Hiatus

I will be out fighting bad guys until August 1, so this blog will be on hiatus until then.

Questions for Shane Benedict, Kayaker and Kayak Designer

Shane Benedict learned to kayak more than three decades ago and has long been recognized as a world-class paddler.  A 10-year US Freestyle Team Member and a two-time World Freestyle medalist, he continues to gain acclaim as a kayak designer and one of the founders of Liquidlogic.

How would you describe what you do?


I would describe what I do as someone who designs, produces, markets, sells, and paddles kayaks. Pretty much what I do is make things to play around in the water, which is one of the things that I love to do more than anything else...play around in water.

Is this different than what other people think you do?

I think that other people know all the things that I do but I think they see the glittery floating down the river side much more prominently than the day to day gritty details.  The cliched term "gritty details" is very relevant. 

How do you know if you’re on the right track with a project?

I know when I am on the right track in a project if I feel excited about it.  It is a very giddy unsettled feeling like something very cool is coming.  "the ice cream truck might be coming down our street!"  I think I am on course if I wake up at night thinking about it.  I start talking faster.  My brain goes faster than I can communicate.

How do you go about making choices?

 

Making choices is difficult for me, to a point.  I have to take in a lot of information.  I like to hear everyones thoughts.  I try to bring in as much information on the project as possible.  I pace back and forth.  And then suddenly I settle on an obvious choice.  It feels right, but sometimes it takes a long time to get there.

How do you know when you’re done?

I am never done.  There are two points that feel really incredible and doneish..  The moment when we put the model in a crate and put that crate on a truck feels like done but its not even a boat yet.  The mold has to be made and then boats made from the mold.  The other moment that feels done is when I see the first new boat out on a river being paddled by someone I don't know but those are very fleeting moments because it is not long after that I am already moving on to the next thing.  I see things that I would change immediately after I am "done" so it always feels like I am designing.

What’s your workspace like?

My work spaces are many but they start completely clean.  If I were a writer I would have the pencils and paper all lined up, the desk completely clean, and the computer lined up square with the desk. By the end of the project my work space is a total disaster with beer bottles, food scraps, wrappers, instruments askew, and the smell of sweat.  I am a visual person. I need to see what I am working on.  So that lends itself to lots of stuff lying around so I can see it.  

What are your essential tools?

 

There are so many tools and offices for me I am getting confused.  There is an old rule... You must have the 5.  Helmet, Lifejacket, Paddle, Sprayskirt, and Boat to successfully kayak whitewater (you would be nude but you could do it).  The obvious answer is my brain.  When I am paddling whitewater the most challenging thing is to see through the chaos of whitewater to see the line, and to see through my confidence, fear, ego, and understanding of what I can do to paddle through the rapids.  In the office my essential tools are simliar to anyone else in an office but my new favorite is a giant whiteboard.  I am very visual.  I like to see what is on my board to be done.  It feels good to write it up there and wipe it off.

What’s the most surprising tool you use?

 

The tool that others are the most surprised by is my chainsaw.  I love to rough cut some of my models with a chainsaw.  It's fast and messy and the boat shows itself quickly from the block of foam.  The tool I am most surprised by is my eye for design.  I had no idea I could be a designer it just happened.  For some reason I looked right past the fact that my dad was an architect and designer, my mother an artist.  I just thought it was normal for people to see the shapes, colors, and patterns that make things the way they are.

What was your biggest mistake or the one you learned the most from?

My biggest mistake was making something that I didn't think was cool in some way or another.  I only made it because I was supposed to at the time.   I didn't throw myself into it.  I didn't paddle it very much and thought it looked ok at the time.  I let others tell me it was good and didn't really check it out myself.  It was terrible.  What I learned was that I can find something about every boat that is interesting.  In fact I can find any project completely exciting because i really do love to design stuff but I can also get a little complacent.   That is my biggest mistake... just letting it ride and not diving into it.

A few of the models Shane has designed being put to use on the Chattooga River.


Shane's Blog:  Shane's Logic

River Lessons

          I just had the privilege of kayaking on a trip organized by Shane Benedict of Liquidlogic and Betsy Towns, two wonderful generous artists (both of whom will be interviewed later on this blog).  I had done a few rafting trips before, one roughly fifteen years ago and one almost twenty-five, but I had never been in a kayak.  We spent two days on a “wild and scenic” part of the Chattooga River which serves as the border of Georgia and South Carolina.

The group included ten adults, several of whom were long-time paddlers and guides, and nine children ages 4 to 10.  It was fascinating to watch the experts teach, take care of, coax, correct, console, and inspire the kids (and novice adults like me).  And, as we went along, it was impossible not to have a half-dozen, not very deep, but basic thoughts, including:

The River Will Go Where It Goes.  You can make choices, and you can take certain actions, but the river is going its way.  You can work with the current or around it, but if you fight it, don’t expect to win because...

The River Is Stronger Than You.  If you stand on the bottom or put your hand in to push off, you might be able to accomplish what you want, but don’t think it’s because you’re stronger.  It can take you down in a second.  It has toppled huge trees and tossed them high onto granite ledges.  It has worn through layers of rock, and, speaking of,...

There’s No Point in Cursing a Rock.  I spent a lot of time hung up on rocks and trying not to get hung up about them.  Similarly, my six-year old son kept finding himself stuck or jammed up, and he would cry, “Again?  Oh man!  Stupid rock!”  The rock has been there for centuries before our arrival and will be there for a long time afterwards.  Swearing at it does little good although it can be a logical response when you’re heading right for it because...

The River Is An Exercise in Managing Adrenaline and Anxiety, Fear and Frustration.  As I watched my children zigzag back and forth, I realized that as they learned to control their boats, they also were learning how to control themselves – both their bodies and their emotions.  They wanted to be good right away.  They wanted to be fast and smooth, and they were frustrated at their lack of skills.  They also found themselves scared at moments.  The first time my daughter tipped over, she came up crying.  The second time, however, she came up laughing.  Simultaneously, as we parents watched our kids, we were learning how to control our fear.  My son fell out of his boat, and my first reaction was to jerk towards him which meant I fell out of mine.  Now, instead of one person in the water, there was two.  I hadn’t helped him, couldn’t help him, and had made matters worse.  Luckily, I wasn’t needed because there was a calm, experienced adult, paying attention, ready to fish my son out because the guides knew...

The River Takes Planning and Preparation (if you want it to be rewarding). Shane and the other paddlers would scout out parts that would be challenging, plan routes, and station themselves to be ready if people got in trouble.  In fact, they had planned the entire trip this way, sending maps, arranging food, bringing boats and gear.  They not only had equipment and clothing for themselves, but for others, and they willingly shared it.  My family ended up borrowing gear from several people to stay warm because we weren’t ready for a day of near constant rain.   And, as we went along, the group willingly and  generously stopped if someone needed to change or make adjustments.  No one was rushed.   No one was made to feel like they were imposing or doing something wrong.  Perhaps it’s because the guides understood and we learned...

Going Back Is Usually Impossible (and even when it’s not, it’s probably not worth it).  There are times when you can’t stop no matter how much you may want to, so stop when you can, and when you can’t, keep going and try not to tip over.


There is much to be learned from a river.

National Donut Day

           Yesterday was National Donut Day, so I decided it would be a good time to do a little field work.  I gathered a crack research team – a third grader (9 year old girl), first grader (7 year old girl), kindergartener (6 year old boy), and preschooler (4 year old girl) – and we set off to tour a few of the donut shops in town.

            Before we started, I asked, “Why do you think there is a National Donut Day?”

Third grader – Maybe to get the national donut industry going.

First grader – A lot of people like donuts.

Kindergartner – People want to eat them.

Preschooler – I don’t know what’s in them.  I’m allergic to polenta and carrots.

            We decide to call ourselves The Donut Reporters, a name suggested by the first grader, and we piled into the van.  First, we went to my office to pick up a copy of The Donut Book by Sally Levitt Steinberg.  It was given to me by the poet, Matt Mason, years ago.   It is informative, interesting, and true to its subtitle:  “The origins, history, literature, lore, taste, etiquette, traditions, techniques, varieties, mathematics, mythology, commerce, philosophy, cuisine, and the glory of the donut.”  However, as far as I can tell (since it doesn’t have an index), it has nothing to say about National Donut Day.  Nevertheless, the third grader found it fascinating and asked if she could take it into school.

            We began our tasting research at Dunkin Donuts. Since the first grader is allergic to peanuts and soy, we needed to find out what was in the products.  We asked the man behind the counter, and he shrugged, “I don’t know.”  We asked him why there was a National Donut Day, and he repeated, ‘I don’t know.”  Then he added, “It’s not a Dunkin Thing.”  The first grader decided just to get a chocolate milk.  The others made their selections, and I distributed tasting sheets.

            The third grader picked a bowtie, which was surprising, since she usually gets something pink with sprinkles.  She explained, “I wanted to get something different.”  Her notes included, “Sweet. Good.  Tastes like a donut but with an odd shape.”

            The kindergartener picked a specialty Undercover MIB (Men In Black) chocolate donut “because it has stars on it and looks chocolately.”  He bit into it and was delighted. “Hey, there’s chocolate inside too!”  The preschooler told him “You picked the coolest one!”  She herself chose a chocolate with sprinkles because it had “chocolate and sprinkles.”  Her tasting notes, given orally, were “It’s good.  I like chocolate.”

            Since she didn’t get a donut, the first grader was responsible for reporting on ambiance.  Her notes for the Dunkin Donuts eating area read “Small but colorful.  Very good view of parking lot.”

            Next we went to Krispy Kreme.  Driving up the kids began to shout, the Christmas colors having a Pavlovian effect. 

            Personally I have always been wary of Krispy Kreme.  For one, in the 20s, during a boom-time for the Ku Klux Klan, businesses would call themselves things like Komfy Kozy Kabins.  Luckily, it’s not Kool Krispy Kreme.  For another, the Krispy Kreme way is to run everything through its glazer which makes the whole store seem to have an atmosphere of sugar mist.

            We had a hard time finding a parking space, and the line stretched outside.  Not surprising the ambiance notes for the place read, “Very crowded.” They also said, “Smells like donuts.  Trays of donuts.  Very colorful.  Shiny.”  The line went quickly, and the kids stayed calm by watching the assembly line process through the plate glass windows and by trying various ways to wear their free hats.

            The Krispy Kreme worker couldn’t tell us whether there was soy or peanuts in the products, so once again the first grader refrained.  As for the reason behind National Donut Day, the staff member said, “I have no idea.  Ask the man in black.”  We looked around, but there was no man in black.  I thought there was something deep about this, but the rest of the team was just puzzled.

            The preschooler selected a chocolate with sprinkles because it was chocolate and had sprinkles.  The kindergarten picked one that was “Icy with a lot of icing.”  And the third grader also chose a chocolate one because “you don’t want to experiment all the time.”

            Our last stop was Starbucks.  Personally I find the idea of buying a donut at Starbucks silly and even antithetical to the whole donut ethos (not to mention expensive).  But in the interest of research, we went.  The staff member didn’t know it was National Donut Day, had no theories as to what it was about, and refused to give us any free donuts or any discount.  Three staff members together couldn’t figure out what was in the donuts, so the first grader got another chocolate milk.  As for the ambiance, she observed Starbuck’s was, “Boring.  Not so colorful.  Quiet.  Not much going on.  A bunch of grown-up drinks.”

            Starbucks offers only one kind of donut – the Old Fashioned -- so there were requests for cake, suckers, popcorn, and anything within their sight-lines.  It became difficult to keep the team focused, but eventually they settled down to the task of eating more sugar baked in a circular shape.  They couldn’t concentrate enough, however, to take tasting notes.

            When asked to review which had been their overall favorites, the kindergartener immediately replied, “All of them.”  The preschooler said with a zen serenity, “I like this donut that I have here right now.”  The third-grader said, “The bow-tie.  It was different, but still a donut.”  And, the first-grader with allergies snarled, “I hated all the donuts because I didn’t get any,” but she admitted that she still had fun.

            Everyone agreed that it had been a successful National Donut Day. 

            And, the result of our research?  A unanimous belief that it’s a good, important, holiday about which people display a shocking lack of knowledge.  And, a spoiled dinner for all of us.

Questions for Dean Wilcox, Sound Bricoleur

A lifelong music fan, Dean has spent the majority of his adult life atoning for his early love of Chicago. He is currently filling the gaps in his post-punk and ambient vinyl collection.  For decades, he has worked as a lighting designer, and he noted that while considering these questions,”I had a revelation that I structure sound the way I design lights by responding to what is in front of me.”

How would you describe what you do?  

Basically I push blocks of sound around. I have always had music in my head, but the computer is such a wonderful tool for those of us less musically inclined. To be able to see sound as well as hear it is wonderful. Eventually I have to force myself just to listen.

Is this different than what other people think you do?

I don't know what other people think I do. I do share sound files with people but no one has ever really asked how the sound was produced. 

How do you know if you’re on the right track with a project?

It really has to do with feeling it out. I have tons of projects I have abandoned because I didn't quite know what to do with them. Some are samples, some layered sounds with effects, some built up with real instruments. Occasionally when I come back to them I hear something in them that sparks a thought and then I can finish the track. Other times it is just best to move on.

How do you go about making choices?

I like using programs and filters that mangle sound, chop it up, create something I can't control. And then I listen. I may hear a small bit that catches my attention and so I magnify it by pulling it out of the mix or looping it. Typically one choice leads to another and another and so the track gets built up over time by adding layers, effects, and other sounds.

How do you know when you’re done?

I can usually feel it. In a way it is like structuring a narrative. The essential pieces are established in the opening moments and then they are developed. Some pieces can sustain a long slow build that can last five or ten minutes, others run their course in two or three minutes. Strangely I can usually hear that something is missing, some sound or build or chunk. I keep adding those until it doesn't need anything more.

What’s your workspace like?

It's everywhere. I have guitars and a bass in the back bedroom along with a USB mic set up to sample live sounds and drums in the basement, but I have also taken samples on my phone or from a cd player and a glitched disk - which basically means I wrote on it in sharpie, cut it, scratched it or whatever. You never know where it will catch or what sounds it will make so it is always a process of discovery. I actually would love to create a workspace where everything is always set up an accessible, but mainly I move from room to room so no one can hear what I am doing. I tend to head to a far corner of the basement when vocals are involved.

What are your essential tools?

Mac laptop and GarageBand no question. I bought a decent USB mic a few years back which works great for recording live instruments.  I occasionally use Audacity when I want to reverse a track which is hard to do with GarageBand.  I have a copy of Logic but it is so complicated I have yet to sort it out. The same is true for MAX/MSP. Basically I get an idea and I want to get it down quickly and GarageBand is great for that.

What’s the most surprising tool you use?

I guess it depends on what surprises you. Basically anything can make sound and with a combination of filters any sound can be bent or mangled or altered. I've sampled my furnace turning on, I have sampled skipping CDs, I even sampled the erratic sound of dripping water on a trip to Biltmore. 

What was your biggest mistake or the one you learned the most from?  

It's all mistakes. I have no idea what I am doing. That is the fun part. I listen to early pieces I made and I can hear that I really had no idea how to use the tools. It's all a learning experience and every time I get a new plug-in, a new effect, a new toy that makes sound I make mistakes all over the place. But these lead to a greater understanding and some very interesting and unpredictable sounds.

An example of Dean’s work:

The Temperature of My Departure

Shhhh I'm Getting Ideas

            Some times, when my wife asks what I did that day, I’ll reply, I was thinking and then I woke up. It’s a joke, and it’s true.  I find that dozing state, where you can move back and forth across the water line of consciousness, to be a productive area.  As I drift there, images, phrases, scenes, come into view. Bits of songs can be heard.  Strangers, long gone friends, and fictional characters start to talk.

            Most artists recognize the creative power of dreams.  Keith Richards insists the opening of “Satisfaction” came to him when he was asleep.  He awoke one morning to discover that during the night he had recorded something on the tape player next to his bed.  The tape had 30 seconds of the iconic chords and then 45 minutes of him snoring.  Similarly, Paul McCartney says that the melody for “Yesterday” came to him in a dream.  Coleridge insisted that the poem “Kubla Khan” appeared to him while dreaming (under the influence of opium), and in her diaries Dawn Powell frequently mentions her “Dream Self” has been doing a lot of work on a manuscript.

            Coleridge claimed to be interrupted by a visitor before he could get the entire poem down.  One key to dream ideas is to record them immediately.  Otherwise they float away.

            There has been plenty of research to support the value of napping and a list of the world’s great practitioners include Edison, Einstein, DaVinci, Brahams, and Benjamin Franklin.  Personally, I believe that Newton wasn’t sitting under the tree when the apple fell, but sleeping.

            I try to find a place to nap every day, no matter where I am.  If I’m not home, I lock my office door, flip my car seat back, or find a park.  I not only know where I can doze around town, someday I’ll write a guidebook “Naps Around the World.”  I’ve taken some great ones at Versailles, The Tuileries, the Royal Palace of Madrid, the Chateau d’If. Yosemite, everywhere I’ve travelled. 

            So, when I’m asked the question that almost all writers and artists get, “Where do you get your ideas?” for me, it’s simple.  I get a lot of them lying down.  If you see me somewhere and it looks like I’m asleep, I probably am.   But don’t wake me, I’m working.


Keith Richard's Satisfaction

The Value of Power Naps

Telling Two Stories

Eudora Welty said, “There is no story until there are two stories.”  Sometimes the second story becomes obvious as the narrative develops.  In The Hunger Games or Harry Potter, the story of an individual is set within a much larger political landscape.  Sometimes the other story is only suggested.  A title like “September 10, 2001” can evoke without mentioning the attack on the World Trade Center.  Greg Brown’s song “Brand New '64 Dodge” tells a seemingly simple story of a boy’s parents buying a new car.  The audience knows, however, the world is about to change with the assassination of JFK.

Money comes out of Dad's billfold.

Hankies come out of Mom's purse.

The engine hardly makes a sound

even when you put it in reverse.

It's got a push-button transmission,hardtop convertible, 4-door.

It's November of '63

and the brand new Dodge is a '64.

And we're rolling slow down Main Street -

the asphalt and gravel crunch.

Church is finally over

and we're going to have our Sunday lunch.

And then I will play football

with my buddies down in park.

Later I'll dream about my girlfriend

as I lie alone in the dark.

She's got short red hair and blue eyes

and her swimsuit's also blue

and her little brother is retarded,

but Jesus loves him, too.

And Jesus loves our president,

even though he is a Catholic.

There's a lot for a boy to think about

as he walks along the railroad tracks.

Sometimes the second story is suggested in even more subtle ways.  In the poem “Working in the Rain” by Robert Morgan, the narrator talks about his father, and, halfway through the poem (line 14 out of 27), he says, “I thought he sought the privacy of rain.”  The past tense, tucked into the middle of the poem, adds a complication, an uncertainty.  It would be a different line if it read “He sought the privacy…” or “I think he sought…”  But the past tense suggests the narrator has changed his view and come to a different understanding of his father. Thus, the poem chronicles both a past and present state of mind.  The two stories can exist in a single character as we change and age.


Greg Brown's web site

Robert Morgan's "Working in the Rain"