http://blog.jasontoal.ca/

There will be a better redirect from here soon, and i dont expect the rss feed to change (much). Im hoping this will reinvigorate my interest in blogging in general, and motivate me to post more regularly. Oh i have plans for this site… BIG plans.

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Look for more action over here in the ensuing months, if you are the edublogger sort. although that url is likely to change. there are many odd things creeping up over at sfu these days, of the blogging variety. too early to tell, but it oughta be sweet!

4 years of blogging about to come to and end… in one way its sorta sad. but in another, more accurate way, its totally awesome!

There will also be more activity on my research blog, as i wrap things up this month. now THAT is awesome. word.

Hmmph. As expected, the feed I have been so trying to get together is somehow stuck in the pipes. Whatever will I do?!

Perhaps these guys will have some answers!

New and piped up, Hello User feed
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Once that is installed in your Wordpress application, its a simple matter of including a small script in each blog post.


< phpcode >
rssLinkList('add your rss link here.rss',20,false,false);
< /phpcode >

…and inserting the link to the feed, with a few extra parameters, number of posts, summary or titles only etc. voila! no matter when someone comes to that particular post, there is always fresh data, assuming I have included a worthwhile feed.

So how does this feed get 'mashed' into the blog post itself and consequently the 'master feed for my blog? Well… it doesn't. Which is one of the reason why I pity the fool who subscribes to this . When I make such a post, and read it through my reader, that script just turns out as… well script, totally useless to the average human.

Secondly, I have been usingfeedburner as my RSS front end (?) since i started having a feed. Since I regularly change my source feed I felt it would be convenient for people to never have to update the link they subscribe too. Plus there are some cool stats and stuff. I was using an rssmix feed for the longest while, but now, since all my cool friends (brian, scott d'arcy) have been talking about pipes so much, i figured… meh, what the heck? Perhaps the Pipes will allow me to do some how elegantly nest one feed roll, inside another feed post. (If that is making any sense at all you should seek professional help)

The big problem is, that if you have ALREADY subscribed to my feed, when i switch over to the new source, ALL previous posts are smooshed together as the one most recent post, going back in time to forever as far as I can tell. God forbid you 'starred' anything or even want to to check back on some of my more brilliant work. I suppose it is a simple matter of select the hello.user rss and clicking 'mark as read', but yet I still apologize for the hassle.

Lastly, thn there is the whole matter of the copious amount of blogs I have, and relative lack of blog posts to go in them… but thats another story.

Dope Jams podcast
• Be Alright -
• 'till I -
• Back2thebeginnin -
• Caribbean Style -
• Different Day -
• All We Got -
• Stray Bullet or a Heart Attack -
• Aww, Yeah (mix) -

Recently I have tried experimenting with "buying music online" , something that at first seems against every principle the web holds dear, but in fact it is quite gratifying. What follows is an account of three different services I have used recently for new music purchases, each experience was quite different and reminded me how each service is actually filling quite a distinct market. I actually NEEDED to go to these three different sources for each item I wanted to get.

Lets start with what might still be the most common way to buy music online, picking up a CD at amazon. This disk by Handsome Boy Modeling School has been on my 'to get' list for some time now, and I have just not been able to download the bitch. What finally sent me over the edge to send away for it was a track featuring my new love Cat Power that is so going on a mixtape. I knew this was gonna cost me at least 20$ if I could even find it in a local shop, and since I got a free delivery deal by buying a book at the same time….

Next, was an artist I had the pleasure of seeing last year at the shamballah music festival. The
Seedling Escape recently released a refined set that I'm pretty sure they played at the Shambles. It was a fantastic way to greet the day, but such is the case with electronic, dance type music, its not as conducive to the format most of us think of as the 'album'. Thankfully the Seedlings, remixed and released the entire mix (45 min, one file) on Fake Science, a site that claims to be …

… a digital music store that works directly with independent artists and labels with the intention of building a closer relationship between the people who love the music and the people who make it.

Regardless, although the lads have a mySpace, they are distributing their music on yet another third party site, (no NOT iTunes) and only as a single 45 min download. which, for 5$ is a pretty saweet deal.

Lastly, a project that is a little closer to home. A local company, Project Opus, with whom I am fortunate to be affiliated, offers quite a unique service that once I spent some time exploring, indeed did entice me to spend my money. Opus goes a step beyond merely providing titles in album and track formats to be downloaded at a buck per. (although that is their rate). Nay, Opus has much higher ideals, to build on the relationships between artists and audience. In fact, the devoted audience and fans can in this case end up being the artists best friend and contribute to their success in a very real way. I started my exploration by browsing some of the tracks that were listed in their music library under Rap/Urban/Hip Hop. Opus targets independent and local artists and I was pleasantly surprised that I had never heard any of it before. Great! Before you know it, I had discovered many new tracks that I wanted to have handy for potential mixtapes and mobile travel, and was able to add them to my own playlist which I called
dope jams. In fact, it was this customizable playlist that became my purchasable item. Not only do I get to buy it, but others that are browsing my profile page may also listen to the mix and decide to buy the whole thing themselves. Will I get a cut if that happens?

I have tracked down a discussion forum that has pictures of the killing time complilation cd.. Checking the back cover, the URLS of each artist MySpace was one of the prime tools for sharing and promoting their music.

http://www.killingtime.ca/
http://www.thisdancedancerevolutionwillnotbetelevised.com/

Here is all the myspace pages
www.thisdancedancerevolutionwillnotbetelevised.com
www.myspace.com/hits2006
www.myspace.com/imaginationstreetrunkmus
www.myspace.com/panhandlers
www.myspace.com/zachbeats www.myspace.com/kevarnoldmagnificent www.myspace.com/likkercats

This post has been sitting in my 'drafts' folder for many more months now, i think I started the post almost a year ago actually. I fear most of the links are quite broken. I have just not been able to figure out how to finish it off. Basically, it describes a way of buying music that is probably not too common, yet serendipitously it worked out. I have not heard if these artists have gone on to great fame and fortune, I haven't even seen any announcements for any performances locally. Regardless, as far as new music goes, why not give those dudes on the street that are trying to make a buck a chance. You may be surprised at what they have to offer.

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Project Opus blog, for fun and to share music locally. subscribe

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43 things feed, more 'things' about ME! subscribe

you may have to join to view that.

The 'top 5' memetag game is a good exercise in bloggyishness, and so let us begin

top 5 things you probably dont know about me…

#5 This goes back to the college days, but I accidentally killed my test dummy in the ski patrol final exam. I actually did 100% perfect treatment of my patient, but forgot that during transportation they must be moved on the injured side. Since this particular case was a punctured lung, and I had him on his back, his lungs filled with blood and … bam. Odd thing was, I somehow still managed to acquire my ski patrol ticket, and got several seasons 'free' skiing by volunteering for the patrol. These days I am much more casual about my ski days but have been known to make some turns with these dudes.

#4 I have at least 5 other blogs (feeds all posted to the right) besides this one. Its ridiculous really, I try to tie various things together using rss mashing techniques and such, but basically its all a constant work in progress. Theres another incomplete listing of some others here. Looking at the feeds right now theres a little cleaning up to do.

#3 I like to draw naked people using these things called 'paper' and 'pencils'. Potentially a wide variety of other drawing implements as well. There are no pics up on flicker of any of my work or anything, (which might be a good thing to do some day) but I am looking forward to getting back to doing some drawing again very soon. I used to belong to the Basic inquiry collective here in Vancouver which has been a fantastic artist center for over 20 years. As soon as my thesis is completed I will be having to go check out how they are doing.

#2 I like dancing! I mean, i am really picky, nay, even snobby about my music, I wont just kick out the jams for anything, but essentially I think one of the most important elements to music is its 'dancability'. Maybe 'movability' would be a better word for it. I am just not one of those guys that gets all wrapped up in the lyrics, and de-constructing the musicianship or whatever. Give me dope beats, catchy hooks, rocking jams, just give them to me and keep them coming. Recently I had the very good fortune to attend The Roots here in Vancouver and, maybe its just that I am at a certain point in my life or something, but that show re-energized me like crazy! And then theres parties like this.

#1 I grew up on a farm. I'm not going to get all reminiscent on you , but I do have a clip from a tape my mom made in '73, I was four, my sister two. A neighbors kid Stacey is also in this clip. Yay vintage cassette home recordings! This was going to be incorporated into my thesis project somehow, but I have since decided to work on it separately. It will be some kinda historical, time capsule, podcast type of thing. My sis Vanessa may not be completely in approval here, but i really did try to edit out the most embarassing parts. The clip is just over 3 min. you can click the small 'play' button right there.

Since i dont really know too many other bloggers personally, i will only be able to extend this to 2 other people; rod and amy, both colleagues of mine from the office.

my Project OPUS feed

well its really all about finding the new, cool music isnt it? and people seem to like to getting reccomendations from friends and their extended social networks. A new and local site I have been exploring recently is called project OPUS, and I think they have done an excellent job creating an environment where up and coming local musicians can get their stuff 'out there'. The model includes providing downloads to listeners (for a small fee) which will create a revenue stream for the artist. They have also included some of the critical networking capabilities that allow users to link up with one another and share their favorite tunes using 'playlists'.

Another site I came across recently with somewhat similar aspirations is called mystrands. What attracted my attention was some of the cool visualization tools they are developing that provide unique wasy to look at reccomendations from other users. Basically, I am not sure I have the time and energy to belong to another one of these sites right now, but I'd love to hear if anyone else has had positive or negative experiences with it? bueler? bueler?

As I have suggested before, I am a big fan of last.fm as well [which recently won the BT digital music awards for best music community. yay last.fm!] and also gives music reccomendations from your social network. I find I do discover alot of cool new music in this way, over time. a looooong time. Mystrands claims to be able to provide immediate and new reccomendations and can do the cool thing of analyzing my last.fm account, to do so. Based on the tunes it gave me however, i have to say I am not too interested in the reccomendations it has put forth.

I'm still building up my network in Project OPUS, but it does seem like best place for finding all the best local talent, and i dont mind the idea of belonging to several different sites to discover and share my music. However each of the products mentioned in this post also comes with their own players, which is going to be bit more difficult to sell to consumers.

These are some notes I have been adding to a last.fm screen shot on flickr. I have wanted to post this for awhile, but with the multitude of blogs I have going on these days, its not always clear where I should post to. If this flickr/notes approach turns out to be a useful way to demo the tool, I may consider doing it for other sites as well, but it was fun for me just the same. Especially since this is one of my favorite music sites of all time!

I'll be including this in a session some friends and I are doing at artcamp tomorrow. Brian really describes these things much better than I.

we will work towards creating a mixtape by and for the participants of ArtCamp, playing around with friction points between digital music media and an analog technology on the verge of obsolescence. Not sure I get it, but I know it's gonna be fun.

As is the case with these things, we are just sorta coming up with stuff on the fly, but I'm sure between the three of us we'll have plenty to say and do. For my part I plan to quickly review last.fm along with some other options for making "mixtapes" and sharing them online these days, possibly including:
webjay,mixtape collective,and a newly discovered local startup, project opus

I'm also thinking of doing a short history of music technologies, and a review of different mixtape "types", drawn from my research data so far. Of course the main goal will be to come up with an actual mix for the artcampers as a take away, (including one lucky person that will leave with a tape!). I guess we'll need to pick some kind of theme for the mix, as well as collaborate on a cover, all of which should be an interesting process. This tape cassette template may come in handy, maybe there will be time to ponder the "how-to's" of decent mixtape making., we'll jsut have to see what people are interested in.

It seem my thesis could not be coming at better timed to capture some of the trends occuring in the digital music realm these days. fun!