Tinderblog » Music

Fun and Family

Paul — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 19:24:00 +0000

Weekends can be cool. My mom is in the country this weekend. She lives in Belgium and comes to SA once or twice a year either to do training here, or as a stopover on her way to Mocambique, Mauritius, Namibia or some other neighbouring country.

This Friday she was doing some training at Nedbank and she’s off somewhere else next week (I can’t remember right now where it is) so we (Christie and I) got to spend part of Saturday afternoon with her. Its always kinda cool to catch up in person instead of over skype. We’ve slowly upgraded over the years (she’s been gone for about 5.5 years now). First it was e-mail, then some phone calls (there was some cheap calling plan she got in Belgium), and then last year we moved on to Skype when I got my iBurst. Now we’re skyping with video when iBurst’s bandwidth is consistent enough to give a decent quality call.

Tonight Christie and I went to see a band play at Tanz Cafe called The Waiting Room. They were actually very awesome. Christie found out about the Gig on MySpace and so the two of us and Mari went to go see them. As it turned out we all kinda knew some of the people in the band from somewhere and it bugging us why we recognised them.

Their music is quite cool (they have some samples on myspace) and we were all kinda bummed when they left the stage so that The Garth Taylor Band could play. We bought their CD and chatted a bit to the guys, as it turns out their one member was in a band called Big Jump Joey and we know one of their ex-members. I knew that I knew Ryan from somewhere and eventually we found out that he goes to London Road Church in Johannesburg and their lead elder used to run the worship at our church and I’m sure I’ve seen him in their worship bands or something. A bit later on I realised that I may have actually sung in a choir with Ryan before (either at a conference in Bloem or at a church gathering in Bedfordview). Their CD thanks a bunch of people that Christie knows, and Mari may have sung with them in some choirs too. So on at the end of it all we have a whole bunch of connections to them that we didn’t know about before, and if it wasn’t for Christie finding them on MySpace we would probably not know about the band.

C# Drum machine

Paul — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 20:41:00 +0000

For those of you who like making music on a PC but struggle with getting a cool beat, drum machines are excellent tools. For those who want to build a drum machine in C#, this article is an excellent tool. (it gives you the code and the drum machine executable, but requires DirectX 9, and the .Net Framework) I read about it in Duncan Mackenzie’s blog.

Music Plasma

Paul — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 20:19:00 +0000

You know, this is the 2nd person I’ve seen raving about MusicPlasma! I checked it out a week or so ago when I saw the first link to it… Its a pretty grafic intensive site (I think its flash based, but I can’t remember) so it might take a long time to download… but its meant to be a good way to “find related artists”… It answers the age old question that goes like this: if I like “The Newsboys”, what other artists am I likely to like too?

It looks quite good, except that now I have a whole bunch of music I want to go and buy…

Bliss

Paul — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 22:20:00 +0000

Firstly, I’ve been meaning to link to Isabella’s blog – called “She’s a flight risk”… cool story, even if its not true…

Speaking of “Bliss”… Daniel Bjørnbakk has some funky XP Bliss backgrounds.

And onto other blissful matters – Mugg & Bean had an ad that said something to the effect of “without caffeine, a place is just not civilised”. But IMHO, until there’s a “Seattle Coffee Co.” or “Starbucks”… caffeine is just not that great.

Today I wandered down to the mall nearby, and found out that the “Seattle Coffee Co.” there has finally opened! Pure bliss… so I’ve now got my “frequent buyer” card, and a travel mug… Which was immediately used for a Grande Vanilla and Cinnamon Caffé Latté, followed by a stroll around the exclusive books next door. My day has been made complete, I can’t wait for my next trip to caffeine heaven.

Then I wandered around and saw some awesome new restaurants that will be opening… I also found a cool crafts shop with excellent stuff there, perfect for lots of christmas presents.

Then I stopped off at CNA and bought Bump XIII, which is excellent – possibly I’m appreciating it more because I’m buzzing with caffeine… but I’m not complaining.

Back to work…
[Listening to: Tu Es Foutu 2004 - DJ Costa - Bump 13 (02:48)]