A Sketch

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Dirt poor; dog days of summer, but still sketching ....


Thank God life fell apart. At least I get this second chance. "Make more mistakes more quickly" was the advice in Canadian designer Bruce Mau's 'manifesto' - not currently on the bmd site, that I can see. Born 1961. I'm a committed Buddhist. A committed musician. A sometimes committed loony; the friendly type. I'm very smart. Not very wise. Not very pretty.

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Garden Distrikt Popular Posts

Premiere: Brand New Art

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If you're the first one reading this (and, chances are, you are - so popular are we!), then you're only the third person, other than myself, to see it, ever. It's only just dried. This was another attempt to call mostly on the subconscious, and that typically means it's a fiery picture of me ... or is it? I sincerely believe it is also what you perceive. So, do me a solid (a favour), and post a comment telling me what you "got", if anything. And I hope you're not in as much trouble as me! Oh, and while you're at it - make me an offer; no reasonables refused. "Dandelion Eyes"   - 2018 Martin Lomas 8" x 10", Acrylic & Watercolor & Flowers Two-stage process; (1) 'blind' background until satisfied (subject unknown), (1b) rough unknown outlines, (2) face' the music. Excuse the laptop camera.
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Why "Garden Distrikt"??

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Right. Good question. It goes back to brainstorming a name. At first, I thought I wanted something whizz-bang-cool. You know, like you do. "The Screaming Abbadabs", or "Fool's Pyrite", maybe "Debbie Doesn't" - something like that. But when I began to ponder how this whole caper might be received, I was reminded that the very lofty (geddit - artist's place) idea of any kind of collective, let alone a fucking art collective, can be taken as too intellectual, perhaps too formal, too learned, too highbrow. Well, it doesn't have to be those things. Look, among many other facets, there will be, e.g.: heavy metal, rap, neoclassical and anything we want. We would like everyone to have fun making art or enjoying art. We hope our audience/member line will blur. Anyway, this barrier would not seem smaller if the moniker were some silly trumped-up wannabe. So, I thought that a simple, direct and ultimately forgettable name would suit best. It be...
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New Music from 1998

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Only 20 years old - a mere spring chicken, here's - "Hair of the God" 1998 Music by Martin Lomas, words from "The Eye of the Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran as read by Johnny Cash. All of the guitar tracks were created by sampling my own work at half-speed. Why? Serendipity. I had some recordings of mine on cassette tape. These were made on the typical TASCAM PortaStudio unit (see below), which uses the tape at double-speed to improve quality. I wanted to revive them, and so planned to re-record them digitally, double the speed (since I no longer have a double-speed tape deck), and clean them up. But I got stuck at the half-speed stage. Some wonderful new sounds become available.
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Powers of 10 : Awesome

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Exactly HOW big is it ? Think carefully for a moment about: "All words ever spoken by human beings". E r, yeah. See Exabyte ! This table courtesy of Roy Williams at Caltech . A Connection to music? Yes; I like to make algorithmic music. My album "Loose" is all-agorithmic. I plan to use these in an upcoming song.   Byte [ 8 bits] 0.1 bytes: a binary decision; 1 byte: a single character; 10 bytes: a single word; 100 bytes: a telegram ORr a punched card; Kilobyte [ 1,000 bytes OR 10 3 bytes] 1 Kilobyte: A very short story; 2 Kilobytes: A typewritten page; 10 Kilobytes: An encyclopaedic page OR a deck of punched cards; 10 Kilobytes: static web page; 50 Kilobytes: A compressed document image page; 100 Kilobytes: A low-resolution photograph; 200 Kilobytes: A box of punched cards; 500 Kilobytes: A very heavy box of punched cards; Megabyte [ 1,000,000 bytes OR 10 6 bytes] 1 Megabyte: A small novel OR a 3...
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Arts & Music News (a series? who knows...)

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Bits & pieces I found interesting today ... Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) died yesterday.   😞 Marvel is making a Muslim superhero movie.   👍 ( I vote for an LGBTQ2 superhero next ) Rita Ora 'sorry' for song accused of exploiting bisexuality.   ¿? A Lifetime of Carla Bley.   ♬ The Trouble with Elon Musk and Grimes.   💗 'Astonishing' teenage pianist Lauren Zhang wins BBC Young Musician.   ♫   Netta Barzilai of Israel Wins Eurovision With a Chicken Dance.
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Meet Pema Chödrön

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She's been my guru for maybe 15 years now - though she doesn't know it - yet*. This documentary, with the lovely Bill Moyers , will tell you much about her, AND, much about Buddhism. But remember, we don't proselytize. Well, in general we don't, but me, I'm a radical Buddhist . So there. Here's the doc ... sorry about the poor video quality, but the sound is good. Pema Chödrön with Bill Moyers Pema Chödrön *She may know it when I attend Gampo Abbey later.
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Design Writ Large

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I met Hunter Tura years ago at some conference, and I've always admired his work - and certainly the company/person he work(s)ed for ...  Bruce Mau may still be in Chicago , but I'm sure he's a good mentor.  I believe Hunter is now CEO & President @ BMD . A recent post finds Hunter "excited" to be part of the team who will design Hong Kong airport's new mega-terminal . Nice! Who IS Bruce Mau ?  Many Canadians may well ask.  Because, many Canadians do not realize that one of this world's finest designers is, in fact, Canadian.  THAT's Bruce Mau .  As to who Hunter is, well, he's the next rising star, and amply filling Bruce's shoes, it would seem.  Good job all round, people, and keep it up - you make this Canadian very proud.  If YOU want to feel equally proud, do follow the above links, and especially, gaze at BMD's work here . Extra!!  I forgot; the reason I became interested in Bruce Mau was my stumbling on his brilliant ...
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Tech Talk - (1) A Complaint ... (aka "Think.")

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Another ad hoc post. Okay, I don't trust Google . At all. And I also believe them when they say that nothing malevolent is going on. Huh? Yup. Here's why ... To put it succinctly: Just the mere fact that Google is happily enabling us, digitally, to burst into pastures new (technologies unknown), is absolutely reckless. Google have either not thought this through, or something else. Think.  "Think" is a necessary imperative, these days. The irony being, that in the end, there's no reason to think. At all. Sorry, but the closer to reality you get, the more surreal it is. That's how this all works. Please don't ask me what "this" is. I do not presume to know, yet. See? Even I don't know if I'll actually arrive anywhere. However, if the nature of "this" is indeed timeless and infinite, then we'd best get comfortable, nay? Or, as paraphrased by Elvis Costello: "Whats so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?...
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