COmpression Sound Art

Usavich Prison Break

Great Head

If you've purchased an inexpensive or entry level tripod it is likely that the head that came with it is not the best. Assuming that the head is removable this problem is easily remedied with an upgrade.

I chose the Manfrotto 484RC2 to upgrade my Velbon ULTRA MAXi mini travel tripod which came with a decent head that lacked a quick release. For me a quick release makes the tripod/head much more convenient with the ability to quickly mount and remove your camera. The 484RC2 comes with a great quick release that includes a locking mechanism which prevents accidental removal of your camera. This is an excellent safeguard.

I also like the plate that comes with the 484RC2. The mechanism used to screw the plate to your camera includes a flip out arm for easy tightening. Other plates just have a slot that requires a coin or screwdriver to tighten. If you don't have one of those it's difficult to get the plate tight on the camera which means it's going to slip around.

I was recommended the 484RC2 head since it was relatively light, came at a reasonable price and would work well with my camera. I'm using this with my Canon XTi and a borrowed Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens (my heaviest lens) and although the recommendation was to go with a bigger head, the 484RC2 holds steady with no slipping.

I'll be putting this head through its paces shortly but initially I'm very happy with my purchase.

Japanese Restruant Playlist

Recently on ask.metafilter someone asked for a list of Music to eat sushi by so I answered.
And here's the list that I came up with:

• Audio Sports - hip hop with Yamatsuka Eye of Boredoms, electronic composer Aki Onda and then-battle DJ Nobukazu Takemura
• Bulljun - producer of mad beats
• Cappablack - down tempo hip hop/illbient beats
• Fantastic Plastic Machine (FPM) - Shibuya-kei at its finest
• INO hidefumi - Satisfaction is his take on the 70s standards. Very jazzy stuff.
• Jemapur - electronic hip-hop
• Kahimi Karie - subtle breathy vocals.
• Lullatone - electro-pop duo
• Nao Tokui - some nice electronics
• Riow Arai - electronic hip-hop
• Takagi Masakatsu - has an album Eating and another one called Eating 2. Rehome is pretty nice too

please post if you have anything to add.

High Technical Gum

Black Black - my favorite high technical gum

Entire Yamanote Line in Less Than 4 Min

David Choe on Spark

KQED's Bay Area art show, Spark, features a piece on David Choe
A Los Angeles born renegade street artist who relocated to the South Bay
He does some amazing work and has a very different philosophy
about using the street as a canvas

SymmetryS

yo, yo-yo, yo-yo, yo, yo
yo, yo-yo, yo-yo, yo, yo-ye-ah

Sun Blackbox vs Earthquake

See what happens when Sun's modular datacenter (aka Blackbox) meets with a simulated 6.7 magnitude earthquake.

McCain Drum Solo

not bad for an old guy

Thumbnails from Japan

thumbnails of some of my pictures from my honeymoon in japan.
More from my Japan 2008 Flickr set here.

File_handler by videos22

Jemapur - Maledict Car

Best Of Netlabels Vol. 4

Ante Up

Ableton Live's Drum Rack

I've been using Ableton Live off and on now for a few years. I love Live for it's ability to easily and endlessly tweak, manipulate and change sounds. I could spend hours twiddling knobs and shaping new clips.

As I tend to prefer using my own samples in Live the real light bulb went off for me when I figured out how to build my own Impulse instruments. This allowed me to clip short sounds and trigger them with MIDI which is perfect for making minimal blipy tracks.

A recent upgrade to Live 7 took this to the next level with the introduction of the Drum Rack. This new instrument is like Impulse on steroids. The same concept of sound clips triggered by MIDI still holds true but added is the ability to tweak each individual sample with things like Filter, LFO and any of the variety of effects included in Live.

Another light bulb went off for me last night after watching the video above at about 2 min 41 sec in where it is explained that you can automatically slice an audio file and dump it into the Drum Rack. This saves hours of manual slicing, although some slight adjustments may be wanted.

There is still so much that I need to learn about using the new Drum rack but for now I'm content chopping up sounds to make a few of my own preset racks. I highly recommend watching the videos found on the Ableton site to learn more about the features in Live.

It's Not All Good

bowl of ramen from nantsutei ramen shop, originally uploaded by cjw333.

Some of my favorite meals of all time were those that I've had in japan. I just can't get enough ramen, udon and curry not to mention wonderful sushi and a variety of regional dishes. Not all of the food in japan makes my mouth water, however.

Matthew Firestone covers 5 Japanese Foods You Might Want to Avoid on Galding. And you thought natto was bad.

my muxtape

go to my muxtape

International P.E.A.C.E. Benefit Compilation

Various - International P.E.A.C.E. Benefit Compilation
1984
R Radical Records
Punk

This 2 LP compilation released in 1984 features a lineup of punk and hardcore bands from around the globe. In addition to 60 tracks from countries like Italy, Japan, Germany and the USA it came with a 72 page booklet, each page featuring a different band.

All profits from this album were to go to anti-nuclear groups & activities worldwide

see more of my Top 100 Albums here

A Video Interview with Monome

三日月サンセット - サカナクション PV

i bought an album by this band
while i was in osaka for my honeymoon
i can't read the band's name
but it was definitely a good find

James Brown + Michael Jackson + Prince

a crazy good video with mike and prince paying homage to the godfather. prince it out of control.

Taking Obsession To The Next Level

Taking the Japaneses obsession with noodles to the next step the Tokyo Noodle website features a blog, pictures and even a DVD of various Japanese women eating noodles in random places.

How To Enjoy Suhi

Guerilla Flowerpots in Tokyo’s Public Spaces

Tokyo Wall Scene, originally uploaded by cjw333.

PingMag provides an overview of guerilla flowerpots in Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo-Ga - Pachinko & Mu

palo alto indian

indian, originally uploaded by cjw333.

a picture taken in palo alto, ca

OPEN AIR from knox on Vimeo.

In 2006, a documentary was created for the School of Public Art at the University of Southern California (USC). This documentary explored the studios and methods of six of the top street artists in America: Faile, Skewville, Mike De Feo, Dan Witz, Espo and Tiki Jay One.

Official selection of the Coney Island Film Festival and the Freewaves International Film Festival.

Riff on the Ikea 19" Rast Rack

22112007027, originally uploaded by weight_d.

This is weight_d's version of my Ikea 19" Rast Rack. Mr D did a bit of a mod shifting the bottom shelf down to gain an extra U of rack space for a total of 7U. A Nice job and it's used to house a switch, 500Gb NAS, router, 2 computers, oscilloscope, signal generator and three power supplies.


original project

damon soule dunny

damon soule dunny, originally uploaded by cjw333.

dunny - series 3
3" (2006)
damon soule

more info at damonsoule.com

San Francisco Bay Area Music Resources

General Resources

Upcoming.org - A decent site for events around the bay although most are in SF. You might still find some stuff in SJ and Palo Alto, etc…

Yelp – A good resource for restaurant reviews in the Bay Area


Music Resources

Jazz Links For the Bay Area


CD/Record Shops

Amoeba - Upper Haight - One of the biggest and the best in the Bay Area with several locations. This one has taken over an old bowling alley. If you can't find it here it probably doesn't exist.

Aquarius Records - Mission - Great indie shop with lots of psych, experimental, indie world and metal among others.


Instruments

Lark In The Morning - located in The Cannery at Del Monte Square (map) 2801 Leavenworth and Beach at Fisherman's Wharf - a great place for all kinds of strange and unique ethnic instruments.

Haight Ashbury Music Center - Upper Haight - Specializing in guitars and percussions with some electronics.

Guitar Center - Van Ness near Market - Massive chain store for all your needs.


Venues

Audium - Space music in an interesting space

Bottom of the Hill - Portrero - excellent, small club with tons of great indie acts of all kinds.

The Fillmore - Fillmore - an SF institution and a great place to see a show

Great American Music Hall - Tenderloin - my favorite medium sized club in the city. It's like a mini Fillmore of sorts.

Slim's - SoMA - another good medium-small venue featuring all kinds of indie acts.

Stanford University Events

Yoshi's – Jazz club in Oakland


Festivals

Fillmore Street Jazz Festival
June, 30 – July 1 2007


Radio Stations

KCSM – Jazz radio station and might have some good jazz resources on the site

KFJC (89.7 FM) - The wave of the west, broadcasting from Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. Everything you've always wanted from a college radio station and more

KZSU (90.1) - Stanford college station with a good mix of just about everything

Vietnamese Coffee

photo by Evil Jungle Prince


Vietnamese Coffe or Cà phê sữa đá as it's known in Vietnamese is a coffee drink that really packs a punch. Sweetened with condensed milk I prefer it poured over ice to mellow the taste and cut some of the sweetness. The folks at Gadling do a good job of explaining the details. And if that's not enough, check out the Wikipedia entry.

ninniku miso-zuke

ninniku miso-zuke, originally uploaded by cjw333.

the garlic
6 heads of garlic peeled
bring water to a boil and
parboil the garlic for about 3 min
drain, dry and cool

the paste
a cup and a bit of miso paste
4 TBSPS of mirin

the rest
add a layer of miso to the bottom of a jar
add some garlic
then more miso
more garlic (you get the picture)
give it a good stir to ensure all garlic is covered
close the jar and store in a cool place
wait one week (or more) and enjoy