Cover art to latest album, Paigan Productions Presents: Piano Pieces.
Hi, I’m Stephen Sink, known here as “SciFiGuy,” and I’m a liberal Democrat (and stopped drinking one year ago this month—not that I’m an alcoholic. And it’s not a TUMAH!!!--Arnie.) I live and work in the Detroit metro area.
I’ve been reading this site since about 2003 and have been a formal member since shortly after the pie-fights, back in October, 2005, when it occurred to me that I’d been reading this blog religiously and daily for years and had never thought to get a username. I remember being downright PISSED at myself for not signing up way earlier and that my user number was so high at 68933! (I know we’re all too cool for that stuff now.)
In Michigan, I’ll probably be voting for Bernie, but I’m quite happy to have Hillary as my new blue overlord (OverLady, excuse me). I can’t wait to see the daily apoplexy the GOP will have with either President Bernie or Hillary. (I’m still bi-curious between the two, so I’m pretty open yet, as long as it’s not the GOP/and or Trump.) Good times, there (ducks any pies thrown).
I’m a trusted user but I don’t “blog” much, because I’m also a musician (I get into commenting wayyyy too much and don’t get my work done). I won’t give you my musical background here (yet) but I play most of your typical rock instruments (mainly keyboards, then guitar, and percussion and vocals) and write, compose, produce and record my own stuff, for 26 years now (first studio project in ‘90). I’ve been playing the Chapman Stick—a 10-string tapping guitar with a range of 5 octaves, from bass to lead guitar—for almost 6 months now and I love it and the forum for it at Stickists.com a whole heck of a lot. I’ve loved Daily Kos for a heck of a lot longer, though, and when I found myself responding in the Lounge section over there about non-music stuff, defending Democrats and the Democratic party, liberals in generals, and Hillary and Bernie in particular, and responding to Trump cheer-leading, I wondered, “Why am I not talking about music over at DKOS? People talk about knitting and Warcraft (both fine, fine hobbies, especially Warcraft!), so why not talk about what I do?” If my politics keeps bleeding into my music, why not the reverse?
So here we are to talk about me, me, me! Two things: my original music, and my original fractal animation videos, and the two together which make Fractal Animation Music Videos (FAMV). Although these videos can take months at a time to render (I’ve got several going at once), I try to post one of these a week on Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook, and the Stickists forum, and I’d like to here at Daily Kos as well (unless the pitchforks came out...nervously looks around for angry villagers...) I admit my other ulterior motive in posting my music is to popularize the Chapman Stick, which 99.97% of you have probably never heard of.
[Insert B4-DK4 orange squiggle]
Your Stephen Sink Saturday Fractal Animation Music Video (FAMV) is called Sisyphus' Rock, featuring "Real Good Time: Solo Piano + Piano Solo." (I really need to get this cooking on Fridays, to make "Friday Fractals"--makes note to self).
Music: This is just the backing piano rhythm track to a much larger, complex rock opera of a song, called "Real Good Time." It was my very first single release with me singing, and I'll post it at the very bottom of this just because I love it, even though I now see lots of warts that I'd redo differently. I took the backing piano and added the piano solo from the song together to make "Real Good Time: Solo Piano + Piano Solo." It is also a track off my last piano-only album called "Paigan Productions Presents: Piano Pieces."
This song is in 3, which you might notice right away, but a surprising number of non-musicians don't notice it until I point it out. I was trying to create a drinking song, and was going for a timeless, folksy feel of a pub anthem to be sung in unison by a mob of hard-drinking young lads and lassies (that was the image in my mind for the song). Somehow, the waltzy 3-feel lent itself well to the drinking song feel, until the rock opera spiraled out far from the drinking song it started out as. By the way, I stopped drinking as a competitive sport (or really at all) one year ago this month!
Song is in A minor, with very basic chords to make a folk-song "easy" tonality. The chords are Amin, C, Dmin, and F and G (with 7ths of those chords here and there).
Video: I use Mandelbulber 2.06 and the OpenGl version as well for generating fractal animation movies. This one was done on the graphics card (GPU) rather than the render farm (CPU). The base fractal algorithms here are Julia Sets of the basic Mandelbox fractal, morphing a big simple square through all three axis (Axii?) simultaneously, until interesting things happen. The tension between the competing morph lines allows a wide range of polymorphic shapes, from the basic square, to more elaborate latticed cubes, to a quantum foam of fractal goodness and bubbly brain matter.
If there's jargon and terminology in this nascent, beginning fractal animation field, I'm not aware of it. My apologies to anyone who studied 12-dimensional higher mathematics and geometry or who just knows the names for basic fractal shapes. So my terms as as good (for me, and for you!) as any, unless you have better (please share!). I just make them up as I need to.*
*Just like I invented "Light" and "Dark" chords when I first started teaching myself piano and music theory. Don't tell little Stevie Skywalker, but the rest of the world calls that "major" and "minor." (I still like my teenage terms, if we ever want to change...The tritone was the "Emperor's Interval" instead of the Devil's, so I got real close on naming that one—sorry, John Williams!)
Your feedback, comments, suggestions, impressions, and random fractal segues are always appreciated! (I’ve got some studio work this morning but will get to comments later this afternoon. Y’all behave.)
(Double posted, slightly altered, at Stickist.com.)
Cheers!
Stephen Sink, Paigan Productions
YouTube
Vimeo link, better quality and downloads:
vimeo.com/...
SoundCloud audio only:
Real Good Times: Solo Piano + Piano Solo
SoundCloud Link to original rock opera, Real Good Time (Extended Version):
Real Good Time: Extended Version
