Kim Pine's Scrapbook

We've moved!

2010-07-06T01:52:00.001-07:00

The new blog's here.

Kim Pine with a Baseball Bat

2010-06-13T05:16:00.000-07:00

So unlike the rest of the internet I haven't been too excited about the Scott Pilgrim movie (mostly Michael Cera's fault, though I also don't think it needs to be a movie in the first place), but the trailer for the game is something else:

That's Paul Robertson doing the visuals! He's finally making an actual playable game! And you get to play as Kim Pine wielding a baseball bat! Sadly the fact that it's only for XBox and Playstation means I'll likely never get a chance to actually play it though...

Anyway, to remind ourselves why Paul Robertson is pretty much the perfect person to be making this game, some videos (the best streaming quality I could find - the compression really messes with the crisp pixel edges):

Unrelated; you also owe it to yourself to read this fantastic article at boing boing. A really gorgeous piece of writing.

Feeling a little guilty the blog's been mostly about games recently (I've been struggling to keep up with new music lately, or find anything that actually excites me), here's something I really like:

The Short-Lived Adventures of Binkle Splurf, Wannabe Kobold Assasin

2010-06-09T14:52:00.000-07:00

Being the tragic tale of an ugly boy and his dream of rescuing the Orb of Zot from the depths of the Stone Soup dungeon.
All his life, Binkle Splurf had listened to his father's tales of adventure and heroism, and felt nothing but shame at his own lack of physical strength. And good looks. And charisma. And courage. One day though, having yet again endured his father's withering glares across the dinner table, he made up his mind to do something about it; "I will delve into the depths of the Stone Soup dungeon and return with the fabled Orb of Zot, and win my father's approval!"

Setting off with his father's prized dagger, and a blowgun he had made in Craft & Design at school, the courageous young kobold descended into the Dungeon...
Having barely stepped away from the staircase, he spotted the sleeping form of a goblin. Carefully, ever so carefully, he tiptoed up to the ugly creature, raised his knife and...
Stabbed it in the head, before it had a chance to fight back. "Perhaps this will be easier than I had thought," he pondered. Pocketing the goblin's dagger, he made his way onwards.

Having taken barely 3 steps forward, he chanced upon another sleeping form, this time a hobgoblin (hobgoblin def.: A goblin wearing hobnail boots). Here though his sneaky stealthiness failed him, and the hobgoblin woke with a shout.
A great and terrible battle followed, but Binkle Splurf was ultimately triumphant (though he did need to rest and regain his strength afterwards).

Having recovered, he set off once more, scuffling briefly with some bats and hobgoblins, before rounding a corner to find:
A fellow kobold and his pet newt. Unfortunately, this kobold did not take kindly to Binkle Splurf creeping up on him, and attacked with a ferocity that left our poor protagonist fighting for his life. Out of desperation, Binkle Splurf opened his pack, took out the mysterious potion he had found lying in a shadowy corner of the dungeon, and quaffed it all in one go...
Oh joyous day! Oh luck! It was a potion of heal wounds; the best possible potion if you're bleeding from multiple nasty wounds. Biff! Stab! Gouge! With renewed vigour, Binkle Splurf made short work of his traitorous countryman and his newt, and stole his dagger as a reward.

Feeling like a proper adventurer, our brave young kobold made his way through the dungeon, looting and stabbing as he went, getting stronger and more confident with each battle.
Even this encounter with an unruly band of 4 monsters couldn't slow him down. Within no time he had explored the entire level and was ready to descend yet further into the dungeon. Taking a quick look at the loot he had collected...
...he decided to have a go at identifying those two mysterious scrolls, and with some trepidation, read them aloud.
So, a scroll of detect curse and something still unidentified. Not the most useful of results, but undeterred, Binkle Splurf descended the nearest stairs and continued his quest.
...Only to suddenly and for no reason shout out loud, waking a nearby worm. Switching to his homemade blowgun, he tried to slow the creature with some well placed poison needles, but the beast still managed to take a chunk out of him before it turned tail and tried to flee. Enraged by his wounds though, Binkle Splurf chased it down and stabbed it in the back like the worm it was.
In no time he had explored this level too, and descended once more to the next level, only to come face to face with...
An altar to Jiyva surrounded by 4 jellies and a quokka. Panicked, he ran straight back up the stairs, luckily only followed by the quokka. Dispatching the clumsy marsupial, he set about finding another way down.
Only to get into a misjudged fight with a giant frog, which promptly swallowed him whole...

The stupid kobold's possessions when he died:
(this was a fairly short, pretty stupid run of crawl; most runs last longer and feature more interesting sights like that Jiyva altar)

Explosions and Bright Lights and Flaming Hammers

2010-06-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

Or, games I've been playing recently. The first two are Windows-only; Stone Soup's properly cross-platform.

Hydorah
A fantastic pixelly side scrolling shootemup. A game which has clearly had so much love poured into it that it actually glows. Also, bastard hard.
Link

SYNSO Championship Edition
I am deeply in love with Robert Fearon's arena shooters. This is the latest (his first being the awesomely-titled War Twat). With each game he's refined his aesthetic more and more, and this is just one of the most gorgeous things you'll ever see, hear or play. It's derived from the pixellated goodies of the arcade's heyday, but never feels like simple nostalgia; everything's turned up and streamlined in ways that would never have been possible before. I'm actually making a game heavily inspired by SYNSO2, but I don't think I'll ever be able to match it.
Link

Crawl Stone Soup
This is the one I've been really hammering lately. It's a roguelike with certain aspects considerably streamlined (item identification) and others greatly expanded (race, class selection, gods); well, compared to nethack, which is the only other roguelike I've sunk a lot of time into. Like any decent roguelike, there's a ridiculous amount of stuff in here, as well as a ridiculous number of ways to die (which is probably the link between these three games - you will die repeatedly, and often, and each time you'll want to start the game over straight away).

The devs recently released v0.60 of Stone Soup and holy crap did they increase the difficulty - my highest score in the previous version was 14000 odd; in 0.60 it's 400 odd. I'm hoping they ease it off a bit, because I was just starting to think I might have a handle on the game before this latest release. Still can't stop playing though.

I'm going to do a post documenting one of my plays soon, so look out for that.
Link

Was that some kind of magic?

2010-05-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

Not doing too well at keeping this blog updated... I'll try and change that once the band website's up and running, but things will probably stay a bit sparse round here for a while.

Anyway, I just got Phonogram: The Singles Club. And as good as Rue Britannia is, I think The Singles Club tops it. It's the ensemble cast, and the way each one represents a particular aspect of the ways that music tangles with our lives, and how we use it, and construct our identities around it. As an explanation of why music is so important, it's peerless.

And Kid-With-Knife's story is utterly, gloriously perfect; "hell... everybody does that".

Relatedly, I am as usual years behind with my ~~reading~~ listening list, and (via Phonogram) just discovered Robyn:

Honestly, why do so many record labels disable embedding? It's completely counter-intuitive, and actively works against their own interests.

Cunts

2010-05-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

Via wosblog, the most appropriate response to recent events:

EP Update

2010-05-02T12:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've posted anything on our actual band-related workings, so I thought I'd post some of the initial artwork. Bear in mind the whole package will look something like my Giant Bears album.

Here's the beginning of one of the inside pages (I distorted the text so you've got something to look forward to):
And here's my first take on the front cover:
Craig seems to think it looks too much like this, which I really don't see myself, but it may mean this isn't the final lettering.

In other news, I did another Ludum Dare last weekend. You can see my entry here.

All the way to Bowling!

2010-04-17T07:53:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I sauntered along the canal all the way to Bowling. Here's some pictures to prove it:
The journey begins.
At night you can still hear trains thundering over the bridge that is no longer there.
For some reason there was a strong smell of the sea here. And this was only part of the journey you could smell it too. Hmm...
Pictureskew railway.
Mmm... Rivets...
My favourite parts of Glasgow are the bits that look like the Zone.
Making use of my camera's macro button.
Pfft! Volcanic ash! They're clearly just making it up!
Oil makes everything prettier.
Clydebank made a bit of an effort with their part of the canal, with these mirrors and the fancy railings. That boat-shaped thing on the right is a chip shop, apparently "the world's first 'sail-thru' restaurant" (there's a doorbell and a window for boats to get their fish and chips from).
Some more of sunny Clydebank.
The frankly terrifying drop lock. As you can just about make out, the bridge on the right is barely any higher than the water level of the canal. To get a boat under it, they lower the canal. I had visions of the lock breaking, the water rising, and some unfortunate sailors being crushed against the underside of the road.
Horses!
It wasn't actually this dark; I'd just altered the aperture to get the horses picture (into the sun), and forgotten to reset it.
Bulrushes! Again, not actually this dark.
The Erskine Bridge is enormous!
The Erskine Bridge is enormous!
Bowling!
More Bowling!
The Erskine Bridge is enormous!
Wrong camera setting.
Back to Hyndland. The walk back from the station felt like the longest part.

Easter Photies

2010-04-08T05:25:00.000-07:00

I couldn't think of anything to write this week, so here's some photies from my Easter adventures:

Thinking of something to write is harder than you might think

2010-03-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

In the absence of any particularly interesting thoughts I've had over the past week (I was vaguely thinking about writing about BBC4's Women documentary, but others have written about it better than I could have, and it's more than a little suspect for a man to start criticising documentaries for not being feminist enough. Relatedly, you should obviously read Nina Power's One Dimensional Woman, and this. The plight of women today is intimately connected to the capitalist society we live in, and the BBC documentary didn't seem to have any intention of even acknowledging that), here's some interesting bits and pieces from what I did seen this week.

Firstly, if you've not seen the Merton chatroulette videos, may I direct you to John Walker's post here? My favourite's the Ben Folds one, where he (and his entire audience) sing songs to random people who were connected to them. There's something really heart-warming about a whole group of people just singing to random people; a kind of I love you to a complete stranger. There needs to be more of that kind of thing.

Next, I can't actually remember where I found this, but here's a short documentary about Le Corbusier, Varese, and Xenakis' Poème électronique.

I'd heard the music before, but never seen what the pavilion actually looked like. And it looks fantastic. And 2 million people went there to experience it! There's a distinctly odd sensation seeing the pictures of the pavilion as it was. In many ways it seems incredibly similar to certain recent buildings, and yet it possesses something that the work of Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid lacks. Maybe it's the sense that when it was built, it was a vision of the future, and yet now that the future's come to pass, there's the distinct feeling that we've been cheated. Superficially it looks the same, but the wider modernist project (to create a better future) that the original pavilion was a part of has been all but abandoned (as I understand it, when schoolchildren are asked to imagine the future, they now nearly always imagine dystopian, apocalyptic scenarios), and all that's left is a clumsy facsimile (I think this is what Fredric Jameson means by pastiche?). Again, see Owen Hatherley's Militant Modernism. The VR stuff at the end seems completely pointless and again, little more than a poor facsimile of something that disappeared long ago. Surely one of the fundamental properties of architecture is that it is physical, and tangible?

Finally, via Coilhouse, a short piece of visual music:

Very simple, but effective. I'd like to do something similar, but in the absence of any useful software I'd probably have to code it all by hand in C++. Which would take a while, and really I only want to do a couple of quick sketches.

You wrote me a love letter

2010-03-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

I know! Two posts in a week!

I just wanted to share Digital: A Love Story, a gorgeous game about a relationship developed over the internet back in 1988. Everything about it is just pitched perfectly, from the Amiga*-style GUI, to the way you interact with everyone via email and BBSes... And if you're anything like me, it'll leave you with a serious lump in your throat and distinctly moist eyes. The reason it works so well is because everything works towards the same goal; the story is intimately linked to the setting, which is linked to the method of interaction, which is linked to the visual style... It's extremely rare to come across something that is so complete, without a single wrong note.

You will get stuck, and frustrated, but crucially only in ways that are specific to the setting. The game never falters or gets in the way of the depiction of its world. You're stuck in the same way you would have been, trawling through BBSes back in 1988. I'll give you a couple of hints though; make sure you've PMed and replied to everyone; and think about what people have told you.

It's available for Windows, OSX and Linux. Go get it!

Also, Craig and I are planning on doing a video for Swings, and I've been taking even more of an interest in music video than usual as a result. The next post will probably be about Gorillaz' Stylo video, but in the meantime, here's some really clever videos via the occasionally brilliant Create Digital Motion:

Naturally, our video won't be anything like as clever as these ones...

* - First computer I ever had. I still miss it.

Hasn't rained in 15 years

2010-03-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

There's a fantastic long-form essay on The Triffids over at Popular Demand. I wasn't really aware of the band prior to reading it, and I suspect from the essay (and from tracking them down on youtube) that they might be too specific to the experience of living in exile and of longing for Australia for me to really get it, but I love this kind of writing more than anything. The way art and artists get tangled up in your life, altering your world in all sorts of unexpected ways. That's what I want to read about. I've never understood it when your hear musicians claim (along the lines of) "of course I don't believe that music can change the world, I'm not stupid", when it's blatantly obvious that music does change the world, continually. How could it not?

Anyway, Raining Pleasure is the only Triffids song I've fallen in love with, probably as much for its Nico-isms as for anything. But it is gorgeous.

Also, along the lines of writing about art tangling up with life, Rock Paper Shotgun have just finished a similarly fantastic diary of a game of Neptune's Pride. It starts off fascinating, with each player manoeuvring to screw each other over and grab as much of the galaxy as possible, veers off on a hilarious tangent when Tom Francis forgets to log on (resulting in the computer taking over and going on an insane killing spree), and ends on an unexpectedly moving note as the grind and constant back-stabbing takes its toll on the remaining players. Definitely worth reading. It's a perfect example of why games matter; it's not about high scores or increasingly realistic graphics (and it's not - despite the daily mail's assurances otherwise - about killing hookers); it's about stories. Games create stories. I don't mean they tell you stories (though many do), I mean the way stories arise out of your interactions with the game, the AI, the other players. For me it's probably the original Stalker that does this best, but everyone's got their own examples.

You can see the diary here (start with part 1, obv.).

I wish I still had that photo

2010-03-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

These posts are getting later and later. I'm sorry... I'll try and do better.

The record label is now up and running, and you can buy my album from the website, though I've yet to do any marketing, so no-one's bought it yet. As well as the album there's also a wiki, which is the thing I'm most proud of - I plan on making it a huge sprawling mess of a thing, providing a kind of context and mythology for all the label's music. There's also some mp3s in there if you're willing to look around.

The link's http://www.giantbeartracks.com

I'm going to finish with this video, via RPS. Shades of the Langley Schools Music Project here - it's the way the kids clearly feel it, without our seemingly all-pervasive irony or detachment:

Something about the sight/sound of a massed choir too*. You can see why christianity makes such use of hymns and singing. There's something very powerful about a group of people singing together. And rare too, as capitalism alienates us ever more, only ever praising the individual.

* - Especially one not wearing matching uniforms - I think that kind of uniformity works against the choir. The point is that the singers are not homogeneous, replaceable - they're singing the same thing, but with identical voices the effect would be vastly reduced. Each one is vital to the end result, they're not simple cogs in a machine. I can't help seeing it as kind of utopian; a collective of individuals.

she wants to be flowers and you make her owls

2010-03-07T09:01:00.000-08:00

Just finished Alan Garner's The Owl Service, which is fantastic. I should probably track down the TV version too.

It's exactly what I want fantasy to be - old magic and stories bleeding into our world, fierce and wild and uncanny - as opposed to what fantasy apparently means these days* - Tolkien's curiously bloodless tales of orcs and elves and humans, repeated ad nauseum with each repetition a dilution of an already weak ancestor. The endless noble battles and last stands just feel like an inability to deal with our world. Reality is more complex, and stranger, and you don't get absolute good and evil here. I want stories that understand this, that try and deal with it, that push in odd directions, that haunt the present, not some antiseptic imaginary world where no-one can ever get hurt and nothing is at stake.

I sometimes get the feeling that most of the events in our world are set in motion by people who buy into that fantastic good vs. evil narrative, and that kind of thinking will only ever cause suffering.

"He is hurt too much she wants to be flowers and you make her owls and she is at the hunting"

* - Tbh, I'm basing this claim on my knowledge of videogames more than fiction, given that I haven't read any recent fantasy in a long while.

A trip to sunny Milngavie

2010-02-25T12:44:00.000-08:00

Food!

Morning walk to Milngavie!

Incredible black & white film weirdly related to the last post's title!

The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World

2010-02-18T09:10:00.000-08:00

Craig's at a stag do this week, so no meetup. Instead, some Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I saw the Evangelion remakes 1.0 and 2.0 at the GFT on Monday (first time I've ever been to an actual premiere!). I'd only been vaguely aware that it was getting remade until I saw the film festival listings, and I wasn't sure what to expect.
Turned out the first film was more or less the same as the first few episodes of the original series, and most of the changes were fairly subtle. There were fewer lengthy pauses, the visuals were (maybe) slightly better (though as far as I'm concerned the original still looks pretty stunning - just look at the images in this post), and the music was horrible.
Hearing the music in the remakes made me realise just how much the original music meant to me. The whole way through there would be all these familiar scenes and I'd expect to hear all the little themes from the original, only to come up against some of the blandest (yet simultaneously jarring) music imaginable. I tend not to notice music in films unless it's hideously offensive (how many crimes against humanity are the BBC going to let Murray Gold commit? It's like they don't have the slightest understanding of just how important the likes of Delia Derbyshire were to their programmes), or an integral part of the film (e.g. Requiem for a Dream), so this was a bad sign.
The music was probably the worst part though. The other problems I had with it were more subtle, and I probably need to see both films again to be sure how I feel. With the first film I think it comes down to the apparent decision to streamline the narrative. Without the original's frequent pauses where nothing much happened, it felt like the film was a shallower experience than the series. You don't get into the characters' heads so much(?).
And a number of times the likes of Gendo and Ritsuko would come straight out with single-sentence explanations for what was going on in the plot/backstory. These were things that were only ever hinted at in the original, and to hear the mysteries explained in such an offhand manner was kind of disenchanting. Art works better as a whisper than a shout.
The second film was where the plot started to really diverge from the original. It's hard to judge how successful that is without seeing the final 2 films (still in production), but I think there are a couple of ways in which it's more troubling than the first film.
The introduction of an entirely new character, Mari, doesn't seem to have any real point, other than to sideline Asuka (why Asuka of all people?). Maybe she'll make more sense in the later films, but here I just don't understand why she was added at all, unless... The conspiracy theory is that she was added so that Gainax(? - is Bandai involved as well?) could make more money on merchandising. Certainly, there is a lot of fan service in these films.
I know Gainax are known for their fan service, but I honestly didn't notice it in the original series. In the films it's incredibly blatant though, and more than just being unnecessary I think it actively detracts from the story.
The other thing in the second film is the shifting of the main romantic element from Asuka-Shinji to Rei-Shinji. It's another thing you can't really judge without seeing the final 2 films, and it'll probably be resolved, but I like Asuka (dammit!). I don't like seeing her pushed aside like this.
Overall, the new films just feel less subtle than the original series. It's hard to put my finger on what's missing - it's still Evangelion - but it feels like something (possibly fundamental) has changed. It's a bit like the Lord of the Rings movies - it's hard to say what's wrong with them (other than Liv Tyler - jesus!), but there's definitely something not right about them, something that makes them soulless. Actually, the Evangelion films are still far better than the Lord of the Rings films. At least they take risks.
Anyway, sorry about the clumsy film review for this week's post. I'll try and think of something more interesting to write about next week.

To the gods of soul and fizzy juice

2010-02-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

Still working on the EP. Here's what we ate this week:
Veggie sausage and mash, with a very nice peppercorn sauce courtesy of Craig. We also finished watching The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi last night. Next up; FLCL!

I've been listening to a lot of Northern Soul lately, and right on cue, Gil Scott Heron's back (okay, so I know he's not exactly Northern Soul, but he is definitely soul...). I've never really got the appeal of Robert Johnson before, but his cover of Me and the Devil is stunning:

And I know he's mostly known for his spoken word stuff, being the godfather of rap and all that, but I've always preferred his soul tracks. I mean, just listen to this:

See also:

And to come back to Northern Soul:

The lines

I almost couldn't do it
how could I put you through it?

followed by the female "I love you baby, I need you baby" are heartbreaking. Anyway, February is clearly soul-month round here...

I'm going to finish with a documentary (via here) which will make you happy (unless you have no soul):

I've got a lot of those heartaches

2010-02-05T12:41:00.000-08:00

This week; pasties!
...enormous pasties, with butternut squash and cheese and stuff in them. Also, spiced apple and parsnip soup. It was all very nice, though it was an awful lot of food.

Other than that, we're still working on the EP, which means there's not a whole lot of stuff to post about here. So, since it's been a while since the last one, this can be a photies post:
Yup, the canal's still frozen...

I'm going to finish with a gorgeous piece of northern soul. Turn it all the way up and do some dancing. If that doesn't make you feel better, nothing will.

A Love Letter to Coilhouse

2010-01-28T11:49:00.000-08:00

So I'm quite fond of the blog, but I'm deeply in love with the Coilhouse magazine. It's such a gorgeous, gorgeous thing, full of fascinating people and ideas and incredible imagery. The latest issue (already sold out) is all occult and haunted, with sigils and ghosts and hidden messages on every page. My favourite part is the Grant Morrison interview where he talks about magic, and talking to these scorpion gods who wanted him to become an assassin, to destroy people's auras. The Famille Zaraguin, who he then wrote into The Invisibles.

Anyway, the point is that reading about all these people making incredible, unexpected things is really inspiring, which leads us on to...

...the lyrics for Swings, which are about that same thing, and were inspired by Coilhouse. These vocals are only a placeholder for now - there's a second verse still to come, and I'll do the whole thing again with my good mic rather than the SM58.

Then. A Flicker.

2010-01-19T12:57:00.000-08:00

Building up to the release of the EP, we got together twice this week. First to update Swings, then RGB, which you can hear below in the nifty soundcloud widget.

For dinner we made a couple of pizzas.

A pizza patata, based on my recollection of a pizza I've had in a great Edinburgh restaurant, and a plain old margherita. The pizza patata is thinly sliced potatoes, mozzarella and rosemary on a pizza base, and we didn't get it quite right. I think the base should have been thinner and crisper, it was a bit too doughy as it was.

The EP could maybe do with a little explanation - we're going to release it on my record label, which I'm in the process of starting up. The first release will be an album of my own solo stuff as Giant Bears (beginning of Feb, hopefully), followed by this EP in March.

When my Mum told a friend of hers I was starting a business (albeit a tiny one that's unlikely to ever turn a profit), the first question was; "What's his USP?" (not unique selling point, USP -gag-). The label doesn't have a USP, but it does have a reason to exist. When we think of music, we tend to think of it as this enclosed thing - it's a sequence of notes, a particular collection of sounds, and that's all it is. But there's more going on than simply vibrations in the air.

What we see, touch and smell while we're listening, all change how we hear those vibrations. Similarly, what we've read about that song and artist, the discussions we've had about them, change our perception. While you can technically argue* that there is an objective thing that is music, out in the world, that doesn't change and is forever fixed, we do not perceive that thing as the fixed artifact it supposedly is.

The label is based on the idea that it is the perception of music which is the most important thing, and that therefore the surrounding material/discourse/etc. is every bit as important as the sound itself. So there will never be releases that consist solely of a collection of sound files uploaded to iTunes or wherever. A release will always be a mass of stuff surrounding the sound at its heart. Whether that's an mp3 tangled within a mess of html and images, or a CDR bound up in a book of rough-textured paper, or even a game (and increasingly I'm thinking that games are the most interesting medium to work with - they can encompass so much).

This of course leads onto Marshall McLuhan's theories of media. An mp3 is a fundamentally different medium to a CD. And how we perceive the music is different as a result (even ignoring mp3's technical deficiencies - a lossless file format is every bit as different). The aim of the label is to release music that is aimed at a particular medium, in the same way as a painter would make a conscious decision to work with oil over watercolours. There will never be releases of the same music on different media, as (contrary to received wisdom) the media are not interchangeable.

That's kind of a 1st draft of the label's manifesto. There's plenty of holes and contentious points, but I think it explains why the label exists (or is going to exist in a (gulp) week or so). And manifestos are meant to be contentious...

* - Or not, but for the purpose of the argument...

And also...

2010-01-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

Forgot to mention, I want Florence to make music that sounds like this reads (see also the sad, bizarre follow-up).

Last post on Florence and the Machine, I promise.

Still Cold...

2010-01-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

(apparently Britain was as cold as the Antarctic this week!)

Image from here.

We got together this week, but only to eat and watch The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. We made Lentil Stew (we really need to make some dishes that photograph better):

So I was following up my end of the year interest in Florence & the Machine, and I think visually her videos do get a bit more interesting after Dog Days:

I worry about her though. I think she's possibly got the potential to do something really interesting, but I can't shake the feeling that she's doing exactly what you'd expect her to do. Her lyrics seem to exemplify the stereotype of women as purely emotional creatures, beholden to their feelings. And though she gets compared to Kate Bush a lot, it's not a favourable comparison. With Kate Bush, right from the start you know that this is someone who's interested in and engaged with the world, who has interests and obsessions. From Wuthering Heights, to Cloudbusting (all about Wilhelm Reich), to her interest in interpretive dance (and so on...), her songs lead places outside of themselves. Florence's songs seem to be entirely inward looking - you don't get any sense of her being a person in the world, just as an uncontrollable flux of emotion.

It feels to me that, where once an artist like this would have been expected to engage with the world in some way, now all we have is people stuck on the surface and going no further. This music is just music, nothing more. But the thing is, the best music, the music that sticks in your chest, that marks you and changes you, is never just music - it goes places, and drags you with it, it references ideas and creates new possibilities. It shifts the world ever so slightly on its axis.

None of this would matter, only her songs have caught hold of me in recent weeks and it bothers me, for the above reasons. Also, big disclaimer, I'm basing this on what I've heard of her on YouTube - it's entirely possible there are far interesting more songs on her album.

Finally, I finished Tile Massacre SHMUP, you can get it here. OSX and Linux versions still to come, I'm afraid.

so... cold...

2009-12-29T04:53:00.000-08:00

So as we all once again attempt the delicate balancing act of not freezing to death whilst also trying to avoid a repeat of the enormous gas bill we built up last year (or maybe that's just me?), here's some stuff I made. Hopefully it'll warm you more than it did me. I'd hug you too if I could, if only because the heat from your body might thaw my icicle bones...

The Ice Maiden
Because Craig was talking about sculpture before I headed home for Christmas, and then my brother asked me if I was going to build a snowman. That's all it took...

Tile Massacre SHMUP
So the assemblee competition is currently taking place over at TIGSource, and I'm taking part. For the first part I made a bunch of sound effects, and for the second part I'm making this shoot em up thing where you first have to create the level you're going to play through. You can follow my progress here. Here's hoping I actually get it finished before the deadline...

Cold Edit
A seasonal edit of a track we did (before we started the blog?) which I called Music Box and Craig probably called something else. The ending's maybe a bit familiar.

Finally, I apologise for the blog's missing background. It's hosted on my own site (if anyone knows a better solution I'm all ears), which just got knocked down from too much traffic (I'll have to wait to see the logs before I can work out why). It'll be back up come the new year.

Craig's Albums of 2009

2009-12-20T00:00:00.002-08:00

No great explanation and in no particular order, all well reviewed elsewhere:

Low Miffs and Malcolm Ross
The Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
Annie - Don't Stop
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Its Blitz

Actually very difficult to choose this year, some tough choices in my wee head.
Two honorable mentions:

The Wildhearts - Chutzpah! - such remarkable consistency, such a remarkable band
MSP - Journal for Plague Lovers - I was bizarrely excited about this and it didn't disappoint. Not as staggering as THB, but pretty great nonetheless.

This Year's Obsessions: Music Video

2009-12-20T00:00:00.001-08:00

While I was writing my 2009 albums post, I realised that a lot of the music that really stuck with me wasn't on any album at all (well, these obviously are, but barring Fever Ray I wasn't remotely interested in getting the respective albums). Since my PhD I've been fascinated by music video (for those interested Carol Vernallis' Experiencing Music Video is an incredible book btw - it goes into all sorts detail on how music videos work, and is incredibly inspiring). For me music has always been as much a visual medium as an aural one, and I tend to see music video as the highest form of the medium. I can't stand it when bands/artists don't understand this, and hearing 'it's all about the music' (subtext: it's all about sounding and looking like some shit band who split up before you were born, conforming to some bizarre notion of authenticity. Authenticity kills art) makes me want to torch your house - I hear that as a statement of total artistic and intellectual cowardice.

Anyway, here's a wee list of the videos that moved me this year, together with an attempt to try and explain why.

Beyonce: Single Ladies

As per usual, Beyonce marries some pretty nasty lyrics to some stunning music (see also Ring the Alarm - Bomb Squad gone R&B with whiny lyrics about how her man doesn't want her. It should have been so much more...). The sheer minimalism of the music is fantastic - it's literally a beat and her voice, with the odd splash of synth - and it's the kind of thing you only seem to ever hear in R&B.

There's something deeply strange (and new?) about the video - it feels to me like the point where music video abandons any interest in manufacturing sex appeal and instead pushes through to something else. Beyonce's movements don't really have any relation to the usual motions you'd see in a video like this (all exaggerated strutting (look how independent I am) and pouting come ons). Instead they're more like visual music, an entirely abstract visual language, separated from all the usual signifiers.

I'm not sure I've really explained myself here, but there is clearly something happening in this video. Here's hoping someone follows it up.

Lady GaGa: Paparazzi

Her only good song (I thought Pokerface might be going somewhere until it got to that horrible chorus). Having said that, she's currently light years ahead of anyone else when it comes to pop music's (vital) visual side. This video is a perfect demonstration of that - everything is hyper hyper stylised and executed with such authority. If Beyonce's video felt like the establishment of a new visual language, this feels like a restatement of pop music's best qualities - the longing that's key to so much great pop music, coupled with a complete dedication to the visual.

Shakira: She-Wolf

I think this came after Single Ladies, but it kind of feels like Single Ladies was the logical successor to it. There's a similar focus on distinctly odd movements and body shapes, but Shakira definitely plays up the sex. It's also nowhere near as assured as Beyonce's video - the bit at the end where she's dancing on a rooftop feels awkward and clumsy, like the real world's intruding into pop's fantasy, like Shakira's an actual person as opposed to a Pop Star (okay, so this sounds kind of cool...). Anyway, when I rewrite the world's history according to my own whim, there's going to be a line from She-Wolf to Single Ladies to... something incredible, that marries Lady GaGa's visual flair with the language glimpsed in Single Ladies, with a serious critical understanding of the world we live in (because let's face it, we haven't had that in years and years in the charts, and we desperately need it).

Also, any song that gets to number 1 with lyrics that include a word like lycanthropy is an instant win.

Florence & the Machine: Dog Days

Easily the weakest video here, and compared to the others the visuals are largely uninspired and don't really take any risks. Presumably it was done on a smaller budget than the other videos, but a lack of money isn't any excuse for a lack of imagination. It's a great optimistic pop song, but you've got to wonder what she means - surely if anything, the dog days are only just beginning?

Fever Ray: When I Grow Up

See my albums post. Everything about this video is perfect - the lighting, the setting, the shaman girl, the man watching her. It all just works so well together. It's as if Tarkovsky was reborn in an American(?) suburb and took to making music videos instead of films.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Zero

Not sure this belongs here, but Karen O's dancing in the video is fantastic. It's the way it feels like she's trying to be cool, but her idea of cool is a scene from Fame. There's a wonderful sense of unselfconscious joy to it, it makes me happy...

There's maybe a trend here that they're all female artists (slightly excepting the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and all my albums were made by female artists/bands with female singers. But then, women have always made the best art.

Um, I hope this doesn't come across as me just perving over female pop stars...

This Year's Obsessions; Niall

2009-12-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

We're both going to do a post about our favourite music this year. Here's mine:

This year my tastes seem to have been slightly more indie and mainstream than they have been for a while. I'm not entirely sure why, but it might be (partly) down to me not reading The Wire so much (I still think it's the best music mag out there, but the writing hasn't really grabbed me for a while, not the way it used to). I did like Loops, though it could have done with a few more interesting writers - I found some of the essays (bloody Nick Cave gets everywhere...) a bit tedious.

Fever Ray: Fever Ray

Easily the album that really grabbed me by the throat this year. I'd largely missed The Knife (barring this stunning video), but the above video completely knocked me for six. The lighting, the colours, the suburban shaman girl... It's the album in miniature, the way it takes this everyday setting and turns it into something other, something far stranger and more unexpected and unpredictable. It's music that makes the ordinary strange, with lyrics about dishwasher tablets and foresters in high heels. And like the best music (/art), the more you listen to (/obsess about) it, the more it shapes your perception of the world, the more it shows the everyday banality of life in this culture to be nothing more than an illusion.

The world is far stranger than it appears.

Gang Gang Dance: Saint Dymphna
Technically this was released in 2008, but I'm rarely up to date with my listening habits and only got it this year. Anyway, I'm deeply in love with this album and its giddy, ecstatic joy. That bit towards the end of First Communion where it just opens up and races to the finish was the biggest rush of the year for me.

Ideally this is the kind of band I'd like us to be - excited, ecstatic and omnivorous in terms of sound and genre. Sadly I think we tend to be too heavy handed and wed to our guitars though. The only song that comes close to the ideal is Sunshine Starlight (still needs a better name), which is fairly atypical compared to our other stuff.

Camera Obscura: My Maudlin Career
This is as indie as I get before I have to throw up. There's all sorts of things wrong with this album - the fact it could have been recorded 50 years ago and it would have fit in perfectly, the way it's drenched in so much reverb it sounds like it's covered in honey and syrup and treacle all at the same time, the utter lack of ambition... But French Navy is a stunning, jaw-dropping pop song, which pretty much makes up for it. I'm not exactly happy about it (really this is not the kind of music I should be listening to in 2009) but I have had this album on a lot this year, so I couldn't ignore it here.

Los Campesinos!: We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
This is Kieron Gillen's fault (serves me right for going to youtube to see what he was talking about). See my Camera Obscura comments. While indie though, Los Campesinos! definitely have some ambition and manage to create some interesting sounds despite themselves. And there's a fantastic bitterness strung through their songs - it's great to hear a band like this who recognise this world is a pretty horrible place to live. Bizarrely inconsistent lyrics (quality-wise) - "I've got a fist on fire", really? and:

"I taught myself the only way to vaguely get along in love is to
like the other slightly less than you get in return.
I keep feeling like I'm being undercut."

...in the same song. Anyway, I think it's their odd combination of bitterness and optimistic(?) music that got me. This is another one that's had a lot of plays despite myself.

Subtle: For Hero: For Fool
Way behind the times with this one. Forget Camera Obscura, this (this and Gang Gang Dance) is what music should sound like in 2009 (I'm aware of how depressing it is that neither album was released this year). Doseone is really the only lyricist worth listening to these days. Here's his take on reality shows:

"winner of the only and annual "serious serious gut's competition"...
(Sponsored in part by the pain reliever people and heads of music television)

Yes, you and ten other tough guys
slit smiles across your then perfectly sturdy stomachs
and spread your large intestines boldly out across a coated white poker table....
the starter pistol barked and each contestant commenced to carefully comb
their own eager entrails from behind a one-way wall of mirrored eyewear
everyone a hopeful breathing heavy
sifting through their mortal coil with their finger tips,
for the most intimidating lengths
of well sculpted and primetime stomach links.

Every so often... in the name of health
an executioner capped usher struts about the gut covered table
misting everyone's exposed and heaving organs
with a modified and fancy water pistol.

As always this years celebrity judges are only
of the most incredible persuasion
charles bronsons angry and gay only daughter,
icecube back from when he was hard
and a framed 8x10 of joe namath's kneecaps.

And because you won
they stitched up your open abdomen first.

gave you a nice rambo knife,
some choice cigarettes
and cut you loose in the ozarks.

The question being not if, but when
you will kill for your next meal..."

...and the music somehow keeps up with that, a swirling flux of sound that darts off in odd directions and never repeats except in the most unexpected fashion. Also it has the line "desperate times call for step-by-step schematics of the human dive", which to me suggests an entire world. I'm pretty sure I'm going to steal it at some point in the future.

The Real Santa Claus Eats Children For Money

2009-12-19T12:08:00.000-08:00

So this Christmas we got together to tidy up Swings a bit. Here's the result:

Swings

We mostly just re-recorded a couple of Craig's guitar parts, and I softened the attack on the toms and turned the bass up a bit.

Since this was our last meet up before Christmas we made a Nut Roast (which promptly fell apart and became a Nut Mess). Other than its inability to pull itself together, this was easily the best nut roast I've ever had. It was really good.

More...
Tumbling Nut Mess with Spiced Parsnip and Apple puree

Nut Mess:

1 carrot - peeled and ribboned using a potato peeler
half a white onion chopped
1 clove garlic
125g mixed chopped nuts
Some parsley and garlic - chopped
Seasoning
half a tablespoon of lemon juice
1 egg, beaten

Puree:

1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
1 granny smith (tart) apple, peeled and chopped
~100ml veg stock
half a tsp each of ground cumin, cinnamon and cayenne pepper
2 tsp runny honey
seasoning

Sweat onion and garlic in oil for a few minutes, add the carrot, cook for a further few minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, give it a good stir and place in a greased loaf tin and put in a 180C oven for 30-45 minutes.
Gently sweat parsnip in oil for a few minutes, then add the apple, cook for a few minutes more, then add the rest of the ingredients apart from the honey. Cooked for ~15 minutes till everything is soft, puree in a blender then return to the pan, place on a low heat and stir in the honey.
To serve, divide the puree between 2 plates, then pile the nut roast on top. Serve with roast tatties and green veg (brussel's sprouts!)

Finally I'll follow up my previous post with a picture of the game I made for Ludum Dare:
I'm really pleased with how it turned out, the visuals especially. You can get it here.

(also, despite this being our last meeting of the year(?), there will be some more posts (from both of us!) shortly)

HERE COMES THE BIKINI WHALE!

2009-12-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

(musical accompaniment: surely you can guess...)

We didn't do much this week, but there's some changes to The Gaze:

The Gaze (v2)

Added staticy synth part to the intro and middle.
Re-recorded bass part (still not sure it's right).
Softened kick drum attack.
Changed 'face' to 'lips'.

The lyrics are still creepy, but they are going to change (Craig: "they're creepy, but bad creepy..." Which was kind of the point - they're meant to make you uncomfortable. The male gaze is not a positive force in the world. More importantly though, they're also pretty clunky, so; change is coming). Other than that I think this one's pretty much finished.

For food we made a parsnip sage and walnut risotto. It was nice. We followed it with a remarkable happy accident of a cake, which will be known from now on as Burnt Cake. I had done a batch of fairy cakes, but completely forgot to take them out the oven until at least an hour after I should have done. Bizarrely they actually tasted pretty good. Slightly dry, but otherwise completely un-complain-about-able, and with a nice kind of crust. I think I'm going to do it again, this time with some kind of spice(s), whenceforth they will be known as Spiced Burnt Cakes. It's going to be great...

Click to see the recipes:

More...
Risotto

2 parsnips
some sage
some walnuts
2 persons' worth of arborio rice
1/2 onion
300ml(?) stock

Sauté(?) the parsnips and onion in a frying pan.
Add the sage, walnuts and rice, together with enough stock to cover the rice. Cook for about 20 mins, adding more stock as needed.
Eat it.

Burnt Cakes

175g self-raising flour
150g caster sugar
150g margarine
3 eggs
1tsp vanilla

Put everything in a bowl, mix until blended.
Divide into 12 fairy cake cases.
Bake for at least 1 hour (probably more) at 160C. They should be brown (not black) when you take them out the oven.

Owen Hatherley recently did another tour of Glasgow, written up here. I love this kind of thing. Also, it got me to take a wander across to the People's Palace, which was most worth it (as you can kind of see from my pictures).

Honestly, do you really have to put cameras everywhere?

This weekend's Ludum Dare by the way, and I'll be taking part. You can follow my progress (or lack of it) here. I already inspired a motivational poster, which is more than I managed in the past two competitions.

Not from my people's palace trip, but this house is actually getting built! I would love to live in something like that. I don't care about all the stairs...

This building is insane. It was a carpet factory! (hmm, I do believe I have exceeded my exclamation quota for the week) It's as if it belongs to an alternate universe where factories were designed as, um, palaces (a quick google suggests most people think this is actually the People's Palace, not the building across from it. You can see why...).

Chole, Cake, and the Male Gaze

2009-12-05T06:38:00.000-08:00

This week we started tidying up the first track for the EP, and it's the first proper song we did together. We re-did one of Craig's guitar parts, lengthened the 2nd verse, and I did some vocals. Get it here:

The Gaze

The lyrics were pretty much the first thing that came out of my mouth and will definitely get revised. It's about the male gaze though, which is why they're kind of creepy.

Food-wise, we had some Chole using this recipe, with some couscous (accidentally made with gravy instead of stock, which is why it looks so solid). It was pretty nice, all told. The chole had a nice heat to it, so I must have used just the right amount of cayenne.

After we had some cake - a Chocolate Clementine Cake of my own invention. I'll stick the recipe below the More... link.

More...
Chocolate Clementine Cake

225g margarine
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour
2tsp baking powder
Finely grated rind of 1 clementine
75g orange chocolate (I used Green & Blacks' Mayan Gold), chopped into small chunks
25g? cocoa
50g? margarine
100g? icing sugar
Finely grated rind of 1/2 a clementine
175g icing sugar
Juice of 3? clementines
Some more orange chocolate for grating

Put the margarine, caster sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, grated rind of 1 clementine and chocolate chunks into a bowl, mix until well blended.
Put half the mix into a greased 9" cake tin.
Mix the cocoa into the remaining mixture, put in another greased 9" tin.
Put both tins in the oven at 180C, bake for 25mins or until well risen and a skewer comes out clean.
After both cakes have cooled, make the butter icing for the middle. Cream the 50g(? - I think - judge the amounts yourself) of margarine, then add the 100g(?) of icing sugar and grated clementine rind, mix together.
Spread the butter icing on top of the vanilla cake, taking care to leave space at the edges for the icing to spread, then put the chocolate cake on top.
Make the water icing by mixing the 175g icing sugar with however much clementine juice you need to get the right consistency (fairly thick, not too runny). Spread across the top of the chocolate cake.
Finish by grating some of the remaining chocolate over the top of the cake.

Finally, I made a new game, here's a screenshot:
It's called The Future Will Only Be Dystopian If Capitalism Remains Undefeated, and you can get it here. It's pretty clunky and confusing, but I'm at least happy with the visuals.

[edit] Anwyn Crawford's blogging again!

Everything that is wrong with the world can be fixed with the addition of a canal

2009-11-27T06:18:00.001-08:00

I'm afraid we didn't get together this week as a result of another terrible temp job (I quit in the end - first time I've ever done that), so here's a big post of photies to make up for it:

Desperate Times Call for Step-by-Step Schematics of the Human Dive

2009-11-21T10:20:00.000-08:00

We didn't make any music this week - instead we started planning our first EP. We decided on four, possibly five tracks of the ones we've done so far. Which means it's time to start tidying things up (and doing vocals, apparently). There's one track which is already perfect as far as I'm concerned (you can probably tell which one if you've been following my posts here), but the others clearly need work.

I read Kim Dot Dammit's blog pretty regularly anyway, but there's something about watching her describe her artistic process when making collages in these videos that's really inspiring, so I did one myself. Yay for inspiration!

I'm going to leave you with another 4k demo (last one, I promise). Despite being a bit sparse, the music on this one's actually not terrible. Texas by keyboarders:

Got Bored, Went Home

2009-11-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

I tidied up yesterday's song. Here's the result:

Got Bored, Went Home

It's a ridiculous thing, only held together (barely) by sellotape and the stupid amount of reverb on that guitar part. It also very much shows up the limitations of our 'record a bit, then another bit, then stick them together' approach to songwriting. I think the reason Sunshine Starlight (needs a better name)'s my favourite thing that we've done is because the structure's far more organic - it has a flow and an internal logic that isn't forced. Anyway, I should probably do more to this one but I think I'm probably going to leave it as it is, unless Craig has other plans.

Following on from yesterday's post, I figured I should maybe post a better introduction to the demoscene, so here's the relevant paragraphs from my thesis (click 'more'):

More... Starting with the demoscene subculture - one of the original inspirations for this project - the wikipedia definition is:

“The demoscene is a computer art subculture that specializes itself on producing demos, non-interactive audiovisual presentations, which are run real-time on a computer. The main goal of a demo is to show off better programming, artistic and musical skills than other demogroups.”

The demoscene has its roots in the software piracy of the 1980s, and is based in particular on the exploits of the programmers - known as crackers - who would work to defeat the copy protection implemented in commercial software so it could be freely copied, and distributed to a wide network of people unwilling to pay for the software. Initially the ‘cracked’ software would be distributed with a simple text screen with the name of the programmer who cracked it, displayed on startup. Eventually, however, crackers started to display their programming prowess with more complicated intro screens with animation and sound. With the limited amount of disk space available, and the limited computing power of the machines used, such intros required the programmer to push at the limits of what was possible on the system, and an in-depth understanding of the computers used was essential. As increasing numbers of these more complex intros were released, different cracking groups started to actively compete with each other, and attempt to squeeze the most out of the limited resources at their disposal. Eventually, the programmers responsible for these intros broke away from the illegal cracking scene, and started releasing their productions independently. These productions became known as demos (short for demonstrations), which led to the term demoscene being used to describe the subculture in general.

As alluded to in the previous paragraph, demos are generally the product of demo groups. A group will typically consist of (at least) a graphic artist, a composer, and a programmer. Those involved in the demoscene tend to meet up at large events known as demoparties, where there are competitions for different types of demos, and which provide a chance to meet other people involved in the scene. The competitions maintain the competitive element of the artform, with the party-goers voting for their favourite productions, and some kind of prize awarded to the winners. As a subculture, the demoscene is relatively closed off, in that the intended audience for a demo is other members of the demoscene. As such, the scene has developed its own aesthetic rules, and works which appeal to a wider audience while disregarding those rules tend to be looked down upon by those within the scene. Before the (originally IBM) PC became the dominant general purpose computer worldwide, demos were produced for systems with fixed, standardised hardware (such as the Commodore 64, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga etc.). As a result, programmers all essentially started from the same position, and the demoscene’s competitive aspect was focused on how much performance they could squeeze out of their machines, with specific records being set and subsequently broken (for example, how many moving sprites could be displayed on screen at any one time). As the PC gained marketshare, however, its open-ended, expandable hardware (where the owner can easily upgrade their graphics and sound cards, etc.) meant that demo makers found themselves producing demos for an audience with widely-varying hardware. In order to produce the most impressive graphical effects, some programmers would tend to buy expensive, high-end graphics cards, with the result that their productions would only run on this high-end hardware. As such, recent demos tend to be distributed as videos, in addition to the executable (which will usually not run on an average PC). This shift has meant that such demos tend to be judged now more for their artistic merit (still according to the demoscene’s particular aesthetic rules) than their technical achievements. It has also resulted in the establishment of particular types of demos (termed ‘intros’ within the scene), which, for example, seek to squeeze the most content into a 64kB executable (you can also find 4kB, and even 256-byte intros), and which therefore retain the aspect of technical competition. A relatively famous example of this kind of programming prowess is ‘.kkreiger’, an entire FPS (First Person Shooter) game contained within an executable of 96kB, quite a feat when compared to similar games which may require entire DVDs full of data.

There are perhaps two main criticisms to be made of the demoscene. Firstly, the emphasis on technical prowess could be seen as being to the detriment of any artistic merit. Through their focus on displaying the most flashy, spectacular graphics, it could be argued that demos are the equivalent of big-budget, hollywood blockbusters; all style and no substance. Secondly, though demos are an audiovisual medium, the connection between sound and visuals rarely appears to have had much thought applied to it. For the most part, demos tend to display fairly simplistic audiovisual connections, with, for example, the camera jumping to a new position on every beat, or basic audio amplitude to visual parameter mappings. And while visually, demos encompass a wide range of styles and aesthetics, the music used tends to be almost exclusively nondescript dance music.

I'm less sure about that last paragraph now. I've been trawling through demoscene.tv the past couple of days, and I've definitely seen things which contradict it, though I've still yet to hear any music that I would ever choose to listen to in a demo.

Here's some more videos I liked:

Muon Baryon: Youth Uprising/Umlaut Design/outracks. This is a 4k demo. To get an idea of how impressive that is, the text alone for this post comes to about 8k of data. It's not just the equations needed to create those 3d objects, you're looking at all sorts of complicated lighting and reflection calculations to get it to look that good. And it fits into an executable smaller than all but the most minimalist of webpages. Serious business...

Rupture: Andromeda. The more I see of Andromeda's work, the more I like them. This is just gorgeous. And it's got a train! Trains are great...

Turbo Curry Noodlerama

2009-11-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

(this week's musical accompaniment: Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed)

So we did some more to the previous song yesterday, but I should warn you - it's very clunky and disjointed:

Bumpity Clunk

I may do a follow-up post once I've had a think about how to polish it up properly.

Food-wise we invented a noodley curry dish - the Turbo Curry Noodlerama:
To be honest it was more creamy and less liquid-y than I was expecting, and I think the tofu could have done with maybe being cooked longer (or maybe soaking up some more of the curry paste flavour). It wasn't bad, but I think it could have done with a stronger flavour all round... Recipe below the 'more' link:

More...

Block of Tofu, cubed
1 Chilli, chopped
Some Root Ginger
1/2 Orange Pepper, chopped
Handful Mangetout, chopped in half
1.5 Packs Noodles
1/2 Tin Coconut Milk
Some Cumin
Some Cayenne Pepper
Some Coriander Leaf
Some Chilli Powder(?)
Clove Garlic
1 Shallot, chopped

Make the curry paste first; stick the chilli, ginger, cumin, cayenne, chilli powder, garlic and shallot in the food processor, and whizz.
Put the tofu and pepper in a wok with some oil, cook for a while, then add the curry paste.
Cook a bit longer, then add half the coconut milk, cook some more...
Add the mangetout, noodles, and the rest of the coconut milk, and cook until you think it's ready.
Eat!

I'm going to finish with a couple of videos. First, a fantastic production from the demoscene. The demoscene, assuming you're not familiar with it, is a computer subculture oriented around the creation of demos; audiovisual artworks generated on computers in realtime. i.e. the following video was not created in something like After Effects - it's entirely hand-coded. Demos are pretty much the ultimate expression of a programmer's prowess, and tend to use all sorts of graphical wizardry and black magic to showcase the coder's skills. This is Lifeforce, by Andromeda:

If you've got a relatively powerful Windows PC, you can download the demo and run it yourself, from here.

Finally, this made me laugh:

I think that qualifies as bruise-coloured...

2009-11-10T05:21:00.000-08:00

So there was no get-together last week due to me being completely flattened by a crappy temp job at the SECC (promptly followed by a particularly nasty bout of the flu on Sunday - it's fun being me). To keep you going (till Friday?), here's some photos. I'm deeply in love with the light in this city...

Happy Pumpkin Day!

2009-10-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

(yeah, the knife slipped - I'm clearly rubbish at pumpkining)

Sorry for no post last week. We spent so much time on the meal we didn't have any left over to make music, and then I couldn't think of anything to write here as a result of a severe imagination deficit. Which made me guilty and worried about you, our imaginary readership. What would you think? How would you cope? Were you hunched over the keyboard, jabbing the F5 key every 10 seconds? Was your thought process "Where's the post? Where's the post? Did something happen? Is someone dead? Did the band split up? OH GOD NO TELL ME THE BAND DIDN'T SPLIT UP!!!"? Did you start an online petition to try and convince us to put aside our petty squabbles and get back together for the sake of the fans, for the sake of the music? Did you collect thousands of pounds to try and cover the crippling debt built up by Craig's shoe addiction, and my horrifying Irn Bru habit? Did you resort to drastic measures to try and scrape the money together, including doing something you swore you'd never do again? I'm sure all of the above are true and we'll be receiving a cheque just as soon as the postal strikes are over, but don't worry, we're here now. With pictures! And sound!

And along those lines, here's a slightly shoegazy (Craig's influence - that's what happens when you put ideas in my head, even in passing) sketch. The different bits don't really hang together yet, but you can see where we're going, I think.

Pumpkin Day

Food-wise, Craig invented a pasta thing especially for us. I'll see if I can remember what went in it:
More...

2 bags fresh (spinach-filled) pasta
1/2 an onion
1 ball of mozzarella
some basil
1/2 a pepper
a wee pile of cherry tomatoes
???

Cook the pasta.
Stick the rest in a pot (except the mozzarella), cook for a bit.
Once cooked, stick the sauce in a food processor, whizz.
Put the sauce back in the pot and add the mozzarella, cook until the cheese is melted.
Serve it all with some salad.

I'm going to end with links to some web comics, since that's what I've been looking at lately:
Ellerbisms
DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary
and of course Freak Angels (obviously you need to start from the beginning with that one)

Erase all Traces

2009-10-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

"Erase the Traces. Destroy, in order to create. Build a new world on the ruins of the old. This, it is often thought, is the Modernist imperative, but what of it if the new society never emerged? We have been cheated out of the future, yet the future's ruins lie about us, hidden or ostentatiously rotting. So what would it mean, then, to look for the future's remnants? To uncover clues about those who wanted, as Walter Benjamin put it, to 'live without traces'? Can we, should we, try and excavate utopia?

To do so might be a final, bitter betrayal if Modernism itself. Although there have always been several strains in Modernism, one of the most dominant has always been based on the demand, made by Bertolt Brecht in his 1926 Handbook for City Dwellers to 'erase the traces!'."
- Owen Hatherley, Militant Modernism.

We did some more to the previous song (we went with the 2nd version) this week. I think it's probably finished now, though it's maybe a bit short?

After the War (v.3)

The lyrics are a clumsy attempt to articulate the utopian impulse that runs through Hatherley's book, the modernist desire to erase the traces. The idea that if we could free ourselves of all the weight, the baggage of the past, a better world could be possible. So they're (meant to be) kind of melancholy (for the future that never materialised) and euphoric (for the thought of being genuinely free).

Foodwise, this week we did a Ratatouille Crumble:
Craig got the recipe from here. And very nice it was too. You can also see some salad in that picture; the dressing (also Craig's) was: 3 parts olive oil, 1 part wine vinegar, 1 part mustard, 1 part honey and some seasoning.

After the war

2009-10-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

Craig was in Berlin this week, so I had a go at making our last sketch less... sketchy. I couldn't settle on one particular way to go though, so I did two versions (warning: both with singing):

After the War 1
After the War 2

I prefer the second one, though it doesn't particularly fit with the rest of the stuff we recorded the previous week. Well, neither of them do, really...

Incidentally, these images (via, and) by Roksana Mical are gorgeous:
I've only had brief glimpses of plague doctors before, and I always just assumed they were the invention of an imaginative costume designer/author. Turns out they were real. Discoveries like this always make the past seem far stranger and more interesting (to me, anyway) than the version we get fed on TV documentaries/period dramas etc. I desperately wish the BBC would make something with even half the atmosphere these photos have. Sadly they seem to be completely paralysed right now, unable to do anything remotely ambitious or brave.

The pictures also remind me a bit of what I've seen of Pathologic, a game I've never played but wish I had.

Surpass the Impossible and Kick off with Momentum!

2009-10-02T06:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry for there being no post last week - Craig said he was going to do one and then didn't. Boo Craig :(

Anyway, I just started re-watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan, and made myself a motivational poster:
I love Kamina's ridiculous self-belief (and the way its basically just a series of constantly escalating battles, ending with one where they fight the universe itself - because once you've beaten up a planet, where else can you go?). I also love how the buildings all have faces - imagine a city where all the buildings were anthropomorphised, each with it's own personality, and choosing where to live was more like choosing a pet(?) than weighing up the location, amenities etc. That's something Calvino never considered (I think?).

One day I intend to write a book (or a film, or a game, or something...) that mythologises Glasgow - the city coming to life as an enormous sentient creature; buildings growing limbs and consuming their occupants; feral children racing along the tenement rooftops, more fox than child; red Clydeside roaring back to (un)life, the ghosts of all the workers betrayed by Churchill, Thatcher (etc.) streaming onto the streets to reclaim their city. And it would have to be set in winter, when the sun hangs so low and casts that incredible yellow-gold light across the city. The point is, you walk in New York or London, even Edinburgh, and you're walking through all sorts of myths and stories - these are places that get used in films, books, music all the time. But to my mind, Glasgow only really has a few such stories (No Mean City, maybe Lanark, the sickly sweet stories in Belle and Sebastian songs...), despite its incredible potential. That's what the council should be spending its money on - a mythology - not the commonwealth games, or all those horrifically ugly buildings down by the river.

So, um, took a bit of a detour there. What I meant to write about was what we did on Wednesday. Which was:
A butternut squash, tofu and pea curry. Also;
Where's My Cake?
As usual for the first sketch of a song of ours, it's very sketchy. I don't like the sound of Craig's buzzy guitar in the second part, or the way my bassline and his buzzy part there are so repetitive. I also think we've used that initial chord as our initial chord in quite a few songs now. Time for a new chord!

Click to see the curry recipe:
More...

1/2 tbsp sunflower oil
1tbsp thai red curry paste
250g butternut squash
225ml vegetable stock
200g coconut milk (can)
3 kaffir lime leaves, bruised
100g frozen peas
150g firm tofu, diced
1tbsp soy sauce
juice of 1/2 a lime
finely chopped red chilli to garnish

Heat the oil in a wok, add the curry paste and stir-fry over a low heat for 1 minute.
Add the squash, stir-fry until coated with the oil/curry paste.
Add the stock, coconut milk and lime leaves. Bring to the boil, and simmer gently for 15 mins until the squash is cooked.
Add the peas, tofu, soy sauce and lime juice, simmer for 5 mins until the peas are cooked.
Serve in bowls, garnish with the chilli.

Finally, the best game I've played all month:

Why are we still flying in planes?

2009-09-19T02:12:00.000-07:00

No music this week, since we only got together to work out how to attract new band members (and play Streetfighter IV), but I don't like going a week without a post, so...

Following a chance mention in a Rock Paper Shotgun podcast (this one, I think), I came across this fantastic post at bldgblog, and in the comments, this post about actual airship prototypes. I now desperately want to fly in an airship. They seem so much more civilised than planes, with all the noise, all that costly fuel, the pressurised cabins (which pretty much always make me feel ill - I'm a tender flower). They're far safer too - with modern helium airships, any punctures would just result in the airship floating gently to ground. And helium's inert, and actually acts as a fire extinguisher. Clearly everything about airships is better than planes, and our continued development of be-winged vehicles has been one long evolutionary dead-end :-)

Anyway, we did make some food this week:
Falafel and Fairy Cakes. Most of the stuff for the main course we just bought, rather than messing around with deep frying the falafel etc. but click the Read More link for the recipes of what we did make.

More...
Niall's Tomato and Honey Sauce:

1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
a big gloop of honey
1tsp cayenne pepper
1tsp mixed herbs
a handful of basil, torn

Stick everything in a pot, and simmer on a medium heat while you cook the falafel.
That's all.

Fairy Cakes:

175g self-raising flour
150g caster sugar
150g margarine
1tsp vanilla
3 eggs
some strawberry jam
150g icing sugar
2tsp lemon juice
some water

Put the flour, caster sugar, margarine, vanilla and eggs in a bowl, and mix.
Spoon the mix into 12 baking cases, stick in the oven at 160C for about 20mins.
Leave to cool.
Once cool, take a small knife and slice the tops off the cakes in a kind of conical shape (so there's a hollow in what's left of the cake.
Now slice the bottom of the cake top off and eat it :-)
Put a teaspoon of jam in the hollow, and place what remains of the cake top on top of it.
To make the icing, add the lemon juice to the icing sugar, then add water till you get the right consistency (quite thick, not runny). Spoon on to the top of the cakes.

Finally, the prettiness of Streetfighter IV:

Sunshine Starlight

2009-09-12T03:26:00.000-07:00

There won't be a proper post this week since Craig was off gallivanting, but I finally finished the song we've been working on, which I have decided is now called:

Sunshine Starlight

I'm much happier with it now, and it wound up not even having a big keychange. Anyway, this a song with pictures:

Pizza Pizza

2009-09-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

this week's musical accompaniment: Micachu and the Shapes: Jewellery

I'm a bit late posting this, but I've been distracted by Ludum Dare 15 (more on that later). This week we made a couple of pizzas and tried to finish the music we've been working on for the past few weeks.

The pizzas:
Guess who did the toppings for which pizza...

Here's what we came up with musically:

KeyChange

...but I'm not particularly happy with it. I wanted a big explosive release towards the end, but instead it's just dreary and dull. If I get some time, I'm going to redo most of it.

Anyway, along the lines of things I've done lately that I'm actually really proud of... Last weekend was Ludum Dare 15, and I took part with this entry. I got a lot done over the 2 days, and I think it turned out really well (even if most people complained it was too hard - those people are wimps). Here's a video, but don't watch it if you plan on playing the game - there's only one level, and, well obviously, the video's all spoilers:

Other than a basic code framework (to save me having to write tedious setup code), all of that was done over the course of 2 days :-)

Geeky Software Stuff/Why I am so Awesome

2009-08-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Craig's off to the football, so there'll be no sonic culinary adventures this week. I have, however, done a bit more to last week's track, so here's an updated version:

Whiffle

And to tide you over till next week, a long post about music software:

Warning: the rest of this post is going to be very geeky...

So, so far the music we've made has very much relied on a computer to pull everything together, add the necessary sparkles etc. This is fine if you're not working in realtime and can play about with all sorts of computer-only effects, but assuming we do get a full band together and start playing live, I'm not going to have the luxury of a desktop PC and plenty of time to shuffle things about. And my guitar pedals, being guitar pedals, aren't going to be enough to take up the slack.

So, I've come up with a plan. Armed with my trusty netbook (above), I'm going to write the software I need, and run my guitar through it. It'll sound amazing (or, you know, a big mess - either way's good...).

This isn't the first time I've attempted this kind of thing. But that was a while ago, and it was kind of clunky, and Windows-only (like all good netbooks, mine's running Linux). This time I can do much better.

So without further ado, I give you Pedalboard2:A proper modular plugin host designed around my own needs. Yeah I'm reinventing the wheel, but the wheel was kind of ugly, and it was the wrong shape anyway - my wheel's going to be far, far better.

It's not radically different to all the other similar apps out there, but it's different enough to matter (to me). Firstly, in a single save file, it lets you save a number of patches (effects configurations) which you can switch between at will without having to bring up a load/save dialog (i.e. it's easy to switch configurations between songs). Two, it's going to be controlled via an Arduino-powered[1] box with all sorts of switches and expression pedals (to be assigned to control whatever plugin parameters etc. I want). And c.) it's going to host plugins of my own special format, the NiallsAudioPlugin format.

Why create my own plugin format? Well, apart from demonstrating how awesome I am, the existing formats just don't suit me. And since I'm building Pedalboard2 for me, and not anyone else, I don't see any reason to try and make do with someone else's handmedown clothes. VST isn't compatible with the GPL, and is kind of clunky on Linux; LADSPA has no support for GUIs; LV2 is just way too much typing with all that rdf stuff (and all those 'optional' extensions which you'd need to implement to create anything useful?). The real reason though is that I'm lazy, and if I want to code a plugin, I don't want to have to write a bunch of supporting code. The only existing plugin formats require a lot of typing to set things up, and I just don't think it's necessary. As an example, here's the code for a basic distortion plugin using my NAP API:

// TanhDistortion.h - A test NAP plugin.
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// This file is part of Pedalboard2, an audio plugin host.
// Copyright (c) 2009 Niall Moody.
//
// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
// (at your option) any later version.
//
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
// GNU General Public License for more details.
//
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
// along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

#ifndef TANHDISTORTION_H_
#define TANHDISTORTION_H_

#include "NiallsAudioPlugin.h"

/// A test NAP plugin.
class TanhDistortion : public NiallsAudioPlugin
{
public:
/// Constructor.
TanhDistortion();
/// Destructor.
~TanhDistortion();

/// Where the audio is processed.
void processAudio(float **input, float **output, int numSamples);

/// Creates an editor for the plugin.
Component *createEditor() {return 0;};
};

#endif

// TanhDistortion.cpp - A test NAP plugin.
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// This file is part of Pedalboard2, an audio plugin host.
// Copyright (c) 2009 Niall Moody.
//
// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
// (at your option) any later version.
//
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
// GNU General Public License for more details.
//
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
// along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

#include "TanhDistortion.h"

#include <cmath>

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
extern "C"
{

NiallsAudioPlugin *createPlugin()
{
return new TanhDistortion();
}

}

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TanhDistortion::TanhDistortion():
NiallsAudioPlugin(1, 1, 1, "Tanh Distortion")
{
setInputName(0, "Audio In");
setOutputName(0, "Audio Out");
setParameterName(0, "Gain");
}

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TanhDistortion::~TanhDistortion()
{

}

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
void TanhDistortion::processAudio(float **input, float **output, int numSamples)
{
int i;
float *gain = input[1];

for(i=0;i<numSamples;++i)
output[0][i] = tanh(input[0][i] * gain[i]) * 0.8f;
}

Now, ignoring the comments (and cursing the lack of tab indents), that is not a lot of code. It's missing an editor, but that'll just be a JUCE[2] Component with a single knob[3] - for the whole thing you're looking at 15 minutes coding, at most. Which is how it should be.

I've only just got started on the app, so expect more posts like this as I get further on with the development and start writing plugins etc. Also, the more observant among you will have noticed that the screenshot above is full of LADSPA plugins - Pedalboard2 does support LADSPA (I stole the hosting code from juced), because I'm not great at DSP and there are some things that are forever going to be beyond me. But, any plugins I write will be NAPs, for all the above reasons.

A quick list of the plugins I intend to write initially (I'll expand on them in later posts):

A delay (using the same algorithm I developed for Fragmental).
A granulator (probably a modified version of the Fragmental granulator).
A tuned delay line resonator thingy (Feedback-y Thing, but far more useful).

I'm not sure if I'm going to release the software to the public, because it's so tailored to my own needs, but I could be convinced to release it if people want it...

[1] - My favourite thing about Arduino is that it can be powered off USB, so I don't need to faff about with batteries or power supplies or anything, just write some code to chuck the sensor data to the netbook, plug it in, and that's me.

[2] - The whole app is written with JUCE, because I know it so well, and because it's packed full of the kind of support classes you need in an app like this.

[3] - I plan on giving most of the plugins I write a cel-shaded Boss-style GUI similar to Soul Force! and done in Blender. There will probably be a post about this - Blender's had some very powerful functionality added since I last used it, which should make GUI design ridiculously easy.

It Tingles!

2009-08-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

An update of the previous tune, now named Tin gles. For now at least.

Food wise, there was Leek and Thyme Sausages with a tomato relish and mashed tattie, then Niall's Marbled Chocolate Chocolate Cake. Marvel at the pictures and the recipes below!

Leek and Thyme Sausages

1tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 Leek, trimmed and finely chopped
1tsp chopped Thyme
75g grated Cheddar Cheese
75g Fresh Wholemeal Breadcrumbs
50g Ricotta Cheese
1/2tbsp Wholegrain Mustard
1 Egg, beaten
25g Dried White or Wholemeal Breadcrumbs
Sunflower Oil
Salt and Pepper

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the leek and thyme and cook over a medium heat, stirring frequently, for 5 mins. Leave to cool.
Combine the leek mixture, cheddar, fresh breadcrumbs, ricotta, mustard and salt and pepper in a bowl.
Stir in the egg and mix together to form a soft dough.
Shape into 6 sausages and roll each one in the dried breadcrumbs.
Heat a little sunflower oil in a frying pan, add the sausages and fry over a medium heat, turning frequently, for 10mins until golden and cooked through.

For the tomato relish: peel and de-seed a couple plum tomatoes, sweet some diced onion and garlic in olive oil, along with a finely diced red chilli. Add the tomatoes, then 2 tbsps of wine vinegar and 1 tbsp of brown sugar. Cook for 30 mins - 1 hr till a nice brown colour. Season and serve hot or cold.

Marbled Chocolate Chocolate Cake

175g margarine
175g Caster Sugar
200g Self-Raising Flour
3 Eggs
1tsp Vanilla
~150g Icing Sugar
2tbsp(?) cocoa
~100g dark or milk chocolate (I used Cadbury's Bourneville with Orange)
~100g white chocolate

Heat the oven to 180C.
Put the Margarine, Caster Sugar, Flour and Egges in a bowl, beat until light and creamy.
Divide the mixture in two.
Chop up half the dark/milk chocolate fairly small and add it to one half of the mixture, along with the cocoa.
With the other half, chop up half the white chocolate and add it to the mixture along with the vanilla.
Add both mixtures to a greased, base-lined cake tin (9", I think), keeping them separate (i.e. one half circle white, one half circle dark).
With a skewer, swirl the two mixtures together to get the marbling effect.
Bake in the oven for 18-20 mins/until a skewer comes out clean.
Once the cake has cooled, add some water to the icing sugar to make water icing (you want it fairly thick, not too runny), add to the top of the cake.
Now melt half of the remaining dark/milk chocolate in a bowl over some simmering water.
Take a freezer bag, snip a corner off it, and add the melted chocolate.
Use the bag to pipe the chocolate over the top of the cake, then take a skewer and drag it across the piping to get a kind of lattice effect.
Finally, grate some of the remaining chocolate (dark and white) over the cake. Eat whatever you have left of the chocolate.

Hello!

2009-08-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

So this is the blog of an as-yet-unnamed band, documenting our various musical (and culinary) ventures. It's just the two of us at the moment, but we want to get more people involved, so if you're in Glasgow and interested, drop us a line at kimpinesscrapbook [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

Now the introductions:

There's Niall; I like noises I haven't heard before, and music video, Scarlett Thomas, Kelly Link, Paul Morley, Suzumiya Haruhi, OddBob, Auntie Pixelante and Andrei Tarkovsky. As well as making music, I also code software (which you can see over here). I also did a PhD in which I tried to link sound and visuals in a musical instrument (video here). If I ever get my act together, the plan is to start a kind of non-profit record label/confused art project thing.

And there's Craig; I like noises I've heard before (an unfortunate child of Britpop), and sport. Mainly football (a long suffering follower of the Honest Men). Also indoctrinated, and attempting to do something with it, but it's far too dull for words. If I ever get my act together, I'll be doing something else.

Here's some of our best stuff so far:

A can of Irn Bru contains 38% of your recommended daily allowance of sugar

2009-08-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

this week's musical accompaniment: Sa-Ra Creative Partners: Nuclear Evolution/The Age of Love (again, sorry - next time it'll be something new)

Bit of a change of pace this week, with a decidedly quiet/reverent(?) feel to things. Not particularly happy with my first guitar bit - way too obvious and cathedral-y. I clearly need to work on my granulator technique. Craig suggested Passata as a name, but I have since decided that's a terrible name for a song (I'm writing the post so I get the final say, ha!), so for now I'm going to call it:

Passata is not a good name for a piece of music

It's only two (slightly unconnected) ideas that don't really go anywhere yet, so there's quite a bit still to do. Decent start though.

This week's meal was an Aubergine and Tomato pasta thing:
It was largely Craig's idea (I cooked the pasta!), and very tasty it was too. I'm not entirely sure I remember the recipe, but I'll give it a shot:
More...

1 aubergine
Some pasta (fusili in this case)
A gloop of passata
1 garlic clove
A handful of fresh basil
2(?) tbsp olive oil
A tiny bit of cayenne pepper
Some pecorino cheese

Cook the pasta.
Slice the aubergine, place on a baking tray and brush with the olive oil.
Grill the aubergine until it starts to brown, then flip and do it for the other side.
Once the pasta's done, drain it and put it in a bowl, then (to save on the washing up), add the passata.
Grate the cheese into the passata, add the cayenne (and the basil?) and simmer for a bit.
Add the pasta to the sauce, stir it about a bit.
To serve, lay the aubergine in the shape of a new moon, and spoon the pasta over it. Add salad.
I don't know where the garlic clove goes - it's clearly the-screw-you-have-left-over-after-you've-built-your-ikea-wardrobe of this recipe.

I'm going to leave you with this gorgeous video (make sure you watch in HD and fullscreen), via the coilhouse blog:

Have a good night. As always, watch out for tentacle monsters.

Fajitas + RGB2

2009-08-01T06:33:00.001-07:00

Hurrah - the joys of Mexico coupled with a nod to the king of the potato people!

On the menu - Veggie beany fajitas fooled by a slice of Raspberry Love Cake.

Fajitas:

Some onion, red pepper, a couple of chillies, a clove of garlic a few mushrooms and some corriander.
1 tins of beans

Salsa:

3 tomatoes - peeled, de-seeded and chopped
1 chillie, chopped
A little chopped onion
Some corriander, chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
1tbsp white wine vinegar

Mix it all together!

There was also an abortive attempt and making flour tortillas, but there was a minor failure leading to a quick dash to the shops!

Putting it all together - wrap everything in a warm tortilla with some cheese and eat wearing a sombrero.

Then the cake:

Raspberry Love Cake
(made up of raspberry coulis, cake batter, butter cream, and raspberry water icing)
(? means play it by ear(tongue?) - that's what I did)

Raspberry Coulis Ingredients:

1 punnet raspberries
1/3 of the weight of the raspberries in caster sugar

Cake Ingredients:

225g margarine
225g caster sugar
4 eggs (this should maybe be 3, w/the 4th egg replaced by the coulis)
225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp(?) raspberry coulis

Butter Cream Ingredients:

50g(?) margarine
150g(?) icing sugar
small handful raspberries

Water Icing Ingredients:

10 tsp(?) raspberry coulis
150g(?) icing sugar
4(?) tsp water

Start with the raspberry coulis. Mix the raspberries in a bowl with the sugar, and leave until the juices start running.
Stick the mix in a food processor to make it all liquidy, then pass through a sieve to get rid of the seeds and pulp.
For the cake, grease 2 20cm sandwich tins, and preheat the oven to 180C.
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, beat until thoroughly blended.
Bake in the oven for 25 mins/until the tops of the cakes spring back when pressed with a finger. Leave to cool.
To make the butter cream, cream the margarine, than add the icing sugar (add as much as you need to make sure it's not too runny).
Ice one of the cakes with the butter cream, then chop the raspberries in half, and add them to the icing. Place the other cake on top.
For the water icing, mix the icing sugar, coulis and water. Again, you want it fairly thick, so it doesn't dribble off the side of the cake.
Ice the top cake with the water icing, leaving a gap to the edge of the cake so it has space to expand as it settles.
Rejoice, for you have brought love and joy to the world!

10a.) You should have some coulis left over, so chop up a melon, banana, apple and some grapes (and any remaining raspberries), and make yourself a fruit salad.

And finally the tune, a more finished version of RGB, featuring a distinctly Pixies-esque outro, which we're both guilty of, but far from ashamed! All hail Black Francis - king of the potato people!

Get it here.

Bean Burgers - RGB

2009-07-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

this week's musical accompaniment (to the cooking): Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

So I reckon this counts as the first full post of the blog; cooking and music. This week's culinary treat was bean burgers with homemade chips:
As you can kind of see there, the burgers didn't quite hold together. They tasted pretty good, but I think they were missing something (dunno what that something is, though...). The chips though were gorgeous! Far better than I was expecting, given they actually tasted like chips, unlike my Mum's chips which just taste like roast potatoes. Not that there's anything wrong with roast potatoes, they're just not what I think of as chips...

No cake this week, unfortunately, as I had a cold come on on Sunday, and sneezed in the cake mixture, so I didn't want to pass it on to Craig. It wasn't a particularly exciting cake anyway - the recipe sounded kind of interesting, but it just came out like a Christmas cake without the icing. It's not a bad cake, but I can't imagine anyone getting excited by it.

Musically, this week we started on a new song, tentatively called RGB. The way we seem to work is to come up with a basic sketch one week, and then fashion it into something more coherent the next week. So this is the raw ingredients...

Download RGB.

It's very fuzzy (too fuzzy, imo) and it's a bit clunky, but I can see where it's going. I'm going to try and add some percussion over the weekend in preparation for next week's meet up. Given the name, I also want to make it neon-sounding, though I still have no idea how to make something sound like an abstract visual quality (my PhD was clearly in vain...).

All mp3s are released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License, btw.

Now, I'm going to try and hide the recipes behind this cut (I wish blogger gave you a button to do this automatically):

More...
Bean Burgers
(adapted (slightly) from The Vegetarian Bible cookbook)

1/2 tbsp Sunflower oil, plus extra for brushing
1 Small Onion, finely chopped
1 Small Garlic Clove, finely chopped
1/2 tsp Ground Coriander
1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
58g Button Mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 425g Tin Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp Fresh Flat-Leaf Parsley, chopped
Plain Flour for dusting
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Heat the oil in a frying pan on a medium heat.
Add the onion and cook for 5 mins, or until softened.
Add the garlic, coriander and cumin, and cook for 1 min.
Add the mushrooms and cook for 4-5 mins until all the liquid has evaporated(?).
Put the beans in a small bowl and mash them.
Mix the beans with the mushroom mixture and the parsley and cayenne in a bowl.
Shape into 2 patties.
Brush with oil, and cook under a preheated (medium-high) grill for 4-5 mins on each side.

Chips

3 Potatoes
Celery Salt
Sunflower Oil

Heat the oil on a baking tray in the oven (200C).
Chop the potatoes into thin-ish strips.
Add the potatoes to the tray, cook for ~45 mins, turning occasionally.
Season to taste.

Flyer No.1

2009-07-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

So I reckon I've finally finished the first of our flyers looking for band members. The text is perhaps a bit clunky, and it's a bit weird having Kim Pine's Scrapbook in the list of influences now that it's the name of the blog/email address, but it's taken me so long just to finalise the thing that I think I'm just going to leave it as it is.

Done with a 4B pencil on plain 80gsm copier paper.

Curry and Cake

2009-07-08T12:30:00.000-07:00

(this week's musical accompaniment: Sa-Ra Creative Partners: Nuclear Evolution/The Age of Love)

The 'and' is important here. This is NOT a cake made of curry. That will be next week.

This week's treats were firstly a curry and secondly a cake. But they were two separate things. Seriously, next week - curry cake.

So the curry - aubergine, tomato and cashew nuts, served with a mixture of brown and wild rices and some pupupupuppodum. Recipe can be found here.

Pictorial evidence:

Cake-wise, this week's offering was a world exclusive, the Orange Death Cake:
So-called because it is so orangey there is a 66% chance your first bite will cause you to experience extreme orange trauma and drop down dead, leaving a Tommy Sheridan-esque corpse.

The recipe (adapted from the Orange Victoria Sponge in Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book):

225g margarine
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking power
5 oranges
some more margarine
some icing sugar
150g more icing sugar
3 orange Fruit Pastilles
2 orange Opal Fruits
2 orange Chewits

The sponge:

Pre-heat the oven to 180C, grease 2 20cm sandwich tins.
Put the margarine, caster sugar, eggs, flour, baking power in a bowl, along with half the zest of one of the oranges.
Beat well until thoroughly blended.
Divide among the tins, and bake in the oven for about 25 mins.

The butter icing:

Cream the some margarine.
Add icing sugar until the butter taste stops being overpowering.
Add the rest of the zest of the orange.

The orange water icing:

Juice the oranges, strain to remove the pulp.
Put the 150g icing sugar in a bowl, and add the orange juice until you get the right consistency (fairly thick, not too runny).

Putting it all together:

Sandwich the butter icing between the two cakes.
Add the water icing to the top.
Chop up the Fruit Pastilles, Opal Fruits and Chewits, sprinkle them over the icing.
Congratulations, you have created orange death in cake form!

Conclusions/reflections/digestions/stomach aches:

The curry was tasty indeed, but very very mild - lacked a punch. Perhaps more chilli or spice? While we survived the cake (only mild Oompaloompaness occurred) it was perhaps just a little overpowering. We blame the Opal Fruits (mainly cause they're now called Star Burst - why!!!!!!! 15 years and we still can't come to terms with it. Opal Fruits was by far the better name. Star Burst?!?!? What the hell does that even mean? How does a star burst? Does it go 'pop'? It is more explosive? And how does that relate to a tasty fruit flavoured chewy sweetie? Opal Fruits - now that was a name you could hang your hat on. You knew where you stood with Opal Fruits. "Packet of Opal Fruits my good man" you'd say, and you knew what you were getting. Blah.).

Next week, music too!