While America gets an obesity epidemic, France gets this:
Posts Tagged ‘Music’
Why America Hates The French
Thursday, June 4th, 2009Getting Songbird To Sing Beyond The Cage
Sunday, April 26th, 2009Worse case scenario happened. The laptop I was using for a Songbird powered stereo had a sudden and massive hard drive crash. Nothing is recoverable, the drive isn’t even recognized.
It’s not the end of the world, I keep all the actual music files on a Drobo connected to a server in the basement. So those are relatively safe. But all the intangible stuff, like the meta data for ratings and playlists are gone. With over 18,000 tracks they’re not easy to get back.
But what to do now? I’m taking this as a sign to do something better. I’d prefer not to have a laptop just sitting in the living room any more. In the realm of Network Music Player there are only a few real choices:
- Logitech Squeezebox
- Roku Soundbridge
- Apple Airport Express
And they all have their problems. (And the Sonos is too expensive to even bother talking about.)
The Squeezebox hardware is pretty pricey and I don’t have an audio system on the main floor that could take advantage of the fidelity that they put out. Only one package has anything other then a text based screen with an IR remote. Ug. It also requires a service running on a computer somewhere. I tried installing it on the PowerMac I’m using as a server but it refuses to start. Not even an error message in the console to explain why. I’ve been able to get it running on other PC’s and the service interface is UGLY. The only playlist management is through reading an iTunes database. Ouch.
The Roku seems to be very tied to iTunes as well and the Firefly media server feels really bare-bones. After their new video player, I think this is being forgotten about.
The Airport Express is a nifty little device, but it’s specifically designed for iTunes. And if you want a controller for it, you need at least an iPod Touch.
I’m a very committed fan of Songbird, but I’m not left with many options for it. There’s a Songbird Remote for the iPod Touch, but Songbird still can’t “speak” through the Airport Express. Unless I get Airfoil as well – which will allow any app to pipe it’s sound through the Express.
Sounds good, right? Well then there’s the issue of Songbird not having a PowerPC build anymore. There was someone who was producing their own PowerPC package, but I don’t know if it’s still being maintained. Then there’s the question if all the extensions and addons will work with it as well.
I picked up a Airport Express to try out and so I’d be able to play something on the main floor. It’s streaming from iTunes on a everyday laptop for now, but it is working. And it gives me Wireless-N to boot. But it’s still not Songbird and all the flexibility that comes with it.
So, to get everything working just right I need a PowerPC version of Songbird, an iPod Touch, Airfoil, Songbird Remote iPod app and Songbird Extention.
What could possibly go wrong with that?
*sigh*
Oto-Wa Taiko: 20th Anniversary Concert
Sunday, April 5th, 2009We went to the Oto-Wa Taiko concert Saturday night and I had a really good time. Unfortunately we were running late and I didn’t get a chance to bring my camera. I was so jealous of the photographers who were shooting the event.
I’ve been to a number of these concerts over the last five years and I’m starting to recognize a lot of the pieces, but I think they’ve added a few for this showing. The dragon head was definitely new and some of the sets didn’t feel that familiar.
It was also the first time I caught Dagaku. Which is the children’s drumming group. I guess it’s like a farm team. I was surprised by how good they were! Some of them were the proverbial knee high to a grasshopper but they performed really well for their four sets. The final piece they did ended with a beat and a pose and the kid on the far right of the stage dropped her stick on the pose – it was so cute it could have been on purpose.
My one concern of the show was the… um… Big Ass Drum in the back. If I remember correctly, I should have felt bodily fluids shake when it was hit. It seemed to have been producing the right tone, nice and deep, but the power didn’t seem to be there. And they were whaling on it – the stand was shaking – but much lighter strikes on drums at the front seemed much louder. Maybe it was the raised platform it was on, maybe the position on stage, maybe it was that I was sitting farther back then before – it just seemed a little odd. Weird acoustics I guess.
Watching the show I got the idea of a type of performance I’d like to see: Imagine a Taiko version of Devil went down to Georgia. Two groups in a challenge/response give’n take with the beat. With the idea it’s a battle over their very souls, each round should get a little faster and a little more frantic like the music I’m use to from home. Of course, that’s more or less an excuse to justify what I like to hear. But I’m ok with that.
I’ll definitely be going to future concerts.
Hollowpoint Sniper Hyperbole
Thursday, September 18th, 2008I was driving to pick up Vietnamese from a little place just around the corner from us and I was listening to 88.5 Live FM and a song was playing in which I heard:
“I’s the b’y that built the boat
I’s the b’y that sailed her
I’s the b’y the sunk the ship
You’re the one that save me“
The first two lines of that are taken from a very old Newfoundland song and it blew my mind when I heard it on the radio. I had to look up.
I haven’t been able to find too much in the way of actual facts, but the song is by Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker and they are indeed Canadian, but not from Newfoundland. Which just adds to the mystery.
I’m hypnotized by the song now, and I think their T-Shirt looks pretty cool.
78 RPM’s of Awesome
Thursday, August 28th, 2008I somehow stumbled on to the Wired Blog about a guy who’s re-recording old 78 records and putting them online.
The man is a hero.
I’m totally going to torrent the collection.
My Grandfather loved music. Behind the coat rack in the porch in the small house where he lived there was a solid wall of 78′s stacked side by side. After he died I’m not sure what happened to them. We have a good few of his LP’s but nothing like the 78′s.
Most of them were local Newfoundland artists as well. Granted, not many want to hear the early work of those who would make Harry Hibbs seem refined but hey, it’s the work of my people. I wonder if anyone else is preserving them?
Bird Brain
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008The new version of SongBird is amazing. It just gets better and better. I’m hoping that by version 1.0 I’ll be ready to switch away from iTunes.
One of the things I’m going to need to be fixed before then is what do to about Christmas music. If I rate a Christmas song a full 5 stars, it’ll show up in my Highest Rated playlist. Which would be fine, if it was December. During the summer months when I’m arguing to turn on the A/C it’s not exactly something I want to hear.
Under iTunes, I simply create a smart playlist called Christmas Music then do a select all on the results and uncheck the songs. Then none of the other playlists will include those songs.
Nice.
Songbird doesn’t have that feature yet, nor can I create a Christmas Music list and tell the Highest Rated playlist to ignore songs that are also in Christmas Music. But these are all things that are going to be fixed.
But how about if I want it more then fixed? Why can’t Songbird be better?
Why can’t Songbird recognise when it’s appropriate to play Christmas songs?
Or for that matter, what about other types of tracks? Like Comedy. Once again, I might give Robin Williams 5-stars but I don’t want that showing up in Highest Rated when I just hit play.
I started to think about this more and more after I initially posted in the Songbird forums.
Imagine a way to give Songbird some idea of what’s going on around it? Such as the time of year, time of day, or maybe even it’s location. Then let it be able to tune playlists to those situations.
Time of year: When to play seasonal music and when not to. Christmas is one of the main points here, but I also have tracks which are really only for Halloween. I also have a CD of national anthems – wouldn’t it be cool to play those on the nation’s respective “<Insert Country Name Here> Day”? Maybe play Happy Birthday on your birthday?
Time of day: Some people would like to hear Nine Inch Nails in the morning, some wouldn’t. Maybe you’d like your playlist to blend into softer music before bedtime on a weekday and maybe a little more rock’en on Friday night. Those who have left their teenage punk roots behind but not their music might prefer if some tracks would be kept out of rotation until the kids are asleep.
Location: Laptops are starting to come with GPS and a computer can get an idea of where it is based off it’s IP address. Your workplace might frown on Gangsta Rap, or maybe you just stay more focused if songs have no lyrics. If you’re enroute somewhere you might want travelling music.
So how would this work? I’m not sure.
My first thought is to have a new selection appear just under Library and have it called something like BirdBrain (’cause it’s smart) or DJ Bird (’cause it does all the mixing for you) or a more “Apple” style name of Concierge (’cause it thinks it knows what’s best for you). And have it as a generally more intelligent version of Party Shuffle on iTunes.
Or maybe that would keep it too separate from the rest of things? Perhaps it should just work in the background with the main Library and the smart playlists that are already there. I imagine normal playlists would be left alone since they are made with specific tracks.
As for what it would do in the background I can see at this point two main tasks. Based off rules which the user can create (or perhaps Songbird could even learn) Songbird would enable or disable tracks from playing outright – or change the statistical chance of a song being selected for random play.
At first there was talk of iTunes’ randomization not being random enough. Then Apple made a feature of making it less random with the ability to focus on songs from the same album or artist. I’m suggesting to take that level of randomness down another notch.
A quick scenario on how this might work:
The Rules
Global (In place unless a following rule comes into effect)
- No Music tagged with: Christmas, Comedy, Spoken Word, Halloween, Anthem, Bad
6 AM – 9 AM Everyday
- No Music tagged with: Heavy, Loud, Industrial, Techno, Sad, Blues
- Increase chance of Music tagged: Easy Listening, Morning Music, Soft, Energetic, Happy
9 PM – 12 PM Worknights (Sunday Night – Thursday Night)
- Gradually Decrease chance of music tagged: Energetic, Peppy, High Tempo, Loud
- Gradually Increase chance of music tagged: Slow, Quite, Sleepy, Relaxed, Ambient
While At Work:
- No Music Tagged: Course Language, Loud
- Significantly Increase chance of Music tagged: Instrumental
December 1 – December 24
- Gradually Significantly Increase chance of Music tagged: Christmas
July 1
- Significantly Increase chance of track:” O Canada.mp3″
What it means
The date and time settings are obvious. “No Music” is simply disabling of tracks from playing. “Increase/Decrease chance” means to boost or hinder the “randomness” of a track being played. While “Significantly” simply means exactly that, I’m thinking you could choose a few levels of randomness interference. Increase Chance, Modestly Increase Chance, Significantly Increase Chance or something like that.
“Gradually” affects how the rule is implimented for the duration of the rule. So if Significantlly Increase boosts a tracks chances by, say 90%, and that rule is in effect for 3 hours/days/months then the statistical boost starts off low and and then increases to 90% at the end of the rule duration.
So in the Christmas rule above, you only get a few Christmas songs at first and then get many by Christmas Eve.
So what do you think? Good idea?
Kyrie Eleison
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008We went out for lunch at work on Friday and I heard an old song on the radio. It was Kyrie by Mr. Mister. It’s one of my favorite songs from the 80′s, but I never ever understood exactly what was being sung in the chorus.
I thought he was saying “Kyrie lays on” which would make the lyrics (as I heard them):
Kyrie lays on down the road that I must travel
Kyrie lays on through the darkness of the night
I had always thought that Kyrie was a girl who the singer could count on helping him through a bad time. I even remember thinking that the first few words drawn out at the beginning where a mumbled “She believes in me”.
But I never knew exactly what they were saying. And it bugged me.
Well, hell. We have the internet now. And I couldn’t have been more wrong.
What was being said was “Kyrie Eleison” which is Greek for “Lord, have mercy” and is used in Catholic Mass. Apparently the whole song is a sort of prayer.
My mind. It is blown.
But to me, Kyrie will always be a girl’s name.
Kyrie eleison, kyrie eleison, kyrie
The wind blows hard against this mountain side, across the sea into my soul
It reaches into where I cannot hide, setting my feet upon the road
My heart is old, it holds my memories, my body burns a gemlike flame
Somewhere between the soul and soft machine, is where I find myself again
Kyrie eleison, down the road that I must travel
Kyrie eleison, through the darkness of the night
Kyrie eleison, where I’m going will you follow
Kyrie eleison, on a highway in the light
When I was young I thought of growing old, of what my life would mean to me
Would I have followed down my chosen road, or only wished what I could be
Kyrie eleison, down the road that I must travel
Kyrie eleison, through the darkness of the night
Kyrie eleison, where I’m going will you follow
Kyrie eleison, on a highway in the light
Taiko so good, I bought the T-Shirt
Sunday, May 11th, 2008Tonight was the Oto-Wa Taiko concert we got tickets for.
Wow. The Museum theater is a much better venue for this type of music – none of the power was lost to empty space. I had such a good time!
I think my favorite piece of the night was Shunpu. It had a lot of drummers on stage at once and really made you feel it. Saru Asobi also had that same intensity of multiple drummers (helped even more that the members of tonight’s special guest Kamo Tsunamura Daiko were on stage as well) but they had all that “monkeying around” going on.
When it comes to Taiko music, I’m not there to sip on fine wines and delight in the rich bouquet of flutes and “interpretive dance”. I’m just low class enough to want to get drunk on the moonshine of a heavy drum beat. With that said, however, I was surprised at the enjoyable use of fans on, I think, Sendai Suzume Odori. It was energetic and snappy.
I think it was Suwa Ikazuchi (“Thunder in Suwa”) that one of the co-ordinators for the concert, Jackie Steele, starts out on stage in black tights and what I’ll call a “shirt”, being only a sheet of material up front held on with elastic straps wrapping around back. This is the reduced outfit when someone is really going to pound on the drums. Taiko drumming gives you a pretty good upper body workout in general and she had already been working through the previous songs. End result of this, not hurt by the dramatic stage lighting, was that she was looking pretty ripped. There’s something attractive about a physically fit woman wailing on stuff. I’m probably recalling my days of G.L.O.W.. A surprise was that she not only spoke perfect English and French, but also addressed the group in, what sounded like, very good Japanese.
I walked away from the concert with a Kamo Tsunamura CD and a Oto-Wa T-shirt. I am such a sucker for this stuff, but I just had so much fun! 
3 Lines, yet so much weird.
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008This is crazy. I heard it on the radio a few days ago and I can’t get it out of my mind!
Speaking of sleep, I need to get some myself… let’s see what’s wrong with the post layout later…
Update: Didn’t care for all the messing around trying to figure out what was wrong with embedded videos, so I just installed EasyTube to take care of that for me. Yay!
