Archive for July, 2007

Jul 24 2007

New Sandblaster Demo Track: This Eden

As you may know, some years ago I undertook the rather ambitious task of creating a custom guitar. It was an educational experience, fraught with unique challenges but, ultimately, rewarding. A friend pointed out that I’d not recorded an example of its various sounds and whatnot, so I did.

I’m including three links here. The first is

      an early attempt
, with a total of 6 tracks. Please be forewarned that the lead is a bit wooly. I hope to improve upon it with some practice. In this early version there are very few effects (some delay and reverb, and gain on the lead).

In

      the 2nd version
, I added 6 additional tracks. Three are individual notes in a chord, sustained by a device called an e-bow, and played at double speed. I also added a bass guitar part (the only track not played on the Sandblaster) and two one-note harmony tracks at the end of the solo.

I’m also including a very brief example of the

      e-bow tracks
, on their own, so you can get a better sense of them.

UPDATE:

A friend suggested that I add

      a spoken word element
to the piece.

After living with this first version for a while, I felt that a different reading of the words would work better. I also added some rather complex effects to the voice.

The result is

      This Eden - V2
.

Read the words.

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Jul 24 2007

More plants and flowers

Published by under Art,Photography

Except for the first one, all of these were taken in our back yard.

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Jul 09 2007

Photos from San Diego & Environs

Published by under Photography

The fam and I spend the last few days romping around San Diego. We barely scractched the surface of balboa park, and wandered joyfully through the Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas. Here are some shots:

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Jul 04 2007

Second Life

Published by under Digital

My friend Richard insisted that I sign up on Second Life. It is his belief that this, or something like it, is the future of the internet. In case you’re unfamiliar with this program, it is a 3D environment that uses your personal computer in conjunction with Internet-Connected servers. It enables anyone to navigate through the world, and interact with others from just about anywhere. It has its own economy, with millions of dollars flowing through it, and these ‘virtual’ dollars are transferrable into and out of the real world. Users can own, rent, or lease virtual property, build structures, and develop behaviors, activities, and other objects with amazing ease, yet with equally amazing complexity. These objects can be givin physical qualities (weight, reflectivity, stiffness, etc) and, once created, can be embued with all kinds of behaviors and qualities. I’ve not delved too deeply into the building process, but I created a chair, several hats, and my character. You can see these here:

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