The New DecadeJanuary 22nd, 2010

Happy Holidays, New Year, New Decade, etc.  Wow, it’s been a long time since I posted, and a LOT has happened.  I’m glad to say that I accomplished my goal of completing Grad school with a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Receiving my diploma

Our holiday break was packed with family, food, and presents.  Cassie and I joked that we should film our travels and make a movie called “Five Christmases”.  It was great to spend time with all of our various families despite all of the rushing around.  We continued our tradition of visiting Milwaukee and hanging out downtown with my family.

Me, Cassie, my brother and his girlfriend with ‘The Fonz’ in Milwaukee!

Over the break, I was informed that my piece, ‘Opening/Unknowing’ was accepted to the University of North Carolina Digital Arts Festival this February!

My other major life change, other than Graduating, was starting a teaching position at the Institute of Art in Schaumburg.  I am teaching ‘Audio Technology II’ and ‘Listening and Analysis’.  It also doesn’t hurt that they just built a brand new multi-million dollar studio with an SSL console and the works.  In fact, I am lucky enough to teach one of the classes in the studio itself!

Andrew from Solid State Logic traning us on the console

Cassie has started her final semester at NIU and is working hard as usual.  She is teaching two classes as a Teaching Assistant this semester, so she has her hands very full.  She is also preparing for her Graduate show that will be coming up later in the semester.  She is currently showing some of her work at the Pleasant Street Gallery in Dekalb and we enjoyed going to the opening last night.

One of Cassie’s awesome paintings

As you might imagine, I am keeping myself out of trouble between my teaching position and the Bose store.  Cassie and I are excited to be on the path toward our goals and know that there’s a lot of excitement still to come.  My birthday is coming up this Sunday, and some friends are coming over to watch some football and have a good ‘ol time.  For now, in the words of Edward R. Murrow:  Good night and good luck.

Bobo being sneaky.  (stolen from Cassie’s blog)

Nowhere. - Now Posted Online!December 9th, 2009

I’m preparing to walk across the stage this Saturday and receive my Masters Degree!
In the meantime, I uploaded my thesis video. Check out the trailer:

And here’s the real deal: (Click the HD button to see it full-size)

Nowhere. from Nathan Edwards on Vimeo.

From the program notes:

Nowhere. is a high-definition video presentation filmed across seven states over the course of seven months. It is inspired by the filmmaking of Ron Fricke and Godfrey Reggio in its employment of non-narrative structure, use of time-lapse photography, and observational technique.

I saw this project as a personal challenge to create a film with production values that are as comparable as possible to the works of the filmmakers mentioned above, even with a limited amount of funding and equipment. The film was shot entirely on a Canon HV20 digital video camera and features music that was recorded and mixed on my home computer and in the computer music studio.

The resulting film seeks to uncover where we find the greatest wealth of beauty in our habitat by observing the way we live and the how we affect the land we inhabit. Through its poetic structure, the viewer is allowed to question both the aesthetics and meaning of our environmental impact and discover where the lines between garbage and grandeur are distorted or ultimately realized.

Article: Modern Age of Retail ShoppingDecember 2nd, 2009

In the Modern Age of Retail Shopping, Minimalism Can Give Consumers the Most

As curious shoppers made their first trips to the highly-anticipated new Microsoft stores, flooding the web with smartphone video tours, many of us noticed something fishy: The blinding white lights, roomy floor plan, and geometric tables with laptops sparsely presented on the surface. It all looks so familiar, as if there is another company out there who knows what kind of retail store design draws throngs of eager consumers like magnets. Indeed, both Apple and Microsoft find a minimalist store design to be an appealing approach, and are working to create a similar breed of shopping experience.

Read on…

A Day to RememberNovember 19th, 2009

I couldn’t believe the number of friends and family who came to see my show last Sunday.  I want to give a huge THANK YOU to all who attended and made it such a special day for me.  My thanks goes especially to Dr. Phelps for all of his help in the program, and to Cassie for all of her support and the work she put in to making the day great.  I also had a lot of help from Cassie and our families with the reception following the show.

The performance went great, and I was very pleased how fantastic the video looked on the big screen.  I will have many videos to come.  Here’s a few photos from the show:


At the piano performing “Tiny Pieces”

Setting up the board for a piece

As I mentioned, stay tuned for more pics and videos.  I’m almost a graduate (again)!

NOWHERE. - Concert this Sunday!November 9th, 2009

A Night of Collaborative SoundNovember 6th, 2009

We successfully completed another great Annex concert last night!
The concert was conceived by Evan Merz, and all performances were intended to be collaborations.
My piece was ‘Mechanical Lullaby 3′ which was a collaboration with my brother, as I mentioned earlier.
I think we had one of the largest turnouts I’ve seen!  It was a very diverse showing of live performance, surround pieces, and video.  Here’s some shots I took at rehearsal:

Evan and Kenneth Joseph with their piano and steelpan collaboration.

Alex Beach and Mark Popowitch getting ready to rock

Evan rockin’ the board.

Now that we’re done with this show, there’s only 9 days until my concert!  The time is near!

‘2′ Concert Coming UpOctober 22nd, 2009

We are nearing concert time, and our group concert titled ‘2′ is coming on Thursday, November 5 at 8 PM in the NIU Recital Hall.  From the list of names, it looks to be a packed show.  It is called ‘2′ because each piece is a collaboration.  I will be debuting the first piece that my brother and I have worked on!

Last week, I also joined Cassie on a trip to Minneapolis.  She went to a conference on Crafting and the DIY (Do-it-yourself) art movement, while I took footage around the city for my film, which is in its final stages.
As always, you can check out the trip from Cassie’s perspective on her blog.  We also just got her new website up and running, but it is obviously in the beginning stages, but oh the possibilities!

Seeing Jason Isbell, closer to Graduation!October 8th, 2009

Last week, Cassie and I took a break from our hard work to see Southern-Rock musician Jason Isbell at the House Cafe in Dekalb. Jason used to play with the Drive-by Truckers, a fantastic band that is still playing and touring, and now he has split off into his own band called Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.

I couldn’t believe that there wasn’t a bigger crowd at the House.  I was used to seeing the band play for hundreds of fans.  Although Jason probably didn’t play for more than about 60 people, he put his heart into the set and really rocked.  The opening bands were excellent, as well.  I especially enjoyed Tom Schraeder and his Ego. They were a Wilco-esque folk-rock style band.

Despite the small crowd, they were really into the whole show, and it was great for us because we got a front row seat and had the chance to meet and talk with him afterward.

In other school-related news, I am excited to say that I passed my comprehensive exam!  That means that I am one step closer to graduation and am now putting my full effort into the show on November 15.  I designed the poster last night, so here’s a tease:

Cassie has been working hard on a gallery show that will appear at the Bad Dog gallery tonight.  Lots more good stuff to come!

Life in Philip Glass’ HouseSeptember 27th, 2009

For my music research class, I have chosen to write a paper on Philip Glass and how his Minimalist music has impacted 20th-century composition.

This is partially in honor of his compositional contribution to the Qatsi Trilogy, a series of films by Godfrey Reggio, and the inspiration for my thesis project this semester.

My thesis project is also influenced by Ron Fricke, who was the cinematographer for the aforementioned films, and also directed several similarly themed films including Baraka and Chronos.

I have always been drawn to the music of Philip Glass and Minimalist music in general, but not necessarily known why. Some find Glass’ extreme use of repetition in some cases to be incredibly mind-numbing. These people may argue that this compositional technique is void of musical depth or emotional weight.

I am fascinated to discover the reasons behind Glass’ compositional technique and whether my enjoyment of his music is simply aesthetic or morally justifiable. Until I discover these answers, here are some clips in his honor:


You can actually watch the entire koyaanasqatsi film here.