project sparkplug

2007-01-24T22:35:00.000-08:00

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
3
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

2006-12-12T14:16:00.000-08:00

We found it! Polly Hall, Lilly Tree, and I have landed this phat pad at 493 Amsterdam Avenue in New York City.

2006-12-03T17:19:00.000-08:00

$775 bedroom in 4-bd share, UWS/Columbia (108th/broadway)

2nd floor walk-up, big fat newly renov. kitchen, bathroom, living room
heat & hot water included; we split cable, wireless internet
quiet building short walk to subway (1/B/C) and central park
dozens of excellent bars, cafes, and restaurants
amazing bagels & burritos 1/2 block away
join 3 lovely clean mid-twenties ladies (two columbia grad students)
check out pics, floorplan and more on our house blog

room A has tall window, fits queen & dresser or full & desk. it's cozy, but the common space, company, neighborhood, and price are hard to beat. i love it here, i'm only subltetting to move in with my amazing girlfriend. first, last, and remainder of broker's fee.

available january (flexible start date)
contact andrew with questions
abbarkan@gmail.com
917.847.1663

2006-09-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

The Ojai Fire: A Letter from the Front

Hi Everyone,

You have probably read that we are in the midst of a major forest fire. It's actually been quite a dramatic 2 days and, although we have our car filled with our family photo albums parked in the driveway ready to go, it seems at this point that the fire will actually NOT come through Thacher. We evacuated all the kids last night, mainly to get them out of the smoke and out of the way of the fire-fighting operation. The firefighters are using Thacher today as a major staging ground to try to get control of this side of the front--they plan to use our playing fields as landing areas for helicopters, and our water (pool and hydrants) to supply their tankers. They said last night they will be bringing up crews and trucks from Long Beach and Orange County to manage this front.

Here's a recap. Even though this fire has been raging in our backyard for two weeks, most of us had not paid much attention to it. The media coverage was mainly about the eastern front (45 minute drive away), and worry about the fire jumping Route 5 and getting into the Angeles National Forest. So, it was a surprise to everyone here to have the southern and western fronts [which is where we are] suddenly become the focus of attention this weekend.

For us, we awoke on Saturday morning to blue skies and an expectation of a wonderfully lazy Saturday, time to recover from our first full week of classes. We attended our first home football game on Saturday afternoon and, as we walked up from the field after the game, noticed that the smoke was pretty bad behind the hills. Kurt and I went out to dinner at the Ranch House, an outdoor restaurant in Ojai, and we were certainly aware of the ash raining down on our table as we ate. Driving home was a bit like driving through the beginning of a snowstorm--light ash in our headlights. By the time everyone went to bed, the whole school smelled like heavy smoke and it was a bit uncomfortable to breathe. I had a student wake me up at 11:30 because he felt nauseous; I decided later that this was probably a reaction to the smoke. Then at 2am, we were awakened by a phone call asking that all Dorm Heads go to the Headmaster's house to discuss evacuation. Since I am in charge of 34 sophomore boys, I went.

The school had been notified by police at 1am that the school might be requested to evacuate within the next 4-6 hours. So, after an hour's meeting of strategy (which included figuring out what to do with 130 horses!), we all went back to our homes, I called the faculty on my team to alert them, and all the adults spent an hour or so packing up their own valuables and getting organized to evacuate should the alarm sound. The horse faculty began the wholesale catching and hauling of horses, who were arranged by gender in our two large arenas (at 5 am they had to wake up the owner of the local feedstore to get him to sell us some big water troughs). When the night passed with no actual alarm, we woke up the students at 7:00 and met with the whole school to give them the game plan which was, basically, pack up your stuff to evacuate, and then wait... inside. It turned out to be a long day.

All day yesterday was dark and foreboding. Even though the weather was in the 90's elsewhere, we stayed relatively cool because of the smoke cover. Ash rained down continuously, and the sun was only visible as a faint red orb. It felt like we were living inside an ashtray. Families were, of course, calling all day with concern. By afternoon, the school was having almost continuous fly-bys of planes with retardant (see the amazing picture from the LA Times, above, which was taken from the Thacher gymkhana field)

By afternoon, we sensed that the fire was moving parallel to us, rather than at us, but we were also aware that the living conditions at Thacher were very poor because of the air quality. We had another series of meetings with administrators and then with the full school, and then each Dorm Head sat down with his or her group at 5pm and asked if any of their families would be willing to take in groups of students for a few days. It was quite amazing. In our Dorm, I had all 34 of my boys placed in homes within an hour, and parents from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Pasadena and Los Angeles began driving towards us to pick up the kids. We loaded the northern- bound groups on a bus and took them to a drop-off point in SB... and everyone else magically disappeared by 8pm. Kurt and I looked at each other in relief, locked up the dorm doors, closed up the windows in our house, turned on the air conditioner, and fell into bed.

This morning, ten hours later, we awoke to a completely silent campus; and, we certainly are feeling very much more refreshed. The sky is still smoky, but it does not seem as thick. We have fire trucks around... there is a possibility that they will light a "backfire" behind us this afternoon, a move that will certainly make our situation safer. The forecast is for milder temperatures and an onshore breeze (which would be a favorable windshift), which would mean we would probably have the kids back with us by Tuesday night. So, we think we'll get out of here this afternoon for a little unexpected vacation... go to Ventura to dinner an the movies, perhaps.

With the fire only 15% contained, they are predicting it may take another 2 weeks to get it out completely. The fireman reminded us yesterday at our meeting that they don't make any active efforts to put it out as it burns in the Los Padres National Forest--the terrain is too rugged and dangerous. They only make their stand when the fire threatens developments, which it did over the weekend (us!) However, I am guessing the crisis in our neck of the woods is passing and we should be back to normal in a couple of days. I'll keep you posted.

Lots of love.
Alice and Kurt

2006-09-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

A good day to reflect.

...

2006-08-31T11:37:00.000-07:00

Sunny Days, ineed.

Out of the blue, I landed a job that couldn't be more perfect at this stage of my life. I am a part-time sound editor for...that's right: Sesame Workshop. It's pretty cut-and-dry work so far, but it's pretty amazing to get a behind-the-scenes look at (or rather, listen to) the actors who bring Elmo, Oscar, and the rest of them to life. Currently I'm just editing and filing soundbites for interactive games on their website, which involves taking a script and a data CD of a few recording sessions and boiling them down to the lines the animated characters will end up saying. I might get to do a little more music with the ringtones and podcasts later on. Who knows!

Phoebe not only came to visit me on her way back to Skidmore for her senior year, but she ALSO leant me her DIGITAL CAMERA, with which we took these pictures of us eating some yummy cous-cous we'd just cooked. This is also pretty sweet because now I can give you all a tour of my new apartment:

2006-07-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

New Digs:
246 W 108th Street, New York, NY 10025

Check out this nifty sketch of the floorplan my new roomies did:

2006-06-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

Just Another Mountain Monday --

-- kilbassa saussage
-- dick's peak without a trail
-- snow camping, rice & beans w/ hot sauce
-- fallen leaf lake motor boat ride
-- a dip in the waterfall, sudoku lessons
-- monopoly intensity
-- father's day mini-golf
-- unusual river-fording to grass lake
-- milkshake and wireless at the new store
-- fugiyamiya and WWII stories with granny and gramps
-- wine and southwest tickets with shaye and grace
-- a view of talac from above on my flight back to providence

"it's simple, really: love, hate, drink and dream"
-- duncan macleod of the caln macleod

2006-04-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

Photos from Eric & Raphaelle's Wedding:

More can be found on Casey's site:

http://null-terminated.com/visuals/photography/tags/erwedding.html

Cheers!

2006-02-07T11:59:00.000-08:00

Check it out! Wilbur is on the web:

William Barkan - Development Intern

William started at SEI in October of 2005. He is currently a senior at the George Washington University finishing a BA in Political Science and History. Previously having studied Environmental Science at the University of Colorado, William has been involved in outdoor and environmental education for the last five years in his home state of California. He has also had a brief career in Wilderness Emergency Medicine. Presently he works with the staff of SEI doing research and administrative support.

2006-01-23T09:38:00.000-08:00

81.

Consider it in the rafters.

Choose Your Own Admirer here.

My personal favorite:
”Bryant justified the INVENTION of satellite dishes, TV, and possibly electricity itself.”
(if link doesn't work, try http://blogs.mercurynews.com/bay_area_sports/2006/01/kobe_bryants_81.html)

Daily Dime provides The Complete Kobe

Casey0 recently pointed me to a timely article 82games.com wrote last week – The Value of Kobe Bryant

I think he deservedly joins LeBrizzle as the centerpieces for Team USA. I think he pushes his team to the 6th seed in the West. I think the second round of the playoffs are going to be veeerry interesting...

2006-01-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

Scoring for Film and Multimedia
Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions
New York University

Scoring for Film and Multimedia," is a 45 point Masters level curriculum, designed within programs for Music Composition and Music Technology. The Music Composition program places an emphasis on composing for Film/TV and multimedia, including interactive performance, silent film, and multimedia & web-based media. Within the Music Technology program, areas such as music editing, sound design, recording & mixing, and sound synthesis are addressed. However, in today's ever changing professional environment, a composer often takes on roles lying far outside of traditional training. Students are encouraged to develop an eclectic skill set: composing, engineering, editing, orchestrating, MIDI-mockups, sound design, and producing.

A broad variety of workshops and conferences have been presented for both composers and scholars. In an ongoing collaboration with NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' Maurice Kanbar Film Institute, student films with live accompaniment are presented yearly at The Film Society of Lincoln Center's series: Toons, Tunes, and Trikfilms. Collaborations with ASCAP, the Local 802 A.F. of M., and the Film Music Society have resulted in such large-scale projects as the annual NYU/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshops. These and other opportunities often culminate in recording sessions with orchestras comprised of New York City's top-tier musicians. Our Film Scoring classes regularly feature live recordings with ensembles, simultaneously training our instrumental majors in the rigors of studio recording.

At the nerve-center of practice and theory, the Film ScoringProgram in Steinhardt offers M.A. and M.M. degrees, and a composition faculty who have worked on over 60 feature films, and have garnered three Guggenheim Fellowships. The faculty includes Sonny Kompanek, Deniz Hughes, Justin Dello Joio, and Marc Consoli. Industry guests regularly present seminars, and have included Leonard Rosenmann (Rebel Without a Cause), the late Buddy Baker (The Fox and the Hound), Marco Beltrami (Terminator 3), and Mark Snow (X-Files). Music editor Roy M. Prendergast (Shakespeare in Love) has offered numerous seminars. Ron Sadoff and renowned conductor and musicologist Gillian B. Anderson serve as the co-directors of the East Coast branch of the premiere preservationist Film Music Society, housed in the Music Department.

2006-01-17T19:02:00.000-08:00

Feminism 101

- On Last Names

- On Home Equality

2006-01-17T17:44:00.000-08:00

3 minutes 31 seconds. 0 rebounds, assists, steals, blocks. 0 turnovers. 0 free throws.

1-1 from the field.

Of all the lines Shaq, Kobe, Wade, or Odom put up last night (nevermind the rest of the starters), this stat line was the most impressive.

After getting follow-dunked on with authority by one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, 18 year-old 3rd string Laker center Andrew Bynum not only hustled down court, posted up the most dominant center of our era, proceded to fake him out of his socks and politely dunked the basketball, BUT ALSO ran back on defense and threw an exuberant elbow in Goliath's thoroughly miffed ribcage. Sure he only scored once. Sure he took O'Neal's retaliatory forearm blow to the neck. Sure he only played 3 and a half minutes--but in that fragment of the game, I witnessed the emergence of the next great center in the NBA. Knock on wood to avoid jinxing it with a foot injury, but by the 2008 season Bynum will be THE center to reckon with in the league.

He'll have competition of course:

Rising Centers of the Next Generation
1. Amare Stoudomire
2. Dwight Howard
3. Greg Oden
4. Andrew Bynum
5. Samuel Dalembert

Speaking of centers, here's a good read on the decline of center productivity in the league and a few steps Mr. Stern could take to remedy the situation.

2006-01-16T10:03:00.000-08:00

NBA 05-06 SYNOPSIS (for RM)
This post will be updated with pictures, links, and actual content on the below subtopics as I see fit to procrastinate. Feel free to comment regarding missed areas of interest or extra factoids I should include. Our goal here is to capture the essence of the 2005-2006 NBA season to date for someone who loves basketball but has paid little to no attention this year due to his inconvenient work/PhD courseload.

Great Coaching(?)
-Flip "On the O" Saunders
-Mike "D'Genius" Antoni
-Home Town Brown vs the Zenmaster
-The Riley Factor

Elevation & Dissent
-Elton Brand, Tony Parker, Chauncy Billups, Marcus Camby
-Bottom Dwellers Raise the Floor:
Clips, GSW, Hornets, Bobcats
-Yaosers, the un-Franchise,
& What Went Ron?

Most Virtuosic Balla'
-A PG Behind (Billups, Parker)
-The Regulars (The Big Ticket, The Big Fundamental, The Answer, & Dirk Diggler)
-The Flash
-La Mamba
-The King

2006-01-15T13:32:00.000-08:00

Corporate Focus = Strategy for Education?

As one of my favorite co-workers Charlie Mojkowski pointed out, IBM has posted its new corporate values:

1. Dedication to every client's success
2. Innovation that matters--for our company and for the world
3. Trust in personal responsibility in all relationships

These three values are completely concurrent with what Big Picture is trying to do with education in America, and I think it's something a good teacher use to model the direction of their work. Dedication, innovation, and trust are what push the leading corporate teams to success--why not apply the ideas to school?

2006-01-11T08:11:00.000-08:00

First weekend of the New Year featured a slumber party in Providence with the likes of Mario Rojas, Brad Tytel, Eilis Cahill and Sarah "Spanish Import" Cassel, pictured having fun outside our house here. It was a full house, especially with Eilis' two dogs that came up from New York as well. Shannon, the elder, is a humble german sheppard who spent most of the time on the couch unless we offered her a walk in the snow.
Tenoby, the younger, is a black lab pup whose four months on earth have yet to teach him how to control his bladder. Needless to say our kitchen has seen its fair share of bleech over the past few days. Amidst cute animals, homemade waffles, and good friends, we really enjoyed ourselves. Good times.

Work is, by its nature, less fun -- but you wouldn't be able to tell from these pictures. We held our first retreat of 2006 at Dave & Busters, a video arcade at the Providence Mall. When not tending to my camera man duties, I was beaten sorely at the hoop-it-up game by our 61-year-old director, Dennis Littky (check out his book). The racing games were the best because up to four of us could compete at a time, and you know how those Rhode Islanders are behind the wheel. It was very amusing to see these peaceful non-profit workers waste mutants with virtual handguns. There was also a machine that morphed ("mawph'd") co-workers' faces together to see what their babies would potentiall look like. While not the cutest, out directors certainly produced an intersting offspring.

Business as usual up in RI, just trying to get into gradschool, get the bronchita-saurus out of polly's chest, and do good work.

2006-01-04T08:04:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOUIE BRAILLE!

To find out more,click here!

2005-12-27T16:57:00.000-08:00

Seven Barkans in Monterey today after trekking out to the shores of Ano Nuevo yesterday to see a bunch of these suckers:

2005-12-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

I am VERY excited to be flying home tomorrow. I haven't been to San Francisco in a year - wow. Even though the schedule is jam-packed, I think it will feel like a vacation. I've been laboring over my portfolio pieces for the NYU application every morning and night for the past two weeks and finally sent them off to Prof. Spratlan. I hope he likes them enough to recommend me to film scoring school. More on that to come. Cross your fingers.

The Sched:

Thursday 12/22 arrive OAK @ 11:00pm
Friday 12/23 evening w/ Silverness' in Castro Valley
Saturday 12/24 Christmas Eve w/ Granny & Gramps @ Burlingame Club
Sunday 12/25 Happy B-Day JC! Lakers-Heat
Monday 12/26 morning leave for Monterey
Thursday 12/29 afternoon return from Monterey
Friday 12/30 dinner w/ Freelands
Saturday 12/31 New Year's @ Ricky's (www.ericmorrill.com)
Sunday 1/1 openhouse in the afternoon
Monday 1/2 red-eye
Tuesday 1/3 arrive Procidence @ 11:35am

2005-11-26T10:54:00.000-08:00

The reasons for this blog are manyfold, including...

1. To keep a journal of current and potential music projects, to organize myself and update y'all.
2. To provide a forum/space for the Amherst Educators Alliance (AEA) to share and discuss ideas.
3. To keep more closely abreast the daily thoughts and endeavors of my ever-more-distant family.

The current plan: to apply to the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University for an MA in Composition & Film Scoring. You can check out program details here:

http://education.nyu.edu/music/mfilm/