time for feet up

Great Christmas episode of The Panel last night. A busy night for audio crew, but I enjoyed it. Evermore was the music act.
I got a copy of the latest CD compilation of music from show. Great quote inside from Michael Franti:

For a few minutes
the soundstage at The Panel
is transformed from a
place of hilarity,
hijinx and razor sharp satire
about the pressing issues
of our day, to a place
of magical musical stillness...
out of which songs emerge
that remind us that
despite the absurdity
of the world,
even the subtlest expression
of beauty is still
worth fighting for.

Peace.

for christmas

planning continues...

Planning is progressing well for audio-visual production on the CMS Victoria summer conference (or in other words my annual brush with the more `evangelical' contingent of the Melbourne Anglican scene). Angela and Rob Chandler are looking after the music direction, which is great. They are such down to earth folk and good to work with. I'm looking forward to sharing stories and trying out some new audio bits and pieces.
The Powerbook I'm getting has OS 9 loaded, I believe, so I will dig out my copy of Pro Tools Free and load that on to experiment with some audio recording.

Over the Rhine's live record Changes Come is really good. I've been listening to it a lot in the past week. The inherent messiness that often goes with live recordings is not really apparent; they are good performers. It's a little hard to tell how much work has been done at the mastering stage. Belfast music guru Steve Stockman mentioned that OtR have another record coming in March, so that will be one to look out for. It's called Born. Their 2003 release Ohio is quite stunning and they can only build on that, I hope.

computers

I'm getting a pre-loved Powerbook Pismo G3, so am making my first foray into the Mac scene for several years. It will be good for running Photoshop and some basic sound recording stuff.
So, I'll have a foot in each camp, as I still need my Thinkpad for running some Windows-specific applications. I hope I don't turn too obnoxious too early, as seems to be the inevitable destination for Mac people ;-)
I like the look and feel of the Powerbook, but I refuse to buy the inferred claim that by using a Mac you are freeing yourself of the tyranny of computer companies (such as Microsoft). Apple is a big corporation just like the others, and Bill Gates has a share in it too.

New from Over the Rhine

It's great to order stuff over the web, sit back and wait for a week or so, and then that magic slip arrives in the letterbox asking you to head up to the post office and collect a package. You hand over the form and the assistant disappears out the back, coming back with...
The recent live CD Changes Come from Over the Rhine. Said to be recorded straight from the FOH desk on a gig in autumn 2003, I've stuck it in the player and it sounds good so far, apart from the heinous crime of apparently not using a grand piano for the song Ohio. Karin Bergquist has a fantastic voice. It's very tempting to jump ahead and listen to the last track Changes Come (a brilliant track on the 2003 studio release Ohio), but I'll discipline myself and work through the whole thing properly. I'd love to see these folks live someday.
Also in the post today, Kester Brewin's apparently contentious book The Complex Christ, which I look forward to adding to my list of `current' reading material.

CNN versus Adbusters

Love him or hate him, here's a CNN interview with Adbusters' Kalle Lasn, in the aftermath of Buy Nothing Day on Nov 26.

The last laugh

When in Ottawa last month I went on a tour of the House of Parliament. I snapped this picture of a face carved in the stonework. The tour guide informed us that the stonemasons were a bit cheeky and decided to leave souvenirs of their work when the place was built (I think their foreman must have been looking the other way at the time).
In the light of the recent visit to the Canadian capital by the US president, this picture presents an amusing reminder of who might be listening to all the tomfoolery that happens in government. Perhaps a caption is in order: "Smile! The whole world is laughing behind your back."