Monday, October 18, 2010

Rouse Columbia



September, 2010:
Ah, another pleasant trip to Columbia, Maryland. Between the three roads of Governer Warfield Parkway (said sternly), the Little Patuxent, and Broken Lands Parkway (again, said sternly), lies the Mall at Columbia, the trianglular epi-focus of this invented community.

A community invented in the fifties by Mr. James Rouse, as a "satellite" city in the Disney mold- a style manual, stucco/futurist development, imaginary names of Indian American royalty, a monorail, and easy access off, of course, I 95.

Racquetball, an "architectural" sport, was also invented in the fifties, by Joe Sobek. The synthetic, blue bouncy ball acts as a vector to amplify the dueling players' energies, to create a chaotic system within a poured concrete box.

On Hickory Ridge
Cordage Walk
High Beam Court
Charter Oak
Bridlawn Terrace
East Wind Way
The Bluffs at Hawthorn
Avalon Symphony Woods
Howard Community College (Rouse Centre).

I wrote this Utopian poem in the morning, while cruising the roads of Columbia. Later on that day, I got so mad, I knife-handed the dash board so hard the glove-compartment flew open. In the fifties, Rouse made a deal with the local government to buy Indian burial grounds, "knob hills", and also low-lying swampland, to build his community on.

This "cursed land" can poke through in places; a marsh here, a sulphur spring there. The technique is often used- cover an Indian burial ground in aesphalt- a way to steal solemnity from the ancients for the benefit of the profane and ultra-modern.

My mouse pointer is pulled towards the darker corners of this google map:

Environmental Area



Lake Kittamaqundi



Wilde Lake



Intersection of Broken Lands and Columbia Pike


Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Sunday, September 19, 2010

A Note on Dogwood, in 9th grade high school science project, :"The flex/breakability of woods"

In this high school science project, foundations are laid for a business prospect that still is with me in my 30s. You see, I now design analog electronic organs for Ciat-Lonbarde. In both the Sidrassi and Tetrazzi organi, the peferred material for flex-sensing barre is wood. And of woods there are many choices; many more than plastics even (Nylon, Polycarbonate, Polystyrene).

I did two "wood projects" in high school science class. Besides this one, "The Flex/Breakability of Different Woods", there was, of course, "The Flammibility of Different Woods". I also wanted to get in to Distilling Wood, but I never got there yet.

Here's how Flex/Breakability went:

Hypothesis: that heavier woods break at a higher weight than lighter woods.
Method: Cut 1cm x 5cm x 2mm planks, vise grip at one end, hang weights on the other end. Keep hanging lead weights until it breaks.
Materials: Woods were harvested from the church property behind my mom's house. Such as: Sassafras, Silver Maple, Yew (from the olden cemetary), Dogwood (from a branch I cut in my mom's yard!). Note: because young Peter slaughtered living trees, he also had to improvise a drying technique for the planks, which was to use a propane torch and lightly toast it!
Observations: Dogwood of course was on the top of durability. It is pretty light, but it would be worst for Sidrassi barres because it didn't seem to flex at all. Best flex- of course- was Yew. Also tested was Sumac, which has always been my favorite for coloration, but I realized then that Sumac is a weak wood, expert at breaking, thus my song-chant:


Argument for wooden Electronic Instrumenta:
Wood is one of the cleanest natural products. Sealed off from the environment by bark, it grows in "regular lifespace", not absorbing any mercury from the environment. Plus, many woods have saps that in their fragrance, stave off certain diseases.

Wilhelm Reich wrote about orgone energy, which is accumulated when organic material (he used wool but we use aromatic woods) is placed in alternation with primal metals or crystals. That is the basis of the noted "Ciat"-"Lonbarde" dichotomy. Ciat refers to crystalline structures unified by metallic armature (CIA, air cond, Crystal City VA), and Nabra refers to nappy dreadlocks, rhizomal growth, and organic in general (from the African word, "Nbara"). Nbara is the wooden barre that receives nodes, the wooden barre that flexes through the plate to the crystal.

Observe the company Jupiter Condenser, and note that their capacitors are a rolled up sandwich of metal and beeswax paper. Also note the concordance between meta-technology and the bees, noted in the video "Wax or the Discovery of Television among the Bees"


True, positioning of the piezo-transducer as well as grinding a lense shape into the barre affect its electronic response, but primordially, choice of wood for the barre is what poots that extra touch onto a Ciat-Lonbarde organ. Sidrassi. Tetrazzi.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Monday, August 30, 2010

A Critique of Relabi; Japanese Resume

Relabi, a concept design by John Berndt.

Some biographical notice. John Berndt, the man of Baltimore, who in the 90s as straight-edge, created some really stoned nazi shit on his two-tape attache-folio "John Berndt, Works, 1991-1996", which is quite often heard in the Ciat-Lonbarde woodshop speakers.

Speaking of speakers, I heard a wonderful sound last night, kitty corner, but very near to, the Apple Store, in Shibuya. No, it was not shibuya-kei music a la Cornelius, of the 90s. It was not in front of any brightly lit "kira-kira" store of boots, but rather it was in the darkness, over there, where two security gaurds stand in front of a parking garage?

Back to the John Berndt biography. John Berndt, who in the nineties, started as a freelance, designing fonts for thee olde City of Baltimore web cottage, now leader of "The Berndt Group" (also known to Twig Harper as Blue Man Group), runs a task force of many in designing robust web solutions to cities and aquariums, to name a few. Berndt has a love/hate relationship with certain "creative" 90s softwares, a good example is KAI's power tools:

Over in the dark, last night, where the security gaurds were standing, I heard a pleasant noise, the crackle of a loose connection or perhaps even an ancient Japanese transistor failing. The sound, we agreed was coming from the PA above the gaurds. It seemed to be playing a quiet, and sometimes gonging, ancient new age music. When the music got loud, the PA made a quite loud, quite chaotic crackle like thunder but without the bass, which rang out in the convoluted alleys of Shibuya.

Like a cicada, the "Japanese Gaurded PA" is its own animal (cf. Shintoism, Animism), which the security gaurds allow to sound out, crackly like a cicada scream. That was a wonderful sound.

John Berndt has invented Relabi. Actually point one of the critique here is that ancient caveman and the Mesopotamians also had Relabi. Thus goes a rebuttal that is actually the same for Pauline Oliveros' comment at Oberlin that she "had the first truly improvised music" in 1956. The rebuttal is that cavemen always have had improvised music, under the standard Darwin Lemma that this music was based on imitating the sound of birds and natural things. They also must have used sticks and stones to beat out primitive rhythms, and certain intellectuals, perhaps even straight-edge, would have also emphasized certain anti-rhythms also known in the 90s as Chaos Magick.

Thus Relabi can be defined as a constant and steady slipping of the pulse, resulting in spastic or in California Lingo, "solipsistic", dance pattern in those who are listening. Relabi can be easily created with Computer Music, but it is very hard for a traditional musician to create, they having had at least an elementary education in Rhythm. It is very easy for a bad musician to create, resulting in the type of topsy-turvy revolution similar to Maoist Schools, when students kicked the teachers out.

Relabi is thus a tool for grass-roots, but dramatic revolution, especially in those who are "straight-edge but interesting in druggedness-soundingness, or wobbliness", i.e. long-haired skinheads. Are our youth long-haird skinheads?

Relabi can be simulated in texte, as shown in the previous paragraph.

It is constant revolution/devolution, formally expressed in rhythm, but this could easily extend out to other dimensions such as timbre. My Lutheran Pastor-Elder as a kid, called evolution "devilution". The younger Pastor, however, later said Elder really meant "devolution", and added, "you can masturbate, as long as its not about anyone in particular", which I thought was sound advice.

It's like, you take the wank of 4 on the floor dance/mellow music, and tell it, "now, Zen out, don't think about any one rhythm, you know, loosen up your wank". That's what's planned for John Berndt's world Relabi Dance Tour. The plan, get as famous as 90s Dance Music.

By the way, heard last night from a gay-man, that the Tokyo scene is not where it's at anymore, that it's moved to China, Shanghai. Probably reffering to "Rhythmic Music".

\\-Mr. Prostituto's private motif of sexual tourism.\\
\\-Mr. Prostituto's "private" conversation with Dr. Smoke,\\
\\-Dr. Smoke's comment to the council about Prostituto's philosophy.\\
\\-Sam's comment to the council about Smoke's email.\\
\\-Smoke's action at the center to remedy the haemmorrhage.\\
\\-Smoke's new email: Smokey\\
石吹
せき ふ

バイオグラフィー

PETER BLASSER 1979年 アメリカ コネチカット生まれ。バルチモア在住。
年少からチューバを習う。高校生より、民族楽器を(両親に買ってもらえなかったため、)自分で作り始める。
その後、電子回路を使ったチューニングと音色に無限の可能性に見出し、シンセサイザー・ブランド Ciat-Lonbarde を立ち上げる。
彼の作り出すシンセサイザーは、独特の回路とケースデザインにより、ノード、ラジオ・フィールド、モジュレーションを直感的にコントロールできるのが特徴と言える。 
今回の来日にあたり、Rollz-5 ドラムマシン、Tetrazzi Organus シンセ、そして最新のプロダクト、コンピュータ・プログラムとデジタルコントローラシステム CHUBのデモンストレーションとパフォーマンスがスケジュールされている。


Peter B BIO
Peter Blasser, tubist since 4th grade. In high school, unallowed to purchase ethnic instruments, he began making them in the basement out of wood. Later, in college, he discovered electronic circuits, and their possibilities for infinite tunings, infinite timbres. He made a career out of electronic modulations, and making these intangibles touchable through nodes, case flexure, and radio fields. His company: ciat-lonbarde.net, sells these devices to musician around the world. Now, have a seat and watch him demonstrate a few of the instruments. First, the Rollz-5 drum machine, an experiment modeling brain cells in transistors, to make organic rhythms.

Next, Peter will perform a solo on the Tetrazzi Organus, a purveyor of multi-timbres in infinite tunings, as well as deeper and deeper chaos-forms, all controled by the flex of wooden bars, creating a highly organic, humanly-shaped sound.
Finally, Peter will demonstrate his newest invention, based on years of touchable analog design, the CHUB digital squishing device will create equally organic computer music based on human gesture.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Stark

I'm at an apartment complex called "Life Tower", Tokyo. It overhangs the Asahi complex, consisting of a golden perspex rect-struct which is their corporate headquarters, as well as this organic, matching horn-structure which is the Asahi restaurant.


Philip Stark designed this horn-blob-structure on top of the restaurant for two obvious goals.
  1. To project a deerhorn invisible field out from the exterior into the psycho-geography of Tokyo, and by aligning it with the Samida River, "blowing" this resonance into the downtown district.
  2. To create an organic inner-space, which I imagine higher-crust patrons of the restaurant can visit, perhaps to have a sort of whipped Asahi head fluff after-dinner cocktail.
Thus the deerhorn-blob creates both an "inner attic wind space" as well as an exterior one. This structure has penetrated into my jet-lagged slumber ideas. It brings up "what is the sound of such a piece?".
  1. There is the actual echoes that are immanent to the interior space, when you visit it and perhaps clap your hands, or your newborn makes a coo, and all this reverberates over your beer-head-fluff.
  2. Then there is the sound of the designer's computer program used to implement the meta-structure as an organic mesh of triangles. These triangle spaces can also be read as triangle waves, which lenser out in tumorous appendages as well as petering out to a fine tip. Gehry, Stark, all these super-star (?super-stark?) designers had to specify the steel structure (in the form of computer data) that holds their organic skins up. This is a tesselation, an articulation, and it has a haptic rhythm too.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Dolphinic Dolphins

A dream had. Again, about "other" animals' quest for consciousness, empowerment. Refer to several books (fiction), about an apes telling a man (telepathically) about humans preventing animals from self-fulfillment, also same plot but with dolphins.

You see, we deforest the apes habitat, mine beneath their buttes. We run sonar in the oceans that totally wipes out the dolphins' communication, destroying their communities, ripping the backs of manatees with boat-blades.

The traditional argument is that man was meant to rule over the planet forever (bible)

The contemporary argument is that some animals are trying, moving towards becoming human, in intelligence, empathy, self-awareness.

The dream had showed me that dolphins will not become like humans in these brain-things. They are not becoming human, but dolphinic. Dolphinic is the mental growth of dolphins, which is different from our mental-bloomings...

A koan, delivered by the elder pastor at Prince of Peace lutheran church (when I was a kid):
"Jesus was 100% man and 100% god"///
//I did not understand this when i was small, thinking percentage indicates mixture,
//so Jesus should be 50 50. My wife uses this rational thinking as proof that
//I am emotionally retarded. Now I coming to understand.
//you can be both godly and human at the same time.
//perhaps this is what we see in smart dolphins:
//100% dolphinic and 100% human