I haven’t been thinking much about posting lately; mind focused elsewhere, and all that. Facebook and Twitter get my status updates, so here’s a heavily-linked mishmash of my recent activities:

Watching

Hot Fuzz (via Netflix), Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express and The Dark Knight were all terrific. I’ve found I like the combination of action and comedy in my summer blockbusters, thank you. Flight of the Conchords and The Mighty Boosh were also enjoyable.

I’m halfway into Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn on my iPod Touch. The topics of space vs. place and placemaking have interested me for a while, and this 6-part, 3-hour series is a nice intro to Brand’s book. A lot of the concepts relate to the fields of interaction-, experience- and visual-design.

Reading

I finally read the Watchmen graphic novel, in part because of all the recent buzz. I found it a bit heavy about 2/3 of the way in, but I stuck-it-out and think I appreciate it more now that I’m finished. I didn’t really care for the inking and coloring style, which seems very old-fashioned. But, its multi-threaded narrative (a single page might be alternating frames between two or three different story lines), anti-hero angle and outsider-as-Übermensch themes are likely the reason for its long-term appeal (that’s my take on it, anyway).

I decided to finish the His Dark Materials trilogy, so I’m reading The Amber Spyglass. As before, Pullman’s poetic style and literary references have rekindled my interest in John Milton, William Blake, and the Imagination.

As always, I’m fitting-in some readings Joseph Campbell and design wisdom nuggets for good measure .

Making

I’m happy to be working again on a Mac Pro at my day job. Mac OS X Leopard is lovely, and I’m pleased to have my favorite apps on-hand: Adobe CS3, Evernote, Transmit, Coda, Adium, Quinn (shhh). Still, thanks to bloody ActiveX in some of our web-based tools, I’m probably going to invest in Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion. Ah, compatibility.

After finishing-up some recent music sketches, I’ve decided to take a break from sequencing for a bit. Every few years I feel like I’m making the same tracks as before, so I dream-up a new challenge. Do/don’t call it a side project! My intention is to record with the acoustic instruments we have around the house—guitar, ukulele, oboe, violin, trumpet, piano, drums/rattles/shakers/toys to name a few. I’ll probably still arrange and mix-down using Live. I have no idea where this project will take me—but that’s the idea, innit?

Anyways, cheerio.

I’ve uploaded an archive of some recent sketches and prototypes (70.4 MB zip) for your consideration. Most of these are shorter sketches, in the Short Fictions vein, along with two longer pieces:

1. Mad house (sketch)
2. Headsville (sketch)
3. Minimal (sketch)
4. Slow rave (sketch)
5. Strangler (2008 revision)
6. Untitled 2008-07-17 (sketch)
7. Broken beat box (sketch)
8. Tonglen dub - features elements made with BeatMaker

I’ve been using Intua BeatMaker for about a week now on my iPod Touch. It works well as a mobile sketchpad for writing simple tracks of beats and patterns. The user interface took some getting used to, as features are split up between Home, Pads, Sequencer and FX screens. There’s a noticeable lag when switching between screens as well. Sample kits and exported audio can be transfered to and from an iPhone or iPod Touch using their file transfer utility BeatPack. It’s easy to drag samples from my computer into a set and then transfer it over, although I had to add the ports (3131) to my Firewall to get a connection. There are two audio effects busses, but the choices are a bit meager: synced delay times are only divisible by 1/4 notes (e.g. no 1/3, 1/6, 1/12), three-band EQ and a simple bit-crusher. I’ve already exported a half dozen sketches for use in Live, so I’ll be posting some of the results in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: here are some sample exports: 001, 002, 003-8-bit, 005-hard (MP3s).

I’m lovin’ my recent birthday present from my wife: a shiny new iPod Touch. It’s quite a step-up from my 2nd gen iPod (which served me well for six years, despite its monochrome display, bulky form, dwindled battery life and lack of a dock connector).

It’s handy to check email, news feeds or the weather from (almost) anywhere, in addition to having music, pictures and movies at my fingertips. Browsing for music and apps without needing my laptop is also convenient, albeit a temptation to splurge (since I buy much of my music from Amazon MP3 rather than iTunes these days, it’s not quite a one-stop-shopping experience).

Some of the free apps I’ve found useful so far: Facebook, Exposure, Evernote, Twitterific, Remote, WeatherBug, Othello, Wordpress, BoxOffice, Last.fm, Pandora Radio.

Someday I hope to get an iPhone 3G, but for now the iPod Touch is my perfect PDA.

I am pleased to announce my 2008 Summer mix podcast (1hr05min, 74.9Mb MP3) of original music for your consideration. It’s equal parts reflective, chilled-out, lazy. A suitable soundtrack for your morning cuppa, yard and crafting projects, reading on the couch, afternoon coding sessions and breezy evenings on the front porch.

Track order:

1. Lost Things (Cascade dub)
2. La Palma (1984 CIA Factbook mix)
3. BASIC language
4. Departure Lounge, Pan-Am
5. 3mb (2008 Tabla revisit)
6. Circular Object (Sunset Island dub)
7. Dexu (2008 defenestration)
8. Aguadulce