Ladies and Gents, Dead Cat Looks at the News
National News: The AP reported today that NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) has entered into a new program with the U.S. Department of Defense to bring live opera to 39 military bases around the nation. At recent performances at Fort Carson, CO and Picatinny Arsenal in Wharton, NJ, the performances proved so popular that opera goers actually had to be turned away at the door.
So for all of you cynics and rock and roll snobs out there all I have to say is
Phhhhhhhhttttttt!!!!
Let me rephrase that. As you can see it isn't just fops and dandies or ivy-league intellectuals who are enjoying opera these days. These performances were for soldiers - grizzled, battle-hardened soldiers. People like John Wayne or Lee Marvin or Demi Moore (?) who've looked death in the eye and spit in it's face, and yet still break down and bawl like babies when Si, Mi chiamano Mimi is sung. Ah, this was the best news I've heard all year. You see you don't have to be a nerd to love opera. Manly men and hearty women like it too.
But then that's not the only opera news that was made recently. I'm sure you heard about the Drew Barrymore-Fabrizio Moretti incident at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. According to Fabrizio, the couple got bored at a performance of "La Boheme" and decided to sneak off to the ladies room for an intimate and romantic moment. Knowing the kind of passions that Italian opera can ignite I was not suprised by the whole affair, but others, reading about it in US Magazine, were shocked. Of course longtime Letterman fans know that Drew has never been what you would call a shrinking violet, so I say, considering Ms. Barrymore's high spirits, all of you opera goers should just forget the whole thing and be happy the couple decided to do it in the ladies room and not up there on the stage.
Anyways, when I heard the news I immediately got curious and logged onto Rhapsody to listen to a few tracks by Moretti's band The Strokes. All I can say Fabrizio is, well, I'm sorry you were bored, but you know people have been coming to hear Puccini's music for over a hundred years now and they'll still be listening long after bland, middle-of-the-road, post punk pop bands like The Strokes are no more than little italicized footnotes in peoples distant teenybopper pasts.
Besides, I was listening to Father Roderick today and even he, it turns out, is a big opera fan. And Father Roderick is very cool, probably the hippest catholic since JFK. So if it's good enough for the Marines, if it's good enough for The Catholic Insider, then it's certainly good enough for me. And I could care less if nerds like Fabrizo Moretti can't catch on.
State News: Last week the California Air Resources Board classified second hand smoke as a toxic pollutant. This is seen as the first step towards further regulation of smoking in California. Although some environmental activists have declared that the door is now open for an outright smoking ban in the state, the CARB is likely to take a more cautious approach. No one knows exactly what they will do, but most agree that eventually smoking will be banned in all public areas (both indoors and outdoors), in and around public buildings (no more groups of smokers taking their breaks in front of the office), inside automobiles, and in all apartments and condominiums.
The only reason I bring this up is because, as you know, in California it is legal to sell and possess marijuana for medicinal purposes. If these new smoking regulations are passed (as is widely expected), then in a few years California may be the only place in the world where smoking pot is legal and smoking cigarettes isn't.
I tell ya', things don't get anymore "California" than that.
Economic News: The national savings rate just dropped to it's lowest level since the Great Depression at -0.5%. For those of you like me who were never very good at math, that means that Americans are now spending more than they earn and are doing so at the highest rate since the 1930's, which were not very good economic times. Conversely, household net worth in the U.S. stands at a record $51 trillion. Which means what, exactly.
Apparently, we're spending more, savings less, and getting richer doing it. That's one of them there paradox things, you see. The more we spend, the more money we have. Still, you gotta think that things can't go on like that forever. And let me add this to the mix. We're the richest nation on earth and yet each year we are exporting more and more of our wealth overseas, particulary to Asia. So how does any of this make any sense? How long can we continue to spend what we don't have and export what we do have overseas? Doesn't it seem like sooner or later you gotta balance the books?
Well, I'm no economist.
In further economic news, Exxon today reported profits in the 4th quarter of 2005 of $10.71 billion and total profits for the year of $36.13 billion. Look for members of Congress to start screaming bloody murder later this week with new hearings and studies to follow. Ho-hum. As Louis Rukeyser, the great and former host of PBS' Wall Street Week used to remark, why is it that when the price of oil goes up the Congress always wants to hold hearings on the oil companies obscene profits, but when the price of oil goes down they never want hold hearings on the oil companies obscene losses.
Like I said, I'm no economist but I do think I understand this supply and demand thing a little. You see if I have something - say a shoebox full of Pete Domenici bumper stickers, for example - and no one wants 'em. That means no one wants to buy them and they have very little monetary value. However, if all of a sudden Pete Domenici bumper stickers start getting popular and everybody wants 'em, then everybody wants to buy them and their monetary value goes up. In the former case, I end up with a box full of useless political paraphanalia, and in the latter case I get filthy rich. Isn't oil a little like that? They got a hot commodity, people are willing to pay big bucks for it, and they're getting rich. Sheesh, if you don't like it then buy a Prius.
If Walter Cronkite was doing this blog that's what he'd tell you.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
The Crayola Effect
What I don't get about this whole Google thing with the subpoena's and the privacy concerns and all that is this: If the government wants to know what Google has in their database why don't they just ask the NSA. Sheesh, little things like warrants and subpoenas never stopped them before.
Anyways, turning to the mailbag, Brent from Canby MN writes:
"What exactly is podcasting?"
Well Brent, imagine a professional and profitable media business with a staff of highly trained marketers, producers, engineers and on-air talent. Then imagine that business using sophisticated polling data and audience sampling to figure out what type of music and on-air entertainment most appeals to their listeners. And then, having polled their audience and analyzed their listening preferences, imagine that business creating a playlist of songs that their audience has indicated they like. And then imagine that business playing that same list of songs, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, over and over and over and over again until their listeners are sick of hearing them and threatening to burn down the station if they ever play them again. And then imagine those listeners disgustedly scanning through the other stations in their area for anybody playing anything different from that same list of songs they keep hearing over and over and over again. And then imagine those listeners not being able to find any other stations because, it turns out, all the stations are copying that same highly successful station that you've been listening to and playing from the same narrow list of songs. And imagine this goes on month after month, year after year, over and over and over again.
Well Brent, that is what we call terrestrial radio.
Now, instead of that, imagine some guy sitting around the house in his underwear and talking into a microphone about what was on TV last night or what he had for breakfast, and imagine that every now and then he plays a song he heard and liked and plays it for no other reason than he heard it and liked it. Or maybe it's not some guy but a couple talking about their sex lives or a parent talking about his kids or a bunch of geeks rambling on about 802.11 pre N routers, or maybe it's just someone foaming and ranting about nothing at all.
That Brent, is podcasting.
So now that you know what podcasting is I guess the real question becomes "does podcasting have a future?" That's a good question and let me try to address it as best I can.
I should begin with a short history lesson. Podcasting has only really been in the public's eye for about a year and half now, and in that time it has gone through some major changes. When it first started out it was like kind of an underground movement of mostly anti-establishment types who wanted to turn the media business upside down and create a sort of "peoples" radio (Viva La Raza!). That was the honeymoon period of podcasting and it lasted about 9 months or so until podcasters started gaining real audiences and finding that they were just as fascinated by numbers as their terrestrial brothers were.
This led to Phase II podcasting wherein podcasters started looking around and asking themselves "how can I make money off of these numbers." A fair question to ask and I'm certainly not here to libel them as counter-revolutionaries or anything like that. Their shows had become popular and there are people who pay other people for their audiences and, well, the stuff doesn't grow on trees you know. But as podcasters became more and more concerned with growing their audience their podcasts began to sound more and more like, you know, radio. That guy wasn't sitting around in his underwear anymore. He was shaving and showering and putting on a nice suit and checking his breath before he went a-courtin'. At the same time, a lot of those people over in traditional radio who'd been sitting around picking their toes while this whole podcasting thing started to take off suddenly sat up and took notice. They too, it seems, wanted to get into podcasting and did so in a big way, using their clout and influence to cut in front of those early revolutionaries and muscle their way to the top of the podcasting heap.
That pissed off a lot of old time podcasters and lead to the current state of affairs which I guess could be called Phase III. Now we have podcasters forming podcasting networks and hoping that by banding together they can withstand the onslaught from traditional media. "New media empires to replace the old" has become their rallying cry, I guess, and all the while the old empires continue to move in and occupy space. The young turks try to pretend they don't care, but believe me, they care.
So, how is all this going to play out? Does podcasting have a future? Well, sure it does. Podcasting is just portable media and that just means more convenience for the user. The audience is never going to go back to a world of less choice and less convenience. What about podcasters? Do they have a future? Sure they do, provided they're willing to adapt, and that's what I believe you are going to see.
Old media is never going to change. Why should they when they dominate the market. Even a successful podcast with say 4 or 5 hundred thousand listeners is nothing compared to the 200,000,000 or so listeners that terrestrial radio has. There is no reason for old media to come into the podcasting space and change their way of doing things, especially when it's a proven model. It's just a marketing problem for them, not a fundamental business problem.
What's going to have to happen instead is that podcasters are going to have to change their way of doing things, i.e. become more and more like old media. If they want to change the world then they're going to have to learn from old media and follow their lead. That's my prediction, anyways, and I think that's exactly what's happening. You just wait and see. In a few years you won't be able to tell an independent podcast from a Clear Channel podcast. They'll both sound exactly the same, and don't be suprised if one day you hear former revolutionaries like Adam Curry getting in front of his mike and loudly singing the praises of Sony BMG and the RIAA and all the other enemies of the past.
It's gonna happen.
I should probably mention that I'm an occasional podcaster myself. My podcast is called Old Man Radio and it comes out every couple of weeks, or couple of months, or whenever I have the time to do one. I'm strictly an amateur, though, and all you have to do is listen to one of my podcasts if you don't believe me. So now, you may wonder, is there any future for dabblers like me? Well, as long as I keep paying my hosting bills then I'll be around, but I have a whole different set of problems. That's what I really want to talk about. The problem with the music.
You see my podcast is all about so-called "podsafe" music - music which is freely distributed by the artists for download and play. There's a lot of it around and some of it is pretty good, but I'm finding the musical experience more and more disappointing each day. It's just getting harder and harder to find good podsafe music and I think the blame has to rest squarely on the shoulders of all this new technology.
Yes, that's right. Technology. The bane and boon of modern existence. It's wonderful stuff really. With just a computer, some sound equipment and some software anyone can produce, record and distribute professional sounding music. And that's the problem. The way it works is you take this equipment and lay down tracks. One track may be the percussion, another the base line, another the keyboards, and so on. You record these tracks and layer them one on top of the other until you get a collection of sounds that play together as complete song. It's really amazing what persistence and a little of bit of creativity can produce.
So what's the problem? Well, how many times have you heard someone complain that "all the music nowdays sucks." I've heard the complaint made many times and everyone wants to blame the record companies or the radio stations or the just the music business in general and I tell you none of those are to blame. The real problem, and believe me I listen to a lot of music, is this formulaic approach to music making, this layering, that is so prevalent. These days making music is a lot like making a sandwich, and even though there are some good tasting sandwiches out there, no one wants to eat corned beef on rye for the rest of their life.
Which brings me to my main complaint. Whatever happened to bands? Whatever happened to musicians? Whatever happened to the dynamic interplay of the guitars and the keyboards, or the vocals and the rhythm section. Remember that? Remember when musicians used to sit down together and listen to each other and toss out ideas and play with them and explore. After a few hours spent in the podsafe music world I'm beginning to wonder if musicians do that anymore. Believe me, it's a real problem. When you just layer one sound on top of another, when you introduce a theme and don't develop it, when you just add sound to it and don't play with it and explore it, then you lose the energy of a working band and the whole thing becomes static and lifeless. It's like the difference between Titian nude and a 4 year old with a coloring book and crayons. Will she color the hair orange or brown? Who cares.
Ok, maybe there are still bands around. But good bands? Talented bands? That's what's missing from the podsafe music scene. Where are all the good musicians? You know, the ones who are stuck in a studio somewhere backing up the latest teenage no-talent fashion model pop sensation and wondering if maybe they shouldn't have gotten into the insurance business instead. Is that just a stereotype? The musician who does what he has to during the week, and then goes out on the weekends and plays the stuff he really loves, the stuff no teenage no-talent fashion model pop sensation record company would ever want. Wouldn't it be great if some of those frustrated musicians decided to put some of their music on the internet?
Fat chance, I guess. The problem is that if a musician is good, really good, then he or she is probably still thinking that someday that A & R guy is going to walk into a club one night and make them a star. They're never gonna just give it away for free.
Which leaves the layered stuff. I play a lot of it on my podcast and I reallly do like the stuff I play, but a lot of times I find myself gnashing my teeth and saying "that part was good, now do something with it. Work on it, develop it some more. Don't just layer a bunch of crap on top. Make something new out of it for Christ's sake!". Somehow, though, I don't think today's musicians know any other way. That's why there's so much crap out there.
Yeah, podcasting has a future, but it's gonna be frustrating.
What I don't get about this whole Google thing with the subpoena's and the privacy concerns and all that is this: If the government wants to know what Google has in their database why don't they just ask the NSA. Sheesh, little things like warrants and subpoenas never stopped them before.
Anyways, turning to the mailbag, Brent from Canby MN writes:
"What exactly is podcasting?"
Well Brent, imagine a professional and profitable media business with a staff of highly trained marketers, producers, engineers and on-air talent. Then imagine that business using sophisticated polling data and audience sampling to figure out what type of music and on-air entertainment most appeals to their listeners. And then, having polled their audience and analyzed their listening preferences, imagine that business creating a playlist of songs that their audience has indicated they like. And then imagine that business playing that same list of songs, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, over and over and over and over again until their listeners are sick of hearing them and threatening to burn down the station if they ever play them again. And then imagine those listeners disgustedly scanning through the other stations in their area for anybody playing anything different from that same list of songs they keep hearing over and over and over again. And then imagine those listeners not being able to find any other stations because, it turns out, all the stations are copying that same highly successful station that you've been listening to and playing from the same narrow list of songs. And imagine this goes on month after month, year after year, over and over and over again.
Well Brent, that is what we call terrestrial radio.
Now, instead of that, imagine some guy sitting around the house in his underwear and talking into a microphone about what was on TV last night or what he had for breakfast, and imagine that every now and then he plays a song he heard and liked and plays it for no other reason than he heard it and liked it. Or maybe it's not some guy but a couple talking about their sex lives or a parent talking about his kids or a bunch of geeks rambling on about 802.11 pre N routers, or maybe it's just someone foaming and ranting about nothing at all.
That Brent, is podcasting.
So now that you know what podcasting is I guess the real question becomes "does podcasting have a future?" That's a good question and let me try to address it as best I can.
I should begin with a short history lesson. Podcasting has only really been in the public's eye for about a year and half now, and in that time it has gone through some major changes. When it first started out it was like kind of an underground movement of mostly anti-establishment types who wanted to turn the media business upside down and create a sort of "peoples" radio (Viva La Raza!). That was the honeymoon period of podcasting and it lasted about 9 months or so until podcasters started gaining real audiences and finding that they were just as fascinated by numbers as their terrestrial brothers were.
This led to Phase II podcasting wherein podcasters started looking around and asking themselves "how can I make money off of these numbers." A fair question to ask and I'm certainly not here to libel them as counter-revolutionaries or anything like that. Their shows had become popular and there are people who pay other people for their audiences and, well, the stuff doesn't grow on trees you know. But as podcasters became more and more concerned with growing their audience their podcasts began to sound more and more like, you know, radio. That guy wasn't sitting around in his underwear anymore. He was shaving and showering and putting on a nice suit and checking his breath before he went a-courtin'. At the same time, a lot of those people over in traditional radio who'd been sitting around picking their toes while this whole podcasting thing started to take off suddenly sat up and took notice. They too, it seems, wanted to get into podcasting and did so in a big way, using their clout and influence to cut in front of those early revolutionaries and muscle their way to the top of the podcasting heap.
That pissed off a lot of old time podcasters and lead to the current state of affairs which I guess could be called Phase III. Now we have podcasters forming podcasting networks and hoping that by banding together they can withstand the onslaught from traditional media. "New media empires to replace the old" has become their rallying cry, I guess, and all the while the old empires continue to move in and occupy space. The young turks try to pretend they don't care, but believe me, they care.
So, how is all this going to play out? Does podcasting have a future? Well, sure it does. Podcasting is just portable media and that just means more convenience for the user. The audience is never going to go back to a world of less choice and less convenience. What about podcasters? Do they have a future? Sure they do, provided they're willing to adapt, and that's what I believe you are going to see.
Old media is never going to change. Why should they when they dominate the market. Even a successful podcast with say 4 or 5 hundred thousand listeners is nothing compared to the 200,000,000 or so listeners that terrestrial radio has. There is no reason for old media to come into the podcasting space and change their way of doing things, especially when it's a proven model. It's just a marketing problem for them, not a fundamental business problem.
What's going to have to happen instead is that podcasters are going to have to change their way of doing things, i.e. become more and more like old media. If they want to change the world then they're going to have to learn from old media and follow their lead. That's my prediction, anyways, and I think that's exactly what's happening. You just wait and see. In a few years you won't be able to tell an independent podcast from a Clear Channel podcast. They'll both sound exactly the same, and don't be suprised if one day you hear former revolutionaries like Adam Curry getting in front of his mike and loudly singing the praises of Sony BMG and the RIAA and all the other enemies of the past.
It's gonna happen.
I should probably mention that I'm an occasional podcaster myself. My podcast is called Old Man Radio and it comes out every couple of weeks, or couple of months, or whenever I have the time to do one. I'm strictly an amateur, though, and all you have to do is listen to one of my podcasts if you don't believe me. So now, you may wonder, is there any future for dabblers like me? Well, as long as I keep paying my hosting bills then I'll be around, but I have a whole different set of problems. That's what I really want to talk about. The problem with the music.
You see my podcast is all about so-called "podsafe" music - music which is freely distributed by the artists for download and play. There's a lot of it around and some of it is pretty good, but I'm finding the musical experience more and more disappointing each day. It's just getting harder and harder to find good podsafe music and I think the blame has to rest squarely on the shoulders of all this new technology.
Yes, that's right. Technology. The bane and boon of modern existence. It's wonderful stuff really. With just a computer, some sound equipment and some software anyone can produce, record and distribute professional sounding music. And that's the problem. The way it works is you take this equipment and lay down tracks. One track may be the percussion, another the base line, another the keyboards, and so on. You record these tracks and layer them one on top of the other until you get a collection of sounds that play together as complete song. It's really amazing what persistence and a little of bit of creativity can produce.
So what's the problem? Well, how many times have you heard someone complain that "all the music nowdays sucks." I've heard the complaint made many times and everyone wants to blame the record companies or the radio stations or the just the music business in general and I tell you none of those are to blame. The real problem, and believe me I listen to a lot of music, is this formulaic approach to music making, this layering, that is so prevalent. These days making music is a lot like making a sandwich, and even though there are some good tasting sandwiches out there, no one wants to eat corned beef on rye for the rest of their life.
Which brings me to my main complaint. Whatever happened to bands? Whatever happened to musicians? Whatever happened to the dynamic interplay of the guitars and the keyboards, or the vocals and the rhythm section. Remember that? Remember when musicians used to sit down together and listen to each other and toss out ideas and play with them and explore. After a few hours spent in the podsafe music world I'm beginning to wonder if musicians do that anymore. Believe me, it's a real problem. When you just layer one sound on top of another, when you introduce a theme and don't develop it, when you just add sound to it and don't play with it and explore it, then you lose the energy of a working band and the whole thing becomes static and lifeless. It's like the difference between Titian nude and a 4 year old with a coloring book and crayons. Will she color the hair orange or brown? Who cares.
Ok, maybe there are still bands around. But good bands? Talented bands? That's what's missing from the podsafe music scene. Where are all the good musicians? You know, the ones who are stuck in a studio somewhere backing up the latest teenage no-talent fashion model pop sensation and wondering if maybe they shouldn't have gotten into the insurance business instead. Is that just a stereotype? The musician who does what he has to during the week, and then goes out on the weekends and plays the stuff he really loves, the stuff no teenage no-talent fashion model pop sensation record company would ever want. Wouldn't it be great if some of those frustrated musicians decided to put some of their music on the internet?
Fat chance, I guess. The problem is that if a musician is good, really good, then he or she is probably still thinking that someday that A & R guy is going to walk into a club one night and make them a star. They're never gonna just give it away for free.
Which leaves the layered stuff. I play a lot of it on my podcast and I reallly do like the stuff I play, but a lot of times I find myself gnashing my teeth and saying "that part was good, now do something with it. Work on it, develop it some more. Don't just layer a bunch of crap on top. Make something new out of it for Christ's sake!". Somehow, though, I don't think today's musicians know any other way. That's why there's so much crap out there.
Yeah, podcasting has a future, but it's gonna be frustrating.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Just a Couple of Musical Oddities and Endities
I tried so hard to be a rock star back when I was growing up. It's kind of sad to think back on it now. How many guitar lessons did I take, how much time did I spend hanging around the music room, how many nights of practice, practice, practice, and for what? Nothing, that's what. And I tried so hard to learn everything, and I tried so hard to unlock all this great musical talent I had inside. I knew if I just perservered and taught my fingers the right things to do then I could do it.
But for some reason, all I got for my efforts was a lot of calloused fingers and broken dreams (sigh). I just couldn't figure it out. I played all the same notes that Eric and Jimi and Carlos did, I bent and hammered and twisted those strings just like they did, but for some reason the results were never the same. It was strange, they sounded so crisp, so clean, they had so much sting, and I always sounded so...
out of tune.
Well, time passed and eventually I abandoned my rock star dreams, deciding, as this blog has so plainly evidenced, to become a great thinker instead. But still, I often wonder how far I could have gone if only I had been able to keep that guitar of mine in tune.
I'm bringing this up now not because I want to wallow in self-pity or anguish over what could have been, but because of a new product that some fellow named Neil Skinn has come up with. I read about it at News.com and you can read the article here if you'd like. If you don't feel like reading the entire article then let me just hit on the high points.
Skinn's device is something he calls The Performer and what it does is automatically tune electric guitars. As the article explains, for around $3,500.00 and about 8 oz. of extra weight, Skinn will equip your Strat or Les Paul with magnetic sensors and electric motors that will automatically keep that axe of yours in perfect pitch. You simply strum the open strings, press a button, let the sensors listen to the strings while the motors make the necessary adjustments, and in about 5 seconds your tuned and ready to wail.
Oh man, where was this thing 30 years ago.
I'm not kidding, if I had one of these back then I coulda' gone straight to the top. I mean it. Forget about all these synthesizers and drum machines and mixers and fancy electronic doodads that are supposed to be revolutionizing music making these days. This here is the high tech device that would have made me a star. Oh, if only, if only...
Well, anyways, I thought it was an interesting bit of news. No help to me now, of course, but I'm not going to be bitter. I had the talent, I had the desire, but I didn't have the high tech. That's just the way it goes.
And while I'm on the topic of high tech in music, did you hear about the HP Scanner that plays Beethoven? Yeah, no kidding. If you've ever used a scanner before then you probably know that sort of squeaky rubber sound the stepper motor makes as it moves the scan head back and forth. It's sort of a "eeeee eeeeee eeeeee" sound, and it's most noticable as the scanner is first starting up.
Well, some guy apparently found a hidden feature in his HP Scanjet 3c/4c scanner that, when activated, uses the squeak of the motor to play Beethoven's Fur Elise. He even shot a video of it and posted it to the net. It's pretty funny but, unfortunately, the video was so popular and his site was getting so many hits that he had to take it down. I dug around and managed to find another copy of it, but the site that's hosting the file is kind of X-Rated so I'm a little reluctant to link to it.
Oh, what the hell, if you want to see Beethoven played on an HP Scanjet then you can find it here, but don't say I didn't warn you about some of the other content you're gonna find.
And that's all for me folks. I'm afraid that tonight it's just one of those short, pointless blogs that I seem to be so good at.
I tried so hard to be a rock star back when I was growing up. It's kind of sad to think back on it now. How many guitar lessons did I take, how much time did I spend hanging around the music room, how many nights of practice, practice, practice, and for what? Nothing, that's what. And I tried so hard to learn everything, and I tried so hard to unlock all this great musical talent I had inside. I knew if I just perservered and taught my fingers the right things to do then I could do it.
But for some reason, all I got for my efforts was a lot of calloused fingers and broken dreams (sigh). I just couldn't figure it out. I played all the same notes that Eric and Jimi and Carlos did, I bent and hammered and twisted those strings just like they did, but for some reason the results were never the same. It was strange, they sounded so crisp, so clean, they had so much sting, and I always sounded so...
out of tune.
Well, time passed and eventually I abandoned my rock star dreams, deciding, as this blog has so plainly evidenced, to become a great thinker instead. But still, I often wonder how far I could have gone if only I had been able to keep that guitar of mine in tune.
I'm bringing this up now not because I want to wallow in self-pity or anguish over what could have been, but because of a new product that some fellow named Neil Skinn has come up with. I read about it at News.com and you can read the article here if you'd like. If you don't feel like reading the entire article then let me just hit on the high points.
Skinn's device is something he calls The Performer and what it does is automatically tune electric guitars. As the article explains, for around $3,500.00 and about 8 oz. of extra weight, Skinn will equip your Strat or Les Paul with magnetic sensors and electric motors that will automatically keep that axe of yours in perfect pitch. You simply strum the open strings, press a button, let the sensors listen to the strings while the motors make the necessary adjustments, and in about 5 seconds your tuned and ready to wail.
Oh man, where was this thing 30 years ago.
I'm not kidding, if I had one of these back then I coulda' gone straight to the top. I mean it. Forget about all these synthesizers and drum machines and mixers and fancy electronic doodads that are supposed to be revolutionizing music making these days. This here is the high tech device that would have made me a star. Oh, if only, if only...
Well, anyways, I thought it was an interesting bit of news. No help to me now, of course, but I'm not going to be bitter. I had the talent, I had the desire, but I didn't have the high tech. That's just the way it goes.
And while I'm on the topic of high tech in music, did you hear about the HP Scanner that plays Beethoven? Yeah, no kidding. If you've ever used a scanner before then you probably know that sort of squeaky rubber sound the stepper motor makes as it moves the scan head back and forth. It's sort of a "eeeee eeeeee eeeeee" sound, and it's most noticable as the scanner is first starting up.
Well, some guy apparently found a hidden feature in his HP Scanjet 3c/4c scanner that, when activated, uses the squeak of the motor to play Beethoven's Fur Elise. He even shot a video of it and posted it to the net. It's pretty funny but, unfortunately, the video was so popular and his site was getting so many hits that he had to take it down. I dug around and managed to find another copy of it, but the site that's hosting the file is kind of X-Rated so I'm a little reluctant to link to it.
Oh, what the hell, if you want to see Beethoven played on an HP Scanjet then you can find it here, but don't say I didn't warn you about some of the other content you're gonna find.
And that's all for me folks. I'm afraid that tonight it's just one of those short, pointless blogs that I seem to be so good at.
Monday, January 09, 2006
You Can Never Be Too Rich Or Have Too Many Gadgets
Geez. Do I look like a geek!? I look normal enough, don't I? I think I do. So what is it? Do I act like a geek!? Ok, maybe a little, but you know a real geek is someone who goes down to the store to pick up a gallon of milk and comes back with a brand new 82" Liquid Plasma Display (it looked so cool I just had to have it). C'mon, I'm not like that. My house isn't packed from floor to ceiling with all the latest fancy-dancy electronics gear. So how come at christmas time everyone is always getting me these gift certificates for one of the local geek megastores. It's crazy. I'm just a normal guy and I don't know why I keep getting these gift certficates every year. Not that I'm not grateful, mind you, but, honestly, if you're thinking about giving me free money to spend at the local electronics superstore then all I have to say is...
WOW!!! Thanks man, and hey I'm sorry that all I got you was that lame fondu set. I kept the receipt if you want to return it.
Anyways, I got the gift certificates and this year instead of waiting till June to spend them on something I really need, I just decided to head down to the store and spend them on something cool. Like an IPod. 30 Gigs. With video. Yeah, and even though I've already got 2 MP3 players as it is, who cares. I'll take one of those.
So off I went to Fry's with gift certificates in hand and visions of IPods dancing in my head and wouldn't you know it...they were all sold out. Damn things are popular I guess. But as luck would have it something else happened to catch my eye.
Ain't she a beauty. That, folks, is the brand new Creative Zen Vision M, a supposed IPod killer that has just came out here in the U.S. You know there is an old saying that goes "In love, there is always one who does the kissing and one who offers the cheek", and all I can say is that when I saw that little beauty sitting in the display case it made my lips pucker. So tonight I thought I'd share a few first impressions.
I guess I should start with the features. Like the IPod the 'M' is a 30 GB combination music and video player retailing for around $300.00. Actually, the 'M' sells for $30.00 more than the IPod but the extra money buys you a few additional features like a FM radio, voice recorder, and AC power adaptor. Both have 2.5" LCD screens, although the IPod's screen resolution is only 320 x 240, or half the 640 x 480 resolution of the 'M', which is also capable of displaying a whopping 262,144 colors. The IPod can play protected music and video purchased from the ITunes Music Store, the 'M' cannot play those files. It can, however, play unprotected IPod files (more on that later). Instead, the 'M' plays just about every other common file format out there including WMV, Divx, Xvid, and Microsoft's own WMA music files, including protected music sold through subscription sites such as Napster, Rhapsody and Yahoo Music. Both the IPod and 'M' can play MP3 files, of course, but at this time the 'M' does not support audiobooks sold through the Audible service. The IPod's battery is good for around 2 hours of video playback and 20 hours of audio playback, the 'M' gives you about 4 hours of video playback and about 15 hours of audio playback.
So much for the stats.
My experience with the 'M' so far has been a mixed one. Before I begin I should probably give you the perfunctory razor blade warning. Although the manual makes no mention of it it's been my experience that razor blades should not be kept closer that 50 feet to the Creative Zen Vision 'M' because, believe me, spending an hour or two working with the various video formats out there will make you want to bang your head against the wall and slash your wrists. Firearms and high balconies should probably be avoided too.
That said, the 'M' will play most types of video. However, unlike the IPod, it is not a simple Plug 'N Play experience. For the most part you don't just plug in your 'M', transfer the video, and go skipping merrily on your way. Usually there is a conversion process involved, and if you've ever spent time converting video you know what kind of process that can be. If, on the other hand, you've never spent time converting video then imagine a sleepy barge lumbering slowly up the Mississippi River and you'll have some idea what I'm talking about.
Fortunately, Creative realized that differing video formats (or codecs, as the geeks would say) would present a problem and they had the forsight to include a video converter with their software bundle. The process is pretty transparent. You just sync your files over using the included sync manager and the conversion is done automatically. It's not a brisk process, mind you, but it does work and I've had no problem transferring over XVid, WMV and even M4v files (unprotected) to my 'M'. In fact, the XVid transfer was completely painless and the transfer took place with no conversion necessary.
And once you get the files on your 'M' and play them back the experience is unbelievable. The video is just plain beautiful, much better than I ever could have expected from a 2.5" LCD and superior to the IPods, at least according to some of the reviews I've read on the Internet. Whether one is better than the other is really beside the point, though, because the real question is "Can you really watch TV on a little itty-bitty screen like that"? Well, all I can say is that I downloaded a full season of a TV show called Firefly off of the net and so far I haven't had any problems watching it on my little screen. Of course it would look better on a big 42" HDTV, but the answer is "yes, you can watch TV on a little itty-bitty screen". Provided, of course, that it's a high quality screen.
The big problem with the 'M' is that it won't work with those $1.99 downloads you get from the ITunes Music Store. And that's a big problem. If you plan on watching those then you're gonna have to get an IPod because that's the only player that's gonna work. That wasn't a big issue for me. I'm much more interested in watching these video podcasts that are starting to become available and the 'M' works just fine for those. Further down the road there may be TV shows available in the Windows format, but right now if you want to watch Lost on your 'M' then you're going to have to use BitTorrent.
As for some of the other features, the 'M' is an excellent music player, it does fine with photos, the FM radio is very good (much better than my IRiver), the voice recorder works ok but I don't know if you'll be able to record lectures or anything like that with it (there is no line-in jack), and the somewhat limited organizer function does what it's supposed to do. One thing I should mention is a program called Zencast that should have been included with the software bundle but wasn't. Zencast is a podcatcher that is specifically made for the Zen Vision and Zen Vision M and provides automatic synchronization of your podcasts, a la ITunes. It's no better or worse than the other podcatchers out there as far as I can tell, but it does integrate nicely with the player. If you want it don't expect Creative to tell you about it though. I had to dig around the forums to find it at www.zencast.com.
Well, that's it for now. I'm sure I'll have more to say about my 'M' in the future but I'm just going to enjoy it for now. It needs to get a lot easier to use before I can call it an "IPod killer", but it's still a helluva player. Of course, as soon as I bought it Toshiba announced another "IPod killer" at the Consumer Electronics Show, and, from I've seen and read, it looks like a helluva machine too. And 30 bucks cheaper than the 'M' to boot. Oh well, when's the last time anyone bought a new gadget and the next day someone announces something newer and cooler. That's just part of being a geek.
Geez. Do I look like a geek!? I look normal enough, don't I? I think I do. So what is it? Do I act like a geek!? Ok, maybe a little, but you know a real geek is someone who goes down to the store to pick up a gallon of milk and comes back with a brand new 82" Liquid Plasma Display (it looked so cool I just had to have it). C'mon, I'm not like that. My house isn't packed from floor to ceiling with all the latest fancy-dancy electronics gear. So how come at christmas time everyone is always getting me these gift certificates for one of the local geek megastores. It's crazy. I'm just a normal guy and I don't know why I keep getting these gift certficates every year. Not that I'm not grateful, mind you, but, honestly, if you're thinking about giving me free money to spend at the local electronics superstore then all I have to say is...
WOW!!! Thanks man, and hey I'm sorry that all I got you was that lame fondu set. I kept the receipt if you want to return it.
Anyways, I got the gift certificates and this year instead of waiting till June to spend them on something I really need, I just decided to head down to the store and spend them on something cool. Like an IPod. 30 Gigs. With video. Yeah, and even though I've already got 2 MP3 players as it is, who cares. I'll take one of those.
So off I went to Fry's with gift certificates in hand and visions of IPods dancing in my head and wouldn't you know it...they were all sold out. Damn things are popular I guess. But as luck would have it something else happened to catch my eye.
Ain't she a beauty. That, folks, is the brand new Creative Zen Vision M, a supposed IPod killer that has just came out here in the U.S. You know there is an old saying that goes "In love, there is always one who does the kissing and one who offers the cheek", and all I can say is that when I saw that little beauty sitting in the display case it made my lips pucker. So tonight I thought I'd share a few first impressions.
I guess I should start with the features. Like the IPod the 'M' is a 30 GB combination music and video player retailing for around $300.00. Actually, the 'M' sells for $30.00 more than the IPod but the extra money buys you a few additional features like a FM radio, voice recorder, and AC power adaptor. Both have 2.5" LCD screens, although the IPod's screen resolution is only 320 x 240, or half the 640 x 480 resolution of the 'M', which is also capable of displaying a whopping 262,144 colors. The IPod can play protected music and video purchased from the ITunes Music Store, the 'M' cannot play those files. It can, however, play unprotected IPod files (more on that later). Instead, the 'M' plays just about every other common file format out there including WMV, Divx, Xvid, and Microsoft's own WMA music files, including protected music sold through subscription sites such as Napster, Rhapsody and Yahoo Music. Both the IPod and 'M' can play MP3 files, of course, but at this time the 'M' does not support audiobooks sold through the Audible service. The IPod's battery is good for around 2 hours of video playback and 20 hours of audio playback, the 'M' gives you about 4 hours of video playback and about 15 hours of audio playback.
So much for the stats.
My experience with the 'M' so far has been a mixed one. Before I begin I should probably give you the perfunctory razor blade warning. Although the manual makes no mention of it it's been my experience that razor blades should not be kept closer that 50 feet to the Creative Zen Vision 'M' because, believe me, spending an hour or two working with the various video formats out there will make you want to bang your head against the wall and slash your wrists. Firearms and high balconies should probably be avoided too.
That said, the 'M' will play most types of video. However, unlike the IPod, it is not a simple Plug 'N Play experience. For the most part you don't just plug in your 'M', transfer the video, and go skipping merrily on your way. Usually there is a conversion process involved, and if you've ever spent time converting video you know what kind of process that can be. If, on the other hand, you've never spent time converting video then imagine a sleepy barge lumbering slowly up the Mississippi River and you'll have some idea what I'm talking about.
Fortunately, Creative realized that differing video formats (or codecs, as the geeks would say) would present a problem and they had the forsight to include a video converter with their software bundle. The process is pretty transparent. You just sync your files over using the included sync manager and the conversion is done automatically. It's not a brisk process, mind you, but it does work and I've had no problem transferring over XVid, WMV and even M4v files (unprotected) to my 'M'. In fact, the XVid transfer was completely painless and the transfer took place with no conversion necessary.
And once you get the files on your 'M' and play them back the experience is unbelievable. The video is just plain beautiful, much better than I ever could have expected from a 2.5" LCD and superior to the IPods, at least according to some of the reviews I've read on the Internet. Whether one is better than the other is really beside the point, though, because the real question is "Can you really watch TV on a little itty-bitty screen like that"? Well, all I can say is that I downloaded a full season of a TV show called Firefly off of the net and so far I haven't had any problems watching it on my little screen. Of course it would look better on a big 42" HDTV, but the answer is "yes, you can watch TV on a little itty-bitty screen". Provided, of course, that it's a high quality screen.
The big problem with the 'M' is that it won't work with those $1.99 downloads you get from the ITunes Music Store. And that's a big problem. If you plan on watching those then you're gonna have to get an IPod because that's the only player that's gonna work. That wasn't a big issue for me. I'm much more interested in watching these video podcasts that are starting to become available and the 'M' works just fine for those. Further down the road there may be TV shows available in the Windows format, but right now if you want to watch Lost on your 'M' then you're going to have to use BitTorrent.
As for some of the other features, the 'M' is an excellent music player, it does fine with photos, the FM radio is very good (much better than my IRiver), the voice recorder works ok but I don't know if you'll be able to record lectures or anything like that with it (there is no line-in jack), and the somewhat limited organizer function does what it's supposed to do. One thing I should mention is a program called Zencast that should have been included with the software bundle but wasn't. Zencast is a podcatcher that is specifically made for the Zen Vision and Zen Vision M and provides automatic synchronization of your podcasts, a la ITunes. It's no better or worse than the other podcatchers out there as far as I can tell, but it does integrate nicely with the player. If you want it don't expect Creative to tell you about it though. I had to dig around the forums to find it at www.zencast.com.
Well, that's it for now. I'm sure I'll have more to say about my 'M' in the future but I'm just going to enjoy it for now. It needs to get a lot easier to use before I can call it an "IPod killer", but it's still a helluva player. Of course, as soon as I bought it Toshiba announced another "IPod killer" at the Consumer Electronics Show, and, from I've seen and read, it looks like a helluva machine too. And 30 bucks cheaper than the 'M' to boot. Oh well, when's the last time anyone bought a new gadget and the next day someone announces something newer and cooler. That's just part of being a geek.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Water Music
So I was thinking wouldn't it be great if this was one of those real blogs where people could come and read the tragic, first-person accounts the great New Year's floods of aught 5 happening in Northern California right now. You know, the stories the newspapers missed, the stories that only the people who've suffered the blows and lived through the hardships can know. The kind of first-person accounts that have made the whole blogging revolution happen.
God, that would be great but, unfortunately, this isn't one of those blogs. Truth is, I've been watching the floods on TV just like everybody else. Not that we haven't had any rain down here in San Jose, mind you, but other than some slickness on the roadways and some wind blowing through the trees it's been pretty uneventful. Of course you'd never know that from the news reports, but what did you expect? In the news business I think they call it "man bites dog" . You know, people don't want to know what's really happening, they just want the drama. They want to see the handful of people trapped behind the floodwaters or the mudslides and washed-out roads. They want misery and the pain and that sort of thing and don't really care about the other 99.99% of the population that's watching it on TV just like everybody else.
Which is the driving force behind the phenomenon that scientists call the Media Distortion Field, or MDF. If you live long enough you're almost certain to go through an MDF at least once in your life. I've been through quite a few and it's always so frustrating because you're watching all these dramatic events on TV and you keep waiting for your turn to come around, and it never comes. Like this time, I was watching all these floodwaters on TV and waiting for it to start raining here where I'm at, but when I looked outside it just looked the same. Couple of cars going past, and maybe the neighbor taking out his garbage, but not a mudslide, falling tree or torrential downpour in sight.
Oh well, it's probably better that way.
So anyways, as you probably heard they had some floods up north which produced some alarmingly high MDE's (Media Distortion Effects), and I'd just like to say a few things about that. First of all, most of the pictures I've seen on TV have come from a little town up north called Guerneville, which sits on the banks of the Russian River and has got to be the most flooded out town on the entire North American Continent. And they like it that way. In fact, Guernevillians don't really consider it a winter unless they've spent at least a few days cleaning the mud out their kitchens. Don't ask me why. But just the same, the river has flooded many times in the past, it will flood many times in the future, the people who live there seem to like it that way, and none of it is really news.
But it is dramatic.
Of course the Napa River also flooded and, once again, this is nothing new. Unlike Guerneville, though, the residents of Napa (Napians?) aren't nearly so enthusiastic about mud in their kitchens and so they've been busily spending dollars over the years trying to shore up their river defenses. Unfortunately, this year their efforts weren't quite enough. Still, it's happened before and it always creates an enormous MDE and it's certainly a pain in the butt for people who live and work in downtown Napa.
But most people in Northern California don't live in downtown Napa.
Which me brings me to the point of this blog, which is...?
I don't know.
Just be aware of the MDF, I guess, and don't believe everything you read in the paper or see on TV. The great cataclysms they describe are overdrawn and disproportionate to the actual deeds. Of course it's easy to say that when you're on the outside looking in, but then most of us are on the outside and it's a gross overstatement to say that the entire state is underwater.
Not that there isn't some important news to come out of all of this. Breeches in some of the Sacramento River levees certainly point to a potential disaster somewhere down the road. However, this only adds to the long list of problems that need fixing in this state which our government seems totally incapable of fixing. Perhaps when the floodwaters invade the capitol itself and senators and assemblymen find themselves being washed out to sea (a prospect that many voters would not find entirely disagreeable) they will finally quit their squabbling about who's up and who's down and start working on actual state business.
Ah...it's a nice fantasy anyways.
But that's not what I want to blog about. Actually, I was planning on doing one of those "Best of 2005" kind of blogs, but shucks, it's too late now. That's another drawback of living in a MDF - it just seems to dominate everything else. Oh well, I guess I can work in a couple of items off my list. Sure, why not. Without further adieu let me present my (abbreviated) "Best Things of 2005 that no one cares about" list .
Best Opera DVD: Lulu, by Alban Berg. Ok, this actually came out in 1996 but I didn't see it until this year, so I'm putting it on the list. Great DVD, though, with an excellent cast. I didn't think I'd like a Berg opera much, but this one has great singing, great acting, great (albeit 'modern') score, and most of all, great drama. If you're not familiar with the piece it's a story about a seductive young beauty who rises from the gutter, becomes rich, kills her husband, escapes from jail, falls back into poverty and prostitution, and is finally killed by Jack the Ripper. All in all just great entertainment for the entire family. Not recommended as your first opera, but definitely a keeper. Now I've got to go out and buy Wozzeck.
Best CD: Samuel Barber - Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Essays for Orchestra Nos. 2 and 3 (Karina Gauvin, Thomas Trotter, Marin Alsop, RSNO) Ok, this actually came out in 2004, but it was the best CD I bought this year so it's on the list too. When most people think of Barber they think of the Adagio for Strings or the Violin Concerto. Knoxville: Summer of 1915 based on a poem by James Agee needs to be added to that list. I bought it last summer and I don't think a week has gone by when I haven't listened to it at least once. The poem it is based on was written after the Second World War by a wistful James Agee reflecting back on the days of his youth, and America's youth, in the years before the entire world went crazy and any pretenses of American innocence were shattered forever. A pre-nuclear, pre-superpower age. Barber's score is wistful at first, and then begins to stir anxiously and become unsettled, until finally the past seems forever beyond our grasp. The soprano Karina Gauvin sings it with incredible subtelty and grace, and I've got to believe that this is one of the great overlooked masterpieces of American music. There are also a couple of symphonic essays and a toccata on the CD, but Knoxville: Summer of 1915 is the highlight of the disc and certainly worth the $7.00 I paid for it.
And that is my "Best Things of 2005 that no one cares about" list. Who says that blogging is just a big ego-tripping waste of time.
So I was thinking wouldn't it be great if this was one of those real blogs where people could come and read the tragic, first-person accounts the great New Year's floods of aught 5 happening in Northern California right now. You know, the stories the newspapers missed, the stories that only the people who've suffered the blows and lived through the hardships can know. The kind of first-person accounts that have made the whole blogging revolution happen.
God, that would be great but, unfortunately, this isn't one of those blogs. Truth is, I've been watching the floods on TV just like everybody else. Not that we haven't had any rain down here in San Jose, mind you, but other than some slickness on the roadways and some wind blowing through the trees it's been pretty uneventful. Of course you'd never know that from the news reports, but what did you expect? In the news business I think they call it "man bites dog" . You know, people don't want to know what's really happening, they just want the drama. They want to see the handful of people trapped behind the floodwaters or the mudslides and washed-out roads. They want misery and the pain and that sort of thing and don't really care about the other 99.99% of the population that's watching it on TV just like everybody else.
Which is the driving force behind the phenomenon that scientists call the Media Distortion Field, or MDF. If you live long enough you're almost certain to go through an MDF at least once in your life. I've been through quite a few and it's always so frustrating because you're watching all these dramatic events on TV and you keep waiting for your turn to come around, and it never comes. Like this time, I was watching all these floodwaters on TV and waiting for it to start raining here where I'm at, but when I looked outside it just looked the same. Couple of cars going past, and maybe the neighbor taking out his garbage, but not a mudslide, falling tree or torrential downpour in sight.
Oh well, it's probably better that way.
So anyways, as you probably heard they had some floods up north which produced some alarmingly high MDE's (Media Distortion Effects), and I'd just like to say a few things about that. First of all, most of the pictures I've seen on TV have come from a little town up north called Guerneville, which sits on the banks of the Russian River and has got to be the most flooded out town on the entire North American Continent. And they like it that way. In fact, Guernevillians don't really consider it a winter unless they've spent at least a few days cleaning the mud out their kitchens. Don't ask me why. But just the same, the river has flooded many times in the past, it will flood many times in the future, the people who live there seem to like it that way, and none of it is really news.
But it is dramatic.
Of course the Napa River also flooded and, once again, this is nothing new. Unlike Guerneville, though, the residents of Napa (Napians?) aren't nearly so enthusiastic about mud in their kitchens and so they've been busily spending dollars over the years trying to shore up their river defenses. Unfortunately, this year their efforts weren't quite enough. Still, it's happened before and it always creates an enormous MDE and it's certainly a pain in the butt for people who live and work in downtown Napa.
But most people in Northern California don't live in downtown Napa.
Which me brings me to the point of this blog, which is...?
I don't know.
Just be aware of the MDF, I guess, and don't believe everything you read in the paper or see on TV. The great cataclysms they describe are overdrawn and disproportionate to the actual deeds. Of course it's easy to say that when you're on the outside looking in, but then most of us are on the outside and it's a gross overstatement to say that the entire state is underwater.
Not that there isn't some important news to come out of all of this. Breeches in some of the Sacramento River levees certainly point to a potential disaster somewhere down the road. However, this only adds to the long list of problems that need fixing in this state which our government seems totally incapable of fixing. Perhaps when the floodwaters invade the capitol itself and senators and assemblymen find themselves being washed out to sea (a prospect that many voters would not find entirely disagreeable) they will finally quit their squabbling about who's up and who's down and start working on actual state business.
Ah...it's a nice fantasy anyways.
But that's not what I want to blog about. Actually, I was planning on doing one of those "Best of 2005" kind of blogs, but shucks, it's too late now. That's another drawback of living in a MDF - it just seems to dominate everything else. Oh well, I guess I can work in a couple of items off my list. Sure, why not. Without further adieu let me present my (abbreviated) "Best Things of 2005 that no one cares about" list .
Best Opera DVD: Lulu, by Alban Berg. Ok, this actually came out in 1996 but I didn't see it until this year, so I'm putting it on the list. Great DVD, though, with an excellent cast. I didn't think I'd like a Berg opera much, but this one has great singing, great acting, great (albeit 'modern') score, and most of all, great drama. If you're not familiar with the piece it's a story about a seductive young beauty who rises from the gutter, becomes rich, kills her husband, escapes from jail, falls back into poverty and prostitution, and is finally killed by Jack the Ripper. All in all just great entertainment for the entire family. Not recommended as your first opera, but definitely a keeper. Now I've got to go out and buy Wozzeck.
Best CD: Samuel Barber - Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Essays for Orchestra Nos. 2 and 3 (Karina Gauvin, Thomas Trotter, Marin Alsop, RSNO) Ok, this actually came out in 2004, but it was the best CD I bought this year so it's on the list too. When most people think of Barber they think of the Adagio for Strings or the Violin Concerto. Knoxville: Summer of 1915 based on a poem by James Agee needs to be added to that list. I bought it last summer and I don't think a week has gone by when I haven't listened to it at least once. The poem it is based on was written after the Second World War by a wistful James Agee reflecting back on the days of his youth, and America's youth, in the years before the entire world went crazy and any pretenses of American innocence were shattered forever. A pre-nuclear, pre-superpower age. Barber's score is wistful at first, and then begins to stir anxiously and become unsettled, until finally the past seems forever beyond our grasp. The soprano Karina Gauvin sings it with incredible subtelty and grace, and I've got to believe that this is one of the great overlooked masterpieces of American music. There are also a couple of symphonic essays and a toccata on the CD, but Knoxville: Summer of 1915 is the highlight of the disc and certainly worth the $7.00 I paid for it.
And that is my "Best Things of 2005 that no one cares about" list. Who says that blogging is just a big ego-tripping waste of time.
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