I added some more info and made a few changes. I should be getting a
price quote today for printing as well.


>  http://www.discountpetfood.net/differentSkies.jpg

Jeffrey Kunzelman said:
> I added some more info and made a few changes. I should be getting a
> price quote today for printing as well.

This is great, Jerry. Some early text tweaks:

It's differentskies.com, not differentskies.org.

You can get the Saturday prices from your own website--they've already been
specified by Arcosanti.

I don't know if dinner is being offered as an option by the Arcosanti folks
for the Friday show; I had assumed (wrongly?) that on a day other than
Saturday the Cafe would prefer to only do a la carte stuff for whomever was
interested. Do you think Mary and Kelli and the Cafe staff would be amenable
to offering a dinner package for Friday as well as Saturday? It would serve as
a nice break between the afternoon and evening sets, and offer an easily
packaged way to get fed without having to drive offsite and back on again.

>>  http://www.discountpetfood.net/differentSkies.jpg

I almost hate to cover up the image with more text, but I think we need a list
of acts, and maybe a phrase like "The City Of The Future Hosts The Music Of
The Future". And then Tim and I can argue about whether this is the music of a
future that never was, and whether that has any icky implications for
Arcosanti as a project...:)

Once you get a quote, Jeff, let me know. I have a source here in Boulder that
does incredibly beautiful and sturdy matte-laminated posters; the owner is a
friend of my art director at the magazine, and might be able to give me a
deal. If we want to do a bunch of them, the question arises: where will we put
them up, and who will do the putting up?

mike

--
As a generalisation, the technology has NOTHING to do with the music.
For each specific artist, it has EVERYTHING to do with the music. (cassiel)
> < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > <
metlay / atomic city / metlay@... / http://www.atomiccity.com

this the list of performers current on the website?

The cafe will be serving dinner anyway on friday anyway. But it just
won't be set up as an event dinner.

I'll see what I can come up with for the additional text.

On Thursday, May 1, 2003, at 10:26 AM, Mike Metlay wrote:

>
> Jeffrey Kunzelman said:
>> I added some more info and made a few changes. I should be getting a
>> price quote today for printing as well.
>
> This is great, Jerry. Some early text tweaks:
>
> It's differentskies.com, not differentskies.org.
>
> You can get the Saturday prices from your own website--they've already
> been
> specified by Arcosanti.
>
> I don't know if dinner is being offered as an option by the Arcosanti
> folks
> for the Friday show; I had assumed (wrongly?) that on a day other than
> Saturday the Cafe would prefer to only do a la carte stuff for
> whomever was
> interested. Do you think Mary and Kelli and the Cafe staff would be
> amenable
> to offering a dinner package for Friday as well as Saturday? It would
> serve as
> a nice break between the afternoon and evening sets, and offer an
> easily
> packaged way to get fed without having to drive offsite and back on
> again.
>
>>>  http://www.discountpetfood.net/differentSkies.jpg
>
> I almost hate to cover up the image with more text, but I think we
> need a list
> of acts, and maybe a phrase like "The City Of The Future Hosts The
> Music Of
> The Future". And then Tim and I can argue about whether this is the
> music of a
> future that never was, and whether that has any icky implications for
> Arcosanti as a project...:)
>
> Once you get a quote, Jeff, let me know. I have a source here in
> Boulder that
> does incredibly beautiful and sturdy matte-laminated posters; the
> owner is a
> friend of my art director at the magazine, and might be able to give
> me a
> deal. If we want to do a bunch of them, the question arises: where
> will we put
> them up, and who will do the putting up?
>
> mike
>
> --
> As a generalisation, the technology has NOTHING to do with the music.
> For each specific artist, it has EVERYTHING to do with the music.
> (cassiel)
>> < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > <
> metlay / atomic city / metlay@... /
> http://www.atomiccity.com
>
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>
>
>

Mike,
   Are you planning on "herding" the shows, or if not, will differentskies be
selecting a stage manager?

dt

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

>
> A lot cheaper then I expected:
>
> The company is Digital CMYK in Tempe AZ.
> www.digitalcmyk.com
>
> 500 posters @ 11x17 on 80lb glossy Book Stock $336 or 1000 for $386
>
> seems silly not to go with 1,000.
>
>
> On Thursday, May 1, 2003, at 08:15 AM, Jeffrey Kunzelman wrote:
>
>> I added some more info and made a few changes. I should be getting a
>> price quote today for printing as well.
>>
>>
>>>  http://www.discountpetfood.net/differentSkies.jpg
>>
>>
>> ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
>> ---------------------~-->
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>>
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>> differentskies-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>>
>>
>>
>> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
>> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>>
>>
>>
>

>Mike,
>   Are you planning on "herding" the shows, or if not, will
>differentskies be selecting a stage manager?

I will do some (most?) of that, and Darwin and Doug will do other
bits. I will also be tapping acts that aren't performing right at
that moment to help offstage. If it looks like we'll need an official
stage manager, I'll appoint one...

mike


--
"You sank my Jenga ship!" "Jenga ship? We're playing CONNECT FOUR!"
====================================================================
Mike Metlay * ATOMIC CITY * PO Box 17083 * Boulder CO 80308-0083 USA
metlay@... *  1-800-924-ATOM  * http://www.atomiccity.com

Greetings everyone,

Well, here it is.  I'm doing my fourth such report now.  Wow!  Much has happened
since 2000...  Anyway, I'm splitting this up because it's quite long.  This
first part will just be on my trip to Nipton, since there's some things that
happened then, and also, in case you don't care about that crap and just want to
hear about the gathering itself, that will be in the next one.  Before I get
started, I just want to give a big thank you to everyone, especially Vic, for
making this all possible.  So without further delay...

Thursday, April 24 -

This year's gathering is in the little town of Nipton, California, which isn't
too far from where I live in Phoenix.  That's quite a change from the previous
years being in southern Georgia.  So I actually went to work and whatnot like
usual today.  After that, I came home and quickly (not really) packed my stuff
in my car to head out.  I decided to drive up to stay the night with some good
friends in Cottonwood (a town in the middle of Arizona, where I lived my high
school and some college years at).  They had just recently become parents, so I
figured it would be a good excuse to visit them and meet their new daughter. 
Also, I figured it would be a little easier to set out from there instead of my
place.

I finally got out of my house around dusk.  The drive up there was pretty
uneventful, and traffic wasn't too bad once I got out of Phoenix.  Later on, I
saw a large owl doing some aerial maneuvers fairly close to the ground next to
the highway.  I guess it was time for hunting small furry prey animals.

I got to my friends' house in about 1.5 hours.  I spent some time with them for
a while that evening and went to sleep kinda late.  It was really nice getting
to see them again.  They actually like some electronic music as well, but there
wasn't much of a way for them to be able to join us. :-(

Friday, April 25 -

This morning, I got up about the same time as I usually do for work (I think I
started out like this all four years now! :-) ) which is 5AM.  I took a quick
shower and quietly snuck out of the house before my friends got up.  I filled my
gas tank back up and had some breakfast at the local Denny's.  I actually had an
unusual breakfast (for me) that included sausage and bacon.  I figured it would
be easier to just order one of the combo's they already had than to try to be
confusing with a special order so early in the morning.  I don't normally eat
meat with breakfast, it's just too heavy for me.  But luckily, this stuff wasn't
too bad and it didn't treat me wrong.

Another reason why I came this way to Nipton is because of a mountain pass I
would be taking.  I basically learned how to drive on this pass, as the mountain
(Mingus mountain) is right near Cottonwood.  It's also been a tradition starting
back in 1990 for me to listen to Tangerine Dream's Melrose when I was driving
over this pass.  So I popped that disc into the player as I set out for the
mountain.  This pass is a lot of fun to drive, if you're not stuck behind
tourists.  It's very twisty, and you gain elevation from about 3200 feet to just
over 7000 feet.  My car also handles the road beautifully, and I usually take
turns quite a bit faster than the signs recommend.

On the way over this mountain, you have to go through an old mining town called
Jerome.  Hey, there's a TD reference! :-)  There's still lots of people who live
there, and the high school I went to used to be located up there (before I was
in high school).  Now, it houses artist studios.  This town is very neat with
all the old houses and buildings, many of them perching out over the slopes of
the mountain.  The roads are quite narrow as well.  There's also some places
that are believed to be haunted, including the Grand Hotel, which used to be a
hospital.  There's a section with a few biker bars and shops and such, which I
guess makes it downtown.  Sometimes, famous musicians will pop in unexpectedly
to these bars.  I remember hearing that Bruce Springsteen popped in and played
some music years back when I lived in the area.

Anyway, after crawling through town, I got to the pass itself and was able to
open the throttle. :-)  Luckily, there wasn't much other traffic on this road
this morning, but one vehicle that stuck out in my mind was an SUV of a newlywed
couple, with California plates.  Heh, I just have to wonder what their story is
for being here after their wedding.  I briefly thought about all the stories we
carry about with us as to why we're in a certain place at a certain time. 
Sometimes it's interesting, like these newlyweds, or myself heading for an EM
gathering.  But they're all unique, and we sometimes run into each other out in
the world as we go along in our own stories.

After my little 'scenic route' over the mountain, I backtrack around and reach
the I-40 to head more towards the direction of Nipton.  This whole drive was
really laid back for me.  I put the cruise control at a good speed so that I
wouldn't get the highway patrol on me.  I also have a healthy mixture of EM and
rock CD's to listen to on the trip.  I eventually reach Kingman, and make my way
towards Laughlin.  I figured I'd have lunch here before the final leg to Nipton.

In Kingman, I was noticing quite a few bikers, but I didn't think it was that
big of a deal.  As I got closer to Laughlin, the number of bikers around was
growing.  Then I get into Laughlin, and there are thousands (yes really) of
bikers all over the place!  What the?!  I've never seen so many motorcyles on
the road before in my life!  There were all kinds of bikes here, but it seemed
like Harley's were the most prevalent, judging by the constantly high noise
level everywhere.  It was a really intense sound.  I could close my eyes and
imagine the town was being besieged by giant mechanical locusts.  I should have
recorded these sounds for future use, but I didn't have my minidisc with me, and
I didn't have any decent mics for it anyway.

I had gotten a message from Vic Rek on my cell phone while I was approaching
Laughlin, but I guess my phone didn't ring due to the mountains blocking the
signal.  I found a place to pull over and tried calling him back.  He said they
were planning on being at Nipton around 2 PM, and it was about 11 as I listened
to the message.  I left him a message as well telling him I'd be having lunch
here and will probably be at Nipton around 1PM.

Now then, I set out to try to find a decent place to eat that wasn't at a
casino.  I didn't think that would be so challenging, but it was (at least for
me).  In town, I see signs everywhere welcoming bikers and soforth.  I even
noticed that the entertainment was really geared towards the bikers.  For
instance, at one casino, Quiet Riot, Survivor and Molly Hatchet were playing
that weekend.  :-)  There were also signs saying something like "Harrah's
supports a no colors policy."  Heh, I guess they don't want to have any gang
violence breaking out with the bikers...

I finally found a place to eat, which was a little Italian place (no, there
weren't little Italians there).  I had a good, big turkey sandwich.  The people
working there all had biker t-shirts on, and the guy who gave me my sandwich
asked me what I 'rode in on'.  Heh, I replied, 'a Toyota Celica... Four wheels.'
:-)  Then I made the comment that I didn't know what was going on here, and he
asked me if I lived in a cave.  I replied 'Phoenix,' which he replied, 'ahhh,
Cave Creek.'  I chuckled politely at the dumb joke (Cave Creek is near Phoenix).
It turns out this was the annual Laughlin River Run, which is one of the biggest
biker gatherings in the US.  I'd heard of it before, but I never knew when it
was.  I took my time with lunch then headed out.  I had plenty of time to get to
Nipton.

One thing I was noticing was how nervous I was driving through here.  Not
because they were mean old bikers.  In fact, I'm sure most of them are really
quite nice people.  I was really nervous about trying to drive surrounded by all
these bikers who will dart in and around from any direction, which is exactly
what they did.  So I just took it slow and let them go around me.

I got out of town with no real problems, however, I was driving with my moonroof
open so my ears were slightly numbed by the incessant rumbling of bikes.  It's
only about 45 minutes from Laughlin to Nipton, and for the last half of the way
(when I turn onto highway 164, which Nipton is on), I popped in Tangerine
Dream's White Eagle.  The first track, Mojave Plan, is the inspiration for the
choice of this location.  It works very well with the desert surroundings, and
the forest of Joshua Trees zipping by my car.

I got to Nipton, which was really just a little grouping of trees and buildings
in the middle of a vast open desert area surrounded by mountains, at around
12:45.  I saw a van on the side of the road there, but noticed that it wasn't
the crew of people I was hoping to meet.  I walked the length of the town along
the highway, which took about 5 minutes and looked around a bit.  It was
constantly windy, which I didn't care for much, so I basically just waited in my
car listening to music and dozing off every now and then as bikers and other
travelers came and went...

<to be continued>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Okay, when we last left our intrepid traveller, he had just arrived in the
tiny town of Nipton, waiting for his friends to show up...

Friday, April 25 (continued) -

If I remember correctly, it ended up being about 2:45 when I finally saw the
van with Vic at the helm crossing the railroad tracks and pulling into the
dirt lot I was sitting in.  This was everyone coming from Las Vegas.  I
probably should have taken the extra day and met them up there, but I needed
to conserve vacation time, and I'd been to Vegas a number of times before,
so I didn't do it.  I immediately sprang out of the car and waved at them.
The van was loaded with lots of people.  I honestly don't remember who all
was in there.  And the people coming from LA were held up because of a bad
accident on the freeway.  We got settled into the little hotel and figured
out who would sleep where.

Eventually. the LA folks made it, but that would be around dusk when we had
everyone there (except for Bill Fox, who was flying into Vegas later in the
afternoon).  In the end, we had (besides myself): Vic Rek, Roger Smith,
Morgan Marks, Frank Arellano, Jerry Wutzke, Jim Moore, Dell Outland, Dave
and Marion Horrod, Chris (Vic's friend), a friend of Roger's whose name
escapes me at the moment (sorry!), Steve Whiteley and his girlfriend
Francesca, Bill Fox, Marcel Engels and his father Rein (did I spell that
correctly?), all three of the Airsculpture guys (finally, Adrian decides to
join us), Der Spyra, Paul Lawler (aka Arcane, aka Max Von Richter), Steve
Schroyder, Jens Zygar, a second Jens and Volker (who came with Steve S and
the first Jens).  I think that's everyone.  Man, my memory is not good
enough for this! :-)  Jens is SSO's sound engineer and Volker has actually
appeared on some SSO recordings under the name a.m. synaptik and has his own
trance project called Ololiuqui.

We grabbed some food at the cantina next door to the hotel right about the
time they were closing.  They actually had good food there, lots of barbeque



type stuff made to order.  They also had a family of cats living there in a
blocked off area.  The kittens had to be only a few weeks old and were
sooooo cute!  Sorry about that.  If there's one thing that makes this man
melt into a babbling goofball, it's kittens.  They reminded me of the cat I
left at home.  Mom cat just wandered around the dining area saying 'hi' to
everyone.

If I remember correctly, we hung around the cantina a while to get
acquainted/reacquainted with each other.  Meanwhile, some people snuck off
and began to rearrange the hotel lobby into something unrecognizable, yet
more friendly for playing and listening to music. :-)  There was some good
music made that night, but I don't remember playing much in it.  Everyone
was just kinda orbiting in and out of the conglomeration at will, which
makes it good for a constantly shifting sound palette.  There was definitely
too many of us to play all at the same time.  I'm trying to remember if Paul
played that night or not.  He usually got on my synths when I wasn't playing
(but I had to twist his arm to get him to do it! ;-) ).

It was a nice evening overall, and it ended late in true Ricochet fashion.
I might have even turned in before the music ended, I can't recall...

Saturday, April 26 -

I got up fairly timely because I knew the cantina was open for just a couple
of hours for continental breakfast.  I took a quick shower and fixed my hair
up (the last time I'd do my hair on this trip, since it would just get beat
up by the elements anyway :-) ) and went next door.

If I remember correctly, some people were already at the cantina when I get
there.  And there was buzz about an accident that happened some time after I
went to sleep.  The hard drive that the music was being recorded on crashed.
And when I say crashed, I mean it physically crashed onto the floor!  A very
tragic thing indeed to have lost all that music.  Hopefully the drive itself
wasn't permanently damaged.

Today, I wanted to just go wandering off into the desert for a nice hike.
But I was somehow convinced to go 4-wheeling with some folks instead, with
the promise of going to a nice spring in the end.  There were a few
different organized activities like this today, and we all split off to
enjoy the location.

Before we went, I ran into the store to get something to munch on.  I heard
they were doing this, but I was still quite surprised to hear the Okefenokee
Dreams 2001 CD playing over the store's speakers!  I must say it's a very
odd thing for me to hear myself playing like that.  Apparently, people are
really liking it when they hear it, asking where they can buy it.

The four-wheeling crew took two trucks.  There was Steve W, Francesca and
myself in Steve's Ford Exploder-I mean-Explorer, and Roger, Roger's friend
(I wish I could remember his name!), Paul, Steve S, both Jens's and Volker
in Roger's friend's big diesel pickup.  There was a walkie talkie for each
truck, snacks, drinks, cameras, etc... so we were ready to rock.  We drove
off into the Preserve, but missed a turnoff that we needed to take, so we
just kept going the direction our noses were pointing.  I was a bit bummed
by that because I didn't want to spend the day riding in a vehicle.  But we
did stop every now and then at an interesting site to take pictures and walk
a bit.  We also managed to get some actual four-wheeling in at one point,
climbing some steep trails.  Both trucks took it just fine.

At one point, we stopped at a neat rock formation and got out to explore.  I
was the first one to run to the rocks and start getting on top of them.
However, my haste was my folly.  I was at a point where I needed to jump to
another rock.  I misjudged the jump however, and fell about five feet down
inbetween the rocks into a bush.  I managed to bang my knee nicely into the
rock on the way down.  I'm grateful for the bush breaking my fall, as I
landed on my back, and maybe could have been hurt even worse than I was.
Man, my knee really hurt.  I immediately got off of the bush, thinking that
the longer I stayed on it, the more likely it wouldn't be able to recover
from my bodily assault.  I don't think anyone actually saw me fall, or heard
me yelp as I fell, but they definitely saw me limping after the fact.

Some of the crew were finding a way up to the very top of the formation (the
way I should have went in the first place!), and I wanted to follow.  But
given my knee wasn't too happy at the moment, I decided to stay on the
ground.

We posed for some pictures before heading out.  I had to keep answering
queries as to my well-being.  I really didn't want any sympathy or extra
attention.  I was stupid, and I didn't hurt myself too badly so it was okay.

We got back into the trucks and found our way to a formation called Hole in
the Wall.  It was a facinating volcanic formation with lots of hollow
pockets in the rocks, some of which actually going all the way through.  We
stopped and had some snacks here first.  And Francesca forced a bag of ice
on me for my knee.  I didn't want it, but I thanked her and proceeded to ice
my boo-boo for a few minutes.  We took some pictures here and then headed
out.

It was time to think of heading back home as it was getting late, and the
pickup was low on diesel.  We were actually closer to the south side of the
preserve (Nipton's on the north), so we went that way to a little town for
fuel.  Then we headed back through the preserve to Nipton.

After we got back, there was a point where I was just kinda jamming on my
synths with the headphones on.  Volker came in at some point and turned the
PA on, and we jammed for a bit which was a lot of fun.  There's patch on my
Korg that plays a bouncy percussion/bass/chord sequence that I like to
follow a blues progression with (don't ask me why), and that's what we
jammed on.  Volker added some really good manual sequencer lines to it, and
I played a bit of lead on top of it all.

This night, we decided to have our own barbeque of some kind of blackened
chicken, salad and other goodies.  After mowing down the food (Morgan
somehow got chef duties again, thank you!), we proceeded to the rest of the
night's festivities.  We were doing our infamous 'Tangerine Dream Name That
Tune' game.  I actually managed to lay down for a bit before the game.  I
must have been tired from my brush with death. ;-)  This year, Jim was
actually running the thing, and I did not compete in the name that tune
part, so there was actually a chance for others to win a few times. :-)  I
helped with the judging and noticing who rang in first to try to answer.  In
the regular exchange portion before the 'name that tune' portion, I managed
to snag a CD set of piano tunes from various artists including Klaus Schulze
(though I didn't hear much piano in his stuff) and Keith Emerson, and Der
Spyra's "My Little Garden of Sounds" (a very good disc, BTW).  Paul actually
managed to get a lot of the TD tunes correct, including the newer stuff.  It
was a lot of fun, but then it was time to make more music.

I actually started making music with Jens' Handsonic that night, as Jens was
parked at my keys, playing a little bit of background music for the first
part of the contest.  That was a lot of fun, as I'm also a bit of a
percussionist myself.  Maybe I should buy one of these things...  I think
this night, Paul played quite a bit.  I remember some really good bits that
he contributed to the music.  This night, Marcel played quite a bit as well.
He was using my Korg as a controller so he could play his Mellotron samples.
There was another hard drive available, so that (among other things) was
recording the music.

This night, I definitely turned in before the music ended.  I went into the
room (which I shared with Chris) and layed down with the door open.  It was
nice drifting in and out with the music going.

Sunday, April 27 -

Okay, I got up again this morning at the right time to catch the breakfast.
Not much really happened during the day.  We ended up planning the main
event of the day (and for the whole trip).  We were going to set up outside
in front of
the cantina and have a long set of music, going from one grouping to the
next.  It was to start with Paul, Volker and myself, then go to Der Spyra
and SSO, then to Airsculpture and Marcel, then SSO with Bill.  I guess we
were setting out to out-do the epic planetary ambience set we had last year.
Well, I think it was more than out-done!  It was incredible!

We spent most of the day planning out the whats/whens/wheres/hows of the
night, and moved the gear over to the deck infront of the cantina.  Paul and
I made the decision to try hammering out some chord sequences to follow for
our set.  Heh, that will prove to be a big mistake.

Meanwhile, I had lunch at the cantina, which was a very good ground chicken
burger.  MMMM!  We were wanting to start the whole thing around 4 PM, but it
was getting held up due to various details.  We decided to start it after
dinner.  Some people opted for McDonalds from the nearest town, but I ate at
the cantina again (which I greatly prefer!).

We finally got started around 8PM.  In hindsight, I would have programmed
some percussion or bassline loops in my XP just in case Paul, Volker and I
needed them to fall back on.  We didn't have hardly any time to practice the
chord sequences we decided on, and ended up just throwing it out for pure
improv.  Heh, we were struggling a bit but everyone seemed to enjoy our
opening movement.  I just wish I could have had some reverb on that
mellotron flute! :-/

We finished our set, and it was time to enjoy the rest of the musicians'
performances.  It was at this time that I found out that Jim decided to
out-do my mishap at the rocks the day before and break his foot!  It was
really quite swollen!

Anyway, there were some locals there checking out our show.  One guy in
particular who I'll probably never forget is Dave.  He was an older guy who
looked kinda like a biker version of Santa Claus.  He was a really friendly
guy, and was quite enthusiastic about the music we were making.  He was also
more than eager to share a smoke of his 'longbottom leaf' with anyone within
reach. ;-)  It was quite a fun time for all, hanging out, taking pictures,
enjoying the excellent music.  It was a wonderful party.  It was actually
the first time I'd had any alcohol in quite a while, so I was flying pretty
good after just a couple of small cups of wine.  Hey, I'm a cheap date. :-)

Heh, at one point, I went back to the hotel room to drop something off.  I
hadn't noticed that my roomie Chris had not been around outside lately.  I
burst into the room without turning on the light, dropped some stuff off,
then let out a sharp loud belch.  Then I saw poor Chris jerk up from his
bed!  I let out a quick, quiet, "I'm sorry!" and backed out of the room
quietly.  I felt sooo bad!  Later on, Chris came back outside and I
apologized to him for my lack of manners.  He said it was okay, and that he
wasn't sure he remembered it happening.

I ended up turning in myself at about 3AM.  I tried to stay up so I could
help move the gear back in, but they showed no signs of stopping!  I heard
that it went until about 4:30, when someone came out and complained about
the noise. :-)

Monday, April 28 -

I managed to get up in time for breakfast again luckily!  I've been missing
some great music at the ends of the evenings, but as long as I can have a
muffin and juice in the mornings, I'll be allright.

I felt a bit guilty for not helping bring stuff in at the end of the night.
All the synths and computers managed to get moved in, but the PA stayed out.
I actually packed my gear up after Airsculpture and Marcel finished, as they
were using my synths as controllers.

We were all pretty beat up after the partying, but it was cool.  I believe
just about all of it was recorded.  I even remember Morgan making some of us
nervous as he hovered over the analog tape and CDR recorders making sure
they were functioning properly.

Some people were going to go to Vegas and then Hoover Dam for some sight
seeing (and one person for a visit to a doctor's office for a bum foot).
They ultimately didn't make it to the dam though. :-)  I decided to stay
put, to relax and check out some more of the local sights.

I forgot to mention that Vic had to get the Ricochet T-shirts and TDI CD's
delivered to Nipton, but they hadn't arrived on Friday like they were
supposed to.  Luckily, the CD's arrived this morning.  I immediately snagged
a copy of TD's new Mota Atma, and while I was at it, also bought a copy of
Fanger and Schonwalder's Analog Overdose, and Der Spyra's Elevator to
Heaven.  After hearing Analog Overdose, I've decided I need to get AO 2 and
Fanger and Kersten's Splashdown as well.  Hopefully Vic'll still have some
available for sale through his website.  I also bought three of the posters
that Vic had made up.  The Ricochet poster is so neat looking!  I must find
a frame for it.  I also bought an SSO t-shirt from Jens earlier.  Sadly, the
Ricochet t-shirts didn't make it before we left.

Today was more or less an interview day for me.  Pete had set up a video
diary in one of the rooms, and I contributed some babbling on the subject of
the gatherings and EM.  I was also interviewed by Marion, which I guess is
related to her new job at Krautrocknet.  This is actually the first time
I've really been interviewed for music.  Hopefully, I did okay. :-)

My knee was actually doing a lot better this day, so I wandered out into the
desert a ways and then came back.  I didn't go very far since I didn't take
any water with me.  My knee actually still hurts a little bit, but I only
notice it when I use the stairs.

Oh, and today, I also whipped out Mota Atma and played it in my car stereo
for a bit.  Marion came and listened to it with me, and Frank also wandered
by.  MA's pretty good, I like the fact that they went back to more of a
classic sequenced style, and some of it even sounded like it could be
improv. 8-O  But I wished it had more of a melodic element in it.

Tonight, we set up some of the gear for one more time in the hotel.  But
first, we got to play with an invention of Spyra's a bit.  After buying the
Elevator to Heaven set, I noticed a blurb in there about something he made
called the Personal Ambient Sound System (PASS) and I asked him about it.
He managed to bring one with him.  It consists of soundproof headphones with
built in microphones, a backpack with sound processing electronics and a
control pad.  You can dial up all sorts of settings to change your aural
perception of the world around you.  It was quite facinating, and Spyra was
talking about all the different uses it could have, including a unique
concert he once did where the audience had these headphones on, and speech
therapy.  It was also entertaining to see a bunch of nuts making all sorts
of strange noises while surrounding a nut wearing the headphones. :-)  I may
have to see about buying one of these things someday.

As for the music, Bill, John, Adrian, Spyra and myself played first.  We
started out a bit shaky, but then it really started to gel.  Towards the
end, we just let it all loose and started goofing around with some
techno/disco flavored stuff that reminded me of Moroder.  Heh, I should have
broke out the vocoder for that. :-)  It was a lot of fun.  The night was
capped off with an excellent set from Airsculpture.  If they don't release
it, we'll all have to march over to the UK, storm their castles-uhhh I mean
flats, and take it from them! :-)

After that was done, we discussed what was going to happen for next year.
As Jim reported, next year it will be in Poland.  And it looks like the
roster of artists will only grow more impressive, and it will be a more
serious/professional event.  I'm fairly sure I'll go, but I'm not at 100%
yet.  We went to sleep, and I chatted with Chris a bit before drifting off
to sleep.  He was an interesting person to talk to, as he wasn't really
familiar with EM, but he was definitely open to it.  He did end up going
home with some new music of course. :-)

Tuesday, April 29 -

This is the end...  My only friend, the end. :-)  That phrase was stuck in
my head this morning for some reason.  The SSO crew got to have breakfast
this morning, apparently the first time they were able to get up early
enough for it.  We spent our time packing up, and trying to leave the place
like we found it.  We said our goodbyes, took some last photos, and parted
ways.

My drive back home wasn't nearly as interesting as the drive to Nipton.
Laughlin was quiet and not crowded anymore.  I stopped for lunch in Kingman,
which was interesting because I ate at a good Chinese restaurant.  I would
not
expect to find such a place in Kingman. :-)  They even had some kanji
(Chinese writing) on their sign.

I got back into Phoenix during rush hour, but I managed to get home without
too much delay.  I was nearly mauled by my cat however, who was demanding
the reason why I abandoned him the last few days. :-)

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this.  I enjoyed trying to remember it all.
I'm sure I still left out some details, but they should be covered by some
other people who attended.  It's always neat to see different points of view
of the same event.

Maybe I'll be making yet another report like this, after Poland in the
summer of 2004.  We'll see.  It'll be the first time this guy's ever been
out of the U.S. if he goes.  Will he be brave enough to go on such a trek?
We'll just have to wait and see...

Regards,
Dave B. (I've got blisters on my fingers!)

p.s. - Coming up next will be the Different Skies festival at Arcosanti in
Arizona this September.  Wow, I'll actually be going to two EM events this
year!  That's a first.  I know I'll see Bill there as well.  Hopefully some
other familiar faces from Ricochet will make it too.

>>500 posters @ 11x17 on 80lb glossy Book Stock $336 or 1000 for $386
>>
>>seems silly not to go with 1,000.

I agree with that!  Now, my question is, are 11x17 posters enough?

Can we also get some that are larger than that, say 24x36 or so?

-Doug

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Metlay" <metlay@...>
> If we want to do a bunch of them, the question arises: where will we put
> them up, and who will do the putting up?

Vic Rek printed up a few posters for the Ricochet Gathering 2003 in Mojave.
None were put up.  (There's nowhere worth a poster in Nipton to do that.  Nipton
has a hotel and that's about it.  It used to be a ghost town.  Now it's a
destination!)  But they were sold to the attendees for $5 a crack.

Cheers,

Bill

Mail I never answered! (Should be a bit more communicative now;
eldest daughter's birthday is over, think Royal Wedding but more
expensive and elaborate, and school will soon be out)

>Previously:
>>  3. Initial monetary contributions. We will be expected to pay for
>>  half the food up front; the rest will be due upon arrival.
>
>How much is that exactly?  Do they want one big chunk, or is it
>alright to make individual payments?

Whew. Rough meatball estimate: 1/2 up front x 20 dollars per day x
six days x 20 people = $1200. I think they want a check for the whole
thing at once so they can make a run to wherever they buy the food
they don't grow themselves, and have supplies laid in for when we
arrive. I think we have about six week's lead time.

>  > 5. Marketing! Have I dropped the ball on providing usable copy for
>>  people to post on websites, mail to radio stations and catalogs,
>>  etc?
>
>It would be nice to have some kind of flyer.  I just got one from
>Arcosanti, listing Different Skies.  I may try to get more copies
>of that...

That would be good. I also plan to be proactive in helping Jeff
finalize the poster design, and I'll try to come up with some front
money to help him do the print run. I would love to see the promo
writeups I did for DS fly high and wide over the Internet, too... I
think that it's better to apologize for redundancy than to miss a
venue. Bill and others, please help me assemble a press mailing list
of magazines, ezines, catalogs, radio shows, etc. that need to know
about this. Then we need to do more with the local media in Phoenix,
Tucson, Flagstaff, and Sedona. Somehow.

More later,

mike

--
"You sank my Jenga ship!" "Jenga ship? We're playing CONNECT FOUR!"
====================================================================
Mike Metlay * ATOMIC CITY * PO Box 17083 * Boulder CO 80308-0083 USA
metlay@... *  1-800-924-ATOM  * http://www.atomiccity.com

Mike and Darwin,

I started to post this to the differentskies list, but then I had
second thoughts - I didn't know how many people really care about
this stuff.  I figured that both of you would, so here it is.  If
you think it has general relevance and that I should send it to the
list, then I will...

-Doug

P.S. Do you think we'll need to remotely control the recording
system from the FOH position?  I was planning to leave everything
on stage...  (It can be done remotely via a network connection,
but I'd need to bring another computer.)


=====================Original Message========================


Quick update - a question was raised about using my Roland VM mixer
with Paris via analog connections and whether the extra D/A and A/D
conversion would have an effect on the sound.  Well, I haven't done
any a-b tests, but earlier today I had success with a different
option...

Roland sells a converter called a DIF-AT which plugs into the R-Bus
on the VM processor and can talk to an ADAT interface.  I borrowed
one of these and was able to connect the VM to the ADAT interface
card in my PARIS system, so that means the signal can remain digital
from the mixer inputs all the way to the hard disk and back to the
mixer outputs.  I may have to try the ADAT interface with the
KSP8 next...

I don't remember how much I've said about my rig, but it looks like
I'll be bringing:

Roland VM-C7200 mixer console (25 faders) - FOH control
Roland VM-C7100 mixer console (13 faders) - on stage control
(2x) Roland VM-7200 processors - total of 40 analog ins, ten
                                   stereo effects, 48 digital ins/outs

For those of you who aren't familiar with the VM series, it is
a digital mixer with rack mount processors and separate remote
controllers (consoles).  The processors can also be controlled
via midi, so the consoles aren't absolutely necessary.  Although
the consoles have "only" 12 or 24 channel faders, they can be
switched to control different sets of channels in the processors,
and even more fun, two consoles can be connected to the processors
at the same time, so you can have dueling faders between the stage
and the FOH position...!  (MORE cowbell!!!  ...no, LESS!)  ;-)
Sadly, Roland has discontinued the VM-7000 series...


I'm also bringing:
PC Paris system -  48 hardware tracks with 16 ADAT channels and
                     32 analog ins
Mac Paris system - 32 hardware tracks with 8 ADAT channels and
                     16 analog ins

For those not familiar with PARIS, it's a computer based DAW with
PCI cards that each handle 16 input channels and 16 output channels
of digital audio.  I have a total of seven cards, but I keep three
in the PC and two in the Mac, with a couple spares just in case.
Sadly, Ensoniq went out of business and Emu has discontinued PARIS...

I have removable drive bays in the pc, so it is easy to swap out
full hard disks to get more recording time.  If we need it, it's
not too hard to swap disks in the Mac as well...

The cool thing about this rig is that pretty much everything stays
on the stage, so there don't have to be big cable runs everywhere.
The mixer and recorders all stay in a couple rack cases right next
to the amplifiers, so the only thing coming out of the immediate
area are cables to the speakers and one control line to the FOH
console.  Then we just run a pair of cables from each person's spot
on stage to that rack, and we're done.

BTW, I'll be able to provide stereo mixes both onstage and at the
front of house position.

So, does that meet everyone's approval?

-Doug

Bill said:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Mike Metlay" <metlay@...>
>>  If we want to do a bunch of them, the question arises: where will we put
>>  them up, and who will do the putting up?
>
>Vic Rek printed up a few posters for the Ricochet Gathering 2003 in Mojave.
>None were put up.  (There's nowhere worth a poster in Nipton to do
>that.  Nipton
>has a hotel and that's about it.  It used to be a ghost town.  Now it's a
>destination!)  But they were sold to the attendees for $5 a crack.

Ooooooooh. Money. NOW I understand. A few bucks a poster times a
couple hundred attendees would pay for the press run plus some cases
of Noodle-Roni. Not to mention the souvenir value.

I assume T-shirts are likely to be much less profitable. Should price them...

And from Jeff and Doug:

>  >>500 posters @ 11x17 on 80lb glossy Book Stock $336 or 1000 for $386
>>>
>>>seems silly not to go with 1,000.
>
>I agree with that!  Now, my question is, are 11x17 posters enough?
>
>Can we also get some that are larger than that, say 24x36 or so?
>

I'd be interested to hear about costs, but for carrying home in a
car, 11x17 might be a bit easier to handle than anything really large?

mike
--
"You sank my Jenga ship!" "Jenga ship? We're playing CONNECT FOUR!"
====================================================================
Mike Metlay * ATOMIC CITY * PO Box 17083 * Boulder CO 80308-0083 USA
metlay@... *  1-800-924-ATOM  * http://www.atomiccity.com

I can get a quote on the larger poster, but I'm not sure the images'
resolution will look good on that scale. I think the turnaround time is
pretty quick on the digital press so maybe we could get those later if
there is demand. We could go 18 x 24 instead of 24 x 32.

On selling the poster. Arcosanti and myself should get a cut of the
proceeds, but I don't want to stomp on any momentum to further the
cause of space music. I will also want to retain rights to the image
with out the text and be able to sell that as a art print once the show
has passed.

I'm still in awe at how little it will cost to print this. My past
printing experiences led me to figure this would cost $1500 to $2000 to
print. At this price I should be making posters all the time.



On Sunday, May 4, 2003, at 08:46 PM, Mike Metlay ++ Atomic City wrote:

> Bill said:
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Mike Metlay" <metlay@...>
>>>  If we want to do a bunch of them, the question arises: where will
>>> we put
>>>  them up, and who will do the putting up?
>>
>> Vic Rek printed up a few posters for the Ricochet Gathering 2003 in
>> Mojave.
>> None were put up.  (There's nowhere worth a poster in Nipton to do
>> that.  Nipton
>> has a hotel and that's about it.  It used to be a ghost town.  Now
>> it's a
>> destination!)  But they were sold to the attendees for $5 a crack.
>
> Ooooooooh. Money. NOW I understand. A few bucks a poster times a
> couple hundred attendees would pay for the press run plus some cases
> of Noodle-Roni. Not to mention the souvenir value.
>
> I assume T-shirts are likely to be much less profitable. Should price
> them...
>
> And from Jeff and Doug:
>
>>>> 500 posters @ 11x17 on 80lb glossy Book Stock $336 or 1000 for $386
>>>>
>>>> seems silly not to go with 1,000.
>>
>> I agree with that!  Now, my question is, are 11x17 posters enough?
>>
>> Can we also get some that are larger than that, say 24x36 or so?
>>
>
> I'd be interested to hear about costs, but for carrying home in a
> car, 11x17 might be a bit easier to handle than anything really large?
>
> mike
> --
> "You sank my Jenga ship!" "Jenga ship? We're playing CONNECT FOUR!"
> ====================================================================
> Mike Metlay * ATOMIC CITY * PO Box 17083 * Boulder CO 80308-0083 USA
> metlay@... *  1-800-924-ATOM  * http://www.atomiccity.com
>
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>

> For those of you who aren't familiar with the VM series, it is
> a digital mixer with rack mount processors and separate remote
> controllers (consoles).

The budget end of the VM range is the VM-3100 (and VM-3100Pro) - I
have the latter. It's a small table-top mixer with 20 ins (12 analogue
plus 8 digital), 8 buss outputs which can be somewhat mixed and
matched to RBUS, analogue out or S/PDIF; a stack of internal routing
options; and everything you expect from Roland: a user interface which
is obscure to an extreme, and a manual comprising a pile of little
screenshots and technical text of zero nutritional value.  I have a
DIF-AT also, to connect it via lightpipe to one of my Oasys cards.

--

   nick rothwell -- composition, systems, performance -- http://www.cassiel.com

Nick writes:
> The budget end of the VM range is the VM-3100 (and VM-3100Pro) - I
> have the latter.

I know quite a few people who have the 3100, several including the
PCI R-Bus card.  Hard to beat for the money.  There is always a
brisk trade on ebay as well...


> and everything you expect from Roland: a user interface which
> is obscure to an extreme, and a manual comprising a pile of little
> screenshots and technical text of zero nutritional value.

Heehee...  Actually, I didn't find the VM docs too bad, but then,
I lived through the VS-1880 docs, and before that, quite a few
Yamaha manuals...  ;-)

-Doug  (Then again, I'm a computer system administrator who's used
         to translating obscure manuals into instructions that users
         can understand...)

...is done, aside from one more critical listening pass and some possible
tweaks...if it went out like this today I wouldn't be too unhappy.

Here's the relevant data, to be whipped into simple liner notes:

***

DIFFERENT SKIES 2003: A SAMPLER

01 DAVE BREWER 	 Soliloquy (excerpt)  7:00
02 MUTATION VECTOR  Centipede 		 5:03
03 TONY GERBER 	 Dusk 			 7:13
04 SUNDAGGER 	 Silent Stones 	 6:38
05 CASSIEL 		 1919/21 (Green Axis) 4:21
06 ETHERIUM 		 Remember 		 7:47
07 DWELLER 		 Ouroborus Part 2  8:01
08 XEROID ENTITY  Iapetus 			 4:50
09 MA JA LE 		 Dark Around Us 	 4:47
10 TIM WALTERS 	 By Tens Forever 	 6:00
11 TEAM METLAY 	 Beneath Stars (excerpt) 7:12
12 OZONE PLAYER 	 Saurus 			 6:47

TOTAL: 74:51

All tracks are (c)(p) their respective creators under the Bern Convention and
are used by permission. This compilation assembled by Mike Metlay and Darwin
Grosse.

Different Skies 2003 will take place September 8-14 at the Arcosanti site near
Phoenix, Arizona, USA. The artists heard on this CD will attend not only to
play their own music but to meet one another and create new music never before
heard by the electronic music community. Public concerts will be held on
September 12 and 13. For information on attending the festival, please see
www.differentskies.com.

***

A public thanxmuchly to Darwin Grosse for all his help in ripping, trimming,
adjusting, and crossfading to produce the final collection, and for his
hospitality to a sleep-and-oxygen-deprived producer. (His studio is almost
3000 meters above sea level. Yah, oy vey once. :)

I am listening to this CD right now, and I am delighted as to how well it has
turned out. Darwin and I were amazed at how easy it was to find good
transitions from song to song, and the energy flow of the record is amazing.
It may become my favorite listen-in-the-car CD for the summer.

Our current plan is to use a Primera Bravo to burn at least fifty copies with
on-disc printing (Otso and Tim, time to fire up that image file I asked for!),
package them affordably (I have 50 slimline jewelcases and can probably print
up simple B/W artwork onto precut labels, similar to what was done with _After
Silence_, although color printing would be nice if anyone can do it easily and
cheaply), and get them out to people (let's start assembling a mailing list
folks! All the major and minor radio shows that play this stuff, magazines,
catalog sites, labels, etc. Bill, can you hook us up with Stephen Hill and/or
John Diliberto?).

We will of course get a copy or three to Arcosanti, for Jeff to hand around to
Kelli, Mary, perhaps Mr. Soleri himself, etc.

Once people hear it, we should think about getting it out to the public at
large if people are pleased enough with how it turned out. CD-R sales to
people who can't make the show could defray some of our costs. Or should we
create a Different Skies MP3.com or Emusic.com site where people can buy
downloads or DAM CDs? Something to think about...

I'd like to upload MP3s for fast distribution to all of y'all, but the total
record would be over 80 MB and some of the track crossfades would be ruined by
the chopping-up process if we tried to encode tracks separately. Anyone have
any suggestions on how to surmount these obstacles? Should we just consider
such MP3s to be "meatball" versions for quick listening and not worry about
finessing the track boundaries?

Anyway, bravo to all of y'all for some truly amazing music.

mike

--
As a generalisation, the technology has NOTHING to do with the music.
For each specific artist, it has EVERYTHING to do with the music. (cassiel)
> < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > <
metlay / atomic city / metlay@... / http://www.atomiccity.com

will this also be the list of composers? I can start figuring out a way
to put them on the poster.

On Thursday, May 15, 2003, at 10:58 AM, Mike Metlay wrote:

> ...is done, aside from one more critical listening pass and some
> possible
> tweaks...if it went out like this today I wouldn't be too unhappy.
>
> Here's the relevant data, to be whipped into simple liner notes:
>
> ***
>
> DIFFERENT SKIES 2003: A SAMPLER
>
> 01 DAVE BREWER 	 Soliloquy (excerpt)  7:00
> 02 MUTATION VECTOR  Centipede 		 5:03
> 03 TONY GERBER 	 Dusk 			 7:13
> 04 SUNDAGGER 	 Silent Stones 	 6:38
> 05 CASSIEL 		 1919/21 (Green Axis) 4:21
> 06 ETHERIUM 		 Remember 		 7:47
> 07 DWELLER 		 Ouroborus Part 2  8:01
> 08 XEROID ENTITY  Iapetus 			 4:50
> 09 MA JA LE 		 Dark Around Us 	 4:47
> 10 TIM WALTERS 	 By Tens Forever 	 6:00
> 11 TEAM METLAY 	 Beneath Stars (excerpt) 7:12
> 12 OZONE PLAYER 	 Saurus 			 6:47
>
> TOTAL: 74:51
>
> All tracks are (c)(p) their respective creators under the Bern
> Convention and
> are used by permission. This compilation assembled by Mike Metlay and
> Darwin
> Grosse.
>
> Different Skies 2003 will take place September 8-14 at the Arcosanti
> site near
> Phoenix, Arizona, USA. The artists heard on this CD will attend not
> only to
> play their own music but to meet one another and create new music
> never before
> heard by the electronic music community. Public concerts will be held
> on
> September 12 and 13. For information on attending the festival, please
> see
> www.differentskies.com.
>
> ***
>
> A public thanxmuchly to Darwin Grosse for all his help in ripping,
> trimming,
> adjusting, and crossfading to produce the final collection, and for his
> hospitality to a sleep-and-oxygen-deprived producer. (His studio is
> almost
> 3000 meters above sea level. Yah, oy vey once. :)
>
> I am listening to this CD right now, and I am delighted as to how well
> it has
> turned out. Darwin and I were amazed at how easy it was to find good
> transitions from song to song, and the energy flow of the record is
> amazing.
> It may become my favorite listen-in-the-car CD for the summer.
>
> Our current plan is to use a Primera Bravo to burn at least fifty
> copies with
> on-disc printing (Otso and Tim, time to fire up that image file I
> asked for!),
> package them affordably (I have 50 slimline jewelcases and can
> probably print
> up simple B/W artwork onto precut labels, similar to what was done
> with _After
> Silence_, although color printing would be nice if anyone can do it
> easily and
> cheaply), and get them out to people (let's start assembling a mailing
> list
> folks! All the major and minor radio shows that play this stuff,
> magazines,
> catalog sites, labels, etc. Bill, can you hook us up with Stephen Hill
> and/or
> John Diliberto?).
>
> We will of course get a copy or three to Arcosanti, for Jeff to hand
> around to
> Kelli, Mary, perhaps Mr. Soleri himself, etc.
>
> Once people hear it, we should think about getting it out to the
> public at
> large if people are pleased enough with how it turned out. CD-R sales
> to
> people who can't make the show could defray some of our costs. Or
> should we
> create a Different Skies MP3.com or Emusic.com site where people can
> buy
> downloads or DAM CDs? Something to think about...
>
> I'd like to upload MP3s for fast distribution to all of y'all, but the
> total
> record would be over 80 MB and some of the track crossfades would be
> ruined by
> the chopping-up process if we tried to encode tracks separately.
> Anyone have
> any suggestions on how to surmount these obstacles? Should we just
> consider
> such MP3s to be "meatball" versions for quick listening and not worry
> about
> finessing the track boundaries?
>
> Anyway, bravo to all of y'all for some truly amazing music.
>
> mike
>
> --
> As a generalisation, the technology has NOTHING to do with the music.
> For each specific artist, it has EVERYTHING to do with the music.
> (cassiel)
>> < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > <
> metlay / atomic city / metlay@... /
> http://www.atomiccity.com
>
> ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
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>
>
>
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>
>
>

Jeffrey Kunzelman said:
> will this also be the list of composers? I can start figuring out a way
> to put them on the poster.

Well, the names Ozone Player, Tim Walters, Sundagger, Ma Ja Le, Tony Gerber,
Dave Brewer, and CASSIEL (all caps), are okay as is, but

- Giles and Dierdre Reaves still need to decide if they will both be there as
Etherium, so for now listing Giles Reaves instead of Etherium is a good idea
(it is anyway, as his name has more draw);
- The full name of Dweller should be listed as Dweller At The Threshold;
- My listing should be Metlay! rather than Team Metlay--the music I used on
the sampler is a chunk of a live Team show where I do most of the playing with
Nick backing me up, but the Team per se will not be at DS. Same reason we can
list Tony and Giles separately but must not list SPACECRAFT;
- Darwin Grosse doesn't want to be listed specifically as a player, I THINK,
but Doug Wellington might;
      and
- Mutation Vector and Xeroid Entity may be appearing as a quartet, name to be
decided (Vector Entity? Xeroid Mutation? Xeroid Vector? Foxy And The Loxies?
Howie's Angels? Leather and Lacey? Waltzer Matilda?), rather than as two
bands, or not, they haven't told me yet.

...so no, not exactly. But what I've just told you should make a good start.

mike

--
As a generalisation, the technology has NOTHING to do with the music.
For each specific artist, it has EVERYTHING to do with the music. (cassiel)
> < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > <
metlay / atomic city / metlay@... / http://www.atomiccity.com

In a message dated 5/15/03 9:37:53 PM !!!First Boot!!!, metlay@...
writes:

<< Howie's Angels? Leather and Lacey? Waltzer Matilda? >>
This is good stuff!
I think I like Waltzer Matilda the best.
What do you think, Greg?
JEM

> - Darwin Grosse doesn't want to be listed specifically as a player, I THINK,

That's correct.  Not that I don't like y'all, but I'm pretty convinced I'm
not going to be either composing or performing in this one...

[ddg]
Darwin Grosse

I expect that Mutation Vector and Xeroid Entity will appear as separate
acts.
I wouldn't rule out potential combinations that develop once we're out
there.
But the styles are different, and each of them has material that has
been prepared and performed around here.

Concerning the sampler, I'm not in any rush to get mp3s, I'll wait for
the audio version.
If everyone participating is getting a copy, plus arcosanti, radio
stations, reviewers etc. then we'll probably need more than 50.
We could offer some kind of package deal for the show - tickets for both
days with dinner, poster, "limited edition" CD.

Mike Metlay wrote:

>Jeffrey Kunzelman said:
>
>
>>will this also be the list of composers? I can start figuring out a way
>>to put them on the poster.
>>
>>
>
>Well, the names Ozone Player, Tim Walters, Sundagger, Ma Ja Le, Tony Gerber,
>Dave Brewer, and CASSIEL (all caps), are okay as is, but
>
>- Giles and Dierdre Reaves still need to decide if they will both be there as
>Etherium, so for now listing Giles Reaves instead of Etherium is a good idea
>(it is anyway, as his name has more draw);
>- The full name of Dweller should be listed as Dweller At The Threshold;
>- My listing should be Metlay! rather than Team Metlay--the music I used on
>the sampler is a chunk of a live Team show where I do most of the playing with
>Nick backing me up, but the Team per se will not be at DS. Same reason we can
>list Tony and Giles separately but must not list SPACECRAFT;
>- Darwin Grosse doesn't want to be listed specifically as a player, I THINK,
>but Doug Wellington might;
>     and
>- Mutation Vector and Xeroid Entity may be appearing as a quartet, name to be
>decided (Vector Entity? Xeroid Mutation? Xeroid Vector? Foxy And The Loxies?
>Howie's Angels? Leather and Lacey? Waltzer Matilda?), rather than as two
>bands, or not, they haven't told me yet.
>
>...so no, not exactly. But what I've just told you should make a good start.
>
>mike
>
>
>



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Metlay" <metlay@...>
> Foxy And The Loxies?

What a delicious idea.  I'll have mine on a bagel with cream cheese.  :-)

> Howie's Angels?

We could wear blonde wigs and strike poses.

Cheers,

Bill

I'm a little out of the loop at the moment, but as I recall the issue
of spec'ing the PA was still somewhat open. (If not, just ignore the
rest of this message.) I've just finished a big live project where I
was playing live music into a quadraphonic PA in a fairly sizeable
hall (400-seater, but with some rear leakage since the actual hall
space was double what we were using), and our production manager now
has a spec. for the system (since we bring the performances to London
later in the year), so I could get hold of some figures and post them
if that's useful. I don't remember the details of it, but the front
and rear stereo systems were a little different. Each front stack was
a pair of bins, each rear stack was (I think) a little more complex,
and there was a monitor mix from the front stereo signal back onto the
stage. We were running (as I recall) eight amps, four of them Crowns
of some kind, the other four of indeterminate make but labelled "PA
1200." Oh, and we had a subwoofer. I remember that clearly, since it
was the size of a small wardrobe.

Let me know if you want the figures...

--

   nick rothwell -- composition, systems, performance -- http://www.cassiel.com

Hey all,

We talked awhile ago about streaming the event. I've been moving
forward on it trying to find others with the bandwidth to support many
listeners. We have a T-1 which sounds like a lot of bandwidth, but
quickly goes away when you have a number of people listening
concurrently.

astreaux world (http://www.astreauxworld.com) is the first to respond
back and it looks like they have some interest. Unless anyone has
objections I'll provide them with the performer list posted last week
and get an address for someone to send a cd.

Also those with laptops, there will be an 802.11 wireless hub in range
of the music center if you want to get on the internet while you are
here.


Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Astreaux" <astreaux@...>
> Date: Sun May 18, 2003  9:08:47 PM America/Phoenix
> To: "Jeffrey Kunzelman" <jeff@...>
> Subject: Re: streaming a space music show
>
> Hello Jeff,
>
> I do have an interest in this.  But I don't know of Arcosanti, and
> less of
> the planned event.  Please inform me more of the artists appearing
> when that
> info is available.
>
> There are some technical hurdles to be overcome as well.  Will you be
> in
> charge of the streaming?
>
> Thanks,
> astreaux
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jeffrey Kunzelman" <jeff@...>
> To: <astreaux@...>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 9:21 PM
> Subject: streaming a space music show
>
>
>>
>> Hello from Arcosanti
>>
>> We will be hosting an event called different skies.
>> www.differentskies.org. Was wondering if we could send you a quicktime
>> feed and have you relay it during the event. Would be good PR for both
>> you and Arcosanti. www.arcosanti.org
>>
>> jeff kunzelman
>> webmaster www.arcosanti.org
>
>

Jeffrey Kunzelman said:
> Hey all,
>
> We talked awhile ago about streaming the event. I've been moving
> forward on it trying to find others with the bandwidth to support many
> listeners. We have a T-1 which sounds like a lot of bandwidth, but
> quickly goes away when you have a number of people listening
> concurrently.
>
> astreaux world (http://www.astreauxworld.com) is the first to respond
> back and it looks like they have some interest. Unless anyone has
> objections I'll provide them with the performer list posted last week
> and get an address for someone to send a cd.

My only question, not an objection (yet), is what astreauxworld expects to be
paid to do this. If they're offering free bandwidth, hey, I'm all for it!

> Also those with laptops, there will be an 802.11 wireless hub in range
> of the music center if you want to get on the internet while you are
> here.

Woo hoo! I can think of a few people that will find that handy. And it will
let us keep up to date on homestarrunner.com, too.

Thanks for doing this, Jeff. It's an exciting option for people who can't make
the show. Have you been able to talk to David Tristram about his video needs?

Also, totally off this topic, it would seem that DS's name is beginning to
spread. There are now multiple acts on the waiting list, including a couple of
very well-known ones; several people have asked to be involved in an offstage
capacity just for the sake of being involved (do we want to have people
volunteer time specifically for offstage work?); and we have received our
first offer to help liberate several million dollars from the frozen bank
account of a deposed African potentate.

Next obstacle: Bums in seats. All suggestions welcome, as are suggestions on
physical/internet mechanisms for separating ticket buyers from their money.
More on this in another post.

mike

--
As a generalisation, the technology has NOTHING to do with the music.
For each specific artist, it has EVERYTHING to do with the music. (cassiel)
> < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > < > <
metlay / atomic city / metlay@... / http://www.atomiccity.com

In a message dated 5/19/03 1:29:18 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
metlay@... writes:

> There are now multiple acts on the waiting list, including a couple of
> very well-known ones; several people have asked to be involved in an
> offstage
> capacity just for the sake of being involved (do we want to have people
> volunteer time specifically for offstage work?)

Since this entails the participation of more people, in both a musical and
non-musical capacity,  perhaps you guys should start thinking about having ID
tags so that you can tell who's who and what their function is at Different
Skies. This way, there's no confusion as to who is supposed to be onstage and
who is supposed to be backstage or in the isles during the show.
This is good for security and for better organizing the support staff.
Has anyone thought about this?
JEM


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> and we have received our
> first offer to help liberate several million dollars from the frozen bank
> account of a deposed African potentate.

Thank goodness for that; I need to pay for all these inkjet cartridges.

--

   nick rothwell -- composition, systems, performance -- http://www.cassiel.com

> perhaps you guys should start thinking about having ID
> tags so that you can tell who's who and what their function is at Different
> Skies.
> [...] Has anyone thought about this?

I was assuming that the usual sort of medium-size-live-project
organisation was going to be put into place nearer the time. Id tags
are good. (I have a growing collection of them from various venues
I've worked in throughout Europe, although the damned efficient
Germans always insist on me handing them back afterwards.)

Perhaps it's time to start a little list of organisational things
which need to be put into place, and when. One that Otso and I need to
deal with is working with US voltages rather than UK. (All my stuff is
dual- or universal-voltage apart from PSU's for the MicroModulars, but
I will need access to a good US-voltage line regulator for running the
Magmas.)

--

   nick rothwell -- composition, systems, performance -- http://www.cassiel.com

hello -

   we are a baltimore based electronic space and atmos duo from
baltimore. i recently contacted mike atempting join the lineup of
performers, but the bill seems full. however, we would still like to
attend and join the audience and meet some of the performers. we are
still just a little confused. is the different skies just one day?
(of actual performances) or are there multiple days of performances?
(like the posted sept dates).

                 - thanks - shawn
                     www.mp3.com/atonalis <<<pluggin' our music :)