8/27/2022 #78
Here & Now (Dagger & Coin, Tyller Williamson) Art (EAAM/Pearl Works), Salman, Soyeon Shin, Street Artists, Soundfields, Kmuru, Khayam Allami.
HERE AND NOW
I haven’t read any high or low fantasy for decades. I think that I just kept reading the same tropes over and over and got bored. However, I recently started reading Daniel Abraham’s Dagger & Coin series (I’m on the second book), and I’m absolutely hooked; I need more. Abraham is one half (with Ty Franck) of the sci-fi writing duo, James S.A. Corey, who co-wrote the nine-volume series The Expanse (also the popular Prime Video television series). I can’t begin to explain how out-of-character it is for me to read an entire nine-volume sci-fi series; it’s just weird. I’m beginning to wonder who that person in the mirror is.
Fantasy is something I seem to need right now; I’m taking it in small “sips” or breaks between work periods, which are a bit overwhelming at the moment—and will be that way for perhaps the next 8 months or so. The question is how to parse that out with creativity, or even with just time to breathe.
Walking helps. And this morning I walked down to City Hall’s “Friendly Plaza” in support of mayoral candidate, Tyller Williamson (standing in the right side of the photo below).
Novelist and short story writer Marianne Villanueva will be featured next Saturday, Sept. 3, answering the SIX QUESTIONS!
ART
Do stop by the curated EAAM/Pearl Works exhibition, “In Situ,” at the Pearl Works, 288 Pearl St. in Monterey, where I and a number of artists will have work up on the walls from Sept. 1, 2022—March 1, 2023. My work will be from the “Fire Season 2016: Soberanes” series. Opening this Friday:
My mood earlier this week. I won’t even try to explain this.
Another tiny artist book in the works. I bought some lovely washi paper from CHA-YA (also my local purveyor of excellent tea) in Monterey and decided to use it for the covers.
LINKS
Society wants you to stay in your lane, but Salman embraces his inner polymath. Check out his website, Salman.io
Korean American surrealist artist Soyeon Shin, featured in BOOOOOOOM.
More from BOOOOOOOM: Street artists participating in the POW! WOW! arts festival in O'ahu, Hawaii talk about making art.
SOUNDINGS
I’m fascinated by field recordings and the people who do it. So, I’m starting off the sound links tonight with a look into the world of field recorders:
Adventures in contemporary field recording (field recorders talk about ambient field recording as a creative activity [as opposed to specifically ethnographic]):
KMRU’s ambient field recordings—in search of understanding through sound (read more about him here).
“With the release of two free programs that encourage experimentation with global tuning systems, the musician and researcher Khyam Allami is challenging the Western biases of music production software.” Tom Faber’s article: “Decolonizing Electronic Music Starts with its Software” (in Pitchfork).
Khayam Allami (mentioned in the article above) plays the oud:
Good night . . . more next Saturday.
Visit my website, jeanvengua.com