Brahms lull babies to sleep? Hah! He keeps me up at night. Here’s the Intermezzo (Andante teneramente) from the Klavierstücke Op. 118, played on my Yamaha keyboard. Glenn Gould has an incredible performance of this piece, so in control and lyrical, and getting those darned long phrasings just right. I’ve been listening to it a lot lately trying to get the gist, but well, he’s a god and I’m a mere mortal.
Posted in Start-up Self, Uncategorized
Edvard Grieg was a Romantic era composer that many know from his spooky piece In the Hall of the Mountain King. He also wrote intensely lyrical pieces, like this one I’m working on. It is a Nocturne, or ‘night song’. I was playing at dusk, and just outside the window behind me, there was a bird singing his heart out. Do you think he could hear the nightingale trills?
Reclining Figure
Here is a drawing of a reclining figure that I did last semester, that mom really liked and had professionally framed. I liked it well enough before, but now — wow! A high quality frame like this makes a huge difference. Victoriano Gelay, the owner of Neilsen Framing, selected a suede mat in the same color of the paper (this was a tricky choice, because the drawing is very subtle and could easily be overwhelmed). Then he cut the mat in an arch to highlight the shape of the drawing, and lined the edge with sewn piping in a metalic pewter. The relief of the custom cut frame picks up both the shadows, and the highlights.
Thanks mom! I know just where we should hang it (and how to redecorate that room now). 🙂
Posted in Start-up Self
This is the first movement of one of my favorite Scarlatti sonatas — K.513, the Pastorale. I play it on my Yamaha keyboard, which has several sampled instruments, including a grand piano and harpsichord. This is the harpsichord version:
And here is the grand piano version. I take it a bit slower to enjoy the sonorous quality the piano adds — particularly to the second part where the driving left hand lower G is almost like a drone:
Posted in Start-up Self
In case you haven’t been to the mag rack lately, the October issue of Esquire magazine featured this cover, with…what’s that? Yes, it is e-ink folks. The same as Amazon.com’s Kindle, except this one costs about $5.99 instead of $359 (well, $309 with the Oprah discount). So ripping apart the electronics in the middle of DTW airport (nervous looks from fellow passengers at the gate), I hatched a plan…yes, I would make THE ULTIMATE POLITICAL T-SHIRT!!! Here’s how…
Don't blink, you'll miss the E-ink!
So first, you have to rip out the e-ink guts:
Chips, check...capacitors, check...resistors, check...6 lithium ion batteries, check...
Next, take scissors and snip off the bottom display. Yes, go ahead, snip snip snip. The display is boring and you won’t need it. Then, find some pictures online of our photogenic future president Barack Obama and print them out onto iron-on paper:
Our handsome future president
Then find a t-shirt that you want to mod. You will be adhering the e-ink to the shirt with sticky-backed velcro, so don’t worry — there’s very little sewing here. Figure out your layout of the e-ink display, and the iron on. Iron on the transfer first so you don’t accidently melt the circuit board. Then, put the velcro on the back of both the display and the circuit board (leave the paper backing on for now). Next, you’ll have to cut about a 2 inch line into the shirt so that you can insert the circuit board. The display will then be on the outside of the shirt, and the circuit board will be on the inside. Got it? Then take off the velcro paper backing, and stick the display and circuit board to the shirt. They will still be connected by the thin video output strip, but this will hardly be visible. To be extra neat and tidy, whip stitch the cut opening around the video output strip, otherwise it will gap and your underwear might show — well, your fashion choice there. If done neatly, most people will think you are wearing a flashing pin. The result?
Posted in Start-up Self
This is the third October 31 incarnation of Dieter, Goddess of the Highway. She now rides a bike. Blessings to all of you mortals on Halloween, and may all of your traffic confrontations be benign.
Dieter's Third Incarnation
Posted in Ma Bicyclette et Moi, Start-up Self
In Detroit, people go crazy for Halloween. (In the case of Devil’s Night, really crazy…) Here is a pic of one house in my mom’s sub that goes totally all-out.
Okay, now Freddie Kruger is creepy…but what about Homer Simpson and Star Trek The Next Generation? Not creepy…but somehow, someone actually putting them all together is creepy. Here’s the homeowner proudly demoing the macabre guillotine to fascinated…er horrified? kids (yes, that’s Barbie):
And hanging here are Sarah Pail-in, Mc-Cane, and the $700 Billion Bailout. The misc. body parts? When asked he says “those are kids who rode their bikes across my lawn”:
More Detroit Halloween pix on flickr…
Posted in Start-up Self
My life drawing instructor has been torturing me with watercolor wash. He tortured me with this last semester too. Why use slippery, wishy washy pigment when you can use a nice reliable pastel pencil, huh? Jeez, its like trying to paint with a wet cat. Anyways, here are the very few I can actually show people – the rest totally suck.
Mr. Instructor, please, I beg you!!! Can we go back to charcoal midtones soon?
One that didn't totally suck
Another that didn't get burnt with the rest
Today my mom and I hit a gold mine – we found about 5 audio cassette tapes of my dad Bruce Buszard playing the piano. This one is from the Emerson School Talent Show in 1986. Bruce and several other teachers played in the combo “Whipped Cream” as the final act of the show, to the students’ great delight. Bruce is on piano, Bob Ripp plays clarinet, Dick Haertel is on drums, and Harlis is on the sax. The tune is one of my hand-clappin’ foot stompin’ favs … “Hard-hearted Hannah, the Vamp of Savannah…the meanest gal in town!”
“Snitch Brot” is a recipe that’s been in my family for a long time. I’m not sure if it came from the German side, or the Swiss German side (they married each other, so who knows?), but the tradition is to make and serve it at Christmas time. The name probably comes from something like schnittes brot ‘sliced bread’, since it is full of nuts and fruit and looks very pretty sliced and served on a plate. Because of the nuts and dried fruit, it is also somewhat expensive to make, befitting a special holiday treat.
I’ve adapted this recipe for use as a good dense hiking bread, and have found that a slice or two is good for many miles, or will at least get you to a late lunch at work. The reason we call it bear bread, is I once prepared a whole batch for a hiking trip, making small dense loves (this was the olden days when “ultralight” meant your husband carried the heavy stuff!). But our camp was raided at night by a bear, who carried off my husband’s pack, and with it all of our food. We huddled in our tent and listened to rrrrip–ping! rrrrip–ping! as the bear tore through the pack, and then munch munch glomph munch slobber slobber munch munch as he ate our entire week’s supply of food. Including the bear bread and some dried chili. Then he slobbered over the entire remainder of the pack – clothes and all. Not pretty, and bear slobber mixed with dried chili is very smelly.
But I digress. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients for Bear Bread
You can experiment with the ingredients quite a bit. I like a blueberry-cherry-hickory nut combo, or apple walnut mixed with maple sugar — yum! If you add oats, or wheat flour, or honey or more molasses, you will get a dense loaf that is great hiking fuel, although quite heavy.
Okay? So far so good. Dice the fruit, and add some flour to prevent sticking. Then mix in dry ingredients (except flour) in the biggest bowl you can find, add wet ingredients, then add flour… and keep on adding flour. You will either run out of room in your bowl, like I did, or get the mixture to a consistency that you can turn it out and knead it… I reserve my entire kitchen table for this step.
The miracle of bread dough
Then keep kneading the mixture, and adding flour as needed. At first it will be very gloppy, but after you go for a while, adding more and more flour, the gluten will develop and you will get a nice elastic dough. Once the dough is formed, roll it into a long fat log, and use a knife to cut off chunks to squish in bread pans. You will need a lot of bread pans. We usually get 2-4 large loaves, and 6-10 small loaves out of it. Be prepared, with nonstick, or buttered/floured pans ready to go. This is what I ended up with:
Bear Bread Ready to Bake
Let the bread rise once in a warm place, covered with a damp towel so that the tops don’t dry out.
So then the recipe gives the terse direction “bake at 350 degrees until done”. How do you know if it is done? Let the bread bake about 35 minutes (watch your small loaves, as they will be done more quickly and will burn if left in the oven). Then, when they are starting to brown on top and you think they might be done, take out a loaf and thump it on the bottom with the handle of a wooden spoon. If you hear a hollow sound, it is ready. Put the loaf pans on a cooling rack, and when they are done, turn them out and let them finish cooling. And there you go! This batch, I made 4 large loaves, and 6 small ones. We’re eating one, and the rest are in the freezer. I pull them out the night before I want to use them, and then have a hearty breakfast of Bear Bread toast in the morning. We think it is best toasted, with just butter, or some yummy homemade jam.
Finished Bear Bread
Posted in Start-up Self
The Buzz Around Town 