Thursday, February 21, 2013

Imogen Heap's Musical Gloves


Being a digital music producer, I'm always interested in new musical technology.  Most of you know Imogen Heap from her famous song, Hide and Seek.  The English songwriter, composer, and singer gave a demonstration at Wired 2012 of her new Musical Gloves.  Musical Gloves you say?  What on earth is that supposed to do?

The idea behind the Musical Gloves is to eliminate any still standing electronics on stage, and turn the musical performance into musical movements.  She demonstrates the various ways of creating sounds, or playing with the sounds already at hand.  An example is she lifts her right arm and creates a reverb (echo) that pans to the right side, same with the left.  She also beats on an invisible drum to create a drum beat, and plays invisible notes to create melodies.

How can this technology be reworked to better suit dancers?  Could these Musical Gloves be customized for dancers so that certain movements can create other sounds than what she demonstrated (i.e. moving the legs to create reverb rather than the arms)?  I'd like to hear your opinions.

The Bay Area Meteorite

 

It was incredible.  A friend and I were walking down the street in Berkeley, California, when she yelled out, "Look a shooting star!"  I looked up, and realized that it was not a shooting star, but a small meteorite falling from the sky.  It started with what looked like a bright yellow light that slowly faded to green as it got closer to the ground, and just before it broke the horizon, it disintegrated.  It was absolutely stunning, and something I had never seen before.  Needless to say I made an enormous wish.

This phenomenon apparently happens all over the world various times throughout the day, but the reason why I was so intrigued by this was because it happened about 24 hours after a meteor hit Russia which injured about 1,100 people.  Yes, it looked amazing, and one of the most spectacular sights I've ever witnessed, but also somewhat scary because of what happened in Russia only a day before.  For more information, check the links I've posted below:

Meteorite over California

Russian Meteorite

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Mathmatically Perfect Nachos


Nachos are one of life's simple delicacies.  Such a simple idea, yet so much bold flavor, so much satisfaction!  But not with every bite.  Nachos have the disadvantage of all the good stuff being on top (chips, cheese, beans, salsa, quacamole, sour cream), and on bottom your just left with chips.  This makes for an exciting meal that slowly degrades in quality and quantity.  Joe Brown, a writer for the Gizmodo blog, put together a very interesting article, "How to Make Mathmatically Perfect Nachos."  Mathmatically perfect?  Really?  It's just food, why do we need to involve math?  Well, the link below will show you how.  Surprisingly easy, and you will gain the utmost respect from friends, and family.

Check it out!