Chadwick's Blog

Just thought I'd give a heads up to the community: The TV show "24" is the new hot item among hipsters and emo detectives. If you can't get around to watching all 72 episodes, you should at least go read the summaries of every episode so that you're not embarrassed during conversation at the art opening you're going to this Friday.

I'm on an email list for Csound, which is kind of a programming language for making music, and lately the people on there have been talking a bit about "wavelets". I'm pretty uneducated on the stuff, so I'm going to look stuff up on the internet about it and blog about it... because I think it's cool, even though you probably don't.

What are Wavelets?
Good question. According to this site, "Wavelets are mathematical functions that cut up data into different frequency components, and then study each component with a resolution matched to its scale. " Ahh, right. On the Csound list, they were talking about wavelets as they can be applied to sound manipulation. Because they're a way to take a sound and analyze it in terms of frequencies versus time, they allow you, once the analysis is complete, to do things like speed up a sound while maintaining the same frequencies (e.g. speed up a voice without making it sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks), or to change the pitch of a sound while not changing the speed of the sound. Hm, all that stuff doesn't belong in the "What are Wavelets?" section. Oh well, I already gave you a nice, vague definition

You know, now I'm reading the aforementioned site, and it's really interesting. I don't need to rehash it in my blog. Just go read it yourself. To tickle your pickle and float your boat, here are some interesting applications of WaVeLeTs!
- Computer Vision
- FBI Fingerprint Compression (they've got about 30 million sets of them!)
- Musical Synthesis

Man, was I excited about that thing. Too bad it was lackluster.

The first act was DJ (something I don't remember). He played rave music. It wasn't very interesting.

The second act was Cassetteboy. They take sound clips of famous people and well-known songs and slice them up and put them back together into a collage of sex, drugs, and politics. The recordings they make were pretty entertaining: Harry Potter getting a blow job, George Bush saying he can't be trusted, Michael Jackson saying how much he "loves" little boys, etc. As a live act, it was pretty retarded. The two of them were in skeleton costumes, one with a George Bush mask, and one with a Tony Blair mask, dancing around on stage, pretending to have anal sex with each other, and pantomiming to the audio in the background. That was the performance. I think they just had their album playing straight through in the background.

Squarepusher had an interesting set, but I wasn't really in the mood for it. A lot of what he did was play bass with a lot of effects, and with his computer following what he played and harmonizing, triggering drum loops, etc. Technically, it was quite a feat. Aurally, it was really abrasive. Interesting, but painful. Call me a sinner, but I kept waiting for him to bust into something a little more catchy. Almost everything he played was at breakneck speed. Part of my disappointment was the venue, Antone's. It has very little room in front of the stage, so at least half of the people are standing way to the side (like me). My friends and I started out near the middle of the club, but we couldn't take all the (square)pushing that started before Squarepusher even came on. One of my friends got kicked in the head twice by a crowdsurfer.

Oh well, I can say that I was there, at least. I think I'll be seeing DJ Shadow at Stubb's tomorrow (along with Blackalicious and others). I think that will be a better time.

It's 1:18pmish and I'm listening to The Chemical Brothers' "Surrender", eating some baby carrots, preparing for some hours of work at home.

WORK AT HOME? That's right, I don't work at AuctionBin anymore. At least, not on a regular basis. I'm more of a consultant now. I'm doing some web programming for them, as well as a couple other clients.

Shit. I don't have much blogging motivation. A common question from the non-blogging community is something to the effect of "Why do people do that?" In an attempt to be honest with myself, I would say that I blog to chronicle events in my life, thoughts in my head, produce something entertaining, share with my friends, and whine. I just haven't felt like doing much of that lately. I can chronicle my life in a paper journal, share with my friends in person, and whine and produce something entertaining by writing songs. Sorry, blog.

But I'll still write in it once in awhile. All the entries might be like this, though.

I got a cell phone.