Randomness

Random light

Looking through a glass brick in the late afternoon the bending light was animating in random patterns dependent on where I allowed my eyes to gaze. All weekend I’ve been kind of random in my studies of everything from the beta Eurorack module I’m testing to exploring Allegorithmic’s Substance Painter 2018, Blender addon Speedflow and Wazou’s RMB Pie Menu to learning more about Hedgehog Connect that allows Blender and Substance Painter to exchange texture data. I set up my Wacom tablet after years of it sitting unused in anticipation of me putting it back to use. A Mocha Pro for After Effects tutorial was neglected, but Caroline and I hit the halfway point in the book she’s reading to me in the car: “The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.”

Caroline’s weekend played out by her meeting with a few other women to look at block design and profile drafts, terms that relate to weaving. She’s also been working on a crochet project that has to do with the art installation “Arizona!” that will premiere this November at the Scottsdale Canal. Her 8-shaft floor loom also figured in her activities as she’s been exploring a weave structure called Summer and Winter for the making of coasters. If that wasn’t enough fiber-related stuff she even found time on her spinning wheel to make yarn while she boned up on her German while talking to her mom in Frankfurt, Germany.

John, Shari, and Amanda – The Long Lost Siblings

John Wise, Shari Wiesman, and Amanda Goff in Tempe, Arizona

These two women on my left are Shari Weisman and Amanda Goff – they are my sisters. We have been estranged off and on for the better part of the majority of our adult lives. What brought us together was the fact on this day we had to inform our mother that she was going to be moved into a group home in eight days. Our mother Karen Goff had a stroke back in October and apparently made the decision that she wouldn’t participate in her recovery even though her doctors gave her a 95% chance of doing so. A few minutes after snapping this first-ever selfie of the three of us together we walked in to inform our mom who was absolutely nonplussed as to her fate. Some days after this decision a hospice worker visited her and let us know that she qualified for hospice assistance as she was neglectful and even combative on eating or drinking, it appeared our mother was deciding to commit suicide. I’m posting this image with the date of March 13th as that’s when I shot it, but I’m writing this on the 25th of March as I’ve been informed that our mother is breathing laboriously and has been in a morphine-induced cloud with nearly no communication for the past five days. The end is likely near.

My Bloody Valentine

My Bloody Valentine circa 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vuH2iZDp3o  CLICK HERE TO WATCH SHORT CLIP!!!

Back in the day….way back like in the 1980’s I used to move around Europe and on many occasions, I’d meet up with a band and video-record their show, always with permission.

Somebody from Germany was recently looking for photographs of My Bloody Valentine from another show and so I thought I’d share this with him. If you are a fan there are about 10 minutes of interview followed by the entire performance of the group. The sound is crap because my crap camera back then and lack of professional microphones produced crap sound. If anyone has any tips on how to repair that I’m all ears.

Testing an Oscillator

Waveform

I’ve been testing the firmware of an unreleased Eurorack oscillator for the past week and tonight after finally learning how to record a pattern on the Orthogonal Devices ER-102 from the MakeNoise Pressure Points I took the CV and Gate out of the ER-101 (connected to the ER-102) and randomized a number of parameters of the oscillator. The waveforms it was producing were so intriguing I thought I’d share a screen capture of it, though I have to hold back for now on sharing what module I’m testing.

Bocce Club Pizza

Bocce Club Pizza boxed up and overnighted from Bufffalo, New York

This is 7 pounds of Bocce Club Pizza from Buffalo, New York that just arrived on an overnight delivery from FedEx.

Three 17"x9" slices of pizza from Bocce Club Pizza in Buffalo, New York

I had ordered a sheet pizza but the box was way too small to hold a pizza of the size I was expecting. After opening it up I see that they simply sliced what originally is a 17 x 27-inch pizza into three 17 x 9 pieces, each one barely fits on my cookie sheet!

Bocce Club Pizza ready for the oven

The pizza is partially baked in Buffalo before it is sent off to customers across the United States. The oven is warming.

Update: The pizza was ordered on Monday, made and shipped on Tuesday, and arrived on Wednesday. It cost $48 for the pie, $55 for delivery, but before you gasp that I bought a $103 pizza you should know that we ate from this six times and while it was amazing the first few days the last 1/6th lost some of the magic. Now consider that by cutting it into sixths we were actually only paying $17 per section which is quite the bargain when compared to a local favorite pizza place where a pie with half the density costs $18.30 with tax. I’d do this again.