7-line poetry

I am working on a many-faceted collaborative internet-based project right now that will draw on and expand the mythos of Nodal Nim's Rocket Ship. Folks interested in participating in that will be welcome, once it is up and running. For now, I will be delighted to accept a certain kind of submission, a 7-line poem!

A 7-line poem is any poem that follows the following two rules:

1. There are 7 lines.
2. Each line contains a different number of syllables from 1 to 7.

The syllables can appear in any order. The sequence of syllables is the "form" of the poem. There are 5040 possible forms. I'd like to eventually have a poem to represent every one of them.

Here are some examples:

1536472

lunch
in Tentacula
for humans
(experimental or
more regular)
generally consists of
sand fruit

Nodal Nim

=

6245713

This guy says he likes it.
Parked cars,
discount shoe stores
in a tourist town
closed up for the winter months
just
just like that.

Becky Dewing

=

6741253

Gallbladders are useful
but quite unnecessary
they filter stuff
bile
Perhaps
in books they are green
why is that?

Kate Pressman

=

Your 7-line poem submissions, through email, myspace message or comment, or blog comment, are welcome and encouraged! Send 'em my way, friends!

Grind OM 17

.. Robots: the card game > science
.. 2G's
.. in my pocket [request]
.. Deenmark [request] > send me up [request]

((I played 'send me up' in the middle of Deenmark, actually, during the solo mandolin break, and then returned for one last chorus of Deenmark. It was a strange little hybrid ditty that I sang.))

Coffee Planet OM 7

Did the open mic thing for Tiffany, my lady love, who was present at Coffee Planet tonight. Played:

.. 5 songs of fish
.. you and mandolins
.. call it Home
.. 2G's
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?

Prof. Java's!

My last show of 2005 went off without a hitch. It was kind of exhausting, but plenty o' fun. There were some good fun folks there.

Iris requested "POTATO", which is not a song I actually have, but I improvised something fun and silly about potatoes.

During a break, Kristina showed me some lyrics her and her friends had written that they wanted me to sing. So I did! Here are the lyrics they wrote:

Brazilians
You don't speak Spanish
But jump real high
You like to wear white pants
And fight when you dance
Your armpit hair sparkles
Like pretzels on fire
I like to sing about cars.
I'll sing you a song about Brazilians.

I played some minor seventh chords and sang a song about Brazilians. It was neat fun, and I hope it will become a tradition for audience members to write lyrics and give them to me!

I also did three premieres: you and mandolins, no more crisis in Rome, and 2G's.

Here is my set, more or less:

eins
.. will we go out together?
.. level 1
.. in my pocket
.. receptors & peptides > retro helplessness > call it Home
.. Maroon Dots [request]
.. fly this kite
.. shirt thane > you and mandolins [premiere]
.. wow
.. I am systems
.. lapse into memory
.. this ladybug
.. present tense
.. let me in your hole

zwei
.. 5 songs of fish
.. Brazilians [improvised from audience-supplied lyrics]
.. love song 5
.. the slippery toad > javelin head > science
.. candle bird
.. stripes
.. Robots: the card game > rules to Stone Game
.. Collarbone Pharoah
.. no more crisis in Rome [premiere]
.. Pablo
.. yellow things

drei
.. Deenmark [request]
.. e blue apparatus
.. troglodyte
.. send me up > raisins > Alan the Duck
.. you've got your own life
.. 2G's [premiere]
.. deposit 1 tangelo > acrobasebombball
.. Superman has friends
.. 25% more monster > vegetables you've never heard of
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?

Grind OM 16

.. love song 5
.. Deenmark [request]
.. raisins > wow
.. 25% more monster [request]
.. I got RAPS

Flavour OM 6

.. call it Home
.. the slippery toad
.. buzzelling > 25% more monster
.. Superman has friends > will we go out together?

Coffee Planet OM 6 / Illium OM 8

Coffee Planet:

.. Pablo
.. call it Home
.. this ladybug
.. hello, will you be my Sheep? [with Dave]
.. deposit 1 tangelo > vegetables you've never heard of [with Dave]

'Twas plenty fun to play mandolin again. There were lots of people present, and things seemed to go well.

Illium:

.. science
.. troglodyte
.. candle bird
.. 5 songs of fish [request]

I haven't played there in a while. It was ok, but not my best performance. I started to crash during troglodyte.

I scheduled new gigs today, including Daily Grind and Flavour Cafe!

I like

Chicago!

I went there last week, and it is big and neat. My girlfriend lives out there, and since I was delighted to discover during my visit that we are still in love, I will be moving there when I can. Probably this summer. At the beginning. Or at the end. More likely the end.

So I'll be looking for weirdos to come to my shows from a much bigger pool of humans. Starting from scratch that way; might be fun. When I visit home, I'll probably do some shows in Troy.

Anyway, this won't be for a while, and in the meantime, I need to find more gigs... not to mention a better job.

It has been pointed out to me that

I neglected to mention the improvised WALTZ that I performed by request at my last show at Flavour Cafe. It wasn't an especially good song, but the waltzers appeared to be having especially fun, so goodness was had. I have noted the need to write a better waltz for similar requests in future times.

I got a

new mandolin case.

-Yes

p.s. Come to my show this Friday, December 23rd, at Professor Java's Coffee Sanctuary (215 Wolf Rd, Colonie). I play experimental mandolin formulas from 8 to 11 PM! You and all of your ducklings (yes, all of them!) are invited.

YAG Winter Follies

There was a Young Actor's Guild production last night, the somethingth annual Winter Follies, which was this year themed "The Recital." I think we pulled it off decently. I wrote a song for Group 1 to sing, and they did so, as I accompanyed them on mandolin.

I'm hopping on a plane to Chicago tomorrow to see my girlfriend Tiffany. I'm looking forward to it!

This is way cool: The Unknown, a hypertext novel. It is a non-linear collaborative fiction that the reader navigates through hypertext links. I have been enjoying reading it; I'm pondering starting up a similar project myself, possibly with other(s) involved.

And one more link, to a kicking beatdazzling band called Leslie and the LY's.

Coffee Planet OM 5

I played two sets at Coffee Planet. The first consisted only of songs that I hadn't ever played at Coffee Planet and one premiere of a strange little improvisational ditty I came up with on the car ride over.

.. acrobasebombball > rules to Stone Game
.. troglodyte
.. Dave
.. I got raps [premiere]
.. e blue apparatus

My second set:

.. will we go out together? [request] > bodymind > 25% more monster

Dave and I jammed with a fella named Eric, who we had jammed with last week as well. Then, I zipped over to the Illium and did some jamming with a bunch of fellas over there. I think I've been getting better at playing "normal" music on the mandolin through these jams. It's helping me become more capable on the instrument in different contexts.

Victorian Stroll!

Rob Guerin, Maurizio, and I frickin' rocked the Illium today! We jammed out from noon to five (with little breaks here and there), playing Maurizio's songs, my songs, bluegrass jams, and a few classic holiday songs. It was completely packed in there the whole day through, because Victorian Stroll suddenly makes Troy into the most bustling city around. It's really weird that way.

After our five-hour Illium show, we got invited to play at a tiny bar in Little Italy. We got there and set up, but there was some confusion, since there was no audience whatsoever. We played three songs, and the guy that booked us, Rocko DeFazio, let us grab some free food at Flavour Cafe across the street. I had a grilled cheese.

We made some money and had a great time. We'll probably do another show together sometime soon. All in all, it was a successful day.

GZ OM 1

I went to Ground Zero, a venue located in the basement of a dorm building on the R.P.I. campus, for an open mic tonight. It was definitely a unique atmosphere. Everybody knew each other. They chanted and laughed at things I just didn't get. Fortunately, I signed up for slot 16, and by the time my turn came around, I was starting to get used to things. After I played, had some conversations, and danced around, I was really starting to like it there! I will surely go back next semester.

I played:

.. hello, will you be my Sheep?
.. 5 songs of fish

Victorian Stroll tomorrow!

Troy has a bizarre tradition called the Victorian Stroll, in which people strut around downtown wearing Victorian garb and being entertained. I performed some Christmas songs with chorus way back in high school, but I've never been involved with the Stroll in any other way.

This year, however, I'm going to be doing some jamming with Maurizio and Rob Guerin. We're playing from noon to five tomorrow at the Illium. I don't really know what sort of stuff it will be, but I'm looking forward to playing some improvisational mando.

So if you're out strolling, feel free to stop by and check us out.

But first, there's something that might be amazing happening on 3rd Street by the Daily Grind at 10:00 AM. Some sort of mock worker's demonstration, with actors playing labor representatives. It's something independent, not sanctioned by the city, but intended to give a better representation about what the Victorian era was like in Troy, a workers' industrial city. I'm planning to check that out, and I can't say to what extent I will participate.

Almost Awake is also playing tomorrow during the Stroll, probably during the same time frame that I'll be at the Illium. They'll be at Flavour Cafe. You can check them out, too, if you like.

I'm sure there are tons of other things going on as well, but those are my three recommendations for you at this time.

Grind OM 15

.. level 1
.. the slippery toad > 25% more monster [request]
.. Pablo
.. troglodyte

Flavour OM 5 / P4 OM 2

I played at Flavour Cafe.

.. I am systems
.. science
.. Across the Universe [Beatles cover]
.. hello, will you be my Sheep? [with Kyle on conga]
.. love song 5
.. e blue apparatus

I played at Positively 4th St.

.. Robots: the card game > deposit 1 tangelo
.. 25% more monster [request]
.. vegetables you've never heard of
.. wow [request]

Coffee Planet OM 4

Not a lot of people came to the Coffee Planet open mic tonight, but fun was had nonetheless. After I played my set, I played some Almost Awake songs with Almost Awake (imagine that!). We also played "will we go out together," and some other time we'll probably play "vegetables". Dave and I played with a good country/folk player named Eric, and it was pretty neat. I don't play my mandolin with other people as much as I'd like, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I've decided that it doesn't kill me to play a few covers every now and then, and in fact, it could be plenty fun. I decided to start with "Across the Universe," by John Lennon. I generally liked the experience, and will probably learn some more covers for open mics and whatever else.

My set went something like this:

.. call it home
.. wow [request]
.. this ladybug
.. Across the Universe [Beatles cover, Nim premiere]
.. love song 5
.. lapse into memory [request]
.. science [request]
.. untitled [request]

Hmm, I think I'm forgetting something. I'm not sure what. Ah well. It went something like that.

?

Holy Heck fun at Flavour Cafe!

I had an excellent turn-out at my Nim show at Flavour Cafe tonight! There were quite a lot of people there over the course of the evening. Thanks to everyone who came and especially those who brought lots of friends! It was way fun. My apologies for forgetting to bring my speaker. It was fun to play unplugged, but next time I will have the juice.

My set went something like this:

one
.. science
.. Alan the Duck > level 1
.. retro helplessness > sun flies
.. will we go out together?
.. troglodyte
.. candle bird
.. I am systems [request]
.. vegetables you've never heard of [request]
.. acrobasebombball > javelin head
.. fly this kite
.. present tense
.. deposit 1 tangelo > shirt thane > Maroon Dots

two
.. Pablo
.. love song 5
.. the slippery toad
.. Deenmark
.. Daisy Ran Train
.. Juiceman [request]
.. stripes > Nimland
.. hello, will you by my Sheep?
.. docky docky
.. you've got your own life
.. Superman has friends
.. wow > vegetables you've never heard of
.. love song 1

three
.. 5 songs of fish
.. raisins > Robots: the card game
.. e blue apparatus > receptors & peptides
.. 25% more monster [request]
.. lapse into memory
.. this ladybug
.. call it home [premiere]
.. yellow things

The ordering definitely has some untruths, but I think all the songs I played are there.

In addition to some dollars and coins, my box o' tips contained some special treats, including the following "tips" written with crayon on scraps of paper:

"don't drink antifreeze it could kill you!"
"It's always good to keep your wallet on you in case of emergencies"
"Always use protection - tip # 67"
and my personal favorite: "If a demon asks if your [sic] a god you say YES!!!"

Tip # 67 was not just talk. My tip box also contained a latex dental dam (Vanilla flavored). Yanni and Catharine mentioned something about leaving me something "special" in my tip box, so I imagine I have them to thank. So thanks guys!

And thanks again to everyone who showed up! It was a pretty delirious three hours, and I do hope that fun was had by all. I also hope to see some of you when I play next month at Professor Java's on December 23! Those of you who signed up for my email list can expect an super-neat emailing or two between now and then.

Illium OM extravaganza!

There was a fun pre-tofurkey day gathering of open-mic-tacular music happenings at the the Illium Cafe. I just got very confused because my flannel shirt has two buttons buttoned. I was either taking it off or putting it on when I got distracted. It was probably some time ago, because I have absolutely no recollection of doing anything with the buttons. Anyway, here are the songs I played at the Illium tonight:

.. Robots: the card game > 25% more monster [request]
.. Maroon Dots [request] > stripes [request]
.. hello, will you be my Sheep? [request, with Dave on djembe]

=

Happy tofurkey day.

=

Come to my show on Friday! I play from 8 PM to 11 PM at Flavour Cafe in Troy! It is free and fun! I will have free books for all!

Coffee Planet OM 3

.. Maroon Dots
.. stripes
.. will we go out together?
.. Deenmark [request]
.. this ladybug
.. you've got your own life

After Coffee Planet open mic, I stopped by the Illium and did a bit of jamming with some good gents to close things out. 'Twas fun, and made me realize that I may be missing something by not going to the Illium open mics lately.

=

I've been working on another one-act mandolin opera, one that will be more dramatic and certainly creepier. So far, I'm making some nice progress. I also may have written a song tonight called "I will call it home", but the song-ness of it will have to be verified in the morn.

nnrs EP-003

I have made available for download Episode 003 of Nodal Nim's Rocket Ship.

Grind OM 14

I continue to be loyal to the Grind. I played a longish set of new material and Nim classics, late in the evening, after watching Genghis Blues with Scott, a movie about a blind San Francisco blues singer who travels to Tuva (a region just north of Mongolia) to participate in a Tuvon throught-singing competition. Tuvon throught-singing is an impressive and skilled art of allowing the natural harmonics of the voice to ring out. It is subtle and nuanced, and totally different from Western singing styles. An inspiring and fascinating documentary.

At the Grind, I played:

.. fly this kite
.. candle bird
.. love song 5
.. 25% more monster [request] > vegetables you've never heard of
.. 5 songs of fish

trepanation and the easter bunny!!!

Currently, I have no songs about Easter Bunnies, but I realized there is a bit of trepanation in the song I am systems'

"I am systems drilling holes into your skull."

I like the idea of the Easter Bunny self-trepaning in order to expand his consciousness. Potential in that, perhaps, although I wouldn't want it to be too creepy such that little children would be disturbed.

A link: The International Trepanation Advocacy Group.

Wow.

Hey, readers of the Nodal Nim music blog would enjoy this musician: the boy least likely to.

Coffee Planet OM 2

Coffee Planet continues to have a splendid Tuesday night open mic, hosted by Almost Awake, in their Almost Awakedom. (Come check it out, every Tuesday 7-9) I played a long set and didn't seem to piss anybody off. I premiered a song I wrote last night about a moth, which is still too new for me to know whether or not it sucks, but I suspect that it doesn't. Dave joined me for the last two, and we had nice brother magic.

.. 25% more monster
.. I am systems
.. candle bird [premiere]
.. the slippery toad
.. love song 5
.. let me in your hole [with Dave on djembe]
.. deposit 1 tangelo > vegetables you've never heard of [also with Dave]

Inch / brainstorm

With an old friend, I saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch, performed by Three Dollar Bill at the Arts Center in Troy yesterday! It was very excellent, and I recommend that everyone in the area check it out next week, which will be the end of its run. It was great, and makes me wish I were a glam rocker.

I think I should have a song about everything. I'm going to brainstorm some topics that I may eventually get around to writing about. If not, at least they'll be fun to ponder right now. Some are taken from suggestions I've received, and if you have a suggestion, let's hear it!

+ moths.
+ sillyness.
+ brains in glass.
+ creationists (and how they're totally nuts).
+ helicopters in love.
+ the life of an onion.
+ straw.
+ yards of wilderness.
+ yarns of wilderness.
+ icosahedrons.
+ people born with tails.
+ intermediate tree branches.
+ pyramids.
+ pyramids that you can eat.

Fun times with Nim at Flavour Cafe.

I played a full show for a small, cheap, but very loyal bunch of friends new and old at Flavour Cafe tonight! It was good fun for all, I think, and a longish night, as we afterward went out for pizza and sweet potato fries. Here's how the tunage went:



.. troglodyte
.. will we go out together > bodymind
.. e blue apparatus
.. level 1
.. crabnors > I am systems
.. princessdom
.. this ladybug
.. fly this kite [premiere]
.. science
.. stripes
.. birthday round > raisins
.. javelin head > deposit 1 tangelo > vegetables you've never heard of



.. coloring time with Andrew > Maroon Dots
.. Nimland > in my pocket
.. acrobasebombball
.. retro helplessness
.. Pablo
.. magazine chubbies > member of the Real
.. docky docky
.. let me in your hole
.. shirt thane
.. yellow things



.. Deenmark
.. the slippery toad
.. love song 1
.. sun flies
.. receptors & peptides
.. love song 5
.. Collarbone Pharoah
.. buzzelling > a Parade, yes. > 25% more monster
.. Superman has friends
.. present tense
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?
.. you've got your own life
.. Robots: the card game > I am systems [request]
.. 5 songs of fish

Grind OM 13

The Grind was packed with people tonight! It was quite excellent. Some have theorized that many of them just wanted to get out of the cold -- a chilly night it indeed is. Sean Rowe was guest host, and perhaps he did some recruiting. Anyway, it was nice to have a decent-sized audience and some nice folks to chat with.

I played:

.. e blue apparatus
.. Pablo
.. vegetables you've never heard of
.. this ladybug [request]

I played kind of sloppily, but it was fun, anyway. I had some shiny new strings to break in. Looking forward to tomorrow's romp at Flavour Cafe! Be there for fun and books!

Flavour OM 4 / P4 OM 1

I played a couple short sets at Flavour Cafe's open mic tonight. There were a nice bunch of folks there, playing along on djembe and guitar and such. I was impressed by a guy who did a decent job following the rhythm changes in 5 songs of fish! Not an easy task for anybody, myself included.

First Set:

.. I am systems
.. Maroon Dots > Alan the Duck > raisins
.. this ladybug [request]
.. 25% more monster
.. the slippery toad
.. e blue apparatus

Second Set:

.. you've got your own life
.. 5 songs of fish

=

After I played at Flavour, I went down the road to Positively Fourth Street to play at their open mic. There weren't many people there when I played, and those who were there could care less. Bars are truly dumb. Oh well. I wasn't totally turned off, and I'd probably go there again another day.

.. trogoldyte
.. science
.. stripes
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?

Coffee Planet OM 1!

Coffee Planet, a delightful little place in Ballston Spa, under the fine leadership of Casey and Dave of Almost Awake, hosted its first open mic tonight! It was a good time, and will definitely be worth revisiting in the future; the open mic will return every Tuesday, from 7 to 9.

.. vegetables you've never heard of
.. raisins [request] > will we go out together
.. stripes
.. wow [request]
.. in my pocket
.. 5 songs of fish

=

Coffee Planet is also an Official Book Crossing Zone, meaning that here books are commonly tagged and released into the wild, a la BookCrossing.com. Check that website out; it's all about people sharing books with strangers and tracking their travels through the world. I released two books there tonight, and picked one up that looks interesting. I'm encouraging Flavour Cafe in Troy to become another Book Crossing Zone, and yesterday I released two there. I'm seriously thinking about turning all venues I play at from now on into temporary Book Crossing Zones during my gigs by bringing a box of tagged books along for interested audience members to sift through and take from, as long as they agree to participate in Book Crossing. It could be a fun way to get some books out, introduce new folks to Book Crossing, and interact with audiences in a new and memorable way.

YAG Birthday Bash #3

I was surprised to find myself (well, technically, Nodal Nim) performing again at the Mueller Center at R.P.I., entertaining the children of the Young Actor's Guild with my songs of ducks, dots, and monsters. Surprised, not because nobody told me the party was today, but because I had absolutely utterly forgotten. Anyway, I had my mandolin when I arrived, and I pulled off a little show without too much trouble. I had fun, and I think most of the kids did, too. I think they like having their own quirky bard, or maybe I just like being such.

Here is what I played, more or less:

.. Maroon Dots
.. Deenmark > 25% more monster > vegetables you've never heard of
.. birthday round [request]
.. Alan the Duck [request] > will we go out together?
.. e blue apparatus [request]
.. 5 songs of fish

Nim Grind OM 12

I did the Grind open mic thing this past Thursday. It seemed to go well enough.

.. you've got your own life
.. 5 songs of fish
.. 25% more monster

Flavour OM 3

I went to Flavour Cafe's open mic tonight to play and promote my upcoming show there. There weren't a lot of people there, but it was pleasant. I was certainly the odd one out, which is I suppose the norm, anyway.

.. science
.. troglodyte
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?
.. Deenmark

Then later:

.. vegetables you've never heard of [request]
.. fly this kite [pre-premiere]
.. in my pocket

=

P.S. You should all check out the DVD called "Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise." I just watched it tonight, and it's so incredible and inspiring. Sun Ra was quite the nutbag, but boy did he have something unique and amazing going on!

Daisy Baker's OM 8

Played a set at the Daisy Baker's open mic. It was nice. I drank a scotch on the rocks as accompaniment, and Dave had a good laugh when I ordered it.

.. deposit 1 tangelo > vegetables you've never heard of
.. this ladybug
.. troglodyte
.. level 1
.. you've got your own life

Illium Show 4

I am very gosh darn sick of playing shows at the Illium. There's either no one there, or the people who are there are in their own separate worlds and don't even bother to have the decency to clap. I think I played alright, and the day got better as some friends and artists did gradually show up, but it was generally disappointing and frustrating. I wish this sort of thing didn't get to me, but it does.

Act I:

.. deposit 1 tangelo
.. I am systems
.. will we go out together?
.. Maroon Dots > bodymind > eat lots of apples
.. love song 1
.. receptors & peptides > retro helplessness
.. crescent moon
.. Alan the Duck
.. e blue apparatus > javelin head
.. this ladybug
.. you've got your own life
.. numbers make more numbers > science
.. Superman has friends
.. in my pocket
.. Deenmark

Act II:

.. 5 songs of fish
.. send me up
.. shirt thane
.. level 1
.. princessdom
.. raisins > coloring time with Andrew > rules to Stone Game
.. the slippery toad > sun flies > Juiceman
.. yellow things

Act III:

.. stripes > vegetables you've never heard of
.. Robots: the card game
.. troglodyte [premiere!]
.. crash tinkle tinkle > member of the Real > lapse into memory
.. supersane
.. wow > Nimland
.. 25% more monster
.. acrobasebombball > magazine chubbies
.. Collarbone Pharoah
.. present tense
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?
.. let me in your hole

Nim Grind OM 11

Played ok at the Daily Grind.

.. Deenmark
.. 5 songs of fish

Nim Illium OM 7 - the nose knows and Deenmark

Hi! Open mic at the Illium was fun tonight.

.. numbers make more numbers [request]
.. acrobasebombball [request]
.. the nose knows [premiere]
.. Deenmark [premiere]
.. hello, will you be my Sheep? [with Dave on djembe]

Caffe Lena Open Mic 1!!

I went to Caffe Lena in Saratoga for open mic, and it was a lot of fun! There were some great and terrible performers, as all open mics will have, and a handful of people I know to hang around with. I went with Dave and Casey, who also performed, and it was generally awesome. I played but one song, the five-in-one, '5 songs of fish', and the audience seemed to find brand new ways to enjoy it. It was a wonderful experience all around!

Ale House (and Illium Show 3)

It was an interesting day for Nodal Nim. I had a relatively depressing and pointless gig at the Illium, in which I played for two and a half hours to entertain approximately no one (including myself) just to make $23. I wanted to leave many times, but I kept playing. I was sick of the mandolin, sick of my songs, and sick of no audience. I am not going to bother recording this set list. Nobody cares, especially not me.

But I had another show to go to after that, at the Ale House on River Street, where a bunch of local musicians were playing 25 minutes sets back to back. I went on at 10, and it was a lot of fun! I had a good time playing some of my favorite tunes for an actual audience, many of whom had never heard me before, and I sold two CDs!

Here is my set list:

.. in my pocket
.. stripes
.. Robots: the card game [request]
.. Pablo
.. lapse into memory [request]
.. 5 songs of fish
.. 25% more monster > vegetables you've never heard of

=

I've been experimenting with effects pedals. Although it seems to sound great in my own house, I've had only dismal failures in trying to work it in the outside world. Although I will probably try to find a way to work them into Panic Dots, there's no need for them in Nodal Nim.

=

I've been frustrated by not having any new songs in a while. The last new song I wrote was the theme song to Nodal Nim's Rocket Ship, and before that, 5 songs of fish. I think both of those are good songs, which is nice, but I'd like to be writing songs more frequently. I'm sick of performing the same stuff all the time. I'm hoping to write a song or two this week, even if it means skipping some open mics.

Flavour OM 2

.. will we go out together?
.. a Parade, yes. [request] > shirt thane [request]
.. wow
.. hello, will you be my Sheep [with Dave]
.. let me in your hole [with Dave]

P.S.

I forgot to mention that yesterday I did some way-fun jamming with the Marshall Twins, who will certainly appear on the next episode of Nodal Nim's Rocket Ship, which will almost certainly be released within the next couple of weeks.

Panic Dots / Nim Daisy Baker's OM 8

Hi all,

George Faro and I are quite sure that our ideas about a musical collaboration (i.e. band) are meshing, and have selected the name Panic Dots for the band we are becoming. We will be seeking one more wacko, somebody who thinks like we do and wants to play percussion.

At Daisy Baker's, I played:

.. the slippery toad [double request]
.. Maroon Dots > deposit 1 tangelo > 25% more monster [request]
.. 5 songs of fish [request]

Professor Java's Show 2

I had a way-fun time playing in the back room at Professor Java's Coffee Sanctuary on Wolf Road in Colonie tonight! Some good friends came and a few people who hadn't seen me before, and we did some coloring and laughing and such! Hooray!

Act I

.. javelin head > Juiceman
.. Superman has friends
.. 5 songs of fish
.. Robots: the card game
.. Collarbone Pharoah
.. nobody knows > retro helplessness
.. buzzelling
.. science
.. a Parade, yes. > shirt thane
.. clusterbomb
.. numbers make more numbers
.. wow
.. Pablo

Act II

.. stripes
.. level 1
.. member of the Real
.. receptors & peptides
.. paperclip
.. I am systems > bodymind
.. Alan the Duck > will we go out together?
.. the slippery toad
.. crabnors > rodeo clock
.. docky docky
.. yellow things

Act III

.. deposit 1 tangelo > e blue apparatus
.. raisins > 25% more monster
.. let me in your hole
.. Nimland
.. this ladybug
.. rules to Stone Game > rockin' out > magazine chubbies
.. sun flies
.. you've got your own life
.. acrobasebombball
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?
.. vegetables you've never heard of
.. wow > Maroon Dots

Nim Grind OM 10

Played some tunes at the Grind tonight.

.. stripes > vegetables you've never heard of
.. raisins > rules to Stone Game

Also, jammed with George Faro this evening, which was fun and cool. His and my musical style seem to have potential to mix in interesting ways, and we intend to explore it further. He's also the first person I've met to genuinely like the Shaggs and Jandek upon hearing them both. Hooray!

SCC open mic

There was an open mic premiere at Schenectady County Community College, and I went there with George Faro and Almost Awake. There were some really neat folks there, although not a great musician turnout. Troy kicked Schenectady's butt 3 to 2 if you count acts and 4 to 2 if you count musicians... not that it's a competition. ;<) Anyway, I liked it and would do it again, but I would have enjoyed seeing more local Schenectady musicians.

First I played:

.. 25% more monster
.. the slippery toad
.. wow

And later I played:

.. 5 songs of fish

Illium Show 2

I had an interesting experience playing an afternoon show at the Illium today. Kristina Cohen came by to see me, which was a great surprise and pleasure, but she was the only friend. At first, it was just people reading their newspapers and generally doing their best to ignore me. For a while, there was nobody but Kristina (which I preferred to the first crowd), and then some parents and children came in, and they seemed to actually enjoy it. One came up and talked to me afterward, and he was neat. I felt good about the last hour or so of my show.

I took only one break, after the first hour, which was short, and since I played through, I ran out of new songs I wanted to play. It worked out, though, because I just repeated songs from earlier for the new crowd.

I cut my finger and bled on my strings again. I think this has been happening because I'm using the wrong kind of pick for my style. Kristina says it contributes to the drama.

My set list is not accurate, especially toward the end, but it's close.

Act I

.. retro helplessness
.. raisins > the slippery toad
.. level 1
.. Alan the Duck > numbers make more numbers
.. eat lots of apples > Frank
.. docky docky
.. magazine chubbies
.. you've got your own life
.. crash tinkle tinkle > lapse into memory
.. clusterbomb
.. stripes > vegetables you've never heard of
.. coloring time with Andrew > 5 songs of fish

Acts II and III and beyond

.. Robots: the card game > 25% more monster
.. member of the Real
.. this ladybug
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?
.. receptors & peptides
.. love song 1
.. Juiceman
.. shirt thane
.. bodymind > buzzelling > sun flies
.. yellow things
.. wow > Nimland
.. Pablo
.. Alan the Duck
.. I am systems
.. acrobasebombball > nobody knows
.. e blue apparatus
.. Collarbone Pharoah
.. Maroon Dots > science
.. present tense
.. crescent moon
.. let me in your hole
.. Daisy Ran Train > a Parade, yes.
.. for play
.. supersane
.. raisins
.. love song 1
.. this ladybug
.. level 1
.. in my pocket

fun at Illium

Jon Ouckama, a local singer/songwriter on guitar, formerly a member of the band Jigawattica, had a show at the Illium tonight. I joined him on a few songs, playing mandolin, and it was fun. He's a cool guy.

Almost Awake opened for Milo at the Grind tonight. Both acts were superb and highly recommended for all listeners everywhere!

Nim Grind OM 9

The Grind is back! Tonight was great fun, with lots of musicians and a pretty decent crowd. Best of all, after the show, a funky dance party developed on 3rd street and lasted for quite a while! We agreed to do it again next Thursday. What fun!

Casey J. Chapman provided me with my set list:

.. hello, will you be my Sheep?
.. this ladybug

Moon and River

I played tonight at Moon and River Cafe in Schenectady. Although I think I played well, the attendance was pretty disappointing. Four of my friends came (and thank you four very much for making it!), and there were only about four or five other people there for a brief time during the evening. The others all seemed pretty indifferent to me. Due to lack of business, the store closed early, and I only had two acts. On well. It felt good to play, anyway.

Act I

.. raisins
.. number make more numbers > science
.. shirt thane
.. lapse into memory
.. this ladybug
.. level 1
.. rules to Stone Game > I am systems > vegetables you've never heard of
.. stripes
.. yellow things

Act II

.. rocket theme
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?
.. clusterbomb
.. e blue apparatus > retro helplessness > bodymind
.. supersane
.. a Parade, yes.
.. 5 songs of fish
.. Robots: the card game
.. Collarbone Pharoah
.. in my pocket
.. send me up > Nimland
.. Pablo
.. the slippery toad
.. crescent moon

Nim Illium OM 7

I took a break from mandolin for a few days, then threw some new strings on there and went to the Illium open mic. It was fun, because I got to play a bunch of songs. I think it was my best performance of '5 songs of fish'. Also, it was the first that I'd played 'present tense' in a while, and I like to play that one.

.. Pablo
.. Superman has friends
.. 5 songs of fish [request]
.. vegetables you've never heard of [request]
.. in my pocket [request]
.. present tense
.. science

Also, at the end, I jammed with Casey and Maurizio, the latter for the first time. Although we had a bit of confusion there, it was fun and cool.

23 mp3s from Illium show

I uploaded what I considered to be the 23 best recordings from last Saturday's Illium show, and linked to them from Nimland. See the concerts page to find the files from that show listed separately, if you're interested in hearing them.

Nodal Nim's Rocket Ship EP-001

After spending quite a chunk of the day finishing it up, I am finally ready to present Nodal Nim's Rocket Ship, an internet-based audio show, a.k.a. podcast. It takes place on a living, evolving, cylindrical world currently orbitting the sun (although it can travel anywhere it wants to), and it features guests and myself singing, telling stories, reciting poetry, and improvising music together. I hope you'll consider giving it a listen, and I hope it's an enjoyable listen. It's about a half hour long, and in mp3 format.

Illium Show 1

Hi all!

I played at the Illium tonight, for a modest audience. It was fun. I cut my index finger and bled on the strings. My audience colored with crayons. I recorded it, and I may put some of the recordings online soon. Here are my three sets:

Act I:

.. buzzelling
.. crescent moon
.. 25% more monster > javelin head > rodeo clock
.. this ladybug
.. bodymind
.. in my pocket
.. sun flies > nobody knows
.. Frank
.. crabnors > retro helplessness
.. princessdom
.. let me in your hole
.. numbers make more numbers > I am systems
.. for play
.. Superman has friends
.. Alan the Duck
.. wow
.. 5 songs of fish [request]

Act II:

.. level 1
.. paperclip
.. yellow things
.. receptors & peptides
.. science > magazine chubbies
.. Juiceman
.. eat lots of apples > deposit 1 tangelo
.. a Parade, yes.
.. lapse into memory
.. raisins
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?
.. will we go out together?
.. Collarbone Pharoah
.. docky docky

Act III:

.. coloring time with Andrew > Maroon Dots > 25% more monster [request]
.. shirt thane
.. e blue apparatus > stripes
.. acrobasebombball
.. supersane > Nimland
.. rockin' out > send me up
.. Pablo
.. the slippery toad
.. love song 1
.. Dave
.. vegetables you've never heard of

Nim Grind OM 8

The Grind hasn't been as exciting lately, with a bunch of regulars gone for the schoolyear, but it had its moments tonight. I felt good about how I played. I also got to play with John, a very good djembe player, for the first time. It was fun!

.. docky docky
.. Maroon Dots [with John on djembe]

I also sold one CD and traded another. I have a new CD by an experimental local musician to check out tonight. :<)

Nim Flavour Cafe OM 1

I went to the Flavour Cafe open mic, which is on 4th Street in downtown Troy. It was a neat place, and I felt good about the performance. Good vibes there.

.. stripes
.. level 1
.. this ladybug [requested by Nick]
.. vegetables you've never heard of [requested by Rob]

Nim Illium OM 6

We played unplugged at the Illium. I'm not entirely sure if this set is right, but here it is:

.. raisins
.. vegetables you've never heard of
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?

Nim Daisy Baker's OM 7

I've been neglecting to update with set lists this week, so I'm doing them all now. Daisy Baker's was my worst performance in recent weeks, with a very apathetic and audience. Oh well.

.. this ladybug
.. javelin head > 25% more monster
.. science
.. let me in your hole

songs & audio

I made some rather significant updates to the songs page!

First, I moved my audio from Soundclick.com to Ourmedia.org.

Then, I integrated links to all my mp3s from the songs page on my website, using color-coding for "batch" (early), "demo," and "live" recordings.

Next, I created a separate page just for recorded medleys and put links on the songs page to the various medleys. So, for example, when you click on the "M" next to 25% more monster, you'll go directly to a medley that includes the song 25% more monster on the medleys page.

Then, I converted all the files from my February 17, 2005 show (featured on Nodal Nim at Hurley's) to mp3s, put them online, and linked to them.

Next, I created another page that reassembles concerts, using links just like the ones on the songs and medleys pages.

Finally, I linked them altogether, added an updated link to the main page, and put it all online.

So see for yourself! It's quite a lot of interactive fun.

-Nim

p.s. You will probably notice that there are no lyrics anymore. I plan to put lyrics back up in a different form, eventually. For now, there is just lots of audio.

Nim Grind OM 7

I played to a small and disinterested crowd left over from the art gallery opening that went up before open mic. It was somewhat frustrating and pointless, but at least I got to practice some old songs.

.. you've got your own life
.. eat lots of apples > crescent moon

I'm very much looking forward to my upcoming real gigs.

Nim Illium OM 5

I returned a few days ago from an enjoyable trip to the West Coast (Seattle area), and played my first open mic in a little while tonight at the Illium. I thought it was ok, except that my mandolin's tone was way off. I think next time I will EQ myself at the mixer, if I need to. It was very trebly and clangy. Anyway, here is the set:

.. numbers make more numbers > level 1
.. the slippery toad
.. 5 songs of fish

Nim Illium OM 4

I finally had a Tuesday night free to play open mic at the Illium. First, I played three tunes with Casey J. Chapman. I mandolined, and it was mandoliny. I had a good time with that, and I think she did, too. The audience liked it.

Then, I played my last set with Dave for a while. We did the whole thing together and played actually three songs that are very old, from our high school rock band days. It was very nice, a good last session together.

.. Juiceman
.. I am systems
.. in my pocket [first performance as Nodal Nim]
.. untitled [first performance as Nodal Nim]

=

I also did some recording with Teo, Nick, and Oliver. We worked out a weird arrangement of e blue apparatus, with Teo on keyboard (electric organ sound), Nick on guitar (distorted and played through a teeny tiny amp), and Oliver on bass. Oh yeah, and me on mandolin and voice. We did several takes. None was perfect, but they were all fun.

=

Tomorrow (technically today) is the last Rock the World, the W.R.P.I. radio show I've done some playing on, since Teo is going to college and nobody else is trained as a DJ. Nick is planning to train and carry on the legacy. They're planning to be on air until like 6:00 in the morning. I'll be there, and it will be a lot of fun. Very delarious, I am imagining.

Nim Daisy Bakers OM 6

I forgot to update last night. I played open mic at Daisy Bakers on Monday. Let's see if I can figure out what I played...

.. Superman has friends [requested by Nick] > will we go out together [requested by Dave]
.. member of the Real > rockin' out
.. love song 1
.. let me in your hole [with Dave on djembe]

Ah yes, that looks right.

Schaghticoke show with the Mathematicians

I opened at a night of music fun that featured the Mathematicians, a superfantastic band. I met some neat people, sold two CDs, and played the following set:

.. e blue apparatus > member of the Real > send me up
.. the slippery toad
.. javelin head > deposit 1 tangelo > vegetables you've never heard of
.. receptors & peptides
.. Pablo
.. 5 songs of fish
.. 25% more monster
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?

I also played a pre-show for Nick, Teo, Oliver, and Sarah, who came at 7, when I thought the show was going to start, instead of at 8, when it actually did. Here was the set, I think:

.. science > Nimland > Maroon Dots
.. e blue apparatus > 25% more monster
.. Collarbone Pharoah
.. Superman has friends > raisins > I am systems

Nodal Nim in Schaghticoke, NY TONITE!

Hi there!

I am the emergency opening band for a night of free music fun at the American Legion in Schaghticoke, NY! There will be some other great bands in attendance as well, including The Mathematicians, Analog Casey, Judo For Japan and Harry Pyle. I am kicking things off at 7:00 with my mandolin magic, and I would absolutely love to see some new faces there!

August, 20 2005 at The American Legion
S Main St, Schaghticoke, NY 12154
Cost: FREE

Be there by 7:00 to catch Nodal Nim in action!

I'll be selling my sexy CD, Nodal Nim at Hurley's, for $6.00 a pop. That's 77 minutes of Nim magic, and I'd like you to have it.

So join me!

Thanks, and I hope to see you there,
Andrew a.k.a. Nodal Nim

Nodal Nim's magic box...

I have a magic box.

I am totally evil.

My magic box is a very small cabinet with two drawers. The side of the box displays the following information:

Nodal Nim
CDs 4 sale
$6.00 each

Nimland.net

The top drawer contains some Nodal Nim CDs for selling. The bottom drawer is probably the coolest part of the box. On the side of it, visible when the box is pulled out, are the words "tips for the mandolinist!" and on the top of it is a piece of cardboard with a hole cut in it for dollars and coins.

I debuted the top drawer of the box at open mic tonight, and sold 2 CDs (one to Casey J. Chapman, and the other to her friend, whose name I haven't the foggiest clue about... sorry! I am bad that way...). When I have a real gig, I will debut the bottom drawer!

The side of the box acts as a billboard, not only for CDs, but also for my website. After coming to open mics often enough and seeing the box, few people will be able to forget Nimland.net!

I am totally evil.

I have a magic box.

Nim Grind OM 6, food songs for the kiddies

I actually played two short sets at the Grind tonight. The first was shortly after it started, when there was practically nobody else around to go. I played the following:

.. 5 songs of fish
.. vegetables you've never heard of [requested by Kevin]

Then, when more friends of mine came and there still weren't very many musicians, I asked the substitute man-in-charge, Jack, if I could play again, and he said sure. So I played a second set:

.. e blue apparatus
.. this ladybug > wow

=

Also, all this week I've been helping Kim McMann at the library with a program involving food in various ways. I played a couple food-related songs for the kids today, and they seemed to enjoy them.

.. raisins
.. vegetables you've never heard of

The former drove Kim nuts, because she vehemently despises everything raisin. The kids told me they enjoyed the expressions she was making during the performance!

=

I've been continuing to record for Nodal Nim's Rocketship, the podcast that I'm going to start. Tonight, I recorded the so-called Postal Crew (name provided arbitrarily by Dave Shaver), consisting of Amy, Iris, and Beth. We each told of dreams we'd had recently, Beth and Iris sang Silent Night, Beth read some poetry, and we all jammed out on whatever musical instruments were at hand, with Iris on lead vocals. It was smashing fun!

2 gigs scheduled at the Illium

I scheduled two gigs tonight for the month of September. I'll be playing Saturday night, the 17th, from 5-8. I will play Sunday afternoon, the 25th, from 11-2. These shows are both at the Illium coffee house on 2nd street and Broadway, across from the monument in front of city hall in downtown Troy, NY. No other gigs do I have scheduled at this time, but I plan to do some more seeking very soon, and of course, I'm playing open mics every chance I get!

Teo's second-to-last Rock the World

Hi all!

A number of bands and musicians played live on Teo's Rock the World on W.R.P.I. this evening. There were solo artists, myself among them, and two bands, one from Troy and one from Saratoga. I played a short set: two songs with Dave, one song solo, by request.

with Dave
.. deposit one tangelo > vegetables you've never heard of
.. hello, will you be my Sheep?

solo
.. 5 songs of fish [requested by many, via instant messenger]


It was a very fun and cool evening. Teo and crew broke their record for number of people in the air studio at once; the bar is now set to 18. There's one Rock the World left, which is supposedly going until 6 in the morn! Tune in next Wednesday starting at 8. It should be quite ridiculous!

making rockets

Hi!

I have decided to start a podcast. For those of you who don't know, a podcast is like an internet radio show on-demand. Internet users can subscribe to any number of podcasts, and when new episodes in the podcast are uploaded by the podcaster (the person doing the show), they are automatically downloaded to the subscriber's podcatcher (a program for collecting podcasts). The subscriber can then listen to the new episodes whenever they want to. It's a little confusing, but it sounds like a fantastic bandwagon to jump on.

So my plan is to create a zany show called Nodal Nim's Rocket Ship, on which I play songs, talk about things, jam with guests, and do all sorts of wacky stuff. So tonight, with Teo, Nick, and Dave, I recorded some crazy jams that will do nicely in the pilot (and probably episode 2 as well). I also invited some friends, following open mic and preceeding a game of Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot, to tell stories, read poetry, and otherwise shoot the poo. I think it's a great start to something great!

It'll be a little while before I have enough stuff, mix the pilot episode down, upload the giant mp3, and learn how to actually set the podcast up. But that is definitely the plan, and I will keep any interested parties informed through this blog. Nodal Nim's Rocket Ship will be up and away as soon as I can pull it together!

If you folks out there have any suggestions or encouragement to give me about where I'm going with this, please email me! I'd be delighted to have some support with this project. My email address is: gtrpkt at yahoo dot com

NimDaisyBakers OM 4 - 5 songs of fish

I had a great time playing a relatively long set at Daisy Baker's on 2nd street tonight. Some old friends came to see, made some requests, etc. I debuted a brand new one: 5 songs of fish, written very recently at 7-something in the morning, having not gotten to sleep yet. Here's the set list:

solo Nim:
.. science
.. you've got your own life [requested by Kim and Gia]
.. Nimland > I am systems
.. 5 songs of fish [debut]

Nim plus Dave Shaver on djembe:
.. Juiceman [requested by Amy]
.. deposit 1 tangelo [Beth] > vegetables you've never heard of [requested by Kim and Gia]

SPECIAL NOTE: For those of you keeping track, I have decided to recapitalize my song titles. I think it is unnecessary for them all to be capitalized, so now I am only capitalizing certain words, including most proper nouns and words I deem for whatever reason to be important. I have also decided to use double periods as bullets and a single greater-than sign to connect song titles in medleys. I am continuing to use square brackets for special notes as I did before.

Nim Grind OM 5 - introducing the Blue Demon!

I guess the Demon's a hit! I played two songs and sold four CDs! At first, the tone through the PA sounded tinny and trebley, but Steve and I worked it out, and it was smooth sailing after that!

- Science
- Wow

What fun!

The Blue Demon.

I got one of these today:

Fender® FM-62SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin

It's a beaut! I got the blue one, nicknamed it the blue demon. It feels really nice to play, and it's totally lovely. I'm in Potsdam, chilling with Tiffany, who's off practicing at Crane right now, so I plugged the mando into her guitar amp. Sounds really good! I'm delighted!

I need to get a keyboard amp to use as a mini-PA, and then I will be ready to play a gig anywhere I can get to! Hooray!

NimDaisyBakers OM 3 - Fun with requests!

Tonight was great fun, playing a set a Daisy Baker's for an enthusiastic audience of many friends! I filled multiple requests and had the pleasure of Mr. Dave Shaver joining me on djembe for the last tune, Let Me In Your Hole. The atmosphere was a lot better tonight, much more relaxed and fun, and that makes me happy.

- The Slippery Toad
- Level 1 [requested by Amy]
- Pablo [requested by Kate]
- Wow [requested by Dave]
- This Ladybug [requested by Ian]
- Maroon Dots [requested by Beth]
- Let Me In Your Hole [with Dave Shaver on djembe]

Lobel premieres at YAG informance!

It was an exciting afternoon, as a theatrical work I've been putting together with some kids and teachers at the R.P.I. Young Actor's Guild was informally premiered at the annual summer informance! I've been writing music for two original skits based on books by Arnold Lobel (Whiskers and Rhymes and Ming Lo Moves the Mountain). Elana Architzel has been helping adapt as well as direct, and Groups 1 and 2 were our performers. It was most certainly a "work in progress." Anyway, it went over well, and the program director Mary has asked me to continue working on it so we can eventually get it published and do fun things like tour elementary schools! This is way neat!

I didn't invite anybody to the informance because it's really just for YAG students' parents. My mom came. If this goes somewhere and we have a more public venue, I'm going to do some general invitations, but that won't be for a little while.

Anyway, there are some exciting possibilities here, and I'm going to stick with it and see where it goes!

Nodal Nim at YAG and Grind OM 4

I played at the YAG Birthday Bash again, but with less success. This semester, my lack of amplification (which came as a surprise to me, because I naively expected to get the stage and system in the Playhouse) plus lots of bratty kids made it impossible for me to play too very long. After a relatively short Veggies, I ended by saying, "I think I'm going to get some cake." This was my set up until then:

- Raisins
- Science -> Birthday Round
- This Ladybug
- Alan the Duck [request]
- Maroon Dots [request]
- Docky Docky
- Vegetables You've Never Heard Of [request]

Later, Mary had me close the party with more song:

- Maroon Dots -> Wow [request]

This is further evidence for me that I need to get a PA, or at least a keyboard amp with a couple inputs. If I'm reliant on others for amplification, I can't do very much. Grr.

=

I also played at the Daily Grind. A short set, as they always have to be. Sloppy and out-of tune, and Dave says the mix was bad (too much mandolin), but I was pretty ok with it. It was a good night at the Grind. There were some new people there, friends, audience, and performers. Went to the 76 Diner after for yums.

- Send Me Up [request] -> Pablo
- Retro Helplessness

NimIlliumOM 3

- Level 1 -> Javelin Head
- Stripes
- Wow -> Maroon Dots

NimDaisyBakersOM 2

Solo.

- Love Song 1
- Maroon Dots
- Buzzelling -> Lapse Into Memory
- A Parade, Yes. -> Member of the Real

Nim plus Dave!

- Deposit One Tangelo -> Vegetables You've Never Heard Of
- Juiceman
- Let Me In Your Hole

=

I was delighted to have Dave join me again on djembe. He plays a beautiful beat. It was the first time that I recall us playing Juiceman together since we had a band in high school (SOL Pendulum). Let Me In Your Hole was fun, as always, as was everything, really.

I'm continuing to work on more complex improvisational stuff for Member of the Real. I think it's getting better.

The slight audience at Daisy Baker's is just not into Nodal Nim. Not surprising, but somewhat frustrating. Steve wants me to keep playing, in spite of my concerns that it pisses the patrons off. I've decided to at least give it one more week.

NimGrindOM 3 - Dave again!

Dave joined me again on djembe for two Nodal Nim songs at the Daily Grind's open mic tonight! It was a way-fun night, and I think we played well. We also met neat new people.

- Hello, Will You Be My Sheep?
- Let Me In Your Hole

Rock le Nim

Nim played two songs on Rock the World, W.R.P.I. Thanks to Teo and everybody for having me. It was fun!

- E Blue Apparatus [requested by Oliver]
- Hello, Will You Be My Sheep?

NimIlliumOM 2

Nodal Nim played open mic at the Illium tonight:

- Receptors & Peptides
- Raisins -> I Am Systems
- Shirt Thane -> The Slippery Toad
- Member of the Real

I may have a gig this weekend: Saturday morning. I'll let you know soon!

come to the Illium!

I'm planning to do a Nodal Nim set during open mic at the Illium tomorrow night (Tuesday), and I think it will be fun. I had a good time there last week, and this week I won't be able to go the Grind on Thursday, most likely. Don't know if I'll have any friends there tomorrow, but I'm hoping to make some.

Much love,
-A

Nim at Daisy Baker's open mic

'Twas the first night of open mic at Daisy Baker's, on 2nd street in Troy. Steve Candlen is hosting a Monday night thingy at this restaurant/bar, and I played a set to an audience of mostly middle-aged bar-people. I wasn't their favorite, but it was fun! I debuted a song and experimented with more extended improvisation in Member of the Real (which propelled me into a spontaneous medley). All-in-all, successful for me, even if the audience was mostly indifferent or annoyed.

- Retro Helplessness -> Will We Go Out Together
- Hello, Will You Be My Sheep? [premiere]
- Pablo
- Nimland -> 25% More Monster
- Member of the Real -> Send Me Up -> This Ladybug
- Level 1
- Science

NimGrindOM 2 - with Dave!

Wonderful percussional brother Dave Shaver joined me tonight on Nim songs at the Grind open mic!

- Javelin Head -> I Am Systems
- Collarbone Pharoah

Nim at TPL

I played a few Nim songs tonight at a program at the Troy Public Library, prelude to the reading of a short story to a small group of adults who apparently have nothing better to do on Wednesday nights. I think it went alright. I've been happy to play much mandolin lately!

- You've Got Your Own Life
- Numbers Make More Numbers -> Retro Helplessness -> Stripes
- Science

Also, I haven't mentioned that I've finished or almost finished a bunch of new songs recently. I've decided not to mention them by name or put them on the songs list until I have premiered them. Will probably premiere at least one tomorrow night at the Daily Grind!

Nim at the Illium open mic

Hey, so there's an open mic at the Illium on 2nd street in downtown Troy, and I checked it out and played there tonight. It was fun and neat! It wasn't my best performance, but by the end, people were into it. Planning to do that again next Tuesday, and eventually get a real show there!

My set list:

- Science
- I Am Systems -> Will We Go Out Together?
- Vegetables You've Never Heard Of
- Love Song 1

Nim at the Grind open mic

I played some tunes at the Grind open mic tonight with my old and still-broken mandolin. I had to stop to tune after two strings randomly and without warning went incredibly out, but other than that, I thought it went very well! I played one five-song medley:

- E Blue Apparatus -> Rules to Stone Game -> Deposit One Tangelo -> 25% More Monster -> Vegetables You've Never Heard Of

Scott came along for the second week in a row, bringing with him brother Greg, friends Vicky and Chuck, and Greg's girlfriend Kristen (spelling uncertain). They were nice to see and meet and so on! I like when friends meet friends.

I also met a bunch of other cool open mic regulars. The Grind open mic continues to be a wonderful thing. Anybody reading this who can make it to Troy, NY on Thursdays between 8 and 11:30 needs to come on out! What fun!

old mando, rock the world

I got my mandolin back today, not fixed, as I've decided not to invest in it at this time. (I have a new one coming soon, though!) Anyway, even though it still won't stay in tune (and the action is awfully high), I really enjoyed having a mandolin again, and I started brushing up on my tunes. I played a few songs on Rock the World, Teo Acosta's Wednesday night W.R.P.I. radio show. It was really nice to play again!

- Javelin Head -> 25% More Monster
- Let Me In Your Hole

Tomorrow night I'm definitely playing at open mic at the Daily Grind in downtown Troy. I was planning to improvise on electric guitar, but since I have a mandolin now, I'll probably do Nimstuff instead! I may change my mind about the instrument closer to the time, but at any rate, I'll be there and I'll play! Yay for mandolins!

Hearts,
Andrew

P.S. I may have finally finished the inevitable song "Hello, Will You Be My Sheep?" I have a few other songs that I've been itching to write as well, so we'll see what happens. A rock opera about onions I see in my distant future! Hearts!

The Same Thing You're Always Talking About

objects rotate in the rain
I know it’s the same thing you’re always talking about
fields
I’m mentioning it to you now
look outside for yourself

freckled stalks of alibis
coming inside
racehorses
coffee and beans
looking fast and faster booking
crepes and sauce
flatheaded
fickle and steam

fowl creation in the grinding nights
little relaxed-teeth camera
everyone is sad to be leaving town for a while
cutlery moon
a strain on the rose-up staff
staffing my room with paragraphs
falcon toast truth night
saber
clothes
clothes

daily grind
grinding down
winding my head neck around
bending the light around my head
oblivious flies
why do they stare at me?
bending a kind word from a friend
welcome back the sun flies

strain the rose-up color guard
strain the rose-up high

The Daily Grind

It was an exciting evening! The Daily Grind, a coffee-shop on 3rd St. in downtown Troy, has open mic every Thursday from 9 to 11:30ish. It's always amazing! You never know what the heck to expect, but the people are cool and friendly, and there are usually some amazing performances. I have to recommend this weekly event highly to anybody who can get there!

Still being mandolin-less, I gave up complaining about it and wrote a song this week on my electric guitar. It was a 7 1/2 minute or so oddity, but I think it was well-received. For now, its title is "The Same Thing You're Always Talking About." I'm planning to write another for next week, if I can find the time.

Must recommend these open mics to everybody! They're something to behold!

guitar, jam-downs

Hello!

I'm in disbelief that I still don't have an estimate on my mandolin. I decided to stop whining about it though, and play some of the guitars that I have lying around. It's actually been nice! A few years ago, when I first picked up a cheap mandolin, the guitar had become stale and lifeless in my hands, but the mandolin breathed with new purpose. Today, the guitar feels like a new instrument entirely, and I've been delighted to become reacquainted! (However, I do still miss my mandolin and feel incomplete without it.)

So I've been using guitars in some jams, first electric with Scott Marshall, in which we scavenged in the mystical caverns of Elsewhere (played weird), and then acoustic yesterday (July 4) with Dave Shaver and friends by the Hudson River waterfront. My third out-of-self guitar experience will be playing a song at open mic this Thursday at the Daily Grind on 3rd street in downtown Troy. I've been writing something weird just for the occasion, and I'm looking forward to confounding people!

Hope to see some friends there!

Love to all,
Andrew

Nimland.net

By the way, you may have noticed the new Nimland.net! I bought real web space, so now I'm ad-free (and more professional-like)! It's mostly the same, with a few new colors and catch phrases here and there. Comments and suggestions are welcome!

Still no news on the mandolin. I went to the open mic at Troy's Daily Grind tonight and had nothing to play. It was fun, anyway, but I feel like half an Andrew...

mandolin?

My mandolin appears to have a number of serious structural problems, and I'm currently waiting on a repair estimate. I've been warned by some trustworthy experts that I may find it wiser to buy a new one and attempt to sell the old. This remains to be seen, but nevertheless, I have begun researching acoustic-electric mandos.

I find myself intrigued by the Fender FM-62SE, which I have nicknamed the Blue Demon. It has received a number of good user reviews. It's more expensive than my last mandolin, but not intimidatingly so. It also looks very "Nodal Nim," I think, which my current Ovation does not. Sound, price, and functionality are more important to me than appearance, but I must consider appearance as well.

I have not played the Blue Demon myself, so it's impossible for me to have a real idea of it yet. As I said, I am intrigued.

adjusting

Hi all.

I (Andrew Heathwaite) graduated a few weeks ago, receiving a Bachelors of Music in Education from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam! Since then, I've been living here and there, waiting for my car to get fixed and returned to me. I finally made it back to my home town of Troy, NY this evening. I'll be here for a few months, and hopefully I'll find some exciting gigs in the area (any leads you may have are appreciated!), then in August, I'm moving to Chicago!!

I'm going to have some work done on my mandolin, and until it's in tip-top shape, I won't be playing any gigs. However, when I do have some gigs lined up, I will post info about them here, on my main page, and in my myspace music profile!

Very soon I will have a real website, nimland.net. I have to wait for my registration to go through the system, and then I want to do a bit of work on it before having something of a grand opening. We'll see how that goes. I will keep you abreast of this also!

Thanks to those of you who have been coming out to gigs and giving me feedback on things! I had some good times performing in Potsdam. I'm looking forward to rocking out soon in the Capital Region!


Best wishes to all,
Andrew

some jams

I haven't been playing much Nodal Nim recently, although I have a number of ideas cooking. I've done some jamming, though! Last night, I recorded some very abstract improvisations with Mike Winkler, collectively utilizing acoustic and electric guitars, violin, mandolin, and hand drums. The night before, I jammed with Greg and Scott Marshall and Chris Roslund in a rather psychedelic rock universe. It's been fun! I recorded both jams digitally, but have no immediately plans to do anything with them.

I'm considering moving to Chicago in August. Thoughts?

ctwa 12, Brent Burnisher, lots

Many things to report! I will go in reverse chronological order!

I just came back from the last Coloring Time with Andrew at WAIH, and it was wonderfully fun! I invited everybody on the radio station to come along and color or listen at home, and I had about a dozen people there! It was great fun, and I'm planning to get the pictures that people colored online within the next few days for all to see! Thanks to everybody who listened, visited, and/or colored!

Here was the Nodal Nim set list:

• Coloring Time with Andrew -> E Blue Apparatus
• Let Me In Your Hole
• Crash Tinkle Tinkle -> Lapse Into Memory
• Numbers Make More Numbers -> Stripes -> Robots: The Card Game
• Alan the Duck [requested]
• Pablo [requested]
• Yellow Things [premiere]

Then, after two unison strings broke simultaneously during Yellow Things and I finished it with three courses instead of four, I spun some CDs, restringed, and played two more songs, with Jen Abounader on guitar and vocals... and then a whole bunch of other people on vocals as well!

• Maroon Dots
• Vegetables You've Never Heard Of

Then it was about 11:15 or so, and I spun CDs for the rest of the show. Some people stuck around, others didn't, but I was left with an armful of exciting pictures, many of which featured yellow things, or blue things that are labelled yellow.

Thanks everybody for the magic!

=

Chris Roslund, Scott Marshall, and I form the band known for now as Brent Burnisher! We headlined at Hurley's tonight, with the following set list:

• Carrot Cake [Brent Burnisher]
• Be My Head [Flaming Lips]
• No Harm [Andrew Heathwaite]
• There There [Radiohead]
• My Acquaintance [Chris Roslund]
• The One I Love [R.E.M.]
• I Am Systems -> Javelin Head [Nodal Nim]
• Space Oddity [David Bowie]
• 12-bar blues jam with Carl
• Oh Darlin'! [Lennon/McCartney]

=

I played Purcell and Nodal Nim in my voice studio today!

• I'll Sail Upon the Dog Star [by Henry Purcell, accompanied by Eric Fauss on the piano]
• Stripes -> Vegetables You've Never Heard Of

=

Yesterday, Nodal Nim opened for a performance of five plays written by fellow students! I couldn't be heard very well, but it was fun just the same. I thought I played a good set:

• Member Of the Real
• Docky Docky
• Sun Flies
• Lapse Into Memory
• Bodymind
• 25% More Monster
• Crabnors
• Supersane
• Nimland
• You've Got Your Own Life
• Nobody Knows
• Crescent Moon
• I Am Systems
• Science

Most of the songs ran together, as I tried to be as continuous as possible.

I am truly exhausted.

Thanks to everybody who has supported me this semester, and these past few days in particular! I love you all!

last ctwa at Potsdam, and you're invited!

I've decided that for my last Coloring Time with Andrew radio show, I'm inviting my friends to come along and have a coloring party, while I Nim around and debut my 15-minute epic, Yellow Things! So, those of you in the Potsdam area are invited to come to the WAIH radio station, located above the mail room in the Barrington Student Union, SUNY Potsdam campus, next Thursday, May 12, 2005! Here are some details:

1. I will provide crayons, markers, and paper!
2. I will begin Nimming at 10:00 PM!
3. I will entertain requests!
4. I will debut Yellow Things at 10:30!
5. I will spin media from 11 to 12, taking requests, coloring, hanging out, etc.!

Come visit me, or tune in to 90.3 FM WAIH, if you're within ten miles or so of Potsdam! It will be a magical fun farewell to Nim!

(Those of you in the Albany area, I'm moving there in like two weeks and want to perform! I don't have any gigs scheduled yet, but I promise I will let you know!)

Knowlestock

Nodal Nim opened Knowlestock at 12:10 today!

• Numbers Make More Numbers -> Level 1
• The Slippery Toad
• Javelin Head -> Robots: The Card Game -> Crabnors
• Pablo
• Let Me In Your Hole

Bowman Blast!

Nim played Bowman Blast at like 3:45 on this beautiful Saturday to a modest but fun crowd of folk! Thanks to those of you who were there! I had a good time, playing my tunes in the sunshine!

• Buzzelling -> Science
• This Ladybug
• Member of the Real -> Retro Helplessness
• Frank -> I Am Systems
• Collarbone Pharoah
• Raisins -> Vegetables You've Never Heard Of
• nimland.cjb.net -> Wow
• Alan the Duck [requested by Shannon!]
• Docky Docky -> 25% More Monster

If you missed it, do not fear! I am playing tomorrow at noon in the Knowles Quad! Come by as I wake up the Cranies with my mandolin magic!

A weekend of Nodal Nim!

Nodal Nim is playing in two shows this weekend at SUNY Potsdam! Come out to see him, he'll be delighted!

Saturday, May 7
3:25 - ? PM
Bowman Quad

Sunday, May 8
12:00 - 12:30 PM
Knowles Quad

Email me for more info if you like!

ctwa 11 - too many E strings!

I have four E strings on my mandolin right now. This is not a good idea. Mandolins should only have two. The extra two E strings are filling in for the A strings that should be there, but have broken so many times that I've run out and tried to use E's as subsititutes. Bad idea!

Anyway, I tried to play a couple Nim sets on the radio tonight, but was miserably out of tune and had to stop. Here's what I eked out before surrendering to fate:

10:00
• Coloring Time with Andrew -> Nimland
• Bodymind -> 25% More Monster

10:30
• Science -> Member of the Real

Member of the Real is a tribute to Jandek, so it seemed fitting to play it on a mandolin that couldn't stay in tune to save its life... that doesn't even want to be in tune -- that wants nothing less than to be in tune! I think Jandek would appreciate the rendition.

I ordered new strings a half an hour ago, rush delivery, so my mandolin will get the first aid it desperately needs, and I will suck considerably less, I anticipate. We can hope!

Hypercube, Hyperpyramid, and ctwa 10

Hypercube made its public debut as a three-piece at Hurley's tonight to a typically tiny coffee house audience, and it was way fun!

Hypercube at Hurley's:

• So Unlikely
• Molly
• Penelope / Liquid Gravity

After Parts Unknown played (and did a fine job), since there was nobody else scheduled, Eric and I (Joel had left) named ourselves Hyperpyramid and made our own little psychedelic nerd jam! I thought it was a cool little jam, and we had fun. The few people who were there did not all get up and leave.

I played two sets of Nodal Nim on CTWA tonight. I thought they were somewhat above average for me. Scott was here and colored!

10:00

• Coloring Time with Andrew
• Buzzelling -> Javelin Head
• I Am Systems
• Docky Docky
• Receptors & Peptides -> Member of the Real
• Maroon Dots

11:00

• 25% More Monster -> E Blue Apparatus
• Supersane
• Numbers Make More Numbers [requested by Scott] -> Rodeo Clock
• Robots: The Card Game
• Will We Go Out Together? [also requested by Scott]
• Vegetables You've Never Heard Of

Hypercube annoying the neighbors

Hey, I almost forgot to mention... Hypercube (my band with Eric and Joel) rehearsed tonight for the first time in quite a while, and then gave a performance of sorts for Roy, Jen, and her boyfriend Alex.

• So Unlikely
• Molly
• Schitzophrenic Game of Poker [interrupted by sleepy neighbor]
• Liquid Gravity

Andrew Heathwaite: Vaporization

I always forget to mention music things in my life other than Nodal Nim. Tonight, I'm remembering. Today (technically yesterday), there was a concert of pieces created by students in "Advanced Electronic Composition," which is a class here at Crane that I am in. I was really into electronic composition as a means of exploring microtonality for a while, but now that I've been working in the Crane midi lab, which is not easily microtunable, I've been relatively uninspired. My main focus has been most definitely Nodal Nim.

Anyway, I had a piece played at this little concert called Vaporization. I must admit that it's in the boring old 12tET. I started with a recording that I made and liked, and tried to add other movements. None of my movements seemed to work, until last night (technically two nights ago), when I latched one onto the end of the first recording, with a little crossfade, making two movements one. It turned out that the pieces complimented each other well, and I wound up being happy with my new piece. That's nice!

My internet is down, which is preventing me from uploading my eComp piece. I'll get around to it eventually, I think, and then I'll post about it. I have two eComp pieces from last semester I can get up to snuff and add there, too, at some point. There's another yet to be written, which I think I will write for electronic tape, mandolin, and perhaps voice. I'm considering making it Nodal Nim with tape. Seems like fun!

Nodal Nim plays YAG Birthday Bash!

Nodal Nim entertained at the YAG Birthday Bash today, hiding in a dark closet until announced, and then running out and going, "Happy Birthday, YAG!" It's not that it's YAG's birthday; we have a tradition of throwing a party one day of the semester to celebrate all the students' birthdays all at once. I was delighted to play some songs for an audience of real children! We had a way cool time!

Oh yeah, and I got my YAGly friends Nick, Teo, and Dave to play some songs along with me! They were a great little thrown-together band, and I'd love to play with them again sometime!

Ok, so here are the sets:

Nodal Nim

• Maroon Dots
• Raisins -> 25% More Monster
• Pablo [requested by Mary]
• Somebody's Birthday Round [premiere]
• This Ladybug
• Wow
• Alan the Duck
• For Play
• Maroon Dots [requested by Tim]
• Will We Go Out Together [requested by Dave]
• E Blue Apparatus [requested by Nick]

Nodal Nim and the Somethings

• Rockin' Out
• Science
• I Am Systems
• Deposit One Tangelo -> Vegetables You've Never Heard Of


Veggies was really long and crazy, and almost every body in the room was dancing deliriously after a while! We signed some autographs after the show, and I sold some CDs, and it was just charming! Mary thinks I could do really well playing for kids, be the next Raffi or something. I don't know yet, but I find that I'm inspired. It was wonderful and fun!

hurley's competition and ctwa 9

Hello friends,

It was a good Thursday, I think. All the solo headliners from this semester competed at Hurley's tonight for cash prizes. It was a lot of fun, and it was cool to have a bunch of really good musicians playing there on one night. Chris called me during Coloring Time to let me know that I didn't place. I forgot to ask who did. I have faith that they were awesome, because there were a lot of greats there. Here would be my preference:

1. Kevin Irwin
2. Doug Campbell
3. Bryan Poole-DeSalvo

I don't know if it went anything like that. Carmen G. is awesome, too, so I wouldn't mind if she won one of the spots, too. I'm not really disappointed about not placing, because I think I played really well anyway, and I never expect to woo a whole audience. People usually love me or hate me, and I guess this particular audience was leaning more toward the latter, at least relative to the other musicians. People who really get Nodal Nim are not your average Joes and Janes. I would have enjoyed the $100 first prize (was gonna buy a real web site, maybe nimland.com!), but I don't mind losing.

Here was my Hurley's set list:

• Let Me In Your Hole
• Wow -> Nimland
• 25% More Monster -> Vegetables You've Never Heard Of

And here was my Coloring Time set list:

• Coloring Time with Andrew -> A Parade, Yes. -> For Play
• Maroon Dots
• nimland.cjb.net -> Sun Flies
• Rat's Noon Star -> Rules to Stone Game -> Stripes

=

Now I go to read and sleep. I have to recommend this book that I'm borrowing from my girlfriend Tiffany: Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. Very clever and good! It simultaneously makes me want to write a novel myself and never ever write a novel myself, because I could never be that awesome! Wonderful!

Love to all,
Andrew

Bear Stock morning fun

Nodal Nim opened Bear Stock this Sunday morn. Some folks came out and fun was had!

set list:

• Nimland -> Javelin Head
• Rules to Stone Game [premiere] -> Level 1
• Raisins
• 25% More Monster -> Numbers Make More Numbers -> I Am Systems
• Crescent Moon
• Member of the Real -> E Blue Apparatus
• Wow -> Vegetables You've Never Heard Of

hurley's & ctwa8

Recovering from a cold, I was finally able to Nim today. I practiced a bunch and wrote two songs: Rules to Stone Game and 25% More Monster! I debuted the latter at Hurley's!

And speaking of Hurleys, here's the set list of the evening:

• Supersane -> Rockin' Out -> Eat Lots of Apples
• 25% More Monster [premiere]
• Science

I decided, since Coloring Time went extra well tonight, in my opinion, that I'd include the whole playlist, not just the Nodal Nim set. As usual, all Nodal Nim songs listed were performed live by me.

10:00

Nodal Nim
• Numbers Make More Numbers -> Coloring Time with Andrew
• Pablo
• Retro Helplessness -> Rodeo Clock
• Superman Has Friends
• 25% More Monster
Dismemberment Plan
• A Life Of Possibilities
R.E.M.
• Turn You Inside Out
• Finest Worksong [requested by B.J.]
Danny Allen
• Scattergun
Elvis Costello
• Chelsea
Captain Beefheart
• The Sheriff of Hong Kong
Edgard Varése
• Ecuatorial

11:00

Nodal Nim
• The Slippery Toad -> Wow
• I Am Systems [requested by Scott]
• Stripes
• Member of the Real
Björk
• Unison [requested by Scott]
Tears For Fears
• Head Over Heals
Depeche Mode
• I Feel You
Cecil Taylor
• Air
Tom Waits
• Table Top Joe
Flaming Lips
• Halloween on the Barbary Coast
Neutral Milk Hotel
• Three Peaches
Peter Blasser
• The Longhouse Dance
Patti Smith
• Redondo Beach

Nodal Nim at Bearstock in Potsdam, NY!

Hi everyone!

Nodal Nim is playing at Bear Stock, an all-day music festival on the SUNY Potsdam campus! If you're interested and nearby, come out to Lehman Quad at 11:00 AM this Sunday, April 10, to experience a zany half-hour set of Nodal Nim! Nodal Nim will be playing new songs as well as old on his mandolin, and he'll be delighted to fill requests, as always.

For more info on Nodal Nim, check out http://www.nimland.cjb.net

For more info on Bear Stock, see http://www.thebrandonshow.com

Pass this message along to everyone you know who might be interested in coming out! If you have any questions, comments, etc., you can contact me through myspace or my website. I hope to see you there!

Experience Mandolin Magic!

Experience Nodal Nim!

!!

ctwa8

I didn't play Hurley's -- a big rehearsal with Crane Chorus -- but Coloring Time was ok. I am very tired.

10:00

• Coloring Time with Andrew
• Javelin Head
• Dripping Pilgrim
• For Play -> Science -> Member of the Real

10:30

• Crash Tinkle Tinkle -> Lapse Into Memory
• Shirt Thane
• Love Song 1
• Rat's Noon Star [premiere]

intercourse

I've been filling my Nodal Nim myspace profile with lots of interesting people from all over, and having conversations with some who have heard my music. Here is one little conversation that I obviously had some fun with:

=

i love your vegetable song. its made me think a lot. about vegetables i've never heard of before. i think i will do a google search and learn some more about greens.
thanking you for the inspiration, ro. xxxx

=

Hi Ro,

Thanks for the appreciation! Vegetables are delicious. I especially love frying them up in peanut sauce and rosemary, basil, and thyme, and maybe some honey. Best with onions. Maybe I need a song about onions, too. Are onions a vegetable? Even if they are, they deserve their own song. I'm not sure what your opinion is on raisins, but I have a song about them, also. They're good in yogurt.

Thanks for the kind note. I'm glad you were inspired. It makes me happy. Best of luck with all things!

Maccodils,
Andrew (Nodal Nim)

first oud experience

Hey, I haven't mentioned this yet! Yesterday, I played the oud for the first time ever! Chris Witulski just so happened to have one and invited me to come over and try it out. It blew my mind! It felt so good to play! Obviously, it wouldn't be easy to play well, but it's totally incredible and inspiring. I'd very much like to get one sometime.

Hurley's and ctwa7

Hurley's open mic in Potsdam was fun tonight. I played some stuff and debuted two new songs!

• Lapse Into Memory -> Member of the Real [premiere]
• E Blue Apparatus -> Level 1
• For Play [premiere]

Coloring Time was also fun! I played only one set to accomodate a trainee. It was cool, though.

• Coloring Time with Andrew
• Vegetables You've Never Heard Of -> Retro Helplessness
• Pablo
• Stripes
• Let Me In Your Hole

Nim on myspace

I created a music page on myspace.com today, to use as a platform for promotion. So far, so good. If you'd like to see it and/or add yourself to my "Friends" list, check out http://www.myspace.com/nodalnim.

The Daily Grind!

An old coffee shop in Troy recently moved to a bigger location and started doing open mics on Thursdays! I went there tonight, and it was awesome! There was a lot of acoustic guitar stuff, and some of it was great, some stand-up comedy, some poetry readings, some blues, some far out world musicky kinds of stuff, some jammy stuff, lots of neat stuff! And me, I played some Nodal Nim, too. I was happy with how I played, and my stuff seemed to go over well, which makes me happy! After I played, throughout the night, I sold three of my new Nodal Nim at Hurley's CDs to some cool, appreciative people! Thanks for the support, you guys! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and when I come back for the summer, I hope I'll see you all there again!

My contact information is on the intro page to the website, but I'll give it here in case anybody is interested:

email: gtrpkt at yahoo dot com
AIM screen name: Nodal Nim
cell: (315)657-6839


My set list tonight:

• Let Me In Your Hole
• Raisins -> Wow
• Stripes


I've never been so excited by the prospect of moving back to Troy! Now I can't wait!

Electricity,
Andrew

Rock the World

I played some Nodal Nim as special guest on Teo and friends' Rock the World radio program on WRPI, and it was fun!

12:30 am

• Science [requested by Nick Borden]
• Maroon Dots -> Bodymind

1:30 am

• Boxing Day Feast [requested by Eve Burstein] -> Vegetables You've Never Heard Of

new songies and cdies

Hi.

Yesterday, I wrote or finished writing three Nodal Nim songs: Rat's Noon Star, Body Hex 3, and Member of the Real, and I started a song that may be called Dobbel. Today, I took a break from mandolin playing, but I made a bunch more copies of my new CD, Nodal Nim at Hurley's. Hey, you out there! Buy one! They're cheap! Six bucks!

Love,
Andrew

Yellow Things

I finished writing a very interesting and unique Nodal Nim song tonight (relative to my other songs at least)! It's a fifteen-minute collection of sub-songs on the subject of "things that are yellow," carefully strung together for coherency and storytelling. It's almost a whole new genre of song. I'm sure other people have done this before, but I haven't, and it's very exciting for me!

It begins and ends with a poem I borrowed from a Potsdam anthropology professor's two-year-old niece. According to the story my professor told (which was intended to demonstrate the incredible creativity of human beings as compared with other animals), her niece, while gazing at the moon one night, uttered the following:

There's a yellow man
on the yellow moon
reading a yellow book
about yellow things.

I think that statement is so full of wonder and amazing ideas, and I love that a two-year-old girl came up with it! I like the image we have, of a simple place, with a simple thing happening: one man, one moon, one book, one color even! It's just beautiful!

So in my song, the yellow man reads the yellow book, and in the yellow book, there are characters and events and emotions, and you experience the yellow man's reactions to it all. At the end of the song, the yellow man falls asleep to dream of yellow things. Interesting to me is that we have a fictional character reading about fictional characters, and to us, they're all equally fictional, but to the yellow man, he and his yellow moon are real while the yellow characters in the yellow book are fictional! I'm thinking about all the stuff in this song, and I'm so proud I wrote it, and it's just an amazing feeling! I can't wait to play it for somebody!

ctwa6

Coloring Time was a lot of fun tonight! I gave away a Nodal Nim CD to a guy who called in with a palindrome: "Dammit, I'm mad!" Scott, Marina, and Chris came by and colored, kept me company! It was delirious and neat! After (and during) the show, Scott, Marina and I were high on our own giggly juices, and before goodbye hugs, we "exchanged gifts" by sifting through our pockets and wallets for things to share, like old library cards, tic tacs, and keys to locks that no longer exist!

10:00

• Coloring Time with Andrew
• Vegetables You've Never Heard Of
• Crabnors -> Receptors & Peptides -> Magazine Chubbies [requested by Scott]
• Nimland
• E Blue Apparatus
• Alan the Duck [requested by B.J.]

11:00

• Level 1
• nimland.cjb.net
• Paperclip [requested by Marina]
• Superman Has Friends -> I Am Systems
• Docky Docky [requested by Scott]

new concert CD: Nodal Nim at Hurley's!

Just like the song says, I've got a new CD!

I put the recording from my last Hurley's concert (along with a few songs from last semester's Hurley's concert) into CD magic and copied! So I have lots of CDR's right now just ready for the plucking! I'm going to start selling them for six dollars!

Eventually, mp3 versions of all the CD tracks will likely go on my SoundClick page. So why should you bother spending six bucks to buy a CD from me? Here's what I've come up with:

• My SoundClick page won't have these songs available for some time. Maybe it'll take just a few weeks, maybe a few months, maybe longer. I haven't decided.
• I may decide to cut out all my rambling when I make mp3s, all the times I say dumb things like, "This is a song..." "Hi, I'm Nodal Nim!" "This is a relatively new song... from my middle period, if that means anything..." "I've played that before," "Thanks for coming out!", "This is a classic old Nodal Nim song," "Yes, that's the end," and so on and so forth. So if you want the Nimbabbling, you'll want the CD!
• On the CD, the February 17 concert tracks are uncompressed audio (AIFF files), so they have a better sound quality than the mp3s that will be available online.
• CDs are more portable than computers! (But not more portable than mp3 players, of course!)
• I design each album slightly differently. The CD itself has "Nodal Nim at Hurley's" written on it with Sharpie (classy!) in a unique way, for example.
• Best of all, in my opinion, each album comes with a unique spontaneous poem and autograph hidden away on the inside of the cover! Mp3s don't come with poems or autographs!

I will not try to deceive you: another viable option for you is to find somebody who already has my CD and copy it from em. This is legally permissable, because I release all my music under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Creative Commons License. "You are free to copy, distribute, and perform the work..." etc. So go ahead and do that, I won't mind! But, I also won't mind if you buy the CD from me. It's really quite cheap, and you'll feel very special! You are special, and I want you feel that way!

If you're interesting in buying a CD, get it touch with me however you like:

email: gtrpkt at yahoo dot com
AIM screen name: Nodal Nim
cell phone: (315)657-6839

I live in Potsdam right now, but I'll be coming home to Troy for winter break soon, and I'll plan to make some deliveries while I'm there!

Love,
Andrew

ctwa5

Fifth Coloring Time of the semester:

10:02

• Coloring Time with Andrew
• Maroon Dots -> Wow
• Send Me Up -> Javelin Head
• Princessdom
• nimland.cjb.net
• The Slippery Toad -> Bodymind
• You've Got Your Own Life
• Superman Has Friends

11:04

• Raisins
• Level 1
• A Parade, Yes. -> Vegetables You've Never Heard Of

Hurley's Open Mic = No!

Hurley's Open Mic has been cancelled for tonight, but Coloring Time with Andrew is a mos' def. Tune in to 90.3 fm the Way between 10 and midnight for coloring and mandolin fun cakes!

A guy told me today that he listens to CTWA regularly while he paints and really enjoys it! I've met this guy a few times, and consistently forgotten his name, but he's cool, and it totally rocks that he's a regular listener! He says it helps to keep him going when he's working late at night in the art studio. Yeah!

I also received a message from a girl who was at my Hurley's Feb. 17 show who said she really enjoyed it. She said that I am "awesome" and that my "square song is the man," referring to the song Wow, which I happened to start with a verse like, "Wow! The sidewalk is made of lots of squares, would you like some squares...?" etc! She also said, "all you're songs were great, and i think i want to marry you because of them," but then explained that she was "just playin (obviously)..."

Anyway, I think this constitutes "fan mail," and, as it is the first that I have received, that is very neat! Thanks, Lindsay!

Who doesn't like an ego rub from time to time? Especially on a Thursday!

I think I'm going to start producing CDs of the Hurley's show tonight, while I've got some free time...

=

In other music news, I'm singing in my voice studio next week, and I'm rather frustrated by the challenges of the songs and switching between Nodal Nim and classical style. I turned down a gig on Wednesday for the extra practice time and so Nodal Nim habits don't carry into my singing. Eric (my accompanist) and I are going to have to put in some good rehearsal between now and then, but it will definitely be worth it!

Coloring Time = Yes!

I had previously said there'd be no Coloring Time with Andrew tonight, but plans have changed, and I can do the show after all. Hooray!

Potsdammers, tune in to 90.3 fm The Way between 10 and midnight for Nodal Nim mandomagic and amazing music programming, as I spin such wonderful artists as Soul Coughing, Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart, and R.E.M.!

And if you're interested, I'm also going to do a short Nodal Nim set at open mic at Hurley's Coffee House some time after eight.


popsicle sticks,

Andrew

Scott's Nim movie!

I forgot to mention: a few nights ago, Scott finished his movie of the show I played a couple Thursdays back, on Feb. 17! He had footage from three cameras to utilize it putting the movie together, and I'm delighted to say that he and the camerapeople did some excellent stuff with it! Thank you so much, Scott, for the wonderful movie!

Thanks also to the camerapeople: Scott, Marina, and Dan!

Joel is working on his own movie using the same footage, which I am excited about seeing as well, when it's finished. Thanks to Joel in advance, and also for the use of his camera, which Dan operated.

Hooray!

TBS a success and fun! / no CTWA this week

Hi!

I just got back from the WAIH studio, where I played a half-hour set on The Brandon Show! I think I played pretty well, and I definitely had fun! Here's my set list:

• Science
• Level 1
• nimland.cjb.net
• Robots: The Card Game -> Retro Helplessness -> Sun Flies
• Alan the Duck [requested by Albynoh]
• Nobody Knows [requested by Joel] -> I Am Systems
• Stripes
• Lapse Into Memory
• Nimland
• Let Me In Your Hole

=

The other bit of information is that there will be no Coloring Time with Andrew this week! Next week, though, for sure! Tune in then!

Nodal Nim on TBS Tuesday 9:30-10:00

Ok, so the latest news is just that. This Tuesday, Feb 29, Nodal Nim will be playing from 9:30 pm to 10:00 pm on The Brandon Show. I guess there was some confusion about things, but this is what we've worked out. So it'll be a half-hour show, which isn't bad, and it'll be video-recorded for the campus TV station, which certainly is neat.

Best to all,
Andrew