Sufiboy - Wandering, Wondering, Wisdom

Computer Frustration

2007-09-20T05:14:00.000-07:00

Exeter Arts and Culture Channel Launched

2007-06-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

Princesshay Urban Camping

2007-06-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last few days camping - for money - in the new Princesshay development. A guy called Guy from Taunton payed me £350 to keepa place inthe queue for him. One of many bizzare jobs I have done.

The photo is me with Terry Griffin, the notorious Express and echo letter writer.

I am playing a gig at the surreal salon tonight, which will eventually be posted on my exeter arts and culture streaming tv channel:

http://www.kyte.tv/exeter_arts_and_culture

Thinking about ageing...

2007-03-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Sat in the Angel, oposite Exeter Central Station, looking at patterns in the walls, a strange parrot-headed man being bitten by innumerable eels. Just listened to "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull.

Animation and Short Film Screenings

2007-02-11T06:46:00.000-08:00

So, I am back in Exeter, staying with friends while I decide the next step forward. I have some work this week acting as a technician for an animation workshop for a couple of days in Newton Abbot, and the usual Mac fixing stuff. Must remember to put in my applications for the Phoenix Media Bursaries. Some of the short films were excellent, others could be improved slightly, particularly the sound quality and balance.

Glad to be back in familiar places and familiar faces.

Another ringtone..

2007-02-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

This one is of Diggnation's Alex Albrecht saying "I'd take it up the ass", it'll be interesting to see if anyone downloads it,well it's free anyway! so get it below:

Money for Nothing?

2007-02-02T03:35:00.000-08:00

Well, not really. I have just signed up to Blogvertise, and hopefully it is a way of increasing my online income as well as selling affirmation ringtones and linking video clips from revver etc.

Blogvertise seems to be the only site doing this and all you need is a blog, a paypal account, and the skills necessary to link to a third-party website three times in a 60 - 100 word posting. How difficult can that be? as someone really interested in how online marketing works (see the link above to Directory of Light, my online marketing consultancy for artists) I am keen to see how much income can be generated by blogging about peoples websites, although I guess the trick is to increase the ranking of the site on google etc by creating a network of blogs which link to the site. I pretty much recommend this kind of idea to my online marketing customers, but now that I know about the existence of Blogvertise I'll recommend their services to all the artists and musicians that I work with.

Be good if my combined online income generates enough income for a reasonable standard of living! I guess this is also a form of creativity, if somewhat enslaved to Mammon, but then isn't all creativity for profit similarly enslaved? I know that with my biomusic and other creative works which I have submitted to the internet archive under a creative commons licence I am free of the yoke of creating something saleable, I could just do whatever i wished. However I have made no income from those creative activities, and man cannot live by creative commons licences alone!

Click Here to Advertise on My Blog

Breda not Brenda

2007-01-22T05:58:00.000-08:00

Well,

I started to walk from Amsterdam towards Utrecht, heading for the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal, and got fairly lost. One woman I asked for directions simply said "Save yourself, the wind is coming!"I had no idea what she was on about until later in the day. I finally found the right canal, with the help of the nice receptionist at a tulip hotel near Weeps (probably spelled that wrong). I then asked a youth-on-a-bike if indeed you could get to Utrecht along the canal; his answer was "No, it ends at Abercoude" He was right, but he could have mentioned that going the other way I could've got to Utrecht.

Convinced that I knew better than him, I pressed on to Abercoude, getting incredibly wet and nearly blown over in the worst weather ever in Dutch living history. At Abercoude I decided to get a train. So I bought a ticket to Utrecht and went to the platform. Two trains came and the returned the way they had come. Asking if they were going to Utrecht the only answer I recieved was "They are going nowhere". After a while the platform was deserted except for myself and one other gent. I asked him when the next train to Utrecht would be and he answered "Maybe tomorrow, because of the weather". His name was William, a lawyer working in Abercoude. We had a good chat about public transport, football and the care of the homeless and mentally ill in our respective countries.After about two hours I went into the village for a much needed coffee and to change into dry clothes. The roads were clogged with traffic and pedestrians as people tried to make thier way home. The motorway was flooded so everyone was taking the back roads.

On my return the station was mostly empty, a few people still loitering at the enterance waiting for someone to give them a lift.I recieved a text from Em, a couchsurfing friend I had arranged to spend a night with, saying that the Red Cross were helping people at train stations. Sadly, this was not the case at Abercoude, a small rural railway staion scheduled for demolition as soon as the new station nearby was completed.

On the platform I rejoined William and we joined in word-for-word with the station announcements "Dammen and Herren...by order of the police all train services have been cancelled across the country. The situation will not change in the hours that follow"

After a while Williams wife called him and he arranged a lift for us to Utrecht. His friends arrived at about 9pm, and using Sat Nav took us on a guided tour of every small village between Abercoude and Utrecht, as the motorway was still flooded.They generously gave me food and coffee, and drove for over an hour to Em and Paulus's place in Utrecht.There I was made welcome, despite Paulus and Em both needing to be at work for 6am the following day.

The next morning I spent lazing around with one of their cats Peter, and listening to the sounds of nature outside. I also finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's Jailbird, an interesting take on Capitalism.

My kind hosts agreed to let me stay another day and also provided me with internet access, maps, advice and food.

The next morning I set out for Gorichem.Despite good directions I got a bit lost, and with bad weather closing in I spent the night in a very windy bus stop in Meerkerk. The dawn came, and aching from sleeping in such cramped,cold and wet conditions i began to walk again towards Gorichem.

South of Arkel was a small Protestant chapel. I could hear the service taking place inside, and managed to locate a tap to refill my water bottle, which I had finished early the night before.My feet felt full of blisters as i stumbled the last four km into Gorinchem. I was desperate to find some food, but everywhere was closed, as it was Sunday. After wandering around for a while in a daze I found an internet cafe, checked my email and stocked up on chocolate and crisps for energy.A quick chat to the owner revealed nowhere to stay in town, and with my couchsurfing contact not in touch I decided to get the train to Breda (not Brenda, as I kept calling it).

The Dutch trains were clean, functional and cheap, despite being privatised recently.I hoobled from the station at Breda and into a cheap but elegant hotel, less than 100 yards away, to soak and pop my blisters, handwash pants and socks and watch crap tv from all over europe.

Via Francigena

2007-01-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm settting off for rome today, on foot from amsterdam. Packed in my job, left most of my stuff behind, and probably pissed off a load of people. I'll update this blog everytime i get some money to go anline, current budget is 40euros.

FAVE 2006, moving again...

2006-12-05T08:37:00.000-08:00

If all goes according to plan , you should be seeing/hearing some stills from my trip to FAVE in Limehouse Town Hall, London, last weekend, and hearing some bio-music produced from an audience member, April.

I had planned to wire up some kidneys, but they were sadly unresponsive. I also played some egg slicer but had problems with my circuit bent device as various bits of it had dropped of during transit on the coach from Totnes.

I've moved into a shared house in Totnes, complete with friendly and mad old cat. Much happier there, even if the only furniture I have is a bed!

Playing with Dub Magnitude on the 20th December at Zepher in Exeter,,, I'll be the one making funny noises/keyboardingness.

Ringtones and podcasts

2006-11-10T03:18:00.000-08:00

I'm teaching some students how to podcast, so I've decided to start my own. Its arrogantly called "With Me On+" and will feature lots of music with me on, plus some tracks from musicians I've met and like including probably some lithuanian electronica and definately some Colander.

I've just found a site that creates ringtones from your mp3s, so here's one for free from "balloon, coin and electronics".just click to the right of the title below:

ballooncoinandelectronics

I'll also be adding this to my website and myspace.

Praha: nice but one big hypereal tatshop

2006-10-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Indeed it is true, i am here in middle earth's biggest club over five floors, all shite, having been lead here by wayward medical students.

slavic keyboards are funny, not heard much experimental music here, got givin a cd in a bar, and after some research i now think i can create my own golem to do my job and domestic stuff for me while i spend all my time being creative. Haven't discovered the philosophers stone yet though.

Settling Down

2006-10-13T06:06:00.000-07:00

I've got used to living in Totnes now, got into the rhythm of work, and begun organising creative activities. I've been asked to play at The Hub in Exeter on December 7th, and aslo to perform at F.A.V.E. in London on 25th November. I'm looking forward to both, assuming I can afford the transport/accomodation costs involved.

I'ved been experimenting with making music using balloons and you can hear some of that here

From Bovey Tracey to Vilnius and now Totnes...

2006-09-28T02:05:00.000-07:00

I have juxt moved to totnes, devon uk, nice room and the best thing about it is that the Landlady (who is subletting) says i only need to a few days notice when I move out.

This summer I visited Lithuania, primarily to meet with Lukas Devitas, the performing name of Vytas Wilimas, who contacted children of the drone through myspace and was enthusiastic about improvised music. I met Vytas at his workplace, the Oriental Studies section of Lithuania's National Library. We got on well from the beginning. I was I admit still very tired from travelling, and adjusting to Lithuanian culture. We met a few more times, to play intuitive music with about 15 people at 'z_orang@' a club in a small room above a music library, to visit an illegal CD fair in a forest on the outskirts of Vilnius, and finally on my last night in Lithuania, when I distributed flowers like some kind of interflora Father Christmas, and Wilka, who had organised the Z_orang@ get together, left with a whole big bunch of flowers. I did the whole flower thing because I noticed from getting off the plane to just walking around how flowers were everywhere. People met thier friends at the Airport with flowers (and dogs), people took flowers with them to visit friends, people grew thier own flowers, people sold flowers in the streets. As ubiquitous as flowers were pets. Lots of dogs - my favourite being one wearing a sweatshirt in Lithuanian colours (with the sleeves rolled up above his paws of course) and a muzzle, although he didn't look like he would bite anyone. I also saw cats following thier owners as they took the dog for a walk, rabbits playing with chickens, a cat on a lead being carried, and a man riding a horse through Uzupis District.

"Uzupis' literally translated, means 'beyond the river' in this case the river Vinele, from which vilnius gets it's name. During WWII and the subsequent Soviet occupation the area was completely depopulated, with most of the buildings only shells. After wwII the area became the habitat of those on the fringes of society; criminals, prostitutes and artists. Today only the artists remain, and the are has been widely redeveloped. The Uzupians also have their own constitution, visible on large metal plaques in Russian English and Lithuanian in Paupys Gatve.

In the Uzupis Kavine I was lucky enough one afternoon to meet the man who wrote the Constitution. He is the Uzupis Foriegn Minister as well and insisted on singing the national anthem to me, as he had written the words. I offered to buy him a drink, but his friend insisted that he had to go home, quite possibly i think because they were both completely pissed already at 3pm in the afternoon. Eating out is cheap in Lithuania, but some times the food can be a bit of a let down, usually due to mis-translations in the menu.

After a few days i began to feel starved of familiar words. I found a bookshop on the main drag, Gedimina Gatve, which sold english language books. I bought and read The Zahir, by Paulo Coelho, and two of Kurt Vonneguts finest- Breakfast of Champions and Timequake. I lost two of these books along with my diary, bag and disposable cameras at a teachers bar somewhere in Vilnius University. All I remember about the bar were some large concrete cows, more Indian in style than their Milton Keynes counterparts.

Transport is also cheap in lithuania.My fave was the soviet era trolley bues, which announce in an echoey voice your destinationa and the next stop, almost totally meaningless until you pick up lithuianian pronunciation. But still, the lovely sound of "vilnius; Subacious Gatve' is hard to beat. Although the journey to the TV tower was interesting, as i couldn't see the signs as the bus was so crowded. From my guide book i discovered the lithuanian for 'tv station' and low and behold that was the stop i wanted!

I walked around the TV station before finding the entrance, and notice the hand-carved memorials to the people who died there during the country's struggle for independence. This reminded me of a unique grave in New Moston Cemetery in Manchester. at the time my friends and I were impressed by the craftsmanship of a life size carved wooden christ-figure sat under a shelter, one hand supporting his head, a look of sorrow in his eyes..My friend Gary was the first to notice the horns coming through the crown of thorns, and the distictly goat-like legs and hooves. We assumed the writing to be polish, i now suspect that it was Lithuanian, the folk-art being such a giveaway.

Strange morphological echoes abound here, on the bus from the airport a huge J shaped Iron hook on the front of a church; a similar hook embedded in an ovoid stone with one wheel and a handle chained to a lamppost.
The shape of this stone was again echoed in the one-wheeled two handled bag of a man protesting outside parliament.

Many things in the history of this country were made of wood, hence the red brick recreations of Gediminas tower and the Castle at Trakai. Linguistically and historically there are links with india, as from northern india is where the Baltic tribes emigrated from to settle the area. They were not the only ones however, as the Karaim, an early offshoot of Judaism, also settled in the area, now numbering in the thousands they still have a distinct culture, a nice restaurant at Trakai and their own Temple, the Knessus.

The connection to India is interesting from a British perspective. Visiting the White Elephant vegetarian restaurant ( balti is the Lithuanian word for white) I expected some kind of Balti house as you'd get in the UK. Despite being very indian themed I didn't see one indian member of staff.Indeed throughout my visit I saw only 6 people of asian descent (tourists) and six black guys (probably all tourists). Kim, a visitor from Korea staying at the same Hostel, was threated by local youths who wanted to fight him just because of his race.

Other strange coincidences associated with this trip; watching "V for Vendetta" the Norsefire symbol is the same double-cross as that on the shield of St Vytas on Lithuanias coat of arms. I saw the same symbol in the sky this morning created by contrails over the Exe estuary. When I first came back, I got a terrible american war film out of the library; in it , the heroine, when detained by the japanese secret service protests" i am a citizen of a neutral country" " I am Lithuianian" and " I was born in Kaunas". It could be that i am just noticing these things more, but it still seems like spooky coincidinkys to me.

I think I'll do some research into the symbolic meaning of this double cross, the phrase itself has a loaded meaning in english; to betray. I wonder where the phrase originates and if there is a connexion between the symbol and the phrase?

The whole Gates of Dawn thing was weird. There are no other Gates of Dawn anywhere else in the world. Was Syd Barrett writing about this place in Vilnius?Does his ghost haunt the ausros gate playing the bagpipes? The chapel here, like St.Cazimirs in the cathedral had a whole array of metal badges representing, limbs, body parts, animals all symbols of people's prayers.

There were interesting beggars in the old town: an eccentrically dressed old lady I called the wicked witch of the east: Mr. Scabby legs,walking about in shorts so you can see his scabs and bruises: other old ladies simply standing queitly with palms outstretched, other kneeling and imploring the Virgin Mary for help.Then there was Andreas "I am from Moscow, I sleep in the bus station please give me money" he got 5lts out of me for good acting and an original approach. There were also people outside every chapel and church, with crutches, facial disfigurements , and general 'poor me' syndrome.

Totnes:

One night in the Barrel House, a woman called Briony pretending to be German wearing an orange pan on her head gave me a potato. She was impressed that I am able to make music from it. It would be nice to meet her again, and give her a cd of the music her potato made, with the help of me and some electricity.

Last night I dreamt I was in the cavern in exeter with my friend matt king, watching Iron Butterfly perform In a Gadda Da Vida, couldn't get served at the bar though, so not a dream I'd like to come true.

Audiobulb Underground Release

2006-04-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

The good people at Audiobulb have decided to include the track "eggslicer and sandwich ingredients recital" which myself and Matthew W. from the droners performed at the venerable Holmbush Festival last summer. shame I haven't got any photo's of it, may have to email the great Phelamongorat to see if any of their friends have any,as I seem to remember someone photographing whilst i strummed the egg slicer.

I've also applied to research a project for Dark Places, a project involving scientific research institutions and artists.

I've got an interview next week for an animation bursary, but I am struggling to visualise how it will look, so anyone out there who wants to email me dark fairies amd angels, drawn or otherwise created, it will be greatly appreciated sufiboy at another dot com as usual.

Yes from unltd, waiting to hear.

2006-03-30T03:29:00.000-08:00

Well, I got funding for open:node from Unltd, about £4600, which is enough for a vehicle and the tools I need to get started. And of course as many different flavours of linux as there are ice cream! A friend is going to donate about 5 PC's to get me started, which I'll begin to distribute at cost to people in areas of rural poverty in Devon.

Just had an interview for a film-making bursary at Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre, I was better prepared than my previous attempts but some of the questions were a bit hard. I may have to change both my visual idea of the film and also modify my script. I won't find out if I was successful for a week, which is a long time in the creative media.

I'm also looking for work, so if anyone needs a creative genius to come and work for them, email me at: sufiboy at another dot com.
The image above is a fruitbowl in a chalet when I was on a break in St.Ives last year. I deleted part of the fruit to insert some sinister cats eyes (plastic, not real).

Circuit bending and bugs...

2006-03-13T05:01:00.000-08:00

Went on a great course this weekend, as part of Exeter's Vibraphonic Festival; a circuit-bending workshop from Bristols Tom Bugs of Knowledge of Bugs. After much talking and soldering we ended up with a simple oscilator circuit which could be modulated, low-powered, and 'body contact' modified. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone.

The photo above is of the first sausage I wired up to make music with, I gave it some eyes to evoke its musical personality.

I've also set up a myspace account here.

Princesshay Graffiti Wiki soon to go online!

2006-03-06T03:34:00.000-08:00

I noticed how the various images on the boards surrounding the new Princesshay Development were quickly repainted and repaired as soon as anyone graffitied on them, so I've decided to create an online space where people can download the images, deface them, and upload them for us all to share. I fully expect that Land Insecurities will come down on me like a ton of badly designed concrete, but, we'll have to see if that happens.

The home of this site will be:

http://princesshay.omweb.org/

I'll add a link on the side here too.

Rainy Ebay days...

2006-02-15T05:18:00.000-08:00

Selling stuff on ebay for friends and fixing Macs, absolutely chucking it down outside. went for a lovely walk the other weekend with my fellow local bookcrossers, (read all about it here: http://knitknackpaddywack.blogspot.com/ ) but have since twisted my leg in a way which makes me limp. I've recently discovered the joys of making Dr Who sing by texting nonsense to my home phone number using BT's voicetext service. I'll post them on the internet archive/my webpage fairly soon, though the quality may be fairly bad as I'll record from my phone handset with a microphone I use for my dilruba which is designed to work with harmonicas!

Got a ticket for the circuit bending workshop! Plant-chant devices beware strangers bearing soldering irons!
Had a strange dream the other night; my sore leg had some encrypted data on it and was painful because Dan Brown was trying to decrypt the data over a firewire connection to my leg.

I'm visiting Prague (Praha) in July; so if anyone knows of interesting things going on there then please let me know:
sufiboy at another dot com.

The image above is a messed about version of a photo of me performing at King Ludd Bookshop in Exeter at the beginning of December. I played a stick of sprouts disguised as a christmas tree including purple tinsel and a luminous inverted Star. My recording of this didn't come out, but I've re-done a version with a single sprout and again this will soon be available for listening and remixing under A Creative Commons License.

Mixing it

2006-02-03T05:16:00.000-08:00

Tonight Children of the Drone will be on Radio3's Mixing It http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/mixingit/index.shtml
with a track featuring myself and matthew on the groan tubes. We're also to be included in a spanish podcast: http://laradiodelalma.blogspot.com/ which is nice.

I've been busy chopping up bits of plant music and drone tracks into loops, coming soon for frre download and remixing from the dronerz website: www.childrenofthedrone.net.

I'm also hoping to get on a circuit bending workshop in March, just before I'm due to visit Access Space in Sheffield. If I'm successful in my funding application to Unltd www.unltd.org then very soon I should be able to offer computer recycling facilities to people in Exeter and the Devon and Cornwall regions. I plan to refurbish PCs and Macs and install Ubuntu or other flavours of linux on them.

OPEN:NODE

2005-12-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

managed to get the disk from the quadra working with a 8100/160 powerpc. Attended an open mute workshop the other weekend, and I've decided to start (along with others) a space similar to Sheffields Access Space; Indeed, they have invited me to visit and do things to G3's. I am hoping to incorporate one of MIT's Fab Lab's into the project as well, if it's at all possible. I emailled some geezer at exeter city council who seemed very dismissive, despite the fact that looking at the guidlines for which community groups the council will support, this project seems eligible. Anyway, any old g3's or g4's or pentiumII' are welcome, email me: machelp at another dot com.

First post

2005-11-03T23:46:00.000-08:00

Well I decided it would make sense to add a blog to my site so I can bore the tiny minority of people who visit with the tedious details of everyday life. And also ask for information/knowledge/bits of old macs!

At the moment I am trying to recover data from a mac quadra 700 with mac os 7.5 installed, can't get it to start up, tried most obvious things, can't fit the hard drive into anything else as its soooooo old and has a weird 50 pin scsi connector. Anyone got an old quadra (working) they don't want?