Looking back before moving ahead ...

For the past decade or so, I've used a series of Moleskine Art Plus Music Notebooks to map out ideas: motivic materials, rhythmic schema, notes to myself, sketches (musical and otherwise), etc. They've become an integral part of my creative process, but they've also served as creative waypoints; I flip through them every few years to see how I've developed, where life's taken me, that sort of thing.

Now that I've crammed the last bit of material into one (a sixteenth-note G sharp on a bass clarinet, for those of you keeping score at home), I figured I'd flip through this puppy and highlight some especially memorable moments from the past couple of years.  

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And so it begins ...

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Left: Memorizing lines for Wax Wings Productions' THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS; Right: Mapping out clarinet multiphonics for CHARLES & RAY

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Left: Measuring furniture in preparation for our move to Lincoln, MA in February of 2013; Right: The first harmonic sketches of STEEL SYMPHONY

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Left: Notes from our "birthing class" at Mount Auburn Hospital (where our son was born a few months later); Right: Figuring out the ending to STEEL SYMPHONY

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Left and Right: Mapping out an array of extended techniques utilized throughout THE TOWER

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Left: While walking through the Lincoln wilderness, I stumbled upon a new "office" (to which I've returned many times since); Right: Mapping out isorhythmic material for THE TOWER (used in the "winding staircase" section

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Sketching out ideas for the poster design of Wax Wings Productions' HAMLET: PRINCE OF DENMARK

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Left and Right: Notes from an especially productive Fifth Floor Collective meeting at a coffee shop in Brighton---we were mapping out our first-ever collaborative composition, TRIPTYCH, about which much more information will be coming soon

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Rounding out the final page---182---of this current notebook: motivic sketches for my upcoming loadbang piece, COME SOON, YOU FERAL CATS. More info on this one coming as well!

Four reasons why I love this city

Here are four examples, in one iPhone photo, of why I love this city and its august architectural/engineering lineages. On the left is the North Bank Bridge, a 700-foot-long footbridge that was opened last year to much fanfare. It connects Cambridge to Charlestown, and cuts the walk time between the two down from thirty minutes to five. Its sinewy, sinusoidal look isn’t just for aesthetics, though I’d still think it was a marvelous structure if that were the case (it’s beautiful enough that it’d be justified). The “sinusoidal” effect is actually from the trusses weaving below the bridge to above it and below again--- they dip below to create more space between the highway overpasses above them, then swing above to make more room for the commuter rail tracks passing beneath.

In the far background, of course, is the Zakim Bridge (or the “Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge,” if you want to get all fancy). From an engineering standpoint, it’s astounding: it’s the widest cable-stayed bridge on the planet (the bridge deck is 183 feet across, carrying 10 lanes), and it was the first cable-stayed bridge with an asymmetrical deck design. The pylons echo the nearby Bunker Hill Monument, and the white cables streaming down to the deck bring to mind the rigging of the USS Constitution, which is just down the harbor a bit.

A little closer (in front of the Zakim Bridge, middleground) is the Leverett Circle Connector Bridge. It might not look like all that much, but it’s the largest steel box girder bridge in the United States. It connects to I-93 in Somerville in the north, and to Storrow Drive and Leverett Circle (two high-volume Boston spots) in the south.

Finally, in the near-right, is the Boston & Maine Charles River Bridge. Built in 1931, this is one of the only functioning rolling-bascule bridges in the country, and it still works perfectly. All of the North Station Commuter Rail lines—almost 30,000 people every day—pass over this bridge, and it’s never failed. It’s beautiful, functional, and incredibly simple—the whole thing just rotates on a counterweight.

New toy!

The Noligraph.

Objects of My Affection: Eames RAR Rocker

The Eames RAR (rocking armchair rod) Rocker is a perfect example of timelessness in design: it could've been created in 2009 in a boutique workshop in São Paulo (it wasn't), or it could've been born in a crazy Renaissance-style think-tank/24-hour carnival/cultural epicenter in California for a competition at the MoMA six decades ago (it was). It's equal parts earthy/traditional (maple rockers, small footprint) and modern/industrial (bright-yellow fiberglass shell, steel base). It looks just as good outside on the deck as it does in a hyper-modern office, and looks even better when it's rocking a newborn baby to sleep.

It's also incredibly comfortable.

Just ask him.

We got ours about a month ago at Machine Age, which is probably the coolest store on the planet. Some years ago, Herman Miller (the manufacturer) decided to switch to plastic shells (in the name of environmental soundness). Ours, though, is the original fiberglass, and it's got a wonderful texture.

I hope this stays in our family for generations. I hope our great-grandchildren park their hoverboards to stare at it, wide-eyed, believing that they've witnessed something sent back from the future to enthrall them.

New addition to the family

Many thanks to the wonderful Jad Abumrad for giving me a great deal on his barely-ever-used Livid Block Midi Controller. I think this is just the excuse I need to get back into electronic composition (it's been over a year since I've even messed around with it).

PS: If you aren't already a devoted listener of Jad and co.'s WNYC show Radiolab, you have no idea what you're missing. A good place to start is right here.