My first story for Wired magazine has been published. You can read it here. It's short. It's about the guys from solarvehicles.org.
  ¶ 1:31 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Good for Mr. Kraft! It's grating hearing music that doesn't fit films inserted into them, on the presumption that big name talent will better sell the soundtrack. Think of the punk track at the end of the South Park movie, for instance. I love the movie, but that track is out of place and unnecessary.

Fox Music Chief Urges Better Film Tunes: "'After the success of 'Titanic,' soundtrack albums were made for every film, and songs were crow-barred into films,' Robert Kraft said during a panel discussion at the Midem music market. 'Soundtracks were bogus. Songs are often just marketing vehicles, and the music gets forgotten. The music must serve the film.' "  ¶ 12:02 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 080 - January 24, 2005 - The Old & The New

Link - Arcadian (Global Communications) (Warp)
re: On Golden Pond (Constellation)
Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind (Sub Pop)
Fennesz - Instrument 1 (Touch)
The Black Dog - Barbola Work (Warp)
BJ Cole - The Interloper (Cooking Vinyl)
Layo and Bushwacka - Deep South (End)
Cursor Minor - Man Made Man (Lo)
AFX - Fenixfunk5 (Rephlex)
Les Georges Leningrad - Fifi F. (Alien8)
Ruffneck - Everybody Be Somebody (Positiva)
NAW - Mid Winter Sailboat Ride (Noise Factory)
Circulation - Uncoloured (Obsessive)
Desert Storm - Scoraig 93 (Soma)
Sabres of Paradise - Smokebelch (Sabres of Paradise)
Leftfield - Song of Life (Hard Hands)
Moonface - Futurised Fears (Bedrock)
Coldcut - Timber (Ninja Tune)
St. Etienne - Hobart Paving (Sub Pop)
Lederhosen Lucil - Apricota (Hypo)

  ¶ 9:45 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  It's telling that the intelligent design wasn't read by the science teachers, but by administrators with unlisted science credentials. Their response to student questions is even better:

CNN.com - 'Intelligent design' taught in Pennsylvania - Jan 19, 2005: "Biology teacher Jennifer Miller said although she was able to make a smooth transition to her evolution lesson after the statement was read, some students were upset that administrators would not entertain any questions about intelligent design.
'They were told that if you have any questions, to take it home,' Miller said."  ¶ 11:33 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 079 - January 17, 2005

Mind Over Rhythm - Blastoff (Rumble)
Point Blank - Meng's Theme (R&S)
Patrick Zigon - Electric Affair
NAW - Underground Tunnel Corridors (Noise Factory)
SCSI-9 - Live at Fabric #4
Pantytec - Elastobabe (Perlon)
Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missile F111 (EMI)
BJ Cole - Surf Acid Hoedown (Cooking Vinyl)
Smith and Mighty - No Justice
Tanzmuzik - Container (Rising High)
Air Liquide - Ek-stasis (sm:)e)
Phonem - Information Technology (Morr)
Amon Tobin - Triple Science (Ninja Tune)
Orbital - Who Are They? (Internal)
Cursor Miner - Me And My Clone (Lo)
Reload - The Biosphere (Infonet)
Amorphous Androgynous - Liquid Insects (EBV)
Manual & Syntaks - Drifting (Darla)
Maybe Smith - Unless I Kill You First
Dead Can Dance - The Summoning of the Muse (4AD)
Fennesz - Instrument 3
u-ziq vs. the Auteurs - Track 1 (Astralwerks)
  ¶ 9:39 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Racing Stripes is apparently out in theaters now. (Got a whopping 4/10 at imdb.com.) I haven't seen it, and this isn't a review. It's a brief comment that zebras are nearly impossible to domesticate. If it could be done, it would have been done a long time ago, like horses. But it hasn't. Here's some links, about why not. The best is from the Library of Congress, and includes an old photo of a man riding a zebra.
  ¶ 4:19 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Aphex Twin, aka AFX, Caustic Window and other names, is up to his tricks again. After numerous scattered releases throughout the past few years, he's releasing a series of ten 12" eps on Rephlex, the label he helped found.

Here's the mailout info:

AFX: Analord 01 12" (REPHLEX) RICHARD D. JAMES WILL RELEASE 10 VINYL-ONLY 12"'S IN 2005 (APPROX. MONTHLY)RELEASE DATE: 01/25/2005. "These records are the first
in the eagerly anticipated Analord series. They are produced by Richard D. James. The style is rhythmic & melodic electronic music in the much-loved AFX style. The music is suitable for public performance as well as home listening. Rephlex strongly recommends this series, among its most entertaining and fulfilling music."

I'm quite conflicted about whether I should by these or not. Basically, I gave up buying vinyl more than a year ago. I'm just not using it at home, or dj'ing. Mostly mp3s and cds today.

Also, Mr. James' releases have become a little bit hit-and-miss over the years. It's not the uniformly stunning releases of the early 90s.

$8.99 times 10 record is $90, plus shipping, so, over $100. If Rephlex sold mp3s, I'd be first in line, but so far they don't, at least not through bleep.com, the Warp record mp3 store. They are selling the binder to hold them now.
  ¶ 1:49 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 078 - January 10, 2005 - Experiments in Funk

Air Liquide - Chromoplastics (Harvest)
Future Sound of London - Egypt (Astralwerks)
Kraftwerk - It's More Fun To Compute
The Black Dog - Sharp Shooting On Saturn (GPR)
Freq Nasty - SE15
Walkner.Hintenaus - Pinrose (Simple)
Swayzak - Another Way (K7)
Fuse - Train-Trac (Plus8)
Slam - Positive Education (Soma)
Deadbeat vs. Stephen Beaupre - Blow Brotha Blow (Musique Risquee)
Jega - Norton Midgate (Skam)
Squarepusher - I Wish You Could Talk (Warp)
Autechre - Piezo (Warp)
u-ziq - Balsa Lightning (Planet mu)
Kosmik Kommando - Welcome Home R2 (Rephlex)
Kenny Larkin - Soul Man (R&S)
Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus (Francois Kevorkian mix) (Mute)
Bola - Effaninor (Skam)
Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back And Forth (Domino)
  ¶ 9:51 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 077 - January 3, 2005 - Best of 2004

Invisible Inc. - Stars (Ambient Version) (Sumsonic)
Oliver Hacke - Piscinespinne (Traum Schallplatten)
Wighnomy Bros. - Wurz and Blosse (Kompakt Extra)
Nylon - The Mouse (Rebel One)
2 Dollar Egg - Graphit (Klang Elektronik)
Mathew Jonson - Re-wire
Robag Wruhme - Hugendubel (Musik Krause)
Mouse on Mars - Send Me Shivers (Thrill Jockey)
Junior Boys - More Than Real (Domino)
Commercial Breakup - Superman (Wighnomy Bros. & Robag Wruhme mix) (Ladomat)
Abe Duque feat. Blake Baxter - What Happened? (Deep House mix) (Abe Duque Records)
Kylie Minogue - Slow (Serge Santiago mix)
Arovane - Instant Gods Out of the Box (City Centre Offices)
Bola - Pfane Pt. 2 (Skam)
Squarepusher - Ultravisitor (Warp)
Kosmas Epsilon - Feed Me Acid (EQ/Grey)
Lady B - Cruising Around Motor City (Goodlife)
Slam - Lie to Me (Soma)
Nathan Fake - Bored of House (SAW)
Madonna - Ray of Light (Derek Howell mix)
Lonestar - New Kicks
Orbital - One Perfect Sunrise (ATO)
Chris Lake & Rowan Blades - Filth (Alternative Route)
Telefon Tel Aviv - Nothing Is Worth Losing That (Hefty)
  ¶ 6:21 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  I tried burning a cd of some film I shot before Christmas last night. Didn't go very well. The editing was done in Microsoft Movie Maker, which has been widely praised as an easy to use and free editor. It was easy to use, and had a nice "Save to CD" icon. So I did that last night.

What it doesn't tell you, is that it burns a HighMAT format disc, not a plain old VideoCD or Super VideoCD. The only thing that plays a HighMAT format disc is the newest Panasonic DVD players. There is no option to burn a VideoCD or Super VideoCD.

Of course, Pinnacle SE won't import the Movie Maker file, so all my work may need to be redone, if I want to make this playable on any common players. Thanks, Microsoft. This is not the way to dominate the market.
  ¶ 2:02 PM 0 Comments Links to this post