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Pretty Hate Machine

It’s that kind of album that makes you want to get up and dance… If only I could dance. My rigorous martial arts training and Hawaiian elementary school May Day performances haven’t done a thing for my dancing skills.

Speaking of dancing, it’s twice now that I’ve gotten iPod dance commercial audition solicitations from a talent agent I somehow got hooked up with. At one point I think I was asked to describe my style, but the only description that came to mind was “embarrassingly ridiculous.” I wonder if there’s a market for that “style”? I wasn’t about to audition and find out.

I’m also terrible at that dancing video game, which my little bro is terrific at. I’d like to laugh at that, but when I watch him play it’s actually damned impressive. Even out of practice as he is, he managed to draw a crowd at the local arcade. He sweated out all the stages, and when it was over, everyone clapped and someone offered to buy him another game.

I guess I’ll have to settle for thrashing about in the privacy of my own home. Or in public (pretending to be) drunk, because then such behavior seems to be more or less forgivable… until I injure someone with a combination crazy dance groove + flying razor kick to the groin.

Anyway where was I? Randomness.

Trent Reznor is a genius.

I’d like to see a real drummer face off with a champion Drum Mania (the drumming video game) player. That thing is pretty much a drummer training machine complete with electronic drum kit.

Hungry for broccoli.

I’m finally heading back to SF early next week. I hear it’s cold there. God help me. Buddha!

I swear by ibuprofen for headaches.

I can’t get the White Stripes song “Seven Nation Army” out of my head.

ARGH! Estimated taxes due tomorrow!

… the downside to freelancing and investing and all that…

YAY!

Being old and such, the Christmas presents don’t pour in like they used to… thus I easily caved in to an impulse buy temptation and bought myself an early Christmas present, the new(ish) XioSynth 25 from Novation. Tiny (468 x 68 x 190 mm), light (a mere 1.4 kilos!), and with a built-in USB audio interface complete with phantom-powered mic preamp… it seemed like the perfect portable controller/synth for me to cart around while I backpack around the world with my trusty ‘ol Powerbook.

Right out of the box… Build-quality wise it didn’t stand out much with its all-plastic exterior, a keyboard that felt exactly the same as all the other cheapy keys out there, and some buttons that weren’t quite on straight, but I suppose that’s the tradeoff for being incredibly dirt cheap at a price of US $329 (and of course plastic is really light, too). The onboard menu didn’t exactly spell everything out for me, but I did manage to mostly figure out the necessary basics — changing and manipulating patches — without having to resort to the manual. I loved the sounds of many of the default patches, which were also fun and easy enough to tweak… no computer necessary.

As a portable controller/synth, I decided to go with the XioSynth over the MicroKorg — the only contender I considered since my primary concern was as small and light a form factor as possible and I’d already ruled out the Micron due to not liking the interface with its few flimsy knobs — because I felt it really won out in portability and features. As far as the synth quality goes, both produce a variety of sounds that appeal to me just as well and that I can see applying to the same sort of applications. But since I’ll probably often be carting it around to record stuff in conjunction with my Powerbook, it made more sense to go with the XioSynth for the USB connectivity options, circumventing the need to carry a nasty wall wart (I don’t feel comfortable relying batteries for something I could conceivably leave on for hours and hours on a regular basis), USB/MIDI converter cable for controller purposes, and an external audio card (you can record the synth audio output right into your computer just through the USB connection… and there’s always the analog inputs and phantom-powered preamp for anything else). I also prefer the XioSynth’s full size keys just slightly more than the little MicroKorg keys, but not by much since they both have that cheap toy feel resulting in hard-to-control velocity-sensitivity, compounded by lack of aftertouch. But the XioSynth does attempt to compensate somewhat by providing a touchpad, which I suppose could be a cool way to control the sound if I can get used to it.

And the bad… Coming from a classical piano background, the cheap feel to the keys and lack of aftertouch on the XioSynth is most annoying to me. This is made worse by the lack of a standard MIDI in on the unit which would prevent using it as a live synth (i.e. sans laptop and with a nicer more expressive keyboard controller). Does anyone know if a MIDI/USB converter box/cable can give it the MIDI in it desperately needs? I also prefer standard pitch/mod wheels to the XioSynth’s joystick control… though again maybe it’s just something I have to get used to.

Anyway for the lack of nice keys and a MIDI in, I wish I had considered the slightly larger/heavier (88 mm deeper/1.1 kg heavier) X-Station, which has all the standard old MIDI connectivity options and the added bonus of more knobs/buttons (don’t really need/want), faders too (ooh but I like a few faders!), a pressure-sensitive (!) touchpad, and the ability to be used as an analog effects box via the audio inputs (nifty!). Ah well… depending on how often I end up ACTUALLY using my XioSynth, I may trade-up… or maybe something better and just as portable will eventually come along…

In the meantime I suppose I’ll be recording a bunch of crunchy synth-bass driven song ideas with my new toy… whee! Now I really need more hard drive space…

Having been deathly ill with the dreaded sore throat / laryngitis / hacking-cough-preventing-sleep combination, and also having not been hard-core enough to obtain this season’s hottest super toy known affectionately as the “Wii!”, I have had ample time recently to re-discover the wonders of surfing the internet whilst consuming insane amounts of chicken noodle soup.

I am referring mostly to the web comic titled “The Perry Bible Fellowship” located at pbfcomics.com. Surely, you have heard of it! If not, you MUST check it out! It is guaranteed to help you through those miserable dark times of horrible illness.

I also briefly looked for online backup services and ended up sorting through a bunch of “best of” reviews only to find that many of those newfangled Web 2.0 companies no longer exist. It’s cool that everyone’s starting to give everything away for free, but it’s not cool when the free things disappear in a few months…

Anyway I am back home in Hawaii for the holidays, and I made it through the airplane ride here without my ears exploding! HOORAY! Hopefully the warm weather will speed up my recovery time.

Today was spent laying down drum and bass tracks for an upcoming recording project, a collaboration with Edria’s Cyrus Julian. HUGE thanks to Shawn Poh (formerly of Astral) for doing a fantastic job as our “session” drummer! Thanks, Shawn!

I had some thought in my head that seemed very prominent and relevant just an hour ago, but I completely forgot what it was. Oh well. Maybe I’ll remember it soon… argh…

Anyway in lieu of that thought here’s my current one… which is not so interesting and goes something like “It’s cold! Clean socks are so great!”

Yes! FEET! They’re important…

Since I’ve started writing music I’ve pretty much stopped writing poetry in favor of writing lyrics. It’s pretty much the same thing, just stricter in terms of form, especially since lately I tend to only complete a lyrical piece if I have some rough song and/or melody idea in mind.

Anyway having these words in my head but no suitable song idea at hand, I came up with this poem a couple of days ago. It’s not as structured as a set of lyrics but I suppose with some work it could easily be as I (subconsciously?) inserted a recurring “chorus.”

As Happy As Happy Can Be!

I need another me
to send out into reality
to be wherever and whoever I don’t want to be

…because it seems so necessary

She’d need to make a lot of money
so I can buy all the material debris
that allow people to pretend they’re truly happy

…because it seems so necessary
to strive for the top of this world
…because it’s almost too easy
for “such a smart girl”

Oh YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!
Just look at me!
You’d think I’m happy
as happy can possibly be!
Oh YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!
Don’t you agree?
I’m just as happy
as happy can possibly be?

Such a shining example of over-positivity!
Optimistic everything complete with boundless energy –
You and I — we guarantee!

Such a nonchalant decree
from somebody who should be
nothing more than nobody but me

So I say “Piss off!” to you and the you that is me
just like I’m pissed off at everybody!

See how it affects me?
See how they affect me?
See how you affect me?

See how I affect me?
See how I affect me?!

I wonder how simple it might be
to live that dream existence solitary
where my thoughts control all absolutely?

…because it seems so necessary
to enjoy this life thus interestingly!

Oh YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!
So who wants me?
You think I’m happy
as happy can possibly be?
Oh YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!
Can you make me
just as happy
as happy can possibly be?

HAHAHAHAHA!
HAHAHAHAHA!
HAHAHAHAHA!

Copyright© 2006 by Ann Oyama

So anyway yeah, dolphins with LEGS… now that’s some real news! Whoa!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227572,00.html

And um, the San Francisco cable cars are pretty fun…

And I like traffic lights too.

I did another promotion for Sony today at AT&T Park, which was more fun than usual as it was for the annual “Icer Air” ski/snowboard/skateboarding event rather than just another baseball game. The highlight for me was a live performance by Ladytron, a UK band which I’d only vaguely heard of. The acoustics of the live setup were awful (I blame the stadium), but aside from a couple of odd chanting songs in some foreign language and the singer being in a completely different key than the rest of the band on “Seventeen” (usually a really catchy dance/pop tune), I enjoyed both their music and performance quite a bit. The scene was a pretty strange one though, what with the somewhat gothy (all dressed in black) electronic/synth-pop/dance/shoegazey-rock band playing in the afternoon sunshine on a stage in the middle of a baseball field with kids running around everywhere, and right next to a huge ski ramp with skiiers and snowboarders jumping, flipping out, and injuring themselves all over the place causing both the crowd and band members to look over to the side and gasp periodically throughout the performance.

Now how’s that for a run-on sentence? Good thing this is just a blog.