(December 1)Class is winding to a close here at ITP, culminating in our upcoming Winter Show. Aside from the afforementioned THE ARMPIT SHIRT, I'll be showing a web application called rapHappy. It's a website where you can record freestyle raps over a metronome, and other people can come add on to your rap. You can get a more in depth explaination here. I've been recording drunken friends' raps for as long as I can remember, so basically this is just a way for them to do it without my supervision. I mean, at some point you have to realize that I won't always be there to humiliate you, Zack. At some point, your going to have to humiliate YOURSELF.
(November 1)Well, it seems like I've been doing nothing but songs and videos for the longest time. About time I turned out some plastic art for once. So without further ado, I give you THE ARMPIT SHIRT.
(October 1)Aside from a new song, I would like to report a number of strange goings-on in the world of YouTube. First, there is this. A completely UNAUTHORIZED version of a famous Mike Kitson song. I wonder if Mike isn't talking to his lawyers about this already. There are, however, entirely legitimate videos on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Pretty amazing stuff...
Next, I found this obscure Ryan Kitson tune, generously bearing my name for a little guitar work and monkey sampling. Ryan, as you may know, is Mike Kitson's protege and older brother. It is rare to see an elder sibling willing to act as the younger sibling's devoted disciple, but such is the case with the Kitson boys. It is nice to see that the years of thankless apprenticeship at Mike's feet have finally paid off for Ryan. More like: it finally paid off for YouTube.
(September 1)So I've seamlessly transitioned from Berkeley to Brooklyn, and am diligently at work on a number of projects. The first is a website called rapHappy. It's a website where you can record parts of rap songs, and other people can add on to your songs, and vice versa.
The second is a sort of thought experiment, called Guilty By Association. Since the unconscious is built like language, I thought it would be interesting to try and capture the unconscious in database form. As more associations get added, I hope to find some interesting applications for this.
(August 1)I have a couple of things to announce, but I'm really worried that if I start announcing things on a regular basis then people will start expecting me to continue the trend. I really like you, and I like hanging out with you, but I don't want you to think that I'm looking for any sort of longterm commitment, here. We can still have fun together--I just don't want you to be disappointed later on down the road.
Anyway, first announcement: there's a new song up. It's about Angela Lansbury
Second, I've made a chiropractic breakthrough.
My sex life will never be the same.
(June 1)All the kids are doing it, these days, so why can't I? Afternoon Spoon is now on YouTube. Feel free to give it one star and then flag it as "inappropriate." Right on time.
(May 1) So I finally finished up my master's thesis, and as a graduation present my mum got me an electric razor. Thanks to this wonderful device I can now shave (get it?) an extra 5 minutes off of my daily schedule---little temporal pennies that add up to a whole extra day per annum. Figuring it would be a shame to spend this gratis diem grooming the insides of my nostrils, I decided to put together an English version of Tropy (Japanese warning). I call it Tropist. I was also getting bored with the blank area at the bottom right of this page, so now it displays a randomTropist entry. See if you can figure it out.
A Japanese gentleman by the name of Hyuki made the original as a sort of thought experiement, and the resulting product was fascinating to me. It's an extremely simple idea and an extremely simple script, and works a lot like a Wiki. My version uses PhP and MySQL to speed it up a bit.
(April 1) Imagine if you were a convict, serving the third year of a four-year sentence, when all of a sudden you are found guilty of some other crime and sentences to ANOTHER two years. Can you image the sense of futility that would overcome you? Can you imagine how hard it would be to find meaning in all the little signs of humanity that you had learned to hold on to. Well, here I stand, after three long years in the Berkeley Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, all set to start another graduate program at NYU'sTisch. Obviously, the whole prison metaphor is a bit exaggerated, and personally I would prefer to think of the coming two years as "probation" rather than another prison sentence--but only time will tell.
(March 1)It was so easy to start a band in highschool. Nobody made a big deal out of it. You could play punk covers of TV theme songs with friends from work, play drums for your girlfriend's shitty alt-folk outfit, and still have time to record accoustic metal in your best friend's basement. It didn't mean you were a slut--it was just fun. But then you grow up, and everything's different: and all your deeds have repercussions, time is of the essence, money is tight and bullshit like that---and the next thing you know, starting a band has become a MAJOR COMMITMENT. What if we have a baby? Who will be it's father? I don't feel like you're contributing to the relationship anymore. So if you're going to start band, you better make good and sure that it is a SERIOUS AFFAIR. We're going all the way with this one.
"The morning is flying on the wings of his age."
I asked you to quote air fares to Albuquerque, not Dylan Thomas.
