JUKEBOX

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The things I carry:

1 Blackberry smartphone
1 8g iPod touch
1 A and 1 D acoustic guitar strings
several pink erasers
1 glue stick
2 containers of 7mm pencil leads
1 extra fine Precise pen, black ink
1 Laddie pencil
3 Twist Erase .7mm mechanical pencils
1 set of keys
20 Elmers paint markers
15 Treehouse paint markers
2 white out pens
1 black sharpie
1 small bottle of Advil
1 8” x 10” sketchbook
1 8” x10” grid notebook
1 3” x 5” plain Moleskine
10 mailing labels
1 book of my own poetry (currently working on)
a copy of “The Maximus Poems” by Charles Olson

Anton Mobin "Floating Wood"



















Anton Mobin - Floating Wood
Green Field Records


Field recordings have been used in many way; as source material to manipulated, as background noise in pop songs, and as documentation of the world around us. Some artists treat the recordings with effects as you would a guitar and some leave it as is with little or no editing. I love phonography in all it’s forms, treated or untreated, and recently I’ve downloaded quite a few good releases from some netlabels using field recordings:

“Sound Journal Edits” - My Fun

“3Nocturns” - 1HOME

“Floating Wood” - Anton Mobin

After hearing, "Tales 4 Tapes" by Anton Mobin/Ayato, I've been downloading and listening to as much A. Mobin's stuff I can find, and there is a lot out there. Most is good, some are mediocre, and a very few are less than interesting but “Floating Wood” is beautiful. It’s mysterious, a bit creepy when some of the animal sounds come in, and a bit calming with the water and rain sounds. I felt like I lost 20 minutes of my life and I didn’t care that I lost that time. When the mbira sound comes in part of the way through I thought this was just another ploy by an artist to get the fringe listener to be engaged in the “new age” nuances of a field recording piece but the familiar instrument tone is the background music to a great or several great pieces of sounds combined.

Mr. Mobin used several different locations for his source materials and a few different mic setups for this too. At the bottom of the little instrumentation and location information for this piece on audioblog.arteradio.com there was a quote that sums up this piece and most of all Mr. Mobin’s work perfectly:

“Calm and surrealist nothing is real in the composition which combines Improvisation & Field Recordings.

"Inner Collapse" - Anton Mobin
Treetrunk

"Tales for Tapes" - Anton Mobin/Ayato
Justnotnormal netlabel

Monday, April 26, 2010

04.26.2010

My Monday started with me waking up at 4am because of my sinuses, falling back asleep only to wake up again at 5:15 wondering why my two alarms were not going off. That mystery is still unresolved. Left the house a little early to make sure I get to the school early, TAKS week and all. Before I go any further I would like to mention that I watch Fox 4 news every morning for traffic and weather updates and nothing was said this morning about the accident. I get about half a mile from my house on I-30 east and stop. Nothing. For 1 hour more I, we, inched along till finally we have an opportunity to exit. Now upon attempting to exit no one in the right lane would let any of us over knowing good a well that a few yards up the roads are blocked off, instead they just ignored us. Once we got off a had to drive a ridiculous route around Arlington just to get back on I-30. Hour and a half later I pull into he parking lot at school. Once inside I discover that there was no one watching my classroom. Fun times. Good thing I don't have any supplies to worry about.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. Just preparing for the TAKS tests and all.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

04.25.2010



















"untitled"
Still under production
















"untitled"
Still under production

Pretty good weekend.

Friday, 04.23.2010;
Got some work done on my new entry into the cigarboxnation.com double neck cbg contest. Worked on some paintings and that's about it.

Saturday, 04.24.2010;
Got some errands completed with my co-pilot, Sparky, but unfortunately for him PetSmart was out of his favorite food. Worked on the cbg again and some paintings. Took a nice nap while the lawn guy sweated pulling up monkey grass out of two of my flower beds. Later in the evening went to a friends 40th birthday party at the Tyler House in Oak Cliff. I learned, as if I didn't know by now, that I just don't fit in with "professionals".

Sunday, 04.25.2010;
Hung out with my wife outside all day. Wonderful. Again, worked on the double neck cbg, almost finished now. Went to the Stash Dauber's for a lawn chair party. Quite enjoyable, best part of the evening, "Mime in a Bag".


















"Mime In A Bag". chalk on concrete. 2010



















double neck cbg in production

Monday, April 19, 2010

Pretty laid back weekend

1) Took Jo’s car to Walmart to get the oil change and tires rotated before she drove out to east Texas to see her sister. That took a few hours due to Walmart’s managements genius move of laying off the opening cashier back in the service department.

2) Spent a couple hours trying to clean my classroom so another teacher can use it the next couple of weeks for math tutoring and TAKS testing.

3) Met some coworkers at Grimaldi’s Pizza in Dallas for some lunch and baseball. Which Texas went on to lose 3 to 7 against the hated Yankees.

4) Stayed away from Record Store Day but did get the reissue of John Fahey’s “Yellow Princess”.

5) Started on a new cigar box guitar for the contest on Cigarbox Nation, where we’re asked to build a double neck cigar box guitar. Drew a couple different designs:

a) a simple double neck with two diddleybow necks.
b) a double neck with one diddleybox at the top for a bass string and a expanded diddleybow neck at the bottom incorporating 5 sympathetic drone strings and a playable string.

I decided to combine the two and make one neck with three sympathetic strings and one neck with a playable string.



















6) Spent a lot of time watching Asian horror films and Stanley Cup playoff games.

a) Tokyo Gore Police
b) Samurai Princess
c) Tokyo Zombie
d) Versus

7) Destroyed some existing artwork and started creating something new and different from their remains.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

04.13.2010

This weekend was pretty exhausting. I hate driving and this weekend I had to drive over 1400 miles to visit mom in the "Gump". It was good to see mom although she looked the worst I've ever seen but by the end of my stay she had improved a lot. Talked to her today and other than having no voice she assured me she was feeling better; enough so she went to the beauty salon.

On the drive back I got reacquainted with Hank Williams Sr. I guess growing up and listening to your father walk around the house singing Hank Sr. you don't really appreciate his music. That and Hank is not the coolest musician to listen to when your a teenager. It reminded me of my father.

I started working on a new instrument using only items that I found in my parents garage. Pictures to follow...

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Plaistow "The Crow"

My first review on the site, hopefully, more to come.
















Plaistow is the reason I love netlabels, netlabels may be abundant on the net and very easy fo an artist to set up, good ones present some of the best and honest music you'll find anywhere. Case in point, insubordinations.net, a netlabel devoted to improvised music, their new release is a 2009 recording by Geneva's very own Plaistow. Plaistow is a trio comprised of:

Johann Bourquenez: piano
Raphaël Ortis: bass
Cyril Bondi: drums

Plaistow's music is at times very minimal and other times very bombastic, composed and/or improvised, melodic vs. noise. Cyril Bondi is definitely one of the most underrated drummers playing in music today. His playing can be light when playing little flourishes on the cymbals as in "Doppleganger" or full on as in "Full CSS". "Boomerang" is my favorite track on "The Crow", for it's a song hard to describe. Space and silence are two instruments that really should be added to their musicians list, they play as an important part to Plaistow's music as each of the other individual performers, best heard on this track. Johann Bourquenez channels John Cage in his piano work and at times offers up some bizarre Turkish melody. CB's drums creates a certain tension with his sparse drumming that I found myself cringing at every cymbal hit, awaiting the next. Raphael Ortis' bass is a great low end compliment to the music, like in "Mairie des Lilas".

At times one feels like this album isn't finished, like they didn't know where to end and ultimately cut some thoughts short of being completed until you listen to the album more than once and its entirety. It's good played in parts or on shuffle but is better played as a whole.

It's simple, if you like improvised music, free jazz, minimalism, or rock download this or any other Plaistow album. Also, check out all the other releases on insubordinations.net.

Friday, April 9, 2010

04.09.2010; I would like to thank all those that made my trip to the "gump" possible:

1) First and foremost, God. Without the man above I wouldn't be standing here today. Nah, really, I want to thank Jo for letting me borrow her sweet ride.

2) Frank Zappa for writing songs like "Dancing Fool" and "Valley Girl".

3) DangerMouse for piecing together the Grey Album.

4) Mississippi fire and brimstone radio stations

5) The old man in the black F150 or whatever driving 15 miles under the speed limit slowing down traffic.

6) Pretzels

7) Ira Glass and everyone working on the This American Life podcast

8) Steve Jobs for developing the iPod.

9) Cruise control.

10) Quiktrip coffee.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Plaistow





PLAISTOW trio

04.08.2010

So my mother made it home Tuesday, based on her own diagnosis, not the doctors. She has spent the last two weeks in the hospital with breathing issues and a rare heart issue for her. With my mother you never know how well she really is and what really happens in places like the doctors office or hospital because she does a lot of her own diagnosis and that is all she will let you know about. Either way I'm not sure what is wrong and how severe her current condition is.

Mr. Dauber and myself attempted to run last night. It was a rather chilly evening but we got a decent run/walk in before being tempted by Ye Olde Bull and Bush, where we took a small break to discuss future HIO events and philosophies.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Soundtrack for 04.07.2010

1) "l'éveil du printemps" - Piero SK

2) "Ünsai" - Ünsai

3) "the crow" - Plaistow

4) "Einstein on the Beach" - Phillip Glass

HIO Plays for Kids of All Ages; the Vortex show 04.04.2010

HIO Plays for Kids of All Ages; the Vortex show 04.04.2010 from T H on Vimeo.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Soundtrack for 04.06.2010

1. "Snow Tales" - Clem Leek

2. "Convocation" - Bulkrate

3. "A to E are Ex, Why, and Z" - Joe and The Sonic Dirt From Madagascar.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Soundtrack for 04.05.2010

1. "A to E are Ex, Why, and Z" - JATSDFM aka. Joe and the Sonic Dirt From Madagascar.

2. "HIO Plays for Kids of All Ages; the Vortex show 04042010" - Hentai Improvising Orchestra, Drinking Club, and Occasional Running Club.

3. "there are people behind the lights" - the owl and the octopus

4. "Endtroducing" - DJ Shadow

Sunday, April 4, 2010

04.04.2010; The Vortex Show

Today HIORGDC, Hentai Improvised Orchestra, Running group, and Drinking Club, performed outside the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth. Before that we walked for a while, from the museum to Heritage Park, via the Trinity River trail, then ran back to the museum this time via 7th Street.


Once we got back we started unpacking and performing inside the "Vortex" sculpture. About 20 minutes into our performance three little children came in and participated in our performance. This is perfect for us in our attempt to get back to our child-like approach to instruments and performance. Since we can't turn back the hands of time we can always be open to participants of any age. It was a bizarre performance where at times it was somewhat peaceful and parts were chaos. The natural reverb became a problem in the recording and it took us a minute to embrace this space and approach it like we should. Also, we had the largest crowd we've ever had, well second largest.

Lunch at Dos Gringos. A little Tex-Mex restaurant within walking distance of the museum. Nothing spectacular but it was edible and fast.

After that, nothing...

Worked on the carrying vessel for my cbg's, so I won't destroy them this summer if we go on a world tour. Did a little painting, played with the dog(s), and started dumping the video from our performance at the Vortex.

Aside: I must go back to Hertage Park and the old buildings that was once part of the La Corte Barrio to take some photographs.