leaf & Lake

Sunday morning walk at Greenlake:

Leaf Lake

Saturday - yesterday - was intense. 8am calisthenics with Curt and Taylor. Curt's suggestion a few days ago to work with the A major scale paid off. A rapid tempo. A drone pattern of four notes - the open A. Then the first of these four is replaced with the successive notes of the A major scale. We travel up and down many times. Then Curt begins to call out changes. 'flat the 7th' I can barely make out what he says, but I make the adjustment. He proceeds to flatten other notes - in a pattern I do not recognize nor remember, but the work I've done helps me keep up anyway. Then, the adjusted notes are adjusted back gradually. I find this the hardest - how to remember which of the intervals are still diminished and which not yet. Then Taylor begins to play a third above our notes. Later Curt makes some other shift (a fifth?) It remains a challenging, but for the first time, thoroughly enjoyable calisthenics session.

Later, Taylor, Curt and I head to Vera's for a big breakfast to tide us over for the workday at CHAC. The session at CHAC is mixed . We have many surprises, some good and some not so good. The set design issues take precedence over all the other considerations, so Igor K and I are only able to address some of the issues we must address together for the 'house'. After four hours, we are all pretty beat, but at least we have a sense of what will be required to set up the set.

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Spent a chunk of today working on printing some of the new images that have been emerging from my camera.

a day at CHAC

Today was devoted to a technical rehearsal at the Capitol Hill Arts Center. It was exhausting, so I'm off for a nap...

A rope for David

This one is for David (aka DAE). It is his influence that encourages me to notice this sort of thing.


Still hopelessly attracted to this tree:

Asiatic Lilies Part II

Asiatic Lilies

Asiatic Lilies were today's subject. And they may be tomorrow's subject too. We'll see.

TTA set design assembly

Today several of us met at Travgor's to work on the fabric panels that will hang behind the players in the new set designed for the Tuning the Air shows that will be held at the Capitol Hill Arts Center. Here's Curt (and Jaxie) working on the dowls that will be used to suspend the panels.




After we got done with the set design preparations, we had a small potluck gathering. Eve (Jaxie & Bob's youngest daughter) became interested in Travis' new haircut:



This was followed a little later by a staring contest bewteen Curt and Eve:

And as you can see here, someone attempted to distract his opponent during the contest.



Relaxing with Jaxie....

simple, sixteenth note, open A drone at 72bpm

These are not from today, but I didn't want to post an image-less post. And I don't think I've posted these before...


Arrived 15 minutes early to calisthenics, but only a few minutes before Curt arrived, I was not yet settled on the stool before he entered. Fortunately, he began in a simple, sixteenth note, open A drone at about 72bpm. (At this point we were working without a metronome.) We stayed with this for a long time, so it was possible to play with it and see how little right-hand effort was necessary. And I tried to keep a count going so as to maintain a conection with where ‘one’ was.

Then Curt – without changing anything about the right hand (or the tapping of his foot, began working in triplets. Three open A’s, three Bb’s, three, C#’s. Repeat. After bit of this, the pattern moved up; three open A’s, three C#’s three D’s. Many repetitions, then up again – the Trapiche lead. (I know I should know what key this represents, but I do not. I will look it up.) Once we started on these patterns, I lost the metronome entirely and couldn’t find one at all. I tried just saying ‘one’ for every metronome click but found it impossible. I tried letting go entirely of the left hand work and returning to the open A drone to re-establish the count, but when I returned to the left hand I’d lose it again. At this point, we (by now we were joined by Greg and Taylor) were just looping the three note patterns, but then Curt brought it down to eight repetitions, then four, then two and then finally just one. Once he introduced this other level of counting, I let go of the effort to find the ‘one’ on the metronome. The most I could do was make certain my down strokes matched everyone else’s down strokes. It was a good workout and it was gratifying afterwards to see that my right hand made it through this without stiffening up or getting sore and tense. During that early part of the open A drone that seemed to go on endlessly - and while not effortless it was anxiety-free.

I made an airport run to pick up Mary Beth, who visits from Boston for the weekend. We got back in time for the last hour or so of rehearsal.

Tonight a few of us plan to attend a dance performance at CHAC to learn a bit more about this space Tuning the Air will inhabit in a month. I plan to make it an early night as I feel myself fighting off a cold.

Nature's soft box

My friend David Adam Edelstein likes to refer to Seattle's overcast skies as a giant soft box. Well, for weeks, the weather has been glorious - no softbox. Until this week. This morning I went out to try it out...

Pillars of Awesomeness

On Tuesday evening, Travis and Curt and I met at Jaxie's to experiment with fabric for the new TTA set design at CHAC. The fabric is a white, shimmery material that is both highly reflective and somewhat translucent. These are intended for what Travis has dubbed 'the pillars of awesomeness'.




After several days of preparing files... (Remember those files I worked so hard to adjust to make them printable? Well, now I had to adjust backwards to make them viewable while still maintaining integrity to the print.) ...yesterday and today I created two new portfolios (Summer Light) for my website. Paul's instructions (and well-designed web site) made this quite possible. I will make some fine tuning adjustments over the next few days and then post a news items about these when I feel they are ready for attention. In the meantime, I have asked several photographer friends to take a peek and let me know what they think of my arrangement.

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The continuing saga of the TTA venue search: Dropped by this property today to see if it is suitable for TTA. It is not - it has two load-bearing pillars, one just about in the middle of the space.



Here at my live/work space, my desk door 'neighbor' is a healing center that, among other things, uses sound to facilitate healing. Here's Paul in the room that is opposite the western wall of my place. Often, during the day, I will hear this large gongs as they work on clients. Fortunately for me (since I am so sound sensitive) I find these sounds pleasant. Today they had an open house and I got to drop by and even get a taste of the work they do. (No that isn't me on the table - the photo is from their website.)

Another TTA season begins

A morning walk at Greenlake yesterday was the only bit of relaxation in the day. Post office and computer work until 5pm when I headed to Trinity for the show...


Here are some snaps from the pre-show warmup...




And one of the team with the new sandwich board.


It was a good first show show - and few award winning clams, but also some truly beautiful moments.

Koto Sunday

Another sunflower frm the Travgor garden



Spent the late afternoon at Trinity in the TTA performance space. I borrowed teh space to make some exploratory photographs of Igor's Koto.

And while I was there, I took advantage of the opportunity to practice. Since the camera and tripod were there and set up, why not?

OK, so he was parked...

Seen on Greenwood Ave. this afternoon..


Calisthenics, sitting, TTA rehearsal/setup. At Calisthenics, Curt was working on a piece of Trapiche, though I didn’t immediately recognize it as such. Struggled along to find a way to work with it.

During rehearsal, I worked with IgorK – reviewing the ‘lobby’ situation and preparing a new mock lobby to see how the performance team would be impacted. All went well. Part of that review resulted in a list of posters and signs we require for the lobby. Though I regretted not being able to sit in the circle for the rehearsal, it was beneficial for Igor and I to work together.



After rehearsal, several of the team spent some time cleaning and organizing the space to make it ready for Monday’s performance.

When TTA activities were complete, Taylor and I visited his new condo. Nice space, though much smaller looking than the 1100 sq. ft. it is supposed to be. Went to lunch to lunch afterwards at a pizza place that was truly disappointing. Check that one off the list of available restaurants within walking distance of Taylor’s new place.



The afternoon & evening have been spent preparing the posters and signs IgorK and I determined were necessary. One remaining task: print off the programs for Monday night’s show. I’m planning on having an essentially TTA-free Sunday tomorrow.

Gallery search

A few weeks ago, Gitta sent me info about an upcoming photography exhibit here in Seattle. The exhibition opening was yesterday and I decided to go and check the place out. Drove south on 99 and just before my exit, I found myself in a massive jam. It took nearly 20 minutes to go less than a quarter of a mile thanks to some event emptying out of one of the big arenas. I knew the gallery was nearby, so I parked the car as soon as I cleared the exit and walked out of the traffic jam. The Goooglemap I'd printed said I'd be within blocks, and according to the addresses I saw, that should have been true, but I think this is a case where 1st St South and 1st St. create confusion. After walking a while, a passerby I consulted pulled out his web enabled cell phone and assured me I was two blocks away. Four blocks later, I called Gitta and had her give me the phone number. I called and got voicemail, but left a message anyway with my cell number. The directions I got then were pretty amusing too, though I managed to find the building anyway. The show was interesting, but I'm not sure it was worth all that. At least I can now say I've been to Pioneer Square.

Photographic harvest

Images of sunflowers from the Travgor garden. I brought a few back to my home/studio to see what I could make....





And here's the newly completed sandwich board (on the right). At 4' high, it towers over the other A-frame.

Saturday rehearsal

After a general meeting, the team began rehearsals in the usual performance space. Afterwards, they came downstairs to the gym to experiment with the acoustics of a larger space. They sounded awesome.

I worked with Meleah and Diana to sand & paint a new sandwich board.