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Archive for June 2008

Some seriously funky music that you might like

Really truly funky music is hard to find these days. And when I say funk, I’m talking about "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder, "1999" by Prince, "Jungle Love" by the Time, and "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson.  It’s out there, but not in overabundant supply.  If you like funky music, really funky music, than you should listen to some of these recommendations, most of which are not new, but may be ones you haven’t heard before. 

Stereo MC’s

The Stereo MC’s came on the scene in the UK back in the late 1980s.  There are 3 members. The music is funky electronica with good raps and singing. The group is one of those rare talents, like Massive Attack, who not only put out their own really consistently good music, but also produce other bands’ music.  In fact, they do such a good job producing other groups’ music, that often they can make a song that wasn’t so interesting much better, and a song that was already very interesting, sensational.  An example of a really good song they made even better is "I changed my mind (Stereo MCs Rattlesnake Mix)" by Lyrics Born (who himself is very funky).

I Changed My Mind (Stereo Mcs Rattlesnake Mix - Lyrics Born

If you want to get an introduction to the Stereo MC’s music, check out their live DVD, ‘Connected’.  Great beats and layered rhythms.  Especially good tracks on the live concert performance are "Elevate My Mind", "Connected", "step it up". 

You can see a video of "Elevate My Mind" by Stereo MC’s, here:

 

Brian Eno & David Byrne, "My Life in The Bush of Ghosts"

This album was arguably the first Western contemporary music album to feature Eastern polyrhythmic beats and vocals–it preceded Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel’s efforts in this area.  If you can listen to the drums in "Jezebel’s Spirit" and not move your legs, you are a slab of wood.

You can experience "Jezebel’s Spirit" here–definitely listen to it in higher fidelity when you have a chance–there’s too much sonic detail to capture in this youtube video:

Leftfield with Roots Manuva "Dusted"

This is one of the funkiest beats ever.  Although you can get a flavor for it thru the embedded video, you really have to listen to the song on CD or as a mp3 without accompanying video to enjoy it.  The video is pretty cheesy.

Staple Singers "Slippery People"

Now you might say, "Isn’t ‘Slippery People’ a Talking Heads’ song?"  And the answer, of course, is ‘yes, it is’.  So why am I not listing this track in all its original funky goodness and listing the Staple Singers’ version? Because the Staple Singers took an already really funky song as performed by Talking Heads and made it even funkier.  If you disagree, let me know. By the way, David Byrne, the leader of Talking Heads, produced and plays on this version.

Alexander  O’Neal, "Fake"

When I first saw the video/heard this song, I was pretty amazed. It is performed by The Time, with Alexander O’Neal singing lead vocals (effectively), and  produced by one of the most funky production teams in history, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.  This is a great dance song.

 

The Family, "High Fashion" 

This was a group formed by Prince, who also wrote the song and performed most of it.  The group never hit it, but this song is a favorite club-tune.  When I used to DJ, it was usually one of the most popular songs that no one had ever heard until I played it.

I have many more that I will list at a future time.

Let me know what you think!

A correction

In the previous post, I said that I didn’t know who "Adam Hall" was a pseudonym for; actually, I did find out, but forgot that I had found out.  His real name is Elleston Trevor.  Now that you know something you didn’t know you should know or care about, you can rest easier, I’m sure.

Some good Summer reading recommendations

Here are some good and some really good novels I’ve read that aren’t necessarily going to win the Pulitzer Prize, but are still definitely worth checking out:

John Rain series by Barry Eisler: This is a series of books about a reluctant assassin named John Rain.  He’s good at killing for hire, but wants to get out of the business and, of course, keeps getting sucked back in.  I think the series is well written and the plots keep moving along.  Particularly interesting are the descriptions of his use of martial arts and his techniques for methodically planning a hit (purely of academic interest, I assure you).

Rain Fall (John Rain Thrillers)
by Barry Eisler

Read more about this book…

 

Quiller series by Adam Hall.  This may be the single best series of books about a spy, other than the LeCarre books or Ian Fleming.  Certainly as believable as LeCarre; James Bond is a great character, but he’s not what you would call even vaguely realistic.  Quiller is an agent for the British Secret Service, and is sent into situations where he has to use his wits and his bare hands; he almost never uses a gun, believing that if one becomes dependent upon a gun, one only sees problems that can be solved with a weapon.  ‘Adam Hall’ was a pseudonym for a famous author; I never found out who it was, but I think he’s quite a good writer for this genre of fiction.  NOTE: this may not be the easiest series to find new, but it’s well worth reading either new or used; trust me.

Quiller (Quiller series)
by Adam Hall

Read more about this book…

 

Dave Robicheaux novels by James Lee Burke.  Though these books are about a detective living outside of New Orleans in the Bayou, Robicheaux is merely the focal lens through which larger issues and morality plays are worked out.  Burke is a very good writer, and, though some of the novels in the series can drag in spots, he writes beautifully about people (like Robicheaux’s friend Cletus) and places.  Also, unlike many novels with a law enforcement protagonist, bad things happen to Robicheaux and his family over the course of the series, which adds to a sense of realism about Robicheaux, his choices, and his afflictions.

The Neon Rain: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
by James Lee Burke

Read more about this book…

 

"Altered Carbon" by Richard K. Morgan.  Morgan is one of the finest science fiction writers to come along in a while, alongside such people as Iain Banks, William Gibson, John C. Wright, Neal Stephenson, Dan Simmons, and a few others.  "Altered Carbon" is the first novel about a far-future detective named Takeshi Kovacs. In Kovacs’ universe, people travel from planet to planet without their bodies, and are ’sleeved’ in bodies they buy or rent or take over.  This premise makes for some interesting plots and premises, but the series is far from dependent upon this one notion.  Kovacs is a well-fleshed-out character (ironic, since he keeps changing bodies in every book) and one that definitely has a distinctive personality and voice.  Morgan also wrote another, unrelated book, "Market Forces" which is also very good.

Altered Carbon: A Takeshi Kovacs Novel (Takeshi Kovacs Novels)
by Richard K. Morgan

Read more about this book…

 

Market Forces
by Richard K. Morgan

Read more about this book…

 

I’ll add some more in a future post.  Try some of these–you won’t regret it.

More Impossible Is Nothing

You can see more of the PsyOp "Impossible Is Nothing" ads for Adidas here, here and here.  Very cool.

Impossible is Nothing

PsyOp and others have been creating an amazing ad campaign (both print and video) around the Beijing Olympics for Adidas.  I’ve previously mentioned the amazing posters that have been created for this campaign.  However, here is one of the video ads that has been created for this campaign–it’s pretty cool. You should definitely check it out.

Some good music…

Some music that’s pretty cool…

"Machine Gun" by Portishead. See it/hear it HERE.

"Tengo La Voz"  by Bostich, in a compilation "The Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3" from Nortec Collective.

You can see/hear it HERE

The Ting Tings’ new album, "We Started Nothing".  it’s a singer and drummer, and they crank out some catchy music.  It reminds me of Blondie, B-52s, Gwen Stefani & Patti Smith combined. If you get a chance, check out their video for "That’s Not My Name"; it’s nothing fancy, which makes the fact that the two members of the group can still be interesting to watch all the more remarkable.

"Who’s going to save my soul" by Gnarls Barkley.  Great song, soulful, funky and smooth.

Elvis Costello’s new album, "Momofoku".  "Imperial Bedroom" ("Man out of Time" & "Beyond Belief") was one of my favorite albums of the 1980s, and I loved some of the other Costello/Lowe albums of the late 70s/early 80s.  But this is the first album from him in a while that captured the old Costello that I like the best.

"Take Your Time", a duet between Al Green and Corinne Baley Rae from his new album, "Lay It Down".  This album was produced by ?uestLove (no, that’s not a typo), from The Roots.  It’s a return to form for Al and he is matched by CBR’s voice.

Miscellaneous again

"Untitled" by me.

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Miscellaneous…

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"Art Deco Joe"

This is something I did in 3D Studio Max on the PC. 

Huckabee jokes about Obama being shot

Mike Huckabee was giving a speech to the NRA on 05/15/08.  He heard a loud noise backstage and joked "That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair and someone pointed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”

You can read more about this infamous moment here.

Pretty sad, no?  How much judgment do you have to lack to even think that this might be a funny joke?  And to think that this guy may be McCain’s running mate for Vice President…

Of course, McCain gladly accepted the Reverend Hagee’s endorsement.  John_Hagee is a ‘Christian Zionist’ who believes in a very popular interpretation of the Book Of Revelations, made famous in the ‘Left Behind’ series of novels, written in part by Tim LaHaye, the co-founder of the Moral Majority.  Hagee, in a 2006 interview on NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’, said that Hurricane Katrina was visited on New Orleans as God’s way of punishing New Orleans for its upcoming Gay Pride Parade.  According to Hagee, planners of the parade had announced that this parade would be the most sexually explicit in the history of New Orleans, and God, who of course never misses a newspaper article or TV news broadcast, picked up on this and punished New Orleans.

Now this statement by Hagee, in an interview and in sermons, wasn’t enough to alienate his good friend, McCain.  In fact, it wasn’t enough to alienate his good friend, George Bush, either.  According to Scott McClellan, Bush’s ex-Press Secretary, and former member of Bush’s inner circle, Hagee is one of a handful of fundamentalists who has significant sway within the White House. 

What did finally alienate McCain from Hagee? The publicity surrounding Hagee’s praise of Adolf Hitler as a great hunter.  Mind you, the sermon in which these statements appear was made by Hagee to his congregation in the late 1990s, quite a while prior to Hagee’s relationship with McCain and Bush.

This is from MediaMatters.org:

In a May 21 Huffington Post article, reporter Sam Stein wrote that Hagee "argued in a late 1990s sermon that the Nazis had operated on God’s behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine." From Stein’s article:

John Hagee, the controversial evangelical leader and endorser of Sen. John McCain, argued in a late 1990s sermon that the Nazis had operated on God’s behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine. According to the Reverend, Adolph Hitler was a "hunter," sent by God, who was tasked with expediting God’s will of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel.

Going in and out of biblical verse, Hagee preached: " ‘And they the hunters should hunt them,’ that will be the Jews. ‘From every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.’ If that doesn’t describe what Hitler did in the holocaust you can’t see that."

He goes on: "Theodore Hertzel is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said ‘I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel.’ So few went that Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust.

"Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says — Jeremiah writing — ‘They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,’ meaning there’s no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don’t let your heart be offended. I didn’t write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel." [italics in original].

Now I’m not saying that Obama is all that and a bag of chips, and his relationship with his Reverend Wright is not exactly non-controversial. However, if you listen to what the Rev. Wright says about Black Liberation Theology, I don’t think it’s insane or an untenable view point for a person of color to have.  You should listen to his interview on Fresh Air, here, to make up your mind. 

But Hagee, who I’ve heard interviewed (you can listen to the interview here), is a real looney tune.  The fact that McCain would gladly receive his endorsement and praise Hagee says something about McCain and his judgment, much less that he didn’t have his staff go back and read Hagee’s sermons prior to accepting his endorsement.

Anyway, what a ticket–McCain with his friend John Hagee, and Huckabee with his jokes about Obama getting shot.

Things to look for when buying an AV Receiver for your home theater

There are many things I know nothing about–car repair, home repair (in fact, repairing anything that isn’t computer-related or audio video electronics), mixing drinks, baseball statistics, thermodynamics, how Republicans can actually believe we have a ‘free market system’–but something I DO know something about is home theater equipment and the technology required to produce quality audio and video.

So, if you’re in the market for a home theater system in general, or an AV receiver in particular, here a few things you should make a priority in your purchasing decision.

1. HDMI 1.3a: HDMI is an interface that allows you to connect a source component, like a DVD player, to a Receiver, preamp-processor (what used to, in the stereo days, be called a ‘preamp’, but now is nicknamed ‘pre-pro’), or high-definition display, and send an uncompressed, encrypted video and audio signal through one cable.

So, with HDMI 1.3a, you need one cable to send audio and video of the highest quality to your display.  Unlike earlier versions of HDMI, this version expands the range of displayable colors to billions (instead of 16.7 million), and includes support for high-definition audio standards.

Now if you get an Audio-Video Receiver with multiple HDMI 1.3a inputs, you can hook in an upconverting DVD player, to play your standard-definition DVDs back at high-definition resolutions (1920 x1080p or 1280 x 720p) your Blu-ray DVD player, to playback your high-definition DVDs, your XBox-360 or Playstation 3 to display your games in Hi-Def (of course real men play Xbox 360 and not Playstation 3–you know who you are), and your home theater PC video output (to surf the web, watch downloaded videos, etc.).  That’s 4 inputs right there.  You’re probably thinking "I don’t need 4 HDMI inputs–why, I don’t even need 2!"

Well, here’s the thing.  When it comes to electronics, you always need more of something than you think.  Get a receiver with at least 3 HDMI 1.3a inputs and you won’t be sorry.

The Sony ES line, Denon x808 line, and Onkyo AV receiver lines all have 3 or more HDMI inputs.

2. Automatic room equalization:  If you get your home theater room, or room where you are going to watch movies and listen to music, set up with 5.1 speaker surround sound (you really should go for 7.1 surround–what’re two extra speakers to a Captain of Industry like you, anyway?), you need to calibrate your speakers to optimal playback based on where you are listening.  Audyssey’s equalization system, available in many lines of AV receivers, including some of the ones I mentioned above, provides you with a microphone which is connected to your receiver. You place the mike where you are most likely sit and watch a movie, and the receiver then calibrates the speakers and determines how much delay each channel should have, etc. It is surprisingly accurate and makes a HUGE difference in the audio experience.

Different vendors have or license different solutions for this, but Audyssey’s is considered the best or one of  the best.

3. Burr-brown or Wolfson DACs (Digital-to-Analog Converters):  Burr-brown, now owned by Texas Instruments, along with Wolfson, make the best audio converters around.  Why is this important you might ask? Because a good DAC can make the difference between a great audio experience and a mediocre one.  A good DAC has better error correction, higher bit resolution, and better processing of audio signals.  Look for 20-bit Burr-Brown DACs wherever fine DACs are sold–they actually come in PrePros (’Preamp Processor) and AV Receivers.  You want to make sure there is one of these DACs for each audio channel (so, 7 channels = 7 Burr-Brown DACs).

4. Multimedia/video Procesing Engine:  ‘What’, do you say, ‘is a video processing engine, and why should I care?’  Well, as you increasingly pump billions of bits from your high-definition source material (Blu-ray, game console, video camera, Digital SLR, etc.) to your high-resolution display, you want to make sure that all of it is converted from whatever resolution (720×480i, 720×480p, 1280×720p, 1920×1080i) it started in to your output resolution which is hopefully, for your sake, 1920×1080p.  What do the ‘p’ and ‘i’ stand for? P = progressive scan, I = interlaced.  I don’t have the desire to explain what those are and why they are different, and will let you google that; I"m sure some kind soul has written about it at Wikipedia.

As you’re sending all of this digital data through–you guessed it–your HDMI cables to your HDMI-enabled AV Receiver, your AV receiver has to process these signals, remove noise if any exists, and convert the output to 1920×1080p if it isn’t already 1080p, and then send it on its way to your HD flat panel display.  This whole process is called ‘transcoding, upconverting, and pass-through’ depending upon which activity you are talking about specifically.  Just as you benefit from Burr-Brown or Wolfson DACs for processing your audio, you benefit from Silicon Optix’ Reon or Realta HQV or Gennum VXP chips or  in your PrePro or AV Receiver.  These chips do a better job of processing your video–in essence a graphics card for your AV receiver instead of for your computer.

In fact, it’s helpful to think of your AV receiver as a computer that looks like a stereo component.  That’s really what it is, except that–unlike your regular PC or Mac–this computer can’t be programmed to load any software you like.  It can only be programmed within the very limited domain of audio and video settings and networking.

That’s all for now. I’ll talk next time about which home theater components I would recommend at some different price points, and why you owe it to yourself to have a home theatre PC.

Henry Nicholas III: White lines, blow away!

When you think of Broadcom, I bet your next thoughts aren’t ’serious drugs and hookers’.  However, in the case of Broadcom’s co-founder and former CEO, networking hardware and the Charlie Sheen lifestyle can intermingle, thank you very much.

Not only did Nicholas spike executives’ drinks with Ecstasy, offer employees drugs, hire hookers and escorts for himself, customers and business associates, but he also backdated options and offered to backdate employee options as an incentive.  He was also apparently building an underground ’sex and drugs’ complex where he could hold parties–kind of like the Batcave without the homoerotic overtones. When confronted with exposure of his misdeeds, he threatened potential whistleblowers with violence, among other things.

You can read about his glorious tenure as Broadcom CEO here.

I don’t know about you, but if a CEO of a supplier of mine offered me cocaine and hookers, I might think about taking my business elsewhere–call me ’square’ if you want…

Amazingly dumb TV shows

I read a magazine called "Entertainment Weekly".  It’s a pretty good summation of the week in entertainment, though recent issues have spent way too much space on "American Idol", "Sex and the City" and "Gossip Girls". 

The most recent issue has an overview of upcoming Summer TV shows.  Now, I have nothing against TV for adults, and I’m not a snob about TV.  But any TV I watch I watch via the Internet or season DVDs.  I don’t get either broadcast TV or cable TV at home; that’s because if I did, I would spend too much time watching it.

Looking through this issue of "EW", I was struck by how amazingly banal TV has gotten even by reduced quality standards.  It’s bad enough that reality TV is so popular, and that semi-celebrities like Flavor Flav and Tila Tequila can draw millions of viewers to their shows.  But now, there are shows that are even more creatively bereft than these.  Here’s a list of shows that I read about that sound incredibly ridiculous, almost like a Palahniuk novel parody of TV:

"Sunset Tan": a reality show about a tanning salon in Hollywood.  What could possibly be interesting either about the business of running a tanning salon or the people who work there?

"Glam God with Vivica A. Fox":  Aspiring stylists come to L.A. to compete for $100,000 and the right (I’m not making this up) to style the host, Vivica Fox, for a photoshoot.  What’s second prize, the right to style Vivica Fox for TWO photoshoots?

"The Greatest American Dog":  I’m quoting from ‘Entertainment Weekly’ magazine here: Twelve dogs and their owners move into a house and compete in "dog bone challenges" for the $250,000 prize.  Winners stay in the luxury suite, but losers get banned to the ‘doghouse’.  Really.

"Hurl!" A show where people eat too much and then are subjected to vertigo-inducing motion to see who will and won’t throw up.  Again, I’m not making this up.

"Ice Road Truckers": A show about people who drive trucks on icy roads.  This supposedly is/will be the History Channel’s biggest show.  I guess the show about watching paint dry wasn’t renewed for a second season.

"I Survived a Japanese Game Show": 10 Americans get sent to Tokyo where they compete on a Japanese style game show, including games like "Chicken Butt Scramble".

"The SInging Office": a show where 16 people from different cubicular office environments compete for prizes by seeing who can sing the best (hearing who can sing the best?).  The show is hosted by Joey Fatone (who?) and Mel B.

There are more, but I think I made my point.

"What Would Jesus Buy?": Reverend Billy and the ‘Shopocalypse’

There’s a new documentary on DVD, called "What Would Jesus Buy?"  It’s produced by Morgan Spurlock, who did the documentary about eating junk food for 30 days.  William Talen, who is better known as "Rev. Billy" of the Church of Stop Shopping, believes that consumerism and large retailers (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Victoria’s Secret, Starbuck’s) are destroying the essential, core values of Americans, and turning us into non-stop gaping maws that have to be fed with more and more ’stuff’.  Of course, he’s right.

Rev. Billy and his followers travel the country preaching the gospel and using the  ’shopocalypse’ (the combining of the most mundane, shopping, with the most grandiose, the end of the world.) as a rallying point for divergent groups of listeners  While not the best directed and edited documentary I’ve ever seen, the reverend himself is certainly an interesting guy and is genuine and passionate, without being too deranged.  He reminds me of a saner Gary Busey.

As the media is urging people to go out and spend their tax rebate checks, at the same time that U.S. household savings are actually negative, the Reverend’s message certainly resonates.

You can see more about the Reverend Billy and his church at http://www.revbilly.com

Shop less.  Save more.

Berkeley Bionics taking orders for ‘HULC’: Exoskeleton that assists people in carrying 200 LB loads

Prognosticators have been talking about bionic exoskeletons for decades, and videogames have been using such things as props for a while too.  However, as with many other tech developments, the future is here today in good ole Berkeley, CA.

If you can’t read the image below, you can see the announcement here

image

We may be running out of water to drink, trees to generate oxygen, and bees to pollenate flowers, but at least we can carry 200 LB loads with biomechanical assistance.

Some things that make me laugh–Part 2

Here are some more laugh-inducing media that you may or may not already know about.

"I have a pony" and "When the wind blows" DVDs: Steven Wright

…is  one of the funniest stand-up comedians I’ve heard.  His style is not one that is calculated to yield a dynamic onstage persona, however it’s his very deadpan nature which makes his delivery even funnier in person than it is on DVD. 

An example of his humor: "I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met" or "I used to have an open mind, but my brains kept falling out" or "my friend sent me a picture post card of the entire earth; on the back it said ‘wish you were here’".

If you can’t see him in person or don’t want to wait, you can see him on DVD. 

"Fawlty Towers": 

Much to my amazement, there are still people who haven’t heard of this British TV series or have heard about it, but never watched it.  The British, who’ve cranked out more great comedy shows in the last 40 years than anyone, including the U.S. (okay, we’ve got Mary Tyler Moore, MASH, All in the Family (adapted from a British show)  Sanford & Son (adapted from a British show), Cheers, Seinfeld, Frasier, 30 Rock, and of course, The Simpsons, but the Brits have a lot more), voted "Fawlty Towers" the greatest comedy show ever; interestingly, the next funniest show was the original version of "The Office".

In any event, "Fawlty Towers" is about a very uptight, passive-agressive  English seaside town hotelier who runs a small rundown hotel, and his wife and staff and their collective interactions with each other and their guests.  It stars the brilliant John Cleese (from Monty Python’s Flying Circus), Prunella Scales, who plays his wife Sybil,  Andrew Sachs, who plays a dim-witted Spanish waiter named ‘Manuel’, and Connie Booth, who plays one of the staff at the hotel.  The scripts are by and large outstanding, and have frequent guest appearances by some of the best English stage and movie actors around.  This show had more camera shots than any  other show had had up to that point; I don’t know if it still has the record or not.

If you like British humor, esp. Monty Python, you’ll love this show.  I have seen each episode many times, and there are still parts that I see and laugh at, even knowing the lines verbatim.

"Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union":

This is a TV series in its first season, which just wrapped up on Showtime.  Ullman is really good, certainly one of the funniest mimics around and a great impersonator.  She is also a very good comedy writer.  Couple this with her biting look at life  in America today (TSA screeners who use the X-ray machines to do physical exams for each other, female soldiers who get home from Iraq for 2-3 days and have to go back, etc.), and you have a great show.

"The Capitol Steps"

This is a group of writers and performers who, like Weird Al Yankovic, add new words to existing popular songs.  All of their songs are political/social commentaries, and most of them are very funny.  You can get their tapes or CDs at Capital Steps

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