VIX at Work - Live More Lightly

Live More Lightly at Vancouver Community College

Vancouver Community College is having a celebration and I have been invited to present my workshop as part of the activities for students.

The theme of the Sustainability Fair, “Green 365 @VCC” fits in perfectly with the idea that we can live more lightly. I will be handing out my sheets with 50 things that “we each can do” on April 28th at the Broadway Campus (aka King Edward Campus) 1155 East Broadway and on April 29th at the Downtown Campus, 250 West Pender Street. Contact info and map here. Song performances will occur at noon and 12:45pm, so participants are welcome to come down and sing!

I am really excited about this opportunity and hope that many of the students will get involved.

Bringing the World Together

I attended a workshop on grant writing yesterday and I realized I have to be able to convey the idea behind my whole project more clearly. So I am going to post some other projects that I have been paying attention to that have had some impact on the world.

Where the Hell is Matt?”

When my daughter told me about Matt, I didn’t get it. She invited me to come down to the beach and dance with this young man who was traveling all over the world dancing with people. No, he is not a great dancer. I didn’t get it — I didn’t go. That’s my daughter in the red skirt, front left, on the beach in Vancouver.

Where the Hell is Matt 2008

Matt brought the world together with his little dance. There is such joy in the act of Matt doing his dance from the heart that it refreshes my belief in humanity. I believe that behind the power struggles and the greed — we are all one people. When I saw the video — I got the message.

Playing for Change

Here is another group that is doing video of pop songs, like “Stand By Me” (Ben E. King) and “One Love” (Bob Marley) performed by musicians all over the world playing together through the wonders of technology. They all appear in their own country playing their instrument on the same song playing with the musicians that have already been recorded.

They have a great site and the passion to show that music can cross borders that have been created by the power structure to connect us.

Live More Lightly

The completed Live More Lightly song 6 minute video will show me singing, joined by one person, then by another, then by all the workshop participants that want to be in the video. As each workshop will be different, it probably won’t be as smooth in transition as the Playing for Change videos, but if I get some funding I can make better video. The first one will be a do-it -yourself demo, but I hope to have it ready for the start of the tour in 2009.

The documentary movie will be about the journey across the continent in 2009 to bring the diverse age groups, cultures, ethnic backgrounds and others (basically everybody I can get) together to Live More Lightly on the land one small action at a time. I want to show lots of great environmental footage of natural scenes so everyone will know why we should save the planet. I anticipate that 90 minutes of singing, workshop events, beautiful scenery and on-bike motorcycle riding should be about right.

The motorcycle tour is a small portion of this project, but it has been taking a lot to coordinate. I could just go in my van to do the workshops, but the motorcycle is much more environmentally friendly.

I also hope to be able to be the first person to stream live video from a moving motorcycle to a satellite without a truck. The Grand Prix racers have on-bike cameras that stream to a nearby truck that carries a satellite dish, like the one pictured below. This huge dish with signal amplification allows them to send a broadcast quality signal to the satellite. From the satellite the signal can be received at the television station for editing or routed into the broadcast signal as live coverage. A higher quality signal (broadcast television) takes more power, so a larger amplifier and more microwaves, than a low quality signal (webcam).

Due to microwave radiation from this type of dish, it is against Canadian law to mount it lower than 4ft off the ground. This dish, when fully extended is well above the heads of any concert goers and is considered safe. I don’t even like to carry my cell phone in my pocket, but for the sale of art, I plan to innundate myself with microwaves from a portable modem. Basic outline of streaming requirements here.

Many motorcyclists have mounted cameras on their bike and there are a lot of videos on the internet of intense riding. Depending on your area of interest there are many to choose from. One other Vancouver rider, Jeff has captured a lot of scenic footage from his Harley on VRide TV. I love the smoothness of his ride as it makes for great video as I already described here. I am on a more limited budget with my old Yamaha FJ1200, but I hope to be able to get some great nature footage for the documetary. Still working on the streaming aspect. I will keep you posted.

Live More Lightly Workshop in Schools

Schools are back in session and I am now trying to coordinate presenting a “Live More Lightly Workshop” to school-age youth. The deadline for a showcase application to Artstarts in Schools is October 17th and I must have a video by then. I am still working on preparing the book, but financial considerations have limited the time I have been able to spend developing the environmental section. The book may act as a teacher resource guide as I am putting so much environmental information in the book and on my Sources of Inspiration Page.

Most of the work I have done recently on my blog and the project is administrative tasks that are not too exciting. However, I am excited about the possibility of facilitating a workshop in Powell River soon and having my friend Judy capture the action on a video. Now I have updated WordPress, I can add video and podcasts. It is always a concern of parents when considering allowing their children to be in a video posted to the internet, but I hope that I will be able to form a community of environmental supporters. Everyone seems to be less concerned when there are hundreds of videos — I’ve seen countless children on Youtube.

I will be networking with more environmental education sites and I hope that many people will know “The Live More Lightly Song” by the end of the year.

Ubuntu Hardy + Free Firewire Drivers + Jackd

Since I came back from Seattle the Saffire audio device has been firmly installed at Waterlou Studios where it works very well with the G4 OSX 10.3.9 and G5 quad-core OSX 10.4. It has been challenging to get all the applications working on this newly installed platform and I have not had much time to putter away on my home system. Paul, our friend Barry and I also spent time going to a demo of the WAVES Logic plug-ins with Eddie Kramer as the keynote speaker, which was fun. I couldn’t resist making a few comments to the Apple reps about the new Logic Studio. It is an inspiring tool for Paul and I to have in our musical hands, but I still want to pursue my own mobile recording set-up.

Remember the WordPress motto when reading this: “Code is poetry.”

The last steps I took on activating the music recording capabilities of my ASUS notebook included installing the ffado drivers and (with help from Robin B. in Seattle) making sure the “raw1394” kernel module is loaded on boot. This can be checked in terminal (sudo modprobe raw1394) and I did find that the Ubuntu Studio control that I installed was not a reliable indicator that the raw kernel module was in fact loaded. Even after checking the box in the GUI loaded from System>Administration>Ubuntu Studio, I still was asked for my password to activate the raw kernel in terminal.

There is a post on the ffado site that describes how to check if jackd is reading the ffado driver from terminal here. Unfortunately, I get the reading:

victoria@u-live:~$ jackd -R -d firewire -v4
jackd: unknown driver ‘firewire’

I think my problem might be with jackd rather than with the ffado driver itself. I was following the install instructions on the ffado trac site — Pieter writes encouragingly at the top “It’s very easy”, but forgets to add “…if you are a Linux programmer”. I have the latest RT (realtime) kernel installed and all of the dependencies except the python-qt.

victoria@u-live:~$ sudo apt-get install scons libiec61883-0 libiec61883-dev libavc1394-0 libavc1394-dev libxml++2.6c2a libxml++2.6-dev liblo0 liblo0-dev docbook-utils libexpat-dev libdbus-1-dev pyqt-tools python-dbus python-qt
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
scons is already the newest version.
libiec61883-0 is already the newest version.
libiec61883-dev is already the newest version.
libavc1394-0 is already the newest version.
libavc1394-dev is already the newest version.
libxml++2.6c2a is already the newest version.
libxml++2.6-dev is already the newest version.
liblo0 is already the newest version.
liblo0-dev is already the newest version.
docbook-utils is already the newest version.
Note, selecting libexpat1-dev instead of libexpat-dev
libexpat1-dev is already the newest version.
libdbus-1-dev is already the newest version.
pyqt-tools is already the newest version.
python-dbus is already the newest version.
E: Couldn’t find package python-qt

Robin fixed this later and I have no idea what he did. I had already checked that I had python-qt3 installed and somehow he made Ubuntu see it. Next I downloaded the ffado sources and placed them in the directory and tried to compile using Scons. I had never tried to compile anything before so I did not realize that scons had to be run from inside the folder of the program that you wish to compile.

victoria@u-live:~$ scons DEBUG=yes

scons: *** No SConstruct file found.
File “/usr/lib/scons/SCons/Script/Main.py”, line 825, in _main
victoria@u-live:~$ scons install

Scons cannot find the SConstruct file unless it is run in the directory folder that the text file lives in. I figured this out and I was pleased to see a string of code scroll down the terminal screen. I was less happy when the install terminated with the error message:

xdg-icon-resource install –size 64 –context apps support/xdg/hi64-apps-ffado.png
scons: *** DirNodeInfo instance has no attribute ‘csig’
scons: building terminated because of errors.

I tried to continue and received some help from the guide posted here. I decided not to try to hack the code in the SConstruct file as they suggest and looked for another method. There is now some new information posted by Pieter here, but at that time, after a bit of searching, I gave up and decided to continue with the install instructions. Later Robin came to my rescue and said something that contained the words “usr home folder”. I did not understand what he said and he types quickly into the terminal, but the result was positive and the driver is installed.

victoria@u-live:/usr/share/applications$ cd /usr/local
victoria@u-live:/usr/local$ ls
bin etc games include lib man sbin share src
victoria@u-live:/usr/local$ cd bin
victoria@u-live:/usr/local/bin$ ls
ffado-bridgeco-downloader ffado-fireworks-downloader
ffado-dbus-server          ffadomixer
victoria@u-live:/usr/local/bin$ ffado
ffado-bridgeco-downloader   ffado-fireworks-downloader
ffado-dbus-server           ffadomixer
victoria@u-live:/usr/local/bin$ ffadomixer

——————————————————-

Another frustrating bit of business with the command:

$ sudo apt-get install subversion libtool automake

I could not get it to run, but I installed jack from the trunk in a separate folder and I think that is the source of my present problems. Jack installed very well, but now I think I am running two versions of Jacd and that is confusing to my OS. I do not have Robin B. to help me now, so I just tried running the above cmnd again. Surprised and pleased, I watched the install proceed:

victoria@u-live:~$ sudo apt-get install subversion libtool automake
[sudo] password for victoria:
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
subversion is already the newest version.
libtool is already the newest version.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
automake
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 519kB of archives.
After this operation, 1712kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main automake 1:1.10.1-2 [519kB]
Fetched 519kB in 2s (182kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package automake.
(Reading database … 245531 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking automake (from …/automake_1%3a1.10.1-2_all.deb) …
Setting up automake (1:1.10.1-2) …

Now I have the automake application installed jackd may work better or I might have to remove it from the system and reinstall. I plan to use this post to ask for help with my lack of success, but I feel I am making some progress because my terminal reads:

victoria@u-live:~$ cd libffado
victoria@u-live:~/libffado$ tests/test-ffado Discover
verbose level = 0
Using ffado library version: libffado 2.0.900-1319

06565751473: Debug (devicemanager.cpp)[ 555] discover: Discovery finished…
06565751641: Debug (devicemanager.cpp)[1045] showDeviceInfo: ===== Device Manager =====
06565751717: Debug (Element.cpp)[ 109] show: Element DeviceManager
06565751769: Debug (devicemanager.cpp)[1053] showDeviceInfo: — IEEE1394 Service 0 —
Iso handler info:
Dumping IsoHandlerManager Stream handler information…
State: 2
no message buffer overruns

————————————————————-

Thanks Robin B. for your hospitality and your help! Here are some flowers for you.

SLR Camera – Image Capture

Now I have had the opportunity to look through two examples of excellent camera technology, I find myself increasingly attracted to continuing the experience. The first time I held such a camera was at the Madu Sari gamelan performance, “New Javanese Shadows“when a friend of mine asked me to hold his camera. My first impression can only be described by referring to a Hindu myth often told about the young Krishna. For those not familiar with Hindu mythology, the incarnations of the god Vishnu are many, but this story is about his time as the human Krishna.

On one occasion, when Krishna was still a child, he revealed his true god-self to his mother by asking her to look in his mouth. When she complied, she was astonished to see the entire universe inside the mouth of her child. When I looked into that camera, I saw a glimpse of the infinite — I was astonished. The photographer who owned the magic box enthusiastically started informing me of the technical details in a language full of numbers that I did not understand. This machine may be described by numbers, as the universe can be modeled mathematically, but the impact of the revelation I had experienced created a bookmark in my mind that I return to in wonder.

My next reaction was more practical, as the Virgo reasserted her presence. If everyone had a camera like that, my opportunities for employment as a graphic artist would be seriously reduced. There was no noise in the image, it was balanced and in sharp focus. If the capture mechanism was as pristine as the view, the images would reflect a hyper-realism that would need few adjustments. My daughter later comforted me by pointing out that many of these cameras are owned by individuals who can cause them to malfunction and that composition skills are still required. Even the best images can benefit from layout, design and story, so my production skills will still be needed.

The term “multi-media artist” has often been applied to my skill sets in production. I know that if I am not being paid, I do music, music technology and saving the world. Some practical part of me knows that my time will not allow any more addictions. I am already being drawn away from my “Live More Lightly Project” too much by other musical entanglements. I have to complete a book prototype this month. Move on. Continue reading SLR Camera – Image Capture

Music Festival Vancouver

Festival Vancouver has a special place in my heart because I have met people who have become important in my life at past concerts and the music is always exceptional. The first announcement of the evening was a change of name to “Music Festival Vancouver”, apparently there has been some confusion about the festival focus . . .

This year Music Festival Vancouver held concerts in VanDusen Botanical Garden for the first time. It was a great choice for a venue and the large grassy field, where plant sales are usually held, was prepared by adding a large covered stage on the north end. The World at the Garden Series featured three great concerts and friends have told me that the guitar led Yamandu Costa Trio (Brazil), who played on Friday, Aug 15 was amazing. I chose to go to Salsa Dura, the “hard salsa” band conducted by Sal Ferreras on the following Sunday evening because of guest Ernán López-Nussa, piano.

I first encountered this accomplished Cuban pianist in 2003, when I heard him play at UBC, then later during in the week at the Commodore Ballroom. Ernán López-Nussa opened for John Kosrud’s “Orquestra Goma Dura”, one of Vancouver’s great big salsa bands. I had the opportunity to dance with Ernán after his set while the second band was playing. I had a great time that evening and looked forward to hearing him again.

It was an overcast evening after weeks of sunny summer weather and concert attendees knew there was a strong probability that we would be on the receiving end of some falling raindrops. I decided to go despite the rain and packed an umbrella on my motorcycle (closed).

The garden was beautiful and I had a few minutes to wander around before the music began. VanDusen Gardens is one of Vancouver’s treasures as it is watched over by a gardeners and offers an ever-changing pallet of colour, scent and form. I couldn’t linger too long, as Celso Machado was opening and I did not want to miss a moment of his show. Celso is one of the few solo performers who has packed the Ironworks during the Jazz Festival (2007) and he is a favourite of local audiences.

In addition to playing guitar and singing in the styles of his native Brasil, he has learned to play African kora and South Indian kanjira, a snakeskin covered tambourine. Celso is known for his mischievous attitude to displaying his virtuosity and this evening was no exception as he performed a percussion solo on his microphones and water bottle. He did bring out the kora and the exquisite timbre of African strings infused the garden.

The intermission was cut short as the rain began to fall and the original plan, of allowing the audience to wander the garden while the second group prepared to play, was shelved. After a speedy set-up, the main attraction was ready, with two female singers, a brassy horn section, piano and three percussionists. Continue reading Music Festival Vancouver

Life-Cycle Responsibility

Time is slipping away so fast with so many details to take care of to realize the Live More Lightly Project. One of the reasons this project is so complex is that I have taken life-cycle responsibility for the product that I am producing. The product in this case is a multi-media book, but the principals apply to anything produced. In this post, I will refer to the concept of the universal product as a “widget”. The recent rush to re-cycle widgets properly is to be applauded, but the idea of considering the environmental impact of every aspect of producing and maintaining the product is often overlooked.

My particular widget, the “Live More Lightly Songbook and Workshop Guide” will be printed using the most environmentally friendly processes available. The included disk will have to be made from virgin plastic, so the choice will be based on price, although I plan to choose a company that uses environmentally sound practices when they can. This is the point where many producers believe they have done enough, but I continue to examine my practices: can I live more lightly?

I am writing the book using a computer that I built from mostly re-cycled parts and the notebook I bought to take on the tour was manufactured by AsusTek, a leader in re-use and re-cycling of its products. I am using Ubuntu Linux on both computers (the notebook came with Vista, so it is dual-boot) because I believe that open source software is more efficient and uses less resources. This is a statement I can’t provide academic proof for, but I know it saves my resources. With Windows and Mac computers I have to spend time working to be able to afford the product, then after spending considerable sums of money, I usually have to spend hours troubleshooting. With Linux, if you can get it to work — it is yours. I want to have good karma on this project and use legitimate software only. The software I am using in Ubuntu would take me months of work to afford because I do not want to be a software pirate.

Continue reading Life-Cycle Responsibility

Mundane Project Administration

The part of a project that rarely is presented to an audience — especially a jaded internet audience who can click away to a more exciting space in a nanosecond — is the administrative process. Right now, I am watching the summer weather slip away as I struggle with paperwork. So far, I have not received any grants, so I have had to keep working to support the project. Time spent working allows me to move forward in buying motorcycle gear and technology for the trip, but subtracts from the time I have to actually do the book.

The basic version of the book is almost in manuscript form and ready to start editing and moving forward to the next stage. I really want to spend time now recording the music and preparing a draft of the disk that will be a companion to the book. However, before I do anything else, I have to finish doing my taxes for 2007. This should not be a difficult undertaking as I do not have a lot of money to count, but I am always overwhelmed by book-keeping and even have trouble keeping up with invoicing for my work hours and keeping track of receivables.

This is where “CGA Man” should swoop in through a handy open window and say, “I’ll save you!”, but no. Accountants work in mysterious ways and I have to produce many spreadsheets to get the job done. I have to force myself to do this as the little neat piles of paper all over the studio are driving me mad.

If I can get my taxes done, I have prepared the draft of a business plan so I can get a line of credit to produce “The Live More Lightly Songbook and Workshop Guide” and have a financial cushion in case someting unexpected happens on the tour. As a responsible parent, I have to make sure that I can afford to be safe and I am not placed in dodgy situations due to lack of funds.. Continue reading Mundane Project Administration

Gamelan Madu Sari: New Javanese Shadows

Even though I am very busy with everything else in my life, I could not refuse an invitation to join a week-long workshop with five of the most innovative masters of the Arts of Java.

Gamelan Madu Sari, Vancouver’s gamelan that uses Javanese instruments, was producing a show called “Semar in Lila Maya” and they had worked very hard to bring four performers from Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Students could study with one or all of these instructors who specialize in dance, shadow puppetry and music instruction. It was tempting to sample a bit of everything from the rich cultural buffet. The group picture, taken at the end of class, was a bit of an afterthought and I had already changed into my motorcycle riding clothes so I couldn’t sit cross-legged anymore.

On the far left back row and below, is my friend Mas Sutrisno Hartana, who has moved to Vancouver and teaches Javanese music at Simon Fraser University. It is because of Sutrisno, that I say five Masters of Javanese Arts, although there are only four visitors. I have taken better photos of him, but he is really concentrating and serious in this image below. He introduced me to the subtle beauty of Javanese gamelan when I was still playing with Gong Gita Asmara, the ensemble using Balinese instruments based at UBC. I did rehearse with Madu Sari and play one concert, and I look forward to having more time to play with them in future. Continue reading Gamelan Madu Sari: New Javanese Shadows

Photographic Experience Theme

Part of my work as a visual artist is manipulating photos but I have never considered myself a photographer. Last year at the Jazz Festival, I took lots of photos of shows and I found it really difficult to get good pictures in the dark with no flash. The problem can be exemplified by this picture of Paul Plimley at the Roundhouse this year when he was playing on Saturday, June28, 2008. Even with a reasonably good camera, the length of exposure required makes it impossible to get a decent picture with a moving target.

This is an artistic photo, and I like it because it shows Paul’s musical spirit, but I always like to have control over results. [Yes, control is a deep part of my psyche — we’ll go there later …] I keep trying to get decent live pictures, and I am doing better in low light conditions than last year.

That is because earlier this year I started watching photographers to get some idea of how it was done. My first subject was Willie Cackett, photographer of the Blues and Roots scene in Vancouver, who gets some decent photos with inexpensive equipment. He has even had some shows of his work. Those are his photos on the wall behind him in my image below.

I noticed something right away. Photographers are very still so it is really easy to take pictures of them and I can use a flash. When I told Willie I had taken photos of him, he was pleased. He told me he didn’t have many images of himself because he was always taking the pictures. So, I have found my photographic niche — to take pictures of photographers in action.

Much better photographers, with better cameras can take pictures of the show. I will take pictures of them. It is interesting too, as it fits into my idea of “watching the watcher” by standing in front of highway cams and having them video me videoing them across the country.

This is Brian Nation with the flash diffuser obscuring his face– not the best, but look how still he is in the natural light. The next one caught him preparing, so his face is visible. I used a flash, so it is blue shifted and if I was using this for pro work I would colour correct it.

Next, I got a picture of Laurence Svirchev, but he was standing around before the show and saw me taking it. I really like to sneak up on them while they are being very still to take a photo. Laurence is a bit out-of-focus but it’s not too bad. I noticed he had a flash diffuser too. When he saw me taking the picture, he was kind enough to show me menus to set the ASA that I didn’t know existed on my camera. He flipped through the options expertly and I was surprised that there was such a hold-over from film technology in the digital controls. Continue reading Photographic Experience Theme