney).

What the 47MDBJ does really well is, it encapsulates what I'd call the two most important characteristics of baseball: a wild fascination with statistics (recently attempting to account for "behemoth" Troy Glaus' inexplicable stolen bases), and a nature conducive to storytelling and narrative that has kept this sport alive for over a century. What this game is about, always about, is stories -- every stat has a history and every player has a backstory (former Jays' hurler Cory Lidle's fear of SARS a few years back is also thrown into the most recent entry). ESPN doesn't do this well -- the stats become parodies of themselves, where a batter's slugging percentage in domes on August weeknights is actually supposed to reflect something, when it doesn't. It tells no story.

Kudos to the 47MDBJ for reinventing the genre for a team that doesn't get much pub in the division of Yankees vs. Red Sox. Sadly, they only blog accounts of games they attend. Somebody get these people some season tickets.

Your Remix in the Bush of Ghosts

2006-06-13T09:07:00.001-04:00

I'm familiar with a few past attempts at offering source materials and individual tracks on the web for multi-user remixes, but I've never before seen this type of offer made for a seminal record. Usually it's part of a hype strategy for a new release, not one that has already influenced thousands of musicians and can be cited as one of the original "cut-up" albums. Labels do this to generate interest in music that might need all the help it can get, like the new Nine Inch Nails record.

Heroes/producers Brian Eno and David Byrne have changed all this by offering original tracks (in uncompressed .wav format [!] and cheesy .mp3) of two cuts from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts ["A Secret Life" and "Help Me Somebody"]. This is to coincide with the expanded re-issue of the record, 25 years after its initial release.

I'm a little slow on the uptake on this one (the offer's been standing for a month or two, now, and I just finally got to the site) but I'm looking forward to the fun.

I'll kill myself if Portugal doesn't win

2006-06-13T01:04:00.000-04:00

It's World Cup time, and none too soon. Baseball is nearing the end of the tiresome, pitching-starved middle quarter, hockey has lost all its charm with the Sabres' exit and the gift-wrapping of Lord Stanley's cup for Carolina, and basketballzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Federer got served by Rafa in the French, tempering slightly the incessant talk about history and Federer's place among the all-time greats. What better time for the world's most popular tournament to arrive to bring us together in competition-slash-ass-whupping-that-will-likely-make-your-average-American-tune-out?

Jokes aside, it's finally dawned on me how good the Cup is, a showcase for a sport that's accessible to just about all the world (not just the portion that can afford the best equipment/training/beer commercials), and a real opportunity to explore the meaning of playing for nation. For all the jingoism in the post-9/11 U.S. media environment, this is a concept that doesn't really mean anything to most of today's Americans. We are regional creatures when it comes to our sports, and if we talk about anything national it's only to discuss what outcomes will play best in major-media markets but ignoring any consensus bonds, perhaps because we have so few - a discussion thoroughly covered in the political realm. Even the Olympics, our favorite opportunity to rally around the nation's athletes, mean less than they used to here. I'd attribute this partially to the loosening understanding of what passes for sport in this country. Poker players consider themselves athletes. Mountain-climbing is not a personal activity/hobby but an 'extreme sport.' Our nation probably leads the world in the invention of sports, because when we tire of one we can trade it for another. In such a highly fractured region of society, the greater bonds of national sport (and in particular a rather ancient sport) function as just one of many options rather than an occasion for national kinship, hysteria, fandom, and pride.

The other thing is we're just not anywhere near the greatest at this particular sport. In much the same way that everybody loves a winner, everybody pretty much ignores a loser, unless the losing is of epic proportions. In the history of the Cup, Americans have pretty much been losers. They have access to some of the best training and standards of living of any nation in the competition -- but lack the passion.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world delights. Netherlands tries to erase a past filled with unfulfilled promise. Germany tries to win it at home. Racial problems do exist and can't be swept under the rug. The Czechs kicked our behinds. Will Africa send a team (or two) to the second round? Is Brazil just too damned good?

It's all too fun to ignore, even for an American.

SSM goes public + update

2006-06-03T10:41:00.000-04:00

By all accounts, the CHANNELS exhibition, part of the Media Space|Public Space project at the New School, was a success. Our opening brought in a good number of visitors, Friday's SONIC CHANNELS show attracted over 60 people, and I am guessing a few hundred people were able to experience the F-Train edition of the Sonic Subway Map for the first time.

Nothing was perfect. I found that kids can be the best testers of an installation (or anything, really) by virtue of the fact that they just don't follow the rules. So, one gets an idea of what can go wrong when one mashes a keypad, or pushes a button on a mouse that the designer never uses, but a user might. All quickly remedied problems. The design of a system-specific touch interface for the next time out will be helpful.

For now, I take a deep breath (and break) with it as I begin to seek out funding and other spaces to show it in.

Red signals ahead

2006-05-11T01:18:00.000-04:00

Being locked in a 30 footlong metal box with 40-50 other people has a way of bringing out the worst in human beings. We begin to want to lash out at anyone and anything. In the hour and a half taken to go roughly 5 miles, the woman playing Ms. Pac-Man on some portable electronic device with the volume on 11 becomes less a mere nuisance and more of an evil soul worthy of all the hate one can muster. Her husband screaming at the gentleman who can't take it anymore becomes, well, frightening. There's enough rage going round to make the lights flicker, heads banging the walls to the point where they shake. The ugly feeling that anything could happen -- that people might follow one another off the train and come to blows -- takes a moment to subside before cooler heads prevail and the anger recedes back into the more tepid usual response of rolling eyes.

The frustration of being slave to public transit has hit me twice this week, and I've realized it's in part because the MTA is so poor at communicating. When a message is shared, it's over speakers that sound something akin to Edison's first phonograph. Most of the time, there just is no message. It's left to the rider to figure out after an hour that, no, there are no trains coming.

Or, there's a message but it's meaningless. The phrase "we have a red signal ahead" doesn't really tell me anything. Is it because your signals are screwed up? Is it because there are problems on down the tracks? Should I get a cab? Does "momentarily" really mean 90 minutes? Could you tell me if it will take less time to swim the East River, shower, wash my clothes and then head home than to take this train four stops? If so, could there be some signage indicating this so I can take another train before it's too late, or book a hovercraft rental? In this age of endless information saturation and availability, the MTA's reliance on redundant, meaningless messages and cryptic explanations wear thin, to say the least.

I'm a strong proponent of public transportation, particularly when it is not powered by fossil fuels. All the same, a little reliability goes a long way and the New York City transit system pushes it often.

this is what i saw. this is what i saw.

2006-05-03T20:04:00.000-04:00

the sky was pink-lavender tonight
like I'd never seen.

faint traces of yesterday's billowing black
yielding to Orwell/Barbie monochrome
like I'd never seen.

for a short instant:

a rainbow pouring out of an
as-yet-unfinished-high-rise
(1BR [only] $500K)
making promises of a future
at the
top.

for somebody.

far away [but not really] over the cement-lot ballgame
ruins chain-smoking themselves to

death

ready to yield to the phoenix of luxury
soon to rise from the ashes

I'm breathing this in.
I'm taking it all in.

the neighbors are back,
collecting their belongings.

the across-the-street windows are no longer glowing
no one is screaming.

they are just taking it all in.
they are just breathing it all in.

Commonwealth Blues

2006-04-05T13:16:00.000-04:00

caught in the webbing

2006-03-02T12:12:00.000-05:00

So after a few years of not having a web presence, I've made the crucial step of purchasing my own space at mtrainieraudio.com. It doesn't look like much yet, because design is still in the process. But I can promise that when it's done, it'll have a pretty decent survey of what I've done, a CV and the integration of ongoing projects.

I'm hoping that Tom from 1000 Year Plan, who also happens to be a pretty good friend, can help me make my web presence a big next step. He's already designed my Sonic Subway Map page / proposal for the Media Space|Public Space event. With any luck the jury will see his work as highlighting the best of my work and this thing gets an audience.

I'm not certain what direction this blog will take as my already strained web energies get diverted into the company page. Perhaps it will be more vertically integrated into that context and leave Blogger. We'll see. For now, I'm excited.

Unfaithfulness to blog = productivity

2006-02-20T23:53:00.000-05:00

As usual, I'm hitting one of those deadlines and having fun doing it. This time, it's a score for Jeff Cioletti's Galaxy's End: Revenge of the Myth, a documentary mostly about Star Wars ~~nerds~~ aficionados and just what they're going to do with their lives now that there's nothing to live for. As with most of these kinds of projects, the creative spark has taken a while to hit. Now it's just coming along effortlessly.

Other projects and plans are on the horizon. Having the studio set up semi-permanently at home has proven to be a real boon for work. I've really been focusing on the design for the VIA Metro project, which is going to be absolutely fantastic. New School work continues, though a real drought with regard to my thesis needs to be quenched, and soon, if I am to have a proposal in to begin work for the fall.

Hearkening back to this humble blog's beginnings, I'm having the MAX/MSP Sonic Subway Map entered for consideration for the Media Space|Public Space exhibition. My good friend Tom Yagielski is designing a site that will showcase the project's strengths and downplay its weaknesses. That proposal is due on March 3, so as usual I'm running down to the wire.

Long term project planning includes a new band with some good friends (who happen to be fantastic musicians), and, finally, a website for Mt. Rainier Audio to establish a real presence "out there" for my work.

Speaking of work, best to return to it...

When I get to Cairo...

2006-01-18T23:13:00.000-05:00

My father called me this past fall and told me that I really needed to listen to some old blues recordings for inspiration, and I replied in such a way that it was pretty dismissive: "Oh yeah, I know a lot of that stuff." And I knew a fair amount. But I've taken it upon myself to learn a whole lot more lately.

In the past few years, Mississippi Fred McDowell has become one of my favorites. His guitar styling can become monotonous for one who just sort of has his music "on," instead of really focusing on it. Closer listens reveal a man shredding his guitar in his living room for the sheer thrill of it -- a bottleneck about to bust through the strings. There are family murmurings in the background, and the recording I have (a self-titled record from 1962 out on Rounder records) documents a day probably pretty similar to most days that McDowell played "out." By "out," I mean at weekend barbecues and little one-offs, as a semi-pro who never saw a limelight he absolutely deserved. Then again, there's that sheer thrill that makes one wonder whether the limelight was of any consequence for this musician. He toiled, or perhaps found joy, in obscurity for the 20s, 30s, 40s, and finally in the 50s people started noticing. I'd love to read a book on him. Or write one.

My dad was a little more persistent in bringing up the subject of "old blues" a couple of months later. I could tell that what he wanted was for me to put together a collection of recordings for him. I've long known there were a lot of other artists out there like McDowell, artists who preceded him, who did things differently, who were infinitely stranger, simpler, more and less talented, more and less documented. So as a gift to my dad I started collecting some of these recordings and relevant information on them. It's been a great journey and a real education, and I'm looking forward to sharing some of the documentation with my dad after having already given him the music.

Through this process I've had the pleasure of coming across tunes like Henry Spaulding's "Cairo Blues." It was easy work for me, given that John Fahey actually spent the time tracking down this recording and others like it for his American Primitive II collection (just released posthumously). It's a G-flat major tune that features a guitar line that sort of spirals up and down and then hits on a Major-major B7 chord off the beat. Primitive is the last word I'd use to describe it. The guitar, both alone and in its support of Spaulding's aching falsetto, evokes a time when "the blues" might have held meaning. By "meaning" I don't propose "that time when music was raw" or "authentic," though many have argued it before. What I mean is something in the vein of "feeling like crying your eyes out," which, for as good a musician as he was, Stevie Ray Vaughan has never made me want to do.

MtR this week

2006-01-12T12:05:00.000-05:00

Recording Idatel from Ithaca this weekend. Whiskey and accordions for all.

Note to self:

2006-01-11T10:03:00.000-05:00

1) Tune piano
2) Write more music
3) Play all instruments more

A MAX blog no more...

2006-01-11T09:53:00.000-05:00

... just a regular old one. I may discuss MAX matters from time-to-time but I won't be relying on it exclusively for material...

...which should be kind of strange for me, considering I haven't done any of my own web publishing in ages, dating back to those days in high school with my own website (woohoo) and bbs messages when I was terribly self-centered and naive, and felt that what I had to say was [u]really important[/u]. Now I am just working at trying to make statements of importance or impact. A little less self-righteous, a lot more acknowledging of my own personal journey -- not a journey that screams "look at me," but rather, "check this out if you'd like and let's see if we can figure something out together."

I suppose that's partially why I've never been much of a businessman. I lack killer instinct or intense belief in self that accompanies such a profession. Rather, I just enjoy creating and sharing and hopefully this blog will be part of that cathartic process.

Cheers,
Jim

God damn.

2005-12-21T17:20:00.000-05:00

This project has been a challenge in every sense of the word. In a "one step forward, ten steps back sort of way." I can't wait to have it done.

Getting the patch to fade between files correctly took the better part of a day. I finally came across an older version of the Tap Tools [tap.crossfade~] object, made by the fine people at Electrotap. It's helpful. I've still been having problems getting the assignments right (i.e. when you click on a particular stop on the subway, I want a switch to direct that sound to selector~, a crossfade to that sound, and a tag that will tell the player to use the other selector~/sample loadup set for the next stop you travel to -- that's a lot with one mouse click, after all). That's what tonight's dedicated to.

I also have been having freak problems like all of a sudden, loop function on sfplay~ not working. It also took some considerable time and some help from Jonathan to get it to unlock with the 5 necessary keys: 2 coord range operators (< >) each for X and Y, and the bang from mouse-click.

I've kind of felt all semester that there's no substitute for sitting and doing work in MAX regularly -- it is a language, and it's not learned easily. You begin to have objects and concepts at hand more when you've put that time in. That's not to say I haven't worked hard, but if I had my way it would be hours daily put into learning and using this, at least for awhile, rather than sitting at it on the weekends and trying to remember what I lost last week. Work schedules and holiday commitments and all that stuff kind of conspire against that possibility, though.

Alright, back to work.

By the way...

2005-12-20T01:32:00.000-05:00

Thanks Jesse and Jenny.

This wouldn't be getting done (and wouldn't be nearly as good) without you.

Where it's at

2005-12-20T01:25:00.000-05:00

I'm in edit mode now, slimming down all the files from the subway field recordings to around 2 minutes and trying to get rid of annoying windy plosives and mic handling noise, as best I can. Given the choice I will probably go out and re-record the first (Bklyn) leg of the F-train map with softie but I am going to use what I have because of 1) time and 2) impending MTA strike.

The F-train sonic subway map is coming along, I emailed the max list for the first time requesting some help, because, well, poly~ is just so damned big, and I want to use it to my advantage. I found that last time I probably programmed things in a less streamlined fashion and could probably do better to make this one smoother, more interchangeable parts and less monolithic and stodgy. I think poly~ is the answer with its allowance of multiple iterations of one patcher but I need to understand fully how to interface it with a bunch of samples that I want to be ongoing, in stasis and not activated by the interactivity -- rather, I want them opened and closed.

Time to get back to figuring it out.

Sorry for not keeping up with you, blog.

McCarthy fans unite...

2005-12-20T01:20:00.000-05:00

and rejoice...
and enjoy the sweet taste of the bait and switch
Bless this food for our use this day.

a sure sign of things to come...

2005-12-06T23:37:00.000-05:00

Work for my final project patch is underway. This patch is going to be an interactive / sonic subway map. It's going to be an installation work using recordings and images from outside / near every station (in this case for the F train, given its diverse locales). While the sounds of the subway are interesting and provide a sort of common ground for most New Yorkers, I'm more interested in the way we view the map as a series of destinations, so I'm doing wo minute field recording outdoors (above-ground) at every stop on the line. So far the results have been pretty fascinating; I've documented an expansive Jewish cemetary that sits steps from the train, sounds of a recyling center, a desolate Coney Island in winter, the bustling chic of Park Slope and Carrol Gardens, and more. Tomorrow I'll be editing down the sounds for use in the MAX patch.

It would be great, as Jonathan mentioned, to have a live setup for this, but that's looking at, at the very least, dozens, and at most hundreds of transmitters and mics. Money I don't have right now, but it'd be great to try and look at a grant for it.

As for this project, in MAX, once the map is clicked on, it will be activated with the sound of the stop nearest where the mouse has been clicked. Once another stop is clicked on, the sound will crossfade through to the clicked-on stop. The program is going to be set up in such a way as to be able to move easily between (sonic) locations. So now it's just a case of trying to get all this to work. I'm excited to be getting started on this.

back in action

2005-11-09T20:45:00.000-05:00

Cycling 74 are good people. Gave dude a couple months' extension while the ITP / Parsons folks sort out the group purchase. Now, I can breathe a little easier and get my semester's work done without any issues, aside from my own motivation.

I never really gave a rundown of my midterm patch. Those in my class got to see it, but for an explanation, what it is, is a Random Voice Switcher that takes several readings of news stories from a day's issue of a paper, and blends them together. Stories are selectable from a drop-down box, and activated via space bar (though a bug in it currently means that, after first playback, you have to press spacebar twice to play -- I gotta figure that out). Also, as an added bonus, one can deactivate the random switching, and mess with the levels on one's own, which can be great fun.

I'd like to add tweaking like modulations, filters and more as user-controlled functions from the main patch page, and the idea is that this patch will do accomplish two things:

1) It will be part of a process of randomly generating the design for a climactic portion of Lindsay's Metro dance piece, in which voices upon voices reading five-six different stories will be heard at once.

2) When finished, It will be installed in the lobby of the performance space for this piece, for performance attendees to explore their own readings of the Metro stories and for them to hear in their own way what will take/has taken place on stage.

As a note to classmates (do y'all actually read these?), I liked seeing where everyone else in class was with their MAX midterms. Everyone is doing some interesting things and coming from their own unique angles, displaying the use of different ideas and functions in MAX. I think there is great potential for us all to learn a lot from one another...

MAX-less

2005-11-07T11:25:00.000-05:00

I wish the crew getting the MAX authorizations would get on with it, already. This is taking far too long. Right now, I'm out of luck, and demo days. :(

Breakthrough!

2005-10-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

I think I had my breakthrough today in building the midterm patch. I hope it's complex enough to merit its status as a major project for me. I was having some difficulty due to not having voices to work with and having to work in the abstract. I'll be collecting more voices to input on Wednesday before I finish this all up.

Where I had been thinking of actually editing word-by-word in Pro Tools, I decided I'd use the VocAlign plug-in to time-align voices for each story-bank, so that verbal flow is more seamless and the switching is not dependent on samples butting up against one another and sounding more jerky than necessary. As of right now, I'm switching at random between voices using selector~. I wonder if there might be a good or interesting way to control the switch rate (metro-banging a random object right now that is static at 200 ms).

Now, I just have to build the bank/story-selection portion of this patch. Next couple days should be plenty of time for this.

Bang 'Metro'

2005-10-18T00:53:00.000-04:00

I've come up with my midterm proposal:

The dance project this MAX/MSP patch will interface with utilizes content from a New York Metro newspaper from one day. It will feature separate banks of spoken word or phrase samples. Each bank of samples will comprise a particular story from the newspaper, read by multiple voices. The words will be heard in the order they appear in each story, chosen from different voices at random. Different story banks will be "loadable" from an interface within the patch. I also plan to allow for different playback speeds, and I may explore different uses for separate audio in the left and right channels.

The idea is to de-contextualize the news stories, to isolate them from their original use/functions as banal, semi-journalistic interpretations of daily events, and reinvent them through the use of multiple voices in a completely unplanned order (which will be different upon every playback). New meanings will be derived from the news as imagined by a cacophony of voices ranging from children to the elderly.

It is ultimately my goal to use sensors as control inputs to MAX to allow a dancer to manipulate the sound with envelope filters, sample retriggers/delays, and other effects. At this point, however, my budget and scope have to be limited, so this patch will serve as a dry run toward that goal, more of an installation to accompany a dance than a program that interacts with the dancer as of yet.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Now: gotta learn how to do it, and get some voiceover tracking sessions in!

updates

2005-10-13T16:39:00.000-04:00

I've been plugging through the MSP tutes again in an effort to try and understand this stuff better on a second run.

I am toying with a few different ideas for midterm/final and the dance project. One will necessitate a lot of recording work so I think it might be more viable as a final or as an extension of this class' work -- the idea is to track many excerpts from a newspaper, have possibly dozens of people reading the same stories, and then triggering different samples (opening different gates) with movement (the idea at its most sophisticated) or several wireless mouse-es. I've read up a bit on sensors and am not sure what to do yet: several cameras could be very cool to use but then there's a big jitter element added to the project. That could be cool but I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.

I'll have to make some decisions and roll with them for the 18th.

Tempo patch

2005-10-06T08:43:00.000-04:00

For some reason while in the course of working with tutorial No. 31, I couldn't get the "tempo" object to do anything.

I re-booted MAX and it was then fine. Wondering if in general that's something that just happens from time to time, or if it's just a bug with this object related to the patches I had open before.

When the current died

2005-10-05T09:38:00.001-04:00

I experienced some computer scares this week and reformatted / backed up my Powerbook's internal HD, which needed to be done. Judging by the performance of the machine since, I came to the conclusion that the new 2 gigs of RAM I installed a week and a half ago were not right for my system. Specifically, it was causing constant reboots without warning, which was scary.

Finished the MAX tutorials this week -- my pace was OK, I guess I thought through #25 was due last week, and I'm glad it isn't because it gives me some more time to both revisit what I've already looked at, and play around with the program today. It's one of my "free" days until class at 6pm. In general, it's easy to get sidetracked making sounds with the MIDI-based patches. I'd like to mess around more with the different controls on my Oxygen8 and see what kind of noise I can make -- I never really dived into synths as more of an "organic" instrumentalist looking for synths that would just come close to "real" sounds like the B3.

Note to self: one really needs to explore the sensor-building / use aspect of the MAX community in depth if one is to have any success creating patches that interface with dance.

On that note, this week I'm going to meet with my good friend Adrienne, choreographer for VIA Dance, to talk about logistical and conceptual issues for the piece I'm going to set in motion for this class. Being able to shape my designs to her neeeds will definitely sharpen my focus.

MIDI and MSP

2005-09-28T23:05:00.000-04:00

So far, so good as I work my way through the tutorials for MSP and the MIDI elements of MAX. MIDI has always kind of mystified me a bit, even though I've had plenty of experiences setting it up for others' use, so I can appreciate this turn through it.

On a side note, today I finished mixing "Terry Sanford and the New South." It's a relief that it's over, I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity and it's been a fantastic start to a new aspect of my audio career in mixing for picture / post-production.

On the subject of documentaries that are just pretty rad to watch, the new Scorsese Dylan doc "No Direction Home" was stunning. It definitely merits repeated viewing, and is so comprehensive in its coverage of the 60s folk scene that Dylan was born out of and later turned his back on. While it owes a lot to the Pennebaker "Don't Look Back" picture, the recent Dylan interview footage is fantastic, and there are some other real nuggets (the Ginsburg interview, very rare JFK/Oswald footage and studio stories) that really set it apart. It was also pretty interesting to see where it diverged from "Chronicles," and what different stories were told in each bio. I'm not much of a salesman, but seriously, go get it from Netflix or buy it.

Work, Agora, Work, Work

2005-09-25T21:51:00.000-04:00

The Production Intensive class is living up to its name and I'm finding I have to draw upon some old, old foundations to help some of the students understand audio principles. A LOT of class time here, I really hope it's worth it -- and I really hope that the students are learning. So far we have spent most of the time with video and lighting.

I feel I am rapidly falling behind with MAX as I'm just not spending enough time on it. Tonight I've got some free time so after this, it's to the MAX patch.

But for the next two days it's a mix that I'm nervous about, the first real full-length doc I've mixed, and even though I have finished most of the work, it feels like there's a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. I want to rise to the occasion.

I worked to fill in for a co-worker at Earwax today and wish I hadn't. Feeling drained when the work that I really want to do has not been touched is, for lack of a better word, crappy. I just have to get through this week. I have to.

Found a free moment to at least witness some creativity yesterday. Went to Agora with Jenny and Kevin from the New School. Use of the McCarron Pool space in Greenpoint was definitely cool to see. I am not sure that everything that Noemie LaFrance came up with tied together thematically, and parts of the piece were far too dark in contrast to the show's highlights, which came in an immense wash of color, movement and sound. The space itself was the star, and it shone brightest when it was packed with the full ensemble. The happiest part is that this piece is to serve as a catalyst for the rehabilitation of the space, and with hope, its eventual rebirth as a public pool.

Now: gotta get back to work.

the video mixer patch

2005-09-22T01:04:00.000-04:00

I seem to be having the same difficulties uploading the patch .dmg that Kevin was having. So I'm going to follow his lead and post my text here, late, unfortunately.

It ain't a work of art, I just followed a lot of the leads of the tutorials, copying/pasting/blending a bit, I have to admit, after screwing around with the items and seeing what they do. I am not proud, but I think I have a relatively decent idea of what's going on. I'm anxious to see what more ambitious classmates have pulled off this week.

max v2;
#N vpatcher 89 77 1239 814;
#P origin 0 24;
#P window setfont "Sans Serif" 9.;
#P window linecount 1;
#P newex 559 405 58 196617 prepend op;
#P user ubumenu 514 376 100 196617 0 1 1 0;
#X add +;
#X add -;
#X add %;
#X add ||;
#X add avg;
#X add *;
#X add /;
#X add sin;
#X add pass;
#X add !pass;
#X prefix_set 0 0 0;
#P user multiSlider 841 252 84 18 0. 1. 1 2680 47 0 0 2 0 0 0;
#M frgb 255 255 239;
#M brgb 26 132 0;
#M rgb2 127 127 127;
#M rgb3 0 0 0;
#M rgb4 37 52 91;
#M rgb5 74 105 182;
#M rgb6 112 158 18;
#M rgb7 149 211 110;
#M rgb8 187 9 201;
#M rgb9 224 62 37;
#M rgb10 7 114 128;
#P window setfont Verdana 9.;
#P window linecount 2;
#P comment 936 246 61 472055817 live channel;
#P window setfont Verdana 10.;
#P window linecount 1;
#P comment 367 343 14 472055818 B;
#P comment 213 343 15 472055818 A;
#P flonum 381 343 35 10 0 0 0 7203 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P flonum 228 343 35 10 0 0 0 7203 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P message 302 343 53 472055818 scale \$1;
#P message 149 343 53 472055818 scale \$1;
#P newex 286 366 143 472055818 jit.scalebias @scale 0.;
#P newex 134 366 143 472055818 jit.scalebias @scale 1.;
#P newex 134 412 162 472055818 jit.op @op +;
#P newex 841 303 43 472055818 !- 1.;
#P comment 1089 487 15 472055818 B;
#P user jit.pwindow 172 446 322 242 0 1 0 0 1 0;
#P window setfont Verdana 9.;
#P newex 689 204 32 472055817 print;
#P window setfont Verdana 10.;
#P user jit.fpsgui 90 258 60 472055818 0;
#P message 602 277 64 472055818 vinput \$1;
#P user ubumenu 602 255 100 472055818 0 1 1 0;
#X prefix_set 0 0 0;
#X pattrmode 1;
#P newex 725 226 50 472055818 t clear;
#P newex 602 226 99 472055818 prepend append;
#P newex 602 204 32 472055818 iter;
#P user jit.fpsgui 347 260 60 472055818 0;
#P user ubumenu 427 255 105 472055818 0 1 1 0;
#X add "IIDC FireWire Video";
#X add "USB Video Class Video";
#X add "IIDC FireWire Video";
#X add "USB Video Class Video";
#X prefix_set 0 0 0;
#P newex 427 180 133 472055818 route vdevlist inputlist;
#P newex 533 226 50 472055818 t clear;
#P message 427 277 68 472055818 vdevice \$1;
#P newex 427 226 99 472055818 prepend append;
#P newex 427 203 32 472055818 iter;
#P user jit.pwindow 313 187 82 62 0 1 0 0 1 0;
#P window setfont Verdana 9.;
#P window linecount 2;
#P newex 37 624 100 472055817 bgcolor 80 100 190;
#P window setfont Verdana 10.;
#P window linecount 1;
#P message 550 131 80 472055818 getinputlist;
#P message 475 131 73 472055818 getvdevlist;
#P message 435 131 38 472055818 close;
#P message 400 131 33 472055818 open;
#P newex 314 158 122 472055818 jit.qt.grab 320 240;
#B color 5;
#P newex 201 94 95 472055818 sel 1 0;
#P comment 130 1 57 472055818 restart;
#P flonum 158 60 35 10 0. 0 1 7203 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P message 201 120 33 472055818 start;
#P message 147 21 43 472055818 time 0;
#P message 112 22 14 472055818 1;
#P button 112 0 15 0;
#P user jit.pwindow 69 187 82 62 0 1 0 0 1 0;
#P message 243 120 29 472055818 stop;
#P button 41 115 27 0;
#P toggle 77 54 15 0;
#P newex 77 84 82 472055818 metro 33.333;
#P message 95 118 30 472055818 read;
#P newex 70 148 127 472055818 jit.qt.movie 320 240;
#P window linecount 2;
#P comment 17 55 57 472055818 play movie;
#P window setfont Verdana 9.;
#P comment 780 246 56 472055817 recorded channel;
#P fasten 4 0 6 0 82 107 46 107;
#P fasten 7 0 2 0 248 144 75 144;
#P fasten 12 0 2 0 206 144 75 144;
#P fasten 3 0 2 0 100 141 75 141;
#P fasten 11 0 2 0 152 44 198 44 198 107 75 107;
#P fasten 6 0 2 0 46 147 75 147;
#P connect 2 0 8 0;
#P fasten 10 0 5 0 117 47 82 47;
#P connect 5 0 4 0;
#P fasten 8 0 35 0 75 253 95 253;
#P connect 9 0 10 0;
#P fasten 8 0 41 0 75 351 139 351;
#P fasten 43 0 41 0 154 362 139 362;
#P fasten 52 0 40 0 564 431 316 431 316 403 139 403;
#P connect 41 0 40 0;
#P fasten 9 0 11 0 117 18 152 18;
#P connect 13 0 4 1;
#P fasten 45 0 43 0 233 361 205 361 205 339 154 339;
#P fasten 40 0 37 0 139 439 178 439;
#P fasten 9 0 15 0 117 18 206 18;
#P connect 15 0 12 0;
#P fasten 39 0 45 0 846 327 233 327;
#P connect 15 1 7 0;
#P fasten 22 0 42 0 319 332 291 332;
#P fasten 44 0 42 0 307 362 291 362;
#P connect 42 0 40 1;
#P fasten 46 0 44 0 386 361 358 361 358 339 307 339;
#P fasten 4 0 16 0 82 146 319 146;
#P fasten 7 0 16 0 248 153 319 153;
#P fasten 12 0 16 0 206 153 319 153;
#P fasten 34 0 16 0 607 317 303 317 303 154 319 154;
#P fasten 25 0 16 0 432 317 303 317 303 154 319 154;
#P fasten 19 0 16 0 480 154 319 154;
#P fasten 17 0 16 0 405 154 319 154;
#P fasten 18 0 16 0 440 154 319 154;
#P fasten 20 0 16 0 555 154 319 154;
#P connect 16 0 22 0;
#P fasten 22 0 29 0 319 253 352 253;
#P connect 16 1 27 0;
#P connect 27 0 23 0;
#P connect 23 0 24 0;
#P fasten 26 0 28 0 538 246 432 246;
#P connect 24 0 28 0;
#P connect 28 0 25 0;
#P connect 51 1 52 0;
#P fasten 27 1 30 0 493 202 607 202;
#P connect 30 0 31 0;
#P fasten 32 0 33 0 730 247 607 247;
#P connect 31 0 33 0;
#P connect 33 0 34 0;
#P fasten 27 2 36 0 554 202 694 202;
#P connect 50 0 39 0;
#P pop;

Week 2: anger rising, rising, falllling...

2005-09-21T22:03:00.000-04:00

Sill working on my video-mixer patch. Getting down to the wire, hope I can finish it before midnight as I'm getting killed with reading in my other class, booking equipment + teaching + helping people catch up on what they've missed in the 2 classes I'm TAing, mixing a documentary & meeting with clients... Time for myself, expecially to be creative, is at a premium and I feel like I'm not getting the most out of this exercise, especially looking at my 'mates' work.

I'm trying not to treat these as excuses, but I would feel a whole lot better about learning the language here if I could just spend some more time with it. I feel like it needs to be daily, not on/off. I'm sure my instructor would agree. Once I finish this documentary mix next week I feel like things are going to get better.

I feel like the tutorials are helpful and I've been option-clicking everything, it all makes sense but it still doesn't come together in my head in terms of pointing me to action. (JB, thanks in advance for getting me the paper-copy of the manual, I think it will help!). I am relying heavily on looking at existing patches and applying what works out of them for me, which means I still don't totally understand what I'm inputting into the patch. I felt like this last time I started working with this program (and then left it alone for a long time) -- I understood the very basics and then got slightly lost. We'll push ahead this time.

Edit: does ANYONE know WTF the function of the "prepend append" message box is? I just don't get it. I know the flow of the router chooser/drop-down box works/depends on it, but why? I can't find this in the tutorials or ref manuals by searching.

MAX the envelope and such

2005-09-15T00:26:00.000-04:00

Exhibit infinity of a bad first blog, coming your way right here, so pardon me if I dispense with the formalities.

I like to listen to and hear what others have to say a lot more than I like to write it, even if I have inhabited a past life as a writer of sorts. I suppose I'll get used to it and jump on this just like any other sort of technology.

But the immediate purpose of this blog is to document my status with and share the experience of diving into MAX/MSP with my New School classmates.

So on that note...
After the first week, not a whole lot to report. Following the instructions of the tutorials is pretty straightforward and this pretty much mirrors what we were covering early on in my MAX workshop at Harvestworks, which was painfully brief. Like any software, especially programming languages, the time I spend screwing around and making patches is going to teach me a lot more than these examples, but that's part of what this class is for, giving me the deadlines and impetus to do something with this program instead of just thinking about it.

I'm sure that some real inquiries will develop as I continue here.

Until then...