FundamentallySound Blog

In a way the newest new I have seen on this trip has been the architecture and graphic design of Holland. Paris feels a bit retro. The supermodern approach of the Dutch, playful and simultaneously guarded, is much more avant than what I feel in France. For example, La Defense is all about scale, its size is what is important, that and the one-trick pony of the big hole in the middle of the Arch. But scale is no longer interesting really, it's a tired criteria by which to judge art/music/architecture. It is rooted in the superficial oh-wow factor. Now, Hills Not Skyscrapers, are interesting.

The new Marc Bain exhibit underneath the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was a treat. The opening party was full of pomp and circumstance, lots of bureaucratic suits toasting the success of their number pushing. But it paid off. The exhibit itself is down in a catacomb, one has to be lowered into the space on a very shaky lift. Once inside, the deep low rumble is almost painfully loud, but not quite. That and the sound of a waterfall around the other side of the wall are what meet the senses. When you cross over into the opposite room, huge strobes flash while a giant mechanical geyser sprays a huge stream of water down the center of the room. It's an overwhelming effect, reminding one of the intensely unnatural and precarious lengths to which the Dutch have gone to keep their heads above water in this city of canals. Really, I think it's the best installation I've seen in a very long time. And it's only on show for four days, ending next weekend.

Strangely, the St. Lazare metro stop in Paris bore a striking resemblance to the Bain exhibit.

Tonight was a very relaxing dinner of that most popular of French foods, cous–cous. Lee and I ate with Rémi and Antonin at our fave joint in the 18th. As usual, Antonin was full of progressive and fascinating ideas about the diffusion of art into the international market and clever ways of branding one's work.

He's leaving for Tokyo soon, I'm sure he'll be able to put that knowledge to good use.

Recently arriving in Paris from Tokyo is lots of Yohji Yamamoto clothes, his work is on exhibit at the Musée de la Mode et du Textile. It's a good show, the curators pulling it together in a way that was grounded in the 80's scene Yohji helped create. The videos were all being shown on those old Sony monitors with VHS tape players set in loop mode. Rows of florescent lights lit the couture, all very clean and sharp 80's style lines and phosphorescence. I can't help but think that Yohji's face is always a bit melancholy. I like that about him.

In Amsterdam last week, Robert van Heumen and I had a nice show at STEIM. I enjoy playing with him, it's like a game, which of us can surprise the other the most with our sounds and how can we knit the disparate threads.

Our second set was introspective and full of space, Robert working on a smaller time–frame than myself, together I felt it was one of our better performances. And many thanks to the amazing STEIM for putting me up and putting up with me for the last two weeks. Amsterdam was a real pleasure. I miss that hot city already.

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The weather has become terribly hot here in Amsterdam. It's the kind of weather in which you're unable to do anything computer based or tedious, it's much wiser to just go to the park and melt. Or hang out and talk about how you could make music with the fascinating people currently passing through the creative flux that's called STEIM. People like Andrew from a&e who wants me to build a machine for him in SuperCollider that will use pitches from one's voice as an old-school sample player.

The whole city seems to be celebrating summer, overnight everyone began dressing in simple sandals and linen. It's the kind of weather that makes people a little more temperamental, a little more tired, but a lot more appreciative of natural warmth and the change of seasons. I'm loving it.

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Surprisingly, I prefer walking in Amsterdam over biking, I honestly find the congested bike traffic to be a bit stressful. But as long as someone else is doing the peddling, I'm happy to hop on for a ride. Seamus was going in the same direction and was kind enough to give me a lift.

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The summer STEIM Supercollider workshop is almost half finished. Here's a shot from this morning's class.

photo: Staas

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This is a great description of the Antwerp train station from Austerlitz, by W.G. Sebald:

When I entered the great hall of the Centraal Station with its dome arching sixty meters high above it, my first thought, perhaps triggered by my visit to the zoo and the sight of the dromedary, was that this magnificent although then severely dilapidated foyer ought to have cages for lions and leopards let into its marble niches, and aquaria for sharks, octopuses, and crocodiles, just as some zoos, conversely, have little railway trains in which you can, so to speak, travel to the farthest corners of the earth. It was probably because of ideas like these, occurring to me almost of their own accord there in Antwerp, that the waiting room which, I know, has now been turned into a staff canteen struch me as another Nocturama, a curious confusion which may of course have been the result of the sun's sinking behind the city rooftops just as I entered the room. [...] Like the creatures in the Nocturama the rail passengers seemed to me somehow miniaturized, whether by the unusual height of the ceiling or because of the gathering dusk [...]

And so on... I love his writing.

Posted by at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, enough ranting about the evils of America and the promise of Europe. I mean, after all, Europe's pretty screwed up too, what with the Dutch and the French shooting the EU constitution down and so on. Maybe it's time to just move to Hawaii and stare at the ocean or some such nonsense. Or as a friend in San Francisco always reminds me: Compare, despair.

I'm doing a show next Monday night at Kraakgeluiden here in Amsterdam which should be a lot of fun. Then next Thursday I'm performing at STEIM with Robert van Heumen. Tim Perkis & Scot Gresham-Lancaster (mini-hub) from San Francisco are performing as well. More info. in the workshop.

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As I look out at the tarmac and see the giant British Airways 747, as night falls at JFK international, I can't escape the feeling that I have been starved of travel for the past year. For several reasons, mainly monetary ones, I've just been passing my time in San Francisco. It is a city that I do love but one in which it is far too easy to just, well, do whatever it is that people do in San Francisco, like drink, talk, watch movies, drink more, work on a novel, and so on and so forth. But that little city is a comfortable bubble that never seems to pop, come dot.com boom/bust or anything else. Granted, there is some special music happening there, people there making music that is as interesting as what's happening around the rest of the world, in my opinion.

Have I said that I'm happy to be leaving America? If not, let me just make sure that point is clear. I see america as a very young country, it has a lot of the benefits of being so young like its vivaciousness and belief that it can live forever. But it also has a lot of the problems, it acts without thinking and it's awkward and kind of stupid and gets nervous and panicky really easily. And its acne scars don't seem to be going away.

For me it comes down to a simple fact. I am simply much more comfortable and at ease in Europe than I am in America. That's what I really want, a feeling of ease and focus. And I often just feel bored in America, it's a country that would rather spend its money on bombs and cars than trains and art. People in this country think in such a short-sighted and greedy manner. And if I see one more low-carb advertisement at the grocery store...

Sometimes I wonder if my feelings about America will change, will I learn to appreciate it more later in life. For now I am in no rush to do so. I'm happy to be leaving, even if it's for a few short weeks. Someday I'll figure out the trick to living where I really want to live, rather than settling for less. But, for America, San Francisco is not such a bad place, really. It's just not as it good as it should be.

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Finally, I'm on my way to Europe again, a part of the world where I feel more comfortable and focused than anywhere else. America makes me too scatterbrained.

Right now I'm at the JetBlue terminal at JFK airport, I'm about to change to Icelandair, it's my first time to fly the airline from the country that produced both Bjork and Hafler Trio. I have a 3 hour layover at Reykjavik en route to Amsterdam, it's not enough time to do anything fun, but I'm so curious to at least see how people dress in Iceland, what do they look like, what does the language sound like.

OK, time to grab my luggage and be on my way.

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Hills Not Skyscrapers, the Amsterdam-based trio, have some very nice sound samples online. Take a listen.

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Summer is here. Or at least San Francisco's version of it. This means the temperature now fluctuates plus or minus 10 degrees around 70 rather than the usual plus or minus 5 degrees. I'm worried that after spending so much time here I will have no tolerance for the weather in Europe, a continent which actually does have seasons, and pretty severe ones at that.

My time is spent working madly both on a Supercollider programming project and decorating my new apartment. The thought processes for thse activities are not so dissimilar, in programming you're trying to arrange things with maximum efficiency while retaining maximum effect. Decorating a tiny studio is the same, each possible object requires long thought and lots of conversation, nothing can be wasted and we have to be totally mindful of keeping a feeling of open spaciousness about the studio as well. The feeling of space is my favorite thing about this new place, it is tiny but I never feel confined in it, the light is spectacular and the blonde hardwood floors are very warm without feeling stuffy. In short, I love this space and I feel like there's a world of opportunity in it. If we can just figure out the best way to make it work.

Last night I was working in the kitchen while listening to the documentary Wim Wenders made of Yohji Yamamoto playing in the other room, Notebook On Cities and Clothes. I got such a feeling of nostalgia mixed with a sense of excitement, nostalgia for Tokyo, and excitement for Paris. This simultaneous mix of strong feelings, could we call it excistalgia?

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