AKA "asshole architecture" AKA "the architecture of greed." You got air rights, you gotta use 'em.
This building artlessly shoving up against an existing building recalls a similar striver, in human space:
March 2017
linux musings
Dell makes high-end laptops that run Ubuntu -- who knew? It's the only "major" hardware supplier that does, according to Linux Magazine. On the niche side, Think Penguin offers PCs and laptops configured for various Linux distros (as they're called). Highly recommended if you are looking to buck the system, that is, step outside the Apple/Microsoft/Google thought control paradigm. (The ambitious can also remake W10 in a more honest image -- see funfare's instructions). Unfortunately Ubuntu has an obnoxious "unity desktop" that's more user friendly than it needs to be; worse, Ubuntu is managed by a for-profit company, Canonical, that lost some credibility by partnering with Amazon on some customer enhancement whatever (apparently you can now opt out of this). Other distros, such as Mint, avoid the unity and the canon.
In the world of audio-for-Linux, a schism is brewing because some commercial DAW developers are suddenly making workstations that run on Linux, using its super-flexible JACK protocol. Tracktion and Bitwig both offer these, in addition to Apple and MS versions. The problem is plugins. Linux users have developed a range of interesting products using the LV2 standard, regarded by many as superior to the VST protocol developed by Steinberg (of Cubase fame), that serves as the audio industry standard, for better or worse. Neither Tracktion nor Bitwig load LV2 plugins, only VSTs. There are various bridges that no one seems ecstatic about. To take advantage of LV2, you must use Linux-centric DAWs such as Ardour or Qtractor. Unfortunately the Linux DAWs are clunky and crude compared to the commercial ones -- I've had ongoing issues with Ardour's MIDI tracks in Loop mode, and crashing from various plugins. Either Tracktion/Bitwig need to embrace the house standard (not going to happen, it appears) or Ardour needs to get a whole lot tighter (might happen, given time and competition).
gessen on kr*mling*te
So-called Kremlingate is the Clintonites' Benghazi -- a non-issue that they keep pounding on, thinking they are all super-clever. Long-time Putin critic Masha Gessen has a good point, which is that the Repubs want to keep Trump in, no matter how much disinformation the NYT and CNN spew out, so they can "shrink government" or whatever it is they think they are doing. (hat tip jim)
from the vault: "Heyday" and "Pacific Scrim"
"Heyday (2017 Remix)" [mp3 removed -- please listen on Bandcamp]
"Pacific Scrim (2017 Remix)" [mp3 removed -- please listen on Bandcamp]
Dusted off these tunes from 2010 and 2011, respectively, and remixed them (as in editing out parts, compressing individual tracks, and making a louder "master").
The style is the rhythm-ambient stuff I was doing before I started getting more interested in crude songwriting/arranging. "Heyday" has a found speech sample from the art world that cracks me up, in an easily-amused sort of way.
"Dusting off" means "performing elaborate forensics" since both tunes were done on a Windows XP computer running Cubase 4 with UAD plugins. Trying to load the projects in Cubase 7.5 on Windows 7 meant the following didn't work: (i) Battery -- thanks, so much, Native Instruments, for not making Battery 4 backwards-compatible with Battery 2 (ii) Reaktor -- ditto for Reaktor 5 and 2, (iii) Waves compression plugins had to be substituted for the UAD. Half a day of fun, at least.
alex on film -- three reviews
Alex on Film addicts the casual websurfer film fan with incisive analysis of plot holes, behind-the-scenes connections, and other lesser-considered aspects of movies.
His beat encompasses classics as well as genre trash you'd never watch (e.g., the Predator series).
Lately he hit three films I'd seen in the last six months, so the jackpot is... a blog post.
The Lineup (1958). Lesser-known rough gem from the great Don Siegel (see Alex on Film's screenshot above).
Le Samouraï (1967). Agree this is style over substance, and one might add, the ending makes no sense. The police procedural aspects and Inspector Javert-like cop add spice to the tale of a loner who would eventually be better-incarnated as Jim Jarmusch's and Forest Whitaker's Ghost Dog. Lastly, Jean-Pierre Melville isn't really new wave, more like proto-new wave, although this film came at the height of that era.
The Witch (2015). Spoiler: The witch did it.
Also, in a review of Coma, an appreciation of the under-appreciated Geneviève Bujold (who I celebrity-spotted in a NYC bookstore once -- the clerk who was helping her obviously had no idea he was assisting royalty):
Geneviève Bujold . . . well, she could have been a star. As David Thomson puts it, she “is so remarkable in [Coma] that she makes one conscious of how a steady career has neglected her real virtues.” Or per Pauline Kael: “There’s no way to sanitize this actress. She’s like a soft furry animal and she’s irreducibly curious; she snuggles deep inside the shallow material.”
She was in fact a star, Hollywood-career-arc-wise, from King of Hearts through Anne of a Thousand Days through Tightrope, roughly, but let's also recall the auteur types she worked with: Brian De Palma (Obsession), Alan Rudolph (Choose Me), and David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers).