Steve Schreiber

Summer Concert Series On The Lake

 Our local community arts organization - Arts On The Lake - finished up an excellent four concert series last night. Despite one of the rainiest summers on record, three of the four concerts managed to find the few sunny evenings to be had, and were held outside.  AOTL members built a stage right on the edge of Lake Carmel, facing a good size yard of mowed grass that accommodated audiences in their yard chairs and blankets.

The concerts were held at dinner time, so food was readily available. Even setting up for the concerts was fun - while the musicians warmed up, the grills got fired up and everyone was psyched for the tunes ahead. This scenario repeated itself for each event, with an excellent band each time!

 

The series was made possible by Putnam-residing musicians Kati Mac and Tim Ouimette, and Arts on the Lake. Kati did the logistics legwork including sponsorship, to make the series possible, and both Tim and Kati provided extensive musical contributions including singing in the bands (Kati), horn and song arrangements (Tim), and primary trumpet in three for the four bands (Tim). Arts On The Lake hosted the concerts at their Lake Carmel center. 

Each band was different, and great. Tim Ouimette launched the series with his Big Band, playing swing and jazz tunes. The following week was the funky and blazing Roxy Perry Blues Band, featuring Roxy's bad-to-the-bone harmonica playing. Concert number three featured Swamp Gumbo Mardi Gras Cajun Rock, complete with the steamy weather, and this past Thursday night (8/27) concluded the series with R&B Soul artist Vaneese Thomas. Concerts started at six, had one intermission to let the sun set, then concluded shortly after nightfall.

For me, the series was great because it brought some new elements to Arts on the Lake. Each band was fairly large (5 - 9 pieces) so there were plenty of new, talented musicians who hadn't performed at AOTL before. The outside setting with nice weather made for a fun, relaxing summer picnic vibe to the events. 

I hope it happens again, and I'm already looking forward to seeing the words "2nd Annual" on the poster!

Resources

Arts on the Lake

Kati Mac

Tim Ouimette

Roxy Perry

Vaneese Thomas

Block Building - Not Just For Kids

Anchor Stone Building Blocks (Anker-Steinbaukasten) were a popular German construction toy, at their peak from roughly 1884 through World War I.  Building block sets were intricately packed in wooden boxes with drawings and layer construction plans, and distributed in a progressively more complex graded level scheme. They were available up through 1963, when the factory was closed by the German Democratic Republic. Made and expertly marketed by a company founded by Friedrich Adolf Richter, they were the Lego of their day.

Thankfully, through efforts of enthusiast Georg Plenge, Anker blocks resumed manufacture in the 1990's, and sets are once again available using the same block composition, plans and numbering scheme.

The benefits of block play for children are numerous and well known. Blocks provide learning opportunities in a variety of constructive multidisciplinary activities. Blocks are frequently a young child's first exposure to units and math. Early scientific concepts such as volume, weight and gravity are experienced through block play, and children learn to classify and label. Children can build their creations from scratch, as well as tear them down, giving them complete control over the creative process. In a group setting, block play projects present opportunities to experience collaboration and conflict resolution.

For adults, building something from a set of Steinbaukasten provides a mindful, focused retreat from daily life. The old-world architecture of the Anker blocks (churches, cathedrals, castles) are appealing and a restful antidote to the digital onslaught and information overload of our typical lifestyles. Here is a picture of me and my father-in-law, Milton Ellis, at 1:30 in the morning well after everyone else had gone to bed. We had to finish that building! (The Hunting Lodge from set 18A.)

My father and my uncle both had quite a number of these sets, which are now in my possession. I have also been augmenting my collection with new sets, as the sizes and plans are all fully compatible and integrated. I try to do at least one major building project per year, sometimes around Christmas time.

This is the Castle on the Lake from set 26A:

An aerial view of my building area shows two tables to hold all of the blocks, and the first few layers of the Castle underway. Earth Quake simulation is provided by wooden flooring in the room.

Part of the beauty in the Steinbaukasten designs is the intricate nature of the sub-structures and building features. Stairways, towers and arches frequently offer interesting inner construction design, and external ornamental touches.

And of course - what fun is a big empty building no matter how cool it looks? We can never resist populating a finished building with figures, both handmade and found:

 

Resources

George Hardy's Site

The Ankersteinbaukasten Company

Chris Baldwin's Toy House

Creating Software for the iPhone

I am underway programming an application for the iPhone. It's unlikely to be the App Store's next killer app, but it's a good project for my current capabilities, and will provide a useful tool for backgammon playing iPhone owners wanting to keep their minds fresh. (Or like me, desperately needing as much fundamental skill practice as possible!)

The application is essentially a Flash Card App that will help serious students practice some of the math required for over-the-board play.

I am currently experimenting with the best way to present the board on the machine. While it would be interesting to use Open GL for the board, this would be overkill. The checkers do not have to actually move, and as I have never done any Open GL programming, it would be a steep learning curve, especially on a device that I am still becoming familiar with. Perhaps for Version 2. It would be fun however, to have the checkers reposition themselves visually for a new position, versus the technique of switching the views I am using now.

So with no Open GL for Version 1, that leaves the highly capable Core Graphics (CG) libraries Apple provides in the Cocoa framework. I can either draw each board from scratch, including the checkers, using CGPaths, or just draw the checkers on top of an existing background image. I will try both. The iPhone has a dedicated graphics processor that the core graphics routines will use, so making the machine draw everything is not as expensive on the CPU as one would think in a handheld.

For other new iPhone coders that come across this post - I have found the connection between the actual device and Xcode version 3.1.3 to be occasionally cranky. If you find yourself with either of the following error messages:

 

or

completely power off and reboot the phone, then plug it back into the machine. When I first encountered this, I spent too much time suspecting my code-signing certificates were corrupt, or the supported OS symbolic links needed adjusting.

Additional Resources

Getting started with iPhone Programming and Objective C:

     Beginning iPhone Development by Jeff LaMarche and Dave Mark

     Programming in Objective-C 2.0 by Stephen Kochan

     All of Apples documentation on the Developers Portal

Backgammon Book Worth Noting:

      Backgammon Bootcamp by Walter Trice is a great book on the entire game, that also discusses the math required in tournament level play. Sadly, Walter unexpectedly passed away this past Sunday (August 23rd).

Myachi, Juggling and Drumming

This year, I discovered Myachi. 

Myachi was invented by Steven Ochs, and is a combination of Hacky Sack, Juggling and Thai Chi. It's a small rectangular bean bag (a "Hand Sac") that you catch on the top of your outstretched fingers. You can play catch with a group of people, or perform freestyle tricks by yourself, or a combination of both. The key is to make the motions smooth and fluid (the Thai Chi part).

I'm a big fan of 3-ball juggling, and have been using it as an excuse to take a stand-and-move break for years. For those of us strapped into our office chairs, or hunched over our work for hours at a time, it's really a great idea to stand up and move around every hour or so.

Besides being fun and getting us moving, practicing Myachi or Juggling uses similar neural functions as playing the drums. Keeping a three ball pattern going smoothly, or a sequence of Myachi moves fluid is very similar to performing a Tumbao pattern on Conga drums.

Playing the drums, Juggling and Myachi are all great activities that promote Neural Plasticity. These activities use your brain in new ways, giving it some mental exercise. They are fun, active and they make you smarter! How cool is that!

If you find yourself in New York City, visit the FAO Schwarz toy store, and get a demo from the fulltime Myachi Masters who jam there regularly.

Fun things to do with Myachi and Juggling include:

• Juggle or practice Myachi to music! Besides being extremely fun, it will sharpen up your skills really quickly (it's like practicing with a Metronome.) I recommend the recording "Dis Is Da Drum" by Herbie Hancock: 

• Play Myachi with your kids. Stand around in a circle. Everyone gets to do one trick, then pass the Myachi to the person to their right. Have kids invent their own tricks.

• Practice outside, or practice inside if it's raining!
• Consider starting an informal gathering at work in which people juggle or play Myachi. 15 minutes at lunch time might well do wonders for productivity in the afternoon!

Resources:

Myachi HQ Website

Videos of Myachi Tricks

Gballz - My Favorite Juggling Balls

A Great Juggling Book by Charlie Dancey

John Arrucci - Excellent NY Area Percussion Master

Garden Gammon - Big Dice, Frisbees and Mosquitos

Whoever said Board Games are not athletic?

Over the course of four weekends, I built a 12 foot by 12 foot Backgammon Court in my backyard. The board utilizes three different colors of gravel for the surface and points, the checkers are 175 gram Ultimate class Frisbees, the dice are four inch foam dice, the dice cups are blue and white five gallon buckets and the Doubling Cube is made out of a cardboard box.

Inspiration for the project came from a walking tour in Zurich, Switzerland. We came across a group of men (and a pigeon) playing Chess on a life sized chessboard, and after a short period of percolation, the idea came to us. "Wouldn't it be cool to make a large scale Backgammon board in our backyard!" Once the synapses were formed, I never looked back.

I've been a serious Backgammon player for the last seven years, playing occasionally in American Backgammon Tour tournaments and locally as well as online. Backgammon is an excellent game involving the skill of the play with the luck of the dice. It can be a highly technical game involving over-the-board math to estimate winning chance probabilities. It's frequently exciting with turn-on-a-dime game changing plays. It's a social game, and I've met many excellent people along the way.

Being a lover of organization and plans, I decided to experiment with a Mind Map for the construction project. In my experience, Mind Maps are less suited for step-by-step project plans, but I was pleasantly surprised with how this one came out, and I ended up following it exactly.

It was fun to watch the board materialize over the course of each work session.

As a crowning touch, we felt a Mascot was in order. My wife Mary, who is a potter,
made a fired clay Badger with backgammon dice cups (and dice) who umpires the games.

     Additional Resources

     Backgammon:

         Backgammon Glossary

         Chicago Point Backgammon Links

     Frisbees, Dice and Dice Cups:

         You Gotta Go Throw

         Dice

         Dice Cups

     Gravel, Sand and Paving Edgers:

         Putnam Stone and Mason Supply