Live More Lightly

International Womens Day 2009

Last year I was so excited to be going to Bellingham, USA for the Watcom County International Women’s Day Celebration.

This truly was an International Women’s Day for me!

One of the best parts was marching through the streets chanting. In Vancouver, I had always had to be setting up and getting ready for when everyone arrived, but here, I was able to march through the streets. It really gave a feeling of solidarity. Later the woman who spoke on food security made some interesting points linking the West coast of North America with Latin American issues.

Womens Day Song Information and Lyrics

This year I was busy and many changes occurred in my life, so March came in with a whisper.

I am still seeking a venue for my song performance this year.

These performances are usually last minute as most of these events are set up and managed by volunteers. I will post when I have a performance, come down and sing with me.

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Women’s Day Song 2000 video
Womens Day Song Video (videopop plug-in still a work in progress – may not work)
This is a video of a song written by Victoria Gibson in honour of International Women’s Day. Performed by Victoria and the Seaquam Secondary School Choir for the Society of Women in Science and Technology Conference in 2000 held at the school.

Photography Made Clearer

Using the CanonS2 is very different from the CanonA80 as the greater number of pixels and better zoom lens mean I have a better chance of taking a good photo. The feel of the camera is another factor and the fact that I look through the viewfinder instead of the flip out screen. I know my daughter, who takes really good photos, would argue about the screen, but for me steadiness is an issue and it helps if I have the camera closer to me. I am researching tripods, so the situation will change when I am not holding the camera, then it will help to avoid touching the camera by using a timer or remote. I also learned this from my daughter, who confided in me that she took my favourite photo of herself by putting the camera on a handy rock and using the timer.

I know that most of these ideas will seem obvious to most people who have knowledge of photography, but for a person who has spent their life in music and tapping on computers, this is an interesting new study.

My tripod research revealed the true enemy of clear, sharp photos is camera movement, even small vibrations can blur the capture. This can be compare to a pervasive hum or quick chair creak in the recording studio. Stillness of the motionless camera is the recording studio silence of photography.

Vibration must be controlled in music and audio recording too. From a physics perspective all instruments, including the voice, create sound using resonance caused by controlled vibration. As a recording engineer who works with the modern technique of sitting in the studio room instead of being isolated in a control booth, I have learned to control every sound I make. When recording, I breathe noiselessly and do not move unless absolutely required. Yoga has helped me control involuntary sounds made by digestion and to slow my heartbeat. Studio microphones will pick up a heartbeat if you are excited and allow your heart to pound, so even if you love the music, you must remain calm.

Now I must apply this type of philosophy to image capture. I picture myself as a support system and use yoga techniques to practice stillness. Usually, I practice tapping rhythms and poly-rhythms so I can stay musically sharp, even when I am not near an instrument. Now, I practice stillness, noting the frequency of vibration caused by both required and unnecessary movement.

The two photos of the crescent moon and planet were taken hand held with the exact same camera settings. The first one was taken without concentrating on technique. The second one is the result of the mental attitude of stillness and directed effort to squeeze the button instead of pushing it.

Attitude is very important in music, as the ability to concentrate and imagine the exact sound that you are going to make helps you to make it. This visioning process is a technique I have started to apply when taking photos. Planning what I want to capture, waiting for the precise image to be in view, letting the camera focus, relax and be rooted, then gently squeeze the button only takes slices of a second. It was a challenge to capture these fast moving greyhound dogs, as this one is moving slowly (top photo), then burst into motion (below).

I was able to concentrate to make these pictures, but often I find with a zoom, I get blur around the edges. The photo below was taken with the zoom, but by thinking about stillness and concentrating, I was able to catch the light on a downtown building on the Vancouver skyline (below). I will buy a tripod soon, but I can’t rely on having it around all of the time. With these techniques I am taking better photos.

Live More Lightly Progress Report

It has been hard to get the time to devote to the Live More Lightly Project as I have been doing more music. I also have had to spend more time working on my contract employment as the downturn in the economy really affects the contractors first. Here are some quick notes:

Art Starts in Schools will not showcase the project this year. It is really kind of outside of their main focus. Usually artists come in and do a performance for the assembled school for an hour or so. I want to do a workshop with a smaller group of kids so it becomes more of a challenge to organize and deliver.

The Vancouver School Board does have an Artist-in-residence Program that I was a part of for two years back in the late 1990s. It is a really excellent program that supports the artist to work with the students for a series of sessions. It is a good fit with the Live More Lightly Project, but they may not have any openings in the music area for a while.

The Girl Guides and Boy Scouts of Canada I am currently preparing promotional material to send out to the main office of these organizations. Hopefully, I will be able to do a couple of demo workshops and get some video for promotional purposes. If they are enthusiastic, I might be able to obtain some support.

I have contacted a few church groups, but as the message is not religious, they don’t seem to be too interested.

I will keep trying to reach more groups and appreciate any ideas you may have.

ManDido Morris – Master Drummer

Sometimes it is easy to forget that my friends are pillars of the Vancouver music community and have worked with and recorded with international music stars. As I work on their computers, jam with them or trade jibes about our love life — or lack of that sort of attraction — these magical musicians are very human folks. We relax and respect each other as individuals as we share the time that builds a real relationship — we are friends.

My friend and African drum teacher, ManDido Morris has gone into the next stage of existence. He will no longer call me to assist him with his computer, update his website or to integrate his latest piece of audio/video electronics into his system.

ManDido had a huge collection of hand drums, but he also loved gadgets and computer technology. He was always buying something that he saw real potential in owning, but then needed help in figuring out. As this was my specialty, I would trade him for drum lessons or just come over and eat his fine vegetarian cooking. He’d say that once you tried his special tofu, you would never go back to eating meat. I could never get into the wheatgrass juice or infrared sauna though . . .

We helped each other in many ways. He as a mentor, drum teacher and dispenser of wise words of encouragement. I will miss ManDido, but I know that he is doing what is best for him and not lingering around here when his work was done. He raised two fine sons and touched thousands of young hearts with their first try at drumming with his workshops in the schools. He established drum circles in Montreal and in Vancouver that will continue into the future. He brought many of us into the rhythm of mother Africa, even though I will never be a master drummer, now I can be a journeyman follower. I can listen to a master drummer, take instruction and hold my part to build the interlocking sounds of traditional West African music.

Almost the last time I saw him he blessed me with the wish, “I hope you find what you are looking for”. I am still searching ManDido, but you did help light my way.

I attended the event postered below, but for those who did not, sometime in July ManDido’s ashes will be sent to the winds at the anchor beach where his drum circle started on Spanish Banks sometime in July. I will post the time and date, but at the memorial, I was too involved in what was going on. More information and stories about ManDido will be published in Common Ground.

Hitachi Blu-Ray Camcorder — Frustration

Still no video to post to the site, sorry.

I have been getting to know the lovely folks at Hitachi customer support really well. Usually meeting new people can be a rewarding experience, but I am really getting worn down by this continued effort to resolve my problem.

The very helpful customer support at Hitachi gave me the part numbers for the missing items after I bought an open box camcorder DZ-BD7HA from Future Shop. I dutifully ordered the correct parts from The Parts Store.com and they were shipped to Point Roberts where I picked them up.

All the parts work wonderfully except one. The essential proprietary USB cable to extract the video from the hard-drive to my computer. The part number is correct and there is a USB 6 pin on one end, but the other end will not fit into the camera. A quick comparison between the analog out conversion cable, that came with the camera, and the USB cable shows that the proprietary end is not correct.

It is really frustrating because Hitachi claims that is the correct part number and the number is clearly labeled on the package — but it is the wrong part. I now have to send the wrong cables back to The PartsStore.com and order new ones from someone else. I hope that the mix-up was with the Parts Store and not some deep problem with Hitachi or another source will send me the same wrong cables. I will still have to pay the shipping and then send it back if it is wrong. One more call to Hitachi tomorrow to try to get the cable directly from them or get some assurance that the problem is fixed.

I really like the camera and the display resolution makes the video look very good. I really am very frustrated with the fact I can’t extract the video on to my computer. Let this be a warning to me not to try to save money with open box unless I am very sure I can make it work. I had no idea that a video camera would use a proprietary USB as all the music gear I have ever owned use the regular connectors.

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Update on proprietary cable

The excellent customer support at Hitachi has agreed to send me the correct cable at no charge!
Unfortunately, it is a back ordered part and the estimated time of arrival is the middle of March. I am waiting with hopes that this will indeed be the correct cable and I will be able to start using the camera.

As soon as I can download there will be video on the site!

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Time Investment

A new year and I have been thinking about one of the great topics of my life — time.

These ideas may be totally obvious to everyone else, but I like to analyze and explain my perceptions. This is off topic for this blog, but indulge me this once, please.

Perception of Time Passage

It seems to me that time is going faster the older I get and I have spoken to other people my age who feel the same kind of speeding up effect. My theory about this is that a given amount of time is experienced in comparison with the amount of time you have previously been aware of. For example; to a child aged 2, one additional year is one third of their life span but to an adult aged 29, one year is only a thirtieth of their life span and an older adult of 59 perceives a year as one sixtieth. For me to experience another year is approximately one fiftieth of my lifespan, so the effect of time is compressed compared to the perception of the length of childhood days. Please comment on this theory.

Photography and Time

Recently, I have started to raise the quality of my photography. In order to accomplish this goal, I studied photographs and also compared the result that I achieved with the result I expected. I have come to some conclusions that may be surprising.

As a competent audio engineer I am used to capturing audio from source and achieving excellent results, because I am familiar with the behaviour of sound waves. Sound waves are quite slow moving and long, especially at lower frequencies (perceived as pitch). Both audio and visual capture are actually the process of recording the past because of the latency between the event and the capture device. The event of striking a string or hitting a key initiates a vibration that travels into the air and is picked up by some type of microphone and because sound waves are so slow, the audio engineer can initiate the recording process when the musician starts to move and still capture the entire sound wave.

It is well known that many people have traveled faster than sound in airplanes, but light is another story. Light moves so quickly that the photographer must actually move to take the photo before the moment that is captured occurs. No one can move faster than light and most photos are not taken from a great distance so the light reaches the camera almost instantaneously. A great photographer must plan to take a picture of the immediate future when the capture is initiated because if the moment has been seen, then it has already passed and can no longer be captured.

This has led me to take note of the amount of planning and forethought required to create interesting photos. My new idea is to recognize that a moment is about to occur (or plan a moment) and be ready to initiate the capture process to freeze the next moment in time. I have been trying to take a photo of what I am seeing, but that is impossible — I can only take a photo of what is about to happen.

In audio sampling, I have had to develop an accurate idea of very short time frames. I own the very first EMU SP-12 in Canada, the first drum computer to have built-in sampling. Due to the 5 second memory limitation, I had to learn to truncate (cut parts off) samples to make them take as little memory as possible. So I learned what .008 seconds sounds like. Now I will try to translate that awareness into visual technology. I must develop the rhythm of shooting photos so that I will know how long it will take to initiate the process. This idea is interesting and I hope my photos will improve.

Motivation and Project Management

In the depths of an snow fall that is very unusual for Vancouver, I am continuing to work on the Live More Lightly Project. The blog is more than a year old now and significant progress has been made on developing the project.

The Live More Lightly Workshop has been presented in an elementary school and a demo video has been produced. Unfortunately, due to completely justifiable concerns about putting images of children on the internet, I cannot post the demo. However, I do have a supportive testimonial from the teachers here.

The book project has been refined into three versions:

The Live More Lightly Songbook and Workshop Guide
The Live More Lightly Book of Choral Arrangements
Study Guide for the Live More Lightly Workshop

The Study Guide is a requirement for ArtStarts in Schools Touring Artists and I have used the video (with permission) in my application to become part of their booking program. I will have to produce Book #3 (Study Guide) first because there is a need for it to accompany workshops that I am involved in presenting. Book #1 is intended for use by groups who want to do a workshop without me and Book #2 (the choral guide) contains arrangements for organized choral groups who have some musical training and a conductor.

The book has been taking a substantial amount of work, but even more work has gone into the image capture and documentary part of the project. I have ordered the additional parts I need for the Blu-ray video camera and they should be delivered soon. My two Canon still cameras are functioning, but I really feel I need an upgrade so I can take better quality photos. Shooting in RAW is a requirement and I have found a Ubuntu Linux program that claims to handle RAW formats. I have been studying photography by asking a lot of questions and experimenting with different techniques. Now I am about to begin with video again, not just editing, but shooting. As soon as I get the parts for the video camera I will start recording video from my propane powered van and start to coordinate the streaming concept.

It all keeps me very busy. My next post will contain photos of my Yamaha FJ in storage with the new Renntec crash bars and carry rack installed. Simon worked on my bike before it was parked and it rides like a new machine. Still working on the luggage problem, but now the carry rack should help with the planning. A future post on the MPEG4 always-on low resolution camera system will be next because several new products have been recently introduced. I will not make a decision until spring as I expect that the latest technology will be the best choice.

A summer tour seems so far away on this solstice afternoon, but I know that there is a massive amount of work to do so that I can be ready for the journey. Sometimes it is hard for me to be strongly motivated to continue to work, but evaluating the progress thus far helps me re-group and continue onwards.

All the best of the holiday season to everyone. Drive carefully and Live More Lightly.

Blu-ray Camcorder Purchased

After all of my painstaking research I went and bought the new kid on the block, the new Hitachi Blu-ray DZ-BD7H high definition video camera. Hitachi does have a commitment to the environment in Japan, but is not as dedicated to recycling globally as Sony. They do have The Hitachi-zaidan Foundation, founded to advance environmental causes and they make environmentally friendly rapid transit and other industrial machines. They also support global initiatives and education. If their environmental record had been poor, I would not have bought the camera.

See my previous research on environmental initiatives by electronics companies.

I have not received any funding and I have been spending so much time on this and other music projects that I have not been making as much money as I should. So I tried to be frugal and bought this camcorder “open box” at Future Shop. It was missing some parts, the proprietary USB cable and the charging and A/C cables and transformer. This has made it difficult to use because I can’t download any video from the 30 gigabyte HD without the cable. The customer support at Hitachi, particularly Tina and Lorne have been very helpful in giving me part numbers and assisting with my problems. I have now ordered the parts and when they arrive there will be a lot more video on this site.

The camera captures video in High definition Blu-ray that can be burnt on to special disks (over $20 each) or downloaded to a computer. It also acts as a still camera saving on to a compact SD card flash memory. High definition and Blu-ray are new territory for me and I am sure I will have some difficulty as I don’t have a player or DVD in my computer that is compatible. It seems I always have to get more stuff, no matter how much I already have!

It will be fun to work with the video and to be able to document my progress on this and other projects. Now I need a wide angle lens, lights, tripod and protective case — at least I can start with the camera and get some video on the site.

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.

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.

November in the Rain

Vancouver has settled into the “rainy with cloudy periods” weather pattern that will sustain until the spring. On November 13th my motorcycle insurance expires and the Big Bike goes into the carport for a long nap. Meanwhile, I have engine bars and a carry rack coming from Renntec Motorcycle Accessories and I am still trying to figure out the luggage system. My goal is to have a working system in place by spring so I can start to test it all out with local trips before leaving town.

I am trying to wait until the last possible minute to buy a video camera to mount on the bike. Technology is advancing so that anything I buy now will be outdated by spring. I will have to take the plunge at some point, just so I can practice with the machine before actually mounting it on the Yamaha FJ1200. I am sure there will also be mounting and vibration problems, but I hope to get everything worked out before next summer.

Cell phone companies are now interested in assisting me with streaming video off the bike, for a fee of course. The streaming would be limited to areas with cell phone coverage, so the mountains and more remote areas would be off the grid. I would still like to stream to a satellite, but the concept will take more development.

With the dark days and fewer distractions, I am sure the book will advance exponentially and I will keep you all posted on the progress of the project.