Currently enjoying two new albums by two older bands:
Cool stuff, especially the first one.
Can't help but be a little worried about the fact that I seem to have stopped my musical development somewhere in the nineties, and just keep listening to the same bands. Luckily some of them sometimes release new albums.
What's new today? Let me see.
[x] Wrote the first sentence of chapter 6 of the new book. Goes like this "After encapsulation, inheritance is probably the most important feature of the object-oriented programming". Promising, but not exactly progress. Good news is I already wrote all the code for the chapter.
[x] My teammate Nicole posted an interesting entry on developer.yahoo.com blog. Especially interesting if you happen to care about web page performance and you're also a US voter. I haven't voted in yeeeaars. Wasn't allowed to vote in Canada initially and just when I became Canadian I moved to US where I'm also not allowed to vote. Oh, well. Don't like any candidate anyway.
[x] Christian Heilmann posted on Ajaxian about the canvas Pie I published last night
… and …
[x] I recorded again!!
It's a piece loosely based on a Paco De Lucia song I tried to figure out for myself long ago. For this recording I used a microphone specially designed for acoustic guitars (gift from my best-men) but the problem is I plugged it into the microphone jack on the laptop, so there is some nasty amplification. I tried to de-amplify in Audacity.
Here goes: Paco. Hope ya like it! 
(if you see this in a RSS reader, come to the page to hear the music)
(Now that I got this Starcaster and also completed the first 5 chapters of the new book) Yesterday, I was wondering how I can record some music, so I searched for open-source sound recorder and came across this beautiful application called Audacity (French word for "courage", didn't know it existed in English).
Anyway, last time I've tried music editing software was yeeeears ago and they looked pretty intimidating. Audacity is nothing like this, it's so easy to get started. I just started the program, hit the big red "record" button and recorded away. Just as easy as Windows Sound Recorder. But! When I wasn't happy with what I recorder and hit "record" again, it played my previous junk but was recording on another track. How cool is that?! So easy to mix. Now I record something, then record again while listening with headphones to the previous thing.
I don't have any special equipment, so I just use the laptop's built-in microphone. Since those microphones amplify and therefore distort, I do a little trick. I play load (take that, neighbors!) and set the microphone level in Audacity to almost zero. The result is not too shabby for an amateur recording if you ask me. I do have an amp, no bigger than any average self-respected Java book, it was in the same package with the guitar.
So here goes. My take on Stevie Ray Vaughan's take on Jimi Hendrix' Little Wing intro - about 40 seconds.
Now if you feel brave, try the next piece. The theme is somewhat distantly loosely based on what I remember of a song called "Que Que Ha?" by Joe Pass. In this case I recorder the rhythm first then tried improvising some sort of a - for a lack of a better word, let's call it - solo on top. Didn't like the result, so tried again. Thought first time was definitely better. At this point the kids were finishing their bath so I had to forget about further recordings. Later on I tried playing both solos together - horrible, horrible idea. But then I moved (it's trivial with Audacity) the first solo to the left speaker and the second to the right. And here's the result. I suggest that if, for whatever unhealthy reason, you decide to listen to the next piece, do use the headphones. Otherwise it really is a handful, er, earful. Plus people around you will appreciate it, I assure you. Good luck!
Ah, yeah and the nice player you use to hear these MP3s is the Yahoo! Media Player, which you can integrate on every page.
Update Jan 30, 2008: updated code based on comments and code from Carl
Here's the scenario: you have a page that links to some .mp3 files. You add a line of code in your page and lo and behold, there's a nice media player embedded into the page. Your visitors no longer have to download the MP3s, they can just stream it right there. All the mp3s on the page become part of a playlist.
The line in question you need to add to your page is:
<script src = "http://mediaplayer.yahoo.com/js"></script>
More about the player here - yahoomediaplayer.wikia.com
For examples of sites using this player in the wild, try aurgasm.us
Now, here's what you can do if you want to use the player, but the web site owner haven't incorporated it yet. Take the player with you. Run my bookmarklet that will simply insert the required javascript into the page.
So here goes in two easy steps:
Right-click, add to favorites
Enjoy!
The readable source code of the bookmarklet:
javascript:(function(){ var start = function(){YAHOO.music.WebPlayer.asyncLoadPlayer()}; var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'http://mediaplayer.yahoo.com/js'; if(script.addEventListener){ script.addEventListener("load", start, false); } else{ script.onreadystatechange = function(){ if(this.readyState=="complete"){ start(); script = null; } } } script.type="text/javascript"; document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script); })();
Look what Santa brought this year:
A Starcaster by Fender! (Not to be confused with Stratocaster.) Packed with an amp and everything.
Looking forward to posting some recordings in 2008!
Some new music, well new for me, I'm listening to:
Air contributed to this album, I love Air, saw them live in Montreal maybe a year or so ago.The new Audioslave is also maybe worth mentioning, although this album was a bit of disappointment. And what the hell is Chris Cornell doing in the new 007 movie. Only a few musicians out there can do a song for a blockbuster and do it with style, without coming across as "commercial sell-outs". One example comes to mind.
My ears are still bleeding form yesterday's show A great band, a great show! The venue was CEPSUM, which is a local university's venue for sports events. Most bigger names do their shows in the Bell Centre in Montreal, which is a terrible, terrible place for a rock concert. It's all iron and tin and resonances a lot of noise. CEPSUM was different. In this case, the fact that Audioslave are not (yet) that big a name is of fans' advantage. We got to see them in a cozier venue with better sound. I was on the ground level, I believe this is the only place where one should be in a rock concert 
There were two opening bands. I was too late for the first one, but did heard the second - Seether. They played very well, with a lot of energy, although… you know, not my type. They did a Nirvana cover - "Drain You".
As expected Audioslave did played some Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine songs, but most of the songs were Audioslave's. After about 5 songs from the new Out of Exile album, they did Soundgarden's Spoonman while the the scene background was showing that thing from the cover of the Badmotorfinger album. Right after that the surprise was Temple of the Dog's "Hungry". Then after the encore break, Chris Cornell alone played a acoustic versions of Black Hole Sun and another Soundgarden's song I cannot recall the name of. As for RATM's songs they did two in the main part of the concert and then at about the end of the encores, they blew the place up with "Killing in the name of".
As for Audioslave's songs, I cannot really tell which ones they played. The way I listen to music is when I find something new I like, I listen to it all the time. At some point the different songs blur into one and I cannot really distinguish one from the other. I've been looping both Audioslave's albums for a few weeks and I pretty much know the songs by heart, but not by name. I'm sure I shouted the chorus of Like A Stone and I'm almost positive the show ended with Cochise, but that's about it. Oh, and in addition to the songs from their two albums they played a new one, not yet recorded!
The bassist was singing backing vocals on most of the songs, and the drummer did Eddie Vedder's part in "Hungry". I was most impressed by the guitarist. I always am, being an ex-guitarist myself. I was never a RATM fan, so before listening to Audioslave I had no idea what Tom Morello's style is like. Listening to some songs on the radio left me with the impression that he was overdoing the wah-wah effect , which seemed a bit amateurish to me. That is because the wah-wah is so great once you start experimenting with it, that it's very easy to get a little carried away (I know I was accused of wah-wah overuse by fellow band members at the time). Listening carefully to the Audioslave's albums proved my initial impressions wrong. The guitars are actually very good and innovative. And the energy and the enthusiasm in them may make them sound a bit next to amateurish, but that's how you can tell the really good musicians (and not only musicians for that matter) - their playing is not intrusive, but simple and may sound too easy, almost childish. That's only because they are so … you know, clean and perfect. So it was a great experience to see and hear this novelty guitars live.
In two words - Audioslave are great live and of you have a chance to have them playing in your town, do not hesitate to go!
Oh, another thing, Chris Cornell's vocals! Amazing! Because of the way he sings, the high vocals and all, I was expecting that his voice will get exhaused after the first half of the songs and he'll have problems singing the rest live. No such thing! It was just great to hear him live. Like a guy from the crowd, a big fan apparently, noted: "Chris Cornell, babyyy!"
Last week I went to see Pearl Jam! It was an amazing experience. I saw them about a year ago and really, really liked the show. This time it was … different, at the same time a bit worse and a whole lot better.
The bad part was the sound - too loud and not clear. It's probably because of the venue, which, while maybe ideal for hockey games, is not designed to host concerts. It's all iron and tin that echo the sound. When you press your ears the sounds gets a whole lot better, but c'mon you cannot go to a concert and stay all the time with your hands on your ears!
The good part - the concert was awesome. They played a lot. (As a local paper put it - "best value for the money") They played so much that at the end the lights were on, the evening was officially over but they kept playing and playing. The whole show was about 2 and a half hours with two encore breaks.
In terms of songs, they started with "Release" from "Ten", just an intro to what followed. And what followed was all their fast, punky, heavy songs. Think "Do the evolution", "Habit" and "Lukin". Even songs that are not as noisy, like "Even flow", they played faster and harder. The only break to catch your breath was "Better man", somewhere in the middle of the show and probably only the first part of the song. Add this to the overall bad and loud sound and you get the picture, my ears were bleeding.
It all changed with the encores. I had the feeling that the encores were as lengthy as the main part of the concert. They played "Crazy Mary", "Last kiss", "Black", "Alive"… it was pretty amazing. I kept thinking OK, that's it, they are not going to play more, despite all our shouting (and there was a lot of shouting). But … they did and they played and they kept on playing. At the end, like I said, the lights were on, the stage was even not as well lit as the people in the audience. So we had a chance to look at each other, the focus was on us. Then the last song was Yellow Ledbedder; it ended, everybody was ready to go; Matt Cameron, the drummer, threw his several pairs of drumsticks in the crowd, everybody left their instruments, ready to go, only … Mike McCready, the guitarist, was still playing. And he was playing this Hendrix-SRV-like riff as if the concert was just starting. Honestly, I looked at the faces in the crowd, even the venue's personnel and everybody was smiling at the end of the concert. It's just the band is so natural, so honest and human. No poses or playing the big stars. Eddie Vedder's favourite was to put the back of his shirt, without undressing it, on top of his head, I mean how starry that can be?
Before I saw them last week for the second time I was wondering sometimes - which is my favourite live (and not only live) band. Now I know PJ, PJ!
Oh, and Eddie Vedder is growing long hair again!
Here's my ticket
I went to visit them maybe about three years ago, on a tour right after their second album "Rush of Blood to the Head" was released. They were great back then and they still are now!
"…Birds go flying at the speed of sound,
to show you how it all began…"