Meredith Monk

I just saw her perform this past weekend.

The show was so... warm and engulfing that I feel asleep. It wasn't at all because it was boring. It was just so warm and comfortable. She had warm colors on stage, the movement was very limited to just walking and a little bit of dancing, and there were happy projections circling around the auditorium the whole time.

It isn't until after you see her show that you realize what you've just seen.

And I was asleep for half of it so you can't ask me what was on stage.

But it's rare that I'll fall asleep to a song. The chords seem weird but it's so enveloping. The voices had a warm, round tone and it was just... I don't know. Just so pretty.

This isn't the show that I saw because I think the on I saw was a commissioned work, but here's a look into the kooky and brilliant world of Meredith Monk.

Photoshop Tutorial

This is just a really cool site that collected 30 Photoshop tutorials.

30 Photoshop Tutorials

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

deviantART

Here's a new little art site that I found kind of my accident.

deviantArt

It's actually not that little, and I'm pretty sure it's not new.

It's sort of like... hm... I'm trying to find an equivalent, which I'm sure exists.

Basically, it seems like a location where up and coming artists display their work online.

Here are a few examples.


Sakuran. II by `zemotion on deviantART


The Simpsonzu by ~spacecoyote on deviantART


Sailor Disney by ~manony on deviantART


Redemption by `zemotion on deviantART


Melihah by ~lajuls on deviantART



Kinda cool right?

10 Promising Web Platforms

This felt like the appropriate platform (no pun intended) for this article.

10 Promising Web Platforms

Oh god, how I love the internet.

Welcome, Freshmen. Have an iPod

Today's article in the technology section of the NYTimes.

Welcome, Freshmen. Have and iPod.

For real!?

I mean, in a weird sense, it's a tracking device. They even mention it in the very beginning of the article. If you they have the iPod, then we (the school) can track where you are. It's kind of nice for emergency situations, especially if you're like my lovely school, Stanford, and are testing out a new Alert System for emergencies (they sent us an email earlier yesterday about a power outage... I have this weird feeling that they did it on purpose, the power outage, that is).

Let's get everyone a free Apple iPhone iPod Touch. That's a lot of i's.

I'm just waiting for scarier things for Apple to make and colleges to try to integrate into their campuses...

Pretty soon, privacy will be a thing of the past and whatever free item we get from school will come with a GPS tracking system, a security camera, and a weight and food monitor to ensure that you don't get the Freshmen 15.

yikes.

7 Principles of Clean and Optimized CSS Code

My new best friend: digg.

And here's an article that I found that I thought was rather useful and excellent.

7 Principles of Clean and Optimized CSS Code

Call me a nerd, but these are the types of articles that get me excited. I know, I know. Who cares.

Best to keep this in mind if you're like me and getting ready to launch a new site!!!

May the force be with you.

Janelle Monae

So i meant to pick her up (i.e. feature her) waaay earlier but i kept forgetting and now i'm doing it cuz I saw her on imeem and thought, shoot.

Janelle Monae

I got introduced to her when BSU (or was it Black House) on campus invited her and there was a concert event.

Honestly, I had NO idea what this girl was about. I just remember one of the girls in my dorm from the bay area getting SUPER excited about her. And then first 2 songs that she played was off of her 'new' (which is not so new) album.

I think they were...
Violet Stars Happy Hunting
and
Cybertronic Purgatory

so at that point we all kinda went, !?!?!?! and no one could get into her music.

And then she starts singing these jazz, soul, r&b songs and DAMN the girl can sing. i was a fan from that moment. It was amazing! She's actually trained as a singer, so she has the pipes.

She might change the face of R&B. I don't know.

Here are my two favorites:
Metropolis
You

Definitely worth keeping an eye out ;)

Speech-To-Text rather than Text-To-Speech

I just read this article on the NYTimes.

Speak up, A Computer is Listening

HOW INCREDIBLY COOL.

Talk about Text-to-Speech technology. Now, we're thinking Speech-To-Text technology. And with a 99.3% and 99.5% accuracy? Really?

Seems bizarre.

Here's a quote:

"One way that Nuance has improved accuracy is by acknowledging, for the first time, that not everyone speaks alike. Version 10 recognizes eight accents: general (none), Australian, British, Indian, Great Lakes (Buffalo to Chicago), Southeast Asian, Southern United States and Spanish. If you don’t specify, the program will identify you automatically."

So if you don't have any of those accents, you're screwed. Apparantly a Japanese accent will not get you very far. That said, perhaps it will think you are speaking with a "Great Lakes" accent and let it go. Who knows.

Either way, that means no one will be jobless anymore becase they can't use a computer. All they'll have to do is shout out a few commands and they'll be the next office star.

That's what it comes down to right?

Call me a nerd, but this is why I like Communications, and the technology section of the NYTimes.

Amber Rubarth

Amber Rubarth



The mysterious singer of "In the Creases" that for some reason was stuck in my iPod under the name of "Alex Wong." Yeah, don't ask me.

Anyways. I searched her on Google. No Wiki page yet. But she has a MySpace!

Looking at her, you wouldn't expect the songs that come out of her. But her songs are quite amusing. My personal favorite are You Will Love This Song and 23. Of course, that's after In the Creases.

So do me a favor and check her out. No really. Cute girl, cute songs, someone to look out for!

Oren Lavie

If you are not a big fan of experimental-eque music... Take a second, take a deep breath, and check this Berlin-born singer/song-writer out.

Oren Lavie



A friend of mine sent me a song of his that she ripped off of MySpace. The song that she sent me was 'Her Morning Elegance' by Lavie. I actually didn't like it at first. I didn't like the first 10 seconds. But then, the more I listened to it, I fell in love with it, and Her Morning is definitely my number 1 played song on iTunes.

After visiting Lavie's Myspace, I found 'The Opposite Side of the Sea', and yet again, fell in love with the song. It's a bit... weird.

What it comes down to, I think, is that this man is extremely musically talented, like woah (I had to say it, sorry). So his songs like Opposite are extremely musically complex and the time signature is all over the place. Or maybe he has a specific time signature, but then all his instruments and melody lines play at a different speed. 'Experimental' is perhaps an okay word to use. He recorded his album in his Berlin apartment over three-years. I mean, come on.

His music is good for soundtracks. I think his song is featured in a Narnia Soundtrack.

It's kind of eerie, kind of dark, kind of even scary, but he has songs like 'Her Morning Elegance' and 'Ruby Rises' that suggest heart and beauty.

Oren Lavie has great things to come. And he just started his new label BlueSmile this January.

We don't know when he'll be releasing his album in the US, but check out his myspace and his website.

Happy listening!

Apture

So here's something cool.

Introduced to me by Atha who found this out from her sister's friend that works for imeem.com, I give you Apture! (like "capture" with out the 'c')

I'm still playing around with it so to be completely honest, I haven't figure out how to use it 100% yet. That said, however, I think the basic jest of Apture is something like this...

You can directly link media on your blog.

In other words, if a blog is Apture enabled, you will be able to hear music, see videos, link to web pages, and so forth that are related to your posts.

For instance, if I type I'm Yours by Jason Mraz, you should be able to click on the little speaker button next to 'I'm Yours' and listen to the song. If you click "Jason Mraz" it should take you to a Jason Mraz related site.

Here's another one.
My post is about Kina Grannis and you will be linked to a Kina Grannis YouTube post.

The more I play with it, the more I'll get it, and as I make new discoveries of the application, I shall share them with you.

In the mean time, perhaps you should play with Apture as well?

CSS - Taking It Further

After taking the intro CS class, I was introduced to life outside of HTML Coding - CSS!

Some people hate CSS. I actually don't mind it much. And in trying to find articles and resources for my report for my internship, I bumped into this article.

Breaking Out of the Box with CSS Layouts

This article was through Sitepoint and this isn't the only great article that this website includes.

Anyways, the CSS article really makes me want to jump back in and redesign and revamp my website. I'm really going to need to work on this. Sweet!

That said, I need to start getting to know Digg, Delicious, and all these other websites.

I'm so behind!

Estelle

Estelle!!!



She's a singer from the UK, who signed onto John Legend's Label, Homeschool Records.

Okay, so I'm bias. Everyone and anyone that John Legend approves of, I tend to like. That said...

She has a husky, raspy voice with sort of a... 50s look? She reminds me of Janelle Monae, actually, at least her "American Boy" song does (video posted below)

I think "American Boy" is going to hit it big, and if she's under the watch of mastermind, John Legend, then she's definitely one to look out for!

Blackberry - Leave It at Home or Take it With You?

This doesn't really have anything to do with music or technology, but as it features a technological device, I figured this would be the appropriate blog to post it on.

The Lawyer, a few days ago, posted this article about how a major international law firm, Linklaters, decided to tell their lawyers and such to leave their Blackberry's at work when they go on holiday.

Read the article here.

What's also interesting to note is that, from a third party perspective, this would seem like a great idea. Especially if you are the family of those lawyers, I would hate to be on vacation and then have my dad or mum suddenly have to leave because their blackberry told them so.

That said, however, it didn't occur to me what the other side of that argument is. As you might notice in the other comments in response to the article, there are others who say that this is just a PR stunt by Linklaters, and that if you are a lawyer working at a major international law firm, then it is imperative that their clients have access to them at all times. That doesn't mean check your blackberry obsessively, but you must take responsibility for the cases and clients that you take on.

You know... this is a tricky one.

From the point of view of a person who grew up with, tho they were teachers, parents who were always busy, I can understand the "leave your work at home" perspective (of course, my parents had vacations just as long as mine).

But, from a 'client' perspective (though I am not a client) I see where the second view comes from.

yes?

Find It, Buy It, Fix It, Flip It, Repeat - It, Being Websites, Of Course

This is HELLA cool.

These are the times that I wonder why I'm not a CS major.

It isn't so much the "if I have these skills, I can make lots of money"

It's more "I love websites, I love the internet, I love being creative, I also like coding, and hey what a great way to make money at the same time"

but the "I hate math" part of me is too big that I can only read articles like this and hope that one day, even a "math illiterate, non-cs major who's closest connection to website making is my Comm study on VR/VE and HCI" can find a similar job or come up with such ideas in the future.

Women Bloggers - BlogHer

The most blogged article in the NYTimes right now:

Blogging's Glass Ceiling

I should've kept my blog since 2003.

I never knew that blogging had expanded this much over the two year hiatus I had from it. This is incredible. There's a whole world of bloggers and blogging out there, and here I thought it was just one of those things people did, like write in their journal.

I'm a female blogger with very, very low internet traffic. This is probably due to the fact that I don't blog about mommy products and designer totes to stick your baby's dirty diaper in. Then again, I don't feel like blogging about dirty daipers, now do I?

Nonetheless, the point is made - women blog just as much as men, and even in this cyberworld, we face walls and ceilings that prevent us from excelling in the blogging world. Or something like that...

So women, blog on!

ps. BlogHer - haha. catchy, smart name.

Comcast is Watching YOu

I just encountered Comcast's Big Brother article on the New York Times.

Comcast says the online outreach is part of a larger effort to revamp its customer service.

I don't know. I mean, I guess the idea is great, and knowing traffic on the internet and all tht is accessible thanks to it, I guess it's not a bad way to use the free resources available.

That said, I'm not going to lie. This article was SO interesting. Comcast may be the next Big Brother, but if Big Brother is going to get things done in an efficient time, then I say 'Why the hell not?'

Good luck Comcast, all the power to ya!

VR, Wii, and an Asian guy on YouTube

This is what I study in school.
I love it.
I especially love how excited the audience is.
He came up in one of my VR lectures with Jeremy Bailenson. It was a youtube clip of him making the 3D world in the second half of the video. I remember when I first saw the video thinking, 'damn, this guy is a good public speaker' and then before I fully confirmed it was him again, I was thinking the same thing, 'this guy is an engaging public speaker.' I guess the same people will always illicit the same reaction. Anyways, without futher ado:

Johnny Lee and his Wii Hacking Abilities

Update: I tried embedding the video, but it didn't work. So I posted the link instead.

Mutlu

He sounds like a slightly higher-pitched version of Amos Lee. Hey, I'm just being honest.

Mutlu's profile begins like so:

"Soul comes in many shapes and sounds and comes at you from a hundred different angles and places.
Philadelphia's got an overabundance of it.
Always had (thank you Gamble & Huff),
Always will.
Must be something in the water.

Mutlu Onaral must have drunk a whole lot of that water growing up. He may be more R & F (rhythm & folk) than R & Blue. You can even add the bounce of the Brazilian and the sway of the Jamaican in his tunes. But the 27 year old singer, instrumentalist and composer, known to everyone as Mutlu, has always sounded as if he’s been drunk on the Philly punch that makes the funk flow."

So I don't necessarily like that introduction. It borders on obnoxious and overly artistic. But I suppose half, if not most, artists teeter on that same border, or else we wouldn't call them 'artists' with quotes, now, would we? No.

Despite the introduction that, to me, screams "trying to hard!" Mutlu is actually not that bad. Actually, if you just listened to him, you wouldn't know what he looks like or what to expect. To Amos Lee fans (like me) he definitely has the Amos Lee sound, but his voice leans more toward Jason Mraz. He collaborates with the likes of Raheem DeVaughn, G. Love, Daryl Hall, and sir Amos Lee himself, showing his relatively wide range of sounds. At least he can do folk and R&B, just like his profile states.

The 27 year old's first album LIVIN' IT dropped yesterday (July 23rd) and after listening to in on iMeem, I can't really tell you that I have one specific song that I like over another. That said, however, he is worth taking a listen, and if you have no time and I must listen, then try "Marilyn," "In Your Heart feat. Raheen DeVaughn," and "Upside"

Here is website, and below is his photo:



Happy listening!

Kings of Convenience

And yet again, I neglect work to bring you -->

Kings of Convenience



A Norwegian (yes, I'm all over the world!) folk duo who, for some reason, likes to record their albums in Mexico.

They take inspiration from Belle and Sebastian and Simon & Garfunkle. Fair enough. It's that type of folk music that is soft, with easy-to-listen-to raspy male voices. They don't look half as bad either.

Bottom line: Love them. Love that they're not American or British. Love that there's a whole folk music base all over the world. Love it.

Click here for their website.

Here's a slight Napolean Dynamite-esque music video.




I'm also a fan of this song:

Josh Pyke

Josh Pyke is...

an Australian singer-songwriter who has just turned thirty years old this year. Thanks to the great folks of imeem who helped me find him.



He reminds me of Joshua Radin and Damien Rice but with a unique sound that can probably only be produced 'down under' with the appropriate Australian accent. He's a bit more rough sounding than Radin or Rice, and actually, in terms of his voice, is more in alignment with Glen Hansard.

That said, his songs are beautiful.

I'm still trying to figure out who he sounds like, because he sounds like someone. But I guess it's better that I don't remember so he's heard and seen on his own terms. I don't have a favorite song... yet

oh wait, I know. He also has a John Mayer feel. That rough John Mayer feel. But Australian, of course.

And with that, here are a couple of links for you to explore:

• MySpace
• Official Site

and a video for your viewing and listening pleasure.

Jeremy Bailenson and VHIL

This is my professor. This is part of what I study. This is super cool.



or

Click here!

William Fitzsimmons

This is so exciting!
I just found the first official video for one of my favorite new artists of this past year - William Fitzsimmons!



I found him while surfing through MySpace (the few times that I did, this past year) and I think he was Myspace friends with Ingrid Michaelson.

I'm not going to lie, I clicked on his profile because of his beard. I thought, "who is this man with this old fashioned beard!?" and then as soon as I entered his profile, I was blown away.

The beard suggests a sort of folk-rock, almost Simon-Garfunkle-esque old-school rocker. Instead, I was hearing a beautiful riff on an acoustic, a soft-male voice, and unique percussion sound that was completely different from what I expected.

Sure, he was friends with the likes of Ingrid Michaelson, Priscilla Ahn, Carey Brothers, Iron & Wine, and Zach Braff. I wasn't expecting, however, that. I guess it was more like, I wasn't expecting much.

He has this - hm - Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, Jose Gonzales, The Postal service feel. Zach Braff is a fan as well as the music selectors of Grey's Anatomy (which btw, I think I could be one of them).

This guys is just incredible. I'm hoping I'll be able to see a show someday. In the mean time, I think I might order a T-shirt.

If you want to know more about him -->MySpace<-- By the way, my favorite song of his is "Funeral Dress" - Check it out! I highly, highly recommend him. Here's his first (that I know of) official music video - "It's Not True"

imeem.com

Here's a wonderful little music streaming site that Atha introduced to me a while back.

imeem.com

I have no idea what imeem stands for, actually, and I haven't really explored it.

Basically, what it is, is a music streaming site. It operates like a social networking site very much similar MySpace or Facebook. The main thing that happens on imeem, however, is music sharing.

It's different from file sharing programs like limewire because it doesn't actually let you download music from other people. What the site allows you to do is upload your own music (i.e. mp3) on to this website. You can also upload videos. Further, you can also make playlists.

For example, let's say you had a great collection of Indie Folk music (e.g. Iron & Wine, William Fitzsimmons, Gregory and the Hawk, etc) and you wanted to compile them all into a playlist. You might think, I could do this on iTunes. True. But with imeem, you can share this play list with other Indie Folk music enthusiasts.

That said, you can also search for different types of playlists. Let's say I'm looking for a bunch of Brazillian music. I simply type in "Brazillian Music" into the search engine and it will give me a bunch of people, music, playlists, videos, and so forth that relate to Brazillian Music. I click what I want - usually, for me, that means a playlist - and then presto! you have a playlist.

The one downside of this is that due to copyright laws, some songs you can only stream for 30 seconds. There are those people who find the full version or upload them and make the playlists, but a lot of them still only have 30 second clips of songs. But, you can click the '30sec' button on the player, and it'll de-click all the 30 second samples so you only listen to the full versions in the playlist.

This is seriously saving me at work. I just plug my head phones in and listen to imeem all day. That way I don't have to worry about using up the battery for my iPod, and I can listen to music that I don't have on iTunes or my iPod, especially those that are fleeting cravings or songs I don't want to buy or download.

Cool? I know. Now go click on imeem and start exploring!

Happy streaming :D

Gregory and the Hawk

I've already posted this one before in my other blog, but since it's music related, I thought i'd move it over here as well.

Gregory and the Hawk






Wow. Just wow. Amazing voice, amazing songs.

I found her while listening to music at work via imeem.com.

I feel like thanks to shows like Grey's Anatomy and such, there's been this fluctuation/resurgence/comeback of the 'folk' category. I personally call the 'folk' category 'easy listening' but same deal. Anyways, it's been extremely easy (?) to find artists with this sort of sound. I'm surprised I didn't bump into Gregory and the Hawk earlier.

That said, what makes her so different from the rest of the indie folk singers?

I'll be honest, I don't know. I think there's this weird tendency for folk songs to be very metaphoric and analogous, which is great. I love that. But her songs have beautiful imagery (check "Boats and Birds") but she also has straight forward songs that she sings with the same folk feel (check "I Wish"). And her voice is so sweet but what she sings about it so painful sometimes.

My personal favorites are "Boats and Birds," which I believe appeared on one of the Grey's Anatomy tracks, as well as "The Bolder Thing to Do." I prefer Bolder but I think both songs touch on this folky-metaphoric side as well as the brutally honest and sort of depressing side of her songs.

Boats is apparently about leaving home. Bolder is just so straight forward.

I'm attaching the link to her home page here: Gregory and The Hawk Home Page and MySpace.

I'm working on that Broadway blog. I just had a long day today so I haven't been able to launch it. I also need a cool URL name that isn't too corny. I guess I'll have to work on that one.

In the mean time, I leave you with the lyrics of the two songs.

The Bolder Thing To Do
Every day trying to make up for the one before
climb three flights to tremble at the sight of your already open door
the frustration I see when I tell you I like some company
breaks my heart
how can you be so impartial?

and I've made myself the fool
who's fallen for you
so let me down softly this time and
I wont have to come back cryin'
I've just made myself look bad and
you're the one who should be feelin' bad
it'd be better to forget you
but I don't really want to
it'd be better to forget you
but I don't really want to

energy spent trying to believe you're not worth it
you don't deserve it
but I wish you did 'cause I can't rid the thought of it
and I'll remember you as the second or two
artists I knew who decided to screw me over
'cause it's the bolder thing to do

Boats and Birds
If you be my star
I'll be your sky
you can hide underneath me and come out at night
when I turn jet black and you show off your light
I live to let you shine
I live to let you shine

but you can skyrocket away from me
and never come back if you find another galaxy
far from here with more room to fly
just leave me your stardust to remember you by

if you be my boat
I'll be your sea
a depth of pure blue just to probe curiosity
ebbing and flowing and pushed by a breeze
I live to make you free
I live to make you free

but you can set sail to the west if you want to
and past the horizon till I can't even see you
far from here where the beaches are wide
just leave me your wake to remember you by

if you be my star
I'll be your sky
you can hide underneath me and come out at night
when I turn jet black and you show off your light
I live to let you shine
I live to let you shine

but you can skyrocket away from me
and never come back if you find another galaxy
far from here with more room to fly
just leave me your stardust to remember you by
stardust to remember you by

bjs

Kina Grannis

I find it only fitting to make my first music post one featuring one of my favorite new artists to look out for first. ms. Kina Grannis She's also known as the "gotta digg" girl as well as the "Crash the Superbowl" girl. I found her in March, while looking for Death Cab For Cutie's New song on youtube, and then found her covering a Death Cab song with her sisters. A hapa girl with a P.O box in Mission Viejo, CA, Kina Grannis won the "Crash the Superbowl" contest earlier this year. That won her the chance to sign with Interscope Records. Unfortunately, Interscope has not been on top of their game and for some reason she hasn't been able to do all those wonderful things an artist who has signed with a record label should be able to do! That said, a graduate of USC, you can see her every Monday by searching kina grannis on youtube or going to her site --> click here! <-- and going to her 'journal' (aka. Bla(h)g)She's definitely someone to look out her for the future. And when s he makes it big, remember that I've blogged her. ;) I leave you with her newest youtube update. :D shoot, I forgot that I actually don't like this song. But i like her... so i guess it's okay...

Beautifying The "Table of Contents"

So I found this on another blog (shout out to Maish Nichani and his blog elearningpost.)

how to beautify the 'table of contents' in your publication.

click -> Table of Contents

sweet, ya?

VisitorVille

I'm going to start this blog officially full force (now that I have a decent, but not perfect, banner) with an interesting discovery I made while surfing cNet.

I introduce to you -> VisitorVille!

Basically, from what I've researched, this is a way for you to figure out traffic on your website. In other words, your website will appear to you (after you buy the program) as a town/village/city, (ugh, let's say t/v/c)depending on the size of your website. Each page or link is a building and each visitor/user is tracked and represented as an avatar in your t/v/c. If you want to find out the demographics of your t/v/c, all you have to do is click on the avatar and a passport will flip up on your screen with information about the user such as age, gender, and so forth. For example, if you are amazon.com, your t/v/c may be a city the size of Manhattan, whereas if you're Palo Alto Bike Shop, then your t/v/c may be more of a town.



Everytime a visitor clicks into a different page, that avatar is picked up by a form of transportation, like the AskJeeves bus (above) so there is a constant flow of transportation and avatars flowing through your t/v/c.

Don't ask me how an avatar enters the town, like when a new user clicks into the webpage. That's beyond me. Imagination is key.
Fortunately, since you have to buy this program, all privacy is maintained and you don't have to worry (as someone visiting these sites) that you're information will be stolen or anything like that.

I'm sure the moment you click into VisitorVille, they are clicking on your avatar to see that you are a 20 year old (or not) female registered as a student. Who knows. I'm just saying.

Welcome

Welcome to rioN.

In this blog, I will be featuring two things: music and technology.

why?

because I love both and don't want to make a separate blog for both, so I decided to combine them. Thus became rioN.

"ri" in Japanese means 'the sciences' where "on" in Japanese means "sound." It should also be pronounced rion like "rea" from "read" and "on" from "on/off." Not "lion," "ryan," or any form of that.

I'm still in the middle of trying to figure out the look for the blog, but for now, this shall do.

Happy blogging.

ps. Yes, the blog URL is o-rion. but that's because for some reason 'rion' was already taken as well as 'onri.' What's even funnier is that the two url addresses that I wanted were already taken by bloggers who, for some reason or another, were either Brazilian or was in Brazil. (well, rion could be portuguese, not brazilian)

Don't believe me?
Check 'em out: rion and onri.

and neither have blogged in 2008. WHAT!? I think that automatically means that they should be kicked off of blogspot so that other people can use that name.

but no matter.
welcome to rioN.