reflections of a forest in a concrete puddle

Early electronic sound: art or music?

2012-02-04T10:19:00.000-08:00

So, it came up last night that I could teach a contemporary electronic music course (since I'm such a huge nerd!). This thought has been running through my mind all morning: what subjects to cover, evolution, technology, themes extending beyond the genres, etc

If you are familiar with the history of electronic music, many place the birth in musique concrète, specifically Edgard Varèse's Poême Électronique. I finally looked up a recreation of the video to get a sense of the performance. Surely in 1958 to an audience that had never heard these sounds it would be quite eerie, and coupled with the imagery it is, the piece is far heavier than I had come to believe:

and here's a formal analysis: http://www.ipsden.u-net.com/course/EM3.html

Cavernous Techno

2012-02-01T10:47:00.000-08:00

Grizzly among geysers in Kronotsky Nature Reserve

Large, harmonic bass sounds and lots of reverbs + a fusion of dub and industrial influences = cavernous techno

I've created a soundcloud group to showcase the sound that has been a major portion of my signature style.
http://soundcloud.com/groups/dubstep-techno-dub-moderated-by-dj-forage

The group is mostly for up-and-coming artists, with a specific bias towards Canadian electronic producers. Within, there's a range of tastes from: Berghain-influenced techno, Force Inc style dub techno, modern bass-driven growling dub techno, warehouse storming techno, experimental dubstep, bass music, future garage, straight up dub, crunchy psy-dub, etc.

It's moderated, so anything in there has my seal of approval. I'm fortunate enough to be hosting some killer tracks from Setaoc Mass from the UK who's style is reminiscent of Peter vanHoesen. Check em out here, or in the group:

-------------
Other tidbits on the cavernous techno front:

An interview with Orphx, a techno-industrial act out of Hamilton CAN. In addition to the noise and experimental background, they cite many of the same influences that have been important to me in coming to love this sound. Additionally, characters like Adam F (especially through his Traversable Wormhole alias) and Regis have been championing post-punk and industrial influences in this dark style of echoey techno

If you're into this sound, I recommend you also look into the Capillary EP from Guise on Singularity Recordings

Upcoming music game

2012-01-31T13:10:00.000-08:00

Just found out about an upcoming music game that draws influences from Myst, Tron and Rez. Sounds pretty awesome yeah? Well, the music is generating dynamically as interaction with the environment progresses. By the looks of the media on their site, it's all generatively created using Max/MSP and has a very techno sound. Pretty sweet, and there's a beta-demo available.

FRACT - Indie Adventure Game from Phosfiend Systems on Vimeo.

Fictional Evolutions get Phylogenetic trees

2012-01-27T13:13:00.000-08:00

Evolutionary tree of weird beasties!

If you haven't figured out, I'm a huge fan of world-building and creative fancy, especially when it comes to thinking of monsters and their ecology.

One of my favourite web comic/online graphic novelists, Evan Dahm ( www.rice-boy.com )is half of a project to turn a monster's evolution into a game of telephone. See The Exquisite Beast

While the evolutionary steps are more whimsical than justifiable in a biological context, it's been fun to watch it morph. Others have picked up on the idea and offered tangential evolutions.

The pic at right is a fellow evolutionary biologist who could not prevent her nerdy instincts from giving the variations and evolutions around the web it's own phylogenetic tree!

http://holterya.tumblr.com/post/16276979143/exquisite-beast-phylogenetic-tree-featuring-all

The Remix: a short history

2012-01-26T09:58:00.001-08:00

Consider this: according to Discogs.com, about 800 remixes were released in 1983. In 1990, more than 4,000; in 2000, almost 15,000. And in 2010, there were 22,750 remixes released, an increase of more than 450% in twenty years. Not surprisingly, as that number has leapt up, remixes also have come to represent a much larger share of what's being released: in 1983, they accounted for 2% of all releases; 7% in 1990; 17% in 2000; until, by 2010, a staggering 20% of all releases were remixes.

http://www.theawl.com/2012/01/the-remix-as-requirement

Meme of the moment, S*** people say

2012-01-15T12:23:00.001-08:00

I know lots of lovable hippies. Both these vids are good for a laugh if you know (or are!) these types of people <3


YouTube Doubler

Sacred Balance Remix by 1nfinite zer0

2012-01-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to release this to the wild - a remix I did for a good friend of mine's band. Check them out if you're in Toronto on the 28th.

Corrections in Ink (1nfinite zer0 remix) by 1nfinitezer0

"""Grab a free download of this pre-release promo remix of electro-visionary trip rock outfit Sacred Balance, from Toronto and Montreal. 1nfinite zer0 takes the emotional intensity of the original and augments the insistence through synth layers and sample processing, creating heavy textures and large bass synths that are released into IDM drum rushes.

The eponymous Sacred Balance EP debuts this January 28th at El Mocambo in Toronto. The EP is currently available for pre-oder: http://sacredbalance.bandcamp.com/album/sacred-balance-ep
"""

Here's a live video to give you a taste of what to expect.

My friend, Pouya Hamidi, is in fact in more than one band in addition to doing audio engineering and composing. Last year he wrote a piece performed for the Iranian Composers of Toronto which I was lucky enough to see in Montreal. The piece is called Journey Inwards, and has three performers interacting over a single grand piano. It mixes dexterity, technically interesting segments with a lot of emotion and movement. When I heard the concept I must admit I thought it could be gimmicky, but the piece is really very good. Here's the Toronto performance (which I hear was not as good as that in Mtl! hah!): http://youtu.be/IeHmqzSPxXE

More on the remix: it was really fun to work on. I anticipated it going in a different direction until I got the stems of the piece, and then the elements in separation inspired me on their own. The mournful violins and the rich bluesy vocals cried out to carry the emotion of the song. But the guitars were looking for a loud shoegaze treatment, and the synth lines had promise to come forward in the mix. Naturally I like the synths since I'm an electronic music guy, so I also added those of my own. The drums were crisp and had a great feel, so despite the heavy edits I tried to keep their sound pretty close to the original. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

So, goto the release show!

Playmobilhead - minimal/idm/electronic

2012-01-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

Just discovered this artist on soundcloud today, subsequently listened to all of her stuff. A nice variety of stuff with high production values, more towards the chill and spaciously reverbed stuff with just enough glitch and edge to keep it interesting.

Playmobilhead - Titan / Karl Simon ( Playmobilhead Rmx )

Playmobilhead - One More Day ( Original Mix )

Playmobilhead - Inpune / Von Kleymont ( Playmobilhead Rmx )

Playmobilhead - Loneliness ( Original Mix )

Max Cooper - Genetic Techno

2011-11-30T10:38:00.001-08:00

Stumbling around the musical net-sphere yesterday while intermittently waiting for data to process, I leapt from Vaexth to Max Cooper because of this dreamy mixset:

Max Cooper - RA.281 [2011-10-17] by D2Techno

Turns out he was a post-doctoral researcher at University College London before getting released on Traum, a very important German techno label. The first Max Cooper that comes up in a literature search has published in Nature, so it's hard to believe that one could walk away from that sort of science career... But it is great to see higher level education does not preclude success in music.

Does garlic protect against vampires? An experimental study

2011-11-30T10:36:00.001-08:00

I ate too much garlic this week, it's coming out of my skin. Although I'd like to hope it protects me from Twilight fans, I may be in fact more appetizing to vampires (or leeches by proxy)

Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 1994 Dec 10;114(30):3583-6.

[Does garlic protect against vampires? An experimental study].

[Article in Norwegian]

Sandvik H, Baerheim A.

Source

Seksjon for allmennmedisin, Universitetet i Bergen.

Abstract

Vampires are feared everywhere, but the Balkan region has been especially haunted. Garlic has been regarded as an effective prophylactic against vampires. We wanted to explore this alleged effect experimentally. Owing to the lack of vampires, we used leeches instead. In strictly standardized research surroundings, the leeches were to attach themselves to either a hand smeared with garlic or to a clean hand. The garlic-smeared hand was preferred in two out of three cases (95% confidence interval 50.4% to 80.4%). When they preferred the garlic the leeches used only 14.9 seconds to attach themselves, compared with 44.9 seconds when going to the non-garlic hand (p < 0.05). The traditional belief that garlic has prophylactic properties is probably wrong. The reverse may in fact be true. This study indicates that garlic possibly attracts vampires. Therefore to avoid a Balkan-like development in Norway, restrictions on the use of garlic should be considered.

2011-11-17T13:50:00.001-08:00

Insights into the Tempest DSI - Laserteeth on IDMf

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1nfinitezer0

nice track! very clean sounds. I'm interested to hear more about the synthesis and workflow. Do you find that it's easy to dial in the sound you're looking for, or to produce unexpected but awesome sounds? From the promo, it sounded like the workflow was a prime consideration and asset. how well does it go in the performance department?
i've been drooling over this thing for months... like you i want something to get me away from the computer but enough of a beast that i can get a lot of mileage out of it on it's own.

Thanks, there's still a lot of work to do on it, but I work 50 hours a week and have two young kids, so I'm 'time-poor'. If you think the sounds are clean you ought to hear one before youtube or mp3 compression takes its toll. I was blown away when I got mine, I loaded the preset projects and the difference between the youtube demos was night and day. The high-mids and highs are a LOT clearer, and the bass is much smoother.

Dialing in the sound you're after is relative to one's experience with programing patches, I found it easy and fast, whether I'm going for a 'sound in my head' or doodling away trying to find a weird unique sound. The 8 slot modulation matrix gives you a lot of room to fine-tune a sound, although I rarely need more than 2-3 of the slots to get the sound I want, (envelope self-modulation is INCREDIBLY useful in that regard).

The workflow is great, but is so flexible that you really ought to develop your own template and process for starting a track. Some folks use it strictly as a drum machine and just plug the main Left and Right outs to an interface, I use it as a groovebox, and assign every sound to a specific analog voice, and 4 of the voices out of individual out, and 2 voices out of the main L&R (so that compression/distortion only applies to sounds on those voices).

[...]

Performance wise, it's a beast. The DSI software guy has already released a few OS updates with cool shortcuts, if you want to advance to another pattern while still tweaking an acid bassline you can hold 16-beats, tap the beat's pad, without leaving 16-sounds mode. You can press a beat pad, mangle the current beat-wide parameters to hell, and at the end of 4-bars it will revert to it's original state, (great for transitions).

[...]

In summary, I'm more than happy with mine. It fits my needs perfectly, but it's not for everybody. If sampling and high-polyphony count are high on your list of priorities, there are better options out there. If you just want traditional vintage analog drum sounds, with sound-specific voice architecture, you'd be better served with a jomox or vermona unit. If, (like me), you want a wildly-flexible analog groovebox, get a Tempest!

Edit: But if you want it as a solution to get away from the DAW, you'll really want to have a mixing desk and a few outboard FX.[...]

1nfinitezer0: sounds like total fun, and in case you missed them, here are some other hiquality samples from someone who worked on it:
http://soundcloud.com/iampym/sets/tempest-samples

Workday background listening

2011-11-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

I love soundcloud, there's so much amazing music out there and for me it's an evolution from netlabels and myspace with the benefits of both. Netlabels were popular in the noughties (00s), being curated online labels with free releases. I've followed many artists from these origins to larger labels today. But, soundcloud has that myspace aspect of personal interaction, taken to the next level of commenting on tracks.

Here is a quick selection of some of the artists I've been digging lately to listen to while at work. I've included some quirky adjectives and buzz words to describe their styles:
http://soundcloud.com/seddler
dubby rhythmic explorations
Seddler - Hurrying Robot by Seddler

Seddler - Stereology around by Seddler

http://soundcloud.com/dotmute
chill idm wonky melodics and fuzz beats
tandem by .mute
the depths by .mute

http://soundcloud.com/gregorygaddoni
post dubstep atmospheric garage
http://soundcloud.com/decyfer
future garage & dubstep
http://soundcloud.com/fernandolagreca
happy shoegaze fuzzpop
http://soundcloud.com/jonhopkins
ambient idm
http://soundcloud.com/skytree
psychill glitch

If you're interested in my taste, I recommend you check out some of the artists I'm following. I only follow people who's tunes I'm into, rather than adding tonnes of people just to boost popularity. If you think I'd dig your stuff, please send share.

An RPG is only as good as it plays...

2011-10-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

So, it follows logically that for effective communication of how it plays, an RPG needs to teach it's game well to the players. Here's a great post at Socratic Design on what to consider when writing to teach an RPG:
http://socratesrpg.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-can-my-game-better-teach-mechanics.html

The back links it contains are equally worth looking at, though if you want to access the related Teaching Psychology discussions over at Story Games, then you'll need a login.

There's some great ooints hidden in there. Specifically, the suggestion to engage players into active learning rather than just reading directions and examples reminds me of some past experience that worked particularly well for me. I had the Red Box D&D edition which we fumbled along with for a while, but it wasn't until I bought a later box set that I really grokked how to write adventures (the large dark one with the red edged DM screen and the solo adventure with the critter hiding under the fallen gate to the dungeon, followed by a rust monster). It was because of the included solo adventure that I learned the added game value: how to make the resources presented in the lists come alive in more than just a series of encounters.

Looking back over the current incarnation of the Shashnimyn game mechanics, it's clear that many of these tips could tie together setting, play and teaching in a more engaging way. Incidentally, I unconsciously used some of these tips spending a flight writing out the mind mapping adventure planning rules that have been bouncing around in my head. Inspired by Ecological Systems theory and Concept mapping from Education Psychology, it's a game tool to help create plots collaboratively. I found when play testing with kids that their play was largely unstructured, and it reminded me of my own path on how to learn to write complex interwoven stories as well as provide a framework to learn problem solving and project management (subconsciously teaching kids to be smarter through gaming, that's the ulterior goal! And then take over the world, buahahaha! hehe j/k)

Anyways, go read those other blogs rather than listen to my rambling. Or I'd love to hear your comments about effective learning experiences you've had, in games or any other situation.

Is Brostep's jumping the shark moment framed with flurry of feathers and dancing teddy bears.

2011-10-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, if you follow electronic rhetoric you've probably heard all the whining of how mainstream it's become over the last few years. It's gotten to the point where I cannot help but distinguish the mainstream stuff as BROstep so as to not tarnish the creativity and history of what Dubstep is about.

As jaded as I am, even I'm tired of everyone bashing on it being popular. This has happened before to electronic genres: going from an underground scene with an intense creativity and dedication, the sound blowing up and becoming popular internationally, a flood of talented and derivative producers making their own take on it, some pop cross-over... from there it usually fades out, with originators and innovators keeping on doing what they've always loved as the focus moves onto something else.

The degree of the fade away belies how much the genre tapped into the fashion of the era, and how much it forged new musical territory allowing persistence in the EDM biosphere.

Examples:
..Electroclash - cashed in on the 80s revival, short-lived in the spotlight, but got all the way into the pop realm more than most EDM genres since the 80s themselves, until dubstep
..Drum & Bass - was around for many years before blowing up, derided the mainstream as Clownstep, but is still going strong, with new directions and keeping up the old now that it's out of the spotlight. The directions it took us in bass synths have persisted and continued to evolve though, which influenced dubstep and electrohouse

As for dubstep and brostep, I expect we'll see a few more years of it in the spotlight, which has it's good and bad. As a genre, I think it's wonderful. We've never before in the history of humanity had the ability to make such incredible, varied bass synths that take over the entire song: melody, rhythm. The parallels in tempo to dub, r&b, house, techno and d&b have allowed a lot of cross-pollination, making the whole genre of music difficult to refer to as just dubstep anymore. Similar to the way Techno exploded to mean all types of EDM and has since returned to the more narrow definition of that seed, the styles, subgenres and offshoots will become definable in their own right. Because we cannot call something post-dubstep forever (insert post-modern diatribe here).

So has brostep jumped the shark? To the purists and the jaded, yes it has. To those going nuts in clubs and selling records, no keep it coming. Luckily sharks and dubstep are complementary imagery, so if it wants to eat itself with rows of gnashing teeth and spit out babies of rhythmically interesting, hyper-sound design bass monsters... we're all ears.

Where's the line between creative use and stealing in electronic music?

2011-09-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

I can pull a hand full of records from my shelf that I've found the exact synth preset or noise generator in Reaktor. Sampling is everywhere, it's sometimes hard to know whether something you recognize in a new track was original the first time around...

Picasso said "Bad artists copy. Good artists steal" And the KLF guys who wrote the Manual on making pop songs (http://freshonthenet.co.uk/the-manual-by-the-klf/) openly suggest to take all the elements from existing hits, with the creativity being the combination. And hey, mash up artists like Girl Talk are getting away with it.

But, is there a line? A synth preset and sample are one thing, they don't carry the whole song. What if the whole song revolves around something somebody else has done? Sure, this is a foundation of many past hip hop hits. Daft Punk is reknowned for their pilfering of funk ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJPdVVOmbz4 ) but for some reason this electro house track bugs me:
KNAS - Steeve Angello - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYCuPafLUEQ
In essence the whole lead, bass, hook of the song is a single sample from a commercial sample pack. Where's the creativity there?

As much as I am annoyed by many mash ups, there is a lot of creativity in combining the songs, like somehow making R Kelly and Broken Social Scene sound amazing together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YPaPSyU-Vc
People like Ean Golden and Girl Talk are pros at doing this live, which is arguably as difficult as what Jeff Mills has done all these years. (If you disagree, find a recording of one of his sets on the Midnight Funk Association and compare).

At some point, the songs exist as entities beyond the musician. Self-perpetuating memes. Do you own Amen, Brother? If yes, props. If not, I'm sure you have a track or two with the Amen break.

Funny how despite the changes recording music has had, the earworms that can live on like memes find a way to reproduce.

Seep - 1nfinite zer0

2011-08-18T13:16:00.001-07:00

oh hey, I released some tracks into the wild. This one has been in the jungle of my HDD for a while, but finally gets to see the sun. Chillout/ambient/idm/downtempo/trip hop/psybientSeep - 1nfinite zer0 by 1nfinitezer0

house music is sexy

2011-05-26T06:44:00.000-07:00

mmm dayum, smooth remix to funk you up.

Space Dimensional Controller should be on your house radar; been loving him since I found this netlabel release (free DL!): http://www.acroplane.org/node/208

Under a Lens by chance - solo actual play / review of Microscope RPG

2011-05-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

The following post is actual play of me, myself and some random tables playing through Microscope (www.lamemage.com) to learn the rules of this game. I tried this largely as a writing exercise to see if I could use the game to challenge me into creating new material that I wouldn't otherwise come up with.

Why Microscope?
I've been looking at filling out my world building in a story way, and I've been dying to try out Microscope from the minute I read reviews. I'm a world-builder by heart, so the thought of a game where it works collaboratively was pretty exciting to me. After getting the rulebook and reading through it, I was impressed with the clarity of the text. The rules felt intuitive, and were answering some of the potential play hiccups as I was reading. The Push rules seemed especially apropos for freeform play, and although it's somewhat against the rest of the 'another player has an idea and you can't change it, nor have a committee and water it down for TV' style of play proposed in the rules, it seems like it would be a beneficial play habit in many, many places (play by post I'm looking at you).

Why a pseudo-solo approach?
I moved a few months ago and don't have a gaming group except via internet. I wanted to give the rules a spin without having to wait for those arrangements. Solo play is typically a good way to learn new rules. Also, I haven't convinced my girlfriend to game with me (yet). She did sound like this might be a game she'd play (fingers crossed).
Since it is really a collaborative game, I really needed some way to derail my thoughts or it wouldn't be much different than a structured writing exercise. Therefore, I decided to use a bunch of random tables and plot generators as a fictional player, who will henceforth be referred to as Random. I didn't anticipate what I would need to randomize, but as I went I created rules for myself that I stuck to from then on. Mostly it was percentages of options (like a character list or rough table of plot bits I'd amassed) or yes/no to possibilities. My goto set of random tid-bits are Chaotic Shiny and the random page on TvTropes. To organize the information as it was created, I used FreeMind, an open-source mind mapping software.

Actual play--------------------
Bookending History - Setting the limits of when the timeline takes place
I had already chosen the Era for which I wanted to explore a history, but rolled for light/dark to figure out how this timeline would fit into the Founding War Era of Shashnia. Rolling Light to begin, I fit them subjectively to the history: Chaotic tribes being unified under powerful leaders. A Dark ending period contrasted by Feudal Tribes annihilate links to past. To put those in context, the Founding War Era sees a time generations after the apocalyptic Magic War where the survivors unite under powerful demi-gods who eventually bring about another war as they struggle amongst each other for power. Thus, it starts in a light by bringing order out of chaos and ruin, but ends in dark since the demi-gods grow in power and ignore the lessons learned in the Great Destruction; the apocalyptic fallout from the explosive end to the war. This spans most of the Era as I'd originally conceived it, but still leaves some ambiguity at either end.

Setting the Palette - What are the essentials of this timeline?
According to the existing knowledge of the Era I had already chosen to include the Demi-gods, and exclude lasting peace, and the specific knowledge the Demi-gods needed to end the war (since that's already described canonically).
This is the first place where the Random player really got a say... if you can say that. Using a random generator at the Age of Fable I fished around until there was a plot that seemed half way decent (I had in fact chosen this plot set before the bookends were established. See the inlay for the unedited list). I had decided that the elements in this list were to be what the Random player would try to introduce wherever possible. So, I rolled and the first contribution was an add to the Palette of: a Skyship fueled by blood. I also tried my personal random plot tables, but they weren't specific enough for me to warrant to include or exclude, so instead I decided they would come into play immediately if I rolled the same category on the random tables later on.

From the random list the overall goal/theme of play was established:
An Evil force is reconciled for greater ends.

Up until this point setting up the random and planning out the basics took ~30mins

20:04
First Pass - Setting up events prior to the first turn
Rolls are: High/Low(yes/no) = Period/Event, Light/Dark. Placement, Earlier/Later, Percentages from low to high in time.
Random 1st turn creates: Event - Light, Later in time. During the ending period, I come up with something Light: Cities under siege rejoice when they hear that a distant Lord has been toppled.
Mine: new period, taken from random plot: Dark Period; Resurrected Wizard plunges Nation into shadow. I place this after the beginning period.

First Lens turn, me. Focus: the resurrected wizard
New Period. Light Period; Stoneskin Warriors conquer nation, Dark Event; Prophet calls forth on Stoneskins to oppose Wizard.
The Stoneskin tribe are the Shashnia version of Dwarfs; they live in the mountains, mine crystals and are tough. They were actually co-invented with the homeschool kids who've playtested with me. The period is light because the Stoneskins are liberating their citizens from oppression by the Demi-gods tyranny. The event is Dark because a Prophet calls all of their forces away from their homeland in order to address the greater evil encroaching on the rest of the Nations.

Random: Started with a yes/no roll to decide if the choice is a Period, and then if not will proceed to Event, Scene and place it somewhere after. It rolls yes to be a Period. With many options to place it in time, a % chooses to go after the wizard makes things into darkness. Surprisingly, I roll for a Light period and have to interpret using another % random plot selection; A trading faction excapes the rule of the wizard. This came out of the choice of one who disregards the philosophers and the gods, so I've inferred that to be the Prophet and the Demi-gods.

Me, lens turn two: during the Stoneskin warrior period, after the prophet event: Dark Event; Stoneskins ally with enemy Apothecary.
At this point I realize that I'm not including an outcome for all events and go back to add them. time update = 20:51, 45mins more

Lens second part of second turn, make a Scene about that allegiance Event to learn how they work. At this point I switch from writing 1st person past to 1st person present because I've been editing the previously incomplete notes, sorry if this annoys you.

Scene question framing: Why did they must they ally with an Enemy faction? Wizard is banned, Stoneskins are a must. Waffled on the apothecary and decided against making hir required. So, that gave 7 possible characters from the list. Random chose the Stoneskins! Well, that will make things interesting. I'm really not sure of the answer, so I'm gonna choose the trading faction introduced in the previous period just so I don't force anything.
Reveal Thoughts: Random roll matched the original Palette condition, so that comes back into play for interpretation. After a bit of head scratching as to what that really means, I come up with "The Stoneskins thinks that the Wizard has caused as much pain to the Apothecary as to them, and such feelings can be used to prevent their tribe's downfall and fulfill the prophecy"
My response, is to bring up the only thing I know about this character, that the Traders defy the will of both the Prophet that is urging the Stoneskins on, and the Demi-gods which rule the feudal domains with force. But the Traders sympathize with their plight. Opposing the will of the prophet directly feels like blocking, but it's something that this character has to do anyways, argue against the Apothecary and the Prophet. "The Traders think that the Stoneskins should reconsider the thoughts of allegiance with an enemy and also to ignore the Prophet all together"
And now..... well, I cannot talk to myself, so instead I ask a series of questions and answer with random rolls to see how the exchange goes. I know that they have to choose to join the Apothecary, but what is the roll of the Traders in figuring this out? Okay, I'm stuck, so I make a random roll for the first event to happen, and help to set a better context. I roll to include the court of the noble landholder, but not the noble himself.
Interpretation: the noble court has urged the Stoneskins to try and seek allegiance with the Apothecary, who is friendly to them but will not fight on their behalf. The Wizard threatens their land. Okay, now there's enough to start writing some rough dialog.

Stoneskins: The fate of many lands lies in our hands, we cannot retreat, if we give up, how can we be sure that the Wizard will not just conquer and destroy the whole landscape?
Traders: Fools, you left your homes to die because of some Prophet. They see visions that may be, but you could've had a different path if you had ignored them and stayed to protect your tribe.
S:We were obviously not strong enough to face the Wizards forces. We lost many warriors and were forced to retreat. And these were our best fighters, and we could not win. Unless we ally ourselves with a powerful force, there is no hope. The Noble and his court have pledged allegiance to us and can gain us time to parlay with the Apothecary and his forces. Surely truces can be made in the face of a greater evil?
T:You are desperate. Serving the Demi-gods or the will of the Prophet will not lead to any freedom in this land, you must return to your home, failed, before it is too late to save them.
S:And what? Roam the land without any roots as you do? Give up your history and your land and try to eke out an existence in a world that is becoming more troubled with time? What will happen when there are no free markets for you to sell in? You think your wares and abilities cannot be replaced? No, it is you who should ally with us!
T:So why must you ally with the Apothecary and none other? If the Noble's court seeks you out, surely others will be willing to join your side against the Apothecary and the Wizard?
S:Both are Demi-gods, we have seen their might, do you think that we can win a war on two fronts?
T:So you feel that you must have a Demi-god to face a Demi-god, and that no mortal army has a chance?
S:By the edges of our axes who have seen generations of battle, we believe this to be so.

Question answered. 21:53
1h02 since last, or 2h15 total. There was a chunk of uncertainty here.

Wrapping up Turn 1: Choose a Legacy
Random chooses, which I assume doesn't include stuff from the First Pass, although it doesn't explicitly say in the rules. Five distinct happenings on the timeline were made, and the Traders escaping the rule of the wizard is chosen. So, to explore this we have an event in that period. I didn't roll here, and I could've put a flashback or tie-in to their reasons/story somewhere else in the timeline, but I'm getting tired and figure it'll come into play later regardless. I roll on my random tables and interpret: "The Mages of the Traders use a strong magic ritual to create an illusion. The mages die, but the Traders escape en masse." Man, this whole story is getting tragic.

Turn review:
Didn't really stay on with the Focus being on the wizard. It ended up feeling a bit peripheral to the wizard since nothing directly involved hir. Still the effects of the wizard were still intertwined somewhat, so I can see this coming down to a set of players for how tight or loose you wanna play it. I'll try and keep that better next turn, but so far I'm pretty happy with how things have progressed. The use of random tables and generators has been challenging (specifically on the interpretation side of things since word combinations and random weirdness can be hard to interpret), but more inspiring than I could've used them in a basic writing exercise had I tried to take the plot bits and write a story with it from the get go.
22:29, total play 2h45, including this write up (but not the edits), short breaks and a bunch of head scratching. Do I have more content than I would from just having written from that time? Mmmm, I don't think so, but this is a rewarding challenge, and the uncertainty of how it's progressing will bring me back to try a few more turns.

Game review:
Would I recommend Microscope? No need to play a Scene for that question, it is a yes for sure. It was obviously not designed for solo play, but nonetheless even with some hacking, it fulfilled its goal of making an interesting, engaging timeline. I want to play it more, to refine my solo play, and to include others.

Below is the unedited list which I pulled items from---------
Random plot list as taken verbatim from the Age of Fable page,
whose concept is based upon the Adventure Funnel

BEGINNING THE ADVENTURE
Suddenly, a prophet appears with Dwarven axe fighters, demanding that the heroes take over the kingdom.
Otherwise, there will be no summer. They will have to get past a resurrected wizard.

GOAL
A skeleton, entirely covered with obscure engravings.
A noble landholder, touring, with court and attendants.
Someone who loves the water and swims well and is a noted scholar and philosopher.

OBSTACLES
An apothecary, squint-eyed, with many uncanny potions.

DETAILS
A spaceship, fuelled by blood.

ASSISTANCE AND REWARDS
A ship which sails as if it had a fair wind, no matter the weather.
Someone who disregards equally the philosophers and the gods and will trade with those of any race or station.

PLOT TWIST
The heroes must work with a character or organisation who are normally rivals or villains.
-----------
From this list I summarized the characters involved as main (PC) and secondary (NPC)
9 total: 1-10,11-21,22-32,33-43,44-54,55-65,66-76,77-87,88-98, 99-00rollagain
PCs - main characters
prophet,
stoneskin axe fighters,
resurrected wizard - antagonist
apothecary

NPCs - Neutral
noble landholder
noble court
water scholar, philsopher; elemental intellectual mage
someone who defies both the philosophers and gods

Generative sequencer

2011-05-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

A pseudo-random sequencer that creates lovely melodies
http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata
A meditative little diversion for you to return into your week with.

Alexis Rockman

2011-04-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.alexisrockman.net/work/projects/
Saw this guys' work in the American Art Museum in Washington DC, simply amazing stuff! The images he has on his site do not do justice to the sheer attention to detail.

For example, this piece spans four panels, and is at least 14 feet across. The mangroves up on the overpass was one of my favourite parts.

http://arttattler.com/washingtondcsaam.html

From wikipedia:
Alexis Rockman (born 1962) is an American contemporary artist known for his paintings that provide rich depictions of future landscapes as they might exist with impacts of climate change and evolution influenced by genetic engineering

Geomorph Roundup

2011-04-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

Following the last post of the modular dungeon parts, here's a bunch of links to other geomorphs to help you build you build some dungeons quickly:

http://davesmapper.com/ - a great automated geomorph map maker.

http://www.velvet-edge.com/RisusMonkeyMap.html - one of the earlier random map maker using geomorphs...
http://www.risusmonkey.com/search/label/Geomorphs - using these geomorphs actually. Nice quantity and consistent in style but the cross-hatching is really a nice look to things.

http://stonewerks.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/geomorph-set-6-the-hive/ - a funky set of tiles using hexagons which immediately inspire insectoid lairs

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/geomorph/ - all the posts tagged geomorphs across the wordpress blogs

http://seekingwing.blogspot.com/search/label/geomorph - some wildness tiles and thematic words to get your ideas going

http://aeonsnaugauries.blogspot.com/search/label/geomorphs - non standard shape geomorphs: diamonds, hexagons, triangles, etc.

http://fightingfantasist.blogspot.com/search/label/geomorphs - quick and dirty examples to encourage you to join the fray!

Geomorphs - Modular Dungeon bits

2011-03-31T16:28:00.000-07:00

I've finished my first set of geomorphs! Here they are for you to download and use in your games. CC3-BY-SA

What's a geomorph? They are modular pieces that can be quickly arranged to form a dungeon map. The typical format is 10x10 squares on graph paper, with the door openings on the 3rd square from each corner. I found out about the idea of geomorphs from a great blog with lots of free RPG content whose material I've previously used.

They are quite relaxing to make, and take about an hour including the cross-hatching, scanning and minor touch ups. I like the raw feel to them; a bit nostalgic. I've also been experimenting with hexagonal geomorphs for above-ground or large areas.

Attributes and RPG design

2011-03-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

Attributes are numbers that describe characters in RPGs. Do we really need them?
Knee-jerk reaction says, yes! But is that only because of familiarity?
This post is to set the scene of what an attribute is. If you know that already, check out the links at the bottom.

On the most mechanistically constrained end of the RPG spectrum, you need those numbers to do the calculations in the computers to advance the game. On the other end, free form imagining like we all did at recess, attributes are qualitative. Attributes are those characteristics that every individual has, but at varying levels of aptitude. They are not skills or abilities, which are acquired and absent by default.

The differences in how attributes are defined depends on how they will be used in game. At their most basic, their descriptive nature reveals something about the characters that is necessary for the system to use. A certain game about killing puppies has a more twisted set of attributes than one suited for children's happy fantasies. Something that is never tested or considered in a situation cannot be an attribute.

Numerical attributes probably arose from wargames, where probabilities and ranges were key. From this forge arose D&D, which gave us the suite of attributes replicated in practically every fantasy heartbreaker and most commercial games (their use of words change, but Gygax and Arneson were astute in their selections).

At the qualitative end of the spectrum: words are adequate descriptors, and arguably more intuitive to those unfamiliar with how numbers interact in the system.

Attributes even exist in board games; they don't have to be static either. There are wealth attributes in some games rather than a running tally of how many gold coins are burning a hole in your large sacs.

This has been an active topic around the webs lately, so here's the starting points of the discussion:
http://www.stargazersworld.com/2011/03/01/attributes-we-need-no-stinking-attributes-or-do-we/

http://www.welshpiper.com/ditching-attributes/

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=257559

http://www.realityrefracted.com/2011/03/discussion-do-we-need-mental-attributes.html

http://rdonoghue.blogspot.com/2011/03/active-stats-and-leverage.html

In fact, this very topic and some pertinent comments lead to:
-a facepalm realization moment
-a thorough rewrite of this post
-a fairly significant redesign of the attributes used in the Shashnia RPG.

Since that is still in progress, stay tuned for part two of this post where the argument of needing attributes is explored with examples of the old and new system mechanics.

Cute animals and Illegal trade

2011-03-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

I love teh cute as much as the next person, but illegal animal trade is a very real and horrible problem. ~: (

If you feel so inclined, I encourage you to up-vote comments on youtube videos which spread truth and positive change

"""""" 'Cute' umbrella video of slow loris threatens primate

A new video of a slow loris holding an umbrella in a pet store has been viewed nearly a million and a half times, yet such viral videos may imperil these 'cute' and endangered primates by encouraging an illegal and often cruel pet trade.

"Most people who see them in this setting want one, too!" says Angelina Navarro-Montes, a graduate student at Oxford Brookes University who has conducted studies of the slow-loris Internet trade, told mongabay.com in 2009. "There is also a big misconception on [YouTube] and a lot of viewers think it’s perfectly legal to have them as pets."

However, owning a slow loris as a pet is illegal in all of the five species range countries.

The desire to keep a slow loris as a pet is obvious: they are exceptionally adorable, sporting huge eyes and a curious demeanor. Dr. Anna Nekaris, an anthropologist who specializes in slow-loris research at Oxford Brookes University told mongabay.com in 2009 that people are also drawn to them because "they are docile to hold." However, she adds that the loris willingness to be held is not because they are comfortable but rather "it is part of their defense mechanism—to be still and silent" when they feel threatened.

Given their nature, slow lorises are easily caught, making them readily available to the black market pet trade. Slow- loris parents "park their infants alone throughout the night. The infants are particularly defenseless and easy to catch; any hunter going into the forest will just grab a loris if he sees it," Nekaris explains.

If hunters find a slow loris parent with a baby, they often kill the parent.

Infants are then transported in sacks, sometimes several in one sack with their arms tied, or in wire cages, which cut their skin.

Usually, poachers remove the slow loris’ teeth to make the loris a more pleasant "pet". The teeth are taken out using pliers and without any anesthetic. The practice, which Navarro-Montes dubs "evil," can lead to infection and even death. In addition, losing its teeth makes it difficult for the loris to eat a healthy diet. """""" excerpt from: http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0313-hance_umbrella_loris.html

Dungeon Hacks!!

2011-03-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

As a result of my previous dungeon post, I've been skulking around the nets looking for other dungeon-y goodness.
Here are two, yes two, free systems for you to play classic dungeon trudging around killing things style of play. Both are nicely formatted and come in landscape printable pdfs. They both need d10s, and the second also needs "fancy d10s" and d12s, the neglected dice that cries itself to sleep.

Dungeon World Hack - the strengths of this "hack" are simplicity and modularity. The basics of your interaction with the world can be summarized in two pages of actions, and you can create characters quickly by checking off options from a list. A nice board game feel there, but the thing that really made me go Wow was the character interactions it has built in. It calls these bonds, and you choose another character/player in your group and fill them into one of the sentences. e.g for the Cleric: Trogdor has insulted my deity. Fighter: Astralagus is a weakling, but I will make them tough.
Cons of this system is that it is incomplete. It does not include the core rules, adversaries or any setting information. So, while you can quickly make characters, you still need to have material to fall back on. I don't see this as a problem, especially since a quick meta-hack using FUDGE and scene-building mechanics could have you going in no time.

Old School Hack - Is also chasing that nostalgic flavour of dungeon crawling. You know, the classic archetypes of sword and sorcery seeking treasures and killing things that got underground...somehow, in a complex dungeon... somehow. Anyways, justification aside, we all know it was great fun, and this system looks that way too!
It's a full system in 25 pages. Nice fonts, clear diagrams, print outs of cards, counters character sheets. Bam, super good looking stuff. I remember just staring at the Red Box character sheet when I was little, it's design alone entrancing stories of fantasy in my head, this layout evokes that too. The flavour of the game is the same attributes of classic D&D thinly disguised with new names, but with a consistent mechanic and more description of where they could be used. The biggest thing that makes me want to play this game though, is the Awesome points. They are awarded for being awesome, and spent being awesome. The mechanic is also cooperative in that they are awarded by other players (just like generosity points)

Overall, I am excited about both of these games and cannot wait to play them.

--------
Also, if you're a fan of dungeon crawling with a more physical presence, like HeroQuest and have a chunk of change lying around, I'd recommend trying out Descent. It's got great pieces, fun rules and decent replayability. It's also a good scale (25mm) if you want to use the modular board pieces for other gaming, or add in new monsters and rewrite the system! (RPGNet review)

Current State of Dubstep: Interview

2011-03-02T08:28:00.000-08:00

Check this:
http://thequietus.com/articles/05753-dubstep-james-blake-magnetic-man-jamie-xx

An excellent interview on the present state of dubstep. The prevalence of mainstream brostep, pop-vocal, overdone bass is a bit tiring, but these guys place it in a great context that highlights the influence and history of dubstep as it has evolved.

Of especial note is how well they put into words the way dubstep has really opened up the connections between electronic genres lately. I've def been feeling that in my own mixes; having textural/emotional/tempo material to bridge between shades of hip hop, electro (true drum machine stuff, not side chained pumping), dub techno, minimal, tech house, etc. Even the autonomic stuff slides right alongside dubstep nice. It's been an amazing few years for music, and it keeps getting better.

Check the interview for some youtubes of influential tracks.

And here's some booty-shaking required listening:

Ryuichi Sakamoto & David Sylvain

2011-02-22T06:50:00.000-08:00

World Citizen (I Won't Disappointed)

What happened here?
The butterfly has lost its wings
The air's too thick to breathe
And there's something in the drinking water.

The sun comes up
The sun comes up and you're alone
Your sense of purpose come undone
The traffic tails back to the maze on 101

And the news from the sky
Is looking better for today
In every single way
But not for you

World citizen

World citizen

It's not safe
All the yellow birds are sleeping
Cos the air's not fit for breathing
It's not safe

Why can't we be
Without beginning, without end?
Why can't we be?

World citizen

World citizen

And if I stop
And talk with you awhile
I'm overwhelmed by the scale
Of everything you feel
The lonely inner state emergency

I want to feel
Until my heart can take no more
And there's nothing in this world I wouldn't give

I want to break
The indifference of the days
I want a conscience that will keep me wide awake

I won't be disappointed
I won't be disappointed
I won't be.

I saw a face
It was a face I didn't know
Her sadness told me everything about my own

Can't let it be
When least expected there she is
Gone the time and space that separates us

And I'm not safe
I think I need a second skin
No, I'm not safe

World citizen

World citizen

I want to travel by night
Across the steppes and over seas
I want to understand the cost
Of everything that's lost
I want to pronounce all their names correctly

World citizen

World citizen

I won't be disappointed
I won't be.

She doesn't laugh
We've gone from comedy to commerce
And she doesn't feel the ground she walks upon

I turn away
And I'm not sleeping well at night
And while I know this isn't right
What can you do?

Dungeons and education RPGs!

2011-02-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

Fast dungeon from modular bits then funkified!

Over the past few months, I've been working with a group of amazing home schooling kids and their tutor to integrate my encyclopedia/RPG project into their curriculum. It's been really inspiring! These kids are smart, motivated, cooperative. Since they are learning in a Montessori-like approach, I have been generate much of the storylines. Which has been great! I've always tended towards an improv DM, but yay! Within the first session they dreamt up not only their own characters, fleshed out a bunch of the mountain dweller culture, but made TWO significant plot hooks! The first of which involved rescuing a lost tribe from a dragon, that we've been fleshing out along the way. The next one is a cloud pirate adventure to find a lost Father.

So far they've been excited by the eco-topian and cooperative nature of the world, which in turn has lead to my excitement in fleshing out the world in a much more focused manner!
The Game Mechanics section has seen a complete overall, importing content from an unfinished edition I'd had gathering dust. But now it is totally playable and getting playtests every week.

After they learned the basics of the rules, made friends with two different types of underground animal tribes, they came upon the dragon lair, and I needed a dungeon fast! Luckily, I found a great set of tiles (~~whose link I seem to have lost and my google-fu cannot yet recover~~) from the blog of Year of the Dungeon who also does lovely little thematic dugeons. I assembled these blocks quickly, masked out the rocks are areas you couldn't get to and BAM! instant dungeon ready for random encounter tables. We had a week slow down because more players want to join, but this gave me lots of time to fiddle, so now it's coloured (like Skeletor?) and full of backstory and reasonable creature/trap locations. The secret doors are math problems by the way, sneaking in a bit of curriculum where ever I can. More detail on this dungeon will come on the encyclopedia after we play through it.

For some more details about RPGs for kids, please check out the longstanding kidsrpg yahoo group and the excellent associated faq as well as another blog started specifically for homeschooling and RPGs.

And, if you like the idea of pre-fab dungeon ideas, be sure to check out Year of the Dungeon's map pack: For love of Dungeons

Societal 'bads' happen unless entrenched systems overtune them

2011-02-07T12:16:00.001-08:00

http://www.recombinantrecords.net/2010/12/06/green-tax-shift/

great little info cartoon on the shift in business and consumer choices that must take place

mixcloud

2011-01-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

easily my favourite mix I've ever done: chill, dreamy, dancey and brain-tingly. Uploaded it to Mixcloud (below) and to my Soundcloud account (320kbps)

Dj Forage - Polar Bear Dreams - Dub Tech House Future Garage by 1nfinitezer0 on Mixcloud

Changing Education Paradigms

2011-01-16T08:27:00.000-08:00

Tech house - Alec Troniq

2010-12-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

First time I've heard of this guy, through a netlabel, but after thoroughly digging his album and looking further, he's quite the established producer!
The album is a nice variety of tech house that'll make you feel good:
http://www.broque.de/label/en/release/mp3-download-en/2215-067-alec-troniq-windspiel-2
or

For the good of those yet to come

2010-12-03T10:48:00.000-08:00

“It is often said that what people strive for is the greatest happiness of the greatest number, but it is worth bearing in mind that the greatest number have not yet been born. Therefore, when we speak about the greatest good, what we really mean is the longest good. There is not much we can do to improve the quality of life of those who are already dead on this island, but we can do immeasurable good to improve the quality of lives of those who will be born or come to live on this island. In order to give force to this notion of the longest good, we need to make the taking of long-term responsibility the most important political and cultural issue of our time.”
– Michael Cronin
from the Long Now Blog

One of the biggest challenges in composing the fictional world of the Shashnimyn, is how to convey to people the structuring of a society around evolutionary thought. A main axis of this is to make decision in consideration of the long term impacts, to think of at least seven generations. For this reason, the use of burning fossils fuels has not moved beyond the prototype stages of the internal combustion engine, as it is deemed too inefficient compared to the regeneration time of that energy source.

Love for the Auroras

2010-11-18T07:49:00.000-08:00

happy thursday everyone, the Earth is a fine place to be.

here's some synthesizer love, playing with keyboards of space funk and animating it all with light

followed by a beauty more than i knew existed, magnetic auroras seen from space:

Biotropica's Biodiversity issue

2010-11-10T18:42:00.000-08:00

Biotropica has released a special issue on biodiversity, with the Convention on Biodiversity Conservation reconvening on Oct 18th (after 10 years of mostly failing indices this is pertinent stuff