Reformatting the planet, and going overboard with links.

The first season of Penny Arcade: The Series is over, and they haven't started the new season yet, so they've been putting up other programs on PATV.

2 Player Productions (actually comprised of four people. Weird, I know.), the production company that produced the first season of Penny Arcade, produced a documentary about chip music called Reformat The Planet. I originally saw it on Pitchfork TV a while back, but now it's on PATV.

I talked about Tristan Perich in my last entry. He has a few scenes in Reformat The Planet.

Jesse Novak is also in Reformat The Planet. I know of him from the comedy group Olde English. His brother is BJ Novak, the writer of, producer of, and actor that plays Ryan Howard on the U.S. version of The Office. I believe Jesse has written music for The Office at least once. One of the Dunder Mifflin jingles in that episode where the office makes a commercial for the company.

I love the concept of chip music, but I rarely hear any I like. Reformat The Planet is an interesting movie, but I didn't really hear any music that interested me in it. There's a very gimmicky aspect to chip music where regardless of how well composed a piece of music is, as long as someone uses that medium to make music, it's automatically considered as valid as any other chip music. I rarely hear what I consider to be interesting compositions and textures in the medium of chip music. I'm not saying any music is invalid, but I wish people would be more daring. I think that the reason old video game music is so memorable and moving has more to do with the interesting compositions rather than the 8-bit sound.

Tristan Perich's 1-Bit Symphony

I've thought a lot about ways of presenting music, but usually my ideas are based on new or interesting ways of presenting widely-used, existing formats, such as CD, vinyl, or MP3's.

One of the most interesting ideas I've come across (Tyler from my previous entry linked to it from his facebook page) is this:



"A complete electronic circuit - programmed by the artist and assembled by hand - plays the music through a headphone jack mounted into the case itself."

It's not a recording in the traditional sense of the word. I think it's probably more accurate to think of it as an electronic music box, and I'm fascinated by music boxes.

Another interesting way of looking at it is that it is not a stretch to see the mounted circuit itself as minimalist album art when it's in the context of a CD jewel case like that. I love the idea of physical objects being used in album art rather than just images. This is not only a physical object, but it's what plays the music. The album art plays the album.

Of course, I think one downside to a presentation like this is that it's such an interesting idea that it is in danger of becoming a gimmick and overshadowing the music itself. Although that doesn't decrease the validity or quality of the music, people like me are only talking about the album because of the presentation and not because of the music. Maybe that's alright though, because maybe the music isn't the only part of the art as a whole. Maybe the circuit idea isn't there to compliment the music, but the other way around, and the music is there to compliment the idea of the circuit. That doesn't mean that the music is any less important. It's more like a film score complimenting a film. The music is very important and enhances the film, but the film itself, as a whole, is the most important thing.

You can download a free recording (provided by The Rambler) of the first movement in the 1-Bit Symphony by clicking here.

Free music you could check out, if you were so inclined.

A band I really love called Endless Hallway released a new song yesterday. They recorded it a few months ago. It's called "Magneton"

The link to download it is here.

I've been into them since there were only two guys in the band and they had only a 30-second teaser of a song on their myspace site. Since then they've released several demos and a great album.

I went with Patrick and his friend Aaron to see Endless Hallway live last year when they were on tour, opening for Gavin Rossdale. They were amazing. It was the best show I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot of shows.
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My friend Tyler is a musician. His music project is called Clamour. I met him on the internet a while back, and since then I have released nothing, and he has released several EP's, making me feel like I'm lazy. He just released his latest EP, which was planned to be a full album. The EP is called "Tower"

The link to download it is here.

To be honest, his music isn't something I'd regularly listen to, but it's interesting. I get the impression he does it for himself anyway rather than for an audience, much like how I approach my own music, even if our respective approaches also differ in many ways.

A document within the download explains that it is his final Clamour release, and that Clamour is now "asleep". He just has a different path in life to go down.

I don't know Tyler very well, but I'm glad to know him at all, and I hope we continue to talk at least once in a while, and that we'll maybe work together on something in the future.

"That guy will do anything for attention."

I watched one of the new Shark Week shows, and this man let a Remora attach itself to his stomach. I've definitely never seen anything like that before. I thought he should have swam around in the water, to impress all his friends.

"Hey guys, look at me! I'm a shark!"

Everyone's known at least one person who would do just about anything for attention. The least they could do is be creative enough to attach Remoras to their stomach.

Superstition and Astronomy.

I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious.

Early in the morning on Friday, the 13th, a black cat walked in front of our van. I'm just glad it wasn't Jason Vorhees.

After that, we watched the Perseid meteor shower. It was beautiful. I've always been interested in astronomy, but my terrible vision and refusal to get glasses or contact lenses makes it difficult to take on as a hobby. My fellow meteor-gazers and I witnessed some strange things. At one point we saw a flash in the sky that lasted a couple of seconds. We believe it was a meteor heading straight in our direction, but obviously burning up in the atmosphere before it got to us. At another point we saw a very bright flash of light below the treeline. I have no idea what that could have been, and I have no idea if it was related to the meteor shower. It couldn't have been a meteor hitting the Earth, right? At another point I saw what I believe was a satellite moving slowly across the sky. It was a very faint light.

I'm not actually superstitious.

Disassociate The Art From The Artist

In response to finding out about the latest morally reprehensible actions Mel Gibson has been accused of, people have stated that they can no longer enjoy any of his movies. One person I know even suggested to her friends that they have a DVD burning in protest of Gibson's behavior.

The concept of a DVD burning is something I find offensive. There are obvious parallels to book burning, which, I was under the impression, was opposed by any person of intellect. I know it's a very common technique in arguments and debates for ignorant people to compare other people to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis, but the parallel actually exists here, doesn't it? It seems to be very common in dystopian literature and films for the oppressive rulers of society to burn books. How can any intelligent person think it's a good idea? In my mind, DVD burning is exactly the same as book burning, if you subtract the romanticism of book burning.

The notion of no longer being able to enjoy Mel Gibson's movies is ridiculous to me, especially considering that, in my opinion, Braveheart is one of the best movies ever made. When talking to this aforementioned person I know, trying to convince her to disassociate the art from the artist, I referenced Phil Spector. Phil Spector was a record producer and songwriter before he was found guilty of the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. I said that even though Phil Spector was convicted of murder, I am very inspired by his recordings. I realize this reference of him might have been lost on this person I know because she might not be aware of what recordings Phil Spector produced or co-wrote. I can guarantee she enjoys at least some of them though, because who the hell doesn't?

If you can no longer enjoy Mel Gibson's movies because of the morally reprehensible things he's done, then I don't see how you could enjoy the recordings of songs produced or written by a man convicted of murder either. That being said, here's a short list of some songs you can no longer enjoy:

You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by The Righteous Brothers

Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers

Be My Baby by The Ronettes

Try Some, Buy Some by Ronnie Spector

Then He Kissed Me by The Crystals

(Today I Met) The Boy I’m Gonna Marry by Darlene Love

Imagine by John Lennon

Let It Be by The Beatles

Across The Universe by The Beatles

Today is my birthday.

June 27th. I am 25 years old. I know it's a quarter of a century and that's supposed to be significant, but it's not like I've achieved anything in the past few years besides simply not dying. I've been productive, writing my music mostly, but also working on a few other creative projects. Although I'm very proud of a lot of the stuff I've been working on, I haven't really finished anything, and I have a long way to go before I am finished.

I know birthdays are supposed to be a celebration of your life, but it's difficult to care about birthdays when I put so much into not caring about age. When I think about how old I am, I start thinking about how old other people are and comparing myself to them. By the time so and so was my age, they had written and released 3 albums. That kind of thing. And of course that makes me think of all the negative points of my life. The fact that I'm a college dropout who still lives with his parents, hasn't had a girlfriend in years (and I've tried), and I haven't released any music. These comparisons aren't healthy or productive at all, and I'm not any of those people I've compared myself to, and they're not me. That's why I've decided to stop caring about how old I am and about how old other people are. It's just this made up measurement that doesn't really correlate with achievements. It only seems like it does because many people achieve many things at the same ages. They graduate from high school around the same age, and they go to college around the same age, and many of them graduate from college around the same age and get career jobs around the same age. Many of them get married and have children when they're around the same age. And many of these people only do these things because they're looking around thinking "Almost everyone my age is doing this, so I probably should too." Although those generally aren't the people I compare myself to, my point stands.

It doesn't matter how old I am now. I'll achieve something when I'm good and ready. It will take as long as it takes me to finish an album and release it, and although I'm anxious to release something, I'm generally fine with having it take a while for me to do it right.

I scanned a few baby pictures from when I turned 1 year old. I had two parties.


For one of the parties, the neighbor kids all came over. The curly-haired boy next to me is my big brother. I still talk to the two girls to the left side of the photo. They both have husbands and the one on the far left has two children of her own.


For the other party, some of my relatives visited. Between my brother and I in this photo is my cousin Amberly. She loved clowns, and she was the one to pick out the cake. It was revealed years later that I was terrified of clowns. I don't know why it was a surprise, given my facial expression in this photo and the fact that I was being held down at the table by my mother.

I think I was the most adorable baby I've seen. I've decided that if I ever got the chance to use a time machine, what I'd want to do is hang out with myself as a baby. There are plenty of fascinating people throughout history, but there's always a big possibility that if I ever got to know them I might not actually like them as people, but I can't imagine being disappointed by baby Daniel. Even if baby Daniel was boring, absolutely everything he did would be fascinating to me, because he's me, and I'm who he turned out to be.

I can't imagine any person not wanting to spend time with themselves as a baby. I think it's sad we'll never have that chance. If we have children, our children aren't us. Even if we were cloned and we had little clone baby versions of ourselves, they wouldn't be the same. Even just forgetting about the fact that they'd have different experiences than we had, they'd be physically different, including their brain and everything, which would mean they even had a different thought process, because so much of who a baby is depends on their development in the womb. Even if they start with the exact same DNA, there are so many factors that go into a child's development in the womb that there's absolutely no way they could be a perfect reproduction of us.

I had a heart defect when I was a baby, and I think it affected me significantly through the experiences I gained because of it, although I'm not sure how. It must have though. Would a clone of me even have a heart defect? It most likely wouldn't since it was a congenital disorder.

I wonder how a clone of me would turn out to be when he's 25 years old. Where would he be in his life? Would we have anything in common?