Sander Roscoe Wolff

It has been nearly one year since the passing of our beloved cats, Shogi and Barney. Our remaining cat, Violet, has become very affectionate since then and, although we really enjoy her attention, we felt that it was time to find a comrade for her. To that end, we paid a visit to the LA County Animal Shelter in Downey and found an adorable, young, black cat who we subsequently named Niko Niko, which means “smile” in Japanese.

He’s a snuggle-muffin, head-butts us, plays with the dogs, and is generally a good egg. Violet was fairly peeved at first but, now, she’s taken a liking to the little fellow and was seen frolicking with him. It seems that, so far anyway, we’ve picked a winner.

Here are some early pictures:

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As you may know, some years ago I undertook the rather ambitious task of creating a custom guitar. It was an educational experience, fraught with unique challenges but, ultimately, rewarding. A friend pointed out that I’d not recorded an example of its various sounds and whatnot, so I did.

I’m including three links here. The first is

, with a total of 6 tracks. Please be forewarned that the lead is a bit wooly. I hope to improve upon it with some practice. In this early version there are very few effects (some delay and reverb, and gain on the lead).

In

, I added 6 additional tracks. Three are individual notes in a chord, sustained by a device called an e-bow, and played at double speed. I also added a bass guitar part (the only track not played on the Sandblaster) and two one-note harmony tracks at the end of the solo.

I’m also including a very brief example of the

, on their own, so you can get a better sense of them.

UPDATE:

A friend suggested that I add

to the piece.

After living with this first version for a while, I felt that a different reading of the words would work better. I also added some rather complex effects to the voice.

The result is

.

Read the words.

Except for the first one, all of these were taken in our back yard.

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The fam and I spend the last few days romping around San Diego. We barely scractched the surface of balboa park, and wandered joyfully through the Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas. Here are some shots:

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My friend Richard insisted that I sign up on Second Life. It is his belief that this, or something like it, is the future of the internet. In case you’re unfamiliar with this program, it is a 3D environment that uses your personal computer in conjunction with Internet-Connected servers. It enables anyone to navigate through the world, and interact with others from just about anywhere. It has its own economy, with millions of dollars flowing through it, and these ‘virtual’ dollars are transferrable into and out of the real world. Users can own, rent, or lease virtual property, build structures, and develop behaviors, activities, and other objects with amazing ease, yet with equally amazing complexity. These objects can be givin physical qualities (weight, reflectivity, stiffness, etc) and, once created, can be embued with all kinds of behaviors and qualities. I’ve not delved too deeply into the building process, but I created a chair, several hats, and my character. You can see these here:

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Today we visited the Fullerton Arboretum. It was quite nice, and had a wide variety of beautiful flowers, trees, and other plants. Here is a small sample:

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I’ve been bringing my camera with me, especially when I know I’ll be visiting something interesting. Last week I went to the local aquarium, and took a few nice shots:

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Our dear friends Luke and Melanie were away for about 10 days and, while we were gone, we had the pleasure of playing host to their two dogs, Mabel and Stella. Last Friday, they were joined by Shadow, our friend DonnaJean’s dog. So, with our two dogs we had a pack of 5 furry beasties running wild in the house. Truthfully, it was a pleasure. All the dogs got along well, and there were very few altercations. I felt moved to try and take a pic with all 5 dogs, so here are my best efforts:

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I’ve posted two other aural excursions,(Part 1 & Part 2) all part of a long-form project that I’ve been working on for a while.

Our dear and good friends Luke and Melanie (currently with child) have jetted off to the paradise of Hawaii for a week of much needed and well deserved tranquility and bliss. We are pleased and proud to be hosting their beloved pets and family members, Stella and Mabel. The two have a strange and wonderful relationship. While no single picture can encapsulate the complex and subtle dynamics between to souls, I hope that these few images will help to shed some light on theirs. [note: Mabel is the blond]

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