“The shadows in the early morning don’t tell much. The shadows rest at that time. So it’s useless to gaze very early in the day. Around six in the morning the shadows wake up, and they are best around five in the afternoon. Then they are fully awake.”
Carlos Castaneda

The Second Ring of Power

Antony

n

When I saw and heard this for the first time I cried. Whenever I see or hear it – I get goose bumps. Beautiful performer, beautiful performance, beautiful song. This is taken from a documentary movie about Leonard Cohen.

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Wish: Live Music Photography

n

I love live music photography. I did some in the past and long to do more again. I have great respect for performers – and pride myself on being a very attentive and subtle presence in the performance arena. I also believe that the time I have spent working within the performance space of improvisers has sensitized me even more to the performance arena. I want to play. Read More »

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Alternate Expression

n

My relationship with the second (recent) Orchard Labs project was and remains a mystery. One of the ideas that came up when I talked about this with Shahar was a change in my ‘formal role’. I thought of trying out a documentary role – it seemed to give me a sense of retreat. I was feeling anxious about creating at the time (though we were on a break). Actually I think I was scared of repeating myself. The documentary/journalistic role seemed to give me a wider view of the project and allowed me to step back.

Of course this agreement, though a comforting entry point, didn’t hold out for long. When you gotta go you gotta go – and of course there were moments where I completely digressed from my ‘documentary role’ back into a creative position – deep within the work. Though I had some insights and experiences around the ideas of these roles and my relationship to the work, but this is not the current topic.

[slidepress gallery=’orchard-labs-drawings’]

This time I encountered a new creative experience. I found myself wanting to express myself bu without any attraction to the camera. The camera did not seem to be a relevant form of expression for me in these moments. I did find myself drawn to paper. I started playing around with drawing during the Tune project in Barcelona. I really had an urge to do this. It was then that I first became familiar with textures and qualities of drawing. During the Orchard Labs I found comfort in drawing numerous times.

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Homemade RAID (Part2) – Hardware

n

My hardware configuration requirements were largely decided by the core of the system – the hard drives. I had hoped to utilize a decommissioned computer (or parts of it) – but that didn’t really work out. Read on to find out what decision shaped the hardware configurations and choices. Read More »

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Purpose

n

From bitter searching of the heart,
Quickened with passion and with pain
We rise to play a greater part.
This is the faith from which we start:
Men shall know commonwealth again
From bitter searching of the heart.
We loved the easy and the smart,
But now, with keener hand and brain,
We rise to play a greater part.

The lesser loyalties depart,
And neither race nor creed remain
From bitter searching of the heart.

Not steering by the venal chart
That tricked the mass for private gain,
We rise to play a greater part.
Reshaping narrow law and art
Whose symbols are the millions slain,
From bitter searching of the heart
We rise to play a greater part.

F. R. Scott (1899-1985), “Villanelle for Our Time.” Performed by Leonard Cohen

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Time in a Bottle

n

It seems that this segment from the Muppet Show must have shimmered for me. Driving home just now I recalled it again. Many years after having seen it during my childhood I recalled it and looked for the source – which led me to Jim Croce. So here is the Muppet Show (which I was surprised to find online!) version followed by the original.

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Inspiration II

n

This is the second time I have used the title ‘inspiration’ for a post. This is a 40 minute video of a presentation by Kathy Sierra – and I invite you to make and take time to enjoy it.

Inspiration is infectious – it is subtly transmitted and its seeds mature slowly and effectively … sow the seeds!
Quality requires effort… and then quality leads to more quality.

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Timing

n

Timing is the answer to success … Aube introduced me to Kevin Johansen … and the song even has some good advice : ) Enjoy!

and something in his native tongue (I think) – great fun:

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Business insights

n

I came across this nice post by Mike McDerment about building and running a business. It’s short concise and insightful. I enjoyed it because it is a sane reminder about how much unknown is in business (as in everything else) amidst all the ‘knowledgable’ business advice floating around out there waiting to depress you. Pleasant and supportive reading.

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Hallelujah

n

If you haven’t heard it (even though it was on one of the Shrek movie sound tracks) or seen it – now is a good time. This is Jeff Buckley doing a Leonard Cohen song. I came to know Jeff Buckley when he had already left the planet. I often wish I could have seen him in concert:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff_nvF_3Joo]

 

 

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Dark

n

This SweetClarity publication was taken during a street performance in Barcelona – also during Shahar’s Tune workshop. The location was a square – a place where Shahar likes to sit and dine when he visits Barcelona. The score for the performance, if I recall correctly, was to start in groups of 4 or 5 – everything else, like always would reveal itself (or not) as the performance progressed. It was a big space and the group really mastered it.

Read More »

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Virtue of a Sacred Space

n

Following is a story told by Peter Brook to John Heilpern in the final chapters of Conference of the Birds: The Story of Peter Brook in Africa.

“Suppose a child is perfectly normal until he’s five years old. Suddenly he goes deaf. And with his deafness, his powers of speech becomes difficult. The child isn’t the same as someone born deaf. He’s had impressions of hearing. But his hearing and speaking are warped – with all the psychological barriers and confusions that involves. He functions in a diminished capacity for almost all his childhood and early youth. Whereupon a new treatment comes into existence.

Read More »

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Homemade RAID (Part1)

n

As a photographer I have accumulated vasts quantities of digital information. If you live in the USA or Europe then you can find numerous attractively priced storage solutions. I live in Israel and most of these devices don’t make it out here. One that did is outrageously expensive and for me out of the question. Though my application was primarily for digital images – the solution can be used for many other application where large volumes of information need to be stored and shared amongst a group of users over a private network. Read More »

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Wish: SweetClarity – Phase1

n

In a year from now I’d like SweetClarity to become a small replica of what what it will become over the next few years.

SweetClarity continues to be an unrelenting challenge. My efforts are now focused on establishing the conditions for it’s next phase of growth. We have a demo service running and its time to being construction of infrastructures that can take us forward.

In the end it is about getting people on-board. This is usually achieved by hiring people. Since we have no funding available to us yet we are working in two directions. One is to attain funding – though this is a big mystery in its own right. The second is by inviting people on board without financial remunerations. Patience is a recurring theme in the last years of my life. I am curious to see what conditions will mature and what shape SweetClarity will take over the next few months.

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Jazz Standards

n

These images were also taken a couple months ago during Shahar’s second Orchard Labs artist residency project in the desert in the south of Israel. We were scheduled to perform with some ‘jazz’ musicians who we’ve never met before. We were really looking forward to this performance – the space was initimate and the opportunity to perform with live mucusians is always embraced. We first met the musicians a few hours before the show.

Read More »

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Last Night

n

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about this movie “Last Night” I saw many years ago – and I hope to see soon again. The movie begins at 18:00 and there are 6 hours left until the end of the world. Everyone in the movie seems to know and accept this and the world has changed accordingly. There is nothing sci-fi about the movie – it is all people facing their last 6 hours of existence. Within these settings the stories of numerous characters cross paths. The final scene of this movie has never left me. By the time I reached this scene I seemed to have adjusted to the film’s altered reality. So instead of it being crazy and bizarre it is now touching, sensitive and sensible. Wow! I couldn’t find a formal trailer – but I did find this bit.

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Bella

n

Yesterday we sat down to watch Bella. It is one of those movies that, for me, stand out from the crowd. It resonated nice with my recent encounters and practice of faith.

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Color Profiles

n

I recently encountered a question about color profiling and the answer required more then the 140 characters allocated for the question. There is plenty of more professional information about this out there – but I am guessing that a lot of people can make do with a simple explanation.

Why should you care about color profiles?

Ironically because what you see is not what you get. I will use still photography as an example – but this implies just as well for any digital imaging technology. Read More »

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Dear Paul Graham, Attn. Art

n

Dear Paul,

I have recently begun to reluctantly follow on some technology/startup/vc reading. I came across your writing and YCombinator.  I have read numerous articles you wrote, I have drawn some ideas and found some inspiration in them. When I came across your article How Art Can Be Good I came to a stop. My initial response was objection to your writing –  and I almost engaged you in a confrontation. I wanted to show you that you are wrong – that you do not know what art is. But to do this I would have had to claim that I do know what art is – and nothing could be further from a truth. So I let the energy you stirred in me continue to brew and eventually settle. Now that it has, I feel that I can write with a positive note and establish a connection with you rather then form an opposition. Responding to your article has actually consolidated some ideas that I have been carrying with me – so I am thankful for your contribution in crystallizing my thoughts and forming a stage for their expression.

Read More »

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Wish: Shakuhachi

n

My wish it to be able to order a custom made Jinashi flute from Monty – a flute that is harvested and made for me and with me in mind.

This picture is not of a Jinashi flute – but it is a beautiful one : )

Read More »

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