Quadrangle and Bicycles (Kenzie/Robert)

Quadrangle and Bicycles (Kenzie/Robert)
Originally uploaded by sobreunacampana

friendz

words on words, and words

It's summertime! I had the chance to make a visit to the library last week, where I picked up a stack of poem-filled books. I've been reading these any chance I get, mostly in impulsive spurts, here and there throughout the day. I feel good getting back to this.

A few days ago, I was speaking with my cousin (and dear friend), Luke, about poetry. He began to recite some of the lines from a poem of his, which is in the works. I had read some of his poetry in the past, but this little impromtu reading made me realize that there was a fundamental difference in our approaches to writing, and in our obsessions regarding the poetic use of words. He is, to a great extent, interested in the object as allegory, whereas I'm initially interested in the object as object. And when I say the object as object, I mean that I'm interested in the beauty of a poem's proportions, of the air it creates, of the purposeful arrangement of word sounds, and of the pieces of the poem that pleasantly kick expectations sideways. I really enjoy being spun left and right by juxtapositions that, likely, would never have occurred to me. So, when I set out to write poem, this is my initial priority. Then, once I've gathered a colorset, I begin to construct a secondary layer that is allegory and personal/public reference.

I'll likely expound on these things later, but for now I thought I'd share a short poem I wrote 2 summers ago, while studying music in England. I had wanted to write a smallish poem that used simple rhyme and meter. The purpose of this simplicity was to parallel the simplicity with which a person can, nowadays, turn their sensitivity to the sounds around them, collect these sounds digitally, and artfully process (or not)/arrange them as something resembling 'music'. The words I used in this poem are descriptions of things that produce interesting sounds, and words which electroacoustic composers come across often as they knead sound in the digital domain.


Found Sound

xylophone bars
crack and splay
distorted and blowing
in a wash of grains

stochastic schemes
loop-erased
random walks
and Markov chains

cello strings
snap and scrape
scattered and bursting
in heaves of delay

2 x 4's
crepitate
peeling and splitting
away from the weight

aluminum poles
crimped from straight
twisted and bent
into figures of eight

FFT's
sample rates
Gaussian curves
and resynthesis gates

Liverpool 2007

so many beginnings

So, I'm learning, after 9 semesters, that university has a funny way of causing me to forget about, or feel enough pressure to set aside, certain endeavors toward which I feel a certain momentum. (This blog being one of them.) Now that school's taking its winter hiatus, I'm coming back to these things. For instance, the walls in my bedroom presently lay bare, though back in September I went through the process of acquiring the materials necessary to paint a series of paintings to hang on them. Now that it's winter break, I can finally set to taking the canvases, paints and brushes out their large, brown-paper bag, and realizing those visions of working and sleeping whilst surrounded by lines, arrays and splashes of colour. Among the others neglected are: building my sound sample library, adding to and finishing my Septet (for 2 Bb Clarinets, 1 Bass Clarinet, Violin, Violincello, Piano, and Celesta), finishing Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai and a few other books I've received or started, practicing electric guitar, planning harmonies and textures for my next acoustic composition, really learning Abelton Live 7 and using it to make sounds for my surround-sound piece which utilizes recordings of Zukofsky texts. (Also, making a comprehensive Google Calendar, and to a reasonable degree, sticking to it.)

Speaking of Google, I've been using Google Documents to make a list of all these things I've set aside or forgotten. I've also been exploring all Google's apps and features (gmail, tasks, documents, reader, maps, calendar), and they've really been helping me sort and quantize the things I want and need to do. They've even been making me excited about not only being organized, but experiencing the process of becoming so. A few days ago, a Theodore Roethke quote I once read came up in conversation: "Talent talks; genius does". I think Google is helping me implement the genius part.

On another note, I just finished the most delicious cup of coffee out of my new Bodum travel press, which R- got me as a Christmas gift. Just wonderful.

I think the coffee is kicking in now, so I'm going to get back to working on the Zukofsky project (more info soon).

casa nueva

For the last two weeks, I've been going through the process of moving into a house here at school. Said house was, upon arrival, in a state of despair. So, my good friend R- (who is also living in the house) and I have been escrubbing and painting everything in esight. Things have really come along and the house is beginning to look inhabitable. Today, the other 3 housemates moved in...and moved in with lots of stuff. So, we still have lots of work ahead, but I think it's going to be a really nice, fun place to live. Here are a couple photos of the house, post the cleaning and painting. This is the living room. The green-walled room is the kitchen.

This one is looking into my bedroom.

a start?

i've been feeling compelled to start this blog as a way to sort of nudge myself into being more actively attentive and critically aware. it seems like, in knowing that i'm making a commitment here, i'll pay more attention to the goings-on around me, and really think about the purpose of things and their relationships to other things. i'm excited about working on gathering my thoughts, and learning how to quickly present them in cohesive little bits. these writings will also act as a sort of documentation for weekly living. i've not got the best memory, so this promises to be a useful endeavour.