Levels
Working on getting my deep blacks and bright whites exposed correctly on the first try.
Working on getting my deep blacks and bright whites exposed correctly on the first try.
Mykala got this card as a congratulations when I got into school. Love this card.
Feist sings “Sea Lion Woman” live, on YouTube. The description:
damn this rocks live!
That’s pretty accurate.
A little timing goes a long way.
Old magnetic tape — it holds 60 megabytes on 620 feet of tape! Wow!
Let’s speak metaphorically for a second and say I own a rock labeled “faith in humanity” — well, an event today is responsible for taking a sharp chisel and hammering off a large chunk from said rock. Here’s what happened.
The search box in Firefox pulls results from something called “Google Suggest”. Here’s a description of the feature from Google (emphasis mine):
Our algorithms use a wide range of information to predict the queries users are most likely to want to see. For example, Google Suggest uses data about the overall popularity of various searches to help rank the refinements it offers. An example of this type of popularity information can be found in the Google Zeitgeist. Google Suggest does not base its suggestions on your personal search history.
So, what’s happening here is this: as you type, Google attempts to guess what you are searching for by offering a list of popular search phrases that are related to the one you are typing. I was searching for “is gzip compression turned on” because I was looking for this useful tool, which can tell you if your website is utilizing compression. I finished typing “is ” (the space is important), and paused… then this list of suggestions came up:
I stared at the first 4 suggestions for probably about 15 seconds. Then I entered in “is ” again, to see if I had made a mistake. Same result. That can only mean one thing: a popular query on Google is there because hundreds of thousands of people are judging a presidential candidate based solely on the color of his skin and the arrangement of the characters in his name.
This sickens me.
Sasha Frere-Jones blogs music at the New Yorker online, and he provides interesting details about about Britney Spears’ latest album.
Perhaps to offset consumer anxiety generated by Spears’s well-documented personal struggles, she and her advisory committee have spared no expense and have exhibited exceptionally good taste in hiring. The songwriters and producers who contributed to “Blackout” are as close to an all-star team as pop has right now: the producer Nate “Danja” Hills, a protégé of Timbaland who co-produced many of Timbaland’s recent hits; the proven songwriters Sean Garrett and Kara DioGuardi, as well as the up-and-coming and increasingly reliable songwriter Keri Hilson; the once dominant, now dormant super-producers the Neptunes; and, best of all, the Swedish production duo Bloodshy & Avant, responsible for older songs such as “Toxic” and “Me Against the Music,” which made Spears as deservedly ubiquitous as she wanted to be.
Frere-Jones’ list of people who made this latest album lends proper nouns to a thought I’ve had in my head for a while. See, those who rail against Britney Spears’s music are making an error. Now, don’t miss my point: Spears is not a pop musician — her skills are non-existent and infinitesimally small compared to pop music greats like the Beatles; but Britney Spears is a pop brand. Look at the situation more closely: the Beatles were the musicians and the brand. When you think of the Beatles, you think of Paul, John, George, and Ringo — they did the singing, much of the writing, had input on the production/engineering of their music, and guided the musical direction of the group. When you heard them, you knew that behind that music was a band composed of real musicians who were writing, rehearsing, and performing music. Spears, on the other hand, is simply a brand, ultimately representing a cynical corporate strategy (that, I must add, is not new — look at the Monkees):
So, Spears puts the face on a group of extraordinarily talented individuals, individuals whose amazing achievements include making Britney sound like she’s singing and not warbling out random tones. These folks behind the scenes are the pop musicians, who are crafting melodies and pushing the envelope on the popular rhythms and production values of the day. Their achievements (especially considering the awful raw materials they must begin with) are what you should compare with a group like the Beatles. So, when you say Spears herself is crap, you are correct — but if you are to do an actual analysis of the music, you must fully understand the meaning of and the people behind a corporate music brand.
Put your hands up if you dig live pedal looping. Check it out on YouTube with KT Tunstall and her performance of Black Horse And The Cherry Tree. You only have to watch the beginning because… I know you’ve already heard the song 56,000 times.
This picture of the corporate headquarters of Nestlé has the best view from an office building I’ve ever seen. It sits right on Lake Geneva, with mountains in the background.
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