Baby Benjamin born today (25th October)

Xmas coming early: Ableton 7 & Max 5

for the full details on these 2 new programs check out Create Digital Music.

Yes, update fever continues with new versions of Ableton and Max. I have a love/hate affair with Max, I love the stuff made with it, I hate having to try building anything wih the program. That said the new update is a major overhaul, with a lot of the improvements aimed towards thickos like myself who are always scratching the heads over Max. You can check out further details over at CDM, or via Cycling 74's website. Suffice to say, that I might convinced to bite the bullet and get properly involved with the program with this version.

Ableton, unlike Max, is something I use on a day to day basis. The update doesn't alter the program dramatically (hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!) but does offer lots of small improvements. Personally I'm most interested in the new instruments Ableton have developed in association with AAS, Tension (physical modelling ala String Studio), Electric (ditto Lounge Lizard) and Analog (Ultra-Analog) I'm most interested in Tension & Analog, as I would have little use for Electric, with my Nord Electro. Unfortunatly, the beta I tested only has Electric there - though it did sound good. I'm all for the inclusion of some of AAS' synth stuff, which I like a lot, within Ableton, hopefully that should reduce the processing power needed.

Great doc on 70s video art

http://videothing.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-wave-70s-doc-on-analog-video-synths.html

via Video Thing.

I always wondered how video feedback was done, now I know. I've been working again recently with a video "artist" (the speech marks are most certainly intentional) if she had even half the ingenuity of these early pioneers then her work would be a million times better than it is. Seriously, what happened to video art? Did all the interesting artists decamp over to computer art instead? Most of today's so-called video artists seem to think just picking up a camcorder and pointing it at something makes it art. Old-fashioned ideas about composition, lighting, framing (or even) puting the camera on a tripod seem to have disappeared. This lady that I've been working with doesn't even know how to edit. Is technique now dead in all forms of modern art or what?

For those interested in the history of Video Art, by the way, Video thing also has a link to the archive of 70's new wave video art magazine: Radical Software.

3 new tracks up on myspace and no more cds

Yep, following what I said in this earlier post I've basically decided not make or release any more CDs, the reasons for this are many but what it boils down to is this:

Hardly anybody seems to want them.

The number of cds I've actually sold as opposed to given away to friends or sent out for promo purposes is very small and frankly I can't be bothered with the hassle. The cd's that I've made so far will remain available via my website until I run out, but from now on ( or at least for the foreseeable future) I'm just going to make any new music available for free download via my myspace page. On that note there are 3 new tracks up there as we speak, go check 'em out.

Scarface slashed and my Pacino kick

I sometimes wonder if I'm ever-so-slightly obsessive-compulsive. I have a tendency to get "hooked" on particular things, bands, authors, actors, movie genre etc. where for a brief period I'm only interested in watching, listening or reading stuff that fits in with that particular obsession. Recently it's been films with Al Pacino, starting with when I bought a copy of the DVD box set featuring 3 of his films: Pacino: An Actor's Vision. Which as well as including Looking for Richard, which I always thought was somewhat underated over the UK, also includes 2 other films that Pacino directed or co-directed: Local Stigmatic & Chinese Coffee. Stigmatic is something of a cause celebre to me. When I was a student I read about this semi-mythical film of a play called Local Stigmatic that Pacino had directed a movie of (actually co-directed with David Wheeler) but decided not to release, opting instead to tinker obsessively with the film on and off over the intervening years and occaisionally show the film to friends like Harold Pinter in order to get their feedback. I'm always a sucker for these sort of industry stories, they must appeal in some way to the movie geek in me. Anyway, having read this I set out to try and track down the play itself. I managed it, it took me two years, but I managed it and ended up directing and acting in a production of it in my final year at university. I never ever expected to able to see a copy of Pacino's film of it though, but low and behold - now I have it...I keep putting of watching it though for fear that it won't live up to my expectations...
In the meantime, however, I've been catching up on some of Al's other work, including the restored "Crusing" which looks markedly different from the video copy I had from a few years back, which looked so fuzzy that it must have been created from a second generation master. The dvd, in contrast, as well as looking like it was shot yesterday is actually in its proper aspect ratio. I read a review of the dvd online which stated that there had been some changes to the film for this dvd release. Apart from the omission of the original title card disclaimer, put in place to appease certain elements of the gay community who protested against the film, and the inclusion of a title card with name of the film at the start (the original just faded from the United Artists logo to the first shot) I didn't notice much that had been added. The reviewseemed uphappy about the inclusion fo some optical effects during one scene where Al is dancing; frankly, I thought they were so minor as to be barely noticable.
Something altogether more noticeable was the blatant mutilation of Scarface on German DVD, a copy of which I bought unknowingly the other week. The film's running time has been slashed from around 170mins which is what the English dvd version runs at to around 148 mins. I got as far as "the Chainsaw" scene about 30 mins into the movie, when I realised that not only the whole of that but also Al shooting the outside just afterwards was gone I switched the dvd off in disgust, I just couldn't bring myself to find out what else they'd done to the movie - who knows maybe in this version, seemingly edited so that 12-year olds can enjoy the movie, maybe Tony sees the error of his ways and checks himself into rehab. Whatever, I don't want to know...