Molecules of Beauty

Spring time in the Arizona desert

How often do you step outside on a bright clear day to look deep into the sky and seriously ponder that you are looking at the same sky you see at night except now the air has its oxygen molecules illuminated by the star burning almost 93 million miles away in space?

Do many people take pause to consider that the gas around them not only sustains our lives but also colors our view of space? Twenty-one percent of the air is oxygen which is tinted blue compared to the 78% nitrogen that has no color and is transparent. In the evening when photons are mostly absent, we can easily see through our atmosphere and take notice of the bright specks of light known as stars.

The clouds are densities of water crystals whose particles are significantly larger than oxygen molecules and instead of scattering blue they scatter the white light of the sun and our clouds appear in their distinct billowy puffs that drift effortlessly against the dramatic blue background.

This all happens for the majority of us out of sight and out of mind, but we should never take this incredible bit of science for granted, as it is the complex relationship of systems that are essential to sustaining our version of life.

Have you stopped to watch a cloud form or seen it simply disappear into the blue? I’d venture to guess that most people who live in urban settings have watched more television than they’ve consciously gazed upon the heavens above.

Sometimes I don’t realize how lucky I am that we see blue skies over Arizona nearly every day, including stormy days. I’ve lived in a city for 10 years where the majority of the year seemed to have cloud cover that obscured the sky beyond more often than not. It wasn’t easy to visit the ocean or a large body of water either. Although I’m now in a desert, Caroline and I haven’t encountered too much resistance to making our way to America’s waterways and oceans. This though is a luxury while looking out upon the sky merely requires us to go outside.

Consider how amazing the opportunity is to see with our own eyes the play of elements that flash within the minds of humans fortunate enough to comprehend the reality of the sky above us. We are here only momentarily to see it for ourselves, but do we choose to witness this spectacle firsthand, or do we remain oblivious to how profound this part of the world around us truly is?

Synthplex to the Exit

The eyes of Scott Jaeger - Industrial Music Electronics

Where were you when the first Synthplex happened? I was in myself doing my best to explore my bucket of impostor syndrome. There are those moments you just know that nobody is looking at you, as with one glance they know you can’t be a serious human being because they don’t recognize you; so you must be nobody. I’d heard that Martin Gore had visited on Friday and a gaggle of fans followed him around hoping for selfies with the Depeche Mode star. Others who were recognizable were also given the red carpet welcome. When someone like myself walks up there is the obligatory name tag check and as soon as it is clear that there is no name recognition the person at the booth can start acting fidgety with you in order to let you know your time is limited and that you are likely wasting theirs. Now step back and wait for someone that impresses them. The smiles grow, they move in closer and start putting on the charm. There are no time limits as the momentary celebrity can indulge their every curiosity with answers extending into detailed nuances I could never even pay for.

I am not endeared to these vendors. Matter of fact, I’d now like to sell the gear I bought from them over the previous years. This type of elitism is a punch at my enthusiasm and the fire that stokes my sense of owning the aforementioned impostor syndrome. Some vendors are extraordinary in their lack of bias and embrace anyone regardless of status who approaches them. This weekend I was able to experience and witness the gracious attitudes of a number of makers such as the authors of Patch and Tweak – Kim Bjørn and Chris Meyer. Bert Schiettecatte and Celine Van Damme of Percussa were incredibly welcoming and willing to share a ton of information that made me a fan of their Percussa SSP. Dave Rossum has the enthusiasm of 10 people, Danjel van Tijn founder of Intellijel didn’t hesitate to pay attention as we spoke. Scott Jaeger of Industrial Music Electronics will give anyone who asks him about his modules a brilliant hands-on demo and answer all questions, often in exquisite detail with a dose of history thrown in.

Percussa SSP at Synthplex in Burbank, California

Speaking of the Percussa SSP: Once I was finally able to catch Bert free of giving other demos he jumped right in sharing with me the salient points that I was most curious about. First up were the granular capabilities of this expensive power-hungry module. When I say expensive I’m talking $2,000 pricey, and regarding power, this thing needs nearly 1 amp of electricity from your rack. Beyond those requirements, this thing is a beast. Do you need to record up to 16 inputs of either audio or control voltage? This is your machine. Do you want to record and edit samples directly in your Eurorack and then drill into them with polyphonic multi-channel playback only to record those outs right back to the device for later use? The SSP can do that.

I’ll admit I was skeptical a couple of years ago when Percussa ran their Kickstarter about this ambitious project, but after seeing it first hand I’m intrigued. With software and firmware updates occurring approximately twice monthly and upon learning that their forum is a great place for feedback and making requests for improvements, I inch even closer to trying to figure out what to sell in order to bring this work of art into my repertoire.

Ed Kennedy and A.m Filipkowski at Synthplex in Burbank, California

How cool is this? Not only do I run into fellow Phoenician Chris Randall here in California, but here is Ed Kennedy who runs the Phoenix Synthesizers Group (organizing a DIY program in Phoenix soon) and the maniacal A.m. Filipkowski of Data Cult Audio who is also based in Arizona (FYI: he’s not really maniacal, he just looks that way – yes that’s him on the right).

Tetrapad and new CV Recorder for it from Intellijel at Synthplex in Burbank, California

Danjel van Tijn seriously impressed me, not with the sexy new case so much as with the device I failed to get a name for that is mounted left of the Tetrapad. That shiny white module is brand new and unreleased as of today. It is a CV recorder for the Tetrapad. I wish I’d thought to ask while I had his attention if the voltages could be morphed across the various channels.

Roger Linn and Daniel Billotte at Synthplex in Burbank, California

On the left is the affable and relatively famous Roger Linn who invented the first drum machine to use samples and the MPC that profoundly changed modern music. On his right is my old friend Daniel Billotte who was getting a demo of Roger’s newest creation; the Linnstrument. Most recently Roger played a crucial role in helping change the MIDI format to incorporate polyphonic elements that radically extended the play-ability of MIDI instruments.

Prototype Bionic Lester MK3 from Industrial Music Electronics at Synthplex in Burbank, California

This was one of the main draws for me showing up at Synthplex; the Bionic Lester MK3. Scott Jaeger of Industrial Music Electronics made two of these filters last week and one of them was for me. Sure he could have mailed it to me, but then I would have missed out on all of these terrific experiences and more than a few wonderful people I was able to meet and learn from.

Synthplex in Burbank

Ross Fish of MØFFENZEEF MØDULAR

Ran into Ross Fish of Møffenzeef Mødular here at Synthplex in Burbank, California, this morning which was a great way to step into the absurd and hopefully setting a tone for the rest of my encounters here. Turned out that this guy (also known as Czar Dean, Anne Chovie, and Matt Zerella) is a unique one-of-a-kind brand of his own peculiarity. Ross was well on his way to disturbing attendees in ways he wasn’t prepared to share, though he assured me they would feel the effects of his mayhem well into the future. Not that the people who visit a Eurorack conference could easily be described as your run-of-the-mill ordinary everyday kind of people, but Ross is certainly one of those cherry-on-top types of personality. I’d like to say it was a pleasure meeting him for the first time, but then again how can anyone ever know what side of the Fish they are getting?

Chris Randall and Bon Harris at Synthplex in Burbank, California

Chris Randall of Audio Damage (left) was on hand, demonstrating his line of software instruments and VSTs too. I met Chris who also lives in Phoenix a little more than a year ago and enjoyed being able to catch up with things before he and I went looking for Scott Jaeger of Industrial Music Electronics who was nowhere to be found. While getting some air and taking a break from the noise in the main halls I saw a guy approaching I’d not seen in nearly 30 years, Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb (right). Unfortunately, they won’t be playing in Phoenix so we’ll have to head into Los Angeles come October if we’d like to flirt with nostalgia and catch them.

The Lizard and various modules from Vinicius Electrik at Synthplex in Burbank, California

I had the good fortune of meeting Quincas Moreira from Mexico City as well. I’ve chatted with Quincas on social media many a time. Not only is he a composer but also a terrific DIY guy which was how I first learned of him. He’s up here in the Los Angeles area representing Vinicius Electrik who makes their own line of Eurorack modules. Quincas gave me a demo of their newest module, the Lizard, which is certainly a very unique module competing in the ever-growing and increasingly crowded market for synthesizers.

Blake Griffith of Noisebug and John L. Rice at Synthplex in Burbank, California

Outside contemplating something to eat I see a logo approaching. The man’s face doesn’t trigger any memories, but I’m wondering just how many people might be wearing a JLR logo on their shirt. I must ask if this is the man behind John L. Rice – it is indeed (he’s on the right). He’s walking along with Blake Griffith (left) from NoiseBug in Pomona that I first visited almost exactly two years ago on April 1st, 2017.

Rossum Electro-Music Panharmonium Eurorack Mutating Spectral Resynthesizer

“Wow!” was my reaction to the Panharmonium from Rossum Electro. I feel like this is the granular synthesizer I’ve always been looking for. Technically this is considered a Mutating Spectral Resynthesizer that makes magic choral sounds out of Ronald Reagan speeches (that is what Dave Rossum used to demo the unit to my ears). Sadly the module won’t be out until approximately late spring or early summer but the good news is that it is only going to cost $499.

By now I’ve run into Scott a few times and during that first encounter, I was handed a brand new prototype Bionic Lester MK3 filter module that I’ll be testing over the next month or so. Hopefully, we can make quick work of the beta period as he and I have upcoming travels that will put a pause on that work.

I also had a great visit with Brandon Fessler of Mordax who made my DATA Multi-Function tool. Matter of fact he also repaired my unit when the Arizona dry air created a situation where an adhesive bond failed. The DATA is a godsend module that I use in two primary ways: as an oscilloscope and a tuner. Being able to see what a signal looks like or what key you are tuning to is essential when working with synthesizer voices. If we get lucky this will be the year the Eurorack industry sees a proliferation of granular synthesis devices. Not only is Rossum Electro entering the field, but Émilie Gillet over at Mutable Instruments has hinted at the replacement for Clouds and Mordax has shown a very early prototype of the GXN Granular Synthesis System last year at Superbooth in Berlin.

Oki Dog in Los Angeles, California

We had to take a pass on the many musical performances that were being held in a couple of locations as it was time to go meet our friends Rotem and Itay who were only a couple of days away from welcoming their first child. It was great to catch up and they were thrilled to be gifted a handwoven baby blanket by Caroline. Matter of fact, we were so involved in our conversation that I forgot to take a photo. We left with huge smiles on our faces and ended up getting a late dinner at the World Famous Oki Dog on the way back to the motel.

Los Angeles Bound

Caroline and John Wise

Got an early start driving to California today, allowing us to miss the crush to get out of Phoenix. With the major stress of leaving not happening it set the mood for a casual drive over. Also, strangely enough, we arrived in the city of angels with plenty of daylight left. While Caroline was prepared to indulge me with a visit to one of my nostalgic haunts for dinner, I opted to find a place known for its Sichuan style cooking and that’s just what I found.

Duck Tongue

It’s not every day you find a restaurant cooking up duck tongues, but Sichuan Impression on Valley Boulevard in Alhambra was serving up that and some spicy bullfrog and the amphibian dish came with a warning that it was seriously spicy. Our server wasn’t joking as we worked hard to eat our frog while our lips felt like they were swelling. We would have had some ginger rabbit too, but they were out.

Duck tongue has a bone, a rather large one at that considering how little meat you suck off the thing. What was there certainly tasted like a duck and now that we’ve had it we won’t likely be ordering it again. Not because it wasn’t good, it tasted fine (if you like duck) but it did require a quite bit of tedious work to tear the small portion of flesh off the bone.

Pool Sign

Once checked into our motel in Burbank we hit Magnolia Boulevard to get a few miles of walking in after the long drive. We make a mental note to visit this area again during the daytime to visit the shops as it’s a nice area around here. Tomorrow morning we have an event to attend right here in Burbank, more about that in my next blog entry.

Distinct Conceptual Units of Language

Words

Words and the magic they convey can be experienced by the idea behind them or simply by the sound they create in your ear. Frisson arising from music is a common experience people can have, but it can also occur with words and from visual stimulation. Today’s blog entry is a short list of some of the words that have brought that sense of delight to my ear.

I was recently reminded of my affinity for the word Aquitaine while Caroline was reading “Distant Mirror” to me. This look at the 14th century in Europe has more than a few references to the region of Aquitaine in southwest France.

Disambiguation I remember first encountering in Wikipedia where subjects with multiple meanings are marked for needing greater clarity or disambiguation.

Novel, not as in a book, but as in novelty, took on greater meaning for me in the early 1990s as I came to understand the idea from Terence McKenna.

Transcendent was a magic word I first learned while still a teenager reading Alan Watts. It intuitively described to me what I was attempting to do while escaping the yoke of conformity.

Antipathy is the next word that sparked ideas and feelings that were far larger than the nine letters that created it. My visceral sense that far too many people live in antagonism and loathing of their potential and the demands of being a human being described by antipathy is poetic in its brevity.

Defenestration only recently entered my vocabulary when learning more about the Thirty Years’ War and visiting Prague for the first time. Shortly upon hearing this lyrical word, I came across a song titled “Defenestrazioni” by Blixa Bargeld of Einstürzende Neubauten, in collaboration with Teho Teardo. After that, I would hear references to the act of tossing someone out of windows somewhat regularly. How does such an archaic word of such specific meaning reenter the pop vernacular?

Deep in the Grand Canyon back in 2010, I reached out to touch the Great Unconformity and saw my hand straddling a gap in time where nearly 1.5 billion years of history is missing. The ancient geology of our earth was ripped open, allowing us to travel down the Colorado River and be witness to the primordial origins of the landmasses we travel upon while oblivious to how it came to be. The idea of unconformities spills a bit of mystery into an otherwise relatively certain geologic history.

What were you reading at the end of 1985? I had picked up a copy of “Les Fleurs du mal” by Charles Baudelaire. After learning of a bookshop in Frankfurt, West Germany, called The British Bookshop, I quickly became a regular. On one of my first visits, I picked up a copy of this book of poems titled “The Flowers of Evil” and fell in love with this misanthrope, often hoping to one day imitate his skulking on the streets of Paris. The word “Fleur” has a motion of color and punctuation of intensity that sings to my ear and mind’s eye. I mention the bookshop because it was about to play a pivotal role in my life.

As an aside, it was around this time I was able to obtain a copy of “Les Chants de Maldoror” by Comte de Lautréamont, a book I’d never seen in America. While Lautréamont and the word Maldoror could have made this list of favorite words, it really was the entirety of the work where individual words didn’t hold the same kind of impact as the volume did when taken as a whole. But this is deviating from the goal of this entry. By the way, this, too, came from my new favorite bookshop.

Geist needs to make an appearance at this point. Again, I’m at The British Bookshop, but now it’s early 1986 when a clerk named Rosie (she was a Persian from Tehran) introduced me to the works of Friedrich Nietzsche. The book she put in my hands that fateful day was “Beyond Good and Evil.” The impact cannot be understated. I was smitten and it was in those pages I learned of a complex German word known as “geist.” Its meaning will not be shared here as the difficulty of explaining its nuance is beyond the scope of this entry. Suffice it to say it has something to do with the essence of self.

My book of poetry, should I ever write one, should be titled “The Fleurs of the Resplendent Geist.” Resplendence in all of its incarnations walks with the dandy as they beautify the lyrical chambers of the mind with images extolling the virtues of majestic and imposing intellectual transcendence. We should all have the opportunity multiple times in our lives to luxuriate in the splendor of giving meaning to the wistful unknowns where, without our faculties, reality is nothing more than a void, but with language, we lend profound beauty and extraordinary character to random distillations of matter. This is my resplendent universe.

Here’s an old word now considered obsolete that I’ve found difficulty bringing into casual conversation: sagacious. It’s my perception that we move to a more debased language as time moves forward. Our vocabularies shrink with every passing minute of media consumption in my opinion. Being sagacious in our acquisition of words would do us well, especially when one considers that in average day-to-day conversation talking of ordinary things, most people use less than a thousand words. This is shocking when you learn that the average English speaker might know approximately 40,000 words out of the quarter-million that make up our language, but they do not have practice in using the breadth of words they’ve encountered at one time or another.

Finally, we arrive at étant donné. When I first heard this, it was in reference to the band by this name. The pronunciation is /e.tɑ̃ dɔ.ne/, and while it means “Being Given,” it can also mean “In View Of.” Little did I know at the time that Marcel Duchamp’s final work was titled, “Étant donnés: 1. la chute d’eau 2. le gaz d’éclairage” or “Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas.”

Some people have favorite sports teams, TV shows, foods, travel destinations, or cars; I have an ever-shifting ephemeral list of favorite words, while some, like those above, seem to stay with me over the decades. Maybe this affinity for fragments of speech comes with being somewhat loquacious, though hopefully not too garrulous.

Not Feeling It

Starbux hanging out

I’ve been trying my best to reassure myself that I’m only experiencing allergies, but after two days I might have to concede this is something other than. What is certain is that my mind has taken on the thinking capacity of the oodles of snot that are leaking out of my nose. Great time for watching Youtube as that’s about all I can process, though it is triggering my online shopping buttons. A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon Guga Foods, an enthusiastic steak gourmet, and I must have watched 20 videos of him aging and cooking all sorts of amazing cuts of cow including some pricey pieces of wagyu. Then on Monday night, I discovered The Food Ranger, this Canadian guy who speaks fluent Chinese and is traveling through China capturing the flavors of some incredible-looking dishes.

Some background to all of this: On Monday I saw a podiatrist to finally deal with an on-again, off-again ingrown toenail that has vexed me for over 35 years, so I needed to stay off my feet. Getting congested then simply added to the need to stay off my feet. Back to Trevor James at The Food Ranger: this foodie will try anything from water bugs to intestines, lungs, and the stinkiest fermented green mush that failed to impress him. Along the way he dives into some seriously amazing looking dishes I can only dream of trying as Arizona is NOT known for authentic Chinese food. While I do a fair amount of shopping at Lee Lee Asian Grocery, even they do not have everything I could need and so seeing all this preparation and slurping of chili noodles I have been impulsively buying everything I need to replicate some of the dishes I have been introduced to.

There are more than a few things I need to get done, but I’m not feeling it and so I’m languishing in the pit of I don’t care. I’ve napped twice today and watched all the videos I can take so I needed to get out and do something, such as typing up this brief blog entry that ends up being an admission that even I can indulge in mindless entertainment when it suits me. Feeling mindlessly blah sucks. Can’t wait to pick up Caroline so I can start whining about how bad I feel. Sympathy is a dish that tastes best through the hack of exaggerated illness. I wonder if there’s a show for that?