Radio tower atop “Communications Hill” in San Jose, California.
san jose
Earthquake
It's just one of those things when you live in California. You know an earthquake when you feel it, and we at CatSynth definitely felt it tonight. From Associated Press:
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 and struck shortly after 8 p.m., about 9 miles northeast of San Jose, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The earthquake was in full force here at CatSynth HQ, with the nasty side-to-side motion and our many glass items shaking quite intensely. But we're fine, no damage, and it sounds like there was little or no damage elsewhere. Luna was a little shaken, though.
Last night's performance at Works/San Jose
Well, once I managed to get 451 S 1st Ave after navigating the the highways and streets of San Jose, things went pretty smoothly. With such a small rig, set up was quick and easy, taking only a few minutes:
Just the laptop, keyboard, fish and audio interface.
As usual, I don’t have any pics of the performance itself – though I expect to receive some from others. Here is a great shot of John Moreira warming up:
The highlighted wire on the right is the connect from John’s guitar to my laptop for electronic processing.
The performance itself went well, no major issues. Polly’s flute sections were particularly strong. Overall, our playing wasn’t quite as tight and aggressive sounding as it was during the rehearsal, and of course no kitty antics – that does really add a lot. But it was a good first public show for our little group, hopefully first of several to come.
KIOKU was great, musically and visually:
Interestingly, I already knew the laptop artist Christopher Ariza from the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in Barcelona two years ago. Small world.
Fun with highways: San Jose
Because I am too tired to write about tonight's performance, I'll simply leave you with the impressive interchange between highway 87 and I-280 near downtown San Jose:
The Works/San Jose Gallery, this evening's venue, is on S 1st Street, in the upper right corner of the image. It's a funky neighborhood south of downtown, filled with galleries and performances spaces, many of which were still going at night – real city nightlife is one of those things you miss living someplace like Santa Cruz, which shuts down pretty early and tends to drive its live-music venues out of town.
Although close to the interchange, S 1st Street is not easily accessible from either I-280 or highway 87. The easiest way to get there from the south is to take 87 and immediately get off downtown. San Jose's streets are generally slow-moving and confusing, and even more so because of the San Jose Grand Prix, which sounds more like a live-action video game than a civic event. Needless to see, I did eventually get there, with the 280 elevated tantalizingly visible.
The performance went well and will be discussed in another article.
Attempting to exit was just as difficult. I ended up on a series of detours taking me onto highway 87 south of the interchange with no way back to 280. Instead of attempting to backtrack, I just kept going on 87, but eventually made my way home and probably lost very little in time or distance. Plus, it was different. That can be good now and then.