UltraMeta: Life Affirmation

This is an extremely ‘meta’ post about life and happiness. But with that said, perhaps a hard won truth. Without being too ‘abstract’ about it: Above the basics needed, the expression of courage is what brings happiness to life. It is why having kids, or giving to charity, climbing everest or making something beautiful is … Read more

Bright Lights Big City – New York

My answers are usually quite – shall we say realistic – when people ask me what it is like to live in NY. It’s tough here, but the quality which I realize and now appreciate more. True of all big cities and all wide open places, is the ability to create your own reality and … Read more

Living to Eat : Eating the Living

Isn’t it strange that we need to consume life in order to live…. Even the strictest vegans will need to eat things once alive to gain their energy. The simplest grains, beans and vegatables were all once alive. You can survive only for so long with eating rocks, mineral salts and solar power (like trees … Read more

The End In-Store + AntiFragile

Paradigm shifts, Creative destruction, call it what you will. The end of store in America, how can an employee hourly model compete with an online no-rent/no-brick model. Commercial landlords in malls must be scratching their heads as my beloved Barnes & Noble is. What survives will likely be a hybrid -> commission sales based / … Read more

Linkedin Top 5% – Nice!

This came in my email today. Undoubtedly a push for Linkedin, but it was also good to celebrate and look back at all the hard work these past years. Now back down to earth :) Hurray! You have one of the top 5% most viewed @LinkedIn profiles for 2012. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/profile/6/185/665

William Paley’s Watchmaker and Evolution

The watchmaker analogy as it is known, made by William Paley states that a complex design, such as an eye, implies a designer…. For whatever reason, this thought popped into my head one day while in the shower*. The role of ‘feature level’ in discussing how a machine is naturally selected and evolves is critical. … Read more

Spray on Shakira

Don’t usually post these things, as Joni Mitchell put it ‘being part of the star-making machinery’. I had a chance to sit in on Shakira filming a video. It was a fun.

La vie des Autres..

…If you had a parent living in a house, who locked their children up in the basement, provided no school, no health, no care, no nursing, allowing a dank basement as the only place to be, living in derelict conditions. Almost all of society would condemn this as unfit parenting and yet it is what … Read more

Van Gogh’s Variations

For anyone that knows me, they know that I am a huge van gogh fan. I learned something about van gogh today which was very moving. His variations seem never to be shown together, ever, one beside the other. Just like all his series: the sunflowers, potato eaters, violets, fields, shoes, etc. all seem to … Read more

Grüsse von München – Saturday, August 26, 2006

Dear people, safe and sound. i arrived Josef Strauss Airport in München on Freitag Morgen, and have been here in Munich ever since. – heard Juan Tonamara (sp?) in polish, while walking across the street, and i think this had just made a tumultous 7 hour flight worthwhile… – I am staying right now at … Read more

NiemansLand – from 2006-2009

Way Back Machine: Some Older Composition-Sketches from 2007, to be used in the film NiemansLand. Cello and computer arrangements mostly. 5’30 has a nice moment that is worth remembering.

The path to AI. Comparing Pigs to Computers.

I’m reading about Mandelbrot right now, which is making me think about a lot about high frequency feedback loops right now. They abound in nature, and no one really wanted to look at them until Mandelbrot came along. He is this kind of anti-clean, anti-ascetic temperment personality which i really enjoy, the more i get … Read more