Author Archives: Karl

Right on time, opening in July, here in Philly

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The National Constitution Center opens in Philadelphia July 4th. It describes itself as “an independent, non-partisan, and non-profit organization dedicated to increasing public understanding of, and appreciation for, the Constitution, its history, and its contemporary relevance, through an interactive, interpretive facility within Independence National Historical Park and a program of national outreach, so that We the People may better secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

Not a day too soon. I’m sure it will become an important Philadelphia landmark and destination. The website even shows promise: Tools to register to vote, and educational resources.

See the Democratic Party presidential debate?

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No? Didn’t think so. If you didn’t then ABCNews will let you view it for a monthly fee. Otherwise you may catch it on CSPAN. Here is a related Metafilter thread.

It was educational. While I liked what I heard, I only saw one candidate *look* presidential – and that was Gephardt, who, btw, I don’t think stands a chance. Sen. John Edwards is inspiring, his personal story spoke to me, and he had much to say, but I’m not sold yet. The next few months will tell if he acquires the quality that made Gephardt seem presidential – that quiet confidence that controls the camera.

I could talk about the others, who in many ways were very impressive, but I don’t think they can beat President Bush. I’m not a political analyst, so it’s just my opinion, I maybe wrong. Hopefully I am. The coming months should be interesting.

Ya know… there is a reality show somewhere in here… (no not American Candidate. Something a little more behind the scenes…).

Gen. Wesley Clark and Gary Hart, please throw your hats into the ring and make this a race.

Update: Washington Post analysis: Debate Bares Democrats’ Great Divide. They need to get it together. Too much sniping at one another.

Indies and iTunes

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Mark has some good ideas that I hope Apple explores.

Many people are panning iTunes, but the more I think about it, the more I find reason to hope that independent artists may have found a very, very powerful distribution method and a way to earn some bucks. Having a song downloaded just a few thousand times could rake in the kind of money to finance writing another song!

Pro Tools Nation

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Pro Tools is a software program that replaces the old infrastructure of recording – huge analog mixing boards, rolls of two-inch-wide magnetic tape – with a computer. Many musicians now cut tracks straight to a hard drive, which means that lots of expensive tape machines are now collecting dust. “We have analog at our studio in Minneapolis, yet we rarely turn those machines on anymore,” says R&B producer Jimmy Jam. Some estimate that four out of five current pop albums employ Pro Tools or one of its competitors. While Digidesign, the maker of Pro Tools, took in $136 million last year, many older studios are feeling the financial pinch. New York’s Greene Street Studios, where Public Enemy recorded many classic tracks, shut down in 2001. Other studios are finding that the only way to stay in business is to make sure they have Pro Tools workstations for their clients.

Since Pro Tools can run with just a moderately powerful laptop and a few accessories, musicians can get professional sound just about anywhere. “The traditional studio is a windowless place on a back alley somewhere,” says Brandon Boyd, lead singer of Incubus. “You can get horrible cabin fever, like being in a dentist’s office twelve hours a day.” So to make last year’s Morning View, Incubus used a Pro Tools setup in the living room of a Malibu house with an ocean view.

For established musicians, escaping the studio means better vibes; for acts that are just beginning, it means they can afford a professional-sounding demo or album without having to sell a kidney. It’s already happening: Dirty Vegas’ home recording of “Days Go By” became a club hit. The group could experiment with different sounds and vocal filters because the clock wasn’t running in a thousand-dollar-a-day studio.

Read the rest at RollingStone.com.

Home recording and on the charts

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Go and read up over at Shannon Campbell’s weblog. Download some mp3s. Give a listen. I tell ya, her stuff is beautiful.

Fact is, her songwriting sounds like what I’d imagine my wife’s would be. Shannon’s voice is *almost* as good. And that is, by far, the greatest compliment I could ever bestow. I’ve never heard anyone as close. I need to record Richelle singing a song someday. It would simply knock you dead.

Abstractions, abstractions, abstractions

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An abstraction is a boundary with two sides. On the top side, the abstraction presents a simplified view. Below, there is something more complex and more real. The purpose of the abstraction is to obscure what is really going on.

The world hidden underneath an abstraction is quite likely to be yet another abstraction. In fact, it is typical to have many abstractions stacked together, each one attempting to present an illusion which is even further from the truth. If you stack them up vertically, the ones at the bottom are more real than the ones at the top.

This is what programmers do. We build piles of abstractions. We design our own abstractions and then pile them up on top of layers we got from somebody else. Abstractions can be great. We use them because they save us a lot of time. But abstractions can also cause lots of problems.

So begins a great essay on the programmer practice of building abstractions and using them. Like Rafe I’m disappointed he ends such a great piece with evangelism (.NET over Java), but again, like Rafe, I feel you can ignore it. A good read.