Here’s some New Year Resolution fodder from Thelonious Monk via Steve Lacy.
Thanks to James Keepnews for sharing.
And here’s a shot of Monk’s iconic hat I took on a recent visit to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
Thelonious Monk's Hat at the Smithsonian Museum of American History
Ray Hare swims in the River (photo by Chris Bassett)
Here are some excerpts from ASACs recent River of Drone marathon. I grabbed snippets at random from the recordings I made and appended them into a single, condensed track. These excerpts were from noon to 3pm and 8pm to 11pm in case you’re keeping score.
[audio:river_of_drone_excerpts.mp3]Also, Mark Lunt has posted some captivating photos from the event here.
Karlheinz Stockolantern
Here’s an amazing Halloween tribute to the late Karlheinz Stockhausen (22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) from friend Shawn Feeney. It’s also featured on Wired.com Readers’ Best Geek-o’-Lanterns.
It’s been a while since I’ve brewed some beer, but I finally mashed some together last week. “Mashed” isn’t quite the right word, since I chose to brew an all malt-extract Kölsch. An easy, tasty brew–perfect for getting back into the brewing world. Here it is in the natural habitat of so many homebrews: the basement laundry room.
Here are a few more photos from the LEMUR show courtesy of Nicole Peyrafitte.
Max Lord playing the Marimba Lumina with the LEMUR’s GuitarBot on the left.
Max Lord, percussion (in the mirror) and Ellen Godena, dancer with LEMUR’s ModBots on the ceiling.
Holland with his extended banjo…gotta hit that pressure sensor just right…
I ran across this very sleek Electronic Musician Emergency Adapter Kit and it inspired me to post my own Gig Survival Kit. I used to carry a similar collection of adapters, but now I only carry a few adapters augmented by a set of tools.
From left to right and top to bottom:
I began carrying the soldering tools when I started performing with sensor-augmented instruments using the Basic Stamp and I soon realized that they made most of my adapters obsolete. If I needed some strange cable, it was usually possible to make it on the spot.
The most often used pieces of kit are definitely the flashlight, the spare battery, and the DI boxes. I’ve had plenty of sour/funny/skeptical/scared looks from the heavy-metal sound guy at the club when I begin unpacking my weirdo electronic gear. Then I pull out my DI boxes and I see expressions of relief and gratitude from the sudden recognition that our gear can now speak a common language.
Oh, and the girly-girl cosmetic bag? Simple. It’s free (if you’re male, ask a female friend who wears even a little bit of makeup), it’s unmistakeable which makes easy to find on a dark stage, and it never fails to impress that heavy-metal sound guy.
I’ve put up a batch of hard cider…
I transferred it to the secondary fermenter a few days ago and gave it a preliminary taste. Yum yum. It’ll go into bottles in a week or two and should be ready to drink for Thanksgiving.
