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Archive for category music hack day
More on "Where's the Drama?"
Posted by Paul in code, events, Music, music hack day, Spotify, The Echo Nest on September 8, 2014
My Music Hack Day Berlin hack was "Where's the Drama?" – a web app that automatically identifies the most dramatic moment in any song and plays it for you. I've been having lots of fun playing with it … and even though (or perhaps because) I know how it works, I'm often surprised at how well it does at finding the most dramatic moments. Here are some examples:
- When will the Bass Drop – Lonely Island
- Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin
- Doomsday – Nero
- November Rain – Guns N Roses
How does it work? The app grabs the detailed audio analysis for the song from The Echo Nest. This includes a detailed loudness map of the song. This is the data I use to find the drama. To do so, I look for the part of the song with the largest rise in volume over the course of a 30 second window (longer songs can have a bit of a longer dramatic window). I give extra weight to crescendos that culminate in louder peaks (so if there are two crescendos that are 20dB in range but one ends at 5dB louder, it will win). Once I identify the most dynamic part of a song, I pad it a bit (so we get to hear a bit of the drop after the build).
The rest is just UI – the song gets plotted as a heavily filtered loudness curve with the dramatic passage highlighted. I plot things with Highcharts, which is a pretty nifty javascript plotting and charting library. I recommend.
Playing the music – I wanted to use Spotify to play the music, which was a bit problematic since there currently isn't a way to play full streams with the Spotify Web API, so I did a couple of hacky hacks that got me pretty far. First of all, I discovered that you can add a time offset to a Spotify URI like so:
When this URI is opened in Spotify (even when opened via a browser), Spotify will start to play the song a the 1:05 time offset.
I still needed to be able to stop playing the track – and there's no way to do that directly – so instead, I just open the URI:
which happens to be the URI for John Cage's 4'33. In other words, to stop playing one track, I just start playing another (that happens to be silent). The awesome side effect of this is that I'll be slowly turning anyone who uses "Where's the Drama?" into experimental music listeners as the Spotify recommendation system responds to all of those John Cage 'plays'. This should win some sort of 'hackiest hack of the year' award.
It was a fun hack to make, and great fun to demo. And now that I have the app, I am no longer wasting time listening to song intros and outros, I can just get to the bit of the song that matters the most.
How the Autocanonizer works
Posted by Paul in code, data, events, fun, genre, hacking, music hack day, The Echo Nest on March 18, 2014
Last week at the SXSW Music Hack Championship hackathon I built The Autocanonizer. An app that tries to turn any song into a canon by playing it against a copy of itself. In this post, I explain how it works.
At the core of The Autocanonizer are three functions – (1) Build simultaneous audio streams for the two voices of the canon (2) Play them back simultaneously, (3) Supply a visualization that gives the listener an idea of what is happening under the hood. Let's look at each of these 3 functions:
(1A) Build simultaneous audio streams – finding similar sounding beats
The goal of the Autocanonizer is to fold a song in on itself in such a way that the result still sounds musical. To do this, we use The Echo Nest analyzer and the jremix library to do much of the heavy lifting. First we use the analyzer to break the song down into beats. Each beat is associated with a timestamp, a duration, a confidence and a set of overlapping audio segments. An audio segment contains a detailed description of a single audio event in the song. It includes harmonic data (i.e. the pitch content), timbral data (the texture of the sound) and a loudness profile. Using this info we can create a Beat Distance Function (BDF) that will return a value that represents the relative distance between any two beats in the audio space. Beats that are close together in this space sound very similar, beats that are far apart sound very different. The BDF works by calculating the average distance between overlapping segments of the two beats where the distance between any two segments is a weighted combination of the euclidean distance between the pitch, timbral, loudness, duration and confidence vectors. The weights control which part of the sound takes more precedence in determining beat distance. For instance we can give more weight to the harmonic content of a beat, or the timbral quality of the beat. There's no hard science for selecting the weights, I just picked some weights to start with and tweaked them a few times based on how well it worked. I started with the same weights that I used when creating the Infinite Jukebox (which also relies on beat similarity), but ultimately gave more weight to the harmonic component since good harmony is so important to The Autocanonizer.
(1B) Build simultaneous audio streams – building the canon
The next challenge, and perhaps biggest challenge of the whole app, is to build the canon – that is – given the Beat Distance Function, create two audio streams, one beat at a time, that sound good when played simultaneously. The first stream is easy, we'll just play the beats in normal beat order. It's the second stream, the canon stream that we have to worry about. The challenge: put the beats in the canon stream in an order such that (1) the beats are in a different order than the main stream, and (2) they sound good when played with the main stream.
The first thing we can try is to make each beat in the canon stream be the most similar sounding beat to the corresponding beat in the main stream. If we do that we end up with something that looks like this:
It's a rat's nest of connections, very little structure is evident. You can listen to what it sounds like by clicking here: Experimental Rat's Nest version of Someone Like You (autocanonized). It's worth a listen to get a sense of where we start from. So why does this bounce all over the place like this? There are lots of reasons: First, there's lots of repetition in music – so if I'm in the first chorus, the most similar beat may be in the second or third chorus – both may sound very similar and it is practically a roll of the dice which one will win leading to much bouncing between the two choruses. Second – since we have to find a similar beat for every beat, even beats that have no near neighbors have to be forced into the graph which turns it into spaghetti. Finally, the underlying beat distance function relies on weights that are hard to generalize for all songs leading to more noise. The bottom line is that this simple approach leads to a chaotic and mostly non-musical canon with head-jarring transitions on the canon channel. We need to do better.
There are glimmers of musicality in this version though. Every once in a while, the canon channel will remaining on a single sequential set of beats for a little while. When this happens, it sounds much more musical. If we can make this happen more often, then we may end up with a better sounding canon. The challenge then is to find a way to identify long consecutive strands of beats that fit well with the main stream. One approach is to break down the main stream into a set of musically coherent phrases and align each of those phrases with a similar sounding coherent phrase. This will help us avoid the many head-jarring transitions that occur in the previous rat's nest example. But how do we break a song down into coherent phrases? Luckily, it is already done for us. The Echo Nest analysis includes a breakdown of a song into sections – high level musically coherent phrases in the song – exactly what we are looking for. We can use the sections to drive the mapping. Note that breaking a song down into sections is still an open research problem – there's no perfect algorithm for it yet, but The Echo Nest algorithm is a state-of-the-art algorithm that is probably as good as it gets. Luckily, for this task, we don't need a perfect algorithm. In the above visualization you can see the sections. Here's a blown up version – each of the horizontal colored rectangles represents one section:
You can see that this song has 11 sections. Our goal then is to get a sequence of beats for the canon stream that aligns well with the beats of each section. To make things at little easier to see, lets focus in on a single section. The following visualization shows the similar beat graph for a single section (section 3) in the song:
You can see bundles of edges leaving section 3 bound for section 5 and 6. We could use these bundles to find most similar sections and simply overlap these sections. However, given that sections are rarely the same length nor are they likely to be aligned to similar sounding musical events, it is unlikely that this would give a good listening experience. However, we can still use this bundling to our advantage. Remember, our goal is to find a good coherent sequence of beats for the canon stream. We can make a simplifying rule that we will select a single sequence of beats for the canon stream to align with each section. The challenge, then, is to simply pick the best sequence for each section. We can use these edge bundles to help us do this. For each beat in the main stream section we calculate the distance to its most similar sounding beat. We aggregate these counts and find the most commonly occurring distance. For example, there are 64 beats in Section 3. The most common occurring jump distance to a sibling beat is 184 beats away. There are ten beats in the section with a similar beat at this distance. We then use this most common distance of 184 to generate the canon stream for the entire section. For each beat of this section in the main stream, we add a beat in the canon stream that is 184 beats away from the main stream beat. Thus for each main stream section we find the most similar matching stream of beats for the canon stream. This visualizing shows the corresponding canon beat for each beat in the main stream.
This has a number of good properties. First, the segments don't need to be perfectly aligned with each other. Note, in the above visualization that the similar beats to section 3 span across section 5 and 6. If there are two separate chorus segments that should overlap, it is no problem if they don't start at the exactly the same point in the chorus. The inter-beat distance will sort it all out. Second, we get good behavior even for sections that have no strong complimentary section. For instance, the second section is mostly self-similar, so this approach aligns the section with a copy of itself offset by a few beats leading to a very nice call and answer.
That's the core mechanism of the autocanonizer – for each section in the song, find the most commonly occurring distance to a sibling beat, and then generate the canon stream by assembling beats using that most commonly occurring distance. The algorithm is not perfect. It fails badly on some songs, but for many songs it generates a really good cannon affect. The gallery has 20 or so of my favorites.
(2) Play the streams back simultaneously
When I first released my hack, to actually render the two streams as audio, I played each beat of the two streams simultaneously using the web audio API. This was the easiest thing to do, but for many songs this results in some very noticeable audio artifacts at the beat boundaries. Any time there's an interruption in the audio stream there's likely to be a click or a pop. For this to be a viable hack that I want to show people I really needed to get rid of those artifacts. To do this I take advantage of the fact that for the most part we are playing longer sequences of continuous beats. So instead of playing a single beat at a time, I queue up the remaining beats in the song, as a single queued buffer. When it is time to play the next beat, I check to see if is the same that would naturally play if I let the currently playing queue continue. If it is I 'let it ride' so to speak. The next beat plays seamlessly without any audio artifacts. I can do this for both the main stream and the canon stream. This virtually elimianates all the pops and clicks. However, there's a complicating factor. A song can vary in tempo throughout, so the canon stream and the main stream can easily get out of sync. To remedy this, at every beat we calculate the accumulated timing error between the two streams. If this error exceeds a certain threshold (currently 50ms), the canon stream is resync'd starting from the current beat. Thus, we can keep both streams in sync with each other while minimizing the need to explicitly queue beats that results in the audio artifacts. The result is an audio stream that is nearly click free.
(3) Supply a visualization that gives the listener an idea of how the app works
I've found with many of these remixing apps, giving the listener a visualization that helps them understand what is happening under the hood is a key part of the hack. The first visualization that accompanied my hack was rather lame:
It showed the beats lined up in a row, colored by the timbral data. The two playback streams were represented by two 'tape heads' – the red tape head playing the main stream and the green head showing the canon stream. You could click on beats to play different parts of the song, but it didn't really give you an idea what was going on under the hood. In the few days since the hackathon, I've spent a few hours upgrading the visualization to be something better. I did four things: Reveal more about the song structure, show the song sections, show, the canon graph and animate the transitions.
Reveal more about the song
The colored bars don't really tell you too much about the song. With a good song visualization you should be able to tell the difference between two songs that you know just by looking at the visualization. In addition to the timbral coloring, showing the loudness at each beat should reveal some of the song structure. Here's a plot that shows the beat-by-beat loudness for the song stairway to heaven.
You can see the steady build in volume over the course of the song. But it is still less than an ideal plot. First of all, one would expect the build for a song like Stairway to Heaven to be more dramatic than this slight incline shows. This is because the loudness scale is a logarithmic scale. We can get back some of the dynamic range by converting to a linear scale like so:
This is much better, but the noise still dominates the plot. We can smooth out the noise by taking a windowed average of the loudness for each beat. Unfortunately, that also softens the sharp edges so that short events, like 'the drop' could get lost. We want to be able to preserve the edges for significant edges while still eliminating much of the noise. A good way to do this is to use a median filter instead of a mean filter. When we apply such a filter we get a plot that looks like this:
The noise is gone, but we still have all the nice sharp edges. Now there's enough info to help us distinguish between two well known songs. See if you can tell which of the following songs is 'A day in the life' by The Beatles and which one is 'Hey Jude' by The Beatles.
Show the song sections
As part of the visualization upgrades I wanted to show the song sections to help show where the canon phrase boundaries are. To do this I created a the simple set of colored blocks along the baseline. Each one aligns with a section. The colors are assigned randomly.
Show the canon graph and animate the transitions.
To help the listener understand how the canon is structured, I show the canon transitions as arcs along the bottom of the graph. When the song is playing, the green cursor, representing the canon stream animates along the graph giving the listener a dynamic view of what is going on. The animations were fun to do. They weren't built into Raphael, instead I got to do them manually. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out.
All in all I think the visualization is pretty neat now compared to where it was after the hack. It is colorful and eye catching. It tells you quite a bit about the structure and make up of a song (including detailed loudness, timbral and section info). It shows how the song will be represented as a canon, and when the song is playing it animates to show you exactly what parts of the song are being played against each other. You can interact with the vizualization by clicking on it to listen to any particular part of the canon.
Wrapping up – this was a fun hack and the results are pretty unique. I don't know of any other auto-canonizing apps out there. It was pretty fun to demo that hack at the SXSW Music Hack Championships too. People really seemed to like it and even applauded spontaneously in the middle of my demo. The updates I've made since then – such as fixing the audio glitches and giving the visualization a face lift make it ready for the world to come and visit. Now I just need to wait for them to come.
Let's go to France to write some code
Posted by Paul in fun, hacking, Music, music hack day, The Echo Nest on February 7, 2014
This past weekend was the fourth annual MIDEM Music Hack Day held in Cannes. During about 48 hours 2 dozen or so hackers collected in a beautiful hacking space at the top of the Palais Des Festivals to build something cool with music and technology.
The MIDEM Music Hack Day is no ordinary Music Hack Day. It has a very limited enrollment so only hackers that have demonstrated the ability to create music hacks are invited. Add to that, the fact that there is about 50% more time to build hacks and the result is a set of very high quality hacks.
Martyn Davies, master Music Hack day coordinator, kicked off the event with a talk to the MIDEM attendees about what Music Hack Day is all about. Martyn talked about the things that drive the hackers to spend their weekends hacking on code – in particular how the Music Hack Day is a chance to combined their love for music and technology, be creative and to build something new and cool during the weekend. Martyn demonstrated two representative hacks built at previous Music Hack Days. First he showed the demo given by master hacker @sydlawrence of a hack called Disco Disco Tech. The excitement in Syd's voice is worth the price of admission alone.
Next he showed one of my favorite Music Hack Day hacks of all time, Johnny Cash is Everywhere by @iainmullen
One of the special features of the MIDEM Music Hack Day is that non-hackers get to pitch their hacking ideas to the hackers about what apps they'd really like to see created over the weekend. There were a number of pitches ranging from a proposal for an artist-centric tool for organizing a creative music production team to a whimsical request to show what the music on the Internet sounds like when it decays. (Here's one answer). All of the idea pitches were interesting, but here's the secret. The hackers are not going to build your idea. It's not because they don't like your idea, it is because they already have tons of good ideas. The hackers are a very creative bunch, each with a long list of ideas waiting to be built. What the hackers usually lack is a solid block of time to implement their own ideas and so a hackathon is the perfect time to take that best idea on the list and work for a solid 24 hour to get it done. It is rare for a hacker to get excited about building someone else's idea, when they have so many of their own. As they say: "ideas are cheap, execution is everything".
Once the opening talks concluded we hackers made their way up to the top of the Palais des Festivals (the heart of MIDEM) to our hacking space. It's a great space with lots of natural light, a terrace that overlooks the French Riviera, and it is some distance away from the main conference so we were not bothered by stray walk-ons.
To kick things off, we went around the room introducing ourselves, briefly talking about our background skills, and ideas, and almost immediately got to hacking. Since all the hackers were experienced hackers there was no need for the typical API workshops or learning sessions. Everyone knew, for instance, that I was from The Echo Nest and was ready to answer any questions about the Echo Nest API that should arise.
The next 46 hours was a blur of coding, punctuated by food delivery, the sound of the espresso maker and the occasional wandering pigeon.
Hacker Self Portraits
There's a math error lurking in there …
Early morning coding on the French Riveria
The Hacks
After 48 hours, we gathered in the Innovation Hall to demonstrate what we built. Each hacking team had about three minutes to show their stuff. Eighteen hacks were built. Here are some of my very favorites:
DJ Spotify – built by Yuli Levtov – This is a real hacker's hack. Yuli had a problem. He wanted to use Spotify when he DJed, but Spotify won't let you beat match and cross fade songs. In fact, Spotify won't even let you play two streams at once. So Yuli got to work to make it happen. Along the way Yuli augmented his DJ playlists with BPM and key information from The Echo Nest (using a very clever growl hack). One of the highlights of my MIDEM week was listening to Yuli try to explain what OS virtualization is and how Soundflower works to a room full of Music Biz types. Yuli has a detailed blog post that describes how his hack works. Yuli's hack was voted the best hack by the hackers. Well done Yuli!
That One Song – by Matt Ogle and Hannah Donovan – For this hack, Matt added a feature to his super popular This Is My Jam site. Type in any band and let the Jam community tell you the one song you should hear first. Plus: playback options, commentary, and an alternative "B-side" song recommendation for each artist.
Skrillex Invader 20 – by Vivien Barousse – Imagine Guitar Hero meets Space Invaders meets Skrillex meets a Piano Keyboard. Skrillex Invader 20 is a small game designed to help you improve your skills on a piano keyboard.
Bang The Biebs – by Robin Johnson – A hack that combined the Leap Motion with a game. This hack was special, not only for the Bieber banging, but because Robin used the hack as a way to learn Javascript. This was his first JS app.
Scratchy Record – by Alastair Porter – Playing music from mp3s today has no soul. Scratchy Record reproduces the joy that can be had listening to music on vinyl. From the dirty needle causing extra noise, to the pops and skips that we all love, to the need to get up half way through the album and turn it over. Scratchy Record has it all.
HappyClappy – by Peck, ankit and mager – an IOS app that lets you queue up songs by clapping the rhythm. Uses The Echo Nest to search for songs by BPM.
PhatStats – Syd Lawerence – Syd tried to build a sustainable subscription business during the hack with PhatStats – A new tool to discover up and coming talent across the social web, and to monitor your videos and their engagement levels across the social web.
This is your tour – Sam Phippen – Going on tour is hard. You've got to find someone to tour with. You've got to pick cities and venues. You've got to book hotels, find places to eat and drink. All of this takes far too much time.
Nikantas – Sabrina Leandro – a clever app that helps you learn a new language through music lyrics. Fill in the blanks in lyrics of your favourite English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, or Italian artists. Can you recognise a word in a song? A word will be displayed on the screen, press the space key when the artist sings it
neoScores meets Deezer – Bob Hamblok – HTML5 sheet music score following inside Deezer.
Seevl hipster – by Alexandre Passant – Be a real hipster. Impress your friends with obscure music tastes. Do you want to impress your friend who's into electro-folk, or that other one who only listens to avant-garde metal? Now you can! With seevl hipster, find obscure artists that match your friend tastes, and show-off on their Facebook wall.
Playlist Plus – Iain Mullan – Playlist Plus allows you to create a richer interactive version of a playlist. Add notes and comments to each track, to share with friends, or distribute an in-depth album review. Like a particular lyric? Bookmark it at the exact timestamp in the song. Think a track has a heavy Zeppelin influence? Link to the song/album it reminds you of. Cover version? Link to the original and let the reader stream it instantly from within your PlaylistPlus!
ScapeList – Mohammed Sordo – How does a landscape sound like? You take a picture of, let's say, the Grand Canyon in Colorado, a la Instagram, but you also want to attach a song to it, a song that makes sense to you while you were taking that picture. Now imagine that other people went to the same place, took another picture of it but picked a different song. You end up with a playlist of songs related to that landscape, a ScapeList, curated by the users themselves, which you can listen to.
VideoFairy – by Suzie Blackman – A radio-style music discovery app designed for smart TV! It's a bit like channel hopping, but for music videos. VideoFairy finds music videos from artists you'll like with a simple interface that works with a remote control (use arrow keys and 'enter' on a keyboard).Designed for 'lean back' TV viewing with minimum interaction, you can sit back and watch new music recommended from your last.fm profile. Skip skip anything you don't like with a simple tap of the remote.
Cannes Burn – my hack – a music visualizaton of Ellie Goulding's Burn
I was unusually nervous and quite tired when I gave my demo, so I fell for a newbie demo mistake and had trouble getting my desktop to display properly. But when I finally did, my demo went off smoothly. I only had to say a few words and hit the play button, so despite the nerves, it was a pretty easy demo to give. Here's my view of the audience while giving the demo:
After we presented the hacks the hackers themselves voted for the best hack which went to Yuli for his amazing DJ Spotify. Yuli is quite the gracious and humble winner, making sure everyone got a glass of his winning champagne.
Post Hack
After all the hacking the exhausted hackers took some time to kick back, have a good dinner, a few drinks and long conversations into the night about life as an international music hacker.
Halfway through the MIDEM Music Hack Day I paused to take stock. Here I was, on the other side of the world sitting at the top of the Palais des Festival, overlooking the French Riviera, surrounded by friends and writing code. It was a great place to be, and I felt very fortunate to be there. This was all possible because the music biz folks realize that we hackers have lots of ideas that will advance the state-of-the-art in music tech, and even more importantly we have the ability to actually turn those ideas into reality. And so, they treat us very well. It is good to be a music hacker.
The Perfect Music Hack Day – London 2013
Posted by Paul in events, music hack day on December 10, 2013
This weekend, Music Hack Day returned to the city where it all began. On Saturday morning, nearly 200 hackers arrived with the hottest hackathon tickets at the Shoreditch Works Village Hall, in Hoxton Square to spend the weekend exercising their passion for music and technology. After 24 hours of hacking, over 50 hacks were built – hacks that let you explore, discover, arrange, create and play with music.
I've been to many Music Hack Days, and I must say this was a special one. It had all the magical ingredients to make this the perfect event. First, the Shoreditch Works Village Hall was the ideal hacking venue.
It is located in the heart of London's exploding tech community, surrounded by pubs and restaurants (in my five minute walk from the hotel to the Village Hall, I walked past a dozen pubs). The Village Hall had perfect power and ample bandwidth for 200 data-starved hackers. The hackathon was sold out and everyone showed up, so we were all tightly packed into the hall – adding to the crazy energy. There's a coffee shop connected to the hall where baristas were preparing coffee for the hackers long into the night.
Food was not your standard hacker pizza – it was "modern British slow cooking" provided by the Bow Street Kitchen. It really added to the London vibe.
Finally, Thomas Bonte of MuseScore was in attendance – Thomas is the official photographer of Music Hack Day. He's been taking pictures of MHD since the very first one. He takes great pictures and makes them all available on Flickr via Creative Commons. Check out his full set of the event on Flickr. He took nearly all the photos in this blog post except for this one:
Since the event was sure to sell out (everyone wants to go to a London Music Hack day), only the most motivated hackers were able to get tickets. Motivated hackers are the best kind of hackers.
These are the folks that arrive early, stay late, work hard and finish their hacks on time – leading to a very high level of hacks being built.
The event kicked off with organizer Martyn Davies providing opening remarks, followed by API presentations by various companies. By 2PM hacking was in full swing.
24 hours later, 51 hacks had been completed and submitted to hacker league. The epic demo session started at 3PM and by 6PM all the demos had been completed and prizes were awarded. Unlike other hack days, all the prizes were pooled and distributed to the top hacks (determined by popular vote).
A new and awesome twist to the demo session was provided by Becky Stewart's hack. She created #mhdbingo – a set of custom bingo cards filled with common Music Hack Day tropes and memes. Each hacker received a unique bingo card to fill out during the demo session. Bingo wins were recorded by tweets with the #mhdbingo hashtag. Here's a sample bingo card:
Becky's hack not only provided a little humor for the demo session, but was a great tool to keep the attendees focused on the demo during the nearly 3 hour demo session. There was a point near the end of the demo session when seemingly dozens of folks were praying for a hack that showed 'tracks on a map' – and yes, their prayers were answered. Becky's hack is on Github and she accepts pull requests so if you have suggestions for more MHD memes and tropes go ahead and add them and submit the pull requests. I'm sure #mhdbingo will become a fixture at future Music Hack days.
Some of my favorite hacks of the weekend are:
Hipster Robot – A hipster robotic arm that stops you listening to any music it deems "too mainstream"
Didgidoo – An electronically augmented didgeridoo.
#mhdbingo – the aforementioned Bingo game celebrating all our favourite Music Hack Day tropes.
notepad – Draw a piano on a paper pad, and start playing it!
These are your Burns – takes your favourite bit of audio at the moment (Your 'jam' if you will) and creates a beautiful collage of memes, informed by the lyrics of the song, and presents them in a familiar documentary style.
MidiModulator – This Python script will take a song and modulate the pitch with the melody of a chosen score (basically, another song). Think of it as FM, except instead of a frequency we take an entire Christmas carol.
playsongsto.me – a collaborative playlist tool with a difference – you have to convince your friends to keep adding tracks faster than you can listen to them or face the consequences! This hack was created by Ross Penman – the youngest hacker to demo a project. I really liked his unique double twist on the party playlister.
album pairs – a nearly ready for the iOs App Store is the Album Pairs app by Iain Mullan – its an album cover matching game – when you make the match the corresponding song is added to the playlist.
Block Surfer – Rhythms created from waves using a bit of 2D physics.
Chiptar – hacked a guitar to control an 8-bit C64-inspired synth engine. Using an accelerometer it's also possible to control arpeggiation.
Attention Deficit Radio – This is my hack – Attention Deficit Radio creates a Pandora-like radio experience for music listeners with short attention spans.
The top popular crowd favorite was Lifesong. This hack was written by Ben Nunney entirely on an Amstrad 1512 – a mid-80s PC with 512k RAM and a 4Mhz processor. It's based in Pascal with a BASIC wrapper around it.
Since this computer has no network, audio out, or video out, Ben had to resort to some unusual methods to demo his hack.
It was a really fun demo session. There were lots of unique hacks. See the full list on hacker league. Many APIs were used including Spotify, Deezer, Songkick, Last.fm, Twilio, SoundCloud, Discogs, MuseScore, MusicMetric and more. I was especially pleased to see that several dozen hacks use our Echo Nest API to make cool hacks.
Thanks to @martynd and everyone involved in organizing the Music Hack Day London. It really was the perfect Music Hack Day.
Thanks to Thomas Bonte for all the photos used in this post. Be sure to see the full set.
Attention Deficit Radio
Posted by Paul in code, data, events, fun, hacking, music hack day, The Echo Nest on December 8, 2013
This weekend, I've been in London, attending the London Music Hack Day. For this weekend's hack, I was inspired by daughter's music listening behavior – when she listens to music, she is good for the first verse or two and the chorus, but after that, she's on to the next song. She probably has never heard a bridge. So for my daughter, and folks like her with short attention spans, I've built Attention Deficit Radio. ADR creates a Pandora-like radio station based upon a seed artist, but doesn't bother you by playing whole songs. Instead, after about 30 seconds or so, it is on to the next song. The nifty bit is that ADR will try to beat-match and crossfade between the songs giving you a (hopefully) seamless listening experience as you fly through the playlist. Of course those with short attention spans need something to look at while listening, so ADR has lots of gauges that show the radio status – it shows the current beat, the status of the cross-fade, tempo and song loading status.
There may be a few rough edges, and the paint is not yet dry, but give Attention Deficit Radio a try if you have a short listening attention span.
No, I will not build your app for free pizza
Posted by Paul in events, music hack day on November 19, 2013
The Sydney Opera House hackathon is off to a bad start. The infamous institution is holding a hackathon next month. They are offering a prize of $4K AU (about $3, 750 US) along with 'The glory of developing an app for Sydney Opera House which will be seen by millions of visitors every year' for the best hack. The Register dove into the Terms & Conditions (warning, 2,000 words of legalize) and dug up all sorts of IP grabs. Bottom line, at the end of the hack the SOH can do just about anything it wants with what you built at the hackathon. To quote the Register:
"By entering this competition, every last line of code you cut becomes the property of the Sydney Opera House Trust."
There's also this little nugget in the T&C:
"By entering this Hackathon, you agree that use of information in our representatives' unaided memories in the development or deployment of our products or services does not create liability for us"
One can just imagine how it this came about. Some biz guys (yeah, all evil comes from the biz guys) were sitting around thinking about how they could get their mobile app done for cheap. "Let's do a hackathon! Toss a few bean bag chairs and power strips into a hotel conference room. Send in boxes of Pizza every 6 hours and out will pop dozens of apps to chose from. Even if none of the apps built are polished enough for release we will be able to mine all the best ideas from the most creative Australian techies and put them into our app when we finally hire that digital agency to build it."
Unfortunately for the SOH, developers are too smart for that. They can do the math. To win a high profile hackathon with a goal of building a mobile app for millions of users, you probably need a team of four: the front-end programmer, the back-end programmer, the designer and the do-everything-else-including-the-presentation guy/gal (a.k.a The Face). At a modest $125 an hour per team member on the open market that team costs $500 per hour, so 24 hours of hacking is worth about $12,000. (That's not even counting the pre-hack work that any team going to win will do – getting the code repository setup, the tools primed, the workflow established). The chance to win a $4K prize for $12K of work is just not worth it. And of course, the SOH IP grab crosses the line. Any developer who goes to the SOH understanding the T&C will leave their best ideas at home. No one wants to give away their good ideas for nothing.
The Sydney Opera House is not the first example of a hackathon abuse nor will it be the last – but it highlights the wrong thinking that many businesses seem to have about hackathons – that hackathons are a way to get stuff built quickly and cheaply. So here's some unsolicited advice to businesses thinking about holding hackathons from someone who's been to lots of them and has seen how they work.
Hackathons are not competitions – Hackers love to build stuff. We build apps, we build web sites, we build hardware gizmos, we build musical instruments. Hacking is all about being creative and building stuff. Nothing fosters creativity more than being in a room full of other like-minded folks. Folks that share your passion for building cool stuff. At a hackathon such as a Music Hack Day, the emphasis is not on prizes, the emphasis is on creativity. At a Music Hack Day hackers form teams spontaneously to build stuff. They share ideas with each other, they help each other – they revel in every cool demo. If you throw a big prize into the mix the dynamic changes dramatically. The hackathon becomes a competition. Hackers become developers that are thinking strategically about how to win the prize. They don't share ideas with others, they don't go for the creative but risky idea – they go for the conservative idea and spend their extra energy making nice colors and fonts in the PowerPoint presentation for the demo. In the early days of the Music Hack Day, we had one event where a big local sponsor brought a $10K cash prize. Not knowing any better, we went with it, but that was a mistake. Yes, there were lots of hackers and lots of completed projects, but the whole vibe of the hackathon was different. The hackathon was no longer a center of creative sharing, instead it was a cut-throat event. The goal was no longer about being creative, the goal was to win $10K . We learned our lesson and now we make sure that prizes offered at Music Hack Days are modest. Note that there are some really good hackathons like HackerOlympics that are designed to be competitions. These hackathons value teams that can think quickly and creatively across a wide range of skill sets. Winners get bragging rights and modest prizes.
Don't use a hackathon as a way to develop your app – no one wants to go to a hackathon to do work for someone else. Hackers want to scratch their own creative itch , they don't want to build your app for you. No amount of free pizza is going to change that. Now, if you've got a million dollars to spend, I'm sure you'll get some good apps but that's not the kind of hackathon I'd really want to go to.
Bottom line – if your hackathon has a T&C that requires developers to give up any rights to the stuff they've created at your hackathon you are doing it wrong. If you are going to give away big prizes, don't expect to have a creative, sharing atmosphere – if you give away big prizes expect to see people spend more time working on a powerpoint and less time on that creative but risky hack. The currency at a hackathon should be creativity, not money or prizes and at the end of it all, the creators should own their own ideas. No amount of pizza should change that.
Children of the Hack (Angry Birds Edition)
Posted by Paul in data, events, hacking, Music, music hack day, The Echo Nest on November 18, 2013
I'm writing this post from Espoo Finland which is home to three disruptive brands: Nokia, who revolutionized the mobile phone market in the 1990s with its GSM technology; Rovio, who brought casual gaming to the world with Angry Birds; and Children of Bodom perhaps one of the most well known melodic death metal bands. So it is not surprising that Espoo is a place where you will find a mix of high tech, playfulness and hard core music – which is exactly what I found this past weekend at the Helsinki Music Hack Day hosted at the Startup Sauna in Espoo Finland.
At the Helsinki Music Hack Day, dozens of developers gathered to combine their interest in tech and their passion for music in a 24 hour hacking session to build something that was music related. Representatives from tech companies such as SoundCloud, Spotify and The Echo Nest joined the hackers to provide information about their technologies and guidance in how to use their APIs.
After 24 hours, a dozen hacks were demoed in the hour-long demo session. There was a wide range of really interesting hacks. Some of my favorites are highlighted here:
Cacophony – A multi-user remote touch controlled beat data sequencer. This hack used the Echo Nest (via the nifty new SoundCloud/Echo Nest bridge that Erik and I built on the way to Espoo), to analyze music and then allow you to use the beats from the analyzed song to create a 16 step sequencer. The sequencer can be controlled remotely via a web interface that runs on an iPad. This was a really nice hack, the resulting sequences sounded great. The developer, Pekka Toiminen used music from his own band Different Toiminen which has just released their first album. You can see the band and Pekka in the video:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLwrTf5JQ5U]
It was great getting to talk to Pekka, I hope he takes his hack further and makes an interactive album for his band.
Hackface & Hackscan – by hugovk – This is a pretty novel set of hacks. Hackface takes the the top 100 or 1000 artists from your listening history on Last.fm, finds photos of the artists (via the Echo Nest API), detects faces using a face detection algorithm, intelligently resizes them and composites them into a single image giving you an image of what your average music artist in your listening history looks like.
Hackscan – takes a video and summarizes it intelligently into a single image by extracting single columns of pixels from each frame. The result is a crazy looking image that captures the essence of the video.
Hugo was a neat guy with really creative ideas. I was happy to get to know him.
Stronger Harder Faster Jester – Tuomas Ahva and Valtteri Wikstrom built the first juggling music hack that I've seen in the many hundreds of hack demos I've witnessed over the years. Their hack used three bluetooth-enabled balls that when thrown triggered music samples.
The juggler juggles the balls in time with the music and the ball tossing triggers music samples that align with the music. The Echo Nest analysis is used to extract the salient pitch info for the aligment. It was a really original idea and great fun to watch and listen to. This hack won the Echo Nest prize.
µstify – This is the classic boy meets girl story. Young man at his first hackathon meets a young woman during the opening hours of the hackathon.
They decide to join forces and build a hack (It's Instagram for Music!) and two days later they are winning the hackathon! Alexandra and Arian built a nifty hack that builds image filters (in the style of Instagram) based upon what the music sounds like. They use The Echo Nest to extract all sorts of music parameters and use these to select image filters. Check out their nifty presentation.
Gig Voter – this Spotify app provides a way for fans to get their favorite artists to come to their town. Fans from a town express an interest in an artist. Artists get a tool or helping them plan their tour based on information about where their most active fans actually are as well as helping them sell gigs to location owners by being able to prove that there is demand for them to perform at a certain location. Gig Voter uses Echo Nest data to help with the search and filtering.
Hit factory – Hit Factory is a generative music system that creates music based upon your SoundCloud tastes and adapts that music based upon your feedback . Unfortunately, no samples of the music are to be found online, but take my word, they were quite interesting – not your usual slightly structured noise.
Abelton Common Denominator – a minimal, mini-moog style interface to simplify the interaction with Abelton – by Spotify's Rikard Jonsson.
Swap the Drop – this was my hack. You can read more about it here.
One unusual aspect of this Music Hack Day was that a couple of teams that encountered problems and were unable to finish their hacks still got up and talked about their failures. It was pretty neat to see hardcore developers get up in front of a room full of their peers and talk about why they couldn't get Hadoop to work on their terrabyte dataset or get their party playlister based on Meteor to run inside Spotify.
I've enjoyed my time in Espoo and Helsinki. The Hack Day was really well run. It was held in a perfect hacking facility called the Startup Sauna.
There was plenty of comfortable hacking spots, great wifi, and a perfect A/V setup.
The organizers kept us fed with great food (Salmon for lunch!), great music, including a live performance by Anni.
There was plenty of Angry Birds Soda.
Many interesting folks to talk to …
Thanks to Lulit and the rest of the Aaltoes team for putting together such a great event.


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Tasha Tudor, the author and illustrator of Corgiville Fair and many other favorite books, died Wednesday at her home in Vermont, surrounded by her family and friends. She was 92 years old.
Blogger Jenny Harris has some scans of an article on Tasha Tudor and her old-fashioned life in Vermont. You can see the scans here. Beautiful photos: click to make 'em bigger.
Is their a corgi person on earth who doesn't have at least one book or print by Tasha Tudor? [Not that one must be a corgi person to enjoy her work -- I treasure my dog-eared copy of The Secret Garden with her illustrations.] Here's artwork from one of the Corgiville books:
To read more about Tasha Tudor, visit Tasha Tudor and Family and Cellar Door Books. Her art brought happiness to many people's lives, and here in SoCal this morning, in as different a setting from her New England farm as anyone could imagine, tea will be made in a Corgiville mug. Safe journey, Tasha.

subset: commoncrawl


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Apologies for this being more clothing, but this one was too good to keep to myself! Tesco have another clothing sale on at the moment, but newly added to it are loads of the Christmas items. It seems very early to reduce things like this, but I'm not complaining, especially as at the moment they also have Free Delivery too!
There are some absolute bargains to be had here, and some of the baby clothes are so cute, especially the girls ones. The Tesco Clothing Sale is pretty massive, but I waded through all the newly added lines for kids and babies* and picked out all the Christmassy things I could find (you have to make your way past a lot of old Halloween stuff to find them!)
Here's the festive goodies I found:
- Santa I've Been Good Long Sleeved Baby T-shirt* - was £2, now £1.
- My First Christmas Dinner Bib* - was £2, now £1.
- Reindeer Hat* - was £4, now £2.
- Reindeer Baby Sweatshirt* - was £6, now £3.
- Santa Baby All-in-One* - was £8, now £4.
- Girls Christmas Kitten Pyjamas* - was £6.50, now £4.
- Tweet Tweet Christmas Jumper* - was £9, now £4.50.
- Penguin All-in-One* - was £10, now £5.
- Reindeer Baby Dress* - was £10, now £5.
- Girls Elf Dressing Up Costume* - was £10, now £5.
- Ho Ho Ho Sweatshirt* - was £9, now £5.
- Little Helper Pyjamas* - was £7.50, now £4.
- Pack of 3 Girls long Sleeved Christmas T-shirts* - was £10, now £6.
- Reindeer Jumper* - was £10, now £7.
- Robin Jumper Dress* - was £12, now £8.
I only looked at Children's Clothing (again!) though the sale includes Ladies Wear* and Mens Wear* too. As with all sale stock availability of sizes varies, but you might be lucky and pick up a few amazing bargains - I have!
Although you can always Click & Collect for Free from Tesco Clothing, Standard Home Delivery is also showing up as free at checkout with no code needed.


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Please join the Harriman Institute for a book presentation by Olzhas Suleimenov.
Green Desert: the Life and Poetry of Olzhas Suleimenov is the first comprehensive translation of Olzhas Suleimenov's poetry into English, which provides a concise overview of the poet's rich literary heritage and serves as an introduction to contemporary literature of Kazakhstan and Eurasia. Mr. Sulemeinov, whom Russian poet Andrei Voznesensky once aptly called "Asia at the Steering Wheel", has emerged as one of Kazakhstan and Central Asia's most influential intellectuals, authors and poets of the last half century. Since 1991, Mr. Sulemeinov has proven to be one of the most outspoken members of the post-independence Kazakh intelligentsia, as he has promoted and enjoined his admirers to embrace globalization, liberal democratic values, a moderate all-inclusive 'civil nationalism', and a balanced approach to building positive relations with West and East alike. He has authored more than sixteen books of poetry and prose. His polemical novel Az-i-Ia (1975) brought him both wide recognition in his native land and problems with the Soviet authorities.
Olzhas Sulemeinov is also well-known for his active public life. He founded the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement (1989), which became one of the most vocal voices for the closure of all nuclear testing facilities in Kazakhstan. He also co-founded the Issyk Kul Forum, which has been recognized as an important organization of intellectuals in the former Soviet Union. Currently he serves as the Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to UNESCO.
While discussing his book, Mr. Sulemeinov will share with us his candid thoughts about recent developments in the literary world in Kazakhstan and Eurasia. He will be also pleased to answer questions from the audience.
The speaker will be introduced by and the event will be moderated by Professor Alan Timberlake, Director of the East Central European Center.
Registration is encouraged.
Please register here.


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From Richard Bolisay
July 24
4:48 am
Abad Santos Station
Dear M,
So as not to inconvenience you I will keep this letter brief, but direct and to the point I cannot promise. There are many things running through my head right now, some walking so far behind I cannot keep up with them, and some drifting past the line I cannot reach to bring them back. I hope I can just turn off my mind when it goes like this. Anyway I am waiting for the train booth to open, in about thirty minutes or so. The sun is about to come up and I'm in quite a good spot to see it.
I have missed you, and by you I mean your films. As I was preparing my things for the trip today I suddenly stopped in front of my bookshelf because I felt something was missing. When I checked, the books were in order but the DVD case of Bayaning Third World was out of place and when I opened it, the disc was not there. Who could have borrowed it? I could not remember. My phone rang and my colleague was asking me to hurry because the service was about to leave. I told her I'll just take the train and she could just wait for me in the bus station and she hung up. It took me thirty minutes to leave the house shaking the thought of you missing in my own room.
How could a part of you leave my place without me knowing it?
I know it doesn't feel right when people equate you to your films. But maybe it isn't far from the truth, right? I assume Tarkovsky's a very contemplative man; Hitchcock a naughty and sinister guy with unbelievable taste in women; Brocka a dream fighter of the common people; and you, M, I wonder, what do I make out of you from the films you made?
I imagine when I finally meet you I will scratch my head and say, "Hey Mister, you are a man of few words."
It sucks, I know. I feel ashamed that I will use that phrase to describe you, M. You are more than a common phrase. I won't take it back though, 'cause it's true. And in addition, I believe you are a man of silence too. I remember when I was seven or eight, it was Holy Week and all we had on TV was a bunch of shows on religious themes, the usual fare of Himala and Mat Ranillo's Kristo , the life story of the Pope, some family movies, and in the afternoon when everyone was taking siesta I came across Itim . That part when Jun prints the photographs, or when he and Teresa walk across the room holding a cross, it is too silent. I thought the TV was broken. I could hear myself asking, Ba't walang tokis, sira ba 'tong TV, ano'ng nangyayari, may nangyayari ba ("Why is there no sound, is the TV broken, what's happening, is there something happening"), but my eyes were so glued to what I was seeing that the inconvenient silence did not bother much. Later that night I told my mother that I saw the film and she also expressed her wonder in the creepy noiselessness of your first work.
The silence in your films is not just silent. It is an amplified hush of volumes of themes and conversations that your characters are not allowed to speak of; silence is their prison, and it is their only way of communicating to us, your audience. We understand their dilemma because of the silence you bestow upon them. The simple movement of the eyes, the placement of one hand onto another, the eerie hallway that witnesses a séance—they all hold your thoughts of imprisonment. Sometimes when one of your characters screams or calls for help I cannot help but think that I only imagine her speaking. I do not really hear her at all.
Once, someone pointed out to me that what sets your films apart from the others—and by "set apart" he meant both literally and figuratively—is that they are rather heartless, sometimes even lacking "human emotions". The evil that pervades most of your films is somewhat closer to the reality of things, and that scares the hell out of him. My parents said that during the Marcos regime Batch '81 was the first time they experienced 'seeing' their own fear after Martial Law was proclaimed. They had fear then but they never realized it as fear. Your 'fear' astounded them more. Likewise, the characters in your films are very vulnerable; they are often middle-class people whose problems are more than their restraint can handle; they are intelligent, curious, and witty, just like you I suppose. But how could other people not see the heart in your heartlessness? The emotion in your emotionlessness? And the light in your lightlessness? Maybe, as my father would unwittingly point out to me, I really have a peculiar pair of eyes.
My very first memory of watching films is when I was four, but I only started watching them seriously when I was in college, fourteen or fifteen years of age. Not that taking them seriously was such a big deal. I was still pretty much the same, understandably appreciative to humble works and strongly hostile to boring bogusness. I am twenty-one now and I wonder, in that short period of being a fervent follower of cinema and seeing some of the most beautiful facets it can ever show to me, how could I be so sure that yours is the most important figment I have ever seen? How, in my relatively young and therefore superficial understanding of the arts, could I validate my judgment of your works as exceptional and therefore worthy of a book that I plan to sweat years on doing, without any idea of how much it would need from me emotionally? And in such a streak of thought I ask, how could I ever express to you, fully and honestly, and without the natural disappointment of hearing sincere but inappropriate words, that in the years when you've been hurtfully inactive, I long for a film that is uniquely yours—a film that only you, of all the countless filmmakers this world can give, can make? How else could I say that without sounding too selfish? How could I hide the priceless pleasure of just imagining that you are now working on your next film?
I miss your films, but I cannot lie and say that I don't miss you too. In fact, I miss you more. I miss you so much that I wish the feeling wouldjust go away. And God forbid I can't help but feel that if you pass on I believe it will be the most hurtful missing I could ever go through in the lifelong commitment that I promised to cinema. Because I need to let go of the possibilities, of the worldly possibilities of you continuing your craft, making another film, speaking to us. The voice can only come from you—the careful balance of fearless political criticism, the distant yet truthful mockery of the system, and the patience it costs you for them to deliver. That voice has been keeping us in a steadfast belief that there will come a time that we will hear it again, even through a whisper.
Should I really cling so much to you? Am I being impossible?
Especially at this time when independent cinema is booming, your absence is remarkably felt. I remember seeing you in the launch of Dr. Tiongson's book on Manuel Conde, and it stunned me, really, just seeing you there, attending, walking, hearing even a syllable of your words. I hesitated to approach you, of course. I didn't want to ruin your rare public appearance. Shall we see more of you after that? (It sounds rhetorical, but I would still ask it, if only it would sound less rhetorical when put in paper.)
Oh, my iPod just went off. It sucks when you have a very long trip ahead and you can't use it. By the way, do you remember that Robyn Hitchcock song? The one that starts with the lines, I often dream of trains when I'm alone / I ride on them into another zone / I dream of them constantly / Heading for paradise / Or Basingstoke or Reading.
That was the song I was listening to before it snapped. And then I don't know what kind of current turned this long-unused light bulb on in my head. Then I suddenly realized one important thing. You are actually that single train I often dream of. The train that I never had the chance of stepping into because whenever I dream of it, it is that moment when the door closes and its sound lingers to push me awake. Yes, I remember, I always miss it. Every time it passes I always miss it. There is always a reason to miss it. But maybe we'll meet one night, out in the corridor of that dream that I used to have. Maybe. You've been gone for so long it feels like you're never going back.
Hey, sorry if the writing's hurting your eyes. The booth just opened, and the sun is up. It's remarkably hot as always. I can feel the day starting to wrap me in its heat. Hope this reaches you.
Always, R
Richard Bolisay is a dreamer from Manila.
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In the last regular session of the Illinois legislature, among other measures designed to enhance citizen safety, an amendment was adopted to the existing Police and Community Relations Improvement Act requiring police officers to undergo drug testing after officer involved shootings. The new legislation, which flew under the radar of most, is currently effective and reads as follows:
means any instance when a law enforcement officer discharges his or her firearm, causing injury or death to a person or persons, during the performance of his or her official duties or in the line of duty.(b) Each law enforcement agency shall adopt a written policy regarding drug and alcohol testing following an officer-involved shooting. The written policy adopted by the law enforcement agency must include the following(1) each law enforcement officer who is involved in an officer-involved shooting must submit to drug and alcohol testing; and
As the statute states, every department must develop a written policy. This may be as simple as just expanding current alcohol and drug testing policies to include post shooting situations or a closer look at implementing the statute as the first law in Illinois that mandates alcohol and drug testing of police.
Unionized police departments will face more issues, though. Even a quick reading of the new legislation reveals some gaping holes. For instance, it does not specify the drugs that would be tested or how testing would be accomplished (urine, hair, blood, etc.). Unions will likely demand input on these issues as well as ensuring that an officer subject to testing has the opportunity to speak to a union representative, along with the opportunity to bargain other matters, such as potential disciplinary action.
At least one police union has notified the employers of their members of the union's demand to bargain both the decision and impact of implementing this new legislation. While a number of issues regarding this amendment certainly exist, it appears that the state legislature has already made the decision about post shooting drug testing. Whether a police department is unionized or not, employers must comply with these new drug testing requirements. For assistance in drafting policies, identifying the parameters of bargaining obligations, or learning more about this new legislation, Ancel Glink labor and employment attorneys are here to help.


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Pricing: Classes are $17 per class when you sign up for an entire session of a class. Can't sign up for a full month? Drop into a class for $20. (Technique classes typically run for 1 month, so the total cost will vary on the number of weeks in that month. Choreography classes run for 10 weeks)
Click here to view the calendar
Prerequisites: Ages 18 and up. None for Exotic I. Students must have completed a 4-5 week session of EI or 8-10 weeks of Pole I, in order to advance to EII. To Advance to EIII, student must have completed 4 months of EII. EIV is by invitation only.
- Exotic I Technique: This series focuses on the art of exotic dance and striptease. Students are introduced to the art of exotic dance, striptease, and "floor work." All of the skills make an easy transition for steaming things up with your partner or just building your confidence. *monthly sessions *55 minutes * No weight limit
- Exotic II Technique: Builds on your sensual moves by introducing "walk work", "prop work", additional floor work and stripping techniques. *monthly sessions *55 minutes * No weight limit
- Exotic II, III, IV Choreography: Builds on your sensual moves by introducing "walk work," more stripping techniques, and more advanced floor moves as you progress through the Exotic program. Each level teaches a choreographed routine using the exotic skills learned during the session. *10 week session *55 minutes * No weight limit


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Yesterday I braved the den of screaming children that is the Science Museum to see what I thought was their revamped display of the Wellcome collection. I'd read about it on one of my favourite blogs, Morbid Anatomy. Wellcome's eccentric somatic artifacts fascinate me, as does the man himself. The sample collection on display at the Wellcome museum is a very tough act to follow, and I was disappointed to find there was nothing new in the Science Museum's History of Medicine display, save at the entrance which featured snippets from the Brother's Quay film that uses some of the collection. There are a few fascinating objects here– a velvet-lined drug chest, elegant bullet extractors and the loneliest mummy in London. The rest is just dimly lit and numbingly chronological, with dry notations in an 80's font.
Apparently what has been revamped is the online gallery. While missing the wonder cabinet aspect of the Wellcome's curation, the objects themselves are fascinating, if difficult to find. (For a fun starter search, type in "amulets" or "gas mask" on the object page. If you want to see the extensive chastity belts in the collection the search will yield no joy. Maybe it's a work in progress.)
While trying to find the Art of Medicine on the 5th floor, I wandered into History of Medicine gallery on the seemingly secret 4th floor. All the stairs to the 4th floor are roped off, and it seems only one of the numerous lifts go there. By the time you find it, you've left the sticky crowds of school children behind and start to wonder what the museum is hiding here.
I can heartily recommend finding it. Why fork out £20 quid at the London Dungeon whilst being crowded by hoards of tourists when you can totally get vibed out for free at the History of Medicine dioramas? I guarantee you that you will be alone whilst taking in the "Dentistry in the 1930s" wax tableau as well as the seen-better-days Modern Operating Room circa 1978 (just what are they doing to that poor wax sod? Why is the blood transfusion bag all brown and crusty?). Don't forget the dimly lit amputation. It's hard to make out much beyond the tarred wax leg in the foreground. And in the center of the floor: a cavernous Victorian sweet shop of a chemist, where the mustachioed wax man leans over the counter to help two wax girls with giant bows in their hair, his old timey jars and bottles obscured in shadow.
I should really mention the most soulful of the exhibits: the neolithic trepanning diorama. Call me crazy, but those hirsute dudes look a lot more comforting than the wax doctors in the other exhibits. (Insert need-a-hole-in-the-head joke here).
The exhibit's timeline makes an unintentional argument. Despite all the advances in modern medicine, the cures and curers are often no less terrifying than a caveman with a sharpened rock.


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The World Trade Organization's Appellate Body issued a report on March 11, 2011 in which the People's Republic of China broke a skein of legal losses by recovering some of the ground taken by a WTO panel last autumn. The Chinese Government loudly celebrated a major victory, while U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk denounced a "clear case of overreaching" in a "deeply troubling" decision of the Appellate Body.
Were one to listen to the rhetoric of the two governments too closely, one might perceive the WTO proceedings as more of a political than legal affair. The Chinese did not win that much, and the United States did not lose that much. There had to have been powerful political motivations for the over-wrought pronouncements of the two sides.
China elected to consolidate complaints regarding the final Department of Commerce ("Commerce") determinations in four different antidumping/countervailing duty investigations – hence, eight investigations into four different products – into one WTO complaint. It did not appeal any of the determinations to the U.S. Court of International Trade ("CIT"), and did not challenge any of the four final determinations of the U.S. International Trade Commission in any forum. Hence, what could have been twelve WTO cases and a like number of CIT cases came down to one WTO case.
Double Counting
China complained of many things in the WTO case, but here, too, there was selectivity. The only objection raised regarding the four antidumping final determinations was that Commerce was double-counting remedies, applying duties twice on the same cost or expense. Allegedly subsidized electricity, for example, was countervailed, but also compared to an external surrogate value as an inflated cost in the dumping case and assigned part of the antidumping margin. Meanwhile, China challenged virtually all of the subsidy findings.
The CIT already had ruled that Commerce could not investigate simultaneously for the same merchandise, over the same time period, both antidumping and subsidy allegations, because applying a non-market economy methodology in the antidumping investigation yields a double remedy. Commerce had concluded, in 2007, that it could investigate subsidy allegations in a non-market economy, notwithstanding the definition of subsidies as government financial contributions that are market-distorting.
The CIT did not deny Commerce its desire to conduct subsidy investigations of non-market economies. Instead, it ruled that Commerce would have to figure out how to avoid double-counting when conducting antidumping and countervailing duty investigations simultaneously.
The CIT decision, in the OTR case (GPX Intern. Tire Corp. v. United States, No. 08-00285, 715 F.Supp.2d 1337 (Ct. Int'l Trade 2010)), is on appeal before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ("CAFC"). The Appellate Body decision ought to strengthen China's hand in that appeal, albeit that the Chinese Government is not a party. U.S. courts have never treated WTO decisions as dispositive, nor even necessarily persuasive, but a NAFTA panel did apply the Charming Betsy doctrine to require Commerce to interpret U.S. law compatibly with international obligations whenever possible. The CIT here has said subsidy investigations of non-market economies are permissible, but not in conjunction with dumping investigations. The CAFC, were it to uphold the CIT, would rule consistently with the international obligation articulated in the Appellate Body report. There is no U.S. court ruling putting U.S. law at variance with the international obligation.
This Chinese victory, then, already had been won. The CAFC could have, and still could, overturn the CIT. The CAFC could do so without reference to the Charming Betsy doctrine and applicable precedent unless the doctrine were invoked and well-argued by counsel for the Chinese party. Even then, the CAFC ruling, not the Appellate Body report, will determine U.S. law on this question.
Chinese authorities often still insist that the United States cannot investigate subsidies allegations while denying China market economy status. That issue, however, is not in play in the Appellate Body report. Nor would its resolution solve China's problem with respect to Commerce's methodology.
Extending a cramped WTO Appellate Body report interpreting Article 14(d) of the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement in Canada's complaint against the United States over the use of cross-border benchmarks for analyzing softwood lumber prices, Commerce has treated China in countervailing duty cases the way it attempted to treat Canada. Inasmuch as Canada could not be accused of being a non-market economy, Commerce there established that the methodology of using prices from outside a country in a subsidies case is not exclusive to non-market economies. China did not seem to argue at the WTO any defect in Commerce's interpretation of the Appellate Body's softwood lumber report. By accepting the interpretation, it sealed its own fate.
The recognition now of China as a market economy would change very little, if anything, for China in countervailing duty cases. Applying the reasoning applied to Canada, Commerce would continue to select price benchmarks from outside China, thereby utilizing the same methodology it uses now. Indeed, China's pleading for market economy recognition could lead to Commerce's solution to the puzzle it was presented by the CIT: as with any other market economy, Commerce could bring dumping and subsidies cases simultaneously against a China recognized as a market economy, and nonetheless could use a countervailing duty methodology founded on the same principles as the NME dumping methodology.
For these reasons – that the CIT already had delivered this victory; that recognition as a market economy could solve Commerce's problem more than China's – both China and the United States have exaggerated the significance of the Appellate Body report. There may be powerful political reasons on both sides for the exaggeration, not to be found in a reasoned interpretation of the law.
The Other Chinese Victory
The other Chinese victory accorded by the Appellate Body on March 11 is little more revolutionary than the decision on double-counting, but it may have a greater impact. Commerce has been treating automatically all Chinese state-owned enterprises ("SOE") as "public bodies," controlled and directed by the government. This operating assumption enabled Commerce to treat the provision of inputs in the manufacturing process from SOEs as financial contributions because they automatically came from the government. Then Commerce only had to show that the price of the input, when compared to a price from outside China, was less in order to measure the size of the subsidy.
Notwithstanding the automatic treatment of SOEs as public bodies, Commerce already was completing the analysis as to whether SOEs provided inputs at prices that would make them countervailable. The Appellate Body decision will require a more complete analysis every time. Instead of assuming government control, such that the SOE is acting as a public body, Commerce will have to develop evidence that the provision of the input is not a purely economic or commercial act.
The Uruguay Round Agreements recognized that state-owned enterprises could be commercial and had to be treated without assumptions about state direction or control. Commerce's automatic judgment was at variance with this recognition; the Appellate Body corrected Commerce by requiring it to respect the proposition that state-owned enterprises are legitimate entities in the world trading system. Were it otherwise, the United States would have a very difficult time dealing with General Motors and Chrysler, among other examples. Consequently, the Appellate Body did not take a position that could be considered very remarkable.
The United States pretends that other countries have SOEs, but that all enterprises in the United States are private. As long as that fiction is maintained, the United States will continue to treat SOEs as different and as state-controlled, whether to greater or lesser degrees. Beyond trade, the Appellate Body report theoretically could have additional impact were the definition of the SOE as a non-public body to evolve and become more accepted in the United States, but the Appellate Body report, as a legal matter, pertains only to trade, and only to subsidies disputes, nothing more.
The Losses
China lost everything else. All bank loans from state-owned banks automatically are suspect and subject to comparison for loan terms with banks outside China. There was no effective challenge to the U.S. use of out-of-country benchmarks because China's complaint was focused on the principle rather than the particulars. The principle of comparing land values to property outside China was endorsed by the panel and left untouched by the Appellate Body; the absurdity of comparing rural Shandong Province to urban Bangkok was permitted without comment. Every other Commerce judgment about subsidies was upheld.
Because none of these issues has been adjudicated in U.S. courts, they all remain subject to challenge. The WTO did not specifically adjudicate them. However, Commerce will continue its practice with respect to all of them, and over the next cases will establish administrative practice difficult for China, as a result of neglect, to overcome.
Winning And Losing Less Than Imagined
The WTO's decisions have only prospective effect. In addition, the United States treats every defeat as sui generis, applicable to the immediate case and no others. The United States likely will ignore the decision on double remedies, preferring the decision of the Court of Appeals. It may ignore the decision on SOEs except for the administrative reviews in the four cases brought through the WTO appeals process. It likely will promise implementation, take the maximum "reasonable period of time" possible, fail to implement to China's satisfaction, and oblige China to request a Section 21.5 compliance panel. Consequently, it could take China years to achieve compliance from the Appellate Body decision, and then may enjoy a very limited victory. All the while, the United States Congress will decry the Appellate Body and seek to build pressure against adverse decisions like a bench coach harassing basketball referees. It was not inappropriate, as seen from Congress, that the Appellate Body Report came with March Madness.
Such a limited outcome will be the product of Chinese decisions to rely on the WTO instead of U.S. courts; to consolidate cases instead of appealing them separately; of exaggerating publicly its victory so as to arouse public (and consequently political) resistance in the United States. It will also be the product of the WTO's institutional weakness, limited to prospective and indirect enforcement, and then only with the cooperation of the parties.
It will be important for both parties to reduce popular expectations and to manage disappointments. Otherwise, in their competition to celebrate the virtues of the WTO, they will undermine the very institution upon which both, for political if not legal and economic reasons, have decided to rely.


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Saturday, September 30, 2006
I have a new bunch of goodies. Haven't put them on my site yet, will do in the next day or so. Some new anatomy men assemblages. These are all cyclopian...not sure why.
I use regular Small projects (gold tube with red tab…the glue is beige). Strong and great for making chunky texture. Takes paint very well.
I use Liquid Nail Clear for areas that you don't want to disguise with paint. Useful on glass or lenses. Similar to E6000 and just as stringy.
Now if you really want to get serious a product that is stronger than either is Heavy Duty. You have to buy a caulk gun. It is similar to the Small projects regular but stronger, much stronger.(gold tube with blue)
A few things to remember that none of these are magic. They all have limitations. Remember the more you use the longer it will take to dry, though in the long run it will be stronger. As far as the heavy duty and the small projects regular, they work best if you aerate the glue…in other words stick your objects together then take it apart and restick them together (for some reason getting air into the glue helps it stick.) Also these beige colored glues tend to be a bit ornery in humid or hot climates, and take a bit more time.
The clear is a bit better in these type of climates.
I have yet to come up with the ultimate glue, someday perhaps.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Excuse me M.A.M.
For those of you who don't know…M A M, the
For those of you who want to read more can read more here:
Now for my shameless self-promotion
I will be teaching an adult assemblage class (something shriney…tba) at MAM on Saturday November 18.
They are offering a nice selection of classes there, so if my stuff is not you cup of tea, I'm sure you can find something that will get you excited. They are offering a variety of classes from a variety of instructors. They have everything from kid's classes to found object sculpture to bookmaking to figure drawing to Day of the Dead ofrendas.
If you want to find out more call the Museum 406-728-0447
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Heres a photo of the Derby fire (the big one, 250,000 acres). We have had a couple fires here in the Missoula Valley this year where the slurry bombers zoomed in to drop retardant. We've been fortunate, however, the fires were put out fast. Shot taken byMike Granger, a fire fighter.
Friday, September 08, 2006
New Stuff on my site
what a job...whew. Let me know if you find any problems....please don't find any.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Oaxaca Dia de los Muertos 2007
Okay, its begining to feel like Fall to me, which means that it is begining to remind me of the Day of the Dead. I wrote a little article in this months issue of Somerset Studios about some of my experiences in Oaxaca during this event.
Next year as many of you know a friend of mine, Colleen Darling, is orchestrating an art retreat during this grand event. Here's her letter:
deMeng de los Muertos
Once again Michael deMeng is returning to Mexico and invites you to join him in the magical city of Oaxaca, to create art and celebrate what is perhaps the most beautiful event in the world, Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. This year he will be conducting an assemblage class that teaches students to transform discarded cigar boxes into found object retablos and shrines. This class will incorporate a variety of techniques including collage, drawing, painting and, most importantly, assemblage. Anything and everything will be used to create this reliquary, (sawblades, gears, you name it). Of course, since everyone will be in Mexico, the land of found objects, everyone will have to be on the prowl for rusty goodies lying about. Along with the Cigar Box Retablos, the class will also create an ofrenda. Ofrendas are wonderful shrines that can be seen in homes, cemeteries, and local businesses; they honor family and friends that have passed away. Usually adorned with personal effects of the deceased, they are then decorated with marigolds, candles, skeletal toys, sand paintings, on and on. Truly amazing and plenty of examples will be visible throughout Oaxaca this time of year.
So join in the celebration…you will truly be inspired and amazed.
October 26- November 4, 2007
Colleen Darling
Home 805-688-1221
Cell 805-448-1509
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
hi gang,
I've been locked away trying to finish the text for my book. I usually do most of the writting at a cafe called Liquid Planet, where I usually have two quadruple Macchiatos (sp?).
I've also had some time to do some art. I started a new series of sketchs...matchbook sketches. Most of you have never seen any of my drawings, so here are some for you. Of course, I couldn't stand just having a drawing without some found object...thus the matchbooks. Check em out


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This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.~Anonymous Quote
Our Past Masters and Worshipful Brothers have helped build our lodge into the successful lodge of present. Without their hard work, dedication to excellence, and countless hours of participation and leadership, Montgomery Lodge #258 would not be a pinnacle of Minnesota Masonry. This page is dedicated to all of the hard working men who assumed the ultimate role of responsibility within our lodge, starting with the very first Worshipful Master of Montgomery Lodge #258, leading down to our most recent Past Master. May their hard work be recognized and realized for the accomplishment that it is, as their efforts and leadership in Masonry will always be remembered and appreciated. Not every Mason can make the commitment to taking a position in the officer line, one day taking on the challenge of the ultimate leadership role within a lodge. We tip our hats to these fine Worshipful Brothers. May your tenure as Master have been fruitful, your experience enlightening, and your legacy memorable.


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Hiltons, VA -- Saturday, May 7th, 2016, at 7:30 p.m., the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia, will present a concert by Ralph Stanley II. Carter Family friend Ronnie Williams will also be on hand to do some Carter Family tunes.
If you were to gather together an average cross-section of people and ask them if they thought it would be an advantage for a performer to be the child of a living legend, most would probably conclude that it would have to be a definite plus. After all, the doors of opportunity would be quicker to open, and the spotlight of public attention that so many artists spend years trying to cultivate would be yours because – well – just because. Famous by default, so to speak, and doubtless those are very real and tangible advantages. But then there's the downside – pressure. The learning curve, the whole growth process with all its potential missteps and pitfalls, is a public document. Most artists get to take those perilous first steps of their careers in relative anonymity, a nameless face in the crowd.
As one might expect for the son of a renowned banjo player, the first instrument Ralph II ever held was a banjo. At the ripe old age of three, Ralph (or simply "Two" as he is called by his family and friends), had his first lesson from the elder Stanley, learning a simple finger roll. It turned out, however, that he would not be following in his father's footsteps when it came to his choice of instrument. He soon fell under the spell of the undisputed king of boyhood musical desires, the guitar. He spotted one under his sister's bed, and according to Ralph, "I wanted to play it. When I was five years old, I started with the guitar and I've been playing it ever since."
But despite his interest in the guitar, and the fact that he was occasionally traveling with the Clinch Mountain Boys on the road, he had not yet developed an ambition to play professionally. It took until age twelve and an old 1977 video of the late Keith Whitley during his tenure as lead singer for the Clinch Mountain Boys to inspire him to become a professional musician. After seeing Whitley with the elder Stanley, he was hooked and spent hours in the family basement honing his skills, and weathering the comparisons to his late Uncle Carter. His persistence paid off, and he took the stage as lead singer with Ralph Sr. and the Clinch Mountain Boys in June of 1995. Since then, he has earned the respect of Stanley fans everywhere and has garnered praise as a strong new artist in his own right.
Ralph II has had two Grammy nominations on previous albums he recorded with Rebel Records. In 2002 he earned his first Grammy along with his father, Dr. Ralph Stanley, for their collaboration with Jim Lauderdale on Lost in the Lonesome Pines. Ralph II has proven to be an accomplished songwriter and has six solo albums under his belt, along with the newly released and highly acclaimed duet album with his father titled Side by Side. Ralph II's newest release Born to be a Drifter is his most recent release. His newest CD is available through his website, and will also be available at the show.
This will mark Ralph II's seventh performance at the Fold with his band – now an annual event. The Stanley and Carter families have been pivotal in preserving the region's rich musical tradition and carrying the music of the mountains throughout the world. Come see this legendary performer in one of the region's most historical venues – the Carter Fold! Go to either www.ralph2.com/ or www.drralphstanleymusic.com for additional information.
Admission to the concert is $10 for adults, $1 for children 6 to 11, under age 6 free. Carter Family Memorial Music Center, Incorporated, is a nonprofit, rural arts organization established to preserve traditional, acoustic, mountain music. For further information on the center, go to http://www.carterfamilyfold.org. Shows from the Carter Family Fold can be accessed on the internet at http://www.carterfoldshow.com.
Partial funding for programs at the center is provided by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. For recorded information on shows coming up at the Fold, call 276-386-6054. The Fold is on Facebook – page Carter Fold – and Twitter – @carterfoldinfo. To speak to a volunteer Fold staff member, call 276-594-0676.
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Carpet is the one of the important investments done by you when you settle your dream home. If you are proud of your home, of course you will want to make sure it is sparkling clean and welcoming at all times. I agree your curtains and upholstery is cleaned on a regular basis, you give proper time for cleaning your curtains and upholstery or you call out professional carpet cleaner twice a year to keep your carpet spotless. However, what about other fabrics in home.
We get many FAQ's every week, we try to answer them all, but from last few days, we are getting mails and questions about "How to remove paint from carpet?" This is the reason our next topic is "How to remove paint from carpet?" and we have planned to publish on our blog. Paint can be the most damaging stain on carpet if you do not respond in a right way to remove it. Thus learning how to remove paint from carpet is necessary for we do not know during home or just room renovation periods our carpet could accidentally get them.
When you have accidentally spilled paint on your carpet, you need to hustle and need to take proper steps. You have a chance to restore your carpet when it is wet but if the paint gets dried, then you need to set a new budget for your new carpet. Because it has great possibility that your carpet has already been damaged.
Here are some tips on how to remove paint from carpet. We hope these tip work out for you but in case you are not sure about DIY and you are facing the same situation. Call Five Star Carpet & Tile Care. We provide services for carpet cleaning in Palm Desert, Palm Springs, La Quinta, and Indio and nearby areas.
Water Based paints
Water based paints are easy to remove; they can be removed by using soap water and simple blotting and drying method.
Follow the steps given below:
Scrape excess water based paint. The first and vital step you need to take is remove the excess latex paint by scraping it with a spoon. Using a cloth will also help in it. Then you just need to blot it, so it absorbs the excess water based paint.
Take a sponge, dipped in water, then blot over the area. Blot it from outer to inner part of the area. Make a dishwashing solution by adding 1 teaspoon of mild detergent and a mug of warm water. Now apply the solution and blot the area using sponge or cloth. Keep on repeating the step until the paint is removed. Then rinse it with water then blot to dry.
Oil based paints
Oil based paints are bit difficult to remove compared to water based paints, since it cannot be removed just by applying water and detergent. The best thing you can use to remove oil-based paint is dry cleaning solvent.
Follow the steps given below:
Pour little of dry cleaning solution on the affected area.
Take a rug or towel and start blotting the affected area or dab the area. Do this repeatedly from outer to inner direction, until the paints vanishes.
Never ever, clean the spot by just blotting. Just blotting will spread the paint more on your carpet. Even never, rub the area. If the paint is dried, then its better you call carpet cleaning experts to clean it and avoid further damage.
Call us +1 760-774-7961 to get free quote
You can visit Yelp to see what our customers say about our services.


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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- American Airlines will cut back flying later this year at many airports, including hubs in Dallas and Chicago, as it attempts to cope with record high fuel prices.
The nation's largest carrier gave more details Wednesday about capacity reductions it announced last month.
American said it will reduce departures at its Chicago O'Hare Airport hub by 28 flights and sister airline American Eagle would cut 34 flights, beginning in September.
At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, American will cut 19 departures and Eagle will ground 23 flights.
American said it will cut eight daily departures in St. Louis and five at New York's LaGuardia Airport. American Eagle and AmericanConnection will cut 35 flights in St. Louis and 37 Eagle flights at LaGuardia.
Fort Worth-based American had already said it was closing operations in Oakland, Calif., and at London's Stansted Airport in September, and it said Wednesday it would end service to Barranquilla, Colombia.
Eagle will end operations in three state capitals: Albany, N.Y.; Providence, R.I.; and Harrisburg, Pa.; and in San Luis Obispo, Calif.; and Samana, Dominican Republic.
New York Gov. David A. Paterson said the cuts would reduce competition in his state. He asked American "to take into account more than profit when they evaluate routes. For many, these airlines are a critical lifeline to family and business obligations."
American announced last month it will cut domestic capacity 11 percent to 12 percent, and Eagle will cut capacity 10 percent to 11 percent, compared with levels of late 2007. The company is trying to reduce costs in the face of fuel prices that have nearly doubled in the past year, surpassing labor as American's biggest expense.
Chairman and Chief Executive Gerard Arpey said last month that American will probably eliminate thousands of jobs as a result of fewer flights, but the company has not yet disclosed a precise figure.
A spokesman said Wednesday that job effects might not be known for some time. The company repeated Wednesday that it intends to offer voluntary-departure programs to reduce layoffs.
Shares of parent AMR Corp. fell 5 cents, to $5.66, after rising to $6.25 earlier in the day.
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American Airlines outlines service cutbacks; Eagle to end Albany service
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- American Airlines will cut back flying later this year at many airports, including hubs in Dallas and Chicago, as it attempts to cope with record high fuel prices.


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There's no support airplane like the Blue Angels' C-130 Hercules Fat Albert. Spares travel in a truck called the Mobile Support Vehicle. "We carry most of our parts and tools in the MSV, including two spare engines," says Shillingford. She says her crew can change an engine in four hours.
And those parts, one might think, would be hard to find today. But "we've never been short an airplane for a show due to unserviceabilities or parts shortage," Shillingford says. The lowest-time Snowbird Tutor has just 6,500 hours; it could yet go a long way. The squadron's highest-time aircraft has logged well over 12,500.
The team will perform at eight U.S. sites this year. A U.S. Snowbird appearance guarantees huge crowds, who are as thrilled as the Canadians by the nine little jets, all in a row.


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Spotted this ancient Nissan (Datsun) pickup, beached in an AutoZone parking lot like a sea turtle about to lay eggs. The half-restored look is weird, even little offensive to my conservative sensibilities. Yet I find it undeniably alluring.
Derelicts have been around forever; the idea is you've got a functional (generally upgraded, often lowered) running gear enshrouded by a beat-ass exterior. I'm guessing it got started with dudes suping-up old cars and spending nothing on beautification, probably right after when the first cars ever became affordable to speed-crazy ruffians.
Interestingly, the derelict style has received a recent resurgence with the rise of the "stance" movement. In case you're joining us for the first time, stanced cars are made impossibly low by putting the wheels on wrong.
The impression I get from those who have gone over to the stance-side is that they're going for a "Screw You, The Man" kinda vibe. So too do the derelicts; hence why the two are often paired together.
Since stance is generally (though not always, as with this pickup) the domain of newer cars, it's brought a another new style phenomenon with it; modern derelicts.
My position is that trucks, lowered or not, can pull off the look with some swagger. Cars, not so much.
Something about the utilitarian nature of a truck, even one that's lost any hope of going off-road or over speedbump, marries the "derelict" style a lot better than something like a Volkswagen Jetta or a Subaru WRX.
Trucks just wear damage more naturally. A pickup with patina has the worn-in warmth of an old baseball glove, you might not pick it for the big game but damn do you respect it. Conversely, a bubble-bodied Civic with one fender that looks like it was pulled off the fuselage of the Millennium Falcon looks like a knock-off toy you'd be disappointed to get at Christmas.
Where are you at with stance and derelict styles? Can a truck pull 'em off better than a car, the other way around, or should they all be banished from our streets forever?
Images: Andrew P. Collins