1/2/2022
Well, 2022 has started and I'm already a day late! But that's ok. There
really wasn't much to write about anyhow. Or there was too much to write
about. Or I'm just a lazy bum again!
As I mentioned (last year!), we've been literally trapped out here
on Whidbey. We did manage to get our car up the snow-insurmountable
hill today, so we're back to normal. The temperature has moderated to
above freezing, and we're getting some of that happy Pacific Northwest
wintertime rain to wash away the ice on the roads.
Also as I mentioned (last year! -- the last post prior to this one),
we had a wonderful time with the kids. I don't know what 2022
will bring, but I hope it goes well. I really do.
2/22/2022
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO-IN-LAW JOHNNY!!!!!!!
(done as part of the
'birthday backfill'
blog-rewrite here)
3/1/2022
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!
(done as part of the
'birthday backfill'
blog-rewrite here)
4/2/2022
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAI!!!!!!!
(done as part of the
'birthday backfill'
blog-rewrite here)
4/3/2022
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAOMI!!!!!!!
(done as part of the
'birthday backfill'
blog-rewrite here)
4/18/2022
I have not been posting here for awhile! I have things still to say,
though. There's a silly reason (coming in a post here soon) -- not
Related to health or anything bad -- more a 'superstition' or some
such nonsense. A few people have been asking about what happened.
Again, I'm fine!
And today is a FINE day! It's Daniel's birthday!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!!!!!!!
I've missed a number of other GREAT birthdays here, darn it, including
Naomi's 1st and Shai's 6th, just a few weeks ago.
4/28/2022
One of the implicit rules I set for myself was not to go back and
edit (except for minor spelling and punctuation) what I post here.
I've been faithful to that approach up until now. I've really let things
go far too long without writing here, and I'm suspecting that in
the future I may regret it. Lots has been going on! Lots! I've been
busy, lazy, whatever... but I'm determined to regain and reallocate
time. I'm on sabbatical for the coming year!
I have been sad that I let a number of birthdays go by without even a
tiny acknowledgment here, so I have now violated my 'no major editing'
rule and have filled-in the days I've missed. Happy Birthdays,
Johnny/Mom/Shai/Naomi/Daniel!
5/4/2022
Yesterday was kind-of a big day, I guess. We had the end-of-year Music
Department general meeting, and I had to prepare a "Computer Music Center"
report, outlining the accomplishments and initiatives we have done in the
past year. Here was the last paragraph of my report:
One final 'transition and change' item -- after 27 years, Brad Garton will be stepping down as Director of the CMC. Effective at the end of the current fiscal year (June 30, 2022), Seth Cluett will become the new Director of the CMC. Prof. Garton will be on sabbatical for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Yep, I'm doing what I said I would do! I am thrilled that Seth Cluett
will be picking up the reins of the CMC. He's been a fabulous presence
for the past 3-4 years he's been there, and I am happy that he seems determined
to carry on the "CMC environment" in the spirit we have created.
Here's a link to the CMC announcement:
This has been planned for awhile now, along with my slow slide into
retirement (if things do indeed go as planned). When I wrote the Departmental
Report paragraph and hit the 'send' button, it did get to me.
5/15/2022
I'm back on Whidbey Island. I'm de-compressing. It's raining, but
I don't mind. I'm playing the piano again. I'm sleeping better.
I'm doing stuff. Modular synthesis, virtual modular synthesis
(fun coding!), getting things set for more VR experimentation.
All this seems good. And, of course, family.
5/31/2022
Sitting out on our back deck, next to the fire-table that Brenda and
John got for us. It's finally not so cold/rainy/windy, and the sky is
still marginally light, even at 10 PM. We're close to the summer solstice
already! I'm sipping boysenberry liqueur from one of our local Whidbey
distilleries. Life is good.
Although I was reminded how quickly that "good" can turn. The weekend
before last, I was mowing the lawn and tripped over a rock. I fell
backwards, hard on my butt. Instant pain. Back pain. Back
muscle spasms, bruising, whatever. It was really not good. Fortunately
I don't think I shattered or ruptured anything -- I'm much better now.
These things do take time to mend, though.
In the meantime I'm getting loads of work done. And it's fun! I've
taken a side-detour from work on my VR project I had planned, and
have built a 'virtual' modular synthesizer. We'll see where that leads.
Lian/Shai/Naomi/Itay all came out this past Memorial Day weekend.
It was so happy! This is why I'm here.
6/1/2022
I've been coding a lot, and with it comes that Cikszentmihalyi "flow"
state where things just melt away, recede. I don't know if this is
necessarily a good thing. The world is profoundly troubled, and what
do I do? I "flow".
I stood out on our back deck, thinking I might start up the fire-table.
It's cloudy, and the clouds are reflecting various muted colors. It
started to rain, very gently. There was a bed of quiet on the Sound,
and each raindrop that fell had a very distinct location and audio
signature. I stood and listened to the discrete sounds, but I didn't stay.
I was getting wet.
6/7/2022
Tonight I came out to sit next to the fire table again,
thinking I would enjoy a few quiet moments watching
Puget Sound while sipping some Boysenberry Liqueur from he
"whiskery" (our name for it) here on Whidbey.
A gentle rain had started, however, but it was gentle enough that I
was able to sit beneath the overhang from our upstairs decks and
still enjoy the scene. It's not too cool here tonight, so the fire
isn't necessary. I can hear the bells from the water buoys, the distant
rumbling of the trains on the shoreline, and I can see the various
flashing radio-tower lights and the moving lights of aircraft.
What a place to be.
I'm thinking here and now about life... and death. Darwin Grosse,
a good friend, died the day before yesterday. I didn't see him
all that often, but we corresponded a fair amount by e-mail, and
whenever we did get together we were able to pick up the threads of
our prior conversations with no trouble. He was the Director of
Engineering for Cycling '74, the company Gregory works for, and
the company that makes the software most all of us in 'computer music'
use in one form or another
(Max/MSP).
In helping find materials to remember him, I discovered a number of web
sites I had stashed away with Darwin music/photos/videos:
Darwin is the one smiling in most of the photos.
He had been suffering from renal cancer -- we had some long and
intense conversations about cancer/therapy/life shortly after he
was diagnosed a few years ago. His chemo had been working well,
though, but what we didn't know is that the kidney cancer had been
masking a sarcoma that was discovered this past Memorial Day
weekend. He declined quickly.
Earlier today I was talking with my friend Miller Puckette. Miller
will most likely be filling in for me at Columbia during my upcoming
sabbatical year (oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention that.
I'm on sabbatical!).
Miller's wife passed away earlier this year, a similarly precipitous
decline after doing relatively well with therapy. A few days.
These things happen, they are happening, they will happen. The best
I can do right now is remember, remember, and watch the sky tone
from dark blue to dark grey. The owls are screeching. I may have to
go in soon, though: the bats are dive-bombing where I sit, listening
to the gentle rain.
6/26/2022
I wasn't planning to write anything in this blog tonight, but here I am.
It's the first day of anything resembling real "summer" here in the
Pacific Northwest, with temps near 80, and Jill and I eating dinner
on our back deck for the first time this year. Already past the Summer
Solstice, too! This has been one of the coolest/wettest spring/summer
seasons in recorded history here, or so I've been told.
I returned last night from a week in Indiana visiting mom and dad,
and their spring/summer has been intense. Temps 90-degree-plus,
with a healthy dose of that good midwestern humidity. Oh what fun to
talk about the weather!
Now I'm sitting next to our fire-table, sipping cloudberry liqueur.
There are a few desultory fireworks being shot around Puget Sound, getting
ready for the big Fourth-of-July celebration next week. I'm not sure
what to celebrate for our country this year, though. I really hope we
can find our way through to a better future, somehow, despite the
obstacles and road-blocks being put in the way by our "supreme" court
and very stupid, stupid humans. Oh I am so angry! Better not go there now...
The visit with mom and dad was good. I only lost my temper once, and
mom/dad were doing very well, all things considering. Shai and Naomi
are fabulous, Jill seems happy, Lian and Itay are good, Daniel is going
strong, Brenda and John in Sorrento, Bo and Stefan/Alison... this is
a good time. It will hold, I am certain!
I look up at the stars, I look out over the Puget Sound water, watching
the lights "seeing" from the far shore ("in astronomy, seeing refers to
the degradation of the image of an astronomical object due to turbulent
airflows in the atmosphere of Earth"). I finished another little
analog-drone etude today, although this music now is really just for me.
Life, yes, is good.
7/4/2022
The kids were out here yesterday, and last night we watched our nice
fireworks display in Cultus Bay.
Tonight -- the actual Fourth of July -- I'm sitting out in back enjoying
the "war zone" of Puget Sound once again. All the communities of any size
are lobbing explosions into the air, and I can see 180 degrees of
burning metal around me. Oh United States! What will happen to you?
Is this a requiem or a celebration of the future? Our children,
our grandchildren, what kind of world have we bequeathed to them?
Hopefully not one in which the fireworks will necessarily e "real"
to guarantee a *good* future. What's wrong with people? Why
are they stupid? I could say so much more, but I won't, now.
I'm sure that with my hardened attitude I'm probably 'part of the
problem'. But the real, Actual Problems (climate change, sociocultural
regression, gun violence, the whole 'liberal' shopping-list you
would expect from an upper-west side NYC professor like me) are
no longer just 'attitudinal'. They are real.
For now, I'm going to pretend this all is celebratory, though.
They really are pretty, And the sound is pretty amazing, too.
7/28/2022
It's almost time for me to switch this blog to the 'next' 6-month-or-so
segment. I need to write more, but so much has happened it's now
almost overwhelming to catch up. The world, things in general, hey, I'm
on sabbatical officially now, good family things, bad politics.
I'll start doing what I can. I'm actually getting some good work done,
but I need to do more. Always.
And then I ask why. The world, things in general... What can I do. What
can I do. It's so nice to sit out here on our back deck on Whidbey
Island, looking out across Puget Sound. 9:30 PM -- the sky is still
a softly glowing grey-blue. The bats are swarming. I think it's time
to go inside.
7/31/2022
The last day of July. I'll roll this blog over and start a new
six-month patch of postings, and hopefully I'll be able to get my
act together enough to write more. Things are happening! They should
be written! Not all of them good, though, especially politically.
Summer has hit this week with a vengeance. We had an exceptionally
cool and rainy spring, almost all the way through June. Now we're
getting the 90-degree weather that my friends in the Midwest and
on the East Coast have been experiencing. Not as humid here, but
that makes the direct sunlight really intense. I think we'll get
back to 'normal' next week.
I'm almost finished with the 'virtual modular synth' project.
8/6/2022 -- next page
