Dan's Toys




hardware:   SGI Indy/IRIX
software:   RTcmix, Mix, ceres


We at the CMC had been pretty burned by the prima-donna-ism we encountered running the 1997 ICMC in Thessaloniki, Greece. I had created this piece as a fun "tape" piece using my son's happy sound-making toys, but decided to submit it as a "performance" piece for the 1998 ICMC. The emphasis on "performance" at these silly conferences is a bit much, especially when contextualized by realizing that the "performance" is very much a look-at-me-aren't-I-great proposition. Jeez.

I recast this piece, then, as a true "performance" piece -- as the tape played, I reached into a bag and held up for display to the audience the toy being featured sonically. Hey, it was really difficult! I am the toy-display KING! Of course I had arranged to have Terry Pender run up to make the minute and obviously essential adjustments to the toys in the bag prior to the tape playing, because otherwise the performance would have been absolutely ruined.

Doggone I'm getting hateful in my old age. Oh well. I like this piece a lot, the toys are really wonderful (and Daniel and had loads of fun playing with them). I especially groove on the Speak-and-Spell solo towards the end, just before the cassette-player drums kick in. I had one of those Speak-and-Spell units when I was a kid. Let the circle remain unbroken...