Merry Christmas to us

Saturday

1) I dumped the dogs off with Puddin.

2) Went to Dallas to pick up Jo's computer that a friend of ours was working on. Like usual traffic was backed up as I drew near downtown Dallas. I attempted a shortcut that turned out worse since gps requires an address in order to be effective.

3) Took Jo to her 2.5 hour, full body massage.

3.5) I wandered around the museum district, took some photos, listened to some street noises, and enjoyed the scenery.

4) Went to check in at the Worthington Renaissance in downtown Fort Worth.

5) Had some fantastic calimari at the Vidalia's.

6) Went and had a fantastic dinner at MK's Sushi on 7th.

7) Drove around Fort Worth looking at Christmas lights. No one this year really put up anything but we did see some fantastic lights in downtown Fort Worth.

8) Went back to the hotel opened gifts and watched tv.

9) Woke up the next day had some wonderful breakfast then went on our way.

the origami crane

The most peaceful form of meditation these days is folding a paper crane, an origami crane. I've always been interested in the "art of paper and paper-folding", whether it's just watching movies on the subject, i.e. "Between the Fold" or in trying to find a more interesting and less representational use of paper in art.

Recently, I started getting back into origami in order to teach my students how to fold paper, specifically the crane. The crane seems to be the most overused shape in origami next to a box, the heart, and the ever popular "cootie test" that every elementary school kid plays. The last three days I've probably created 100 different interpretations of the crane utilizing several different papers and images.

Upon doing this simple lesson I have discovered a new way to meditate and that is just sitting down and folding the crane. I've often thought about changing up what I fold or trying to learn a new form but I like folding something that is simple and somewhat overused, similar to the way Andy Warhol used the soup cans or pop culture icons.

Soundtrack for 12.14.2010;

1) "Improvisation Air 1" - Shinobu Nemoto

2) "Improvisation Air 2" - Shinobu Nemoto

3) "Melting Loop Trio" - Shinobu Nemoto

Some boring thoughts on the past weekend and Soundtrack for 12.13.2010

Lost my computer this past week for about 4 days. Thought I was having some kind of software problem only to discover that it was a hard drive dying on me. Not sure what I have lost because of no backups until I go through my external hard drives but I know there is some music, videos, and photographs that were more recent that I didn't backup. Sucks to be this attached to a piece of technology.

I think I may start doing a few small solo shows in the new year, as "the owl and the octopus" to satisfy my more minimalist side. However, I would love for Hentai Improvising Orchestra to have a lot of shows during the summer so I won't have time to do anything else.

1 more week left till Christmas vacation.

Soundtrack for 12.13.2010:

1. "Hound Dog" - Big Mama Thornton

2. "Breath Taking" - Akio Suzuki and David Toop

3. "Theoretically pure anterograde" - THE CARETAKER

12.09.2010

I'm so bad at this, typing on this blog.

Some new photographs:











































Working on a long video piece. Started out as a piece for my friend's band, Herd of Instinct, a prog-rock style band. This will be the longest piece I've ever tried to put together so we'll see. No video sample to show yet.

Soundtrack for 12.06.2010:

1) "In the 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into a Swimming Fish and Ate the Head of His Enemy By Magic" - Kasai Allstars

2) "Catching Fire" - Lars Lundehave Hanse

3) "AT" - CHRISTINE SEHNAOUI, DRAGOS TARA, D'INCIS

4) "Sur Place 3, Saint-Martin-d'Hères" - Pali Meursault

10.30.2010

Went to the Irving Arts Center today to see a sound installation by the artist Mineko Grimmer. She creates these sound sculptures where ice and rocks are suspended above wooden sculptures usually with guitar strings, bamboo tubes, and metals. Over a period of time these blocks ice melt dropping water, ice chunks, and rocks down on the sculptures below. Beautiful. I got there as they were replacing the blocks of ice but I walked around the building for a good hour and went back in to catch some of the sounds as the rocks began to fall. It was stunning. I just sat there, along a wall, and waiting with anticipation for rocks to fall just to hear what everything sounded like.

I was really inspired after leaving this show. Earlier in the day I was feeling a little depressed about how I felt about the current state of art and music, feeling that most current art/music is mediocre. After seeing her sculptures I didn't know whether to give up creating art or to go home and work on some of my own art.







































I've been really exploring music, which we take for granted here in the States like hip hop and punk, but created in other locations. Today I watched, "Taqwacores", about Muslim punk musicians, the book is more about a fictional house or community
of Muslim punks. Recently, I watched some stories about Iraqi hip hop emcee's and their fight to get their music heard.