http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdi0NGswSAo


I'll throw my stake in the ground (whatever that means) and say that sensitive, exquisite, transcending electric guitar just doesn't get better than this. Considering the 1976 (not confirmed) technology, this is a beautiful video.

EricPorcher

I'm experimenting with various media available for embedding. Glad to hear from Jen Gloeckner and to hear her music today.

www.ericporcher.com

My comment at Nguyen Le's page led to this blog entry

 

    http://www.myspace.com/nguyenle1

 

This image at least hints at where I stand on music this week.

   
1. Nguyên Lê is  a superb guitar player and musician from Paris.  Bakida is a Nguyên Lê Trio CD, and the song Encanto was my first exposure to the exquisite 5-string accoustic bass of Renaud Garcia Fons.  For that song, my current Last.fm tags are:  guitar • warm • bass • beauty • amazing-favourite.   (The songs currently playing at Nguyên's MySpace are from several CD's other than Bakida.)   www.nguyen-le.com
   
   
2. I often listen to music streaming from my virtual library at www.last.fm   It's a pretty good facility.  I've been paying only $3.00 per month to access a very large selection of music.  But I don't own anything, and don't know how to backup the collection of song names, my tags and playlists and the whole library list.  I've invested time into recording tag and playlist associations which I and other paying users can play, in random order.  I wish I could apply these tags to the same songs existing in my computer.   Last.fm has assisted me in discovering or confirming albums which I have subsequently purchased.  My page there: http://www.last.fm/user/ericporcher
   
   
3. I still buy music.  Musicians should be paid for their music.   Music is precious.   Imagine a world without music.  No, don't go there.
   
   
4. I am awkwardly in transition between several music media technologies.   Many of the CD's I burned for my private use (playlists) are now failing.  I am collecting MP3's but rarely play them and don't have them organized yet.  I still buy CD's.  (I heard that Apple iTunes will begin to sell all tracks DRM-free.  This is good news.  I might soon buy my first track from them.)   I've had trouble buying digital files from Amazon, being in Canada.  But I'm also struggling with the notion of giving up the physical and visual package of music.  Some musicians have done great things with the visual appearance of their music.  On the other hand, I'm running out of room for all these CD's.  I want to rip and give or throw away many of them.   And I'm looking for the best MP3 player to handle music playlists.  Ideally I would like to apply my own tags directly into each song file, and have a player capable of playing those tags.
   
   
5. I am still active at MySpace.  It has been my primary network, particularly in the music world.
   


6. I am a photographer and music blogger.  I record things, usually not with a microphone.  I consider myself a friend of musicians.  I look for ways to benefit  them and for  possible collaborations with them. 

 

A rather unrelated but recent image

 

Four Guys Turning Fifty

From a series of images I hope to show here soon

 

Eric Porcher

January 11, 2009

I am delighted to find more of Alex Cuba’s music streaming online. He now plays songs at CBC Radio 3, including the Latin percussion gem, Y Que Bongo. This song is a highlight of Alex Cuba’s latest CD, Agua Del Pozo, which was awarded the 2008 Juno, World Music Album of the Year.

Y Que Bongo is a percussion treasure.  This song has the guest Cuban percussion player, Luis Simon Varela Hernandez "Quimiñon".  I had to ask about the drums, and was told that they were bongos tuned low, almost sounding like congas. A masterful number of notes. Alex Cuba puts together in this and other songs from Aqua Del Pozo a sensual magic reminiscent of Eric Burdon and War’s, Spill The Wine. (For more on this association buy Agua Del Pozo and read the English or Spanish lyrics to Y Que Bongo, Tu Boca Lo Quita and Penita En La Cara.)


Play Y Que Bongo at CBC Radio 3
Play all Alex Cuba songs at CBC Radio 3
Hear Alex Cuba songs sprinkled throughout Eric’s Soulwindows.com playlist at CBC Radio 3
Alex Cuba at MySpace, Facebook, Website

Agua Del Pozo produced by Alexis Puentes and Joby Baker, Baker Studios Ltd. MySpace


EricPorcher.com

Here is new music I was excited to find this week. Loose Change Trio from Vancouver, Canada.

Listen for yourself, but I'll offer some descriptors. Enthralling and satisfying vocals by David Ward. Soul, Blues, Pop, Jazz, Funk and a bit of Bluegrass and Latin, rolled up sensitively and with solid musical abilities in an accessible form. Early Chicago, Dave Matthews Band, reminiscent of. Guitar, horns, drums (Greg Bevis), bass, violin, and well-written songs, professionally-produced by Adam Fulton.

Did I mention the vocals?

I'm returning to edit this blog entry, after about a week of listening (a lot) to David Ward's singing in this professionally-produced package of music. I suggest to you, look for some reach to the grace, soul and funk of Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald and Mahalia Jackson in the singing of David Ward. Masculine-enough he is, and he sings something more. (Talking like Yoda, I am.)

And then there's his songwriting. I can imagine returning to this one day.

This is good music. Mainstream appeal, it has, but with an intriguing and satisfying musical quality. Looking forward to seeing this band's future unfold, I am. Even to hear the rest of the coming CD.

Loose Change Trio has several solid ways for you to check them out:

www.loosechangetrio.com

CBC Radio 3 Currently my favourite source for listening.

myspace.com/loosechangetrio

Facebook

In addition, you can hear Loose Change Trio prominently played in the Soulwindows.com playist at CBC Radio 3 along with other fine Canadian musicians. Here is a YouTube response to this from Loose Change Trio. I'm guessing that Adam Fulton did not produce this video. Thanks guys!

Loose Change Trio will release their debut CD in Vancouver on Feb. 29, 2008 at the Backstage Lounge. See www.loosechangetrio.com for details.

Another new video

Eric Porcher
Photographic art, online music blog
www.ericporcher.com

I have stated recently that MySpace has introduced several excellent improvements to this network. Among my favourites are the new music player which plays all tracks continuously, and on the single player like the one I have, the ability to view user's song history (if you have logged in). I like the new home page items like, Friend Status (I update mine up to a few times daily, visible to friends.) View New Friends, Online Friends, and Friend Updates showing which friends have updated their pages. I like that one - I wish I could subscribe to all friends or at least more than 40, with control at both ends of course. So far, I like the Facebook-type features that MySpace has added.

But after these several good forward steps at MySpace, it seems that it's the occasional big backward step that prompts my blog entries. What am I ranting about this time? Well, let me begin by apologizing to those of you who graced my MySpace with your creative images. You may see that tonight, Dec. 5, 2007, your image has been reduced in size. I did not modify any settings today, which could have caused such a manipulation of your image. It appears that MySpace has done this.


The next day, after some Google searching and digging in the MySpace settings, I find that there is a solution to this, at least on my page. Why wasn't it something I could opt-in to? How long will it take all other users to figure this out?

MySpace has added a new setting in Edit Profile, Account Settings, Miscellaneous:

Comments Stretching: Allow Images and Videos to stretch the width of my comments box

The default setting for this new feature is OFF, or, deselected. Why??


I have seen this image-size modification appearing around MySpace pages recently. While seeing this as a large-scale diminishing of MySpace' value, I consoled myself in the fallback of at least keeping the comment image size on my page intact. At least my friends' images wouldn't be manipulated on my page. But now I see that we are losing that privilege, until we figure out how to get it back. The only thing I could be thankful for when the images were shrunk, was that they have at least kept the image aspect ratio intact — for example, a picture of an elephant doesn't end up looking like that of a giraffe.

Those of us who enjoy visual art, and who collect information from promotional images posted by musicians or other artists, have suffered a significant setback here at MySpace. This backward step is enlarged also by the recent choice of many MySpace users to disallow the use of images and other HTML in their comment section. I believe the cause of this is the rampant barrage of images used to trap users in phishing or other malicious or spamming endeavours. It feels like we are under attack. I do understand the impulse to just shut off the flow of that type of HTML influence. But the community is losing an important element. It's quiet around here! My daily page views have dropped about a half of what they were recently, likely because I'm not posting images in comments. They are either not allowed or I have nothing small enough to fit.

I am fortunate to have a fast internet connection. Even so, I have had experience with waiting a LONG time to open graphic-intensive MySpace pages. These pages are frustrating, but are often inspiring once the wait ends. I understand that bandwidth is an issue. But am I the only one who preferred the previous no-image-change status? I am here for musical and visual art, and to connect with others. Please MySpace, don't manipulate our images or our code. (See my rant about msplinks.)

This kind of stuff makes me feel like wandering over to that other network, where a user's page looks like a form to fill out for a blood test. Give us our music, from musician almost direct to listener, with visual art to occupy and engage all aspects of the mind. This is what MySpace has been good for. I hope the people at MySpace can keep their eyes on the mind of the user, continuing to improve the network features, and somehow overcoming the interference of the spammer, the phisher and any other kind of malicious intruder. Somehow, let's keep building this thing, including the musical and the visual, in excellent proportions.

So my question is, (Tom, are you there?) where is the introduction to and education for this major new feature, the control for which is buried in the depths of one's profile settings? I watch carefully for Tom's communications about new or problematic features. Did I miss one? For a while there you were communicating quite freely with us, even replying to comments at your blog. I liked that. But now we have a major negative move with no preparation or instruction, at least that I heard.

My suggestion on this one, beyond way more communication, is to offer users the ability to state their own guidelines to their visitors and potential commenters. On my profile I would state a maximum image width of 500 pixels, and my lack of tolerance for spam. Sure, you can offer this comment-stretching option, but please, set the default to ON. And when I comment with an image at one of my friends' pages, and the image is too large, I would prefer to know about it and even have it rejected, rather than have the image manipulated.

I still care about MySpace. That's why I get worked up sometimes.

Eric Porcher
Dec. 6, 2007 

The Roman numeral for 10,000 is... at Wikipedia, 10,000
(How can it be so hard to find the code to show that here?)

Celebrating 10,000 MySpace page views tonight.

Why?

Because it's a shapely, debatably-ample, very-round number.
I like it.

It's a lighthouse, or a foothold.


It was a quantity of unknowns. Who was out there? Largely a number. (And occasionally a city shows up on a map.) And sometimes... a face shows up. And a song. And then another. And the images!  From so far away, or from this city.

I confess: I am a slow or poor communicator, in my responses. I plead in my heart, for the forgiveness and patience of several people, to whom I have been negligent.

Tonight I'm celebrating, listening to and rearranging Soulwindows.com playlist at CBC Radio 3.
http://radio3.cbc.ca/play/soulwindowscom

There be good music and energy.


Rather-secretive soul here, sending out a pulse, online.

I celebrate my life
and I celebrate yours,
wherever you are.


Thank you for 10,000 page views.


Eric Porcher

eric at soulwindows. d o t c o m
Victoria, Canada
www.myspace.com/ericporcher
www.soulwindows.com
www.swinehall.com

I am disappointed in last night's MySpace bulletin. I'll quote:

Jun 13, 4:07 pm PDT
Tonight we started using msplinks on profiles, just like we've been using them in comments. Whenever you save a url in your myspace page, we convert it to an msplinks url. This allows us to easily and instantly disable links sitewide. If a phishing link gets out into common use, we can turn it off instantly. This is just another weapon in our arsenal to stop phishing and spam while providing you the freedom to customize your profile any way you want. Short version: Don't be worried when you see msplinks in your profile! If you dont know what phishing is, read my blog.

I recognize the need to address phishers and spammers, I do. But I feel that this action takes away the site visitor's ability to see the correct url that the link will deliver him to. 

Links are valuable entities, and I believe people are sometimes reluctant (I am) to follow a link if they cannot match a resemblance in the link properties to the link's appearance. For example, if I link here to
www.myspace.com/tom what I would like to see in my browser's url display pane is: "http://www.myspace.com/tom." But tonight, what I'm seeing is something like:
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRw0i8vd3d3Lm15c3BhY2UuY29tL3RvbQ==

Hyperlinks at MySpace no longer have the value they once had. MySpace has suffered a huge setback tonight, in my opinion. Spammers and phishers are to blame, but I feel that this one of MySpace's approaches to the problem has greatly diminished MySpace's value to me.

Now I'm also finding that the link destination that I set is even modified in my MySpace code once I've saved it. So, code I created in Dreamweaver and saved in MySpace, then shows up modified when I open it again in MySpace. It no longer shows the original URL. I Don't like this!  MySpace, please don't manipulate the code!

URLs are important. Please don't hide them, or convert them!  I feel like I'm in a country which attempts to centrally control the internet access of its population. 

Eric Porcher

www.myspace.com/ericporcher
www.soulwindows.com

From The Beatles MySpace:

 

More about the music of 1967, coming here soon. For now, they're playing Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds at The Beatles on MySpace .  

Watch Making of Pepper.

Eric Porcher

MySpace.com/ericporcher

 

Feeling: positive.  (I don't see an option to select that here.) (I'll save looking down for later.) Music playing tonight: Rhythms, by Alien Chatter. These guys seem to be two positive spirits, with the lights on.  See also, http://alienchatter.com/ Day one, of the local artists' studio tour. Sixteen artists are linked in an open studio today and tomorrow. I am proud to be included with these people. I've temporarily converted this place to a two-room studio-gallery and I'm enjoying the view of some of the ideas I had for this show. (Several more ideas remain unassembled in bags on the floor, in the computer, and in my head.) It was so good to meet several beautiful people here.  This feels like one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. Years of clutter and life pushed away here—although I didn't get to my desk—to display an attempt at something beautiful. I'm enjoying the space in here, the lights, the images, the music, and now the people. I enjoyed them all, and I think some of them enjoyed their time here. I am thankful for this. I am thankful also to my family, who supports me, encourages me and helps me. I would be nowhere without you. I have people who love me, and I am ever thankful for this. Thank you Elizabeth, for loving and helping me. Lenore, at Island Blue: thank you for your excellent matting and framing ideas and service. And thanks also to Fujiya Japanese Foods! They were one of the kind sponsors of the Scattered Artists Studio Tour, and distributed many brochures for the group. Eric