Sweet Dreams

I just had to compare:

And:

With the original:

I have to say, that Marilyn Manson is entertaining in the most perverse way - I had to laugh through most of the song. That's some funny - if not truly weird - stuff.

I haven't found a full version of Britney Spears' cover, but she seems to be quite the soft-porn-star, from what I can tell. Not that that is a bad thing, mind you. But.

The Eurythmics made a classic tune that should hang out in various forms for years and years to come. Thank you Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart.

Then I got to wondering - how many others did a cover. A quick look at Apple's iTunes Music Store showed nearly a dozen different covers of the Eurythmics' tune. Turns out that Sweet Dreams is a popular title to use and the Eurythmics' sub title (Are Made Of This) isn't always used by the bands doing the covers.

I found the artist in iTunes Music Store include:

Automatic (a trance - house version)

Axxis

Badi Assad, et. al.

Bebel Gilberto (a Brazilian-like style)

Countdown (a copycat version, in the K-Tel style)

ibiza Dance Party (can you say RAVE)

Krystal Meyers (another copycat. Any relation to Brystal Meyers?)

Marilynn Manson (Drama Metal, Theatrical Metal, Dusty Corners of Hell-Metal)

Mika

Overdub & Sophia (a few other techno, trance, rave versions)

Señor Coconut (A totaly different Brazilian?-like version, kind of cool)

Térez Montcalm (a sexier version)

and finally,

Wykked Wytch (a cover of Marilynn Manson's cover, only a more over-the-top, scream like a puking banshee version).

I am sure I could easily find a dozen more on e-music.com or elsewhere. Sufice it to say, it is a song worthy of imitation, modification and even obfuscation by a diverse group of talented (and not so talented) musicians.

I think I'll go back and give the two South American-style covers a serious listen. Señor Coconut (the name says enough) and Bebel Gilberto each had an interesting take on their cuts.

I may revisit Cover Tunes in subsequent posts. Hmm.

Of Gay Marriage, Didn't Jesus Say...

If I remember correctly, Jesus said, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's."
I think I believe it is Caesar's duty, our government's mandate, to provide equal security for all it's citizens, equal education for all its citizens, and to facilitate good business practices.

Perhaps it might behoove the "Anti-Gay Marriage" folks to be good dogmatists and practice minding their own business.

Let Caesar take care of its citizens in a fair and equal manor without freaking-out over semantics. No religious sect owns the word "marriage." The state issues the "marriage license" and should do so equally to its citizens. The only change made to that process might be perhaps to call it a "civil-union license" or similar phrase. But that is a superfluous argument at best.

I believe Jesus also said of God's blessings, "the greatest of these is love" and I don't think he said who gets to decide who got God's good blessings and who got God's bad blessings. We are under a new contract and the old law is completed - finished. We are supposed to judge ourselves, not others. That's God's job. And God is Love. Let Love rule. Let Caesar do his sworn duty, to protect all his citizens - equally.

The New Great Depression of 2010

As we usher in a new era of unbelievable recession, let us not think that it will get better any time soon. Like the Great Empire of Rome, I think we are about to get burned. The fat, dumb and happy has grown too large, while the over-achievers have gotten quite easily too greedy.

It seems that economically, monetarily, emotionally, educationally and spiritually speaking, we are a nation, if not a world - out of balance.

It seems to me is that what we have here is a failure to govern intelligently. The ENTIRE system is broken and needs to be refurbished. Democrats - Republicans, what ever! They are both failures. We need a better balance of decision making. Perhaps we need a three to five party system - with honest, intelligent folks instead of self-righteous, self-serving bureaucrats. There aren't any quick, easy solutions, but we have to insist that our entire set of governments get their priorities straight. Let's start with Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, modify it for local, state, and federal issues, where personal security takes precedence over national security, where educating the young takes precedence over empowering incarcerated criminals, and facilitating business to help local and national needs. We MUST enforce honest, global, generational-minded ethics and ensure that rewards/punishments fit the benefits/crimes.

We need to start thinking 7 generations ahead rather than seven minutes until our next pleasure. We need to fix the voting system and start voting and start enacting and enforcing our votes.

But then, maybe it's too late.

iPhoto '09 (v.8.0)

OK. No, better than OK.

Aside from a few caveats, the latest iPhoto from Apple has some fairly decent new features.

First: Faces. This is the initial implementation of face recognition software that helps to identify certain faces in one's photographs. It is far from perfect, but it is quite handy. There are a few tricks that seem to help, but more than a few shortcomings. This is an initial release of this feature, so be forgiving. It works best on straight on and straight up faces. It seems to have a hard time with heads cocked to one side and has an even harder time even noticing profile shots.

One thing I do find very frustrating, is that upon initial updating of an existing iPhoto Library, the face recognition begins building what looks like a list of pictures that it believes are pictures that have faces. At least, faces are displayed as the progress bar advances. However, when I clicked on "Faces" the corkboard had a default "How to begin" message instead of a listing of unknown faces. So then, one has to go to a photo that has a known face, either by going in to an Event and then on to a photo, or straight on in to the Photos listing. Pick a picture with a face, hope that it recognizes that there is a face or add the missing face selection to the person's face, and then identify the person.

Sounds cumbersome. It's not too bad, but it is less convenient then it will be in the next few updates, I hope. Anyway, once you ID a face, it seems quickest to let the program find what it thinks are matching faces and then confirm or deny them. You've got to keep doing this for as long as it takes to find as many faces as the software can find, by each new lesson. So you may have to do this a dozen times before iPhoto stops presenting you with new choices to evaluate.

Another thing I wish would be available is the index picture, which is the portion, the subset of the photo, which has the face. A photo could have any number of heads and faces in it, but when confirming a "Face", iPhoto presents just one of the faces it believes it sees. It zooms in to this face and presents it in a standard size at the best resolution it can muster-up.

Second: Places. This is an attempt at popularizing geo-tagging. Something that flickr has been doing for some time now. This implementation has a ways to go as well. However, it could be my first generation Mac-mini is feelings its oats drop with a thud, but it seems like a slow process.

I believe that many of my pictures have geo-data in their EXIF data file. I have an Eye•Fi card that I use in one of my cameras. When the library was updated, those pictures did not automatically show up on the iPhoto map. I have only done a small number of map placements so far, and they were to photos of our recent vacation. Many of these photos do not have geo-tags or necessarily correct info if they do. It's the nature of the Eye•Fi card in these instances. So I will reserve judgment on the functionality of the Places feature until I know more about it.

Third: Adjustments. Apple changed the way the photo editor window looks. Not a very big change, just a little better organization. However, change is change and I will need to get my hands dirty on this modification before I make further comment on it.

Most of my recent hours in iPhoto has been time spent in updating each of my various iPhoto '08 libraries and teaching each and everyone, the names of my family members and then pointing out who and where the are. Oh, this brings me back to one other oddity. When one has to add a face for recognition to the photo, the selection tool is a rectangle whose size and proportions varies on center. The handles work on axis from the center of the rectangle. Seems kind of clumsy if you were to ask me. I would suggest that the selection would be an oval with one handle for rotation (or orientation, if that makes more sense to say) and another or two for size and shape - o - 0 - O. That seems more face like and would allow you to cover an individual with a head cocked to one side.

I think the selection tool is a rectangle because it only uses the eyes-nose-mouth area for its calculations. But then, maybe the tool should have been a triangle. Anyway, it works as well as it works. The software misses what seems to be about 60% of all the faces available from all pictures, and all heads turned away (which makes sense). Hopefully, as they add profile algorithms to the software updates, this gap will diminish.

Overall, I am pleased with my $80 investment.

Note from the Yahoos

Important Notice Regarding Discontinuation of LAUNCHcast Plus Service and Refund Program Greetings, Beginning in February 2009, CBS Radio will power LAUNCHcast Radio. LAUNCHcast Radio will still be accessible from the Yahoo! site. However, it will be hosted and operated by CBS Radio rather than by Yahoo!. As part of the transition to CBS Radio, the LAUNCHcast Plus premium service will be closing on February 12, 2009. As a subscriber to LAUNCHcast Plus, you will continue to have access to your premium subscription features until February 12, 2009. If there is any time left on your subscription account after February 12, you will automatically receive a prorated refund for any remaining subscription time. To ensure proper delivery of any prorated refunds, we strongly encourage you to check your account information and make sure everything is accurate and up-to-date. You can access your LAUNCHcast Plus account information here: http://billing.yahoo.com Even though the LAUNCHcast Plus subscription service will be discontinued, you will still have access to most of your favorite preprogrammed LAUNCHcast stations through the new CBS Radio-powered experience. The difference is that those radio stations will be supported by advertising and there will no longer be a commercial-free option.1 With LAUNCHcast Radio powered by CBS Radio, you will also get access to some new features, including a new streaming radio player and CBS Radio's wide variety of local music, news, talk, and sports programming. The new radio player will also be compatible with Macintosh computers and Firefox and Safari browsers. Not all existing LAUNCHcast features will continue, however. Your custom "My Station" and "Moods" stations will no longer be available after February 12, 2009. Additionally, you will no longer be able to add "Influencers" to your personalized "My Station." There is no need to cancel or do anything with your service to make the transition to CBS Radio. Yahoo! will not transfer any of your account information to CBS Radio. You will not have to pay for the new LAUNCHcast service since it will be supported by advertising. We hope you will enjoy our new radio experience and the broader range of radio stations that it will bring. MORE INFORMATION For more information about LAUNCHcast Radio and the changes to the service, please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions. 1Radio station line up is subject to change and we cannot guarantee that all stations will be available after the transition to CBS Radio.

LaunchCast to be MANGLED in February!

GRRRRR!

CBS and Yahoo! have created the worst mash-up in internet history.

CBS will make LaunchCast Mac compatible, at the great expenses of adding commercials and dumping the personalizations.

And I bet I can't get ANY of MY old DATA!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Lissajous Visualizer for iTunes

For years and years - I've been hoping for an iTunes visualizer or screensaver that displays either a Left/Right or Mid/Side Lissajous Waveform, with color. Seems so simple and yet - I can't find one.

What I don't like about so many of the visualizers are the phoniness and cyclic redundancy. I want a real waveform, where the stereo signals left channel = x-axis and right channel = y-axis or the stereo signals (left+right) channels = x-axis and (left-right) channels = y-axis. Throw in some relevant color somehow and Voila.

I think the colors need to be the reverse energy scale of the audio scale. That is, normally high pitch has high energy correlating with ultraviolet and low tones are lower frequencies correlating with infrared. But reverse that, as it feels right. It feels as if it takes less energy to hear high notes and more energy to feel low notes, so that is my thinking.

So the plug-in would need to analyze attack, sustain, delay, and reverberation along with frequencies. With different ADSR signals, display appropriate images within the standard Lissajous Waveform signal. The sounds of triangles tinging would be bright yellow, orange, and red stars. The sounds of brass would produce green, yellow, and orange doughnuts perhaps. and the bass sounds could be purple, blue, and green beach balls. It should have a whole variety of shapes for different ADSR envelopes.

I might even pay a few sheckles for a plug-in that could do this well without eating up all my CPU cycles.