Congratulations America - you didn't screw up, this time round :) Hooray!!! Good luck in the years to come.
Sincerely,
M@
Most musicians think they are "the best", not when it comes to just any one thing, but everything to do with music. Unfortunately there's a lot of ego in this industry, and you get a lot of fairly preoccupied musicians running around feeling special, when really we're only unique - not 'better-than-others' ***special***. Nowhere is this more evident than in the music studio. Not every musician who comes in is full of themselves, but many are. Main exceptions are much older performers, who don't have the need for ego anymore and very young performers (12-18).
Other than that, there's a lot of 'special'ness - I mean, who doesn't want to feel that way - but unfortunately, there just isn't enough room in this world for so many special people. Everyone's unique, and we can learn to be okay with it.
On a positive note though, the studio also reveals that musicians tend to have strong individual strengths. -Good- rappers tend not to have any tonal ear but can note a missed beat down to about 30ms. A singer-songwriter I recorded had not a single clue about the recording process, but could note a gating bug in the mastering compressor at -42db on his headphones that I wasn't picking up on my speakers. All very amusing, till someone loses an eye, though of course normal listeners can't hear that level of detail so the point is lost really.
Point being, no matter how good you are, there no longer are any record contracts to vie for, any great labels waiting to 'pick you up' - there's just you, me, the internet and a guitar/keyboard/itunes. At least music stays alive.
Sometimes when god closes a door, he opens a window. Windows aren't as easy to get through, but they're close enough. Actually, everybody's wondering why god doesn't just create more doors, cause he's god right? He can do it just by thinking about it. Hell, he created the world in 7 days or something, how hard could it possibly be? Speaking of which, why on earth did he lock us up in the house in the first place? Is this like some sort of "Saw II" kind of test on earth? Why is he closing the door? What kind of sick game is god playing?
Anyway, what I was going to say was, usually when he opens a window, he kills a small turtle that was perched on the windowsill by accidentally knocking it off the windowsill and onto it's back. So god's not that nice. But at least he knows how to build windows. Must be that whole son of an architect thing.
... come to think of it, in that case, why the f**k didn't he just build the ark himself?
These are the things that keep me up at night. Actually what was keeping me up the other night was thinking about a multi-dimensional perspective on time.
In the traditional viewpoint, time is a fourth dimension alongside the three curved dimensions of space, which, according to einstein's theory, form a sort of sphere which when combined with the time aspect make a sort of hypersphere or hypercylinder.
However - what if time is multidimensional - in other words, what if there are N-directions time can potentially go in at any given point, making it a multi-dimensional phenomena like space.
From this perspective, we see multiple viewpoints of reality, where the reality which we inhabit is only one tiny sphere as part of an N-dimensional time-grid, with the other millions of potential time-space-spheres coexisting within a larger N-dimensional context, only one linear path of which we call reality.
Now at this point, one must ask, well, if that's so then it proves a spiritualist viewpoint on reality, as in a purely materialist perspective life is like a machine, with all our decisions, thoughts and feelings being the inevitable result of past and present phenomena and influences. In other words, a sort of mechanised destiny.
However there is actually two ways around this. Either (a) The spiritualist perspective, which states that there is outside influence, or something like a 'soul' or something -
or (b) the materialist chaotic perspective, which has to acknowledge a certain element of randomness or chaotic behaviours inherent in reality. Which is not too hard an ask given that particles are supposedly working their way in and out of existance at speeds faster than light, according to quantum theory.
Waxing melodramatic, if one believes the idea that observing quantum particles changes their behaviour, one could also potentially believe this perspective points towards reality not only being influenced by the action of observing it within the space sphere, but also the time sphere. Therefore - I observe - thereby I influence reality.
Or to put it another way, since we cannot help but observe, I exist - and thereby reality warps around all of us... um, yes, something along those lines... not that I particularly believe nor disbelieve any of that but,
Where am I going with this?
Anyway, what I'm saying is if you imagine all the potential times that could be, all the potential 'now's, then stack them together in some kind of multidimensional array, you start to get something that looks rather like infinity.
Unfortunately I know nothing of physics or multidimensional math, so all this is just thinking out loud (typing out loud?... whatever). But it's fun to think about. And it does tend to keep one awake at night. So don't try it.
... no I'm not on drugs.
This actually made me interested. Both in programming and in graphic programming again. The graphics world took a big, ugly turn when it got shunted into fixed functions and triangle-pushers, now it's opening up, going back to the way it was - in a sense. Though it'll never be the same (100+ people working on a game with a budget and investors won't build anything as non-generic and genre-bending as older games made by two people, of course) the future looks new, for a change. Of course, if the global bank crash or wandering polar bears don't get us, first.
Well, more healthy escapism- damn Brooke Fraser's got a fantastic voice-
m@
As far as I'm concerned, the digital age is over. Reading the signs, it's become harder to monetise web services due to endless competition and market saturation, meaning that more and more business is shifting off it and into real-life commodities - things which can't be copied.
The Web 2.0 stage - as we understand it currently, is nearing it's end. As the net populace drift further towards media saturation, the valued things in life will become solid goods and community rather than entertainment. Oh don't get me wrong - people LOVE entertainment. But more and more often, due to saturation, they won't value it enough to actually separate money from their banks for the privilege of observing it.
This article illustrates some points clearly, although I don't agree with it's overall conclusion at all-
However, if you really want to be earning money by 2021, you need to be in goods and/or services - not attempting to scrape the cream off the top of any given online platter in a foolish effort to support your given art.
Final bit of "O" (credits) was put online last week: link.
Final section (bar credits) of 'O' is up. Also, you may like to partake of some free mp3 downloads courtesy of Artistdirect.com - some of them (Pnau, Department of Eagles, Wilco, Annuals, People in planes) quite good.
Peace out-
I think one of the sadder things about music is that it's only ever an expression of a very small part of a person, or in the case of pop music, often no part of a person.
This leads to some disillusioning situations wherein the listener identifies with the composer, only to find later on that they don't really relate to the composer at all-
I'm reminded of Kevin Smith's encounter with Prince (who he was a fan of) in his college-talk DVD, who he discovered was a somewhat rabid deluded and oblivious religion nut.
Culture builds heroes. We like to identify with the protagonist, be it in the song or otherwise. Perhaps it's like C.S Lewis's purported comment on books - that we read to know we are not alone - in the same sense, we listen to find identification in other's expression, experiences and moods. But often the culture is where the identification ends and the reality never matches up.
I believe this is why music is more a youth culture than other forms of media - it's more emotional for one (youth are known for that), but also the false-identification aspect of it is a large part of it's appeal - by the time you get older, you realise perhaps not all of the music you like is written by people you'd necessarily get along with (and that these guys take a dump like everyone else).
In closing, I like to think that honest musicians honestly communicate themselves into their work - even if it is only one or a couple of facets of themselves that get communicated;
and although I've had my share of disillusionment regards musicians (and audio engineers), I believe I'd get along with at least 80% of the musicians I like, even if I was knocked down by how ordinary they are. Here's hoping.
m@#
For all those who were using my crappy hacked-together version of ImgLikeOpera, the original author has now put out a new version, which fixes many of the buggy aspects in Firefox 3. Go to it!
If you're using forums I still recommend turning on image placeholders with arial narrow size 9.
Quite possibly one of the strangest and most touching anime I've watched, Barefoot Gen is based on the autobiographical manga of the same name, based on the authors experiences of having survived the hiroshima blast as a six year old boy, watching his entire family die.
Equal parts embarressingly cartoonish and devastatingly tragic, it really does the head in to watch. Sometimes you're laughing at how cheesily cartoonish it is, how innappropriate the music is, or you're bemused (as a westerner) at the cultural differences - then at other times you're confronted with an image of a baby trying to produce milk from it's dead mother's breasts. Not a film for all the family, but then, films about horrendous historical accounts seldom are.
I'm guessing the reasoning on the half of the production team was to, rather than play down the horror, attempt to counterbalance it with happiness and ligtheartedness of equable proportions - in this they'd succeed, though not without a somewhat bipolar nature overshadowing the entire film.
Worth watching, if only to understand simply how utterly horrific the consequences of an atomic blast are from someone who actually survived it.
Getting close to the finish of the 'O' releases: Wii - a dark nightmare.
BTW the names for the different sections are mayan. Neat.
The fact that this scenery doesn't require any soundtrack of it's own to be appreciated, but I'm listening to music anyway, shows how habituated I've become to it. Not a bad thing, necessarily.
Desert road is magical this time of year.
Mt Ruapehu is capped, crowned and covered from head to foot in pure white snow, the sun glinting off.
The waterways are clear and running from the recent storms, the plains look greenish for a change.
Okay, desert road is magical any time of year, being honest.
For anyone to say the power pilons, which stand like ancient guardians here in triple-file, stretching the plains,
that they are ugly and must be removed, is a blow to the active imagination. Why deny a future generation the opportunity to imagine these giant robots stomping across
the tussock?
My mood is influenced by the fact that I had no sleep last night, as I'd eaten too much during the day and hadn't burnt enough off to counterbalance my energy load.
I couldn't sleep, so I practised meditation much of the night- which doesn't make sleep happen more, it just makes the no-sleep more tolerable.
Beautiful day to be travelling.
Stop in Palmerston north was pleasant - have no idea why John Cleese gave the town such a bad review - it's nothing special,
but it's not -bad-.
Driving along in the dark not as pleasant as daytime but quite frankly the last 25% of the journey to Wellington is
pretty bland anyway. Okay I'll stop writing now.
Forgot how cold, grey and hard wellington really is. Impersonality like a personality, graffiti, all style, no soul.
Can't stand being here. The suburbs are lovely, why would you want to live close to a city like this though?
So cold here.
Okay, better today - I think I understand now how and why society is becoming more vapid and obsessed with intellectual trivialities. Takes less energy to use intellect than the emotions, and society is fast, rapid, and burns people out. After all the tiredness they get a little bit more jaded, and feeling things takes too much energy to deal with. And that's what this city is, at it's hard atavistic core - one big ball of ice, fatigue and stress-related anxiety. Fascinating weather today. Pine trees knockin' against one another like hand-grenades, kept wondering if one would come down around me.
Forgot one great thing about wellington - live band scene - live original band scene. Something which hamilton has never and will never have, unless you count screamo and garage bands. Just the quality is higher here, the vibe is better and more people pay to see live music.
There's nothing unusual about walking around Wellington and coming across incidental entertainment (intentional or otherwise)- Today, a bunch of guys doing, or trying to do, parkour
in town, and a free concert of cathedral organ in the town hall. Cathedral organs have the seldom-seen quality of being
(a) An instrument of size roughly two hundred times larger than the human being playing them, and
(b) The only instrument I'm aware of capable of producing infrasonic frequencies (which are otherwise usually only generated
by natural disasters such as earthquakes in nature, and which produce feelings of fear, excitation and 'spiritual presense' in human beings when 'heard').
Although organ music is really much of a muchness timbre-wise, it's still intriguing to watch being played, for a while.
There's not much to do on a bad day in wellington but stay inside and huddle up to heaters. Ultimately though, there is no spare time here, and you can feel it. All spare days in Wellington are spent doing stuff like shopping and doing chores, as the rest of the time most people are busy with other stuff. Travelled to Wilton yesterday- it's still the same, I would still call it home, if I lived there. The sheer bulk of noise is getting to me - not just sound-wise, but visually and generally as well.
Kung fu tonight. Kin - my old kung fu teacher - was absent but it was great regardless. It's amazing how the old feelings come back. Feel somewhat less attached to my beliefs today, having had an argument with a friend over philosophy. Ultimately, anything that chips away my faith is both a distraction and a hindrance, and a blessing at the same time.
Very tired from Kung fu the night before - could barely lift myself from bed in the morning, and even then it took me 30 minutes before I could do much past getting up.
Very much coming to the opinion that the age I grew up in is dying out - which I'm very, very happy about.
People are sick of self-congratulatory ironic humour, tired of the old nineties narcissism and negativity, as well as the mockably frumpy feel-goodness of the eighties, and generally
there is a feeling of something new happening. These are all good things.
There are a few things I'll miss - comedy based on witty parodic societal observation circa 1990-1995 e.g duckman, as opposed to the witless character-focused comedy which's become the taste-de-jour in an age when a culture of vague fear advises against lightweight social comedy (The Daily Show notwithstanding).
A viable, if closed-off, music industry, which, despite having virtually no chance of succeeding in, gave young musicians hope for the future.
Because of the growth of worldwide conflict and turmoil in the past
5 years, and the music scene more-or-less dying off in real-world terms (and moreso, progressively, the entire digital entertainment scene as piracy progresses and 'net neutrality' becomes more trouble than it's worth), culturally things have been kind of halting.
Older, successful musicians from the nineties have hung around longer simply because the music industry has been too
afraid to take risks on anything new, due to the f*ing piracy.
Now all bets are off as the industry grinds to a sheer screaming halt and the money stops getting to newer musicians. Out of the chaos new things are emerging. It's not sustainable, but it's interesting, and that in and of itself is positive, even if the long-term outlook for music and tv as a career is absolutely appalling (due to piracy - am I beating you too much with this particular stick? I'll stop). Everything appears to be shifting now, and though the economy is in an apparent (I don't see anything other than food and petrol being slightly more expensive) downturn, things are moving on. All for the best.
Baby has been born, is cute as all babies should be, and both mother, child and father seem to be in good health. Hoorah.
None too soon, as I'm really getting over this place quickly after two weeks of being here.
The fact is, life in Wellington really is clustered toward the city central-
you can't get most places without going through it, almost all of the jobs are in there and all the entertainment too.
There's almost no getting around it - if you have to live in wellington, no matter where you are you'll have to be comfortable with the inner city - and I'm not, really.
It's great in small doses but after a while it really does get to you, a little.
Not only that but the buses, while frequent, are often appalling timing-wise. For the less-frequent services this results in a near-unusable service, such as the 22/23 and 17/18.
This is not their fault, simply the fault of far too many city-livers driving far too many cars, and will hopefully be solved with the GPS system in future.
Were I to live here again I would invest heavily in a powerful electric scooter.
On an aside, last night I had dreams about the singer from They Might be Giants being a complete jerk - I have no idea why he featured heavily in my dream, or whether his witty sarcasm was genuinely velociraptorish or simply bonhomie being lost in translation, but (in my dream) he came of as a talented, but annoying jerk. Such a disappointment! I'm sure he's great in real life.
Then there was something about needing to play through a computer game to find the secret level where they record their music. ... Yeah.
Absolutely ready to leave. Done with here for the time being. Checked out Weta FX's newly-opened "Weta Cave" public display area out at Mirimar North, yesterday - thoroughly recommended.
On the way back home now. Weather incredible. Good to feel warm again - nothing like getting away from a giant ball of cool to make you appreciate the sun again.
Hamilton, ho. Desert road stretched end-to-end with endless glistening snow.
Brother's having a baby (where does it come out!?) so gonna be awol for a few weeks. Welcome to the (belated) second half of 2008!
In the meantime, enjoy this guide I put together on the topic of online bidding, based on the experiences I've had over the years:
All bullshit opinions & writing (c) Copyright 2008 Matt Bentley except when quoting others