Steve Ball

Birthday BBQ

Recap: Morning calisthenics, sitting, and rehearsal for three.  A very musical calisthenics building on over three years of work improvising in various forms and formats with this configuration.

Afternoon: shopping and preparation for Regina's Birthday BBQ. 

Evening: delicious BBQ with corn on the cob followed by X-Box 360 racing games (I got whooped) then a Chess game (Kevin got whooped) and a rematch -- as yet unfinished:

* * * 

Song of the Day

The Missing Lens (7.3M)

“What strikes me most about organizations is their regularity – the same scenarios keep happening again and again in the widest variety of settings – manufacturing, high technology, religious institutions, schools, community groups, government agencies, universities. The same patterns keep showing up, but rarely do people feel that they are living out a pattern. Each event seems very specific to their unique organization, circumstances, and people. It matters little that all over the world, many thousands of people in all varieties of organizations are having the same experience. The lens we are missing is a systemic one. We don’t see systems, we just see people. We don’t see system spaces, we only see the effects spaces have on us. So when things go wrong, we blame what we see.” - In the Middle by Barry Oshry

This reflective improvisation is inspired by and meant to be a representation of that active tension that drives harmony between the bottoms (bass) and tops (high melodies.)

* * *

Picture of the Day

 
100% Coincidence, Women in Orange: Erika, Regina, and Laura

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Word of the Day

ex·pur·gate
verb, transitive

To remove erroneous, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable material from (a book, for example) before publication.

[Latin expurgare, expurgat-, to purify : ex-, intensive pref.. See ex- + purgare, to cleanse.]

* * *

Green and Growing

Recap: In typical pre-milestone fashion, his past week has been a blur of wall to wall meetings and an intense passage through a level three-ish transition that has been part of getting a new org off the ground.   The transition has not been without numerous bumps, twists, and puzzles along the way.  

I have seen at least seven distinct Windows orgs come and go over the past thirteen years.  This one is fresh, experienced, and just beginning to blossom.  

But it too, nevertheless, is as evanescent as each I've observed in the past. 

* * * 

Song of the Day

New Hope (6.1M)

"This improvisation is blatantly inspired by Rick Wakeman's appearance, commentary, and playing in the recently released Bob Moog documentary. The 'new hope' in this for me is represented by my own reconnection to the piano after years of focus on work with guitars.

As this image rather unsubtly suggests, there is something green and growing reflected in the sides of the piano keys."

* * *

Picture of the Day

Regina, almost exactly one year ago.  Today: a major milestone.

* * *

Word of the Day

ev·a·nes·cent
adjective

Vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor.
See synonyms at transient. 

— ev´a·nes?cent·ly adverb

* * *

The Other Four Days

Recap: when I first began to work at Microsoft (so long ago) there was an often-articulated feeling among some who had been around for awhile.  It goes something along the lines of:  "Three days a week, I love my job and can't believe I get paid to do this.  The other four days, it is pure hell." 

Today was one of those 'other four' kinds of days. 

During certain times in the product cycle, that ratio can change to 4/1, and others 1/4 (assuming -- HA! -- a five day work week.)    I suppose I can be thankful that it is rarely (if ever) 0/5.  Or worse, 0/7.  Even when I feel stuck in some mundane middleness, this work and this life is still blissful and blessed.

Sometimes, I love to imagine, as I've heard exists in Europe, a four day work week.  Is this real?  

Fortunately, this Friday was completed with a lively Roadshow performance at Paul's church.  We played for over two hours, and we barely scratched the surface on our growing set list.   A great way to kick-off the weekend and transition out of this week.

* * * 

Song of the Day

Middleness (13.7M) - a plodding improvisation that nicely captures the endless feeling of this day.  My favorite segment is after ~5:50 where the frenetic melodies on top of the slow plodding bass finally evolve and converge and turns left into the dissonant drama at around 8:19.

"Middleness is not a position; it is a condition. It is a condition all of us experience at various times and in varying degrees, in what ever position we are in, where we are at or near the top, on the bottom, or in the middle of the organization hierarchy.

Middleness is the condition in which we exist between two or more individuals or groups; these groups have differing priorities, perspectives, goals, needs, and wants; and each of them exerts pressure on us to function on its behalf."

-- In the Middle by Barry Oshry

A textural analogy to that condition of being in the middle; teetering on instability and balancing only occasionally resolving dissonances with feverish activity between the piercingly sharp and demanding highs and slow and steadily plodding lows.

* * *

Picture of the Day

* * *

Word of the Day

Euro

The euro (currency sign: €; banking code: EUR) is the official currency of the Eurozone (also known as the Euro Area), which consists of the European states of Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. It is the single currency for more than 317 million Europeans.

Including areas using currencies pegged to the euro, the euro affects more than 480 million people worldwide.  With more than €610 billion in circulation as of December 2006 (equivalent to US$802 billion at the exchange rates at the time), the euro has surpassed the U.S. dollar in terms of combined value of cash in circulation.

- from Wikipedia

* * *

In Review: Driving to the Next Equinox

Recap: it is 'review time' at work which means it's time for reflection on what has been accomplished over the past 12 months.  This is sort of like a 12-month recapitulation: what have I done over this past year? In a company of 70,000 Type A personalities, it also becomes time for working hard to complete actions that map to the 'commitments' that were written to cover this period six months earlier. 

It is assumed in this system that you will do what you say you will do.   

It is actually a rather brilliant system that guarantees at least a minimum bar of actualization and intentional work for a large group of people.  There are at least three aims working in parallel in this system: 

1. I will do what I said I would do (from my own initiative)  
2. I will do what my manager needs me to do 
3. I will do what is necessary for the business 

Interesting tension arises if and when any of these three fall out of alignment.  And miracles can happen when these three align for large numbers of people. From my small seat on this giant ship, this is the most incredible part of working at Microsoft.

Building on yesterday's analogy about Baby and Band names, a similar observation may be made about playing music in a group:

1. I will play what I wish to play  
2. I will play what the music needs me to play 
3. I will play what is necessary for the group  

Likewise, when these three aims line-up within a musical group, miracles can happen:  each player (musically) 'speaking truth in their own voice," while also playing a part that supports both the music and the group. 

Evening: some reflection, forward and backward, on this Solstice.  And looking forward to the drive to this next Equinox when my world will be very different.

* * *

Song of the Day

Remembering the Future (7.6M)

"This Songtile is from a two week Summer Art camp that I attended in 1978 at the Allerton House just outside Champaign Urbana, Illinois. I was given a scholarship based upon my early and growing affinities for art, cartooning, and drawing. The purpose of the retreat was to give aspiring high-school students an opportunity to work immersively with and learn from University Art faculty that we students might one day follow-through and come back to undergraduate art study.

Musically, this texture has two segments: the first half is a moody pulsing, hormone-driven sonic wallpaper arranged for flirting piano and acoustic guitar; the second half is a slower un-resolving, chordal follow-up that reflects the early relationships initiated, but delayed by cross-country distances."

* * *

Picture of the Day

Source picture from the 'Remembering the Future' songtile.

* * *

Word of the Day

e·qui·nox
(plural e·qui·nox·es)
noun 

1. time of equal day and night: either of the two annual crossings of the equator by the Sun, once in each direction, when the length of day and night are approximately equal everywhere on Earth.

The equinoxes occur around March 21 and September 23.

2. astronomy: same as equinoctial point

[14th century. Directly or via French < Latin aequinoctium "equal night" < nox "night"]

* * *

Band Names vs. Baby Names

Recap: up for an early meeting despite being up late last night after rehearsal.  

Observation: in considering a baby name, I had a rather mundane but interesting epiphany: there are characteristics in common with the age old dilemma of choosing a band name and choosing a baby name.   Both involve an ability to identify and articulate an essence of a person or personality.

Being our last 'free' evening of the week (including the weekend) Regina and I compiled our lists of favorite baby names.  In doing so, we also noticed the characteristics we desire in selecting a name:

1. easy to spell
2. easy to guess correct spelling if name is heard over the phone
3. not embarrassing (what is the 'opposite' of embarrassing?)
4. unique, but not stupid
5. choice contains an interesting story
6. meaningful (not arbitrary)
7. relationships to existing people
8. relevant to the baby's personality

There are countless stories of bands struggling to find the 'perfect' name.  I assume the same is true for the six billion or so parents on the planet?

* * *

Song of the Day

When the Money's Gone (3.4M)

That's Brock Pytel on drums demonstrating his excellent, pure, and essential pop sensibility. Steven Rhodes on Bass. Me on acoustic guitar and vocals. At one point, Curt Golden had played electric guitar on this as well, but I don't hear him in this mix? This may have recorded before the four of us rehearsed and recorded some demos as a band for a few months in 1999?

Either way, interesting to hear this snapshot demo from 1999 in light of recent recording projects.

Brock, Curt, Steven Rhodes and I went through a long naming brainstorm that generated hundreds of names.  The final chose name: Namarupa.  As happens with many bands, we broke up soon after the first photo session. 

Regarding the name, let's see how it rates on the scale above:

1. easy to spell: 
   3/10. perhaps if you're familiar with Sanskrit 
   
2. easy to guess correct spelling:
   2/10 see #1
   
3. not embarrassing:
   6/10, I have no idea since we never really tested the name...
   
4. unique, but not stupid:
   6/10, definitely unique;  being stupid, I'm unable to measure stupidity
   
5. choice contains an interesting story:
   3/10 is how we chose the name "interesting"?  
   
6. meaningful (not arbitrary)
   9/10, this was really the top priority, mostly for Brock; I believe Stephen was more interested in interesting sounding names with no particular meaning
   
7. relationships to existing people
   8/10, yes, Brock was the strong advocate, and this is/was a meaningful word for him and his work
   
8. relevant to the baby's band's personality
   4/10, not sure since we did not play together long enough to let the name morph into the music, and vice versa s

I wonder if there is a word for this phenomenon: bands breaking up just after the first photo session?  If there is not, there should be.   I'm sure many other musicians have stories about this phenomenon -- perhaps sharing some of these stories will lead us to be able to name the word.

Back to the Song: this song was the first song I wrote in SBST (Steve Ball Standard Tuning, or alternatively SB Song Tuning, CGDADG: fifths on the bottom, fourths on top.) I discovered and adopted this tuning and it became my std 'song' tuning beginning in winter of 1991 soon after I moved (back) to Brookline in late Dec 2001 after three years of being based at Claymont Court in WV during the psuedo-famous three-year LCG world tour of 1989-1992.

I still use this tuning today for songwriting and practice on my Taylor and Steinberger guitars. 

The lyrics and this song are a reflection of real struggles in my own life at the time regarding children, and our role(s) in the sacrifices and decisions that enable their delivery

* * *

Picture of the Day

From an Ingrid Pape-Sheldon photo session at MS Studios. 

* * *

Word of the Day

e·piph·a·ny 
(plural e·piph·a·nies)
noun 

1. a sudden realization: a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence

"It came to him in an epiphany what his life's work was to be."

2. appearance of god: the manifestation of a divine being

[Early 17th century. See also Epiphany]

* * *

The Energy Economy

Recap: exactly three years ago today, Electric Gauchos (with the Seattle Electric Guitar Circle and the Atomic Chamber Ensemble) played an enfranchising show at Town Hall in Seattle.   This was a turning point for me, and the completion of a seven year cycle in Seattle of work with the Seattle Guitar Circle (1997-2004.)  This was also the beginning of a new cycle.    

Evening: SB Roadshow rehearsal in preparation for our show on Friday night.  My own impressions:

a) goodwill is in the air

b) we are getting tighter with this repertoire 

c) frequency of rehearsal is not necessarily related to our ability to be musical together

* * *

Song of the Day 

The Energy Economy (13.7M) - Electric Gauchos from June 2004.

"The idea of ‘economy’ is perhaps easier to grasp when dealing with physical things, like, say money. Food is pretty easy: this sushi is worth about $15. Pretty easy to measure value just after a meal as the check arrives. It gets harder when applying it to intangibles. However, the same principles apply. What does it ‘cost’ to get up one hour earlier every day to practice before work? What does it ‘cost’ to trade that early morning hour for one hour less of evening relaxation or socialization or television? What does it ‘cost’ to believe you have enough skill, talent, and determination to be ‘successful’ at whatever you take on? What does it ‘cost’ to go to a meeting? What does it cost to let go?

Musically, this is one of the 'driving' improvisations that came out of Electric Gauchos studio work in June of 2004. Taking the 'driving' analogy further, around the same time this was recorded, I also became intrigued by the idea of using of "Electric Gauchos" on a sort of "inner-state" road sign logo giving us some indication of where we are and where we could be going -- of course, the road chosen depends upon who (if anyone is driving.)"

* * *

Photo(s) of the Day

June 19th, 2004: Electric Gauchos (SB, Travis Metcalf, Fernando Samalea, Derek DiFilippo, and Fernando Kabusacki)

  
Display ad for the show by David LaVallee.

* * *

Word(s) of the Day

en·fran·chise 
verb, transitive
en·fran·chised, en·fran·chis·ing, en·fran·chis·es

1. to bestow a franchise on

2. to endow with rights of citizenship, especially the right to vote

3. to free, as from bondage

[Middle English enfraunchisen, from Old French enfranchir, enfranchiss-, to set free : en-, intensive pref.. See en-1 + franchir (from franc, free). See frank1.]

Adding one more since definition #1 is rather recursive:

fran·chise
noun

1. a privilege or right officially granted a person or a group by a government

2. authorization granted to someone to sell or distribute a company's goods or services in a certain area

3. a business or group of businesses established or operated under such authorization

3. the territory or limits within which immunity, a privilege, or a right may be exercised

4. a professional sports team

[Middle English fraunchise, from Old French franchise, from franche feminine of franc, free, exempt. See frank1.]

* * *

Communications 101: Electric Pulse Division

Recap:  the workday began with our weekly check-up for expecting mother and baby.  I was able to tag along to hear the (very fast) heartbeat.  All is healthy and well.

Obvious statement of the day: nature is amazing and incredible.  Even that which is right in front of us is insanely inexplicable and miraculous.  I'm always confused by folks who seem to be 'in search of the miraculous.'  For me, it is clear that 'the miraculous' is right in front of (and inside, and all around) us, constantly.

* * *

Despite my ongoing inability to take or return phone calls, I received another nice voicemail from high school friend SBMc today. 

To be clear, I recognize and accept that I am a "bad" friend of close friends from past lives and/or locations.  My 'foreground attention' is 100% focused on current projects and relationships that are in motion in the present and relatively near future.  I've struggled over the years with how to manage "close relationships" (and their related expectations) with hundreds of friends, former schoolmates, band-mates, work-mates, acquaintances, and generally excellent people spread all over the globe.

I can generally keep up with about 8-10 "close" local active 'friendships.'  On top of that, monthly, I often manage to at least 'check-in' with 4-5 friends and acquaintances from around the country and globe via email or phone.   But, I only have so much continuous partial attention to invest, and I often find myself with a list of 10 - 20 important (but not urgent) unreturned phone calls and/or emails from folks who deserve better.  

My 'catch-up' communications tend to go out in little bursts or packets (the analogy is short cyclic pulse divisions.) For example, if and when a free slot opens up on the weekend, or when I'm triaging my inbox (generally one weekend a month I rapidly delete or store bringing it down from >1000 unread to ~100 or so that I need to act on. And unfortunately, each session, many remain unanswered and un-addressed.

I am reminded of Jon Hassell's apt analogy of music to periodicals: some music is(relationships are) like newspapers: they are meant for everyday interaction. Some are like magazines: requiring weekly or monthly attention.  Some are like novels: read in cycles measured in months or years for serial novels such as the Cryptonomicon series.    

And some are like reference books that are always useful and relevant however frequently (or not) they are opened. 

* * *

Song of the Day

Three Years Ago: Electric Pulse Division (11.1M mp3)

"This version features Paul O'Rear, Lee Silberkleit, Joel Palmer, Sandra Prow, Greg Meredith, Taylor Sherman, and myself on electric guitars and ebows, plus special guest Larry Swanson on percussion. What you hear is live, unedited, and as raw as it was played with the exception of one deleted chord and one deleted ebow noise.

My mission at the time was to develop and present all new, improvised, textural, contemporary chamber music for a large electric guitar ensemble. This is a mission I will return to again one day."

* * *

Picture of the Day

The latest lineup of the SB Roadshow will be playing live at a Coffeehouse this Friday night ~9pm at Mountain Ridge Community Church (MapQuest link.)   Doors open at 7 and there are and a number of other bands/artists on the bill before us, so come early and often if you are free this Friday evening.  

The address is: 

18133 NE 68th St.
Redmond,, WA 98052

* * *

Word of the Day

en·er·vate
verb, transitive
en·er·vat·ed, en·er·vat·ing, en·er·vates

1. To weaken or destroy the strength or vitality of: “the luxury which enervates and destroys nations” (Henry David Thoreau). See synonyms at deplete. 
2. Medicine: to remove a nerve or part of a nerve.

adjective
(i-nûr?vit)Deprived of strength; debilitated.

[Latin enervare, enervat- : e-, ex-, ex- + nervus, sinew.]

* * *

Reddish

Recap:  A luxurious Father's Day Sunday at home in Seattle.  Nesting and napping after a late night in the studio dealing with some mostly mundane networking issues.  About 95% of time in every recording studio I've ever worked and played in seems to be spent dealing with preparation (read: debugging gear or connections that don't quite work as expected) for the 'red light' rather than investing in playing while the red light is on.   

Now that the major kinks are worked out, my studio is ready and rolling.  My own 'red light' percentage should shoot up dramatically over this next year.    

Highlight of the day: a Father's Day BBQ dinner at home with a few new friends from our recently-graduated Penny Simpkin's Baby Class.  A great spread of people, food, and relevant conversation -- and not a diffident Dad in the bunch.   

* * *

Song of the Day

Reddish (3.9M mp3) - a guitar sketch with drums, about to become a song.

This is another quick, 100% improvised guitar sketch that just poured out this evening: this one is built upward from the drums, followed by the single take bass line, then single-take chords, and chords doubled, followed by two melodies.  There is not much editing going on here except cleaning up the head and tails. 

I had no idea what this was going to be or become before I began.  And in the end, it surprisingly evolved into 'Reddish' and named itself when I remembered this photo.   

The scanned photo in the Songtile was taken in 1989: this is the garden wall at Reddish House where I spent a number of months practicing and almost burning down various cottages.  Even then, I was building up a collection of images that I knew would be useful one day for exactly this purpose.   Eighteen years later, this photo has finally found the purpose of its original intention.

* * *

Picture of the Day

 
Post-BBQ, pre-dessert Father's Day photo-session featuring four about-to-be Fathers: Helen and Joel, Karen and Paul, Regina and Steve, Pamela and Mark.   If you look carefully, you can see the remote control in my left hand.

* * *

Word of the Day

dif·fi·dent
adjective

1. Lacking or marked by a lack of self-confidence
2. Shy and timid
3. Reserved in manner

[Middle English, from Latin diffidens, diffident- present participle of diffidere, to mistrust : dis-, dis- + fidere, to trust.]

* * *

Negative Feedback

Recap: a spirited morning rehearsal for three following last night's show.  Also, some useful discussion this morning about group operations: how to address subtle musical dissatisfactions in a way that is not deleterious to sensitive band mates?  

At Microsoft, the powerful idea of 'feedback' is built into the annual review system.  But in all human interactions, the party delivering the feedback must adapt and find a creative way to deliver feedback so that the receiver will be able to receive (and perhaps act on) the message with minimum stress and damage.

In B.C. Kuo's Automatic Control Systems class many years ago, I learned that it is actually negative feedback that enables a simple engine or filter to maintain itself within a stable system.    In my class, we used v1 of his book.  Amazon is now selling the 7th edition:

I believe the useful application of negative feedback in physics and in human relations is more than a poetic coincidence.   In both physics and human relations, it not easy.  Much like the sometimes-counter-intuitive equations and math that describe stable control systems, simple errors in how we deliver feedback can sometimes manifest the opposite of what we are actually seeking.

BTW, B.C. Kuo was one of my most inspiring professors at University of Illinois, and his class was one of the highlights of my EE education.   As strange as this sounds, for me, the universe seemed to sort of 'snap into place' during and after his class.   I'm sure the universe itself did not change much at all during the span of that class.  But my perception of how life operates certainly did.

* * *  

Song of the Day

Sign Error - Vocal Version (5.6M mp3)

never said it would be easy
why you always seem so busy
why you always seem so busy
never said it would be easy

I burned my hand in the hottest fire
I wrapped my heart up in your barbed wire
traded my map for a faint desire
gave up my soul-o to sing in your choir

why you always seem so busy
waiting for you makes me dizzy
waiting for you makes me crazy
why you always seem so busy

minor mistakes back at the beginning
slammed on the breaks when my horse was winning
sold out my savings in endless spending
pulled out rolled into a spinning ending
I was climbing your word tree when your leaves came crashing down on me
raked your words into one big blurb and sent all your sentences to the curb

rhythm in these repercussions
drowning without deep discussions
reading underneath your headlines
dancing all around your land mines
aren't you aware of what we've invested
do you not care what we've just ingested
how can it be you are not interested
can you not hear what is being suggested
it's hard to chew this residue and half-baked plan and grand break through
it's hard to trade in what I feel for bland mark land shark spew

conclusions here are all contracted
decisions here are all distracted
surprises here are all pre-sorted
desires here are all distorted

why do you always seem so busy
waiting for you makes me dizzy
waiting for you makes me crazy
why you always seem so busy

* * *

Photo of the Day

 
Paul, Chuck, SB, Lee, photo #12 by: David LaVallee.

* * *

Word of the Day

del·e·te·ri·ous
adjective

1. having a harmful effect
2. injurious

[From Greek deleterios, from deleter, destroyer, from deleisthai, to harm.]

* * *

Ongoing Knotwork

Recap: a small burst of a visual idea last night led to a string of nicely rendered parody album covers from my team at work today, all designed as potential psuedo-logos for our team.  This single spark led to a fun interwoven batch of covers that span the past forty years of music history -- these peppered my explodingly mundane inbox with small spurts of comic relief throughout the day. 

Evening: SB Roadshow live at a private party in Freemont.  We had a strong show, mostly due to the smart, and attentive audience who were even in the mood for our extended Yes set.   One measure of a satisfying show: everyone leaves with more energy and inspiration than they arrived with. 

My own impression is that this was such a show.

It is clear from certain moments in the show last night that this configuration is just beginning to reach a sort of confident stride: we know who we are and we now know how to operate musically as an integrated unit.   And our repertoire is beginning to take on a certain flavor and life of its own.   Of course, moments like these can quickly become deciduous if we over-analyze or dwell on them or pursue them as a specific goal, so I'll shut up now.  

One astute audient last night made an apt comparison to CSN that I had not (recently) considered. 

For me, much of the power in what we do lives in the marriage of relevant intelligent songs with an interlocking trio of guitars and voices. The same description also easily applies to CSN. 

* * *

Song of the Day

Knotwork (5.2M) - Piano Version

"This arrangement is another example of my ongoing practice of re-dressing one composition in various radical 'outfits' over time. This one is pretty dramatically different than the acoustic guitar trio version that TravisM, DerekD and I arranged and recorded for the SB Box Set.

The idea of 'knotwork' is embodied in much of what I do: following twists and turns of overlapping paths and processes, trusting that there is an emerging and balanced design unfolding, despite the occasional radical angles and ups and downs that come with hitting then creatively crossing the 'barriers' of past and future paths."

It is quite a challenge to 'transcode' from guitar to piano and/or vice versa.

* * *

Photo of the Day

 
Get back: Chuck, SB, Lee, Paul, photo #11 by: David LaVallee.

* * *

Word of the Day

de·cid·u·ous
adjective

1. Falling off or shed at a specific season or stage of growth: deciduous antlers; deciduous leaves; deciduous teeth.

2. Shedding or losing foliage at the end of the growing season: deciduous trees.

3. Not lasting; ephemeral.

[From Latin deciduus, from decidere, to fall off : de-, de- + cadere, to fall.]

* * *