Author: colin (Page 4 of 61)
If you don’t have the right tool, make it.
Imogen Heap was in fine voice at The Masonic in San Francisco this weekend, but I have to deduct one point and give the show 9/10 for unexpected reasons.
First, here’s what didn’t bother me at all:
Technical Glitches – it’s a high-tech Heap show, there are always a couple of glitches, and they are always fun to see her gracefully negotiate them.
Technical monologues – Heap is a music tech nerd and this is what she does. Allowing her ebullient personality free rein to enthusiastically talking about her MiMu gloves and blockchain is part and parcel of a Heap concert.
Set List – Strictly speaking this was a joint Frou Frou / Heap concert and so including music from Guy Sigsworth‘s solo album is to be expected. Not to my taste, however your mileage may vary.
As I said, Imogen was in fine voice, with her fantastic range and tone in full display, except for a difficult first song (“Guitar Song”) where the vocal EQ seemed off and she was croaky and out of tune in some places, all of which might be blamed on the sound/monitoring folks getting their act together, along with perhaps missing out on that important cup of tea prior to going on stage (I’m guessing). Unfortunate, but a one-off: all the other songs were great vocally.
So why deduct a point?
1. Criminal under-use of the amazing Zoe Keating. Also, for the first half of the show I honestly couldn’t hear her cello contributions. Second half was better, someone turned her up in the mix. But still… more cello! More Zoe!
2. I couldn’t tell where the music was coming from! I am 100% confident this was not miming to backing tapes – that is not what I am talking about. What we were hearing was all being generated on stage, I’m sure. The problem is that this did not feel like a performance by a band of contributing musicians. Apart from the drummer (who rose to the challenge) it was almost impossible to determine who was playing what. I’m sure the woman playing the keytar was contributing in important ways but honestly, I couldn’t tell. Was she holding down the bass? Maybe.
I couldn’t tell what the guitarist was doing or contributing, apart from the odd moment. (Yes, good job on the Jeff Beck part on Say Goodnight and Go, by the way. Doesn’t make up for the rest of the concert, sorry.)
I think that Imogen’s mastery of the MiMu gloves are partly to blame. She effortlessly bounces samples and vocal treatments and loops around the aural space and looks like she’s merely dancing.
I think that when you’ve got a group of musicians on stage, however many there are, each member should be distinctively audible and contributing, in synergy, and this didn’t happen.
I’ve seen Imogen in concert twice before and never experienced this kind of disconnect between the band and the music, so I think it is a bug, not a feature, of this specific production.
That said, it was a good concert, and I have tons of respect for Imogen Heap and her creative journey. In the past I’ve flown to another city to see her live, and would do so again.
Imogen Heap does not owe us anything more, but she did hint about perhaps working on a new album for next year so I’m looking forward to that, if it happens.
The Puppy tore up the stage this evening, to much applause (in three against four rhythm, of course).
My bagel baking adventures continue. This time I tried an overnight rise in the fridge. I think the results were definitely better, texture-wise.
Okay, so we’re doing some preparation for landscaping work, and I’ve been trying to trace the destination of a rain gutter downspout that just… disappears into the front garden somewhere. It backs up in heavy rain, so clearly there’s a blockage.
I actually want to find the end point and find out why it isn’t draining – although I think I’ve just answered the question: if it terminates in the front garden about a foot below the surface, then all it will take for the drain to stop draining is for the groundwater level to rise to that point.
During the recent drought years, the groundwater level is so low to be non-existent, and the drain does the job fine. But with the recent weeks of Pineapple Express moisture dumping, it’s a problem.
I started digging around, and found the pipe heading out to the front, but it has roots and things twisted around it.
One of the “things” turned out not to be a root, but rather, irrigation control wire.
Complicating the picture slightly, the two smaller pipe ends just to the right of the main run are actually much shallower, they are short lengths that run under the concrete that I’m kneeling on to take the photo. They are supposed to be used as chases to allow cables and suchlike to be threaded under the concrete path. You know, like, say, irrigation valve control wire. However someone in their wisdom did not use the chase for this purpose, and instead just lay the irrigation control wire alongside the main drain pipe. Cleverly disguised as a root. A root, I tell you. Why black plastic cladding? Purple or green would have been much less likely to be mistaken for a root. (OK, well, RED then.)
The water level you see here is about a foot below ground level. It’s not a leak; it’s just ground water. The pipe running from the T-junction to the left actually makes an off-screen right angle upwards, to a clean-out. That’s where I started digging to find out what it connected to.
Best figure out how to fix this severed control wire before the new pavers go down, I think.
I was out there again this afternoon tracing back the business end of the wire and pulling it up so that I could tape it off safely (low voltage but still, potential short) and the ground water level is now out of range. I couldn’t say how far down it’s gone but at the 1.5 foot level it is back to the usual stodgy clay. Now that the wire is taken care of, i can go back to tracing the far end of the drain pipe and see where it stops. It probably just needs a proper clean-out at the end, ending in a gravel pit. Which right now, it probably doesn’t. Who knows? We’ll find out…
I found the outlet! Yes it was blocked.
It just terminates at a right-angle, coming up to the level of the pavement. I wish it could be redirected straight out to the road, under the pavement.
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