February 2008

For Obama Against the Clintons and Bushes

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On the eve of the Iraq war I posted the following about Hillary Clinton's political calculation:

Back in October [2002] I posted the names of the Senators and Congresspeople who gullibly (or cynically) approved Bush's war plans: if you want to take another look they're here. It was completely foreseeable at that time that Junior would immediately start moving troops to the Gulf, thus making the invasion a fait accompli (note French phrase), just as his father did in the last Gulf War. But here was Sen. Hillary Clinton's morally convoluted rationale for her vote, stated to the NY Times: "She concluded that bipartisan support would make the president's success at the United Nations 'more likely and, therefore, war less likely.''" From the news today it looks like Bush just gave the finger to the UN, so instead of making war less likely, she made it inevitable. Thanks a lot.

Payback time for Clinton's support of Bush is tomorrow, folks.

"SidBeats 2"; More on Beats as Fonts

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"SidBeats 2" [mp3 removed]

Another straight-up rhythm track done with the kit I made sampling percussion sounds from the Sidstation synth.

This is a bit more on the noize tip. The weird flanging sounds are done with Reaktor plug-ins, but all the original, underlying sounds were made with the Commodore 64 sound chip.

It was interesting to learn all the ways the various Sid users who made the original patches created kick, snare, hat, and tom sounds just using waveforms.

After working with hardware and software drum synthesizers for a while I'm coming to have a different understanding of Simon Reynold's "beats as fonts" analogy.

It is especially clear when you look at the waveforms depicted graphically in a sampler: the kick and snare, say, each have their own characteristic shape but everyone "draws" them slightly differently. They really are like alphabet letters, and when combined to form musical "sentences" they can have a completely different character/vibe/feel/aura from one kit to the next.

Abstract Illusionism Then and Now

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James Havard Detail

desaxismundi detail

Top: James Havard, Flat Head River, 1976, acrylic on canvas, detail

Bottom: Desaxismundi, detail of untitled work, 2008

The abstract illusionist movement was a one-off trend from the late '70s and is generally considered to be kitsch. Essentially it consisted of painting airbrushed shadows into Cy Twombly-esque gesture paintings; James Havard was the star of the "movement" but he has since completely changed his style of working.

Many painters I know confess a secret admiration for these works.

The "generative art" movement, where computer code defines the parameters of an image that snaps into existence more or less instantly, is growing on me. Partly because it is "something new under the sun" where conventional painters are trapped by their medium and recycling old tricks. Partly because it is getting better--in terms of the image-makers building error and accident into their process.

The black and white image by Desaxismundi is undeniably seductive--you have the circles casting Havard-like shadows, which might be too precious by themselves, but also these shimmery bands of visual noise breaking the white emptiness of the "background." A nice tension results between platonic forms and eruptions of dissonance. It's very musical.