A conversation with a friend who is teaching a film appreciation class got me to thinking about movies that I consider must-sees. I’m going to try to draw up a list here. List will probably be updated regularly, and I’ll keep it in alphabetical order rather than some sort of ranking.
This is my first adequate experiment with the ToyCamera app for iPhone.
In a fit of impulse, I bought a used Skreddy Screwdriver distortion pedal yesterday. This is my second Screwdriver. The first one I thought was very nice, but it didn’t quite kick my HAO Rumble Mod or my old Rat 2 off the board, so I sold it (at a tidy profit – Screwdrivers have a long wait and they’re fashionable in certain circles).
A couple of things have changed in my setup since then. First, I switched amps from the Fender Dual Showman to the Boogie Mark I. The Boogie has a thicker, fatter sound than the Showman. Second, I started using a treble booster (BBE Freq Boost) and fell in love with the old-school drive sound. And third, I discovered the colorful “clean boost” mode of the Rumble Mod, and found myself switching back and forth a lot.
The Screwdriver is, by design, a treble boost pushing a germanium fuzz. I like this on principle, as it’s close to what I’ve been getting with the Freq Boost/Rumble Mod combo. So the theory is that I can start using the Screwdriver for my main OD voice (leaving the Rat for heavier sounds), and turn the Rumble Mod into an always-on boost. I could then possibly retire the old Prescription Electronics Germ I usually use for boost, and the Freq Boost as well, getting a smaller, neater board.
We’ll see how it goes. I’m gigging it unrehearsed tomorrow, and if it works well under gig conditions, it’s a keeper.
Being a musician and a photographer means I’m a gearhead. And that means I read a lot of gearhead forums on teh intarwebz. Most gearheads are very concerned about their gear not being good enough, that they need a new camera or a new amp or whatever someone is selling.
My response is – know your tools. Learn to make the best of the tools you have before upgrading them, whether it’s a camera or a synthesizer or even something like an address book. And when it’s time to upgrade, you should seek to address specific, well-understood limitations of your existing tools. And rather than treating limitations as a need to upgrade, try to be more creative with workarounds and alternative solutions.
The endless upgrade treadmill is one of the curses of modern technology – and marketing. And worse, most devices work so poorly in some way or another than upgrading is just opening yourself up to harmful and potentially activity-fatal flaws. The expense and effort associated with upgrading a tool can often be better spent taking better advantage of the software or hardware you already have.
A variant of this is overbuying when getting into a field. For example, digital cameras are made more to a price point than a feature point. I sometimes see people with $2000+ cameras using them like a point-and-shoot because they have no idea how to operate any camera, much less the fancy one they bought! I tell folks looking for a camera that if they cannot state in clear sensible words why they need a better camera than a Nikon D40, then they need a Nikon D40. They have no idea why they need better – but somehow, bottom of the line can’t possibly be good enough. A $500 D40 and $1000 worth of better lenses, books, and lessons is a better investment than a $1500 camera, at least for a newbie.
Software is the same deal. People overbuy, or try to upgrade their way out of their own ignorance. Learn to use what you have!
A couple of years ago, someone I vaguely know from fannish music circles heard me playing, and said “Every time I hear you, you get better and better”.
I tried to take that to not mean that I used to suck.
Anyway, it’s because I treat music as a continuous learning experience. I always want to know more about music tomorrow than I did yesterday. And when I’m not learning, I get frustrated. Lately, I’ve been frustrated. Thanks to a heavy gigging and recording schedule, my chops are great. Physically, I’m playing very well. But I’m not learning to be a better musician, and that’s frustrating.
To be fair, I’ve been learning – in the studio. My abilities for recording and producing have skyrocketed over the past year and a half, with four albums under my belt in that time. But my guitar playing is pretty stagnant, and my drumming has actually regressed. Technical proficiency is no substitute for new ideas and skills.
With production complete on Apocalypse Blues, I find myself with some spare time and energy to devote to learning something new. But what? There are so many ways I could spend this time!
Two things I want to work on are music theory. On one hand, I would like to delve more deeply into maqams and middle eastern scales. On the other hand, I’d like to dig into the Lydian Chromatic theory for jazz harmony.
But I’d also like to work on instruments I neglect. I want to take up pedal steel seriously again. I miss playing doumbek as well. And I’d like to be better with keyboards. And I really should work on my singing.
And lurking behind it all is the feeling that the reason I’m “not a songwriter” is fear and lack of hard work, rather than some talent, and I could be a good songwriter as well if I just committed myself.
Hmm.
I love my Nikon D40. When I get past my film romanticism, I have to admit it’s the best camera I’ve ever owned, and I recommend it to everyone. But it has one big problem – metering! For some incomprehensible reason, Nikon chose to meter shadows rather than highlights. But highlights are what cause real problems with digital photography – the output gets clipped at pure white, and detail is lost, whereas shadow detail is easily recovered in software later. So how to operate a D40 so you a: don’t have to process the heck out of everything for shadow detail, and b: don’t lose highlights?
Again, I repeat – information can be recovered from shadows in software. It cannot be recovered from blown highlights! Overlit areas of your photo will be white, and will always be white, no matter how you adjust them. So it’s preferable to underexpose than overexpose. Alas, the D40 is prone to overexposure.
Here’s my own D40 metering technique. Maybe it’ll be useful for you. First, I operate the camera in Program mode almost all the time. Avoid the factory convenience modes. Program does the right thing and puts control back in your hands. My primary control over the camera becomes adjusting the exposure compensation, via the info button and wheel. But if my exposure compensation is too high, I get blown highlights – the camera doesn’t adjust effectively.
So to monitor my highlights, I keep the back screen in Highlight mode, which causes blown highlights to flash, making them easy to spot. From there, I can make judgment calls on how much blown highlight I’m willing to tolerate. Personally, I actually like the look of slight overexposure, and I shoot with no flash in low light most of the time, so bright light sources blow easily anyway. I make this decision shot by shot, subject by subject. It’s slightly distracting, but the feedback gives me a great sense of how I’m shooting.
Find your camera’s weakness, and turn it into a strength. In a way, the D40’s poor metering design has made me a better photographer.
With Apocalypse Blues finally behind me, my creativity is focused on upcoming projects. The two in the foreground are photographing the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and the next Feng Shui Ninjas album. I was a staff photographer for Fringe last year, and really enjoyed it, so I’m looking forward to doing it again. Here’s some of last year’s photos:
Luckily, Fringe photography is sort of a one-shot deal. The album is more involved. I’m thinking a lot right now about how I want it to sound, as a production decision. Listening to a lot of Tom Waits, and a lot of Fleetwood Mac. I’ve grown adept enough in the studio that I can exert a great deal of control over the overall sound of a recording at mix time, without fundamentally changing the tracking process. In this case, I’m looking for something clanky and angular, yet also relaxed. The Feng Shui Ninjas are essentially a folk band, and I don’t want to lose sight of that trying to sound too weird.
Yeah, it’s a stupid old Slashdot joke. But it’s an opportunity for me to start writing here.