Blogs

 Summer Jam! It was a total success. Except for the part where we couldn't put together a simple tent. That was pathetic. But after that tent was up - things got poppin' real quick-like.  

Shelley opened up the music with a small set (we were running behind schedule a little bit). We introduced two new cover songs: Take On Me and Still Alive (The end credits song from the totally awesome video game, Portal). We played a few newer originals as well. About halfway through our set, a little girl (about eight or nine) walked up to us and asked if we could turn it down "a lot". I personally couldn't contain my chuckle. This girl must not listen to much punk rock, I thought. As she walked away, she went on: "It hurts my ears. I don't like it." This was probably the highlight of the show.

There were a few yard games to play, one of which being the Swedish game Kubb - something. . . well, foreign to me. I quickly found that it might be the most fun yard game ever. It's either that or Cornhole. Cornhole probably loses because of its desperate need for a new name. Let it be noted that Kubb is impossible to find in stores, and that making your own ends up getting to be pretty expensive anyway (sets are about $60 at minimum).

The food there was great. The homemade lemonade was the best lemonade to ever splash upon my gullet. The hummus introduced me to a world in which I previously had no interest. And so on.

All in all, it was a grand ol' time. Baking in the sun for 12 hours was worth the priceless candid photo of Brian I snagged.

 Click on Gabriel's blog to view new content!

Over three years ago, I was wandering through the northeast Minneapolis neighborhood I had just moved to, scoping out what sort of businesses were nearby.  Like a lot of city dwellers, the walkability of a neighborhood is important to me, and I was scavenging for a grocery store, bar and a coffee shop.  I only found one of those things (the wonderful Eastside Food Co-op), but I did run into something I had not expected: a music store.  B-Sharp Music had recently re-opened after a fire, and was just two blocks south of where I lived.

To be brutally honest, B-Sharp was not a very good music store.  New Ibanez and Peavey gear was pretty much all there was to be found, and I would have much preferred something with a good selection of used gear.  Still, it was convenient for picking up the occasional set of strings, and so I found myself there once or twice a month.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I was almost always the only person in the store.  It was truly a mystery how the place stayed open, and I started to come up with theories about this, usually revolving around black market jewelry, or the mafia.  The ability with which B-Sharp managed to just be there was endearing.

Sometime in the last few days B-Sharp pulled a trick that many of the storefronts on Central Avenue are quite good at: it quickly, and quietly, disappeared, leaving empty space and the odd wire hanging out of the wall.

Porky's Restaurant did its own version of this a few months back, but unlike then, I did not find myself in a mood to celebrate.  In spite of its lack of mostly anything that I wanted, I had grown to like the store and its owner.  In particular, his use of one of those ancient clicky-clack machines to run credit cards, and the truly excellent analogue register, built out of wood and metal and probably much older than I am.

It's become common to see our neighborhoods change like this, with businesses evaporating, taking familiar faces with them.  Something new will replace B-Sharp, eventually, but the ultimate message from this modern shape-shifting city couldn't be more clear.  These places, this community, doesn't belong to us.  I'm not sure if B-Sharp would have stayed open in this economy, even if it was packed to the brim with stuff I wanted.  The choices that ultimately resulted in this latest small tragedy were made far away, by people we will never know, and who will never know us.

The release of River Light offers a good opportunity to talk about something that is near and dear to me:  Free and open-source software.

I'll send you over to Wikipedia (itself built on FOSS) if you want to get a detailed overview of the subject, but for my purposes I'd like to talk about specific software.  Namely, the Ubuntu operating system and the set of audio programs that made recording and mixing River Light possible.

A lot of people have heard of Linux, an operating system that has evolved into something of a cult among computer geeks.  Few people have actually tried Linux, though, and for good reason.  It is hard to use.  Very, very hard to use.

This was the issue Ubuntu was designed to address.  Linux itself refers mostly to the core of the OS, often referred to as the 'kernel'.  Programmers will take this kernel and create 'distributions' around it, with each distribution being defined by how the kernel is used and with what suite of software the system is packaged.  Ubuntu is such a distribution, and its mission is to provide a Linux desktop system that is simple to use.

At this point, Ubuntu has only about half accomplished this goal.  True, it is significantly easier to use than other Linux distros, but it is still far too complex for the average user, especially for use as a digital audio workstation (DAW).

Which is essentially why it took me a year and half to completely migrate from a Mac-based system running Cubase to an Ubuntu system running Ardour (the most prominent recording software in the FOSS world).  It's a lot of work, but the pay-off is worth it for one big reason.  Flexibility.  With enough knowledge, it is possible to get a Linux system to do pretty much anything you want it to.  At this point I wouldn't trade that for the world.

In the next few posts, I'll get into more of the nitty gritty of FOSS audio, particularly as it was applied to the recording of River Light.  With any luck, I can do my part to help people avoid some of the common problems encountered when trying to switch to FOSS audio, and at the same time destroy the myth that good recordings can only come from 'industry standard' software.

Links:

• Ubuntu
• Ardour
• JACK Audio Connection Kit

Sure, I said I was done with politics in this blog, but you know what? I lied.  I lied to myself, and to you dear reader. Life is tough.

Besides, I couldn't help but comment on this eye-opening MinnPost article on tax rates.  You should read it yourself, but the key point is that we are paying far less taxes these days than you may think.  That in itself is interesting, but what I find to be more important is the discussion on the reality of the American tax structure versus what people believe.

Here's the key passage:

Further, most of us just got a tax cut. But – to the great frustration of the Obama administration – we didn't seem to notice it. Only 12 percent of those asked in a recent CBS News/New York Times poll said taxes had decreased. Of those who support the Tea Party, only 2 percent thought taxes had gone down.

I should be surprised by this, but who are we kidding? Fervently believing the opposite of reality has been a defining character trait of certain political factions for some time now. Still, it is worth letting the point sink in.  Saying that taxes decreased last year is not an opinion.  They did, end of discussion.  And, yet the great majority of people do not believe so. This is how deeply the narrative of "DEMOCRATS INCREASE TAXES FOR-EV-ER" has become ingrained in the political consciousness.

How do you have an honest debate with people like this?  It's like trying to talk with someone about the trade deficit, and they keep pointing out how tarriffs on Unicorn Poo from Atlantis are screwing everything up.  They are talking about a world that does not exist.