TradeMark's Bark

Dear Santa, For Christmas I want a product. Billy

Dear Billy, Santa is now known as the American Express corporation.  But you can still have anything you want.* Love, American Express * on your American Express Platinum card. We just raised your limit.

In other news, I'll be visiting Columbus Dec. 22 to 26.

And in other other news, I'm making good headway on a brand new, 100% redesigned ECC website.  Trust me... high awesome quotient.  Stay tuned.

I used to fly pretty frequently – for a few years I managed a few European festivals a year, with a half-dozen US shows I flew to. Not so much these days, but that hasn’t lessened my misery. My dislike of airport security, overcrowded airplanes, and airline incompetence has grown and grown, nearing a state somewhere between revulsion and outright hatred. And it’s not limited to just those dislikes – it’s the whole thing. The cumulative whole of the airline industry just feels like some sort of has-been, like a decaying government well past its patriotic glory days descending into a corrupt tyranny.

Am I the only one here? Anyone? Corrupt tyranny, right?

I would like to meet anyone who currently:

• Actually enjoys flying commercially (not first class)
• Changes their behavior (in an airport or anywhere) based on security color codes (orange, yellow, etc.)
• Lets strangers pack their bags

Lastly, I just found out that my home town of Columbus Ohio has been harboring the perpetrator of the deadliest attack with a weapon of mass destruction. His name was Paul Tibbets Jr., and he flew the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He died recently, 92 years old.

To my Columbus pals: I'll be visiting back to Ohio for a week starting in just a few days (11/01/07 to 11/08/07). I eagerly await any advice on what elements of elite Columbus culture that I must experience. After Columbus I travel to Wisconsin for my grandmother's 100th birthday party... woah.

- mark

Perhaps when i get my website overhauled (which I'm working on right now... no, really, I am) I can use it to blog nostalgic stories of my has-been life:

Perhaps my best ever estate sale score was finding Moondog's Prestige album (super rare!) at an estate sale. After inspecting a disappointing box of records they put out for sale, I poked around the house for other things and found an ignored shelf of records in the front closet... the Moondog stood out immediately. After buying the entire closet for $12 (!!) I later realized there were also incredibly rare jazz records which I sold for an embarrassing amount on eBay, but not before using them on a one-off radio show called The Rare Jazz At The Wrong Speed Hour. Here were these incredibly rare jazz records, and I was thinking, if you were a jazz fan in hell, what would worse punishment than to hear a radio show of the rarest jazz selections, every one of which was played at the wrong speed?

Toward the end of the show I upped the ante by mixing an irritating one kilohertz test tone on top of each song.

Ahhh, those were the days.

Last night I had a dream.

In it, there's a community of people who deal with public emergencies using the methods of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and networking strategies.

In my dream, I was with a few dozen unknown people of this unknown society who were dealing with some sort of unknown emergency. It didn't seem to be too tragic; maybe it was a minor disease epidemic or perhaps it was a large-scale accident with minor injuries. Regardless, many of these people needed help, but many people came there to provide help, and most everyone had some way they could help the people in need. So, let's pick one injured person out: they're hurt, needing a little bit of specialized medical treatment, but also some nursing and other small favors and support that can be provided by the average person. So, a crowd of helpers swarms the injured person, and almost instantly (somehow) sums up the different bits of help that person needs, as well as compares what skills each helper has. From that, the helpers each pick a way they can help, based on their unique skills and avoiding duplication of effort. The unneeded helpers then move on to the next injured person, and the process repeats.

Peer-to-peer file sharing works by allowing a person who's in need of data by arranging a swam of peers, or helpers. Some peers have more or better data than others. They coordinate what data the person needs and swarm them with the different bits of data, avoiding duplication of effort. When the person has the data he wants, the swarm of peers moves on to the next data-needy person, and the process repeats.

This post is my first here in a year, but don't expect much change in frequency. I know I said this last time, but right now I truly am really redesigning The ECC website, which I hope to expand with a bit of a personal area and blogging action which will mean I'll all but abandon this place. So, keep your eyes trained on: http://evolution-control.com

Oh, I went to Burning Man (as usual) -- but this year I not only ran their radio station, but also was asked to create the main sound installation that the burning man stood in the middle of. I also took some pictures and video.

- TradeMark G.

'allo!

Yes, long time no tired-cliche-about-lethargy. However, this is changing, starting with the name.

Old: Residency Evidence. Fine for when I was doing my residency back at the Headlands; potentially valid as of six months ago (when I revisited the Headlands), but actually outdated for over two years.
New: TradeMark's Bark. Dumb, but could be dumber, and it's late and I'm on dialup and I can change it later.

I'll be ramping up the activity of this blog over the next year, along with the activity level for The Evolution Control Committee. At the moment I'm designing a website for a friend, and after that I'll be (FINALLY) redesigning the ECC's website, at which point it will take on a somewhat blog-ish component. This blog, my personal blog, will compliment the "official" ECC news blog.

Meanwhile, I should have posted here earlier that I'm currently visiting Columbus, Ohio. Anyone still there and interested in finding me can drop me an email and hope that I find more open wireless networks to mooch from.

Although I'm horrendously busy with Burning Man preparations, I somehow found the moment to upload my photos and video from the SRL show in San Jose to:

http://evolution-control.com/trademarkg/images/Test/Shows,%20Concerts,%20and%20Events/Survival%20Research%20Laboratories%20-%20ZeroOne%20Festival,%20San%20Jose,%20August%2011%202006/index.html

...or use this abbreviation:

http://tinyurl.com/fabye

enjoy!

- TradeMark G.

I appeared on NPR's All Things Considered today, though they cut out the ECC mention:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5665240

And next week, we'll be at Burning Man, setting up BMIR radio to air all the fun things we've been recording over the last couple weeks (thanks, Bezoar and Steven Lee!). That means I'll generally be even quieter than usual for the next month or so. Are you going to Burning Man too? Then find me: BMIR radio (94.5 FM) is located in center camp behind Playa Info. I'll be camping at Billion Bunny Camp (aka Furr & Loafing), located around 6:30 on the Esplanade, on center camp's outer ring next to the Black Rock Arts Museum. We have a daily Hoppy Hour from 5-6pm. Hope to see you!

Hey there, the few of you who take note of this limited channel of expression... here's another once-in-a-long-while semi-personal update:

BURNING MAN: Going? I am, as usual. If anyone's looking for me there, I'll be easiest to find at the BMIR radio station (94.5 FM) in center camp circle, right behind Playa Info. I work there most days in the afternoon, when the air conditioning is best. You can also find me at Billion Bunny Camp (aka "Furr and Loafing"), also in center camp circle, near Anxiety street (presumably on the First Camp side, which is to the right as you walk towards the center camp cafe from The Man). We haven't finalized our arrival and departure dates, but we'll be there for about a full two weeks.

Holy shit, I'm actually getting paid to go this year. As in real (though little) money. Don't worry, I'm not quitting my day job (as CEO of The ECC, which I'm pretty sure actually pays less).

NEW HOME: We moved. Forget our studio/loft in the ghetto/gated community of The Farm; we high-tailed it to Twin Peaks and I haven't looked back. Now we have a full house, I have a dedicated studio space, and nature in the back yard (one of the Twin Peaks). An improvement, and for less money (thanks to our new roommate, Shelley). Things are looking better. Email me for the address. No change on the phone number.

HEARSE: Time to do the yearly last-minute pre-Burning-Man frenzied maintenance... a long laundry list of repairs to be done, but hopefully nothing out of my limited automotive expertise.

SF WEEKLY: Look for me in there. Late September maybe? I'll be interviewed by Elisa Strickland next week and giving her first reporting dibs on The Kitchen Of The Future, a line of circuit-bent, MIDI-compatible kitchen appliances that I launched in May from The Headlands.

COLUMBUS: Visiting? Hopefully in late September or October.

- TradeMark G. / Mark Gunderson
:.e.c.c.:

Friend often ask me to let them know of good reasons to come and visit San Francisco. Well, here's one -- an upcoming show of Survival Research Laboratories. Just short of ten years ago it was enough to get me to fly out here, so I figure I'll pass on the favor:

http://01sj.org/content/view/217/52/

Survival Research Labs
Mark Pauline, Artistic Director

Day: Friday, August 11, 2006
Time: 10:30 p.m.
Location: Behind South Hall
Ticket Price: $25
Special Notes: Very Big, Very Loud, Very Exciting

Some things are purely mythic like Survival Research Labs, which springs from the shell of abandoned buildings, monster robotic history, and fire. An interdisciplinary mash-up like no other, SRL, brings a newly conceived performance to ZeroOne San Jose full of its legendary machines, flame-throwers, and bombastic sound. Humans are only present as audience or operators; in this show its all about the machines. As described by founder Mark Pauline, an SRL performance is comprised of ritualistic interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices." Whatever else you call it, (and the title wont be announced until just before the show), we call it big fun, exciting, and something you wont want to miss. This one is definitely for more than the brainiac crowd its monster machine, meets hovercraft, meets huge sculptural creatures, meets fire. See you there.

And if you come and visit, I can probably accommodate -- we'll soon be moving into a new place. Detached house in Twin Peaks. Dedicated/separated studio space for me. Yay!

- tm

June! Finally!

May (and then some) was seriously busy -- as I knew it would be -- but now that the Wheel Of Mashup has been built, now that I've circuit bent a toaster and a blender, and now that I've been to Toronto to prove they work, I'm done for the moment.

June is regroup month: taking the new stuff, packaging & PR-ing it, 'n' putting it out. Time to go fish for new ponds to play!

The new stuff, plus some old stuff, means we (almost) have three brand new shows:

• The Kitchen Of The Future (circuit-bent toaster, blender, etc.)


• Wheel Of Mashup (club-oriented DJ show)


• Reels Of Steel (DJ soundtracks to silent movies)

...not to mention the good ol' Thimbletron.

And, keep an eye on the website this month... I'm gutting it, and rebuilding it from scratch.

I hope.

And it's my birthday! (the 27th)

- tm

Although I wasn't going to write a post for a while, I realize that my blog's title -- Residency Evidence -- makes it only too appropos that I should post anyway. Why? I'm back at my residency.

I started this blog two years ago when I started my residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts. The residency has a long-term fringe benefit: alumni can return for visits, two weeks out of any year. So, I checked in a couple weeks ago, and have been digging my time here enough to talk them into extending my stay. And it's been a productive one, doing a lot of work preparing for two major shows:


#1: BOOTIE, the monthly mashup DJ night in San Francisco, where I was the guest DJ for May. This was a chance for me to debut the Ritalin Ruckus material, a seriously overloaded mashup setup I put together in Ableton Live, and to make it all the better I created a Wheel Of Mashup for people to spin -- it's two wheels actually, and one lands on the music that will come next and the other lands on the vocals which I'll mix on top of it, on the spot. The whole thing went superbly, with hundreds of happy clubgoers screaming in joy (yes, really!) and I can't wait for another chance to do it. There's also plenty of photos from the night, along with a thread discussing it with links to more photos (and audio? and video? not sure, I'm bandwidth-challenged at the moment).

#2: DEEP WIRELESS, a festival in Toronto where I'll be doing two performances. The first will finally debut something I've been talking about for years: The Kitchen Of The Future, a collection of circuit-bent kitchen appliances where the controls have been hijacked to do MIDI things. For instance, I converted a four-bay toaster so that the two toasting levers will trigger two different tones, and the light/brown setting beneath each lever makes the tone higher or lower. There's also a blender, and both will come with me to Toronto along with the Thimbletron to do a performance at the festival on Saturday, May 27. After that I'll participate in a Sunday show with John Oswald where we take audience requests and improv a response!

Welp, I'm not at this residency to write blogs -- back to work.

I haven't been blogging much for quite a while, for various reasons: to get more "productive" stuff done; because there are plenty of other better blogs out there to read; because I haven't really been too crazy about writing. But this weekend I had... an experience.



Geekstock.

That's probably the best way I can think to describe it.

This weekend I was part of what is sure to be the first Make Magazine Maker Faire of many to come. I wanted to be part of it from the beginning, but then I even got an unsolicited invitation from them to be part of it. I knew going into this that it was going to be just right -- my kind of crowd, both audience as well as other participants -- but what surprised me was just how large, and how successful, it turned out to be.

I would have been pretty pleased to see a conference hall full of DIY types showing off their geekery. And I got it: plus another hall, and another, and a garage, and three more halls, and a few stages, outdoor booths, and more. I met people from many cities, from both coasts, a few from other countries. Major camera crews: news channels, those Mythbusters guys, local, national, internet, all over. I showed off the Thimbletron for the weekend, and got interviewed and filmed by The Tonight Show (Leno) and CNN, at least. It was like a science fair without competition; a safehaven for geeks, of all stripes, to just be geeks.

A steam-powered vehicle, electric mini-cars, RFID implants, soap bubble fu, 3D printing, rocketry, blinky jewelry, insect robots, Segway polo, a working replica of a PDP-11 computer... and this was just in the hall I was in.

It didn't hurt that one of my promo photos of The ECC was used in an article plugging the Faire and was printed in the SF Chronicle, not to mention appearing at the top of their web page one day. But ECC hardly needed the boost -- it was non-stop both Saturday and Sunday, a constant parade of curious minds, all wanting to know just how the hell you make music with a fistful of sewing thimbles. And I showed 'em -- again and again and again and again, giving demonstrations almost constantly from open to close. I finally had to tear myself away from the booth on Sunday to give myself 30 minutes of hit-and-run visits to other booths, every one of which were doing simply amazing things that I would have gladly lost an hour to. Unabashed, nerdy, brainy, lovely, smartass fun.

In a word... GEEKSTOCK.

There are 4,500+ photos on Flickr.com from the Maker Faire... so far. I took a few and might put those online (elsewhere) at some point. But for now... I could use a little lie-down. I'm exhausted, exhilarated, spent... and happy.

- tm

We're breaking radio silence with the following important announcement:

Any readers who are Ohio friends of mine will be happy to know that I'm visiting there from March 20th - 30th. I've intentionally left my schedule fairly open so that I might do better than usual at catching up with everybody. Been wanting to walk in the park with Mark? Have tea with Mr. G? Your window of opportunity begins today, so don't delay...

Best way to contact me is by email, which is the same address it's always been (ecc at pobox dot communists) since I don't have a cell phone and don't have a fixed place that I'll be staying while in town. Hope to see you...

- TradeMark G. / Mark Gunderson

Happy 2006! Did you know that this year is the 20th birthday of my band The Evolution Control Committee?

Lat year I was interviewed on the podcast of RU Sirius, former editor of the legendary magazine Mondo 2000. On this week's podcast you can listen to part 2 of the interview. You can also go back to listen to part 1 on RU Sirius Show #20 if you missed it the first time around.

Haven't been blogging lately because, well, I don't want to you. And you can't make me. Oh c'mon, you didn't really miss it.

Last night, I had a dream...

(Every once in a while I have one of these dreams... so good that I've got to make sure I put it here for the purpose of good, solid archival. This, and the other dreams in this blog, are absolutely real dreams.)

In my dream, I'm ranting to someone about the pathetic state of copyright. I'm incensed about just how absurdly long copyright lasts, and I'm trying to give them a perspective on just how crazy the length is:

TradeMark: "Let me give you an example: Let's say right now, I write a short story right here in front of you. It's automatically copyright the moment I finish it (or even if I don't) because things are presumed to be copyright unless you explicitly say otherwise. This short story will remain in the restrictive binds of copyright for the rest of my life PLUS another 90 -- yes NINETY -- years!! That's like until the year 2150!!!"

...and I start cracking up when I try to complete the rant with...

"For chrissakes, by then we'll have evolved into beings of pure energy and light and won't NEED FUCKING COPYRIGHT!!"

I actually was cracking up outside of the dream too, and woke Christy up...

Also during this dream I had an idea to take music of The Beatles and edit out all the beats. The resulting project -- taking the beat from The Beatles -- would be called of course, "les".

Nope, haven't posted lately -- haven't felt like it. You can't make me. nyah nyah.

For those in Ohio: I'll be there, Dec. 19-29.

My Google work continues now with automatic translations, where they ask that I compare two computer-generated translations of text. I never thought I'd get the dream job of being paid to laugh at absurd translations, but... here I am:

Source: "She has sunk to the bottom," Johnson said.

Translation 1: Strong Health said : "She has to rest."

Translation 2: Johnson say:"she has already exactlied drown."

Hard to choose, really...

Googling again, finally, following a lot of work on ECC videos. Nothing significant new; mostly re-rendering exisiting videos to be up to DVD quality. I've been wanting to do this since I got a DVD burner last year for Christmas but hadn't really needed to until now, as I was just putting together an application to get into a weekend retreat given by Creative Capital, a group that essentially helps artists to sell out more effectively. (I actually don't mean that in a bad way, by the way.)

Today's Googling links:

I remember vividly when John Lennon was assassinated; I was a teenage hacker and went immediately to a hacked account I had with newswire feed access to get breaking news about it. :-) Seems that there are some about-to-be-released interview tapes with Mark David Chapman, Lennon's assassin. I hadn't realized Chapman actually got Lennon to autograph an album just hours before the shooting.. the article has some other intriguing bits from Chapman about his thoughts and motivations.

Doh, ran outta work time -- that's it for now!

And thus ends another of my signature months-long delays in blogging.

For one thing, because I'm now starting some work that produce good grist for blogging. What, you say? Work? TradeMark is crawling back to the land of wage slavery? Well, kinda sorta... but... not. At least it's for someplace that isn't evil. How do I know they're not evil? 'cuz they say they aren't! Yep, it's Google, the "do no evil" company.

Google farms out some temp work to have people be "Quality Raters", human beings who rate queries that other human beings put into Google. Basically, you just rate how well a specific query matches a specific result page. You can work from home, you can't work more than 20 hours a week, and it doesn't seem to be too brain-numbing. Although it would be nice to be doing something higher-leve that I'm more qualified for (programming, network admin, etc.), I need to focus on music and not get all sucked up into a career job... so, something like this is probably the better pick for me right now. I can always give up later.

But for you, dear reader, this means new life for this blog: It will house all the nutty, wacky, loopy links that I come across during my work. Woop! Woop! Lucky you, yes indeedy, rejoice now please. And we begin with...

A boingboing.net article pointing to a links page for House of Cosbys (which by now is "sooooo last week" in the hyper-pace of internet culture) was the subject of a query result I was reviewing. From it you can get things as great as the entire album of Bill Cosby Talks To Kids About Drugs (1971), and as retarded as the Pac-Man and Cosby Show.

Sausage Poetry: "Twenty yellow waterlillies skunked Donald Duck's snake."

Here in the US we're usually sick of Christmas when the advertisements and Christmas sales reach the saturation point (around, say, mid-October), but if you simply must know everything there is to know about Christmas, there's (you guessed it) christmas.com. Includes translations for "Merry Christmas" for every country, even Iraq (although they admit that "less than 3% of the population is Christian so the day is barely noticed"). However, they missed how to translate "Merry Christmas" in Wal-Mart.

Film Review: REFLECTIONS OF EVIL (Dir. Simon Packard)

A few months ago this movie came up on an email list and caught my attention. I promptly added it to our Netflex queue and forgot about it until it arrived recently. Thinking back, I’m not sure what in particular caught my attention in the email discussions I read, but it was probably the fact that nobody could really describe the movie. Now that I’ve seen it, I can understand why.

Is it a cult classic? Ehhh… probably not.

Does it suck? Well… no…

Does it defy easy explanation? Ohhhh yeah.

In “Reflection of Evil”, there are few certainties. On all levels. Seriously, this is a tough call. “Avant Garde” if you’re generous, “A complete and utter waste of all time, money, and energy put into the movie as well as of the viewers who suffered through it” if you’re not. My guess would be 99%+ will choose the latter description. Perhaps the best way to review this movie is to try to describe the few “knowns” in the Reflections of Evil universe. Let’s begin with the few certainties we are sure of.

The characters: An ever-expanding obese man (played by the director), a girl in a nightgown, the obese man’s mother, members of the LA homeless community. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes. Feels like: 4+ hours. Upon its release in 2002, Damon personally mailed and distributed 29,000 promotional DVDs of the film. According to the director, the response was underwhelming.

• Almost all voices are overdubbed with voices that don’t come close to matching the actors. Much of what’s spoken doesn’t match what the actors appear to be saying, like when you watch an overdubbed Japanese film.
• The obese man spends his time trying to resell talking wristwatches. On his time off, he eats.
• If the man trips and his head hits the ground, exploding in a spray of blood. This happens a lot.
• However, in one scene the obese man is impervious to machine guns, explosions, and other attacks, falling to the ground, bloodless.
• Bodily fluids, especially blood and puke, are prominent in the film. Occasionally their appearance makes sense.
• When any bodily noise should be heard, the opportunity is seized over and beyond the need. The movie is a never-ending cornucopia of farts, burps, retching, bloody squishes, and other indescribable gross noises. It is unclear whether the intent is serious or comic.
• All black people are trying to kill the obese man, as well as everybody else, especially other black people. The F-word is about 1 of every 3 words they speak.
• All dogs hate the obese man. The man takes a tour of LA dogs to show this.
• Unrelated stock footage? Sure, why not!
• “Continuity”? Is that the same as “Contrast”?
• “Script”?
• Adobe’s “Punch” and “Pinch” filter effects are fully and completely demonstrated.
• Through the movie, the obese man grows larger, gains more headphones around his neck, and more shirts.

It’s all of the confusion and discomfort of Eraserhead with a fraction of the cinematic brilliance. Some have described the movie as being a good cinematic interpretation of an acid trip. While contemplating this and other theories about just why and how this movie ever came to exist, I came across the most frightening of all:

It might just be that Reflections of Evil is a movie that expresses the director’s vision perfectly.

Actually, I’m serious. After the movie finished, I very nearly ejected the DVD before checking out the extras. Having seen them, let me just advise that BEFORE watching the movie, you should watch the “Behind The Scenes” bit. It’s another filmmaker’s documentary showing “Reflections of Evil” in the making. For the brief moments that he gets Packard to explain himself, Packard comes off surprisingly… well… sane. And coherent. He knows that he has spent all his money, his inheritance, and more to make a movie that will likely result in absolutely nothing. He knows what he’s doing, even if he doesn’t understand why. This one exchange probably says it all:

Q: “What would you say to filmmakers watching this? What can they learn from you?”
Packard: “Nothing. They can learn that it’s a completely monumental waste of time in making a film.”