About Me
Hello. I’m Dan. I design communication for companies. And sometimes I write things.
The contents of my blog are my own thoughts and observations—codified and organized to help me better think through problems, remember solutions, and maybe even help others experiencing the same issues in their work. I keep it all here mostly because I’m short on space between my ears. More…Latest Posts
Archive
TV On The Radio “Will Do” via YouTube #tvotr
via youtube.com
Saving grace? There’s no better bands out there.
Tim Exile and Native Instruments present “The Mouth” (via YouTube) #TimExile #TheMouth
via youtube.com
I’m no keynius…
Tim Exile Shows his Reaktor-Based Live Performance Setup (via YouTube) #TimExile #Reaktor
via youtube.com
Turning A Podcast Track Into A Music Track in iTunes
I subscribe to a few song of the day podcasts, which makes it easy to get the tracks, but difficult to enjoy them as music in iTunes. But podcast tracks can’t be simply moved over to the music section of your library, it takes a little finagling.
There’s a lot of advice out there suggesting you use one of the menu commands to convert the track to MP3 or AAC, but I prefer not to re-encode my music, and that’s a big hammer for a small problem
via maisonbisson.com
Just the trick I needed!
My immediate response to Baba Brinkman’s “Performance Feedback Revision” (not even spellchecked)
I received this embedded. I submit it to you embedded (but just in case, ). I do not know/care how many views it’s received. I do not know if a YouTube commenter has already responded there the way I’m about to respond here. We (the hypothetical commenter and I) are temporally and geographically dislocated, and tapping my keys here with you — instead of there to digest his/her/its feedback — is somehow more exciting. Here. Now. I’m keeping in spirit.
- Who did he sample? Or was that an original loop?
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Revision is synthesis. A new entity emerging from a tweak to the old. Create or die.
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Importantly, Add value, Even if it’s only in your small pocket of the cosmos. Even if it’s only your mind. Parroting is feedback, but it’s of no use to Performer or Reviser. So platinum props to Baba Brinkman. Radio intentionally.
From NYT: Billboard Faces New Competition as Music Charts Evole
But the multiple ways to make money provide hope to a struggling industry and are also changing the kind of music that gets made and promoted. Album sales are often driven by older listeners who typically favor country and soft-rock artists like Taylor Swift and Susan Boyle.
Pop and hip-hop artists like Taio Cruz and Rihanna are sometimes underrepresented on the album chart, as younger fans in particular have moved to buying singles and streaming music online.
In the near future, that could mean more Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, less Nickelback and Keith Urban.
via nytimes.com
This has been an ongoing point of contention for my teenaged son and me. While his tastes tend toward album-oriented rock, his habits and finances find him picking through iTunes for tracks here and there from those artists he likes.
And what does iTunes give you? 30 second bites, which after two or three clicks is supposed to abet an informed buying decision. I would argue you get the most accessible parts in these 30 seconds, and will therefore pony up for your best guess at the most accessible songs. This data is surely tracked back to A&R (they of the big up-or-down thumbs), who then dictate the next generation of deals made, artists pushed, 30-second sound bites made available off iTunes. It’s incestuous cloning and it’s insidious.
My advice? Support the stable of artists making positive contributions to the overall musical narrative — and buy their albums.
‘A Skin Too Few: Nick Drake’ on Sundance
More notes, furiously thumbed while watching, but I’d like to hang on to these:
- Brief appearance by Paul Weller at the opening.
- The songs of mother Molly Drake, as played by siseter Gabrielle on homemeade cassette, are quite haunting.
- Long sepia shots of the streets of Cambridge, where he studied the poets.
- Much discussion of the purity and preciseness of his guitar playing.
- Didn’t perform live after a brief club tour in which audiences wouldn’t shut up.
- Moved back home with his parents, took some antidepressants, determined the world was harsh and futile. He felt a failure.
- Last four tracks on last album he could not sing and play guitar at once.
- Overdosed on tryptizol in his parents home one night. Did not wake the next morning.
- Now AT&T and others are ripping him (and others) quite despicably. I don’t know, maybe the estate is making out nicely. But I’m swept in the irony of a company whose mission it is to connect people using the music of one who felt so alone. At least the VW ad had a creative iconoclastic feel.
- Once told his mother that if only he knew his music had helped someone it would have all been worth it.
How to Create iPod On The Go Playlists | About.com
On The Go Playlists let users create custom playlists on their iPods, rather than needing to create them in iTunes and then sync that playlist to their iPod. This is a neat feature if you’re away from your computer and want to DJ a party or just make a mix that suits your mood or locale.
via ipod.about.com
Yeah so today’s a learning day. What of it?
I Just Ranked Steely Dan’s Albums and the Results Shocked Me
Okay, so this is interesting. Some would say heretical. But after years of back-breaking research and deliberative repetition, a song-by-song consideration revealed to me today an utterly scientific reckoning of Steely Dan’s output to date. Here they are in order of importance. [Also included is AllMusic's star ranking in parentheses as a point of reference.]
- Aja (4.5)
- Countdown to Ecstasy (5)
- The Royal Scam (3.5)
- Can’t Buy a Thrill (4.5)
- Everything Must Go (3)
- Gaucho (4)
- Katy Lied (5)
- Pretzel Logic (5)
- Two Against Nature (4)
Weird, right?
