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ICMC late concert on election night

Imagine yourself an ordinary New Orleans bus driver, doing your normal night route on St. Charles. Just two or three passengers, quiet. Maybe even a little quieter than usual given that many people are home watching election returns. Then suddenly you come to stop where twenty or so weird people with laptops and beeds get on the bus. That’s what happened to a bus driver last night when participants at the ICMC conference boarded to attend the offsite late-nite performance at the aptly named Columns Hotel.

The election so far went as well as one could expect at 11PM, with headlines suggesting things are about to change for the better – a takeover of the House, Virginia is the new Florida (with George “macaca” Allen trailing), and social conservatives (i.e., the littering religious right) lost a trifecta on abortion, stem cells and gay marriage. Plus, I get to watch all of this from the home (and district) of William “Frozen Assets” Jefferson.

So what better way to celebrate than with experimental electronic improv music in an old hotel parlor? First on the program was Pink Canoes, who hail from the Bay Area. I was acquainted with several members of the group by name only (and vice versa), so it was quite ironic to meet in person in New Orleans. Musically, they played free improvisation with guitars, effects pedals, analog synths and circuit-bend instruments, similar to some of the group improvisations I have done with friends in Santa Cruz. I get the sense that many of the academics at the conference hadn’t heard much of this sub-genre of electronic music. Personally I would like to see more hybridization among free electronic improv, traditional computer music, and even things like the jazz duo that was also playing in the hotel at the same time.

Pink Canoe was followed by the due Andre Castro + Martin Aeserud, featuring laptop and “prepared” acoustic guitar. I found the guitar quite interesting to watch as well as listen to, and gives me some ideas for projects with the guitar that’s sitting in pieces on the floor back home.

More on the conference later.





Weekend in New Orleans Part 2: City views and Scultpure Garden

My second excursion focused on walking, art and photography. I began by heading downtown from the hotel along St. Charles Avenue, following the inactive streetcar route. The hotel clerk later advised me that this may not have been the wisest action because of some rather sketchy blocks along the way. Personally, I don't think there was much of issue during the day – a lot of times such concerns are exaggerated. In addition to the “stately mansions” of the Garden district and the occasional boarded-up business, the walk along St Charles affording an opportunity to sample some of the local politics. Something called “Amendment 7”, which I gather has something to do with assessors, seems to be a big deal in this neighborhood. And of course, there are reminders that depite some of New Orlean's reputation, we are still deep in the south and “red America”:

Apparently “fundamental values” don't include keeping the streets free of litter. These flyers were scattered all over the sidewalk, and probably made a nice paste in the rains on Monday.

St. Charles passes under Highway 90 and empties out onto Robert E. Lee square. I'm guessing this was a significant central point in the past, but it seems to be a rather seedy area on the edge of downtown. I kinda like the irony of that. One notable landmark is the Circle Bar, which I hope to visit before the end of the trip. Moving west, one enters the “arts-warehouse” district that attempts to be the downtown of art galleries and clubs one finds in other cities. Not a lot seemed to open early on Sunday, it is good to see alternatives to tourist center of French Quarter getting built up. Here we see a Cat Noir, a cabaret-style club compete with one of my favorite of the old Toulouse Lautrec posters.

I did finally locate not only a source for the transit day-passes, but also a working streetcar on Canal Street. Here zip and I catch a ride:

Actually, these are the historic cars from the non-functional St. Charles line, but moved over to the new Canal Street line because its cars were flooded.

Heading up Canal street, more of the damaged and closed businesses can be seen. On one block will be luxury hotels or appartments, on the next a boarded up department store or theatre:

As the streetcar continues north past the I-10 overpass, more severe physical and social damange becomes apparent, with shuttered businesses and entire blocks empty or in ruins:


Click on the lower photos to view them in more detail. Notable on the lower right are the ubiquitous spray-paint symbols indicating that the house was checked after the storm, and the first roaming kitty cat of the trip.

Our ultimate destination was the city park, home to the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) and the city sculpture garden. The city park is close to Lake Pontchartrain and the Lakeview neighborhood, and suffered extensive damage, from which it is still recovering. However, the museum weathered the storm with little damage, and reopened in February.

One scultpure in the garden was topped during the hurricane, is is currently being repaired by the artist. Otherwise, it faired well and reopened last December. They have an impressive collection of modernist and contemporary figurative works. I have included a few of my photos here. (A few of the best photos from the garden and the trip in general will be included in my photography section when I get a chance to update it). Again, you can click on any of the photos below for a more detailed view:



I think the wedding photo session on the bridge adds a nice contrast to the tower of violins in the lower right.

In addition to finding good art within the city, I also sought and found good music outside the main tourist destinates. My brief experiences with music and nightlife will be explored in part 3…











Scary musings for Halloween

All Hallows Eve is again upon us as it seems to do just about once every year. Of course, the theme this year is on a happy and safe Halloween for black kitties, but that doesn't mean not getting more into the spirit of things.

Here I am attempting to provide a little Halloween spirit at the office, yet remain fully productive and engaged:

The astute observer may recognize Lotus Notes on the screen. Talk about scary…

Want to hear something else scary? Check the latest report on climate change (aka global warming) as a human and economic crisis. Nothing new for anyone using their eyes, ears, and a fraction of their brain. But once again we see our leaders downplaying the dangers, calling for more science and questioning the costs of working to reverse the problem. Funny how they have all the science they need to ban stem cell research or deny the theory of evolution?

Forget the war. The biggest crimes against humanity by Bush, Cheney and their cronies are the failure to act against global climate change and the crisis already upon us, and their general dimissal of scientific reality and its benefits for all human-kind in order to support their narrow interests. Big oil, big outdated industries, big religion.

Close to home, this is yet another reason to oppose Richard Pombo (did we mention that he is California's worst representative?). Recall that he is the person who proudly tramples any attempt to preserve land and air and natural treasures and acts like polluting and plundering are divine rights of his friends. What amazes me is that the people of his district need other incentives like the war, corruption and general anti-Republican sentiment to vote against him. Isn't his shameful record on the environment enough?

More Halloween-and-politics convergence. With the election only a week away, here?s how things currently look (actually, this will always be current no matter when you look at it, at least through November 7):

Click for electoral-vote dot com

Click for electoral-vote dot com

This is where we start have to worry about the ability of Republicans to ?raise a zombie army? of voters, as I heard one commentator describe their get-out-the-vote effort in 2004. Actually, the phrase Republican Zombie seems to be quite common ? you can check that yourself with a quick Google search. Then again, any good republican zombie will tell you that Google is liberally biased. If that were the case, I would expect to see more amusing images on this topic. The best I came up with was this old movie poster:

If I had more time this week, I could easily put something together in Poser/DAZ-Studio, but I already have an incomplete Halloween image in the queue as November 1 rapidly approaches, so maybe an update later on?






Beckett enters California politics

Few political articles reference Samuel Beckett's masterpiece Waiting for Godot, but that's exactly what we find at SayNoToPombo as they cover the recent wave of newspaper endorsements against Richard Pombo.

We at CatSynth dubbed Mr. Pombo California's Worst Representative in an earlier post.

It is nice to see literary references that add a bit of sophistication to what is otherwise an ugly campaign season.






The races

Here is the round-up of the various races I'm watching this month:

Click for electoral-vote dot com

Click for electoral-vote dot com

Series: Mets 1, St. Louis 1

Thu, 12 Oct: Mets 2, STL 0
Fri, 13-Oct: STL 9, Mets 6

I was hoping for another Subway series, but a Democratic majority in Congress is a nice consolation prize…

UPDATE: The Mets have pulled even at 2-2 with a rout on Sunday. Nothing so dramatic on the political scorecard over the weekend.





Vermont congressman leads run for Senate

From an AP article today:

BURLINGTON, Vt. – For three decades, Rep. Bernie Sanders has been a party of one, an avowed socialist who rails against corporate America, Republicans, Democrats and all those he believes fail the poor and working families. Now 65, the Brooklyn-born independent and his crusade could end up in the Senate.

It's great to see Bernie Sanders succeeding in his Senate bid. I had the opportunity to meet him while I was at Yale, during a private dinner before his appearance at the Yale Political Union. I got to attend because I was the organization's secretary at the time, basically a glorified stenographer. But I did often lace minutes with my dry humor, a practice that annoyed more uptight members. I did send a copy of the minutes from the meeting Sanders attended to his congressional office, and got both a letter and phone response saying he got a kick of the transcripts. The humor and style was really a New York thing that people like Sanders can appreciate and others, well, appreciate a bit less. From the same AP article, consider this comment from one of Sanders' critics about his style:

Part of it is just his mannerisms and his Brooklyn accent and his kind of loud reaction to things,” said Sara Gear Boyd of Burlington, Vermont's longtime Republican national committeewoman. “He's always kind of in-your-face with his reactions. Then, philosophically, he's worlds apart from the way most Republicans think. His solutions are truly much more socialistic, and that just kind of grates.”

Let's see, loud, Brooklyn, “socialistic”(sp)…hey, what's not to like?





Webs on an autumn afternoon

It's been a rather pleasant October afternoon, warm, breezy, with a clear sky. The mobile sculpture Airborne catches both the wind and the waning October sun:

The garden plants are doing about as well as they have all year. Admist a recent burst of flowers, I noticed this rather impressive spider web:

…not to mention the rather impressive spider that inhabits it:

The peace of the backyard was briefly interrupted by the sound of cats fighting. More worrisome was the sound of an angry dog barking in response. After peeking over the fence to investigate, I was assured by a neighbor that it was “just some crazy cats.” One of the “crazy cats” wandered into view and I immediately recognized him as the friendly grey tabby that often visits my yard (I jokingly refer to him for a while as Luna's “boyfriend”). Foruntately, he seemed to be none the worse for wear.

Cats, or more specifically, cat allergies, have been much in the news this weekend. The New York Times featured an article on a California biotech company that is breeding hyperallergenic “no sneeze” kitties, two of which are pictured to the right. The market for the hypoallergenic cats, which the company says will cost about $4000 USD each, is people who love cats in spite of their allergies. It is certainly a high price tag, but I gather so are the medications for the most severe allergies. Those who seek a more affordable feline companion and want to continue to adopt shelter cats can take heart in a study supporting the theory that having pets cuts allergy risks. Finally, there is this story from Wales about a hospital fighting to keep their cat Tibs, who has chearing up patients for years. While I do my best to avoid hospitals, I know having a cat around would help me during a health crisis.

I had an opportunity last night to jam with some friends and acquaintances I have not seen in a while. I played keyboard, with primarily piano, electric piano and organ sounds, though I did add a Moogerfooger pedal to the mix. Musically, we did a mixture of jazz standards, some 12-bar and 16-bar “headless” jams, and several trippy free-jazz experiments with keyboard, guitar, bass and drums. The latter reminded me of how I would like to get together a standard “quartet” at some point that freely moves back and forther between jazz/funk and experimental improvisation. It would be quite a contrast to my recent performances, but still consistent with my musical vision and sensibilities…

…in another example of slipping back and forth between disparate musical styles, I was listening earlier to alternating tracks from Ethiopiques, which I described in an earlier article, and the rather dark, political, and vaguely Middle-Eastern electronic music of Muslimgauze. The two albums could not be more different in geography, style, production and social context, yet they seemed to work well together. The dark electronica of Muslimgauze worked for me, dispite an implicit political view I probably don't share, and the gritty funk of Ethiopiques brought me back to reality. Perhaps here is the seed of another musical project…

…or just idle thoughts on a warn autumn day…










Musical robot composes, performs and teaches

I'm looking forward to seeing new music gear at the Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention in San Francisco this afternoon. However, I doubt I will see anything quite as innovative as this musical robot:

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — A professor of musical technology at Georgia Tech, Gil Weinberg, enlisted the support of graduate student Scott Driscoll to create Haile — the first truly robotic musician…
…Think of Haile (pronounced Hi-lee) as a robotic partner in the percussion form of dueling banjos. Although it has numerous musical algorithms programmed into it, Haile's basic function is to “listen” to what musicians are playing and play along with them…
…The robotic drummer is not only programmed with specific pieces but also with an understanding of countless pitches, rhythms and patterns, which are used during performances. Like a concert drum solo, Haile never quite plays the same thing twice, but plays off the creations of those performing around it.

We'll know we have truly created robotic musicians when they show up late to gigs and step into the alley between sets for a smoking break and other recreational intakes.

Actually, I did some research into computer programs that can “listen” to music and generate new material that is similar but not identical, way back in high school in 1990. Basically, it recorded MIDI input, created a decision tree of sorts, and generated new music from it. I had good time working on that project, and while my teachers and a few computer-music faculty I talked to at MIT and elsewhere seemed impressed, other “distinguished scientists” brought in to review our research projects largely pooh-pooh'ed this work as “not being science.” True, it was not a science experimental per se, but I've always been bothered by those in academic science that don't value innovative engineering. This happened in graduate school as well, where the computer science faculty wanted “science.” I wonder how they would have reacted to Weinberg's musical-robot project? I have always been more interested in making things than taking measurents and analyzing data, and thus have been mostly turned off from pursuing a career in scientific research.




California's Worst Representative

Seems I have politics on the brain this week, and no wonder considering the high stakes:

Click for electoral-vote dot com

Click for electoral-vote dot com

Not much excitement in my own district (or any other district in which I have resided during my time in California), but one does not have to go too far east to find California's Worst Representative.


Richard Pombo represents the 11th District, and is the chair of the House Resources Committee. Pombo hails from Tracy, a town that is a poster child for ugly exurban sprawl (and the butt of a lot of jokes when I was living in the East Bay). He has long been obsessed with dismantling the 1973 Endangered Species Act. In addition to being as old as I am, the Endangered Species Act protects a wide variety of plants and animals, including the San Joaquin Kit Fox that inhabits Pombo's district (pictured to the right).

From interviews and statements I've heard, on NPR and elsewhere, he seems to take pride in his work to weaken or eliminate environmental protection and sell land and resources from our National Park System and elsewhere to developers and speculators. He supports not only the oft-mentioned drilling proposal for the Artic Wildlife National Refuge, but also end the long-time ban on drilling of the California coast. His name surfaced again in recent reports about protecting the coast of Northern California (Mendocino, etc.). And, like most of his fellow conservative Republicans, all his efforts seem to be done with a sense that he is on some sort of righteous crusade.

He has also been implicated in several of the trendy Republican scandals, but that's the least of his faults.

You can read more, a lot more, at PomboWatch and Say No To Pombo. Oh, and it might be worth visiting his opponent's website, too. This is turning out to be a competitive race, so any interest and support may help send Pombo back to Tracy, and help some of our endangered friends in the process:

UPDATE: The Stockton Record covers the CA-11 debate last night between Pombo and McNerney.





Clown is running for mayor of Alameda

From an AP article

ALAMEDA, Calif. – A real clown is running for mayor of Alameda, and even his sister won't vote for him.

Kenneth Kahn, 41, a professional joker known as “Kenny the Clown,” admits he's running a long-shot campaign for City Hall's top spot. Kahn has not previously run for an elected position and has never sat on a public board.

“People ask me, 'Do we really want to elect a clown for mayor of the city?'” he said. “I say, 'That's an excellent question.'”

Kahn's mother, Barbara, said her son doesn't have a chance, and Sylvia Kahn, a teacher, said her brother's candidacy is a “mockery of our system.”

“I don't think it makes any sense, because, to me, running for mayor is not where you start as far as community involvement goes,” she said.

In November, the funnyman who graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, faces incumbent Beverly Johnson and City Councilman Doug deHaan.

Hey, why not a clown for mayor? It seems to be a major qualification for national leadership: