Never Theme Twice

I’m a big fan of Art Assignment on Youtube. It’s part of the recent (as in the past few years) offerings of the PBS Digital Studios. In the latest episode, Jesse Sugarmann wanted people to discus their “car history” with their family members, then to take some aspect of their car and create some new artwork based on the chosen “thing”.

Sugarmann showed a plaid design he created from the colors of the cars he has owned as well as the cars of various family members. He plans on turning his family car history plaid into a blanket for the child he and his wife is expecting. 

I’ve done a couple of the Art Assignment projects. So I figured I would do this one. Sugarmann’s plaid idea really spoke to me. It was quite an interesting way to represent his “car history”, so i decided I would try to create something similar.  

I created the picture above using plaidmaker.com. I used the colors of the cars I had owned before my wife and I got married, then used the colors of the cars we have had while married. My wife had not owned a car before we were married. 

I had owned four different cars before we were married and those colors are represented by the vertical lines. The horizontal lines are the colors of the four cars we have owned as a married couple. I did change the color of one of the horizontal lines. We’ve owned three different shades of silver/gray cars so I decided to change one of those colors to black. Just because. Artistic liberty. 

Insecurities and the day my give-a-damn broke

My degree is in music history. I’ve never studied music composition with anyone, but I’ve been fortunate enough to participate in a few masterclasses with composers whose music I admire: Ken Ueno, Judith Lang Zaimont, and David Maslanka. I do a shit ton of score study and listening. It’s the way I’ve taught myself to compose. I wrote my first piece of music in March of 2000. I was 23. Three years…

Tonight I took part (a little, mostly lurking) in the weekly fast paced discussion on Twitter called #musochat. The topic was genre in new music. How do we as composers or performers define our music?

One of the early questions was how do we define or label our music on something like Soundcloud. For me it is simple: #instrumentation #newmusic.

I know #newmusic is used all the time when a new R&B album or track drops on the internet. I have no problem with that. I really could not care less which tag we use. I like #newmusic. So I use it.

Labels like Downtown and Uptown were mentioned. Two terms I despise. Some seem to label #newmusic as one or the other. My problem with those terms are that they are New York City centric. The world does not revolve around NYC’s new music scene. If it did one could only hope it looks like the Lauryn Hill video for “Everything is Everything” where a phonograph needle tracks the streets of Manhattan as the city spins. 

Does it really matter how we label our music? Should composers in Mississippi or North Carolina or Minnesota define our work by NYC geographical terms?

I dislike some of the labels that are used. I’m rather indifferent toward a lot of them.   I’d rather just worry about finishing my next piece.

What labels do you use or disagree with?

Since I have a looming deadline I have begun another project.  I'm a big fan of the Vlogbrothers on Youtube and I recently discovered #TheArtAssignment channel which is hosted by author John Green (of Vlogbrothers) and his wife Sarah Urist Green who if i remember correctly is the former Director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

It's a very interesting channel. Every week there are posts by the hosts and different artists. The point of the project is to get people looking at art, thinking about art and creating art. Each artist gives an assignment to the viewers. You can do the assignments or not.

I began watching The Art Assignment last month and have now caught up. I really enjoyed the video of Fritz Haeg and his textile works. He hand crochets (crocheting without needles, just forming the loops and such with your hands) these enormous rugs out of old clothes and material. They are gorgeous and they have traveled around the country to different museums and people are encouraged to sit on them or just interact with them somehow.

I have of old shirts, pjs, and material laying around so i decided i needed to do this assignment. I know this assignment was posted 7 months ago but i find it really interesting and I'm going to post pics until i complete it. i don't think it will be really big because i do not have the space but we will see.

...and yes that is a Papa Johns Pizza shirt in the middle.

The family and I went by the George Ohr Museum today to pick up the "pinch pots" Cheryl and Asa made a couple weeks ago. 

I'll post pics of the pinch pots later. 

I absolutely the Ohr Museum building. It was designed by Frank Gehry. Apparently Ohr's crazy ass pottery was an inspiration for the weird and wonderful designs of Gehry's buildings.

From my recent trip to NYC and MOMA.

Earlier this month, at the urging of a couple friends I started a fundraising campaign in hopes of flying to NYC for a weekend to attend a performance of my third saxophone quartet, Constructions for Julie Mehretu. I feel extremely fortunate to have such wonderful friends because I reached my goal in under twelve hours.

I was really eager to go on this trip for multiple reasons:

1. I’d never…

Chicken and sausage Gumbo*

Stock ingredients:

1 whole chicken (I usually get a 3 -4 lbs chicken)

1 yellow onion sliced in half

2 or 3 stalks of celery (I just break them in half and throw them in)

2 or 3 bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Gumbo ingredients:

Trinity: (plus garlic)

1 medium bell pepper diced

1 medium onion diced

3 stalks of celery diced

2 or 3 cloves of garlic minced

1lb okra sliced  (I usually use frozen okra which comes pre-sliced. If you are using fresh okra slice it into ½ inch pieces

1lb sausage or andouille Cut into ½ inch pieces (I’m partial to the Conecuh brand of smoked sausage. It is a spicy smoked sausage. Use a sausage that has some spice to it. Not Italian sausage.)

1 can whole kernel corn drained

Roux ingredients:

1/2c AP flour (do not use self rising flour. A roux will not thicken with self rising flour.)

1/2c vegetable oil

Herbs und spices:

1t thyme

1t coriander

1 – 2t Cajun seasoning (I’m partial to Tony Chacheres’ brand Cajun seasoning)

Salt and pepper

Stock:

I do not use a specific amount of water. I have a large stock pot that I put enough water in to cover the chicken and seasonings. I boil the stock until the chicken is completely cooked. I think the pot holds about 8 quarts but I only fill it about 2/3s full.

Remove the chicken from the stock and allow to cool. De-bone and shred the chicken and set aside. Remove the onions, celery, and bay leaves from the stock.

Set stock to the side.

While the stock is cooking dice up all the seasonings.

Once the seasonings are diced stock is finished begin the roux.

Making the roux:

A roux is nothing more than fat and flour, but a roux for gumbo is something special. Purists believe a gumbo roux must be made in a cast iron skillet. I do not have a preference for cast iron versus a different pot/pan to create a roux.

Put flour and oil into your pan. Make sure the pan is dry. There shouldn’t be any water or condensation in the pan. Turn the burner to medium/low heat. Start combining the flour and oil.

You cannot ignore a roux. You must stand over it and keep stirring it. The roux will begin to dark. Do not let it stick and do not let it burn. If it burns you must start over.

Keep stirring. It will continue to dark. The rule of thumb is the roux must reach the color of a new penny. That is the rule my grandmother told me. Many people do darken the roux a bit more. That is totally acceptable, but be careful not to burn it.

Once the roux has reached the ideal color add the onion, bell pepper and celery. Let those cook down a bit. Keep stirring. Do not add the garlic yet. It could burn and you don’t want that burnt garlic flavor.

In Cajun/creole cooking, the trinity (onion, bell pepper, celery) is treated as seasoning. They are cooked down to nothing pretty much. You should not see chunks of trinity in the finished product.

I cook my roux in my large “gumbo pot” so I can combine everything into one pot and not have to transfer ingredients much or dirty too many dishes.

When the seasonings begin to break down add the garlic.

Begin adding in the chicken stock.  This will cause it to produce lots of steam so be careful. It will be very hot.

Keep stirring and adding stock so it will not clump up. Once all the stock has been added into the roux add in the chicken and sausage.

Add the herbs and spices

Allow the gumbo to come to a boil then turn down to low heat.

Add the can of corn (drained)

Add okra. The okra acts as a thickener. It should be added toward the end or else it will completely fall apart and the gumbo will look less than desirable. Trust me on that.

(When it is done you may want to skim some of the oil off of the top.  You really need the oil for the roux but at the end it may be necessary to remove as much of the oil that has collected on the top as possible.)

Serve over rice.

Some people add gumbo file into each serving of gumbo has been served. Feel free to do so. Do not add the file to the pot of gumbo.

*I think a gumbo can easily be made vegan. A veggie stock can replace the chicken stock. Quorn chicken cutlets can be diced and brown in a pan before adding to the gumbo. There are also good vegan sausage replacements. Brown those as well and remove from pan. Add the vegan chicken and sausage toward the end so it will not totally break down during the cooking process.

Also there are some wonderful recipes online of Green Gumbo (gumbo z’herbes) which incorporates collard greens, turnip greens, kale etc.