Very Simple Audio Mastering Guide

So I had this idea to write a “very simple” guide, and, I must say, it is really simple, anyone can begin mastering with some success after reading it. I give also a couple of “tricks” so you can begin really soon to obtain a professional quality master. Of course this will not make you a mastering wizard, I’m in this field since 1998 and I continue to study… (yes, those famous tomes! heh). But I’m sure your music tracks will be much better and I really hope you’ll send me positive emails about the book!

The price of this document is 2 dollars only, this is why the main purpose of writing it was helping my friends and of course helping you, the new musicians with their first audio tools.

I know impressive musicians, talented pianists and guitarists that consider Digital Audio Workstations like monsters. They had mainly classical academical education and it is difficult to explain them how a compressor works. Now with my ebook they’ll finally understand the basics about compressors and dynamics, and maybe won’t see anymore the DAWs like monsters! :)

The B52’s, London Roundhouse

It was on a hot and very sweaty summer night in London’s trendy Camden and a packed audience of all ages and types gathered at the re-opened Roundhouse. They were all there to see that perennial party band, still together for over 30 years, the B52’s. It was ridiculously hot with many people standing and sweating profusely, but this didn’t diminish the anticipation of the crowd one bit. This became evident before the band even came out with many of them singing along vociferously to Talking Head’s ‘Psycho Killer’ when played by the club’s DJ. Then the lights went down and the words “Hello London, we’re the B52’s” was greeted by a loud roar as the band walked out onto the stage.

Touring to promote their first album in 16 years Funplex, the B52’s showed the sell-out crowd they still have the ability to turn out superbly crafted pop songs. The line up of Fred Schneider, Cindy Wilson, Kate Pierson and Keith Strickland have proved over the years they are masters of the art of catchy, pop songwriting and they treated the crowd to all of their hits and more in their uniquely frivolous and eccentric manner. The B52’s have crafted and honed their electro-beat, new wave, dance sound over 30 years and it’s still impossible to categorise.

Backed up by three backing musicians, the B52’s were in fine form. The soaring harmonies of Wilson and Pierson sounded as good as ever, while the wonderfully camp interjections of Schneider made sure everybody in the audience had a smile on their face for the duration. Along with the more humorous and wacky songs like ‘Private Idaho’ and ‘Party Out Of Bounds,’ with ‘Give Me Back My Man’ and current single ‘Juliet Of The Spirits,’ the B52’s proved they can also do serious and soulful. Their set consisted of the obligatory songs from the current album such as ‘Funplex’ and ‘Pump,’ interspersed with many of the old favourites like ‘Strobe Light,’ and ‘Mesopotamia.’

Judging by the enthusiastic reaction to the older material, it was obvious that the audience consisted of many of their older, long-term fans but there was also a surprising amount of young fans, many of whom were perched up high on their father’s shoulders. To the audience’s delight, the hits came thick and fast with Wilson and Pierson’s sixties style dance routines, Schneider’s deadpan but camp delivery and Strickland’s choppy and distorted ‘rock style’ guitar. What with their wild and wacky image it’s easy to overlook, but make no mistake, these guys are all excellent musicians in their own right.

The harmonies of the two ladies are as good as you’ll find anywhere in popular music, whereas one time drummer Strickland now stands at the front of the stage, giving us all the classic ‘rock’ guitar style poses. Schneider isn’t as animated as he used to be but the B52’s wouldn’t be the same without his perfectly timed ‘camp as they come’ vocals.

To the crowd’s delight, they inevitably get to their most well loved song ‘Love Shack.’ It is one of those songs that always gets everybody dancing at parties and wedding receptions. Where everybody from the youngest children to the oldest grannies knows the words and the Roundhouse crowd were no different. “The whole shack shimmied” barks Schneider and the crowd sing along as one. Personally, I was surprised they didn’t save ‘Love Shack’ for the encore but the crowd didn’t seem to care.

We eventually got two encores. ‘Rock Lobster’ which was the first B52’s song I ever heard as a teenager in 1980 and ‘Planet Claire’ with it’s 1960’s secret agent movie vibe. The sweat soaked crowd were on their last legs by then. The Roundhouse management obviously thought that the English summer wasn’t long enough to justify installing air conditioning, but many were ready to feint at the end. This wasn’t enough, however, to stop most of the crowd from leaving with large grins on their faces. It left many of us feeling that the world is a more fun place with the B52’s in it.

Stop jogging and listen to some new music

Madonna, the world’s tastiest sweetheart, has announced more non-stop treats for her legions of legendary and devoted fans. Following the latest news that “Hard Candy” has debuted at Number 1 around the globe, it has been confirmed that Madonna’s “Sticky and Sweet Tour” will begin (hip) hopping around the world on August 23rd in Cardiff, Wales with stops in major European markets through September including London (11-September) and Paris (20-September).

Hard Candy features collaborations with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. The main themes are love, music and sex and sometimes seems that Madonna repeats herself. Not bad, considering that this album is a great example of the best american pop music.

To be more clear, we can define it unforgettable pop with wonderful choruses. The style is more urban-oriented, than the past disco tracks, and Madonna’s best eighties are back, creating a unique cocktail of different genres.

This is Madonna eleventh and final album for longtime label Warner Bros and it surely represents another mark on current pop culture.

About the Tour, it will feature a lot of past favorites as well as focusing on Madonna’s Hard Candy. She will be supported onstage by different famous artists, as example Paul Oakenfold in London, and Bob Sinclair in Paris.

More than one million tickets have been sold, means about 90% of the total, so better to run as soon as possible to get your ticket!

At the same time, I would recommend to check also Coldplay events. Chris Martin is taking his band back on the road for what promises to be their biggest tour to date to celebrate their hugely anticipated new album ‘Viva la Vida’ and hit single ‘Violet Hill’.

- Madonna Tickets
- Coldplay Tickets

Mobile Games and Technologies

Currently, we can forget the keys of our house when we leave, but not the mobile phone. People are everywhere with their phones talking, chatting, the phone has a very important place in our life. Mobile phones are not only a communication device, are computer themselves, with a cpu, ram memory, persistence storage.

Games in this context are very important because you can get full advantages of the capabilities of a modern mobile phone that becomes this way a game console. Today, people of all ages play with their phones. They get fun and share multiplayer games over Bluetooth or Internet.

The technologies that involve games development are: Java (J2ME, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Linux, Brew). Each one has different capabilities depending on which device are installed.

An important issue is about the technological limits of the devices. Each one has different limits of memory, cpu, color depth, resolution. That push us to do a porting solution of every game to reach the greatest number of mobile devices. This limit obliges us to be more creative, makes us seek how to entertain people with simple games with a few levels. We must create images simply using the old technique of pixel art.

Mobile games are experimenting a constant evolution. In few years, most of the mobile phones will have 3D graphics accelerators such as Nokia N95 phone. The future is very promising, we will find devices that can compete with Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.

Walk Hard: a Retro-Styled Philosophy?

Dewey Cox kills his brother and begins an impressive quest to become a legendary artist. All is based on the “feeling guilty” system. He feels guilty, so he swear he’ll become big to please his brother soul (that was a talented young pianist). Feelings of guilt occur because deep down in your subconscious you have become emotionally attached to an event that you feel in some way responsible for, either you feel that you did something wrong, feel that you didn’t do enough or feel that you should have done something.

Of course, he killed his brother! Yes, but can we say he is punishing himself trying to become a legend? In the end of the movie there is the answer to this question.

Another philosophy behind the movie is the “Walk Hard” philosophy. It’s also the first song of the movie (and of the soundtrack album, a must!) and I really love it. Dewey say, that even if you’ve been told time and time again that you’re always gonna lose, life’s a race, and he is in it to win it. Some kind of people always try to control us, making us obedient. It’s a kind of psychological war out there! Dewey says no to this system and wants to free himself and walk hard up to the top of the mountain high. He still got a dream and a burning rage to live.

This is everything about being artists, about artists goals and principles. Probably also a retro-styled philosophy of the past, maybe also modern someway. But it is connected also to the “feel guilty” issue.

He has a dream, becoming a legend. Is it a real dream? Or he just wants to please his brother soul? He is not strong enough to resist to temptations. Sex, drugs are part of his everyday’s life. Is he really happy while pursuing his dream? Are we able to really understand what is our personal dream and life’s goal? I think that happiness is all about this, to really understand our goals. This is what Dewey finds at the end of his long and troubled life. I wish us all to discover this before the end of our lifes :)

Country Music Star Is Unleashed!

Apparently being the runner up in Kenny Chesney’s “Next Big Star Competition” in May of 2008 is just the springboard that Country Music’s next star needed, as Laura Roppe’s debut CD (homepage) can attest to. The CD “Girl Like This” will soon take the country music scene by storm, as this engaging singer/songwriter is more than just country music ear candy.

For many years, her career in music had taken a back seat to a legal career, marriage and being a mother, but when the ‘music itch’ became too strong, she resumed her career in music. In 2006, Laura was the lead singer of the popular Southern California cover band CoolBandLuke, belting out cover tunes from artists such as Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Blondie, Lucinda Williams, and Kelly Clarkson. Combining an eclectic mix of influences (such as the Indigo Girls, Carly Simon, Shania Twain among many others) and Laura’s unique voice and fresh style, the debut CD is a compelling array of edgy country girl sounds and rare, intoxicating country flavors.

Let’s explore the music: The single, “Mama Needs A Girls Night Out,” is certain to top mainstream Country Radio and is full of fun country music, memorable lyrics (“babies on the brain” and “put your skinny jeans on”) and a “Mom’s Gone Wild” chorus that every mother who hears the cut can identify with. And when you add inventive guitar work, titillating fiddle work and stellar musicianship-you have a recipe for success. The title cut, “Girl Like This,” combines a Shania Twain-like sassiness with an infectious melody and will be right at home on the Country Music Charts.

“Fly Fly Fly,” with Edie Brickel-like vocals, is a fun, country ditty and just makes you tap your foot with anticipation and sing along. “Float Away” may remind some of Jodie Messina, but others may hear vintage Carly Simon and the song is sung with angelic precision and passion. The cut “Little Daughter” may be her signature ballad, with poignant, emotional lyrics that is sung and played with tenderness and warmth that shows you that it is sincere.

Other songs include the sashaying cut “Ooh La La,” with great guitar licks adeptly mixed with her unique country growl and spicy solos. “Come To Me” is another fantastic country number, with dreamy lyrics and achingly tender acoustics. “Sing A Love Song” is full of inventive harmonies and an irresistible chorus. And the cut, “Crazy About You And Me,” just may be a new look at love gone wrong and has a delicious catchiness to it.

All in all, there is not a weak cut on Laura Roppe’s debut CD, “Girl Like This”. The music transcends typical country music boundaries and is full of expressive vocals, polished country pop and well-crafted instrumental sections and will certainly take the country music scene by storm. This stunning debut is just what country music has been looking for and I, for one, can’t wait to hear more!

Manuel Marino: When did you start your movie studio and how did you have the idea?

Todd Cericola: Clocktower Pictures was started in February of 2008. We are a new company in the Philadelphia area that specializes in independent film. We started it after working on a t.v. sitcom pilot called “Two One Five.” Myself, and my two partners Keelen Monahan and Matt Tomko had all been working individually on producing, directing, and writing and decided to put our efforts into one basket by opening up what would eventually become Clocktower.

How much is difficult to manage a movie studio?

I don’t know that it’s as difficult as it is fun. We are all doing something that we throughly enjoy doing. There is a strong workload, especially since we are a new company, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We are a very hands on company working directly with our actors on a one on one basis. We try to cater to all of their needs as well as our own.

I’m a music composer, so the question is natural, how much music is important in the production?

As a musician myself, I think that music is one of the most important thing in a film. If you’re trying to paint a picture to set up a scene, background music is key to setting a mood. A good song will always have the scene set perfectly and you may not even notice it in the background, but when you have a bad song you, as the filmgoer, will always notice the mistake of choice.

What is your latest production? Can you tell us something about it?

Right now we are working on a few things. We are working on a feature film called “Describing the Moon,” about a guy in his mid-twenties struggling with trying to please his friends and complete his life’s goal of becoming a script writer. It’s a fantastic script that’s really dialogue driven, and very funny. We will be finishing up auditions for that next weekend, and should begin filming in October. Two One Five is a big priority as well, we are shopping around to try and sell and make an entire season. As well as entering short film and television festivals to get the name out. The entire episode is up on our website for free viewing at Clocktower Pictures. We are also looking into opening up a second branch of the company under the banner Clocktower Music helping to produce local artists and independent musicians. So we have a lot going on.

How we can define an independent movie and why it’s important that indies are supported in their work?

I think independent film is a very important thing because it brings out more creativity in people. When you’re writing without cause and shooting without big budget you’re working harder at making something the way you see it, so you’re getting the original vision of what you’re going for. It’s like an artists painting, you want to express your own ideas in your own way, not someone else. Too many hands in the cookie jar is never a good thing.

Do you think internet can help indies?

I think the internet is a great advantage for people in any area of creative arts. You can reach out to millions of people at the single click of a button for your company, your movie, your art, your music anything you want. I think with the advent of facebook, myspace, mandy, craigslist, and countless others we’re living in an age where getting yourself out to the masses of people is just that much easier, and that much better.

How do you see the future of movie production?

As far as movie production in general goes, I see it bulking up even more. Budget’s for production are getting larger by what seems daily, actors are making more and more money, and the intake is getting outrageous. On a smaller scale, Philadelphia is getting its own studio soon which has already scene production in the city jump up ten fold.

A software that helps you to be a novelist

Rarely when testing software (mostly security related stuff), am I impressed by anything. I will spend hours picking apart a program, attempting to find any flaw or blemish, major or minor. When I was first approached to test MyNovel, I donned my glasses of pessimism expecting the worst. This is not meant as a detractment, it’s just something I do.

At a quick glance, MyNovel appears to be a standard word processing application, however, there are several major differences/enhancements. The first, and most striking is the ability to create a story template. At any point, you can change the details of your novel, add diagrams, events, characters, places, objects and even check progress/completion.

There’s even an “inspiration” option readily available. Specifically, the character and place generators are rather impressive, as you can choose between various name types. If that weren’t enough, you can choose and/or customize a color scheme.

Once you’re finished with your MyNovel project, there is a fairly comprehensive list of publishers available to choose from, along with relevant contact information and requirements. This takes a lot of the hassle of looking for a book publisher using a search engine.

All of these features are put together in an easy-to-use-easy-to-remember interface. MyNovel’s tools are put right at your fingertips, so there’s no endless searching to find what you need. Regardless of whether you’re a novice or a seasoned veteran to writing, I would strongly recommend that you take time to give MyNovel a try.

For the computer savvy, I have compiled a list of observations below:

MyNovel is fairly impressive, and has quite a bit of potential not only in features, but also performance. When idle, the program takes up a less than 3MB of RAM and during the most intensive states, 12-19MB. If that wasn’t impressive enough, it only requires ~25MB of disk space for a full install. Even running MyNovel at full throttle, it remained fairly quick and responsive to user interaction.

American Music and Vintage Guitars

My father was a gunsmith and fastidious in his craft. As a boy I once watched him raise a dent in an antique rifle stock. He had dampened a soft white cloth, folded it over a few times and placed on that blemish in the wood while applying the low heat of an iron. He did this patiently for hours, for days it seemed. Why didn’t he just fill it and do some sanding? I know the answer now. That random few moments when I was the youthful observer may have been the most precious thing he left me. It was really the seed of true craftsmanship and it grew within me despite my natural inclinations. It was not an overnight revelation. Not only did I see a glimpse of patience when the word had no meaning to me I also saw that it was the only way to do it right. Anything less is just that.

Around this time, 1960 or so, I was captured forever by the sound of Traditional American Music and struggling to learn the guitar when guitar players were scarce indeed for an Army brat in Munich, Germany. I thought the Kingston Trio were great until an older mentor loaned me his copy of the Harry Smith Anthology Vol. One. He suggested that I might find it interesting.

Interesting? My life simply changed forever and for the better. A door to another most wonderful world slammed open and has not closed for the last forty- eight years. Yes, interesting. It was a strange and mysterious world that opened like the fabled parallel universe. I truly felt, and still feel, that I found of part of me that had been missing. I loved the wonderful names, Blind Willie Johnson, Buell Kazee, The Masked Marvel, Furry Lewis and all the others. I had to know what they were saying and how they said and played. Griel Marcus calls it the “Old, Weird America”. I know it certainly called me to a lost world. These people were making music because they had no choice. It was in them as deep as breathing and money was not the object. At least, not then.

My passion has grown and my playing has improved but I am still drawn to the archaic in all arts. I have learned tunes note for note from these and countless other old recordings. In my later years I have seen that these same tunes are no longer played rote but that I have brought something of my own expression to them. I fear imitation for its’ own sake. Still, I must admit that guitar buddies of mine and I have spent untold hours dissecting each quavering semi-tone of “Dark Was the Night and Cold Was the Ground” by the magnificent Blind Willie Johnson. We do it with love and full knowledge that we will never succeed and rejoice that someone recorded it. To me it’s the most important recording ever made.

My love of vintage guitars and banjoes grew accordingly. ‘Neath beds and in closets they lurk. I am a lover of Martin guitars particularly and was thrilled and honored to illustrate a portrait of Perry Bechtal to used in advertising and as a label inside the guitar itself. Oddly enough it is executed in scratchboard - a technique I learned as a Medical Illustrator.

There came a point when I was hearing my own songs and found the courage to record and release them on my own CD entitled “Farewell to Pony Bob”. We did it in a back room of my house without fear.

I was truly surprised to hear that it is available on PodSafeAudio.com. With thanks to Steve James and Michael Martin bless their souls. Look ‘em up. The visitor to my website, will see that my recent paintings of dogs have included a musical influence. Great care was taken to render the banjo and guitar with accuracy. Those pups deserve the best.

There are times I have been painting or drawing, rendering detail that will read as I want it to, when I happen to notice the time. And it is hours past where I thought it might be. I confess those are moments of pure joy. Time and space went somewhere else for a while. Or maybe I am finally learning to see in the fullest sense of the word. Looking at something becomes not quite enough.

My father knew and I thank him for the lesson.

Its name is SilverLining.

Creating Clouds

Manuel Marino: Your sky and clouds library is impressive :)

Frank Kane: Thanks! SilverLining is a software library that allows real-time computer graphics developers to physically simulate the rendering of the sky, clouds, precipitation, and astronomical objects. You can specify any time at any location for pretty much any weather conditions, and SilverLining will draw what the sky would look like quickly enough for games and flight simulators.

Can we say that creating clouds is a form of Art?

It’s funny, because I didn’t go into this project thinking of it as a form of art at all - in fact it was quite the opposite and based on pure science; we went through almost a century worth of academic research into how light scatters through the atmosphere and clouds, the nature of precipitation, computing the location of the sun, moon, stars… stuff like that - and SilverLining was just meant to be a real-time implementation of the raw physics behind what makes the sky look the way it does.

However, a few months ago, I found myself standing inside New York’s Museum of Modern Art looking at an interactive art exhibit that featured SilverLining as part of it, running on a flat-panel display (this was Jonathan Harris’s and Sep Kemvar’s “I Want You To Want Me” piece. So there’s my sky rendering software, on display in the same building that houses works by Picasso and countless other other Art greats. It was surreal. So yes, Art and technology very much can live together.

Did you receive many requests of your library from game developers?

Yes, many game developers use SilverLining, and it’s even been ported to the XBox. But, we have just as many, if not more customers, in the visual simulation industry or “serious games” - people who create simulators for the military, for example - and also from broadcast video customers. A few people are working on using SilverLining for TV weather reports.

What do you think about the indie scene?

Well, I got my start as an independent game developer myself, so it’s a great way to people to learn and demonstrate that they have the skills and the drive to create something great and something big, if they do want to move on to larger projects. The growth of casual games and things like XBox Live have made it possible for indie game developers to carve out their own niche again, which is great. The world needs more people who are as passionate about their work as indie developers are.

What do you think about how internet became in 2008? What do you think about its future?

It’ll be interesting to see what direction social apps go in the long run. Will the world continue to support a few big social “portals” like Facebook and MySpace, or will a more open, simpler solution take over? Will people stay glued to their iPhones watching people Twitter about what they are doing? I think at some point we’re going to see a big divide between people who are very attached to their technology 24/7 with mobile devices, and people who rebel against the whole thing and become something akin to Luddites. It’ll be interesting to watch.

What do you think about the future of technology in general?

It all hinges on our educational system and the value society places on technology. In the US, we’ve had a real problem with a lack of interest in technology and science in general, and an educational system that does not do a good job at all in math and science.

Fortunately, there are other countries where this is not the case, and unless we see some big reforms here in the US, fewer technological advances will come from here. Already, most good technical workers here come from other countries - and our country’s restrictions on immigration and work visas make it increasingly hard to hire them. Who knows, perhaps the growth of the indie scene will counteract that effect by creating more interest in software engineering within our own country. Right now, it’s just really hard to find good developers, and that limits what the industry is able to create.

What will you develop in the future, new libraries? New projects?

I still have a few plans for making SilverLining even better, so I think that will keep me busy for awhile. Beyond that, I have lots of ideas - some involving computer graphics and some not - so if SilverLining gets to a point where it’s about as good as it can get, well, we’ll see.

Raymond Thoughts about Games and Arts

Manuel Marino: You are working on some new features for your next game…

Raymond Jacobs: yes, it is going to be Morning’s Wrath 2, the Sequel to our first game. You would be the first news source to really mention that!! As for the new systems… they are some various forms of internet integration with our new engine (The S3Engine 2.0) (version 2.0 of the engine used to make Malathedra). They will allow players to directly in-game leave comments to the developers about what they think of the game as well as submit any errors encountered via the internet automatically.

This is part of our new ‘internet technologies integration’ initiative as well as trying to know the minds of our target market better so that we can provider better games and faster fixes.

Sounds really innovative! The game reminds me Ultima Online…

Somewhat, though it is a single player game. In MW1 you had to fight off an invading army from taking over your castle along with learning the ways of magic though in doing so you get stricken by a terrible ‘dissease’ since the magical elixer that you use (mana) is by nature poisioned.

MW2 continues with this story, having morning lead her army across the continent to strike back at the invading Ashidian Army; and her search for a cure for her poisioning which is slowly driving her insane. It will likely be done in episodic format, and 3 episodes are currently slated.

Can we say that videogames are a form of Art?

Personally I consider videogames as a major form of Art but I don’t believe that people yet see games as an Art form, at least not the vast majority. They are still mainly an entertainment source however indie developers are definitely causing a movement of games as an Art form.

As for my company everything we do is first a source of artistic inspiration and second a business endevor. We feel that without the artistic and creative backbone, what we develop isn’t likely to be enjoyable.

How technology fits with creative skills?

We limit ourselves to fairly proven technology, choosing not to push the technological envelope very much; but instead create a platform for creative expression; by creating a limited and finite set of functionality on existing technology it forces us to be creative, rather than to rely on technology to turn heads.

The newest HDR rendering may be very pretty, but beyond that it says nothing about the depth of a particular game, so in short, we use technology as a pedistal from which to express our creativity.

How many times I heard similar words… it is the typical condition of the artist, between two worlds, sometimes unable to reach completely one of them.

I paint as they used to paint. I do not use electronic tools, it is just me and my painting.

Yanna is a traditional painter, she sent me a portrait and an ink sketch (high resolution images, download to your desktop and notice the details). Beautiful samples! We have to help her! Send her a message to congratulate and to tell her your ideas about how we could promote her. You can leave also a comment here.

And now, read her words, her two words… about painting, Art and being artists.

Two Words from a Greek Painter

All I am attempting by these few words is to give you a true picture … of classical art, something almost obsolete and misinterpreted, but the little existing today is truly magical.

So let’s start from the beginning of time, when the artist in the caveman society was something like a magus. In those days, the dawn of men, instincts were unspoiled and true. These primitive people were in touch with the Universal Order of Things and they approved of any link that would uplift them. This uplifting is the reason of our evolution after all.

We should analyze what exactly is done by a classical painter/artist. We should analyze what it means to have inspiration, or to be vague of the environment while working, or why we think that it is quite normal for a classical painter/artist to be a little strange, hard to comprehend, but liked…

Well, it is quite simple really, you see these people live standing upon two worlds at the same time, one foot on one and the other on the other. I know this sounds ridicules, but follow me for a little longer, and think of your reaction when you visit an Art Museum. If you have not then do it, because if taken as it should it is a priceless experience.

Now let yourself free, and fall into the pictures. It may be a sunset, a clear day near the water, or the most moving of all a person feeling and transferring to you these feelings through time, always inspiring you to see something you may never have felt before, or to join you with something you are feeling.

This world of feelings is exclusive and by invitation only, invitation by the artist, and exclusive to the ones who are able to feel. You see this world belongs to higher frequencies and the artist is the link, the vehicle that can take you there, where the Universal Status of Things exist, where there is all we call transcendental, where you are inspired, uplifted and able to contact all and everyone you want.

That is all really, the artist is only a link in the chain, connecting transcendental with what you see around you. That is all… but, when you can see the transcendental then perhaps you can comprehend your world a little better.

The Djinn Chronicles

Well, I do have one that directly involves the mythological creatures known as Djinn. Naturally, I have titled the first one “The Djinn Chronicles”, even though I have not had the time to continue the series just yet. It’s in a script-like format for ease of reading/translation into other mediums. I wrote it back in 2003, so it’s fairly old by comparison with a lot of my other works/short stories/etc. It’s about 64 pages in length.

Let me know what you think.

Leave your comments after reading this Writing, I’m sure Erick can’t wait to read your posts about his Djinn story!

Here’s an excerpt:

Victor: Hm… that sounds interesting. What kind of story are we talking about?

Anita: Have you read middle eastern mythology or the Koran?

Victor: I’ve heard bits and pieces about their mythology.

Anita: Lemme ask you this. Have you heard of the Djinn?

…

Victor: And that’s where it all began (laughs). At a diner, with a woman I had just met. It’s strange the way life deals cards to you in a poker game. Half the time you don’t even know what’s going until after everyone’s laid their hand down and the chips are gone. Usually by that time, someone has folded. Guess I should have folded my hand as well and just stayed at the garage.

Just to think that all my problems started with her and that damn book she mentioned. I should NOT have trusted her. But somehow, I wanted to. I wanted to believe that she was helping me, but I was too blind to realize that she was only there to screw me over and have me take it up the ass like some freak show in a cage at some small town carnival. I can’t believe I trusted her.

Now look at me. Sitting here in a place that I should not be, and everyone thinks I’m some sort of goddamn lunatic. I’m not. I am not crazy. And with all the medication they give me, sometimes I wonder if in fact this is all a dream, and when I go to sleep and see my wife, kids, and family, that it is THEN when I am truly awake. And the comfort of sleep makes this seem less and less like a reality and the dreams more and more of a lifestyle than a fantasy. I guess Anita was right. You don’t find too many compassionate people these days anymore.

Exporting Outlook mail messages

I ran into a whole new problem a week ago when my six years old computer stopped working. The “Old Faithful” had served me for years, but now she finally wanted to get retired. Well, that was something she certainly had deserved after all these precious moments. I now look her sadly kicking her heels on the floor and waiting for a new life as spare parts somewhere else. The new and energetic beauty hums silently and dignified on my desk at the very same place the Old Lady was sitting before only a few days ago.

She runs on Windows Vista, which is quite a beauty but not a beast. The old wrinkly ran Windows XP, but already showed exhaustion under the too heavy workload. Now everything is changed, even my mail application turned from Outlook 2000 into a brand new Windows Mail.

Shifting from XP to Vista raised a bunch of new and unpredictable problems to solve. First of all was my new mail client. It works like a charm and that’s why I wanted to move my six-years-old email message archive from Outlook to this new client, but everything didn’t go as planned. Windows Mail could not interact with Outlook 2000 despite I set Outlook as my default mail client. This path came to its dead-end and I needed completely new approach.

My programming background was a relief as I understood that I can write a small VBA script to rescue my old messages. After thorough investigation I decided to individually save each mail message as an eml file. This format is widely understood by many different mail clients, so it was an excellent choice.

Unfortunately native Outlook 2000 lacks ability to export in eml format. Actually the format follows strictly RFC 822 specification, so writing such a script wouldn’t be too complicated. But I waited a second before rushing to code.

A quick search with my favorite search engine gave me pain relief. I found an Outlook Redemption library on the net, which would answer all my questions exporting messages from Outlook PST storage as single files. Redemption object library gives new functions thus expanding the basic Outlook object model. One of these important functions is saving a message as RFC 822 format. This is exactly what I was looking for, so writing a short script was merely whistling and wheeling.

First we need to download the Redemption object library. It’s free for development purposes and this would be enough for our sample. The second stage is unpacking the zipped file. After that the installation is just registering the library in the command prompt as follows:

regsvr32.exe C:[full path]redemption.dll

The example above assumes that you unzip the package on your hard disk in a folder you specify replacing [full path] placeholder. Finally, we need to make a reference to this library in Outlook Visual Basic editor. To do so, select Tools / References and tick the checkbox next to Redemption Outlook Library. All the objects will be exposed to the project as soon as you click OK. The following code snippet shows the basic idea on how to save the first message in Inbox as test.eml file.

Dim o As Redemption.SafeMailItem
dim i As Outlook.Explorer
Set i = ThisOutlookSession.Explorers.Item(1).Explorer
Set o = CreateObject(”Redemption.SafeMailItem”)

o.Item = i.CurrentFolder.Items.Item(1)
o.SaveAs “test.eml”, Redemption.rdoSaveAsType.olRFC822
Set o = Nothing
Set i = Nothing

Knitting the rest of the code should be relatively easy. A loop would do the most of the task while it recursively loops through the messages in Outlook folders. Each mail item is saved with unique name on the disk. Restoring these messages to Windows Mail is just dragging and dropping the files into the appropriate folders. So, thanks to Redemption for giving me these great tools to export my Outlook mail message into Windows Mail.