Very knocked out by what Trent and NIN are doing and digging the fine music as well. So I thought hey why not share the love and keep good energy and will flowing around the digital atmosphere. Theme music by Moshang and yes it is awesome and chilling. Mentioned my new site and project Big In Asia. Show some love to Trent and friends by downloading from him and getting friends to do the same.
I must confess, I’m not an old NIN fan boy, but I am more and more impressed by Trent Reznor. His musical ability is solid, but I’m even more impressed by his cultivating and responding to his followers and grasp of the Net culture whereas so many from the music business are completely clueless on that score. The new work is not the best I’ve heard by them, but I’d rate it 7.5* out of 10*. Like I said today to a NIN-loving friend I’d rather have a 7-8 NIN effort than a 9 or 10 of many other people. Trent’s explanation for the free release is that he wants to thank the Net for helping him make 1.6 million smackers on the last go. Good for him. Nice to know that with ingenuity, hard work and sensitivity to one’s market(in this case:listener’s) people can actually make real money on the internet and also have the exchange happen quickly and directly between marketer and market.
Chilli CookOff bands during the day and MJ Klein at BBQ during the evening. All in all a good day of fun, food, music and conversation.
Some Australian jewelry company: Re:vision is making pieces out of recycled camera parts! Kudos for recycling and for using such cool objects to make jewelry from. I can think of many photographer friends that would want something from their collection.
Out for a spin with Kevin, my 14 year old son on recent Tomb Sweeping Day break. We drove into the huge Science Park that emerged out of the cane fields on a hill in Daya. Kevin operated the Xacti from the back of our 90cc scooter. Fun stuff!
My buddy Jeremy Vaught aka the Seesmic Blogger Dude informed me via chat this morning that Seesmic’s new plugin for WordPress was available. This is what is showing above. So let’s give it a little road test shall we?
First I mentioned John Williams Gordon to a new music friend that stated a preference for blues and jazz musical forms/ He responded that he hadn’t heard was very, impressed by brief listening and would return for more later. He then mentioned a West African virtuoso from Benin-Lionel Loueke. Knowing that this guy had some serious musical taste I got right over there. I’m listening as I type this, in fact. Man, Lionel sounds a lot like a guitar oriented Weather Report-beautiful playing and inventive singing with the exuberance often found in African musicians.
Don’t want to short change John Williams Gordon or his Mutant Jazz by any means. He offers a more minimalist, cool kind of vibe. It reminds me of Bill Evans in some ways and also Monk, more by abstraction than by actual sound. If innovative guitar music is your thing then run don’t walk. Better yet, just click…
Last Sat. was a great day to get out and enjoy some of the early summer weather here in central Taiwan. There was an event at SOHO mall with 9 bands and a chili cook-off to raise money for local Kidz charity. Later I went to a barbecue at the home of Steve and Rhonda and their lovely kids. There were also some “new media” friends in attendance there including the Dark Lord of New Hampshire (aka MJ Klein) and Michael Turton (who I also ran into earlier in the day at the SOHO event), and a new friend Ashish who took some ribbing over his name rhyming with something. I’ll do a video soon with some music from SOHO and MJ rocking out on his new rig.
It’s unusual with all the web apps and shiny devices on the Net these days that I come across something that is so useful and it’s utility/benefit so apparent. Apture appears to be just that. Enabling easy multimedia rich file linking without messing with CSS or HTML language in the guts of your site. It also aggregates an abundant amount of multimedia resources for you to mash up with to tie in with your topic. Good job Apture team! Many examples of the links in post below.
The stuff of legend, the veritable “Stinking Rose.” I have always had a love for this herb as a flavoring agent and have since come to know and appreciate as a health food. Wikipedia has the following to add:
Allium sativum L., commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion family Alliaceae. Its close relatives include the onion, the shallot, and the leek. Garlic has been used throughout recorded history for both culinary and medicinal purposes. It has a characteristic pungent, spicy flavor that mellows and sweetens considerably with cooking.[1]. A bulb of garlic, the most commonly used part of the plant, is divided into numerous fleshy sections called cloves. The cloves are used as seed, for consumption (raw or cooked), and for medicinal purposes. The leaves, stems (scape) and flowers (bulbils) on the head (spathe) are also edible and most often consumed while immature and still tender. The papery, protective layers of ’skin’ over various parts of the plant and the roots attached to the bulb are the only parts not considered palatable.
There are many materials and experts that will attest to the health benefit properties of this wonder food. My wife comes from a family of garlic farmers. We are blessed with a good supply of the particularly pungent Taiwan varietal. Last night I accidentally bit into some that was still raw. I was tricked! Actually, this was in brine from my wife’s delicious “pao tsai” 泡菜 a pickled cabbage concoction with carrots, cucumbers, chilis and garlic. I had an instant almost virulent reaction to the garlic reaching my stomach. This reminded me of when I first came here over 20 years ago and went to a dumpling restaurant. They had abundant supply of raw garlic on each table along with chili paste, soy sauce, fragrant oil and vinegar-the usual acoutrements for dumplings. I spotted an old mainlander(many of the Chinese in Taiwan came from China with Chiang Kai Shek in 1949) taking a garlic clove and eating it after he had scarfed a dumpling. So naturally wanting a genuine experience I followed suit. Dang-talk about the China syndrome! Total nuclear melt down in my gut.
My wife saw what was happening and poured me a glass of water. She added that garlic helps prevent cancer-I can’t see how any microbe can withstand heat like that.
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