.:evomatics::weblogic:.

One for the way

Andrew Moore — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:26:00 +0000

Evomatics is about to go offline. As you likely noticed my tunecast hygiene has been poor in the last year and half, and it is time to admit that I am not maintaining this bastard anymore. No real reason – I was busy with other stuff and did not take the time necessary to keep the beat up (for some of the other stuff, check out track-record.org). The domain has been with me for more than 10 years now, and I have been running the site in it’s current outfit for roughly six years. The domain will continue to exist, but its content will be considerably more bland. So, dear readers, I leave you today with an all time classic in a fresh outfit. If you have not already heard of Pomplamouse, be sure the check them out. The song you may find here today is a cover of Mr Sandman (originally performed by The Chordettes in 1954) from their excellent 2010 album Tribute to Famous People, chirped by the ever-so pleasant voice of Nataly Dawn. Thanks for tuning in – goodnight and goodbye.

Captain's Down

Andrew Moore — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:19:00 +0000

More bad news. A friend of mine died a couple of hours ago. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer a couple of months ago, and passed away yesterday evening. I find myself stuck at work trying to keep the ship steady, with various meetings and seminars lined up but thoughts are drifting… I do not have much to say, perhaps too much in total, so I shall keep it short. Right now, I realize how short anything of value is – tomorrow, most certainly, I will have forgotten the vibe of this brief moment. And how could one deal with this kind of thinking for any length of time? The result would be fine grained but miserable… I smile at the thought of returning back to the coarse, everyday mechanics. I guess bad news is part of the game, and there is very little that can be done about it. Attached to this post find ‘A pretty good day’ by Loudon Wainwright III. I guess one has to learn to value ones short and insignificant life as the grand show it is – it could be over any day. My condolence goes to friends and family…

A hat and high heels

Andrew Moore — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:52:00 +0000

My grandmother, Kathleen Frances Maude Moore (or Nanny as we called her), died last week. She suffered a stroke after a nice day out with her writing club and coffee people. Her death was quick and apparently without much pain – she most certainly would have approved. While I did not have much contact to her over the last years (as she lived in Victoria, BC), I talked to her once or twice a year. She would regularly remark that I should make my way out to BC to visit her before she ‘turns her toes upwards’. Alas, I did not make that appointment. The memorial service to celebrate her life just passed, and my family wanted to set the tone to celebration; she would have not approved of over-excessive mourning. Loads of people attended ranging from alternatives in their mid twenties to well groomed in suite and tie. On that occasion, my sister remarked that Nanny was always willing to dispense advice if asked. One of the things that stuck was “If you want to be ahead as a young women, wear high heels and a hat.” Anyways, I feel prompted to post a tunecast on this matter. As mentioned above, mourning was not her style. I found the appropriate song instantly – one that celebrates life for what it is – a short moment that we must make the best out of. To celebrate Nanny’s life as an example of just that, I bring you a tune from Ferraby Lionheart’s 2007 album ‘Catch The Brass Ring’ entitled ‘Before We’re Dead’ with tribute to Kathleen Frances Maude Moore, RIP.

''Zombiesque''

Andrew Moore — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:08:00 +0000

A quick tunecast: I was set up with some friends yesterday evening, with whom I am working on a small web application. Our plan was to talk about user interface issues. Unfortunately, this plan was rudely interrupted by the cocktail happy-hour of the establishment at which we met. We took advantage of the happy hour and ordered a round of drinks. That, in itself, is not noteworthy. Unfortunately, I made contact with the Zombie, of which I had only heard stories. Well, they are true; this drink is indeed dangerous. And while we had a nice evening (we in no way drank excessively), the aftermath is making it slightly difficult to focus, like my head is in a cloudy sky. Anyways… because music can sometimes hit spots that words don’t reach, I thought I would pick up the challenge to find a tune that adequately describes the effects of a zombie (that is, my mood right now). I walked down many paths, but ended up with a local act that will be unknown to most. From amidst the fog I bring you ‘A Word From Our Sponsor’ by the Münster/Osnabrück based band Instant Karma (off their last, officially unreleased album ‘Lost Album’). Incidentally, their singer Gordon and I formed ‘Sound Galaxy Washington’ a couple of years after Instant Karma. Anyways… this tune is truly ‘Zombiesque’ – in particular the singing saw samples, the over effected sighs, the backing ‘doo-doos’ and the ‘You see… it works just grrreat!’ part with the mechanical whirring sound of booting gadgetry. I believe Tom does the vocals on this one, and while it may sound like the topic is sex-related, I think he is reciting a vacuum cleaner manual in French. Be sure to check out their stuff over at instantkarma.to (website offers all material for download) – excellent band, IMHO. Finally, a word of advice: despite the innocent, thumbed-up appearance in the imagery at the top left, this one is a mean sucker…. beware of those zombies.

Going down with a smile

Andrew Moore — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:46:00 +0000

For various reasons, I was required to update my server. The update effected a number of things, in particular rails, ruby, all gems etc. This is/was bad news as I don’t really have the time to do this properly at the moment, so I am forced to hack my way around the issues. I originally developed evomatics under rails 1.x (!!!), so the jump to 2.3.5 is like jumping in time – as you know, time travel isn’t possible, and this jump was no different. But, at least in this case, wormholes do exist and I found an awful lot of them (most of them in the last hour). So, with breaking seams held together by spit and chewing gum, I was able to make the transition. No washing for the next weeks, the dirt that sticks is good at this point. Some major movements have to follow in the near future. Anyways, not only to test functionality, but to express my rejoice about being back online and because the song fits the jolly instable state of evomatics (and the weather in MS), I bring you a Japanese band by the name of Petty Booka revising ‘Singing in the Rain’ in high pitch, underlined by a ukulele.

Listening to Le Pop

Andrew Moore — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:46:00 +0000

This is just a quick tunecast. On a random Thursday evening I decided to drop by the Gleis, in need of some loud n’ live. Before leaving, I quickly checked the listing and stumbled over a norweigan band that goes by the name of Katzenjammer (literally cats wail). It sounded kind of exciting, advertised as Folk-County-Balkan-Gypsy-Klapperrockpop, and as I only have the best of experience with norwegian live acts, this was a mild must-see. With no tickets at hand, and no real idea what kind of sound to expect, I made my way over to the Gleis around 2100 (which is the normal procedure). To my surprise, there was quite some commotion in front of my local gig palace and it started to dawn on me that, a) Katzenjammer is well known in the sub scenes and b) I was probably going to miss a must see gig. And, sure enough, the crowd was mixed and interesting and the sold-out sign propped up beside the door. So after cruising home, opening up a blond trappist beer known as ‘La Trappe’ , I dragged Katzenjammers 2008 album ‘Le Pop’ off of emusic. And now to the beef: the album is solid. Le Pop is fast paced, busy in fact, features more than 10 different instruments (from what I could hear, there could easily be more involved), perfectly synced 4-piece harmonies, some strong song writing, mariachi trumpets, accordions and fair organs all held together by gooey, stick-in-your-head melodies; ‘Hey ho on the devils back’ immediately made me want to listen to the Charlie Daniels band, ‘Der Kapitän’ to Gogol Bordello. In short – Katzenjammer is fun, and the fact that I missed their show is not. I attached the mentioned Danilesque ‘Hey ho on the devils back’ to this post. I am positively certain that this band is a solid live act – be sure to check them out if their in town.

Robert 'Paddy' Moore: Someone from the past

Andrew Moore — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:03:00 +0000

Today is the anniversary of the accident that killed my granddad some 42 years ago. During the summer of 1967, a mean heat wave hit British Columbia. My granddad, a pilot for the RAF during the second world war, had been recruited by Alex Davidson, a former WWII ace and Fairey test pilot, to join a young start-up known as “The Flying Firemen” (which, after being bought by some chap named Alex Wood, grew into the largest amphibious waterbombing outfit in the world until it was forced to submit to the competition of the federally-subsidized CL 215 waterbombers built by Quebec-based Canadair in 1996). The company was founded to address the need for fire-fighting aircrafts along the west-cost. On Sunday, July the 16th at roughly 1630PDT, a fire erupted on Skirt Mountain (close to the apparently controversial Goldstream park). Apparently, my Granddad had his day off that day, but happened to be lingering around the hangers. My granddad immediately volunteered as the pressing operation was in need of a second pilot. Well… after two hours of repeatedly scooping up more than 1000 gallons of water along Saanich Inlet and emptying it on the blaze, a wingtip of their Canso was shattered on a tree tip, and the plane crashed into the side of the mountain; the plane went up in flames killing both pilots instantly. I never met the man who died that day, my dads dad, but the stories that cling to his name to the present sketch a man of exemplary format. Anyways… last year around this time, my mom passed on an email from my grandmother with a link to a local blog site. The blog from the local journalist Ross Crockford, entitled “The Unkown Victora”, had a detailed write-up of the tide of events that took place that day. Here is the strange thing: By sheer chance, today (16th of July, 2009) while sorting my inbox (archiving old conversations and updating my tags) I stumbled over a comment I had sent Ross a year ago. My granddad died roughly 22089900 minutes ago, prompting me to run a tunecast. I drifted through much material in search for the appropriate song for my passed away grandfather. Among the prime candidates were tunes like Nick Drakes “Day is done” or Regina Spectors “The Man of a thousand faces”. However, in the end, I decided for something with attitude, as this seems most appropriate. So pipe up your sound machines and enjoy “Tombstone Blues” from Bob Dylans 1965 album “Highway 61 Revisited” with tributes to Robert “Paddy” Moore.

In the air

Andrew Moore — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:52:00 +0000

I am mere days before launching a round trip to the States, Canada and England. While there is going to be some exciting stuff happening during the next month, I also leave with mixed feelings. Mostly because of the recent accident involving a plane traveling the route Rio de Janeiro – Paris. I am not afraid of the flights or anything (if I would be, I might as well be scared silly of downtown Münster, where my chances to die in a bicycle accident are, statistically speaking, considerably higher than on a plane, in particular as my bike lacks well working breaks). I figure its mostly that I feel a fair amount of empathy for the people on board of the Air France flight; I find my imagination drifting off to construct the last minutes of the people on board of that flight in my minds eyes. As somebody who flies semi frequently, I know that even mean turbulences can be quite scary… for a short moment you realize just how close you are to some cattle thats being carted around, that your influence is zero… one just hast to hope that people in charge now their buisness. Anyways, I also took this post as a challenge to dig up some appropriate earfuzz. Naturally, I couldn’t help thinking of the British seventies rock act The Motors and their nice catchy tune “Airport”. I also felt that would be a cheap trick. Appropriately, I bring you a cover of just that song (albeit quite close to the original). The tune was twisted by the Delaware-based band The Spinto Band and can be found on their 2008 seven inch single Summer Grof; its a tad more quick and sloppy than the original, which adds that extra bit of smack. Also, the sound of some of the other things they are up to is kinda neat, so be sure to check it out.

A part for the (w)hole

Andrew Moore — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 16:40:00 +0000

I Just finished watching Synecdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufmans directing debut. The story (in its bear essence as everything else remains elusive) revolves around a broken theater directory played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who, left by his wife and daughter, believes to have been struck by some anonymous neurological diseases that threatens to kill him and is granted with a lump sum of money by some foundation, sets out to construct the ultimate theatrical masterpiece. He constructs a life-sized replica of New York in an over sized warehouse at the edge of town. Here, he constructs a mirror image of his own sad life. While I was expecting a strange story line, this movie left me in constant puzzlement; much like standing between two mirrors and trying to figure out where the imagery starts. In many ways, watching “Synecdoche, New York” was like watching a David Lynch movie (of which I dislike most). While I can say what it is about, and the bottom line emotional taint of the picture is there, the details are fuzzy. I immediately assumed that watching it a second time would help me figure out the plots fine print. Unfortunately, it is a bit of an odyssey to watch and is strangely disturbing… like waking up after heavy dreams without knowing what they were about. In essence, I can recommend the picture (in particular if you like the writings of Charlie Kaufman). It is filled with oddities, has a fair share of good acting, nice cinematography and a gloomy, slow-paced soundtrack that makes your mouth go dry. The soundtrack is by Jon Brion (Magnolia, Internal Sunshine, Punch Drunk Love, …), and I liked it enough to buy a copy. While mostly instrumental and certainly not suitable for every occasion, I wrote these lines with a glass of wine to the one, a laptop to the other and its smooth jazzy sounds seeping from the sound system. Attached is a recurring theme entitled “Something you can’t return to”… go figure.

Exhausted (jeopardizing the fun)

Andrew Moore — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:56:00 +0000

The last weeks had it in them; nothing too unusual, but lots of that (perhaps a tad to much). Work was filling up the hours, day and night, and now after having a day that spawned out in front with a pleasing emptiness, a feel a strange lack of purpose. Your body gets used to anything, be it too little sleep or too high stress levels, and if you break with the rhythm you notice how out of whack things around you have actually gotten. Anyways, I spent most of the day sorting music (something I have been doing intensely when time permits). Today I reached H and realized that I am not even half way through my collection. While this sorting procedure is intended to be fun, it also feels a bit like a chore, a job to be done, with a strong focus on the ultimate goal- the moment of complete order. But as I continue to buy, download and sort, I am actually not moving forward. Today I reached the conclusion that it is not about the goal, but about the path that leads there. The fun is in the path, not the goal. If you are two focused on the goal, you jeopardize the fun. I spent most of the last weeks saying ‘as soon as X is done, I will do Y’ which has lead to much neglect… one should not forget what is important, and always find the time to do whatever that may be. Otherwise you’ll find yourself speeding by all the important stuff to end up at nothing much but a tick on a todo list. Todays path was listening. One of the ‘H’ artists I was plowing through today was Hawksley Workman, a fellow Canadian from Ontario. And while listing to his excellent 2003 album “(Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves” a stumbled over a total gem. Although I new “Dirty and True”, it was like I was hearing it for the first time. Without knowing what it really is about, it feels like bear necessity stuff, deep and dark, with many tempi changes, small and large climaxing and some serious message passing through a megaphone to strange east european sounding harmonies in the grand final. It was, so to speak, a path defining moment. I dropped the sorting for the day and engaged in blissful listening only – a strategy I can recommend.