the proof is in the pooling

behold the epic tide of sound! our comrade williwaw performs, albeit in the usual staid manner, as part of a sonic soak, a two-day fund-and/or-awareness-raising event in the govanhill baths on the beloved south side of glasgow. the video comprises most of the oft- and perchance over-played number, so-do-mi-la, with the addition of moving plants - thrills!

drowning in sound

our comrade and occasional hero williwaw be soaking in it, the proverbial water, that is, as williwaw takes to the deep end of the Govanhill Baths this weekend as part of Sonic Soak, a benefit to help the Baths re-open.

The event begins at 11 AM, Saturday, 21. August 2010. the amp'd uke mayhem begins at 12:10 PM, so bring your toasties, tea and other lunchtime accessories for a wee skronk in the mammoth swimming pool.

two signs of sputtering life

first we see our comrade williwaw first battling a motley horde of stools and chairs in the middle of its first and only set in june...

and then we find that loveable scamp williwaw in the usual hunched position battling the rising din at the end of its third and last set in july...

the pace continues, ongoing slowly

spreading more amplified love, our comrade williwaw returns to the comforting confines of the go slow cafe, 452 victoria road, glasgow on the second of july, this very year of two-thousand-and-change. the night will also feature the unveiling - opening, if you will, of new visual works by simon haslow.

a show, a show, a slowly ongoing show

williwaw will be hosting an intimate evening of amp'd uke histrionics, nylon-strung sonic exorcisms and other rollicking sound actions on saturday, the fifth of june, two-thousand-and-a-dime, at the go slow cafe, 452 victoria road, queens park, glasgow.

random sound calvacade #27

A bit of the telematic chicanery that took place just o'er a year ago - 24. march 2009 - at Elastic Arts Foundation on north milwaukee avenue. Conspirators for the chicanery included our comrade williwaw, ian hatcher on glockenspiel/melodica, daniel godston on trumpet, amanda gutierrez on laptop, jayve montgomery on laptop/mixer, noé cuéllar on visuals along with collaborators from Tucson, Arizona, Ciudad de México, D.F., and Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

moving pictures from the newcastle meltdown

the mysterious fred pipes not only has stolen the soul of beloved comrade williwaw but also captured the last four-some minutes of its appearance at the ukelear [sic] meltdown on sunday, 28.02.2010.

après l'effondrement, les photos

having weathered the ukelear [sic] meltdown in newcastle-upon-tyne, our comrade williwaw has found himself to be encapsulated in virtual tintypes - behold the visual pleasantries!





during the amp'd uke hijinks that sunday afternoon, the center-stage microphone appeared to be a bit of a gaffer gaff, but in these photos, it appears as though the films are speaking truth to their own power. regards to the photographer/soul-stealer, the mysterious fred pipes

this one's strictly for the geordies

williwaw will be finally returning to the stage proper, or more properly, the cinema, as part of the third ukulelear meltdown at the star and shadow cinema which lies upon Stepney Bank, a wee lane in Newcastle, which lies upon the Tyne, on Sunday, 28. February 2010 at the easy-going hour of four pm.

not only will the beloved comrade be supplying the stock-in-trade amp'd-uke histrionics to the masquerade, but some manner of workshop entitled Amplifying your uke for a little fun, a lot less friends and absolutely no profit at the wee early hour of eleven am on that same day. A curious time, indeed.

In the meantime, our comrade will be running amok trying to find 35 x 70 cm pieces of paneling. these are the lives we have chosen.

random sound calvacade #26

another round o' tasty vittles from the incomparable colin-padrick charles. the williwaw source material for this fine bit o' stürm-und-tanzen is pierpont, the first offering from shimmering coaster of light - you know, the school-bus song.

mister charles also went under the guise of saint pokie, making better musicks with Reactor, ten fingers and the truth than one could think possible.

the original bombast and all its bombastic brethren from the shimmering coaster of light collection can now be procured through the usual unusual means - the bartering of hogsheads to bushels - and thereafter heard in its unconfounded entirety at your whim and leisure. That is, if you ain't got it, you can gets it. And boy howdy, you'll gets it but good.

chicago is calling, will you accept the charges?

Distance be damned!

On heave-ho hiatus for far too long, beloved comrade williwaw will once again take part in Chicago Calling Cuatro, sending a flurry of zeros and ones through this Series of Tubes to that home so far away from home, Brown Rice, 4432 north kedzie ave, chicago usa, on Friday, 2. October 2009, after 10 pm. That's after 4 am on Saturday for those playing the trans-atlantic version.

The night - tonight, truth be told - is truly a night of stars, no matter what the clouds may think. Making a joyous din will be a true horde of haughty compatriots:

Ritwik Banerji - saxophone
Jimmy Bennington - batterie
Steve Dalanchinsky - poetry (New York City)
Jon Godston - soprano saxophone
Jayve Montgomery - saxophones and percussion
Gregory O’Drobinak - Arc of the Oven
Jim Ryan - kalimba (Oakland)
Michael Staron - bass
Ernesto Sturm Diaz-Infante - bajo sexto (San Francisco)

random sound calvacade #25

the incomparable colin-padrick charles once upon a time took some williwaw into the ol' computational perambulator and came out with something tasty and fresh. this particular bit was found in an otherwise disposable box of old backups, mostly floppy disks that are neither floppy nor playable anymore. the williwaw source material is the phonocrat, the second offering from a portrait of shelves, which can be heard in its unperambulated entirety at the williwaw sound emporium.

mister charles also went under the guise of saint pokie, making better musicks with Reactor, ten fingers and the truth than one could think possible.

20. june 2009

random sound calvacade #24

hot off the battlefield!

a mere minute from the sixty-plus minutes of amplified dialogue 'twixt williwaw and chuck falzone - oh! the interlocution! - at the brown rice performance emporium on saturday 09. may 2009

soon the evening's eloquence in its entirety can be enjoyed in delectable morsel form at the williwaw ensemble sight and sound cavalcade

williwaw vs. falzone

williwaw and chuck falzone (flying luttenbachers, my name is rar-rar, buck pig) present a loving set of impressions of the Symbol of their shared hometown in an evening of amplified 'ukulele & guitar tête-à-tête.

Following in fine binary form is the equally enticing duo of erica dicker on baroque violin - can you smell the scordatura? - and ryan ingebritsen on all manner of electromechanical manipulations.

The show opens with un peu de la trompette by Daniel Godston.

williwaw vs. sonic bridge, II: the rematch

Bring on the telematicism! Ever building bridges, our comrade williwaw once again will take the stage and the Skype with stalwart cohorts in an effort to create a wondrous interequatorial din:

TUESDAY • 24. March 2009
ELASTIC ARTS
2830 N. Milwaukee Ave, 2nd Floor

The local entourage features Dan Godston, Jayve Montgomery, Amanda Gutierrez, Noé Cuéllar and Joshua Manchester (along with beloved comrade williwaw). Other sites include Tucson, Arizona, Ciudad de México, D.F., and Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Here's the view from Buenos Aires at Sonic Bridge I on 23. January 2009:

¡he aquí, la tecnología!

williwaw takes part in Sonic Bridge a trans-border bending between Chicago, New Orleans, Mexico City & Buenos Aires on 23. january 2009. Local transmission will be from the tender confines of brown rice (4432 north kedzie ave, chicago usa). Global transmission can be found here.

strooooke!

a nugget of a gem of a pearl was recently uncovered - driver has no cash playing in 1992 - and put upon this series of tubes. behold, the beginning of that long ago night, where we find our heroes in battle with billy squier and his ribald command, stroke!

more of this ribaldry can be found within you own personal williwaw vision quest.

invasion of the bus-riding film-making robots

our comrade williwaw was looking for silent movies about robots, and boy howdy! were there robots, robots making movies. Behind the green curtain is this explanation:

This robot makes short films based on its visual experience. Its eyes travel about the city on buses while the body sits in a gallery. The eyes collect snippets of video, and transmit them to the body when their buses come within range of a Cafenet wireless internet node. The robot body splits the video into individual frames and analyses each one, obtaining twenty numbers reflecting the arrangement of colour, shape and detail within the frame. These numbers are treated as coordinates in a twenty dimensional space, in which distance is somewhat related to visual difference. For twelve hours a day the robot traces a zigzagging path through this space. This path passes through a series of images, which become a video sequence. Visitors to the gallery can see this video, called variously the robot's "dream" or "stream of consciousness". At the end of the day the robot looks over its days work and joins the best parts together as a finished film. The robot uses neural networks and heuristic rules to choose waypoints for its daily dream, but the finished film is mainly selected for the smoothness of its movement through the space. The robot will remember everything it sees until it has five million images in its mind, after which it will replace its least favourite images with new ones. In addition to getting images from the eyes, the robot creates false memories by combining and manipulating well-liked and overused images. These notes are incomplete.

the audio is the first and third parts of a plagal cadence in honor of billy hayes, who passed into the ether at the end of august, from the september outing at brown rice, which can be heard and/or downloaded in its entirety at the williwaw sound emporium.

the twenty-third film on wayne shorter

If Glenn Gould merits twenty two films, how many does Wayne Shorter merit? Ten? Twelve? A hundred and six? Well, let this bit of bufoonery serve as the first of many hopefully to come, a bit of williwaw playing Shorter's Fall, recorded at brown rice during the ides of autumn, september 15th for all the calendar lovers in the house. the somewhat illegible (d'oh) text are haikus by Richard Wright; the more legible visuals are a train trip in Zürich.

random sound calvacade #23

reasonable fresh sounds... for a change!

the following segment from the williwaw set at brown rice on 15. september 2008 was a false start on several fronts, but nevertheless, the train kept rollin', so there's three and a half minutes of mistake-ridden bits to behold!

the source is Seemless by the never-heralded rock ensemble bale, which included craig abell-champion, michael verzani, an alesis hr16, scott spears, demir o'steen, peter pollack and, for one afternoon, victor cortez. actually, this is just the introduction to that song, rendered as mere drizzle. ooze, even.

this snippet and the rest of the night's williwaw folly can be heard and dowloaded with great abandon at the williwaw sound emporium

punctus contra shiva

our beloved comrade returns to Brown Rice on Monday, 17. November at 9 pm, for a duet - nay, battle royale - with Dan Godston on trumpet and sonic sundries. Is pure randomness actually pure order? All will be revealed! It'll be something, by golly.

williwaw had previously joined Godston and Jayve Montgomery for the second set at the Brown Rice on the 15. September. Hopefully that bit of interplanetary exuberance can be soon relived at the williwaw sound emporium.

october folly

to paraphrase a review of the first williwaw release, sixty minutes of dolby (c) reduced noise, details are sketchy on the recent outing of williwaw at the final outing of third annual chicago calling arts festival at AV-aerie. there were some technical difficulties during the evening - strangely not associated with williwaw's usual festooning horde of failures. one of the difficulties involved playing the short films, which allowed the bounty of williwaw to fill time and space with ben billington on a few pieces of batterie, jon godston on soprano sax and greg o'drobinak on a device of his own fiendish crafting, the arc of the oven. we didn't even notice when the films finally started to roll. there is apparently no sonic proof of the evening, but there is this photogravure (courtesy rebecca mcallister):

o'drobinak, godston, williwaw & billington at AV-aerie, chicago usa.

random sound calvacade #21 & 22

the hull, cap'n, she's gonna blow!

even more heavily vaulted assignments: this dainty number for piano-forté was a rounded binary assignment. if you're not sure what a rounded binary form is, you're in luck. it received no comments. it might not have even been an assignment. the memory is fuzzy, and not logically speaking...

bonus! there are little cheats to attempt to "warm" the cold, virtual sound of MIDI, some of which can make the most dainty of numbers (well, 0's and 1's, that is) sound posilutely rocking. this li'l bonus doesn't reach the histrionic heights, but it could truly be considered (enter booming radio voice) the remix.

random sound calvacade #20

yes, little jimmy, the merry-go-round did break down...

more heavily vaulted assignments: this one was for the same class as a previous entry in the calvacade, but this was for brass quintet. no one could ever call this one more complex than need be. yes, it is the merry-go-round broke down. without a satisfactory brass pad available on this crude MIDI mimickry, the tune was rendered with a hideous synth pad, in back-handed honor of gershon kingsley.

williwaw dancer, your life is calling

williwaw will be taking part in the third annual chicago calling arts festival, playing sonic counterpoint to an experimental film by rona mark.

SUNDAY | 12. OCTOBER 2008 | 7 PM
AV-Aerie 2000 W FULTON #310

also taking part in the evening's aesthetic panoply are lisa abbatomarco, laura evonne steinman, dave awl, rachel thorne germond, insook choi, carol genetti, sid yiddish and the clean boys.

shameless reminders á go-go

Gather ye 'round the hearth that be Brown Rice (4432 N Kedzie Ave) for a wee bit of amplified 'ukulele enchantment on Monday, the 15th of September. Gather ye for sonic histrionics, aural exorcisms, and all manner of frolicks. Gather ye then and there, lest ye be damned for all eternity, or until the next show, whichever comes first.

download the flier, tell all the people you love, hate, love to hate and yes, even hate to love about it

in just one click, you can find the recent write-up on your comrade in smooth-sailin' JAZZIZ magazine at the home of williwaw print and hear all manner of antiquated williwaw sound as well as semi-related blatherings of sight and sound right here. Oh, this series of tubes!

random sound calvacade #19

hey nineteen - the calvacade rolls on!

the other of the two tweakings of space sounds, and yet another part of the ever-burdened series, our very lives are being compressed. this one is based on the acoustic detritus produced by a Jovian Bow shock.

random sound calvacade #18

on a slow day in psychoacoustics, the ever-so-credible phonaut turned the ever-so-ignorant-of-such-things williwaw on to the recordings of astrophysical activity. here's the first of two completed tweakings - yes, more of the ever expanding our very lives are being compressed series. blame the university of iowa - no, not for everything, just for explaining the source material, earth proton whistlers.

random sound calvacade #17

now here's a gem - the first composition assignment of the artist known possibly as williwaw. this meager opus for violin and pianer was played by two classmates who did a much better job of making it sound musical than this gosh-forsaken musical instrument digital interface crap, but that's what you get in this cold, virtual world, alas.

... Teacher Dave's one comment on the assignment:

more complex than need be

quality computing is job one million and six

dead links! cursed dead links! discovered dead links at williwaw sound emporium over conversation playing a loft rummage sale over the weekend - a most curious and circuitous way of quality assurance. the links are fixed, and the kids are not ready is now ready for your downloadabilities. finally. sigh.

random sound calvacade #16

experimenting with a new flash media player here as it seems as though the other simple one has gone all craptacular on us - sigh. these deceptive sounds were not taken from another yawntastic art installation, but from Binion's Horseshoe, where our comrade almost got punched in the face and elsewhere for trying to take a picture of the ghost of Willie Mosconi

horse : excerpt one