Well, well, looks like BZP's back already, and just in time for this week's Tablescrap. This week is a monolith from the book/movie "2001: A Space Odyssey". The dimensions in the book state that a monolith is 1:4:9, the squares of the first three numbers. I did my best to recreate this. (excuse the slight blurriness, my camera wanted to act obese) The monolith appeared at BrickFair 2011, but I didn't want to make a full-blown topic for it. Its card read "no epic music required", prompting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cLvxekUaps Josef Hofmann belonged to a category of pianists that can only be classified as super-virtuosi. But how good was he? Sergei Rachmaninov himself admit to practicing 15 hours per day to get to his level. (Rachmaninov's hands were immense, and Hofmann's were slightly below average.) Hofmann also flawlessly played works in concert that he hadn't as much as seen for nearly three years. His immense talent at the piano - especially in his ability to play r
The Tuesday Tablescraps make their triumphant return with the Hinklebot, a fusion mech that appeared at BrickFair VA '13, only to have its pilot replaced by a Kevin Hinkle minifigure. | | | | Last semester's schedule meant that I rarely - if ever - had free Tuesdays. I've still built stuff, but I haven't posted them, much to my regret.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWgwPpb42kM Percy Grainger is one of the only Australian composers that people talk about. He wrote a significant number of pieces, including orchestral and vocal works, but his piano output is his only significant contribution to the modern repertoire. He was known for his dislike of Italian musical terms and notations, so instead of using them he often described how his music should be played in explicit English instructions - so explicit that there leaves litt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3z0eMiMrNw Originally a working title, this Nocturne was composed in late June and early July of this year, and was premiered in concert on my birthday, the conclusion of a three-week-long composition workshop at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. This is the same concert I alluded to in a previous entry, so yes, that's me at the piano. (Bow ties are cool.) The melodic content of the Nocturne was developed out of the arpeggiated phrase that b
A very last-minute entry to the Titans vs. Monsters contest. To my knowledge this is the only System-Based Creations entry ... which could prove to be interesting once the votin' time rolls 'round. (--c--l--i--c--k------f--o--r------t--o--p--i--c--!--)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeFMztwJpKk Catoire is a highly neglected composer, but his works are steadily gaining their due recognition - in no small part due to the CD of his piano works released by super-virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin. Russian and French, both influences are heard in his music, although in his best works, he takes French fluidity to new heights. The second Prelude from his collection "Cinq Morceaux" is one of the best things he ever wrote. Catoire's music exhibits plenty
BrickFair was quite the awesome. Long entry coming in a few days once I get back home, but it was great. My Heavily Armored Wasp ended up getting third, which was ridiculously cool - it actually ended up edging out Makaru's Kahu. Again, it's really just fun to get nominated, even if the concept of winning is hopelessly out of reach. Also Xaeraz and Valendale and I slapped each other all weekend, especially after being ... moistened. With snipples and snapples.
There have been way too many crazy awesome things that have transpired over the past three days, and these things will be chronicled in a blog entry in due time, but I just wanted to say that one of my MOCs - the Heavily Armored Wasp - was nominated for Best BIONICLE! My chances of actually winning, however, are somewhat less than slim: I'm up against DeeVee's Vayland Dragon III, Steve the Squid's wearable Bane mask, and Makaru's Kahu, so I'm basically just thrilled that I got nominated and ha
When this entry gets posted, I'll be somewhere inside the Dulles Expo Center, getting registered, setting up MOCs, and making absurdly long vendor raids. BRICKFAIR
We're taking our time going up to BrickFair this year, getting there in two days instead of one. We're just about to head out the door towards Richmond. I'm pumped! And I have lots of hats! This is exciting!
This has more or less become an annual thing to do on the Monday after BrickFair. In 2011, Brickeens and his dad toured various monuments and statues in the Capitol as well as part of the Air and Space Museum. In 2012, Zatth joined up with us as we went around the original Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. So, BrickFair goers and fellow BZP members: who's willing and able to take a tour of Washington, D.C. sights on Monday, August 5th? (I wanted to put this out there well
So, folks are posting music in the blogs. I figure that I might as well get in on the action, so I'll be posting my favorite pieces of music semi-intermittently. Might be weekly but iunno - depends on how much interest I can generate with classical stuff. http://youtu.be/oOQ7JvdzWig So! Leo Ornstein. Guy lived a whopping 109 years and produced a number of fantastic compositions. In his early years he was known for popularization of the tone cluster and lived around the time Charles Ives was
YOU ALL KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS TOMORROW, RIGHT OF COURSE YOU DO PROBABLY BECAUSE YOU'RE READING IT ON THAT DAY AND NOT ON THIS ONE BUT ANYWAY YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS, RIGHT? THAT'S RIGHT, KIDS SAY IT WITH ME IT'S SUMIKI'S BIRTHDAY (what, did you think I was going to talk about some movie or something? pfffffffft) Also, I must apologize for inactivity over the past few weeks. I've been pretty busy, but it's going to culminate in a concert wherein I play the piano portion of a Nocturn
We got an early start and headed out of Alabama, soon making it to the Georgia state line and the Eastern time zone. From there we headed up to Atlanta, where I learned that tales of the city's traffic had not been exaggerated. We took the beltway around the city instead of going through it directly. I cannot imagine what kind of mayhem we'd have run into if we'd gone right through, as the drivers on the beltway were crazy enough. (I learned why signals are so rarely used: as soon as you turn on
I rescind my earlier statements about how awful the idea seemed. It looks ... pretty good? Only so much can be discerned from the trailer, but the animation style looks pretty cool. Also, quite a cast of actors they've got there.
I've always been a fan of the Voting Booth, especially on the old forums. When I got my Premiership, I was still a wee noob, and created tons of polls ... well, I tried to, at least. My habit of hitting preview-post canceled out the polls I made, which led to frustration on my end and by whatever FA had to come clean my mess up. When the forums came back, I was happy to see the Voting Booth busy again, but this spurt of activity didn't continue for very long at all. Soon the Voting Booth looke
