Halloween

Alas, I wanted to be Patty Hearst but I don't think I can pull it off. Cheaper alternative: camo pants and a big gun: Michelle Obama on the cover of the New Yorker...(?)

I will buy a Google Phone

I will.

I swear it. (Countdown to payday!)

In other news, went to an event called "Information Superhighway" at the Berkman Center. It was like a D.E. Shaw happy hour-- all maladroit kids, way too smart for their age (who let you drink beer?). And just like a D.E. Shaw happy hour, I immediately felt out-of-place, and didn't know what to do, where to stand, or who to talk to. This time, however, I decided to use my natural diffidence to my advantage, and asked the first person I saw "What am I doing here"? (Take note: It actually is the perfect ice-breaker.) By the end of the night, I got to talk to a whole bunch of interesting folks who have rekindled my desire to collaborate, so that was cool.

No other big news. Tried to launch SkillTracker at CCTV today, and realized that there are still a few (ahem) inconsistencies to squash, and will be working throughout the week to get that settled. But regardless, I'm feeling pretty optimistic these days.

Well, I have no other news to report.

shenanigans!

I dreamed this would happen. My conspiracy theory actually came true...

Last summer, some canvassers from a voter rights organization were on the street in Central Square trying to "get out the vote". With the election coming up, and my being relatively new in town, I filled out one of their forms to register in Massachusetts. The girl who handed me my form was young and peppy, and seemed like one of those Rock The Vote do-gooders. She even said the organization would mail it in for me and everything. So I filled out my form, thinking that I had done my part and would vote like a real citizen on November 4th.

However, having received absolutely nothing in the mail about my registration, I decided to check with both the Somerville and Cambridge election offices to see what was up. Turns out, I am not registered at all, and have to haul ass to the Election Office at City Hall early tomorrow morning to register FOR REAL and have my vote count come November.

Is this the infamous underhanded voter disenfranchisement I'd read about? I wish I paid more attention to the canvasser on the street. I don't remember what day it was at all, only that it was during the summer, and I was probably on my way to CCTV for something. I don't even remember what organization she claimed to represent. If I did, my griping would have more teeth! I've been trying to Google any news of street canvassing in Central Square over the summer, but to no avail.

I feel like such a dummy for letting something like this happen to me, and I'm real curious to know what when wrong, and who was responsible.

Back to it.

Hello non-existent reader! Hello future generation! It's been quite a while since I last blogged to you. Let me tell you, August and September have been super busy for me, and seemed to vanish into wisps of smoke before my eyes. These months brought a move into the 3rd floor of my house, where Noah and I share 3 huge rooms and enough studio space for each of us to retire into our respective corners with the option of ignoring the other's presence if so inclined. Also, I started a new job (as Program Associate for Community Music Center of Boston, a part of the Boston Center of the Arts) where I do just about everything from writing lines and lines and lines of code, to helping launch outreach projects, to... um "Harlo, if you have a moment can you make 20 copies of this, double-sided?", to planning festivals, to taking pictures and filming video. It has its ups and downs, but mostly it has its ups. Finally, I've been doing so much freelance work that I couldn't see straight, but the extra cash was well worth it considering the move and the purchase of a new computer. With the wrap of my involvement with Susan Eisenberg's installation "On Equal Terms" at Brandeis (I did sound design), I took about one minute to catch my breath, and now back to it.

My next project should be going up in December at the Kingston Gallery in Boston (although that deal hasn't been sealed yet...) and is called "No Forwarding Address". It's an installation consisting of video and pictures exploring the nostalgia of home when one finds one's self displaced. The piece uses aerial maps of a childhood home (whose home is of no consequence) presented as document, as proof of the existence of that home, but manipulated in such a way that the viewer has to question the role of the nostalgic imagination in how these images are rendered. Here's one of the images I'm using:


Although the images are changing daily...

I'll probably (okay, I'll have to) write up a more cogent statement of this piece in coming days, and will probably post some news as developments... develop. But now, I'm occupied by trying to turn a bunch of old Dell Latitudes (left by my awesome ex-roommate Kevin) into video monitors worthy of installation. So far, I've upgraded the video drivers and installed Windows XP on one of them, and later on, I'm gonna crack the sucker open, and turn it inside out so the LCD screen faces outward while the computer's guts and keyboard and stuff are mounted to the back of the screen, making a very thick picture frame. Something like this project I saw on You Tube.

Okay, well, thank you, blog, for putting up with my neglect. Bis bald...

very bored by this.jpg

very bored by this.jpg
Originally uploaded by lovers v haters

at CCTV nitpicking at video submissions to the ACM Fall festival. So bored by this one video about a water plant in NH. Hello blog, It's been awhile!