So, I finally have two hard drives at home for the same purpose – to hold music.

One is a 250gig the other is a 500gig. The plan is to copy the music on the 250 over to the 500, and then bring the 500 back to work, so I can listen to my music collection there as well.

I will be going over my entire collection to make sure that EVERYTHING that is on CD is on the 250, so the copy process will be as complete as possible.

The plan is this: at work I listen through tiny little computer speakers – so quality is not much of an issue – mp3s are fine. At home, MOST of the listening we do is of a background variety – dinner time, reading books or magazines, watching the fire, hanging out with friends, etc. Detailed listening is different. We have the gear (our stereo system is very very good) so if we feel the need to listen to something in some detail, we can go upstairs, collect the CD or LP and haul it downstairs for listening. But most of the time, we don’t care “that much”. It does need to sound good, but a CD ripped at 192 playing quietly in the background of dinner conversation will sound Just Fine Thank You.

The drive will be hooked up to a small laptop which then goes to our sound system.

Done.

The eventual plan is to replace the mp3s with FLAC files. If Apple would simply realise that no one really gives a rats ass about apple lossless codec (ALC) and that FLAC is the smartest and simplest way to go, and SUPPORTED FLAC IN iTUNES, it would make my life a lot easier.

Why is FLAC so important? Because most people I know use a Windows machine, and FLAC is the high quality audio of choice among MS Windows users.

Example as to relevance:
I happen to have Lizard by King Crimson on LP. Now, I can record the LP (which I paid $6.99 for at Sam Goody’s back in 1975 – which in inflation adjusted dollars would be $26.66!!!), scratches and all, to my hard drive. Or, I can go to Amazon and get it for $13.99 plus shipping, making it closer to $20, and then rip the CD to FLAC. Or, I can get the FLAC files from my neighbour. Now, if it was just one particular record, I wouldn’t care, but I have THOUSANDS of records, and I want them in FLAC. So, I can rip them from CD myself and have to re-purchase a bunch of music I already own, OR, I can do the obvious thing and share drive data with my neighbours, saving me the crazy hassle of finding every last record and ripping it to FLAC.

And some of it will not be “rippable” as some of it is out of print. This is a big and pressing issue with my vinyl collection. It is also a problem for some of my CDs as well – I have the CD of “THIRST” by Saqqara Dogs (awesome record) but the CD itself is now filled with microbubbles and no longer plays – I only have it on LP and 192 mp3 now…

In short, I want iTunes to get on the stick and fully support FLAC. Because it doesn’t, I will have to eventually buy some miniature laptop and an extra drive for it and dump my FLAC files there, and that laptop will NOT be an Apple laptop. Ya hear me Steve?

iTunes exists to sell Apple Hardware – iPods and computers. Because iTunes does NOT support the industry standard of high quality audio, FLAC, they are and will continue to lose out. This is especially important as people gravitate away from files and go more towards internet radio hybrid systems like Rhapsody and Pandora and similar developments.

Personally, I prefer files. I don’t like the idea of missing a payment and being cut off from music.

So, today, I will move mp3s to a drive that will eventually house FLAC, and another step is made toward developing the Warwick Digital Culture Archive (music, video, etc.)

When the kindle costs $100, I’ll get one…

10 MAR 09 Edit:

…for some reason, comments aren’t showing correctly, even when I approve them…. Sigh. I’ll have to fix that. Anonymous Student asked: How can someone have 250gigs of music? It’s pretty easy. Just do the math. Your average CD is not filled to the brim, so the average CD is 500megs of data. Compressed to FLAC, make it 250megs each. Now, over a period of a few decades, collect 1000 CDs. Bingo! There’s your 250gigs of audio… Easy peeeezy.

Now, 250gigs of MP3 is a LOT of music. I have about 2500 recordings (About 1100 CDs, 1000 vinly LPs, and the rest in cassettes, and digital files from iTMS and elsewhere). Each compresses at 192kpbs to about 80megs per record or so. So, that comes out to about 200gigs. Of MP3s. So, again, it is easy to fill a 250gig drive with tunage.

best, HW

Today was a long day. My most interesting writings were:

from the LEV list:

> so it is true, there still are people who do genuinely believe in
> society being malleable….
> i’ve always taken that for sentimental gossip…

Gee, you sound like someone who’s too cynical to believe in nihilism…
Pity that.

1. You don’t have to “reform” society – it reforms on a daily basis, it changes all the time. Repetition is a form of change. All you have to do is stand up for something and go for it. But if you twiddle your pomo thumbs you’ll just sit there. Twiddling your pomo thumbs. Also note: 100 years ago cinema was black and white, silent and passive and insanely expensive. Now performance cinema is in colour (often lurid, but that’s another issue) with sound, it’s active, and the means to do it are little more than a keyboard, a laptop, and a projector… Society changes. All the Time.

Also: in the early 1900s there was a strike at a mine in Colorado. People wanted to work only 5 days a week. The governor, who was in the pocket of the mining interests, called out the State National Guard Units and had them move on the camps. they fired into the strikers tents. All the men were at the mine, picketing, so the soldiers shot 24 women and children DEAD.

They died so people in the USA could have a 5 day work week.

There is absolutely nothing sentimental about brutal blind slaughter. People dying in order to change the world is not “sentimental gossip”. The hand wringing attitude that it is such only serves the interests of the likes of the crypto and not so crypto fascists who are presently running things.

2. Performance cinema must stand on its own, claim its own intellectual space, with its own theory and aesthetic. This must be articulated and the articulation must reflect the diversity and complexity of the the source material.
You can either help or hinder. I’d REALLY like it if you could help. I’m running myself broke to put this symposium on – (so far) no company has stepped in to help, no government has squeezed its teat to make this happen. This makes its free and open and very low budget but also of the highest possible integrity and purpose.

3. As performance cinema stands and articulates itself in time, our media culture will be that much more vibrant and interesting, and Bog only knows what will be born from it.

Got a note from Kim Cascone – hope to have lunch with him and his family this coming weekend. It’ll be good to see him.

Completed recording post audio for SEI down at Chris Tann’s digs in S. San Jose. He has a wonderful home theatre set up. Someday I will too…

Elizabeth is in swimming camp this month. She’s a sweetie bump. She showed me how to pronounce Montmartre. It sounded more like MonnnMarrr. God bless the good ship FAIS and all who sail with her.

The recall effort to remove Gray Davis is well underway. Ariana Huffington wrote a typically miguided article on Salon.com about it, and I felt I had to respond. I mailed the following, under the name “Ralph Spoilspot” to the Salon editors.

Huffington on Davis Recall

This is simple, and predictable and sad.

This is what will happen:

The sour grape Republicans at the behest of the idiot likes of Tom DeLay will push through the recall.

No Democrat with even a nanogram of party loyalty will step in the way of Davis. It is likely that the Republicans will field more than one candidate.

The Democratic voters will (again) hold their noses and vote for Gray Davis, and the Republican vote will be divided and lose the election.

A total waste of time and money.

And the worst part? A mental image that fills me with inertia: Gray Davis Gloating.

I’ll vote for Gray Davis, simply because I can’t see surrendering the governorship of California to the reptilian likes of Bush & Co. But frankly: Davis sucks. And the saddest part? He’s the best outcome of this whole sorry mess.

This is not a good time to be in California.

(2009: note to reader, Schwartzenegger swooped in and won the election.)

Today is another day. I don’t know what today will bring. Beth actually drove to cupertino to be at work today. she’s going out of town several days later this month for some training in Irving, TX. We have a friend, “Red” Nelson, who lives not far from there, so Beth will have someone to hang out with.

I’m planning to re-set up my studio after ripping it apart yesterday to do the recording at Chriss Tann’s place. Right now my studio is such a mess, I don’t know if I’ll get to it – I might just spend this morning cleaning the place, and then work on the cover for Dennis Young’s new CD, “Old Dog, New Tricks”.

I grew up with Dennis – he lived several blocks away from me, and his grandfather lived even closer. We were in some of the same classes in grade school, and our fathers were both on the volunteer ambulance squad. I remember playing in his grandfather’s backyard with him – some of my few really happy memories from childhood. Dennis is the percussionist in the group “Liquid Liquid”. They had a hit back in the day with the song “Cavern” which was sampled by Grandmaster Flash in the monster hit “White Lines”. That super bass/drum/percussion line is striahgt out of Cavern. Dennis is a great guy and I urge everyone to collect his music. It’s nothing like mine: he’s very involved with striaght ahead groovy funky beats w/ smooth vocals and soaring guitars. Really nice stuff. And *I’m* doing the cover for the CD… Gotta get cranking on that today. I did a rough a few days ago when I got the CD, but I want to present him with several alternatives, so I feel comfortable that he’s comfortable with what he’s getting. His pressing plant sent me the Quark Templates they use, so that will ease the development of the artwork considerably. I enjoy doing CD covers. I do them well…

Dennis Young’s WEBSITE.

Last night, after putting Elizabeth to bed I scampered down to Dimension7, (D7) to reconnect with the people there and get some more movement on the symposium. Sometimes I despair for performance cinema. There was some really nice wallpaper stuff there – abstract washy lines and forms that gently evolved into other, ummm, washy lines and forms – zero “content” but beautiful to look at. I missed the main attraction at 8pm. supposedly it was pretty good. Grant of D7 had some really striking stuff looping for a while. Gave me a few ideas about what I can do with SEI. One guy (I forget his name) showed up with a keyboard and laptop and Arkaos, and performed clips (processed in real time) of some guy dancing. Badly. It sucked. I have nothing against “VJ” work, but damn people : THINK before you project something… life is SO much more interesting than the lowest common denominator – it’s why I’m busting my back on this symposium!

Speaking of the symposium, So far I’ve received some nice stuff, from all over the world. I’m getting very excited about all this…

Once I put my studio back together, I’ll be editing SEI back together with the new audio tracks. This late afternoon will be spent web – job hunting.

Got the application to the Sounds shindig in St John’s NF out the door yeasterday. FedEx’d it and it should get there on time. Was mentioned in Markus Reuters’s web journal which was very kind of him. If you don’t know his music, check it out. It’s really good stuff. Markus is an amazing player of the tap-style guitar (Chapman stick, Warr Guitar, etc.) and makes some very celestial stuff. He’s also a very decent all-around bloke.

Today, in a few minutes, actually, Kim Cascone and his family (wife: Kat, boy: Cage) are coming over for a brunch. They’re bringing some fruit and I will be serving my infamously delicious pancakes, and an egg frittata fry up kind of dealie I make that is also scrumpdili-icious! It’ll be good to see them – they are some of people I have known the longest here in San Francisco – I met them through their old music label days at Silent Records. They are very wonderful people, and I enjoy their company a lot.

I actually gota decent nights sleep last night, for the first time in a week.

Brunch with the Cascones was wonderful. It was good to see them again. Cage and Elizabeth chased the cats around, my pancakes were excellent, and the eggs came out beautifully. They brought a fine collection of fruit, and a splendid time was had by all. We all agree somafm.com has the BEST internet radio stations. Totally brilliant that. We all agree that cliqhop is a Very Good Thing. They’ve been travelling lately, and they told me of a great thing- it plugs into the iPod so you can listen to the iPod on your car radio. Talk about a world of wonderful things! Especially when travelling through the Central Valley of California which is a very right wing and culturally deprived area. Gives me a reason to get an iPod! Now all I need is a job so I can buy the iPod…

I figured out that I should *just* be able to squeeze my CD collection onto an 80gig HD. When laptops get cheap enough, I’ll get one for the Warwick Music Archive.

20 JULY 03

Today is a VERY busy day. LOTS of editing to do. Got a note from Dennis Young – wants some more ideas for his CD cover, so I’ll get to that later this week, once I sort out a minor technology situation on my end. Got a lot of editing done last night, lost a bunch of it, but will simply have to re-render it. I’ll probably save that for tonight and re-render the whole thing at once, rather than in bits and pieces and waste my day with it.

Lately I’ve been listening to Kim Cascone’s blackCube( ). It’s very uncompromising sound. Very smart, rather dissonant and distilled. I approve.

Elizabeth had a sleep over at her friend Gabby’s house. There were six little six year olds there. Gabby’s parents get a medal. In honour of the evening, Beth and I did something we *never* get to do: go out for a spicy dinner and watch a movie that isn’t something cooked up by Disney or Pixar.

We went to Guymas in Tiburon. It was very good, and the view of Angel Island and SF is fantastic. I had a seafood mix (squid, octopus, coho salmon, mussels, and an assortment of veggies in some kind of spicy butter sauce) and Beth had skewers of lamb and chicken with various veggies. And Margaritas!!! Yum. We did some window shopping, bought a very nice bottle of Wine (Windsor Merlot, 1999 signature series…oOOoOOoo. We tasted it first – it’s very good) then went on to see a movie: Northfork by Bros. Polish.

It was very good, but not great. I’d give it 3.5 stars out of 5. I liked the magical elliptical plot that keeps you dangling and wondering. I loved the idea of the story – that a boy might actually be a de-winged angel, now dying, and soon to accompany other angels who have come to find him. I wondered if the boy was actually the angel of the town that was about to be submerged, and that as the town died so did he; and as the town entered the world of forms in history, so too, the boy ascended to his rightful place as an angel. I liked some of the acting – I thought Darryl Hannah and Nick Nolte were very good. They seemed to care about what they were doing. Some of the performances I thought were a bit flat, but sometimes it was hard to tell, given the exigencies of the characters. The worst part of the movie was the music. It was continuous, obtrusive, and never ending. As soundtrack, it was OK, nothing special in terms of composition, and could have been used very effectively. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. It was used VERY badly, and it bothered me. A lot. However, given the utter shite that normally gets pumped out of Hollywood to dull and distract the masses, this is well worth watching.

We got home, and basically passed out. We slept in till about 8 when the cats wouldn’t let Beth sleep any longer and insisted on being fed. We went out for breakfast – something else we don’t get to do very often. We went to All you Knead, in Haight Ashbury. We stuffed ourselves (their portions are large and very reasonabley priced) and we basically skipped lunch. Elizabeth is now out with her “godmother”, Bree, feeding kitties. Bree said she’d feed E. so Beth and I get a dinner to ourselves tonight… Yippie! I think I’ll cook something spicy… I have some tilapia defrosted in the fridge…

This afternoon, I’ve been editing sections for SEI. Sometimes I look at this and think : I’ll never get this done. Ever. I’m doomed. But then I start working on it, and little by little each shot transforms into a clip, and everything slowly clicks into place. I’ll be up most of the night and for the rest of the week working on this. It’s one of the linch pins of my thesis work.

Saturday, a few more submissions rolled in for the Symposium. Gotta work on that too, this week. Woof.

I also watched the interviews with Brakhage on the retrospective DVD I bought. He’s one of my heroes. That DVD is amazing and wonderful. Truly a remarkable document, and a must have.

Political Statement of the Day: Fuck Ann Coulter and her skanky fascist lunacy. People like her make me wanna clear my throat.

24 JULY 03

Still getting submissions for the symposium. Got email from Ian Wallace – another chapter in our ongoing discussion about jazz and the audience. I got another rev of Florence from Peter. It fixes a number of things. I actually got it to crash the other day. I need to send Peter the log file. Today I set up SEI into Florence, and then rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

After I rehearse a few times, I will work on Dennis Young’s CD cover. Elizabeth is on an over-night camping trip, so Beth and I are going to have a lovely evening. It’s so nice to go on a date with the woman I love so very very much. Woo Hoo! Tommorrow I will work on more of Dennis’s covers, email pdfs of them to him, and then do more rehearsals. Next week, I have to prepare for going to Vermont, which means having to ship my CS2x to the school for performance and rehearse on one of my cranky old DSS1’s! I hope this comes off well.

25 JULY 03

Well, I found a bounty of bugs in Florence. I wrote them up and sent them to Peter for fixing. Last night Beth and I went to an Indian Restaurant and had spicy food – something we don’t getto eat with Elizabeth very often. After dinner we went to a cafe for some coffee and cake and then went home and listened to some smooth music on the steree-eree-ereee-ooo. John Coltrane (Giant Steps), The first Enya record (which is actually pretty good), Voices by Roger Eno, Music has the Right to Children by Boards of Canada, and a home-made compilation CD of various tunes, ranging from Dead Can Dance to Hawaiian slack key geeeetar music.

This morning, Beth and I went to breakfast at All You Knead, where I had my usual eggs ‘n’ Bacon, and Beth her usual Crepe… today, I work with Florence as best I can, and rehearse as much as possible. I’m thinking of bringing the CS2x with me on the plane, so I can rehearse right up to leaving and then upon arrival in VT. I can always ship it back by UPS.

Political statement for the day: Fuck the TSA and their tin horn fascism, those half witted lackey pinheaded freaks from hell.

26 JULY 03

Re-edited the trees section of SEI, so I can more easily cross fade between two different camera angles at once, making for a more fluid performance. Right now it’s too choppy and eats up too much keyboard space. Beth and E went to see Sinbad at the movie theatre, and then went to the park. Tonight, I cook up some din din and then tomorrow Beth goes to Texas AGAIN, and with E out of summer camp, I’m basically SCREWED as far as getting any work done is concerned. But I’ll have lots of fun playing with Elizabeth.

Last night I went to SomArts for the Electronic Music Festival.

I missed the first act, but the second show was Bran(…) Pos. He ran his voice through a mic into some processors. EVERYBODY who gets a mic and some processors does this. He’s just very systematic about it. I think the sutff I did in 1992 with processed vocals was intrinsically more interesting. I didn’t find his work that vital.

Next was DISC. DISC is a mix of Matmos and kid606. I found them loud and tedious. A big disapointment. I’ve listened to both Matmos and 606,so I figured this might be really interesting. It wasn’t.

The last act was O.Blaat. The music played was much more interesting than the presentation. There were several lights (incandescent and flourescent) strung about the hall. They would come on at seemingly random times, loosely affiliated with the music. The music was better than DISC, and was really quite interesting until the very end when it got so loud I had to leave. The lights were pointless.

Overall, a mediocre evening. But I ran into Charles K., Pam Z, and Dan J., which was nice – it was good to touch base with them. Afterward, Jef, Mark, and I went to Dylans and hoisted a few.

27 JULY 03

An ongoing conversation I’ve been having with Ian Wallace about Jazz is ongoing, and he was so kind as to reprint some email I sent him in this regard, so he might clarify his position regarding the state of Jazz in our world to myself and others.

Read his online diary thing at:

http://diaries.krimson-news.com/IanWallace.shtml

Ian’s a great guy, and a fantastic drummer who’s way inside all this stuff.

His (and Keeling’s and Reuter’s) diary is one of the highlights of my day.

The present conversation is as follows:

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Sunday, July 27 2003
I got a letter from Henry Warwick relating to my thoughts on the state of jazz and rock. I think he missed the point I was trying to make. So in case anyone else out there felt the same way, I will try to clear it up.

From Henry;

In your latest diary, you wrote:
> So what is jazz now?
> Well to my mind it is now another form of classical music just like the
> symphony orchestras and chamber music ensembles of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven,
> Brahms, Haydn, Rachmaninov, Elgar, Vaughn Williams, John Williams, Leonard
> Bernstein, Elmer Bernstein, etc., etc.
> So is there anything wrong with that?
> Well no, absolutely not. Just because something is old or played in a certain
> tradition doesn’t make it any less beautiful and moving. In fact, it may
> serve to make it more so, like old wines or an old violin. And that’s what
>Annie does; she plays classic jazz.

Henry responds;

I’m sure Annie is a great singer, and I would never detract from her
efforts, but I must strenuously disagree with your assessment that it is a
new classical music. That is the line taken by Marsalis / Couch / Giddins et
al – that it was something that happened and isn’t happening any more.

HW

Part of my reply was;

Also while I’m writing to you I’d like to say that I think you got the wrong idea in regards to my posting about jazz and rock and the general state of music. This is my fault in the fact that I didn’t make myself clear enough. I love jazz more than any other musical form and continue to believe that it is still being played creatively and soulfully. It’s just that I think that it has gone as far as it can go in form and structure. This to me isn’t a bad thing.

Wonderful classical music still continues to be written and so does jazz. They just allude to the tradition that has been created in the past. Take Wayne Shorter’s last two albums; Footprints Live and Alegria. These are the highest form of playing and composition and creativity, but there’s nothing particularly new in form, harmonics and construction. Is this a bad thing? I don’t think so. I happen to think it’s a wonderful thing. Annie is the same way, she carries the torch using the tradition of jazz and making it her own.

I certainly don’t think jazz or rock is dead. Far from it.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

To which I can only agree, really, and so the conversation continues…

Today, I drove Beth to the airport. She’s back in Dallas for more SAP training – this came up without much warning. So, now I have to rehearse and pack for Vermont, design Dennis’s CD cover, AND watch Elizabeth all week because E isn’t in summer camp this coming week. I don’t mind being with E this week – it’s just that I have all these other MASSIVE deadlines to deal with, including sending out acceptance letters to people re: the SF Performance Cinema Symposium. I also need to line up news organisations to help promote this event. And keep an eye on her Boo-ness – this isn’t going to be easy.

So – it looks like I have my work cut out for me. Oh – and I have to find a job, ‘cuz I’m broke. Details, details, details.

Also, the bounty of bugs I found in Florence were mostly user error. There are other bugs in it, but they are so peculiar and oddly functional, that I’m actually able to use them, as a kind of glitch aesthetic. Eventually I’ll need them smoothed out, but for now, the errors actually enhance the material. Well, who’d-a-thunk-it?

PS: Listening to Harry Shearer’s Le Show, I heard someone do a parody of a song by the Pheremones. They did a song back in the 80s about “If you ain’t got the DOUGH Ray Meeee folks” which had to do with immigrants coming to America and finding nothing but poverty. The singer of this new version adapted it to California. Clever and kind of funny, but mostly if you live here…. Shearer’s website hasn’t listed the song yet, so I’ll find out who did it later this week. I always liked the Pheremones – I saw them play every Wednesday at the Grog and Tankard in Washington DC.

I wish they’d get some new music together – with the likes of George (sock puppet) Bush blowing thigs up, emptying the treasury, and ruining the planet – and the puppetmaster NeoCons running rampant all along – the world NEEDS Al and Jimmy doing that Pheremone thing.