It’s New Media Dot Com over here today. The following is a sneek peek of my new piece for ACJW, Trade Winds, filmed at yesterday’s rehearsal. The ack-jews are sounding right nice. To wit:

So this may be the most bourgeois complaint ever, but the New Yorker’s new iPad app is completely pointless. I’m already a subscriber, and I’d love to be able to read the thing on my iPad as well, but that would involve buying every issue again at $5 each. I guess there are a few non-subscribers who might impulse-purchase one or two issues, but isn’t the majority of the readership more like me? Do they really expect this to be a success? I hope some sort of deal for subscribers is in the works, otherwise it appears the magazine industry is in an even deeper ideological rut than I’d previously thought (and don’t forget, this is the industry that put out these ads). When will the old folks ‘get it’? I want to give you my money, New Yorker. Just please don’t make me give it to you twice.

Recently I’ve been trying to get around my aforementioned difficulties writing vocal music.

I find there are two main problems with opera singers: you can’t tell what note they’re singing (esp. male singers) and they don’t know what to do with their hands (no microphone to hang on to). I’ve observed my colleagues and professors take a number of approaches to writing music for these singers. Many call for a “straight tone” (i.e. no vibrato), which can be quite beautiful, but is a little like asking a pianist to play with his feet— it’s just not what they’re trained to do. But many make do with this compromise, because opera singers are easy to come by (they go to the same schools as composers, after all, and most know how to read music). Certain composers still write operas and embrace the operatic sound— John Adams and Chris Cerrone come to mind. (Interestingly, both call for amplification.)

Many composers abandon the opera/art-song world in favor of various “pop” styles of singing— whether or not their music could be called Pop. This brings with it a different set of æsthetic conundrums, along with a huge potential Cringe Factor. Sometimes it works brilliantly, however; in Ted Hearne’s Katrina Ballads, a couple of opera singers and a couple of jazz/R & B singers sing side by side, along with Ted himself, who does some of each. All sing their hearts out, and the music is really good, so it works. The rather obvious secret is that quote-unquote Crossover works when the musicians involved have taste.

But I think the main reason for my discomfort writing vocal music is my lack of feeling for the voice as an instrument. I’m most comfortable using actual instruments, primarily the piano, as my “voice”. Putting words along with the notes just somehow feels extraneous to me. I haven’t been a singer since I was about 11, when I dropped out of our local children’s chorus, and since then, I’ve enjoyed the comfort of having an instrument, preferably a large one, next to me on stage at all times. My adult voice is completely untrained, limited in range, and tires easily; to me it just sounds embarrassing. I harbor the utmost admiration— bordering on jealousy, even— for people like Gabe Kahane, who can sing anything from Ives to Cee-lo with aplomb, and accompany himself admirably at the same time.

Right now I’m working on some very short songs for Gabe, based on texts from a website I found called Parenting With Family Play (basically a very earnest and thorough users’ manual for roughhousing/role-playing with your young child). I’m setting them very straight-faced, with a minimum of “musical commentary”, because I feel as though word-cartooning is an excuse for having no musical ideas (plus they did it better in the 17th century?). The piano parts are spare because Gabe will be accompanying himself (giving him something to do with his hands). What will happen? You’ll just have to come out to Issue Project Room on November 17th and find out.

Ted is mad. Rob is getting ready to build a dam.

Let it be known that the five composers of the “Sleeping Giant” collective couldn’t pull it together to do an actual group photo, so I had to draw the caricatures you see above. Our next concert is fast approaching; Monday, October 11 (mark your iCals!) at Le Poisson Rouge. My own contribution will be the New York première of Clamber Music, performed by stalwarts Owen Dalby and Tema Watstein.

I wrote my first lick of vocal music in five years today. Not sure exactly what’s taken me so long. More about this soon, alongside other things worth knowing.

Look at them lugs.

So this past weekend I should have been finishing up my piece for ACJW (which, don’t worry, I did!) but mostly I was procrastinating by working on my bike. I’m sure about two people who read this blog are interested in this sort of thing, so I thought it would be funny to write about it.

Installing these new Velo Orange fenders took by far the most time (and inspired the most cursing). I’d put a different pair of them on my old Peugeot, and while it took some fiddling, the job was relatively straightforward. My new Mercian has what we refer to as “tighter clearances” meaning you really have to wedge the thing up in the fork there (see above). Unfortunately the “fork crown daruma” that VO includes to hang it there was too long and poked into the top of the tire. OK, no problem, I thought, I’ll just measure and cut the bolt shorter. Here is where the cursing commenced; I cut the bolt too short, so that I couldn’t thread the nut on. Note to future self: measure twice, cut once.

I remembered seeing some VO fenders for sale down at Bespoke Bicycles in Fort Greene, and luckily, they had an extra daruma bolt they were willing to sell me for five dollars. I think I would have happily paid $50 at that point, so great was my consternation. Thanks, Bespoke, for not taking advantage of my predicament. So I threw my fender-less bike back together for a quick trip to pick up the bolt, raced back, cut the new bolt about half a centimeter longer this time, stuck it up in there, and the wheel still rubbed. Not much, but I still needed another two or three millimeters of extra space. I decided I had to to replace the big rubber washer that goes up against the fender with something half the thickness, so I took out my X-acto and traced a new one into a scrap of rubber padding from a cheap light bracket that was lying around. Guess what it works. I think that took about 18 hours total. Moral: don’t hire me as a professional bike mechanic.

Also I hate the included bendy clip for the rear fender, so I drilled a hole in the top of the fender to attach it to the seat stay bridge with an L-bracket and a couple of leather washers (to dampen vibrations). Much more elegant:

L-bracket instead of bendy clip.

I also threw on a nifty mud flap that is supposed to protect your shoes from getting damp.

Oh and also I waxed the chain, as per Grant Petersen. I’m not entirely convinced— things seem a bit noisy now— but it sure is clean.