Category Archives: music & the arts

Wait a minute, this still works

I mentioned a while back that I would touch on the subject of blind Apple adoration, and this post will make an honest man out of me. A few weeks back I picked up a 32GB iPhone 4. I took some time off work. I stood in line.

New arrangements of old tunes

I was asked to perform at a friend’s wedding ceremony recently and given free reign over the music selection as long as I avoided all of the standard wedding tunes. And that’s exactly the kind of direction I like – “Whatever you want, as long as it’s appropriate and unexpected.”

Lies teenagers believe

For probably about 25 years or so I have laboured under the false impression that the artist responsible for the hilarious and disturbing cover art on the Cramps compilation Bad…

Singing the praises of Moog

I didn’t mention in my previous post that my Etherwave was missing a part when I bought it. It wasn’t an essential, large, or expensive part – it was a…

Moog Etherwave theremin

As I mentioned in the previous post, scanning the musical instruments classifieds on Craigslist is a mindless pastime of mine; I do it habitually and not quite obsessively. I’ve found…

In praise of dead software, part 2

Read part one here. When I was thirteen or so I read the novelization of Close Encounters (because it was lying around the house and I was thirteen and bored,…

Lost and found department

Okay so get this. On Thursday I posted about that cool book of modern piano music (published 1963) that I picked up on AbeBooks not long ago. Well you may…

In praise of dead software, part 1

I talk a lot about music hardware on this site, but the music that I write wouldn’t sound like much without software. Logic is my main audio production app, and…

New-ish music for the piano

There’s been a resurgence of interest online in 60s-style commercial design, that really evocative screen-print business with the deep cool colours, the kind of stuff Saul Bass made a name…