Archive for the 'machines' Category
Music Review – Gas – Wolfgang Voigt’s Techno-Minimalism Is Paired With Brian Eno’s Serenity
Sadly, we left Montreal a couple of days before his Mutek performance.
Good news is though, Syracuse is one of only a handful of stops on the Alva Noto / Bytone Raster-Noton North American tour this week.
A Google Image Search for“core memory” returns page after page of patterny awesomeness. Just sayin.
The wonderful bookish blog A Journey Round My Skull has a post this week highlighting the fact that Charles Seliger: Redefining Abstract Expressionism is available (at least partially) on Google Books.
I was shocked to see Seliger’s 1944 work Organic Form in my RSS reader, as it’s a piece I’m well familiar with– it was the basis for my kind of project from 2004.
I need a big long project like this one again– I’m already getting excited about the possibilities for all the new basement space we’ll get in our new house (coming Saturday!).
Anyway, in honor of being reminded of this guy, here’s the final phase of my project, a short video, uploaded to youtube and magnificently degraded. Better versions here.
“Fully working, manual record player made entirely of paper. To play the record the handle needs to be turned in a clockwise direction at a steady 331/3rpm. The paper conethen acts as a pickup, amplifying the sound enough to make it audible. (Record shown,
The Sound of Music 1965). – Simon Elvins. via KOMPAKT blog.
Fi-Hi : UBDJ – Urban DJ Mixer: Mixer.
This is the first mixing tool I’ve seen for non-vinyl formats that’s actually interesting. It’s cheap and portable, just like the things you’re supposed to use as inputs, and it leaves cueing and stuff up to the devices.
This would be amazing in a car, or as a theme to a party where everyone brings their iPods and are on the hook to mix.
Not that it was much of a choice. I’ve had to come to terms, over the last 4 weeks, with the fact that I am not able to run the NYC marathon this year. My strained leg is taking too long to heal, and there’s no need to push it. That’s the lesson I learned in Charlotte last year. Better to take the time off now than to risk worse injury just out of pride.
Luckily, I’ll just defer my admission to the marathon until next year. I’ll have to pay again, but I have little choice now. Oh well. I’m not beating myself up about it, just working hard to get back on my feet. Been to a few cycling classes, and have continued consistently stretching and practicing yoga. Sadly, my two favorite yoga classes at the gym got discontinued, probably because I was one of only 2 or 3 who ever showed up. Hopefully those teachers will be back at other times, they were my 2 favorites.
Relatedly, I finally got in to the physical therapist this week. It has been a nightmare to schedule these appointments, since I have to take off from work early to get to the office before they close. Visiting this place is like stepping back to the 70s. It’s basically a railroad apartment, mauve walls and brown trim, divvied up by orange, brown, and green striped curtains. Behind each curtain is a cot and an aged brown-plastic machine covered in dials. It definitely seems like more of a rehab-after-workplace-accident type place than a sports medicine practice. Thanks HIP! If it weren’t so close to my house, I might seek another place.
Anyway, they hooked me up to this shocking machine for 15 minutes, then gave me an ultrasound massage on my hamstring, and then I rode an archaic stationary bike that looked like a discarded The Price Is Right prop for about 6 minutes. Two feet from the bike was the receptionist’s desk… she was filing as I peddled. A strange place indeed. Perhaps I’ll get some pictures next time– have a few weeks of this ahead.
Oh, and I went to see My Bloody Valentine last night. They were terrific, and the fact that I brushed past J Mascis in the crowd would have made my 15 year old self ecstatic. Haven’t done much that would impress 15 year old me lately, so that felt good. (I can feel him shudder each time I put on my running tights!) The highlight for me was actually the extended noise break they closed with– it was overpoweringly, sensory-overload loud. Like thunder on pause forever. I was fine with earplugs, but people seemed to be losing their minds a bit. I can only imagine that this event had some negative impact on the Jersey Boys performance in the theatre next door. The highlight for Kelly is that she didn’t go to the show and therefore missed it.
Apart from not playing “Cupid Come,” they covered everything I wanted to hear. Alphabetcityblog documented the show way more carefully than I ever could have, I’m just glad I got their in time for the whole set, had a decent view (though this person had a better spot! — this was more like where we were), and was able to meet up with Jon and Melissa beforehand. Well worth the price.
I’d be Jason Freeman’s iTunes Music Signature Maker (via createdigitalmusic.com). When you run this application, it goes into your library, figures out what you’ve been listening to, and creates a short collage to represent your taste.
This is the same person responsible for the Network Aurlization for Gnutella that I posted about a couple of years ago. iTSM is great, a kind of hyperlocal, meaning-loaded version of that, with much more fun results.
Here’re two signatures from my iTunes Library, one w/ the defaults, one messing with the settings a little.
You’ll notice this is better than any of the songs by themselves. Please make one of your own.
More interesting stuff:
from the post at createdigitalmusic:
…uses an FFT to merge spectrally similar audio, mixing down your audio smoother than a baby’s bottom.
from the application documentation:
Maybe you’ll load your iTunes signature onto your iPod, e-mail it to some friends, share it in our signature gallery, or stick it on your home page. Maybe it will help you gauge your compatibility with your next blind date: "She seems nice enough, but her iTunes signature is just so atonal! Should I go with my heart or with my ear?" Or maybe an iTunes signature will figure prominently into a political attack ad: "If you’re mad at him for raising your taxes, polluting our environment, and cutting the education budget, just wait until you hear the music he listens to…"
Finally got approval! Hopefully this will make life easier for all of the people living there. I hope they’re recording the broadcasts.
I just returned from the post office with the mail that built up (in four days? i know!) while we were gone, and there were 3 netfilx dvds in there… A few seconds after I did the following, I realized how 21st century I have become. So: stack of netflix envelopes right there in front of me, but (in what seemed to be an instinctual move) I accessed information on a server hundreds of miles away to determine their contents rather than opening them myself. Heh.
The aforementioned trip to NYC was supergreat. Pictures @ flickr; executive summary below:
Highlights:
- Seeing a huge crew of fools: Dan, Smooth Dan, Chris, Tess, Bartow, Ryan (!), Kevin, Daniel, Carrie, Jon, Tally, Alex, Nora, Hanney.
- Rocking the tourist style w/ Ryan on the Empire State Building
- Eating at favorite joints: Grimaldi’s, Go, Cucina de Pesce, Chip Shop
- Good meals at places new to us: Loreley, Press 195, Gravy, Pink Pony
- Inside look at the casket factory near Dan’s place on Union Street
- Spending more time in the Lower East Side than ever before
- Kevin playing at Tonic w/ a full band
- Walking from Dan’s to Tally & Alex’s
- The weather
- Seeing an apparently-F’d-up Sam Rockwell eating a slice of pizza on Ave A
- Late night patties
Lowlights:
- Missing all the out of town friends: Rachel, Real Bobby, Jennifer
- Missing other folks that were around: Chris, Daniel, Katherine & Erich, Chris infobong
- International Bar seems to be closed
- Spending more time in the Lower East Side than ever before
- Unsuccessfully trying to sleep during Broken Flowers @ BAM
- Never finding any cold Manhattan Special for sale
- Actually seeing some Real World Austin episodes
- ATM fees
Ok, back to work.
One of my professors sent our class a link to this cool image today, with a few words about "PC Bangs", which have apparently popped up all over Asia in order to introduce people to the Internet. The particular bang pictured is an example of the next-level superhuge ones being assembled in China.
It reminds me of the cascading typewriter desks from "The Apartment," or at least my remembered-version of the cascading typewriter desks from "The Apartment," now that I see them again. 
Anyway, with all of those machines, it must be so loud/hot/dry in there, that I think I’d prefer NOT being online to spending a second in one of those rooms (certainly some of you would prefer me not to be online as well).
Clearly, some people find it comfortable enough for sleeping, if those are indeed sleeping bags in the lower-left corner of the shot.