jkndrkn

MMK:

Shows 1, 2, 3 of 4 down.

Report!

1. A Story House show. A neat building. I"VE BEEN TOLD, it's from the late 19th century. I was also told that at the corner of 34th and Archer was a city named Daysville that was gradually absorbed into the greater Gainesville endoplasm. Lysosomes. Well, the building has less life now that Celino's sculptures are removed. Much dimmer, too. Since his sculptures were literally luminous (lamps). The space wasn't the same without Enzo, the noise dog. I met Jesse (Jessie?) and she spoke at me and I managed to speak back at her and we had a massive case of humorous and painfully frustrating T.O.T. symdrome. We... it start's with a "C"; has a sort of "la" ending; you know, he came like before Nero; one of the first crazy ones. We had to query various people. Someone finally knew it: CALIGULA. Getting through a case of massive Tip-Of-the-Tongue is like a long-delayed sneeze or like a... yeah. NEWAY: the bands: Deep Trench brought deep pulsing detuned vinyl record loops and thick oscillator squaks vying for space under harsh distorted vocals and keyed synthesizer. Nice full bass and squeal action. Next was a fellow Aaaron Zarzutzki with very impressive "micro noise" built from hand-built electronic devices. Much stutter and white-noise hashing and RF-frequency buzzings. Third was Globular exploring some entertaining but fairly standard "woo, I've got a vintage synth" sound waves. You know, arpeggiator goin' and tweaking knobs and layering on the echo. Fourth was beat-driven! And danceable and silly with vocals and lyrics about Pornoworld and Frankenstein. They were named Skeleton Warrior and sported keyboards and fashionable dress.
2. Abort! The show was mis-run. Musicians *arrived* at 8 when show was supposed to *start* at 8. Said musicians had enormous quantities of musical equipment all synchronized and layered and twinkling lights that required of them to set it up for at least an hour and forty-five minutes. During the set-up interlude we went to a new Gainesville eatery on their very first "soft-opening" night. This eatery will be hosting a couple Cool-Cool shows in August, including one where I'll be playing as part of Hydrogen Arm with Sir Dubbio of Fort Knack. The show will consist of silent films paired with musicians that are tasked with giving them a soundtrack. Should be fun! The place is named The Laboratory and is immediately adjacent to Hear-Again CD's on University. Well... we ended up skipping the show because show 3 was about to start. I popped in next-door at the CMC and looked over some cool art and had a chat with Superman's papa. ANALOG VS> DIGITAL and all that. Photochop?? I liked the brushes-in-mouth one best, I think. Maybe we'll see more of her prints around town now ^_^ It was unfortunate that so much stuff was going on that night cuz the art show was set up as a dance party and most dancers were clubbin' it elsewhere or attending Cool-Cool show 3.
3. Ahhhhh, good show. Sarcastic was fun. Enjoyed the drum sequencing. Could use some live musical performers, though. Maybe a cyborg on synth drums and a zombie on keys. Oddknock's new songs were pretty cool. He's definitely mastered the dance music format and the manipulation of energy levels in a live setting. Was not aware that he triggered changes in the sequencer on-the-fly! Very cool/impressive. Ctrl+Space's visuals were hampered somewhat by all the black-velvet paintings and kitschy-cool gewgaws that form that backdrop to the stage at The Atlantic. Entertainment was very cool and fulfilled a personal need of mine to see a bass-driven proto-goth rock band perform live. He was channeling a Thunderbird through what looked like a delay set up for very subtle slap-back, I think some kind of Danelectro flanger, some kind of high-end overdrive pedal (that sounded a bit too thin and tame in my mind) and some kind of vibrato chorus, or flanger or rotary-speaker effect. The bass was super Peter-hooky in places, super David J-ish in places, and straight-up rockin' in other places. Drummer melded very straight danceable kick/snare patterns with energetic fills and occasional rock flourishes. Guitarist played sparsely and sparingly very much in a Bauhaus / No Wave compatible way. The band was all glammed out and making the appropriate poses and goofy lofty-serious-sexy-gothy faces. My friend the Bat Sage commented that they probaly have occasional spats when one of the members starts slacking on his clothes/hair ^_^ Funny scenario to visualize. OK and then Girls on Film, which haven't changed much during the three or four years since I last saw them. Their dance moves are stronger, they are one-less member, and the lead singer's angry/detached/menacing thing has sharpened somewhat. Still enjoyable. Nice to see goth-night folk actually coming out and enjoying live music for once ^_^

TODAY:
Cool-Cool show 4: http://www.electronicsubsouth.com/mb/viewtopic.php?t=1222 Oh man, this should be fun. I plan on lugging out pedals and cello and mp3 player and keyboard amp and desktop computer speakers and moody lighting and layin' down some movin' soundwaves. This flyer is pretty neat:

ASIDE I:

Do first dates/encounters with strange internet folk ever get less awkward? I'm hoping I can manage OK today.

ASIDE II:

Ugh, there were ASIDEs II, II, and IV as well, but LJ ate them. They involved canopies and swimming pools and discs and tori aaand. Musings on productivity and alocohol and dating and stuff. But they are lost now!

• My email has been acting strangely. If you sent me an email at some point within the last few weeks, there's a good chance I didn't get it :[
• Attended experimental/electronic show 1 of 4 (2, 3, 4). There is something special about show 4. See if you can discover what it is.
• Home alone and feelin' lonesome :[

Woah. Floating down a spring-fed river in the sun sure is taxing. Maybe the pizza+bowling+vanderslicing+talking until late in the evening contributed somewhat.

Not feeling particularly included to record every detail except for this one: sure am glad I've made friends as good as these over the course of my time here so far.

I think we (MNJD) will probably go out to eat tonight and just relax and generally do nothing much. We're currently recuperating from a couple day's worth of internet withdrawal.

Kinda wish there was a coffee place in town that would stay open late every evening. Volta closing so early is pretty irritating.

I need to sell some gears:

http://gainesville.craigslist.org/msg/1228006805.html

If you are in need of potent low-frequency amplification, you will do well by clicking the above hyperlink.

Just got this email below from my old supervisor at the UF Infrared Astrophysics Group:

Hey guys,
Flamingos-2 is FINALLY out of the lab. When did we start this? Summer 2004?
These last two days we have moved almost all of it from the lab to the Physics building for shipment.
One week after it is all ready to go, the shippers will come and get the stack of boxes and crates and transport them to Chile'.
It will take one to five weeks to clear customs, after that we will all be going down to Chile for the initial reassembly down there.
So it is felt that about mid to late July we will be getting F2 back up and running at the GEMINI telescope lab.
It probably won't go onto the telescope on this run, but may sometime in the early fall.

It was a long and painful process.
Most everyone acknowledges that the electronics, chassis & wiring portions were done a LONG time ago and have been extremely reliable.
That is mostly due to you all. I am very proud of what we build and you all should be too.

Thanks for everything,
Cheers & Best wishes,
Kevin

My time in the IAG lab has to rank up there as one of my favorite jobs to-date. Liquid-nitrogen-cooled M&M's, cool-ass military-grade electronics, and a lab full of brilliant and passionate engineers and scientists all working together toward a pure-science goal made working there a young boy-nerd's dream.

Here's an old report with some background information for interested parties: http://arxiv.org/ftp/astro-ph/papers/0604/0604577.pdf

Emergency Savannah trip this weekend. Stayed a night at our favorite spot and did a bit of the fooding and the  walking and the Telfair-museum gawking. Ate at Zunzi's, Firefly Cafe, Gallery Cafe, and the hipster hangout on the South end of Forsyth park. The city is much the same as it's been during every one of our visits, with the exception that it seems that many properties are up for sale. Wealthy but struggling landowners and investors trying to liquidate their assets maybe? Oh. And now I know precisely why cobblers invented arch supports. Ouch :[

The Bon Iver show on Monday was totally worth all the driving and sleep deprivation. Elvis Perkins, the opening act, was a refreshing suprise. I'm not normally into frontman-driven, cheeky-humor-filled, old-timey-music-referencing acts, but the unrestrained delivery and real sense of fun and joy was really heartwarming. The guys in the rhythm section made me smile. I was afraid that the hush and intimacy of Bon Iver recordings would not carry over to a large stage very well, but they were able to pull it off admirably and bring the audience along with them. This show and the most recent Fleet Foxes CD has made me really appreciate the power of naked and exposed vocal lines where all other instruments are employed in a supporting role.

Animal Collective was way crappy. The club, first of all, was totally out of touch with the aesthetic preferences of the kind of crowd that showed. They played awful classic rock and dance-trance all evening, and the MC delivered his lines in this completey over-the-top exaggerated showbiz voice. Maybe I didn't know what to expect, but Animal Collective's set was more exhausting than anything. Overlong between-song builds and transitions, way too much volume, and a clear sense of annoyance and exhausting in one of the principal singer's mannerisms and expressions kinda ruined it for me. Black Dice, the opener, was surprisingly strong and solidified, in my mind, how one can successfully meld noise/texture music with catchy beat-driven music in a way that does not make the noise elements subservient and secondary to the ear-catching "traditional" elements.

Why is it that whenever I take a trip somewhere, it seems that all the vague emotions and nagging thoughts in my head start to condense down to powerful and meaningful words and melodies, only to have those words and melodies evaporate when I return home?

• Two Orlando shows with accompanying four hours of total driving and mental/physical exhaustion. Bon Iver and opening act was lovely. Black Dice was unexpectedly fun. Animal Collective was way disappointing.
• Sudden unexpected ramping-up of OKC activity.
• Spontaneous Savannah getaway this weekend.
• General time-lack, brain-sluggishness, busy-ness.
• OH BOY! And to top it off, I might have to rebuild the development server at work. Hm? Will I have remembered ever little configuration step that was necessary to put it together two years ago? Not likely! Hmmm? There are massed deadlines at the end of the month? Undoubtedly!
• My immune system seems to be working properly. Mm!
• Hopefully something kewl happens tonight.

Mm. Mango bread and black bean mexican quiche comin' up.

While I wait for the quiche to cool, here are a couple of (so far) instrumental trax me and Ursa Minor have concocted:

This one started as an attempt to make a "shoegaze" song. I play the thicker guitar and Bear plays the brighter echo-y guitar.
http://www.jkndrkn.com/songs/jel-demo-01.mp3

And this one grew more organically out of a repeating arpeggiating guitar figure Bear improvised. I play fuzzed-up bass on this track and Bear mans the six-string. Note the solo passage Bear wrote mid-song!
http://www.jkndrkn.com/songs/jel-demo-02.mp3

Configurations:

1. Bass amplification
2. Full-range amplification for electronic performances
3. Dual-guitar rock with drum machine

Requirements

• Economically priced
• Lightweight
• Portable
• Compact

Possible solution:

• Mixer.
• Two compact mid-size keyboard amplifiers.
• 210 and 212 bass cabinet. Each rated at 8 Ohms.
• Class D bass amplifier mounted in rack along with power conditioner and preamp.

Configurations:

1. Bass amplifier into 210 and 212 bass cabinets.
2. Mixer into keyboard amplifiers and 212 bass rig. Keyboard amplifiers used as full-range PA cabinets and bass rig used as sub.
3. Each guitar into dedicated keyboard amplifier. Drum machine into bass amplifier and 212 cabinet.

Shopping list:

• Two keyboard amplifiers
• Class D bass amplifier
• 210 bass cabinet

I feel cake-like. Club sandwichy. Layers of goodstuff in my life alternating and intermingling with layers of foulstuff.

I'm pushing forward through the funk that has settled down around my summer and trying to accomplish some concrete goals that I've been putting off for a long time.

• Uploaded a bunch of my favorite projects to http://github.com/jkndrkn as a way to back up important files (I lost my undergraduate programming portfolio to a monstrous multiple-disk crash) and begin investing in my summer 2010 career transition.
• Will use said github account if I ever get around to mustering the creative energy to work on my Lisp/OpenGL game.
• Amplifier successfully submitted for repair and should be repaired within a few short weeks.
• Already getting nibbles regarding the sale of one of my Avatar 212 bass cabinets.
• Found a fellow that is willing to share a pretty sweet practice spot in East Gainesville. Will be checking that out this weekend.
• Inquired about bass lessons. Recent discovery of Paul Galbraith is making me think that maybe my bass technique could benefit from learning guitaristic fingerpicking techniques. Considering guitar lessons instead.
• Completed a second song for the as-yet unnamed rock unit with Ursa Minor on guitar and vox and myself on guitar/bass and vox.
• Was part of a group of four black-shirted academians that descended on a local bowling establishment and wrestled with charmingly archaic software. Fun evening despite my illness and the week's accumulation of work fatigue.

Despite all of these accomplishments, I still feel the foulstuff strongly. There was a time when accomplishing concrete measurable goals would guarantee at least a bit of euphoria. I devoted most of the beginning of my life to accomplish the massive undertaking of completing an education and becoming financially secure, only to realize that the end result was a bit anticlimactic. The savor of goal-meeting has faded somewhat. Life-living is replacing it for me, I think. It's sad that this week I had to lose what I had perhaps foolishly hoped was becoming a pleasant and welcome part of my life.

I'll leave you with a demonstration of the instrument and technique developed by Paul Galbraith to enable him to adapt more of the classical cello and piano repertoire to classical guitar.