I Call Him Maynard

The latest incarnation of my synth rig, Maynard.

Roberta became unhappy with Maynard camping out in the living room, so I moved him into the office. It's pretty sweet: I mounted the big Apple Cinema display on a swingarm so I can move it up / down / around as needed. You can see the misc hardware; software includes NI Komplete 8, Camel Audio Alchemy, Spectrasonics Omnisphere and Trilian, Logic 9, and a bunch of other stuff - I never met a piece of music software that I didn't like.

Do a Google Image search on "synth porn" and you'll find rigs 10x or more as big as mine. But I'm pretty happy with Maynard -- he's not too big, and he's not too small -- he's just right. I confess that someday I'd like to add a few rows of Doepfer modular (or other Eurorack) components, but for now I'm really happy.

Random Movies and Videos

For no particular reason, brief summaries of a few movies and videos that I've watched recently.

I'll start with the really good stuff: If you aren't familiar with Khameleon808's music montage videos, you're in for a definite treat:

The Apple Tree (featuring
The Glitch Mob)

DubWars: First
Strike

He takes the "music video" to places its never been before. Honestly, I think he's invented a new art form. I fully expect this fellow to be snatched up by some major film or music studio any minute.

I've also managed to catch a few rather bleak post-apocalypse movies:

The Day

Hell

The Divide

Don't watch these if you're depressed. Two of the movies deal with cannibalism, and all three are explorations of the darker side of humanity. The Day and The Divide were especially memorable -- highly recommended if you've been procrastinating about putting together a cache of emergency supplies.

I also saw a couple of high-quality / low-budget science fiction films of the non-apocalytic variety:

Sound Of My Voice

Another Earth

Both of these movies star Brit Marling (who also shares writing credit). These movies would probably be considered "indie" or "arthouse" films, so they're not for everybody. WIthout giving anything away, both of these films manage to portray a science-fictional world with an absolute minimum of SFX; that is, the emphasis is on the story, and they do a remarkable job of building a world by narrative only. And both of these films have endings that will leave you thinking. Put another way, if you enjoyed Paolo Bacigalupi's short story The Fluted Girl, you'll probably enjoy these movies.