They are my oldest and deadliest enemy. You cannot trust them.
If Hitler invaded Hell, I would give a favourable reference to the Devil.

Thursday, July 27

Art

Bohemian Rapsody

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Saturday, April 15

Cool

Meanwhile, On Earth 7, The Weird One...

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Sunday, December 28

Art

Musical Interlude II



Thank you for watching.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled millennium.  Whether you like it or not.

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Saturday, June 20

Cool

Nearly There

Just a leetle more tweaking - my cucumber marmalade won't jell.

Update: Got it!  Just needed a little C salt.

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Thursday, January 01

Cool

You Don't Appreciate What You Have Until You Go Poking Around The Filesystem Trying Things Out

I wanted to get Crimson, Blue and Fabulous - a compilation of blues brass loops - in the previous Sony Creative sale* but missed out.  Fortunately it popped up in their New Year's sale, and I snagged it this time.**  And it is good.

Since they had a selection of loop packs at $20 each, I got a few others as well, more-or-less on spec.  Browsing around now, I find I have dulcimer loops.  Over 150 dulcimer loops.  And zither loops.  I mean, mandolin, sure, got plenty of mandolin, but dulcimer?

And they actually sound really good.***

I also picked up Poser 7 on sale.  I have Daz Studio, which is free but not as powerful as Poser, and Carrara Pro, which is a lot more powerful than Poser but not as friendly.  Of course, I've hardly used either one.

And I grabbed a copy of Manga Studio too.  Now I have everything I need to produce terrible 3D CGI comics!

Update: Ijits.  All the missile sound effects are labeled "missle".  18 of them.  Perfectly consistent.

* That was a buy-one-premium-pack, get-two-standard-packs-free sale.  This was a selected-packs-at-half-price sale.  Worked out about the same, I think.

** List price $59.95, online price $39.95, download price $29.95, sale price $19.95.

*** I have 60 CDs and 1 DVD of Acid Loops that I've assembled since 2000.  There are now 115 "Standard Collection" disks (from $29.95 each), 23 "Classic Collection" disks (from $19.95 each), 17 Premium Collection packs (2 disks each, from $59.95), and a bunch of other stuff like a 10 CD $425 sound effects set.  I want them all.

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Thursday, June 19

Music

One Hit (Album) Wonders

Headless Chickens were a 90's New Zealand grunge band that somehow broke the mold and released something brilliant in their second album, Body Blow.

And then retired back into obscurity with the release of their third album, Greedy, which simply sucked.

Actually, listening to Body Blow yet again today, I realised that of the thirteen tracks, two are indifferent remixes, three are outright bad - including the title track - and one has a strong rhythm and an intriguing sound mix but lame* vocals.

With nearly half of the tracks positively missable, how does this album manage to shine?

Well, it starts out with these:

Choppers


Donde esta la Pollo


Mr Moon


Gaskrankinstation


The sound quality of those clips isn't great, but it gives you an idea of what they achieved.

The common theme that distinguishes all (but one) of the songs I like and the songs I don't turns out to be Fiona McDonald, who joined the Headless Chickens for that one album.  The exception is Gaskrankinstation, which is perfectly suited to the grunge style, and perfectly executed as such.**

* The word has become trite, but it's entirely appropriate here.  I refer to Railway Surfing.  If you've heard it, you'll agree.

** Even if the music video is a bit naff.  And it really does benefit from a good quality recording and a good set of speakers.

more...

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Saturday, February 28

Music

Less Broken Every Day

Sigh.

My Music is now back on line for your listening pleasure.

If you find anything else that isn't there, please let me know, okay?

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Saturday, August 02

Music

The Return of the Return of the Electric Ant



The Electric Ant is the one in the blue hat.
track title
time
mp3 ogg story
The Electric Ant
1 Ant Hill Princess
5:04
6.0mb 5.4mb
2 Lazy Caterpillar
3:12
3.8mb 3.9mb
3 The Orchestral Ant
3 The Day the Bees and the Wasps Went to War
5:31
6.6mb 6.5mb
4 End of the Electric Ant
4:18
5.1mb 4.9mb
all zip
18:05
21.6mb 20.7mb

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Music

Rough Cuts


This is a selection of tracks that are more or less complete but haven't made their way into the world - prior to this. Some because they need a bit of tweaking, some because they are a bit... odd... and don't fit on any of my compilations.

track title
time
mp3 ogg story
1 Babes in Thailand
2:16
2.6mb 2.2mb
2 Bat Cave
2:28
2.8mb 2.8mb
3 March of the Clockwork Soldiers
4:00
4.6mb 2.8mb
4 Film at Eleven
2:03
2.4mb 2.7mb
5 Kitten Kaboodle
4:08
4.8mb 4.3mb
6 Scorpion Sunday
2:40
3.1mb 3.1mb

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Monday, July 21

Music

Crunchy Frog Blues


track title
time
mp3 ogg story
  Long Dry Summer
     
1 Crunchy Frog Blues
1:38
1.9mb 1.9mb The frogs are blue because their pond is drying up. The grass and leaves are all dry and crunchy, and if rain doesn't come soon, the frogs will be crunchy too.
2 Tequila Mockingbird
3:20
4.0mb 3.6mb The mockingbird has left his tree for the big city, and can often been found in his favourite bar drinking tequila and listening to jazz and blues.
3 Stir-Fried Grasshopper
2:08
2.5mb 2.6mb Damn, that grasshopper is noisy! The summer heat has fried his brain and now he just sings all day long.
4 Electric Ant
2:31
3.0mb 2.7mb While the grasshopper plays, the industrious ants are busy working... Except for this one! This ant is electric, and she and her friends are making groovy music down in the basement of the ant hill. (Besides, it's cooler in the basement.)
5 Weasel Stomp
2:48
3.3mb 3.3mb We all know how weasels love to dance. Right? Right! The weasels have got together for a midsummer party. Let's make the floor shake!
6 Call of the Aardvark
2:08
2.5mb 2.4mb The weasels can party, but some of us have to work. Such is life for the aardvark. But at last it's Friday, and time for Mr Aardvark to head on home.
7 Bees and Butterflies
2:48
3.3mb 3.5mb The rains are late, and the bees and butterflies alike are suffering. A touching ballad about the plight of the insect life.
  The Big Wet
 
8 Rain Dance
6:00
7.2mb 7.2mb All the birds and animals and insects have got together to perform a rain dance to bring in the wet. But will they succeed?
9 Bugtown Boogie
3:45
4.5mb 5.0mb The rains have come at last, and all the bugs in Bugtown are boogieing their little hearts out. (Do insects have hearts? Well, these ones do!)
10 Return of the Electric Ant
5:20
6.4mb 5.9mb Liz, Harri and Su from EAO are back with more! The ant hill basement is really shaking now!
11 Hedgehog Shuffle
2:56
3.5mb 2.4mb Most of the time hedgehogs just shuffle along, but they can really move when they need to. Um, what was that you said? Sorry, I don't speak hedgehog. There's never a pocket translator around when you need one...
12 Tomboy Kitty's Big Day Out
5:20
6.4mb 6.1mb Meow! Meow! I want to go out!
13 Crunchy Frog Reprise
2:38
3.1mb 3.3mb Can't do anything around here without those darn frogs trying to get in on the act!
all zip
43:00
51.3mb 50.2mb  
notes

Crunchy Frog Blues is the first track, and the first album, I wrote with Acid. After playing with Acid Express over Christmas 2000, I went out and bought a copy of Acid Rock at my local computer shop.

After installing the package and flipping through the manual, I sat down and created Crunchy Frog Blues (the track, not the album) in 45 minutes. I was so alarmed by this - what if I could never do it again? - that I was afraid to do any more work. Later that night, I sat down, steeled myself, and produced Tequila Mockingbird, Stir-Fried Grasshopper, and Electric Ant one after the other.

The first half of the album was (if I recall correctly) created entirely with Acid Rock. The second half, particularly Rain Dance and Tomboy Kitty's Big Day Out used a wider range of loops; those two tracks in particular being inspired by the thunder and rain sounds, and the "meow" sound respectively.

The name was inspired by the froglike bells (actually a synth) and puk puk sound (also a synth) in the title track, and of course by Monty Python's hilarious Crunchy Frog sketch.

The theme of drought and rain is natural for an Australian; I'm not sure exactly how it came to be, but the tracks naturally arranged themselves in the order you find them. The centre of the album is the sequence of Bees and Butterflies, Rain Dance and Bugtown Boogie: suffering, salvation and celebration. It wasn't planned, though: it just worked out that way.

The three tracks following Bugtown Boogie (particularly Tomboy Kitty) are just me playing around, but I think the results are pleasing.

And if you can tell me what Bees and Butterflies reminds you of, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks to Liz Formici, Harri "I'm a girl!" Apis, and Su Lepido of the Electric Ant Orchestra for their help with Electric Ant and Return of the Electric Ant. My first full album with the EAO is Return of the Return of the Electric Ant

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