David Mattison, Ideas, Images & Info Matters

Buy American? President Obama bought French game Just Dance 3 for Christmas

2011-12-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

According to a tweet from French multinational computer gaming company Ubisoft, United States President Obama obtained their game Just Dance 3 as a family Christmas present. So much for Buy American! What's that about Do what I say, but not what I do....

The Ubisoft tweet also caught the attention of the venerable Forbes with this headline
"President Barack Obama Endorses Ubisoft's Just Dance 3 Videogame For Christmas". Forbes missed the obvious Buy American contradiction.

Zenoids contest Top 10 ready for your vote

2011-12-16T09:13:00.000-08:00

I've made my choice among the Zenoids theme title Top 10 Finalists, so now it's your turn. The deadline for voting is January 2, 2012 and the winner will be announced January 3, 2012.

Pay with a Tweet, now there's a novel approach

2011-12-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

Got an offer to download some music samples by paying with a tweet. That's a novel and innovative approach to drumming up business. The Pay with a Tweet site explains the philosophy and technology. The "price" also gets you a 30% voucher in the company's online store.

Here's the URL: http://www.analog-factory.com/?page_id=575

Uploaded "Autumn Elegy No. 6" excerpt to SoundCloud

2011-12-04T18:51:00.000-08:00

I've uploaded the first minute of "Autumn Elegy No. 6" to SoundCloud. This one has a Gothic tone with bells and a mournful oboe and strings.

Congrats to the Top 40 Zenoids title theme contest semi-finalists

2011-12-01T15:07:00.000-08:00

My congrats to the Top 40 Zenoids title theme contest semi-finalists which were announced on December 1, 2011. Sadly, for me, I'm not among them. I'll see about getting permission to post my entry on YouTube following the public voting and selection of a title theme.

I've posted an audio-only version of what I thought was my best of three entries on SoundCloud.

Uploaded "Gothchinescape" excerpt to SoundCloud

2011-11-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

I've uploaded an excerpt from a piece I call "Gothchinescape" to my SoundCloud account. Let me know what you think of it.

"Immortals" movie (2011), imaginative and unbelievable

2011-11-15T20:53:00.000-08:00

A couple of things struck me about the "Immortals" movie that I went to see. And it wasn't the 3D, which was pretty good though I hate wearing those glasses and being forced to pay extra money.

The first thing I noticed was that the imprisoned Titans in their box cage beneath Mount Tartarus -- another anomaly, since Tartarus was actually the ancient Greek equivalent of the Christian Hell and was not a mountain at all -- were clenching rebar (reinforcing bar), usually made out of steel. Curious choice for a movie set in ancient Greece.

The second thing that got my attention was the absolutely enormous, dam-size wall that looked far taller than any Egyptian pyramid and stood as a barrier between the army of King Hyperion and the other ancient Greek dude whose territory he was invading just to get to the inside of Mount Tartarus.

The third thing is that for someone who did not believe in the Hellenic gods, King Hyperion conveniently forgot about their essential role in the imprisonment of the Titans beneath or in Tartarus. Why he wanted to free them and why he thought they would not turn against him was not adequately explained. It's also curious that in Greek mythology Hyperion was one of the Titans, though in the movie he's been turned into the King of Crete.

Finally, as gods, would not the Olympians be able to teleport themselves instantly without the "Star Trek"-like golden beam?

Working on scoring a short animation

2011-10-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's only a contest to score the 39-second title sequence of the Web animation series "The Zenoids". That's what I've been doing the past couple of weeks with my music. Contest closes November 6 and is sponsored by MyOuterSpace.com. Can't give you a preview as that's considered a no-no. The judges will pick their top 10 entries which will be posted online for the public to vote on. I'll let you all know if I make the top 10!

My hometown of Aiea in "Hawaii 5-0"

2011-10-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

On the October 17, 2011 broadcast of the second season of "Hawaii 5-O" there were a couple of mentions of Aiea as a plot plot when one of the characters pointed out that a woman being searched for was staying at a small motel in Aiea.

So far as I know, there are no motels, small or otherwise, in Aiea. There are three "apartment hotels" that come up for Aiea in a Google Maps search. They're opposite the watercress farm on Kamehameha Highway that fronts the Pearlridge Shopping Center. I guess for TV, motel works better since it's one word instead of two.

Image-Line merchandising artwork contest for FL Studio

2011-10-13T22:49:00.000-07:00

I submitted my first design to Image-Line's merchandising artwork contest for its flagship product FL Studio. The FL stands for Fruity Loops, the original name of this digital audio workstation software. See if you can figure out which one is mine. I'll be submitting a few others over the next several days, as many as I can come up with since the number of entries is unlimited. The contest closes October 31, 2011.

Uploaded excerpt of "Drum & Skull Ear Candy" to SoundCloud

2011-10-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

This is the first minute or so of the 3-minute piece I entered into the horror music contest at DoYouKnowWhoIAm.com. It's called "Drum & Skull Ear Candy". You can download the excerpt on SoundCloud.,

Entered horror music contest with "Drum & Skull Ear Candy"

2011-10-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

You can listen to and perhaps vote or comment on my entry in a horror music contest at Do You Know Who I Am? The instrumental is called "Drum & Skull Ear Candy" (this link may or may not work as I'm not sure if you have to be a member of this site in order to vote). Yes, I know, the title on the artwork doesn't match the title on the piece, as I was rushing to get the artwork done and didn't read it carefully enough. Duh!

Thanks for listening, have now surpassed 1,000 plays since joining SoundCloud

2011-10-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

A lot of those were my own plays on my SoundCloud account, but I've now surpassed 1,000 plays since I joined in December 2010.

Surf's up in Hawaiian high schools

2011-10-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

The State of Hawaii has sanctioned a plan to offer competitive surfing (on the water, not the Web) as an extramural sport to all its public high school students (about 50,000 throughout the 46 public high schools) by the spring of 2013. The plan's being paid for by private money. It's about time I say, though I wonder how they'll handle the liability issue as when a surfer is hurt. When I attended Leeward Community College in the late 1960s I took bowling as my required physical education course and the taxpayers supported that.

Here's a Google News link to online stories about this.

Source: Times Colonist (Victoria), October 8, 2011

Government of BC says "Canada Starts Here"

2011-10-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

The Victoria Times Colonist newspaper reported on October 8, 2011 that the Government of BC "changed the province's international brand of 'Canada's Pacific Gateway' to 'Canada Starts Here'".... The slogan seems to have been unveiled in late September 2011 as part of a jobs plan announcement by Premier Christy Clark.

I wonder how the East Coast feels about that since they have more of a claim to that slogan than BC does.

A search of Google for "Canada Starts Here" reveals some interesting other uses by other parts of the country:

Canada Starts Here: The Great Waterway, a site promoting Ontario's 1000 Islands region

A Pro-Life Canada Starts Here, the tagline and motto of the Student Life Link site for high school students against abortion.

Your Fly-in Fishing Trip to Canada Starts Here! if you're into fly-in fishing trips in Ontario

And who's going to argue with Fodor's Travel Intelligence which clearly states in its Newfoundland and Labrador Travel Guide section "Canada starts here, from the east, on the island of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic. Known as Mile One, the province's capital of St. John's is North America's most easterly point and its oldest city."

Uploaded "Autumn Elegy No. 1" excerpt to SoundCloud

2011-10-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a one minute or so excerpt from some moody strings backed by some stormy, yowling weather. It's called "Autumn Elegy No. 1". The whole piece is about three minutes long.

Thanks for the Apple Steve

2011-10-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

Another genius who died too young. My first personal computer was an Apple. So thanks for the Apple Steve. You gave a lot to the world, from computers to animated cartoons and all they spun off. I was very excited by your NeXT computer and know you found a way to bring that vision back in the Apple Company you revitalized. We will miss you.

Help me win a prize in the Untz Challenge II electronic musician contest

2011-10-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

Update for October 12, 2011:

The Untz has selected the tracks to be voted upon by the public. Mine was not among the finalists. Maybe next year ....

I've another contest for electronic musician called The Untz Challenge II. The contest closes on October 7, 2011. The winners will be chosen by voting and only Americans and Canadians are eligible to enter one original track via SoundCloud. Funny enough, SoundCloud had come under a denial-of-service (DOS) attack on the evening of October 4. I rushed my piece and uploaded for fear another DOS attack might occur and prevent me from uploading a track. It won't be visible for downloading or listening to on SoundCloud or wherever the voting occurs until the first round of your decision making begins on October 12.

"Terra Nova", is this "Avatar" for TV?

2011-09-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

I'm not that impressed with the new TV series that premiered on September 26, 2011 called "Terra Nova". One of the stars is none other than Stephen Lang, who plays a similar character to his role in the movie "Avatar". The compound in the world the lucky citizens of the 22nd century are sent back to 85 million years ago is somewhat reminisicent of the compound on the planet in "Avatar" that's being mined for an energy source that will help an Earth also on the verge of envrionmental collapse as is the 22nd century Earth in "Terra Nova".

Victoria Steam Expo II, Craigdarroch Castle, Sep 24-25, 2011

2011-09-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

The second Victoria Steam Expo will be held in and around Craigdarroch Castle on September 24 and 25, 2011. A ticket for the two-day extravaganza will set you back $40. Featured guest are San Francisco's "glam-noir siren" Jill Tracy and Vancouver Island steampunk artistic genius Kyle Miller, whose business is Thin Gypsy Thief Studios.

"Searching for the Stars" (the real ones in the heavens) through Searcher magazine

2011-09-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

My most recent article for Searcher magazine, "Searching for the Stars: Cosmic Views and Databases", made the cover of the September 2011 issue as you can see below and is available online (just select the hyperlinked article title in this sentence).

Searcher magazine cover, September 2011

Uploaded "Shades of Asperion" excerpt to SoundCloud

2011-08-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

You have some technological angst and consider yourself a barbarian among the automated? Have a listen to the excerpt from my "Shades of Asperion" on SoundCloud. I only discovered after I'd finished the piece that there's a hospice in the state of Georgia named Asperion, along with a hotel in England, both of which might be haunted by their own shades. Given the coincidental occurrence of the second Victoria Steam Expo, I might have been channeling some of my steampunk's muse into this piece.

BC HST Referendum success for the Yes side

2011-08-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

The Yes side meant scrapping the HST and returning to the PST/GST system. According to Elections BC,

The final results are:

% of valid votes voting Yes	54.73%
% of valid votes voting No	45.27%

At a news conference on August 26, 2011 after Elections BC announced the referendum results, BC Finance Minister Kevin Falcon announced that the former PST permanent exemptions would return in about 18 months time when the PST is reinstated. The PST rate will also be set at 7%, which is what it was before BC's HST fiasco.

Uploaded "Mad About Strings Excerpt" to SoundCloud

2011-08-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded one minute of one version of a dance tune I called "Mad About Strings" to SoundCloud. This was previously uploaded as as "Aug212011 Take1 Excerpt", which I've now deleted. You can download "Mad About Strings". Don't forget to tell yours friends and neighbors.

Uploaded "Spring Sprang Sprung Excerpt" to Soundcloud

2011-08-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded "Spring Sprang Sprung Excerpt" to Soundcloud. It's a dance piece in an industrial vein with wonky clockwork sounds.