The musings of a Vilma.

As part of the Toshiba “leading innovation”...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:02:46 -0500

As part of the Toshiba “leading innovation” campaign, Grey London’s stunt set the record for “the world’s highest commercial” by filming a chair’s ascent to the edge of space above the Nevada Black Rock desert. I’ve seen several publicity stunts that do nothing for brand image, but I really think this one brilliantly aligns with Toshiba’s brand positioning and image. After all, the memorable commercial is produced by the cutting-edge, daring and cool product itself.

More literally, we can say it also showcases its picture quality, as well as durability at extreme pressures in which a chair explodes yet their cameras continue to film. Not to mention, haven’t they made me into an inadvertent brand advocate by inspiring me to write this blog? Very cool.

X-posted from thevilmajar.com

Here are the characters I’ve made so far for my...

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:50:45 -0400

Here are the characters I’ve made so far for my claymation! The duck is Walter, the turtle is Sam, and the snail hasn’t spoken his name yet.

The seven hottest startups of MidemNet 2009

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:38:05 -0500

The seven hottest startups of MidemNet 2009:

artistspaid:

Stuart / Music Ally:

1. Catch Media - They want to ditch all the acronyms - MP3, WMA, AAC etc - and just let people listen to music, he says. So Play Anywhere comprises technology, licensing, a clearing house structure and a business model, all in one.

2. Passionato - It’s a “site for people who love Classical and Jazz”.

3. SoundCloud - SoundCloud is about making it easier for people to share music - but in the legal industry sense - labels, artists, producers and media who need to send large files to one another.

4. The Echo Nest - They’ve built a “music intelligence” platform, and he’s talking about one of the applications making use of it: Promobot. The Echo Nest tracks blog posts and other online data - “there are thousands of writers out there on the web, but no way to sort them and find the ones who care about your sorts of music,”

5. MPTrax - They’re launching “the world’s first user generated viral booking utility” - it’s launching today in fact. So it’s about getting a band’s gigging calendar into the hands of anyone who might want to book them - including private parties, venues and so on.

6. Instinctiv - They’re offering personalisation technology to help consumers navigate their large libraries of music better - something that’s increasingly relevant in the age of unlimited music services, which can be frankly daunting in the depth of available songs.

7. Mustick - a device created by an industrial design student at the Eindhoven University of Technology.

Secretary of the Arts Petition

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:39:04 -0500

Secretary of the Arts Petition:

My orchestra conductor sent me this, and I just signed it. There are both positive and negative points of view, like there is to everything really, so read up on it a bit. I hope you sign it too.

“To: President Barack Obama

Congratulations and thank you for all you do.

Your good friend Quincy Jones said: “…next conversation I have with President Obama is to beg for a Secretary of Arts.”
[November 14th 2008 WNYC interview by John Schaefer on “Soundcheck.”]

We the undersigned support Quincy Jones’ plea.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned”

I made a gingerbread house last night!

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:42:48 -0500

I made a gingerbread house last night!

My del.icio.us Wordle!

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:16:08 -0500

"The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I’d been working on my own music..."

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:44:23 -0500

“

The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I’d been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, ‘Here’s a specific problem — solve it.’

The thing from the agency said, ‘We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,’ this whole list of adjectives, and then, at the bottom, it said: ‘and it must be 3¼ seconds long.’

I thought this was so funny, and an amazing thought, to actually try to make a little piece of music. It’s like making a tiny little jewel.

In fact, I made eighty-four pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny, little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds, at the end of this, that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then, when I’d finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were, like, three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.

”

- Brian Eno on his creative process when composing the Microsoft sound for Windows 95. (via erin)

5 People to Watch at The SanFran MusicTech Summit

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:34:37 -0400

5 People to Watch at The SanFran MusicTech Summit:

artistspaid:

From readwriteweb:

Tim Westergren, Pandora founder

Discussion point: What’s the next hurdle for Pandora in the public policy debate about webcasting rates?

Josh Brooks, vice president of MySpace Music

Discussion point: Some have criticized that independent labels are being treated as second tier citizens by MySpace Music. Additionally, there had been some expectation that the indie artists would receive an equity stake much like the big labels were going to receive. What now?

Derek Slater, Google

Discussion point: Google’s public policy strategies and how it relates to the new platforms in development by music technology companies.

Gary Greenstein, Wilson Sonsini

Discussion point: How does Greenstein see licensing models changing and what are his views on the RIAA position concerning “making available.”

Ethan Kaplan, Warner Bros Records

Discussion point: What is the state of open source development in the music industry?

Sweet City Action is playing with Kung Fu Girls on Tuesday,...

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:57:31 -0400

Sweet City Action is playing with Kung Fu Girls on Tuesday, October 21st at 1982 Bar.

Hope to see you there!

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:56:16 -0400

Hope to see you there!

Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:40:40 -0400

This is incredibly cool!

via The New York Times:

“Eight years and $200 million in the making, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, or Empac, resembles an enormous 1950s-era television set.

But inside are not old-fashioned vacuum tubes but the stuff of 21st-century high-tech dreams dedicated to the marriage of art and science as it has never been done before, its creators say — 220,000 square feet of theaters, studios and work spaces hooked to supercomputers.

Within its walls, the designers say, scientists can immerse themselves in data and fly through a breaking wave or inspect the kinks in a DNA molecule, artists can participate in virtual concerts with colleagues in different parts of the world or send spectators on trips through imaginary landscapes, and architects can ponder their creations from the inside before a single brick or two-by-four has been put in place.”

Mozart

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:47:02 -0400

amirchev:

If there is one person that I would like meet, it would have to be without a question Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In my eyes, the only true genius that ever existed - it is something so beyond genius - it is divinely inspired.

Everytime I listen to his music, and no matter how many times I hear it, it still sends chills running down my back. If there is ever a piece of music that could describe the very depth’s of one’s soul, it is the music that he has composed. I feel priveleged to have the opportunity to listen to it - rarely is there something so beautiful, so pure that exists on this earth, and his music being one of the few.

No matter how I am feeling, if I start listening to Mozart, it brings me a sense of calm, reassuredness, for instance Piano Concerto in D minor - it says “Everything is the way it is…it’s okay, and everyone and everything is clear and know and there is no reason not to trust the fate or whatever driving force there is in this world.”

Don Giovanni Act II, Commendatore, says, “Anger, misunderstanding between two human beings - yearning to understand one another. But never do, even when it becomes too late.”

Not to speak of the Lacrymosa which brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.

I think anyone who listens to these will experience the same emotion - it is the deep yearning of every person to be understood by someone else, and when that happens, and it happens so completely- for me it is through Mozart. His music speaks to human psychology so well…it is the eternal, the ethereal that I, and probably some others crazy fools, are forever searching for.

DRM by Sweet City Action Check out our song about how much we...

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:21:00 -0400

DRM by Sweet City Action

Check out our song about how much we just love DRM. Oh and for some reason it’s listed as Dr. M on Grooveshark. I like it that way too!

Bandcamp - A free hosted CMS for bands that (hopefully) doesn't suck

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:14:42 -0400

Bandcamp - A free hosted CMS for bands that (hopefully) doesn't suck:

Here’s my band’s page on there: Sweet City Action

artistspaid:

fascinated:

Andy just showed me Bandcamp, something I’ve been hoping to see for a while - a free hosted CMS for bands that doesn’t suck (I’d love to see an OSS one as well).

Most of the time, these products are poorly built, poorly customizeable and then want to charge artists money (for these amazing services). Bandcamp seems simple, easy to use and free, though they do have some plans to make money, see the witty monetization faq. Check it out! Here’s a sample one from The Visible Men.

Slapping Your Fans and Bouncing Them on Your Knee

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:08:00 -0400

Slapping Your Fans and Bouncing Them on Your Knee:

Fans love it. What are some other antics you’ve seen?

artistspaid: Passionato is providing the world’s biggest...

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:10:12 -0400

artistspaid:

Passionato is providing the world’s biggest collection of high-quality classical downloads, first in the UK and later worldwide.

Passionato

Passionato’s aim is to become the world’s most comprehensive online classical resource and offer classical music lovers the largest available collection of high-quality DRM-free classical music downloads. Passionato provides access to catalogues from the two largest major labels (Universal Music and EMI Classics) as well as the key independent classical labels including Naxos (the biggest independent), Chandos (one of the premier British independent labels), Avie and Arts.

Designed for classical music lovers, Passionato’s main features are: DRM-free recordings, transferable to any portable device and burnable to CD; high audio quality downloads (320kbps DRM-free MP3 and lossless FLAC); access to free software the Passionato Player specifically developed to help organise users’ existing Classical CDs alongside tracks purchased through the Passionato Store; an unprecedented level of recording information which users benefit from when they download a track, work or album, and when they import their own CD libraries to their computers; the ability to search Passionato’s recordings using over 20 fields, including by work, composer, conductor, venue and recording engineer.

Passionato does not employ any DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology. This means your purchase allows you to transfer your downloaded audio files to your portable player, CDs and other media for personal use. Purchase does not include file transfer for commercial purpose.

Sweet City Action Microsite

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:08:53 -0400

Sweet City Action Microsite

Tusen Tankar

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:05:44 -0400

Tusen Tankar is a traditional Scandinavian folk song, which recounts a timeless, mournful tale of unrequited love. The English translation of the lyrics reads:

A thousand thoughts oppress me

For love of one who can’t be mine.

As through the world I ramble,

All I can do is pine.

All I can feel is the pain I bear

And it’s all for you, my dear.

Mankind’s false heart betrayed me

And left me in despair.

If I had never seen you,

Your hands, your face, your clear blue eyes,

If I had never been there

The first time you walked by,

I might have spent my days in joy.

I might be content and free.

The day will never dawn now

When sorrow leaves me be.

The pretty flowers of summer

I see them everywhere I go,

But death is all I long for,

Since your love I’ll never know.

And if my fate’s to die for you,

To you I’ll leave my pain,

For never while I’m living

Will I be free again.

.::Graphical Girl Talk::. Feed the Animals broken down “beat by...

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:08:52 -0400

.::Graphical Girl Talk::.

Feed the Animals broken down “beat by beat”.

From Wired.com

artistspaid:

thetapeleader:

Love this…

pantsthemusical:

.::Graphical Girl Talk::.

Feed the Animals broken down “beat by beat”.
From Wired.com

Presidential Candidates on Music Education

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:35:43 -0400

Presidential Candidates on Music Education:

grooveshark:

The political scene is heating up again. While I was constantly glued to political blogs and CNN during the primaries, the summer time provided a much needed break from all the hoopla. Now with…