I finally switched over to the newest version of Rapidweaver today and in the process decided why not go ahead and get a fresh start and re-upload the whole thing. So now im on the new version and have some new capabilities that have yet to be worked out to perfection but this is a good start, You may notice that the weblog is now the home page which I planned on doing a while ago and you can now link directly to a specific article on the site using Permalinks which is a nice touch. I hope to get the archive pages and permalinks to show up using the main style sheet but I will just have to get to that later in time. So anyways, I hope that the changes you may notice around here will be for the better.

Thats all for now, see you again soon.

Friends desktops ripe for pickin'

Thats live not live, the english language is funny like that. This is a really terrible photo of the current live setup for the electronic duo I am part of, A Drop In Silence. Why would I post this? Well, because there is nothing else to post at the moment and I figured there might be a handful or readers that may be interested.

Anyone care to guess all of the stuff here? I will award the person that correctly lists everything (product and manufacturer) here something. (...or maybe nothing but do you really want to take that chance? were talking prizes and glory here!)

So im not sure if I have mentioned this before but im looking to buy a new Macbook sometime to replace this 15" g4 Powerbook and then sell the powerbook and get a big intel imac and Apple's Aperture software. Then once the computing side is done look into financing a new photography set up so I can step up my game a bit. I'm trying to fill out my studio a bit and organize my workflow so I can start getting serious about photography in life. At any rate, its a slow process getting together the money to pull all of this into reality.

Well a couple of days ago I ended up going backwards a bit and getting a new Nintendo DS. It was calling to me with its Apple like design and it's dual screen design. I got the "game" Brain Age along with it and couldn't be happier. What a cool system and what a great game! I have a pretty lazy old brain according to the game so well see how I progress through time. So anyways, how about some photos of the thing already! Well here you go...

Desktops have been posted in the friends section of the desktops area!

I have recently rediscovered an old favorite tv show, Pete and Pete. An episode of it that I just watched struck a chord somewhere inside me. Looking back on it I think that the show Pete and Pete was one of those things growing up that had more of an effect on me than I could have ever thought it might. Like when I bought my first cd (TMBG, Flood) or for that matter, music in general, who would have thought that something could change a person so much? I grew up surrounded by music but until I discovered those few albums that really changed the way that I looked at music I had no idea what it was capable of. I Just off of the top of my head I think I will list a few albums that I feel have had some sort of landmark presence in my life. These are albums that Started movements in my love for music, not only some of my favorites ever but ones that opened the doors for entirely new avenues of sound and music and life...

(in somewhat of a chronological order..)
Steve Currnutte - Think Again
They Might Be Giants - Flood
Beck - Mellow Gold
They Might Be Giants - Apollo 18
The Eels - Beautiful Freak
Deftones - Adrenaline
Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Tool - Aenema
They Might Be Giants - John Henry
Tom Petty - Wildflowers
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
The soundtrack to the movie Suburbia
Sleater Kinney - Dig Me Out
Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
Radiohead - O.K Computer
Portishead - Dummy
Elliott Smith - XO
Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album
Elliott Smith - Either/ Or
Autechre - ep7 and lp5
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 2
Squarepusher - Big Loda and Feed Me Weird Things
Mute: A Hush Records Compilation
Mercury Program/ Maserati - Confines of Heat
The soundtrack to the movie Lost In Translation


OK OK, ill stop there, remember, this list was my attempt at making a list of albums that were stepping stones in my musical evolution and in turn the history of me. I could trace my whole live backwards in songs that represent different times in my life. So anyways, back to my original point that was brought on by an episode of Pete and Pete. The episode was all about one of the Petes accidentally discovering music by coming across a band playing in a garage that was playing a song that ended up soaking into his mind. The whole episode is spent trying to find that song again so he could live that moment over. Sorry, that was a terrible description of the episode and I think that this post is taking a nose dive fast!

Let me try this again, Pete and Pete is a great show! It only made it three seasons which is a shame. The writing in the series is great and I think that the show holds it's own even in todays standards, I could see myself getting hooked on these all over again. Every episode contains some sort of wonderful life lesson but they are not at all obvious. The series is like a guide to living a happy life only with bizarre characters getting into stranger situations. That's all really, just thought I'd recommend a show.

A new version of one of my favorite widgets, Go Red Ball Go, has been released so if your a mac os x user then follow the link below, download, and bounce away.

Link

The real reason for being down in florida...

Took a day off and went to mt. everest, saw dinosaurs, shrunk down to the size of an ant, saw a bunch of big animals in sad tiny cages, and got a headache from heat exhaustion. Most people are surprised when they find out that I am a fan of Disney World but I just happen to be in Orlando this week and I just happen to have a day off before Infocomm so when in Orlando why not take some time to play a bit? The thing that gets me about the Disney theme parks is the incredible amount of detail put into every inch of the park. It must have taken an army or artists and engineers to create some of this stuff. It's like stepping into some bizarro version of planet earth. Here is a handful of photos from the day...

Why how kind of you to ask! I was over at the flying anvil and worked a night mixing sound for a break dancing battle/ contest. It was a lot of fun because it was such an elaborate set up. They had a fancy digital Canon video camera set up on a track next to the dance floor that was being used to record the event as well as project what was going on on the dance floor onto a screen hanging up on the stage. You may think it was an easy nights work only riding a few channels but it proved to be trickier than I thought it would be because I had to sit and baby sit the levels seeing as the mc's would be talking quiet one minute then screaming and hooting their heads off the next when a dancer did something interesting. This and I had to really ride the level to get it loud enough without killing the speakers with nasty distortion. Anyway, don't mean to rant, it was a lot of fun though, here are a few photos from the show...

Im about to hop in the car and go to Orlando, FL for a trade show called Infocomm for the next 5 days or so and as with any traveling I do there is no guarantee that I will have access to the internet although I'm sure I will find it around somewhere which is a good thing seeing as I have quite a few things I would like to post. At any rate everyone have a nice day while I'm out driving the for next 12 hours and I will see you again soon.

New desktops both in the normal desktop area and the friends area. I know that the front page no longer lists updates, currently I have the most recent desktop there as a link to the desktop area. In the future things will get shifted around and this weblog will become the front page. A new version of RapidWeaver is out now and I am going to take full advantage of it and clean some things up around here in the coming week or so. Thats it for now, just thought I would let you guys know whats new around here. Also there are a couple new things in the music review section and I have two new soundscapes that will be added to the podcast in the coming week.

If you are in the mood for some music for a long car ride that will give you something to reminisce about how funny life can be at times then I would recommend this brilliant album from Jason anderson. I think he's a brilliant songwriter that you should not pass up hearing at least once. I know that some of you may not be into the Indie Rock scene but give it a listen and see where you get. I would also recommend anyone that likes this album to pick up his other solo album called The Wreath which is a little more rocking but still just as brilliantly written.

iTunes Link:

Sparrow is easily one of my favorite songs of all time and I consider it one of the best IDM tracks ever written. I know thats a pretty bold statement to make but I stand by it. There was something about it that drew me in the first time I heard it years ago and it never let go. Listening to it today I still get the same feel as I did the first time I listened to it which was on a Warp Compilation called Routine which was a US only release and as far as I know is out of print at this point. Thanks to the wonder of Warps download site Bleep.com it is still available and will remain so, the Routine comp that is. Sparrow was originally on Mira Calix's first album called One On One. That said, anyone who is a fan of any electronic music owes it to themselves to pick up this song if not the whole album.

I came across a cool freeware app for itunes called MyTunes. I have seen applications that allow you to share your itunes library in the past and I really liked some of them but its not everyday you come across one that is free that works as well as this app. I just set it up today and I have not really tested it to much but so far I am really liking it. I wish that I could simply browse my music without searching it which the program forces you to do. I also found that I can not search for something that finds more than 200 items as a result. I searched for Elliott Smith and it told me to search again which was kind of disappointing that I have to deal with that kind of thing but hey, its free right? head over and check it out, it runs on windows or mac.

Heres a link.

Update: the developers of the software wrote back really quick to this post and mentioned this: "The missing library browser is the most requested feature. It is implemented in the upcoming v2.0 already. Also the 200 titles search result limit has gone. Just check out our forums at http://board.codewave.de and have a look at the developer section for preview screenshots and more information on all the great new features coming very soon!" So look out for version 2.0!