Can you see it rising like mist off the pavement?
Can you see it coalescing gray on fabric walls?
Can you see a wave cresting in the air, a following sea?
If you look at someone's head, can you see their mind?
Can you see thoughts form and spring, dissolve, orbit, spiral out, trail behind?
What does attention look like?
Can you see music? --not heads and stems and staves, but notes with evolving shape and color
and motion.
Can you close your eyes and see the shape of an orchestra, and name instruments by genus and species?
Can you see the form of a sonata as it lives?
Can you make out the composer's signature in the corner?
When you look at rain, do you see the river and the sea?
When you look at mountains, do you see sediment? Do you see mountains waiting underground?
If you can see these things, then see one thing more:
The inside of your eye.

For a long time I knew only the Lefte Bank version of this song. The Four Tops made a miniscule change in rhythm on one line of the chorus that alters the whole message. Well, that and Levi's more forceful vocal.

Here someone has extracted just the vocals, so you can hear the full effect of the tight harmony contrasting with the raging freedom of the lead. I'm thinking this was another one where they intentionally transposed it one step above the key that was comfortable for him in order to get more emotional tension. (Also, in this track you actually understand the words.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp0OHYnuuXs&feature=related

Lost track of my list, but here are the latest.

( Read recently )

After cooking myself dinner, I set the pan down for the cat to lick. He tried to bury it.

Went with weirdsister and kiltedwitch and some future Grammy winner to see Caroline Aiken and DeDe Vogt and Meike Koester at Eddie's Attic Friday. The three ladies were sharing the stage but playing solo, taking turns.

At first Meike seemed a bit shadowed--good, but lagging behind the other two. Whatever it was, she got over it; when they came back for the second half, she threw down. DeDe never knew what hit her; she decided to play mandolin instead of following on guitar. (Try these samples from Meike's site: Steam In Your Eyes and The Right One At the Wrong Time.)

DeDe, however, had the treasure, a song called "Starling and Gardenia". I've spent the weekend learning it. I got it working but had to tune to EGDGBD (to get the inversions) and capo 4 (to be able to sing it). Those who have won bonus points, email me for a link.

Caroline was brilliant as always. She started off with a song called "Copper John", which doesn't seem to be on any of her CDs, but you can dig up an mp3 on archive.org. She played slide 12-string while doing percussion with her snakeskin boots. The guy at the next table obviously hadn't heard her before, because he was silent the whole song and blurted out, "Oh my God!" when it was over. The highlight of the evening was her song "Another On the Rise" as a duet with Eddie himself. It's powerful enough on her live album, but she did something on the second eight of the chorus where she dropped the bassline out and did really smooth sliding picking chords on the high strings. I haven't figured it out yet (her stuff is hard!), but it was great.

Friday night (Aug 14), we're back at Trilogy in Marietta off the corner of Lower Roswell and Johnson Ferry. 7-9 pm; be there or be L-7.

Reminder: After Hours Quintet at Trilogy tomorrow, 7-9 pm. Be there or be L7.

Via shaenon. Geeky even by steampunk standards.

http://2dgoggles.com/

Recommend starting with Lovelace & Babbage vs. the Economy.

Owing to the agency of a pugnacious comet, the Earth's orbit has been altered, and this current year only will be one day longer. By decree, this day is a freebie for everyone, a holiday not recorded on the calendar. It doesn't even count against your lifespan.

However, whatever you do will be summarized and revealed for all to know and judge. What would you do?


Lord knows I'm glad a lot of my days aren't broadcast, but lately I've been doing okay with my evenings at least. It seems to work best if I pick one project. I'm not yet tired of learning enough of a language to render another Every Blue. Tonight I did most of a choral arrangement for a gloria. One of these evenings I'm going to start the city-building project, if I have some D- or E-size paper.

Or I could fritter it away, leaving some 15,000 (or fewer) for such things.

Permettez-moi de vous dire comment je vous vois.
Vos yeux sont le faisceau eau
Votre voix est violet
Vos lèvres sont le lilas, mmmm;
Votre sourire est saphir
et la touche, topaze
Votre coeur est la mer de corail,
Ou céruléen, ou je n'ai pas vu;
Votre âme et le organisme sont toutes les couleurs.
Nous vivons entre le ciel et l'océan,
Et vous êtes tous bleus émotion.

Let me tell you how I see you.
Your eyes are watery beams of light.
Your voice is purple.
Your lips are lilac, mmm.
Your smile is sapphire,
and your touch, topaz
Your heart is coral sea,
or cerulean, or I don't know what I've seen.
Your soul and body are all the colors.
We live between the sky and ocean,
and you are every blue emotion.

( Not far from what the online translators rendered... )

Any thoughts? joyeuse13? I fear I got a bit tangled between nouns and adjectives, and I gave up trying to parallel genders.

Join After Hours Friday July 31 and August 15 from 7 to 9pm at Trilogy, 4930 Davidson Road in Marietta (one block from the intersection of Johnson Ferry Road and Lower Roswell Road). Trilogy is north Atlanta's premiere entertainment and private events destination. Call 770-971-4770 for more information or reservations.

Visit us at our web site at www.afterhoursquintet.com for more information or to book After Hours for your own event.

Come for dinner or to just feel the jazz vibe!

This time it's to Hawai'ian and back.

E wehewehe ana aupehea 'iko au 'oe.
K-o-u maka molehu
K-o-u lehelehe lilia.
K-o-u leo aloe, mmm.
K-o-u 'aka'aka 'ako'ako'a a k-o-u pa poni
K-o-u 'uhane uliuli, a aouli paha,
a kala 'ike maka ole 'ia paha
K-o-u mana'o a kino anenue polu.
Ke noho nei ma-kou mawaena papa lani a moana
a pu'uwai kela polu keia 'oe.

I'm explaining how I see you.
Your eyes are twilight.
Your lips are lilies.
Your voice is aloe, mmm.
Your laughter is coral.
Your welcoming embrace is royal purple.
Your spirit is deep sea, and the high sky maybe,
and maybe a color not seen by my eyes.
Your mind and body are a blue rainbow.
We all dwell between the firmament and open ocean,
and you are all the blues of the heart.



I found this a bit more limiting, and less illuminating, than Japanese. However, I particularly like the voice and laughter lines.
Aside from switching the order of lips and voice and moving the "mmm" to the voice to go with "aloe", the only real choice I had to make was whether to use ma-kou for we ("everyone") or ma-ua ("you and I only"). "We two" probably makes more sense, but "everyone" is closer to my original thought. The poem was sufficiently intimate that it didn't lose focus by making one statement on the human condition as opposed to issuing an invitation.

The idea here is to see how the choice of language influences the way thoughts are put together and pictures are constructed. My medium is a poem of very simple structure called "Every Blue", which I wrote and posted some time ago.

Let me tell you how I see you.
Your eyes are iris
Your voice is violet
Your lips are lilac, mmmm;
Your smile is cobalt and your touch, tungsten light
Your heart is coral sea,
Or cerulean, or a shade I haven't seen;
Your mind and body are the whole spectrum.
We live between the sky and ocean,
And you are every blue emotion.

( How I spent five hours translating my poem into a language I do not know. )

Anata no kyou me wa kon desu
Anata no onsei wa taisei desu
Anata no kuchibiru wa mizuiro desu, mmmm;
Anata no isshou wa kobaruto desu,
Anata no furi, fujiro, Anata no shokkan, shikon
Anata no kokoro tamashii wa sangokai desu,
Wa sorairo, wa fukashi iro;
Anata no zenshinzenrei wa renzoku supekutoru desu.
Ichi ten, ichibou senri omoi desu,
Anata aoi desu.

Literally:

Your penetrating eyes are navy blue
Your voice is blackish blue
Your lips are aqua, mmm.
Your smile/laugh is cobalt,
You touching me is light purple, and me being touched by you is a bluish purple.
Your heart and soul are ocean coral, sky-blue (cerulean), invisible color.
Your complete devotion (body and soul) is a continuous spectrum.
The sky and boundless ocean are feelings, and you are the blue colors.

( But that isn't a poem )

So here is the finished result (as previously posted):

Deep blue eyes searched mine,
and twilight sang to me.
Her kiss was like a waterfall,
her smile a burning beam.
The brush of her flowers left a deepening blush.
Her heart was coral, cool and sharp,
part sea and part sky,
and could not be seen by mortal eyes.
The works of her life flowed from dark blue to light.
From sea to sky, all emotions are water,
And she was every blue color.

Not one of mine, but part of the collection of ones to make me feel better after one. So far as I can recall, I haven't fled across state lines following a bad set.

Comment seen on http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1672723189&v=feed&story_fbid=103500019909#/photo.php?pid=623542&id=1151133810&ref=nf via Carla, natch:

"I once sat in a Waffle house in Indiana with a bass player who was wearing his eggs. It was after a hard night in Louisville."

Received a box at my desk. It was plain and a bit beat up. It contained a vast amount of padding and a perfectly preserved individually-packaged crystal bowl, which I had chosen for my five-year service award. It arrived three weeks in advance of the anniversary.

It contained a blank "Congratulations" card and a sheet with suggestions on how to give a presentation that will make an employee feel appreciated.

It's a nice bowl.