I am not too sure what was going on here or exactly when this was taken. As you can see I was not holding the camera - I think Graham had picked it up and snapped a few shots while we were at Adam and Jessica's housewarming. What do you think we were being told when we had this look on our faces?]]>
The internet is many things, and this very website is one of those things. The other things are somewhere else and I've been holding back a few links to those things for some time now - I've been waiting for an appropriate post to link from, however I have decided I am not interested in writing about all the stuff I want to link to - some of it yes, but not all of it. Plus I just don't have time to write about everything I am interested in. Since I am on an internet-related post, I think it's appropriate to link to some completely random stuff in no particular order:
Recently I had the opportunity to do a question and answer session with Matt Thibeault, aka Matt What, who is a mainstay of the Victoria DJ scene, and is also currently serving as the Coordinator and Technical Judge for the Hush DJ Competition. Lately he's been taking things up a notch with his community oriented efforts and also adding some unique elements to his live performance, so naturally I wanted to find out a bit more about what he's up to and his general outlook on music, competition, and what inspires his efforts:
Darren Barefoot mentioned he has broken his television habit. I have to admit, we don't even own a television, and I have never owned one myself. Also I have never owned a car. Am I a complete minority, or is television as boring and uninteractive as I think it is? And are cars as bad for the earth as they appear to be? Anyway, I think it's unfair for me to also claim that I have broken a habit that I don't have. It would be like saying I quit smoking after trying it once.
All that being said, there are a few shows I actually like, but I don't think I'd ever want cable. Such a broad selection of programming seems really odd to me - like subscribing to a music service and getting tons of music you don't like, maybe 95% of it you think is garbage. And ads. Would it be cheaper because of the ads? Right, that's called radio.
Despite how my tone might have sounded in that last paragraph, I think there is a lot of value in authoritative broadcasting - that is, to say, that someone with some semblance in taste or quality is in control of what gets aired. The only problems are that this is such a subjective notion to begin with, and that there are other objectives at play - such as pleasing the broadest demographic to capture those large advertising contracts, yadda yadda - I could go on. There are still gems on television and in radio.
The other reason to get a television is obviously gaming. I don't have a lot of time for that.
What I really want to say is that I was considering cable for similar notions to Darren - specifically, hockey. Well, it was pretty clear this year that the Canucks didn't warrant their own television in my living room and $32.95 a month for the service to watch (some) of their games. At this point, on-demand hockey is only partially available online. If they're doing good, I'll see you at the pub.
Another item of interest from Darren's post was television on the spirit class BC Ferries. The first time I saw these TV's I was thinking that it is completely ridiculous to have televisions on the ferries when there is so much to look at all around you - the scenery is amazing. I understand some people have children they want sedate or make hyperactive, so the televisions are there. Usually they're tuned to a random channel - celebrity news or other garbage media. One time - in the "quiet" area - it was tuned to some subtitled news item on CBC about the sexual relationship between teachers and students.
I should mention that the "quiet" area is right beside the "noisy" area which the family stuff is. It's actually somewhat quiet there believe it or not. Maybe even quiet enough to hear things rattle in the ceiling. Not a bad problem to have.
The idea that they have something called the Seawest Lounge where you can essentially purchase "quiet" is pretty telling of the way BC ferries is run. Does installing televisions and toys in the family area drive up demand for quiet, adult areas? I'd imagine so. They say you can look at newspapers and have unlimited coffee and muffins in the Lounge, but it's ridiculous. As Darren pointed out, there is no WIFI in there. Headphones win over the Lounge every time.
What else do you find a bit odd about the ferry?]]>
On Wednesday night myself and Caroline went over to meet up with Craig and Erica for dinner in Vancouver. We went to a stylish place in downtown Vancouver called Chambar - it's a Belgian Restaurant. Anand and his friend happened to also be hanging out there by complete fluke so we exchanged some wit (?) and ate a fine dinner. It was very good and even though the service was weak at best, I'd recommend it for the food and atmosphere. And by way of some good fortune and hard work, we were all going to go see Sasha, John Digweed and Kazell. So off to Plush we went..
This is Kazell pictured above. He played a really good opening set - stoked the fires well and was a pleasure to talk to after his set. Nice to put a face to a name of course - and he gave me a CD that I'm looking forward to listening to.
For the most part the lighting was too poor to take photos without a flash, so I did a few with the flash but I didn't like them - it washed out the atmosphere of the club and the visuals which had been imported from Québec. I saw a lot of people I knew there - but I didn't manage to get very many people shots. Nonetheless I am happy with the ones below.
At 11 PM, John Digweed came on to take over the decks. He moved things up several notches before Sasha came along to join in. This part was somewhat disappointing as Sasha seemed to be intent on playing the same song over and over again. It seemed like he had found a white noise patch, a filter, a sidechain compressor and some tribal loops, and that was going to be his performance for the night. I was not particularly impressed with what Sasha played, but John Digweed more than made up for it. I enjoyed the show but I do feel like Sasha is capable of much more than what we saw last night. In any case it was enjoyable to see a well-attended show in a big club with a big sound system and music that was made to suit.
We left Vancouver this morning - so it was a quick trip and a rather unusual one since it was in the middle of the week. There's something a bit surreal about being on the PCL in the middle of the day, watching everyone else do their daily thing as you relax inside the tinted windows of the coach, slightly sleep deprived but utterly satisfied from the whole experience that left you this way. Even though there were disappointments at the restaurant and club we went to, it was not such a big deal. To me, the important part was to be with some friends that shared a common interest - we were all where we wanted to be last night. It was great.]]>
the cbc is downstairs from where we live. i used to listen to the cbc a lot. i should hook up that antenna to my stereo again..]]>
Over the last while I've contemplated what music means to me. I put a lot of time and effort into electronic music, but finally - after much thought - I have to concede that I do not know who my target audience is in marketing terms. I make music that I like: very self indulgent sounds that please my ideals of composition structure, dynamics, energy, percussion, melody, instrumentation and so forth. That is fine - I should make what I want to make. However, I am not always certain where this music should finally go, or who I should be talking to. It has been made abundantly clear that the kind of music that gets play in clubs is more or less music I have no interest in making. I had coffee with Thor / Fractal last night while taking a break from the mix of the track I am making with Formulate and Dustin H. Myself and Thor talked a fair bit about the gap between what we make and the certainty of what seems to be popular for the "dance" clubs.
I don't make "dance music". I generally make music that you can dance to, but "dance music" I would say it is not. It's not "dance club" music at all. Seismic might be the exception. Speaking of Seismic, how about this? I am not particularly sold on the Flash MP3 player or the style of it but it's more the function of the below that I am looking for feedback on. I'd like to house all previews of my music here in this sort of style:
| AFK & Dustin H - Seismic (Original mix) | |
| AFK & Dustin H - Seismic (Shiloh remix) | |
| AFK & Dustin H - Seismic (Powerplant remix) | |
| AFK & Dustin H - Seismic (Stefan Anion's Running For Cover remix) |
Who is Kazell? For one, he is someone who is traveling across North America on a spring tour, appearing at each stop with one of the most simultaneously daunting yet sought-after tasks - opening each night for Sasha and John Digweed. On another count, he is a prolific producer and owner of Influx Audio. Last week I had a chance to ask a few questions of the only person that Sasha and Digweed want opening for them on every stop of the tour..
But before I get to the interview, I have to mention that my new single, Seismic, is now out on Pacific Front Recordings and is for sale on Beatport, and rumor has it, iTunes is soon to follow. I wrote Seismic with Dustin H and remixes come from Stefan Anion, Shiloh, and Powerplant. Have a listen to Seismic. Hopefully I didn't just break the internets with all these links.
And on to my interview with Kazell:
Submitted my remix of John Morgan and Kevin Shiu last night for approval. Waiting to hear back on that. In the mean time I am moving on to the unnamed track that myself, Justin and Dustin are working on. We have a deadline of next Wednesday to be done, so given that we started this track a couple years ago I think that's fair time to finish it up and send it off to the stores.
Speaking of the stores, Beatport has Seismic listed with the wrong song names and has wrong genre for the Powerplant remix and even has the wrong preview clip for it. That's pretty disappointing stuff but it isn't the first time I've seen this done. No good. Once the proper release is listed I'll link to it.
Update: Turns out we messed up the submission. DOH!
In other news, Google launched something rather significant last night - Google App Engine - this is basically an online application development platform. Will be interesting to see what people come up with when they have access to some of the tremendous resources of Google. And of course there are all sorts of implications here, and I think some of the most insightful ones are suggesting that this will (at a very high level) make the acquisition of a company very fluid for Google if the company has developed on Google's platform already. Clever..
Just ate lunch but feel empty. Perhaps its time to go out for a walk!]]>