Hey, neat! Somehow or other, one of my Tahoe vacation photos got included in an online travel guide! Take a look:
http://www.schmap.com/laketahoe/activities_tahoma/#p=205536&i=205536.jpg
My theory...good metadata. I mean, that's not a great picture, but how many people post pictures tagged "Sugar Pine Point State Park"...just think what good metadata could do for you!
20080223
20071213
Huh?
It's been a while, maybe this will help restart things...so...I found the certificate below while looking for fancy certificate borders, really, and it made me wonder, what the heck was the designer thinking with those little brow skid marks around the edge?
I get that these people are trying to do some thing honorable for soldiers, but who the heck did they hire, the guy that did The Little Mermaid, then did they refuse to pay him? Clueless...
I get that these people are trying to do some thing honorable for soldiers, but who the heck did they hire, the guy that did The Little Mermaid, then did they refuse to pay him? Clueless...
20070114
Triple Espresso, Highly Something
One cold January night in 2007, it happened. I was forced to see “Triple Espresso.” After all the years, ten maybe, of making fun of a production which no one I new had seen and which no one I knew could remember not being on that stage. There I was, the audience of said show, being prompted to give me, us really, and round of applause for being late.
I had just bought a house and for some reason had not yet deduced the fastest and easiest way to the part of Minneapolis containing the Music Box Theater. As such, I was entering late, after being asked to wait for five minutes with the other late arrivals. Knowingly, it seems in retrospect, we were ushered into the to theater and what turned out to be a gaping hole in the monologue into which we “humorously” blundered, one “Bobby Bean” recognizing our late entry and asking the audience to clap for us, which they, of course, obliged.
For the entire show the audience participation/interaction breaking the dynamic of actor and audience was done time and again. For a movie like “Orlando” and an actress like Tilda Swinton where this tactic is used sparingly, it works to great effect. The cudgel of the night’s interactions, only served to beat the audience to defensive laughter and by the end of the two hours, nearly jeers. I’m not sure the couple in front of me will ever recover from one of the more extreme moments of “audience participation.” The fresh faced male of the couple returned from his humiliation on the stage, in which he held lyrical cue cards for an audience sing-a-long reenacting the early years of Bobby’s career, only to be berated by Bobby; to the relentless laughter of his female companion. Fun. Thank God it wasn’t me. I didn’t even mind Bobby pointing out my relief to the audience, ha-ha, thanks Bobby.
The structure of the show is of an overarching sit com comprised of a series of sketches which make up the history of the trio until this, their reunion show. There is feigned drama and constant overacting which is supposed to be overacting to comedic effect, but to me, came off as over the top cheesy. There are simple sight gags and even simpler verbal puns. To give credit where credit is due though, everyone stayed in character, delivers the story, such as it is, convincingly. I actually think those men have talent. Unfortunately, those talents are buried somewhere under the soul killing script.
Robert O. Berdahl (Hugh Butternut) can actually play the piano and sing, rather well too, as showcased in one sketch, he can even do it blind folder with classical music while someone else is pretending to be a gorilla (Bobby) and the audience is, distractingly, going into hysterics. George Tovar (Buzz Maxwell), was distinctly the most convincing and least overacted of the trio and he has some very nice slight of hand skills as show cased in several segments of his back story as a magician. Brian Kelly’s Bobby Bean was the hardest for me to appreciate as he had to play an unrelenting dolt, but in my favorite and based on the reaction of the rest of the audience, possibly their favorite sketch, he showed of his skills as a shadow puppeteer. I know it sounds corny, rrright, shadow puppets?! Really though, until you see a dog lick your face and a gorilla pick and eat a booger in shadow puppets, you have not lived. Juvenile, probably, but without audience participation, thankfully, yes!
So, as I sat in a row by myself in an increasingly cold theater on an aisle, towards the front, trying not to be chosen out of the crowd as a parent or professor or bad singer, I wondered how on earth I ended up in this situation. Firstly, somehow, two coworkers and their spouses were conveniently excused for birth and death type situations. It was also my office’s attempt at a holiday party, but it turned out to be the brain child of a single new employee who had not been to see Triple Espresso, once or even twice, but twelve, yes, twelve times.
Foolishly, I even attempted to dodge this coworker at the end of the show, but she managed to catch me despite her bulk. Fortunately, I had just shaken Brian’s hand and in all earnestness looked him in the eye and told him, “thanks.” I mean you must need something to get through the day when you are in that situation. So, when she asked what I thought, I was ready with, “those men have some skills!” It’s true but, do yourself a favor and have a triple espresso at intermission, they server them right there in the lobby and for good reason.
I had just bought a house and for some reason had not yet deduced the fastest and easiest way to the part of Minneapolis containing the Music Box Theater. As such, I was entering late, after being asked to wait for five minutes with the other late arrivals. Knowingly, it seems in retrospect, we were ushered into the to theater and what turned out to be a gaping hole in the monologue into which we “humorously” blundered, one “Bobby Bean” recognizing our late entry and asking the audience to clap for us, which they, of course, obliged.
For the entire show the audience participation/interaction breaking the dynamic of actor and audience was done time and again. For a movie like “Orlando” and an actress like Tilda Swinton where this tactic is used sparingly, it works to great effect. The cudgel of the night’s interactions, only served to beat the audience to defensive laughter and by the end of the two hours, nearly jeers. I’m not sure the couple in front of me will ever recover from one of the more extreme moments of “audience participation.” The fresh faced male of the couple returned from his humiliation on the stage, in which he held lyrical cue cards for an audience sing-a-long reenacting the early years of Bobby’s career, only to be berated by Bobby; to the relentless laughter of his female companion. Fun. Thank God it wasn’t me. I didn’t even mind Bobby pointing out my relief to the audience, ha-ha, thanks Bobby.
The structure of the show is of an overarching sit com comprised of a series of sketches which make up the history of the trio until this, their reunion show. There is feigned drama and constant overacting which is supposed to be overacting to comedic effect, but to me, came off as over the top cheesy. There are simple sight gags and even simpler verbal puns. To give credit where credit is due though, everyone stayed in character, delivers the story, such as it is, convincingly. I actually think those men have talent. Unfortunately, those talents are buried somewhere under the soul killing script.
Robert O. Berdahl (Hugh Butternut) can actually play the piano and sing, rather well too, as showcased in one sketch, he can even do it blind folder with classical music while someone else is pretending to be a gorilla (Bobby) and the audience is, distractingly, going into hysterics. George Tovar (Buzz Maxwell), was distinctly the most convincing and least overacted of the trio and he has some very nice slight of hand skills as show cased in several segments of his back story as a magician. Brian Kelly’s Bobby Bean was the hardest for me to appreciate as he had to play an unrelenting dolt, but in my favorite and based on the reaction of the rest of the audience, possibly their favorite sketch, he showed of his skills as a shadow puppeteer. I know it sounds corny, rrright, shadow puppets?! Really though, until you see a dog lick your face and a gorilla pick and eat a booger in shadow puppets, you have not lived. Juvenile, probably, but without audience participation, thankfully, yes!
So, as I sat in a row by myself in an increasingly cold theater on an aisle, towards the front, trying not to be chosen out of the crowd as a parent or professor or bad singer, I wondered how on earth I ended up in this situation. Firstly, somehow, two coworkers and their spouses were conveniently excused for birth and death type situations. It was also my office’s attempt at a holiday party, but it turned out to be the brain child of a single new employee who had not been to see Triple Espresso, once or even twice, but twelve, yes, twelve times.
Foolishly, I even attempted to dodge this coworker at the end of the show, but she managed to catch me despite her bulk. Fortunately, I had just shaken Brian’s hand and in all earnestness looked him in the eye and told him, “thanks.” I mean you must need something to get through the day when you are in that situation. So, when she asked what I thought, I was ready with, “those men have some skills!” It’s true but, do yourself a favor and have a triple espresso at intermission, they server them right there in the lobby and for good reason.
20060205
The iPod and Really Smart Random Playlists
Ok, so I heard tell of this neat idea and finally got around to trying it! What, the hell, you say, am I talking about? Well, this is what the hell. How to make a good random playlist, or more specifically, how to make a good "random" playlist. Here's how!
Some stats:
My old random play list had:
3372 Songs
2296 With no rating
818 With 1 star
236 with 2 stars
22 with 3 stars
0 with 4 stars
0 with 5 stars
My new random play list has:
1923 Songs
695 songs with no rating
818 songs with 1 star
349 songs with 2 stars
61 songs with 3 stars
0 with 4 stars
0 with 5 stars
As you can see, things are weighted a bit more towards the higher ranked songs. Interestingly, they both pick up the same number of one star songs. And OK, so it's true I don’t just hand out four or five stars, but they are in there, I swear! I am much happier about this playlist configuration and have been grooving for the last hour or so, much more than normal and to what you ask, why...
- Figure out what criteria you never want to listen to in a random playlist. For me, this is genre, "is not Comedy." Then there is genre, "is not Data" like if you have a iTrip or keep Data tracks from CDs in your Library. Oh and don’t forget that when you are rocking out in the car, you’re not going to be able watch the last episode of Lost so, don’t forget to filter movies out too. I do this with, "Category is not mov." I also always check the box to match only checked songs.
- Ok, now for the repetitive part, use those criteria above and make five or six playlists, since you cannot copy play lists without hacking the library xml I just did this through iTunes. You should match all rules.
- To each of those playlists created above add a criteria to match your rating from none to five stars. It is important to add the playlist for zero stars or else this will never pick up the songs you just added which are not rated.
- To each of those playlists created above add a criteria specifying "Last Played is not in the last N days" where "N" is inversely proportional to the rating. So, for me, this means that my rating equals zero songs, only get played every 150 days, while songs with a rating of four get played every 15 days.
- Now, the final step make your master smart play list by adding a criteria for each rating play list you created above like "Playlist is List Zero." This playlist should be set to match any of the following rules or you will not match any songs, oops!
- Proceed to rock out!
Some stats:
My old random play list had:
3372 Songs
2296 With no rating
818 With 1 star
236 with 2 stars
22 with 3 stars
0 with 4 stars
0 with 5 stars
My new random play list has:
1923 Songs
695 songs with no rating
818 songs with 1 star
349 songs with 2 stars
61 songs with 3 stars
0 with 4 stars
0 with 5 stars
As you can see, things are weighted a bit more towards the higher ranked songs. Interestingly, they both pick up the same number of one star songs. And OK, so it's true I don’t just hand out four or five stars, but they are in there, I swear! I am much happier about this playlist configuration and have been grooving for the last hour or so, much more than normal and to what you ask, why...
- Artist, Album, Song, Last Played, My Rating
- Underworld, Everything, Everything (Live), Juanita / Kiteless, 11/30/2005 15:24, 3
- Modest Mouse, The Lonesome Crowded West, Truckers Atlas, 10/5/2005 12:16, 1
- Sigur Rós, Ágætis Byrjun, Svefn-G-Englar, 10/6/2005 17:59, 1
- Static X, Wisconson Death Trip, Stem, 8/29/2005 18:56,
- James Brown, Star Time - Disc 3 - Soul Brother No. 1, Hot Pants, Part 1, 8/29/2005 10:56,
- Thievery Corporation, DJ-Kicks, Bobby Matos / Guiro Electro (Rainer Trüby Trio Remix), 9/4/2005 17:56, 1
- The Who, Quadrophenia, Love Reign O'er Me, 10/12/2005 17:44, 2
- Fantastic Plastic Machine, The Fantastic Plastic Machine, Dear Mr. Salesman, 7/30/2005 11:42, 1
- Squeeze, Singles - 45's And Under, Cool For Cats, ,
- Tom Waits, Small Change, Step Right Up, 12/6/2005 17:28, 3
- Underworld, Soundtrack Hackers, Cowgirl, 9/27/2005 14:16, 2
- RJD2, Since We Last Spoke, Iced Lightning, 10/16/2005 12:22, 1
- Anime, ?, Anime - Slayers - Theme, 9/8/2005 13:35, 1
- Siouxsie & The Banshees, Twice Upon A Time - The Singles, Candyman, 10/26/2005 10:50, 1
- Gorillaz, Gorillaz, Left Hand Suzuki Method, 8/26/2005 20:23, 1
- Oumou Sangare, Trance Planet, Volume 3, Saa Magni, 10/17/2005 17:21, 1
- The The, Infected, Sweet Bird Of Truth, 12/13/2005 13:12, 3
- New Order, Retro: Club, Fine Time (Steve "Silk" Hurley Mix), 9/5/2005 21:54,
- Dave Matthews, , Crash Into Me, 10/26/2005 15:28, 1
- The Shamen, En-Tact, 666 Edit, 8/19/2005 17:48, 1
- Modest Mouse, Interstate 8, Whenever I Breathe Out (Positive Negative), 8/30/2005 14:30,
- Portishead, Numb, A Tribute To Monk & Canatella, 11/28/2005 14:08, 2
- Camper Van Beethoven, Key Lime Pie, Come On Darkness, 9/4/2005 18:03,
- Fantastic Plastic Machine, Luxury, The Girl Next Door, 9/3/2005 13:59,
- Radio4, Stealing of a Nation, Absolute Affirmation (Tom Middleton's Cosmos Dub Mix), 10/31/2005 13:18, 2
20050912
What, you a musician, "yes!"
Let me preface this with the fact that I know next to nothing about music. Yeah, I listen to it all the time and have a ton of CDs. I might even still be able to play "hot cross buns" on the recorder, which I learned in fifth grade, but that is pure rote. I know nothing about chords, nothing sunk in during trumpet lessons, no 4/4 time, no C#, nothing. Yeah I know some words, but that's about it.
Enter computers.
Every once in a while I'll try fooling around with some music program. Mostly, that ends up sounding like crap or on a good day, like one of those sound collage…things. Imagine my thrill when I discovered that it is now possible to have a computer work out most of it for you, woo-hoo! Now you too can make music with just a "little" help. If you're curious, here's what a person who knows nothing about music, except what they like to listen to, can make. Experimental, is probably the best, but it is a lot more fun to make your own!
The whole thing is pretty mechanical sounding though, but when you start to think about adding a learning neural network, like NERO, and setting its inputs based on biofeedback from a crowd sort of like this. You'd get this DJ Robot making music up in response to real people, really getting down, maybe then we could get some decent pop music! All my phone votes go to DJ Robot! I just don't want to be in that first crowd.
Enter computers.
Every once in a while I'll try fooling around with some music program. Mostly, that ends up sounding like crap or on a good day, like one of those sound collage…things. Imagine my thrill when I discovered that it is now possible to have a computer work out most of it for you, woo-hoo! Now you too can make music with just a "little" help. If you're curious, here's what a person who knows nothing about music, except what they like to listen to, can make. Experimental, is probably the best, but it is a lot more fun to make your own!
The whole thing is pretty mechanical sounding though, but when you start to think about adding a learning neural network, like NERO, and setting its inputs based on biofeedback from a crowd sort of like this. You'd get this DJ Robot making music up in response to real people, really getting down, maybe then we could get some decent pop music! All my phone votes go to DJ Robot! I just don't want to be in that first crowd.
Chernobyl
I enjoyed this article so much and have been sitting on the link forever because I can seemingly never send it out. It's not an upper. For some reason you can't just spam all your friends with something about Chernobyl and cleaning up after wars (even "cold" ones).
There's probably too much going on different parts of the world today and will be tomorrow, what with my early meeting and all, but if not now, when.
There's probably too much going on different parts of the world today and will be tomorrow, what with my early meeting and all, but if not now, when.
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