Mike Amin: Director and Collector of Digital Art

Audio and Video work

2011-01-18T17:15:00.000-05:00

This is an living post that will be updated as I create new work. Both audio and video are below... I may add other stuff if I feel like it's worth showing at one point (don't hold your breath).

Music Videos

Royksopp - And The Forest Began To Sing

http://www.vimeo.com/18921408

Bang Bang Eche - Beat Up The Children

http://www.vimeo.com/16679997

Moby - Wait For Me

http://www.vimeo.com/10726696:

Bang Bang Eche - Nikee - Category winner, 1st place on Genero.tv

http://www.vimeo.com/10727682:

Audio Remixes

If the Czechs have NY-themed McDonald's, NY should have Czech themed McDonald's

2010-12-08T14:49:00.011-05:00

Just read a story on Eater about Czech McDonald's serving NY-themed burgers:

http://ny.eater.com/archives/2010/12/czech_burgers.php

The menu looked like this:

Never mind that the burgers themselves had no relation to the NY locations they were named after - I figured "hell, if the Czechs get to enjoy vaguely NY-themed fast food, why can't us New Yorkers enjoy some Czech-themed fast food delicacies?"

Yes, why can't us?

Well now we can. I present to you the new "I heart Czech Republic" McDonald's menu! Sandwiches below...

Full menu

Red Army Angus Burger

"Juicy, strong, and powerful, just like Red Army. A fully loaded burger topped with fresh, crisp vegetables and our special Stalingrad Sauce(tm). You must share."

Southern Style Crispy Carp

"A holiday special! Enjoy an all-beef patty topped with, cheese, pickles, onions, mustard, ketchup and a full deep-fried Carp, all served on a toasted sesame seed bun, just the way they like it in the southern Carpathian Mountains. Why go fresh water fishing when you can enjoy the delicious taste of Prague’s canals with this exclusive sandwich!"

McKafka with Metamorpho-Specs

"Can you handle the beefy, delicious Kafkaesque taste in this burger? Comes with Metamorpho-specs(tm) for you to enjoy the existential dilemma of your sandwich transforming into a giant insect (always made with 100% premium exoskeleton)."

Slivovitz Sundae

"Enjoy the refreshing taste of traditional Czech plum brandy in delicious sundae form!*

*Not recommended before operation of a vehicle or heavy machinery. Proof of ID required for purchase."

Bang Bang Eche - Beat up the Children music video

2010-11-30T16:58:00.004-05:00

Latest music video is up, folks - this one for Bang Bang Eche's track "Beat up the Children". YouTube and Vimeo links below...

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emzOwxI-UMg
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/16679997

Bang Bang Eche's "Nikee" shortlisted for YouTube Play Guggenheim project

2010-09-20T14:41:00.006-04:00

Some exciting news: I've been shortlisted for YouTube Play's Guggenheim Biennial competition/showcase for the Bang Bang Eche video Nikee! They had over 23,000 submissions and have shortlisted only 125 for possible exhibit at the Guggenheim here in New York. Check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/play

If it doesn't appear on the main page you can find the BBE video by clicking on "Sort By" and selecting 'Music Videos" - you'll see it in the list. Alternately you can sort by artist and see it under my YouTube username, "Stumbleman".

Some nice company on there as the video is being featured alongside established favorites like OK GO and Die Antwoord.

Take a look and spread the word! Video embedded here:

Animated animal hijinks: Hermanos Inglesos feat. MeMe - Wanderland

2010-08-18T14:33:00.004-04:00

Came across this animated music video for Hermanos Inglesos' track "Wanderland". Nice to see creativity continues to trickle through despite the deluge of poorly-made music videos in recent years:

http://vimeo.com/13674406

This animation style totally reminds me of the animal insanity from the 2003 Jaga Jazzist video for "Animal Chin":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVIFUQV20NM

Project 11 Minute: Friends - The One With The Cuffs

2010-07-16T14:48:00.002-04:00

TV shows haven't changed in half a decade. If one were to tune into their favorite sitcom or drama, chances are it would be in either a 30 or 60 minute format, including commercials. Thing is, that is just too long for a TV show. Writing for TV is difficult at the best of times, and when 22 minutes (a 30 minute show minus commercials) has to be filled with jokes, most of those jokes are bound to fail. Of course there are some rare exceptions like the excellent 90's show Seinfeld, but even Seinfeld has dull moments.

Imagine for a second a world where you don't have to sit through commercials and an entire show can be pushed out in an easily-digestible, focused, and compelling format. A world where writers aren't pressured to fill 22 or 48 minutes of content, and instead they can get to the true essence of a storyline and write fewer but funnier jokes. A world where you can watch more episodes of your favorite shows in a shorter amount of time. This world exists. And it's on the Cartoon Network during their nightly block of programming under the Adult Swim label.

Adult Swim has not only pushed the envelope with it's sometimes brilliant programming (Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job is probably the best show in the last 10 years and they are continuing that tradition with their spin-off Check It Out With Dr. Steve Brule), but it has re-invented the TV show format. It airs many of its shows in an 11 minute format, uninterrupted by commercials (which air between shows). Amazing shows like Superjail benefit from this format because they are short bursts of TV goodness. They don't drag on, and there are no boring parts (there's no time).

This 11 minute format is so good, I have decided to apply it to the existing TV world. My hypothesis: that most TV shows airing today, whether a 30 minute sitcom or a 60 minute drama, can be compressed to 11 minutes and not only be just as good as the original length, but actually get BETTER. To illustrate, I went ahead and chose a random episode of Friends to use as an example, and I'd say the results speak for themselves. See below for my 11 minute cut of Friends: The One With The Cuffs.

I believe I've captured the essence of this episode by leaving in the funniest parts while ensuring the storyline is complete, without cheap editing tactics (I left the entire opening and end credits in - in fact, I've added a few special touches). I'd love feedback from the community on this one, especially Friends fans:

http://www.vimeo.com/13395211

More 11 minute cuts are on the way, and this is just the first.

MTV article on my music video for Bang Bang Eche's "Nikee"

2010-04-08T15:03:00.005-04:00

Just got some nice press on one of MTV's sites for my Bang Bang Eche music video "Nikee":

http://blog.mtviggy.com/2010/04/07/the-sweet-fan-made-video-for-bang-bang-eche

Here's the entry:

The Sweet Fan-Made Video for Bang Bang Eche

You know how sometimes the scrappy fan made video is better than the official video, which the label spent thousands on? Well, some music biz guys figured this out and launched genero.tv, which hosts contests for aspiring filmmakers to submit music videos that could, in turn, become the band’s official video and land them with a $2,000 dollar paycheck. Winners are chosen democratically, via online polls.

A still from Mike Amin's fan video for Bang Bang Eche's "Nikee" Photo Credit: YouTube

Recently, our favorite Australian dudes — Bang Bang Eche — got the Genero treatment for their track, “Nikee.” The winner was Mike Amin, who describedhis inspiration this way:

This video for Bang Bang Eche’s Nikee is a 2D rendering of kick-a$$ New Zealand rock. The black and white theme is a nod to the punk rock feel of the music, but with a low-fi technology edge reminiscent of 80s-era raster text (thanks to the synth). Both aliased and anti-aliased text combine and transform into living characters on-screen. Japanese emoticons also play a big role, as they are more expressive than the ones we’re used to in the west. Heavy influences include Shynola, Tim & Eric, Nintendo, and the greatest music video director of all time, Michel Gondry.

Oasis "borrowing" from other artists

2010-03-30T10:41:00.006-04:00

Let's face it, Oasis is a seminal band of the 90's. They influenced a great deal of music during that decade, and continue to do so today. But when Oasis started, there was plenty of finger pointing (directed at the band), due to similarities between Oasis tracks and tunes that came before it.

Below is a comparative list of songs that Oasis has borrowed elements from. These are a few examples but not an exhaustive list by any means - I should also note that Oasis has been sued for most or all of these, so I'm not trying to unravel a major scam or anything - I'm simply posting in one convenient spot. On to the fun...

The first, most obvious example of Oasis taking a direct cue from the past: "Shakermaker" uses the basic melody from the old Coca Cola song, "I'd Like To Teach The World to Sing". You'll hear it right away...

Coke:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mOEU87SBTU

Oasis - Shakermaker (check the 0:31 mark):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUoVQ-kB7DQ

Another, very obvious one - "Cigarettes & Alcohol" taking the riff from T.Rex's "Bang a Gong (Get it on)" AND Humble Pie's version of "C'mon Everybody". I'm not going to get into how this also sounds a little like the Coke song. Again, you'll hear it in the first few seconds.

T.Rex - Get it on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVEhDrJzM8E

Humble Pie - C'mon Everybody:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKh2TBDu9L4

Oasis - Cigarettes & Alcohol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaeLKhRnkhQ

Here's yet another very obvious example - "Whatever" basically copying Neil Innes' "How Sweet To Be An Idiot".

Neil Innes - How Sweet To Be An Idiot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ9EWcaS7II

Oasis - Whatever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tuPBrSl9Nw

How about more? Before it was officially released, (What's the Story) Morning Glory originally had a song called "Step Out" on it. Someone cried foul and noticed "Step Out" sounded like Stevie Wonder's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)". Take a listen and you'll hear that not only Oasis switch the horns for guitar, but compare Uptight (Everything's Alright) at 0:25 to Step Out at 0:55.

Stevie Wonder = Uptight (Everything's Alright):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDbyOLzEyfk

Oasis - Step Out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N98CFHq3KbA

A side note to the above - Stevie Wonder's song also sounds like the chorus of Green Day's coincidentally named "Uptight" (really? coincidental?). Take a listen at 1:16:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Vz52GyyWc

This one is most interesting and a little more subtle I think - Oasis' pivotal track "Live Forever" taking the melody from the Roling Stones' "Shine a Light". Listen to the Shine a Light chorus when Mick Jagger sings "may the good lord shine a light on you" at 1:05 and put it up against the Oasis line "Maybe I don’t really want to know" at 0:12.

Rolling Stones - (check 1:05):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPbozLRU3so

Oasis - Live Forever (check 0:12):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_2mWhfOhGU

And perhaps an appropriate note to close this post: I recently read that Noel Ghallager complained about Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" ripping off Oasis' "Wonderwall". His awesome quote:

"[Green Day] should have the decency to wait until I am dead [before stealing my songs]... I, at least, pay the people I steal from that courtesy.”

For those interested, this is perhaps another example of the decline of Green Day, which I did a lengthy post about here. With that, here is the comparison...

Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWNRUVMboq4

Oasis - Wonderwall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc

UPDATE - APRIL 21 2010:

My dear friend Dorothy pointed me to this Travis track for Writing to Reach You, and you'll know why after listening to the opening (and subsequent) chords:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeCcuH-EsuM

Interesting thing about this song is that not only does Travis use the chords from Oasis' Wonderwall, but they call out Wonderwall in the song! Great job. Looks like other artists haven't been oblivious to the fact that Oasis liberally borrows from others.

And bringing it all together, this video mashing-up Wonderwall, Boulevard of Broken Dreams AND Writing to Reach You:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES2NGj_fYjs

Thanks Dorothy!

Graph goodness: average Metacritic scores by video game console, by year

2009-11-17T16:20:00.014-05:00

Most video game fans like myself rely on Metacritic to help establish whether a released video game is actually good or not. As I was looking at the latest score for Assassin's Creed II, I got to thinking: "I wonder what the average of the average is for the entire PS3 game collection on Metacritic?" I.e. if we tabulated all the PS3 games on Metacritic and averaged out the Metacritic score of each, what would it be?

I took this idea a little further and broke it out for all the major video game consoles, and compared them. I gathered all the info directly from Metacritic.com (they have full lists of their games and scores), and popped it into Excel. I omitted 2005 because the PS3 and Wii did not have Metacritic numbers posted those years (pre system-release). The results were interesting...

First up, let's look at the the average scores by platform, by year, with the highest scores by platform highlighted in orange.

	2006	2007	2008	2009
PS3	71	71.9	70	71.7
360	70	67	66	69
PSP	67	64	67	68
DS	62	62	63	67
Wii	63	60	61	65

As one can see in the table above, PS3 saw its highest average score back in 2007 and Xbox 360 was even further back in 2006! The PS3 score in 2009 so far (the numbers are only up to November 17, 2009) is only 0.2 points away from 2007, so if they were rounded up, the 2009 score would be the same as 2007, at 72. The PSP, DS and Wii all saw 2009 as being the best year for their respective software, but they trail the 360 and PS3. The delta between the 2009 PS3 and Wii scores is almost 7 points, which may not be surprising considering the different audiences the platforms are geared toward (PS3 is for hardcore gamers and Wii is family-targeted). Here is the graph of the above data:

Now let's check out the average of the averaged averages... i.e. the average of the scores shown above from 2006 to 2009:

	Total Average, 2006-2009
PS3	71
360	68
PSP	67
DS	63
Wii	62

What the above means is that from 2006-2009, PS3 has the highest-scoring games around - a perhaps a marginal 3 points above 360 but a full 9 points above the Wii. Here's the same data, in handy graph form:

Does this mean PS3 has the best games? Maybe, or maybe not. Differences like the target market I mentioned earlier are a factor to consider. For example, a professional game reviewer may disagree with say, my aunt, on whether a particular title is "good" or not, and the different systems speak to different people. A safe assertion to make is that technically PS3 has the highest-quality core-gamer titles out, but a 3 point difference between PS3 and 360 over 4 year period may not be enough of a difference to really say which system has better games. Additionally, I've maintained that PS3 and 360 appeal to slightly different audiences.

On a personal note, there are stellar games on ALL of the above systems, so it's hard to go wrong (although I am partial to my PS3).

Bud Light Speaker Box - elaborate hoax or upcoming product?

2009-10-27T17:09:00.005-04:00

An interesting commercial caught my attention when it aired on SpikeTV last night - it was a Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job-esque infomercial promoting a supposed new product from Budweiser call Bud Light Speaker Box. The product is purportedly a case of Bud Light (or "two-four", as my Canadian brethren would say) with a built-in speaker that you can plug your MP3 player into.

After it aired I went to YouTube to find the ad, but it didn't come up. Thinking there must be some mistake, I Googled it. No luck there either. All I found was one silent video of a rotating case:

Strange. Why would the ad not have been posted? I started scratching my head about this and did some digging. It soon dawned on me that something suspicious was going on with this product... mainly, that it didn't seem to actually exist. My Google results brought up tons of results, mainly of what appeared to be blog posts about the product. Thing is, I took a closer look at these blogs and I'm fairly certain they were set up by a marketing agency to hype the product. Examples:

ttp://momentumoffailure.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/hot-off-the-wire-the-bud-light-speaker-box/

Pic here, for when they no doubt remove the site once the campaign is done:

This "blog" has no other content on it besides filler... but VERY easy to miss if someone just pops in to look. Another example:

http://gizmosgadgetsnews.info/sports/bud-light-speaker-box-tailgate-approved

Pic here:

Gizmo and Gadget? Come on guys... but admittedly, pretty slick. I love the generic posts on the front page about the Honda Accord, Blackberry Storm and The Sims - all basically Wikipedia copy and pastes.

There are countless other fake posts about this thing - entire blogs set up just to promote this product, but written as if it was coming from independent bloggers. My favorite:

http://gourmetretailer.firstlightera.com/EN/Microsites/1/AnheuserBusch/BudLightSpeakerBox.htm

Pic here:

This is what APPEARS at first glance to be an online store selling the product, but as you can see, it says "Sponsored by Anheuser Busch" at the top. If you dig on the "Gourmet Direct" site you see it's all just AB product info. And no order link, which is most telling.

So at this point, I'm fairly convinced this reeks of shenanigans. I decide to download the "Product Sheet" offered on the Gourmet Direct page, and I get a Powerpoint deck with two slides in it, talking about the product. I decide to do some meta-digging... I wanna know who created this and I quickly find out by checking the document creator info. Turns out it was a gentleman named Greg Litwicki, from Shaw Company. A quick trip through Google lead me to this page:

http://www.shaw-company.com

Not surprising to find out that Shaw is Anheuser-Busch's advertising/marketing company (one of them at least). Please keep in mind that all this proves is Shaw created the Powerpoint deck for AB - but it certainly seems to suggest that this is a larger marketing initiative cooked up by Shaw.

I must say, this is a very well-executed campaign, as it is certainly not obvious. My hat is off to Shaw Company, if they are the ones to have come up with this... The real question is, will the Bud Light Speaker Box ever actually come out? Perhaps this is all pre-marketing to build hype around the product for football season. More likely: the product doesn't actually exist and this is simply to generate buzz for Bud Light. Interesting concept - promote a product that doesn't exist, get people into the store, and they pick up a case of Bud Light anyway. Nice.

Request for Shaw or AB: Please post the commercial on YouTube. I need it to fulfill my original goal: demonstrate the incredible influence of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job on mainstream media. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Google Wave logo is a take on the Microsoft logo?

2009-10-22T10:45:00.006-04:00

My little brother Moose (yes, that is his name) turned me on to Google Wave, Google's still-in-beta take on the email client. While I have a number of observations on the product itself (mainly around privacy issues), it struck me last night that there was something much more ominous about Wave: the logo.

The Google Wave logo not only uses the same colors as the Microsoft logo, but it is essentially an upside-down "M"! Is this Google taking one step closer to really becoming the next Microsoft? Check it out above.

Music video... NES style! Pato Pooh - Follow Me

2009-10-19T11:15:00.011-04:00

Via Kotaku

Another 8-bit marvel here - Swedish rapper Pato Pooh (badass hip-hop name) has given himself and his crew the old-school treatment in his video for "Follow Me". This guy has basically taken old NES games and re-appropriated them for the hip-hop world (i.e. putting a backwards baseball cap on the in-game characters). Drawing heavily from Mega Man, the video also makes call-outs to tons of other classic NES titles. The ones I spotted:

- Castlevania
- Contra
- Starfox
- Super Mario World (love Boo's bling)
- Duck Hunt
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Pac-Man
- Metal Gear (All your base are belong to us)
- Street Fighter
- Double Dragon
- ET
- Donkey Kong
- Mike Tyson's Punch Out
- Super Mario Bros.
- Superman
- Legend of Zelda
- Ice Climber
- Tetris
- Kirby's Adventure
- And of course, Pong

At 2:01 of the video a background appears but I can't figure out what game this is (I definitely recognize it though). Anyone have any guesses? Did I miss anything? Correct me in the comment section below.

I also caught a reference to "Chocolate Rain" at 2:59 when the video flashes to an 8-bit studio and the note "I move away from the mic to breathe in".

Pato Pooh - Follow Me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plhgyp0KNQQ

Is Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard a Microsoft product?

2009-09-30T03:30:00.002-04:00

UPDATE #1:
I posted this over on the Apple discussion boards and seem to have set some people off. I'm a huge Apple fan but I certainly don't criticize others when they are having software issues related to the OS. Just because Snow Leopard is working great for YOU, it doesn't mean it works for everyone... Some of these users seem to be taking my comments as a personal affront! Check it out here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2184818

_______

ORIGINAL POST:
So Apple has come out with their latest OS, Snow Leopard. Also known as OS X 10.6, Apple touted this release as one offering a host of backend system improvements, but after installing it and using it actively for about two weeks, it seems like Apple has pulled a Microsoft and released what appears to be a beta version of Snow Leopard! Inexcusable bugs are appearing left and right, and the supposed "improvements" have actually hindered my computer performance and productivity…

This really surprised me. After years of releasing amazing OS upgrades that seemed to make the best OS even better, it seems like Apple has taken 2 steps back with Snow Leopard. I can't tell you how upset I was to realize I was experiencing many problems that I previously only saw on PCs.

After one of the many bugs popped up again on my computer, I got frustrated and started combing the internets for a list of known bugs in the OS and the inevitable slew of Apple users registering their disgust. Unfortunately, my search didn't turn up anything but positive reviews of the OS and very limited complaints on a few message boards. To this end, I'm posting this entry to try and help other users who are experiencing similar issues and hopefully get Apple to clean up this mess of an OS.

Below I've created (and will be adding to) a list of problems I've experienced in OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard. I encourage everyone to list your Snow Leopard issues in the comments as well, in hopes we can create a master list of problems.

I am using a 2 GHz Black MacBook (Core 2 Duo) with 2GB of RAM. Keep in mind Leopard (OS 10.5) was running flawlessly on this more than capable machine. I am currently running the latest Snow Leopard build, 10.6.1. I upgraded 10.5 with the retail version of Snow Leopard, integrating my current apps into 10.6 (did not do a clean install). I've organized my issues below by application. This post is less about third-party applications and more about Apple apps/built-in OS features, as Apple is fully accountable for these pieces.

APPLE APPS

Airport:
- Airport is now incredibly slow getting past the "searching" status message and into what was known as "scanning" status in 10.5 (now called "Looking For Networks…" status message). This issue occurs most often when I revive the computer from sleep. I have to turn Airport off and on again, then wait an inordinate amount of time to get past the useless "Searching…" message.

Volume and Sound:
- I rely on my volume control icon on the toolbar. I change my system volume dozens of times every day (due to my job) - previously, I could click the volume icon then simply roll the scroll wheel on my two-button mouse to adjust the volume. Now, I have to actually move my mouse down onto the volume slider area before my scroll wheel works! What gives? In allowing the user to fine-tune the volume levels, Apple removed this functionality for some reason? This is a real pain for me as the extra second it takes to do this really adds up by the end of the day.
- Sound now starts stuttering for no reason? When I wake my computer up from sleep and I have headphones or speaker plugged in, the audio stutters greatly. I have to unplug then re-plug my speakers or headphones to fix the issue! This is a problem I saw on many PCs due to sound cards not playing with Windows nicely, but was NEVER an issue I experienced using OS X.
- The Mac OS startup chime plays on my MacBook external speaker when I startup, even though I have speakers or headphones plugged in! It also does not matter if I had my system volume on mute when restarting - the OS seems to now decide what volume my system should be at when I start up!

Safari:
- Defaults to 64-bit mode silently, and this breaks most plug-ins (my issue was with download manager iGetter, specifically). I had to manually Get Info on the app, then switch back to 31-bit mode, which it seems Apple has not designed Snow Leopard to support properly?
- Freezes and crashes more often, most often when running Flash video. This occurs when I open multiple videos on YouTube, for example.
- Hogging memory even more than it used to (1GB of RAM to run the app?? Really?)

Stacks:
- Apple seems to have completely removed the functionality or sortable sub-folder listings? For example, if I choose to sort my stack by "Date Modified", the initial list of folders in the stack appear by date, but all my sub-folders appear in Alpha order, and there is no way to change this! Come on Apple, why remove this?

iPhoto:
- Freezes completely when I go to "Export…". My Export opens on the Facebook tab of the dialogue box, and it seems the issue occurs when iPhoto can't find the source image. Rather than an error message though, I get the color wheel of death.

Spotlight/Search:
- When I search from a Finder window, sometimes I get the new feature of sortable results columns to work, but sometimes I don't. Seems arbitrary when it works and when it doesn't.

System Preferences:
- More of an annoyance, System Preferences now has to restart the first time I click on any third-party preference in "Other". Some work, most don't.

Install:
- In previous OS X upgrades, Apple gave me the option to "Backup and Install". This option was not present on Snow Leopard, so not sure what a user can d if they do not have a Time Machine backup and their install fails.

Preview:
- Preview slows down considerably when opening multiple files.

THIRD-PARTY APPS

Entourage:
- Entourage froze up when I tried to simply delete one of my email accounts. The Accounts window went blank and the application froze.

CS3:
- Slower than ever, Photoshop is running at a snail's pace.

A requiem for Green Day

2009-08-28T12:51:00.009-04:00

Ah, Green Day. Possibly one of the best bands of the 90's, and one of my all-time favorites. It's a shame they broke up and stopped making records after 1999... wait, what? Nah, nah - that can't be Green Day - that sounds like Scissor Sisters... no, maybe more like Robbie Williams... No wait, maybe more like... well, NOT Green Day.

Obnoxious fictional scenarios aside, this post is about Green Day and how one of the best bands ever has completely transformed over the last 10 years, and left the old Green Day for dead.

While many people may remember Green Day in the 90s, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize they sound like a radically different band in 2009. Green Day's early material had a tremendous impact on the mainstream appeal of punk with their release of Dookie in 1994. The album was amazing - maybe one of the best ever. Not to say their earlier releases weren't good: 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours and Kerplunk are terrific in their own ways. While the latter two had lower production values, the songwriting and music was amazingly infectious and still hold up to this day. Dookie raised the bar on production and it was one of those rare moments where major label support actually helped improve a band. Case in point: "Longview".

UPDATE OCT 27 2009: Looks like Warner has removed the video for Longview and Warning from YouTube, no doubt because they want to push people to the Green Day website. Anyway you can check out the music video here:
http://www.greenday.com/site/picsnvids.php#videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueO1Lh6S0Do

It wasn't just "Longview" though - Dookie is a masterpiece from beginning to end, and it opened up punk rock to millions of American teens. Thing is, there was an honesty to the music, despite being on a major label. To me, that is the essence of punk rock: honest, kick-ass music.

Insomniac, Green Day's follow-up to Dookie, came out toward the end of 1995, and was panned by critics. This was not surprising as there was a tremendous amount of pressure on the band at the time, and no doubt their popularity was overwhelming, mainly to the band themselves. I recall vividly seeing interviews with Green Day in 1996, just after Insomniac was came out. Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt were humble punk rockers, and their goal was to just create good music, album sales or popularity be damned. This was the essence of the band I loved, and the same reason I love punk rock: the goal is to create good stuff. Check the boys out in a 1996 interview below - they discuss the fact that they don't really expect the album to sell more, but it didn't really matter to them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7x64G00RZA

Insomniac has actually gotten better as the years have gone on, and there are a number of highly underrated songs on it, including "Stuck With Me", "No Pride", and what may be the best track off the album (as well as the closing track), "Walking Contradiction". Not only is "Walking Contradiction" an excellent track, but it could be the best video Green Day has ever done after "Warning" (the band has never had particularly compelling music videos). Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN_fps-tia0

Post-Insomniac, I was fortunate enough to meet the band in 1997 as they were passing through Montreal to support the outstanding just-released album Nimrod. I chatted with them for a bit and was not surprised to see that they were fairly cool, down-to-earth folks, who were more interested in playing great tunes than being rock stars. This really came through on the album.

Nimrod demonstrated that the guys could create amazing punk rock and even tip their hats to associative punk rock genres like melodic hardcore on "Platypus (I Hate You)" and surf on the instrumental track "Last Ride In". Unfortunately the lead single "Hitchin' a Ride" was a mess, and it seemed to have been created in order to regain mainstream appeal. Bad news for those unfortunate casual listeners that ran out to buy the album because they loved "Hitchin' a Ride"... the rest of the album, with one other exception (as I will detail below) was a focused, brilliant punk rock ride which was slicker than Dookie but just as compelling to any pre-Dookie Green Day fan because the music was still honest.

Then something major happened. As a listener got toward the end of the album, a frighteningly bizarre track popped up... that track was the now ubiquitous "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFgok5SceLw

What the...? Why is there a sappy acoustic track on a Green Day album? And why does it sound like James Taylor with a string section?? Hardcore Green Day fans were baffled, and it got worse. Light rock radio stations started to pick the song up. LIGHT ROCK. The idea of Green Being played on a light rock station was mind-blowing to anyone who had been following the band closely up to that point... unfortunately I knew this was the beginning of the end, because it all went to hell from that point on. And not in the good way.

The year 2000 hit, and Warning came out. It was startling. The band started to depart from their core sound... no longer did we hear punk rock chords and great songs - instead, we had what sounded like a cross between burlesque music and mainstream rock. Think an entire album of "Hitchin' a Ride". Really? REALLY? What happened? Maybe it was the fact that Rob Cavallo was no longer on board as a producer (he had produced every Green Day album up to that point). In fact, I have not been able to find who actually produced the album (there is no credit), which leads me to believe they boys produced it themselves. Maybe they were getting tired of their old punk rock sound, or maybe they were just getting older and wanted to start appealing to a different, more mainstream audience, but either way, it didn't work for me, and many I'm sure many other fans. Perhaps the only redeeming part to Warning was that the band released the awesome video for the title track, which is also the only decent song on the album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da0JwKT3GyM

An album of covers, Shenanigans, dropped in 2002 and it was fairly good for what it was, but simply because when you're covering Ramones songs it's hard to go wrong. At this point though, there was a glimmer of hope that Green Day would come back and knock our socks off like they did with Nimrod. They were Green Day, after all, right? We could forgive the aptly-named "Good Riddance" and bland disaster that was Warning because we figured the guys we always knew and loved would do what they do best: honest punk rock.

Enter American Idiot. This is probably what most true fans agree was the turning point of Green Day from punk rockers into a mainstream rock act. The album had a over-produced sound, with tons of reverb and a larger-than-life sound. This is punk rock - it should NEVER sound larger than life. These guys sounded like cheesy over-the-top stadium rock acts, as opposed to a humble punk trio belting out three-chord goodness. Who knows how many studio players they had on this album, but the sound transformed - subsequently, so did the band. While the record didn't necessarily have bad songs on it, the sound and feel was just not Green Day. It was something else, something foreign to those who played Kerplunk over and over on their walkman until the cassette got worn out and a new one would have to be recorded at a buddy's place.

The attitude changed.

No longer were these guys who just wanted to create good music. Instead, they wanted to be the biggest band in the world. They had a message, maaaan. The took the popularity of 2000s-era emo and capitalized it in a big way, pandering to millions of kids just discovering Green Day. The band themselves started to sound like egomaniacs in interviews: our music is important. WE are important. Buy our record.

You can't exactly blame them. American Idiot was HUGE. I'm sure dump trucks full of money started appearing at their places of residence, and the fame... oh, the fame. They started playing massive shows to 40,000 people and whatnot. They were rock gods, once again. And the guys, well into their ~~40s~~ late 30s, probably realized this was a last chance at staying relevant.

Green day's latest album, 21st Century Breakdown, is more or less an extension of American Idiot (both could have easily been packaged as a double album), and with it comes the official end of Green Day. The album is essentially a pop-rock effort.

Both albums represent the shift of Green Day from pop-punk trio to 70s rocker-esque gandiose sideshow, which is fundamentally the reverse of the concept of punk, and therefore the core fans have been alienated, but the band has attracted literally millions of casual listeners. They say timing is everything - Green Day succeeded in capitalizing on both the shift in teenage musical tastes and the political conditions of early-2000s America. They now represent a style of music that is rife with over-ambitious complexity - something that is very hard to swallow for me and for old-school fans. What happened to a guitar, bass and drums? Do you really need an entire ORCHESTRA behind you? You might as well rename yourselves Metallica and start drinking FibreCon.

We have to thank Green Day for the legendary albums they did - unfortunately the band we loved no longer exists. Goodbye Green Day - rest in peace.

Getting media to stream off my MacBook onto my PS3

2009-08-24T10:50:00.002-04:00

I've been trying to find a way to stream all the video and audio files I have stored on my MacBook over to my PS3. The PS3 itself supports the Universal Plug n' Play (UPnP) protocol so this should be easy enough, right? After reading the boards and doing some research, the two best options appeared to be:

PS3 Media Server (free)

Nullriver's Medialink ($20)

While PS3 Media Server is a great price (nothing dollars), it is a little unwieldy to use for novices, and I in fact had to play with some settings just to get it to actually connect to my PS3. My setup involves a 2GHz Core 2 Duo Black Macbook (the machine is more than 2 years old) connecting to my network wirelessly via a Belkin router, and my PS3 also connected wirelessly through the router. Most of my media is stored on an external 1TB USB hard drive, which is obviously connected to my Mac.

After playing with PS3 Media Server for a bit, I noticed that while some video files played fine, some others were extremely choppy. The streaming times were also very slow (took a while to get a decent initial buffer stream rolling). I decided to try Medialink and see if a piece of paid software would work out better.

After setting up Medialink (very easy, although I had to power on my PS3 BEFORE I started the UPnP server from my MacBook for it to be recognized), I noticed the same problems happening: video stuttering or choppy. This choppiness was happening only with certain video formats (presumably because the streaming bit rate is too high?), including:

- .vob files

- .mp4 files (only some of them)

- Video_TS folders (yes, I was able to stream a full DVD over the network, but I had to play each .vob file independently -not good news if your DVD has many different chapters).

- Most .avi files seemed to play fine, some some of the higher-quality movies had intermittent choppiness.

After doing some digging, this helpful page turned up:

http://www.ignitebyte.net/khojitech/archives/93

Good old Khoji made a suggestion to hook my MacBook up to the router with an actual cable. I did, and voila! Problem solved. I had my files streaming smoothly and playing great on my PS3. Unfortunately my apartment setup doesn't allow for me to keep my laptop connect via cable, so I did the reverse: I hooked up my PS3 to the router via cable, and had my MacBook connected to the router wirelessly. The setup still worked great! Nice - now I can watch the entire 4th season of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job without using a USB stick! Audio files worked fine too, although the PS3 playlist and organizational tools are terrible, so good luck trying to stream that 1994 Euro party mix you took 6 hours to put together in iTunes.

The only downside to using Medialink is that it can't transcode files on-the-fly (unlike PS3 Media Server), although I've only found this useful for formats the PS3 doesn't support - mainly .mkv files. I tested PS3 Media Server with a .mkv file and it worked great - unfortunately I have no idea where PS3 Media Server is temporarily storing this transcoded file - an issue if hard drive space is at a premium (which on my MacBook it is). Hope this helps some folks out there running into issues...

Now THIS is music video quality at its peak

2009-08-14T14:36:00.004-04:00

Great use of compositing, excellent choreography, 'staches left and right... what more could a music video aficionado ask for? Moses Znaimer, take note:

Original page where this gem was found is here: http://gallery.me.com/bentendoisme#100090

8-bit music video - No Escape! by Arman Bohn

2009-08-10T15:23:00.003-04:00

On the topic of compelling music videos, check out this one for No Escape! by Arman Bohn:

Of course, this has been done before (very, very well, I might add), by Junior Senior for their hit Move Your Feet:

But there are a couple of things I appreciate about Arman Bohn video: first, the graphics were created by Bohn himself - nice artwork. Second, the video was developed with almost the OPPOSITE approach of our friends Linkin Park for their vid New Divide, as detailed in a previous post. Bohn has taken something gloriously low-res and created a simple, effective piece of art. With the upcoming Tron sequel, the storyline is very a propos. Come to think of it, the "living things inside your video game" kind of reminds me of the old all-CG kids show Reboot. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Didn't think so.

Was Michel Gondry the last creator of innovative music videos?

2009-08-07T17:25:00.007-04:00

The quality of music videos is on a rapid decline. This could have something to do with the lack of music videos being played anywhere on US television (luckily Canadians still have the luxury of several music video-only channels, including MuchLoud, MuchVibe and MuchRetro). More likely, there are few real innovators in the medium... in fact, no has even come close to approaching the genius of Michel Gondry.

Although he may be in full movie-making mode right now (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, etc.), he created some of the best music videos of all time: Let Forever Be by the Chemical Brothers, Fell In Love With A Girl by the White Stripes, Walkie-Talkie Man by Steriogram... the list goes on. In fact, no one has even come close to replicating what he has done. Unfortunately, he has developed a following of art school kids who THINK they are doing something innovative, when in fact they are doing a very poor imitation of his work. Case in point: my buddy Payam (check out the link to his site in my sidebar) just sent me a link to the latest Lily Allen video for her track, Fuck You:

The video is a great concept - but totally fails in the execution. This is more like a demonstration of special effects (basic ones, at that) rather than a fully thought-out piece of art. in the video, no one is even reacting to Allen as she manipulates the world around her. If someone stretched my face, I think I'd react! These are the kind of details and care Gondry put into his work, and what really set it apart. It's precisely why his videos were so compelling, and went beyond just a showcase of special effects. Another example - Kraak & Smaak, with their video for Squeeze Me:

Awesome concept. But hollow execution. This is cool effects for the sake of cool effects.

All of this got me thinking: maybe we've reached a plateau in terms of what can be done in music videos. This is due to accessibility to technology, perhaps. When Gondry was innovating, he was doing things with special effects that had never been seen - but because of recent CG advances, in 2009 there is little we haven't seen already. More importantly, easy access to these effects has made creators lazy. Very lazy. Gondry had to put a ton of thought and a TREMENDOUS amount of effort into planning some of his videos, mainly because the effects were so complex and costly. Today, any person with a PC and moderate skill can pull off sophisticated-looking effects - so why bother putting any real thought into the SUBSTANCE of the video?

If there is anything out there I'm missing, please let me know. I'm starving for amazing music videos and it pains me to see my favorite medium in such a state. Next step: just make them myself...

Linkin Park pulls a Kanye

2009-07-16T15:59:00.006-04:00

So I was watching the music television offering that Time Warner seems to think qualifies as "quality programming" (I'll save that rant for another post), and I noticed Linkin Park's latest video used some awfully familiar special effects. Below is the result of the ensuing research but it got me thinking about another "borrowed" effect controversy that came up a little while back with Kanye West. Here are the two cases in question:

Linkin Park vs. Radiohead

Below is the link to the awesome Radiohead video for House of Cards, shot without a camera:

http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/

What killed me is the Linkin Park "version" of the effect used for New Divide was employed freely throughout the video - of course giving no credit to Google or Radiohead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuPICf8oriI

The really irritating thing about the Linkin Park video is not only did they rip off the effect, but the director made this video for 0.01% of the population because he's so damn egocentric. And I found out later that the director is the LEAD SINGER OF THE BAND. What a surprise. The video was designed for a crazy high-resolution digital Imax screen, something no mere mortal will be able to have in-home until like the year 2078. People with 55" HDTVs will be squinting to see the effects and those without HDTVs? Basically Linkin Park is saying go F yourselves to these people (whereas they are merely giving the finger to HDTV users). Great job guys - of course I'd expect nothing less from them.

Kanye West vs. Chairlift vs. Takeshi Murata

Here's the story... and make SURE to watch these in HD. And yes, they are supposed to look like that.

Kanye released this ultra high-budget video for Welcome to Heartbreak:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYR2Z1MDyiI

The above video was posted on Kanye's site after he apparently found out there was another music video floating around that looked just like it. People started posting that Kanye had ripped off Chairlift's video for Evident Utensil:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LG39Wp7OzQ

Kanye issued a statement saying that he had no idea the Chairlift vid was out there. Right. Either way I think the Chairlift vid is WAY better. So anyway, after I did some research it turns out BOTH of these folks ripped of a digital video artist named Takeshi Murata:

http://ratio3.org/artist.php?p=tmurata

This dude has been doing this stuff since 2006...

As a side note, I just checked the Wiki page for the Kanye song and they make no mention of the Murata thing. So I just went in to edit it and let people know what happened.

Update: my Wiki change has since been removed because it looks like the Wiki community feels this is not provable. Anyway check the links out above and judge for yourself...

Starman and mystery box Mario art using Post-Its

2009-07-16T15:45:00.005-04:00

Thought I'd finally get around to posting these - I used a few hundred Post-It notes to create some Mario art on my (old) office wall. One is a rendition of our good buddy Starman, and the other is a mystery box, which worked out great as the office walls were the proper base color. Only problem was finding black Post-Its for the shadow so I actually just cheated a little and used a Sharpie to "paint" them black. Enjoy!