How To Write Music

I wrote this to a musician friend who could play and sing, but didn't think they could write their own music and then I decided to share it here as well:

I think writing music requires a willingness to make mistakes and not only accept them, but explore them for possibilities. Most of the process of making good new music is not making good music but doing things that don't work. If you're doing something that always works, you're mostly doing things you know will work and therefore not really going unexpected and or...Read more

Giant Robot Post It Gallery

Giant Robot held an art gallery featuring art drawn on post it notes.  I really liked this idea and think it's another example of the democratization of the arts world, but this time in a real world (non internet related) way.  Basically - if you think about a normal art showing you might have up to four artists and the paintings or sculptures are selling for a lot of money because they're huge and expensive to make.  It limits the audience who can afford to take them home. 

However, in this evening, the art is sm...Read more

alivenotdead features

So, I was thinking about what features alivenotdead could have which might be of interest to me and how I use it, so I thought I'd write a few down here and see what people think.

Basically I use alivenotdead as an artist in hopes of finding people who might like my work, but also as someone who has actually hired a handful of the artists here.  I'm also looking to find new artists and be a part of artist and art related discussions.

These are some ideas which might aid that.

The first two involve the ide...Read more

Design Process: AMA 2009

This blog is for those who are curious about the design process.

Someone asked me what the design steps were for the CMA 2009 show were, so when we did the AMA 2009 show for Carrie Underwood a couple weeks go, I saved a series of images to a folder to share it.  

And so here it is with very little text and  mostly pictures.

It begins with Carrie's Creative Director (Raj Kapoor) deciding how he wants to present her and her song for this particular performance, then he comes to my design company (Deception ...Read more

What You Can Learn from a Pet Rock

While many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs were focusing their efforts on technology in the Silicon Valley 1970's, there was one man who had a different idea.

He thought pets were too much trouble and then died, so he thought he would offer people "Pet Rocks."

These rocks came with a 32 page user manual (which apparently had the initial printing tagged onto a...Read more

Science as Religion as Art

"The Cosmos is Within Us"

I found this interesting because of how it converts the idea of science into a message through an artistic form.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk what follows is the information from the youtube video including the lyrics:

MP3 available at http://www.symphonyofscience.com.

"We Are All Connected" was ...Read more

Concert Screens - CMA Carrie Underwood

PMX 2009

I didn't take too many photos at the PMX because the lighting was just horrendous, but I saw this when I was walking through the Hilton Hotel and it for me was so filled with symbolism I had to shoot it.

These are four Gothic Lolitas from the convention.  From a distance, they are dressed quite similar.  T wo of them are taking pictures of the other two (and yes, they did then swap afterward). But it...Read more

Catcerto - Melody just needs context

If you've seen my blogs on music from stock charts and other experimental music inspirations, this post will come as no surprise... It's remarkable how melody just needs to find context.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoT66v4EHg&feature=player_embedded

Sometimes... that's good to keep in mind when you feel as though you or your ideas don't fit in, you might just be looking to find c...Read more

RED annuonces EPIC and Scarlet Details

If you work in the film industry (or you know me), you've heard about the RED camera.   I was lucky enough to hear about this camera what seems like 2 years before they made the first one.   As a result, when they started selling them I ordered one within the first minute it was on sale.  I ended up with number 89.  (There are over six thousand today.)

The next generation of cameras was announced today.

Before I talk about it, I will answer some questions I get asked in terms that anyone (hopefully) ...Read more