[microsound-announce] Hello from Hateruma Island (Japan); fifth excerpt

Tue Feb 22 16:03:56 EST 2011

editing [u1311-3] ... out for another walk... bought more
food: another refill bag of Maxim instant coffee (Y700),
roasted black sesame seeds (that's what was on the rice in
the 'special lunch'; Y120), green seaweed sheets (Y160;
three packages, for wrapping around rice perhaps I can take
some rice in that manner to the breakwater), another package
of the yellow discs (Y220), three curious stacked little
containers of a white pudding-like substance with three
minuscule rectangular containers with red tops, of a brown
liquid (Y220; will have to wait for an 'eating day' to try
them)... went back out to record a sugarcane field: couldn't
find a good sound until I tried an open clearing near the
'singing' microwave tower:  unfortunately only got 28
minutes, and missed including the 5 o'clock tune, because
the batteries were weak... found a possibly good recording
location in the red-tile roofing construction site, (made a
little film)... there are a few chickens and a rabbit in a
pen, well-screened, behind the preschool... another family
tomb decorated with a red banner, empty sake bottle,
umbrella and silver gift-box... world memory challenge on
TV... relocated the tomb I'd like to use for my erotic warm
night film and discovered a newly cleared path to another
utaki (worth recording?): this one very quiet with quite
large coral stone structures -- older tombs perhaps...
hoping someone will bring by some more vegetables; they're
growing very rapidly in the plots around town... no rain
forecast for tomorrow so may try the breakwater; pinhole
out... this morning: another pot of rice with chilis,
roasted black sesame seeds, miso, seaweed, last of the
vegetables (chopped), few pieces of leek; instant coffee
with black sugar; hoping for sun but can't see a single
star... Sizzle writes: I'm sorry that you missed my
performance. I've been to Yellow Knife in Northwest Teritory
for my concert a few years ago. Hope to see you there some
other time. Have a nice trip....  historic trains in the
early TV montage... editing [2611-1: first childrens'
concert disc: still too much wind noise may try augmenting
with red-tile roof construction]... Pacific Air only permits
one checked bag. Honiara guesthouses: xxx at solomon.com.sb,
xxx at solomon.com.sb... once the morning tune starts I keep
hearing it in my head so I'm not exactly sure when to end
the recording; no Tapan on Sundays... tried to pretend that
it might be warm and sunny today but it just wasn't
happening... did an ass-over-tea-kettle on very slick slime
on the breakwater:  rough landing as I was holding my camera
in one hand, and it had to be protected; at least I didn't
land in the water...  turned out a few nice watercolours
though (and mostly watched other people not catch fish ---
too windy)-> on the way home, while struggling with two big
cans of SS and two bottles of peanuts (Y180x2,Y310x2=Y980)
in a ripped newspaper bag, the Sizzle-cafe-owner introduced
herself (all of a sudden some people seem to speak a little,
as opposed to no, English... )... maybe a few more cans...
got some (good this time) 5 p.m. sashimi and possibly
repeated the idea of visiting the observatory (with
translation) to M who happened to be there buying tofu...
nice little dog in the shop until at some point he started
barking, someone said, because he heard English(? is that
possible)... finally finished editing/first-pass the
childrens' discs (3) but wonder if it's worth all the
additional adjustments... just listened to [u11411-2:
sublime!!] editing [u11411-1]... cold outside this morning;
editing [u11511-1; this is the third utaki: the one next to
the 'temple': these have a little wind noise: impossible to
delete cleanly as the pitch of wind varies]... Valentine's
Day: wonder if it's as big a deal as in Nicaragua; it has
rained... editing [21211:  sugarcane field recording (just
barely hear the singing tower in the background); red-tile
roofers; accidental -wrong disc- morning-tune; ~45 min space
left]... oops! just noticed that I bought awamori from the
sisters' shop instead of saki: similar bottle, same price
(Y1600); wonder if it's good heated(?)... morning tune and
Tapan... at about 8:15 every morning the wifi signal drifts
in-and-out, making it impossible to suspend/put-to-sleep the
laptop; may bid on the used Pismo with expansion-bay drive
on eBay... intended to head straight for the Utaki site but
noticed that the red-tile roofers were almost finished, so,
anticipating the lovely ceramic clinking sound I filled-up
the childrens' concert discs for future editing, mailed two
postcards and admired the postmaster's shisha (it was
sitting next to some piggy-banks and I had thought it was
for sale)... the utaki was not where I thought I remembered
it being, but down the road by the singing-tower and after
passing the goat family, behind the tombs to the right...
photographed the adjacent tombs again thinking they'd make
great resolutely grey lithos or drawings (and was reminded
of cement-aries on Corn Island GIP 5.0)... the immediate
entranceway to houses here feature a family shrine (photos,
incense, banners, candles)....  found another utaki to
record (behind the ancient/sacred 'no-go' house and other
tombs near the cement plant... I'll have seen every square
foot of this island in time, unlike the restricted-dangerous
areas on Big Corn Island; there sure are a lot of tombs,
some older ones just a jumble of coral... will retrieve the
4th and probably last recording-disc at 5:20 p.m. (I can
walk there in 20 minutes.  It feels pretty safe leaving the
equipment unattended and the bird song is likely to be
better with no one around.)...  I'm wondering if a fine mesh
strainer, or perhaps a light-tent, would make a good
windscreen, as I frequently place the mics on the ground
(?)...  chatted with the Victoria couple (he works with
computers/databases for B.C.  gov't), they said the bags of
unrefrigerated white eggs are only Y200 (but I said as
usual, they have little nutrient value; still, I might give
those a try)... I gave them a GIP wooden coin and card;
(wonder about their son always being carried)...Mae-san was
there and brought me lots of leafy vegetables and daikon...
editing [u21411-1: too much gain, I think, some of the
nearby-sounds are a little distorted...  soon be out of
discs (and I'm only halfway through my stay); have gone
through 10 lithium AA batteries, although I don't think
they're fully discharged: enough juice left for the
flashlights, (must get more on eBay for my Solomon Islands
trip)... a long announcement a little after 7 p.m. --
couldn't get the recorder set up... editing [u21411-2: it
was a _very gusty day but still too many wind edits:  at one
point a crow pecks at the mic -- the villagers hang crow
carcasses over their gardens]... Pinhole, Morning-Tune,
Tapan: PMT... tuna-tofu-seaweed burger recipe on TV... well,
the red-tile roofing recording is a bust, perhaps the
torrential rains forecast for Thursday will yield something
better... (finally) wired-up a stereo mic to the inner
window screen... the little white-pudding cups (probably
rice-based with a caramel-like topping), were
unremarkable... kinda wish I'd packed the portable speakers
(maybe for the Sols; I always think I'll be too preoccupied
listening to what's here)... walked down to Nishi and the
port (NP) and took some pics in the grocery store on the way
back (one advantage of not speaking the language is that few
people are going to bother telling you what you mustn't-do:
in an analogous manner you should of course avoid conversing
with cops/ceo-s/curators: just regard them as hostile
cretins from another planet)... but I digress: bought some
un-refrigerated eggs (6 for Y160, an apple Y200, and little
cute package of crackers again Y90)... just boiled-up a few
eggs: I have to say, they taste pretty good... I must ask
the English-Japanese couple if they watch Tapan and see how
much of it I think I might understand... just realized that
my portable baggage-scale, which I often regret not bringing
for the return-scrutiny-home also has a measuring tape... is
it just my imagination or do Japanese people have an unusual
amount of facial blemishes/growths and bad teeth (no
flouride); but I haven't (yet) seen the usual island 'lazy
eye' condition (where one eye doesn't focus properly)
here... editing [u21411-3: torture! many dozens of edits:
not sure when to 'save' material at the expense of
choppiness (took out 20 minutes from 80! obviously no
expensive gear here)... can't believe how perfectly the
first utaki set went: 6 discs in the wind without scarcely
missing a beat... ] another town broadcast, incomprehensible
message at night that doesn't sound like trivial social
matter: the same four notes (V might know what they were;)
always signal an end to the pronouncement: (bling bling ding
bling)... weather forecasts vary widely from day to day; was
expecting today to be sunny but apparently not; but that's
likely wrong too... editing [u21411-4] [u11511-3]...
permanently setting-up the mic behind the window-screen was
a very good idea: much easier/better to record the morning
tune, and who knows what else... TV retail story: you can
try-on different virtual clothes/colours/fit on a life-sized
LCD self-portrait... PMT... walked out to the observatory;
cloudy evenings forecast for all this week ;( (there are
some Y1000 T-shirts for sale and there appears to be a
souvenir rubber-stamping station that I'll have to use on my
books of postcards), and Pemuchi beach... photographed a
bowing-man figure from a construction sign that I may use a
part of a GIP folio icon... then back home as the sun
started to occasionally break through the clouds: down to
the breakwater with my fishing and watercolour gear: painted
some excellent work which is taking-on a calligraphic
nature: oddly-enough the paintings can look more
representational; "the water," as the otherwise silent,
sullen, morning yoga practitioner (on my preferred
sunbathing-dock) in Belize said, "is alive today" ...
listened to AGP music on the Cowan mp3 player (its radio
auto-scanned to the correct position of the NHK-FM 87.0 Mhz
station but I couldn't hear anything)...  saw some divers
going out/returning and a small, possibly private plane;
could only hear one source of the noon-day tune: quite
windy...  odd that the port building doesn't sell cans of
beer: I checked; it's a long way to carry them... old
barefoot lady sitting in a roadside garden picking bugs off
her lettuce...  boiling the daikon now (tastes a lot like
radish; I had partially cooked some with the rice but it was
too chewy)...  I'll need to buy some more turquoise and
lighter blue watercolours and maybe get different sizes of
the travel brush... on the way back, I bought canned
pineapple (Y200)  and shekwasha drink (Y130) in preparation
for inventing/photographing my
Global-Islands-Project-cocktail (#7)... Shekwasha: Citrus
depressa, in English sometimes called Taiwan tangerine, flat
lemon, hirami lemon, or thin-skinned flat lemon, is a small,
green citrus fruit rich in flavonoids and native to Taiwan
and Okinawa, Japan. Very sour, it is often used like lemon
or lime to garnish dishes, but is also used to make a yellow
juice, which can be thinned or sweetened. Its name is
occasionally translated into English as kalamans, but
strictly speaking this is a different fruit... sat outside
behind my cottage for a bit reading The Flood, watching the
goat and catching the last few rays...  editing
[u11511-2]... excited about the forecast clear skies
today... making the usual rice + vegetable dish... just
ordered $187 worth of watercolour supplies from Dick Blick
(many items back-ordered and not shipped as late as
mid-March; two more travel brushes, size 2 & 10, masking
liquid, oxgall medium, cheap w/c field set (which I'll
empty-out and use for my new colours:) cobalt turquoise
light, green gold, perm magenta, antwerp blue, cadmium
lemon, cerln blue, cobalt vlt, french ultramarine, indnthrn
blu, indigo, cobalt green, winsor blue green shade, cobalt
turquoise, winsor green blue shade, winsor green yellow
shade, manganese blue, rose madder genuine)... goat is
tangled-up again; was a little late bringing the pinhole in:
last frame on roll; new roll in camera (so glad Fuji did
away with that horrid-tasting, adhesive seal)...

Island 6.0 is now available online!
====================================
http://bbrace.net/islands/island6/island6.html
http://bradbrace.net/islands/island6/island6.html

Global Islands Project -- ongoing series of multi-media
pdf-ebooks/field-recordings -- a pastoral, pictorial and
phonic elicitation of island parameters. An intensive
examination of small islands and their paradigmatic
solutions to globalism.

Your (Art)world is based on mutual relief at your common
corruption. Maybe some cultures are based on even worse. But
that wouldn't change the bad faith of it and as years go by,
you wake at night in terror of your whole life being an act
of bad faith, where everything is self-interest and nothing
more, where every human interaction is driven by a silent,
even subconscious calculation of some ulterior motive, to
the point that a sea of bad faith has taken over your whole
life, there's no small island left from which you can even
try to build a bridge of good faith, because even that
effort becomes suspect, even good faith is nothing but
self-interested, even altruism is nothing but solipsistic,
even your professed agonizing right here right now is
nothing but a gesture, made to the conscience in order to
assure it that it exists.

http://bradbrace.net/id.html
http://bbrace.net/id.html

Island 1.0 is Ambergris Caye, Belize
Island 2.0 is Koh Si Chang, Thailand
Island 3.0 is Lamu, Kenya
Island 4.0 is Narikel Jingira, Bangladesh
Island 5.0 is Isla Mais, Nicaragua
Island 6.0 are The Grenadines, West Indies

Global Islands Project:

Island 1.0 -> http://bbrace.net/islands/island1/island1.html
or http://bradbrace.net/islands/island1/island1.html
-- over 800 images and hour-long audiotrack -- 69mb -- (acrobat 6)

Island 2.0 -> http://bbrace.net/islands/island2/island2.html
or http://bradbrace.net/islands/island2/island2.html
 -- over 535 images and hour-long audiotrack -- 78mb -- (acrobat 6)

***

http://www.archive.org/details/global_islands_project_island_1.0
http://www.archive.org/details/global_islands_project_island_2.0
http://www.archive.org/details/global_islands_project_island_3.0
http://www.archive.org/details/global_islands_project_island_4.0
http://www.archive.org/details/global_islands_project_island_5.0
http://www.archive.org/details/global_islands_project_island_6.0

*** Global Islands Project -- ongoing series of multi-media
pdf-books -- a pastoral, pictorial and phonic elicitation of
island parameters...

Vientos del pueblo me llevan
Vientos del pueblo me arrastran
Me eparcen mi corazon
Ye me aventan la garganta

http://www.bbrace.net/id.html
http://bradbrace.net/id.html

bbs: brad brace sound
http://69.64.229.114:8000
http://www.bbrace.net/undisclosed.html

Waters Colours:
http://bradbrace.net/webgallerywc/wc.html

Eroticized Japanese/Malaysian Snack Foods:
http://bradbrace.net/greenscreen.html

Additional GIP texts/blog:
http://bbrace.net/wordpress/
http://bradbrace.net/wordpress/

12 mailing list:

You cannot politically defy the institutions when all you
really wanted was to be clasped to their bosoms and hope in
time to be cherished under the very framework of oppressive
values you are thinking of overcoming. That would be
co-optation, revolution only in the sense of a circulation
of elites rather than the extirpation of the very impulses
of elitism.

To subscribe to 12-list, simply send a message with the word
"subscribe" in the Subject: field to
12-list-request at eskimo.com

/:b