Commentary
Ganesh and the Road To Success
Ganesh is the Hindu god (lord) of success. As in, earthly tangible success. But also, hospitality. As in sharing the wealth.
Ganesh is also a symbol. That everything can be well in the world. In order to have famine and suffering, the opposite has to exist. And that, while not something to live for, success can be attained without spiritual ruination.
As a symbol of success, it isn’t by accident than an elephant has been combined with human characteristics. Elephants are seen to be compassionate and wise in cultures where Hinduism has flourished through the centuries.
I happened across this statue in a window and grabbed a quick photo. Saturated with all the worldly colors of delight that Ganesh brings.
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Steve Jobs and Me.
I’m writing this note on the day Steve Jobs resigned from Apple. If you’re reading it now, it means he has passed away and I pushed the button from Draft to Publish.
Since I don’t believe for a minute he would leave the company he created as a vehicle to change the world, it’s easy to conclude that he is leaving because he is closer to death than he would say publicly. How’s that for keeping plans secret?
I don’t care too much about succession and company plans. But I do care about and have interest in what Apple has meant for me.
I came to the Mac because of a job. In 1987. After working through and hacking Commodores and VAX and DOS, to me it seemed a toy. I hated the slowness of it. The job also involved backing up an Apple IIe. I hated that machine too. And then, I did my first layout in Pagemaker on a black and white 8″ Mac screen and printed to 1200 DPI. Mind blowing. A Laserwriter came soon, and before I knew it, I was in business for myself – on the side – doing layout. Intro to pre-press and production. Suddenly networking came into the picture, content management, and then…the Internet. All done through Macs. DOS, then Windows, when needed. A Newton, bad software choices and an oath to leave it behind as punishment.
Then Jobs came back. I resisted until the iPod lured me in. It worked better than all the alternatives. I know, I tried them. And I’m picky about music. Then the iPhone 3G. And it all made sense again. Suddenly, Apple was the absolute best in laptop hardware – I know, I looked – and music players and phones. I standardized on iTunes and its ecosystem of categorization tools. I moved to Logic. An iPad came home to get me off my ass and read whenever, wherever, while flipping into synth mode when creativity struck.
And I didn’t have to waste time learning useless info about formats, and drive speeds and networking protocols, and deliberately arcane command lines. All of that was behind me. I could focus on the important stuff again. Meaning. And so I did.
Thanks Steve. This was the note I wrote several times because I enjoyed all the stuff you made and it did change the world. I just never sent it. I don’t believe in an afterlife or a beforelife, but I do believe in a meaningful life. And yours was.
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Monuments – Golden Gate Bridge at night
To me, the Golden Gate Bridge is most striking at night. The shadows spell out the Deco age with its promise of a modern industrial future, Fritz Lang‘s Metropolis buzzing off in the distance as its inhabitants flit around in their busy lives. But the future never arrived, and instead it sits incongruously atop the smooth boring vehicles that pass beneath. Where are the personal jet packs, the computer guided trams that we were all promised? Ah well, the orange is pretty.
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Lemons Still Life
Walking around the grounds of an estate in Sonoma, I found a few lemons that had dropped from a small lemon tree into the base of the planter, and realized this would be the only sunshine I would see for a day or two. Fuck winter.
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Greetings From Madison
The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile parading in front of Wisconsin’s state capital building in Madison. Yes, they were singing the Oscar Meyer Wiener song as they drove down the street.
The insides of these vehicles come equipped with garish shag carpeting, and a small rest area kind of like a trucker’s cab if it were pimped out by Marketing Sherpa. I have never seen a grumpy face when it drives by.
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Farm In Upstate New York – Walk On A Snowy Road On New Years Day
Dog was ready for a walk rather early, so out we went into the New Year’s Day. Beat the sunrise by just a few minutes so was able to capture this as it climbed over the hill.
Michael The Martyr
Found this during a walk through the Marais neighborhood in Paris. Funny how he went from pedophile to martyred victim in the eyes of the public. I wonder if all religious figures are like that?
Jonathan Adler zebra rug
I’m a sucker for Jonathan Adler stuff, though the stores often get a bit “Urban Outfitter” if you know what I mean. Dug this rug, so had to show it off.
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Breakfast At Tiffany’s? Brunch At Balthazar
Brunch at Balthazar isn’t as much a food experience (though the food can be great) as it is an oggling, see-and-be-seen experience. Booze is flowing, everyone is made up/dressed down (as much as you can be in Prada), the better to be ready for your close-up. Where’s DeMille?
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iPhone 4 Seekers
The lineup for iPhone 4 on release day at Meatpacking District Apple Store. Kind of looks like a soup line, doesn’t it?
Face Mask Fashion
I found this image somewhere on the Web while writing about the swine flu outbreak in Mexico last year, and always found it striking. I don’t have the photographer’s name, but if you know that person please tell them it’s a great photo composition!
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Banksy Takes On Ikea
(image source | flavorwire)
I used this image of a Banksy mural last year when I wrote about Ikea and their internal scandals involving spying on employees and environmental destruction. But I wiped all that. I think this image speaks volumes on its own. A cookie cutter punk, assembling a cookie cutter graffiti slogan from a cookie cutter vendor.
Abandoned House As Metaphor
Detroit has a lot of problems, no one can deny that. It also serves as a metaphor for the collapsing American empire. Its principal industry, automobile manufacturing, has been the largest single contributor to GDP for the US during the past century. Yet, the city associated with this market segment, Detroit, is nearly abandoned within its core and great swaths of it are falling apart – literally. The state and the city itself have been raped and pillaged for years by despotic, “big business” friendly politicians who hid the real state of the area’s economy until they left office. By the time Granholm arrived, all she could do was administer last rites.
So many beautiful houses from a more prosperous era are falling in upon themselves, abandoned, the owners unable to provide for their upkeep. An unavoidable metaphor of the surrounding country’s slow economic demise.
UPDATE: Lately, this page has become the number one piece of content on my site, bringing in traffic from search engines for the keywords “abandoned house”. Not much – only about 40 unique visitors a month, but not really what I intended. Somewhat embarrassing since I didn’t take the picture myself. I found it somewhere on the web and loved the color and balance. Unfortunately, I didn’t see a credit attached at the time. If you are the person who snapped it, let me know if you are offended and I’ll remove it. Or let me know who you are, and I’ll give you credit with a link back to your site.
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Stonewall Documentary Panel
l-r: Susan Bellows, David Carter, David Heilbroner, Kate Davis, Martin Boyce
Panel at the New York Public Library on Stonewall Documentary in production at PBS with producers, author and participant in the Stonewall Riots, 1969.
Bored At The Met
I found this young Kate Moss in training on the rooftop at the Met one afternoon, wallowing in ennui next to a trash bin with her Met shopping bag not far away. She happened to appear in a photo I took of the surroundings.
Happy Bongo XMas
Not much of a fan for all this Christmas stuff, but can’t dispute the beauty one finds here and there. Like at Bongo, on New York’s West Side.
3 Lesbians Having A Smoke
As I was walking past Cowgirl one night, I caught this trio of lesbians laughing and drunkenly sharing cigarettes outside. They didn’t mind me snapping a quick photo on my iPhone, so here it is. I loved how they were having a great time and enjoying the relatively sultry evening outside.
What’s New
Image by Patricksmercy via Flickr
Recently, I started working on two new recording projects that will go on through the winter.
The first is a soundtrack for a film. I can’t divulge too much beyond that, but it is proving to be very inspirational in a different context for me. Composition of sound and scoring film themes for characters and story elements. I find that I can work through an idea for a simple melody based around how I perceive a given character, and expand it to interact with other character themes, sometimes pushing for a harmony that matches the two.
I’m also working on another set of recordings for an online album of electronic music. No set rules around multitracking individual notes this time. No rules around use of samples or sequences. No rules.
I upgraded my Soundcloud channel to allow for several hours of music online and no restrictions on the number of tracks. I also have access to more data around visits which is interesting. Finland, Korea and Japan account for over 15% of my listens! Now that isn’t something I would have been able to achieve without online distribution!
The Kurzweils are getting a good workout in both projects, as well as the Korg MS2000R. Added several iPad synthesizer apps to the mix. I’m also very excited about using the XILS-Lab stuff more extensively on these projects. Also looking forward to involving Universal Audio external DSP processing for compression and EQ and tape saturation. In my first experiments with the tools, the results have been sharp and delicious to the ear. So much so that I have taken up the task of re-mastering Rain from my last release, Monotude. I was never as happy with its low frequency and volume outputs, necessary tradeoffs in previous mixing scenarios. These plugs do better!
In other news, HotNaut has morphed into a bigger discovery tool than just a news display. That’s been exciting as well, but other paying projects have forced it to take a back seat for the fall. I have a few talented hands on board to help and will spend more dedicated time on it through early winter.
Alas, no Palm Springs this winter! Too busy. But I may slip away for a weekend of DR or Miami sun. If I can.
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