On closer inspection of the cd collection, it looks like I did actually
buy a couple “new in 2002” cds.

Nanci Griffith – Clock Without Hands
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones – Live at the Quick
David Bowie – Heathen
Trans Am – TA

of those, my favorite would have to be Nanci Griffith. It’s
the only one thats gotten multiple listens.

The Trans Am has some high points, but is mediocre overall.
But then, maybe it just needs a few more listens.

The Bela Fleck is okay, but I much preferred them in the
fusion/bluegrass days. One of the things I always liked about
the Flecktones was that even though fusion and bluegrass are both
pretty over the top styles, the early stuff tended to have a
lot of “space” to it. The new jam band influenced stuff tends
to lose that aspect.

The bowie album is pretty good, just not really something
I can listen to often. But then, my favorite Bowie album is
the first Tin Machine album, so what do I know.

noizspike

A rack mounted atari 2600 with a “synth” cartridge in it.

Crackpot Index

Chuckle.

An experiment, not particularly pleased with the results but I
suspect my mom will like it.

http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~adam/isen/event-systems.html

An old, but fairly exhaustive listing of various event passing and message queueing systems.
This kind of stuff seems to come up in conversation a lot recently.

Pollock’s Fractals

Interesting article about fractal analysis of Jackson Pollack’s drip paintings.
Interesting comments about what levels of complexity people find
estheticaly pleasing. Apparently people tend to find a certain
degree of complexity interesting.

Which makes me wonder about where the line between simplicity
and elegance (as most modern thoughts on design would have you
believe are the ultimate goals) and complexity and chaos stands.

Now that I think about it, I tend to lean towards things that are a
mix of the extremes. But then, it seems like that is probably true
of everyone.

I for one, do enjoy a lot of music and art that tends towards the
more complex and chaotic side. Things that seem noisy or busy
at first, but eventually reveal patterns, and perhaps more interestingly,
a large amount of “detail” for lack of a better word. Ie, a closer look/listen
will probably reveal something not noticed (at least, not consciously)
at first. I’d rather listen to a piece of music with a dozen barely noticeable
melodies intertwingling than one big obvious melody, for example.

This all made a lot more sense to me last night when I couldn’t sleep.

Ah, love those monday status meetings.