post-Paris progress report

Well, I didn't do all those things in Paris that I said I wanted to do. To be fair, that was kind of an unrealistic list for a vacation. I did finish all the music notation for the breathing parts of my video piece, which is good. I have now optimized the bubble/magnification code, added blur, and reconstruct to my program. The only effect that I definitely need to implement that I haven't is darkening, but that will probably be subsumed by my deciding to implement a fluid simulation thing.

Then, I will need to concentrate on questions of control and UI. Right now everything is added by pressing keys but I will probably instead have the 2 performers have wiimotes to control effects.

Today I am going to start emailing video artists to see if someone is able to perform as the video camera / eye for my piece. Why I dragged my heels on this step... I don't know. I hate asking people to do things...

The other thing I need to do sometime this week or the next is get my website back up again. It has been down for far too long. I've emailed the person at eamusic who is supposed to be doing that but he seems to be an INSANE slacker when it comes to responding to me. I'm gonna give it 2-3 days or so, then I will email again bc I need my site back up. I'm also gonna put all my shiz (or at least the stuff I can) on somethingfurry & then point my url there for the time being. Like it kinda hurts me, having my website point to something that doesn't exist.

I basically have to have a freaking website before I can really start booking things.

Anyways, after I finish my video shiz, I will finish up my origami piece. It is mostly done, in a lot of ways. But I need to notate the folders' parts and also I want to record a demo... with just me, I can do: voice, guitar, mandolin, accordion, xylophone, toy piano... which is 6 instruments & I could double up on a few if I felt like that was too sparse.

ETA: oh, also, I've decided to take ballet classes... which is, in a sense, unexpected since I am not a big ballet fan, but I felt like I wanted a basic grounding in dance technique and I happen to work below a very good ballet school. I would probably prefer modern dance, but that is less convenient and harder to find beginning/basic classes in it.

I'm not sure exactly what I hope to gain from this artistically. I guess I feel like my work continues to explore the existential aspects of embodiment... which I feel is an essential part of being a musician, yes... but I feel like dance would make me aware of my body in different ways... and therefore it has caused me to think in different ways... which is what I suppose I am searching out.

Also, I suppose I am hoping that ballet technique will help me in tango dancing, esp. in terms of balance. I also hope to get a lot more flexibility, and so forth. I decided that something like yoga would be a good addition to my life, but I didn't really like yoga the way I like dancing, and I feel like dancing addresses more issues all at once.

Also, I am going to sign up and take a workshop with Pablo Veron! Wee! (he is a famous tango dancer)

Source: http://istoleyouraccordion.blogspot.com/2010/08/post-paris-progress-report.html