End of March


Torrance Stage from Ottmar Liebert on Vimeo.

We are in Palm Desert where we will perform at the McCallum Theater tonight. This morning Stephen and I played a song for KMIR, Channel 6 TV. We picked Streetlight. Stephen had this to say about our morning.

The first month of our new subscription service is coming to an end. We delivered five songs, including a rehearsal recording, a remix, a rock-flamenco hybrid from 1995, a piece with Rahim, and a 24bit/96kHz version of a One Guitar piece. For April I think we’ll have another one of the rock-flamenco hybrids, an unreleased rumba from 2004 (((Jon and I worked on it recently for a compilation))), an hour-long ambient recording called one 1993, which we made while we were recording The Hours Between Night + Day, and something with the touring band, either from the recent rehearsals in Santa Fe or a live recording from this mini-tour. And, I might find some other stuff I just have to share…

Tomorrow is April 1st and the conficker C worm is supposed to kick into action. 10+ million zombie PCs might/will retrieve their marching orders from the mothership… The worm has been called the smartest nefarious bit of code ever written. Maybe not apocalyptic, but potentially deeply disturbing. Good luck to all you PCs out there. See you on the other side of April 1st.

Tuesday Desert

We are in Palm Desert and had a day off yesterday.  Took the strings off my guitar in the morning and cut a little shim from the hotel’s business card, to raise the bone-bridge on the treble side because the high E-string in particular was buzzing – possibly from the Californian humidity. I didn’t bring wood shims or different bridges (bone pieces) on this short tour, but the improvised shim seemed to work. (((A touring musician should be able to do basic emergency repairs of his instrument.)))

After two failed attempts I was able to upload the Time-Lapse I shot in Torrance last week to Vimeo. It took about 9 hours to upload the video at painfully slow speeds… Anyway, here it is – 1,673 photos running at 10 frames per second, or 167 minutes compressed into 2 minutes and 50 seconds:

Torrance Stage from Ottmar Liebert on Vimeo.

We will have a version available for download within a couple of days.

This morning Stevo and I went to channel 6, where I did a brief interview with Liberty and we played a duet of Streetlight. Before the interview Liberty asked me about my background. I explained and she replied that she was Chinese-Russian-American. I told her that I refer to myself as a mutt and asked her how she feels about that word. She said she had no problem with it. Mutts are always stronger than pure-breds, she said.

Then they showed a little kid on TV whose mother shaved is head to look like a cross-shaped Mohawk. (((Mohawks for Jesus?))) Stephen offered to let the news anchor shave something into his hair. The reply was, don’t tempt us, it’s sweeps-week and we’ll do anything!

Be sure to add friends@ottmarliebert.com to your email addressbook, or check your spam filter as I will send a new backstage-password for April this week. And, expect the next downloadable piece of music on Friday! Do you want another Lava tune, or a rumba? Or Lava on Friday and Rumba next Monday?

One last thing:
Tomorrow is April 1st and the conficker C worm is supposed to kick into action. 10+ million zombie PCs might/will retrieve their marching orders from the mothership… The worm has been called the smartest nefarious bit of code ever written. Maybe not apocalyptic, but potentially deeply disturbing. Good luck to all you PCs out there. See you on the other side of April 1st.

Day OFF

Stevo’s POV:
Stephen’s Journal and Stephen’s Flickr.

We are in Palm Desert and have a day off. Took the strings off my guitar this morning and cut a little shim from the hotel’s business card, to raise the bone-bridge on the treble side because the high E-string in particular was buzzing – possibly from the Californian humidity. I didn’t bring wood shims or different bridges (bone pieces) on this short tour, but the improvised shim seems to work.

Spy System Loots Computers

Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries – NYTimes.com
The malware is remarkable both for its sweep — in computer jargon, it has not been merely “phishing” for random consumers’ information, but “whaling” for particular important targets — and for its Big Brother-style capacities. It can, for example, turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of an infected computer, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. The investigators say they do not know if this facet has been employed.