For those of you who couldn't make it this Sunday for my first DMA Chamber Music Recital, here are the recordings of the works as they were presented.
Stereo Acousmatic
I should have a video of the recital in the next week or so, and when I do, I'll be uploading that to the various places on the internet. Until then, though, Woohoo, I'm done!
I like WordPress. I really do. I've been using it as a blogging platform for four or five years, ever since I built VanderBlog 1.0, realized that WordPress was superior, and gave up my own coding for something built by real programmers.
But a few things have perpetually bothered me about my WordPress setup. The big one is site integration. Sure, I could make it look like KyleVanderburg.com, if I spent the time to properly theme it (and re-theme it for every redesign). I could move it back to my webserver and install it in the /blog/ directory, where Vanderblog now is. But then, there's the creativity clause in my Mission Statement:
…to have a firm understanding of the creative process in its entirety from conception to production and to continually keep as much of that process in-house as possible except when other ventures provide a better service more efficiently than is capable by internal means;
Thus, enter VanderBlog 2. It runs on the Hammer platform, it lives on my server, it runs code that I wrote myself and (mostly) understand. It involved some modal box changes to KyleVanderburg.com which I'm excited to try out with other features. It also generates RSS, which is something I didn't know how to do until about 2 hours ago.
Is it as feature rich as WordPress? Not even close. At least, not yet. There's still some work to be done here, like redirecting all the old posts to the new blog (which does contain all the old posts and comments), but it's a start.
As I was updating my events page last week, I noticed that there's a lot going on in the next few months. Here's a hopefully comprehensive list of those performances.
2/19/13: Tuesday Noon Concert at OU's Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. I realize this was yesterday, but it happened, so I'm putting it here. I presented Drones as part of the Computer Music Studio's presentation in the Tuesday Noon concert series.
3/3/13: David Ikard's Lecture Recital on Água Eletrônica. Although Dave wrote the piece and it's his lecture recital, it involves a second performances of the only known work for water percussion and electronics, which runs on my code. Sunday, March 3, 8pm, Pitman Recital Hall at Catlett Music Center, OU.
3/8/13: Student Research and Performance Day. I'm presenting a poster on the form and sonic generation of my Creatures from the Black Bassoon. Friday, March 8, 12-4pm, National Weather Center, OU.
3/10/13: Family Day at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. As part of the FJJMA's efforts to buy Ed Ruscha's No Man's Land, the museum has commissioned a new work for piano trio. My Over Every Open Field for piano, flute, and clarinet will be performed at 1:30 and 2:30 pm, in the Sandy Bell Gallery of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, OU.
It looks like I get the rest of March off. Then it's
4/7/13: DMA Recital. I present a variety of music in my continued attempts to prove that I'm awesome and to convince five people to give me a doctorate. The program will include the following: Drones, Creatures from the Black Bassoon, Blueprints of Eternity, Caffeination, Over Every Open Field, Electronic Variations, and Daydreams of Arcadia. Sunday, April 7, 8pm, Pitman Recital Hall, Catlett Music Center, OU.
4/11/13: Inner sOUndscapes. The Computer Music Studio presents a variety of new music for instrument and electronics, including my Electronic Variations for piano and live interaction. Thursday, April 11, 8pm, Pitman Recital Hall, Catlett Music Center, OU.
4/12/13: SCI Region IV Conference. I will present Creatures from the Black Bassoon at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa. Friday, April 12, 2pm, Clarke University.
And then? And then I think I spend the rest of April sitting on the deck looking at trees.
I’m back in Norman, after a couple of weeks in Poplar Bluff and another week in Springfield. Although I did a lot of technology-related things (like upgrade the laptop and desktop to Windows 8, buy a MS Surface, prepare the new server, and move all the file-storage functions of Hammer to Amazon S3), little composing was done. Well, little legitimate composing was done. I did show off the XBOX instrument that I’m working on, and received some good feedback (but we’ll talk about that later). But the real purpose of this post is to talk about furniture. In following the tradition started last year, I decided to use the time in Missouri to build furniture with Dad.
I thought about an entertainment center for the living room, or perhaps a bookcase (since we don’t have enough of them around the treehouse), but since I spend most of my time here in the office, I thought an addition to the office furniture might be nice. And since I already had a desk, what about something to add to it? Something like drawers. I haven’t had drawers in my desk since I left Drury. That’s right. All of my graduate career has been achieved without drawers.
The problem with adding drawers to my writing desk is twofold. First of all, it was built to be modular, which means it has to fold. Second, it was built. Past tense. There’s no modifying it now, especially if I’m still wanting it to be modular (which I am). So, the drawer unit (and the accompanying computer tower unit) have to be self-contained, so they can be easily moved. Also, let’s put them on wheels, so they’re also easy to move. And if they’re easy to move, let’s build them so that someday when I have the space, I can move them somewhere else, put a top on them, and have a second desk.
So it started out with the same hard rock maple that the frame for the main desk used. Only, a lot less of it. Here’s the drawer frames.
Unlike the 2011 desk, the drawer/computer units are really just big boxes made of luan mahogany.
The drawers themselves are really kind of the same, just smaller boxes that are attached to drawer guides connected to the larger box.
And then of course comes sanding and staining and sealing. Luckily we found a jar of (hopefully) the stain we used last year on the desk. Something close enough, at least.
And then the drawer fronts and door were pretty easy, just cut to size from a sheet of pine. I decided to leave the edges of the drawers unroutered, to keep with the straight lines of the desk itself.
So then, add 500 miles and a flight of stairs, and here’s what they look like paired with the desk. Woohoo! Drawers!
