Death by Dance

People, I wish I could say I'm making this stuff up. Apparently a man has died from a Dance-Off. His 1 upsmanship included the move he could only do once: DEATH. Don't believe me? Read about it here. I wonder if it started "West Side Story" style then progressed to the "Beat It" gang fight/dance then ended with this dude doing his Death Dance? On his tombstone: "Top that, Bee-Atch."

Are American Idol Voters Retarded?

Haley over Sabrina? Sanjaya over Sundance? WTF? At least Antonella is gone. She was horrid. I guess the naked pictures kept her around for an extra 15 minutes of of fame. I can see Haley sticking around a bit. She's hot. Sabrina is a much better singer though. Heads above Haley. Now I didn't see the guys sing on Tuesday night. I was watching the "Gilmore Girls." So unless Sanjaya tore up "Waiting on the World" by John Mayer he was even less deserving of being in the top 12 than Haley. Judging from the Randy, Paula and Simon's expression he probably stunk up the place like he did last week. Personally, I think Sanjaya has been "outsourcing" his voting. I'm thinking he called up all his hacker friends that are now over here working and they are somehow gaming the system. If he wins, I smell an Idol conspiracy.

Farewell Sundance. Don't worry, you'll get a job. And a recording contract and whatever else. You got it goin' on dawg.

UT Number 3 in Music File Sharing

Well, the football team had a hard enough time cracking the top 10 but apparently the student body as a whole has carved out a niche for itself on the RIAA's hit list. My beloved University of Tennessee Volunteers are currently number three in the polls when it comes to music sharing across the campus networks. Read about it here.

Hopefully the RIAA will run out of money trying to sue every Tom, Dick and Harry that downloads music without paying for it. I guess the boneheads have never stopped to figure out that it might actually help sales of music. Who wants to buy an entire album of crap for one good song?

Imagine doing interactive music with this thing

A friend of mine sent me a link to some new touch screen technology that is being developed. You are able to do some killer things with interactivity providing you or someone you know has the programming skills to pull it off. Personally, I'd like to use it for interactive music installations. Check it out.

Thomas Dolby is Doing it Again

I just watched my autographed copy of the Thomas Dolby Sole Inhabitant DVD. It was very cool. It was filmed at the Berklee College of Music during his tour last year. He came through Atlanta and I missed it but I picked up the DVD and it did not disappoint.

Thomas did the entire tour as a one man show. He had a MAC G5 running Logic Pro Audio driving most everything.  He used two hardware synths  made by Novation as well as an old Roland analog synth. For keyboards, he  mainly used controllers  with the keys split into ranges with different sounds mapped to different parts of the keyboard.  He also had a  M-Audio  Trigger Finger for doing drums and triggering samples.  A Muse Receptor was in his rack to control all the effects on his  voice.

The performance was very good. There were a few places where he wavered off key a bit but who cares... It was Thomas Dolby live for the first time since the 90s. Plus he had a lot going on with managing all the hardware and software. The audio on the disc is very good as well except there were some noticeable volume changes probably due to the fact the Dolby was tweaking the mix from the stage.  He also made use of the real-time video along with canned clips and software that was written for v-jaying. The creator of the video software served as his VJ for the tour.

The set list included his big hits like "She Blinded Me With Science" and "Hyperactive" but I thought the high points, at least for me. were "Living in a Suitcase" and my personal favorite "One of Our Submarines".

I got the DVD from CD Baby. He has a limited few that are signed. Mine is number 383/1000.

I try not to be political but…

Just damn.

Okay Music Industry. We get it. You don't like President Bush. The Dixie Chicks cleaned up. Well, good for them. Our guys are defending their right to say what they want. That is what makes this country great. As Voltaire supposedly said: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." The entertainment industry has said it. And said it and said it. Move on already. It is what it is. I don't need every anti Bush or anti war song/album or whatever winning a freakin' Grammy because they are trying to send a message. Hell, one of our worst presidents ever even won one for Best Spoken Word. It was a tie for first! How's that for twisting the knife? IT was like the Grammy voters were saying "Let's try to find one more way to get our point across."

What is it with entertainers and their fascination with all things liberal? I just don't get it. I know throughout history art and music has sparked controversy but I can't think of a time when it has been so "in your face". I guess it's the media world we're living. Live and die by the sound-bite. Just take me back to the days when everyone would bitch and moan for a few days then get over it.

And another thing: here it is two years from another national election. TWO YEARS. Why all the campaigning already? I'm going to be so sick and tired of all the rhetoric, name calling, flip flopping and just plain meanness I'll be hard pressed to vote for somebody because they annoyed me the least. Suffice to say I'm pretty agitated by all this. Wait til the Summer before the election before you start stumping.

For now, just go away and shut yer pie hole. That goes for you too, Republicans!

And I Still Have Space Left!

I've been adding and subtracting music on my zen touch mp3 player for awhile now and I fianlly have the stuff I want on there. Before I was carrying around every CD I had ripped to my hard drive which included a lot of stuff I'd never listen to. Plus I was down to only a few megs left on the zen. That's no good... theMike needs space for music.

So I reformatted the zen touch, upgraded the firmware and made sure I had all of music ripped. A few resets later I have the "meat" of my collection on my zen. Maybe with a bigger drive, I'll add the potatoes and salad as well. For now, it's all musical protein.

I finally got around to making the OMZ (on my zen) page work. The link is over there on the right hand menu. Right now it's an I-Frame and a ginormous html file. At the moment I can't think of a more elegant way to display it. If anybody has any ideas on ways to include large amounts of data that doesn't reside in a database, please let me know. I'm trying to be as user friendly as possible.

The Art of the Mix Tape

I guess I never really thought about making a mix tape as an art until a few days ago. In my mind, a mix tape was just a few songs that you liked and would listen to for your own pleasure. But I now see how a mix tape can transcend mere "listening to music for pleasure" and just background noise to have on a long trip.

My wife asked me to help her create a mix tape. Well, make a mix CD. I thought she would pull a few songs she kinda liked (usually Broadway and big band music) and throw them on a CD for her drive to here current work site. Instead what I witnessed was a personal musical journey that went beyond "these are songs I know I like." She insisted that she likes rock music more than I think she does. She was extremely thoughtful and weighed each song against the others. Now there were a few songs she insisted on like Kelly Clarkson's "Walk Away" and "Since You Been Gone". Then she would add on "Church" by Lyle Lovett with the comment "you just gotta have that!" Another interesting song choice was "Box Set" by the Barenaked Ladies. That song basically lays out everything the songwriter is about and that is exactly what she did before we got married. She sat me down and told me everything that was wrong with her. She then asked "Do you still want to marry me?" Well, Duh. Of course I married her. I bought the whole "Box Set".

My wife then proceeded to sit at my computer and add other songs carefully weighing it's "Rockin' ness". She would pick something and the conversation would go like this:

Her: What's that Shania Twain song I like?
Me: That's country.
Her: I know, but it rocks.
Me: Well, it was produced by Mutt Lange.
Her: Who?
Me: Mutt Lange. He produced Def Leppard's Pyromania album.
Her: Do I like them?
Me: I don't know. I though you were going to make a disk of show tunes.

So we proceeded to add "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" and "That Don't Impress Me Much" by Shania Twain. She always made it a point to listen to a couple of minutes of each song before it was added the "mix tape". I was impressed with some of the songs she did pick out like Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light". Apparently a boyfriend of hers in college gave her a recording of "Bat Out of Hell" that she wore out. She even liked some of the songs I picked out like Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" and the Art of Noise/Tom Jones "Kiss" remake.

So after about an hour or so, we burned the "mix tape" and she listened to it on her drive. I suggested she might want to get an mp3 player. I told her she could put 10+ hours of music on it. She asked "When have I ever listened to 10 hours of music?" Apparently it's not about "how much music" but "this is the music I put the thought into."

I guess it's all in the art of the mix tape.

I’m Glad I Didn’t Get the Tattoo

CD Review - Queensryche Operation Mindcrime II
My buddies and I saw Queensryche twice on their Empire tour; once in Chattanooga, TN and the second time in Knoxville, TN. We were in nirvana. We all had our own copies of Empire and Operation Mindcrime. Those of us who were completely obsessed had the EP, Warning and Rage for Order as well. We were stoked. Twice in one year we got to hear Operation Mindcrime live in all its progressive, ahead of its time, conceptual glory. I even bought a T-Shirt for that tour. We were all excited about the show. We even contemplated driving to Kentucky or some other point a few hours away to see them a third time. We were so mesmerized we even considered getting the Tri-Ryche symbol tattooed on our left shoulders. We refrained. Our lament was "what if they put out an album that sucks?" Well...

Operation Mindcrime II came out just yesterday. I promptly went to Circuit City on my lunch break hoping to get it for 9.99 as I was under the impression that is what they charged for new releases. I guess I got there before they put the sale stickers on. I paid 14 something after tax. Anyway, I'm not saying it sucks but it is definitely less than stellar. It's forced. The mix is thin. Vocal and guitar harmonies sound as if they were all recorded with the Antares Vocal Producer. There is no punch in the drums. The only thing that hit me in the face was how sophomoric the writing came across. The lyrics are forced and melodically parts sound as if they were written and sung by an aspiring songwriter ("choppin' brocc-o-lee") not an accomplished one. I'm one of the first ones to sing Geoff Tate's praises when it comes to vocal performances. I think he's got an incredible voice. He just falls flat on this one. As far as I'm conerned, the only two good tracks on this one are "The Hands" and "Fear City Slide". Both are clearly quoting musical ideas heard in the original Mindcrime.

I wanted to like it. It'll go on my Zen. I doubt very seriously it will even grow on me as Promised Land did. I have the utmost respect for Geoff and the boys. It was a very ballsy move to record this CD. I was okay not really knowing what happened to Mary and Nikki. In the words of Nigel Tufnel "best left unsolved." I think this is the last time I buy a Queensryche record without listening to it first. As for the tour, I *might* go see them live. They are going to do both Mindcrimes with live actors. That should be worthy of another blog entry. I'll save my money on the T-Shirt though.