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Felt vaguely out-of-it all day today, probably due to working an early shift yesterday at a convention center. The gig wasn't hard, just checking people off the list and giving them their materials for the seminar. The event looked like fun - it was a presentation by Edward Tufte, the "Beautiful Evidence" guy, about the design of graphic information displays (charts and graphs, diagrams, and so on). That's got to be a fascinating field to study: how our brain processes visual information, and how do you design the graphic so that it will be as readable, meaningful, and aesthetically pleasing as possible? The attendees all got a set of 4 books by Tufte, included with the price of the event.

So I came home yesterday but didn't crash right away, grabbed a much-too-short nap in the late afternoon and then couldn't sleep last night. Hopefully my sleeping schedule will get back on track tonight. Oh, plus I ate too much starchy food so my tummy feels kind of blah. But hey, if that's my worst problem in life then I guess I can't complain.

Anyway, things are good. I've just been in kind of a holding pattern today, but I did get some studying done. (Arabic verbs and Mathematica functions.) Seems like as good a time as any to use the "exanimate" mood icon.

Oh, and the weather is gorgeous here. Apparently we in the Pacific Northwest are being spared the ravages of the heat wave that's hitting a lot of other areas.

30 Years of "Olias"

I couldn't let this month go by without acknowledging the 30th anniversary of the release of Jon Anderson's magnificent solo album "Olias of Sunhillow". It is easily one of the finest albums of the progressive rock era, and probably my single favorite album of all time. From the opening clash of the gong in "Sound Out the Galleon" to the breathtaking melody of "Solid Space" to the wistful ending tune "To the Runner", every second of it is just pure beauty.

The story is said to have been inspired by a painting by Roger Dean, the iconic, surrealist artist of the prog rock world.

Jon Anderson was the frontman for the band Yes, best known for ... well, you probably wouldn't recognize the titles unless you were a Yes geek. But take my word for it, "Sibereian Khatru" is a great song, and no, I don't know what the title means either.

"Olias of Sunhillow" was released on July 3, 1976. Of course that was before CDs, and an album was a real album! "Olias" included a lavishly illustrated lyric sheet and storybook. But the music ... oh, the music! This was the music that kept me going all through my difficult teen years. It was my favorite music to get stoned to! But even without the benefit of psychedelics it was (and is) a mind-altering experience. It helped me to keep faith in spirit, transcendence, beauty, love.

And what's this? A SEQUEL?

Jon Anderson has been recently working on a sequel of the album, to be titled “Songs of Zamran: The Son of Olias”. Anderson said in a December 2005 interview with Anil Prasad of Innerviews: “I’ve written the story, the concept, I’m working on the music and it’s just a slow process and it’ll take as long as it takes, but technically, the ammunition is coming through the MIDI guitar plus some of the modern electronic stuff.”

The sequel is apparently divided in six different episodes, for which Jon Anderson has also been working with several animators to take the project to a visual scale. The new work, which will feature Anderson playing all the instruments again, is supposed to be released by 2008.

Squeee!