Monthly Archives: December 2007

Here is a nice article about audio engineering trends over the last decade or so. Yeah, maybe that sounds about as much fun as shaving a rotten asparagus stalk with your grandma’s discarded Lady Bic, but give it a chance. It’s written by freaking Rolling Stone so obviously it doesn’t get too technical. The article gives a nice laman’s description of dynamic range compression and the “Loudness War”. If you’ve ever wondered why everything on the radio sounds twice as loud nowadays, this is a good read. There is a lot of predictable geeky conservatism, mainly of the “Analog, warm! Digital, cold!” variety, but also a good amount of realist opinions:

“Compression is a necessary evil. The artists I know want to sound competitive. You don’t want your track to sound quieter or wimpier by comparison. We’ve raised the bar and you can’t really step back.”
— Butch Vig, producer and Garbage mastermind

I have fought with compression and the idea of compression since I started producing my own music. Only recently have I begun to make peace with it. Although, I wouldn’t call it a necessary evil as much a necessary step in the evolution of modern audio production.

So I have had a sporadic feature on my blogs, dating back a few years to my Friendster blog (yeah, I know, I’m lame), through my Myspace blog (slightly less lame, but lame nonetheless), and into this current blog called Matt’s (or Mafoo’s) CNN.com headline of the day. Here is my most recent one. Well, considering the fact that the headlines grew more insipid and ridiculous as the years went by, I eventually stopped checking CNN.com at all. Thus the feature died out.
But! I was very happy to see that someone is doing the Lord’s work in my stead. I found a nice little blog called WTFCNN?. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be updated very frequently. Still you can peruse it and find some choice banality in their particular selections:

God damn it.

The secret to winning at Rock, paper, scissors.

I can’t believe I had never heard this story:

A Japanese art collector who could not decide whether to sell his Impressionist paintings through Christie’s or rival auction house Sotheby’s, instructed them to play the game against each other.

Christie’s consulted its employees on strategies and, on the advice of the director’s 11-year-old daughters, chose scissors.

The little girls, keen fans of the game, explained that “everybody expects you to choose rock”.

As predicted, Sotheby’s went for the open palm in a bid to beat the expected clenched fist, and lost the deal.

Of course, the more devious RPS strategy is to play for what you don’t want and intentionally lose. Most people won’t be able to pass up the allure of a RPS game. Just play a millisecond late, nobody will care as long as they are winning. Mwa ha ha.

Blackle

For a far more grinchy view of Christmas, let us go to Christopher Hitchens speaking/singing for the folks at Reason. He’s kind of a buzzkill but, as always, thought-provoking. And it makes at least as much sense as my Extended Shiverism view of Christmas.
Let’s put the X back in X-mas!

Learned how to reprogram a NBX 100

Went to a drag show with my mom, sister, niece, and girlfriend

Beta-tested for Ableton Live 7

Played my first professional recital

Waiting patiently for 7 months (and counting!) for the return of Lost

Ditto for BSG

Ate bull’s penis

Had two blood transfusions

Recorded a new Alarm Will Sound album

Got freaky on the subway

Finally learned about dynamic range compression

Arrived at a gig with no music, had Melly fax the music from home to the fax machine in a conveniently open church office, and played the concert on fax sheets while telling nary a soul of my brush with disaster.

Had a botched operation that I narrowly survived

Started a real blog

Started a podcast

Drank Everclear for he first time (oy…)

Lived through a tornado

Created an ensemble/produced my first concert

Was banned from a Cleveland bar for attempting to pay my bill with a credit card

Pissed off D.J. Spooky

Had a morphine button for a week

Waited 8 months for a thousand-dollar check

Laughed as my friend had his arm broken

Finished my Master’s Program

Ducked creditors seeking tons of money I do not actually owe

Played a solo, sang, and performed original electronic music at Carnegie Hall

Took my longest break from horn ever

Wrote more music than I have in my entire life

Left in the middle of a rehearsal for a Carnegie Hall performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony (playing principal) with Benjamin Zander to hop on a train to New Haven and check myself into the emergency room.

Began writing a musical

Finally got on Gmail/Fell in love with Google Reader/ Had my life changed by getting Google Maps on my phone

Walked 3 miles up a mountain in the snow, in Vermont, in sneakers due to bad information Google Maps gave me

Collaborated with Melly a whole bunch

Played concerts in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, Holland, Massachusetts, Washington D.C. and New York (duh.)

Transcribed and arranged a piece of music for a concert for the first time

Spent my 27th birthday eating tater tots and drinking Shirley Temples

Gained and lost 20 pounds through no effort of my own

(P.S. this will be updated as I think of more. Feel free to leave any additions in the comments section!)

Wow. Sometimes words fail me. Btw, Nevena I think I love you.

-thanks Kate (I would link to you, but you still don’t have a blog! Waaa waaaaa…)

Rather than spending hours IMDBing your favorite directors to find out their upcoming films, here is a guide to a huge number of anticipated films coming out in 2008. This is where I found the Be Kind Rewind trailer and there is an insane amount more. Looking forward to new films by the Coen Brothers, Aronofsky, Richard Kelly, Nolan (Dark Knight, wuz ^??), Meirelles, Fincher, Tykwer, J.J. Abrams (new Star Trek?), Eli Roth, Jonze, Kevin Smith, etc.
Jesus, I could do posts featuring like 20 of these trailers. I’ll save it. Just view the list.

This movie looks beautiful. I love Michel Gondry and this seems to accentuate his down-to-earth metaphysical approach to effects and filmmaking as a whole. It looks kind of like a gamble, but I’m optimistic (as always!).