Talking about arrangements; here’s another one. Scot and I met Irene at a Williams Family Thanksgiving out in Brown County. She’s another one who just sort of took to singing-out, later rather than sooner. I know she felt a little green here, playing with Jerry, Scot and Kenny, who were all so thoroughly seasoned . Jerry really wanted to find a female vocalist for the BC (Basement Collaboration) to work with, and the boys saw great potential in Irene. They even charted out a little group identity, calling themselves, Blue Jazz. Scot did a fun mock-up of a poster for the group, but sadly, they only got three rehearsals.
Once again, Scot is sharing one of his arrangements, in this case for “Jambalaya”, a favorite Hank Williams song of his. Irene doesn’t take long to feel like doing a little skatting. As the tempo jells, so does the playful interplay between Scot and Irene—which when they really get going—is charming. Scot liked Irene’s timing. She could sort of start early or late, but arrive just on time.”
Today’s artwork speaks to the idea of interchange. I always wondered about the significance of a mermaid in a boat? This mermaid doesn’t look caught to me. She seems to want to be there? The piece is an example of some of Scot’s earliest, strictly digital artwork. His mom gave him her old Apple computer when she upgraded (say in 1995?). Scot took it, more to help her get rid of it than wanting it, but from the moment he set it up, he was hooked.
He came to love Claris Works, which is what he used to create this piece. He always claimed that some of the older, simpler programs did things that were often lost in the newer, better, bigger versions. He used no drawing pad and stylus here. He drew this one with the mouse! When it came time to print it out, he had to use such low-res files that huge pixilation was obvious. He loved that. He saw that is had he same effect as Impressionism, and felt that the pixilation showed us the way the computer thought about the work.
2 comments:
Your comments mean a lot to me. I have received reports that is is inconvenient to post a comment. I think the easiest way is to just create a gmail account, which is actually totally simple. Just another user name and password. I know people are following the blog, because they call and email. By leaving your comments here, it all becomes one thing.
Robin,
I've been wanting to comment on this post, so I finally went over to gmail and got myself an account--it can't be too hard if I can do it! The mermaid in the boat. Don't you think she looks exhausted and relieved to be there? The fishmen in their watery phalanx are looking for her night and day, but they don't look up so they don't see the boat and I guess they never will.
The music is somehow complementary, but don't ask me how--it's just a feeling. Irene and Scot are so free and easy and improvisationally teasy in this version of "Jambalaya"--some of us have trouble letting go this way but admire it when we hear it. Thanks again to you and Scot for doing all this work for us folks out in virtualand.
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