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One more foto phunny from last week:
Photo: Daniel Brunner
For those who heard rumor that a "Night Wall" listening event might happen this weekend, it's postponed until further notice! I'm too buried from vacation recovery and a week of Phase II sessions. Watch this space for news of a pending rescheduling.
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Quick shot from the final session earlier today:
Team self-portrait: Bill Munyon, SB, Pat Mastelotto, Todd Hanna.
And while I'm thinking of it, Happy Birthday to Jon Anderson (yesterday.)
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...for this moment.
It's Friday evening, end of a very long day back in the saddle after two glorious weeks of largely unplugged time off. My day began at 5am Seattle time (3am Maui time) after finally getting to sleep at 1:30am. So I'm back on Pelota-time. After some brief homework, I drove up to the University Best Western to meet RF and JS for 8am coffee before heading into an all day micro-soundscapes session to be eventually transformed into some brief but potent "splashes." It was a good day's work, and from another view, the work today was a cumlimation of 19+ years of preparation on my part multiplied by 39+ from RF. Courtesy of Scoble and Charles Torre, we even captured a few BootlegTV moments that may eventually surface as historical documentation. But, in the near term, there is still much to do to process the work of the day. And additional sessions to perpare for early next week.
Around 4pm, JS peeled off to deliver the gear to the airport, while the design team met for a completion meeting until 5ish.
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More tidbits from our Maui vacation:
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Having a great time in a great place with great company. My hard drive has been making horrid sounds so doing anything digital on this island has been a challenge. I'll be back in action here next week.
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Evening Work: The Long Tail (3.8M mp3).
A restful Sunday, then, this evening, another quick song sketch on the way with PaulO and TravisM. This one is an improvisation, still a little shaky in the middle, and lyrics not 100% there yet, but some clean up and completion coming later this week. Also, we have two rehearsals in the calendar this week in preparation for a Mercer Island House Concert on Friday evening.
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Evening Work: Night Wall - Complete (38.2M mp3).
Exactly two months ago (on July 31st) I took on a project to write a musical score to accompany Duncan Weller's book Night Wall. In initiating this project, I had no idea where it would lead, and each night as I turned the page, I was faced with the challenge of orchestrating the amazing words and images of this multi-level story. The melodies and forms of each section seemed to pour out as if they were simply already there waiting for me to unveil them from underneath each page.
From Duncan's own description of Night Wall:
"The world of Night Wall is all metaphor to put into play two opposite views of nature. Sarah has no problem with the forest in the back yard and loves its mysteries, even at night. Julie sees monsters lurking deep inside. The story is about overcoming one's own fears and the fear of the natural world, that all to often is treated as enemy. I also tried my hand at layering metaphor and making the story about other concerns. The overall success of this story depends upon the young reader picking up on my intentions. I also want Night Wall to be a fun mystery with strong characters and memorable scenes."
Lyrics, Story, Paintings: Duncan Weller
Songs, Arrangements, Vocals, Guitars, Pianos: SB
Night Wall Theme Bass: Paul O'Rear
Night Wall Theme Acoustic Guitar: Travis Metcalf
Secret Agent Theme Bass: Derek DiFilippo
Duncan and I have been in recent correspondence and we're considering transforming the music and images into a DVD, and perhaps also bundling a CD with the next edition of the book assuming this is something that interests his publisher.
Now that the form is 'complete, there are definitely a few rough spots that stand out to my ears, so I'll likely go back and polish a few of the pitchy vocals, transitions between pages, and dodgy guitar parts. I'm also thinking of adding a subtle sound (perhaps a bell?) to indicate exactly when it is time to turn each page. For the record, I don't own or use (or believe in) "auto-tuning" anything even though that seems to be getting easier every day with the latest software tools. Generally, these performances flow out and are captured warts and all with very little clean up aside from an odd edit or tonal coloring applied.
For those interested, I'm thinking of hosting a full Night Wall 'listening event' with books and music on Saturday Oct 29th, my place. This date (circa Halloween) seems appropriate given this is an adult book for children about fear. Pencil that date in for now, and I'll see if I can make the logistics work around my otherwise schedule-challenged calendar.
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I have a significant back-log of music in the pipeline now including four about-to-become songs from the new SBRS lineup as well as some additional Electric Gauchos work to do to complete the EGBS. With Night Wall coming to a completion soon, I'm looking forward to getting back into some of the other exciting stuff that is hovering just beyond this project.
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One reason I love computers: as a result of being directly wired into the distributed world mind, they enable a sort of Intelligence Amplification. Although I have a strong memory (not photographic, but I'm naturally capable multiplied by years of focused and applied training in music, engineering, graphics; I'm good with both aural and visual patterns) my brain provides a sort of lossy random access whose level of access comes and goes based upon my physical and emotional state.
One reason 'search' is such a crucial part of our technology-based culture and business landscape in 2005 is that information access is now one of the primary gates dictating the acceleration of this potential Intelligence Amplification that is possible as we each begin to have access to trillions of distributed thoughts, ideas, and experiences that come pouring through these little eyeballs on our desks and laps. I am only as effective as the slowest or weakest link in my ability to access the data (including experiences, history, knowledge, laws, principles) needed to make excellent decisions and achieve (or avoid) my vision, mission, goals, accomplishments, and destiny.
Vernor Vinge has done a ton of writing on this idea. Also, just ordered the new Ray Kurzweil book in preparation for an upcoming break for two weeks of offline reading, 'analog' practicing, and general relaxation away from my current and constantly crammed calendar.
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