oil on canvas, 66 x 49 inches
private collection
Am continuing to work on my archives. This painting is based on a photo I took in Riverside Park. The oil-on-canvas version is a detail from the photo. Painted and exhibited when I was living in Dallas. This photo was taken outside of the studio in Deep Ellum that I had for about a year and a half.
"Virtual Canapés" [mp3 removed -- please listen on Bandcamp]
Some Elektron Machinedrum beats (mostly mine but there may be a snippet from the device's previous owner, if so, hat tip GYS), with added beats and softsynths recorded and arranged in Ardour (Linux version).
Was happy to find the softsynth Helm, which works very well as a Linux (LV2) plugin.
The Machinedrum "kits" include many "user waves" that I made with cut-up and normalized snippets from earlier, modular synth tracks, transferred to the MD using MIDI sample transfer and converted to 12 bit sound files.
Tomorrow's link rot, but here goes:
The 1995 song "My Conservative Girlfriend," by the Foremen, anticipates the Donald Duck meme (hat tip PR): [YouTube]
Algorithmically recommended to me by the world-straddling soul destroyers at GoogleYouTube, who are sucking every fiber of attention away from the rest of the internet [/exculpatory rant], this amusing demo shows "Barry Beats" chopping up some '70s and '80s vinyl to make new tunes: [YouTube]
Cornwall's answer to DJ Premier, Barry Beats, takes on the legendary Rhythm roulette challenge and quite literally smashes it to microbes. Watch as Barry rummages sightless through the racks of Camborne Record (and smoking paraphernalia) shop 'Lost in music'.
Then follow him back to his tiny studio where his blind finds are revealed.
Marvel as Barry chops and snips his way through a whole heap of hair, keeping it super funky at all times, finally to reveal a stone cold Barry Banga, not to mention some dubious dance moves!!!!
Sorry about the ads.
It's not fair to smirk at a million person march because of a few narcissists but they do seem pretty prevalent in this photo (cropped from a less diplomatic Nina Illingworth meme; that's her cat in the upper left). The presence of the upward-failing John Kerry makes the event seem like compromised Dem politics-as-usual. As one internet commenter put it, "a million people is impressive: I hope you had fun and have lots of good memories."
Naked Capitalism's Lambert Strether goes into depth on the Trump "Russian dossier" issue, which I'm not that interested in. Lambert's conclusions are worth quoting at length, though:
It would be nice, wouldn’t it, if our famously free press was actually covering the Trump transition, instead of acting like their newsrooms are mountain redoubts for an irrendentist Clinton campaign. It would be nice, for example, to know:
1) The content and impact of Trump’s Executive Orders.
2) Ditto, regulations.
3) Personnel decisions below the Cabinet level. Who are the Flexians?
4) Obama policies that will remain in place, because both party establishments support them. Charters, for example.
5) Republican inroads in Silicon Valley.
6) The future of the IRS, since Republicans have an axe to grind with it.
7) Mismatch between State expectations for infrastructure and Trump’s implementation
And that’s before we get to ObamaCare, financial regulation, gutting or owning the CIA (which Trump needs to do, and fast), trade policy, NATO, China, and a myriad of other stories, all rich with human interest, powerful narratives, and plenty of potential for scandal. Any one of them worthy of A1 coverage, just like the Inaugural crowd size dogpile that’s been going on for days.
Instead, the press seems to be reproducing the last gasps of the Clinton campaign, which were all about the evils of Trump, the man. That tactic failed the Clinton campaign, again because volatility voters weren’t concerned with the niceties. And the same tactic is failing the press now. Failing unless, of course, you’re the sort of sleaze merchant who downsizes the newsroom because, hey, it’s all about the clicks.
