Rush In Brooklyn

Last night Jeannie and I went and saw Rush play at the Barclay Arena in Brooklyn, named after basketball great Charles Barkley, although I don’t think he ever played for the Nets, and I can’t say why they got the spelling wrong. The arena is brand new and only a few blocks from where we used to live. This site was formerly a train yard, an open pit on a triangle of land that was sort of a dead zone in downtown Brooklyn, something you’d have to walk around. I hadn’t been back there since they broke ground on the arena, but it’s good to see it finished. Apart form the overbright animated jumbotron marquees, it’s a very nice arena.

The show itself was great. Rush has a new album out, Clockwork Angels, which is full of great material. The first set concentrated on material from their 80’s synthesizer phase, song like Subdivisions, Big Money, Force Ten, The Body Electric, Territories, and The Analog Kid. I think they played about half of Power Windows over the course of the night. For the second set they brought out an 8-piece string section. They opened the set by playing most of Clockwork Angels, 9 out of 12 songs. The string players had some good rock’n’roll headbanging choreography in addition to filling out the sound on the new songs. The CA material ranged from complex and ripping metal to much more layered and gentle stuff. “The Garden” was a standout and closed that part of the set. The string ensemble stuck around as they hit a few more classics with the strings taking on what was formerly the synthesizer part. These included Manhattan Project, Red Sector A, and YYZ. Then the power trio wrapped it up with a few of their greatest hits, including Spirit of Radio, Tom Sawyer, and 2112, parts I, II, and VII.

Alex’s guitar broke down in the middle of Temples of Syrinx, so he improvised a goofy little dance while his roadies scrambled to provide a replacement. Meanwhile Ged and Neil carried on and it worked just fine. Alex came back in just in time to do to solo leading into the finale.

I really enjoyed the selection of music. Even though they skipped a lot of songs you might expect, they played a lot of great stuff you didn’t expect, and besides, I heard those other songs last tour. It’s good they’re continuing to present new things. The new material is great, and the rest put an interesting focus on a sometimes-overlooked phase in their career. It was the phase where I first started seeing the live, as it happens. As musicians, these guys just keep getting better. Geddy’s still got it in voice, and his bass chops are flawless. Alex Lifeson has such range, diversity of styles he can play, and roles to fit in with the music. And of ocurse he’s a world-class soloist. Plus all those pedals. Neil Peart’s playing is fast and precise as ever, but he’s also found a new level of fluidity. You can hear the way he pushes and pulls the groove in different songs, and for all his speed, he somehow looks like he’s moving in slow motion. Put them together and they’re great ensemble players, and the songs really bring that out.

It was a fantastic show. I sure hope they put out another album and come around again.

More of the Same

Am I in a groove, or in a rut? Who knows? On the book front, all the photos have been cropped, color balanced, edited, retouched, mastered and delivered to the publisher. 140 pictures, 12 GB upload. Thank you Bob! My last two diagrams are the Giant Squid and the Turkey. I’m to step 50 on the Squid, which is the tricky part. It looks like it’ll be about 65 steps. I hope I can finish it tonight. I’m up to step 65 on the Turkey, and I’m estimating 80 steps and hope to finish that within the week. These are the two most complex models in the book, but the light is at the end of the tunnel.

But even though I’ve been working hard, other interesting stuff is in the offing. The fall weather has been beautiful. Been getting to spend some time outside, although it’s getting light late and dark early already. The kids are alright. Work is mellow at the moment, and I’ve been working out and my health has been better again lately.

I’m planning on going to the MIT Origami Conference later this month. It should be a great time. I’m teaching and exhibiting, and it’ll be great to see the MIT origami people. Got to work out the travel logistics, which really means finding a hotel room.

Been working on learning some new songs. I’ve taken a break from writing and recording until my book is done, but I’ve been practicing. I can now sing and play eight of my own originals on piano. Recently added “Fine Red Wine” and “Angel or Alien” to the repertoire. Plus a couple new covers: “Stepping Out” by Joe Jackson and “Thunder Road” by The Boss. At least a few of them are pretty hard songs to play but I’ve gotten to the point where I know them well and continue to sharpen the arrangements and performance.

More Origami

I’m getting to the home stretch on my book. I have all the models (22) designed and folded and all the photography done. I came up with three new models for the book in the last few weeks. Two were the Cuttlefish and Giant Squid, to create a Cephalopod group along with my Octopus. I tried and tried to design a spider but never came up with anything I liked.

For my last model I designed a Lean-To, to go with the Canoe and Adirondack Chair. I really wanted one more intermediate model. This one clocks in at 34 steps, but most of it is pre-folding and it only takes 10 or 15 minutes to fold. And I got the diagrams done in two evenings! I guess I’m finally getting faster.

I went over to Bob’s one night last week to finish up the pictures, and they came out great. I have only two more diagrams to finish now, the Squid and the Turkey. They’re both more than halfway done but they’re complex models, so they have a lot of steps. After the last drawings, all that remains is writing the intro and the basic steps.

In other news, our big Q4 release of my software at work is in QA now. Really looking forward to taking a break.

Went up and saw Martin and Kathleen yesterday and picked pumpkins and apples and grapes. This seems to have become something of a fall tradition.

The weather has been really warm thru the end of September, to the point where we still have our air conditioners in. But there’s also been a lot of rain. Warm and humid. Until yesterday, when it got cold all of a sudden. Now it’s only getting up to the 50’s and we’ve had to turn on the heat.

Origami Giant Squid

I came up with another new model this weekend to round out the cephalopod chapter in my book: a giant squid.

In other news I bought a song book of 60’s music on ukulele for Michelle not to long ago. She’s been learning a bunch of Beatles songs out of it, and I’ve been playing along with her on piano and guitar from time to time. She’s been asking to watch A Concert for George since I told her Paul does a version of Something on the uke, so yesterday we sat down and watched it.

On the downside, my music project with Erik had kinda cooled. I’ve been working up some new songs, but we haven’t had the time to get together and jam for a while. I want to get some gigs lined up for the fall, but I guess that’ll have to wait until I’m done the deliverables for my book. Ah well.

Origami Cuttlefish

I’m in the home stretch on my book. I folded a whole bunch of new models this weekend to try and round of the list of photos. In particular I’ve been getting sets of models that go together well for the group shots. I also have a few new designs to complete. One of them is for a Cuttlefish, the enigmatic cephalopod famous for its ability to change the color and pattern of its skin. This has been on my list for a long time. When we were in Florida last month I saw some cuttlefish up close in a tank in one of the aquariums we visited, and I feel like I got a really good sense of what this creature is about. I’d been thinking about how to fold a cuttlefish for a long time, so when the time came the design came together quickly, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Properly C’htulluesque. It’s a nice intermediate model. Nothing too complex in the folding sequence or diagrams. I folded a few out of different color papers. This one out of an 8” square of Wyndstone. He’s resting, just being monochromatic. I need to find some crazy paper that will change colors once folded!

Origami Untamed Photo Shoot

Been busy with work and with back to school. Lizzy is taking double math this year, including early morning algebra – 7:30 A.M.! But most of all I’ve been busy finishing off my origami book deliverables for my publisher.

One of the big things to do was take all the pictures. I had been working on learning my new camera, but it’s a pretty steep learning curve. I know the basics of how to operate a camera and set up a the lighting for a scene, but I learned all that back in the days of real film, and my skills are a bit rusty. My friend Bob is a photography buff and I asked him for some guidance, and one thing led to another, and now he’s doing the photography for my book. And it’s coming out great! He’s got some really high-end lenses, and a studio with some pretty advanced lighting. But most of all, he’s got a good eye and knows how to use the stuff. Stuff I’d have to work out and look up, he’s just zip, bam, click! Bob’s’s using multiple remote triggered flashes, which gives a really intense light and lets him use a very short exposure and still get very sharp, detailed image. Great for bringing out the texture of the paper. I’ve always used continuous lighting and a tripod, and mostly shoot in macro mode, but Bob uses a deep zoom and steps way back, and just holds the camera.

We did two sessions, a test a couple weeks ago and a long session last weekend. We have most of the models covered, except a few group shots and the last few models that I’m still folding. It struck me that it was very similar to a recording studio situation in music. It’s great to have someone focused on capturing the best possible image (or sound) to leave me to worry about the models (or music). In the recording studio, it’s about the mic placement. In photography, it’s all about the lighting. The whole thing is very controlled – even fabricated – to make the image look even better than the real thing.

Bob was a great collaborator too, more analogous to a producer than a desk engineer. We explored lots of ideas for how to best present the models. Bob’s great at listening to my concepts and working to achieve them, and also bringing in creative ideas of his own. For each subject, it was a fresh setup: what kind of background, how to light it, what kind of angle to use. I already had some ideas about what would work for a particular subject. For example, for big subject like a moose or elephant, shoot down low so the animal looks big. For something small like a frog or butterfly, shoot downward so the model appears actual size. Bob just took the whole thing to the next level. He brought in things like rocks and driftwood to set the models on, and it made for some really great combinations of textures.

Here’s a sample:

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

It was twenty years ago today – half a lifetime ago – that I quit my job, broke up my band, sold my car, left my hometown, friends and family behind, and moved to New York City to attend grad school and begin my career in “Mulitmedia” as it was known at the time. The great leap into the unknown. It’s been one heck of a ride, at the vanguard of interactive media, software and entertainment, including some great years spent in Silicon Valley. Sometime when I’m in the mood to reminisce, I’ll tell you all about it, particularly the years before the crash. For now, I just want to give a shout out to the ITP class of ’94 and say wow, how the times have changed. What used to be visionary is now just everyday life. My kids take the existence of iPods for granted, and care more about accessorizing them than anything else. They’ll never understand the work and imagination it took to drag the dream into existence.

Spaceships and Alligators

I just got back from a big ol’ vacation to Florida, USA. Yeah, the kids finally wore me down and I let them convince me to take them to Disney. We went to the Magic and Animal Kingdoms, Epcot and some water parks, as well as GatorLand, SeaWorld, The Kennedy Space Center and the beach at Daytona. The Space Center and Gatorland were particularly fascinating. We got to see a real Space Shuttle up close, and hold a real live alligator. It was a great time, and I really enjoyed being with my family. Now I’m back well rested and tanned.

For now, though, it’s crunch time at work, as well as for getting my book finished up and delivered to the publisher. So more on the trip, with pictures and all, later on. One thing I’ll say, I’m happy that my publisher had more origami books for sale at the Japanese gift shop in Epcot than anyone else.

Summertime Green

Just got back from a great camping trip with Martin’s and Nick’s, and some new friends too. Lizzy brought along a couple friends as well, so we were concerned that everything would fit in the car. In the end we left behind ketchup. The weather was great until mid day Sunday, when the skies opened up and started to pour. Fortunately we were pretty much packed, but sill got soaked in the few minutes it took to finish loading, and we drove home thru a pretty intense storm. We’d got a Thule to put on the roof of our car. It turned out not to be fully waterproof. Ah well.