Start Today

Last Thursday night, I saw probably the best hardcore show of my life. Gorilla Biscuits played the Pound in San Francisco with the originallineup. Murphy's Law and Comeback Kid opened, but they were definitely secondary. Last time GB played in SF was 1989; and I, of course, had never seen them live before. The place was packed and GB was just amazing. Played almost all the classics. The pit was about double the size during Comeback Kid and also when I saw Bane there. I took a couple of pictures with my cell and they turned out crap as you can see.

I've also been playing around with HDR. Check out this picture I took of the Dutch windmill at Golden Gate Park. Used 2 different photos with about a 4-stop difference in them to create it.

The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast

Been a while since the last post; a lot has been going on. I went up to Seattle a while ago and visited some friends. We hiked in Mt. Rainier, went up the Space Needle, and kayaked in the ocean. Also went to some baseball games, including A's vs. Red Sox, Giants vs. Padres. Saw Bonds hit 722 and also Sox whip the A's. That was before the Sox got into their recent downward spiral. One of the guys I went with caught a foul ball off Varitek; that was pretty cool. And this past Friday, I went to the 49ers vs. Bears pre-season game. Man, Bears offense sucked. Grossman needs a lot of practice.

Yesterday, I went up to Point Reyes for a photography class. It was called photography life from under a foot (or something like that). Basically, the idea is to shoot from really low and it brings out better angles. We talked about techniques in the classroom for 3 hours and then went in the fields for another 3-4. I even crawled in the fields and got some macro shots of flowers and butterflies. Posted some pictures of that trip and lots more here.

And today, I went to the Bleeding Edge Festival at the Montalvo Arts Center. It's a really cool venue in the middle of the woods. There were 4 stages and various other installations on the trails. And of course, the music was good, too. It was a mix of noise, pop, minimalist stuff; all experimental. I got to see William Basinski, Matmos, Isis, and lots more. The highlight was probably Matmos with Zeena Parkins. Isis was missing 2 people so they just did a thing with Tim Hecker. Above is a picture of rose pedals (yes, rose pedals were used as an instrument) during the Matmos set. I'll post more pictures here when I get time to go through them.

Larry Brown Out; Isiah Thomas In

Is the owner of the Knicks that stupid? I mean seriously. Has Isiah done anything even remotely good in his post-playing career? Marbury and Francis in the same backcourt. I rest my case.

Yesterday I got my new CD transport: NEC 6Xe CD-ROM. It's an external SCSI CD-ROM drive built back in 1995. The nice thing about it is that it has digital coax out. So I can hook it up to my DAC and use the analog output on those. I'm listening to some Mono on it right now and it sounds great. My first impression is that it's better than my vintage Sony discman, which isn't very surprising. The transport is also dead quiet, which I like. The discman has a tendency to make spinning sounds sometimes. There's a nice review of the NEC here.

I've also been looking at upgrading the ballhead on my tripod. After talking to a friend, I realized just how inadaquete my Bogen ballhead is. After locking, my camera/lens will still drop a few degrees. This makes framing rather challenging because I had to basically frame with the drop in mind. So now, I'm looking at the Arca-Swiss B1. It's basically the standard by which all other ballheads are judged. It weighs 1.6lbs and can support 90lbs. The ball is slightly elliptical to give tension when it's off-center. Bad news is that it's $400 plus whatever the quick-release plate would cost. Maybe I'll get one used off eBay. We'll see.

All the News Fit to Post

So, first post since I've been here in Mountain View. A lot has been happening. Last week was my third week at Google, and it's been an amazing experience so far. I can't go into the specifics (o those pesky NDAs) but it has exceeded my expectations by far. The amount of freedom I have in choosing what to do and how to do it is pretty cool. Combined with interesting problems that have real-world implications, it is definitely a cool job. Plus I get all the free food I want!

Being in the bay area, there are many cool concerts. Although it seemed like LA had more last summer; but it's just the year. Anyway, I sawMogwai a couple of weeks ago with Earth. I saw them last month in Chicago but Growing was opening. It was the last show on their tour but nothing special happened. The setlist was almost exactly the same. Then, last week, I saw Mono and Pelican. Seen Pelican before playing the same stuff so it wasn't too exciting. They did play one new song I think. But Mono. Wow. They didn't say a single word during their set but their music absolutely killed. Sorta sucks that their CDs don't come close to the live show. The wall of sound at the show is deafening and carries so much more emotion than the recordings.

Looking ahead, there are shows with Bane, Comeback Kid, Cattle Decapitation, Vader (maybe?), Gorilla Biscuits (reunion! 2 shows in SF!), and Silver Mt. Zion. Should be interesting.

Saw X3 last weekend. I thought it was pretty good; better than what all the reviewers seemed to say. It was definitely lacking in the philosophical department though. Should've done a lot more with the whole cure debate. Also, the whole who's the good side debate could have been more vague, too.

Also been upgrading my audiophile crap. I sold my Grado SR-80's. Never used them anyway; plus it was like wearing sandpaper. I upgraded my bookshelves from the Epos ELS-3 to the Tetra 120U. Tetra is a pretty small company but their bookshelves sound amazing. They had a bigger soundstage and better imaging than the Von Schweikert VR-1, which are highly rated. I got them last week and am still burning them in. Takes over 100 hours and I'm somewhere in the 50s I think. Also, I just ordered a pair of the AKG K701's. Should be here tomorrow I think; definitely looking forward to hearing them. I'm also upgrading my work DAC from the Fubar to the Headroom Micro DAC.

Finally, some thoughts on random stuff. Sopranos season finale was tonight. It was pretty weak; nothing happened. But I guess technically it wasn't really a finale. Still 8 more episodes to follow. But I've been thinking this has been a really good season so far. I've switched from using iCal on my Apple to Google Calendar and Tadalist. It's been more convenient to check my schedule anyway than just on my Apple. Also, my Cingular contract expired over the weekend. So I signed a new deal and got the Ericsson W600i. I actually got the Motorola SLVR not too long ago on eBay but that phone seriously sucks. It looks nice but the software is terrible. With the Ericsson phone, it's a bit bulky but I'm loving the software. Plus, reception is like 10x better.

On the Way

I'm in the middle of my trek across half of America just like last year. I'm in Salt Lake City right now and will goto Reno later today. Here's a deer I saw at a highway rest stop in Wyoming.

Back in the Hoopla

I watched Silent Hill over the weekend. Pretty good as an adaptation of the video games but not as good as a stand-alone movie. I played all the SH games and thought the movie got the atmospheres and plots almost spot-on. Many of the camera angles were lifted right out of the game. The plot was basically Silent Hill 3. The movie was confusing just like the games. And the ending could also be seen as a nod to the game endings.

Also been listening a lot to the new Saves the Day. I was thinking about them in my car today. I think they're one of the very few bands that have changed their sound and released albums that I've consistently liked over the years. I think this new one is their fifth; the oldest was probably from the late 90s. Also, out tomorrow is the new Tool. I'm not really a Tool fan but am curious nonetheless.

I've also started to post some photos from my China trip. It's gonna take me a while to sort through them all though.

From Shanghai

I'm writing this from my grandparents' home in Shanghai, in the middle of probably one of the busiest streets in the city. I've spent almost 2 weeks in China and the past week in Shanghai. Been hanging around the city and near-by towns mostly. The other day my aunt and I went to this propaganda poster art centre. It was in a shady-lookin' basement of a giant apartment building. It had tons of posters from the 40s to the 80s of various government things. Apparently the place is known to many foreigners but not very many local people. I found it on Lonely Planet and my aunt had never heard of it.

Today, I went to some Confucious temple in the middle of Shanghai. Pretty cool I guess. I also went by my old elementry school; it's turned into a kindergarten now. Tonight we ate at a dim sum restaurant. And tomorrow we're going to some small town about 2 hours from Shanghai. And I think we might also goto an old Jewish neighborhood (from WWII times) sometime next week.

I've been taking a lot of photos while going out. Currently, my count is 968. It's sorta hard to get nice photos while touring some place. I can't stay for hours at a time looking for shots. Last week I spent maybe 2 hours at a park shooting scenery and some wild ducks. Got off a couple of good shots of the ducks taking off from water. But also missed at least 2 good chances. Also, I brought my Manfrotto monopod (which I specifically purchased for this trip) but I forgot the ballhead at home! So everything's been handheld. That really sucks. O well. I'll post some nice photos when I get back.

New Camera Time

I just upgraded to the new Canon 30D from my 350D. Only played with it for a little bit this afternoon but it seems really cool. The AF sensors are nicer and AF seems to work much faster. Spot metering is nice. The camera also feels sturdier in the hand. I'm going to China this Saturday; can't wait to use this.

Went to a couple of concerts recently. Saw Martha Wainwright/Neko Case last Friday and Mates of State on Monday. Martha Wainwright is my favorite out of these and I even got her autograph. I uploaded some pics taken from these shows in the photography section.

Gooooooogle

I've been offered an internship this summer at Google. Not exactly sure what I'll be working on; but I'm excited nonetheless. So it looks I'll be making the trek out to California again this summer. Will probably start around mid-May.

Starting today I'm running an experiment with my sound system. I'm going to listen to the same album on 3 different formats to see what the differences are. I guess the right way to do this is to listen through the entire album and switch; not just switching back-and-forth in the middle. The 3 different formats are vinyl, CD (on the Sony Discman 311), and FLAC (on the LiTe DAC-Ah). And the album? Godspeed You Black Emperor! -- f# a# ∞. I figured that one has a good range of sounds. I'll probably also try it with the Red Sparowes album; more of a metal sound.

The New Sound II

I got a couple of vintage Sony Discmans recently. First was the D-5A; I think that's either the first or second Discman ever made. Sounds really nice; it even has RCA out. Then, I got the D-311. This is apparently a legendary vintage portable and often fetches pretty high prices on eBay. I haven't had time to properly test the same music on vinyl, discman, and FLAC; but that's one of the eventual goals. For now, I'm using the D-311 and it sounds slightly better than a FLAC rip.

I also got a chance to upgrade my setup at the office recently. Before, I was using a pair of Etymotic ER-6i with the output from my Powerbook. I also tried it with a portable amp (PA2V2) but that didn't seem to make a huge difference. I attribute that to the bad source (ie, Powerbook). So, a couple of weeks ago, I got a portable DAC, the Firestone Fubar II. I also upgraded to the Eytmotic ER-4p. So now, the chain is:

Powerbook --> (via USB) Fubar II --> Zu Pivot --> PA2V2 --> Etymotic ER-4p

I also got the 4p-4s converter to make the ER-4p into ER-4s. Haven't actually tried that though. Maybe in the next couple of days. But so far, it sounds great. The 4p has much better bass than the 6i, and also a better seal. The DAC just makes everything better than the crummy Powerbook audio out.