Claire's music

Nova

2012-01-17T11:50:00.000-08:00

recent habits of 5.30am bedroom visits have forced us to lock the catflap at night. but who can resist this face?

Last night, a sideways blog

2011-12-14T12:11:00.000-08:00

Matthew comes to stay

2011-12-12T12:10:00.000-08:00

and helps out with a little foot percussion, spontaneously

Big bay bach video

2011-12-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

Big bay bach

2011-12-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

emma on the porch at big bay bach

the view from the deck to the private beach

very friendly duck at big bay

Dinner at the wharf

2011-11-30T12:54:00.000-08:00

5 weeks into it

2011-11-23T12:07:00.000-08:00

Scones, but no one to eat them but me.

2011-11-17T02:30:00.001-08:00

I tried out my grandmothers old sunbeam mixmaster.

It mixed slowly. Then all of a sudden it mixed

very fast. The mixture shot up the twirlers and almost

into the mechanics. I switched it to zero on the dial.

Still whirling out of control, mixing like an appliance possessed, making

a terrible mess of the sticky dough. I pulled the plug.

I went back to hand mixing.

The scones were good. The ants, who had made

a habit of being in my kitchen up until then, strangely

didn't touch them all afternoon. After some research, I

found out that ant's don't like cinnamon. Or, cayan pepper.

Or, vinegar. Handy to know. Cinnamon scrolls are safe

from the little buggers.

There's no one else around to offer them to

so I eat a great deal of them and feel a little ill.

Picnics, sunsets and cotton candy pink clouds

2011-11-13T12:48:00.000-08:00

Kiri and I are fond of good picnics. This one was japanese inspired.

Reminds me of some of the shots from the film 'waitangi.'

Annabel came to stay and I made pita bread.

tasty tasty skies

stitching clouds together

smudgyness

last one then...

the whole shabam..

My new studio

2011-10-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Inside a tree blog

2011-10-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

Mahurangi, the arrival

2011-10-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone's a bit exhausted after all the fine catering.

We retire to my new house, Bailey's cottage.

Mum and dad bring lemons and icecream

and mexican quick meals.

The official welcoming do. I get a bouquet and all.

Speeech.

I'm alive..yes..

2010-02-07T22:27:00.000-08:00

Hi..

A quick update of the last four months..

My project 'the society of brilliant ideas' has come to fruition. Rachelle and I are pleased to announce the opening date of the SOBI space for our first exhibition - march 12th.

I am set up and working in my new composition studio in high st. It is really nice to have somewhere separate to come 'to do work' and then somewhere to go home to that is different and non-work focussed. It's also great being around other people doing creative work. Whenever I get bored or distracted I wander down the hallway and find other people to talk to. It's a beautiful friendly community of creative people.

There are approximately 19 of us in the space at different times. We are working on the SOBI official website which will explain a bit more about why and how we exist.

I've also been working on David Michael Friend's Moonfishing which is almost complete. I am teaming up with two wonderful sound designers here in Auckland who will finish the job after I've finished the live musician recordings which have begun already. So far I've done french horn and trombone.. next comes tuba, harp, flute, picc, clarinet and trumpet. Yay!!

I've also started working with the wonderful Lance from MAINZ audio who is engineering the sessions. It is fun work seeing my months of labour come to fruition. When it's finished I am certain it will be the best film soundtrack I have ever created. It better bloody well be anyway.

In may 2010, the NZSO will perform my latest orchestral peice 'The legend of the trojan bird' (revised 2009) in the Made in NZ concert. I'm hoping to make the weekend in wellington a fun one and maybe bring Toad down to do a few gigs.

Toad the band (www.myspace.com/toadnation) are working on our first full length album which I am realllly excited about. We're aiming for 10 tracks (including some interludes) and Scott, Matt and I have just spent 2 days at Te-tuhi hall laying down grand piano, guitar and cello tracks.

A few weeks ago, Chris took some amazing band photos..of which I have included a few for your viewing pleasure.

I've decided to go back to being brown-haired..blonde was a bit much upkeep. I am feeling more sensible and studious (more mysterious maybe?)..

This year I've only made one new years resolution. I think the more people I share it with the more I feel obligated to keep it..so - here it is: -Do less, but do it better. Pretty simple. So far I've kept to it I think..I've said no to a few things, so that I can have more time for others.. lack of focus has always been a potential danger in my life.. as I'm interested in so many things..

I am writing from the windowseat of a beach-side bach at papamoa where my entire family has been holidaying for the last 4 days. It's a beautiful spot, literally 100 metres to the rolling waves, and less when the tides in! My sister raided a local plum tree that my sister-in-law's family own, and we have been living on plum sorbet, dehydrated plums, plum soda, plum pancakes.. you name it. They are beautiful and dark..dried they are amazingly tart. Emma found a dehydrator at the op-shop for $28. I found a black velvet suit for $8. I also got some excellent muffin tins and a great kettle for Sobi for a few bucks.

We drive back to Aucks tomorrow. Not looking forward to going back to work, just feeling like i'm beginning to get into beach mode. Ah well.. there's still quite a few summer weekends to go I guess..

a day in the life

2009-10-12T23:51:00.000-07:00

Today I got up about 9.30am. This is because I am having trouble adjusting to daylight saving time.., but to be honest, I haven't made much of an attempt to go to bed any earlier. I don't really work very well in the mornings anyway.

Then, I did a bit of emailing, and some work on the business plan for SoBI . Most of the time I was doing this I was also trying to get my speakers to work, and afte

r several failed attempts to start up the program I decided it was not worth trying..

After that, it was time to head into town for a haircut.

This took only 1+1/2 hours which is GREAT compared to the usual 5-6hour ordeal when trying to dye one's hair an unnatural shade of snow.. I decided to keep the sexy regrowth for my role in summer wonderland at HLT.

Then, after that, I cooked 3 falafel(s)? for lunch, and put them on a burger.

Then, after that, I decided to wash my blanket that I had got from the hospice shop to make into cushions.

Then, after that, I actually did some composing. I wrote about 2 minutes, of a piano and synth cue for a film called 'The off season' which I have been working on for a few weeks. Directed by Michael Lonsdale.

Then, dinner time.

Now.. blogging.

And in one hour i'm going to a movie because it's cheap tuesday.

This is the day in the life of composer, claire cowan.

Fascinating, ?

I missed out all the little details about phonecalls and suchlike, just because, I can sense your boredom, and can only ignore that to a certain degree.

Good byyeee.

This is a little doll I bought from avondale market. She has blinky eyes. She shall be called - Emma.

Quick catch up

2009-09-14T15:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last blogged.
Yesterday I made the list of lists - yes...the one that rolls all the areas of my life into one lump sum, and categorizes them into most and least important...and which bits will pay the bills fastest.

I am keeping very busy, possibly taking on a little more than I should be, but that's all good.

I think bullet points might be the best way to go -

Stuff that's happened in the last month:

Set up the Society of Brilliant ideas
Built their website
Been cast in HLT's new play 'Summer Wonderland'
Taken on two more film soundtracks
Decided to organize an Arvo Part concert
Decided to buy a motorbike
My car decided to blow a gaskit
Built some cool puppets
Done LOTS of screen printing and markets for AFL

Yesterday I played in a midnight youth music video for MTV which was fun, if not incredibly repetitive..but such are the nature of these things.

Things coming up:

Moving into SOBI in high st (a new studio space and artist run workshop)
Developing more puppet stuff for a show next year in auckland
learning lines for play!
buying a new car

Some film related stuff:

Films I scored 'Lessons from a melting ice cap' won Best NZ documentary at Reel earth
'Assume Nothing' was nominated for best art documentary at Qantas awards

I took this picture at muriwhai ganet colony. Me and Chris drove out to helensville as I decided to take a day off work..well, a half day. It's really nice to take a day off now and then, working from home means I'm almost never not working, but it doesn't feel much like work anyway!

Tootle pip.

c

Free Michael Jackson Tribute album by NZ artists

2009-07-06T14:48:00.001-07:00

Download it HERE from cheese on toast.

THANKS CHEESE ON TOAST!

Heavy Dreaming

2009-07-05T00:11:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up and my head was FULL of dreams that I had had the night before. It felt like i'd just sat through a 6 hour long movie and was able to recall almost every moment.

Now, I remember very little, except that it involved a swimming pool, and performing aquatic stunts..

I think last night was the first night in ages that I hadn't been just a little bit cold in bed..so I guess I had put my body into the perfect dream mode, and my brain had a little bit of a party..

Anyway once I'd recovered from that (it took 3 snoozes to actually remember I had to be at the craft market in an hour).. I realized I was going to be late because I hadn't factored in setup time.

Anyway, why am I posting today? I forgot to post in June. I just wanted to have a few random ramblings, and I'll do it in my favoured format - precise and informative, LISTS.

Things I'm looking forward to:

-Seeing my sister in melbourne soon

-The new harry potter movie

Things that have been annoying me a bit:

- People who say 'to be honest..' all the time, even when they would have no reason to lie about the subject matter, say for instance, their opinion on the weather forecast, or, giving directions..

- When the supermarket sells out of the organic cheddar cheese and they dont replace it for weeks

- When birds poop on my windscreen cos i've run out of water in the squirtee thing and cant be bothered replacing it

- people who say 'we must catch up', but have no intention of doing so

- people who update their facebook status constantly with unnessarily boring status' - ie 'so and so is just home from work'

- The window washers at avondale market traffic lights on sundays, who abuse people who actually dont want their windows washed and tell them so..

- hollywood films and their obsession with satisfying every need of the audience until they make no impact whatsoever.

- library fines. fullstop. cant they email you BEFORE they're late?

Things I think could make Auckland a better place:

- If you could buy sandwhiches with better filling combinations.

- If you could get somewhere on time by public transport, even faster than by a car.

-If there were less things being imported cheaply and more things made to last, locally.

- If pt chev countdown rennovations were finally finished, and it opened past 8pm.

-If my sister came back to auckland to live.

-If people with LOTS of fruit on the trees in their front yard would put it in a box by the gate and let passers by help themselves.

Things I'm thinking about doing soon:

-Developing a theatre show involving puppetry, video and music

-Sending out my AFL catalogues to shops and galleries

-Doing an EP with toad and some recording projects of my own

-Buying a sewing machine

-Buying a printing press

-Developing ideas for a community art space/studio in high st (more on this soon.)

- Buying a SCOOTER!

-buying some gumboots (anyone know where to get cheap ones?)

Things I would like to happen soon:

-the winter to prematurely end

-to get some commercial music jobs

Things I have learnt in the last month:

-how to play jewsharp.

- how to use elastic audio in pro tools.

Advice for dreamers:

Dream Big. Dream bigger. Dream biggest. Who is stopping you?

50th blog and award nominations!

2009-05-15T04:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the 50th blog on my website..this is quite exciting, I had no idea I'd blogged

that much over the past year.

Anyway... This is just a short one to check out two little films I scored which are gaining attention in the festivals -

Lessons from a melting icecap - a 40min documentary directed by Jinty MacTavish

NOMINATED FOR BEST NZ FILM and and BEST SHORT FILM in REEL EARTH

Whetu Rere - The Sealion and the Coment - a 24min short film directed by Alastair Jamieson and Kat Baulu

NOMINATED FOR BEST NEW ZEALAND FILM in REEL EARTH

view the other nominees here.

The awards are tomorrow night May 16th in Palmerston North, presented by Robyn Malcolm. I have no idea whether Alastair or Jinty will be there but I wish them luck across the interweb..

News if they pick up the awards soon!

48 Hours

2009-05-10T15:27:00.001-07:00

Again, Team Rampion has triumphed over the 48Hours weekend, getting it in with a mammoth 25mins to spare!

Our genre: REVENGE MOVIE

Our character: ALEX PUDDLE

Character trait: EXAGGERATOR

Dialogue: 'IT DOESN'T FIT.."

Prop: A ROCK

We called the film 'The man with the gravel tongue'. Here are a few shots.

We're in the heats on May 21st.

Some facts about our filming:

- It was 10.30am on saturday before we started filming.

- By midday we'd only done 2 of the 10 scenes.

- By Midnight we'd done about 8.

- By 4pm sunday we'd finished shooting.

-By 5pm sunday we'd finished editing

- By 6.15pm sunday we'd finished sound and Voice Overs

- We had voice coaching in South African accents from australia via internet

- We had a lot of chocolate and lollies

-The director and art director played a gig on sunday morning

- 90% of images were derived from national geographic magazines from 1970-1999.

- At one point we had our frustrated sound man Jared searching for Osama vocal samples (when a mis-communication between producer and Jared had somehow misheard my actual request for Obama sound samples)

- Our producers copy of 'The Secret' provided great inspiration

- We had 3 scripts concurrently which confused almost everyone

-Our first 3 attempts at outputting to tape failed

-We took over Mark's flat unexpectedly and even roped in unexpecting flatmates to our stress circle

- The film is made up of about 1500 still photographs.

Things we learned:

-No matter how calm you are, when you're filming a piece of paper close up on the end of a kebab stick, you won't be able to keep it still.

-Polystyrene is awesome

-Delegation is the key to getting a job done quickly

-Make sure your voice talent doesn't abandon you for other 48hour films.

- a focussing stick is an awesome device

- Camera people get really sore eyebrows from squinting into the viewfinder, possibly inducing headaches.

- We edited with imovie but wouldn't really reccomend it.

Director Claire Cowan, signing off.

Off.

NZSO Sounz readings

2009-05-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

The NZSO Sounz readings happened on wednesday and thursday,

where my piece 'the legend of the trojan bird' was recorded.

The session was at the town hall in wellington. Conductor Hamish McKeich.

The score is revised from the version the AYO commissioned in 2008. I was happy with the recording given rehearsal time, and hopefully should have a recording soon from radio nz who recorded it. After the second day of readings there was a forum to discuss new music performance opportunities and collaborations with composers and performers. I had to explain to nzso staff and other composers what the anti-fashion league is.

Here's me having breakfast after the first rehearsal of my piece.. I always get too nervous to be able to eat anything beforehand. Mmm banana.

Waiting for the performance to begin in the afternoon.

Mid-performance, Hamish cues the brass..

Now this weekend will be full on..so trying to get some sleep..

A reason to visit grenada

2009-05-07T16:01:00.000-07:00

This is quite amazing.

A while ago I was fantasizing about having an underwater studio.. or at least the feel of one above water..maybe it's just my obsession with blue..

The bowed piano ensemble

2009-04-07T16:09:00.001-07:00

Found this video on Youtube and wanted to share it.

Wordle, freesound, and easter holidays..

2009-04-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

I found this cool tool on the internet called wordle. It does crazy stuff with text.. I pasted in some blog text and got these among heaps of other results. More pleasing to look at than boring paragraphs..

One is created from text from this blog, the other from the text on my sounz biography page. It creates bigger words for the words that appear more often. Would be cool if you could do this with sounds..

Another cool website i've been using a lot lately is freesound project

where I've managed to collect a lot of the sounds I needed for moonfishing. I got some lovely soft frog calls and some sounds of scraping concrete and creaking doors. It's a free creative commons based sharing website that is an excellent tool for sound designers when foley options are limited.

I have been recording my own foley for some of it though, which involved throwing things into the bathtub, crinkling crunchy bar wrappers and plastic bags, and cracking ice and pinecones.

Finished this week two arrangements for the Hamilton 'play it strange' show, a song by Annah MacDonald and one by Maria English, both talented young song writers from Hamilton girl's college. Their ensembles included everything from brass to strings and piano..and hopefully will sound great.

Emma's coming over for Easter, so will have some nice family time in the next week..probably not much work done, but ah well. I'm also moving into a new flat in waterview, which looks amazing.. very quiet and perfect for music creation. And a cute jack russell called cash.

Bye for now.

canada report

2009-03-15T23:14:00.000-07:00

I visited Montreal for a week before leaving New York. I was invited by Kat Baulu, from the National Film Board of the Canada, (and who also co-directed Whetu-rere.)
I gave a presentation on 'how to create effective and long-lasting relationships between directors and composers.' It went well and I had good response.
This is the group of Doc Shoppers I did my presentation to.

I also met some famous Canadian film makers, including Alanis Obomsawin and Philippe Baylaucq.

One night Kat and I visited a small town called st adolphe where her parents have a house, we went snow tobogganing and I went snow-shoeing across a frozen lake (with about 4 ft of snow in some places.) Super canadian!

This snow-donut was extremely unpredictable and had zero steering capabilities.

Kat's Dad showed me the best way to sled..
And I broke the record..flea came to get me.

The flea herself.

Double sledding, extremely dangerous and not recommended.

Double sledding carnage.
Kat wipes out off the surfboard thing..

Snow shoeing gear.
Off to walk around the island. Those two poles sticking up are the end of the jetty, where boats are tied in summer.

The beautiful Kat and miss Flea.

The Tractor and the Chochol.

2009-03-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

My brother Mat's film 'The tractor and the Chochol' is currently in the editing process, and I am writing a soundtrack based on a polish folk tune. The film is intended for gallery installation, and follows the story of the polish folk character the 'chocchol' and it's meeting with a tractor in a field. The chochol (pronounced Ho-ho) is said to appear and 'dance' with whoever meets it, to generally lead them away from what they should be doing. Mat's chocchol costume, and later sculpture featured in a prominent art gallery in Poland. It looks like a human dancing haystack.

At first, the tractor doesn't want to dance with the chochol, but after an initial conflict, they make friends, and 'do ce do' in the fields.

The Chochol stands alone in the field.

The unlikely dance partners.

Moonfishing

2009-03-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

New York Puppeteer David Michael Friend has been working on his short puppet film 'Moonfishing' for a number of years. I will be composing the soundtrack and a sound design component over the next few weeks when I get back to NZ. This film is truely unique and I look forward to working hard on it.
Here are some stills of the film:

Messy? I'm an Artist!

2009-02-11T07:29:00.000-08:00

My brother sent me a link to an interesting article in the UK times about messy people. Here are some extracts for your enjoyment. Read the whole thing here.

"Even in the absence of underlying causes, negotiations between the tidy and untidy are rarely smooth. The tidy person, for instance, tends to assume that he or she is right. But look at tidy people in history and who do you see? Dictators, secret policemen and oppressors. Hitler was known for his love of neatness and order; Mussolini kept an immaculately tidy desk. Saddam Hussein's guards have told of the former Iraqi dictator's obsession with cleanliness - he washed his hands after every handshake."

“Some people find disorder a threat, others are much more comfortable with it. Artists often find that mixing things up, having things collide, is where they get their most inspirational thought.”

"Researchers at Columbia Business School found that people who kept a neat desk spent 36 per cent more time looking for things than people who kept a “fairly messy” desk. Filing and retrieving things from files takes time."

"This is what makes tidy people so exasperated with us slovenly sorts. They have a strong connection to the world outside and think we have the same connection. They assume that we have taken that coffee cup and thought: “Shall I put this in the dishwasher? No, I can't be bothered”. But, as soon as we have finished with the coffee cup, it is invisible to us. We simply don't see it. It's like that stage of a baby's development at which, if something leaves its grasp, it ceases to exist. Some of us never got beyond that."

DocNZ

2009-02-09T07:59:00.001-08:00

In February and March the Documentary NZ festival takes place.
3 Film's that feature my music (2 fully scored by me and 1 partially scored)
are showing about 9 times each throughout NZ.

I'm delighted to see that they're up for a tonne of awards too -

Here are the films:
Susan Potter's 'An Ordinary Person'
Kat Baulu and Alastair Jamieson's 'Whetu-rere the sealion and the comet'
Kirsty MacDonald's 'Assume Nothing.'

All three films are powerful documentaries that are worth watching.
View more here

Let me know if you go because I am not going to make it back to NZ in time.

In Montreal at present. Has been rather good weather here actually, the last two
days have been above zero which is kind of unusual for february.

On the 9 hour bus trip to montreal.

NZSO Sounz Readings

2009-01-20T20:57:00.000-08:00

Yippeeee! Today I found out my piece 'Legend of the Trojan Bird' (revised 2009)
will be performed in the NZSO Sounz readings on May 8&9 in Wellington.

This is an awesome start to the year..I have to say the score I submitted was
pretty ugly (due to some last minute formatting changes) but I am glad they could
see through that and judged it accordingly! ha.. anyway i'll pretty it up and
get the parts done on the long bus ride to Montreal in february..

I am going to be in Montreal attending DocShop at the National Film Board there, staying with my friend Kat from 'wheturere' film we worked on. I'll be presenting a talk to the students about Composer/director relationships and how to make them work..
will be interesting for me to assess my history with different directors and see what I can present to the audience.

That's all for now..

time for icecream.

President Barack Obama

2009-01-20T20:23:00.000-08:00

Today the new president of the United states was inaugurated. I watched most of it
on tv, albeit I got up a bit late..

and it's still all going now with Obama attending each of the 10 balls in Washington..

I have very little time left now in new york so I figure I should make a list of everything
I need to do before I left.

So I went to the Met opera tonight to try and get a rush ticket. They had sold out in
10 minutes apparently..but I somehow sweettalked the guy and got a $25 seat in row D (that's
four rows from the front..)

The opera was Gluck's Orfeo de Euridice. The mezzo-soprano playing Orfeo looked so much like
Dawn French's piss take of Jack in Titanic it was hard to take it seriously..but she was a brilliant singer..
There were many dance sequences in the opera with a chorus of dancers choreographed by Mark Morris.
Pretty great dancing, sleek, clean..and amazing costumes. The opera chorus were on massive tiered balconies - and each was dressed as a different historical figure - shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Di, Ghandi, Charlie Chaplin, Cleopatra..it was stunning.

So I leave you with this hilarious video from David Letterman's Top ten - Why we'll all miss Bush..well, he was pretty entertaining..

Ego

2009-01-20T20:07:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, David Michael Friend's EGO sold out every performance.
In the weeks leading up to it, I created around 40mins of music to be
the soundtrack -a fairly flexible variety of tracks to cater for the on-stage action
which was never the same each night.

Yet to hear if there were any reviews, but general audience feedback was good,
with the Henson family/foundation attending and giving their compliments and
support to take the show to the next level.

I created a trailer for the show for those who missed out to see what all the fuss
is about.

Furthermore with David I hope to create a soundtrack for his short puppet film 'moonfishing' which is currently in post and in desperate need of a good soundtrack/sounddesign component. When funding and time is sorted out I'll begin work on this.

Touring Exhibition of Assume Nothing

2009-01-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

Filmmaker Kirsty Macdonald, and photographer Rebecca Swan have
collaborated to produce this exhibition of photographs and films exploring
gender identity. Please go along as I won't be able to. If you're not in auckland,
it's touring all over the country too, so please check it out.

There are lots of short films in the exhibition which are set to my music. Kirsty
and I have worked together a lot before and she was recently here in New york
doing some filming for documentary work.

AUCKLAND
MIC Toi Rerehiko- 321 Karangahape Road
23rd January - 19th February
Opening night 23rd January 6pm
Artist’s talk February 17th 8pm
Human Rights Commission workshops, January 30th and 31st.
http://www.mic.org.nz

Photography by Rebecca Swan.

PALMESTON NORTH
Te Manawa- 326 Main Street
28th February - 7th June
Artist floor talk and photography workshop March 14th
Human Rights Commission workshops April 18th and 19th.
http://www.temanawa.co.nz

CHRISTCHURCH
Canterbury Museum- Rolleston Avenue
July 4th 2009- 6th September 2009
Human Rights Commission workshops (dates to be confirmed)
http://www.canterburymuseum.com

HAMILTON
Waikato Museum- 1 Grantham Street
31st October- 14th February 2010
Human Rights Commission workshops (dates to be confirmed)
http://www.waikatomuseum.org.nz

New Years Day Mummers Parade

2009-01-12T21:02:00.001-08:00

Mat and I went to the Philadelphia Mummers parade on new years day. Everyday Philadelphians do this every year in extremely cold weather. Preparations begin in July. This year, due to the 'economic crisis' their funding was severely chopped, so the parade participants themselves raised half a million dollars to put it on. Their costumes were amazing, the music was great and the weather was sunny but freezing.

To get to philly we were up early and at the bus depot, the chinese bus 2000 or something.. the headquarters were unmarked, upon entering there were drop sheets on the floor and an unplumbed toilet sitting in the middle of the room. An elderly asian man sat at a desk with a computer. We asked him if we could buy a ticket. He took our money, put it in a large yellow plastic bag, and rummaged in the same bag for two pieces of paper with stamps on them that would be our tickets. I have no idea what the computer was for because all the transactions seemed to involve the yellow shopping bag. Dodgy but cheap!

We didn't last longer than 2 hours outside because our hands and feet were numb and we couldn't walk. It was -6degrees and we were in the shade. We took some good photos though. My favourite were the egyptian string band.

Now, a 'string band' consists of heaps of trumpets, saxes, banjos, double bass and some drums. This is an american type ensemble and they play concert band type stuff. The egyptians played 'caravan' with a confetti canon going off at the beginning and the end..was great.

Basically the parade consists of many different types of 'mummers' but we just saw the bands. You can read more about this great tradition here:

The Egyptians, obviously. see them dance.
They dance with instruments too.

Some of them are just there to dance.
This was a 50's rock and roll themed band, with werewolves.. ?
Devil women.

Elvis'es...

Abomidable snowman

Eskimos.

Army people...

With feathers. Everyone must have feathers..these strap on tail displays were an essential part of any human looking costume.

After a long day we took the chinese 2000 bus back to china town for $10. Great.

Dead Umbrellas

2009-01-12T20:58:00.000-08:00

I've decided to make a collection of broken umbrella photographs.
There's something unnerving about their spines all poking out at odd angles.
Nobody fixes umbrellas. They just buy new ones. Their lives are over.
sad.

Manhattan Skyline

2009-01-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

On Boxing day my friend Brendan took Mat and I up to his work, an architecture firm
in Soho. We took these photos of the view. The weather was misty and cold, and the interior
was posh!

Here's mat pretending to be an architect..

Parias Ensemble

2009-01-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

Before Christmas I performed a few times with the Parias Ensemble, a newly formed group playing
music from Argentina and Colombia. I had a good time improvising on my cello and love the ensemble
sound. This photo was taken at Nicu's spoon theatre show on west 38th st.

A friend who attended the performance took photographs and made a collage for me.

In January and beginning of Feb I'll be doing some recording with this group. Have to buy some new cello strings as mine are ancient!

Squirrels

2009-01-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

Mainly picture post

2009-01-12T17:58:00.000-08:00

It's getting late and I've been doing a lot of back-log blogging tonight, so I'm just going to do a picture and caption style post now.. So my brother has been staying, and we tend to take a lot of photos..particularly jumping shots. So here goes.

Christmas Pavlova. Best yet.

PS1, the safer way to swim. A gallery in Queens called PS1 has the most coolest installation ever.

Matthew underwater.

On Christmas day i gave matthew this t-shirt. I printed it myself.

We went to Central park. He wanted me to jump, but I was afraid I'd fall into the icey lake, so we both settled on a high-kick instead.

I got some new converse sneakers. Sneakers, wine and macbook, what more could a girl want.

Pennylicks icecream that's what!

Matthew got a williamsburg haircut at the Brooklyn General barber..coolest barber ever!
Look at that chair..

JUMP MAT JUMP

Invisible chair. Shadow of an alien.
Where can one get a decent smoothy around here? Not here that's for sure.

Good coffee though. The General store on Havermyer.

ART

2008-12-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

My brother matthew came to stay over christmas. He had an exhibition on in the lower east side on Jan 7th. He did a sculptural work called 'an english hobby horse.' We named him Philip. I made some cupcakes in honor of him.

In philip's creation, he had to sleep in the kitchen because his un-torsoed legs freaked us both out.
His horsey face is made from a traffic cone I found for matthew under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.

Horsey cakes. Vanilla and Chocolate. Mmm.

Ice skating & Saatchis

2008-11-14T09:26:00.000-08:00

Tom Riley, a filmmaker from NZ was recently staying on my couch for two weeks.

We had a great time at halloween dressing up as card-board robots.

We managed to get into saatchi and Saatchi to meet a lovely lady called Jane who is keen to get Tom and I some work. Yay here's hoping.

Here is the view from the top of Saatchis. It is lower west side looking east.

We decided to go iceskating in Bryant park on Tom's last night in NY.

All was fun until some kid fell over (suspiciously at the same time tom skated past him) and they had to clear the rink to clean up the mess...ick. Oh and the iceskates you hire were freezing cold and wet on the inside. Gross. Mainly because its an outdoor rink and it was raining, so half of the rink was flooded.

It seeps up from the bottom of your jeans.

Tom is also a talented singer and guitarist. We recorded some songs of his one rainy day and I ended up singing backing vocals and put a bit of cello in later. I think we'll record some more songs when I'm back in Auckland as our combination of voices really worked I think.

Parkside station, brooklyn

2008-11-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

I have been attending rehearsals for a work in progress showing of David M Friend's 'EGO' puppet show.
To get there I need to catch two different trains, and get off at an outdoor station called Parkside. It is near prospect park. The first time I got off there, there was a fire on the platform. The train kept going, but there were so many firetrucks there - all it was was a fire in a rubbish bin I think. Of course I stopped to take photos.

Next time I was there was in the day time and I noticed some of the most beautifully coloured peeling paint I have seen at any subway station.
the tunnel.
close.
closer.
closest.

The layers of light blue underneath make it look like some sort of map of a frozen country.

During rehearsals and a set-piece for David's show.

Film Festivals with Clairesmusic

2008-11-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

A couple of films I scored have recently been shown at international film festivals.

Tom Riley's 'Moonlight' was accepted into the International Children's Film festival in Chicago. Tom was able to attend and said he had good feedback about the film and soundtrack from a well=packed out theatre.

Kat Baulu and Alastair Jamieson's 'Whetu-Rere' film was screened in the Sheffield Documentary Festival in the UK early November, and also to School children during the film festival in Toronto earlier this season.

Watch clips of both the films on my website www.clairesmusic.com
Check out tom's site with some of his work www.colossuspictures.com

Harere Ra ~

Claire

Jelly fish skies

2008-11-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, film maker Kirsty Macdonald (who I have worked on various projects with) and her cameraman Chris Pryor were over in New York to film a number of NZ artists who had exhibitions here.
Chris and Kirsty filming on the steps of the Metropolitan art museum for their documentary. You are not allowed to sit on the steps unless you have obtained special permission. I know! sit! Naughty!

Chris and I decided to go out to Coney Island one day before it got too freezing.
Unfortunately all the rides had closed (astroland etc) but there were plenty of miserable carnies and their vicious dogs about. We decided to have a look into the Coney Island Aquarium. It was 3.05 and we discovered to our delight that the Aquarium was 'admission by donation' after 3pm on fridays.. It was FRIDAY! So anyway I had about a dollar in my wallet, but then this employee on his way home came past the visitors queue and handed Chris and I free passes. Luck apon luck!

Anyway there were three main highlights:

The californian Otter. These were extremely weird massive otters with blonde haired faces and looked like they were constantly washing their hair with their little tiny hands.
Ok so I didn't take this photo because I couldnt get this close, but here's an example of how strange they look. Nothing like Gin the otter, little ratty things.

The Walrus, amazing tank like at Auckland zoo for the sealions, where it swims right at you.

Jellyfish tanks

I made a few videos of the jellyfish and decided to set it to music. I was inspired.

music for the winter ahead

2008-11-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

Music to keep me entertained over the winter:

1. Julliard ensemble commission for the following combination:
Harpsichord, Harp, Marimba, Vibraphone/Percussion.
Completion date: Christmas.

2. Cello bits for Daniel Linas, guitarist from Columbia. We did a gig last week at a Manhattan gallery, was good ~ thanks for coming friends!

3. John Chen has asked me to re-work an old piano duo I wrote at university for a performance in the future some time. So that will be a good little project as I've been meaning to do it but will never get around to it unless I'm offered immediate rewards!

4. Songs for my new guitar to play.

5. St Peters College new beginner string syllabus - ongoing work to develop a NZ first, an entirely new syllabus aimed at 10-12 year old Boys who pick up a stringed instrument for the first time.

6. A few other soundtracks that are in the very early negotiations with directors so can't say much yet..
But I can say they are amazing so I'm hoping to score them!

7. Finishing off scores properly so I can list them on sounz..I never get around to this but we can hope!
Score setting is such a bore..

My studio at the moment looks like this:

It's a little cramped, but it does the job. I have my pineapple lamp to cast a warm yellow light over everything. My keyboard is a little large but I don't use it all the time so it has a stand to go on. I am slowly getting used to composing on a 13" screen instead of a 20" imac.

It's supposed to snow today but it doesn't look like it will. Even though it is bitterly cold outside, there are patches of blue sky and sun about. Unfortunately my side of the street never gets the sun for some reason, or if it does, I am not awake at that stage..

When it does snow, I will purchase some snow boots!

~C

Obama wins election

2008-11-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

Last night was a monumental night in US history. I experienced this in 'The Abbey' pub in wiliamsburg, and later in the riotous street party along bedford avenue. People are extremely happy and excited about the Nation's new leader. Unfortunately they became a little too happy and the police began to beat people up to get off the roads. This kind of sucks. Before this happened, Tom Riley (filmmaker from NZ who is staying with me at the moment) shot this video. He edited it through the night and it is now on youtube.

Kevin Scott, Sena's boyfriend and local political enthusiast (not to mention leader of his own band and mock presidential candidate alter ego Eugene Grant) had this to say in an email last night:

"Just wanted to share a personal story on election day

We watched Obama deliver his speech at the Abbey, N8 & Driggs... afterwards I got a call to come to Bedford and N7.

There were people filling the streets for two blocks each way. The streets were packed. People were chanting "Obama", "Yes we can". It was pretty crazy and amazing. I've never seen so many hipsters so fired up. Really felt somethin special.

About an hour and a half later cops showed up to clear the crowds and make room for traffic. For the next hour the cops made room for cars and taxis to go by and it was peaceful, if a definitely hectic. As cars drove by, people drummed on the hoods shouting Obama slogans at them. But it was all good.

Around 2 am riot police and a helicopter showed up and things started to get ugly, which I've never before seen here. Someone threw a bottle and the cops rushed the crowd pushing people to the street and beating people. I don't have any videos but people all around me were taking them, I assume they'll be uploaded to the youtubes shortly.

Anyways I thought I would share that, not to take away from things but just to add a wrinkle. I never thought I'd see people getting beaten by cops on Bedford Avenue but I just saw a bunch of them. People gotta clear the road for cars.... but it seems like you show up to an exuberant rally with riot police looking for a fight, you're going to get a fight. "

This morning the streets were back to normal, and in the local hisidic Jew neighbourhood of williamsburg (old williamsburg) everything was hunky dory. I rode my bike to the library, returned some books, had a sneezing fit and had to leave (I've been a bit sick lately..) and then bought some yuuuuummy jewish pastries from the bake shop. Nothing has prices but it's all pretty cheap and delicious.

I have many more blog posts in draft form which i'll try and get up later!

A good site to check out some more photos of last night around williamsburg is: freewilliamsburg.com

More soon from me in an extremely happy city right now..

Claire

This week, I have been mostly eating..

2008-11-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

Eks (frozen yoghurt with pomegranate seeds)
Falafel
fresh bread
jewish pastries
cheese
wine
hummus

live music -the hits and the misses

2008-10-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

In New York city, like any city, there are some good bands, and some crappy ones.
Unfortunately you never really know what you're going to get.

The Hits:

Here are a few of the good things I've seen lately:

Horse Feathers

An indie group from Portland, Oregon. They played an intimate short set at The knitting factory a few weeks
ago, the audience sat around cross legged on the wooden floors while they played extremely quietly on a raised up stage. The three piece band included cello, violin and guitar, with one musical saw for about a minute. Apparently they sometimes play piano, banjo, celeste aswell. I bought their first album from the leader afterwards, which was saying something, as it was $15 and I had already paid $13 to get in, but it was THAT good.

Another good gig we went to was at The Stone was Wayne Horvitz and Sweeter than the day - A gamble on a time out listing, described as 'highly swinging acoustic freebop' outfit.
Little did we know, that after we arrived and were ushered in silently by a man with a clipboard (who we paid $10) we sat against the wall on bits of foam provided as every seat was taken. The tiny venue packed in. The highlight of the set was when a Jazz Bassoonist (yes you read right) joined them for some awesome experimental double reed playin' goodness. Now I'm not into 'weird sound catalogue' type jazz, but this bassoon made some sounds I've never heard before but were reallly beautiful and textural and blended nicely with what the other instruments were doing.

The Misses

A massive music festival called CMJ hit new york in the last few weeks, one of the gigs included on opening night was a NZ band showcase hosted by Rhys Darby from Flight of the conchords. The line up included four bands:
The Naked and famous (I'd never heard of them and they weren't famous..) Included some OK songs but nothing to write home about..
BANG BANG ECHE - Some blonde bob cut boy of what looked like 13 shouting his MC style songs and jumping a lot..very polite though, which cannot be said for the lead singer of
Cut off your hands - during which I wanted to cut off my ears..or at least block them.. after the drummer put a hole in the kick drum and the lead singer tripped on his microphone after having many disorientated tanty-like fits on stage mid-song, I put it down to his emo fringe affecting his eye-sight and balance. My flatmate's favourite lyric from this whingey-singer was 'you're still not over me'..or something like that. At one point he rushed into the crowd with his tambourine wanting to appear more rock-star-esq, but really just sending photographers and innocent concert goers flying for cover (myself included got a tambourine playing elbow in the ribs as he smashed a pathway into the crowd.)
The Ruby Suns got off to a shakey start but after they'd messed around with levels and feedback a bit they played a solid set and included the good classics 'tane mahuta' and 'Oh mojave'. Both members played drums when they weren't singing or pushing buttons on the mountain of electronic sampling gear they had.

Rhys darby was of course as funny as ever, making jokes like 'I have some apologies to make from new zealand, Jason gun sends his apologies, he's sorry he's unable to make it' - and remarks about the auckland skytower being visable from anywhere in the world. 'Auckland, it's the best city in the world.'
Unfortunately he tripped over my handbag on his way off stage. Sorry about that Rhys.

Somehow I had my camera on a weird setting, so I got these spacey shots.Yeah! Go New Zilind!

Another miss was at 'roulette' home of Experimental music.. This bagpipe piece takes the cake for worst assault on ears charging $15.. hear some for yourself.

Claire

Rain in Brooklyn

2008-09-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

Last night it rained in Brooklyn, first rain in about 10 days.
I am glad because it somehow dulls the noise of the freeway and the constant cars honking. I slept in a bit because I've been up late most nights composing for Saatchi. With the time difference it means that the end of the working day in NZ is about 1.30am my time.

This post is in three parts.
Random Ramblings
Rose
Joel

Here I start with some Random Ramblings, and may conclude with some more.
The internet network has gone funny in the apartment, it's somehow locked on my computer so I can't access it. So I am stealing someone elses connection, which only works from one particular spot in the kitchen. If I move the computer a few inches it goes away.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to the DUMBO art under the bridge festival I am meeting with one of my brother's friends from his Poland residency.

Flying home to NZ for 12 days on Oct 1st. Trying to sublet my room to make a few extra dollars. Hopefully this will work out.
Because of various flight conditions and non-availability I wasn't able to get the same class ticket so had to pay mega bucks to upgrade. grrr. I am flying home for the final AYO concert.

Orchestra tour seems ages ago now. I guess I haven't talked about it much, anyway here's a picture and video to satisfy your thirst for every gory detail..

JOEL

My friend Joel was here for a few days. He is on his way to Oxford to study Law on a full scholarship. Geek. But self confessed geek so it's ok. He freaked my roommate out a bit because he spent an hour in the bathroom and she was late for work on his first morning. He was shaving off his beard he grew in south america.

We went to see the broadway show Equus which was very good, aside from one of the actors being an american girl trying to put on a british accent. Oh it was bad. It was an awesome stylized set and representation of the horses, which all worked very nicely, with a bit of dry ice..

I've never taken any photos in times square so I thought I would seize the opportunity. Here's joel and me looking washed out against the bright lights.
I love the art in the subways here. A lot of it is mosaic. When I was on the express train the other day I saw one station with a whole lot of mozaic robot type people. I think it was 28th street or something.

Rose

As mentioned earlier my friend Rose was staying for a week with me. She and I have a creative past together. We met whilst playing the roles of scottish school girls in a play at howick little theatre. We share a love of art, film and colour.

Last saturday, Rose and I made a short film. We wanted to do something creative together because our names look good together. Rose Rowan and Claire Cowan. They're practically the R and C versions of each other. Anyway. We made a film adaptation of Miranda July's short story 'the Swim Team' from her book 'Nobody belongs here more than you.' We are both big July fans, and we needed a quick structure for a story, so we wrote a screenplay adaptation of the 4 page long story. We pulled in local actors on the day, Rose played Elizabeth an enthusiastic 80year old scottish lady, Kevin (sena's boyfriend) played Jack Jack, an arthritic old man and Sena's friend Karen played Kelda, Jack Jack's wife who has a phobia of water. I played 'Maria' the swim coach and narrator of the story. We still have 2 little shots to get, and then I'll put it on my computer once I get back to Nz. I forgot my firewire cable that fits so I can't edit until then..damn!

This is rose in her costume we obtained from the local salvation army store. There was only one pair of togs so we had to get them. The goggles and the cap I bought from the chemist. Rose is game. very game.

This is Rose in williamsburg. I have been for several bikerides around the place. The one way streets are annoying though. Have to cycle home down another block just because of them. Slowly learning the US roadrules here, which are a bit weird.

We went to a bar in williamsburg called the Bushwick country club. They have a black and white photo booth. We bought two sessions in it, but then I forgot to get one strip off rose when she left. I will have to get a scan of it.

On the way home, we stopped in a pub called ART LAND where somebody was having a birthday with helium balloons. We didn't buy a drink but Rose took a balloon. Then we found this shrine to the Virgin Mary on the way home, in the corner of somebody's yard. Inside were a whole lot of bunches of flowers wrapped in plastic, I think they were fake.

Rose and I found this place on bedford street called Pennylicks. It sells vegan icecream. If you ask me it looks like the stuff that happens when you accidentally leave the freezer door open and it goes all icey.. yuck. But rose liked it. They had cookie-dough flavour, as they do everywhere.

On Rose's last day in new york we went to the Brooklyn FLEA which is a market with handmade stuff and lots of vintage things. It was really hot that day. Rose bought me a cool bangle that looks like a peacock.

Randomness again
I have mixed feelings about going home, I really need to get stuck into finding a job here, as the hour glass is rolling over and my funds are slipping away. Have made contact with Saatchi's New York and they're keeping me in mind for projects, which is a start I guess.

The brain draining craigslist is a good resource for buying and selling but trying to look for work on there is horrible. I bought a midi keyboard on there though, which has been a lifesaver.

Have only bought one pair of shoes (if you count jandals as shoes) here, which is pretty good going, I thought.

I found this particularly cute squirrel in Union square park while I was buying some groceries.

I think he will be called, Larry.

They are not scared of humans, I was a bit scared it was going to jump on my head or something.

Mammoth taxi race spotted yesterday in 34th st. Watch the pidgeon.

Spot the pideon again. Oh and spot the crazy cyclist - not many people wear helmets here because it's not the law. craiizy.

Wow what a mission this post has been. It's basically taken like 2 hours. So anyway I'm going to go do something useful with myself.

Bye for now.

Claire

NYC first impressions

2008-09-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

Hi.

Well here I am writing from my new brooklyn apartment. And by new, I mean 200 years old or more. No one seems to know exactly how old. It is very kooky, the door frames and floors are at angles with each other. There is one cobalt blue wall in our lounge. there are two couches, lots of clothes and lots of good vibes.

My flatmate Sena is a fashion designer. I have a studio at home, and if I put my headphones on or my speakers up reasonably loud I can block out most of the freeway noise. There are extremely impatient motorists at most hours of the day. They don't just toot when somebody is in their way, they practically fall asleep on the wheel and honk for like 5 minutes.

There has been so much happening in the past few weeks I would ramble on and on if I tried to recount it all. So I'll go into a few lists for you.

Things I've been eating lately:

Vegetarian stuff (I've made the leap to vego!)

Mini carrots (they come pre-peeled in bags they've so tasty)

Organic fruit and vege from union square market including:

-Purpil basil

-Yellow watermelon

-Tiger tomatoes

-Yellow peaches

Animal crackers

Dorritos

Everything bagels

Pink lemonade

Things I have bought lately:

A desk

A toasted sandwich maker

An electric drill

A small mexican puppet

Highlights of the american AYO tour:

Playing to a rowdy Rhode Island high school

Inviting the whole orchestra back to my tiny apartment

for a house warming party..

the guggenheim gallery

Boston, the place is so cool.

Shops that are cool around williamsburg:

The MASSIVE retro antique clothing store opposite my house

The 'general store' selling organic and vegetarian food

Billies store (the supermarket nearest me with cheap food, but

aisles too narrow to have two trolleys.) This ends with me reversing

up half the aisle to let someone else through..it's like a one way street.

Catbird

Blackbird Parlour

The bagelsmith

Opportunities that have arisen lately:

A new commercial for Saatchi

A string arrangement for mike chunn

A piece for a Julliard ensemble

Performance by the fullerton symphony

Today I:

went to Pearl Paint, a 5 storey art supply store in canal st.

It has different stuff on different levels. I bought a large thick

paper art pad, for my AFL sketches. Also a mini black notebook

for those ideas that come on the train.

Also, I started work on the string arrangement for Mike chunn.

Also, I decided I need a whole lot of things I hadn't planned for - such

as a sustain pedal, a keyboard stand, a firewire drive and a separate

screen, mouse, keyboard..and a computer chair. All in due time!

Need more work first.

Rose my lovely nz friend is here for a week, and then Joel arrives on sunday.

Kiwis will visit my apartment in a constant stream it seems..poor sena! Although

she insists she doesn't mind.

Ok hopefully this update is enough for now.

A few photos.

The award winning double bass sand sculpture on LA beach. I won a t-shirt but left it on the bus.

the puppet I bought in LA in the mexican street in downtown. She is so ugly she's beautiful.

San pedro hostel, the orchestra is waiting for the bus. In LA the bus is late. In NY we are late for the bus. And the bus driver is VERY grumpy.

We stopped off in a town called Salem, famous for the witch trials. Here is a witch crossing, and the local book store, lacking any shelving whatsoever.

In LA we stayed near the beach called San Pedro. Some houses were really great, others, had front yards like this.

Many many cellos waiting again to board the bus. Mine's the heaviest i'm sure (closest).

Ok that's it. byee.

Claire

The secret finger club.

2008-08-04T02:38:00.000-07:00

Now this last week I've been digging up the film archives from rampion's early days, so here it is. Rampion Production's first ever film.. a bit pixelly and soundwise quite crap..but that's youtube compression for you.

basically here's the tidbit: Members of an exclusive club meet to play a role-playing game of consequence. Choreographed fingers navigate their characters through a series of dangerous and fruitful outcomes..greed, OCD, falling into debt..the characters are playing with their lives, but they don't know it!

Here are some photos of the construction of the elaborate board game, and the filming. (all done in rachel's garage.)

Dermyville

2008-08-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

finally, I have re-done the sound for our old 48 hours entry, indeed our first effort DErmyville!
Our genre was Horror, our prop:rope, and our character Gerry Reed. This film was made entirely
out of cardboard, string, wood and plaster.
Somehow in the first screening of the film, I realised half the characters dialogue was muted and lots of sound fx were missed out. It's taken me almost two years but here is the film how it was originally envisioned!

48 Hours film Booty Camp

2008-07-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

Created in 48 hours, directed by ME.

Travelling composer

2008-07-31T17:57:00.000-07:00

I created this image to portray the big leap into the new city.
I nicked some of my favourite pics from flickr.
While I was browsing I found some interesting new favourites.
I am thinking of making a new composite image for my new piece 'legend of the trojan bird.' Instead of telling a story, I think maybe a picture would do better.

Here are a few images by the same creator which I really like:

Oh and one of my brother, by my sister.

My brother is pretty popular on flickr..here are a few of his images. You should check him out.

my feet at karekare. He has a whole set entitled soles.

One of matthew's works of art.

He's got a lot of photos documenting english folk tradition - which is pretty interesting as you can see.

He's not very good at focussing, sometimes. or maybe he just wanted me to run again so deliberately took a bad shot.

One more post coming soon with our film link..

C

the legend of the trojan bird

2008-07-29T05:36:00.000-07:00

So. This is the title for my ayo piece for new york. Don't ask me about the legend, I haven't made it up yet, but I though it had a certain mystery to it.

I am hoping to get an illustration to go with it.

Tonight the blackbirds played at this nice restaurant in town for a marriage proposal. She said yes! which is good, and we arranged a song by John Mayer. Anyway anyway that's not the point. The point was, we were seated in a private room adjacent to the couple's room, both rooms of which are like japanese zen gardens. They have dark coloured walls, an eating pit seating arrangment, soft woven japanese mats, and one of the rooms is surrounded by water with goldfish about a foot deep. I was dead scared I was going to fall or drop my cello into the water as I was right on the edge. Down one dark stone wall was a constant stream of water, a few shiny bits of granite with the metallic light blue shimmer were imbedded into the flat rock which looked cool.

Anyway my point is, It would make a nice set up for a compositional studio. How peaceful and meditational.. with the fish and all.. or a good room to record in even. No idea what water does for accoustics, but the fish don't make much noise.

First rehearsal of the trojan bird tomorrow night. Not sure if we have a harpist yet but I hope so. will sound pretty weird without it. Also need some crotales which the university are being anal about letting us borrow. They can't be that expensive or hard to come by, there's a heap of internet sites selling them for less than $1500.. hmph..anyway, maybe the good old APo will help us out.

One day, I hope i'll be able to complete a composition without doing 'night shifts' to get it done on time.. It's way too hard to compose through the night when your body's going "sleep sleep sleep now now now."

Now i've finished the piece I'm thinking about new york more. It's not long now.. I'm hoping I'm not going to miss nz too much because I'll be too busy.. perhaps i'll do some work there for NZ people too.

Was contacted last week by someone asking Nz composers for submissions for a new album of children's piano pieces, so will write a few next year if her funding comes through. Should do as she's done the first volume already.

I bought this massive orchestration book, Samuel adler. Despite this being the set textbook for my entire uni degree, I never purchased it. So when I coughed up the $90 a few months ago (I thought, what the heck it's a business expense..) I expected a lot from it. However I am finding it's knowledge is pretty basic and when I flip through with an urgent question about..say glissando ranges on the trombone.. I don't have any answers. I guess when it's covering every orchestral instrument it's knowledge has got to be pretty light.

Ok I fear this post has got a bit too rambly so off I go!

C

Starting to feel real.

2008-07-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

It's all starting to feel real.. the move to New York is on the not so distant horizon, I'm working full time as a composer, with a few gigs thrown in. Music is coming out my ears, and goes round in my head at night before I go to sleep. This may have something to do with finishing composing minutes before getting into bed.

The trio premiere went well and they did a fantastic job for such short rehearsal period. We filmed and recorded the piece on last friday and Kirsty Macdonald is editing it now. Just can't wait to see the footage and put it up online. It's a nice visually entertaining piece.

Last night, I did a gig for Rotary International, where we played a few pieces as an item but mostly as background music. They gave us a buffet dinner. This was the dessert that we didn't get to have as we left before it was devoured. The International Rotary president (from Korea) came up to Jenny and pointed at her and demanded to know if she was Korean. No.. she's a kiwi, and chinese heritage. Also pointed at Vanessa, who's from Hong Kong. Then he left us alone. He didn't point at me.

These cakes look good, but I have a feeling they all taste the same. En Masse produced..

Today I started to mentally prepare for packing mode. I drew these diagrams to help me think what to take. Also to help pass the time so I didn't have to compose..

I am finding more and more with serious composition I have to be in a semi-meditational mood before I can feel like working. All other distractions have to be seen to. So at the moment I'm just going with that feeling. If I don't feel like writing, I won't. But time is of the essence. So what I try to do is make some notes about structure or listen to other music. Or sometimes just sit and do nothing and try to unwind. It is at these moments that I think my brain does the best thinking. Unconsciously. That's why I always have good ideas when I wake up or am in the shower. There's a lot of research on this and I am quite interested. The power of Power naps also. Mmm napping. Especially in winter.

This is my manuscript for the piece so far. Most of my sketches have been done on computer, but I like to go back to handwritten every now and then. It forces you to use your imagination, and not just rely on playback. Although playback forces you to imagine aswell!
The nuts and bolts of the notation are what really slow me down.. actually thinking of the music as notes and rests and bars is kind of boring, so this time I've got help from Ryan.. but I guess I still have to do a lot of the working out anyway. He'll tidy up the rest! yay..

Here's what the piece looks like on computer - totally zoomed out, every little blue square is a chunk of recorded melody. I haven't got every instrument there, and they're not in order, but you can see how many ideas I have, and stitching some together to make sense is what I have to do now.

Mental exersion needs food...here are my composing snacks. I love gerkins. mmm.

I am kinda behind on the AYO piece because this week I scored two tv commercials for Saatchi and Saatchi. This is pretty exciting, as I'd like to do more commercial music and these pieces of music were not too hard and fun to write. If you see the new sealord ads on tv with 'brian' - that's my music. Gotta do the final mix tonight. I managed to record 5 instruments live, so I thought that was quite good going for a 3+1/2 day turn around for two ads. I recorded double bass, guitar, electric bass, tenor sax and trumpet. I had one meeting with Saatchi and creatives at the beginning, and then it was all via email and phone. I like that with technology I could have been working in another city and nobody would know.. kinda what I hope to do in new york.

Still haven't been to see pandas yet, too busy. Maybe end of the month. Am looking forward to it. Also haven't got to any film fest movies yet, really want to see Man on a wire - about this french dude who tightrope walked between the two towers, and many other world landmarks. Just thinking about it makes my feet go tingly.

Things I want to take to new york:
A tomato sauce dispenser (a tomato tomato sauce dispenser..you know what I mean)
A kiwi tea towel
A big print of my antique nz birds poster to put in my room
My chihuahua puppet
My cassette sellotape dispenser. Oh it's so cool.
My cat. :( customs may have a problem with this.

righto back to work.

~CC

And because I play the cello...

2008-07-09T03:16:00.000-07:00

In my string quartet, I have played for all sorts of occasions.
We've played at restaurants, conventions, countless weddings, on the middle of lakes,
in peoples living rooms, for the chinese ice sculptures, at a titanic ball, for rock concerts, in the pouring rain, on hills, on toilet seats, in shop windows, in art galleries..to name a few.

BUT..this is the first time we've been paid cuddles with pandas.
YES.. we recently did a fundraising gig for the zoo, and we're being paid with a behind the scenes tour to pat and feed red pandas. They look like this.
So..
it's true. Musicians do have more fun.

Tomorrow night, will be the world premiere (in a private concert..does that still make it a premiere?..ah well)..tomorrow or the next night will be the world premiere of my brand new piano trio. (My only piano trio to date actually.)

Trio Scintillatum will perform at James Wallace's house in Mt Eden, an hour long recital. Also there will be a public concert friday night 7.30 at diocesan junior school hall. But this one you must pay.

I spent most of yesterday with the trio rehearsing and taking photos for their publicity. I took a couple of good snaps.

Amalia in particularly has great hair for pantene moments..so we decided to experiment a little..give them some attitude.

Also here I am such a fan of jumping photos, so here are a few.

the first jumping shot, no-one was quite ready.

I wanted JP to just run by..

I love this one because of the range of expressions.

Now here are some we can actually use for all the serious concert bios...

this wall often comes in handy. texture and colour all in one! my word.

This is a good one because it is just typical sophie, errupting in head-throwing-back laughter..and the others cant help but laugh with her.
We took them all over the place..downtown auckland, parnell, the museum.

So..they haven't had much time to rehearse the piece, and it's a bit of a toughie. But on friday we're going to have a recording and filming session anyway.

Here's a little peak at the score.

I think it's about time I got a few more of my works on video. Just look at John Psatahas. He has a whole channel of his compositions on youtube..which is great for attracting overseas interest.

Anywho..

My art source graduation last friday went very well, good food, my speech went down ok, and I met some nice and interesting people, (who were also nice.)

Which is nice.

Ok I have 3 weeks now to finish my orchestral piece for the AYO, so I'm listening to a lot of music to get some ideas and inspiration.
Also catching up on my episodes of This american life, which i've missed for about 5 weeks. (podcasts..they're great. thislife.org.)

I am enjoying being back home for a few weeks, fires in the evenings, working by the fire with my laptop. Cat purring on lap. ahh.
also have a new dressing gown which is great.

I am however still on melbourne time, so i feel like i need 2 hours extra sleep in the mornings. This morning i slept in through my alarm..
opps.

7 weeks till New york! woahhh

I am looking at a residency in alaska for a month next year. I think it could be great. Hopefully with my sister. There'll be no phone, no internet, just snow..wolves..huskies, mountains..trees.
Maybe.

Anyway, hope to see you at the concert if you're around.

Claire

defying the odds

2008-06-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought all hope was lost with the CNZ application for the AYO commission for New york. BUT, I decided to check the website one last time to see if the grants list had come out.

I was told last night by Antun (conductor) that he hadn't heard anything.

We got it! Everything we asked for. Even some money to pay Ryan

to edit my score given the huge time restraint! This is such good news, so for the next two months I will be living the life of a full time composer no holds barred.

Time is pretty short though, and I've turned down three offers of work already, which is a shame but it had to be done.

Trio is progressing, but I'm finding it difficult to find the right medium to record it on - paper is working for now, but I cant bear to put it into sibelius and ruin it by having playback, and rigid barlines etc.. I want to keep it loose and fresh as it is in black ink.. but my head plays back what I think I read, not what is actually there.

Anyway going to the 48hours film making final tonight. We are not in it, but will be interesting to see the standard this year. Last years was pretty amazing. Some professional film makers go hard core. Some shoot on real film even. (seems pointless as final hand in is on minidv!)

On the 20th of June I'll travel to Melbourne to visit my sister and check out some music stuff there, and also sydney for a few days. Then back to nz to finish off the AYO piece, and practise and get sorted for new york. Not long now!

Went to New Plymouth for a few days. My brother is over from UK so him and I had a good time getting COMPLETELY lost on the way home, took us 9 hours to drive what should have been 5. Missed my gig, had to organize another cellist from somewhere in the middle of a valley in the mud and rain, with one bar of reception... panic!

Very small country town. Invisible sign.

The nz army band visits new plymouth. This is my brother matthew.

The beautiful Len Lye 'wind wand' sculpture. The circle at the top sways about in the wind. It's 2metres in diameter to give you an idea of the scale.

Matthew thinks about the mountain.

I jump for joy! Yay snow!

Ok getting cold now.

Something in my eye.

It got in my eye too.

Ok couldn't resist.

I'm gonna add some photos to the 48hours post now..

have a looksie.

More soon when I am doing some more procrastinating!

Claire

An Ordinary Person

2008-06-04T14:43:00.000-07:00

Just a quick blog to say Susan Potter's documentary
An Ordinary Person, is now finished and has it's own website.
The soundtrack was composed by me about 6 weeks ago.
The film is basically about a series of murder cases in NZ that
use 'homosexual advance defence' theory. Quite an interesting
look into a corner of NZ's justice system.

Watch the trailer here

That is all.

Claire

Trio Scintillatum

2008-06-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year when 66% of funding applicants to Creative NZ walk away empty handed.

This is the sad reality of arts funding in NZ. There are so many worthwhile projects that don't get funded. But, this year, I was one of the lucky 33%.

I have begun work on a yet to be titled trio piece for trio scintillatum .
John Paul Muir, Sophie Williams and Amalia Hall make up the trio, all of whom I have worked with before and who I think are fabulous performers. I am inspired and writing well so far, although I have quite a tight deadline so that the trio can take it overseas to all their concerts in UK and Scotland.

I still haven't heard about the AYO application, so not sure whether that's successful or not. If so, that will mean CNZ has been very kind to me. Not sure who's on the judging panel this year.

I'm house sitting out in waterview at the moment, which is great being so close to town. here are the two lovely doggies i'm dog-sitting.

I have to take them for two walks a day, pictured here in Oakley creek which is a nice park just behind Unitec. Ophi loves the ball while Paku loves scavenging and chasing pheasants. There are heaps of cute ducks at the creek too, and herons.

There is a grapefruit tree at the entry to the park that is almost ripe for picking. I am thinking I will help myself cos there are plenty there and unitec people don't even go near the grass in winter.

So, time for my randomness thoughts:

Makes me laugh:
When Jp says the word 'pungent'

Makes me cry:
When I see little dead bunnies in the park.

Makes me happy:
Having a snooze with ophi on the couch in the sun

Makes me scared:
When I realise I've been snoozing way too long and am late for something

Looking forward to:
Seeing Emma in melbourne and baking many cupcakes
Receiving my new threadless t-shirts in the post. (There's a $10 sale!)

On friday:
I might go to Taranaki!

On thursday:
I am playing at the zoo!

More news:
Our team Rampion Productions got 3rd in their heat. Whoop!

I'm loving right now:

Sweetcorn on toast
Knitted objects
Making a display for the te-tuhi gallery for AFL
Pineapple lumps

48 Hours and not enough time in the day

2008-05-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the 48 hour film competition, of which I directed a team, of Rampion Productions. Our genre was 'juvenile delinquent' - which if you ask me isn't really a genre. However we proceeded to make a cool little film about a bad-ass chiuhuaua, a rat, and an oversized smurf, sent to jail with a deluded OCD postman. Ah-hem...

Our screening is next week, on tuesday.
I really enjoyed the weekend, much less stress than last time, having a real DOP and editor and sound recorder really really helped! I ended up doing some of the composing, but in collaboration with some wonderful talented people.

now this week I have been still trying to find my bearings, getting back to working on the greenland film. I have most of the main cues sorted, although they're far from finished products yet. Hoping still to do a little collaboration with Teacups the band for the end credits song and somewhere in the middle.

Well you may have noticed I have a new featured website - it has clips, it has music, it has categories, it has an ABOUT movie, and it has an HTML option! This is great now, for those people who can't figure out the flash. (i'm sure there are lots out there who are too impatient to try!)
Website restructuring thanks to my brother Evan..chur!

I had an interview today on bFM for 'the wire' - with my friend Kim Choe from old AYO days. I basically talked about a miniscule slice of things I have done in the past, and we played a litttle bit of music. The podcast for that interview should be available soon.

At the end of may, (10days!) I will find out about Creative NZ applications for my piano trio comission and the Auckland youth orchestra commission. This is very exciting, but kinda scary, especially if we don't get the money. I will probably be expected to find it some other way.. either way, I have a lot of music to write in a short time.

I have some good ideas for both pieces, but it's finding the time during the week to devote solely to the task of uninterrupted composition is pretty hard. However, I'm now based in Waterview, much closer to town, house sitting for a while so hopefully will get mucho work done, in between walking the very energetic doggies!

The delinquents knitting.

Jared with no sleep holding a kebab but not having time to eat it. My lunch on my keyboard, eat and work!

Lani stays up all night editing.

Matt plays some blues for sniff dawg.

Elaborate escape sequence.

the escape plan rap..

Signing off now..

C

When I lose the faith

2008-05-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

There's certainly something very different about writing music for a living and writing music for fun. I used to worry that if I write music too much I would get sick of it - and not just sick of the writing but sick of the listening.
Well, thankfully this hasn't happened yet. But I do definately have moments when I don't want to hear or write another note. But I have developed strategies to get myself re-enthused about music in general.

Here are some songs I like to listen to when I really feel sick of music, and there's no magic anymore. These restore my faith in music, and in composing. They give me something to aim for in terms of integrity, simplicity and truthfulness in music.. good things to aim for.

And this list changes quite a lot, but some that are on it at the moment:

"I've seen it all'' from Dancer in the dark, sung by Bjork and Thom York. This is made even better by remembering the movie while I listen. (It's dark but it's great.) There's an orchestral backing interspersed with factory noises (where thelma works) and delicate bits of string quartet and electronic beats overlaid.

"Unravel" by Bjork.. simplicity and complexity intertwined beautifully. Such a great pace, so incredibly slow and careful, it's like she's singing and moving through water..

"If you want me" from the movie 'Once'. This is pretty simple, but such integrity.. this is very admirable about the actors/singers Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova... the music itself is pretty basic, boring almost, but it's totally alive with the lyrics and tone of voice.

"A case of you" - Joni Mitchell. Living legend of song writing. Her voice makes a wordy song lyrical and luscious.

"Borderline'' by Sufjan Stevens. I'm sure there's a line in this taken directly from Madonna's song by the same name. I love the intimacy that's often present in Sufjan's songs, like he's singing about you, and it would be rude not to listen.

"The dress looks nice on you.'' by Sufjan Stevens. this has been my favourite song of his for a while.

"These days'' by Nico. This is a real cute song from The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack. Such a strange infliction and articulation of lyrics, is very refreshing. Slightly out of tune. Makes me think I could one day be a singer too..

"Fade Away'' by Che Fu. Great NZ song.. always listen to this in the car and can't help 'car dancing.'

"Hymning Slews" by John Adams from Shaker loops... this is the perfect contemplative music to mix paints to.

Well, now I notice it, I've not included much classical stuff. Which is true, although the majority of music I end up writing is classical, I don't listen to a lot of it. I suspect it's probably the same for great chefs.. when they go home from work, they just want to have peanut butter on toast for dinner.

I have the 48hour film comp starting tomrrow, so i better go and make sure my puppets have all their limbs attached.

I bought 5 pairs of black gloves from the $3 shop today. they are perfect for puppeteering.

I am going to try and blog more regularly.

I have to finish this film soundtrack before the next blog though.. (the greenland film.)

Let me know if this gets boring and i'll try not to ramble so much.

~Claire

The best chair in the world

2008-05-06T01:20:00.001-07:00

So, I bought this chair. It's kind of like my dream composers chair. It's red, leather, and has gas-lift and springy back, so i can loll back or sit up straight..
this is the first step to getting a proper recording studio.
i also bought two mic stands, but they don't really deserve a mention.
So here is the studio as is.

My keyboard is a little too high so I think I need a lower desk, or a slide out keyboard thing. That's one of the things on the list.

I have a lot of composing to do in the next month. I have to finish this Piano trio, which I've not started, before the end of May, then a piece for the Auckland Youth orchestra's USA tour - oh and whilst working on a film score also due end of May. I am hoping to work with local talent teacups
to write a song for the credits and perhaps a few little bits in the film. It is a film made by dunedin film maker Jinty McTavish, about 3 dunedin girls who travel to greenland to witness the effects of global warming. So, pop songs about global warming.. who knows if the two will mix. Here's hoping.

I am also meeting with the manager of The Black seeds tomorrow about arranging some music for the St Peters college brass band to play with them in their next concert.

I booked my flights to Melbourne for june 20th, which i am 'yayying' about cos it means I will get to hang out with my brother and my sister together, and melbourne is an awesome place. And my sister is an awesome cook.

not much time now but more exciting news soon.

C

Talking to cyberspace

2008-04-28T16:46:00.000-07:00

So I decided to start a music blog. I already have another one, but in it I pretend to be someone else, and really that's not very satisfying to express oneself. If you're curious, it's here.

Right now in Auckland I'm working from home as a composer. I also do gigs as a cellist in my string quartet/trio The blackbird strings.
I graduated from Auckland University in 2005 with my BMus Hons in composition. Whilst at university (I was there five years, 3 full time, 2 part time) I learnt a whole lot of stuff I've forgotten, and a few things that I've remembered. What they teach you at university is how to write traditional counterpoint and stuff, which is useful. Also they teach you a bit of history which is good.

What they don't teach you is how to be successful at your craft in the real world. This results in most people graduating and becoming accountants. This is kind of sad, but kind of good. Because a) there are hardly any jobs for composers anyway in NZ and b) it's not that hard to get a degree in composition and still be writing really bad music.

So a few years down the track, here I am. I write a number of commissioned works per year, and try and travel. I am writing more and more film scores, and loving that. I hope to take on a feature film soon. But I am waiting for the right one with the right director. I am not interested in scoring crappy films..

I am interested in writing music for commercials, a) because it pays damn well and b) because usually the ones who have a budget for original music are quite well constructed little short films. I recently did my first commercial scoring job for Saatchi & Saatchi. View it here.

Mainly, for the next 20 years or so, I want to travel a lot and write music for theatre, film, dance and concerts. I want to meet inspiring people and create amazing stuff.

Some things that I think make the world more interesting:

Royale Deluxe
Street theatre on a massive scale. Search for them on flickr too.

HERE arts centre
New York theatre that fosters lots of artists in residence.

threadless
T-shirts with a great global community of artist designers

Emma's blog
My sister's blog.

improv everywhere

Some music I'm enjoying right now:

Ingrid Michaelson (new discovery, a few gems in her collection.)
Lars Danielsson (great double bass player who has cinematic jazz arrangements.)
Arvo Paart - Tabula Rasa (old time favourite thinking music.)
Anika Moa (saw her live last night she was great. and funny.)
Sweeny Todd Soundtrack (oh it's great.)
Aimee Mann (lost in space album.)

Latest addictions:

Crispy noodles
Bounty bars
pineapple, with everything thai.
Heroes Tv show series one.
Threadless

Very special latest addiction that really is worth checking out:
www.thislife.org You can listen online for FREE to hundreds of these podcasts,
Ira Glass is GREAT. And they're totally informative on how weird america is, and people in general. Since I'm going there in september to live for a while, I am particularly intrigued with these.

Makes me laugh

The new Saatchi and Saatchi commercial I scored.

Makes me cry

Brass bands on Anzac day.

Advice for this week:

Tidying your room actually does make you feel better.

Claire