mootPointer :

This blog has been deprecated.

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:41:00 +1100

If you’re looking for my musings, direct your attentions here

Olfactory Memories

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:32:00 +1100

It’s funny how smells bring everything rushing back. It’s a well documented phenomenon, but for some reason I only felt like writing it now. Two smells today really triggered that for me today. It makes me think: a choice of cologne is more than just smelling nice for a night, but creating a lasting brand. I think I could name a couple of my friends by fragrance. In fact I know I can, because that’s what these two memories were.

First off was that I brought back one of my friends’ favourite fragrance back from my travels and haven’t sent it to her. My mum came into my room and asked why I had it, and sprayed a little. Suddenly, as the scent hit my nose, a bunch of memories of my friend rushed in.

Secondly, I hopped onto my bed tonight, and one of my jackets was there. For some reason I sniffed it (I think to check whether it needed washing or not) and it had another friend’s fragrance on it. Suddenly, memories rushed in again.

I’ve never really been much of a cologne guy, but this suddenly makes me think that it might not be such a bad idea. Wearing cologne on a great night out, and then wearing it again would help associate me with that great night. Or if the scent gets left on someone’s jacket when I give them a hug or something, then my branding goes home with them.

Disclaimer: I’m not really serious about branding myself like that. I don’t really approach relationships like that. It’s a bit too cynical and manipulative, but were I so inclined, I think it would be a worthwhile strategy.

How Alternative is Alternative?

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:09:49 +1100

I know I’m a bit of a music snob. I’m willing to say that. I’m a fairly open minded snob, as far as snobs go, at least that’s what I’d like to think. I like listening to music that not that many people listen to, to be on the cutting edge and all that rubbish. If you’re easily offended by elitism, cease reading here and assume the rest of the post just says that everyone is wonderful and all music is wonderful.

For those of you who have stayed, I retract the above statement.

A couple of experiences over the last week or so have inspired me to write on this. The first one of those was in the car with my mum the other day. In the car, since I’m the one who really cares about music (mum’s tone deaf), I control the radio in the car. I flicked to one of the more “alternative” radio stations and listened for a while to a song and started singing harmonies or something to it. Mum commented that the music was “unconventional” or “unusual” or something like that. That of course got me going. I asked what use it was if we were to only listen to “conventional” or “normal” music?

I riffed for a little on that. What if Bach’s sons hadn’t moved on from their father’s work? We wouldn’t have seen the same progression from the baroque to classical periods. What if the Beach Boys had made Pet Sounds more conventional? More than likely that band across the pond wouldn’t have been pushed to create Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Unconventional music is a necessary force against the boundaries of music so that music does not become stagnant. I like that. In the unusual, we find thing which are unusually beautiful, where the usual has become dull.

The whole genre of “Alternative” is a total misnomer. How can you group people like Radiohead with the likes of Joanna Newsom? What makes something “Alternative”? Does it just not fit the mainstream? The thing about the alternative, that quite often things that were once alternative become mainstream. Snow Patrol, Josh Pyke, Angus & Julia stone are all examples of artists who were once considered “alternative” and are now mainstream. Quite apart from their respective genres, all of these artists have pulled the mainstream a little, and have been pulled a little bit the mainstream. This is healthy.

Now the second experience I had was this week’s Australian free single on iTunes. It’s Lykke Li’s Dance Dance Dance. I quite like it, it’s quirky, laid back and not badly done. Some of the iTunes reviews were hilarious though. Here are some select reviews to remind you how well educated Australia’s listening public is:

Wrong Section by DeathEdge:

This song I would say that little kids and queer men would listen to(no offence, just pointing out my opinion)

WEIRD!!!! by MUSIC MASTER(i know best for music):

VERY WERID (sic) AND NOT MY KIND OF MUSIC.

AAH! by Music_Lover_82:

Sounds like the song is being sang (sic) by a 2 year old… I HATE IT!!!

Firstly, I’d like to think that in high school we were all taught to write a review. I also hope we were taught the difference between a “review” and a “comment”. Perhaps on the internet any text field is just an opportunity to voice one’s opinion with no mind to what anyone else may think (before you comment, this text field is just such an opportunity for me). Some sort of perspective is required.

Now in all fairness, I’m pretty harsh on pop music (although I’m making some of my own at the moment and I still hate it) and have already admitted to being a snob, correct me if I’m wrong but I feel like I’m not that bad when it comes to commenting on music. I have my opinions, and I’ll happily share them, but at least they have some critical basis rather than just “IT’S NOT WHAT I’M USED TO, WAAAAAAAAAAA!”.

Anyhow, I just wanted to get that off my chest. If you’re Australian and have an iTunes account, check out the track. I think it’s pretty cool.

4 Days of Tumbling

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:33:08 +1100

After a couple of days of doing this whole Tumblr thing, I’ve found some joy in just collecting things that I like. I sort of did this already, sharing with Google Reader, and to an extent using Magnolia and delicious, but I don’t know… There’s some joy to be found in just having everything on a mini-blog. I’m sure if I were ever to get a ffffound invite (if you have a spare, I’ll take it) I’d probably go nuts, but this is what I’ve got at the moment. I thought I would share with you all some of the fun things I’ve put there:

There’s a lot more to be enjoyed on the tumblog. Head over, have a look, tell me what you think.

Things I Like

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 08:47:44 +1100

I decided to play with this whole Tumblog idea and set up my own Tumblr account to collect all the things which I find cool. I may feature collections from it occasionally, but if you want to see what I think is cool, but can’t be bothered writing up, check it out

More of what you've missed

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:15:00 +1100

Here’s 25 more shots from my flickr profile that you may have missed if you’re not keeping a track of it. Click on any one of them to get a bigger view. The majority of these are from my outreach phase from the Troubadour DTS that I completed in September. Enjoy.

Musical treats: Brooke Waggoner

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:15:20 +1100

I’ve had a bit of time to trawl the internet this last couple of weeks, which is a significant change the last couple of months of my life. One thing that I’ve missed has been picking up new, obscure music. Not sure how obscure this one is, but it was kind of interesting to listen to. Brooke Waggoner was one such discovery for me. She’s been getting smatterings of press with the release of her new album. Now I haven’t yet reached home, or earned any money with which to purchase this album, but she released an EP, Fresh Pair of Eyes for free download.

It’s an intriguing collection of songs really. I was trying to put it somewhere in the musical genre spectrum, I suppose she’d fit somewhere between pop, folk, roots and something else. She describes herself as indie/pop on her myspace, but I’d guess she’d be as stumped as to where to put herself as well.

The piano-driven, string accompanied, vocally-layered affair, which makes up this EP is a fascinating thing for me. It seems to be quite the in-thing at the moment, and really seems to work for this particular set of songs. Brooke totes her very own Bachelors in musical complication, and I suppose that shows. The songs are nicely structured, contrasting between laid-back sections running into frenetic high-points, with a tasty hook in there too.

I quite like the arrangement of the whole thing, with layered vocals, piano, acoustic guitar, along with that already mentioned string section, even an organ at one point which I quite enjoyed (although I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s a rather convincing sampled organ). The production is quite cool, all these cliché indie/pop/folk instruments can border on becoming rather trite, but they’ve been kept rather fresh to my ears. Of course, that could be because I’ve been working in a country in which the kids, on being asked about different musical styles can come up with “Hip-hop”, “RnB” and “Gospel”, maybe even stretching to “Rock” if you push really hard.

Who is this for? An interesting question. If you like that laid back, acoustic sound, then you’re probably going to like this. It’s not the most stunning example of song-writing, I have to say that now, but it’s definitely on the right road. Out of all the similar artists last.fm suggested, there where only a few I could actually recognise (am I that out of touch?). Apparently she bears similarities to Regina Spektor and Feist, as well as Cat Power. My suggestion, if you want something laid-back, fairly well written, and pretty light, this is something for you. A couple of additional bonuses: I don’t think she’ll be overplayed on commercial radio too soon, and you get to bring out some musical snobbery as you talk about another indie/pop/folk artist.

The EP, Fresh Pair of Eyes is available for download from Brooke’s website, after signing up for her mailing list, which you can promptly unsubscribe from if necessary. Also, “Live for the Sounds”, a song from her album Heal for the Honey is available for download, no strings attached here

Consumption.

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:28:00 +1000

I read a lot of news. Actually, that’s not true. I filter a lot of news. Actually, calling it “news” might be pushing it a bit. I read a lot of article based information. It doesn’t actually consume that much of my time to do so, either. Going through the actual filtering process takes me about three seconds per article. Actually consuming things that I’m interested in takes up a bit of time, but it’s time well spent if you ask me.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

So yeah, you get the idea. I get the feeling that the majority of people could count the sites which they regularly consume on their hands, some might be pushed so far as their toes. This perhaps gives an impression of how much I trawl through to get to the good bits. If you’re interested in exactly what I’m reading, that will have to come later.

Harrison.

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:52:00 +1000

Here’s something for you to check out: Harrison. It’s a musical collaboration between two of my very good friends. I love the track they’ve posted there, but even more I like the website that they put together for it. It’s a nice little javascript side-scroller, which really tickles me. I hope you like it too.

Dopplr.

andrew@mootpointer.com (Andrew) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:13:00 +1000

Dopplr. It’s the goods. I’ve kept mine updated throughout my travels, and I’ve realised how handy it would be if my fellow travellers used it as well… So what are you waiting for?

If you’re not really a traveller, then just look at my pretty profile

I actually like the site as an example of good, clean and clever web design.

Links for 2008-03-18 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:00 PDT

[Rails] Multiple emails from one SMTP connection?
Nice way to send the TMail objects created by ActionMailer through one connection. Been looking for this for a while
tail -f development.log » ActiveRecord Delegate Attributes
Everso handy little tidbit for rails development.

Links for 2008-03-16 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 PDT

XPath matchers for rspec
Handy dandy for testing XML responses using rspec

Links for 2008-02-20 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:00:00 PST

Chez Pazienza: Say What You Will (Requiem for a TV News Career) - Media on The Huffington Post
Interesting thoughts on new media vs old media

Links for 2008-02-10 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 PST

Barack Obama's Speech on Religion and Politics
This is the most sane speech I've heard this campaign. It affirmed my support of Obama.

Links for 2008-01-05 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:00:00 PST

Obie Fernandez
Seems like a guy to watch

Links for 2007-11-03 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 00:00:00 PDT

large logo + text back ~ Heavyweight cotton T-Shirt ~ The Freesound Project Goodies
I've been part of the Freesound project for a while, and this is a pretty cool design. Christmas Present maybe?

Links for 2007-07-24 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:00:00 PDT

Twitter Blog: Rolling on Rails: Under the Hood at Twitter