LadioCast automation (AppleScript)
Playing music is fun, LadioCast is an awesome tool that lets you broadcast ANY audio from your soundcard to an icecast server. It also lets you mix from multiple sources. Being a simple tool it doesn't grab it's own metadata info or anything fancy like that. There are several common ways to update this info and they're covered other places online. Below I've included my own ladiocast_update script that adds a bit extra to the metadata mix.
Sometimes you want to play a stream for a bit and then drop offline cleanly, but you don't want to hang around to wait for it to finish (sleep is awesome once or twice a month).
Through the magic of AppleScript you can do this. [We can have platform debates later, my whole broadcast kit is in osx right now, get over it.]
This script queries iTunes for the current state (playing, paused, stopped). If the stream is seen playing or paused it updates the metadata in ladiocast with the info from the currently playing track. If it finds that it has stopped it plays the "radio off" playlist (used to give a sign-off message), waits a little bit (for the message to finish) and then kills the stream.
An uncertain artist
I entered a piece in a 24 hour art show this weekend. Later this post may contain more information about it, but for now I'll just leave you with a picture.
Burning Beats and a Shining Light of Craziness
Last weekend was the Spring 2011 WildFire Retreat. I had the pleasure of traveling and camping with some of my dear friends from Consolidated Awesome, and it was amazing.
Lets get on with the good stuff? Okay, here it is!
- friday.mp3 - 374.1mb 3h10m - Even though I forgot my power adapter for my MacBook Pro at home, I was able to record all the way up to the final "goodnight"! I was so happy to find out that I had gotten it all.
- saturday.mp3 - 388.6mb 3h34m - I was fortunate enough to borrow a power adapter for Saturday night. Thanks again whoever you were (sorry, I'm awful with names).
- sunday... - Sorry, there's no recording of Sunday because I was only able to borrow the power adapter for Saturday. In addition I was having far too much fun playing with my INSANE FLOWTOYS OF INSANITY (more below).
On Sunday night, after the performance class I assembled and lit the series of tubes that was variably named "a big mistake", "a bad idea" and "awesomely stupid" (all labels applied by me). It consisted of 20 FlowLights in various sized tubes assembled into mega-sized toys.
Round 1: MEGA POI - 10 lights, 2 connectors, 3 tubes in each of 2 gigantic (approximately 6ft) poi. They were spun on benches, and on stilts and I even spun them (with little hops and jumps) while standing (long arm) on the ground. After everyone who wanted to had tried this craziness out, we moved on to...
Round 2: MONSTER STAFF - Remove flowpoi caps, insert contact staff handle. Result? 15 foot contact staff with about a foot of sag from center to ends. This thing was insane. In a show of complete badassery, Terry Fields was able to pull off both a cartwheel with the staff on his back and (what looked like) a full matrix. He and I then proceeded to harass the people standing around the fire pits into lighting up and getting the spinning started for real, by imitating a gigantic glowing bird screaming and chasing me across the field.
It was wonderful. It was hilarious. I didn't get any pictures of it! 🙁
If any of you have or know people who may have pictures or video of the epic flow madness from Sunday at 2011 Spring WildFire, please contact me to share.
Thanks for another great event, keep burning brightly, and spread the awesome!
~ Mike
A Taste of Home
Last year at WildFire Retreat I had the good fortune to be able to record the DJs on the burn field all three nights. I had originally hoped to release these immediately following the event but for many reasons (ooh! shiney!) I didn't.
Finally, only weeks before we head back into the wonderful world of WildFire, I have them to share. These files are posted on dropbox at the moment. If anyone knows of a better (preferably free) way to share them, please let me know.
- friday.mp3 (4h 15m - 439.2MB)
- saturday.mp3 (5h 36m - 562.7MB)
- sunday.mp3 (5h 17m - 514.8MB)
Please keep in mind that these are unedited live mixes. Enjoy them as the moments of history that they are 🙂
Hope to see you soon.
- dracoling
EDIT: I just noticed that sadly the friday track had some recording issues. From about 5m into the recording until about the 30m mark there's some problems. It clears up after that. The other two days went well.
EDIT 2: Fixed the link for sunday. oops!
Poi beginnings
A coworker asked me about poi spinning today, what it is and why I do it and where I learned. After a brief discussion he asked if I could send him some videos of it. Here's what I shared with him.
----
Here's a video of a friend of mine spinning fire at that Connecticut retreat (WildFire Retreat, mentioned last month):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLE658Da6rQ
Nathaniel Everist from Australia is one of the folks I learned the most from when I was starting out:
http://www.youtube.com/user/NathanielEverist#p/c/A0C299DC8A312068
Another great group I learn from is Nick Woolsey (from Canada) and playpoi.com
http://www.playpoi.com/poi-basics
My Trip to Las Vegas
Las Vegas is a place like none other. I felt, therefore, that the best way to document my trip would be to tweet about my experience, in real time, exclusively in Haiku.
Below are my Haikus, taken directly from my Twitter account, in chronological order.
[10:48 PM EST March 11th, 2011]:
Oasis of sin, you are where I want to be. Viva Las #Vegas. #Haiku
[12:51 PM EST March 12th, 2011]:
Neon lights abound. No shoes? No shirt? No problem! Las #Vegas sunrise. #haiku.
[01:09 AM EST March 13th, 2011]:
And that's the last zip. I'm packed and ready to go. #Vegas, here we come. #haiku
[05:44 AM EDT March 13th, 2011]:
Waiting at the gate. On the plane I'll close my eyes. Las #Vegas dreaming. #haiku
[07:22 AM EDT March 13th, 2011]:
Our flight got delayed. We would have missed our connect. Now we fly direct. #Vegas #haiku
[02:21 PM EDT March 13th, 2011]:
Landed in #Vegas. By the time I send this tweet, you know I'll be drunk. #haiku
[05:19 PM EDT March 13th, 2011]:
#Vegas vacation: the festivities begin. Rock hard at #HardRock.
[07:08 PM EDT March 13th, 2011]:
No swimming bathing or other use of facility after dark. #haiku
[02:18 AM EDT March 14th, 2011]:
Going to the club. Vanity, dancing, drinking. God blesses the youth. #Vegas #haiku
[02:45 AM EDT March 14th, 2011]:
Waiting in the line to ask the big bouncer guy about the door line. #Vanity #HardRock #Vegas #Haiku
[05:06 AM EDT March 14th, 2011]:
Didn't get in club. Won a fortune's worth of life. God bless Las #Vegas. #haiku
[02:34 PM EDT March 14th, 2011]:
Awake and drinking. Zack made us morning cocktails. Sip these. Don't shoot it. #Vegas #Haiku
[01:58 AM EDT March 15th, 2011]:
Lucky 6 and 8. She hit 5 points in a row. She's my golden goose. #Vegas #craps
[04:15 PM EDT March 16th, 2011]:
Love how, in #Vegas, the waitress says good morning at one-ten P M. #haiku #Denny's
[04:25 PM EDT March 16th, 2011]:
Like a champion, like a champion that is fo' sho'. I'm #winning. #Vegas #haiku
[04:27 PM EDT March 17th, 2011]:
And she is drinking like she's never drank before. She is #biwinning. #Vegas #haiku
I have no recollection of anything that occurred after that last tweet. The next thing I remember, I was waking up on the plane after landing back in Newark.
Yeah, it was a great trip.
-DLZ
Countdown
This year is a big one for me. I've been planning to go to a few events. Today I put a bunch of countdown widgets on one of my spare homescreens on my phone. Can't tell if this makes it more scary or less. Time will tell.
Update: Got a few questions about the apps/widgets I was using and the event dates, so here's all the answers...
Android Apps/Widgets (android market links):
- All the widgets you see in the screenshot are instances of Countdown Widget
- I took the screenshot using ShootMe (Screen Grabber)
Events:
- (orange) Burning Man
- (pink) Playa del Fuego - Burning Man regional event
- (all others) Wildfire Retreat - Spinning/Fire Arts training camp
Expect to see some more updates on the Burning Man front throughout the year, this will be my first time going and there's a lot of things to learn along the way.
Obama says discrimination against gays is generally unconstitutional!
It's about time!
From the article: "In a key shift on gay rights, the administration says a section of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional as applied to gay couples who are legally married under state law." The good news is that we're finally moving in the right direction. The bad news is that this still only applies to gay couples who are "legally married under state law" and does nothing to help gay couples who live in states where gay marriage is not yet legal.
I'm personally a heterosexual male in a long-term committed relationship. However, I have yet to hear a valid argument against gay marriage that isn't colored by religious prejudice or general ignorance and bigotry. In general, what you do in the privacy of your own home, as long as it stays in your own home and does not affect me in mine, or me in public, is none of my business. We, as a society, cannot legislate behavior or personal choice.
It's time for American society to make the next intellectual leap in public policy and social ideology.
If you can manage to muster a coherent argument either way, I'd love to know what you think.
Anonymous Speaks
Ars Technica has written an expose on the recent attacks on HBGary and HBGary Federal. Aaron Barr has sufficiently embarrassed himself and provided adequate water-cooler fodder for those of us in the security industry. This article is great because it also highlights some simple ways to protect yourself against similar attacks. Moral of the story: Escape. Escape. Escape..