Back To The Future

Yesterday was spent driving 500 miles round trip to La Grange, IN and back over the course of 18 hours.

In between driving, I attended the annual Analogue Heaven Midwest 2004. Now in it's sixth year, it's a get together of synth geeks from the Analogue Heaven mailing list. As I mentioned elsewhere, it was like attending a NAMM show in an alternate universe where modular synths rule the planet. You almost needed a drool cup...

I'll try to get my pictures up on our (always) gracious host Andrew Scheidler's site ASAP...

My Day In A Nutshell

It was 75 degrees

I bought new cookbooks (Charlie Trotter & Roxanne Klein)

I ate sushi for lunch

My shipment of Coturri Wines came in today

We made a fabulous Asian dinner

Sat on my deck and drank wine while watching deer and geese.

Awww yeah.

Wine Dinner Wrap-Up

Patrick has written an wrap-up of the Bonny Doon wine tasting we had Saturday at Riverside Wine and Imports.

We prepared all of the food (w/ the exception of the chicken, shrimp and hors d'ouevres), so here's the wine/food pairings.

Bonny Doon Wine Tasting
February 21, 2004

Wine 1: Bonny Doon Big House White 2002
Food 1: Hors d'ouerves

Wine 2: Bonny Doon Malvasia Bianca
Food 2: Spicy White Bean Gumbo Soup (w/ cornbread) and Cajun Black Bean Salad served in marinated Endive

Wine 3: Bonny Doon Pacific Rim American Dry Riesling 2002
Food 3: Cajun Shrimp

Wine 4: Bonny Doon Clos de Gilroy California Grenache 2000
Food 4: Pasta with Cajun Green Beans, Potatoes and a Creamy Pesto

Wine 5: Bonny Doon Big House Red 2002
Food 5: Mirliton Ratatouille served in Red Pepper Rings

Wine 6: Bonny Doon Domaine des Blagueurs Syrah 2000
Food 6: Jambalaya, served in a Portabella Mushroom bowl

Wine 7: Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volant 2000
Food 7: Cajun Chicken

Wine 8: Bonny Doon Muscat Vin de Glaciere 2000
Food 8: Bananas Foster in Phyllo

Live Show

I've been working on an upcoming show (April 2) and hauled out a few old toys to work with -- my trusty Roland GR-300 guitar synth, the always unpredictable EH Sequencer, coupled with the Roland SYB-3 bass waveshaper run through the newly acquired Electrix Filter Queen, all controlled by the Roland R8 and CR-8000 blender drum machine. Outboard FX include the Alesis AirFx (bit reduction/filtering) and EH Memory Man.

Very 1982 ;)

The gig is at the Valley Arts Center (155 Bell St. / Chagrin Falls, OH 44022) and I'm playing w/ Steven K. Smith as well as Matt Borghi and Jason Sloan. I had the pleasure of booking Matt and Jason at SynFest 18 months ago, and I'm looking forward to opening this show. My set will be different than usual in that it will all be improvised, ambient, with no safety net this time around... ;)

As soon as the flyer is available, I'll post it...

Open Source Record Label

Magnatune -- "It's a record label, but it's not evil."

I especially like the licensing area, and it's use of Creative Commons licensing

All our music is available under the "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike " license from Creative Commons to promote these goals. Specifically, this means:

You can listen to our Internet radio stations, download our free music, and share with anyone you like.

Derivative works (for example: remixes, cover songs, sampling) is explicitly allowed. Many of our artists publish the "source code" to their music so you can rework and improve it. This includes scores, lyrics, MIDI files, samples and track-by-track audio files. If you make a great new version of our music, we'd love to know so that we can promote it!

Non-commercial use of our music and its "source code" is free. However, if you make money ("commercial use") with our music, you'll have to "share the wealth" and give us and our artists a share.

Music For Buses Vol. 1

After seeing a call for music and video entries for upcoming Minneapolis Light Rail project, it got me to thinking that it might be a good idea if the proposed RTA Euclid Corridor project budget had a spare couple of thousand dollars (less than five figures) to spend on honorariums for short pieces of music to go along with the art. And not crappy boosterish jingles either -- just short pieces of music written by the people who live here.

I know it's easy to overlook audio in favor of the visual impact that a physical piece of art would have, but Cleveland has always had a sense of sound about it as well.

Other possible uses

• replace the "on-hold" music when you call RTA or for that matter, the new Greater Cleveland Tomorrow (or whatever they end up calling it), or hell, why not City Hall?.
  
• Put all of the music on a website where people could download the tracks they liked, Also, make it a Creative Commons project so there's less squabbling...

Of course, something like this at Cleveland Hopkins Airport would be a great idea too, but that's just me ;)

Catching Up

After the whirlwind month of December, January has arrived and things have returned back to "normal" (i.e. getting the kids back on the bus at 8 a.m.)

Spent most of the late afternoon yesterday shoveling my driveway so my wife can get her car in without getting stuck in the nine-inches of snow that dropped out of the sky yesterday. It just wouldn't stop...
Now I look like I went to a crappy tanning salon (oxymoron?) with splotches of red from windburn...

So, here's a round-up of mixes/remixes/tracks from the last month...

More remixing for Patrick -- a "regular" remix of "Nostalgia", a radio edit and a 8:50 club mix that actually turned out pretty cool. When Patrick puts them up online I'll add the link.

UPDATE: here's the link to the remix and club mix...

There's a brand new tofu track, called "Eyes, Sighs, Lies, Thighs" , which sound like an electro track circa 1979 if you crossed The Flying Lizards* w/ The Normal.

Also knocked out a Karmacoda remix, but haven't uploaded it yet. soon...

UPDATE: it's now up -- Karmacoda - All That Depth (hypnogogic mix)

..and as a bonus link -- "Why Rush Are Better Than The White Stripes" (site may not be safe for work)

* If you ever come across David Cunningham's solo record called "voiceworks" snap it up... it's a really nice collection of cut-up vocals and minimal music. I believe it came out in '92 -- on Eva Records in Japan.

Holiday Party -- Now With 20% More Party Pictures!

We had our 7th annual Holiday Party at the house last night -- lots of food (click here for the menu and picture of the table), friends and some new faces. With all the bad weather Friday and into Saturday morning, I wasn't expecting many people beyond the neighbors (and even then it might be a dangerous trip across the street). But, we ended up with 24 26 people, and one of the newest members of the planet, Eight-Day-Old Alex Olsen (pictured here w/ his mother, Dawn).

Yet Another Remix

It's been a busy couple of weeks musically -- This time a remix of the Lovespirals song "Walk Away" available here. Keeps the original version's theme and instrumentation, but with a little more dub and some jazzy vocal phrasing...

I'm also AFRAIDOFSCISSORS

More SIMRONAN remixing here. Dig those scissors as hi-hats samples...

I'M AFRAID OF SWORDS

So, do you Like VNV Nation? then this may be for you ;)

I had too much time on my hands yesterday w/ the snow and all... so it would help to go here first and read from the bottom up. (Cliff Notes version -- it's a parody site of VNV Nation, hence the SIMRONAN name -- don't miss the "How To Get That Futureperfect Sound", inside synth jokes abound).

When you get to this, download it. Then later came this, and see how I spent an hour of my life yesterday.

Huge props to batty_ for hosting the track...

10 Seconds

During this holiday season, if you live in the Cleveland area, and you happen to see a commercial for Alson Jewelers, listen to the music...

Yes, that's me.

It's amazing how much time and work goes into writing and producing of a short commercial ;)
Thanks to the fine folks at Rosenberg Advertising for the opportunity.

Man, this blows...

Tony Thompson dead at 48.

Somewhere on tour Andy and John Taylor are thinking "I'm next"...

Saturday, November 8 / Pat's In The Flats (Cleveland)


tofu
no_tech
Subliminal Self

Saturday, November 8
Pat's In The Flats
2233 West 3rd
Cleveland, OH
(216) 621-8044

(at the bottom of literary hill in tremont)

The tofu set (this time) will fall somewhere in the Bremuda Triangle of downtempo, dub and glitch played with assistance of circuit bent instruments (SK-1 in particular).

The show will also feature Subliminal Self (synthpop) and no_tech (technical/melodic/chaotic idm/post-rock/dancepunk mayhem).

Show starts at 10pm, the cost is $5.

Post-Gig Wrap-Up and other hyphenated words

Thanks to all those who came out to the show Friday night -- great costumes all the way around, especially jeremy and batty_ for their borg-licious outfits.

Tenant opened the show in fine fashion with some great music, tasty drumming and very nice vocal work... I'll see if Steeeeve has pictures that we can link to... (bonus points for the DEVO outfit and energy dome).

Our set went pretty well considering it was only our seventh rehearsal... I pulled the bass DI out for a few minutes between songs, which made me look sillier than usual trying to figure it out (duh!) but all the songs sounded good (plus a nice version of "Killing Moon") and by far the best version of Pyscho Killer to date -- bringing along the French lyrics to the middle section really helped ;)

Of course the big closer "Everyday Is Halloween" by Ministry ended the set -- we did the song the original way during the verses (fake british accent and all) and then re-imagined the chorus sections as if present day Ministry were playing it. Yow!

All in all a fun evening... I think we're ready for next year.

Why I Hate Homework...

My son's homework that is. Every night it's at least three assignments, and on top of it, they're also taking their CBE's this week. Part of the problem is time management is not something a nine-year-old grasps intuitively. TV, internet, video games, Harry Potter all fight for his attention and homework comes in a distant second. Our only rule on homework is it has to be done before dinner. I'm sure there's a way to show mathematically the time allotted divided by homework load equals a very small number of minutes.

That, and much of it is writing -- lots and lots of writing. I try to stay out of the way, available for spelling checks and missing words, but some nights are better than others. He gets stuck or I have to nudge him in the right direction, or sometimes even do part of it to show him why this works and that doesn't. I don't remember 4th grade being this hard... and I know it's only going to get worse. I'm dreading the day Algebra starts...

Thankfully my daughters 1st grade homework is a little easier (plus she has the same teacher as my son had, so I'm prepared). She wants to do it right when she gets home so she can play afterwards. Check back with me in three years...

Everyday Is Halloween

As mentioned below, I've been rehearsing for a show at The Hi-Fi Club in Lakewood on Halloween night.
If you'd like a copy of the flyer Patrick made, go here.

Last Monday's practice went well -- we went through the set twice and knocked off the rough edges
on a couple of tunes and nailed others down -- we're probably 90% there with one more rehearsal to go.
The set contains songs from Bauhaus, Joy Division, Ministry, Misfits, Echo and The Bunnymen, Talking Heads and Concrete Blonde... it's been a great deal of fun to play with a band again, although my fingers might not agree. ;)

Cubs Fan Witness Protection Program

Woe to the guy who possibly cost the Cubs their shot at the World Series. They'll have to put him in the witness protection program, but the Feds would probably off him too.

Or as Craig put it -- "That wasn't a baseball game. It was a lost Seinfeld episode, with George in a front-row seat."

OK, tack this one on to my holiday list...

The Bass Station is one jacked up boombox, yo

802.11b, a 120GB hard drive, and an MP3 decoder, and that is controlled using a web browser. Besides being able to play MP3s, it can also stream audio to other devices in its local area network, double as a file-server for file-sharing. Sure to come in handy for our next breakdancing battle.

Yet More Wine Tasting

It's time again for the big Holiday wine trade shows with four scheduled last Sunday alone. Logic and logistics indicated we could only hit two shows in the time frame and still spend some quality time at each tasting. First off was the Vintage show at their huge warehouse -- 26 tables including some really nice single vineyard Zin's from Ravenswood (Monte Rosso, Barricia, Big River, Teldeschi), including the tightly allocated Old Hill Zin. Bonus points for the tchotchkes (clock, buttons and antenna balls). Also got to try some of Markko's Select Reserve Chardonnay (Late Harvest) and Pinot Noir as well as see Arnie Esterer again.

Other highlights included the Burgess "Enveiere", Domain Drouhin Pinot Noir, Mount Veeder 2000 Cab, Franciscan Meritage Magnificat, Franciscan Simi Valley Lanslide Cab, Veramonte Primus, Kenwood Jack London Cab (and bonus taste of the first Ohio pouring of their "Artist Series"), Dominus, Chateau De Pez, Pride Mountain Merlot, Mayacamas '98 Cab and the fabulous '90 Cab.

Then after a quick trip across I-480, we rolled into the Private Reserve tasting. Once settled in after receiving our "tasting tour t-shirts" we headed straight for the Shingleback (shiraz and cab) and Gatekeeper (shiraz) table (both are brought in from Precept -- and we were not disappointed. Keep an eye out for those two Australian's plus their third wine, Red Knot (shiraz and cab).

Other Hightlights: Chateau Caronnes Ste Gemme Cru Bourgeois Haut-Medoc, Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley (Volnay) Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens, Domaine Robert Arnoux Nuits St. George 1er Cru Les Corvees Pagets and Nuits St. George Les Poisets, Domaine Paul Autard Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee la Cote Rhonde, Franco Cesari (Verona) '98 Amarone Classico Superiore "Il Bosco" DOC. Bridlewood 2000 Arabesque and Syrah, Milliaire '99 Clockspring Vineyard Zin Port, Stuart Cellars '98 Zin Port (even though there's half a case in the basement already) and Duck Pond 2001 Port which is made from Merlot grapes, which is unusual...

NP: Jassen -- Juno 106's Swan Song