I’ll Drink to That!

Now this is putting technology to good use!

Jobs Done ... for Good (R.I.P.)

What a day! First folk guitar legend Bert Jansch and now comes news of a much bigger loss in terms of popular cultural impact, the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Despite his having resigned as Apple’s CEO a few months ago due to lingering and serious health issues, tonight’s news still seems shocking – for its rapidity, if not its unexpectedness. (A year from now this news wouldn’t seem so surprising, I think, as it does now.)

Personality aside, Jobs was undeniably a creative and marketing genius whose visionary work has affected the daily lives of so many of us for more than two decades. Literally everyone in the Western World has been touched in some way by the results of his inspired ideas and high standards. Not just the early Mac adopters among us, and not just every iPod-, iPhone-, iPad-touting biz person, hipster or kid even. But anyone who has ever enjoyed iTunes, been able to be more productive and creative with the help of an easy-to-use personal computer at work or home thanks to the user-friendly graphic interface, or even just been exposed to the far-reaching design sensibilities that trickled out of Cupertino, Calif., into so many products and aspects of our contemporary culture.

Let’s hope that Apple can honor Steve by living up to his legacy in the years to come.

This video clip of Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford University in 2005 is one of the more oft-referenced graduation speeches of recent years, thanks in no-small part to 6 million and counting views on YouTube. It’s worth watching if you haven’t seen it, or again, even if you have.

B Sharp in B Flat

My musically savvy teenager forwarded me this link, which seems to be getting some viral attention these days.

It’s quite amazing what you can do by simply mixing a dozen or so unrelated meandering melodies on different instruments that are all in the same key; in this case, B flat. Not only does dropping instruments in and out of the mix – simply by clicking on or off the respective YouTube videos collected on the page – create a unique listening experience, but every time you do so it’s different, based on the instruments selected and the timing of when each is started and stopped within the overall sequence of the “song.” And it always seems to sound reasonably good, now matter how you mix it up.

Check out the “In Bb Experience” for yourself right here.

Content Curation

Some interesting stuff in this Mark Ragan interview with IBM’s Digital Strategist Ben Edwards ... especially around the 5 min. mark:

... particularly to someone currently going by the title “Content Curator” at work. Quite fitting for me though, both personally and professionally.

Stereo Stampede Flim-Flam

Beware the false syllogism ...

Good old American mono? ... Must’ve been those dastardly Germans who came up with that sinister stereo sound!

Paper E-Paper?

There’s been a lot of focus on electronic paper in recent years – that is, portable electronic displays that mimic the high-resolution, color and flexibility of real high-quality, four-color printed paper, but with virtually infinite capacity and immediacy (reload and refresh anytime capabilities).

Many media-tech experts agree that, in some shape or form, this is the next evolutionary step for “print publishing.” I’ve been following developments in this arena for a few years and I'm fascinated by the prospect of the high-resolution presentation and portability-enhancing flexibility and wi-fi capabilites these devices promise.

Now a report comes out detailing what seems to be a bizarre and maybe even ironic twist on the idea of e-paper: Disposable, paper-based e-paper!

On the surface, everything about it is pretty cool, except the most obvious question: why would you want to make it disposable? Well, because it’s cheap, it keeps the paper companies in business and we can always use outer space for the next landfill.

Read The Guardian’s full report about this latest development here.

Flexible, Paper-Thin Screens

I’ve been following the development of various e-reader devices and digital edition technology for the past several years. And, despite the significant progress from the relatively simple and limited Kindle (still the best pure book-like reading experience, I’ve seen, with its partially reflective surface) through Apple’s game-changing iPad (with its multifunctional, brilliantly colorful, glowing backlit display), which clearly excels in many other functions, we’re still just in the infancy of e-reader device development.

In only a few more years, the devices and the digital reading experience is likely to be something more like this, I believe. And while it will offer high resolution, brilliant color, unlike today’s computer screens, I think, it will be largely (or wholly) reflective, rather than back-lit, requiring much less battery power and creating an easier experience on the eyes. We’ll see, and most likely sooner rather than later.

The Vanishing Art of Listening

Recently, one of my favorite regular features in Electronic Musician magazine was discontinued. At first, I was a bit dismayed by the axing of Grammy-winning producer and engineer Nathaniel Kunkel’s monthly column. But, as interesting as it had been, I have to admit that Kunkel’s column had pretty much run its course after a few years. So I was delighted to see it replaced by a new monthly contribution from composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Steven Wilson.

Wilson is an innovative solo artist and leader of the modern English prog-rock band, Porcupine Tree. He’s hardly a household name, but he’s a respected musician who has achieved a modicum of commercial success and considerable artistic triumphs in his 15 or so years in music biz.

I knew from the few interviews with Wilson that I have read over the years that he is a thoughtful and articulate artist. His first few EM columns have bolstered that impression.

In his August column, Wilson argues that cheap convenience is trumping artistic aesthetics in modern music and, as a result, devaluing the experience itself. It’s quite ironic that as recording technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent decades, the quality of what most of us consume as music has regressed substantially.

As Wilson thoughtfully puts it: “Would you rather see the Mona Lisa in the flesh, or look at a thumbnail jpeg of it on your mobile phone? And if you’d only ever seen the virtual Mona Lisa, would you really feel honest saying you’d seen it at all?” Or, as applied to music, “If you’ve only experienced an album [you know, 10 or so purposefully sequenced songs] as compressed audio files [MP3s], have you really experienced it?”

Wilson says consumption of music primarily through compressed MP3s is analogous to making a photocopy of a genuine work of art and putting it in a crappy picture frame. The chasm in relative quality greatly undermines the nuance and beauty of the art.

FURTHER

• Check out Wilson’s first solo release, Insurgentes, or Porcupine Tree’s latest, The Incident, both of which I wrote about in my round-up of last year’s best releases.

Big Co’s Scheming to Undermine Net Neutrality?

The news of the alleged negotiations (i.e., conspiring) between Verizon and Google to undermine the principle of net neutrality, as reported today in The New York Times and elsewhere, should be more than a bit concerning to all of us who use the internet as an information source and are wary of large corporations wielding even more control of the media industry. Media pundit Dan Kennedy outlines the ramifications of such corporate conspiring in today’s post on his Media Nation blog (read it here).

Google has since denied the veracity of the reports, claiming its ongoing commitment to net neutrality. Be that as it may, if you care about the First Amendment and your variety of choices regarding digital news and entertainment, then this is something you might want to keep an eye on.

If you find the prospect of an increased stratification of the here-to-fore reasonably equitable playing field of the Internet disturbing, consider registering your concern here. The number of citizens voicing opposition needs to grow significantly to gain the attention of the powers that be and counter corporate lobbying efforts.

10 Things I’ve Learned on Facebook

As a long-time media professional, I’ve always seen Facebook as a personal publishing platform as much as a social connection tool. It’s a useful vehicle for personal expression and (re)distribution of information and ideas – especially for those who choose to use it in substantive ways. (O.K., there aren’t too many of them, but that’s all right.)

After about a year and half of fairly intense use of the social networking site, I’ve learned a few things. This is it in a nutshell:

1. Many people have an awful lot of free time on their hands.

2. People are often not working when “at work.”

3. Humor is a very idiosyncratic thing and doesn’t always translate as well electronically as in person.

4. Some people are just plain argumentative.

5. Some people are overly earnest. (I’m probably more serious than most, but not all of the time. C’mon, people, humor is the spice of life! )

6. Many people (myself included) are obsessive about certain topics.

7. Some people feel compelled to comment on anything and everything – whether or not they have anything to say or know anything about the topic at hand.

8. Many people – and I mean MANY – comment on things without even reading them first. And of those who do read them first, some don’t do it very carefully.

9. I have more politically conservative friends than I thought (though plenty of liberal ones, too … whew!).

10. People sure do love farms (though I don’t know anyone who actually lives on one).

Reflections on Resolution and Reverence

I’m a hobbyist musician whose musical ideas often exceed my technical knowledge and abilities. Nevertheless, I dabble and, every once in a while, I come with ... uh, something ... that is reasonably satisfying – to me at least.

I’m in a similar position when it comes to computer technology. I’m far from a code geek, but I’m probably a little more tech savvy than the average Joe (although living in the Boston area with all these MIT grads around, I say that with some reservation). Over the years, I’ve managed to become fairly competent with an array of sound and design technology that is useful in my amateur musical endeavors.

This is why I’ve subscribed to Electronic Musician magazine for the last decade or so. Much of the content is way over my head technically (and often musically, too), yet I find enough of the publication useful, inspiring or thought-provoking to keep me renewing it each year. One of things I always read is Nathaniel Kunkel’s monthly column on modern sound production trends and issues. Kunkel is a Grammy Award-winning producer and engineer who also happens to be a decent writer with interesting and thoughtful things to say.

Kunkel’s most recent column (“Avatar This,” March 2010) addresses the increased cheapening of music today, especially when compared to the film and video industry (with its emphasis on large screens, hi-def, 3D, etc.). Kunkel notes that as music has become more disposable (with the proliferation of low-resolution MP3 files that are dissociated from any meaningful context in their presentation, as well as any focused commitment on the part of the listener), it has become little more than sonic wallpaper. It is ubiquitous, almost always in the background, rarely the focus of attention and, thus, of little value. No wonder the industry is struggling.

Yet, Kunkel points to a small but allegedly growing cadre of consumers who are looking for and finding value in their listening experiences. These are the folks behind the apparent resurgence of the vinyl records market. I’ve seen

the vinyl section increasing at my local music retailer (Newbury Comics) in recent years and, as Kunkel notes, even Best Buy is stocking vinyl now.

Obviously, part of the value and appeal is the packaging (the tangible physicality of it, the large artwork, readable liner notes, etc.). Then there’s the renewed attention to the order and contiguity of the songs – things that still hold meaning to some artists. But perhaps most important, Kunkel says, is the higher resolution of music preserved on vinyl – hence, the “warmer” sound routinely cited by audiophiles.

To me, the first critical step in renewing the satisfaction of good music in our lives is to give it a bit more of our focused attention – even if that still means just popping a CD in the player or selecting a choice iTunes playlist rather than digging the old vinyl collection out the back of the closet. And, despite his valid points on the importance of packaging and resolution, Kunkel seems to agree. “Maybe,” he concludes, citing the committed effort that goes into spinning a vinyl disc, “people hear more out of vinyl because it’s the only time they are really listening that closely.”

Whatever it takes, it would be nice to see a return to real reverence for good music – however you choose to define it. Indeed, “Tear down the wall(paper)!”

Time Is Right

The title of a new Feelies’ song (much on my mind since last Friday’s outstanding concert) seems an apropos entré to this brief shout out to Time magazine’s recent special issue highlighting “10 Ideas For the Next 10 Years.”

In 10 brief essays by leading thinkers, researchers and analysts (many from the New America Foundation), Time offers a fascinating overview of how America stands with one foot over the threshold of the new century, as well as some prognosis for the coming years. Overall, it’s a thought-provoking, remarkably optimistic and reasonably centrist (well, just left-0f-center, it is Time, after all) analysis of the United States’ evolving place in the world economically, politically, culturally and militarily. It holds a mirror to our recent history, and highlights key impulses already at play in our society or now percolating just beneath the surface.

The introductory essay, in particular, “The Next American Century,” by Andres Martinez, puts a surprisingly positive spin on our current national sense of society going to hell in a hand basket. It’s followed by thoughtful pieces on “Remapping the World” (bad borders and realistic means to minimize their ongoing detriment in light of current and future challenges), “Bandwidth Is the New Black Gold” (revealing how bandwidth issues will soon affect us all), “The Dropout Economy” (the future of work, education and social constructs in light of the growing libertarian impulse in America), as well as essays on U.S.-China relations, growing “white anxiety” in our increasingly diverse nation, and what it means to live in the “post-trust” era.

All worthwhile reads. Whether you go old school and pick up a copy at the newsstand or read them all online, spend 20 minutes with this Time.

Apple Mind Control

On the eve of Apple’s much-anticipated Tablet debut, this is a provocative article from Macworld speculating on the company’s subtle behavior manipulation strategy. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in coming years. Personally, I’m not opposed to losing the keyboard, but I think it’ll take some getting use to typing on the screen that you’re also viewing on when it’s something bigger than a handheld device. But, as the article notes, Apple has already successfully led us down the behavior modification path before (and anybody who has worked in retail in recent years, has already been doing this on the cash register interface).

Bytes for Thought

Artist: Rob Vargas / Source: Neatorama.com

Americans consume almost 19 hours of data a day, according a recent study by researchers at the University of California at San Diego. As for the zettabytes (a zettabyte is 1 billion trillion bytes), I’m not sure how they made that translation from time spent to bytes of data consumed, but it sounds impressive ... or alarming.

The Future Brain

This (below) is an interesting, albeit somewhat lengthy (13 min.) and far-ranging, NPR podcast about technology, brain development and social relations. It focuses primarily on how internet technology affects cerebral functioning (specifically attention and comprehension) and social interactions and attitudes, but it bounces around quite a bit. Stick it out, the first couple of minutes is not all it covers in terms of content or perspective.

I have to believe that our brains are significantly affected, and sometimes changed, by intense and chronic activities, such as extensive use of the internet ... or pretty much anything else for that matter. And like most things, it’s seldom all good or all bad.

Is the fact that, thanks to internet-facilitated accessibility, more info is available at our fingertips today than ever before a bad thing? I think not, as long as we develop the means and skills to filter and deal with the heightened potential for distraction. (And that’s where the real hand-wringing and striving for solutions should be focused, because not enough seems to be happening there, educationally and otherwise.)

Is today’s technology stunting social development, or just fostering a new kind of social development – one more suited to the likely demands of the future? We seem to have an impulse to quickly judge all changes in social interactions to be wholly bad, when, in fact, social interactions have been changing in many ways (subtle and profound) for many, many years (i.e., since the dawn of man).

Yes, we do live in a world of less depth and more breadth, and that is disconcerting on some levels. But that too has been going on for a long time. I don’t think it can be blamed primarily on computers, the internet, cell phones or even TV.

Anyway, the neurological and social sciences examining all these things are still works-in-progress. Regardless of where the yet-to-be-realized essential realities lie, it is thought-provoking stuff. And that’s never a bad thing.

Long live the info omnivores!