February 2012
2 posts
YahZarah
Rdio has been great for me to help discover new music. I like to follow “similar artists” starting with artists I know I like. The latest I’ve found is an artist named YahZarah, who used to be Erykah Badu’s backup singer. Her latest album, The Battle of the Purple Saint James, is great. It reminds me of Janelle Monae’s last album that was my favourite album a couple...
Treme, David Simon and Professor Longhair
I have finished watching Season 1 of the David Simon show, Treme. Simon is the creator and a writer of my favourite show ever, The Wire. His current show, Treme, does not disappoint either. It follows the city of New Orleans, post Hurricane Katrina.
I love Simon’s style. He writes in a way that captures the deeply intertwined and dependent nature of real life, coming at a topic from the...
January 2012
4 posts
Art forms are computationally equivalent
(I found this post from my old blog years ago, and I liked it enough that I thought I’d bring it over here. The old blog was getting spammed too much, so I had to take it down).
Check out this youtube vid:
Non-traditional art, sure. But to me, it just goes to show that essentially any two art forms are computationally equivalent. You can always find an algorithm to encode one inside...
Chaka Khan or Plants vs. Zombies
Here’s a cut from the game Plants vs. Zombies. Listen as the song progresses.
Here’s Chaka Khan:
Sound similar? Heavy bass on both, plus the synth in the background as the songs progress. A lot of the Plants vs. Zombies soundtrack reminds me of this Chaka song.
(Note: Chaka came first).
second favourite TV show theme song
I’ve already covered my favourite.
Here’s my second favourite.
Tito!
As I sit here waiting for a website for work to load, I enjoy time by listening to Tito! Tito!
December 2011
1 post
Alexisonfire
Since I didn’t look for too much new music the last ten years, anything from the last decade that I find seems new to me. And Alexisonfire falls into that category. I do remember seeing some of their videos around 2000 (yes, videos on TV, as this was around the last time I had access to cable television), but I never explored further, and they never got played on any radio that was near...
October 2011
2 posts
open links on a Mac
I’ve always been on the lookout for a really quick way to send links from iOS to the Mac. I almost always just browse the web on an iPad or iPhone, which I usually prefer to a full PC. But periodically I’ll come across a site that would be better to read on the Mac, whether it be because of a Flash video, or just slugginess of some sites with the lesser CPU.
I’ve tried a number...
yet more Wonder
My Stevie Wonder kick came in a couple of years ago, and I can’t shake it. He’s the best. Been digging his live album Natural Wonder.
September 2011
4 posts
Queen - Flick of the Wrist
One of my favourite Queen songs:
Beck - The New Pollution
Love the melody floating on top of the fast rhythm.
“She’s .. al .. one .. in .. the … new .. pol .. lu .. tion”.
Jaco
Love the arrangement on this one. Gotta love Jaco Pastorius.
Blue Jays offense in 2011
The 2011 season is almost over for baseball, and as has so often been the case, the Jays will likely finish just a touch over .500. This is ok, but not good enough to compete in the AL East. Optimism is high in Jays land however, as GM Alex Anthopolous has made some clever moves, by exploiting some inefficiencies in baseball. This thread at Bluebird Banter does a good job of discussing those...
May 2011
1 post
WWDC 2011 predictions
The annual conference WWDC is coming up in 10 days. Which of course means predictions. I figured I’d give my predictions for what I expect this year, based on rumours, plus my own educated guesses. Here’s what I expect:
iCloud - This is potentially the name of the music streaming service. The speculation is that it will scan your iTunes library and allow you to stream this music to...
April 2011
1 post
Love is Eternal Sacred Light
Can’t contain my excitement about the Paul Simon album coming out tomorrow.. Hey, he only puts out an album every five years or so, and he’s been my favourite songwriter since childhood. I’m allowed to get excited.
I’ve heard the whole album already, and I think it’s great. Here’s another great one.
March 2011
2 posts
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters have a new album coming out the same day as Paul Simon next month. I don’t always love Foo Fighters albums, but I’m always hopeful. For the most part, they have four really good songs on every album, and the rest aren’t as strong. They are most certainly a tight band, and they’ve always put together a good live show.
I’m hopeful for this one. The new...
So Beautiful or So What
Oh boy, I can’t wait for the new Paul Simon album out next month. The songs I have heard so far have been awesome, and the reviews seem to be outstanding. Here’s the title track.
December 2010
1 post
Monk
Love this song. Rhythmically crazy, but still feels like it could be the background to a Bond movie. I don’t think I could ever play it though.
(Sorry, Flash only. Youtube’s new Flash detection really stinks).
November 2010
1 post
Bird of Beauty
Another great song from Stevie Wonder…
October 2010
7 posts
Mac App Store
The new Mac App Store
On Wednesday of this week, Apple announced that it is going to open a new Mac App Store, similar to the iPhone App Store. The new App Store will undoubtedly be a huge deal, and the implications of it will be far reaching, and not just to Mac users. There has never been anything like this on a desktop OS before. Only nerds currently install desktop software, but that is not...
Hey Ya!
An ode to the most popular song in history to have 22 beats in every phrase. OutKast!
(Sorry, Flash only. Link to audio for iOS).
smart folders for journal articles
In the past, I have experimented with a number of OS X apps to keep track of journal (and other) articles. But in the end, I always end up going back to regular old folders and files. I find there is too much overhead in using other apps dedicated to the purpose of keeping track of articles. So, I have a regular old folder called “papers” that I store on Dropbox, and then inside there,...
Should Jose Bautista be MVP this year?
Does Toronto Blue Jay Jose Bautista deserve to be the MVP this year? Let’s review his statistics in the American League:
10th place on base average
3rd place slugging percentage
5th place runs scored
1st place total bases
1st place home runs
3rd place RBIs
2nd place walks
1st place extra base hits
2nd place outfield assists (and he played almost 1/3 of games at 3rd base)
1st place...
Seven Days
Sting has always been great at using space in his music, which shows in the song “Seven Days”. It has a “Walking on the moon” quality to it, that shows off drummer, Vinnie Colaiuta really well. I like the soft touch on the ride cymbal during the bridge.
Gorilla detector →
Knowing the real meaning of "success", and its...
For the first time since I was a teenager in the 90’s, this year I followed baseball quite closely. Baseball doesn’t seem to be all that much different now than it was then, as far as I can recall. It has always been heavy on the statistics relative to other sports, and the stats themselves have gotten a bit better. The managers do more “extreme” things than when I was...
August 2010
1 post
Janelle Monáe
I’ve found my new favourite album for the year. I don’t discover much “modern” music, but I came across Janelle Monáe watching the musical act on the show “So You Think You Can Dance”. The musical acts on that show are usual nausea inducing, but I immediately loved the performance. It reminded me of James Brown, but more melodic. This was a similar performance...
June 2010
1 post
iPad for work
I’ve had the iPad for almost two weeks and when I got it, I thought I’d try to use it for work in lieu of Macs as much as I could. But more importantly, I thought I’d try to use it instead of paper as well. For the most part, I spend much of the day either on paper or on a Mac, so this is quite the experiment for me.
My goal was to only use the desktop, or paper, for specific...
May 2010
7 posts
rewards
The talk was given by Dan Pink, a former speechwriter of Al Gore (with wicked animation by others). He discusses the differences in work based on whether or not there are incentives, and also based on the difficulty of the task. I certainly recommend giving it a listen.
I am a total non-expert on this, and I didn’t read the discussed papers (I’m lazy on this particular topic), but...
Running the bases
This is an interesting result showing that in baseball, if you know that you are going to get an extra-base hit off the bat, you are better to start running at an angle, away from the straight line to first, immediately. All baseball players run straight to first, and then curve away only shortly before getting to first. I see no reason why teams can’t test out this experimentally.
Harper Simon
This is a video off of Harper Simon’s debut album. He is Paul Simon’s son, and boy is that evident in this song.
1985 NBA lottery: idiots or scam
For this video, I’m going to link to the youtube version here instead of embedding so you can see the title information.
The video shows the first ever lottery, amongst seven NBA teams, to see the order of their draft picks. The fact that this is the first such lottery is particularly noteworthy.
The conjecture is that the NBA fixed the lottery so that the Knicks could get Patrick Ewing...
Jaco
I’m no bassist, but I love Jaco Pastorias. His playing is incredibly melodic, more so than I usually think of the bass. And his tone is identifiable. I think I could pick his playing out of a crowd.
This is a classic Jaco track with his band Weather Report. He’s really groovin’ on this one.
I got turned onto Jaco through his work with Joni Mitchell. He played with with...
not fully clothed
I’m still a big fan of these barenaked ladies.
I think their new album (the first without Steven Page) holds up well. I’ve always liked the Kevin Hearn written songs (he’s the guy who wasn’t a member in the early days, the left bearded one on the static pic above). He gets more songs than before on this album.
psyche vision
If you read this, your vision will improve.
April 2010
5 posts
old video of San Fran
Check out this video footage of San Francisco, before the 1906 earthquake. It’s incredible.
Genesis
It seems every rocker goes through a Genesis phase. Well, early Genesis anyways from the Peter Gabriel days. And the next couple of albums with Phil Collins singing too (not that I can tell the difference between them singing or anything).
Gotta love it when you have to break the song up into two parts. (if you’re to only listen to one half, try the second).
social graphs, Facebook, and attention
This week, Facebook started a new system called Open Graph.
The premise behind Open Graph is that individual websites can place a ‘like’ button on their website, and readers can ‘like’ a post, article, or the site itself. This information gets relayed back to their Facebook profile, and their followers. Facebook announced agreements with some major websites right off the...
multitasking
This is a very cool study that shows we can multitask two tasks at once effectively, but not three. Yeah for binary.
booty
It’s like a Snoop Dogg video for caterpillars.
March 2010
3 posts
lyrics versus music
This piece by Suematsu has an interesting analysis of music versus lyrics in music. I recommend giving it a read.
Some of his analysis is interesting, and I haven’t heard it before. In particular, he discusses non-English speaking cultures, and their ability to appreciate music over lyrics, which is likely true. Personally, I have always been in the ‘music’ camp, and ignore...
Stevie!
Check out the awesomeness that is Stevie Wonder.
This is the dissection of the original master tracks of the song Superstitious. Brilliant. (Both videos Flash only, sorry).
Here is the full track put together in all its glory.
best TV theme song ever
February 2010
5 posts
More Police
To follow up on the last post, I think the Police were a much better live band than a studio band. The earlier records were under-rehearsed and the best parts weren’t worked out, and the later records lost all spontaneity. Most of the songs, including the three in the link above, got much better live.
There are some exceptions though. I always really liked the studio versions of Message in...
The Police
One of my favourite aspects of the Police live, was their use of digital effects in combination with their accoustic playing. Stewart would trigger these drum effects live with delays. He’d use them on all the drums and symbols and the high hat. Essentially, he’d use them to continue rhythms that he started playing. This version of Walking on the Moon is one of my favourite examples....
Google Chrome
As a test, I’ve used Google Chrome (on a mac) for the last week. The mac version now seems to be as feature rich as the Windows version, so I thought I’d give it a try to see how it compares to my browser of choice, Safari. I’ve always had a thing for browsers, and I have a general distaste for them overall. I think tabs are horrible, back/forward buttons are insane, the URL bar...
personal uses for iPad
There has been tons of discussion on the positives and negatives regarding the iPad. I personally love the idea of the device and think it has great potential. I won’t dwell here on any philosophical reasons why this is or is not “revolutionary”, or whether it will take off in the future. I personally enjoyed these pieces, and will just refer to them.
Instead, I want to present...
Can't resist one more Zeppelin song
Not many rock songs trick me into thinking I’ve got a butt.
January 2010
2 posts
toasters and computers
There has been speculation all over the internet about the soon to be released, Apple Tablet. I would like to toss my opinion about the tablet in the ring for discussion. I might just shave my hairy finger in order to use one (recall that I’m a monkey).
The two articles that have “nailed it” the most for me are this piece by Diaz at Gizmodo, and Gruber’s piece. Both...
self-control
Just reading this is exhausting. I’m getting some iced cream.