Archive for the ‘music’ Category

Personal Metadata

It started with a simple idea.  Doesn’t it always.  In order to carry out this simple idea I needed to review 20 years worth of images which were organized neatly in folders by year/month/event but even digitally that’s a lot of folders.  In that moment I decided that since I had finally developed a Lightroom workflow which included tagging all current images, now was time to tag every image I had.  Great they’re finally tagged!  (No more phone calls, do you remember the name of the person who blah blah blah.)

Of course, like all projects I devise that involve a certain amount of OCD invariably there was scope creep. Boy is it annoying that when I call up all images tagged X they don’t sort nicely, let’s go rename all those old images properly yyyymmdd_xxx_desc.  And then finally, the inevitable, am I sure I scanned everything I would want scanned? Better make sure, so I hooked up the scanner and flipped through the old analog albums. Turns out quite a few new scans were made (I’m not totally insane, I’m not going to worry about dust marks until I want to use the image for something.)

I love this project now that it is complete.
Lightroom Keyword/Label

So it should have come as no surprise to me to find myself reviewing the iTunes database.  My phone upgrade date is less than two weeks away, and all those songs I ripped from CDs without thinking about the cover art are not going to look pretty on the retina display, are they?  I didn’t think so.  If you need me, I’ll be here cleaning up music.

 

Algorithm Blues

sprinkles

I’ve been thinking about algorithms, the ideas have been bubbling around in my mind for awhile and now with the brouhaha around the Facebook changes it seemed like a good time for my (currently) cranky point of view.

I was annoyed by “top stories” from the moment it launched. And this morning I saw the epitome of why I am annoyed. The top story in my feed was a “friend” I haven’t meaningfully engaged with on FB (or off) who was playing some game I didn’t care about it. Fail. What on earth in the algorithm triggered that into my top stories?

And other algorithms I routinely ponder:

Netflix (Quikster) – in my experience the suggested movies are usually terrible and I have some trouble figuring out the commonality between movie a and movie b.

Amazon – I often use the site as a research tool so the logic behind its suggestions for me can be idiotic. Your mileage may vary.

Goodreads – I’m much more impressed with this one, as it has been better than most although it does suggest I read a book whose description I can’t read because it is in Italian. (Although, I am wondering if this is the Universe telling me to pack in the job search and bum around Italy to become fluent in Italian.)

Cameras – I don’t use the preset settings without also performing manual overrides (i.e. shutter priority while using exposure compensation and manually selecting the ISO.) Oh, and I shoot raw files so that I can develop my images as I see them not how the camera’s algorithm sees.

I’m not sure what the answer is and I’d like the coders to keep trying to match up my tastes, it certainly beats “frictionless” sharing which is a whole lot of noise not serendipitous discovery.

John Lennon

John Lennon by Bob Gruen

John Lennon by Bob Gruen

John Lennon was the first Rock Star to rock my world.

I really prefer to remember people on their birthdays and not on the day they were assassinated. John Lennon would have been 70 this past October 9th but I was flitting about Rome (on a trip inspired by another Rock Star, who is also a  fan of John Lennon.)

I was a big Beatles fan and to this day my favorite Beatles’ songs are almost exclusively the ones associated most with John.  Today I thought I’d post some of my favorite (solo) Lennon lyrics in no particular order.

And we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well, we all shine on

-Instant Karma

Whatever gets you through your life ‘salright, ‘salright
Do it wrong or do it right ‘salright, ‘salright
Don’t need a watch to waste your time oh no, oh no

-Whatever Gets You Through The Night

Let’s Take A Chance And Fly Away, Together
-Just Like Starting Over

I’ve had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, egocentric, paranoic primadonnas
All I want is the truth

-Gimme Some Truth

Yes is the answer and you know that for sure
Yes is surrender you got to let it go

-Mind Games

I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round.
I really love to watch them roll.

-Watching The Wheels

4 years ago today…

"Did You Get It"

Four years ago (!) today I was in Auckland, with good friends, at the U2 Show at Mt. Smart Stadium.  It was one amazing gig (although the 2nd night did blow it away.)  This shot is one of my all time favorite I’ve taken at a show.

I still get chills thinking about hearing the opening notes to One Tree Hill.  It was the first time I had the pleasure of seeing them perform it live.

Born to Run turns 35

Bruce Springsteen

A publishing acquaintance, Fran Toolan, tweeted this morning that today was the 35 anniversary of the single release for Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run (or as he put it the official state song of NJ.)

I don’t remember the first time I heard Born to Run but it’s probably a safe bet it was on the radio. It would have been a.m. radio, and the stations would have been operated by big long buttons that I recall having a satisfying click when you pushed them in to tune. And to give away more about my age it was also likely that I was in the front seat of that car and seat belt was defined by the driver’s right arm reaching over to hold you back as she stopped short.

I’ve been lucky seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band quite a few times over the years and man that song still rocks the house. As the house lights are turned up for Born To Run, the crowd never fails to “strap their engines on” rocking “til they drop.” One of the amazing things about going to see Bruce is seeing three generations rock out. Last November at the Garden, the night he played The River, one of the things I remember very fondly is an older man, mid sixties – early seventies, jumping and dancing harder the rest of us “young folks” to Born to Run.

That gentleman, still rocking out in the crowd, that’s exactly what I want to be when I grow up.

Location, Location, Location

I went to see a show last night. An artist whose music I really like but I don’t listen to anymore because it’s part of the soundtrack to a closed chapter of my life. I thought live with stripped down arrangements, it would be different. This was naive and I should know better. From the opening note I found myself transported to rooms I haven’t been in a long time. I could feel the textures of places I didn’t realized I recalled, yet unbidden were clearer in my mind than the dark club I was actually standing in.

We occasionally make comparisons between the music industry and the publishing industry. But there are many difference between the listener and the reader. Music becomes the soundtrack to my life and books have always been a break from my life.

I can’t think of a single book that truly transports me back to where I was when I read it. I can recall I read something on the beach, on a plane, commuting or in bed. I can probably remember where I was in my life, if I was primarily happy or sad, but what I recall most about a book is how I felt about the world the author created.

A song accompanies me in my life whereas a book transports me to where the story is taking place, taking me out of my world into the world of the characters. It’s these differences in experience that make the comparison between the industries so tricky.

I internalize songs and books differently. And I’ve been thinking about (passionate) fans: music fans, book fans, sports fans, and maybe movie fans.

Does anyone internalize books the way I internalize music?

Catching Up

July was going to be a bloggy month for me – unfortunately blogging got pushed to the wayside as other things moved to the forefront… it happens.

So, in brief things I would have blogged about:

Old Spice Guy videos – LOVED! Fantastic integrated marketing campaign. Dan Blank did a great brief synopsis.

Odyssey Books – the latest dust up in the rapidly changing publishing landscape. Booksquare wrote a smart and clear piece about it.

New Kindle – smaller, wifi only and $139. I’m likely to continue holding out until the price of a device is sub $100. I’ve been incredibly resistant to the idea of committing to a device/store but this was the first time Amazon truly tempted me. Of course, I still have a total crush on Kobo which has always been in that price range.

Mike Cane compared the cost of the ipod to the cost of the kindle. And the price of eBooks to the price of songs from the iTunes store. He makes valid points but I was one of those people who bought the iPod and continued to buy cd’s and burn my own mp3s for a long time.

The ipod was and is sexier than any dedicated eReader. I payed for the convenience of taking my music with me in the smallest possible package to the gym, for a run, in my car and wandering around town. It was a long time before my buying habits changed. Once I choose between Amazon or Kobo (or Nook) I’m stuck with that store for that device. I certainly wouldn’t be buying print books and scanning them.

I may have wide eyes at the new shiny but I’m still not ready to buy. I eRead on the go on my Blackberry and my to read pile of print books numbers near 100 (neatly stacked in 5 boxes in my best friend’s cellar.)

Lastly in news, absolutely unrelated to publishing, Friday rocked in Turin and this makes me happy. This makes me downright giddy.

Happy 50th Bono

As a U2 fan, and a pretty big U2 fan at that, I want to take a moment to wish Bono a very Happy Birthday.

In honor of his birthday I’m going to post my favorite picture, that I took, of Bono from the past tour. I was honored to donate a print of this image in the African Well Fund’s “Build A Well For Bono’s Birthday” auction.

Bono Knees Boston2 09

And many more!

I know that I am super excited about seeing/hearing more of U2 in 2010.