As it’s the Season, this seems an appropriate time to address the subject of holiday music. And I’ll do so by providing a small insight into the mind of the musician: Most of us hate the stuff. This isn’t because we’re all devil worshipers or have hearts two sizes too small, but rather that we’re pretty much done with it.
Read MoreAnd then there were the funerals.
You can’t talk about working in San Francisco in the early ’80s without relating what it was like to witness the emergence and devastating results of AIDS.
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Just quick fast like rabbit:
I threw together an opening and closing theme for Clockwise, a new podcast from TechHive. You can find a copy on the Music page.
Only thing worth comment is that the original version had no drums. That was a problem as it wasn't grounded or driving enough—too airy fairy. I left it in that state over night and then got up the next morning with fresh ears. The need for drums was then obvious.
Sometimes sleeping on it helps.
Some recall San Francisco, July 1984, as the heady month in which the first woman—in the form of Geraldine Ferraro—was nominated for Vice President of the United States in that same city by the bay. I, however, can testify with complete confidence, that in that convention week I experienced the worst gig of my life. And, worse yet, at the hands of one of the presiding members of the Democratic Party.
Read MoreBefore there were geeks, there were nerds. And before nerds, the sand-kicking crowd satisfied itself by mocking an equally unhip group of individuals: birdwatchers. Caricatured as binocular-sporting, sky-scanning, baggy-pantsed ornithological eggheads, birdwatchers couldn’t be more square. And while nerds have indeed had their revenge, birders still find themselves classed as oddballs by the rest of the population.
This explains my reluctance when, one day some 20 years ago, my wife announced, “My father is coming over this weekend and if we don’t want him hanging around the house with his nose in a book, we’ll have to go birding with him.”
“We?”
“We. Get some comfortable shoes and dig out your dad’s binoculars. There’s a bird guide on the shelf. You’re not worming your way out of this one.” Pun intended or not, I was on the hook.
Read MoreI’m old enough to have spent a lot of time with reel-to-reel tape decks—everything from the 2-track machine my dad purchased when I was a kid to a 1-inch 16-track deck my band acquired for our studio. And in all that time I’ve been fascinated with the idea of multi-tracking—recording something on this track, overdubbing something else on another, bouncing those tracks to yet another tracks, and on and on until—not unlike building layers of paint on a canvas—I’d created a rich soundscape.
The idea of tape-based performance entered my teenaged consciousness when the guitar player in my band-at-the-time (The Fabulous Sandblaster) purchased an Echoplex EP-3. This was a tape-based effect that recorded what you’d played and then played it back in real time. If you ran the tape quickly you’d hear the delayed signal pretty quickly. If you instead used a slower speed, it could take quite a while for the previous sound to play, which provided you the opportunity to play over that recording in such a way that you could accompany yourself. The EP-3 additionally had the ability to record each take as you played, so after several passes you could create a mountain of sound.
Later, in college, a trumpet playing friend did a portion of his master performance improvising over a tape loop that worked similarly. In that performance I learned an important lesson in regard to this kind of performance.
Better vague than wrong.
Read MoreNormally I don't expect to use this blog to link to technical pieces I've done, but in cases of high emotion I might occasionally do just that. In this instance it's about DirecTV's fear of set-top boxes. I completely understand why it doesn't support Roku or AppleTV. After all, there's money to be made by forcing your customers to purchase your set-top box rather than one made by someone else.
Still, it's shitty.
You can find my thoughts in HBO Go on Apple TV a No-Go for DirecTV Customers.
Update: Huh, I guess if enough people yell loudly enough, things can happen. @DirecTVService just tweeted that HBO Go is coming to Apple TV soon.
You’ve likely heard the old wheeze: To become truly proficient at Skill A you must spend 10,000 hours doing it. Naturally, upon careful examination this theory falls apart entirely. Over the course of my life I’ve spent 11 hours shucking walnuts and yet I’m damned good at it. In fact, among my acquaintances the aptness of my shucking is considered to be without peer.
That said, there are certainly cases where experience counts. Before rummaging around in my workings, for example, I’d prefer to employ a surgeon who has spent a lot of quality time turning other people inside-out. Along these same lines, when plotting a course for your upcoming wedding, you might appreciate the advice of someone who has witnessed well over a hundred of the things. Someone who knows the templates, traps, and turmoil of such events.
Someone like me.
Read MoreThe fact that you’re brushing your eyes over these words hints that you’re here because you’ve read one tech piece or another that I’ve written. And therefore it’s just as likely that you’ve heard of Jason Snell’s The Incomparable podcast—a pop-culture-for-geeks program for which I composed the opening theme. Last March Jason approached me about putting together some musical bits to accompany the April Fools episode. The hook was that it would be presented as a series of old-time radio dramas. “Maybe,” he suggested, “you could do a variation on the original theme that fit the genre.”
How could I resist?
Read MoreIn my many years of playing music, people have occasionally spoken to me while on the job. These are some of the most memorable nuggets.
“Stop playing dance music!”
– Screamed by a mother-of-the-bride as the band quietly played “Take 5”
Read MoreI know, I know. Now!?
Unbelievably. Lame.
But here’s the thing.
After missing out on the Great Blog Birthing of the Early Aughts I was embarrassed enough at coming late to the party that I figured I’d just give it a pass—at least until such time that blogs came around again in a non-ironic way.
Like flannel shirts.
Read MoreWhen dressed in my Twitter garb (@BodyofBreen) I occasionally gripe about… well, a lot of things really. But in this particular instance I’m referring to my #prdonewrong tweets—those bitter pills of reaction to fumbling PR pitches and strategies. In the interest of formalizing those gripes (and purging my spleen in long-form), I offer this short guide to getting it wrong.
Read MoreBrowse through the curriculum of any good business school for which you spend the equivalent of Kurdistan’s gross domestic product and you’ll find courses in analytical thinking, financial accounting, leadership, managerial skills, and organizational behavior. At the end of your two-year hitch you’ll have the theoretical foundation to join the ranks of a first-world nation’s industrial titans.
But theory is hardly practice.
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Things that zip in and out of the mind of Chris Breen
