Global Jukebox Update

I’ve been doing tons of work on the Global Jukebox recently, adding new features like Journeys and Learnings, and continuing fix up and modularize the codebase, trying to get things tight for a deadline to give a demo. We had an unexpected monkey wrench last week when the Smithsonian Institution reneged on an agreement they had to let us use a bunch of Alan Lomax’s own recordings to which they hold the copyright. They wanted to charge the project hundreds of dollars per song, for around 1000 songs. Doesn’t really seem in keeping with the public spirit of an institution supported by our tax dollars.

As a workaround someone suggested we embed a spotify player, since the songs in question are available for free on spotify. I did some research and it turns out Spotify has an API that allows you to do such a thing, so I made a little proof of concept where their player appears in our app. One downside is the user needs a spotify account the hear the music. If they don’t they’ll be prompted to create and account, which is free, so that’s not too bad. The other downside is that spotify is not aware of our song coding system, so for every song one of the graduate assistants needs to find the song in spotify, get the embed code and enter into our database to associate it with the correct song. Then I need to write some code check if that embed code is there when I load song data and bring up the spotify player with the correct code. I sure hope spotify doesn’t change their API once we get this up and running.

I got the news from Anna that the demo was today and it went very well. Hopefully this will lead to more visibility and funding for the project. Meanwhile I’m at a point where there are alot of loose ends to finish off ASAP and a bunch of new stuff on the horizon.

As I’ve been refactoring the old code and trying to keep things from breaking as I go, I’ve been giving alot of thought to Javascript as a language and the web application as an environment. I started programming in Javascript in the 90’s when it was still in its infancy, and working in JS was a mess to generally be avoided. Well Javascript has grown up alot, and while it still has some pretty deep flaws, I’ve come to feel it’s time to come to get to know it on it’s own terms and stop thinking of it as a broken version of Java. For example, maybe it’s not bad that there aren’t any classes or strong typing, and maybe it’s good that everything is just an object.

I bought a whole bunch of books recently and have read the first few. It turns out I already reinvented a few best-practice JS design patterns on my own, including self-executing functions with closures to model class-like objects with private and public methods. One author compares JS to the so called “classical” languages, and speaks of classically-trained programmers. I had this aha moment in jazz, playing a Gm7 chord without a G voiced anywhere, and realizing that’s something a classically-trained musician wouldn’t do. Unfortunately no one in the group is into programming languages, so I couldn’t really share my epiphany.

In any event it’s time to unlearn. I’m trying to reevaluate JS from a functional programming perspective. I’ve had some exposure to Lisp and Smalltalk and more recently Scala (which ironically compiles to the JVM), so I’m trying to step back and see things from a broader, more fundamental perspective. Which of course is not that easy when you’re trying fix up someone else’s mess so you can build new features on top of it to meet a deadline, but that’s the life of a software engineer. Hopefully I’ll have thought things thru enough to have something to share in a near-future post.

Victory Lap

Lots going on these days. Last night LEFT HOOK played at Victor’s in Hawthorne. I bought one new piece of gear for this show: a lightweight collapsible handtruck to help schlep the PA from the car to the hall. It really came in handy cuz Victors is up on a hill so you have to go up a big ramp and thru two or three rooms to get to the place where the band is playing.

I played Victors a couple years ago in my old band with Gus, and we didn’t have much of a turnout because there was an unexpected November snowstorm. Well last night we didn’t have much of a turnout either, a couple of friends of Jeannie and Gus, and whoever was there at the bar anyway. But band sounded great, and the people who were there really dug it, and the bar paid us well. Ken got a new 4×10 cabinet which has alot of presence. As fate would have it, on the way home there was an unexpected storm of hail and sleet, and this morning my car was covered in ice.

We didn’t add any new songs for this show, but this week we’ve got a bunch lined up to work in for the next gig. I’ll be singing some Bowie. Psyched about that.

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You may have noticed that, recent hailstorms notwithstanding, winter is over and spring has arrived. Daylight and sunshine again. I’ve been kinda sick the last few weeks and have only just been feeling better again, so I haven’t had a chance to much yardwork yet. Today I was gonna do the first round of raking and trimming, but it was too cold and windy. I did get some grass seed down a few days ago before it started raining, in the spot where the stump used to be, so hopefully that’ll take.

Easter came early this year. Last weekend Martin’s came down on Saturday and we went to Jeannie’s parents on Sunday. The kids have been off from school all week. Nice to have a little family time. I gave Lizzy another driving lesson today. She drove to her old elementary school and back. Learning to deal with real streets, stop signs, turn signals, other cars, and pulling in and out of parking spots. So far doing very well, but still hasn’t gone above 20 mph.

I got my Mustang on the road a couple times. This spring it started right up, no need to charge the battery. I took it in for an oil change and a safety inspection, and my mechanic told me it’s got some leaks in the underside including the differential, so hopefully there’ll be a nice day net week where I can get that taken care of.

American Origami Masters

I’m happy to announce a new origami book for which I’m a featured contributor. It’s American Masters of Origami, edited and curated by Marc Kirshenbaum. Here’s a link to the book on Marc’s site:

http://sakuraorigami.com/books/

And to order it in French or Italian:

http://www.origami-shop.com/en/origami-american-origami-masters-xml-206_248_371-7540.html

http://www.amazon.it/Origami-Grandi-maestri-americani-gadget/dp/2889350444/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1452288222&sr=8-12&keywords=kirschenbaum

The model of mine that appears in the book is my Luv Bug. I’m sharing these pages with alot of great creators, including Marc, Robert Lang, Seth Friedman, Beth Johnson, and a whole bunch of others. The presentation, diagrams and photography are all very beautiful. I’m especially gratified that Marc fold a lovely rendition of my Luv Bug out a large sheet of tissue foil so he could take such great pictures of it.

Jazz Demos II – Your Dancing Shoes

Here’s another jazz demo in what I hope will become an ongoing series:


The group liked my last song, Dark Skies, but they really love this one. Your Dancing shoes was originally written as song with lyrics, and I recorded it for the Buzzy Tonic album Elixr. But since my rock band is not really open to doing originals and my jazz band is, I thought I’d try a jazz arrangement of it. It has a funk-boogie feel, in the same zone as songs like Red Clay and Mercy Mercy Mercy, and it’s great fun to play. They bass player Jay was particular enthusiastic after having just read the sheet music, and our drummer Mike wants to do the song in the Wednesday jazz group.

As an aside, our piano player Rich recently sold his business and retired and is going back to school to study jazz piano. He’s a really good piano player already even though he told me really only started playing and studying when was 50 years old. He’s 60 or so now. You really gotta admire that. (He’s also one of those guys who works out, so like my brother Martin he appears alot younger than his age in both looks and energy level.) He’s been encouraging me with my composing, and I’ve been encouraging him to write some stuff to bring to the group too.

Gary has been continuing to record our rehearsal, so hopefully sometime soon we’ll capture a good performance of these new originals. Meanwhile I’m gonna go ahead with my next jazz demo, a thing I’m calling Buzzy Blue.

Lefts and Rights of Passage

I’m happy to say that the show at Michelle’s school was a smashing success. The theme this year was Give My Regards to Broadway, and it was basically a revue of show tunes. There were alot of talented kids in this year’s graduating class. Some years there’s just one or two eighth graders, but this year there were more than thirty, including a good handful of soloists. They did the same Phantom/Les Mis medley that we did in the Cabaret show a few years ago, and I’d say they did a better job. This is the fifth year or so I played in the band in its various permutations, maybe the seventh show. It gets easier and more fun every year as I’ve gotten to feel familiar with this group of musicians, and at this point I’ve played with everyone in the group. My playing is at a level now where I can read thru the songs once and pretty much be good. I only learned Friend Like Me when we were setting up for the first show.

Another highlight: Michelle had a ukulele solo in We Are Made of Stars. We practiced that one together a few times. She nailed it.

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Today I gave Lizzy her first lesson in driving a car. I gave her a basic safety primer then took her to an empty parking lot and had her practice driving around slowly, doing circuits of the lot, mainly just lifting her foot off the brake and letting the car roll. Once she got comfortable with starting and stopping and steering and shifting between park and drive, I let her give it a bit of gas. She got up to 11 mph (17kph) one time! Then on the way home I had her drive the last block to our house and park in the driveway. She did very well and was quite thrilled. Next time I’ll have her go in reverse and learn to park with a bit of precision, and maybe even try some neighborhood streets, get up to 15 or 20!

Keith Emerson

I am shocked and saddened today to learn of the death of Keith Emerson, mastermind of the accounting firm, no make that rock band, Emerson Lake and Palmer. Piano virtuoso, organ rocker extraordinaire, synthesizer and electronics pioneer, imaginative epic songwriter, and all around wildly adventurous musician, Keith Emerson was a singular talent and force in music. ELP was the definitive prog rock band, one of the first stadium acts, and the original supergroup, with their elaborate compositions, extended jams, sci-fi themes, deep forays into classical and jazz, out meters, innovative sound palette, monstrous musicianship, and over-the-top stage presentation, yet all held together by some intangible essence. Who could ask for more? Well then, they even had a ballad or two.

Keith ranks up there on my list off all-time favorite musician heroes and influences, right up there with John Coltrane. A sort of weird fusion of Aaron Copeland, Dave Brubeck and Jerry Lee Lewis who took it all too far, but boy could he play anything with a keyboard: left handed, upside down, rotating in the air, stab it with the steely knives, you name it. In a year that’s already seen the passing of many great rock stars, this one is the saddest for me. I’d heard he was sick for a long time, but sadder still it appears that he took his own life. He’d suffered never damage in right hand that pretty much ended his ability to play the keyboards. Just wow.

I was lucky enough to see Keith Emerson live a few times, in a few different contexts, including the full-on Emerson Lake and Palmer rock spectacle on their Black Moon tour. They did a three-hour-plus show that included Tarkus (only slightly abridged but actually tighter and less plodding than the original) and all of Karn Evil Nine, and everything else you’d hope for. The level of playing was superb, but apparently by that time Keith was already having trouble with his hands. One other time was with the Keith Emerson Band. They had alot of great new material and teased us with the promise of a new album that never materialized. Last time I saw him was in an unplugged format with Greg Lake, which was really enlightening in many ways, including several extended improvisations.

In any event, Keith’s legend loomed large. He will be missed, but his music lives on in his fans. Here’s a cover of Karn Evil 9, 2nd Impression I did a while back.

There’s no end to my life
No beginning to my death
Death is life

Showtime!

Spring is creeping closer. Days are getting longer and warmer. No flowers yet, but I’m thinking of taking the Mustang out already! Lots of music events happening these days with the kids. Lots of running around.

Lizzy just finished with her school play yesterday. They did a production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. It was very well done. Lizzy was in the chorus and had one line (she did great!). The fact that she’s new at the school notwithstanding I was a bit surprised she didn’t get a bigger part, being and experienced singer and all. But it turns out there’s alot of talent at that school. All the leads were superb, as was the orchestra. I guess it’s a high school after all, and I’m more used to the K-8 or K-12 performances. They did four shows in four days and it was a huge amount of work and she had a great time, and a bonding experience for the kids. But on to the next thing.

This coming weekend is honor band. Both Lizzy and Michelle are in it. Michelle still plays clarinet regularly in her school band, but Lizzy is dusting off her flute for the first time in a while. Still, they’re both very excited as always.

Then the week after that is the musical at Michelle’s school. The eight graders are the big kids in this production, and this year they have some good talent too. I’ll be playing in the orchestra for this one, and so last week I got a couple CD’s and a big packet of sheet music. I’ve listened thru a couple times and read thru it once, so I’m set for joining them in rehearsal next week. I’m doing ukulele on one song, We’re All Made of Stars. Michelle learned the uke part too, so she’s gonna do it on stage while I double her from the pit. So we’re practicing that song together every day.