#1 My first order of business is to work out this pill situation.. I went to the pharmacy yesterday asking if my pills had been called in.  They said yes.. I took them… and then took the pills, and then this morning found they were the wrong damn pills.. or.. pills I need.. but that I don’t really need to get refilled for a couple of weeks… the pills I need are for the smoking.. and I’m fucked if I can’t quit.. so im feeling deeply screwed at the moment…

#2 I gotta email my dermatologist.. find out when my appointment is… what the results of the test are.. hoping I doin’t get charged $80 for missing an appointment…

#3 The Book / Info hunt:

So I’m going to go to the book store to scour the collection… basically what I need is information on CSS3, lots of Canvas API stuff.. including the 3D stuff.. and.. stuff on using SVG… and maybe JQuery.. although I don’t really know to what degree JQuery is really what I need to be jumping into right now.

Beyond that it’s basically stuff like.. what are the best practices for this that and other other thing..

So it’s too the book store and then the library to search there system to see if they have some of this stuff so I don’t have to pay so much money… and if I can find a kindly librarian that might listen to my sob stories… and help me lower my bill…

#4 I need to get an appointment at the Apple store for them do look at my Mac Pro and see what’s wrong with it.

#5 I gotta organize my calendar.

#6 I got to down load all this API stuff. / find out what what the skinny is on the API’s for

1. Indaba
2. Flickr
3. Google Maps
4. Google Analytics
5. Google+ (do they even have an API for that?)
6. MySpace (well you know.. they’ve been coming along.. wonder if they have anything?)
7. Last.fm
8. BandCamp
9. Facebook
10. Sound Cloud

#7 I also need to find out about the whole twitter / face book log in system

#8 I also need to look into the subject of facebook / Google+ app creation

#9 I have to email a DJ.. about a local electronic music group.. or what the story is on that.. and also I’d like to find out what blogs he’s looking at and whatever else.

#8 I gotta put some of my music into this particular sound cloud group for a local music group I am sorta a part of

#10.. I need to find out about paying for this ticket…  so that I might keep my car on the road for a bit

Beyond all that.. its just more web design related stuff… and whatever else I’ll put off until tomorrow me thinks.. ok.. on with the day’s adventures

Just a quick-e background thing so you know what I’m talking about.. The HTML5 Geo Location API allows a web page or web application to know where you’re at, if you want to let them know where you’re at…

The big application for this is thinking about Mobile computer and the mobile context for computing, and we use web pages / computer applications differently in a mobile context then the usual desktop or laptop context. This contextual change is THE BIG THING, and understanding what it could mean for artists.. leveraging the implications… can equal HUGE competitive advantages for the artist(s)/Band. (Not to mention others)

So what I thought I’d do is share some medications I’m doing on the subject..

Maybe the job of the artist / band is not to build a fan base so much as it is to build a community. I know I’m finding that with many local bands… what brings me to the show might often be as much the artist as it is the community of people around that artist, and how I’ve become a member of that community…

Now I’ve been looking at subjects like social biology and evolutionary psychology.. and one of the things we are finding.. is about how people belong to groups.. and we are finding that we can look at groups from a kind of game theory tit for tat kinda perspective.. that this lys behind what groups fail and what groups don’t… which has played a huge roll in human evolution… and we could look at the group as playing this huge roll in human evolution which historically hasn’t been looked at all that deeply.

Lets get Pragmatic about this

The American Pragmatist movement in philosophy (we’re talking American Civil War generation) brought statistics and probability theory to philosophy… and started to talk about the existence of a belief in our culture as having to do with it’s use value.. and your adoption of that belief, or behavior, or whatever, of having to do with it’s use value to you..

Another words.. what you believe has less to do with truth then it has to do with value… and value in relationship to your own kind of ecological context.. that is to say the environment you are living in.. and how you are relating to it..

This then creates “the market value” or demand for beliefs and behaviors and what not

Also.. there’s this famous case where supreme court justice Oliver Wendle Homes upheld freedom of speech for an anarchist (Homes was a conservative guy) saying that free speech has a pragmatic value for the welfare of the community.. wether or not we believe in what that person over there is saying.. the diversity of believe / views / ideas = genetic diversity and thus is important and has a lot of value to give to the echo system / countries well being.

Err, but what does this mean to us?

So then I began to think that maybe the thing that an artist really needs to do is inculcate the right kind of values into the artist’s community.. I mean if values = how well a particular group does in a larger echo system of groups / communities.. that also mean’s that the artist’s well being is tied to that value system.

Back to our social web

And so all of this brought me to thinking about social media and community.. marketing, content marketing, crowd sourcing.. and all those other trendy web terms.. but particular how to think about these things relative to site design and the business objectives of the artist.

The suggestion here is that a big part of how the web design ought to be thought about is… how does it help the artist’s community.

Now.. what a community needs.. depends on the community.. this isn’t a one size fits all thing.. but might there be a way one could build technology that could be customized to the needs of the community?

And so my first thought is to start to think about various scenarios.. and think about stuff in relationship to this.

So one idea is the mobile web experience of an event

You could go to an event and check in.. to check in.. you could check in with your facebook account, twitter, or just an email.. because, after all.. the HTML5 geo location API can tell that you are indeed where you say you are, which is at this show.

Now.. from a bands perspective, knowing who’s coming to what show has a lot of value.. it has value in terms of “customer relationship management” and “sales funnel optimization” and all kinds of business-e things…. so getting fans / community folks to sign is.. there’s a whole lot of obvious incentives for the artist.

But what about the community?

Ok.. so lets talk about clubs and bars. Why do people go to clubs and bars? Music, sure? But they also might like to mingle with the opposite sex.. and so there could be a kind of social network built into the site.. and how might that facilitate such mingling?

Better yet.. how could you use such a network to help “new people” feel welcomed into the group?

Well one idea for the community is to have “games,” that are designed to create certain behaviors (reinforce the cultural value system you want in your group).. so for instance.. there could be a game by which you community members get points, while at a show, for signing up new members.

Without going too deeply into this.. if the artist is about a certain value system.. then the way someone is let into the community.. or “the brand / marketing execution” needs to be consistent with the brand / band values… I mean.. you could join the network without feeling welcomed to the network…

Technologically / User Experience speaking, how do we make you feel welcome? Safe? That’s a big design challenge.

Very often.. when a new person comes into a group.. that new person feels uncomfortable because the individual members of the group feel uncomfortable with the new person.. or don’t know what to make of this new person… so how could a mobile social network solve this problem?

Maybe there’s people in the network whom are “greeters.” Like there thing is to make people feel welcome.. and maybe somehow they are rewarded for that.

I mean.. you could virtually put up a sign over your self that says “anyone want to talk” or “I’m interested in these subjects, if you wanna come talk to me, this is your key” or whatever..

You could use the mobile social network as a kind of augmented reality system via which you sent out social signals that you other wise might not be able to do.

Ok…

Well I’m not sure how all that will work, have to think about it some more…

The Documentarians

Ok.. so there are these people taking pictures.. or shooting video.. perhaps tweeting for that matter.. it might be that they could post what they’ve shot, even via our website.. to sites like Facebook, flicker, twitter, whatever… it could also be that if the system knows about you’re accounts.. and you post the content with the hash tag of the event, everyone at the event can now see that content.. and people coming to the event page… say on a mobile device, trying to figure out if they want to come to the show… or people looking at the website from there home computer.. can see this content to.

Now here’s what I was also thinking…Camera create meta data around images including things like what time the picture was taken… so there might be a kind of real time way of experience the show.. by using this data… maybe while your at an event you could go back through time of the event…

And.. if people are capturing audio and or video… how this could be a part of it…

So then an event can because this thing you can explore on the band’s website..

And of course documentarians… get points, right?

How about twitter links and facebook mentions? (For facebook we’d probably want to limit the amount of updates you could make.. cause we don’t want you to be spamy.. but based on the code in your link we could track who got the most click throughs)

I’ve always thought, without a doubt.. one of the things a band ought to do is to encourage people to hand over there email to sign up for the news letter with the incentive that they can get an audio recording of the event if they do so..

But.. of course.. with Facebook apps, and all the rest of it, we are getting a whole lot more data… so for instance.. we can know if we want to send that person an email asking them to come to our show that’s like a 20 hour drive from there address…

When you clicked on a profile of a person.. who was, say “a documentarian” it could provide links to all the photos, videos, and whatever else they’ve made..

I don’t know.. I’m just thinking about this.. and how you can empower the community to build the community.. almost like a self organizing system…

Hell, maybe the answer is to make the tools simple for community members to create stuff with?

Well.. I got a couple of shows to go to.. so I’m off, more thoughts on this stuff latter, no doubt…

I’m sorta looking into this business of putting together a resume.. which means.. what skills you got.. and along the way.. one of the things to look at is “what does you’re studio look like… and so here’s a mostly complete list (although a few of these items aren’t currently in my studio, but indeed I do know them):

DAWs (Digital Audio Work Stations / Production Environments)

Cubase, Digital Performer, Ableton Live, Maschine

VSTs

Motu MX1, Kontakt, Massive, FM8, Pro-53, Reaktor, Absynth, Omnisphere, BFD + Daw Specific VSTs.

 FX

Waves Gold

(L1 Ultramaximizer, MaxxBass, TrueVerb, S1, Renaissance Axx, Renaissance Compressor, Renaissance Equalizer, Renaissance Reverb C1, C4, MetaFlanger, MondoMod, DeEsser, Paz Psychoacoustic Analyzer, Enigma, SuperTap, IR-L, Doubler, Doppler, Q10 Paragraphic Equalizer AudioTrack, MV2, Wave Tune LT, H Comp, H0Delay)

PSP

PSP 84, PSP 608?, Nitro, EQ Bundle (PSP ClassicQ, PSP ConsoleQ, PSP McQ, PSP NobelQ)

IK Multimedia

Vintage Tube Compressor/Limter Model 670, Vintage Tube Program Equalizer, Optop Compressor, Intelligent Multi-algorithm Brickwall Limiter, High precision Linear phase Equalizer

Classic Studio Reverb: Hall

VirSyn

Bark, Reflect, Matrix, Tape delay, tape saturator, tape flanger, Transient designer

Audio Ease (All In Bundle)

Altiverb, Speakerphone, Cabinet, Periscope, Riverrun, Deep Phase Nine, Orbit, Follo, Roger, Snapper

Other Goodness

1. Lexicon Native Reverb Plug-in Bundle
2. Liquid MiX,
3. URS Channel Strip Pro
4.  Native Instruments Kore 2
5.  Guitar Rig
6. + DAW Specific Effects
7. Max/MSP/Jitter

Studio Hardware

Mac Pro 2 * quad core 2.8 GHz Intel Xeon (8 cores), 10 GB of RAM and few TB of hard disk space include Drobo.. 2 27″ Monitors

Controllers

Keyboard, Launch Pad, APC40, Maschine, various Nano Controllers, Kore2

Berhringer MIDI Foot Controller FCB1010

Rolland Guitar Synth

Monitors:

M-Audio BX2 A Audio Monitors

Audio Interfaces i/0

1. Apogee Ensemble
2. MOTU 828

Portable Recorders (can also act as interfaces)

1. Zoom H2 portable recorder
2. Zoom H4 portable recorder

Microphone Preamps

Liquid Channel Microphone Preamp

+4 on the Ensemble +2 Motu 828 +4 on a Tascam 16 channel Digital Mixer (which perhaps doesn’t have the best A/D D/A)

Microphones (ranging from budget to ghetto)

1. M-Audio Pulsar 2 (matched pair of small diaphragm condensers)
2. MXL 144r Ribbon Microphone
3. SM57 Microphone
4. MXL Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphones
5. Shot Gun Microphones
6. 2 Lapel Microphones

The Wonderful World of Gutiar

1. Gibson SG
2. Engager Rebel 30

and a few other odds and ends

I just thought it would be interesting if I had it all laid out.

Being without my main computer has left me to focus on what I can focus on, given the tools at my disposal… and so.. I’ve started pre production work on the website.

This will be the most bad ass music artists website known to human kind.. or at least that’s what I’m aiming for. It will be built on top of the wordpress blog / content management system.. with a whole lot of mad extending going on.

Basically.. I think artists websites suck. Especially if we are talking about websites for artist’s you’ve never heard of before.. Very often the business objectives and sorta basic strategy stuff.. of lets just say what a website should do.. what it should be.. kinda the 101 basics.. aren’t there.. never mind anything even mildly visionary.

Not so with this site.. this site will be the best artist website out there…

I know.. I’m being all boastful… and in truth I’m not sure if the site I’m looking to design is realistic or if I’ll make it through the design and production stages to actually having it up… I have a certain fear and trembling around the work in front of me… but.. if I succeed, it will kick some serious ass.

What will make it great

Basically what it is.. is thinking about the various challenges an artist has, particularly when an artist is an unknown… and what roll a website could play in address those challenges.

One of my key advantages.. over other artists.. is I’m building the website myself.. which means.. I can build a site that even an act with a major label backing probably couldn’t afford… although a disadvantage is.. I’m not exactly a web design specialist ..

The Process

I have this big old news print pad.. and I’m basically going through my ideas.. from every angle I can think of.. aiming at some kind of a rough conception of the site.. from both a design perspective and a technology blueprint perspective..

It’s very clear / obvious.. that what we are dealing with here is HTML5, CSS3, JQuery, WordPress, PHP, and MySQL for technologies.. none of which do I have any particular command off at the moment… instead what I’ll do is design the whole thing on aper.. how I want it to all work.. and then use that as a road map to do a little rapid prototyping on it… so that my learning of these technologies will be centric to my road map.

So for instance.. I know that I’ll be making heavy use of the HTML5 canvas feature.. and whatever kind of graphics acceleration is possible inside of a browser.. I’ll be pushing HTML5 and CSS3 to an extreme.. to make it work like Flash (I could probably actually pull of this site in Flash without it being anywhere near as overwhelming as it feels at the moment… I actually kinda know my way around Flash)

There will probably be, kinda sorta, different versions of the site.. and a certain way that the site will scale / change depending on the devise you’re using…  clearly you need a totally different interface if you’re on an iPhone / portable smart phone.. and the use cases are clearly different in ways you might not expect.. from say an iPad style tablet to a laptop to some kind of laptop or desktop.

User Experience Design

Some of the complexity relies on the.. shall we call it “flash” of the site. It’ll be a kind of visual and motion graphics extravaganza… the kind of thing many a usability specialist might look down on.

But really.. here in lys the real challenge.. designing the user experience and interface.. I want to do some stuff… with respect to how navigation works.. to how you can explore content and data, that I’ve never seen done before.. and that’s really the reason for the flashy-ness of it all…

The fact that I’ll be doing things differently from conventions is something that presents the really serious challenges…

In user interface design.. the goal is to not make the user think.. that the interface should get out of the way.. that the user should intuitively figure out how to get to whatever the user wants to get do, to do whatever the user wants to do.. provided of course that the website in question facilitates any of this.

So this is a really huge challenge… even if you really knew what you were doing.

But in part this is a site that’s about a unique kind of experience… and the idea that some of the navigation is unique.. hopefully.. is part of the pleasure of the site.. this idea that I’m liberating you from the limitations of traditional navigation and user interface conventions.

Strategic Objectives

All of this is done in the service of allowing you to explore the artist, and the artist’s work.. to give context and meaning to things.. to tell a story in unique ways… to bring you into the artists world…

Really.. its in someways about inbound marketing.. its about how do you take someone who ether simply happens upon the site, or for one reason or another sought out the site.. to take them from someone of causal interest.. into an indoctrinating fan.. that’s the conversion I’m looking for.. and then finally the conversion from that to an evangelist for the artist.

Of story and consumption patterns

When a new product comes to market.. you have to hear about it a number of times before you even realize it exists.. music is often designed or written with hooks.. to try and hook you into digging it as soon as possible.. or this is surely pop music.. and then there’s another kind of music.. that some, and we might call these folks music snobs, think of as a much more serious kind of music.. that isn’t about hooks.. and is somehow more satisfying.. but it’s also a good bit more challenging for the listener.. to merely get to a place where he or she is able to appreciate it.

This, to me, is a major subject for Aesthetics.. as in the philosophy of art.. but it’s also something that has implications for public relations, marketing, sales, how you tell stories.. etc.

What I want to do is take you from the hooks… down into the depths.. where things are more challenging.. and perhaps more satisfying…

Some of the stories I have to tell are like the stories of individual projects.. what went into them, the stories behind them… some of the stories are the stories of the artist confrontation with adversity.. the challenges of life.. some of the stories are more like.. the philosophy of the art and artist.. just talking about the ideas behind the work…

And then there’s the subject of finding interrelationships between stories.. so that what we see is really a rich tapestry of stories…

One way I would put it is this idea of identity.. who we think we are.. is a whole bunch of stories.. who other people think we are.. another bunch of stories.. what we are doing, trying to doing, whatever.. a bunch of stories.. and so within each of us is all these stories.. and how do you present these stories in a way that makes sense from a user centric story consumption point of view? From a promotion and marketing point of view?

These are all some of the challenges.

Also there’s the more basic kinds of things.. that this site is to achieve.. I want to sell some work… make some money.. etc…

Well that’s all for now.. I have a certain party I need to get to and I’m running late!!!

It’s not really eviction day.. or the day of homelessness.. or any of that… I was given an eviction notice 3 months ago today… and the date it said I was supposed to get out of this house by is.. well… today.

I often like to differentiate between things like “enlightened self interest” the Law, and um… lets say something like “personality.” So for instance.. if you post content to Facebook.. Facebook owns that and can do whatever it wants with it, right? But that would not be in Facebook’s self interest because.. well.. that would create a very difficult PR situation.. that could potentially really damage Facebook.

You see what I’m saying?

I throw personality in there because.. different people are motivated by different things.. so in whatever legal situation.. or whatever.. just cause the law says X doesn’t mean X is what’s going to happen.. you know what I mean?

So.. I don’t fully understand the law surrounding this eviction business.. but I have a few hunches about how this could play out.

For starters.. right now I’m scrambling to try and figure out how to move out of this house.. to find some place to move into.. but it’s not so easy seeing as… well I’m super poor.. I need subsidized housing.. there seems to be a shortage in that area.. etc.

What gives me some sense of not totally freaking out is understand that the law is such that.. if I’m doing a reasonable amount.. I guess this is what it is.. to try and get out of this house.. they can’t just kick me to the street..

So.. I think they know that.. cause.. you know.. they have a lawyer.. which is why I got the eviction notice.. what I think the deal is.. .obviously they want me out of the house.. and they could summon me to court right away.. but the trouble is that’s going to cost my father money #1 and #2 its a month before I’d get to court anyway.. and if I’ve left at that point.. well what’s the use.

But.. besides that.. there is the legal issue of.. if they can’t kick me out if I’m doing a reasonable amount to try and get out of here.. well, does it make sense to take me to court then? I mean if it’s a case you can’t win?

Now.. I don’t know.. I’m sure a judge can do stuff.. and like.. you know.. maybe there is a good reason to take me to court even if they can’t win.

More to the point.. I think what they want to do is really motivate me to get out of here.. and.. I think.. the more the situation is one that.. they get some kind of legal leverage.. like ok they’ve done the eviction notice.. well that’s a first step, right?

Also.. I don’t think they want me to become homeless. I mean.. look, here’s the situation.. I’ve been living here forever.. with my parents.. my mom died, dad has Alzheimer’s.. he goes into a nursing home.. they need to sell the house to help pay for the nursing home.. so I mean.. that’s the deal.. but.. you know.. at the very least if my dad didn’t have Alzheimer’s.. I think it’s pretty clear he wouldn’t want me kicked to the street.. you know? And I would think that would factor in there somewhere.

So.. I don’t know.. I guess over all I’m trying not to freak out over this..

Anyway.. so today’s agenda

I’m fasting.. cause I need to go get a blood test.. for a liver issue.. Umm.. I’m not the kind of raging alcoholic that ought to have a liver issue at this point…. I have drank alcohol once in the past 3 months… nearly 4.. and other then wanting to go out and have some fun.. it hasn’t really bothered me not to drink…

So.. this liver issue is probably not damage from drinking.. and I haven’t really been doing illicid drugs.. like.. I’m not like a pot head… and other then in college.. when I did some psychedelics… I’ve never really done anything harder then pot..

My diet is pretty horrible.. so there’s that…

But in all likely hood the deal is probably some kind of genetic thing.. like a sensitive liver.. that is the problem.

So.. the deal is I have a doctors appointment next week for it.. Tuesday I believe.. and I gotta make sure that i’ve gotten the blood work done by then.. thus the fasting..  is that appointment.

The thing I’m more into for that doctors appointment is getting some medication to help with my smoking.. because I can’t freaking afford smoking.. hell.. the money that would go to drinking is going to smoking right now…

But there’s the financial issue of having to move in front of me.. there’s car issues… and a mess of stuff I’m not dealing with.. so money is an issue… so I gotta get off the smokes.

Now.. I also gotta head over to SMOC.. I forget what that stands for.. but its for folks like me needing housing… actually.. shit.. I also needed to go to the food pantry to get some food… and they are closed as of 3 minutes from now so I guess that’s out…

And.,.. I’m just about out of my anxiety medication.. so there’s that issue. Err.. everything makes me anxious don’t cha know…

So….

I don’t know… yeah… that’s the days adventure.. mostly..

So today’s post is a tail of woe…. lots and lots of woe.. my brothers and sisters. Well at least I have good coffee to drink while I tell it!

So last month, the month of February. I spent deep in the trenches of an epic remix project. It actually didn’t start out to be quite so epic; the goal was to do it in 2 weeks.. but then.. well you know how those voices in your head can be.. urging you on… and then there was that technology night mare that happened.. more on that latter.. and before you know it.. the remix is the product of a month of 40 hour + work weeks.. never leaving the house….

It probably wouldn’t have been more then 3 weeks if not for the technology woes.. and it might have been just two weeks if so much of the project wasn’t about my growing and stretching and spending time in manuals trying to learn pseudo arcane functionalities of various music production technologies and…

Well in the end the project was rushed.. and I worried that it might suffer for that. I got it in 20 minutes before the deadline.. only to find out the deadlined moved back a day.. and I could have fixed a few things.. but at that point I was so worn out from all the stress and aggravation of the technological battles.. that I was just too emotionally worn out / stretched thin and too attached to the idea of being done with it, to go back and fix anything.

Then there’s the subject of the contest

The remix is for a contest. If you win, you get $1000 and your stuff remix released on the artist’s album.

I’m not sure that a month of 40 hour work weeks.. and all the aggravation, is quite worth a $1000 pay check.. never mind that victory is at best a gamble… but there is a bigger picture of trying to break into remixing.. where it probably is worth it… or I hope it’s worth it anyway.

I ran into this project without really knowing what I was getting into.. having no idea how many other submissions there would be. I just figured “fuck it, I’ll give it everything I got, see if I can win the bastard.” Some kinda idea in your heart that believes this kinda thing can lead to victory.. maybe it’s just watching to many movies or something…. makes you do it.

Votes

After submitting my remix.. I discovered that the contest was about more then just how good my remix was.. or how the judge might judge it, but that there was also this business of trying to get votes.

If I had known votes were important, I wouldn’t have spent my month locked away in the house.. I mean I barely left the house for a month.. because of technology issues I couldn’t have my browser open so I want online…. no I’d have spent a certain amount of time trying to strengthen whatever social ties I might have.. so that I might be in a better position to ask for votes at the end of it..

Also I learned that there were 183 other submissions. (If I knew there would be that many I probably wouldn’t have gone for it) Let me give you my view of this:

You ever try and listen to 183 tracks to try and pick out which one you think is the best? Especially when what we are talking about is a remix.. where you’re hearing some of the same shit.. the same recordings.. 183 times.. and even more so if you’re the artist.. whom had to listen to that same material.. God knows how many times.. during the production of the actual album!!!

What can happen is that it starts to all sound the same.. you’re ears grow tired.. don’t hear the same way.. it effects how you think of what you’re listening to…

So.. it seemed to me that.. Jesus, was he actually even going to listen to all 183 tracks? So clearly I needed to get votes.

Pretty early on.. I was about #23 out of a 183 people…. and I really hadn’t done too much to promote this… which was pretty exciting actually. As of the last I checked.. I’m #19.. and I’m about to give it my final push.

So.. what I decided on was a quick social media strategy.. to try and score more votes

The Promotion strategy

First I wanted to create a video.. The idea of this video is like the extra’s you’ll find on some DVDs: ”look at all the amazing stuff we had to do to create this film, doesn’t that make our film look special” kind of stuff.. everyone talks about how everyone they work with is just wonderful, wonderful, wonderful… and they use this shit to promote the film.

Well.. let me give you just a couple stats on my Remix project. There were about 114 channels, 36 virtual instruments.. when I set it up to look at the mixing console.. where you might say.. set levels for everything… I can stretch that mixer across 2 27″ displays.. and you’re still not seeing half of that mixer.

So the idea was that I would create this kind of elaborate screen casting video.. of the production.. that would show you all that went into it.. if you your self were a electronic music producer.. you could gleam a lot of how I work from the cast.. and if you don’t know anything about music production you’d go “holy crap look at that!”

In a way my strategy wasn’t really about the remix contest it’s self.. or a part of it wasn’t.. a part of it was wanting to get out the word.. that I’m really on a very professional kind of level when it comes to music production.. that it aint no joke.. that I’m the real deal.

But I wont get into all that here.

Next there would be a video.. basically of me talking into the camera.. talking about the contest, talking about what went into the contest.. talking about the screen cast video.. and what you could see on that… and I’d be asking for your vote.. and asking for you to pass the video along.. The key of this video was to make a compelling story.. the story of the remix.. the story of how this fits into my career, the story of where I’m at in life.. a story of drama.. where you hopefully empathize with my plight.. and thus it gets passed around at least a little.

These videos.. in the Youtube tradition.. would have links in them.. a link to the contest page where you can vote.. links between these two videos.. and then another set of older videos.. that sorta show some of the darkness of my life.. just to sorta help drive home that point.

Then I was hoping I could put clips from the video into blog posts where I talk about the production.. and I might even do some screen casts talking about certain music production principles and some of the techniques I use.. many of which.. as far as I know.. I’m probably the only dude who uses them.

Now there were a number of places where I planned on sharing these videos.. or asking people to share.. where I think I could have reached a larger audience.

Other then that.. I would just personally ask people for there votes.. which is what I have to do once I finish this blog post.

And you there.. there were like facebook and twitter components to all of this to…

but then….

The technology woes of the screen cast video

Everything went wrong.. with the videos… First I did a whole bunch of screen casts.. with the idea I’d cut them all together in Final Cut.. and I used Quicktime to do the screen capture.

The issue was that Quicktime.. sucks.. I mean you can only do 15 frames per second.. secondly quicktime screen casts are saved in a file format that you can’t open in Final Cut 7… which is just crazy…

So what I did was I brought them into Compressor and did a batch transcode.. to bring them into Pro Rez.. which is a special video codec especially made for working with video in Final Cut.

Once this was done.. I bought videos into Final Cut.. and started putting them together on the timeline.. In Digital Performer.. it actually gives you time code.. that you would see on the video.. and it can do this in various formats.. so it would be easy to match up videos…

Then I discovered a horrible problem.. the audio and the video were out of synch.. If the audio and video were synched on frame 1, by frame 120 they’d be out of synch…which meant after however much work in final cut.. and like.. day’s worth of screen capturing.. all that time was waisted.

One problem might have been the conversion of 15 frames per second into 29.7 frames per second.. which is the normal video standard.. so then I went and did a more advance batch conversion in Compressor.. that would be better at blending the frames.. but would also take hell of a long time to render.. and then found that they were still out of synch… after waisting yet more time in Final Cut.

At this point I messaged a video professional video production friend.. who’s simple response was “Oh I’d just use Camtasia for that.”

So with that.. it was off to Camtasia.

Now I had this suspicion. See.. during the music production process I had run into some mad technological issues. Basically.. it would take about 10 minutes to open up the project.. you’d work for maybe 5 minutes, and it would crash.. and then you’d have to start over. That’s why I say.. if not for the technological problems.. the project would have taken a week less then it did.

The eventual solution came in the form of hardware optimization. I had cranked up the latency.. if you set one of these programs to have a tun of latency.. you then get a whole lot more processing power.. and often it’s trying to push the processing power too hard that creates the instability… so it made sense to have the latency cranked.

Well it turns out that I was also using a production known as “Liquid Mix” which runs on it’s own DSP chips.. that connects to your computer via a firewire buss… and for some reason.. has it’s own latency settings… and it seems that there was a conflict between these two latency settings that.. in the end.. were creating the mad instability issue.. never mind the conflict of having more then one thing going on your firewire buss..

So.. I cranked down the latency.. the stability issues lessoned.. but.. it hit processor pretty freaking hard.. which meant DP’s user interface becomes sluggish.. and doesn’t update so rapidly..  ( which is the very thing that’s important for your screen cast! ) and this plus however Quicktime was working.. might have been what caused the audio and video to fall out of synch.

So… I went into the project.. and got rid of every instance of Liquid Mix.. and then recranked up the latency.. in order to start doing screen captures with Camtasia… where now the processor hit would not be an issue.

I probably created something like 20 or so screen captures.. of a 4 minute piece.. each time requires a bit of set up.. and whatever.. so it ends up being a good days worth of work.

What I then discovered.. was that I couldn’t work in Camtasia the way I wanted. I layered up the video.. which caused Camtasia to choke.. and it didn’t offer any kind of means of managing the problem.. further more.. the video captured in Camtasia.. you couldn’t open up and bring into another program.. you could only get it out via Camtasia. and what was worse… is Camtasia would only let you bring it out via an MP4 compression scheme.

MP4 video compression is a distribution codec situation.. its for sharing on the web.. it’s not optimized for working inside of a program like Final Cut.. and its a lossy format.. which means.. the video degrades upon leaving the software.

What makes it even worse.. is you have 20 videos.. most of which are about 4 minutes in length.. and the fact that it has to convert a video into MP4 format.. that takes a long time.. so its going to take you another day to freaking get the video out of Camtasia.

Well late last night.. I finally had the video out.. and I had it in Final Cut.. I was working with it.. when I discovered the problem.. the MP4 compression.. had completely destroyed the video… and video that has to look perfect in like 1080p HD…. (because its a screen cast and you have to see all the details on the screen.. and the original screen is a 27″ HD computer monitor.)

I wanted to break stuff. There would be one day left of voting.. and I wouldn’t have a single video done… so I had waisted a week on this freaking video.. and had NOTHING to show for it.

What is even worse.. is that there is serious danger of eviction in my life right now.. and because I’ve been working so hard on this freaking video.. and all this music production stuff.. I’m in that much more danger of becoming homeless.. and all of that for NOTHING.

(the eviction date is in like a week)

Can you tell I’m in a bad mood?

So I haven’t given you the whole story.. of all the woes… and all the gory details.. tried to go through it as fast and concise as possible..

Well if at the end of reading all this you feel some compassion for me and my plight.. Perhaps you can do something for me that would help out a bit.

1. Please vote for me in the remix… here’s the link.
2. Please hit the like button on the remix contest page for where you can vote for me
3. 3 Please share my remix.. and help me get some more votes.

That’s probably asking a lot.. but thank you for the bottom of my heart.

Oh yeah.. and tell me about it to.. so I know there was some love out there somewhere that helped me when I was feeling low like this.

Check out this submission in Justin Nozuka – “How Low” Remix Contest on Indaba Music.

I just got an eviction notice.. that I’m to leave this house inside of 3 months.

I have no idea what this means in practice.

The house, of course, is the house I grew up in.. the Eviction notice is from.. well basically from my father’s Guardian, on his behalf.. or the lawyer for where she works.. Jewish family services.

Now apparently there is a legal system here.. a process..

The trouble is I’m on disability and getting section 8 housing, or subsidized housing.. there’s waiting lists… so that finding a place to move out to inside of that 3 month period.. may or may not be realistic..

And if it’s not realistic.. and I do whatever I can to get out.. then it may be that I can’t just be made homeless like that.

So I probably shouldn’t be freaking out.. not till I get to talk to a lawyer anyway… but to be woken up by this.. from deep sleep.. is not an easy thing…

To be served by this is sorta unexpected..

At this point I don’t interact with my father’s Guardian.. my therapist does on my behalf.. as said guardian had quiet a way of pushing me into the suicidal area code.. Just really by the way she does things…..

There had just been a conversation.. or she had been saying to my therapist that I would have to leave on account of my father not being able to afford the heat.. and the water would have to be turned off so the pipes don’t break.

But what about fuel assistance? Or that the bills we had for gas an electric that were in his name didn’t reflect a disability rate which is what he should be paying.. or if I were paying it.. that I should be paying?

This was maybe a month ago.. and I had gone to try and make an appointment for fuel assistance but there’s no way of doing that unless I have an actual fuel bill… for the heat.. and of course I didn’t because it’s in his name and they don’t go to me anyway.

So what my therapist was going to do was to ask her to have the bill in my name.. I would pay it.. and it was up to me to get the fuel assistence.. or that she could apply for fuel assistence in his name.

Well I haven’t heard anything more of this.. and now I get the notice to evict.

In my view..

This is sorta.. the way said Gaurdian operates.. it really has nothing to do with an issue of heating the house and the pipes.. it has to do with her wanting me out of the house because it makes her job more difficult.. and I’m sure it’s totally true that he’s run out of money.. and they need to sell the house, and whatever that’s in it that is of value.. for nursing home bills..

So I appreciate the situation.. or try to.. my father’s situation and hers… but.. it’s the manipulative nature.. of how she operates.. that infuriates me. That before I had any kind of legal knowledge or anything.. she would stomp on my rights.. with all kinds of threats of how she was going to come here and call the police if I wasn’t here to meet her… and she would change the locks and it would be illegal for me to then go and try and break in…

And then, of course…. on the day I was to meet her.. she doesn’t show up.

I see her as a bit of a bully… I’ve tried to like her.. but it’s not easy when you’re in my position… being threatened with homelessness… and all the rest.

At one point she seemed almost angelic.. she helping me to find housing.. through the process.. but I have sever social anxiety that makes it very difficult.. and she wasn’t very nurturing about that I will tell you. If a problem came up where my anxiety made it difficult to do whatever the thing was… she would threaten…. and thus make my anxiety all the worse.. (thus pushing me into the suicidal area code)

I’m told that people in her position are over worked.. and I did get that impression…. and that a lot of what she does could come down to that.. and that this situation where I take her as manipulative.. could have to do with her being over worked and just not being able to spend enough time looking at the subject to see it clearly..

But I’m skeptical of all that.

What upsets me is here I was trying to take care of my father.. and then she steps in…. and if my father didn’t have Alzheimer’s and knew what was going on.. I can tell you that this is not how he’d want things handled.

The only thing I can think, really.. is that she thinks I think I can stay here indefinitely.. or should.. and she needs to show me that she’s serious.. and thus the serving of the notice to evict. That seems reasonable to me but…

Why she would think that I don’t know

She had helped to get me on disability… and apparently the social security office suggested that it would probably be best if I had a payee.. I guess is what it’s called.. so somehow it was as if I had been declared unfit to spend my own money, and she was suddenly in charge of my money.

I couldn’t believe this bullshit! How can someone just do this to you without even consulting you? How can you just be declared unfit to spend your money and so now you don’t have your money? All kinds of horrible things happened to me because I didn’t have that money… and that she could spend that money without me even being notified?

Sure.. she did this on my car insurance.. which is a reasonable thing.. but still.. that I don’t even know about it?

So there was this process to get me the money… or there was this lump sum as a part of the disability… and what ended up happening is.. the place I go for my therapist and psychiatrist.. and other things… also has a payee service.. so the idea was to get it transfered over… this transferring process has taken something like 8 months.. more then twice what it should have.. and who knows why….

So the thing is.. to move out.. I need that money for first and last months rent.. and whatever security deposit. So things had been held up by this.. or this is my understanding anyway.

So I don’t know.. that’s sorta the story as I understand it anyway.

I woke up about 6 early, cause my cat walked over me in bed.. I woke up wondering if he wanted something but he doesn’t seem to interested in getting me to do anything for him….

I’m hit by this queer anxiety feeling.. it’s a little bit as if you peered into a dream.. where in some very clear way your subconscious was telling you something that was sorta.. at odds with how you were thinking about things / believing… was the nature of… any number of things in your life..

I could try and give examples of some of these supposed insights, but they are really intangable feelings that seem to cluster around certain mental images… It’s as if our idea of reality had to do with how we tie together these image clusters and the feeling is like a suggestion of an alternative way of connecting the images together.. to create some other narrative…

And you only lightly feel that narrative tickling you’re cheek.. as you turn you’re head to try see that other reality.

I don’t if it’s real or imaginary… if I should wake up or go back to bed..