What's Old?: A repository of old posts for the terminally bored.
28 May 2010 - And I updated my project page with a couple of things I've made this past year, including a puzzle box I finished yesterday. I've got a lot of projects I've started but never finished for one reason or another, so I'm going to try and get some of them done this summer. The puzzle box was started back in December so it's not been hanging out too long. The theremin on the other hand has been waiting to be completed for nearly six years. Other things awaiting completion: a Casio SK5 in the middle of a pretty complex circuit bend, a flanger guitar pedal, an arduino controlled clock, a 100 Demons book, hundreds of photos to upload to low-rez heaven, and of course filling all the content holes on this website.25 May 2010 - My daughter and I saw a really cool preview for The Last Airbender, a live action version of the great animated show Avatar: The Last Airbender. I was really sort of excited about it as the cartoon is pretty smart and is steeped in Asian mythology and history plus having a very epic (a la Campbell, not boobs) storyline. But it turns out there's some controversy around the picture and a small boycott is being called for. Apparently none of the main characters, who are all Asian, are actually played by Asians. Not the first time it's happened by far but it's made worse by the revelation that the casting notice specifically called for Caucasians. Apparently Hollywood bozos don't watch Asian films or they'd know there are a good number of very good young Asian actors on the market so it ends up being a matter of stupidity and bigotry. The requested boycott is to not see the film for the first two weeks it's out, which is super smart as this will hit the producers where it hurts most - the opening and first weekend receipts. I hope it works.
Speaking of action films, Iron Man II wasa bit of a disappointment. It suffers from the common "too many villians/none of them that interesting" problem that so many superhero films have. Remember that one Batman movie that has Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and The Riddler
24 May 2010 - I finished Cerebus last night - apparently it takes 3 months to read a 6000 page comic book --at least, if you are a teacher who also designed two professional shows in that time period. I'm not sure how I feel overall, though I guess it's positive. The last 1000 pages are difficult to get through and the penultimate book in particular is almost enough to make one give up. In it Sim basically rewrites the book of Genesis giving it his own anti-feminist spin complete with commentary and it's just not that interesting. In fact, though the author would surely argue the contrary, I think the story can be read and makes more sense leaving out the text pieces of the last 500 or so pages; they just don't add anything to the saga of Cerebus. The last book, which recounts the ancient Cerebus' last day, which was predicted around 2000 pages in to be him "dying alone, unloved and unmourned", has some odd and compelling twists, not the least of which is the introduction of a grown son, Shep-Shep, who visits his father on this day for the first time in 20-some years, bringing with him a disturbing portent of the future. Like the finale of LOST, which aired last night (and which I didn't watch, being that I never watched the series except for a bit in the first season), it's hard to imagine how one could end something with so many loose ends, so much time and speculation behind it and so much anticipation for "how it comes out" in a way that totally satisfies everyone. I wonder how future generations will view Cerebus (or Lost for that matter) when they have the distance from the original and the luxury of being presented with a complete, finite work rather than a serialized ongoing story with some eventual end promised. Will I read Cerebus again? Probably - certainly parts of it for sure and at some point I'll likely go through the entire 6000 pages again. Would I recommend it to others? Maybe. Guardedly. The first 4 volumes to be sure. Possibly the first half, though volume 8, without much reservation and maybe as far as volume 10. Still and all, a massive achievement in comics and storytelling.
23 May 2010 - I'm on Twitter now. I expect I'll be more of a follower than a followed, but if you're interested I'm @narcosislabs.
23 May 2010 - ...except that I filed a grade incorrectly and now have to go in to fill out a change of grade form :-/
21 May 2010 - My last official meeting of the 2009-10 school year. I am officially done with school now.
18 May 2010 - Dumb things that irritate me:
How exactly is this a serving suggestions? "Put some honey on a dipper and set it on the table."
04 May 2010 - I'm not a huge Frank Zappa fan. I like him well enough and I appreciate his guitar playing (and that amazingly scuzzy tone!), the complexity of much of the music, a lot of the humor but something has never really clicked to move me into the obsessive fan category. I think it's that I've never been able to reconcile the glee he seems to have at objectifying women. While he claims he's just poking fun at male attitudes, that rationalization has never washed with me for some reason. He certainly lampoons all ethnicities and belief systems equally, and his wife and daughter are both strong-no-crap-taken-here women, so maybe I'm just making too much of it. I've been listening to the recordings I own, which is mostly in the 1972-76 range when he was at his jazziest (and I'm noticing now, his proggiest), and it is good stuff. I'm also reminded that a number of things I've said since I was a teen in the 1970s were ripped directly from him:
- Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny. (substitute anything for the word Jazz)
- Is that a real poncho or a Sears poncho? (substitute anything for the word poncho)
- frunobulax (first thing out of my mouth when I need the name of a monster)
- Margarine (pronounced Mar-jar-een)
- Mammalian protuberances (wait... it will come to you...)
- Lit with a sulfur preparation
- smoking an old gym sock (not an exact quote but the idea comes from FZ)
03 May 2010 - My cell phone is pooping out. I believe I may have the oldest Motorola RAZR still in operation - it's a month shy of three years old, still has the original battery and except for the illumination on the keypad (which broke the first month I had the phone) it's been trouble free up until the last couple weeks. My new phone should be here by Wednesday.
01 May 2010 - I'm on the penultimate volume of Cerebus - 570 pages from the end. The previous two volumes have been difficult going as is the current. While the story is not as interesting as it was earlier in the series, I still marvel at someone taking 27 years to write and draw a story. How could it not change tone and focus radically 24 years after you started writing? Even if you had the entire epic plotted, things happen that span of time that change you as a person. Case in point: Sim had some kind of religious revelation coming to this part of his life and the book is dense with Judaism, Christian prophesy and general religious cultiness. No way that would have been predicted even five years earlier.
27 April 2010 - This past weekend I took a trip and for the first time found myself in the following dilemma: whether or not I needed to take my laptop or if my cell phone would be enough connectivity.
23 April 2010 - It's about 2 months into the complete Cerebus and I'm about 3/4 through the work - I have about thirteen hundred pages to go. This is the part of the opus that disappoints most fans. About 250 pages of this part are dense blocks of prose (with no art), a technique Sim had utilized sporadically since the middle of the story - this long sustained prose section alienated a lot of his remaining readers. It is generally felt that the storyline at the end fails to live up to the promise of the previous 4700 pages so I'm anxious to get through and see how it plays in sequence with the entire story, rather than spread out over six years. I was recently gratified to learn that the second season of Twin Peaks, which I'd remembered being slow, clunky and full of boring detours as it aired with huge gaps between episodes, actually plays fast and ambles little when re-watched. I think the same might be true here.
21 April 2010 - The end of the school year gets harder and busier every year.
5 April 2010 - I haven't bought anything by John Cale since his album with Eno in 1990. Prior to that, the last thing I'd bought was Sabotage Live in 1979. I'm listening to his 2005 release Black Acetate and it's pretty fantastic. I was going to say "pretty fantastic for a 63 year old guy" but it doesn't need to be qualified in any way. I may have to go back and see what I missed since Paris 1919 and Fear.
2 April 2010 - The most amusing April Fool's joke I saw this year is the courtesy of NIN, who announced a new album produced by hip-hop producer Timbaland and featuring guest appearances by Jay-Z, Sheryl Crow, Bono, Fergie and Alicia Keys. The accompanying description from the NIN website says
"To download NIN's new full-length album Strobe Light, PRODUCED BY TIMBALAND, enter a valid email address in the fields below. A download link will be sent to you immediately. Your credit card will be charged $18.98 plus a $10 digital delivery convenience fee. Your files will arrive as windows media files playable on quite a few players with your name embedded all over them just in case you lose them. You will also receive an exclusive photo and a free email account with our partner Google's Gmail service. Your email will be kept confidential and will not be used for spam, unless we can make some money selling it."
The song titles are pretty amusing too. I sort of wish it was real.
1 April 2010 - Over lunch yesterday, Ellen Juhlin and I were discussing unimaginative and lame audio product names and she suggested I start a list of more exciting and useful ones, like my list of useable band names. The new list is here . Audio developers take note....
27 March 2010 - It's a month later and I'm into volume nine of Cerebus The Aardvark, Reads. That's 3500 pages into the story, a little more than half way. The first six volumes are generally considered to be the strongest continuous arc of the story - in the second half, starting with Mothers and Daughters which is the collective title of volumes seven through ten, author/artist Dave Sim starts getting into some controversial material regarding women and feminism that ended up alienating him from many of his fans and a large part of the comic industry. Artistically, the back half of the story becomes much more experimental in the layout, artwork and storytelling, using, for instance, large sections of text without art and multiple simultaneous story lines. I'm curious how it will feel now, after some time has passed and reading it in a concentrated setting rather than over 10 years, 20 pages a month. Much of the controversy was on the letters pages with Sim and fans having some mean and nasty exchanges, so the actual content of the story may be less inflammatory than it seemed when people picking it apart page by page as it slowly progressed. By the end of the series the art has moments of simple breathtaking beauty, so while the going is tougher, the philosophy and point of view largely disagreeable, reading Cerebus continues to have its rewards. More as I progress...
17 March 2010 - I've been thinking about good opening acts I've seen.
27 February 2010 - Around 1985 I started reading a comic book called Cerebus the Aardvark. At that time it was 8 years old and about 80 some issues in. When the series ended 27 years later in 2004, it was a 6000 page story that spanned 300 monthly issues, making it the longest graphic work done by a single creative team, which it still is (Batman, for example, is a much older character but has been written and drawn by probably 100 different creative teams during it's existance.) Cerebus started as a sort of parody comic (swords and sorcery / Robert E. Howard / Barry Windsor-Smith) and quickly developed into dense philosophical/religious/satiric ... something. I've never actually sat down and read the entire thing straight through since it finished so I'm going to start now. How long do you think it will take to read a 6000 page comic book?
25 February 2010 - I was chastised today for not being social and hanging out more . Here is my calendar for this week:
This is 9am-10pm over seven days. Every week looks like this. I wish it didn't but it does. So if I'm not available for socializing, it's because I'm booked. Solid.
12 February 2010 - I sort of like all this snow.
5 February 2010 - Today I choked on a snow flake and spent hours playing with my Gristleism. And the list of useable band names hit the 300 mark.
4 February 2010 - Nothing but a pulse.
20 January 2010 - I got nothing.
3 November 09 - George Romero's wife had a yard sale last weekend. Miranda and I bought a bunch of stuff: a box of Legos with a Mindstorm brick, a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records 2002, a scooter and a page of original comic art I believe is by Jack Davis (EC Comics, Mad Magazine). I couldn't afford the movie memorabilia. Or the big decorative zeppelin.
14 October 09 - I just listened to the 40th anniversary remaster of King Crimson album Red. After my disappointment with the Beatle's reissues (16 bit ?!? come on guys! join the 21st century...) I've been praying the Crimson remasters justify purchasing something that I've already owned twice (LP and CD).
Red delivers. First listen to this version I heard things I'd never heard in 30 years of listening to this album. Multiple times per song, too. 96KHz sample rate on the stereo mix (a regular CD is 44.1KHz) and 24 bits for the stereo and surround mixes. The depth of the sound field, the clarity and imaging of the mix: stunning. I can't wait to hear the 5.1 surround mixes. I'm sold: I will spend the money to re-purchase every disc in their catalog based on this release. I won't be replacing my old Beatles.
4 October 09 - Not only is this year the 40th anniversary of King Crimson, it is also the 40th anniversary of Funkadelic. I am now officially one of those old guys who only listens to classic rock. Sad.
18 September 09 - All I'm doing right now is working and sleeping. I feel like I'm in motion 18 hours a day.
04 September 09 - Here's a good collection of bad album art. It's humbling to note that the #2 album is one I worked on - I did the house mix for this live album. None of my work is on the disc of course, as the album mix is all from the recording truck. I don't think my name is even on the album credits. I need to get this on my resume....
01 September 09 - I took this course last Thursday. I'm still percolating.
13 August 09 - Rest in peace Les Paul. Not only developed the solid body guitar that bears his name, but also a pioneer of multi-track recording and using the studio as a creative tool.
28 July 09 - In the last month I : moved, started teaching PreCollege, spent $40K in capital funds, read, saw Harry Potter 6, started design work on two productions for the fall, began rebuilding all my classes from the ground up with help from the teaching center at CMU, finally updated to OS X.5. I'll take the next three days easy. In August I'll: finish teaching PreCollege, go to NC for two days for a computer science/ sound design workshop, finish installing equipment at school, start teaching classes, attend a workshop on information design, and read the new Thomas Pynchon book. 9 June 2009 - Not much for updates recently but I'm busy. At work, it's maintenance and upkeep with some teaching starting at the end of June. At home, I'm trying to complete the multitude of projects laying around the studio. I'm trying to read every day.
Perhaps slightly more interesting than those projects: I'm about to start helping on the final phase of the Another Version Of The Truth DVD.
AVOTT is a fan-made DVD of the last NIN tour - one disc compiled from footage shot on camcorders by the audience at the final Lights In The Sky show in Las Vegas last December and one disc of HiDef video the band "unofficially" released from earlier shows in 3 cities. A highly dedicated group of volunteers have been editing the video and the audio into a 2 disc + BlueRay set that is just about ready for release. I've volunteered to help manage some of the distribution coordination for the physical sets, which is right now at about 5000 units. This is a totally free-of-charge, band approved and enabled release, all made and paid for by volunteers. It will also be posted for download. The first official clip is absolutely amazing- go here and scroll down a bit and either download the ipod version or play the flash version. I count 7 camera angles and there may actually be more. Really first class work on the editing. The fans are already taking advantage of the open recording policy the band has announced for their current summer tour with Jane's Addiction -- there is a website that is tracking who is recording what shows, in what format and coordinating putting the right people together for the next phase, which could be as thorough as a HD video available for download of each show on the tour. Mom always said don't give it away when someone will pay for it (not my Mom of course, someone else's Mom) -- I wonder if or how this will impact the music industry?14 May 2009 - School's out. I have to go to NYC next week for a day but other than that, I think my obligations are complete.
13 April 2009 - Friday the Thirteenth came on a Monday this month.
21-26 March 2009 - In sound school. There is so much to know and so much I don't know.
20 March 2009 - In Cincinnati, home of William "Ah...the name is Bootsy" Collins.
11 March 2009 - Re: yesterday's posted rant:
"A necessary caution: the"democratization of tools" gets rid of many financial and technical constraints but does not save us from the constraint of working. Owning a DV camera does not magically confer talent on someone who doesn't have any or who is too lazy to even ask himself if he does."
and
"The exponential growth of stupidity and vulgarity is something that everyone has noticed, but it's not just a vague sense of disgust– it's a concrete, quantifiable fact (you can measure it by the volume of the cheers that greet the talk-show hosts, which have grown by an alarming number of decibels in the last five years) that comes close to a crime against humanity."
– Chris Marker (traveller, filmmaker, writer, photographer, artist), quoted in Libération, 2003
10 March 2009 - For better but probably for worse, a bit about how I feel about some aspects of theater.
6 March 2009 - The day takes a HUGE leap into goodness with the accidental discovery that Nick Currie, aka Momus, has posted 6 early and totally brilliant albums on UBUweb. They are currently out of print and while likely owned by some corporation, he's not sure who and until he gets in trouble he's putting them up for free download. Momus is a songwriter's songwriter and definitely on the fringe of popular music -- he takes his stage name from the Greek god of mockery which gives the first clue to what to expect. I hear Leonard Cohen, Jacques Brel and Serge Gainsbough in his work, but by way of club electronica and 80s pop, all dripping with wit and irony. Just try not to love "The Complete History of Sexual Jealously (Pts 17-25)". He's under fire all the time for subject matter including things like a song about a doctor who molests his patients, a love affair between a guitar teacher and a 12 year old pupil, the resemblance of the Michelin Man to a popular sex doll, a cannibal love fantasy, a man pimping his sister for peer social status, and an erotic fantasy involving Wendy Carlos traveling back in time to have a relationship with her pre-sexchange self Walter. Obviously he's not for the easily offended . It's not totally rough going though it's all pop music and his wit and skill at getting to the fragile core of what makes us human tempers even his most outrageous songs. Nearly everyone should own one of his albums and it should probably by Tender Pervert or Hippopotamomus.
6 March 2009 -I think all three of these are intertwined and say it all as far as my current frame of mind.
- I switched back to Thunderbird as an email client. A number of new features since I last used it suggest more productivity and a better user experience than I've been getting with Apple Mail.
- Started writing a rant about the aspects of theater that completely depress and bore me.
- Listening to music that seems to be unclassifiable , at least as far at iTunes thinks -- Korekyojin, Ruins, Secret Chiefs 3, Jon Hassell.
5 March 2009 - I finished Sock. It was disappointing as I feared. The slight of hand was too late and too obscure to make me care.
1 March 2009 - I'm reading three books, which is a bit more than I usually take on at once. Sock is disappointing and I probably won't finish it -- the concept (a crime story told by a sock monkey owned by a cop) is better than the book but as it is by Penn Jillette I feel obligated to try and get through it. In slight of hand and magic, often the beginning of the production is misdirection so I keep thinking that if I get far enough along everything will suddenly lock into place. Envisioning Information is the second of Tufte's books on how visual constructs deliver information and is as provocative as the first. What It Is, which I started reading yesterday, may be the most important book I read this year. I haven't been so jaw-to-the-floor amazed and intellectually cold-cocked by the first five pages of a book in since Understanding Comics. I realize I have sadly forgotten how brilliant Lynda Barry is as a storyteller and an artist -- I used to see her weekly in the Houston City Paper but I don't think I've seen a scratch of hers since moving to Pittsburgh.
In four months, my current job will be the longest I've been employed by a single entity in my entire life. In six months, I will have lived in Pittsburgh for 10 years which will be will longer than any other location in my life.
5 February 2009 - I've been trying to work on some projects that have been sitting around, some for over 5 years. We'll see how this goes. 26 January 2009 - My daughter was accepted at Rogers Middle School, which is the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts magnet middle school. She was acccepted in music. I'm very proud of her.
22 January 2009 - I'm now one degree of separation away from Miley Cyrus. Those who know me: you are now two degrees of separation away from Miley Cyrus. It's not a bad place to be.
15 January 2009 - Actor Patrick McGoohan died yesterday. I have really distinct memories of THE PRISONER from when I was little -- I must have seen it or commercials for it because for years I had a vivid memory about a TV show that had big balloons chasing a man on a beach. When I finally saw THE PRISONER about 10 years ago, it was a revelation. I don't know how that show got on the air, even for the short time it was made. There's a funny nod to the show in a Simpson's episode about Homer being in a cult -- it shows up now and then in other areas of pop culture. McGoohan was also Danger Man (aka "Secret (pause) A-gent Man" as the song goes) and was in the movie SCANNERS. But he'll always be #6 for most of us. Be seeing you, Patrick.
10 January 2009 - I'm having trouble coming to terms with Time; I don't have enough to continue my learning because all the other parts of my life take up all the time.
5 January 2009 - nada.
12.29.08 - Lars Hollmer, the great Swedish musician and composer, died on Christmas Day. Very sad. He trod a odd path: playful, wistful, lovely, and catchy melodies contained within avant-garde, improvisational, complex structures. Swedish folk music mixed with avant=rock/jazz. Truly one-of-a-kind.
12.28.08 - I doubt much new will happen over the next few days, so the yearly wrap-up as it were.
12.16.08 - I've moved my Images to my own server -- I filled up my free Flickr account and they wanted me to pay money to add more photos. I'm using software called Gallery that seems nice so far. Still working out the the structure and putting in content but it seems to be generally working.
12.15.08 - 13 days and I still got nothing.
12.02.08 - I got nothing.
11.22.08 - One of my favorite bloggers is back after about a two year absence. Hammer Of The Godz has nothing to do with Led Zeppelin or the Norse god of thunder and everything to do with "smiting the dull and idiotic".
11.18.08 - Because I'm currently obsessed with the totally brilliant and wickedly complex Black Dossier I happen to know today is Alan Moore's birthday.
I mention this because I'm beginning to believe he may be the best writer of our generation. The fact that nearly his entire oeuvre is in comic books will probably mean he'll never get his due, but damn he's an amazing writer -- the closest thing to a Thomas Pynchon comic books have. Do yourself a favor and pick up From Hell, Watchmen (the only graphic novel on Times All-Time 100 Best Novels), V for Vendetta, Volume 1 and/or 2 of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and see what the fuss is all about. For all the high brow writing etc, you gotta admire him for appearing on the Simpsons and making fun of himself being outraged at a DVD of "The Watchmen Babies in V for Vacation" that Milhouse asks him to sign. Now that I think about it, Pynchon has been on the Simpsons also...11.13.08 - Friday the 13th came on a Thursday this month. Mitch Mitchell died yesterday. While Hendrix is rightfully a supernova on the music horizon, his band didn't suck either. The three Experience recordings (Are You Experienced?, Axis:Bold as Love, Electric Ladyland) are seminal and Mitchell was probably one of the first jazz drummers to make the jump into hard rock years before there was such at thing as Jazz/Rock Fusion. The net result was the drums on those albums aggressively interacting with the guitar and bass, rather than holding the back beat, a technique taken for granted in Progressive Metal, if not most rock, today. He was the last of the Experience to pass on. Give "Fire", "Manic Depression", "Hey Joe" or "Crosstown Traffic" a spin and marvel at the elegance and skill. RIP Mitch.
11.04.08 - The big disappointment of this year was missing the King Crimson 40th anniversary warm up tour. Only a few dates played and I couldn't go. There is a live document of one of the Chicago shows available for download from DMG. It's pretty damn fine -- they are playing old material and it totally kicks ass. Now I'm really really mad I couldn't see them.
11.03.08 - Jimmy Carl Black died Saturday. He was "the Indian of the group...." R.I.P.
And in other depressing old rocker news, apparently Hugh Hopper has leukemia and is undergoing agressive radiation therapy. While neither is exactly a household name, they've both been profoundly influential on generations of musicians on the outer fringes of music. FWIW both play on albums listed in the 1000 Recordings book mentioned in the previous post.
11.01.08 - Here's a funny look at Obama, Clinton and Bush (McCain has nothing funny about him so he's not in this). Part 2 of why I'm not voting for Obama. By the brilliant Matt Feazell, one of my favorite cartoonists.
10.31.08 - "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." John Quincy Adams
I wonder what would happen if everyone who is voting voted AGAINST all incumbent candidates?
10.30.08 - There's a book getting a lot of press right now called 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die. Like any list book it's got things one agrees with (ex. Music From The Morning Of The World, Nevermind the Bollocks, Einstein On The Beach), things one disagrees with (ex. anything by GNR, anything by Neil Young, anything by Whitney Houston), and things that you can't believe aren't on there (The Third Reich and Roll, Heroes, Signals Calls and Marches). It's an interesting list, not claiming at any point to be "The 1000 Greatest Albums Ever Made" but rather, "these are some recordings everyone who likes music should make the time to listen to at least once". You'd think that slight distinction would make it a little less controversial but judging from the blog, people are angry about inclusions and omissions. I was a little surprised to find that I only own 8% of the 1000 listed and I've only actually heard 15% of the total list (although in the case of most of the classical pieces, I'd heard them, just not the performance/recording the author recommended). I guess I'm not as well-listened as I thought.
10.29.08 - Tonight I explained to my 10 year old why will I not vote for Obama or McCain. I don't know if she understood the reasons but I think she understood that I was passionate about the things I wanted the President of the USA to believe in. She definitely understands that her dad want's people to know there are options outside of TWO. I'm very proud that she went back to her social studies teacher asking why they aren't learning about the 12 other registered candidates running in this election. She's thinking of adding a column to her Election Project about what some of the other candidates support on the major issues -- without any prompting from me. Go Panda!
What did I say? Well... both represent parties that support the occupation of Iraq, the erosion of civil liberties via The Patriot Act, the death penalty, the "war" on drugs, bailing out corporations and banks, and an increase in the Military's budget. Both candidates represent parties that oppose (or want to neuter) legislation to deal with global warming, national health insurance, electoral reforms, the killing of Iraqi civilians and use of land mines. I have to say I'm most angry at the Democrats regarding National Health and Environmental issues, for which they loudly trumpet support but for which they have yet to support in anything remotely resembling a majority of the elected Democrats on any bill that's come up for vote. Honestly -- at least the Republicans have the balls to just say they don't support those issues. For me these are the issues that matter: quality of life for all people, peace, and the environment. I'll say one last time: based on the fact that both of the front runner candidates support identical actions for what are to me the major issues makes them interchangeable in their unsuitableness to be President.
The Mom of one of The Panda's friend's asked me if I was "offended" that she was a hardcore Obama supporter [interesting word choice I thought....I'm guessing Miranda said something like "My Dad thinks Obama is unqualified and spineless" so the Mom thought I was a McCain supporter?? Because, what else could I be if I don't like Obama.... :-) ] I'm not. At all. You don't have to vote for McKinney or Nader on Tuesday -- just be sure that you're pulling the lever for the person who best represents your beliefs and values. No one can ask more than that. I'll shut up now.
10.27.08 - Malcolm Bowes, my first sound design teacher died yesterday. From him I learned that there was such an animal as Sound Design -- that the skills I had developed in editing and recording and mixing had a place in the profession of theater I loved so dearly. I learned that sound could do things visual design couldn't approach doing. He introduced me to the art of Robert Wilson, and was very very proud when ten years later, I was working with Bob as a sound designer. I hadn't had much contact with Mal in recent years even though we live less than 50 miles apart. My own laziness which I regret sadly. R.I.P.
10.15.08 - People are fucking idiots. An article about fucking idiots. Stupid and greedy fucking idiots. I love the fact that the 13 month old and his young mother would be liable for damages of "up to $150,000". I could walk down to the local music store and shoplift the entire album, which would result in a $15.99 loss to the record company (actually, to the merchant, since the record label has already been paid for that object by the distributor, who has already been paid by the merchant). How is it possible that "stealing" (i.e. using) 29 seconds is worth $150,000?
While on the subject of creative reuse, the new release by Pittsburgh's own Girl Talk, Feed The Animals, is available for pay-what-you-wish download at Illegal Art. It's a great mash-up album -- I recommend the seamless single file version, which is a 55 minute party waiting to happen. Gregg is really smart and funny and as usual, the album is a finely crafted collection of unlikely, illegal musical intersections.
10.14.08 - Just when you think people can't be anymore obviously greedy and stupid...
10.13.08 - Friday the 13th came on a Monday this month....
10.10.08 - My favorite artist has his first show in NYC. I wish I could see it.
Story is here.
10.09.08 - I'm trying to figure out why I hang onto CDs when I could digitize them on my computer, removing several thousand items of clutter from my life. The artwork and booklets aren't that interesting most of the time. I can find more information about the release on-line than the liner notes contain. As well as the lyrics. Maybe there are certain discs I can justify keeping (autographed, cool packaging, packaging is intrinsic to the music, rare or special editions) and the rest can have their digital data moved from a disc to a hard drive. Is there something I would later regret about giving up the physical item? I could copy them uncompressed or at high resolution so it isn't about quality. On my mind...
10.08.08 - Define "story". An account of sequenced events told for entertainment? A plot-line? Not so hard I thought. I guess I'm wrong. "Haunted house" is not a story. "Cooking food" is not a story. "Walking outside" is not a story. "Going to church" is not a story.
10.01.08 - A new Neil Gaiman kids book snuck out. I've read part of it; a chapter was excerpted in his last collection of stories. It's about a boy who's raised by ghosts.
Also, the band UKZ is making waves in the prog community as it is a version (sort of) of the much loved 1970's band UK. I haven't heard their first release (a download single from an EP out next month) but but supposedly it sounds like Crimson with keyboards :D [10/2/08 update - Heard the song. It sounds exactly like the current new metal version of Crimson with keyboards. To the point that I wonder "Why?"]
09.28.08 - I ran out of space at Flickr and they wanted me to pay, so I moved all my images to this server. The page is now here.
09.08.08 - I read The Medium Is The Massage: An Inventory of Effects by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore last night for the first time since college. It's a little frightening how accurately they describe the current world from their vantage point way back in 1967. They were some really smart guys.
09.05.08 - Last month I directed theater for the first time in 20 years. Not much of a thing really, probably should be called "directing" with quotes as it was a show with 2 people and a robot. It was sort of fun. Not sure if it makes me want to direct theater again though. But I did get the robot to do a funny slow-burn take and to say the words "monkeyboy" and "chalupa", which was kind of great.
09.03.08 - I've grown very attached over the last year to a little utility called Quicksilver. If you're not a Mac person, Quicksilver is a super smart little "shortcut engine" for opening applications, searching for documents, running scripts and even doing email. It's sped up my computing immeasurably. I can find documents, web pages, emails, folders all with a couple of key strokes. I was using one of the university computers the other day and found myself automatically typing CTRL+SPACE to try and bring up Quicksilver --- and getting super annoyed when I had to crawl around with a mouse to find the stuff.
Yesterday, I found a Firefox add-on called Ubiquity. Basically, it's Quicksilver for the internet. The demo shows a guy creating an email to a friend, inviting her to lunch, imbedding a map to the restaurant into the email-- all in Firefox and with no cut/paste -- all by typing a few commands. Then he adds the lunch date to his calendar with another couple of key strokes.
Both Quicksilver and Ubiquity are free. Ubiquity will run on Mac, Windows and Linux, but only on works with Firefox (which you should be using anyway...). When Ubiquity adds support to Thunderbird, I'll finally have the reason I need to dump Mac Mail.
I've added a page devoted to the software I use and where to get it -- use the link above.
"Act without doing; work without effort. Think of the small as large and the few as many. Confront the difficult while it is still easy; accomplish the great task by a series of small acts." --Lao-Tze.
09.02.08 - I just uploaded a recording I made of a concert by The Flower Kings to the Internet Archive's Live Music Archive. Here's the direct link. I'm pretty happy with how it sounds and it's been getting a good response from TFK's fans in the short time it's been posted. It's FLAC, so if you don't know what that means or how to decode those to playable files, you'll need to Google some free software. [The site has been updated since this post and the files are now available in FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, or hi and low quality MP3s.]
08.26.08 - Day two of classes. I'm less ready than usual this year.
08.12.08 - I'm in North Carolina at Wake Forest meeting with sound designers and computer programmers in a CCLI workshop. Very interesting group and with good ideas I'm totally stealing. I hope I can work some of this into my teaching.
08.06.08 - The trailer for WATCHMEN is pretty amazing. I'm trying not to get too excited 'cause the movie has been in the works for 23 years and been through more directors and producers than DUNE. My first reaction to the trailer was that the actors are all too young (the novel is about very middle-aged, mostly retired heroes), but I'll suck that up. The scenes shown are amazingly detailed in a way that anyone familiar with the novel will pick up on immeadiately, so that made me very encouraged for the script doing justice to the original.
07.24.08 - NIN US tour starts tomorrow. No Pittsburgh date yet -- probably have to wait for the second half of the tour like last time.
07.23.08 - Over at Guitarworld there is a pretty great series of videos with Meshuggah guitar players Marten Hagstrom and Fredrik Thordendal. They talk about 8 string guitars (custom made by Ibenez), tunings (standard intervals but down a 1/2 step, a relic from when "Meshuggah songs had singable melodies" - heh), how they learn those insanely complex parts (instinct and muscle memory), rehearsals (don't have them) followed by riff lessons for a bunch of Meshuggah "hits". Marten and Fredrik come off as really funny and charming guys who happen to play music that sounds like it was ejaculated by Satan. I've always thought that Meshuggah were very aware of Spinal Tap and play to the stereotypes that movie pokes fun at and these videos confirm their self-aware humor. The high point is probably in the discussion of "Pravus" where Marten admits he has no idea why they play such complex stuff when no one can really hear what they are doing.Check it out -- there are worse ways to waste 30 minutes of your life.
07.16.08 - I'm enjoying the work of Banksy, the anonymous British graffiti artist . Check out his site -- the movie of his Disneyland "installation", where he placed an inflatable Guantanamo Bay detainment camp prisoner complete with black hood and handcuffs, inside the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride, is priceless. His stenciled graffiti work is amazing.
07.12.08 - Downtown Houston in the morning doesn't smell like human urine any more.
07.09.08 - I continue to be reinforced in my belief that copyright is archaic, wrong headed and favors only greedy bean-counters instead of the artists it purports to support. I hope the digital era strangles it and puts it to rest.
07.05.08 - I don't normally read a newspaper but I looked at one this morning and happened on an article about a large vinyl donation to Syracuse University. The donor is the late Morton Savada, who ran a record store in NYC called Records Revisited and died earlier this year apparently. I knew Mort, sort of; I never actually met him but talked to him on the phone enough that he knew my name and remembered I worked in theater. In the pre-internet/pre-CD reissue days there were huge numbers of recordings that just weren't available except on their original 78s or from collectors. I don't remember how I got Mort's name, but for many many years he supplied me with tapes of hard to find recordings which I used in productions. I'd call him, tell him what song or artist I was looking for and in a few days he'd call me back with whatever he'd found in his collection. And usually he'd found not only what I needed but also a dozen other things that "might be useful". He'd quote a price, record the tracks to cassette from the 78s and mail it to me. I think I've still got his business card somewhere and maybe a few of those old cassettes. He had an astounding knowledge of recorded music. I'm sorry to hear he's gone.
06.30.08 - In the last 7 days I've misplaced my driver's license, got a flat tire, and got a speeding ticket. Think it's a hint?
06.20.08 - I just spent three days in Las Vegas on a retreat hosted by Cirque Du Soleil. I saw four of their five resident shows while I was there: Love, Mystère, Ká and Zoomanity -- and got extensive backstage tours of Mystère and Ká including watching rehearsals and seeing their show set-up. Of their touring tent-shows I've only seen Quidam and that was about 12 years ago or more.
I probably liked Mystère the best as a theater experience -- it's simple and charming and lovely to experience. Ká is the most technology heavy -- I have a friend who refers to it as "tech porn" -- and it is astounding though I found myself dozing off in the non-tech story parts. Zoomanity I liked more than I expected -- it's their adult show so it's basically Cirque topless but with cabaret feel and lots of humor running though it. Also a really good band with two great singers. Love was what I expected. I wasn't disappointed at all and them music sounds superb as it flies around the 4000+ speaker system of the theater. I couldn't tell you what happened on stage for the most part, other than a Volkswagen kept coming on, but it was a totally enthralling 90 minutes. The rest of Vegas was a little disappointing -- it has become very commercialized since I was there 15 years ago, which is saying a lot. Many McDonalds , several CVS drug stores and at least three shopping malls line the Strip for example, and I saw fast food in most of the Casinos. Everything from tuxedos and cocktail dresses to cut-offs/torn t-shirts/flip-flops for gambling attire and unfortunately, much more of the later than the former. Pete Rose was the only famous person I saw there and I wish I hadn't -- he looked awful and it was depressing (and no, the irony didn't escape me). The Sex Pistols played one of the casinos a few weeks ago -- wish I'd seen that. I took a lot of pictures of carpet while I was there, which are on my flicker page (link above).
06.09.08 - There is a BBC documentary floating around called "The Alchemists Of Sound" about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a little compositional brain-trust that created music and effects for BBC productions in the 1960-1990s. They are best known on this side of the pond for creating the theme for Dr. Who as well as the sound effects for that show and the Hitchhiker's Guide programs. I was very surprised to see that their working methods were actually music concrete (i.e. tape recording and splicing) , not synthesis. I always assumed the Dr Who Theme was synthesized -- it wasn't (at least not until the 1980s version). That distinctive bass sound is a piece of string being plucked. There are some oscillators, filters, struck piano notes and signal generators creating the various other sound. Painfully built up one note at a time via tape loops , manipulated via speed controls and in the absence of multitrack machines the final version was made by hand-syncing multiple tape machines until the timing was right. Wow. This link to a WMV download of the show appears to still be working. It's probably available elsewhere online too.
06.08.08 - Check out the artwork of Alex CF. He makes artifacts from times and places that never existed. They are really amazing.
06.06.08 - Heard a band today called Does It Offend You, Yeah? Not sure if that's a good or bad name. The music is sort of old-school electronic/industrial -- Twitch era Ministry came to mind -- and not really offensive. Kind of tweaky but not obnoxious or lewd. Maybe the question is about something else.... Or maybe they need to pull a band name from here. [update 06.09 -- The name apparently comes from THE OFFICE, the full quote being "Does it offend you, yeah? My drinking?" Nicely random.]
06.02.08 - The new Opeth album Watershed arrived today. "The Lotus Eater" is the standout track -- full of very unexpected twists and turns. I continue to believe they are the best band in metal and probably rock in general.
05.13.08 - Friday the 13th came on a Tuesday this month.
05.07.08 - Had the chance recently to see the technical metal band Meshuggah and they were stunning -- stunning like "so overpowering to the senses one loses consciousness or becomes delirious". Possibly some of the most sonically overwhelming 45 minutes of my life.
05.05.08 - At the risk of boring anyone with more news about free online music or more Nine Inch Nails news: NIN just released another album (2nd this year, 4th since last May) called The Slip and it is totally free. In a comment on their website Trent Reznor says to fans "thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me". You can get it at the front page of the NIN website. BTW, it is really good, not a bunch of leftovers tossed out. And as per his recent M.O., all the multi-tracks for the tracks are available online also. Thank you Trent.
05.02.08 - The healing power of music: Go Home Productions has a new album of all new material and it's brilliant and it's free. Each song also has a mash up video to accompany it. Thank you Mark.
05.01.08 - Been in school for two days learning about sound system theory. It's nice to learn.
04.26.08 - Through an odd series of unexpected circumstances, I got a chance to meet and talk briefly with Rick Witkowski, the guitarist from Crack The Sky. CTS were a prog rock band (sort of) from the mid-70s who made three great studio albums, a great live album and then a couple of okay albums before disintegrating in the early 1980s. They play occasional reunion shows and Rick told me they are headlining a Prog Rock fest in Philly next weekend. Very nice guy -- great guitar player -- very under-rated and overlooked band.
04.21.08 - Another Crimson related post -- they posted a 2:30 minute mp3 today from the rehearsals they just finished in Nashville. Very nice teaser.
04.17.08 - Steve Wilson is rumored to be mixing the King Crimson catalog in 5.1 surround. I'd buy those. I'll be listening to KC all day today and tomorrow. I just happened to pull two of their discs to listen to in the office today: The Vrooom Sessions and ProjecKt Two Space Groove. When looking at the first disc I noted that this, the fifth version of KC, started rehearsing on 04.18.94, 14 years from tomorrow, which seems as good a reason as any to review the music produced by that version of the band, which existed from 1994 until 1998 when they fracKtured into the ProjecKts (and the first ProjecKt release was the second of the two discs I grabbed today Space Groove).
04.15.08 - I hate taxes. More than that I hate the fact that the City of Pittsburgh taxes me more than the State of Pennsylvania. There is something wrong with that, isn't there? And, if that wasn't arrogant enough, they "don't recognized pre-tax contributions to retirement accounts", so they tax you on more money than the Feds or the State. Total bastards. And for my tax dollars I get a $650 auto repair bill due to bottoming out in a pot hole the size of a MiniCooper.
04.13.08 - The Theater Of The Grand Guignol opened its doors 101 years ago today. I did a few updates to my page but it's still pretty incomplete. I remember seeing Beauty Queen of Leenane a couple of years ago and thinking "Yeah, face on the stove -- already been done at the Grand Guignol". Not for the faint of heart.
04.10.08 - Robot Hall of Fame induction was fun. Free food. Mark Hamill. Anthony Daniels.
Anthony "C-3P0" Daniels, Mark "Luke Skywalker" Hamill, Zach "Young Spock" Quinto.
Miranda got Mark Hamill's autograph. He was very nice and funny.
I want a Lego Mindstorm kit please.
04.06.08 - I'm supposed to take Miranda to the 2008 induction ceremony at the Robot Hall of Fame on Wednesday. Anthony "C3PO" Daniels will be there as MC. Past inductees include HAL9000 (2001:A Space Odyssey), R2D2 (Star Wars) , the Mars Pathfinder Sojourner Rover, Ultimate (first assembly line robot), Shakey, ASIMO, Astro Boy (Japanese Manga icon), C3PO (Star Wars) , Robby (Forbidden Planet), Maria (Metropolis), David (AI), Gort (The Day The Earth Stood Still), the Sony AIBO, and the SCARA industrial robot arm. This year will be the Raibert Hopper, NavLab5, the LEGO Mindstorms and Lt. Cmdr. Data. Brent Spiner isn't coming -- so they've got CMU drama alum Zach Quinto who will be playing Spock in the next Star Trek movie (he's Sylar on Heroes if you watch that show). Klaatu barada nikto. I'll try and get some good pictures.
04.02.08 - If you don't know, and since I rarely talk about politics you likely wouldn't, I've been volunteering for Cynthia McKinney's Presidential campaign editing audio for her websites. One of the clips I worked on is up on her site now if you're interested. It's a discussion on Gender and Race issues that ran on the KPFK Lawyer's Guild show last week.
There are alternatives to Republicans and Democrats. I realized several years ago I was voting against candidates and by doing that, wasn't really voting for leaders I trusted and in whom I believed. It was voting for the lesser evil. And as I looked at the lesser evil, I didn't like what I saw -- being less bad wasn't the same as being good. So I made the choice to vote for leaders who believe what I believe and hold the values I hold and are unwilling to compromise those beliefs. I vote for candidates who lose. Friends tell me I'm wasting my vote or worse, by voting the way I vote I'm allowing the candidates I most oppose to win. Sorry but I don't see it that way: my vote needs to be earned, you don't get it just by the fact of not being as bad. Vote for the person you feel represents you best; don't vote against the people/beliefs you hate -- that in my mind is wasting your vote.
04.02.08 - I have a Flicker page -- got it over the summer to be able to post photos from Prague for folks to download as it's much easier to send a link then email attachments. Today I decided to upload everything from my cell camera and delete all the things that came from a real digital camera. So there are about 60 photos of various things and some are actually pretty nice if I do say so myself. Sort of a high tech pin-hole camera in terms of quality -- a digital Andy Warhol polaroid collection in a way. Anyway, if you're interested the link is above.
03.30.08 - If you haven't seen/heard the recently revealed first ever audio recording made in 1860 (17 years before the Edison Phonograph) you should hear it. There's a good NYTimes article here and the audio is easily streamed or downloaded here at Create Digital Music.
Also the sound sample set for the OLPC (the "every kid in the world needs a laptop" project) is online for download. It's a HUGE loop and sample library put together by an impressive array of folks and it sounds pretty darn good. All Creative Commons -- the servers are currently crashing with the number of downloads, but if you're interested I'll send you a torrent you can use to get most of the collection. As soon as things stabilize I'll put up a link on one of the sound pages.
03.28.08 - After the fun of USITT last week, this has been a not good week. Karma I suppose.
03.16.08 - In Houston this week for the USITT convention. A week of geeking out with people who do exactly the same thing I do for a living.
03.05.08 - New NIN album, Ghosts I-IV out today. Download the first part free at the Ghosts Website. It's released under a Creative Commons license. Amazing.
03.04.08 - The day of the year that's also a sentence. A command actually, and a good plan for the immediate future.
02.29.08 - I just noticed that 8 of the last 10 albums I bought were digital downloads. Not sure what that means but it struck me.
My first article, co-written with two colleagues, was just printed. If you're interested you'll find a downloadable copy here. Not a big deal, just the CMU faculty rag, but it's something.
02.28.08 - R.I.P. Buddy Miles. I met him and mixed his band in 1989. He had recently gotten out of prison for drug possession and was just making a comeback as the voice of the lead Raisin in those California Raisins "Heard It Through The Grapevine" commercials. Meeting and working for him was my first one-degree-of-separation from Jimi Hendrix . A troubled life and a talented drummer.
02.24.08 - I still got nothing.
02.21.08 - I got nothing.
02.13.08 - Friday the 13th came on a Wednesday this month.
02.10.08 - I hate cars.
01.28.08 - Random updates across the pages. Mostly edits and updating things that were out of date. Too many to list and nothing really worth pointing to directly.
01.24.08 - The Panda's pocket knife.
It's a 4 inch Buck knife -- I thought about a utility Swiss Army type knife but decided it needed to be just a knife. One locking blade with a slim, easy to grip handle. She's working on whittling an pen. She seemed to enjoy it and managed to not cut or poke herself. One down, five to go.
01.19.08 - I got nothing.
01.08.08 - 2007 at a glance.
01.06.08 - 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do.
I almost bought The Panda a pocket knife for Christmas but talked myself out of it. I'm sad to say I haven't done any of these. Yet.
01.03.08 - I got nothing.
17 December 07 --
This weekend I took Miranda shopping and at the Monroeville Mall and we saw two of the original puppets from Rudolph The Red-Nosed Raindeer, which are quite delicate and beautiful. I think I was more touched than she was.
Adrian Belew, King Crimson guitarist, has been in California recording tracks for the new Nine Inch Nails album. He has some interesting comments on his blog about the process including a sick photo of Trent's analog keyboard setup.
27 November 07 -- Courtesy of my old friend Eric "The Soup Dragon" Hansmann, is the amazing news that the band Sparks is planning a 21 day stand in London this Spring. Each night they'll be playing one of their albums live in its entirety. Bonus situation my friend. That news led me to this great old clip on YouTube:
Yes, fans, that is the great "Dinky" Diamond pounding the skins and twirling sticks.
Sparks are the Mael Brothers: Russell with the acrobatic falsetto and Ron with the deadpan Keaton/Hitler persona. I was introduced to them by Sam Paul, a high school friend who played Propaganda for Chip and I -- it was love at first hear. Interestingly, the Mael brothers are the sort-of inspiration, at least in name, for my favorite comic book characters, the Post Brothers (get it?). Russ and Ron Post are inter-dimensional assassins and all around bad-asses. Follow this link to see Ron Post (posing with a close friend).
20 November 07 -- Odd. I was in the car today, stuck in traffic listening to Year Zero and thinking it was surprising that there hadn't been a remix album released (as has been NIN m.o. for all their albums). Guess what was released yesterday?
There is a planned website to be devoted entirely to fan made remixes BUT(T) it wasn't able to be launched because of legal hassles. The problem basically boils down to this: while NIN has an agreement with their label to release the multi-tracks for public use, the label can't guarantee that a fan won't use uncleared material (aka illegal samples) in the remixes and thus won't take the liability for them to be posted online. Same thing that's plaguing YouTube and GoogleVideo. The best part though is the photo they use for this announcement. Reproduced here (without permission of course).
Read the whole story here. Trent Reznor now tops my list of people I'd like to have a beer with.8 November 07 -- Could Mark Vidler be any more cool than he already is? Already a god-among-mortals for his amazing Go Home Productions mash-ups (which define the genre and make me happy every time I hear one of them) he recently posted his ENTIRE catalog, 16 CDs of audio, for free download on the GHP site. Get them while you can. Still not cool enough I guess, he's started DJing a weekly pod-cast called The Trypshop which features psychedelia and garage punk. It's really the best hour of my week. Tune in.
7 November 07 -- Snow!
5 November 07 -- I remember.
1 November 07 -- Saul delivers. In spades.
31 October 07 -- Officially leaked tracks to the previously mentioned Saul Williams album are here. Click on any of the green links to get to the downloads. The tracks are amazing -- like old Public Enemy-type sonic assaults. If the album is as good as these two tracks it will be one of the best things out this year.
26 October 07 -- Chip hepped me to the new Saul Williams album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggytardust, which like the previously mentioned Radiohead album, will be released as a download on 11/1 for $5 or for $0: your choice. The $5 option gets you the choice of FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), high quality 320KB MP3 or average quality 192KB MP3. The $0 option gets you the 192KB mp3. I'm not familiar with Saul's stuff but the album was produced by Trent Reznor and engineered by Alan Moulder. That and the consumer friendly distribution format are enough for me to register for a download. Plus if you're my age and/or a Bowie fan, the title is pretty darn funny. (And yes, of course, the pirate cat was a selling point too...)
24 October 07 -- New Radiohead album is available for download here. It's pay-what-you-wish. Really. Enter any amount and you can buy it. I didn't try to enter 0 but that would be really lame. I paid $10, same as I would have spent on iTunes. In your face Major Labels.
I have a really nasty earworm. Saw a show on Friday night and I've not been able to shake one of the songs out of my head since. I don't know that I've ever gotten such a persistent earworm from a single exposure to a song I've never previously heard. It's kind of nice.
17 October 07 - I'm not what you'd call a big fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (in actual fact I'm not a fan at all) but I keep crossing paths with their guitar player John Frusciante. He's been featured in several articles I've read recently, talking about his studio and recording process, and frankly he's pretty interesting and inspiring. So I checked out his website and there are lots of good things on it, including a really nice Demo Album available for free download. Really good stuff that's musically not at all what I was expecting. Heck, he lists Pawn Hearts as one of his favorite albums!
12 October 07 - starting to work on systematic updates of all the pages, checking links and trying to fill in missing content. Again. We'll see how many holes get plugged.
6 October 07 - New web-host -- DreamHost.com . I like them a lot already and it's only been a day. Cheap. Massive amounts of storage for hosting audio files, which I've always wanted to do. Lots of cool features. New domain name -- Narcosis Labs. joepino.com was already taken and, well, it seemed self-absorbed to use it anyway even though it's easy to remember. Chapter One....
26 August 07 - Part-time Porcupine Tree member John Wesley (he's been the second guitar and vocalist on the last few tours) has made his entire catalog available for free download. You can read his announcement at his MySpace blog. It's good music and it's free, so go take Shiver if not all the albums.
3 August 07 - There's a new Jasper Fforde book out. Nice. One of a few authors I'd buy in hardback as the wait is too much. And any more, weighing a $15 paperback with a $22 hardback (adding in the 6 month wait) it's just not worth saving a few bucks.
19 July 07 - Not a bad day for a change. I was sent a copy of the leaked Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows and just got a copy of the legendary Cheap Trick re-recording of their 1977 disc In Color, which they did with Steve Albini. Now if I would just get that big Powerball jackpot...
9 July 07 - I think I first read this in Max R'nR or some other music mag about 10 years ago. It's still funny and scarey and infuriating. Steve Albini's essay "The Problem With Music".
26 June 07 - There will eventually be some Prague related sites up - a Flicker site for the Laptop Connections event exists but needs content - I don't think I can put up the entire digital exhibit (bandwidth and copyright) but I'll probably put up some pictures of the physical exhibit and at least my entry to give a sense of what has been consuming my life for so many weeks. All in all, a great experience both artistically and personally. I renewed acquaintances with a number of sound artists and designers, met a number of interesting new people, drank a lot of pilsner, ate a lot of pork-based meals, visited the Museum of Torture and the Museum of Sex Machinery, and got a lot of inspiration and ideas for future sound projects (um, not from the aforementioned museums). Nerdy highlight was meeting Martin Ware, founding member of the Human League (when they were cool/before they got stupid) who is now shilling 3D audio software. Moral highlight was listening to the guys who founded Freesound.org, a website that hosts audio samples with Creative Commons licensing. Experienced a great performance of a piece called BOB, directed by Anne Bogart and built on a text composed of quotes from Robert Wilson, and an inspiring sound performance by Canadian sound artist Nancy Tobin which was based on hearing the sounds from the headphones of someone sitting next to you on the Metro. I'm already thinking about going to Finland next summer for the planning meeting for the 2011 Prague Quadrennial.
Oh. Coca Cola in the Czech Republic? Totally made with sugar not corn syrup or whatever crap they use these days in the USA. Double-plus yum.
7 June 07 - Leaving for Prague in 4 days. Probably nothing new until the end of the month. Come back later. Go watch this. Or buy 3121, the last Prince album and a truly great listen.
20 May 07 - The Porcupine Tree show was Friday; as usual a very good concert and very entertaining. Marred only by the breakdown of my car on the Ohio Turnpike coming home, which meant waiting for a tow, riding with the car back to a repair shop and renting a car to get back to Pittsburgh. I'll find out tomorrow when the shop is open what the damage is - assuming it can be repaired tomorrow I'll have to drive back to Cleveland to return the rental and pick up my car. Sigh. Nothing these days is easy, even the fun stuff.
27 April 07 - The new Porcupine Tree album, Fear Of A Blank Planet, has occupied my entire listening time since it came out Tuesday. It's a very dark album, a far cry from something like Stupid Dream, and much heavier -- bone crunching riffs abound in Steve Wilson's breathtaking melodies and harmonies. A beautiful album ultimately, though the subject is harrowing. Conceptually about TVed/Gameboy-ed/Drugged youth and coming to terms with technology in the 21st century. The video for the song "Fear Of A Blank Planet" was pulled and "censored" (i.e. re-edited) the day after it came out - it features children with hand guns and ends with a boy carrying a gun toward a school. You can see it in the uncut version on YouTube.
20 April 07 - Open Source Cinema is creating a documentary about copyright in the digital age. The twist is that anyone can download or upload footage - it's a collaborative, plundered and open project. I'm all in.
19 April 07 - For the person who wanted to know a song that always always makes me happy - "Haydn Sympony No. 88 Finale" performed by Paul Gilbert entirely on electric guitar. Virtuoso guitar playing mixed with a heavy dose of Carl Stalling inspired orchestration. The soundtrack to a cartoon that exists only in my head. Guaranteed to raise a smile. Listen to a snippet here .
18 April 07 - I highly recommend the new NIN album Year Zero. Some astoundingly good sound design lurks beneath the surface.
13 April 07 - I revisit Kurt Vonnegut every once and a while. When I was a teen, he was my favorite writer. I always enjoy his wry sense of the absurdity of life. And his humanity. Cynical optimist in a way. I quote him a lot, without knowing it. This past Saturday I walked into the main theater prior to tech and overheard a student say "Hang on - I have to take a leak." And I said, out loud but to myself "Where I come from, that means you're about to steal a mirror." Rest in peace.
10 April 07 - I've been pretty obsessed with a drummer called Gavin Harrison for a while, and completely single-minded for the last week as I've been watching an instruction drum DVD he made called Rhythmic Visions. I have a thing for drum videos, even though I'm not a drummer at all - I just like watching people who can manipulate time so elegantly. This particular DVD is in the process of changing how I design sound, at least rhythmically. Harrison is an extraordinary drummer who plays maddeningly complex patterns that sound maddeningly simple and common. While not as flamboyant as a Mike Portnoy or a Neal Peart or a Bill Bruford, Harrison is every bit their equal and probably their better. The ease with which he displaces beats and subdivides time is mind-boggling. And this DVD is a collection of lessons where he very clearly explains what he does and how he does it. I'm currently building two shows and though the first was mostly done when I started watching this disc, the second is being fully informed by my application of these techniques into sound score design. I can't say I'm a master or that I'm even any good at it, but it has completely changed the way I listen to music and the way I'm thinking about designing. I don't know where it will lead, but I haven't been this inspired to experiment in many many years.
9 April 07 - twenty questions on the rant page.
1 April 07 - life has been coming at me hard. nothing to write here. no time. sorry to the two of you that read this.
23 March 2007 - Rainy. Damp. Dreary. And the weather stinks too.
20 March 2007 - You never know what form help will take. Sometimes it's really surprising and touching. Sometimes there is really no way to say thank you but to hope it magically transmits from your heart to theirs. Thank you. You know who you are.
18 March 2007 - ... I have two orange cats ...
13 March 2007 - April 17 will be a big day. Besides the new Porcupine Tree, the new Nine Inch Nails disc will also be released. A really interesting marketing campaign going on for this disc that has fans combing the internet for clues. I've commented before on how Trent Reznor always seems to strive to give his fans a bit extra and this release looks to pull all the stops. Today he announced he will be releasing the multitrack files for every song on the album for free download and remix by fans. It will be interesting to see how things play out with the rest of the industry. I've written more about it here.
8 March 2007 - New Porcupine Tree release on April 17. There is a six minute album preview on my MySpace page. Concert in Cleveland May 18.
5 March 2007 - Busy so not much new. Watching Vertigo . Reading House of Leaves. Midterm grades. Prepping to go to USITT.
20 February 2007 - Update on the Cheer-Accident page to catch up on the last couple releases. Also finishing content and adding pictures to the French horror pages.
18 February 2007 - Sound design themed clothing can be purchased here. It's a shop set up by a design colleague and the proceeds will help him finance projects, so the cause is worthy. I'm especially fond of the 334578 shirt, the "Going to Bla..." shirt and the thong with his logo on it.
17 February 2007 - Happy Birthday Paris Hilton, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael Jordan, Rene Russo, Fred Frith and Billie Joe Armstrong! Today is the 64th anniversary of the marriage of Dagwood and Blondie and the 40th anniversary of the release of the greatest pop single of all time: "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever". In 1913 the New York Armory Show exhibit opened today, introducing the USA to the art of Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Picasso, and Matisse. Thelonious Monk and Moliere died on this day, but not in the same year.
13 February 2007 - Nine Inch Nails has a DVD coming out on the 27th. It's the first concert video I'm aware of that was filmed in High Def. And it's being released in all three digital formats (HD DVD, BluRay, Standard DVD), which isn't really a surprise as Mr. Reznor has always been one to deliver his fans that little bit extra in his various releases. The packaging is always exquisite, the extras always really worthwhile: I've always thought he treats his fans like he would want to be treated. If you're interested the teaser looks fantastic even as a Quicktime movie. It was a great show and I'm looking forward to seeing it again without being so self-conscious about my age. Beside You In Time.
12 February 2007 - My new favorite site/waste of time: Stripgenerator.com. The two people that read this crap may remember I sang the praises of this site a few months back - it was a drag and drop Flash site that allowed you to create comics with a really cool set of stock characters, objects and word balloons the results of which were then posted online for all to read. Well, they've made it better. It's now a blog site with enhanced features. I am completely spending way too much time there. After screwing around with random strips for a day, I've started what might end up being an on-going strip called "The Haunted Underwear". It's really just an excuse for me to make fun of people and act stupid(er). If you're interested, you can find it here. Most of the characters are based on friends of mine, a few enemies and a couple of made up folks. Oooooo, wait! Hear that sound? It's the sound of tenure passing me by.... It's Papazian's fault, she's the one that suggested I do a comic.
07 February 2007 - I've started an audit of all this site's pages: verifying links, revising site layout, correcting tag syntax and structure, updating content, adding content to the pages that are still blank. In my copious spare time. Over at MySpace I've amassed an impressive collection of friends including a few folks I actually know. But I still haven't been able to get them to add "sound designer" to the list of networking categories under theater.
01.16.07 - Well worth an hour of your time is At War With Baraka!. I meant to mention it a while back but forgot- Nellma reminded me of it this evening. Some internet wag has married the film Baraka with the At War With The Mystics for a Dark Side Of The Rainbow sort of exercise in syncresis (the forced marriage of image and audio in the mind.) If you're not in it for the long haul, skip up to 43 minutes for "The W.A.N.D." the first half of which is particularly amusing. Nellma also informed me that today is the anniversary of the release of the best selling live album of all time: Frampton Comes Alive!. I think I need to put in a section on underappreciated or wrongly maligned albums - this being a prime example of a great album that takes a lot of flack from musical numbskulls.
01.05.07 - I'm not sure why but I started a MySpace page. I guess mainly to see who I could get to add me as a friend. It's sort of like collecting baseball cards -- "Ooo! I got a Tony Levin and a Bootsy Collins!" If I start doing anything with the space I'll post a note here.
I love when I run across stuff like this. It's the hottest thing you'll ever hear with an accordion and chanting in it. Take the time to watch all 8:30. The band is called KTU.
12.30.06 - Stellarium. To quote Milton (Janapol, not John), "your life is less good for not having this". A free 3D star map that allows you to enter your (or any) location and then track the night sky including constellations, planets, meteor showers, and galaxies. The Mac version is unbelievably cool - I expect the PC and Linux versions are equal. The features are intuitive and I expect the more you know about stars and latitude and that sort of stuff, the more you'll get out of it. But for a newbie like me, it and a pair of binoculars have me up until 3am.
12.28.06 - Probably the final update on the year 2006 as it pertained to me and my entertainment purchases.
12.22.06 - Holiday album of the year: Christmas is 4 Ever by Bootsy Collins. Features members of the Funk Mob with guest stars ranging from Snoop Dog to Charlie Daniels. Yeah, that Charlie Daniels. A metric buttload of fun.
First gift of the 2006 holiday season is a mouse pad from a couple of lovely outlaws with a truly embarrassing photo of me from 25 years ago. The only thing worse is that the photo is also online. The good part is that the photo is old enough that you probably wouldn't recognize me; my daughter recognized the others in the photo but not Dad. Thelma, Louise -- I hate you, but, of course, I love you too. Remember: Revenge is a dish best served cold.
12.08.06 - I like it when I meet someone whose work I admire and respect and discover that they are also nice human beings. Thanks Scott. You've had a profound influence on me that continues to grow.
12.03.06 - If you care, the few things released this year that I purchased and enjoyed are here.
11.14.06 - A nifty video called Amateur on YouTube is the best thing since I got turned onto Michel Gondry. Lasse, you are the man.
I've been sitting in tech a lot recently and have been amusing myself making up band names, which now have their own page here. Help yourself if you're a band in need of a really good and cool name.
11.06.06 - A side trip to Princeton Record Exchange on our return trip from NJ this weekend yielded one of the more interesting CDs I've stumbled upon in a while. Songs for Dust Mites is the first solo album by Steve Burns, better known as Blue the Dog's old friend and former green-shirted host of Blue's Clues. He's a pretty interesting songwriter and a talented musician - he's assisted through most of the disc by the amazing Steve Droid from The Flaming Lips on drums and keyboards. A really enjoyable album.
10.31.06 - Here's an interesting (albeit bizarre) bit of trivia: Gene Wolfe, one of the great writers of recent years (The Book of the New Sun) also developed the machine that cooks Pringles Potato Chips. I'm going to re-read the New Sun tetralogy and eat Pringles while I do it.
10.24.06 - You may know that Deadwing, the last album by Porcupine Tree, has seldom been far from my CD player since it came out last year. What you may not know is that it is based on a screenplay for a yet-to-be-made movie about....wait for it....a sound designer. They're currently trying to get financing - a trailer is posted here at MySpace. There's a banner at the bottom of this page that will take you to the first 15 pages of the screenplay. It looks like MirrorMask filtered through the Brothers Quay - imagine my excitement...
10.12.06 - If there is a funkier, more amazing album than Mothership Connection by Parliament, please tell me what it is. I forgot how happy this album makes me. 09.28.06 - Third straight 15 hour day. I'm too old for this crap. And somehow I forgot how great the Dead Kennedys were. "Give me convenience or give me death" indeed.
09.22.06 - I'm swamped. Work. Life. I'll probably resurface in 12 days. Or not. In a white wine sauce.
09.17.06 - Shuggie Otis. How did I miss him? Inspirataion Information might be one of the best albums ever made. I've only been listening to it one week so it's probably too early to tell. I'll give it another week.
09.11.06 - StripGenerator is my latest obsession. The person that made this is a genius and I bow to their godlike creative skills.
09.09.06 - Information is out for the Prague Quadrennial projects I'm working on. Now I just need to get a grant to actually get there. 08.31.06 - One of the best plundered videos I've ever seen is here. It's set to NIN "Closer" (better known to non-fans as the "I wanna f*** you like an animal song", so if you're offended by strong language, don't bother... but it's pretty dang funny.)
08.10.06 - Starting at 5pm tonight, I'm only listening to Julian Cope until Monday. Just because. Except for Saturday night at the Adrian Belew show. I doubt he'll play any Julian Cope, but I guess you never can tell.
08.09.06 - For anyone keeping score, I've traded 50 CDs on LaLa in just over 4 weeks. I'm currently banned by the site from sending any more out to other members because I haven't received enough yet - I am currently owed 10 CDs. This is sort of what I thought would happen - no one has any CDs I want for trade. I've added everything I could think of to my want list but still no bites. I imagine if I liked Coldplay et al, I'd be set.
I'm trying to clean up the navigation on this site - had some complaints that it's too oblique. I had figured that transport buttons from a CD player would be pretty self-explanatory (next=next page, last=last page, stop=last menu, eject=main menu) or at least a little trial and error would make it clear, but I guess I'm wrong. It's proving to be pretty tedious to go through every page and add labels. That's what you get for overestimating people's intelligence I guess. Though I was tempted to make it even more oblique. Maybe I still will...
08.06.06 - Updated my upcoming projects in the Sound Design section, added several Primers in the music section, continuing updates in the freeware audio software page.
08.04.06 - Forester is a MAX/MSP based, stand alone application that has been running on my desktop for two days now. It's a fascinating piece of software that takes bits of audio and "defoliates" them. Hard to describe but it's way cool and fun and sounds neat. Pop in a CD, point Forester at the CD, click LOAD, click WANDER and let the program mangle audio for you. I'm itching to try it out on some sounds I'm working on for some projects. It's by John Burton aka Leafcutter John and it's free. Mac only. Oh, I've also published the first update in three years to my freeware audio software page. More to come.
07.21.06 - Wednesday it appeared that Thomas Pynchon, the greatest American novelist ever, had posted a blurb announcing and describing his new novel on Amazon.com. Then it disappeared. Now it's back. Penguin has confirmed that the blurb is authentic. Thomas Pynchon, the most reclusive of novelists this side of J.D. Salinger, has a new novel coming out December 5th. It's 992 pages long and it's called Against The Day. I've already gotten three emails from former students alerting me. 136 days and counting.....
07.19.06 - New rants about how to do things right. In LaLa news, I've received five more CDs for a total of six in six days. Total cost: $10.50. Condition of discs has been excellent.
07.13.06 - LaLa update 3: Friday the 13th came on a Thursday this month. Also, my first disc from LaLa! Shipped 7/10 arrived 7/13. CD, tray insert and booklet; all in good condition. A CD I've been hunting for a couple of years. I am in heaven: Trading used CDs online for a $1.75 postpaid including mailer/protective case/postage -- I'm wondering how some record company is going to screw this up with a lawsuit.
07.11.06 - LaLa update 2: I have sent out eight CDs and there are seven coming in the mail to me. The excitement is unbearable.
07.08.06 - LaLa update: They just changed their mailers to accommodate sending the booklets and inlays. Still waiting for my first CD.
07.07.06 - To the person who left the anonymous gift in the Sound Lab: Thank you. It was the bright spot in a very stressful day. I post this here because, based on the contents, it's obviously someone who has carefully read these pages. Maybe too carefully. I think I know who you are.
07.05.06 - Whoa. Conny Plank's studio is up for sale. There's an online auction site that is managing the sale of every piece of gear from his studio. If you don't know, Conrad "Conny" Plank was one of the most important producers/engineers in music. His resume reads like a list of "The Most Important experimental bands and recordings of the 1970s". Seminal discs by Cluster, Brian Eno, Can, Neu!, Holger Czukay, Kraftwerk, Ash Ra Temple, Guru Guru and for good measure: The Damned, Devo, Eurhythmics, Killing Joke and Einstrzende Neubauten all had Plank either at the mixer or in the producer's seat. If you don't recognize that list of names, you'll recognize the people influenced by Plank's work on those albums: U2, Trent Reznor, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, Aphex Twin, Autechre, and Public Image, Ltd. I have a hunch Jack White is a Plank fan too, but I've not heard him voice it. You get the picture. I was hoping there was some little piece of gear that was escaping everyone's notice as they jockey for the big ticket items (vintage mics and a hand built console) but even the lowliest of mics, his SM57, is currently at 200 euros. Ah well. If you want to see the kind of gearporn that makes audio nerds twitch, check it out.
07.04.06 - I've jumped headfirst into LaLa. If you haven't heard (and I hadn't until my friend Eric hepped me), LaLa is a new(ish) music service that's based on trading CDs. You join, you post the CDs you have for trade, you post the CDs you're looking to get. The LaLa site makes the connections for you. You use postpaid mailers LaLa provides to mail the CDs to the people who request your CDs. Each CD you send gets you a credit to receive a CD from someone. There is an administrative fee of $1.49 per disc you receive. There is no obligation to send anything you have listed. The only slightly annoying thing is that it's just a disc trade - to keep the costs low they use a custom mailer and the postage doesn't include the weight of the CD booklets and tray inlays. I added postage and sent them anyway. Hopefully I'll get my first CDs in the next couple of weeks, once those I just sent out get credited to me by the recipients. I'll report back on how it turns out -seems too good to be true...
07.02.06 - I went to the GUAPO show. A few observations here .
07.01.06 - I went to the NIN show. A few observations here .
06.29.06 - If you're in the Pittsburgh area, there are two really good and really different shows in town this weekend. Friday is NIN at the Post-Gazette Pavilion -- the sober, drug-free Mr. Reznor delivered an amazing album last year and this is the back end of that tour. Sunday at Garfield Artworks on Penn is one of my current fave bands, Guapo. They're an amazing zeuhl band and I never expected to have the chance to see them in the US, least of all in Pittsburgh so I'm pretty excited. Look for me if you're at the shows. I'll be the old, grey-bearded fat guy in the back....
06.27.06 - Tomorrow Real World (that's Peter Gabriel's studio, not an MTV show) is making the tracks to "Shock the Monkey" available for a remix contest. You have to join their Remix group, which is free and worth it as they've been releasing tracks from other Real World artists. Also, if anyone is looking for the perfect present for me, Music Thing posted yesterday that Kraftwerk is selling a custom vocoder built for them in the early 1970s, famously used on "Autobahn", on ebay - check it out.
06.25.06 - Is there a better, catchier pop song out than "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song " by The Flaming Lips? I think not. And when will Pixar put out a bad movie? No, not even a bad movie - an average movie? CARS is another smart and entertaining addition to their dancecard. I was the only person in the theater laughing at the "Freebird" gag.
06.03.06 - I scored the Holy Grail of sample discs today. In 1992 a guy named Uwe Schmidt aka AtomTM , recording under one of his hundreds of aliases (I'm not kidding about this) released one of the seminal industrial/techno discs. CLONED is not only a masterpiece of early hard techno, it's the Rosetta Stone of remix and resample art. The entire disc is based on restructuring elements of an earlier song called "Biohazard" (I think - details about Schmidt's work are difficult to come by). Unlike most remix discs, Schmidt built the album by resampling and rediting the original elements to the point that each version bears but a passing resemblence to the previous. A drum sound here, a loop there, it's all about occasional flashes of memory. And there is no better drum programmer than Schmidt, so it rocks. Back to the Grail - as a companion disc he released 500 copies of CLONED BINARY, which is all of the individual samples he created to make the album for others to continue the exploration. It's a musical box of Legos - the jumbo box you always wanted but your parents would never buy you. I'm not sure what I'll do with it after I finish analyzing the samples against the disc. But I'm so excited I'm almost giddy, which is quite an image if you know me. Good things come to those who wait my Dad always says.
06.02.06 - I planned to spend the last few days working to get this site a bit more complete. Instead, I've built a new site and started a blog. I think it's a sort of disease - I realized today that I have four websites and a blog. Haven't had my car inspected, but I've got five online toys to play with. I don't think the blog will be of any interest to anyone that's reading this as it is a group blog for a small community of folks who all did theater under the high school mentor I mentioned a week or so back. We got tired of group emails so we're going to try blogging. But who's to say - there are a lot of people reading dumber things online I suppose. Tabishland: enter if you dare...
03.26.06 - WFMU is probably the last of the truly freeform radio stations in the world. It's the station you thought you were DJing for in college - only they really do it all the time 24/7. They have a pretty fun web presence including streaming audio of their broadcasts, which is the only streaming audio you will ever need. Excellent podcasts too. They also have an MASSIVE archive of great, downloadable music - from the out-there to the psychotic-brain damaged. Check out The Black Lodge's Native American take on The Flintstones or some way cool krautrock , a woman singing the entire Tapestry album a capella, and my current favorite song in the world, the Leeland Stanford Junior Marching Band performing "White Punks On Dope". Their store is called Crappola Central and is chock full of cool recordings and swag. One of the only organizations I will donate money to, WFMU is worth checking out.
03.17.06 - "Remember remember the 5th of November..." V for Vendetta came out today. I'm sorry to see Alan Moore pulled his name from the credits - it's actually a pretty good adaptation but after the debacle that was League of Extraordinary Gentlemen who can blame him. From Hell was pretty far afield from his comic too, but managed to be interesting despite that, although every time I see it I can't help thinking Heather Graham is the cleanest Victorian London prostitute that ever lived ( and who does her hair?). Philosophically V gets a bit muddled, but look at the Bros. W's mess in the second and third Matrix and there should be no surprises there. I'm pleasantly surprised and will go see it again.
03.09.06 - YouTube is my new favorite waste of time. If you haven't been there, it's an online repository for video that is open to anyone for posting. Thus a lot of things like students lip-syncing to popular songs or AFV-type (staged) humor. But the gold mine is the music stuff which is seemingly bottomless. I've watched a ton of XTC videos including live TV clips from their earliest days, Paul Gilbert guitar instructional videos, the clip from the previous entry (below) - all range of popular to really obscure. The only search so far that came up empty was "Bevis Frond" which while disappointing was really a long shot. Search out your favorite videos from yesteryear (Bjork - "Human Behavior") or things you missed (Jennifer Garner tripping on her way out to present an Oscar). It's all here. Start with this.
03.09.06 - Anyone who thinks all metal is played by longhaired dunderheads with the volume at 11 needs to watch this. They have long hair and the volume is probably at 11, but they are no dunderheads. I can't think of many musicians of any ilk that could actually play this. Completely insane. Not a bar of 4/4 in sight and they're not even breaking a sweat. [I don't know why this video is flagged as adult content so ignore that warning.]
02.27.06 - I've been working on the primer section in Listener to put content with the names. Also trying to get my act together and submit work to the Prague Quadrennial.
02.10.06 - Courtesy of Music Thing, I've now heard/seen the new Prince single/video "Black Sweat" and it's mighty good stripped down funk in the vein of "Kiss". You just can't count that guy out, can you? [03.02.06 - sorry, they pulled the video off the site - I'm sure it will show up on TV soon if not already.]
01.23.06 - I cleared out my "links to be added" folder so there's new stuff on the lynx page. Also an idea for some fun on the rant page.
01.17.06 - Added my first pass at a Miyazaki page in the viewer section.
01.08.06 - First out of the gate for best release of 2006 is a new compilation from Mark Vidler. It's most of his mash-ups from the first half of 2003 and they are, of course, absolutely essential. Highlight might be "Barry Wilson (Wouldn't It Be Nice To Be Your First)" in which the late, great Barry White meets Brian Wilson - a charming and catchy song ensues. Or maybe XTC's "Generals and Majors" with Sylvester's "You Make Me Feel (Might Right)". Or maybe Prodigy meets the Osmonds in "Baby's Got A Crazy Horse". Stop reading this and get the songs already! Download the entire UP 2 SPEED compilation from Go Home Productions. It's free.
12.30.05 - A little piece about the late John Simonton in the Rant section. Still cleaning up and adding material all around. Reorganized the structure a bit as I keep finding stuff I want to add to the pages.
12.16.05 - Too early for a best of 2005 list? Nah!