True Love is the Devil's Wishbone.

Progress. In small stages.

My projector came yesterday. I got great deal on it, but still, I'm a little disappointed with the quality. I thought it would be better resolution and a smaller unit. It's plenty bright though - I powered up in daylight with the blinds open and got a fantastically bright projection. I still have to grapple with the audio and how that will happen. I'm tracking down a local group in Queens who will ultimately provide live sound support.

The piece is a continuation of my ideas on media and narrative, this time taking the viewer and placing them in the heart of the film narrative itself. What you see here is a prototype. The music and actual video and interactivity are ultimately not what will happen May 31, but these are the building blocks. The music here may premiere in Weimar, Germany May 17 - it's generated in realtime, based on a series of triggers, timers and grossly manipulated audio-bites. Seventh Sense, commissoned by Cristin Wildbolz uses a similar process to generate sound, however in the case of Seventh Sense the interactive 'tape' part is altered by the sound input of the bass performer. What I'm working on now is basically an electronic juke box that creates the music in realtime. What will happen May 31 will be much different, hopefully relying on sound input from the event itself. These are the things I have to work out now.

It's been rough the last couple of days getting this thing off the ground. I'm not certain of the product, only because I'm still not certain of the gear. What a pain. I have taken my spare moments to work on revisions for Eleven... which are coming along very nicely. We will screen the revisions late in the Spring or sometime during the summer at various locations in the US.

In the mean time I've been rocking out to X. I spent months tracking down a copy of More Fun in the New World, but only found a copy of the CD last week in a really unlikely spot. It was worth the wait and worth the small amount of cash I put out for it. It's definitely a tight album and one of my all time favorites. I love all the other X albums, how can you not, but this one is special somehow. I've also been listening to a lot of Deep Purple and today I'm dosing on Queen. I don't care what people say, The Game is a truly fine recording. It shows an amazing maturity for the band, who were - focused in their un-focused-ness? They never did anything half-assed, that's for sure, and this is no exception, including the surprising disco (?!) single Another One Bites the Dust. When I was a teen I never associated that song with disco - it certainly didn't fit in a set with Donna Summer or the SOS Band or other funk-oriented disco acts of the time, but damned if it doesn't get branded with the Scarlet D. Must be the 4x4 kick. In all fairness, I've mixed it in DJ sets myself with other disco classics, my favorite head-screw being Good Times by Chic, tripped out with Rapper's Delight (thank-you Sugar Hill Gang) and cutting into Another One Bites the Dust. My DJ sets are not for the light-hearted. Dance-floors beware...!

I'm glad to reconnect with this music. It's something, believe it or not, I've long incorporated into my composition, but have found that the "New Music Ethos"* usually kills it by the time it gets to the concert hall (*most New Music premieres are performed grossly under tempo - or worse, are composed at agonizingly slow tempi - to accommodate careful and precise playing of difficult music. My personal ethos demands that the performer play harder, faster, louder and forget precision in favor of energy). My understanding is that Guthrie and Streb premiered Ouistitis with spunk and gusto: I was unable to attend the premiere, but the feedback I got from friends and colleagues was really positive. The rehearsal recording the duo sent me for comment was outstanding, it isn't difficult to believe that they nailed it in performance.