Sidingsound

Web developer and musician Jeremy Keith has posted a heartfelt, even passionate eulogy for GeoCities, the pioneering Web site hosting outfit which was quietly put to sleep by its owner Yahoo!, earlier today.

A decade ago, I had my own plot of cyberspace on GeoCities (even that turn of phrase reads to me as quaintly 1990s as GeoCities itself). It was located at /SunsetStrip/Amphitheatre/5117/—the city/geographical metaphor extended to the thematic ‘areas’ of the site, where “SunsetStrip” was devoted to music, “WallStreet” to business, and so on.

“The Hall Of The Endless Knot” was a small site devoted to my big musical interest of the time: loop-based instrumental music of the type popularised by Terry Riley, Fripp and Eno, and the like. It served mostly as a host for a “virtual album” of my own recordings with electric guitar and loop sampler (a quite exciting idea in 1998), but I also found space to link to other resources along similar lines, including Looper’s Delight (which as you can see, long outlived my own effort, and interest in the subject, for that matter).

Suffice it to say, after a few years the “Hall” was gradually abandoned, and long before Geocities departed this world, I think my own site there did too. Actually, I have no idea whether my pages survived to the end, or were swept away in one of Yahoo!’s periodic remodellings of their new acquisition, and unless the Internet Archive fortuitiously kept a copy, I may never know.

There’s much more that could be said on the subject, but I’ll content myself with observing that the Web as a service known to most of the general public, has been in existence now for over fifteen years, and as time passes, we’re running up against issues of preservation more and more.

Over time, I myself have lost most of the personal Web sites I have built since discovering the Web in 1994. The loss of some of the material, doesn’t bother me greatly—some was downright embarrassing, and most not W3C-standards-compatible—but I do regret not making more effort to save my early blogging efforts from 2001-2, and later from 2004-5. I’m fairly sure some fragments survive somewhere, either on one of my large collection of CD-Rs (which at their age, for all I know, could be disintegrating into unreadable dust as I sit here), or perhaps in the aforementioned Internet Archive (Wayback Machine).

I’m thinking seriously about starting to compile my blogging, Twittering (well, the highlights, anyway), Twitpic-ing and similar online ephemera of mine, in “yearbooks”. I would want to create them in an electronic format which could be easily read/recovered in a couple of decades’ time (or more), which to my mind means LATEX or ODT (OpenDocument), and would also think of having a copy or two printed, in the hope that the contents might be of interest to future generations. (Yes, it sounds pretentious, but who knows?)

Anyway, I have tangent-ed long enough. Farewell, GeoCities, and may a flight of sprites sing you to your rest.

(Update (11pm): Oh wow… the Wayback Machine has a 1999 cache of the “Hall”… now, how can I easily save myself a copy before that vanishes?)

The title here is a bit of an in-joke—as you probably saw if you came in via my Twitter feed, new posts here are prefixed automatically with the words “New blog post: [title]” (work it out ).However, it is actually accurate in this case, as this post really does concern a new blog, that I’ve just set up on wordpress.com.

Eee 701 Planetoid is aptly named, being (a) a “satellite” of the Sidingsound blog, and (b) devoted entirely to my latest acquisition: an Asus Eee PC 701 “netbook” computer, and my various activities with it. I’ll be using “E7P” almost like a running diary of my “Eeexploits” (sorry), with ‘hacks”, fixes, useful apps, tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way, which I think might help other owners of this small but perfectly-formed machine, to get the most out of it.

I’ve posted at the Planetoid for the first time, with a couple of initial impressions I had of the Eee, and there will be a good few more over the coming days as I get to grips with the computer and start tweaking it to my requirements. Whilst I don’t intend to cross-post between the blogs that often, I’ll add Planetoid to the “lifestream” page shortly, so you can see when updates are posted there. (My Twitter page will also be updated with new Planetoid posts, though I still have to find out how to get wordpress.com to let me use bit.ly for short URLs, so I can find out how many visitors use them.)

So, jet on over to Eee 701 Planetoid and take a look, and I hope you enjoy your stay

While I’m at the keyboard and in WordPress…

Periodically, over the last few months, I’ve made references to a Christmas CD project that Joy and I have been working on (here’s the blog post where I first mentioned the CD), and if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may have wondered how things were progressing on the recording. (Hey, I can dream )

In short: I think we’re about 75% done on the actual recording, partly thanks to an evening of work Joy and I put in the other day (mainly various keyboard parts of hers). Out of the six definite pieces on the “mini-album”—we might add a seventh if time and inspiration allows—five are at various stages of completion (and one, I think, is actually finished). The one “definite” piece we haven’t started yet, is waiting for the middle of next month, when we’re planning to spend some time with a friend in a proper studio with a decent piano, so Joy can record some solo parts.

At the rate we’re going, I reckon we’ll have this wrapped up in time for early December. At this point, I think the CD project will be limited to friends and family “stocking fillers”, but if the results turn out well enough, it’s certainly possible that they will receive a wider airing in due course.

More updates will follow shortly…

A couple of months back, I looked back on some of my “computing milestones” from the past fifteen years or so, and in passing, mentioned that for a couple of years I was the proud owner of a Psion Series 5mx.

Whilst I had time to write about how I was getting on the Internet with it in 2001 (via my then mobile phone—a Nokia 6310i, as I recall—via GPRS over an infrared link!), I didn’t mention another use for the Psion at the time: it was also my calendar, which I synchronised with Lotus Organizer (sic) on my desktop PC via PsiWin.

Of course, there’s little new in syncing a PDA with a PC/Mac—owners of handhelds have been doing this since the 1990s. However, after parting with my Psion I didn’t get back into calendar-syncing activity until acquiring my current mobile phone (a Nokia N95), in the summer of 2007. This syncs very nicely with our iMac (either over USB, or more often, wirelessly via Bluetooth), but it can also exchange data with calendar hosts on the Internet.

Since last year, I’ve been syncing Google Calendar with the N95 over the Internet (3G or WiFi, whichever is available). A sync setup has evolved over time between the iMac, the N95 and Google Calendar where:

• Google acts as the de facto ‘master’ calendar, mainly because until relatively recently, Apple iCal couldn’t update Google Calendar directly. Therefore, I set up iCal to “read” the GC data, and updated GC via either the N95 or the Web interface. (I just learned that iCal now supports “write access” to GC via CalDAV, of which more shortly.)
• Until now, the N95 has synced with Google Calendar over HTTP, via the GooSync online service. (You will note the past tense, the reason for which follows in a moment.) I also sync via HTTP to Nokia’s Ovi service, as it seems to me one can never have too many data backups…

The problem with GooSync, is that they have just discontinued their Free service, in favour of offering “Lite” and “Premium” packages. The “Lite” package isn’t ruinously expensive (about £6 a year), but being a bit of a cheap sort (!), I thought I’d look around for free alternative solutions for syncing between Google Calendar and my N95, or even completely different approaches.

Well, at time of writing, I’m still looking. Basically, I haven’t found another free service offering sync between S60 phones and Google Calendar over SyncML (the preferred method for S60); they’re all paid services. Google’s own SyncML-based service is limited on S60 to contact information (so no calendar sync); however, they offer contacts and calendar sync if you’re prepared to download Nokia Mail for Exchange, which Google warns may result in data loss (“make sure to back up any important data before you set up Google Sync”, but then that’s good advice anyway).

One positive development: I’ve managed to set up iCal on the Mac to access Google Calendar via CalDAV, so I can now not only read GC items within iCal, but add them as well. Whilst I could get around the GC-N95 sync problem by syncing the N95 and Mac (i.e. the Mac becomes the ‘master’), this wouldn’t work if I’m away from home, and I’d also be stuck if the home Internet connection goes down.

Loads of fun, anyway. In the end, it may turn out that I have to bite the bullet and pay for a Google Calendar syncing service after all (in which case, I’d probably stick with GooSync). It all makes me feel as if I took the ability to sync my calendar online from my phone, for free, somewhat for granted.

Whatever the case, it looks like I have some weighing-up of options to do.

In an idle moment recently (I do occasionally have these), I had a go at compiling a list of my top ten favourite guitar players—those whom I just like listening to, who I feel have had an influence on my own playing, or even both.

It was a tough call with a few players who just missed out on being included, but here is the list I came up with—in no particular order, along with (and we’ll come to why in a moment) their birth years:

• Mike Oldfield (1953)
• Robert Fripp (1946)
• Anthony Phillips (1951)
• Phil Keaggy (1951)
• Brian May (1947)
• Steve Howe (1947)
• Graham Coxon (1969)
• David Gilmour (1946)
• Bill Frisell (1951)
• Roger McGuinn (1942)

I don’t think I’d realised how far my tastes incline towards what some would term the “prog-rock” end of the scale (and in case Robert Fripp is reading this: yes, I know you loathe King Crimson being labelled that way, please don’t write about me), but this list would seem to confirm it.

Even more interestingly, perhaps: note that despite half a century-plus of rock music history, with two exceptions (Coxon and McGuinn), all the players on the list above were born between 1946 and 1953. You may draw from that whatever conclusions you will…

Today’s edition of The Guardian carried a very interesting article, examining the use of music in British children’s TV. In particular, the writer compares the soundtracks for the late Oliver Postgate’s shows from the 1950s to the 1970s (“The Clangers“, “Bagpuss“, “Ivor The Engine“, amongst others) with those of 2000s programmes, mostly on the BBC’s “CBeebies” pre-school channel.

Perhaps due to the event which has apparently spurred its publication—a forthcoming live performance of some of “Clangers” composer Vernon Elliott’s scores for the programme, in London’s Union Chapel—the article concentrates for most of its “past” coverage on Elliott’s soundtracks for Postgate’s programmes. Whilst richly-deserved, this focus sadly leaves no room for the other musical jewel in the crown of Postgate’s TV work: the delightful English and Irish folk-influenced soundtrack to “Bagpuss”, contributed by Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner (who also voiced Madeleine the rag doll and Gabriel the toad respectively).

Furthermore, whilst I thought the article took a pretty comprehensive look at its subject in the space allowed, I felt mildly disappointed at the omission of one of the key figures in British children’s TV music of the last fifty years: Freddie Phillips, whose multilayered classical guitar-and-percussion creations formed the soundtrack (and set much of the mood) for Gordon Murray’s 1960s animated shows, including “Trumpton”, “Camberwick Green” and “Chigley”.

In my view, Phillips is long overdue wider recognition for his role as a pioneer of home multitrack recording in the UK, overdubbing multiple instruments himself in his home studio at a time when such facilities were the preserve of electronics buffs and tinkerers (such as Joe Meek). Actor Brian Cant—the narrator of Murray’s programmes above—has painted a picture in interviews of Phillips setting up microphones in cupboards and bathrooms, and using all manner of ingenious techniques to achieve the sounds and effects he was aiming for. The end result was a charming and highly-evocative series of songs and incidental music, which have lingered in the minds of the children who have watched the series since the 1960s, and which still stand up to listening over forty years later.

When the article moves onto the present day, the writer thankfully avoids the temptation to dismiss all current children’s TV music as bland, production-line and unworthy in comparison to its forbears (although there is unfortunately some truth to the charge). Liz Kitchen is justly praised for her Stéphane Grappelli/Django Reinhardt-influenced music for “Harry and Toto“, as are John Greswell and collaborators for the soundtrack to “Charlie and Lola” (the latter being one of the few true highlights of CBeebies’ schedule, for both my daughter and myself!).

A central thrust of the article which I would debate, however, seems to be that “live” music—with “real” instruments, preferably played live—is invariably preferable to computers and electronics. Being a musician who employs acoustic, electric and electronic instrumentation (and enjoys all of them), I have sympathy with this view, but I feel it is just too “binary” or “black-and-white” an opinion. Yes, even some modern electronic instruments can have a cold, inorganic feel to them, but there are times when that is the desired effect, or when it doesn’t particularly matter.

There’s also nothing to prevent the composer from blending the “organic” with the “machine”; not to mention, too, that on the average composer’s budget, sometimes a synth or sampler is the only way to attain the sound(s) which are needed (certainly if one is working on a “demo”). Moreover, a creative enough composer can generate warmth from even an almost entirely synthetic soundtrack—witness Andrew Davenport’s gently cosy music for CBeebies’ bedtime series “In The Night Garden“.

After all this analysis: frankly, I would jump—no, make that fly—at the opportunity to produce music for children’s TV. My ideal approach (notwithstanding my comments above) would be to avoid using a software DAW (in my case, Logic), unless the piece called for something only possible through electronic means, and stick to acoustic (and if appropriate, electric) instruments.

If given “free rein”, I’d like to create music which nods to the children’s TV music I always responded to—Freddie Phillips (“Trumpton”, etc.), Kerr/Faulkner (“Bagpuss”)—whilst feeding in other musical influences of mine which I think would work, such as the Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s less “classical” pieces (think “Bean Fields“, and other PCO tracks with lots of ukuleles, percussion, etc.). There’d be lots of fretted strings (6- and 12-string guitars, ukulele, dulcimer, mandolin and the like), percussion, glockenspiel, recorders, whistles, melodica… in fact, I feel suddenly inspired, and think I’ll try cooking up some demos in the coming days!

At the very least, it’ll give me a good reason to (finally) put together the “music” page on this blog, that I’ve been promising for weeks