Kat's Mermaid − 2 October, 2007
Today, I posted a little more information about La vie sous la mer to my Wordpress blog. I tied it into something I call the "Grand Unification Theory" (there's an obscure math joke in the article, related to an apocryphal story about Leonhard Euler). By unification, I mean I'm posting all of my Jamendo tunes to DMusic as well. Different audiences, and in some ways, different universes. All I know is I'm finally out of the one where Spock had a beard.
Anyway, I'm also writing a book to go with the album. A short one. More of a companion piece than a novel. Here's an excerpt, which ties in to something I posted to Dandelife before: The Mermaid. (You can actually see the Mermaid in yesterday's post, the front cover art for La vie sous la mer.)
Kat's Mermaid
Strangely, for the past few years, I've been teaching two classes that seem like a mismatch: sixth grade comprehensive science and high school physics. This is because I'm at a combined middle and high school. I think I'm the only science teacher in the state with that wide an age range, unless there's a one room schoolhouse I'm missing somewhere.
It's okay, though. I came to teaching from a career as a professional research chemist. I'll take grading papers over breathing in a cloud of thionyl chloride fumes any time.
The students have been great, regardless. In the 2005-2006 school year, I had my first physics class, and it was spectacular. They went farther, faster than any group I've had since.
They even went into space. My year end final exam was for them to take the physics principles they had learned and design a ship for interstellar travel---propulsion system, life support, radiation shielding, even the onboard society itself. Then we ran a simulation, where I would hit them with randomly generated disasters. They would have to solve the problems using only equipment and resources they had on board.
One of those students, Kathryn Richardson (or Kat), had taken the class as a Junior. She was still around as a senior in the Spring of 2006. Now, Kat, in addition to being brilliant academically, was also a successful local artist: she created fantastic, mythological images that were sometimes purchased by local tatoo artists. I had seen her portfolio before, and asked for her to bring it by every now and then so I could see what she'd been doing.
In February, I was doing FAWM (February Album Writing Month). Kat happened to come by my room during the period I was thinking over concepts for my third Jamendo album---planning what to practice for the next few months, actually.
One of her drawings, as they say, struck a chord.
Kat had a pencil drawing of a mermaid. I'm not sure why, but sometimes when I see or hear something, it starts "speaking" to me. No, not like I'm hearing voices! Somehow the image or sound conjures up a flood of ideas, and I know what it's about, or could be about. This is the place where all my music comes from.
As soon as I saw it, I knew. The mermaid seems to be listening to something. Strange, alien music? The expression is joy. Or perhaps something darker. Hundreds of ideas came to me that afternoon, including the four opening chords of La vie sous la mer (the song, that is---the second track on the album).
It would take me months to figure out the organ voicing to duplicate what I was hearing in my head. I had found my inspiration.
---from "La vie sous la mer: the Songs, the Stories" by Bruce H. McCosar (Nov. 2007).
Anyway, I'm also writing a book to go with the album. A short one. More of a companion piece than a novel. Here's an excerpt, which ties in to something I posted to Dandelife before: The Mermaid. (You can actually see the Mermaid in yesterday's post, the front cover art for La vie sous la mer.)
Kat's Mermaid
Strangely, for the past few years, I've been teaching two classes that seem like a mismatch: sixth grade comprehensive science and high school physics. This is because I'm at a combined middle and high school. I think I'm the only science teacher in the state with that wide an age range, unless there's a one room schoolhouse I'm missing somewhere.
It's okay, though. I came to teaching from a career as a professional research chemist. I'll take grading papers over breathing in a cloud of thionyl chloride fumes any time.
The students have been great, regardless. In the 2005-2006 school year, I had my first physics class, and it was spectacular. They went farther, faster than any group I've had since.
They even went into space. My year end final exam was for them to take the physics principles they had learned and design a ship for interstellar travel---propulsion system, life support, radiation shielding, even the onboard society itself. Then we ran a simulation, where I would hit them with randomly generated disasters. They would have to solve the problems using only equipment and resources they had on board.
One of those students, Kathryn Richardson (or Kat), had taken the class as a Junior. She was still around as a senior in the Spring of 2006. Now, Kat, in addition to being brilliant academically, was also a successful local artist: she created fantastic, mythological images that were sometimes purchased by local tatoo artists. I had seen her portfolio before, and asked for her to bring it by every now and then so I could see what she'd been doing.
In February, I was doing FAWM (February Album Writing Month). Kat happened to come by my room during the period I was thinking over concepts for my third Jamendo album---planning what to practice for the next few months, actually.
One of her drawings, as they say, struck a chord.
Kat had a pencil drawing of a mermaid. I'm not sure why, but sometimes when I see or hear something, it starts "speaking" to me. No, not like I'm hearing voices! Somehow the image or sound conjures up a flood of ideas, and I know what it's about, or could be about. This is the place where all my music comes from.
As soon as I saw it, I knew. The mermaid seems to be listening to something. Strange, alien music? The expression is joy. Or perhaps something darker. Hundreds of ideas came to me that afternoon, including the four opening chords of La vie sous la mer (the song, that is---the second track on the album).
It would take me months to figure out the organ voicing to duplicate what I was hearing in my head. I had found my inspiration.
---from "La vie sous la mer: the Songs, the Stories" by Bruce H. McCosar (Nov. 2007).
