Thursday, June 08, 2006
We’re in KL for three days, which is a nice break from the usual action without being completely removed from it.
I attended and performed with Kok Siew Wai last at the “Man + God” opening at galeriizu last night, as part of Sau Bin’s installation. The art at the show was quite remarkable in terms of graphics and contained some interesting works (photos forthcoming on flickr). SB’s work was, alternatively, a long red carpet with a large circle cut in one end. Siew Wai & I set up our instruments (and a zafu) in the middle of the hole, making a shrine of sorts, and once the soundtrack (which I’m really fond of, http://web.njit.edu/~funkhous/sound/gong1.mp3) started we improvised on bells, flute, harmonica, and I sang the “kesa sutra.” The whole presentation was less than six minutes, and people told us they were hoping for more, which means it must have been alright. I was glad to be a part of the event, see a few people we've met before, and nice to be out with Amy (we enjoyed a lovely dinner together afterwards, a really rare event!).
Otherwise I checked out some gear (soundcard/keyboard) earlier in the day at one of KL’s many malls—this one happened to have a full-on 6-flags type rollercoaster inside—though didn’t buy anything yet (want to see how prices compare with NY & see if it is worth lugging the stuff 1/2 way around the world in a few weeks). The pirated software scene nearby was totally crazy. In KL you can buy any piece of (unlicensed) software in the world for about $1.50. Again, I was only looking and didn’t buy anything besides a blank cd for the audio track we played last night. I also made recordings of hotel check-in and subway/monorail trains that I want to mix and use for one of my Flash animations.
Today was a really rare day, in that it was very low impact in terms of work. In the morning Amy and I went for a walk in the Lake Gardens, near our hotel, then saw Sonita (another Fulbrighter) and then I went off to make more recordings (at trains and malls) and paid a visit to the Telecommunications Museum here. In fact, I was the only one there! I saw some interesting historical installations, and got a strong sense of the timeline of how communications developed here during the past 200 years (from hollowed out logs and elephant messengers to microwave/satellite/isdn). It is too bad the museum isn’t more popular and in better shape. Malaysia has a rich history of communications, which no one seems to care about in this age on incessant sms messaging, handphones, and the like. So be it. A good day, a different kind of day, nonetheless.
I saw the proofs for the cd-rom cover today, which has turned out really well. The cds have been made and soon enough I’ll have them in hand.
Another day of various activities here tomorrow—we’ll see where the path leads—
I attended and performed with Kok Siew Wai last at the “Man + God” opening at galeriizu last night, as part of Sau Bin’s installation. The art at the show was quite remarkable in terms of graphics and contained some interesting works (photos forthcoming on flickr). SB’s work was, alternatively, a long red carpet with a large circle cut in one end. Siew Wai & I set up our instruments (and a zafu) in the middle of the hole, making a shrine of sorts, and once the soundtrack (which I’m really fond of, http://web.njit.edu/~funkhous/sound/gong1.mp3) started we improvised on bells, flute, harmonica, and I sang the “kesa sutra.” The whole presentation was less than six minutes, and people told us they were hoping for more, which means it must have been alright. I was glad to be a part of the event, see a few people we've met before, and nice to be out with Amy (we enjoyed a lovely dinner together afterwards, a really rare event!).
Otherwise I checked out some gear (soundcard/keyboard) earlier in the day at one of KL’s many malls—this one happened to have a full-on 6-flags type rollercoaster inside—though didn’t buy anything yet (want to see how prices compare with NY & see if it is worth lugging the stuff 1/2 way around the world in a few weeks). The pirated software scene nearby was totally crazy. In KL you can buy any piece of (unlicensed) software in the world for about $1.50. Again, I was only looking and didn’t buy anything besides a blank cd for the audio track we played last night. I also made recordings of hotel check-in and subway/monorail trains that I want to mix and use for one of my Flash animations.
Today was a really rare day, in that it was very low impact in terms of work. In the morning Amy and I went for a walk in the Lake Gardens, near our hotel, then saw Sonita (another Fulbrighter) and then I went off to make more recordings (at trains and malls) and paid a visit to the Telecommunications Museum here. In fact, I was the only one there! I saw some interesting historical installations, and got a strong sense of the timeline of how communications developed here during the past 200 years (from hollowed out logs and elephant messengers to microwave/satellite/isdn). It is too bad the museum isn’t more popular and in better shape. Malaysia has a rich history of communications, which no one seems to care about in this age on incessant sms messaging, handphones, and the like. So be it. A good day, a different kind of day, nonetheless.
I saw the proofs for the cd-rom cover today, which has turned out really well. The cds have been made and soon enough I’ll have them in hand.
Another day of various activities here tomorrow—we’ll see where the path leads—
# posted by chris funkhouser @ 6:51 AM 
