Here we are on the cusp of August and I’ve only recorded four rain days in our corner of Phoenix brought in by the summer monsoons. Sadly on one of those days, we were in Los Angeles. In a place that gets so little rain, we delight in experiencing water falling from the sky; it’s a kind of affirmation of life, a restoration of the environment. The one thing to note about our monsoons is that when they finally do materialize they seem far more violent and while we had plenty of flooding from them 30 years ago, I cannot remember the incredible number of trees that are being knocked down in these storms.
Monome GRID
I’ve waited more than half a year to order a Monome GRID for my synthesizer. In any case, I’ve had more than enough to keep me busy and the last thing I needed was more equipment. I finally gave in when a few of these came back into stock; at times they are difficult to find as the New York manufacturer has trouble sourcing all the parts. I had been hoping for this to arrive on Monday considering how far it was traveling and that it was getting later in the day on this Saturday and so with no real hope of taking possession of it yet we headed to Starbucks for me to do a bit of blogging of some seriously old stuff and Caroline was going to work on finishing a new pair of socks for me.
Turns out that she’d forgotten the heel enforcing thread that will let them last longer and so she went home to fetch it when “bing” I get an email from the Post Office saying my package had just been delivered. So I called Caroline frantically hoping she’d not been there and gone already and sure enough, she picked it up and I got to unpack it within minutes after its arrival. Those are my new socks in the background.
The GRID is a kind of sequencing device that I bought to work specifically with my Monome Teletype. One of the developers recently pushed out some new firmware for the Teletype that lets it and the GRID talk to each other. I’m pretty excited about this new acquisition and am looking forward to one day getting an ARC and hopefully a NORNS from them too.
Just a Bat Hanging Out
I was delivering those crocheted motifs to Old Town Scottsdale for Caroline and as I was heading back to my car I saw this tiny little bat clinging to a wall. I’m guessing it didn’t make it back to the safety of its attic or cave and needed to dip out of the quickly rising heat of the day here in the middle of the desert. How many people must have walked by not recognizing this furry little guy about the size of plum below their knee height? Well, I noticed it and I’ve named it Eddie.
Crochet Motifs
Caroline has been crocheting these motifs which are about 36 inches wide (1 meter) as part of a larger art project being created by Choi + Shine Architects. Their “Arizona!” installation will be hanging over the Scottsdale River Walk / Canal starting in November. Caroline has been working on these since March while I’ve been delivering them as they are finished and picking up more chord. People are working on this across the U.S. to contribute the many pieces that will ultimately be needed for the project.
Arizona Road Map of Our Travels
Yesterday’s blog entry spoke of the difficulty in finding roads we’ve not traveled before in Arizona. Looking up the last time I posted a map of our state I see that I’ve never shared it, so here it is. I believe this is the first map of Arizona we purchased back in 1995 after moving from Frankfurt, Germany to Phoenix, the copyright date is 1994. The routes in various highlighter colors I think might be when I thought each road trip could be its own shade, or maybe it was just the pen I found at the time?
Now that we have enough distance in time from some of the roads that have already been traveled we will be trying to fill in some of the small gaps such as paying visits to Sasabe, San Miguel, and Sells in the south. Alamo Lake in the west, Shumway, Ft. Grant, Mt. Graham in the east, and finally Temple Bar, Cove, and possibly the short road to Perkinsville up north. Everything else requires a four-wheel vehicle, not our Prius.
Encoding
Slicing the blade of time along the disappearing edge, we begin to approach the sharpest point where the event horizon distorts: we are about to collapse into an alternative universe. This current space we inhabit is another launchpad for extra-dimensional exploration. Our minds have been packed with the tools of interpretation that will allow us perspective shifts upon cultures not yet experienced.
The influence of previous proximity is largely negated by the time delta. Nearness can be enhanced momentarily for those best prepared for newness. How does one become equipped for such encounters? We tune in to being wakeful. Brevity demands we act now and embrace what we may have otherwise not known.
Are we headed somewhere without? Is that even possible? Regardless of where we are on the physical plain, we are still within. No matter where we embark or where we land, we will still be inside the entity only known to us. Should we decide to expand the universe, the plasticity of our conditioned mental environments will dictate and limit the breadth of our ability and discovery. Malleability is not a desired trait aside from those who have managed to cultivate themselves as creators and leaders; even there, we enforce hard limits.
With conditions ripe, we manifest a reality alteration. Automated systems of support are aligned for the occasion, and all that is left is to act and be present. What patterns emerge and sequences coded will be largely dependent upon all that preceded these days. A record of this journey will be forthcoming.