Thoughts are like fishes///

More DJ Food action

2012-02-10T02:23:00.000-08:00

Future of cinemas

2012-02-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

Wagga's Daily Advertiser has a piece today on the challenges faced by cinemas seeking to stay current by moving to digital projection.

In my opinion, the real challenge for cinemas is to ensure future generations continue to seek entertainment in their darkened halls. Digital distribution is already benefiting these consumers, who are finding it much quicker and cheaper to download the same content and watch it in home cinemas.

However, digital projection offers cinemas the chance to greatly expand the services they offer. How about watching the Olympics in real-time away from the crap atmosphere of a pub? How about becoming a venue for digital games? How about becoming the place where local content producers premiere their work?

This last idea is something I think I'll pursue to launch my forthcoming album of Leeton park remixes.

Man of Steel on The Iron Lady

2012-02-08T15:18:00.000-08:00

Former Prime Minister John Howard wrote a review of the film The Iron Lady that was published in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) last week and I was entertained by this typo where 'retelling' appeared as 'retailing'. It seemed a sly dig at how the film uses a public figure to generate interest in a story that focuses on bigger themes than the career of Margaret Thatcher. The film made me consider that idea that women can have a career or a family and I think this is as much a focus as the actual career of Thatcher.

The more I thought about Howard's review the more I thought he'd missed a lot in the film. I can understand why he wasn't impressed with its portrayal of Thatcher, because The Iron Lady focuses more on how age has inevitably taken a toll on the once formidable politician. Howard mentions more than once the time he'd spent with Margaret and her husband Denis, as well his admiration for her career but I guess the reviewer might also be a bit unsettled by how he could similarly be portrayed. There are parallels to be drawn between both prime ministers -- aside from metal references as Howard was christened a "man of steel" by US president George W. Bush.

Howard argues there's "a broad ideological context in which the film can be viewed" and links it to criticism of Thatcher from "the progressive left," which is a label that probably applies to my political leaning. I left the film with more admiration of Thatcher's achievements than when I entered but ultimately it is a film and the representation of history must fit within a specific narrative.

At uni I learned that all histories are stories and one should be alert to plot devices which make them effective. This is where I think Howard fails as a film reviewer because he criticises the storytelling for being inaccurate when it obviously is looking for a different audience than that of a documentary and needs to shoehorn historical fact into a three act structure. It was interesting to me that the AFR's Review section which featured Howard's review on the front page had a line on the back page that "a great novel can take implausible fact and turn it into entirely believable fiction" because this also applies to film.

It should be noted there's a broad commercial context in which the film can be viewed too. I'd guess the success of The Queen led to producers cast about for similar subject matter and this contributed to the production of The Iron Lady.

The great leveler

2012-02-08T00:20:00.000-08:00

I like the following from The Masonic Myth by Jay Kinney:

The Web, in its role as the great leveler, has rendered any site as more or less equal to any other site, undermining the former barriers and distinctions between "official" and "alternative" realities. This has contributed to the present juncture's unique psychological state in the population at large -- a mixture of expectation and dread that might be characterized as the mainstreaming of paranoia.

What's so secret about the ACTA?

2012-02-04T12:55:00.000-08:00

On Friday night a mate spruiked on Facebook this video he had edited together by taking footage from a B-grade horror movie and a soundtrack by Queens of the Stone Age:

On Saturday I started thinking about how out of touch copyright is with what people are doing these days. I mean, Australia's copyright laws were way behind people copying their CDs to put on their iPods and now it seems like everyone is making a mash-up of some kind.

The thing is that copyright seems to be getting longer and laws are getting tougher and this effectively turns people like my mate into criminals.

One of the interesting things in WikiLeaks' cables has been the repeated demonstration of the importance attached to intellectual property interests by US diplomats. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is the latest push by the US to get countries around the world to tighten copyright and I've been shocked to see Australia sign up without any sort of debate in parliament.

Basically we're seeing a policy developed by lobby groups go straight past democratic process to get a few steps from becoming law.

It goes further than my mate editing videos, it means Australia will rely on imported intellectual property and will be tied to using it in the way dictated by corporations. Think of Monsanto as having a greater say in your life than your local member of parliament.

Australia signed the ACTA agreement on 1 October 2011. Here are a couple of comments on ACTA from Wikipedia:

Since ACTA is an international treaty, it is an example of policy laundering used to establish and implement legal changes. Policy laundering allows legal provisions to be pushed through via closed negotiations among private members of the executive bodies of the signatories. This method avoids use of public legislation and its judiciary oversight. Once ratified, companies belonging to non-members may be forced to follow the ACTA requirements since they will otherwise fall out of the safe harbor protections. Also, the use of trade incentives and the like to persuade other nations to adopt treaties is a standard approach in international relationships. Additional signatories would have to accept ACTA's terms without much scope for negotiation...

Newspapers reported that the draft agreement would empower security officials at airports and other international borders to conduct random ex officio searches of laptops, MP3 players, and cellular phones for illegally downloaded or "ripped" music and movies. Travellers with infringing content would be subject to a fine and may have their devices confiscated or destroyed.

While Australia rolled over for the US, Europeans have shown more spine:

Kader Arif, European rapporteur for ACTA, subsequently resigned from his position on 26 January 2012 saying "I want to send a strong signal and alert the public opinion about this unacceptable situation. I will not take part in this masquerade."

On 3 February 2012, Poland announced it halted the ratification process as it "had made insufficient consultations before signing the agreement in late January, and it was necessary to ensure it was entirely safe for Polish citizens."

I'll try to leave aside my usual complaints about copyright but it's worth reflecting on the massive increases in copyright extensions that have been made in recent decades. Copyright now extends about a lifetime after the death of the author, so you can hardly justify the protection of creative works as being for the benefit of the creator. Laws are meant to reflect public opinion and, as mentioned, I think copyright laws don't reflect how the public use copyrighted material.

Copyright rant aside, it's still a shock to see the way lobbying shapes political processes. I believe it's even more worrisome in the light of recent protests against the Murray Darling Basin Authority's draft plans. These will impact greatly upon the cost of food in Australia as well as future food security and they can be linked to signing the Ramsar treaty and other international agreements.

ACTA might seem like a small matter and the trade minister might say there's no requirement to change domestic laws but the truth is that these treaties are the thin edge of the wedge when it comes to influence upon Australian laws and lives.

In the US, ACTA was dubbed an "executive agreement" rather than a "treaty," which allowed negotiators to skip the ordinary Senate ratification process. If ACTA becomes a binding part of international law, it will create a precedent for future treaties that avoid basic principles of transparency and democratic accountability.

100 Notions from a Nation of Two

2012-02-02T19:51:00.000-08:00

This exhibition at the Wagga Gallery looks tops.

I've been a fan of the McEwans' work running The CAD Factory after visiting to see and hear Bruce Odland's installation and performance last year.

These sorts of collaborative processes are always fascinating. I've been involved in few, most recently the Ninja Remix Chain and Cut & Run project. The thing I like best is the sense of dialogue but it's also good to observe the characteristics of the response and consider what motifs and themes the participants use.

Watching the Watchmen

2012-02-01T11:34:00.000-08:00

There's an irony in the news that DC Comics are producing seven prequel comics based on the Watchmen series developed by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

According to the Wikipedia entry on Watchmen Moore first developed the story based on some out of date characters DC Comics had bought. The company baulked at the idea of potentially destroying these properties, so Moore and Gibbons created new characters. The story of Watchmen even seems to acknowledge this as it's a story featuring the children of superheroes.

In hindsight it's quite funny that these substitutes are getting a new lease on life when the originals were denied one.

Alan Moore lands a blow in saying "I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago."

I'm happy to reserve judgment on the new prequels until they garner enough critical praise that I feel the need to read them.

The Watchmen movie was fun and the original comics were extraordinary when they first came out but have dated. You really get a sense of the Cold War climate when reading them now and the innovation of adult themes in comic books isn't remarkable anymore.

Alan Moore, however, continues to amaze and surprise me -- most recently with Neonomicon, which has the dubious distinction of perverting the work of HP Lovecraft.

Happiness is ripe tomatoes

2012-02-01T01:11:00.000-08:00

I love the smell of ripe tomatoes. If they could bottle that scent then I'd consider wearing it.

Looking forward to making brushcetta with these tomorrow.

Elegant English this is not

2012-01-31T23:38:00.000-08:00

Secondhand games and new consoles

2012-01-30T15:19:00.000-08:00

Aside from Zelda Twilight Princess (completed yesterday), I've been buying a bunch of cheap secondhand Gamecube games.

This copy of Shrek 2 was one I bought since it's multi-player and suitable for my kids. I was surprised to find the copy that arrived was a new game and still in shrink-wrap.

It's the first new game I've bought in nearly six years of owning a secondhand Gamecube and it seemed an interesting coincidence that it arrived in the same week as reports that the next generation of consoles may not allow secondhand games.

I can understand that the companies who make games might be upset they don't receive money from these ongoing sales, after all it's an issue that artists have had to deal with -- don't you think Van Gogh would've liked to see some of the money his paintings now earn?

Look at the price on this game pictured above and consider that I paid one-tenth of this price on Ebay (again because it's a multi-player game suitable for my kids). Now consider I could've bought the game for a third of what I paid if I downloaded Super Monkey Ball 2 onto my Apple device.

On one hand I think it's really petty to limit consoles so they won't play secondhand games. It limits the functionality of the device and this will frustrate users. On the other, I can see this is a paradigm shift in terms of how content is delivered. Physical objects are giving way to digital information and I like Jeremy Denk's assessment on his blog.

While Nintendo could complain that I've bought a lot of their gear secondhand, it's been something of a gateway drug and has introduced my family to their intellectual property. Just look at the joy we got from Mario for one example.

Faux 3D effect

2012-01-29T01:30:00.001-08:00

Robot birthday cake

2012-01-29T01:28:00.000-08:00

Saul Bass

2012-01-24T19:47:00.000-08:00

Since reading this article on Saul Bass' role in the famous shower scene in the film Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, I'd been looking for a book on his work. With money I got from my mum at Christmas I ordered this excellent book on Saul Bass, which arrived yesterday.

Haven't read much of it yet but am really taken with this design he made for the opening titles of Carmen Jones, which can be viewed below.

Quality spam

2012-01-19T22:19:00.000-08:00

Australia Day

2012-01-17T19:18:00.000-08:00

January 26 is Australia Day by virtue of being the date the First Fleet landed in 1788 and it's undergone a transformation in the last couple of decades. For a long time it was significant to me because it was the date of the Big Day Out concert in Sydney and I recall that when The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy played in 1993 they described it as Invasion Day and the label sorta stuck for a while.

Sometime in the late '90s I noticed this trend at the Big Day Out in Sydney for people to wear the Australian flag as a cape. If I were more patriotic I think I'd find this fashion to be disrespectful but, judging by the crass Australian-themed consumerism in my letterbox recently, there must be a number of people grateful this now exists as a product.

Frankly I'm amazed at the amount of stuff branded with the national flag and/or some underwhelming patriotic slogan. The irony is that most of it probably isn't manufactured in our country, so buying Australian must mean supporting some sweatshop somewhere else and contributes to our trade deficit or something.

I am grateful that the print advertisements for the public holiday that started under the Howard government have stopped though. They had these meaningless statements about the public holiday inferring a right to eat meat products prepared in a carcinogenic manner or a right to wear thongs. At many levels these seemed offensive since it was an example of Australians taxes being spent on trivial advertising and our country doesn't actually have a bill of rights.

Don't get me wrong, I love being Australian and living in this country but fervent nationalism should have no part in it.

I am grateful to have met Storry Walton, who shared with me a story of how his grandparents taught him to distinguish between love and pride for your country. They said you should love Australia like you would your child because it meant recognising your country can be wrong and require criticism, whereas pride was blind in allegiance.

Storry told me that as a child in Perth his Irish grandparents wouldn't stand for the national anthem. They said they'd seen enough death caused by national pride and felt strongly enough about this that they endured abuse for this belief.

Dr Seuss at Burning Man

2012-01-17T01:20:00.000-08:00

Here's a reminder of the timeless excellence of Dr Seuss' work.

Swingeing back from the dead

2012-01-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

Flicking through the Sydney Morning Herald today I was sure I'd spotted another example of the decline in sub-editing to publish here under the 'war on error' tag but in turns out that swingeing really is a word.

And, more interestingly for word nerds like me, it's an archaic word that appears to be coming back into contemporary use. In fact The Economist predicted "swingeing will appear in at least one news headline a week for the rest of the year" more than a year ago but that probably shows how behind Australia is in the latest trends or maybe even how little I read.

For a while now I've thought we are living in an age of declining literacy, even going so far as to write that literacy is dead. It's more appropriate to acknowledge that the nature of literacy is changing to reflect the digital age.

So now I propose we celebrate the continued employment of verbose sub-editors, the longevity of literacy and the opportunity to learn a new word!

Centenary of Leeton

2012-01-15T23:18:00.000-08:00

For a while I've nurtured the idea of remixing a location and with the centenary of Leeton being celebrated later this year I decided to develop an album based on sounds recorded at the playgrounds in the town.

Being a parent and an audiophile I've spent a lot time tapping slides and swings -- but I should be careful saying that aloud because people are paranoid about other types of 'philes at playgrounds!

This video shows part of the song I created from sounds recorded at Mountford Park, which is at the heart of the town both literally and metaphorically. It's a wonderful green space with a large playground, as well as an aviary and stage that's the focus of many events.

The idea of taking everyday noises as music has a long history but my inspiration comes from the Italian Futurists, particularly the Art of Noises manifesto written by Luigi Russolo.

Aside from being a potent document, I think this is a cool reference as it comes from around the time when the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area was first proposed and they both share a similar sense of the excitement of the Modern age.

A couple of other influences were reading about the album Pink Floyd originally planned to record as a follow-up for their landmark Dark Side of the Moon, and; Matthew Herbert, particularly his Bodily Functions album.

I'm also influenced by the Wagga Space Program and their interest in how location shapes artistic practice. It was through them that I met Alan Lamb, who built a large-scale aeolian harp with Scott Baker where I was living in 2004.

I've written about 'the wires' elsewhere and the opportunity I had to work with Lamb in 2006. I'm hoping to finalise an album or two of my recordings of 'the wires' this year ahead of the park remix album that will be released as part of celebrations for the centenary of Leeton and the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.

I started making videos to accompany the songs I've created from Leeton's playgrounds after getting feedback from people that they couldn't see how I'd processed the sounds. You can read more about the park remix project at my bassling blog and there are videos for other parks and some unprocessed sounds also at the bassling YouTube channel.

My aim is to edit together an audio-visual mix made from all of the tracks to launch the album in the second half of the year. Not sure of the venue at this stage but I'm open to be part of another event if the Centenary Committee are keen or maybe have an outdoor launch with the projector and sound system I used to screen Metropolis for the 2011 Art Deco Festival.

I love Zelda

2012-01-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

One highlight of my summer has been avoiding the hotter days by staying indoors and playing Twilight Princess on my Nintendo Gamecube. Yeah, I'm old school like that -- playing a game that's more than five years old on a superseded console.

This is the second Zelda quest I've undertaken. The first was Wind Waker, a charming cartoony game that I've since learned was a radical departure from the Zelda franchise but popular enough to spawn two sequels on the Nintendo DS Lite.

The Zelda games are a popular Nintendo property but seem to be little-known among non-gamers. Zelda does not have the same brand recognition as Mario or Donkey Kong and this is probably because she's something of a secondary character. You never actually play the character of Zelda, except in the game Super Smash Brothers Melee -- which is a great multi-player game where all of the Nintendo characters battle it out.

Twilight Princess has the familiar narrative that unfolds as the central character reaches the rite of passage where he is given the green hero outfit and undertakes a quest to save his kingdom. The character can be seen as a version of the green man, a symbol of rebirth or maybe eternal youth like Peter Pan.

There are little variations between the games of course, particularly in the equipment found along the way. The twilight in Twilight Princess seems a dated twist though, reminding me of The Matrix but maybe also the nothingness in Neverending Story or possibly the end of the world in this Madonna song.

A couple of things I've noticed in Twilight Princess have got me wondering about messages in the game, probably because as a former cultural studies student I seem to over-analyse everything.

Are there messages in the game? For example, often it's easy to avoid fighting all the monsters. Many times I've found it easiest to just run away and, usually, the monsters don't bother chasing. I like to think it's a lesson for players that confrontation can be avoided. This seems to be emphasised in that you don't get points for killing things. In fact, you don't get points at all. The key objective is to overcome various challenges along the way.

The other lesson that I like to think is in the game, is the way that you very quickly fill your purse and are unable to keep collecting the gems which are used as currency. This seems to me to be a message that making money isn't the goal, again reinforcing the view that you need to succeed at the objectives required to fulfill the quest. Money is means to achieve your goals, not a goal in itself.

This focus on achieving your goals rather than seeking confrontation and collecting money seem to me to be a good philosophy to impart and one of the reasons why I enjoy sharing Zelda with my kids.

Ned Kelly was a thug

2012-01-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

This bit of advertising for some "Authentic Ned Kelly Collectables" fell out my local paper The Irrigator this week and I've since been talking about the crap written in it to anyone who'll listen. While the text has some entertaining 'weasel' words, like mention of the "gold-toned handle" and "wood-tone display"; the "art" deserves focus here.

These replica knives, presumably because they're not actually knives rather than based on one owned by Kelly, continue the mythologised view of Ned Kelly, rather than the view largely supported by historical record that he was thug from an early age who was charismatic enough to attract a gang to follow him.

The sympathetic view is that he was a victim of police harassment because he was poor, Catholic and of Irish descent and forced into a life of crime to avoid being set-up as a criminal and locked up for crimes he didn't commit.

Kelly became the most infamous of Australia's bush rangers in large part because the suit of armour he fashioned was too iconic to be supported by the life of the man within it. Sidney Nolan's series of Ned Kelly paintings do a beaut job of showing this as the visor in the helmet shows the background, demonstrating the armour as empty.

I understand the anti-authoritarianism appeal of Ned Kelly and have read that this is why the successful Australian film industry was dealt a blow when the popular bushranger movies were banned in the early 20th century. The 1906 film The Story of the Kelly Gang was the first feature-length film released anywhere in the world but only fragments of it remain today.

Anyway, back to the replica knives/art forms. It's not clear whether the representations on them include Kelly escaping conviction for highway robbery in 1870 because witnesses described him as "half-caste" when police thought this was due to him being unwashed. And there probably isn't enough space on the blades to show the 18 charges that were brought against Ned Kelly before he was declared an outlaw, half of which resulted in convictions.

History shows Ned Kelly was a thug and a murderer. Circumstances may have given him little choice but there is still little to celebrate in his life and it's unclear how he changed Australia forever.

Heh

2012-01-12T09:49:00.001-08:00

Continuing the action figure theme, I like how this Robocop has been renamed as Robert.

Thanks

DJ Food action figure

2012-01-11T14:38:00.001-08:00

Recently I got to hear the new DJ Food album at a mate's house and I was impressed. It's been more than a decade since the last one and I think it's an even stronger album. I might write more when I get a copy.

Anyway, while cleaning up a mess the other day, I discovered that I own a DJ Food action figure!

Club dark chocolate dessert

2012-01-11T14:32:00.001-08:00

When I was younger I think one of the few dark chocolates at the supermarket was Club. These days there are many more dark chocolates of varying flavours and intensities, so it's interesting to see the Club brand has been extended into a mousse-style dessert.

Of the many varieties of chocolate desserts, I'm settling on this one as a favourite for the flavour. It's got more of the chocolate bite, the bitterness, and less of the sweetness.

The only room for improvement would be if it could impart the same viscosity as Chocolate Yogo, which has an incredible mouth-feel but a lousy sugary taste.

Urana's giant spider

2012-01-09T04:09:00.000-08:00

Saw this giant spider outside Urana and reckon it's tops.

Stuck-up couple

2012-01-08T02:32:00.001-08:00

Murrumbidgee River painting

2012-01-08T01:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a painting of the Murrumbidgee River by Lynne McQuillan that I bought at the Leeton Visitor Information Centre, where they've established a gallery for local artists -- which is an excellent initiative.

I've lived near the Murrumbidgee for most of my life but I also like this painting because it reminds me of the photos I've taken of the River, like these ones of the flooded Murrumbidgee.

Some penises

2012-01-07T04:45:00.000-08:00

Kinda weird how many dicks I've seen around Melbourne today.

Gay cardinals

2012-01-07T04:42:00.001-08:00

My friend Jess drew attention to this Christmas decoration on her tree today. She likes this pair of male cardinals because of the suggestion that they're gay but I guess they could just be hanging out together. Very closely together, which is kinda gay.

My view of the revised MDBA Basin Plan

2012-01-03T01:42:00.001-08:00

Designing with the broad pen

2012-01-02T17:31:00.000-08:00

This great handwriting guide came my way and you can see from the scan below that my mum made one small addition.

I really like the book, both for the lessons it imparts but also the style in which it does it.

A highlight is the pages below outlining design elements.

Where's R2D2?

2012-01-02T17:18:00.000-08:00

This morning I've hung a few pictures and prints around the house, including this one. One of the things I like best about this print isn't the colour or the arse, it's the background because since I was a child I've seen R2D2 in there.

I'm getting old

2012-01-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

This is (about?) the 400th post on this blog. I'm not convinced of the figure because there are a few posts I've redacted for various reasons, like how pictures of my kids showed up when you searched for 'Vaginamite' in Google Images.

Anyway, on the topic of getting old, 2011 continued a worrying trend for me in the passing of a couple more of my relations. In 2010 I lost a cousin who had been like an older brother for me and last year I lost an uncle and my remaining grandparent.

It was weird because soon after grandma Royal died I received a box of toys for my kids in the mail from her, which included this Wizard of Oz puppet glove.

Cheese Supreme

2012-01-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

I don't know why there are so many flavours of corn chip available because Dorito's Cheese Supreme is clearly the best. The blend of cheddar and onion with a hint of garlic and tomato is pretty hard to beat, although I would like to see more variety in the preparation of the corn chips.

They could probably try getting a fluffier finish but if they started adding seeds to the chip batter it could add a lot of interesting flavours and textures. Like a plain corn chip with cumin seeds could be good and I reckon poppy seeds or maybe mild pepper corns or maybe parsley flakes would work nicely with the aptly named Cheese Supreme.

The addition of seeds might also see corn chips overcome my biggest complaint about chips and that's how the flavour lasts such a short time. I have difficulty reconciling the high amount of energy in chips with the very brief amount of taste they provide.

White caviar and almond meal

2012-01-01T13:08:00.000-08:00

Visiting the supermarket is great when you find interesting food marked down and the festive season usually has a heap of specials ahead of the holidays.

Chris makes great hummus but this dip has recently taken the role of my favourite of his products. The fish eggs are salty but the creaminess of the almond meal is really yummy and it's surprisingly filling. One the occasions when I make a meal of this appetiser it'll usually suffice with half a pack of crackers.

So warm and so cosy

2011-12-31T13:03:00.000-08:00

Everyone needs a Muff :)

Bit of a worry

2011-12-29T02:04:00.000-08:00

My month in unsolicited advertising material

2011-12-26T00:41:00.000-08:00

Rosa Pascoe has a gallery/workshop in Leura and I think this creation of hers is brilliant.

Christmas card

2011-12-23T20:49:00.000-08:00

Xmas freakout

2011-12-10T14:29:00.000-08:00

Wishing you a happy festive season

2011-12-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas by bassling

On the remote chance that you haven't heard my cover version of George Micheal's Last Christmas, here it is.

Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2012.

Waipukurau Park

2011-12-06T12:16:00.000-08:00

Previously I posted a video of the bowing on a slippery slide and here's how it sounds in the track I produced from sounds recorded at Waipukurau Park.

You can see and hear more of my Leeton park remixes on my bassling blog.

Chemical Brothers movie?

2011-12-01T19:22:00.000-08:00

There's a bit of speculation around the internet that this is the trailer for a film from The Chemical Brothers. This excites me a lot.

Arnott's Shapes

2011-12-01T19:14:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's a coincidence but I've noticed Arnott's Shapes biscuits being sold at heavily reduced prices lately, down from around $2.70 to around $1.50, and also notice they're shrinking the weight of these products.

Slide and glide

2011-12-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

Previously I've mentioned the Leeton park remix project I'm developing for the centenary of the town in 2012.

The short video above shows me playing a slippery slide with a bow, a technique first shown to me by Alan Lamb when we worked together as part of the 2006 Unsound Festival.

Bowing the slide sounds very much like bowing 'the wires' -- except for the length of the decaying note. The video linked in the preceding sentence reminds me that my partner Jo is much better at bowing than me.

Aside from adapting Alan's technique for a slippery slide, I've been experimenting with changing the pitch while playing by adjusting the tension on the line. The other source of variation in the sound comes from the friction of the bow, which can squeal like a harmonic.

Sons of Anarchy

2011-12-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

I've been catching up on the TV show Sons of Anarchy recently and, while it pales next to the best stuff from HBO like Deadwood and The Wire, the show has given me a bit to think about.

The pitch for the show must've been something like Hamlet on a Harley, as the lead character Jackson Teller discovers a book written by his late father outlining his philosophies and where the motorcycle club he founded went wrong getting into gun-running and other criminal activity. Jackson's mother Gemma Teller has married Clay Morrow, the current president of the club called the Sons of Anarchy. This drama between the son and the father figure forms a backdrop while each season establishes new threats to the club (government departments, rival gangs, etc.) and each episode works in a few relationship dramas and fight scenes.

I suspect producers Art Linson and his son John were influenced by Hunter S Thompson's book on the Hells Angels, particularly since the elder Linson made his directorial debut with Where the Buffalo Roam, a 1980 comedy based loosely on Thompson's writings.

One thing that fascinates me about the show is its warped sense of morality. The setting is a little town called Charming and the Sons of Anarchy are portrayed as crusaders for justice, since their rivals are drug-running neo-Nazis and an Hispanic motorcycle gang. With such competition and their joie de vivre, the Sons look like liberals and often the show seems to vindicate their criminality because the gang are following their own moral code.

Anyway, I know I'm reading too far into this escapist entertainment but if I were at uni I'd be thinking about making it the subject of an essay.

Political comment?

2011-11-29T02:16:00.000-08:00

Truss me

2011-11-29T02:15:00.001-08:00

Parenting tip

2011-11-26T02:43:00.000-08:00

Currently I'm reading a fascinating book called Influence by Robert B Cialdini, Ph.D that outlines the psychology behind many effective sales technique.

There's an interesting passage offering advice for parents on how to best ensure a child follows instruction that draws on research by Jonathan Freedman. This recommends that threats of punishment for not following orders are less effective than engaging the child in a process of assuming a sense of personal responsibility.

Suppose a couple wants to impress upon their daughter that lying is wrong. A strong, clear threat ("It's bad to lie, honey; so if I catch you at it, I'll cut your tongue out") might well be effective when the parents are present or when the girl thinks she can be discovered. But it will not achieve the larger goal of convincing her that she does not want to lie because she thinks it's wrong. To do that, a much subtler approach is required.

A reason must be given that is just strong enough to get her to be truthful most of the time but is not so strong that she sees it as the obvious reason for her truthfulness. It's a tricky business, because exactly what this barely sufficient reason will be changes from child to child.

For one little girl, a simple appeal may be enough ("It's bad to lie, honey; so I hope you won't do it"), for another child, it may be necessary to add a somewhat stronger reason ("...because if you do, I'll be disappointed in you"); for a third child, a mild form of warning me be required as well ("...and I'll probably have to do something I don't want to do").

Wise parents will know which kind of reason will work on their own children. The important thing is to use a reason that will initially produce the desired behaviour and will, at the same time, allow a child to take personal responsibility for that behaviour.

Thus, the less detectable outside pressure such a reason contains, the better. Selecting just the right reason is not an easy task for parents. But the effort should pay off. It is likely to mean the difference between short-lived compliance and long-term commitment.

India's got balls

2011-11-25T01:53:00.001-08:00

iPads are not for Council

2011-11-22T06:49:00.000-08:00

This anonymous letter I received was one of the reasons why I quit my job at Leeton Shire Council last month. While the general manager at the time told me to ignore it and it doesn't actually physically threaten me, I found myself annoyed that I was being held responsible for a decision I had no role in.

I was in complete agreement with the letter writer that buying iPads for councillors was a waste of money and had raised a number of the same points when the idea was first put to me.

While I don't expect the writer of this letter reads my blog, I know prospective employers do and I feel I should try and articulate my views while they're still reasonably fresh seeing as my resume will show that I'm now unemployed.

I gather Apple's iPad is a fantastic tool for viewing the internet, emails and electronic publications so it should be a useful tool for delivering communications to councillors.

However, Council has not made any effort to deliver communications designed for these digital devices, such as incorporating a functional table of contents or formatting the document to be read on a screen. This was another area in which I was excluded from playing a role and I think councillors should be asking why they're receiving business papers that have less functionality than the printed version they received previously.

It also frustrated me that the business papers wouldn't meet the Federal Government's Web Accessibility Guidelines and this was another area where I felt like I was being held responsible for something outside of my control when Raven Calais asked the audience at the Local Government Web Network Conference whether they felt comfortable being responsible for not making online information available to all members of the community.

I also agree with the letter writer on another point. Given you can buy a laptop for around the same price which would have more processing power and provide a wider array of functions, it seems silly to invest in a device that's basically a crippled computer.

Councils should be training councillors to make better use of technology because, as community representatives, it's an opportunity to promote better practices that can then be demonstrated more widely in the community.

Of course, increasing digital capacity has been a passion of mine in recent years.

I suspect the appeal of the iPads was that they are simple devices and less likely to pose problems requiring IT support because my former council had it's own issues in this area, seeing as they don't have a capable person in an IT role on permanent staff.

When I raised these issues with the then general manager he shrugged and said something about making the best decision on available information at the time. This seemed a lazy response and his unwillingness to engage in further discussion left me feeling very disillusioned. Add to this his lack of support for policies he asked me to develop as well as approved and you get a greater sense of why I felt useless.

I've enjoyed sleuthing and gossiping on the possible identity of the letter writer and have heard a pretty good guess as to who they are, although I know this person has an iPad but maybe that's informed their views. While there are some obvious spelling errors in the letter, this is a poor attempt to conceal the author's education as they manage to use the word 'their' appropriately throughout -- which is usually muddled with 'there' and 'they're'.

Strange way to go

2011-11-19T03:01:00.000-08:00

It's a bit morbid but I thought this was an unusual way for a sparrow to die.

Uh! Yeah!

2011-11-18T11:24:00.000-08:00

Mad percussion, love it!

Leeton parks remix project

2011-11-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

With the centenary of Leeton to be celebrated next year, I came up with an idea to remix parks around town for an album. I've also been making videos to better explain the concept.

This one shows the sounds I collected at Wandoo Playground and how they were arranged to create a track.

You can see all the parks so far at the Bassling blog.

Gendered cheese

2011-11-01T01:01:00.000-07:00

This cheese reminded me of Germaine Greer, who wrote in The Female Eunuch that:

"…every girl whose upbringing is 'normal'. She is a female faggot."

While Greer writes provocatively and this has been criticised for being homophobic, I think you can see her point. This tells girls from an early age that an interest in robotics and technology is the realm of males.

Kraft must've done their market research and found that boys are impressed by the robots; while girls will eat cheese for coloured hair?

Good quote

2011-10-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

H G Wells wrote in The History of Mr Polly:

"…When a man has once broken through the paper walls of everyday circumstances, those unsubstantial walls that hold so many of us securely prisoned from the cradle to the grave, he has made a discovery. If the world does not please you, you can change it. Determine to alter it at any price, and you can change it altogether."

This makes me think I did the right thing when I quit my job recently.

Wish I was an ant

2011-10-26T23:53:00.000-07:00

Watched this ant dragging a spider carcass today and thought how amazing they are.

Aside from being able to lift things much greater than their own weight, I'm kind of envious that they have such a clear sense of purpose because I'm having a bit of an existential crisis at present.

Got pox

2011-10-26T23:47:00.001-07:00

My kids are suffering chicken pox and it's been interesting how we've learned how their friends also had this infection recently after we got it.

Anyway, their suffering has been eased by adding half a cup of baking soda to their bath. It's cheaper than calamine lotion and a bit of soluble paracetamol has also helped.

Twatter

2011-10-26T23:42:00.001-07:00

The new Twitter interface seems so much more buggy and bandwidth intensive than the previous one. Weirdness like having to log-out to post a tweet sometimes.

I've also noticed this weird bug when someone you follow favourites and retweets, it shows that I've favourited it. Hope they fix it up soon.

Did you know?

2011-10-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

The Daily Telegraph seem to be amazed there are women lawyers in Indonesia, judging by this story on their website today.

Ride To Work Day next week

2011-10-08T02:18:00.000-07:00

It's Ride To Work Day on Wednesday 12 October.

I ride to work most days and reckon it's a great way to start the day. It raises my pulse rate and clears my head.

Another amazing speech

2011-10-06T02:40:00.000-07:00

It's been great revisiting this today, made all the more poignant with the news of Jobs' death.

Jobs' life really is the stuff of legend: the loss of his company and then the triumphant return. Amazing.

How dumb are Australians?

2011-10-05T02:43:00.000-07:00

Hope it isn't true that around half the country don't understand that using a dryer will use electricity.

Over-accessorised Apple

2011-10-05T02:25:00.000-07:00

One of the cables above doesn't fit any computer I own.

The most maddening thing about owning an Apple computer is navigating the accessories, particularly the display cables.

They've successfully challenged the concept of built-in obsolescence with an ever-changing port for an external display and then there's a myriad of options for different monitors.

It's a waste and a disgrace and I suspect it goes some way toward paying for their expensive retail stores.

Would you believe these cables won't connect?

Crazy carp

2011-10-05T02:12:00.000-07:00

Had a visit out to Fivebough Swamp yesterday. Dunno what the carp were doing but it was fascinating to watch the flurry of their activity.

Nice gift

2011-10-05T02:08:00.000-07:00

Some recent work from work

2011-09-28T13:23:00.001-07:00

Um?

2011-09-27T04:20:00.000-07:00

Experiencing Nirvana

2011-09-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

Nevermind was the first CD I owned and was a birthday gift from my girlfriend at the time. I'd seen the film clip for Smells Like Teen Spirit on MTV and asked for the album when it came out that week. Like everyone else I was crazy about it.

I managed the meet Nirvana briefly during their Australian tour, which coincided with Nevermind charging up the charts. They caused a riot at the ANU Bar in Canberra with fans smashing in the windows to see the show. I was watching from outside the stage door and introduced myself to Dave and Kris, who gave me a plectrum. Kurt was in his own world, detached.

The anniversary of the album will see a remastered version of Nevermind released and it's great to see a record given the director's cut-style treatment as I've been hoping for this for a while now.

However, I'm less enthused by these comments from Charles Sturt University academic Catherine Strong.

“Kurt was a contradictory figure, on one hand he had the reputation of being really pure, of being only about the music,” Dr Strong said.

“But he also enabled Nirvana to be marketed to a mass audience, with his choice of producers, record labels and so on.

“Grunge had anti-commercial and anti-capitalist messages, yet those things ended up getting lost along the way.

“Grunge also had a strong message of equality, supporting gay rights and women’s rights, yet this political aspect isn’t discussed much these days.”

It's a mistake at attribute so much to Kurt Cobain IMO and the remastered version of the album is supposed to be closer to his vision for Nevermind than what was released.

And grunge was a very successful label commercially for a bunch of bands from Seattle and some were closer to metal than pop-punk but it made them easier to market if they were lumped in with Nirvana. Everyone was surprised at the success they found, I remember reading a Rolling Stone article on grunge and the Seattle scene that was published about a year ahead of Nevermind and the author predicted Mudhoney as the band most likely to find a 'mainstream' audience.

It's also a mistake to lump a bunch of issues like gay rights with grunge, given the diversity of the genre. I suggest these were part of a much larger dynamic in the early 1990s that included trends like 'lipstick lesbianism' and 'heroin chic'.

Super destroyer AMBUSH!

2011-09-24T04:50:00.000-07:00

Last night my son and I agreed to create a comic today, we were inspired by this video we'd watched.

Here's what we created after discussing ideas and sifting through our Lego:

Spectacular!

2011-09-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

This video will seem incredibly mundane to many but has fascinated me because (a) it's about a block away from where I live, and (b) I'm amazed at the coverage this random event attracted -- just look for the second mobile phone recording video near the end.

It's full of the quaint charm of living in regional Australia. I love the amazement and excitement these blokes display at the sight of a car in a car lot with lights on.

You are what you eat

2011-09-23T08:14:00.000-07:00

At uni I made a friend who seemed to spew heaps. Many social events ended with a quiet, or sometimes a not so quiet, vomit.

In the years following our graduation he figured out he was lactose intolerant and found some pills which allowed him to continue to consume cheese.

Last year I had a similar experience when I realised that eating sandwiches for lunch was the reason I found myself falling asleep mid-afternoon. Once I started eating rice for lunch, I was surprised to find the desire for a siesta disappeared.

Tonight I was thinking about this relationship between food and behaviour and realised I'd eaten sandwiches for lunch for more than 30 years before I realised it was taking a toll. All those years of not paying attention in afternoon classes and then the lost productivity in the workplace and the grumpy moments too.

Wish I'd discovered kimchi and rice earlier because it seems you really are what you eat.

Crispy Caesar salad

2011-09-17T22:13:00.000-07:00

Here's my lazy Caesar salad made with leaves, vinaigrette and cheese and bacon flavoured snacks. It tasted pretty good but would be much improved with a boiled egg and some parsley.

Art Deco-era RoboCop!

2011-09-15T23:52:00.001-07:00

I found this at Dangerous Minds.

Sometimes I think Modernism was the peak of western civilisation. There's a vision of humanity overcoming all obstacles with modern technology that seems to ooze out of all the wonderful Art Deco style. It's such a shock when you compare it to the sense that 'everything has already been done' that permeates postmodernism.

Yet the radio-controlled police robot above doesn't seem that far removed from RoboCop.

Still an amazing speech

2011-09-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

Many remember Charlie Chaplin for his silent movies but there's a speech of his that is foremost in my mind. It's from The Great Dictator, the Hitler pistake comedy made around the start of World War II to encourage the US to join the fight against fascism -- muchlike Casablanca did in 1942.

I was thinking about this speech earlier in the year when I was working on the soundtrack mixed for Metropolis. These two films seem like bookends with Nazi Germany in the middle.

Both films say that compassion is needed to stop people becoming like machines. It seems to pre-empt the 'Nuremberg defence' and remains a powerful plea for humanity.

Heaven The Axe debut

2011-09-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

Many of the loud noises emanating from my home over the weekend came from this CD, the debut from my friends Phoebe and Steve. These guys have been playing gigs as Heaven The Axe for a little while now and under other names for much longer (like when they kindly supported my Bassling CD launch as Sweethard in 2004).

The album shows their versatility, from the opening flurry of riffs and drums through to the ballad that closes the EP (before the hidden tune that reminded me of Kyuss). I hope the CD will open more doors for the band to perform widely because the combination of metal energy and mellifluous vocals is a ripper.

Hear more Heaven The Axe at their website.

Listen closely

2011-09-09T03:11:00.000-07:00

Listen closely and you can hear the eructation which passed from my throat after I consumed the contents of this can.

Nice bokeh

2011-09-02T01:55:00.001-07:00

This photo of a corrugated fence shows the shallow depth of focus of a 50mm lens with an aperture open to f1.4.

Bokeh is a Japanese term for this blur effect in photography.

Backyard bubbles

2011-09-01T03:34:00.001-07:00

A short video I made while trying out my new Nikon D5100. You can hear a new disco bassling track in it.

Koorawatha Creek

2011-08-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

Willimbong crossroads

2011-08-25T06:03:00.000-07:00

Police would not be drawn

2011-08-25T02:35:00.000-07:00

Kimchi is best

2011-08-23T04:12:00.001-07:00

Kimchi is such cheap and satisfying food.

The pictured dish was rice, kimchi, capsicum and a little sesame oil and it was sensational.

And the icing on the cake was finding wombok on special at the supermarket this week. This kimchi recipe is great.

Crossing tracks

2011-08-20T05:07:00.000-07:00

Out riding with my kids and we had to give way for a train.

OM NOM NOM NOM

2011-08-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

Here's the OM NOM NOM NOM I put in my presentation for the Local Government Web Network today. Should get a laugh.

Here's my earlier blog post on how your desk may be killing you or you can read the Powerpoint below:

Stand up for yourself!

View more presentations from showcasejase.

P.S. I see Boycetrus has given me a mention in his overview of the 2011 Local Government Webnetwork Conference.

Troll Orchestra

2011-08-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

Seen at dangerousminds.net

Magnum Temptation

2011-08-13T21:02:00.000-07:00

Magnum ice-creams have been a favourite ice-cream since the 1990s and there have been a number of new flavours and other products but I still like they're almond one best but there was a caramel one recently that was amazing.

The Magnum Temptation Chocolate pictured was a rich experience, from the purchase to the packaging to the flavour and the finish. I was disappointed to find these were smaller than the standard size and the packaging seemed excessive.

The Beligian chocolate was a bit wasted, frozen solid rather than ready to melt in one's mouth. Dunno where the brownies were but the chocolate sauce and ice-cream and shell were all lovely as usual, thanks.

These sorts of product extensions are an interesting development in the supermarket. I reckon Magnum could do a range of those treats you often find at a school fete. I'd like to see chocolate rice crackle, honey joy, coconut ice and toffee interpretated as Magnum ice-creams.

Data protection

2011-08-09T02:31:00.000-07:00

This powerboard apparently offers some sort of protection from data. Dunno what that means but I can still get online while using it.

Liking Amon Tobin's ISAM I am

2011-08-06T04:09:00.000-07:00

Lately I haven't bought many albums but Amon Tobin is one musician I'm still interested in listening to and his new release elevates his work to a new level artisticly.

While ISAM lacks some of the variety of Tobin's last album it reminds me of his early work in the cinematic vibe and surprising shifts of mood. There's the trademark whizzing sounds but the drum breaks aren't as manic. It's quite refined and coherent as a body of work though.

Previously I've been a bit dismissive of fancy CD packaging, sometimes it seems like the fancier the cover the less one should expect of the contents. But now I know better because the new Amon Tobin album gives purpose to such cosmetic detail.

The deluxe packaging for Tobin's new album ISAM uses a hardcover booklet to house colour reproductions of a collaboration that harkens back to times of yore when one would listen to a whole album and marvel at its artwork.

The record label Ninja Tune have produced a lovely document to package Tobin's album and it's really made me rethink the demise of buying a physical record. Ninja Tune also released a beautiful package for their 20th anniversary the other year and I really like their focus on creating a tactile listening experience.

Belly SNAP!

2011-07-15T03:49:00.001-07:00

Comfort

2011-07-07T03:05:00.000-07:00

Thumbs up from me

2011-07-02T00:27:00.000-07:00

I like this pic my daughter took of her thumb.

Even though it's a classic technique for spoiling a snapshot, I think the light from the flash and the pattern on the tiles really elevates this into another category.

Lunar eclipse over Leeton rice plant

2011-06-16T01:24:00.000-07:00

You can just make the moon in the left-hand corner and the Leeton train station on the right. The rice plant and the resignation of the chief executive officer at a local rice company later in the day is an interesting coincidence.

When did 'diet' die?

2011-06-13T03:53:00.000-07:00

Yoghurt always seems to be discounted at the supermarket, so I buy whatever is on special but recently my partner has told me not to buy anything with artificial colours and sweeteners -- which seems to be increasingly difficult.

Like this yoghurt I bought last week. The 'Reduced' sticker covered most of the front but the bit I read said there weren't artificial colours or sweeteners. Yet when I got home my partner pointed out these ingredients have numbers. I protested that the yoghurt didn't call itself diet so it should've been okay and it was pointed out to me that diet is a word that's disappearing from packaging.

When did 'diet' die? It was suggested to me that since studies show diets don't work for long-term changes in eating habits, products are being marketed without the word diet. There's this suggestion you'll eat less if you eat the product with a claim to have bugger all fat and you're supposed to conclude weight will be lost. Bizarre.

And the branding "For me no fat"? It leads me to think that Yoplait are channeling Yoda and hoping the Force will assist with the marketing of this product!

Garnisha

2011-06-13T03:29:00.000-07:00

It's a clever name for a curry paste company, invoking both garnish and Ganesha.

Stand by me

2011-06-13T03:26:00.000-07:00

My jellyfish jacket

2011-06-10T03:13:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I predicted a new trend in fashion.

Tonight I thought I'd develop it.

The models are hotter at Best & Less

2011-06-03T20:02:00.001-07:00

The models in this Best & Less catalogue could be printed in a lads magazine except they look like jailbait.

Hey, shouldn't camouflage make people invisible?

Slayer autographs

2011-06-03T20:00:00.001-07:00

Found this autographed book of music for one of my favourite Slayer albums in a Melbourne op shop.

Perform Dogging

2011-06-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Wonder if the TAFE were aware dogging is a British euphemism for engaging in sexual acts in a public or semi-public place or watching others doing so.