Pessimism can rob ordinary people of their powers. This blog, and these articles, document some of my Joie de Vivre that may fall outside of my artistic life.
Happy Sunday, dear visitor. It’s a chilly, damp, gloomy Sunday in March.
I’m approaching the halfway point of this insane semester. It’s going well – I’m enjoying everyone very much, and the work, too. I haven’t been producing stuff to look at here, but I have been working hard. Revisiting the 12 principles of animation, walk cycles, rotoscoping, and using the Animator’s Survival Kit on the daily, not to mention exploring newish CSS and HTML5 goodies – it’s all good stuff.
I was informed this morning that I’ve been accepted into my third master’s degree program, this time with the University of Maryland Graduate School – Master of Library and Information Systems. I’m very grateful for all these opportunities.
Today, we had our annual St. Patty’s day 5k. We tried something different this time – we walked it. But we walked fast, and I feel the same as through we’d run it. We decided to try walking the races in 2023, and I really like it. I’ve also been swimming laps and doing Kung Fu along with walking, which helps balance everything else that’s happening.
Following my intermittent practice of year’s end posts, I want to express gratitude for the great parts of 2022. And what a year it was!
I’m wrapping up my first year on Patreon. I’m honored to have had folks join me there, watch my videos, and follow along with me as I worked my way through 2022.
Sweaty Eyeballs: Behind the Screens was an exhibition at Goucher College of animated works and the materials involved with making them. I love this festival, and it was an honor and thrill to be included in this show. I made several new films this year, including Plasticland and the Lunatics. I picked up a couple of awards, too!
I’ve written (and talked on Patreon) about the reemergence of music in my life over the pandemic. I’ve been “finding my note,” as Steve Vai likes to say.
Which means, a unique-to-me musical voice and identity. As I delved deeper into film work, I wanted to get better at improvising, with the idea that I could set up a projector in a gallery (or somewhere) and make an accompaniment to go with the videos.
I reached out to my favorite drummer, Billy Martin, and asked for help. He agreed, and I spent an afternoon in his New Jersey home studio. It was one of the greatest musical moments of my life to play drums and guitar with one of my musical heroes.
Billy explained that improvisation, in essence, is something you just do. There are exercises and things one can do to help facilitate this, but it’s very different from what I learned in my academic studies. He shared stories, techniques, recordings and books with me, and I will be grateful to him forever. Thank you, brother!
I released three new recordings this year. The Goldberg Variations, The Old San Juan and Found and Chosen. I received a creativity grant from the Maryland State Arts Council to print physical copies of Found and Chosen.
Found and Chosen is an extremely satisfying project, and the physical copies of the recordings are something I had dreamed up back in the early 00’s. And aside from having tape loops and CD audio to loop, it stands as some personal documentation of the pandemic, and ways I coped with uncertainty and anxiety.
I also did a few gigs with Coastguard, and really enjoyed getting my chops back. It’s helped me a lot when recording drums here.
As I continue to explore signal processing and improvising, I decided to write a small program that randomly assigns effects for me to play through. It’s an interesting constraint, and I’ve found it to be a useful device for getting myself going in a different direction.
I spent many, many hours in the basement working with loops and new-to-me guitar pedals. I’m especially fond of these new additions:
Count to Five by Montreal Assembly
Excess V.3, Dweller, Black Fountain by Old Blood Noise Endeavors
Blooper by Chase Bliss Audio
My oldest daughter took us to several great shows: The Queers, The Old 97’s, The Psychedelic Furs. I enjoyed it so much. And my youngest and I went to see the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra perform Symphonie Fantastique, something neither of us had done before.
I feel fortunate to have been able to explore these musical pathways. I got out in front of audiences again. Adding the adventure of improvisation brings with it a sense of freedom now. I’m not sure how much I’ll be improvising in front of other humans yet, but it’s becoming a source of real delight here in my studio.
Beverly and I traveled to Puerto Rico, New York (twice), and Cape Cod. We visited Edward Gorey’s house. And we’ve agreed to spend the rest of our lives together. I am so happy!
I’ve written about a couple of other milestones, too. Inspired by Beverly’s example, I got to run across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and we completed a half marathon just two weeks later. Holy Guacamole!
Beverly and I wrapped up year two of our book club. Here are the titles I read this year:
Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (Music in the Twentieth Century, Series Number 9) 2nd Edition by Michael Nyman
Experimental Music Since 1970, by Jennie Gottschalk
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance by John Waters
Moon Knight, Volume 1 by Bendis & Maleev
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Improvisation: Its Nature And Practice In Music by Derek Bailey
Moon Knight: The Complete Collection, by Lemire & Smallwood
The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil, by Stephen Collins
House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski (started in 2021)
The Anomaly, by Hervé Le Tellier, Adriana Hunter
Impossible Princess, by Kevin Killian
The Atlas Six, by Olivie Blake (started, abandoned)
Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
The Haunted Looking Glass, Various, chosen by Edward Gorey
Elephant House; or, the Home of Edward Gorey by Kevin McDermott
An Honest Living, by Dwyer Murphy
Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami
Batman: Ghosts by Sam Kieth
What’s next? Aside from more of all this, I’m returning to teaching. I’ve picked up a couple of classes for the spring semester. I’d like to finish Music to Hear Blindfolded, Vol. 2. and I have an idea for an album of instrumental guitar music. I have some animation ideas for 2023, and more video/music compositions. I’m going to continue to pursue animation festival screenings, and to hone my processes for making films.
Happy 2023, friends. I hope this finds you happy, healthy and prosperous.
Another first for this month – Beverly and I ran a half marathon! A few years ago, I never thought I’d find myself doing this. Thanks for Beverly’s training and guidance, we had a decent time.
I did something today that, before last month, I never thought of doing. We ran the Maryland Bay Bridge 10K.
I’ve driven over this bridge at least 100 times over the years – either visiting family or coming/going to college. I know people have walked the bridge during certain events, and I always thought it would be neat to do that. And it was everything I’d hoped it would be. The view was stunning. It was windy, but not brutal.
I’m getting better at this, and even a little faster. Speed, however, isn’t my goal. I know I slow my partner down, but she is very patient with me. I just want to finish each race we undertake, not get hurt, and I don’t want to be the last one. Today, we were solidly in the middle of the various heats/ranks for gender, age, and even total runners.
After the race, we visited Chestertown, as it wasn’t too far from where we parked for the race. This is the house I lived in for my last two years at Washington College.
We stopped in Annapolis on the way home. I took Beverly to Chick & Ruth’s “Delly,” a staple of my childhood. We walked in and put our names on the list after a group of Naval Academy midshipmen. I made a joke to the hostess about getting seated sooner, and she did! It was awesome.
I love Edward Gorey. I’ve talked about him before today. I’m happy to report that we made the pilgrimage to his house, The Edward Gorey Museum. It was a thrill to stand in his former home, to marvel at his many drawings and works on view. We spent several hours there, and we even ate breakfast one day at Jack’s Outback, where Gorey frequently had both breakfast AND lunch.
New England is lovely this time of year. We explored Yarmouth, and Provincetown. Here is a partial account of the trip, in photos.
On Sunday, Lily and I made our annual trek to Bethesda for the Small Press Expo. The last one to be held in person was in 2019, for obvious reasons, and it was thrilling to attend in person once again. Most of my favorite publishers were in their usual spots, and we both picked up a few treasures. Sadly, I forgot to take any pics.
It probably reads as goofy, but it felt really good to be there. I’ve missed this event a lot.
And then, to make matters even better, Beverly and I went to see the Old 97’s with Chloë. It was one of the better September Sundays to occur so far this month, I assure you.
