This is just awesome! I saw the post on ABCNews.com today on what has been called “The Wilhelm Scream”. This is one of those useless trivia things that I just completely adore, mainly because I fancy myself a music and sound geek. It’s a particular scream that got so popular among Hollywood sound editors and directors, that it’s been put in around 130 movies, some of which are all-time classic films. For instance, the sound editor for all the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies used this scream in every single movie from those series! Do you want more info? Just watch the mini-presentation below, courtesy of Showtime and brought to you by myself and YouTube!

Just a recap of things for the week. I also wanted to do a different video editing style and make it more interesting. Unfortunately I fubar-ed the sound on a couple of segments. I’m not the most engaging speaker in the world, so I guess I’ll do almost anything for a chuckle! I’m putting this on my YouTube outgrowth of the blog, but there’s no reason not to put it on here as well.

Enjoy!

I ran across this interesting article yesterday while going through the news feed for Mac Daily News.

The Big Record Labels’ Not-So-Big Future

This article really didn’t say much that most people who follow the music business scene don’t already know. However, it highlights some recent happenings in the music scene that are making big waves. These happenings, I feel, are setting the stage for sweeping changes in the way music is marketed and distributed.

We’re already seeing this with the rise of MP3 file purchasing, whether DRM-locked or not, and their threatening takeover of physical media purchases. While I don’t quite agree with the author that “…any 14-year-old can pick up a copy of Apple’s Logic Studio for $499 and make respectable recordings.” ¹ , most if not the rest of the article is spot-on accurate. Right now, if you cruise through MySpace Music, you’ll see many up-and-coming artists and bands that are doing their marketing purely by website and word-of-mouth. They can record tracks on any home computer, mix it down, make a master copy and take it to a CD printing facility. CD manufacturing and printing is getting cheaper every year, and the more adventurous ones can offer their music purely as downloads through the iTunes Music Store or any other online MP3 store. If a band really needs a financial backer in the form of a label, there are many small-time labels that probably offer better contracts than the Big Four. The finances needed for touring, however, can be the only big setback for an artist without major label backing.

This whole situation is just snowballing from the years upon years of overpriced CD’s, overpriced merchandise and the desire for quality acts and recordings giving way to the quick-buck alternatives. By those alternatives, I mean rushing an artist or band with a deadline so they only have one or a few good songs, with the rest of the album being filler ² . Either that, or the artist is a one-hit wonder (or a bad exec decision) that the music company is trying to milk for all their worth, marketing them as the hot commodity, while pushing music that no one wants.

My views on digital music downloads, personally, is this: Even though it may be inherently better to have a physical CD, complete with lyrics, liner notes and artwork, the buy-and-download model just works on a great level of simplicity. No plodding down to the mall or store to get your favorite music. No ordering online and waiting a week for your CD to come in the mail. Just one click, and the music is there almost instantaneously. And it’s almost always less expensive than the physical CD. The iTunes Music Store is leading the way with some downloadable albums that have digital “booklets” with lyrics and such, along with the obligatory artwork. For those that say that Apple’s generous DRM restrictions will still hamper your enjoyment in the long run, Amazon lately has begun offering DRM-free MP3 music downloads, with almost the same purchasing and downloading ease as the iTMS juggernaut. I tried Amazon’s service and it worked beautifully, and this is coming from someone who makes semi-regular iTMS purchases.

As far as I can tell, the ala carte method of music shopping seems to work best. So far, subscription services have only proven to be second-rate, with no guarantee that one can keep the music once the subscription stops being paid for. Almost all parties involved, except for most listeners, would like the music to be paid for in the first place. It looks like the only thing that is going to save the music business now is a forced overhaul of the core business structure. The artists are going to be more in charge, and the listeners are going to have a bigger say in what should be popular… not what the music industry thinks people should listen to.

Cheers!

¹ Not just anyone can make a decent recording. That takes talent, as does making good music in the first place. (Besides, Logic Express will do just fine, thank you!)
² Many listeners, myself included, make individual song purchases for this reason. That’s why I, sometimes, will download an album (yes, illegally), but then pay for the tracks I like and delete what I downloaded. I won’t own music that I feel is not worth listening to.

On Wednesday morning, I got caught up in IM conversation with an Orkut friend in India. After exchanging the usual how-are-you’s, he asked me about where I live. I asked him the same, and I pulled up his location with Google Maps. When I told him what I was doing, I just had to input my location and pull up the satellite image. What I saw absolutely surprised me…

(as usual, click the photo to embiggen!)

Not too long ago, maybe even less than a month ago, all the satellite image showed was a dirt road with meager evidence of impending construction. Now I can come back to this area in Google Maps periodically and see the construction history of the whole neighborhood! Our house is the middle one on the left in the photo. As you can see, the house was close to being finished, making the date of the photo probably around or a bit before October 2006 (when the builder said it was finished, barring minor details). Also, this house, and its immediate neighboring houses, was the first to be built. This gives me more pride in my home, as it could be considered the “flagship” model!

I’ll post more shots as Google Maps updates more. Cheers!

Well, that vacation I talked about in a previous posting is slowly coming to a close. Truth to be told, it just didn’t feel like much of a vacation. I guess that’s to be expected when you’re doing stuff at home. Also, it’s hard to tell just when vacation began. It could have started last Saturday, but that is my usual day off. Then there’s Sunday, but that was just a completely wasted day due to being in Traffic Survival school for eight (!) hours. Sooooo, I guess it began on Monday. With a whimper, I might add.

Monday and Tuesday, I tried to motivate myself to do stuff around the house, but it was almost as if my body, not to mention time itself, was against me. I didn’t have much of the strength to do anything substantial. When I did manage to gather up the strength to do things, time had already passed to where Christine would be coming home and I’d have to be there for her and, eventually, the birds. So that brings me to Wednesday and today. I managed to knock out all the unpacking in the third bedroom yesterday, with some finessing left over which I finished today. I hung some pictures in the hallway, third bedroom and master bedroom. While finessing the third bedroom / study, I even spent some quality time with Thommen, my faithful shoulder bird.

I also went to Target for some household items and changed the bulbs on the front of the house. One may think, “Big deal!”, but seriously, the locations of those bulbs were meant for 6′6″ people to deal with, not 5′4″ people like myself!

Well, game plan for today will consist of this: (1) finish hanging picture frames throughout the house; there’s not much left to do, really. (2) Clean the kitchen so I won’t have to do it tomorrow. Maybe vacuuming too, if I can swing it. And (3) do something with the rest of the stuff in boxes in the master bedroom! I want to make tomorrow a fun day.

Cheers!