Archive for 02009-03

Torrance Stage from Ottmar Liebert on Vimeo.

We are in Palm Desert where we will perform at the McCallum Theater tonight. This morning Stephen and I played a song for KMIR, Channel 6 TV. We picked Streetlight. Stephen had this to say about our morning.

The first month of our new subscription service is coming to an end. We delivered five songs, including a rehearsal recording, a remix, a rock-flamenco hybrid from 1995, a piece with Rahim, and a 24bit/96kHz version of a One Guitar piece. For April I think we’ll have another one of the rock-flamenco hybrids, an unreleased rumba from 2004 (((Jon and I worked on it recently for a compilation))), an hour-long ambient recording called one 1993, which we made while we were recording The Hours Between Night + Day, and something with the touring band, either from the recent rehearsals in Santa Fe or a live recording from this mini-tour. And, I might find some other stuff I just have to share…

Tomorrow is April 1st and the conficker C worm is supposed to kick into action. 10+ million zombie PCs might/will retrieve their marching orders from the mothership… The worm has been called the smartest nefarious bit of code ever written. Maybe not apocalyptic, but potentially deeply disturbing. Good luck to all you PCs out there. See you on the other side of April 1st.

Stevo’s POV:
Stephen’s Journal and Stephen’s Flickr.

We are in Palm Desert and have a day off. Took the strings off my guitar this morning and cut a little shim from the hotel’s business card, to raise the bone-bridge on the treble side because the high E-string in particular was buzzing – possibly from the Californian humidity. I didn’t bring wood shims or different bridges (bone pieces) on this short tour, but the improvised shim seems to work.

Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries – NYTimes.com
The malware is remarkable both for its sweep — in computer jargon, it has not been merely “phishing” for random consumers’ information, but “whaling” for particular important targets — and for its Big Brother-style capacities. It can, for example, turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of an infected computer, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. The investigators say they do not know if this facet has been employed.

Rehearsal 10:00-13:30 and then packing up and transporting gear. Band sounded good, but what’s really exciting is the potential of this group. These two drummers work very well together. It’s always a gamble, putting two drummers together – some make a great team, some don’t. (((not unlike setting up somebody for a blind date)))

Jon recorded every piece we have worked up for this tour, so we can each listen to the arrangements and memorize them on the two-day bus ride to California. Stevo and Jon kept commenting that much of it sounded like an album and I have to agree. Maybe we should record the band for our subscribers after the Summer tour – live in his studio.

In the meantime we should have a few pieces we can release as free Ottmar-Friends downloads… probably with a few warts (mistakes), but with a pretty nice feel.

Overall a great second day. The second day of rehearsals is often a let-down from the first, but not so this time. Now I have to pack…

recipe tote on Flickr

That’s one strange recipe for Carbonara. It sounds disgusting, but I haven’t tried it, and I am not supposed to diss something I haven’t tried. But come on! Cream? Seafood? Emmental cheese? It’s a joke, right?

Here is the recipe I use.

And then there is this video of the German band Spliff performing Spaghetti Carbonara in 1982. (((check out how the bass solo is drowned out by the guitarist tuning. funny!)))

Old school fixie riding:

It’s called Kunstradfahren in German – Art-Bicycling.

It was quite common in Germany in the Seventies to ride street bikes with regular drop bars turned up, with the ends either facing forward or backward, like you see in the video. I remember riding to school with a bike like that. Un-drop bar?

One-third of US birds are endangered, says conservation report
Nearly one-third of US birds are endangered, threatened or in significant decline, according to a government conservation report.

It says the findings are “a warning signal of the failing health of our ecosystems” and reports that birds in Hawaii, the most bird-rich state, are “in crisis”.

Spring is here. Very warm today.

Rehearsal with Michael until 13:30. Jon and I are both very excited about the new band and are looking forward to touring. MC adds a great groove to the music. Worked through new arrangements of Up Close: Beginning, The River and Streetlight.

Candlelight – 2 from Ottmar Liebert on Vimeo.

Abstract City Blog – NYTimes.com
My Life With Cables

This is interesting on so many different levels, but particular in terms of testosterone:
Protect me from what I want.

Poem of the day via Weekly Words of Wisdom:

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter;
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
- Wu-men

Or how about this from the Upaya Newsletter:

Fear is the cheapest room in the house.
I would like to see you living in better conditions.
- Hafiz

The Stretta Procedure: Why Music?
The first people to understand how music really works were the ancient Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you; the Greeks said that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us. Let me give you some examples of how this works.
(Via the music of sound)

Read on…

Stephen Duros

It only took a year or two (internet-time)…

Read this quote in an email a friend wrote and traced the source to a Dave Smalley. Fitting words for 2009: culture, education, economy, transportation, jobs – it all points to this:

The survival of the fittest is the ageless law of nature, but the fittest are rarely the strong. The fittest are those endowed with the qualifications for adaptation, the ability to accept the inevitable and conform to the unavoidable, to harmonize with existing or changing conditions.
— Dave E. Smalley

We have a subscription service at last. It’s a model I have been considering and writing about for years – since 2004?

You can choose to subscribe at $4 per month or $20 per year:

1. Every month you can download a high quality music file. Something new or something live or something from my 20 year archive. Most of this music will be exclusive, meaning that the music has never been released or is a preview that will be released at a later time. Well, I say one per month, but for March there are already three free downloads: Jon’s Sao Paulo 3.4.1, a special 24 bit/96 kHz audiophile version of This Spring Release 10,000 Butterflies” and a a version of La Luna from a recent rehearsal…

2. In addition to viewing videos you will be able to download most of them.

3. You can view and download any of about 10,000 photos I have on Flickr – in full size. You will have to open a free Flickr account to do that, but that takes only seconds.

4. You can log in and read my private journal and, if you like, you can participate in commentary and discussions with other subscribers. Since only subscribers can read and comment we should be able to enjoy a spamless environment. :-)

5. You can open a free Twitter account and follow my protected (private) Twitter feed.

Oh, and you won’t see any advertising anywhere. I have thought about it a bunch, and decided that I really don’t like seeing ads on every RSS feed and blog out there on the Interwebs. We will make it work without such visual and mental clutter.

I will make some new recordings that will only be released to the subscribers. I see Ottmar-Friends as my overall publisher, a big bowl into which I can place content of any kind.

To sign up, visit http://ottmarliebert.com/backstage. I look forward to sharing my experiences through music, photography and writing with you.

Breakfast with Jon @ Counter Culture. My fixed gear bike was locked up outside. The weather was cold, but sunny and by the time I headed home it was getting too warm for a shirt and a jacket. But, winter might come back briefly as there are snow storm warnings for Santa Fe – for tonight and Saturday.

Unfettered at last, a traveling monk,
I pass the old Zen barrier.
Mine is a traceless stream-and-cloud life,
Of these mountains, which shall be my home?
- Manan (1591-1654)

Thank you IM.

Dezeen » Blog Archive » Spaza-De-Move-On by Doung Anwar Jahangeer
Design Indaba 09: architect Doung Anwar Jahangeer won the South award for his mobile, fold-away shop at the Design Indaba conference and expo in Cape Town last week.

Could not get enough shots because it was so cold that the batteries could not keep a charge. The top vid is from last night and the moving white specks are stars. Soon the full moon would have crossed the view… The bottom vid is from this morning. The moon is setting and the sun rising and it was looking really nice until the battery died again. Click on the full-screen icon to see anything at all.