The evil question

deployment of the permasense project 

Whenever I tell people about my internship, at first they seem very impressed (wireless sensor network business - uuh, what a topic) and then very sceptical (but is it of ANY use?). Whilst browsing for catchy applications for writing my introduction, I came across one which DEFINITELY will save the world, because it helps to find out about global warming! (I also found a project about volcano monitoring... very trendy these days..) So, yes, there is a use for sensor networks, and if you're curious to look at the project, you can find it here (they even provide real life data from the network... ^^).

Paris

Now it's set - I will write my thesis in Paris :)

Florence

Now finally I have some pictures from the trip :)

surprisingly easy

More and more one hypothesis is growing in my mind, namely that no matter how crazy, prestigious, or ambitious a matter might be it's roots are simple and trivial.
Probably in the beginning there is some informal email, where someone you knows invites you to join a project, like a concert somewhere (in this case Florence). You think to yourself 'alright, sounds cool', accept and start preparing yourself; something that you have done thousands of times before. Of course, on the way you will find out how difficult it can be to coordinate people for rehearsals etc, but still when you arrive there things go as usual. Just maybe that you don't really know when and where you go or where you will stay, but someone will tell you in time so no reason to bother. Quite suddenly you find yourself in a hotel, putting down your things and some strange thought crosses your mind 'actually, how come that I am here in this foreign place for playing a concert? i did everything as always but things somehow changed to a different track'. And only from there you realise that the whole thing was planned that way, that you doing something you would not have thought possible but that you are still the same and actually quite capable of living up to the expectations. From that point, everything continues as before - it's the same ritual every time, everywhere. Tune, adjust yourself, rehearse, relax, tune again, and there we go.
Just around this routine there are millions of details, things that simply happen when one meets new people, and some of them are nearly hilariously funny :) For example the guides of the church in which we played told us: 'no, it's closed for the public now, you are not allowed to enter! but if you want, there is a concert this evening, you can come back then.' When we explained that we actually were the musicians, they first gave us a quite puzzled look but then showed a lot of understanding and let us pass. However, things continued like that when we had a look at the instruments or were depositing our stuff as at first there was noone to show us around :) Also the coordination during the concert was a bit spontaneous, but luckily only the formalities were affected by this. In the end it turned out that exactly one link had been missing: the lady coordinating between San Lorenzo and the external music institutes had not appeared this evening.
In the end all that chaos did not matter: it was a real pleasure to play in this beautiful and huge church, whose dimensions gave great possibilities to experiment with sound whilst still providing a somehow homely atmosphere.
In the evening all this seemed so different already, somehow unreal. But still I could fall asleep with the happy and grateful feeling that on my first solo trip everything had gone well.

Blind Husbands

I want to point out one event to you which takes place in the scope of the Festival Bolzano Cinema:

next Friday, the 18th of April
at 1800
in Capitol Cinema

there will be the presentation of the re-edited and re-musicated film “Blind Husbands” (1918) which was written and directed by Erich von Stroheim.

As I have mentioned to you in an earlier post, one of the musical projects I joined was the recording and performance of the new soundtrack, composed by Tiziano Popoli. I have heard some parts of the new mix and seen some preliminary version, however the final result will only be shown on that day. Furthermore, everyone attending the event will obtain the DVD for free :)
Hope to see you there!

(This link gives some more information in Italian)

new music - just printed and recorded..

In case anyone thinks I'm having lazy weekends... I'm not... :) In fact, I spent all Saturday and Sunday in the studio, recording a new soundtrack for a very old short film. The music was composed by Tiziano Popoli for last year's short film festival in Bolzano and we played the world first performance. Now, one year later, the resistant core of the orchestra found together again and on this weekend we finally recorded Tiziano's wonderful music. I think it went quite well, and I'm impatient to see the final result: the movie with our freshly packed soundtrack :)
If anyone is interested in having a 'good old time' cinema experience, I invite you warmly to our concert next Saturday: as there is another film festival this year (which is even dedicated to these 'rimusicazioni's) we will perform with two films, one with the mentioned soundtrack and one with music by Satie.