I present two songs, one old and one new. I wrote This Isn’t Hollywood in 1981, a few years after hearing Billy Joel’s “Say Goodbye to Hollywood,” to which it refers obliquely (at the end of the song). Mister Nobody was a collaboration between myself (music) and Jennie Ochshorn (words); Jennie wrote the lyrics in 2007.
Author Archive for jon
structural calculators
25Jul08I’ve been working on some structural calculators lately, using some new software to convert Excel spreadsheets into HTML (web) applications. Examples include wood column design, wind and seismic load calculations, and steel beam design. I’ve always wanted to develop web-based calculators that would allow anyone with a browser to solve various structural problems; with this new software, […]
squints on a triple
14Jul08The song, Squints on a Triple, is based on a true story: my daughter Jennie beat me in a game of Scrabble by putting the word “squints” on a triple word square on her last turn. Scrabble fans know that putting the letter “Q” on a triple word square generates many points; having the letter “Q” […]
shadows burn video
23Jun08Shadows Burn was written and recorded in 2007 and previously posted on this blog. I just shot and edited a YouTube video, including me walking all over Collegetown and the Cornell campus, (with historic shots of the Brandon Avenue sidewalk in Ithaca, NY prior to its obliteration and reconstruction in June 2008) as well as […]
manifesto of love
10Jun08Manifesto of Love is a song that I wrote in 1983, based on an interest both in manifestos and in gospel-tinged piano-oriented rock. The current arrangement adds guitar, drums, bass, and a touch of organ, but pretty much preserves the original feel of the solo piano. As has become usual, you may find links to […]
shrinkwrap
24May08I began Shrinkwrap in late 2007 and finished it early this year as a poem; only later was it set to music, unlike most of the other songs I’ve written, which have started as musical ideas. I created some animated sequences (frame-by-frame in PhotoShop) and tried out some keyframe-triggered effects while editing the video. Susan […]
ballad of the barnes
13Apr08We drove down to Merion, PA during Spring Break, to visit the Barnes Foundation before its extensive collection of artworks is dismantled and shipped to Philadelphia. I made a short movie with my Flip video camcorder of the trip; of course this meant I needed to write a soundtrack for the movie. One thing led […]
dragon day
18Mar08I used my bottom-of-the-line Flip Video camcorder for the first time on a blustery March morning to film Dragon Day 2008 at Cornell.
ran thru my mind
16Mar08Ran Thru My Mind represents another experiment with live recording and videography. This is another “old” song (written circa 1980), but recorded for the first time in March 2008. Unlike the “live” recording of Almost Doesn’t Count, this one has some basic tracks (drums, bass, piano) pre-recorded on GarageBand before the “live” guitar and vocals […]
buckling
29Feb08Two nights ago, I was lying in bed, thinking about how one might derive the critical buckling load of a column by considering such a column loaded instead like a beam (causing a similar deflected shape). The two equations governing the mid-span moment and deflection of such a beam are, of course, ingrained in my […]
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