Noiseblog

The “Shortmovie Evening” that we did last saturday at David’s place was a nice experience - It was a good motivation to dive deep into filmhistory, hunting the web for interesting short movies and directors. I’ll post the programm and links to the shown movies asap.

This event also forced me to search the internet for a tool that would allow me to edit mp4’s directly - something simple that would enable me to do some basic cut-up work, and ultimately join mp4-movies together in a simple and quick way. The first tool I came accross was Open Video Joiner [website], but after the installation I discovered you’re supposed to register the product (read: purchase). Well, for one thing, they could have told me that before I downloaded and installed their programm. The next piece of software I stumbled upon was Yamb, which is a user interface for MP4Box [info]. I downloaded and installed their latest beta version (version 2.1) and at first the programm looked quite promising, with a comprehensive interface - but when I tried to play the resulting mp4 in VLC or Mediaplayer the original individual mp4’s were all opened, stacked one upon another in multiple instances of the player. Version 1.6 (sporting a slightly more archaic interface) exhibited the same behaviour. I’m not the only one that ran into this problem - there are more people reporting this behaviour. Also something that people reported: when uninstalling Yamb 2.1 it deletes a good deal of your short-cuts in the start-menu of windows. Although I had read the reports on this behaviour I decided to go through the process, and uninstall it - And guess what? Yep, about half of my short-cuts dissapeared, forcing me to do a system restore. Bottomline: apart from me being stupid I can’t recommend Yamb and would even discourage people from installing it, reason why I’m not putting a link up to their site. Another MP4Box interface is My MP4Box GUI [info], I haven’t tried it out (yet) - since the next programm I came accros Avidemux [website]. Avidemux has a lot of things to offer, including the possibility to make cuts in mp4’s - it is said to have some troubles syncing sound and image, and indeed after joining together 12 mp4’s in one mp4-file the sound got completely out of sync from the 30th minute on. No problem when joining together 2 or 3 mp4’s though. Maybe something wrong with the original mp4’s? Bottomline: next time I need to join or split mp4’s I’m definitely going to try out My MP4Box GUI, for now Avidemux did the trick. Avoid Yamb, as their latest beta can seriously mess up your system. For burning DVD’s Imgburn [website] is the way to go.

Spammers are amongst the most inventive people that are out there on the web. Unfortunately they’re using their talent for reasons that are useless, stupid and annoying. Since I hate dealing with idiots I made adding comments a bit more difficult for spambots, but they’re a little more demanding for you, as a human surfer. You first have to register yourself. After registration you can add a comment to a post. New is that from now on you have to enter a captcha. Then you get to see a preview from your comment. You then have to enter another kaptcha and press “post” (not “preview”). If it’s your first comment, as a new user, I have to approve your comment, but from then on, everything you post will be published without me ghaving to approve it. Yeah, I admit it’s difficult - but it’s still possible to enter comments. And as an added bonus: if someone manages to make it to finish that probably means 1. that that person has something important to tell (i.e. I probably offended him in my post) and 2. that person is a pretty smart one. Not ideal, but for now I don’t have the time to upgrade my blog. But it’s on the list. Oh, and yes, this blog will probably go on for at least another year - I decided to prolonge my hosting contract. Enjoy!

I’m doing research for next saturday’s film evening (6th of february, at David’s place) and discovered that Bruce Conner’s 10 second film was removed from youTube, following an author’s right claim (hope I translate it well) by Jean Conner, Trustee of the Conner Family. Watch it on Metacafe [over here] if you want to see what it is about. Two things come in mind to me: 1. you can’t beat the web, 2. this is a 10 second piece of film that nobody would know the existence of if it wasn’t because of the internet. Hell, I hadn’t even heard of Bruce Conner prior to stumbling accross him on the web.

Update (following a few minutes after writing down the previous lines): here’s the story behind the removal of the Bruce Conner material from youTube.

Some ten days ago I went to “Night on Earth Records present the Tzii’s Harsh Birthdeath” in Brussels, organised by Night on Earth Records and Obsessions Intimes [blogspot]. I’ll dedicate a post to that event in due time, for now I’m just limiting myself to telling that Bucketovscissors [website], the CEO of Produck [website] - the label specialised in lathe cuts and glue records - had the latest Portable Noise Kremator (a CD lathe) with him. Limited to a whopping 25 copies, of which I got 6. The title of the release is “No dedication” and you can see it being played in the clip below, as shot by Herr Bucketovscissors himself.

David and I are showing short movies at his place on the 6th of february. A saturday. Starts at 19:00. Place to be: Stoopkensstraat 10, 3320 Hoegaarden. Yes. That’s in Belgium. I’m sorry to hear you’ll have to take a plane to see it.

Jack De Rapper [mySpace] died. He played at De Living ages ago. The conversation we had in the kitchen at Oli’s place was one of those moments I will remember for a long while. while talking about his Jewish background I mentioned that one of my friends, who was present at that particular gig, also had Jewish roots. He exclaimed that he had already guessed so, “but”, he went on - “he was probably a Jew from the Eastern part of Europe”, while he himself was a Spanish Jew. I might mix up the regions here, but I gained some interesting insights during that conversation. On a couple of things. I’ve seen him play a couple more gigs later on, but it never came to a conversation. He was a bit too much in his role to have one. I know he lived in Australia for the past two years, and think he did a tour in Europe last year.

The below piece of John Cage pretty much summarizes what I’ve been listening to the last 4 weeks, excluding the news on the radio, that is.

I’ve been a fan of the work of Charles Ives since the first day I heard one of his pieces. The clip below kind of illustrates the way he plays with existing conventions.

The releases of Kronos Quartet have often proven to be a good help for me to find my way around in contemporary music. Below is Black Angels, by George Crumb, performed by Le Quator Béla.

I could add tons of clips to this post, but that’s it for now.

I had just closed my browser when I realised I had forgotten to mention that Aroma di Amore, one of Belgium’s finest relics from the eighties, was doing a reunion concert in Leuven on saturday the 12th. I don’t think it mattered much, as most people that gave a shit probably already knew (Kraak for instance, mentioned the concert in the latest edition of their magazine, Ruis).

Footage from original Aroma di Amore gigs is rare, and I’ve already posted the one and only truely eighties clip that can be found on youTube, so here’s one from a reunion concert in 2005:

Onderstroom has rerelased the complete AdA discography as a double CD (including a couple bonus tracks) - as the Radikaal CD is sold out for centuries (I think I bought the last copy in 1998) and the vinyl changes hand for big bucks this might be your only source of AdA-material. Yeah, I know, you can wait till someone one day somewhere throws it on the net for download, but treat this one as an exception, for once.

The gig itself was nice, with Luc Van Acker as support band - My perception is mingled with lots of nostalgy (I’m following Elvis Peeters since 1996, when I first saw him at a spoken word in Hasselt) so I don’t know what effect the gig had on accidental visitors. Also see what I said about the gig Elvis Peeters did with De Legende, about a year ago.

That same saturday I had also been to the opening of the overview-expo at the B32, in Maastricht - My DVD is being shown in a very cosy corner, albeit without sound (luckily that doesn’t matter much). The people of B32 did a great job - also for the catalogue: it comes a box, containing 4 books in various sizes, a CD and a sticker-page. A very beautiful release, and I’m proud to be part of it.

Not sure if I’ll make it to OddPop this saturday, there’s an Acid-gig in town (= Hoegaarden), at JH Paenhuys.

Choices!

For those that wonder about the long absence of new posts on this blog: I’m not dead yet. I’m hibernating.

No kidding.

Which doesn’t mean that nothing exciting is happening: tomorrow, saturday 12, B32 [website] in Maastricht is celebrating it’s nine years of existance with an overview exhibition, and catalogue, and possibly a CDr or CD-release. I’ve sent in a DVD with a selection of films for screening during the exhibition. I got in because I did an expo there in 2007, so says the 87th post in these pages. Fyi OddPop 2009 is taking place in Maastricht a week later, on the 19th - Odal is playing.

It’s interesting to see that in this period of low activity (I’m speaking for myself) a couple of long-planned Portable Noise Kremator releases (on different labels) seem to be moving towards completion. The first one is a compilation C90 tape on Knife in the Toaster which holds a PNK-track alongside tracks from Seagull, IDX1274, Pulse Emitter, Return Trip, Green Mist, Abortion Focus Group, Eraritjaritjaka and Betty. Check it all out on their site.

Sorry. Have to go. My colleagues are gesting that Happy Hour is starting and putting out the lights on me.

Tomorrow’s show (announced in previous post) is cancelled due to a combination of a double-booking, and the closing-down of the scheduled venue.

But don’t despair, you can still go and see the bands in Antwerp tomorrow (saturday), at SORM (organised by the ever so active Warre Fungus as part of his ongoing KRASS-series).

Info is copy-pasted below.

For those wondering why I didn’t post anything here in the past 3 weeks: I’ve been roaming around in India and have only recently returned.

> :: KRASS ::
> this saturday 21.11.09 @ SoRm
> Victor de Langhestraat 73
> 2100 ArTwaRp - Deurne zuid (TRAM 8)
> :: KRASS ::
> : : :: :: : :: ::
> MAX NOI MACH (usa)
> : : :: : : :: : :: : :: : :
> Max Noi Mach is het alter-ego van Crystal Stolowski, een met een
> bierbuik getooide Amerikaan die met behulp van allerlei bakjes en zijn
> stem de ene na de andere wilde noisejam braakt en eveneens lid is van
> Monster Attacks King Noise Machine.: : : :: : : :: :
> : : :: : : :
> Synt.tofs | rat.tail (usa)
> : : :: : : : :
> synt.tofs:: : : ::
> aka:: : : :: :
> synthesizer.hair.tuft: : : :: :
> aka:: : :: : :
> rat.tail: : : ::
> : :: : : : :: :
> http://myspace.com/topsynth
> http://www.ormolycka.com/synt.tofs
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/synttofs
> :: :: : :: :::: : ::: :: :: :: : :: :
> :::::::: :: :: :: : :: : ::
> Gypsy Flemming (be)
> ::: : :: :: :: : :: :: :: :: ::
> Nutty professor with shattered minds on billboards
> ::: :: : :: :: : :: :: : ::
> Decoy (be):::::
> interactive visual sound game performance kinda like decoy:::
> :: : :: :::: :: :: :: :
> :: bring ur gear ::
> :::::::::: : : :: : : ::
> ..:: deejayz ::..
> :: cokedealer | GF ::
> :::: :: :: :: :: : :::
> NWN
> ::::::::::
> over|Aut
> :: Starts@eight RazorSHARP ::