Wood!
http://www.alansondheim.org/nny119.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/msoud0.mp3
http://www.alansondheim.org/msoud1.mp3
returning from NY, finding the humidity below 20% and all the
instruments untuned, even with a large-output humidifier going.
so tuning up again - violin, oud, the sazs, suroz, gambus, all
were wildly loose and luckily nothing cracked. the oud has been
the most difficult to tune up again; at one point the twelfth
(unused) peg fell out and I jumped; I thought it had broken. I'm
now trying to adjust wood and string, keep the qin happy, set
the humidity as high as possible in this dry place in a dry town
(even though by the water), keep the temperature low, anything
so I can stop running around like crazy, resetting the pegs,
worrying the string tension, etc. tomorrow it's the hasapi and
suroz, and that will leave the cranky bowl-backed mandolin for
the last. meanwhile here are two oud solos, each played with the
oud in a different position (traditional, or with the soundboard
upright), each trying something different. with the dry air and
the air dry, with the dry dry air, it's difficult to keep my
hands from slipping, the oud from slipping, the pegs from
slipping yet again, and so here we are; msoud0 is even a bit
lyrical, a relief from the mourning music I often produce. msoud
= Maurice Shehata oud, the name of the maker, the oud originally
from Dubai.
I would play wood! I will play wood! I would play wood!
I would play wood! I will play wood! I would play wood!
I would play wood! I will play wood! I would play wood!
Wood!
http://www.alansondheim.org/nny119.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/msoud0.mp3
http://www.alansondheim.org/msoud1.mp3
returning from NY, finding the humidity below 20% and all the
instruments untuned, even with a large-output humidifier going.
so tuning up again - violin, oud, the sazs, suroz, gambus, all
were wildly loose and luckily nothing cracked. the oud has been
the most difficult to tune up again; at one point the twelfth
(unused) peg fell out and I jumped; I thought it had broken. I'm
now trying to adjust wood and string, keep the qin happy, set
the humidity as high as possible in this dry place in a dry town
(even though by the water), keep the temperature low, anything
so I can stop running around like crazy, resetting the pegs,
worrying the string tension, etc. tomorrow it's the hasapi and
suroz, and that will leave the cranky bowl-backed mandolin for
the last. meanwhile here are two oud solos, each played with the
oud in a different position (traditional, or with the soundboard
upright), each trying something different. with the dry air and
the air dry, with the dry dry air, it's difficult to keep my
hands from slipping, the oud from slipping, the pegs from
slipping yet again, and so here we are; msoud0 is even a bit
lyrical, a relief from the mourning music I often produce. msoud
= Maurice Shehata oud, the name of the maker, the oud originally
from Dubai.
I would play wood! I will play wood! I would play wood!
I would play wood! I will play wood! I would play wood!
I would play wood! I will play wood! I would play wood!
Last week on empyre: ISIS, Absolute Terror, Performance
See the empyre email list archive for November 2014:
http://lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2014-November/thread.html
moderated by Johannes Birringer, Alan Sondheim
This is an important topic, perhaps the most important, I
think, given the increasing chaos and stress in so many
regions of the planet.
To join: http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/join.php
=============
The initial precis (abridged):
The world seems to be descending into chaos of a qualitatively
different dis/order, one characterized by terror, massacre,
absolutism. Things are increasingly out of control, and this
chaos is a kind of ground-work itself - nothing beyond a
scorched earth policy, but more of the same. What might be a
cultural or artistic response to this? How does one deal with
this psychologically, when every day brings new horrors? Even
traditional analyses seem to dissolve in the absolute terror
that seems to be daily increasing.
We are moderating a month-long investigation on Empyre into the
dilemma this dis/order poses. We will ask a variety of people to
be discussants in what, hopefully, will be a very open
conversation. The debate will invite the empyre community to a
deep and uncomfortable analysis of abject violence, pain,
performance, and ideology [taking further the October 2012
debate on Pain, Suffering, and Death in the Virtual], looking at
the ambivalences of terror, incomprehensible emotions, and our
own complicity in the production of 'common sense' around
terror.
The format this month will be slightly different; participants
will be announced on an organic basis, and we hope that many of
the subscribers will chime in. We are all facing the anguish of
political situations that seem out of control. We are interested
in topics such as, How does one deal with anguish personally?
How can anguish be expressed culturally? Can such expressions
make a difference at all? We have all read political analyses of
the causes of this descent; here, we're interested in the
cultural and personal responses to it.
[...]
- Alan Sondheim
Last week on empyre: ISIS, Absolute Terror, Performance
See the empyre email list archive for November 2014:
http://lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2014-November/thread.html
moderated by Johannes Birringer, Alan Sondheim
This is an important topic, perhaps the most important, I
think, given the increasing chaos and stress in so many
regions of the planet.
To join: http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/join.php
=============
The initial precis (abridged):
The world seems to be descending into chaos of a qualitatively
different dis/order, one characterized by terror, massacre,
absolutism. Things are increasingly out of control, and this
chaos is a kind of ground-work itself - nothing beyond a
scorched earth policy, but more of the same. What might be a
cultural or artistic response to this? How does one deal with
this psychologically, when every day brings new horrors? Even
traditional analyses seem to dissolve in the absolute terror
that seems to be daily increasing.
We are moderating a month-long investigation on Empyre into the
dilemma this dis/order poses. We will ask a variety of people to
be discussants in what, hopefully, will be a very open
conversation. The debate will invite the empyre community to a
deep and uncomfortable analysis of abject violence, pain,
performance, and ideology [taking further the October 2012
debate on Pain, Suffering, and Death in the Virtual], looking at
the ambivalences of terror, incomprehensible emotions, and our
own complicity in the production of 'common sense' around
terror.
The format this month will be slightly different; participants
will be announced on an organic basis, and we hope that many of
the subscribers will chime in. We are all facing the anguish of
political situations that seem out of control. We are interested
in topics such as, How does one deal with anguish personally?
How can anguish be expressed culturally? Can such expressions
make a difference at all? We have all read political analyses of
the causes of this descent; here, we're interested in the
cultural and personal responses to it.
[...]
- Alan Sondheim
See images below:
A Missouri grand jury has decided not to indict Ferguson police Officer Darren
Wilson [www.cnn.com] in the August 9 shooting death of Michael Brown,
prosecutor Robert McCulloch said Monday.
The incident became a flashpoint for racial tension in the St. Louis suburb;
Brown was black and Wilson is white. Brown's father and others had called for
calm ahead of the grand jury's decision, which comes amid concerns over the
possibility of violent protests.
http://www.alansondheim.org/Ferguson1.png
http://www.alansondheim.org/Ferguson2.png
http://www.alansondheim.org/Ferguson3.png
