Xmas freakout

Wishing you a happy festive season

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

Truss me

Parenting tip

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

Strange way to go

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

Uh! Yeah!

Mad percussion, love it!

Leeton parks remix project

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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