Jafafa Hots

My Piano Compositions Are Available Again

2010-04-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

After a second sabotage by Blogger my compositions were again unplayable for an unknown period of time. I have once again fixed them, so if you're so inclined you can listen to them by clicking here or by clicking "my compositions" in the tag cloud to the left.

Then scroll down to play the tunes in the posts titled "More of My Compositions", "My Piano Compositions", "My Music", "New Music Player", "The Little Bug", "Tune Dump" and "For Emile Norman."

Due to the difficulty of posting music to Blogger, I've started a new blog at Tumblr, http://jafafahots.tumblr.com, and will be gradually migrating things there, though I'll continue to maintain this blog as long as it's not too painful.

Also, I have a lot more newer compositions, hopefully much better as I think I've learned and made some progress, and I'll be recording and posting those as soon as I get a proper recording setup (and as soon as my broken ankle heals enough for me to be able to play.)

Once again my music player is broken.

2010-03-06T03:08:00.000-08:00

OK, I've been neglecting this blog since I moved and am stuck with only a netbook... and now I just discovered that once again the flash music player on the blog is broken, and you can't play my music.

I dunno WTF keeps causing this crap, but it's pissing me off. It might be a while before the music is up again. Dammit.

For the time being, if for some reason you stumble across this blog and feel like hearing my music, you can click the facebook badge, friend me on facebook, and click my "boxes" tab in my facebook profile, the player there still works.

Justice Denied: Voices from Guantanamo

2010-01-12T22:14:00.000-08:00

More of My Compositions

2009-11-11T20:18:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in quite a while. Been busy moving across country. Now I'm here with nothing but my humble little eeepc 901, so I don't have the equipment to make more videos and won't for a while.

I did happen to find some recordings of a couple of my more recent tunes on a flash card I brought with me. These were not intended for public consumption, but somehow not having decent equipment here sort of makes me feel like I have an excuse not to worry so much about quality. So consider this to be a special Limited Edition blog post featuring rare exclusive home demos. Or something. Neither piece has a name, I've run out of names.

This first piece is one I tried to record with the intention of sharing it, but I made too many mistakes and rushed through it too much. Somehow I must have forgotten to delete the file. I sent it to my brother Chris the other day and he edited some of the more glaring mistakes out... but it's still too rushed, and has mistakes he couldn't take out including painfully wrong notes towards the end, and is a bit chopped there where he had to do some major surgery.

The final chord in the piece was performed by my cat Tony jumping on the keys.

This second recording was never even an attempt at something presentable. When I compose a piece I sometimes do a quick recording of it through the little built-in mics in my eeepc. Otherwise I run the risk of walking away and forgetting it. This one was done that way, not with my normal recording setup. As a result the sound quality is very poor, very noisy. Think old worn 78. Also there are many mistakes, none edited out - and since this was my first time successfully playing some harder parts, it's still very mechanical. Not comfortable enough to be able to play with emotion.

That's it for now. I ordered a new piano, so I'll try to record more soon, and be less concerned about quality and just get them posted. It doesn't matter much anyway, it's just between us friends.

If you want to hear my other compositions, click the tag "my compositions" in the tag cloud to the left, or click here.

1967 Moog 900 Series Demo Record featuring Wendy Carlos and Moog CEMS video

2009-08-14T01:15:00.000-07:00

More from my collection! What may be the most popular yet, a rare vintage demo record for the Moog 900 series synths, released by Moog when they were in Trumansburg, NY. Music by Wendy Carlos of Switched On Bach fame, narration by Ed Stokes.

There are apparently two versions of this demo record in existence. This one, presumably the first version, with duplicate content on both sides, and a second with excerpts from Switched on Bach on the reverse.

The raw video and photos I've used to accompany this record are of the famous Moog CEMS, custom-built by Bob Moog using 900 series components and some unique units. It was housed for years at SUNY New York. Read more about this historic instrument in these two posts over at Matrixsynth:
Moog Cems
Moog CEMS more info

EDIT: Wendy Carlos' reps had the video removed from YouTube. I'm not sure she even holds the rights to the audio, her reps had YouTube remove a video of someone himself playing Bach on his own synth merely because he mentioned her name... but whatever.

1960s Hohner Chordomonica Harmonica Demo Record

2009-08-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

Another one from my collection of musical instrument demo records, this one's a little different. This is a 1960s demo for the Hohner Chordomonica I and Chordomonica II harmonicas. These harps, invented by Cham-Ber Huang, are discontinued now.The Chordomonica I had one slider, the more-popular Chordomonica II had two. They were intended to make it easier for players who played in chords rather than single notes to make interesting music.

Both sides of the record are contained in this video, harmonica played by Cham-Ber Huang himself.

Exploring the 1803 Gipple Log Cabin

2009-08-02T17:17:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago I set out to find and explore the 1803 Gipple Cabin. This is something I had been planning to do since becoming aware of the cabin and its general location last May via this blog post. Notice how the cabin appeared in 1974.

Friday I had just come from East Aurora, having discovered that one of my favorite old buildings there was torn down to make room for a new CVS pharmacy. I decided to stop putting it off and I hopped on my Rans Wave and rode to where the cabin was supposed to be. Roughly a 22 mile round trip.

The Gipple Cabin is believed to have been built in 1803 by Amos Woodward. According to this account, it was he and his brother who received the first lot in the area from the Holland Land Company. This makes it the oldest surviving building in Erie County. Given the fact that this area in what was then the larger town of Clarence was the first with such claims issued, before Buffalo, I wonder if it might not actually be the oldest building in most of Western New York, discounting such places as Fort Niagara.

It's pretty overgrown and in bad shape. Inside there is lath and plaster which makes me think it was probably lived in for quite a while, possibly into the 20th century.
There is also very rough-hewn lumber used in the construction of the second story or attic - it's pretty old but I would imagine was a later addition made to the early simple log cabin.

I made the mistake of not eating anything before leaving and not carrying any gel packs with me, which left me pretty tired for the ride back, especially given the heat. There were some yummy wild New York blackcaps growing on the cabin that I gobbled up, though.

Below is a YouTube video I made. I also uploaded the video to Vimeo if you prefer, though my videos get essentially no views there.

Click on the photos for enlargements. I took many photos, view the entire photoset here.

CATcerto

2009-07-30T19:03:00.001-07:00

I just love this. Via Chris.

I might be an illegal alien. I might be a secret Kenyan.

2009-07-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

I could be a hidden communist, socialist islamofascist manchurian candidate wannabe.
As we learn here from Lou Dobbs and CNN, the most trusted name in news, there are certain requirements for a valid birth certificate:

And so Lou Dobbs educates us, fills us in on the facts. We now know what is required for a valid birth certificate. Most trusted name in news, you can count in Lou Dobbs having properly researched this. You know he has his facts straight.

He also graciously took the time to tutor his guest Roland Martin on how civilized people behave, to calm down and not be so up... well let's just say uptight.

More importantly, in giving me these facts, this new information, Lou Dobbs has rocked my world... he has exposed a massive conspiracy involving my parents, Obama's parents, my aunt, the hamlet of Penn Yan, New York, the State of New York and possibly Florida too. Imagine my shock to discover that my right-wing father is secretly in league with our terrorist-marxist false president.

The problem? Here is my birth certificate - or rather, what I've been deceived to believe was my birth certificate. I have redacted personally identifying information out of the general paranoia that comes with PTSD, but also because it's just all too soon. I haven't had time to come to grips with all of this yet. Eventually I probably will accept that I'm probably a brainwashed Islamo-Marxist crypto-operative hell-bent on the destruction of America and Jesus and that the right thing to do would be to let myself be tracked down by some God-loving patriotic genuine American and wiped from the face of the earth like the threat to freedom and NASCAR that I am... but give me some time, please.

Go ahead, click the thumbnail and see the horror. The problems are obvious - my so-called birth certificate doesn't include the very things that Dobbs has informed us are required.

No name of the doctor. No name of the hospital. For the record, I've been told I was born at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital. Oooh, how slick THAT is - using such a patriotic-sounding name. They clearly planned this right down to the last detail (apart from the obviously fraudulent document.)

Here's the really scary part - this obviously fake document has been accepted by the motor vehicle departments of both the states of New York and Florida! How far does this conspiracy go? It was also accepted to open bank accounts, get a mortgage, and apparently is considered valid for getting a US passport!

It gets worse. This is a copy I requested a few years ago when I had lost my other copy. That OTHER copy, now lost, was COMPLETELY different. I can't show it here obviously, but take my word for it - it was only about 1/3 the size, a different color... and here's the gutting part. THAT copy was sent to me not by the state of New York, but rather by the Village Clerk of Penn Yan.

My Aunt Joyce. My Aunt Joyce was the Village Clerk, and she sent my that other faked birth certificate. My Aunt Joyce is a closet Kenyan commie muslim.

So now you can see how traumatizing this all is for me. I don't live in the country I thought I lived in, the world I thought I lived in... the family I thought I belonged to.

I am rightfully considered illegitimate, a possible illegal alien by those with the education and position to know such things and the authority and means to inform others.

I can't be President. I can't even meet the most basic, obvious requirement, I can't even supply the one most important document demanded of every recent (very recent) President.

oh... wait...
I forgot.

I'm white.

Nevermind.

Toady Frog

2009-07-21T11:03:00.001-07:00

Toady Frog
Originally uploaded by Jafafa Hots

It's a boring, rainy, dreary, nothing day today... but I did just have a little visitor.

My Piano Compositions

2009-07-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

For several months now the latest music player I've used to post my music here hasn't been working, so my tunes have not been accessible at all. I've found a new player, have it working and have gone back and fixed those old posts.

Since it has been so long, however, I'm going to go ahead and repost them here to give them a fresh start. I'm not going to fully reiterate the stories behind them, what's wrong with them and all that here, so for that refer to the original posts that contained them: For Emile Norman, Tune Dump (most information is here), The Little Bug, and New Music Player.

They were all composed and recorded last summer... from the first complete piece I ever wrote - late in spring 2008, to the last I recorded in September 2008. Since they were all so soon after I managed to find out how to complete a piece of music, and since I've had a year to learn since then, I think I've made progress and my more recent compositions are better. Problem is my recording setup sucks, so unless someone volunteers to be my recording engineer, it may be a while before I post new tunes.

Anyway, last year's recordings in no particular order:

Le Petit Coléoptère Vert (a.k.a. The Little Bug)

For Emile Norman

Neuroptera

Neuroptera (without dual voice)

blár snigill

hvítur litur snigill

#002 (2nd piece I ever completed)

Emily

A short uncompleted snippet that I like anyway

An untitled simple kinda folksy piece

#001 (the first piece I've ever completed. Full of mistakes, too rushed, etc.)

Update: AddThis vs ShareThis - and the winner is...

2009-07-20T04:24:00.000-07:00

...none of the above.
Shortly after posting that most recent post, the founder of AddToAny sent me a note via Twitter suggesting I check out his company's service.

It totally blows away the competition. Much more user-friendly pop-up window, and tons of services supported. I mean a boatload, a sickening amount. Most of these sites I've never even heard of. And from something he said, I get the impression that it sorts them to place the ones on the unexpanded first pop-up window to be the ones you use most... cookies search perhaps, I dunno. At any rate it's superior in every way to the others, so I've uninstalled ShareThis and AddThis, and installed AddToAny.

I don't think I've ever seen AddToAny on a site before, kinda like that an upstart is better than the more established players... though the initial AddToAny button is so similar to AddThis' it might be overlooked - the plus sign is simply a different color.

Anywho, go ahead and mouse over the button below and check it out... and click the little arrow to expand the list of services... prepare to see names you've never even heard of. Nice stuff.

AddThis versus ShareThis

2009-07-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I added ShareThis... today I decided to try AddThis. The possible advantages of AddThis are that it seems to have a larger number of share possibilities or at least some that ShareThis doesn't have... the button may be a little more self-explanatory, plus it has a pop-up when you mouse over it that makes it very clear what it does. Also it offers analytics to let you know if people are using it.

So for the moment I have them both installed, stacked clumsily on top of one another. We'll see who makes the cut.

Meanwhile I've switched over to Blogger Draft edition where they test new features, and as I type this it's presenting me with a "location" option to click on, so let's see what that does.

Jet Ski Trouble

2009-07-18T14:46:00.001-07:00

Taped by my dad during a family picnic a couple of years ago. Two people having trouble staying on their Jet Ski. Taped at Sampson State Park in NY on Seneca Lake. Dunno who the people were.

Share This!

2009-07-18T05:48:00.001-07:00

See that little thingie at the bottom of this post that says ShareThis? Click on it. Go ahead, click on it!

I've added this little bit of functionality to my blog that makes it easy for you to share my blog posts through all of your favorite methods. That little symbol now appears under every blog post. Click on it and you can easily share my post through Email, AIM, text message, Facebook, Myspace, Digg, Reddit, Windows Live, Twitter, Google Bookmarks, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Yahoo! Bookmarks, LinkedIn, Buzz Up!, Technorati, Mixx, Blogger, FriendFeed, Blinklist, Furl, Xanga, Newsvine, Propeller, WordPress, Diigo, TypePad, Add to BX, Fark, Mr Wong, Current, Kirtsy, Blogmarks, Oknotizie, Faves, LiveJournal, Slashdot, Care2, N4G, Meaneame, Sphinn, Simpy, Orkut, Friendster, Dealspl.us, Fresqui, Yigg, Funp, plus more services likely to be added.

One little button, all those practically instant ways of sharing. Now all I have to do is post something worth sharing in the first place!

1970s Fender Rhodes Piano Demo Record featuring Herbie Hancock

2009-07-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

Yet another from my collection of instrument demos.

Herbie Hancock discusses and plays the Rhodes Piano in this vintage 1970s demonstration flexi-disc.

side 1

side 2

Circa 1972 Gibson Les Paul Recorder & Triumph Bass Demo Record

2009-07-14T00:09:00.000-07:00

Another one from my vault, so far the least popular ever of my YouTube videos. A vintage flexidisc featuring Les Paul himself introducing the then-new Les Paul Recorder and Triumph Bass guitars.

Cornflower

2009-07-07T05:48:00.001-07:00

Cornflower
Originally uploaded by Jafafa Hots

Just went out to put the mail in the mailbox and saw that the cornflowers are out, so I snapped a few pics. Come to find out that what I was always told was a cornflower is more properly called chicory.

I've always loved the delicate blue of these flowers. For some reason what others call weeds are the plants I like best. Each blossom was attended by at least one of the little bugs shown, gathering nectar I suppose. They are tiny, much smaller than they look from this picture. I'm guessing they're some sort of stingless wasp.

Click the photo for the larger size, and check out my Flickr stream for a few more shots.

Forgive Me, Beethoven

2009-07-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

I was a weird little kid. At Christmas I would get little plastic busts of famous classical composers in my stocking, and I liked that. Somewhere my parents picked up a used copy of this odd LP and gave it to me, my only record.

Mumph? Ludwig & the Klassics. Campy, loungy jazz renditions of a number of classical pieces, put out in the 1960s. I loved it.

One year, I think 3rd grade, the teacher told us we got to have a Christmas party in class, and told us to bring in our favorite records to play. I happily brought this in, oblivious to the possibility that the other kids, having brought in various Motown LPs (and the teacher herself) could possibly not love this stuff.

It didn't stay on the record player very long.

Made this video of my absolute favorite track off the LP, Forgive Me, Beethoven. I still think it's fantastic.

1978 Arp Avatar Demo Record

2009-07-03T13:10:00.001-07:00

Oh no, not another one! Yes, another one.

Salvatore Scrivo

2009-07-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

"Mr. Scrivo" was my art teacher in grade school at P.S. 56 way back in the ancient 1970s. He had to have been in his 20s at the time. His was my favorite class... he was a great teacher. Not simple cut-and-paste bunny pictures exercises, he taught us to see differently and think creatively.

His work has been shown in a number of places recently, here's a video with glimpses of his recent work.

There's something about art teachers. Another good one was Victor Shanchuk at City Honors. When my life was in such turmoil that school was my last worry, he was the only teacher (the only person, for that matter) who approached me with a concern for what I was going through, an offer to talk, rather than officious attempts to threaten or punish.

I rebuffed his approach, I was too disaffected at that point, but all these years later I feel guilty for that.

Wild Strawberry

2009-06-30T15:21:00.001-07:00

Wild Strawberry
Originally uploaded by Jafafa Hots

One of the nice things about New York. The "weeds" that have almost taken over the yard are actually wild strawberries. More flavor in one of these little berries than in a whole supermarket full of the big cultivated ones. Click the photo for large size.

Niagara Falls HD Video

2009-06-28T02:12:00.001-07:00

Carrie, Joe and my four nieces visited for a few days this week from Florida, and we took a trip to Niagara Falls and rode on the Maid of the Mist. I took some HD video which at some point I'll edit into something presentable. In the mean time, here's a few sample seconds.

1989 Yamaha V50 Synthesizer Demo Video

2009-06-26T09:58:00.000-07:00

More from the collection, hoping to catch up. This time a vintage 1989 video demo of the Yamaha V50 digital synthesizer, split into two parts.

Part 1:

Part 2:

1997 Roland V-Drums Electronic Drums Demo Tape

2009-06-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

Another one from the collection, a 1997 demo video from Roland showing their then-new V-Drums electronic synthesized drums.

My Music

2009-06-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well it seems that the server I had the MP3s of my compositions on is on the fritz, so right now my tunes are not playable on the blog.
In the future I hope to record my stuff in videos for Vimeo and YouTube and post them here... and at some point hopefully get the music player for previous posts working again.

But don't hold your breath.

1984 Paiste Cymbals Demo Record Featuring Terry Bozzio

2009-06-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

To reiterate, I've been collecting old musical instrument demo records, making videos of them and posting them to YouTube. Posting them on the blog seems to help traffic for both, so I have a lot of catching up to do. Here's today's episode.

A vintage 1984 flexidisc promo for Paiste Cymbals featuring Terry Bozzio of Missing Persons and Frank Zappa fame.

1970s Godley & Creme Gizmotron Demo Record

2009-06-17T01:07:00.000-07:00

A vintage flexidisc promoting a rare and short-lived product, the Godley & Creme Gizmotron (a.k.a. Gizmo), a device that allowed guitarists to play sustained notes and chords on their guitars. Shown is the six-string variation. A bass version was also made.

1974 Paia Synthesizers Demo Record

2009-06-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

Another video from my collection of instrument demo records, this one a flexidisc for Paia Synthesizers. More to come, I have gazillions of them. Making the videos is fun, for the moment.

My kitty Tony

2009-06-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

I can has crumm?

2009-05-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

Just a quick test of my new camera's low-light HD macro capabilities.
Apparently though, Vimeo makes you PAY MONEY for the ability to embed HD, so to see full had you have to view it on the vimeo site by clicking through. Sucks.

I can has crumm? from Jafafa Hots on Vimeo.

Children Cry for Castoria

2009-05-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

I love this tune, so I decided to create a little video for it.

1978 Crumar Orchestrator Synthesizer Demo Disc

2009-05-12T17:49:00.001-07:00

Another in my series of YouTube videos of vintage synth and keyboard demos.

Whoa

2009-05-10T04:04:00.001-07:00

Youtube HQ embedded videos clearly screw up the blog formatting. It's quite understandable that Youtube and Blogger wouldn't work well with each other since they're the same company.

Since most of the videos I'll be posting will be HQ, it would probably be a good idea to figure out a fix.

But I probably won't bother. For the time being I've moved all of the stuff that was on the side - labels, RSS links, etc., down to the bottom of the blog. Scroll to get them, lazy.

UPDATE: OK so I switched to a lefty template which though sucky looking fixes the problem.

1971 Arp Synthesizers Demo Record Side A

2009-05-10T03:57:00.001-07:00

When I was a little kid my big brother had this Arp Synthesizers demo record, and when I thought of it I would bug him to play it, usually unsuccessfully. Great old stuff, all these years I've remembers the last tune on side b.

I earlier posted Apple MIDI demo videos and got a surprising response, and these ARP demo videos also have gotten a large response. All of this has started my compulsive self on a new hobby - collecting and videoing vintage synth, keyboard, organ and other musical instrument demo discs and videos.

I've already uploaded over 20 to youtube with many more coming, and what the hell - I'll gradually post them here too. This blog has been too dead.

Side B below:

Awesome Jaunty Jackalope CD Labels

2009-04-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Was looking around for a good label to print on the latest Ubuntu release disc, Jaunty Jackalope, and the best I found are these - fantastic. Click the image to go to the artist's blog where you can see and download them.

Apple YouTube Stuff

2009-04-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago I started converting old VHS tapes to digital, mostly old space-related news clips from my NASA-nut days. In the process, to my dismay, I discovered that the very best tapes from my archive were recorded over with Disney Channel stuff, and not by a child, rather by a septuagenarian. Oh well.

Anyway, I uploaded a number of clips to Youtube, some were fairly popular. Then I converted an old Apple Computer Reseller's training video I had kicking around from 1987 into several segments. I figured Apple fanatics would get a kick of out them. I was surprised to find that they got almost no hits... until suddenly one day I got over 700 views of one video alone - specifically the first of two parts on Apple Midi.

I discovered that a major synthesizer enthusiast blog had discovered them and embedded them, and that spread to other blogs. It turns out that while space nuts are enthusiastic, synth nuts seem to be obsessive.

Anyway, here's the first part of the Apple MIDI video. See my other youtube videos for lotsa other crap, Apple-related and otherwise.

What the?

2009-02-13T11:03:00.001-08:00

New designs for the U.S. One Cent coin have been unveiled, intended to honor the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. One design, shown here, depicts the construction of the Capital Building.

Am I the only one who finds this jarring? The depiction of the construction of this building on a coin honoring Lincoln, who is credited with freeing the slaves? A building built with slave labor? And no mention of that, no depiction of those forced to build it?

It just seems like a strange choice to me.

2009-02-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Fossil Samara

2009-02-04T11:34:00.001-08:00

Fossil Samara
Originally uploaded by Jafafa Hots

The only plant fossil I ever found, in Pinole California a few years ago. An impression of a samara from some unidentified kind of tree.

2009-01-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

God I wish I could do this.

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

2008-12-27T00:33:00.000-08:00

2008-12-20T19:19:00.001-08:00

Robert B. Kelley 1951-2008

2008-12-14T20:16:00.001-08:00

Robert B. Kelley
Originally uploaded by Jafafa Hots

New Music Player

2008-11-13T12:40:00.000-08:00

For whatever reason my music playing software quit working recently and I've been auditioning new software. I've tentatively settled on one and have set it up so all tunes should be working now.

On the plus side it's much easier to work with, and allows playlists, etc. On the downside it's clunkier looking, less simple and elegant... and the playlist feature isn't perfect. It doesn't read ID3 tags, so the songs names are garbled and/or incorrect in the playlist. In order to know the actual name you have to see the blog entry that relates to it. Also of course by just playing the playlist you miss the caveats and excuses for errors that I give in my blog posts. Lastly, it only builds a playlist from what it detects on the current page. So in order to get all songs into the playlist, you have to click on the "music" tag below this post or in the list to the right.

That will bring up all music-related posts, and populate the playlist with all the tunes.

To celebrate getting the music working again, below is a "new" little music snippet - actually an old thing, the first thing I ever recorded off my piano/pc setup, from before I ever completed what I consider a real piece of music.

This is a little segment that I like a lot, and it's very fun to play, but it's incomplete. It needs to be incorporated into something larger, and I haven't managed to do that yet.

Untitled Short Segment.

Music

2008-11-07T06:23:00.001-08:00

For some reason my music files aren't playing properly. When I have a chance I'll try to figure out a fix.

I'll use this space to test alternatives. Maybe.

Finger Lakes

2008-10-09T08:36:00.001-07:00

Finger Lakes 2
Originally uploaded by Jafafa Hots

One of the things I love most about flying is the view. On the way out to California I had great views of the Great Lakes as we few over lower Canada.

In the past I've had great views of the Finger Lakes as I headed to JFK from Buffalo, once with a great look at Sheldrake. Not as good this past time but at least I had the thought of taking photos.

The photos in my Flickr photostream show Cayuga, Owasco and Skaneateles lakes. Some of the colors are odd, as I don't have Photoshop on my laptop and had to use an auto-enhancment to clear up the window glare. After we passed those lakes, we flew over dozens of interesting fog-shrouded valleys. I think the weather was changing that morning, which caused every little valley to trap fog - something I've never seen before.

Seriously Cool

2008-10-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

credit to: Average Earthman

Cats

2008-09-29T19:46:00.001-07:00

chippy
Originally uploaded by Jafafa Hots

It's not Friday, but I'm blogging some cats. Mom's cats, plus mine.
I miss Chippy. Yes, his eyes are that huge and that blue. All of my mom's cats are freakishly huge, like pumas or something. Chip loves to cuddle, loves hugs. If he could he would spend all day on your lap, purring loudly.

Click for a larger view and look at the Flickr photostream for the rest of Mom's cats plus my kitty Tony. My crappy little camera doesn't do too well, but they're still kitties.

Trikke Ride in Golden Gate Park

2008-09-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

On Sunday the 21st, I took BART into S.F., hopped onto the Muni N Judah train, and went to Golden Gate Park to ride my trikke.
On Sundays they close part of JFK Drive, and it becomes like a block party - swing bands playing near the museum, people dancing, and people biking, rollerblading, skateboarding, etc.
I was the only trikke rider there and was being stopped by dozens of people, having my photo taken by tourists, etc. It was loads of fun, everyone riding around and having a good time.

In the map below I didn't log all the various loops and goofing around I did, but that's probably partially offset by the fact that some of the non-park sidewalk stretches of the route had to be walked rather than ridden.

In these maps, click on them for a better view, and then select the hybrid view rather than street view to get a better idea of the terrain, with aerial photos.

Golden Gate Park Sunday Trikke T12
Find more Bike Rides in San Francisco, California

Trikke Ride at Point Richmond

2008-09-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

Below is the ride I did today at Point Richmond on my trikke t-12.
For some reason it keeps saying "Lake Mary to 436 to Gotha, FL" but that's wrong. The distance is also wrong, it was 6.88 miles. If you click on the map to go to the full map it should be correct. I hope.
I took some photos which I thought I might post today, but they need to be fixed up a little.

Man, this map posting tool is seriously buggy. It MAY show you my route but be labeled incorrectly as mentioned above, or it may show you that route in FL which is not my route... or it may take you to a zoomed out view of the whole world, and if you zoom in to find my route it doesn't show the route tracing, just the waypoint markers. It also keeps switching the distance from 6.88 to 6.91 miles.

So consider this a test. Reloading may help, but it's only showing my route on about 1 out of 5 tries now.

San Francisco Bay Trail Ferry Point Loop Trikke T-12 Ride Sat 9/20/08 18:20:07
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J.F.K. wifi sucks

2008-09-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

Can't get to Facebook, and everything else is slower than dial-up.

The Little Bug

2008-09-09T18:53:00.000-07:00

Le Petit Coléoptère Vert (a.k.a. The Little Bug)

Tune Dump

2008-09-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

For the last month or so I have intended to record my latest tune, but haven't been able to successfully do that. I've been having a lot of problems with pain and numbness in my left hand, so many days I can't play at all... and on the days where I have tried, I haven't been able to get an acceptable recording. "Mic fright," or something. I could never not screw it up.

I've given up. I've decided that I'm not going to stress about recording things anymore, particularly since my hand is not always usable. I'm tired of playing the same tired tune over and over for a month trying to get it right. I'm going to concentrate on composing new things and just enjoying myself.

So instead of trying to perfect my recordings of my pieces, I'm just going with what I have and moving on. Below are some failed recordings that were cluttering up my hard drive.

Someone asked me once what style of music I write. I couldn't answer, I didn't know. I asked Carrie, and I groaned when she said "New Age." Made me want to quit, throw out my piano. Not that all New Age music is crap, but a lot of it is (most?). "New Age" has become a kind of horrible catch-all label covering everything from syrupy dreck with waves crashing behind it to lightish jazz to lounge and various kinds of world music, and even some legitimate classical stuff. I've seen Satie and other French impressionists' work categorized as "New Age." An outrage. Music like those French impressionists is what I dream of being able to create, or maybe something similar to Andre Gagnon. That's when I'm not dreaming of being able to write all of the other styles of music I love.

But I can't do anything but what I can do. What comes out of me is what comes out of me.

I've always had trouble with coming up with names, but I began to realize that "the first song I did" and "the second..." would quickly get out of hand. I recently decided the best thing to do would be to name each piece after what I was thinking of as I came up with it, or after what inspired it. Call me Captain Obvious.

The "New Age" problem is not at all helped by what I was thinking when I started to come up with my latest piece. "Lacewing." Bleh. It has outgrown that little snippet anyway, so now I've cleverly changed the name to Neuroptera. This is the second piece I've done since "For Emile Norman." (The first after that was something I call "Sedona," a sort of minimalist/ambient piece which I may record some day.) Neuroptera started out as a short little exercise I created to develop my left hand a bit, and grew into what it is now.

There are two flawed versions here. The first is badly played, with a major mistake or two, and plenty of notes fading into the background too much to be heard. The second, which is played without the dual voice effect, is also badly performed, with a missed note or two, and is played too harshly, should be more subtle... but between the two of these hopefully you can tell what it's supposed to be.

Neuroptera

Neuroptera (without dual voice)

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Here are two little pieces I have had kicking around. Short, but unlike the incomplete snippets I always used to do, these I consider complete. They're supposed to be this way, they are what they are.

blár snigill

hvítur litur snigill

Originally there was a bleikur snigill to complete the set, but that ended up morphing into something else which is not yet finished.
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This is a little piece that started as a little snippet I came up with a little more than a year ago, on Carrie's piano, and probably a bit when I first got my piano. Finished it up late this past winter.

Emily

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This is the second piece I ever did, finished this past winter. What I mean is, unlike the millions of unfinished snippets that either repeated endlessly or trailed off to nowhere that I've come up with since I was a kid, this is the second piece that felt "finished," that was something I considered an actual piece of music, complete. Bad recording quality, and it's a bit slow, boring and repetitive anyway, but it was fun to play at the time.

#002

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This piece started off as yet another of my zillions of unfinished snippets, one of the first things I came up with when I started playing Carrie's piano and then got my own. After hibernating for a few months, one day I came up with the "bridge" or whatever it's called, and finished it. Never had a name, I always thought of it just as "the one Carrie likes." Feels like it has sort of a folksy or "Ken Burns Documentary Soundtrack" vibe to it to me, I should probably call it "Homestead" or something. Bad sound quality, sounds like it came through as mono for some reason.

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This is a surprise to me, I didn't know I had recorded it, but stumbled across it late last night. This is my VERY first completed piece of music. It's crap, and the recording is horrendous... terrible sound quality, and the performance is really bad... a HUGE mistake where I had to backtrack, tempo errors, way too rushed, can't hear half the notes, etc. That's why I thought I hadn't recorded it, this was not supposed to have been saved since it sucks. But I haven't played it in months and don't plan on ever playing it again, so this is all there is.

Despite it being crap, it did feel good to me in that this was the first time I ever managed to break past my block and not just create a snippet. This piece has "parts," etc.
Also I learned something - my one-pedaled piano can't play the end correctly, it requires a proper three-pedaled piano. So - this is bad, embarrassing, but a hysterical document.

#001

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So that's it, all I have recorded right now. Lots more unrecorded, of course, I'll probably post more at some point. I'm currently working on what may be my most new-agey tune yet.

At least I think that given that #001 was from just this past winter, and everything was just segments before that, and having had my piano just a year now, I might be making some kind of progress. I hope so anyway.

Alden Pyrite Bed

2008-09-05T21:14:00.001-07:00

Pyritized Ammonite
Originally uploaded by Jafafa Hots

On Wednesday I packed my bike full of camping gear and my rock hammer and headed off to find the Alden Pyrite Bed, at Spring Creek.

Alden is where I learned to hunt for fossils as a toddler, but I had never heard of the Alden Pyrite Bed nor Spring Creek until about 4 years ago. The bed has been known for over 100 years, with references in various scientific journals, and have been a destination for fossil enthusiasts from the eastern U.S. and Canada if they happened to be in the know, but nobody locally I talked to had heard of them, even the Alden town historian.

I finally got directions from a fellow subscriber to a trilobites email listserv who had visited the bed.

The Alden Pyrite Bed are renowned for their pyritized fossils. Other streams in the area can yield pyritized fossils - the 19th century publication that first mentions the Alden Pyrite Bed on Spring Creek also mentions pyritized fossils found in Cazenovia and Avery creeks, and Murder Creek in Darien, but reports that the specimens from these other creeks are of poor quality, and oxidize and degrade easily. Just this summer I myself found a gorgeous golden pyritized baculite cephalopod fossil at Buffalo Creek, but the stunning detail and uniform golden color turned to mud the instant my finger touched it. In contrast, Spring Creek's pyritized fossils are reported to be of fine quality and robust. They are found as hard nodules of pyrite, very difficult to crack open. Some have opened them by heating them and then plunging them into cold water to shatter.

When cracked open, a fossil that has been completely converted to pyrite is supposed to be found inside.

I had a late start. It was almost 5 pm when I left, riding my overloaded bike over the hilly back roads to Alden. For some strange reason all of my bikes middle gears weren't working. It was in the 80s, humid. When I reached the approximate site of the creek I started looking for a campsite. After pushing all my gear through a quart mile jungle of thick weeds taller than I am, I finally found a couple of trees suitable for hanging my Hennessy Hammock. A crappy, mosquito-filled campsite, but the sun was getting low, I was soaked in sweat and ready to pass out.

I had a miserable night - sticky, hot and humid, uncomfortable, the GOP convention on my little radio. Some time in the middle of the night I had one of the worst Meniere's attacks I've had in a few years. It rained, and in the early morning hours I woke to find everything inside my hammock soaked from condensation. It was foggy, and I felt like I had lung rot.

In the morning I packed and set out to find the beds themselves. So far the creek was just a muddy stream.

After rounding a few turns I found them. Spring Creek is a modest little thing, barely worth notice in most places, but in one small stretch of curves it has managed to cut nicely through the shale bedrock. The excavations of other fossil hunters are obvious.

After all of this I hardly felt like doing much fossil hunting, but I spent perhaps a half an hour checking the place over, vowing to come back. As it turns out of course I had taken the hard way there... if I had come in from another angle it would have been a short walk over clear trails with nice camping spots.

Just before giving up, I split a rock and found this pretty ammonite with pyritization. I learned my lesson from last time, and took a photo right away. It's not one of the prized nodules, but not bad.
It was good enough for me, anyway. I called it a day, went to a clearing and made a pot of soup over my penny stove to fuel my ride home.

I'll be going back to find some of those nodules.

Here are more photos from the trip.

For Emile Norman

2008-09-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

Some weeks ago I turned on the TV late one night and happened to catch a late rerun of PBS documentary, Emile Norman: By His Own Design. It was about an artist named, of course, Emile Norman, his life's work, his relationship with partner Brooks Clement, and the beautiful home they built in Big Sur. The style of his artwork, the massive mural he created in San Francisco and his overall story was so inspiring that I immediately sat down and composed a modest little tune I call "For Emile Norman."
Here it is.

It's rough, this is only my second time playing it through and I don't exactly have a recording studio.

After a month of so I got up the nerve to try to get it to Emile Norman so he could hear it, and sent copies anywhere I could think of which might reach him. This week a got a nice, complimentary email from Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry promising to make sure he hears it.

Another test

2008-08-28T11:52:00.001-07:00

OK, the mirror blog application now seems to be successfully retrieving posts from my blogspot blog... now to see if posting in the mirror from facebook successfully posts to the blogspot blog.

Hike to Caladesi Island

2008-08-28T09:56:00.001-07:00

Beach at Caladesi Island
Originally uploaded by Jafafa Hots

Just uploaded a series of 14 photos to Flickr from my hikes on Caladesi Island, the aftermath of hurricane Rita, etc.

This is mainly a way of testing a few blog/flickr/facebook features. Auto blogging photos from Flickr, automatically transferring photos from Flickr to Facebook (these photos will be there also,) and the mirrorblog feature which should automatically mirror my blog posts into my facebook profile. Plus the facebook blog networks notification feature.

Lots of things to test, bugs to get worked out.

Another try at a blog.

2008-08-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this is possibly my new blog. Hopefully here I will post photos of places I've gone, new music I've composed, stuff like that.

I tried a few other blog services - wordpress, etc., and found that I hated their interface. Wordpress.com's interface was buggy, others were also. Blogger mostly seems to work even though it's sucky looking. I have found, though, that blogger's domain name feature doesn't seem to work, so instead of being at jafafahots.com, this blog will for the time being be at jafafahots.blogspot.com. Maybe I'll get it working sometime, maybe not.

So anyway.