Doug Landauer: music

Leap Day Posting

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:37:09 GMT

Woo Hoo! In the six years I've had this weblog, I've never done a February 29th posting before. An indication of my mental state, though, is that I dutifully checked in the GIGO Table of Contents, examining the end of February for each of the five earlier years, before realizing that there was only one to check. In other incomplete stories, the Pinnacles trip was great, and led to making some connections with some of the other music-makers at the big G. And Ben and I hiked Uvas County Park, saw a bunch of waterfalls, flowing well.

My parents around 1965

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 23:24:11 GMT

A few days ago, I linked to Dick Oakes' Aman Folk Ensemble pages. They include links to a couple of photo galleries, but most of the photos are low resolution shots of groups of dancers, so I didn't really inspect them in much detail. So imagine my delight when I noticed the bottom of page 4 of Tony Shay's photos — a close-up of my parents, singing together.

Strikes me as being somewhat like a nice metaphor for their 58 years together! (Note: the date of this posting date is completely coincidental. No fooling.)

Scammon, Aman, Kolo, Progenitorivox

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:21:24 GMT

On Monday, my nephew Benjamin, his mother Mary, and I went to Monterey, to listen to my mother (Dr Landauer) talk about Captain Charles Scammon. It was the third installment of a series of talks about California History. Here's the brochure they put up about it:

It was a very interesting and informative talk, about a very different time. She put together slides (mostly old photos and drawings, many by Scammon himself) for the talk, but her facility has no projector. But it does have a big screen connected to a DVD player. So I scanned the images (and snagged one from the Internet), sent them to Mary, who then had them put onto a DVD ($10 at Bay Photo, though I think she managed to get a heck of a discount), and we just brought the DVD. I hope to make those images available when I get a bit of time to do so.

Phil Anast, a long-time friend of my Mom's, was at the talk, along with his wife -- they live in Pacific Grove. Phil's association with my parents dates from the 1960's, when they were all involved in some Balkan and Eastern European folk singing and folk dancing, mostly with the UCLA-based Aman Folk Ensemble. The six of us went out to dinner together, at El Torito on Cannery Row; we got a windowside table with nice views of the sea lions, otters, dolphins, pelicans, seagulls and other denizens of the Monterey Bay. It was nice reminiscing about the Balkan music and dancing that my brothers and I grew up with, Rastko and the skateboard, Branko Krsmanovich, Kolo, and some of the other touring Yugoslavian dance troupes that visited us when I was young. Fun old times. The next day, I did a web search for Aman, and found a very nicely done set of pages about Aman and its history:

And also the somewhat related group "Westwind":

http://www.westwind-folk.org/mission.html

My mom said that she's in some of the photos linked from the Aman pages. Some of the names seem so familiar ... Tony Shay, Ruth Garber, Vince Evanchuk ... Blasts from a long time past! Phil also mentioned the Tamburitzans, and some of their members that he and my mom knew way back when. All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon and evening. To add to my auto-musico-biography: my parents' participation in Aman and related activities means that all those exotic rhythms and harmonies are part of the music I grew up listening to. Many of the songs from that region are in 5, 7, or 11 beats per measure, instead of the boring old 2, 3, 4 or 6 that almost all western music is based on.

Almost forgot to mention -- saw the Austin Lounge Lizards at the Kuumbwa on Saturday night. Great show, but now I need some Progenitorivox.

Eric Clapton in San Jose

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 18:09:11 GMT

Saw Eric Clapton last night at the HP Pavilion. Great show! It's probably been at least ten or twelve years since I've been to an arena-sized show, and it was great to see how much the technology has improved. Clapton was great, as was Derek Trucks. The sound was awesome -- last few large concerts I had seen, in the early 1990's, left me wishing that I had brought earplugs. More later; just tidbits for now:

At encore time, instead of lighters, people hold up their cell phone screens now.
Doyle Bramhall II plays left-handed, but plays a right-hand model of guitar. Our seat were such that we saw the backs of the big screens on which the live video was playing -- so everything on there was mirror-reversed.
The video work was pretty amazing -- split screen with guitar close-ups and long shots sharing the screen, but not just split in half or quarters.
Lots of geezers in the audience. Deb and I, in our early fifties, felt like we were among the younger attendees.
The pair of backup singers had one move. On the slow songs, they just did that move reeeaaaalllly slowwwwwwwwly.
Clapton sure has written a bunch of good songs.
Robert Cray was opener -- he's a decent guitarist too, with a very nice voice for a blues guy.

Resurrecting my "songs I know" file

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 08:23:06 GMT

I consider myself lucky to be able to say that I've lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains since 1981. One of the drawbacks to that location is the likelihood that you'll have a long commute. I've commuted from here to Santa Clara, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Mountain View, Cupertino, and now Milpitas. For much of that time, that commute has meant spending most of an hour each way driving, twice a day except for the days I could work at home. Rather than just listening to the radio all the time, sometimes I just sing. (In 1986, I made up my own set of lyrics to Jackson Brown's "Fountain of Sorrow", changing it to "Mountain of Laundry".) I suspect that I know all the words to approximately 100 songs that I like. I wrote up a list of them, a file containing the names of the songs, and printed it out and kept it in the car's glove box, so I could pull it out sometimes to remind myself to sing something I hadn't sung in a long time. Unfortunately, I no longer have that printout, and the file itself seems to have vanished from all of my disks at home. So, I'm starting to re-create it, and figured that if I post it, then it might remain un-lost due to archive.org. The songs are dominated by singer-songwriters, mostly from the 1970's and 1990's. So here's the first seed:

david wilcox
cheryl wheeler
steeleye span
eagles
cliff eberhardt
pierce pettis
richard shindell
jackson brown
Dar Williams
benny goodman
makaha sons of ni`ihau
dennis pavao
paul simon
harry chapin
CS&N
austin lounge lizards
cole porter
peter paul & mary
eric bogle

kathy mattea,
(jon vezner)

warren zevon/ linda ronstadt

karla bonoff (way pre-bryndle)

robert palmer
grateful dead

jack traylor

danny O'keeffe

john dowland
michael praetorious

Rob and the Texas4000, More Puppies, and a touristy weekend

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 07:15:50 GMT

My long July 4th weekend was hectic: drove up to Grass Valley to pick up Henrike, saw a fun "American Music" performance by the Music in the Mountains orchestra, and returned on Tuesday. Then I turned around and drove back up to San Mateo, to meet my brother Tim, his wife Jorja, and their son Robert. Rob is 21 and is in the middle of the Coastal route of the Texas 4000 bicycle ride, raising money and awareness for the fight against cancer, while riding bicycles from Austin to Anchorage. Monday was the ride from Carmel to San Francisco (passing within ten miles of my home), and he had a day off in S.F. on Tuesday. It was great to see them, and to see how much Rob is enjoying the event -- surely something he'll remember vividly for the rest of his life. Tomorrow, they get a day off, in Redwood National Park. The reason that Deb and I had to be in G.V. and miss Rob's ride-by: last Thursday, Henrike had three puppies. All males; the biggest one is a Blenheim, and the others are tri-color like Henny, though little brown appears on them yet. Tim and Jo were in the area here for the rest of the week; we got together on Saturday to see some of the Santa Cruz tourist attractions -- rode the Roaring Camp steam train up into the redwoods, took the short stroll among Henry Cowell Park's old-growth grove, drove a bit up into UCSC, and spent some time out at Natural Bridges State Park. Fun day — I don't make a point of going and seeing those places as often as I'd like to.

Herons, Tanager, Snake, Bearfoot, Austin Lounge Lizards

Tue, 30 May 2006 08:37:55 GMT

Fun weekend. Photos on the Mac, may be on the web by the end of the week. Saw a Western Tanager, a snake, three great blue herons, many excellent musicians both on stage and in jam sessions, and a whole bunch of hippies.

Velzoe Brown's 96th birthday

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 07:59:16 GMT

For my 50th birthday party three and a half years ago, we were blessed with the presence of Velzoe and the Upbeats. (I made brief mention of it a month later.) Tonight, Velzoe and her band were playing at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center and we got to be there! She was celebrating her 96th birthday (yesterday) and is still an amazing lively presence, vivacious, full of great stories about walking to school with her pony touring with the Pollyannas, her all-woman band, touring various gigs, driving across country in 1928 or so. How amazing it must be, to have stories that relate to events you participated in, almost eighty years ago! For a bit of ambience, here's a sampling from the songs that they performed tonight: Chattanooga Choo Choo, The A Train, Besa Me Mucho, Spanish Eyes, the Jersey Bounce, and I'll add more later. I was somewhat surprised by how familiar so many of those songs were. Here's a couple of links to stories about Velzoe:

Tahoe melting

Wed, 25 May 2005 05:32:38 GMT

Spent the weekend in Tahoe, helping my folks move. Visited Eagle Falls, above Emerald Bay, with nephew Ben and his mother. Awesome flow, I've never seen so much water there. Deb and I had an impromptu renewal-of-our-vows by the lake on Saturday evening, with Ben playing his late father's sax in the background. Drove home via Hope Valley, Carson Pass, frozen Lakes Caples and Silver, nice views of Pyramid Peak and the Crystal Range. Photos one of these days.

Funny Songs List

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 07:58:25 GMT

Blast from the past! I wrote up this Funny Songs List almost ten years ago: I got an email about it today. Update: Turns out that Funny Songs List is another phrase for which a page of mine is currently the top result on Google.

The Gourds

Thu, 13 Feb 2003 07:29:33 GMT

Went down to see the Tex-Mex-Cajun-Celtic band The Gourds at Henflings tonight. Appearance: Texan un-chic. Sound: very decent vocals, harmonies, four front guys can all sing well (maybe the drummer could, too, but I couldn't see him). Multi-instrumentalists, one guy played banjo, fiddle, guitar and mandolin; one played mandolin, guitar and harmonica; one played guitar and accordion. Interesting songs. The beer probably helped.

Are you a musician?

Tue, 10 Dec 2002 16:55:51 GMT

Last week, I was asked Are you a musician? Now, I do not think of myself as a musician, and I do not make my living as a musician, so my initial answer was "No". The rest of the answer is: I'm not much of a performer, but I was in the band in Jr High and High School — trumpet, baritone horn, trombone — and forgot most of it ("You just put your lips together, and blow," as Lauren Bacall once said.) Taught myself (via TV lessons) six or eight pieces on classical guitar in high school, and I can still play some of them. Learned a few fragments of Bach and Mozart pieces on piano. Picked up some facility with (baroque-type) recorders at some point. But mostly, I sing, mostly to myself, mostly in my car. I was in a madrigal group at Sun for five or six years, singing tenor or bass as the needs arose. Still don't sight-read vocal music very well. I'm also fascinated by the mathematical aspects of music theory — Pythagorean commas, harmonics on guitar strings, just intonation, well-tempered scales, multiples of two raised to to the one-twelfth power, and all that stuff. (I sent a music theory message to the folk_music mailing list, with a few related links. This one is a good intro.) So, maybe the right answer woulda been "yes and no". But there are some real musicians (and audio research folks) where I work. There is always a lot of overlap between people who like to create software and people who like to make music. In all the jobs I've had, none have had a higher percentage of musicians than my current position.

"Folk" Music, house concerts, and Festivals

Mon, 09 Dec 2002 07:16:32 GMT

Alan Rowoth on house concerts:

"... there is absolutely NO better listener experience than the house concert. The immediacy of sitting 10 feet away from a great musician when they are doing their thing is so far beyond what you get for a $90 ticket at a stadium show for some fading pop star that the two experiences hardly bear comparison."

A few related links:

My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Alan Rowoth and Steve Clark, during a couple of summers where we attended a couple of the Planet Bluegrass events — the Telluride Festival in 1994, and the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest in 1995. Very fun times. Maybe one of these days we'll get to California's best similar festival, the Strawberry Music Festival. [Aside: this page was the 4th match in a google search for just the word "strawberry".] [Later: garret mentioned this New York Times article about Gram Parsons. Decent retrospective of him, though it calls Joshua Tree a State Park. Come on, everyone knows that it was a U2 album — er, um, a National Monument — before it became a National Park.]

Doo Dah Parade

Sat, 07 Dec 2002 09:22:55 GMT

I missed it this year. Again. Susan K. got to see this year's Doo Dah parade. I just never get down to Pasadena this time of year these days. I spent my formative years in Pasadena, a couple of miles west of the Colorado Street bridge over the Arroyo Seco (that's the gully that contains the Rose Bowl). Every January First, we would get up way too early, hike across that bridge, climb up under the temporary bleachers, and watch the parade between the ankles of the people who could afford seats on top of the bleachers. [Macro error: Can't evaluate the expression because the name "my_gimages" hasn't been defined.] /DooDahAlienShip.jpg" align=left alt="Pasadena Star-News photo of Doo Dah Alien"> The Doo Dah parade is a parody of the Rose Parade. It used to be held within a few days after the Rose Parade. It covers a small bit of the Rose Parade's route along Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena's main drag, just east of that bridge. It was moved to Thanksgiving weekend many years ago. The Pasadena Star-News had an article about this year's parade. This year's highlights included The Claude Rains Memorial 20-man Invisible Band; the Queen MUMers (in hats and dresses); the Men of Leisure with their pillows for relaxing mid-parade, mid-street; and this very cool Visitor from Roswell. I saw the Doo Dah parade two or three times, many years ago. I recall seeing the Precision Briefcase Drill Team; a parade of Belly Dancers; the Humboldt Loggers' band (my brother Michael was marching with them); and "Toro! Toro! Toro!", an amazing display of intricate maneuvers by eight or ten ridable lawn mowers. Irreverent fun.

Velzoe and the Upbeats

Wed, 04 Dec 2002 08:44:06 GMT

Aw, poor Charles Miller laments his age — he is one year older than my son. Some of my favorite quotes about aging:

Never let your memories exceed your dreams.
Whine: "I'm getting old."
Response: "It's better than the alternative!"
If you wanna live a long life, you gotta get old.

Russell Beattie noted Charles' lament, and I added a comment there, that went mostly like this: I just celebrated my 0x32-nd birthday a couple of weeks ago. We had a band at the party, Velzoe and the Upbeats. They were outstanding. See http://63.249.88.129/musicallives/velzoe.html. Velzoe is a pretty amazing person. Just about 90 now, still performing, and still a person as full of life as anyone I've ever met.

When asked what she thinks of living a musical life, Velzoe said, "I'm for it, honey!"

Cosy Sheridan in Felton

Sun, 17 Nov 2002 20:20:01 GMT

Deb and I went to a house concert in Felton last night, and saw and heard Cosy Sheridan again. (We saw her at nearby Henfling's Firehouse Tavern in February.) Earlier in the day, I was still feeling a bit under the weather, so I was hanging around the house all day; I hadn't listened to her albums in a while, so I put on all three and listened while I did some paperwork. While sorta half-listening for one song that I recalled, "Broken Place", which has a catchy chorus, "Quietly Led" came on. There's one similar phrase that made me think for a moment that QL was BP. During the concert, Cosy played those two songs back to back, saying that she'd never done that before because BP was what came out when she set out to rewrite QL three years later. Very nice concert, nice to see her again. I had met her over ten years ago, when a co-worker friend was showing her what the brand-new World-Wide-Web was all about. Last night, Cosy brought in a news flash that we hadn't heard: there was a fire at Henfling's on Friday morning. Hopefully not serious enough to close the place. The Sentinel article says

Luckily, the tavern is aptly named. There's a fire station next door. "They just walked over and assisted us," kitchen manager Kylan Oaks quipped after it was clear damage was relatively minor ...

(I think that's a typo -- unless he changed it, his name is Dylan, not Kylan.) Cosy said that she'd heard that Henfling's' folk series' scheduled gigs may be picked up by the Trout Farm Inn, just over past Quail Hollow Park in Zayante canyon. By the way, the sentinel article also says that Henfling's had been mentioned in the New York Times that morning, so I dug up that reference:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/15/travel/escapes/15HOUR.html

It's kind of funny how much a city-dweller's vision of Santa Cruz this is. Of the eleven "things to do", only one ( Natural Bridges) is at all nature-related, and the redwoods are mentioned only because Henfling's is under them. Oh, well, I guess that's better than getting the place overrun with New Yorkers seeking nature.

Accordion-related bumper stickers

Fri, 08 Nov 2002 17:23:29 GMT

] /bk3_bikeCommute/Pages/Image6.html"> [Macro error: Can't evaluate the expression because the name "my_dmages" hasn't been defined.] /bk3_bikeCommute/Thumbnails/6.jpg" align=left alt="accordion bumper stickers"> Here's a photo for Joey deVilla's other weblog. It shows two of the three most popular and venerable accordion-related bumper stickers in our area. You can tell that they've been on that truck for around a dozen years. The third one (not seen on this truck, amazingly) says "ACCORDION PLAYING IS NOT A CRIME".

DUOTONES IN TOWN WEDNESDAY

Sun, 03 Nov 2002 18:28:03 GMT

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE, as they used to say. Doc Searls sez:

The Duotones will be at Henfling's Firehouse Tavern in Ben Lomond on Wednesday, and on KPIG sometime between now and then. If you're in the Bay Area, check these guys out.

Geez, Doc! Like I didn't already have too much stuff to get done this week! Since Henflings is about 1/3 of a mile from my home, I'll find it hard to resist this one.

Unintended Agenda

Tue, 15 Oct 2002 19:21:09 GMT

Dan Gilmor writes about the efforts of the entertainment cartel at the "Agenda 2003" conference ...

The entertainment cartel is winning where it counts in the short term: Congress, which the cartel all but owns.

He does not go on to say anything about the medium term or the longer term. My opinion is that in these cases, the "short term" lasts at most a month before whatever crippled media distribution formats they choose are broken or copied out to the entire world. To the extent that they can buy votes in Congress for crippled semi-computers, and/or to make such copying illegal, those votes will just buy more civil disobedience, and even less respect for the rules of federal law. This is one of those unintended consequences of laws not thought through.

Beamish

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 00:21:21 GMT

In our two or three backpacking trips last year and the year before, Turly mentioned Beamish Stout more than a few times. It's brewed in his home town, Cork. I hadn't had the chance to try it. But ... they had a keg of it at Highlands Park yesterday, where the Highlands Games were held. It's a creamy stout, not too bitter. Good enough that I had three of them over the course of the afternoon. Jim, Marina, and I walked home from the park, while Deb drove Mary & Marty home.

Highland Games

Sun, 06 Oct 2002 07:42:15 GMT

Fun times at the Highland Games in Ben Lomond today. Forgot to bring my camera. We saw enough kilted folks talking on mobile phones that we decided that the Kell Phone must have been an ancient Celtic invention.

Woodstockhausen

Thu, 15 Aug 2002 08:20:23 GMT

Got an invite from Veronique today ... see the official Woodstockhausen site for the official word.

Many of you know the Woodstockhausen festival since Wayne Jackson started it in 1998. Well, the 2002 version is coming this Saturday! This year, we open the day with a workshop on graphical synthesis of sounds. All this on UCSC campus, and with the team you've known from the ELectron SAlon's concerts among which Jean-Marc and AlanP (and many more). I hope to see you there! Véronique

August 17, 2002 - U.C. Santa Cruz An annual event since 1998, Woodstockhausen (WSH) features both local and visiting artists in a night of free sound and visual experimentation. Fueled by the ELectron SAlon concert series and the volunteer effort of enthusiastic individuals, WSH2002 invades UCSC's quarry and opens with a 1-day workshop investigating new tools for music composition and interpretation. Scientists, composers, musicians and home-brew software developers will gather during the day at the G.U.I Workshop ("Gesturing the UPIC Instrument") to exchange ideas and brainstorm on UPIX, a freeware application that "makes sounds out of drawings" (and much more...). This workshop will be hosted by Peter Elsea, head of UCSC's Electronic Music Studios. At sunset, the crowd is invited to move to the open-air concert in the quarry. Bring your blanket and food to relax and enjoy video animations synchronized to live and recorded quadraphonic music by selected artists from all over the States and all over the world. Genres range from gamelan to computer compositions with a common theme: unusual, experimental, and innovative. Thanks to our sponsors: UCSC, BBI, Cycling'74, the Rio Theatre, and La Kitchen (Paris).

G.U.I workshop takes place at UCSC's recital hall, from 9.30AM to 6.00PM. Registration at http://www.elsaproductions.com/gui.html ($10, lunch is included).
Sound sculptures and installations are presented from 7PM to 8PM at UCSC quarry amphitheater.
WSH2002 concert goes from 8PM to 1AM at UCSC quarry amphitheater. Bring your own picnic, food and lawn furniture! $10 suggested donation. More information at http://www.elsaproductions.com/woodstockhausen.html

G.U.I workshop SCHEDULE 9.30AM - 11.30AM INTRODUCTING THE UPIX FREEWARE PROJECT

Gérard Pape, CCMIX (Paris)
UPIC: background and history
Giuseppe di Giugno, La Kitchen (Paris)
Graphical interfaces: a tutorial
Thierry Coduys, Adrien Lefèvre, La Kitchen (Paris)
New development on UPIX
11.30AM - 11.45AM Break
11.45AM - 12.30PM EXPERIENCING UPIC
Matthew Burtner, University of Virginia
Architectures of Noise: the integration of micro and macro-level compositional structures using the UPIC system
Musical performance
- Matthew Burtner, Incantation 1, for amplified cello and computer-generated tape.
- Matthew Burtner, Incantation S4, for amplified saxophone and computer-generated tape.
- Hugh Livingston, cello
- Matthew Burtner, saxophone
12.30PM - 1.00PM Lunch Break
1.00PM - 3.15AM GRAPHIC SOUND SYNTHESIS
Curtis Roads, UC Santa Barbara
History and aesthetics of graphic synthesis
Mark Applebaum, Stanford University
An Introduction to Metasynth and Compositional Applications
Christopher Penrose, Keio University (Japan)
Design and Creative Use of the Hyperupic Image to Sound Composition Environment
Peter Elsea, UC Santa Cruz
Towards Lupic: Graphic Composition with Max
3.15PM - 3.30PM Break
3.30PM - 5.00PM INTERFACING MUSIC COMPOSITION TOOLS
Steven Travis Pope, UC Santa Barbara
Software Interfaces for Interaction with Musical Structures and Algorithms
Miller Puckette, UC San Diego
How to design an editor for a data structure you don't know
Dan Overholt, UC Santa Barbara
The MATRIX: A Gestural Controller for Real-time Musical Performance
5.00PM - 6.00PM OPEN DISCUSSION

Why the RIAA WILL Lose

Wed, 14 Aug 2002 06:05:09 GMT

Here, in a nutshell, is why the RIAA CANNOT win its dinosaur death dance: http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/08/12/232207.php#20020812232207 As I wrote a few months ago:

There's a music surplus anyway: ever since we learned how to record music, we've had access to more music than in any previous century, and this has led to a surplus of good music.

The members of the RIAA have no monopoly, no product, no future.

Monotonik

Thu, 08 Aug 2002 08:15:30 GMT

In March, I wrote about a fantasy Virtual Records company. Apparently, it already existed at the time, except that its name is Monotonik. (Thanks to Doc Searls [and the mysterious Hanan] for the link.) It appears that Monotonik specializes in the kind of music that they'd play at Woodstockhausen, an electronic music event scheduled for a week from Saturday (8/17) at UCSC.

Community Music School

Sat, 29 Jun 2002 08:48:37 GMT

A musical performance at work this past (Friday) afternoon: "Faery Ring", a group of young women associated with the Community Music School of Santa Cruz played hammer dulcimer, a violin, a few kinds of whistles, bodhran, mandolin, keyboards ... playing a number of Irish jigs and reels, including one very well-done Irish step-dance. Very entertaining. There's a CD release party at the Kuumbwa Saturday (29th) evening. Saw Mose Allison at the Kuumbwa a few years ago.