A practical use for Photoshop

As part of my job I am the staff photographer. I always clearly communicate the portrait dress code, but sometimes people either don't listen, refuse to comply, or as in a couple of cases, don't have the required attire in their wardrobe. Here's how I deal with that.

First, I thank my lucky stars that there are people who do comply. It gives me plenty of source material for the project. Then, I simply do a wardrobe transplant.

Here the gentleman to the left did not bring a jacket for the shoot. Now, we have some spare jackets lying around, but this guy's a stout dude--his neck's like a tree trunk, for crying out loud. I have nothing that will fit him. The other problem complicating things was that he is a remote field employee. He hardly ever visits the home office--maybe once a year. There was no way to reschedule a reshoot; I had to get his photo this time or there was no telling how long it would be before the opportunity presented itself again.

Lucky for me I had plenty of source photos to comb through and look for a jacket to match his ensemble. I chose one from the photo of another gentleman with broader-than-normal shoulders, but I still had to do a fair bit of transforming to make it match the contours of the first man. Then just for the heck of it I decided to lighten the color a tad to more of a charcoal.

Anyway, this wasn't my first time at the rodeo. In doing employee photos I've also had to composite up to as many as four shots into one final product, add a necktie, tighten a necktie, remove wrinkles (from clothing and faces), color hair, whiten teeth, add color to dead-looking, sunless, pale faces, remove cold sores and other blemishes... You name it. That's part of semi-professional portrait photography. You have to hope for the best but expect the worst and be prepared to address it.

New version of Audacity looks good so far

As you know, I have recently discovered a software release that got me quite excited, the newest incarnation of Sourceforge's open source audio editing suite, Audacity. I downloaded it yesterday and I have had a little bit of time to fiddle around with it since then. After that brief exposure I can now give my initial impressions of its capabilities, some of the more obvious differences since the last version, and maybe even a couple of things I don't like or that will, at the very least, take some getting used to.

THE GOOD:

• Much faster MP3 export
• Variable speed playback slider keeps you from mucking about in the effects menu just to play something back a bit slower
• Playhead indicator goes across all tracks when using the time shift tool, making it much easier to synch tracks to each other
• Includes a sliding time/pitch shift tool - I'm very excited about this one!
• I'm also excited about the new vocoder tool, but I have not yet had the chance to mess with it
• New vocal remover tool
• More tone generators
• And best of all, NO CRASHES YET!

THE BAD:

• The reverb option is gone - perhaps it's been integrated with the echo effect
• The project menu is gone and I suspect it's been split up between the new tracks menu and some of the other menu options, making it difficult to navigate at first
• The ID3 tagging was also tough to find - in this version it's called metadata, which I guess is an appropriate name anyway; I liked the interface though, once I found it

THE WTF?

This release includes a DTMF generator, for which I cannot imagine a proper use. If someone has any idea, please fill me in. If you don't know what DTMF is, it stands for Dual Tone Multi Frequency... Basically it's the sounds a touch tone phone makes when you press the buttons. The new generator in Audacity allows you to input a string combination and it will insert that string in DTMF format into your project at the indicated point. What for? I don't know. Please help.

So that's my initial impression. If I discover any other new gems (or headaches) in dealing with this software, I'll be sure to post them right here. Any way you look at it, this version is a major improvement on an already superior piece of programming. As I mentioned before, you can't beat free, unless it's free and of a superlative quality; Audacity is both. Thanks, Sourceforge.

Sourceforge releases new version of sound editor

I was stoked to learn this morning that our friends at Sourceforge have recently taken their wonderful sound editor, Audacity, from its latest beta version to a full, new version release! On March 13 of this year, they unveiled Audacity v 2.0!

A screenshot from Audacity 2.0

I've been using Audacity for many years, and I can't be happier with its performance. For a free product, you can't beat it. Audacity outperforms some premium products I've used. This release addresses, among other things, some of the bugs that have been driving me occasionally nuts, primarily the one that causes the program to sometimes crash for no reason after recording in Windows 7. Even though the product has admittedly brought me infrequent headaches over the years due to glitches like this, I would still wholeheartedly recommend it to any audiophile who wants a powerful piece of audio editing software on a budget.

I have not yet had time to explore all the upgrades in this release. If I end up having more feedback on the matter I will definitely forward it on to the Sourceforge team and post it here for the curious.



Manowar update re: Hammer of the Gods

I was looking at my posts today and noticed when browsing the analytics that the post that's brought in the most readers was the post I did about Manowar. With that in mind and my desire to become part of the "Circle," here's a fresh post concerning a 2012 album update.

Manowar today released the second preview from the upcoming Hammer of the Gods album release. The song is called "Expendable," and it sounds like a true metal masterpiece to me. Here's an exclusive clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koNYpiwHjHY&feature=colike

If you missed the first preview, for the song "El Gringo," you can find it here:

http://youtu.be/2JOqDxJ5trY

Both are some kickass sounding tunes. I am more excited for this release than any other album yet. The previews make the songs sound like they are not as full of the typical Manowar trope that has honestly made the band a bit of a joke with outsiders over the years.

Let's hope that 2012 will be the year that Manowar gains some much overdue respect in the rock world. Hail and Kill, brothers and sisters of true metal!

Sorry for the absence

See, I recently got my first smart phone, the iPhone 4 with Sprint's unlimited data plan, so I have been quite busy trying to clog the 3G pipeline with as much data downloading as possible.

I promise to have a proper post early this week yet.

"The Hunger Games" failed to satisfy my craving

"The Hunger Games" is now playing in theaters everywhere.

I took my 4th grader to see The Hunger Games tonight because he just finished reading the novel and had been asking to go. I've never read the books myself, and I don't plan on doing so either. After having seen the film, any limited interest I had in joining the Hunger Games bandwagon has evaporated. Ash enjoyed the movie, though he reminded me repeatedly throughout it that we were not watching a loyal adaptation of the book on film; the two were worlds apart based upon his description.

Here's my take: I saw the first trailer for The Hunger Games a few months ago, before I'd even heard of the book and all its hype. I remember turning to my friend during the trailer and saying, "Who is this movie's target audience? Seems like a kids' movie, but it looks kind of violent." And later on, after the trailer concluded, "Jeez, really? What do you think the odds are of that chick dying at the end?" I was implying that the movie looked formulaic and predictable, the kind of film where you can call every shot at least two minutes before it happens on screen.

Now it doesn't happen all the time, but this time I happened to be spot-on accurate in my estimation of what to expect on screen when that theater darkened tonight. But that wasn't the worst of it. Not only was the entire premise of the plot completely absurd, but it borrowed so much from other films as to be totally devoid of any originality or suspense. And the future world in which it took place was presented with laughable melodrama, failing to successfully connect or identify with the viewer on even the most basic level of being human. It was totally non-believable.

David Carradine starred in the 1975 film "Death Race 2000."

I can accept the notion of a future version of the U.S. which follows a second Civil War, breaking the country up from 50 states to 12 districts. However, regardless of the believability of the uprising that brought on the state of the former union, the idea that the citizens of the former U.S. would not only allow, but support, their government in requiring their children to take part in such a brutal bloodsport, even for food, is ridiculous. I've seen similarly themed movies that were actually more plausible--The Running Man, 1932's The Most Dangerous Game, Surviving the Game with Ice T, Logan's Run, Roger Corman's Death Race 2000 for crying out loud...

In a nutshell this world is like 1984 meets Logan's Run meets Robin Hood. As I said, no originality. We aren't ever told exactly what year the story takes place in, but certain parts initially led me to think perhaps the 22nd century. The movie begins in a small, dirty mining town surrounded by a lush forest. Later on in the film we move to a large city (via an Atlas Shrugged-style speeding super train) and certain other things struck me as severely anachronistic for only a hundred years or so in the future, so I started thinking it might be more like 500 years on.

The partygoers at the Frankenstein house had...unique...flair.

For one, there's the fashion. It's like the costume designer for the Rocky Horror Picture Show got together with Dr. Seuss and Prince Poppycock to come up with a clothing line for the future earth. Ridiculous, colorful, twisty, shiny and flashy clothing and accessories. And the city... Like a cross between Oz and Alderaan. The citizens fit right in.
Then there's the technology. I initially thought the games were taking place in some sort of forest, perhaps on a secluded, escape-proof island. When Katniss tries to escape, though, it turns out to be more like a Truman Show style, enormous enclosure. Remember when Truman Burbank tried to escape by driving in one direction until he couldn't any more? Katniss did that on foot. Remember how they stopped Truman? Forest fire. Guess how the eyes in the sky stopped Katniss? Yep. Forest fire. (facepalm)

Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank in "The Truman Show."

So it's like the Truman Show--cameras hidden everywhere (even in trees), environmental controls, fire spraying weaponry that pops out of the ground like a lawn sprinkler, the ability to display a computer readout or TV feed on the sky (?)... But then the control operators start fiddling with some sort of hellhound hologram in their control room, and the next thing you know, a bunch of them just...APPEAR...in the forest. What??? What the hell is going on? OK, so I guess it's less Truman Show and more like a Star Trek holodeck. Oy vey.

Then there's the script. Let's just say it could very well have been written by whoever wrote any given Spy Kids movie and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. Just one example. I'd hate to give away any spoilers (ha!). So Katniss is found by a gang of rival contestants who are working together. She's being tracked, and the group is led by her supposed teammate and friend (the boy who loves her). She outruns them and climbs a large tree to get away but they find her and decide to, "wait her out. She has to come down sometime."

Not exactly cinema gold.

They camp out directly beneath the tree and she sleeps 40 feet up, tethered to some large branches. Only in the morning does she notice the ENORMOUS nest of mutant hornets ten feet above her, conveniently hanging smack over the sleeping enemy. Katniss endures a few venomous stings in dislodging the nest, but the payoff is huge as thousands of angry "tracker jackers" swarm her murderous foes. Half of them don't survive the attack but her traitorous friend does. Later in the movie the two of them rejoin one another and it's like the incident never even happened. Are you kidding me? He tried to KILL HER. Who just forgets that?

Anyway, I guess you can tell I won't be recommending this movie to anyone over the age of 14, which is a shame because it is rather violent. It's a pity that the only people who should be able to enjoy this film are tweens on the edge of puberty and under the MPAA's (and my, as I agree with the rating) recommended viewing age. The film is rated PG-13 for violence and alcohol use. There might have been tobacco use--I don't remember for sure. There is very little to no objectionable language and no sexual content whatsoever.

Unfortunately, there's very little good to say about The Hunger Games either, other than my ten-year-old son said he loved it. However, even he commented that it was more violent than he's used to seeing. We're pretty conservative with our permissiveness as far as movie viewing. Normally a PG-13 would require a parental pre-viewing, but since he'd just read the book I decided it would be OK this time to skip that.

Monk is about to go splat in the original "Men in Black."

The difference with the violence in this movie compared to what he's seen before on film is that this was more grounded in reality. This isn't Agent K splattering Jeebs' head to snot in Men in Black only to see it grow back five seconds later; this is teens in a contest for their lives, killing other teens with knives, spears, bows and bricks. It's definitely more visceral than your average sci-fi violence against ugly aliens with laser guns. The only sci-fi parallel that comes to mind for the emotional weight of the violence in this movie is that in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

My recommendation for parents: buy your kids the books and skip the movie(s?). The books may be violent too, but at least they'll be reading. It's becoming a lost art these days. I've heard a lot of great things about the series from kids and adults alike. And if it can get MY son to read, there must be something to the hype.

Tee shirt design suggestions

The Book of Mormon Broadway musical's Facebook page recently asked fans to design a show-related tee shirt they'd like to see. Here are the two ideas I sent them. I have a third idea but it involves a cartoon frog, which I'm not sure I can draw competently. Perhaps I'll give it a try this weekend.

"The River" finally makes waves

I watched the season finale of ABC's The River tonight, titled "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." After having almost lost interest in the series by about halfway through this first season, I'm kind of glad now that I forced myself to nurse it along. That finale was more like the show I'd expected to see that what had been coming to my DVR every week on...whatever day it aired.

The River was conceived by Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity films) and Michael R. Perry (writer for Eerie Indiana, American Gothic, The Practice, Law & Order: SVU, House, among others) and executive produced by Steven Spielberg. It aired as a mid-season replacement with an initial run of eight episodes in the first season.

The premise of the show is that a well-known American nature show host, Dr. Emmet Cole (played by Bruce Greenwood), has gone missing while on an expedition on the Amazon River. After six months the search is called off, but his family decides to continue the search when a transponder signal from Cole is picked up on radar. They gather the remainder of the television crew and set out to document their journey to find Dr. Cole.

The group eventually finds Cole's disabled boat, The Magus, and begins combing through the video footage Cole and his crew left behind. That's when they realize that Dr. Cole's decades-old catchphrase which he always concluded each program with, "There's magic out there," was meant literally. They see footage of Cole apparently holding flames in his hands, treading on water, and taking part in magical rituals with primitive tribes in the jungles of the Amazon.

Their trek soon takes them to a fork in the river, and they must begin following Cole's trail up an uncharted offshoot of the Amazon...An uncharted offshoot that begins displaying some magical properties of its own. In fact, the further up the river they go, the weirder things get. They encounter a new supernatural threat in each episode--some genuinely creepy, some only vaguely so.

The season began with a powerful double episode. The creep factor was quite high, as was expected from Paranormal Activity-type camerawork coupled with an endorsement from Spielberg in a show airing on the network that brought us Lost. But my biggest complaint after that initial airing was that the momentum and adrenaline rush got lost in the week-long gap between episodes.

The other complaint I had was that it seemed to be trying to too hard to pick up the mantle laid down when Lost went off the air: "Let's be weird and crazy and only give viewers a piece of the puzzle, then make it so each new answer creates three more questions. Just like Lost!"

In all, The River might end up being a better viewing experience on DVD. Perhaps that cross-episode suspense will maintain itself more effectively if you have the ability to watch the whole thing marathon style. Being only eight 44-minute episodes, once the first season DVD collection hits store shelves in late May you can easily digest the entire season in one day if the urge strikes you. If you do, let me know how that works out for you.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

I watched this documentary the other night on Netflix. It was quite entertaining, informative and thought provoking. In it the filmmaker, Kirby Dick, interviews many directors and writers whose films have, right or wrong, earned the infamous X or NC-17 rating from the MPAA, which means very limited distribution and no advertising budget. That usually translates into a box office turd. (Apologies for placing the word "turd" next to the adjacent graphic. Twice.)

The film explores the apparent inconsistency of the ratings process and brings light to the conclusion that many ratings seem to be based on what is best for the studios rather than the consumer, as the MPAA would have you believe. Part and parcel of that argument is the fact that indendent films are more likely to earn a more restrictive rating than major studio films, regardless of comparable content. Many examples are provided of identical scenes identified as root causes of specific ratings, yet the ratings are different.

Mr. Dick also digs into the clandestine nature of the ratings board itself as well as the ratings appeal board. The identities of these people have been shrouded in secrecy since the MPAA's inception in 1968. The current head of the MPAA's Classification and Rating Administration, Joan Graves, is the only member known to the public. That is, until Kirby Dick hires a private investigator to reveal all their identities. :)

Needless to say, the MPAA gave this film itself an NC-17 rating. Mr. Dick chose to forgo the rating entirely and give the MPAA the big kiss-off. That's why you've never heard of it. It's definitely worth a look if you are a cinephile like me.

Four of five stars

Star Trekking into reality

Fans of the Star Trek franchise will no doubt tell you if you chide them for being lost in a fantasy world, that their fantasy world is becoming startlingly close to reality in some aspects. No, we're no closer to alien contact or anywhere near light speed travel, let alone beyond light speed. But many of the electronic devices imagined by Gene Roddenberry and the show's creative teams have seemingly begun sprouting up in the last decade or so.

For instance, we can begin with speech recognition programs for computers. Speech-to-type translators have been around for years. Now we're moving toward speech-interfaced personal assistants like the as yet imperfect SIRI from Apple on the iPhone 4S. It's not quite there yet, but we're making large strides. Shouldn't be too long before a major breakthrough.

We also have wireless communicators nowadays. No, the comm badges themselves aren't being mass produced, and of course they had walkie-talkies in 1966. I think the comm badges are closer to modern mobile phones than walkie-talkies. Think about it. No visible antenna; no need to continually press the Tx button to speak; no dialing needed (voice recognition again); they even have LoJack built in (along with GPS, another Star Trek reality, though they would only really work on earth, I guess)... It's not exactly the same, but I'd say the spirit of the communicator badge is represented by the mobile phone. (Oh, now that I think about it, mobile phones would only work on earth too. UNLESS the Enterprise has a built-in cell phone satellite network. Of course that's plausible.)

What else? We have cloaking devices, artificial intelligence, we've done amazing things as far as genetic mapping and cloning... Believe it or not, we've made initial inroads to making transporters a reality, though on a miniature, atomic scale at this point. I also think we're making our first baby steps toward real life replicators in the 3D printing process that's been invented in the last few years. Of course, we're nowhere near the ability to replicate foodstuffs, but as I said---baby steps. The XBOX 360 Kinect is not even close to the experience of the holodeck, but it's a start.

Dr. Beverly Crusher in Next Generation uses a portable touchscreen medical tablet that looks an awful lot like an iPad to me. And what's that other thing that Crusher and all the other officers use in every episode, in every series of the franchise? The tricorder, of course. Earlier this year, Qualcomm and the X Prize Foundation announced a $10M prize to the first person to create a real, working medical tricorder. Why? Because they know it's possible and, like their private space travel X Prize accomplished, they know that the reward will be motivation to make it a reality.

What's next? Warp speed travel? I doubt it. It might not even be possible--Einstein and Hawking seem to agree on that. But if it were possible it only makes sense that, as in the Star Trek mythos, the moment we achieve it is the moment the entire universe will open up to us. It would be like creating fire or the wheel for the first time.

Star Trek is an enduring fantasy to me because we keep seeing science fiction edging closer to science fact. Every step we get closer to the technology of Star Trek brings me closer to the hope that the franchise embodies. That hope is the magic of peace that resonates out from earth's First Contact with an intelligent, enlightened and peaceful alien race. Can you imagine?

In the mythos, once First Contact has been made and we realize that we are not alone in the universe, that realization paves the way for world peace. Suddenly all our squabbles on this hunk of mud floating around on the unfashionable end of this outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy will seem rather petty, don't you think?

New Manowar album preview!

Below is a video of members of "The Circle" - fans and media contacts hand chosen by Manowar - previewing the rough mix of the newest studio track, "El Gringo," from Manowar's upcoming album, which will be released in late June/early July 2012.

Not only am I stoked for the new album; I also saw this as an opportunity to hopefully get involved with this "Circle." For now, count on me to promote Manowar news whenever I receive updates. Later, who knows?

 

Also note that 2012 is the 10th anniversary of one of my favorite Manowar discs, Warriors of the World. It's a big year! Perhaps another U.S. visit will be in the works???

Hail and Kill,
Your brother of steel
official band site:
www.manowar.com

The doctor is in

I just finished reading Ozzy Osbourne's second book, Trust Me, I'm Dr. Ozzy, and I really enjoyed it. It's quite an easy and frightfully entertaining read. Apparently the Prince of Darkness has an advice column that's printed in the London Sunday Times and Rolling Stone, where he doles out pearls of wisdom concerning substance abuse, family life, relationships, medicine and darn near everything else under the sun. This book is a greatest hits compilation from that column.

Being only 304 pages and composed mainly of letters from readers and Ozzy's oft-times witty and sometimes sincere responses, it does go very quickly. I pretty much got through it in four sittings (unless the bathroom counts, tee hee), which is good for me. I haven't blasted through a book that quickly in ages. It was highly entertaining and hard to put down. Ozzy's a funny guy. It kind of makes me want to read his first book, I Am Ozzy, as well.

Volunteer work for Peoria Academy

OK, here's that video I was telling you about last week. I put this together for the annual school fundraiser auction, and it was played immediately preceding the paddle raise segment. I got a lot of compliments afterward, but that wasn't the best part.

This video got folks in the mood to donate, and in a big way. We surpassed our goal with the paddle raise. I won't say exactly how much it raised, but I will say it was a five digit figure that came in a few thousand over the goal and paid for the new HVAC unit we desperately needed at the school. Very impressive outcome to say the least.

I can't wait to undertake a more professional recruiting piece for the school's website. I will start planning that one within a few weeks, and I'll waste no time in posting that one when it's done.

High quality link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLs7uq40OZQ

The death throes of print

E-readers are becoming more common lately.

With all the buzz around e-readers like the Nook and Kindle and devices like the iPad with e-reader capabilities, not to mention the proliferation of information available on the Internet, it seems it's only a matter of time before the printed tome sees its last days. I await this day with a feeling of anxiousness and dread.

I've never actually used an e-reader and I don't read as much as I used to, but I'm one of those people that's going to take forever to convert to electronic books, and maybe I never will. One of the things I love about printed books is the feeling of accomplishment I get when the stack of pages to the left of my current page starts to grow then eventually surpass the size of the stack of pages to the right. I can't see any way possible that a Nook can give me that same feeling.

There's also the storage issue, which can be a pro or a con either way. I love being able to display the books I've read (or plan on reading) in my home, but you can't really do that with e-books. On the flip side, it's a lot easier to relocate a Kindle than box after box of books should I need to move. And packing is a snap.

My local library now loans e-books too. I was looking for what I thought was an audiobook on the shelf and ended up having to ask the librarian about it. She informed me that it was an electronic book for e-readers and I was more or less gobsmacked. She said they work the same way as borrowing a traditional book. You get limited access to it before the next person checks it out. Weird.

The recently opened branch of my local library has sparsely
populated shelves and offers electronic loans.

I simply haven't been sold on the e-reader phenomenon yet, but at this point I can recognize some benefits. The library example makes sense to me. If I had an e-reader, I'd be most likely to start using it here due to the fleeting nature of how quickly the library book enters and exits my life.

Oh, you know what I hate though? When I'm happily reading during my lunch break, and everyone who enters the room interrupts me to ask, "What are you reading?" Would that be even worse when the book has no cover? It would be hella easier to lie, I guess. "Oh, er- I'm reading War and Peace. For the third time." (Actually it's the collected Penthouse forum letters from 1980-2000.)

But what brought this to mind today was this article I saw on the New York Times website about the Encyclopaedia Britannica ending its run of printed volumes after 244 years. I'm also one of those guys (relics, I guess) who places more faith in the written word than the electronic one, though it's hard to argue with the power to instantly update an electronic encyclopedia. I guess if you're paying an online subscription fee of $70 annually to access the Britannica material, that's still reliable information at a reasonable cost for a home with a student. My bias against online information is targeted mainly toward the stuff that's freely available from any number of self-titled "experts."

The 22-volume set of the World Book Encyclopedia from 1976
was my best friend in research throughout childhood.

When I was a kid we had the World Book Encyclopedia in our home (still in print, thank you). It was a series that was probably printed in 1976, and each year we got a Yearbook from the publisher that included updates on many of the older topics and even some new ones. The Yearbook came with a couple pages of lick-and-stick citation references to place on the appropriate pages of the volume set. I used to love combing through the different books and placing those update tabs each year. I remember that the entry for computers had nearly a quarter of the page plastered with those little update stickers. The photo in the original entry featured a laboratory computer about the size of two refrigerators.

Electronic information may be easier and cheaper to create, maintain, update and access, but that doesn't mean I have to accept the change quietly. This electronic age is beginning to sound the death knell for printed media in every form. Some magazines and newspapers have gone to electronic-only versions, including one of my childhood favorites, Cracked magazine (which I'm happy to say has matured along with me to a more adult-themed humor). In addition, the United States Postal Service has felt the sting dealt by the ubiquity of electronic communication, which has led to mail sorting facility and post offfice closings all over the country.

This is a new world, folks. I feel like we're teetering on the edge of somewhere I'm not sure I want to go. Add another 30 years and throw in a worldwide nuclear war... Looks like that book The Postman might be more a prediction of the future than pure science fiction. Haven't read it? Oh, you should. The movie's OK too, but I'd recommend the book over the film any day. Oh, and it's available for the Kindle too, at a fraction of the hardback cost. Sigh.

More pro bono work to add to the portfolio

I just finished up a pretty cool video project for my children's private school. My wife and I donated our time last week to plan, write, direct, shoot and edit a brief promotional video to be shown at a fundraiser.

More details to come, but they'll have to wait until next Saturday (March 17). I need to make sure that we have the benefit of first viewing at our school fundraiser dinner and auction on the evening of March 16.

I'm happy to have been given the opportunity to help out again, and not only do I help the school with this project - my wife parlayed it into an opportunity to allow me to create and place a free ad for my son's ballet school in the event program as payment!

In addition, this project is also blossoming into another opportunity, to create a more high-profile video of the same ilk for the school's web page. Hooray for me! Things are looking up. :)

New graphic for the ol' blog

Today I concocted and installed this new favicon for my blog. In addition I changed the header copy to read "M3 Blog" rather than "McGraw Media Matters." There might be a header graphic and title change in the works as well, but I have not yet decided for sure. "McGraw Media Matters" seems not quite right to me. But I love the M3 thing, so whatever I change it to has to incorporate the alliteration of "M."

Early Adobe Illustrator work

These two animal drawings represent some of the first attempts I did at creating vector graphics in Illustrator CS2, way back in 2008. They were traced in the application from actual photographs. This was also long before I had my pen & tablet for line drawing, which means it was all rather clumsily done with a mouse. Regardless, I still think they look pretty darn nice.

 

Photography: It's freaking old

A simple click on today's Google Doodle instantly revealed to me a wealth of knowledge regarding one of the great classical composers, Gioachino Rossini. Of course we all know Rossini from his operatic compositions The Barber of Seville and William Tell, or perhaps from the Great Kat's sensible and low-key speed metal masterpiece Rossini's Rape (NSFW).

But the one thing that stood out for me in the Wikipedia entry on Rossini was the photographs. There are three photos of Rossini in his later years on that page. This is a guy who was born in the 18th Century. That's more than 200 years ago. This is a guy who met and talked with Beethoven as a contemporary. And his photos look amazingly clear for having been taken in what would be considered photography's infancy.

Now, when I think "old photos," my mind turns toward the Old West photos of Billy the Kid or John Wesley Hardin, who once shot a man for snoring too loud. ;) Who hasn't wanted to recreate one of these at the little costume and souvenir photograph shop at Six Flags? They're an ingrained part of historic American culture, but these iconic images came about 10, even 20 years after the photos of Rossini and they are far less detailed.

Think about this: had Beethoven lived another 10 or 15 years, we may have actual daguerrotype images of him in a museum somewhere today. That is one old technology. This goes decades back beyond Eastman-Kodak's first amateur photography cameras of the 1890s-1900s.

So, though I must give props to Rossini, as it is the 220th anniversary of his birth, I must also take this Rare Disease Awareness Day to not only make others aware of Friedreich's Ataxia and its horrible effects on those poor children who have been diagnosed but to give a big shout out to Louis Daguerre, who kickstarted this wonderful medium which has fully matured from people sitting perfectly still for hours in their Sunday best to expose the plate and developers spending untold time perfecting dangerous chemical processes, to sexting, SOPA and the ubiquity of the camera phone which led to the creation of anthropologically and culturally valuable websites like peopleofwalmart.com.

Taking a bite out of Apple?

I just read a very interesting article here. In a nutshell, there's this Chinese tech company called Proview that created a product in 2000 called the IPAD (Internet Personal Access Device). The IPAD was sold throughout Asia.

In 2009 Apple wanted that name for a product it had in development (and wanted to sell throughout Asia as well as the rest of the world), so Apple created a special purpose company called IP Application Development Ltd. to contact Proview and negotiate the possible sale of the IPAD name, based solely on the fact that it was an acronym for their company's name. Proview had no idea that IP Application Development was even remotely affiliated with Apple.

The sale went through, but once Proview realized they had been duped by one of the leading technology manufacturers in the world (worth more than $460 billion), they were not happy. A Proview spokesman said, "While some technology companies create special purpose vehicles in order to obtain trademarks, in this case the sole function of Apple's special purpose vehicle was intentional misrepresentation, and an effort to fraudulently induce Proview Taiwan into a sale of the IPAD trademarks."

Essentially, these guys thought they were selling WUPHF.com to the Washington University Public Health Forum but they were really selling to the Walt Disney Company for way less than Disney would have paid had they known that's who the buyer was. D'oh!

If Proview wins their fraud lawsuit the iPad trademarks in the EU, Mexico and throughout Asia would revert back to Proview. I love Apple and its products, and I typically loathe Chinese products and their shoddy workmanship, but I gotta root for the little guy on this one. Shame on Apple for being so devious and underhanded.

Iron Swedish Chef

God, how I'd love to see this happen. With the renewed energy around the Muppets franchise lately, perhaps it will...

iTunes Ping goes haywire?

I noticed a couple weeks ago that my profile page on iTunes Ping says I have not written any reviews. However, if you scroll through my history you can see my reviews. Confusing. It was difficult enough to find them as is; now it's downright frustrating.

Since I previously called attention to my iTunes reviews in another post, I figured I'd might as well go ahead and just copy my reviews to this blog, backdated to their original posting date and thus making them much easier to find.

Three TV shows I'm glad I found

I don't really watch a whole lot of scripted, dramatic TV these days. Most of my tastes run toward more reality-based shows such as Whale Wars, American Pickers, Survivor, etc., though I do enjoy Doctor Who and a handful of other programs as well.

There are three easily accessible dramas on TV that I am so very glad I discovered. One is no longer airing, one is currently casting for its second season, and the other is into its second full season now.

I went on a long break from watching network TV dramas several years ago. When my wife and I got married, I think aside from a couple of Star Trek series that were playing weekly at that time, ER was the only network drama I was into. Until a coworker at Target with whom I really connected was telling me one night about Lost.

He insisted that he had the same feelings about network programming as I. He did not watch much TV at all, but this particular program was unlike anything he'd ever seen. It was very mysterious. It had an enormous, possibly unprecedentedly so, cast of main characters and was very character driven. It was refreshingly mind-bending.

So on his recommendation I illegally downloaded episode one. Bear in mind, this was before Hulu. It was also before ABC had a library of episodes actually available to watch for free as a streaming feed.

I downloaded it, watched it, and kept it thinking my wife might want to check it out too. I downloaded another couple of episodes and watched them as well. At this point I was hooked, and I had no choice but to share this incredible find with Heather too. I wrangled her into a chair and we watched those episodes at the computer desk. Then I deleted them from my computer and downloaded the rest of that season and the next. One by one, we watched and then deleted them.

Season three found us watching on TV like everyone else. John at Target was right. Lost quickly became my favorite TV show. Each week I was glued to the set, eager to find out the next twist. I began listening to the official Lost podcast each week too, hosted by the show's head writers, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Lindelof co-created the show with executive producer J.J. Abrams.

Essentially, the show is about a bunch of people who get stranded on a mysterious island after their plane crashes there. They have not only the natural elements on the island to contend with as they try desperately to survive, but also the unnatural (or perhaps supernatural is a better word) elements. They soon find out they're not alone on the island, nor was their crash landing an accident in the purest sense of the word. Though strangers, they are all there for a very specific reason.

The storytelling is done in a very unorthodox manner, flashing from present day to the past, giving subtle clues along the way that help piece together the back story and make connections between the characters that they themselves don't even know exist. In later seasons the flashbacks become flash forwards to what happens after they've escaped the island. During its run we also see flashes into alternate timelines and other things that will just make your head spin with all the possibilities they unleash.

For six seasons, I loved damn near every episode. Man, that show was a trip. I can't tell you how many engrossing conversations that program was responsible for initiating. I miss it sometimes. If you have never watched Lost, do yourself a favor and immediately find somewhere to rent it on DVD. It's also available streaming on Netflix. If you don't find it the most engaging TV you've ever experienced, I'll eat my socks.

Moving forward in time now to 2011, a new horror anthology series debuted on FX network in October. Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk (yes, the same guys who created Glee -- but don't forget, they also came up with Nip/Tuck), American Horror Story once again broke the mold of the television drama.

The pilot episode pushed the censorship limits of cable TV with egregious amounts of violence, sex, cursing and nudity. It was honestly a little hard to watch. I had been expecting something a bit more classy, with more substance rather than irreverence simply for the sake of irreverence. In subsequent episodes the show proved that though it was definitely deserving of its TV-MA rating, the storytelling was solid and the creep factor quite effective.

The story centers on a family of three, including a teen daughter, who move from Boston to L.A. to start over after the wife delivers a stillborn baby and the husband is caught having an affair with one of his students. The viewer knows right away there is something very unsettling about the house: its owners always seem to end up dead. Violently dead.

The first season contains 12 episodes. Like Lost, this one jumps around a little bit to give you glimpses into the back story of either the main characters or the house. I don't want to give too much away, but let me just tell you that the women cast in the show are fantastic. Connie Britton, Taissa Farmiga and Jessica Lange (who won a Golden Globe and a SAG award for her work on the show) give simply stellar performances every week. If you can stomach the opener, track this one down and give the whole series a shot. It rules.

Oh, and American Horror Story should also win an award for creepiest goddamn opening credits sequence ever. It's crappin' scary.

Finally, we come to AMC's breakout hit, The Walking Dead. I know, the zombie thing is getting kind of played out these days. It's gone mainstream and seems to have lost its bite so to speak. This show is a result of that mainstream acceptance of the zombie, but as a zombie enthusiast from before they jumped the undead shark, trust me when I tell you that in this case it's led to a good thing.

It's based on a comic book which, as I understand, is quite successful in its own right. As a former comic reader, though I haven't purchased one since about 2003, I respect the aesthetic of the comic book as an art form and a graphic storytelling medium. I love the idea of basing a television show off of a comic, especially a title published by Image Comics. And, dammit, despite the zombie mania that seems to be sweeping across mainstream America, I like the idea of a TV show that takes place in a sort of post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland.

Apparently a lot of others dig it too. I talk about the series with coworkers. My older sister and her husband watch The Walking Dead too. So do my parents, who are in their 60s for crying out loud, and I've never known them to voluntarily consume any media dealing with zombies. Even vampires are a stretch for them, though we did all see Blade when it originally ran in theaters and they seemed to dig it.

The Walking Dead doesn't have a whole lot of originality in the background story. Seriously, it's your typical zombie apocalypse back story. It's the characters and their interactions that make the series what it is. The light gore and bloody effects are pretty impressive too.

The first season is out on DVD and the second is currently airing Monday nights on AMC. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Not sure how I feel about Google's cloud music service

I've had Google Music for a few weeks now, and if I've learned anything it's that it's nice to have a lot of your personal music collection at your fingertips without having to go through that laborious effort of toting about and switching CDs; but at the same time, it's complete drudgery going through the process of uploading all your stuff to the Google Music server.

I don't know about anyone else, but my upload speed is evidently appallingly slow. It's like being on freaking dialup. I currently have nearly 100 albums uploaded to my cloud and it took probably a week to do that. It's absolutely torturous.

If you can put up with the upload speed, or perhaps you have a faster connection than I, the service itself is very nice. It's free to upload 25,000 songs, free to access them as much as you wish (they are yours, after all), and you can do so form anywhere you can get online. Essentially, your music collection travels with you wherever you go, as long as you can access an Internet connection.

The organization of the albums is nice, as well as the ability to make playlists and edit track or album information. You also get the ability to download your music to another device (up to twice only). You get a few sorting options - by track, artist, album, or genre. All in all, for a free servcice, it's hard to complain about. But I will, in the interest of playing the Devil's advocate.

My biggest beef with this service is that the only way to access it is through a web browser. I'm guessing smart phones can access it, but I still live in dumb phone land so I wouldn't know for sure. What would really be nice, as I've said before about free streaming music service Spotify, is if I could access it from a home video game console. My PS3 is hooked up to my home entertainment system and stereo receiver, so it would be cool if I could pump this music library through that system by accessing it on the PS3, like a streaming media server. That would even be worth paying a premium for. I can always route my laptop sound output through the receiver, but that's kind of ghetto to me.

Another complaint I have is that you cannot edit the information about multiple tracks at once. You can edit album information, that's true, but there's no way to, say, select multiple albums and edit the artist information for all of them. Similarly, you do not have the ability from the main sorting screen to do anything with an album other than play it. If you want to add an album to a playlist, you can't do it from that screen; you must first click the album so that you are taken to that specific album's information. Only from there can you add the album to a playlist or edit its ID3 tags. It just seems like they could stand to eliminate a few mouse clicks here or there.

I also wish it would integrate with Facebook or Google+ like Spotify is. It could definitely be more of a social experience, and I'm very surprised that Google hasn't taken this route with it. By adding music and posting your listening preferences, you would be promoting tracks for purchase in the Android store.

I can tell you one other thing about Google Music. Since I signed up I have barely listened to Spotify at all. Then again, I've spent a lot of time editing inaccurate track information too. Sometimes it's right going in but ends up incorrect once it's there.

All in all, I suppose it's worth taking a look at if you're interested.

R.I.P. Whitney Houston

The image to the left was used in the interior sleeve of Whitney Houston's eponymous 1985 debut album. When I was 11 to 12 years old I can't tell you how many times I stared at this photo while wearing out my "Whitney Houston" cassette tape listening to it over and over. I had such a crush on this beautiful young black woman with the gorgeous and powerful voice.

As more of her saturated the MTV charts over the following years, I maintained my secret crush on Ms. Houston, up until her marriage with that guy that used to be one of the kids in New Edition. When news got out that he was acting like a dick I said to myself, "What in the world is goddess-like Whitney Houston doing with a loser like that?"

Once the '90s progressed further and Bobby and Whitney both became tabloid fodder, she really began losing her sexual mystique. I started seeing her as just another trashy, drug-addled loser. "Crack is wack," she once said to Diane Sawyer in a TV interview, but somehow I didn't believe that she'd stayed away from it despite her protestations. The woman I'd once admired was completely fried. It was then that I did my own sort of mourning for Whitney.

Yesterday's news of Whitney's death is really not that surprising considering her past. It's still a shame though. She was incredibly talented and a legend in her own time. Whitney will be missed.

Like you didn't see this coming...

Well, the minute I started blogging about heavy metal music, any reader who truly knows me would have expected me to lead off with a post about my favorite metal band of all time, Manowar. Gamma Ray was probably a bit of a curve ball for those folks. I didn't want to be too predictable, but I can't wait any longer to give Manowar their due.

Manowar was formed in 1980 in Auburn, New York, by former members of the bands the Dictators, the Rods, and Shakin' Street, along with newcomer vocalist Eric Adams. After recording a demo tape in 1981 a new drummer was recruited, making the new roster Adams, bassist Joey DeMaio, guitarist Ross "The Boss" Friedman, and drummer Donnie Hamzik.


Their debut album, Battle Hymns, was released in 1982 on Liberty Records. Their followup, Into Glory Ride, came out in 1983, as they left their label to sign a contract with Music For Nations (in their own blood, no less) with yet another new drummer, Scott Columbus. This album marked the beginning of the band's penchant for medieval battle and Norse pantheon themes. 1984 brought their album Hail to England, and Sign of the Hammer arrived only ten months later.


1987 saw Manowar's first major label release, Fighting the World, on Atlantic Records. It was through this album that I was first exposed to my new favorite band. In 1988 the band released their best-selling album worldwide, Kings of Metal. During their subsequent tour they parted ways with Columbus and Ross the Boss, recruiting new drummer, "Rhino," and new guitarist David Shankle.


In 1992 Manowar released their seventh album, The Triumph of Steel, and the heads of myself and my friends were fit to fully explode. Rhino and Shankle were welcome replacements, as this album (the first one any of us had purchased on CD) sounded so much more brutal than any of its predecessors. It did have a bit of a downfall though. The first track on the disc was a 28-minute long epic about the Iliad called "Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts." Jeez, I think in the 20 years I've owned that disc I've only listened to the entirety of that track no more than three times. Snoozefest, that one. Sorry, guys.


After a long tour Rhino departed the band to make way for the return of the mighty Scott Columbus, and Shankle left the band as well, leaving a space for new guitarist (and my favorite one of the bunch) Karl Logan. 1996 would see the release of one of my least favorite Manowar albums, Louder Than Hell. Over the next several years touring would take most of the band's time. Two double live albums were released in the interim between 1996 and 2002's return to the studio to produce one of their best efforts, Warriors of the World.


Warriors is a damn fine piece of metal. The first time I gave it a spin I told myself, "This is the record that they should have done after Kings of Metal!"


In 2003, Joey DeMaio created his own label, Magic Circle Music, which is now the band's permanent home. DeMaio also went hog wild with Manowar live DVD releases in the post-2000s, with a few EPs scattered here and there as well. Their next full-length studio album, Gods of War, was released in 2007.


In 2011, drummer Scott Columbus passed away at age 54. No official cause of death was announced, though rumor told of his battles with poor health throughout his on-again, off-again career with Manowar. Upon his passing, veteran drummer Donnie Hamzik returned to the band. This actually gives them the strongest lineup in the history of the band, in my opinion: DeMaio, Adams, Hamzik and Logan. KILLER. They re-recorded their debut album in its entirety, dubbing this release Battle Hymns MMXI, and finally came back to the U.S. for a very protracted tour schedule.

That tour was the second time I saw Manowar perform live, and it reaffirmed my faith that no band puts on a better live show. Period.


Manowar has been collaborating with famous German sci-fi/fantasy author Wolfgang Hohlbein over the past few years on their next outing, The Asgard Saga, which is scheduled for release this year. According to plan, it should coincide with related releases in literary, visual art and film formats as well. Not sure how that's going to work out, frankly. I'm just hoping for another great album.


So here's a taste of a song from Manowar's most recent EP. It's supposed to be a teaser for the upcoming album. The song is called "Thunder in the Sky," and it's on regular iPod rotation for me. Here's a live version:

...And my list of full-length Manowar releases, in order of favorite to least favorite:

1. Battle Hymns MMXI
2. Warriors of the World
3. Kings of Metal
4. Hail to England
5. Fighting the World
6. Gods of War
7. The Triumph of Steel
8. Sign of the Hammer
9. Battle Hymns
10. Louder Than Hell
11. Into Glory Ride

A quick Photoshop project

One afternoon I was asked out of the blue by one of my company's senior managers to whip up a graphic showing a five-point delivery system related to our estate planning services division. He wanted it for a PowerPoint presentation, I guess.

Wasting no time, I went right to work, thinking to myself, "What gives an impression of stability and reliability better than Greek and Roman architecture? It's been standing for centuries, plus they were a very educated people. I should base this design somehow on the Parthenon."

Following that inspiration I whipped this up for him in under an hour using Photoshop CS4. Mission accomplished.

A 20+ year obsession comes of age

OK, so since I've designated this page as media-themed and that can mean just about anything really, I'm going to start additionally using it as a way to spotlight a musical obsession I've had for nearly 25 years: METAL.

And I'm not talking about that cookie cutter new metal that we get in abundance in the USA. I enjoy listening to that stuff once in a while--even Nickelback takes a few turns on my iPod rotation now and then. What I'm talking about is the stuff that doesn't get much or any airplay on so-called "hard rock and metal" radio stations in this country, at least nowhere I'm aware of. There's a whole world of heavy music out there that the average American hard rock fan has never been exposed to. Many of the bands in these subgenres have very successful careers throughout the world but are relatively unheard of in North America.

I'm going to keep this blog going as before, but when I am at a loss for a "normal" post, I'll toss in a link to a YouTube video, official band site, album review or something else within the realm of legality that features a heavy music act that I think deserves some attention.

Kicking it off with some Gamma Ray. The band was founded by Kai Hansen, the original lead singer of German metal band Helloween. During Hansen's time at the helm, Helloween was a very decent thrash band. They only released a couple of EPs and a full-length album before his departure from the band and their new direction which originated the sound that came to be known as power metal.

Hansen went on to form Gamma Ray in 1988. Their debut album, Heading for Tomorrow, was released two years later on Noise Records. If featured Hansen on lead guitar and Ralf Scheepers on vocals. Scheepers would provide vocals for two additional outings before Hansen took over beginning on the 1995 release, Land of the Free. From that point on, Hansen would do double duty as lead guitarist and vocalist. He's also been the main songwriter during the band's career.

Scheepers went on to found another successful power metal band, Primal Fear, after being turned down as Rob Halford's replacement in Judas Priest.

To date, Gamma Ray has released 10 studio albums, three live discs and three EPs. They have become one of Germany's most successful metal acts ever. And deservedly so.

Here's Gamma Ray doing a live version of one of the catchiest tunes from their debut album, "Heaven Can Wait":