Rabaelthazar

From my experience, being questioned for a crime you had nothing to do with doesn't have any lasting issues. I was a "suspect" in the Gary Silk/Rod Miller murders in the late nineties because I'd had an accident in my car which left me with a big spiderweb crack that I couldn't afford to fix. Some helpful neighbour called the police and advised that there was a man with a bullet hole in his windscreen living in their street and the next thing I know, I'm entertaining two detectives in my living room being asked a bunch of questions about a double cop murder. It was pretty obvious that I had nothing to do with the crime (had plenty of evidence explaining why my windscreen was cracked) and the detectives were really good about the whole thing, but my statement would have been kept on record. That incident has not once been brought up in an interaction with the police since nor have I been treated unfairly in any way. I wouldn't worry too much about it, thed00dabides. Your mohawk is more likely to get you hassled.

I've seen these works before. Absolutely awesome. Thanks for posting.

OK Horoscopes = complete and utter bullshit A Proper Astrological Natal Chart = not sure I got really interested in Astrology in my last year of high school. I was dating a girl who used to buy these little horoscope scrolls and ended up reading a couple of books which prompted me to study it one evening a week, which I kept up for two years. My conclusion at the end of the 2 years? This could have something to it and then again it might not. (Sorry, I'm the eternal sceptic). On one hand, there was a lot of stuff (once you delved deeper) that really felt right and seemed accurate a lot of the time. On the other hand, sometimes it wasn't accurate at all. There certainly seemed to be a lot more cases of accuracy than pure coincidence would allow but you can't rule that out. I am completely sympathetic with anybody who calls bullshit on the entire practice but most people call bullshit without learning more about Astrology than what they see in the Herald Sun or Woman's Day. To reiterate, horoscopes are complete bullshit. Sometimes they are written by Astrologers, but more often than not they are written by a journalist who makes up something that sounds kinda spiritual. Even when written by an Astrologer, they can't pigeon hole every person in to one of 12 categories. . . Just to clarify a couple of things: What people call a starsign (for instance, I'm an Aquarius) is just what part of the sky the sun was in (as viewed from the earth) at the time you were born. In a full astrological natal chart, you will also map the positions of the other planets, the moon, the horizon. Different planets represent different aspects of your personality and the part of the sky they fall in are said to influence the way that part of your personality operates. In addition to that, where everything falls in relation to the horizon is extremely important from an astrological point of view. The placement of different planets in relation to each other is another factor. This birth map is called a Natal Chart and an Astrologer (when they do a reading) will compare your natal chart with the current position of the planets. A natal chart of a person right now will be quite different from the natal chart of a person born in twelve hours time. I only occasionally look at Astrology these days, but I learned so much about myself, about other people and about the way the brain works from the two years I spent studying it. I don't necessarily believe in the validity of the "science" but I truly believe that it is a valuable tool in self exploration.

I reckon out of the 5, Luv U Longtime would be a the track I'd most pay attention to as a first track. The track I liked best was Mean You No Harm. Just my 2 cents.

I've come across this guy before and researched him a bit. He seems to be an absolute crackpot. Having said that, there is no way of being 100% sure what transpired in history, really.... even going back only a generation. You could be living in a world like that Jim Carey movie (I can't remember the name) and everyone around you is feeding you bullshit.... but, it's probably not the case. Also, even with current times there's no way really to know for sure what's happening outside your immediate surroundings. I see footage of wars overseas, but how do I know for sure that I'm not watching actors with toy pistols running around a movie set? I've never been to the pyramids of Egypt. They could be cardboard cut-outs for all I know. The bible is a perfect example (moving away form the present again). THere are people who believe that it is historically accurate and people who think it's complete metaphor. No one knows. Although we can't be 100% sure of history, the current accepted theories of our ancestry seem ok. We might be out by a bit here and there, but Fomenko's theory seems to have very little weight behind it and he manages to get some followers due to the very act that it's difficult to disprove him completely. There's no definitive corpse of Jesus. Did he exist? Did he live 2000 years ago or 800 years ago? Again, no one knows. If I get a chance, I'l try and dig up some of the stuff I found last time I looked into him.

No dramas, Chnt. You're allowed to have your own opinion and there's nothing pretentious about your post. I actually agree with everything you say. There should be no rules and I wasn't trying to imply that there were in my post, although reading back my post I can see how it could seem that way. My track listing was only an example. I'll quote myself now (first time I've done it on the Corroboree, I think) just to expand. Every song's got a structure, whether that's arranged blocks of 16 bars in 4/4 or whether that's a formless free jazz improvisation or a collage of synth textures. I've listened to a lot of the tunes that Zen has posted in the Creativity section, so I know that he's writing music that does fit within pretty standard parameters. Asides from that, even the most abstract pieces (if done well) have form and structure in mind. Just about every decent writer will be thinking to some extent (whether consciously or not) about the ebb and flow of energy in the music over the duration of the piece. If they don't, they end up with a pretty flat or awkward sounding tune that will become "filler" at best. That's cool, if that's what they intended and are fulfilled artistically from producing something like that. You're right, but a lot of artists do appreciate it when other people enjoy their work too. I paint, myself. I randomly select a colour, hold a paintbrush between my ass cheeks and squat over a piece of paper while masturbating to "Planet of the Apes". I'm wholly satisfied by the artistic process, but it doesn't change the fact that what I've produced is a piece of shit. If I want to produce something decent, I need to put a bit of thought in to it. So - granting that there may be exceptions, most producers of music do put thought in to their song structure. Why shouldn't that extend to the structure of an album? You've put a lot of effort into crafting your individual tracks - why just plonk them together in no particular order? I stand by by previous comment:

This is a great book and it's by an Aussie. Talks more about live recording, but really inspirational to read. I highly recommend it. http://www.mixingwithyourmind.com/

Track 3 is the magic track. That's where your killer tune should go with your next best tune about 2/3 of the way through. I think the structure of an album is as important as the structure of a track and kinda works the same way. If you think of a song structure (which is, of course, infinitely variable but generally fits within certain parameters) you'll have an intro, a verse style section, a chorus style section, a verse style section, maybe a middle eight or a breakdown, perhaps a double chorus and an outro. If you can arrange your tracks with that in mind, you'll create a more exciting journey for the person who listens to your album the whole way through. EG: Track 1: (intro) set the mood, keep it short. Have something to grab the listener's attention and allude to what's coming up (IMO the first track on an album should be no more than 3 minutes. Long tracks go much better at the end of an album) Track 2: (verse) mood has been established so embellish - tell a story. Put a strong track here, but don't peak too early. Track 3: (chorus) ok, let them have it. Put you killer track here. Could be track four instead, but for the sake of this example we'll keep your killer tune here. Track 4: (verse) alright, drop it down a notch. Maybe put something a little more adventurous or experimental in here but keep it a strong tune. The listeners have just heard your piece de resistance and will be more open to something that's left of centre. If it's shit though, this could be the point where they eject the cd. Track 5: (breakdown) speaks for itself. Give the listeners a chance to wind down after listening to three good tracks Track 6: (chorus) stick another killer tune here Track 7: (chorus) hit 'em again. Track 8: (outro) reflect on the tracks now passed and wind the listeners down to a point where they can get off the ride and say, "fuck that was an awesome 40 minutes of my life" Track 9: (encore) if you put anything after your outro track, make it short and fun. If it's long and serious, don't put it here. The move away from album structure and, in fact, the move away form albums is the one thing about the current state of affairs with mp3s and downloads that I find really heartbreaking. An album is a work of art, even more so than the songs that make it up (in my opinion). The combination of the songs, the album structure, the cover art and the liner notes is such a special thing. I think there's going to be a whole generation of kids whose vast majority don't ever experience an album as it was intended. Anyway.... bottom line is: There's a huge difference between an album and a collection of songs.

Nice post... I'm also an undercover hippie. Short hair, generally don't go more than a week without a shave, my jeans are plain, my t-shirts are inoffensive. I generally wear a suit when I work and can talk the corporate lingo if need be. Falun Dafa (for what it is) talks about the importance of cultivation of the buddha consciousness while remaining a part of greater society. It argues that receding to a cave to meditate for the rest of your life may better your mind/soul but that you miss out on the opportunity to better the minds and souls of those people you meet in everyday life. Same concept here, I think.

I'd like to vouch for PD. He was a bit late in fulfilling a trade for me too, but came through in the end and threw in a freebie. A lot of us can be slack in fulfilling trades quickly. I'm guilty of making people wait a month or two because I can't be assed making it down to the post office. A Hillbilly said, Kudos for speaking up.

He he... good ad on that link. I like the idea... personally, I can't stand most energy drinks. I'm really sensitive to Taurine, and not in a good way. There was one on he market around the time energy drinks first became popular that was caffeine and guarana and b vitamins and I could tolerate that. The original mother was also Taurine free, but obviously due to popular demand they stuck it in, complete with an ad campaign about how the original version was wimpy. If I need a kick now, I tend to just go with B vitamins, like a berocca or something. Having a relaxing drink looks like a good move, especially with mostly herbal based active ingredients. Not sure if it will change the earth as they seem to imply in the ad, but a cool idea anyway. hope it takes off.

I was going to mention this in my first post, but I thought it was getting a bit to technical. The centre cancel algorithms are actually based on the principal you're talking about, Ballzac, I think by adding an phase inverted left channel to the right channel, essentially eliminating anything that is identical in both channels (ie: the centre of the stereo field). The way that what we're talking about works is that you can take a copy of an audio file, invert the phase of it and combine it with the original to end up with nothing. That is: if you look at a visual representation of an audio file, you have what looks like a distorded sine wave with peaks and troughs either side of a zero point. Inverting the phase esentially flips the peaks and troughs so that you have a mirror image (vertically, around the zero point). If you play the phase inverted file at the same time as the non-inverted file, the peaks and torughs cancel each other out giving you silence. So, yes, you could use a centre cancel algorithm (or perform the process manually) and then phase invert the result and combine with the original version with vocals to get a cente only version - but!!! bass and kick are commonly panned dead centre as well as vocals so you'd end up with that in your final result as well.

Do you want to make us of the vocals or everything but the vocals? If the latter, you can use a "centre cancel" algorithm which basically removes the middle part of the stereo spectrum (where the vocals are usually placed). You may be left with reverb tails in the rest of the stereo field though, so not a perfect solution but probably the best and easiest way to do it. http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Vocal_Removal If you want to make use of the vocals, it is tough. Creative eq'ing (making use of the high and low pass shelving filters) is your best option and can get you pretty close, but because a vocal performance covers a wide frequency range and so do all the other instruments in the track you'll always be sacrificing something - either the timbre of the vocal will be compromised or you'll have lots of other sound spilling on to the track. No magical solution as far as I'm aware. Good luck.

or at least according to this guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVpm-NRbnB4 I severely dislike Alex Jones at the best of times, but this rant tops them all!!!!

Oh, poor guy. Just clicked through to his site... I've read that sort of ranting before. Is it schizophrenia? His writings have an unmistakable flavour but, like when you walk past an Indian grocery and get a whiff of a familiar spice that you can't quite place, I can't place his affliction. I can feel his mind working these endless loops, the frustration in having the ultimate answer that no one else will understand no matter how many words you use to try and get it out. Poor guy.

Jeez... that poor deluded guy. ... or am I missing some enlightening point?

Hang on.... haven't we been here before? Got that deja vu thing happening...

Thanks for that, Tripsis. Reading this, and climbing down the ladder of the internet for further reading, has been the highlight of my day. I hated history in high-school... memorising dates of when Hadrian built his wall and when Nero fiddled on his rooftop. So insignificant compared to thinking about this sort of stuff. History (or pre-history) has become one of my favourite topics as an adult and it shocks me that the teaching I received as a high-school student was so inane. Did I just have bad history teachers or did everyone get taught the same crap - with all the good bits left out?

^^^ LOL Nice description, Ballzac. I'm enjoying these videos of people with more spare time on their hands than I do. Dancing fingers was cool, the weirdo with the ball was cool. . . . Hmmm... I could have used the time I spent writing this reply to practice an obscure performance art. Oh well, too late now. The time's already gone.

Sorry, can't help.... but I just gotta say: Fuck, I love fruit. Just googled your golden raspberries to get a better idea of what you were talking about and was in ecstasy just looking at the photos of all those juicy, vibrant, life-giving bundles of flavour and nutrition. Entheogens are great but, at the end of the day, it's the fruit bearing plants that win the most of my admiration. Peace be with you, cohabiters of this planet. You who provide us with life, which we then shit out in order to give you life (well, not if we're using toilets - but you get the general idea) :worship: :worship:

I was always a big fan of Huckleberry Hound.

I was pretty cold last night and snuggling in bed doing some introspective thinking and my mind wandered to the question... "Why did we lose our fur?" Assuming we did evolve from an earlier form of primate, what do you think was the evolutionary reason for us shedding our fur? I have to admit that I certainly like the look of a hairless female, and my wife doesn't even really it when I go a week without a shave, but at the moment, with the temperatures dropping, I wouldn't mind a nice thick coat of fur. Any thoughts?

OK, older stuff first: If you like Kool Keith, check out an album he did with Tim Dog called "Big Time" - 1994, one of my favourite records hands down. Jeru the Damaja has never made a bad album, although his best (IMO) is from the same year called "Wrath of the Math" - great beats and an interesting flow, with good lyrical content. The first album by US3 is excellent, seems quite overlooked because of the fact that one of the tunes made top 40. Worth checking out. . . Coming forward in time, anything by Blackalicious but especially their first ep - Melodica Talib Kweli - the Beautiful Struggle is the only album I own so can't speak in a more general sense, but that's a great listen. Common's album "Be" Rahzel's "Make the Music 2000" Shit... I just realised even my newer suggestions are getting pretty old. There's good stuff coming out still but I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

It's a night for hard-truths. it seems., I'm hoping against all hopes that Fukushima doesn't end up like another Chernobyl.