How I Kick-Started My Creativity with Unfamiliar Tools

May 31, 2012 Leave a Comment

One year ago, I posted the song “Chinatown” for all the world to hear. Today, in a guest post on Brad Holland’s blog, I talk about the process that led me there.

All too often, the creative process is confused with the creation itself. Everything that’s written, drawn, composed, or stumbled upon doesn’t necessarily have to end up in a final product; in fact, one of the best ways to really let your creative beast play is to stop worrying about the final product completely.

That can be hard to do when we take pride in our work, but one way to let go is to try tools you’ve never used before. No one should expect to be an expert at something instantly, so painting with a new brush or cutting with a new type of shears frees us to give up our expectations of ourselves. We might make something far short of a masterpiece, but we’re learning new ways to let our creative energies flow.

Read the full article at Hollandz: Exploring the Creative World.

Filed under Music, Random, Writing Tagged with , , , ,

New Hippo Techie: Choosing a cheap tablet

May 31, 2012 Leave a Comment

Every week, it seems, there’s a different 7-inch tablet on sale for under $100 at one discount store or another. Sometimes it’s a bottom-tier brand name like Coby or Pandigital; sometimes a Polaroid mixes in; and sometimes there’s no brand name anywhere — in the advertisement, on the box, or on the tablet itself.

With even an older iPad 2 starting at $399 and e-reader tablets hovering around $200, these cheapos can be tempting. In some cases you can manage a bargain, but you have to be wary. A list of good and bad tablets wouldn’t do much good in the quickly-changing marketplace, so here’s a guide for what to look for.

Read the complete article at The Hippo.

Filed under Hippo Techie, Writing

Mobile Operating Systems & Musical Instruments

May 30, 2012 3 Comments

The third and fourth parts of my series on musical instruments as mobile apps have been published at their respective blogs, so get ready to jam.

Up first, drums:

The inclusion of a drum kit in GarageBand hasn’t stunted the development of drum apps for the iPad. In addition to several called simply “Drums,” there’s “Drums!,” “Drums!!,” “Drums!!!,” and innumerable other variations. I’ll focus on the free ones, for both iOS and Android.

Read the entire article at PrePayAsYouGo.

Next, how about sequencers to really get some electronica going in your band?

You might not think of a sequencer as a musical instrument that can be played live. Their whole point is to sequence notes or clips together so they play automatically, right? Sure – but using a sequencer as a backing track can fill out or enhance your song, and these simple sequencer apps let you modify your patterns on the fly. These free apps from a diverse set of mobile app developers are great for beginners and virtuosos alike.

Read the entire article at Tech-Ticks.

Finally, changing tack a bit – a look at how desktop operating systems are becoming more and more influenced by their mobile counterparts:

The first time Microsoft put Windows on a phone, it looked pretty much like Windows 95 on a tiny screen, complete with Start button. Now the trend is reversing – both Apple and Microsoft are incorporating mobile user interface elements into their latest desktop operating systems, and independent developers are customizing Android for inexpensive PCs.

Read the entire article at the Zco blog.

Filed under Writing, Zco

The Women! Uncaged

May 29, 2012 Leave a Comment

You may recall that I’ve been attempting to formally secure the rights to place an image from Star Trek on the (virtual) cover of my EP, The Women! My e-mail from April received a response a month later:

Unfortunately, we are unable to license the rights to use the Star Trek “The Cage” episode still shot for your album cover.

Phooey. Not a big surprise, but disappointing nonetheless. Fortunately there was a backup plan. And thus do I reveal to you, my loyal fans, The Women! Uncaged:

The Women! Uncaged

The music is no different. Only the cover art is, uh, vastly improved. If you’ve previously downloaded, you can delete and re-download or just associate the new picture with the MP3 files. Or do nothing at all, but then CBS will come after me with phaser-toting lawyers.

Filed under Music

I Want Better Widescreen Applications

May 26, 2012 Leave a Comment

Computer displays have almost completely converted to widescreen aspect ratios. The old 4:3 monitors basically aren’t sold anymore, and now our laptop and desktop displays have ratios of 16 units of width to 9 or 10 units of height. That makes it easier to display High Definition content, but is terrible for productivity apps.

The English language runs left to right, so it makes sense for menus to drop down, giving us vertical lists of functions that read horizontally. That more-tall-than-wide shape is also typically how we arrange our pages. We call it Portrait orientation, as opposed to Landscape orientation. Read more of this post

Filed under Random, Writing

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