An evening at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center

The Tuning the Air team gathered at Fremont Abbey last night to begin to work out the logistics of making Tuning the Air happen in that space. Here are some images.

First order of business is to define the circumference of the performance circle. How big can the circle be before those beams obstruct the player's ability to see each other?


The new riser gets placed and tested. A reality check on the proximity to the beams is necessary. Can the players move freely without banging a headstock or guitar body into a beam?

Our theme song for the evening may as well have been 'Getting to Know You' as the room became familar with us and we with it.



The lone riser gets placed nearest the entrance so we can see/feel the affect on an arriving member of the audience.
Next we sprinkle some chairs into the place to imagine the audience in the space.

Lots of opportunities and challenges to play with in the handful of weeks that lie between now and the first show of the season.

Riser prototyping

Sunday afternoon I met Curt and Travis over at the Travgor garage to assemble a prototype of the risers we plan to make for the performances at Fremont Abbey.

Travis did most of the cutting


And Curt and I provided the all-important role of adding ballast.






Your basic riser model:

Before installing the legs, Travis checks out the platform.


With the legs installed, Curt performs a little quality assurance dance on the prototype.

And then a more conventional test.


It looks great and was not too difficult to assemble.

More 'publicity stuff'

A team new image

and playing with some ideas for a logo...

A simple, yet significant image

a lemon
What is significant about this image is that it is the sort of thing my previous living situation would nearly never have brought. I walked into the kitchen this afternoon, and the lemons - sitting on the window ledge - played with the afternoon light in a simple, beautiful way. It is an image that arrived rather than having to be evoked. Both are wonderful working methods, but I was missing this one. Though the results are not always usable, the process itself is like a lubricant to the practice of seeing.


Fading daffodils in the afternoon light.


And a bit of a pre-announcement, as we don't yet have a signed contract...

from the new studio

First image from the new studio - and it is a rainy, overcast day. No sun in sight!

a Weekend

A visitor on Friday...one of many neighborhood cats.


There was an Open House at the Fremont Abbey arts center on Friday evening. Dancing, music, and open canvases with paints for anyone to contribute to.


The Tuning the Air performance team played wandering minstrels for one portion of the Open House.

















Saturday began with Calisthenics. A freeform approach wherein Curt would call out a chord from C Major and we could improvise within that chord. Shortly after beginning I realized I was the only one playing with the notes ringing. I began to examine the fretboard for a different pattern. But then I noticed that I preferred what I was bringing with the ringing notes.

Sitting at Trinity – aware that this is among the last sittings in this space.

House Team began with a circulation and then we eased into ‘One of a Thousand Regrets’ by first improvising with all the parts. Each of us would work with each of the parts, trading off as the spirit moved. Then we worked on it in earnest. IgorK noticed the open A in the cross-picking pattern was often out of time, so that became of the focus of our work. In the final 20 minutes, we improvised with ‘Asturias’ as we had with ‘One of a Thousand Regrets’ – and I saw how much I’d lost my sense of the main part of that piece by playing twinkles all the time. Back into the practice rotation with that one.

Trinity cleanup from 1:30. Purging the unnecessary. Differing opinions on what is necessary. Still, the place was pretty radically transformed in a few hours. I was surprised to see the carpet go – but then again, I am perhaps the only one not averse to having cushions available to the audience.









Eve was not happy when the round carpet was cut into four pieces. She said we were 'hurting it' and staged a protest. I was inclined to agree with her.

This has really been a fabulous home for the team.

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In the new place, the utilities (heat, lights, water) come with the cost of the rent. This is good – and one of the factors that made this place appealing. It has a corollary – there are no controls for temperature in the unit. The landlord’s unit has the thermostat, and it is the comfort level of her place that determines when the furnace turns on and off. This morning, as has been the case since moving in, the place is quite chilly.

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Walking around the yard with the landlord today to learn about the garden, I discovered that there are four lilac bushes here. This is excellent news.

No time for words tonight...

...so pictures will have to suffice. A design for a flyer I developed on Wednesday.

Playing with Tuning the Air logo ideas, I came up with these. They don't work as logos, but I found them interesting anyway.



And another image in the continuing development of the studio.

Time to go grocery shopping

Terrifically hungry tonight, but I’ve already had three peanut butter sandwiches today. The one I had for breakfast was with sliced banana, the two at lunch were the classic form: peanut butter and jelly. I’d tried to persuade someone to join me for breakfast so I could justify eating out, and though tempted, I could not successfully entice them. So peanut butter it was. Maybe some apple slices will get me through the night.

Significant unpacking progress made today. The kitchen and studio have been priorities. The kitchen– with today’s arrival of the replacement stove - is now reasonably functional. It is also the staging area for empty boxes, so it is a little cluttered. The studio’s main components are in place, now to unpack and install the printers and scanners.

for the curious

No time to post anything more than these two snaps. The new studio (notice all that light!) and the curtains I got for the door.

The day after moving day

The moving team that assembled to help was amazing! I’d done the best job I could at organizing my things to make the whole event go smoothly, and this was complemented fantastically by the teamwork and care of those who showed up to help (or stayed home to attend to children so that a spouse could be available.) Lisa, the building manager, was impressed at how efficiently the moved was executed. A fifteen-foot truck was filled in less than an hour and once we got to the new place it was emptied in even less time. Amazing when you consider how many pieces were handled. While we were unloading, Curt and IgorA disassembled the loft back at my old place. We swung back over with the truck to retrieve the lumber that formerly constituted the loft, then delivered it all to Travgor’s garage to await its transition into the future set design for a future Tuning the Air season. A pizza party followed. I stayed as long as my energy allowed, doing as many of the dishes as were available before I left - since Travgor was/were effectively hosting a party on my behalf. Already exhausted, I went to the old place to complete the cleaning. I left with the floors still to wash.

Last night was the first night in the new place. It was reasonably quiet in the bedroom, though I was able to hear the landlord’s television a little too well when I was in the living room putting things away. That is unfortunate not only because I’d prefer NOT to listen to her television, but also because it means hosting guitar circles in may not be possible in this new place.

Crawled out of bed shortly after 6am, sore and worn from yesterday’s move. Arrived at Curt’s at 7am sharp for sitting. While sitting a thought came to me about the set design for the next season. It wasn’t about specifics, it simply was this: Anyone who knows the space must walk into it for a TTA performance and say simply, ‘wow!’ It has to have that quality of transformation.

Back to the old apartment to wash the floors, then a trip to a department store for minor items, the hardware store, dropping off a load at the goodwill and then a visit to Trinity to leave boxes for our work next Saturday. Back home to learn that my phone was installed, but the DSL is not working – so no internet access yet. Forty-five minutes on the phone with customer support. Then my first shower in the new place allows a discovery about the plumbing. I’d been warned about a slow bathtub, but it is really slow! An hour after my shower, there was still two inches of water standing. That, and learning that only one of the four telephone jacks in the apartment is in working order has put a damper on the first day in my new place.

At the hardware store, Tom, the handyman consultant extraordinaire was there (Tom helped me design the loft last spring) and helped me select a replacement saw blade. He kindly offered to replace the blade on the saw for me. As he took the old one off (possibly the original blade for this 20-year old saw) he said, ‘You sure burned that one up.’ I explained that the new blade he was installing would be used to build the set for the music production that brought me to town.

Later, when I walked into the department store, My eyes caught the beautiful gem-like colors of a display in the make-up/fragrances section. I saw how artfully they’d designed the products and the display to dazzle a passer-by – even one with no interest in the products! It reminded me of a moment a few years back when I rounded a turn on the freeway and came across a hillside of California poppies. That encounter with brilliant orange color in the landscape felt direct, un-mediated. What is the role of color in our lives – what potential is there in a relationship with color? How can this be studied?

The 'day before the move' day

Several successive days of packing has me pretty worn. Nonetheless (or perhaps due to this) I was looking forward to working at Trinity today, for the chance to engage with music. When I walked in the door for calisthenics, Curt was working with Ian on a form employing the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th of each note - in C Major, (later in the hour we moved to C Harmonic Minor (Flat A and F). It was at a tempo that was beyond me, so Curt suggested I drone the root of each chord in the progression. He then suggested - for a little variety - that I try the 3rd, then the 5th and eventually the 7th. I added my own variations by moving into octaves higher and lower, and then added a double drone by playing the root and its octave. Given how little energy I possessed, this was just about the right level of work for me. I used the simplicity of this exercise to see if I could notice how a change in the left hand has a habit of disrupting the right hand - even though the right hand's work is unchanged.

After sitting, the team gathered to hear the news about the new 'trial' venue. We may have a season by mid-April. I didn't bother complaining about the short lead time. I have enough work just to get through my move, and find a job. I hope my last poster/postcard design is accepted by the producers so that my work on that front is manageable. Exciting and daunting.

The house team began with a circulation. It sounded pretty perfunctory and mechanical to me. We weren't playing with each other. So I asked if we could do it again, this time with some attention given to the person passing a note to us, and then to the person we were passing a note to. It began somewhat forced and stilted - but we endured. It was probably the longest circulation we have ever played by far. We then followed up on Ian's request from Wednesday - to play Eye of the Needle. We butchered it. We tried it again with the metronome. This time, we didn't butcher it, but it was still pretty bad. Ian was ready to let it go, but I pointed out that it wasn't going to get any better until we gave it some attention. So we worked on the 4/4 section. When it wasn't getting any better, I suggested we play only the first note of each measure, then after a while, the notes of the first measure were added, then the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in succession. We looked at left-hand fingerings and found improvement possible there too.

During the hour between the house team's work and the beginning of the Monthly Open Circle, I took a break to drop a load of boxes off at the new place and grab my lunch which I'd left at home. Loaded up the car again and returned for the Open Circle.

We were fortunate to have exactly 12 in attendance - so we became a tone clock for much of what we worked on. I was lucky enough to be the root! Curt had us divide the clock in half, into 4ths, into 3rds, into 6ths, and it was only as we got near the end of the thirds that I began to understand how we were moving through the chords. In the last few minutes, Curt distributed notes that resulted in a sweet, circulated arrangement of Gary Jules 'Mad World' . As soon as recognition hit my ears, I let out a 'yesssssss!' - which coincided with a need to play my note.

Another stop at the new place to unload the boxes I picked up with my lunch - and then home to meet with someone who answered my Craigslist posting to sell my dry mount press. One less thing to move!