Manuel Marino, Music and Thoughts » Ideas

Artwork Displayed in Unusual Places

Manuel Marino — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:40:45 +0000

Joyce Boncal wrote this exclusive article for us.

Artwork Displayed in Unusual Places

If you’re young, budding artist, hoping to be discovered, where can you display your artwork? There is always your own web page but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you can afford to advertise that web page. This very web environment, ManuelMarino.com, is a good starting place. You might try your local library. Some libraries show works of art by local artists but are sure to ask if they also sell artwork on commission.

Also consider entering your work at a country fair or displaying your work in offices and restaurants. Contact your area art league for their ideas about local opportunities. If you’re a student at a college, most have yearly art shows. Then there are craft consignment shops selling everything from jewelry to framed photographs.

How about a local laundromat? Wait, before you laugh, think of the high volume of traffic a laundromat gets. I’m thinking of a local laundromat that is a cafe, laundry center, and entertainment hub called Spin Cycle Cafe Laundromat in Newington, CT. In addition to people coming in to do laundry, you have people coming in to eat, people coming in to watch a movie, etc. all the while your painting, photograph, or sketch is hanging on the wall for all the world to see.

At Spin Cycle, on the wall, are several paintings and pieces of art. One captivating piece of work was created by an artist named Lindsey Behrens. It’s a silkscreen piece of artwork where she used two different woodcuts to get the desired effect. The background is the earth as seen from outerspace and the foreground is a caveman in a flying saucer flying over the earth. There is something mesmerizing about this piece of artwork so I wasn’t surprised when I learned that it sold for $210.00.

I called Lindsey to learn about her art education. She studied art in college and gets her art inspiration from her young son and the outdoor environment around her. She heard about displaying artwork at Spin Cyle simply by word of mouth. She recommends young artists try to display their work at art shows, frame shops, galleries, art events, and, of course laundromats.

You just never know where your art talent might be discovered.

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Game Engine

Manuel Marino — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:33:14 +0000

Dr. Roberto Dillon has written this article about his Music-Emotion Driven Game Engine. I think this idea to really have potential.

Game Engine

In the fast developing world of videogames, sound has traditionally played a less important role than other features, such as graphics. Nonetheless, recently, due to the latest technological advances, both developers and audiences alike have understood how much sound and music can do to enhance gaming experiences and increase the overall realism and emotional impact of virtual worlds.

Today, many music games are being released with great acclaim on different formats but many of these games tend to be in the rhythm/action category where the player is actually “reacting” to music while a real and natural “interaction” with this medium is still lacking.

This aspect is currently being addressed by a team of researchers and developers at Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore, led by Italian computer engineer Dr. Roberto Dillon, with a project codenamed M-EDGE (“Music-Emotion Driven Game Engine”) which is fully supported by the National Research Foundation of Singapore.

The underlying idea of the project is to assess and further investigate music related cognitive science topics and integrate the results into games by designing and developing an interactive and emotionally-aware musical game engine that enables players to experiment with a completely new gaming interface.

In fact, by using this engine as a development tool, game developers will be able to build content on top of it where players are not limited to control their actions in the virtual world by using standard interfaces, like a mouse or keyboard, but also to directly affect the game progress by expressing emotional content through the playing of a real musical instrument.

To accomplish this, M-EDGE will be developed to recognize different basic emotions (like happiness, sadness and anger) as expressed by players in their musical playing on an instrument of their choice like flute, guitar, violin or drums.

This information can then be used to control the game accordingly by allowing the player’s in-game character to perform particular tasks or by developing the game story in particular directions. For example, one of the games currently being designed by Dr. Dillon to test the system capabilities is based on the well known legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. In the game the player will impersonate the Piper himself by actually playing a flute and go through the storyline, including its multiple endings as described by different versions of the original legend, according to the emotions he will be able to express through his very own playing and hence decide the fate of Hamelin young people.

Obviously, this kind of games would be a great tool for players who have previous musical knowledge and know how to play a musical instrument, nonetheless special attention will also be dedicated to give a chance of successful playing to people who never played music before. This will be achieved by allowing prospective players to experiment with simple percussive instruments so as to give a chance and an incentive to get into the fascinating world of music making through games to as many people as possible.

The Singaporean team believes the concept of an emotion-based music game engine like this would represent a leap forward within the music games genre and could also have a strong potential for commercial exploitations, besides having a valuable educational side. In fact, as suggested, it will actually encourage people to learn and practice music through a challenging and fun tool where all players, from beginners to professionals, will be given a chance to freely express themselves through music, something no other game has ever done before.

Besides these, more serious and medical applications could also be possible: the final framework could, in fact, be a valuable tool in assisting emotionally impaired people to practice and experiment with their feelings under supervision of a physician/psychologist.

The project, though still in its early stages, is raising a good interest in the gaming community and has already been presented at the Game Convention Asia Conference in Singapore last September. For those interested, slides of the presentation can be downloaded from Dr. Dillon’s website.

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Creative Ideas (Part Two)

Manuel Marino — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:35:37 +0000

This is the Part Two of the powerful article by Deremiah. (Part One)

Creative Ideas (Part Two)

RELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE THE POWER OF YOUR IDEAS…

Brian Tracy who has done a lot of research to compile the information in his wonderful book “CREATE YOUR OWN FUTURE” expresses in Chapter 7, page 115 that Relationships Are Essential toward the development of your future. The Power of Ideas are improved by the friendships we develop and nurture. Most people underestimate how their friends impact the direction they are going and will continue to go in as a result of the company they choose. Sometimes you have to realign yourself with new partnerships in business, new personal and business relationships just to place yourself in a more positively influential environment with others who have the same values that you do. When you begin to hang out, spend time talking with people who reflect the kinds of attitudes that uplift you. It’s just as important to get yourself moving in the right direction as it is to get an electric current to the right appliance or device you’re trying to power. Like electric current powerful ideas have to be directed. It’s very important that if we want to be successful business people that we need to hang out with other successful business people. If you want to be elevating the level of the power of your ideas you need to begin to elevate your level of friendships. Edward Bernays said it best in his book called “Propaganda” where he references many times that a large volume of our society is often being governed by a small handful of influential people. So who are the small influential players in your commiunity? How could you influence the relationships you desire to have in the art world, the music world, or the business world that governs a great deal of the future direction of those industries? Finally how can you gain recognition and be known as one of the Kings or Queens of your industry?

ELECTRICITY AND THE POWER OF IDEAS BOTH OPERATE IN STREAMS…

Real electric power moves in streams we call currents. Those currents flow in the direction we aim them in. Now the Power of Ideas works the same way. The more powerful the idea the more others join in to move along with the flow of our stream. So it becomes very important that others know that the ideas that we have are electric. The sooner others find out and hear or see the impact that our elecritc current has the better it is for us and the sooner they can jump into the stream and add to the flow of the current. When an idea doesn’t have a charge it will fail to add it’s electricity to the atmosphere. It’s like the creative atmosphere of our house when I was a child was conducive for bringing about more artistic gifts because the atmosphere was charged with a certain current for the arts. How can you charge the atmosphere of your home or your job to create the type of electricity that gives your ideas the power to channel themselves into a boisterous stream that grows?

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO INFLUENCE THE POWER OF YOUR IDEAS.

I have over 21 things you can do to unleash the “Power of Ideas” but I’ll give you 4 today that will free you up to live more creatively right now. If you’d like to get 3 more Free ideas shoot me an email at deremiahcpe@gmail.com . And the first 20 people to respond who use the headline “More Power of Ideas for me, Deremiah *CPE” and give me their name and mailing address I’ll give you a Free opportunity to coach you via email (which means I’ll respond to no more than 7 of your emails…working toward helping you to solve the problem). Here are the four I said I would share with you right now.
1.) Make a list of 7 people you’d like to meet and then get on the internet and get to introducing yourself.
2.) Get a journal today and start using your journal like a Fishing Net to capture all the ideas you’re loosing.
3.) Turn your TV off for the next 30 days and dedicate your TV time to making one or more goals develop.
4.) Get a pack of 25 Thank you cards and force yourself to Thank at least 5 people everyday.

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Vinyl Collection

Manuel Marino — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:30:07 +0000

Today we interview Robert Benson, who wrote the ebook called “The Fascinating Hobby Of Vinyl Record Collecting“.

Vinyl Collection

MM: Robert, when did you have the idea to write a book about Vinyl Record Collecting? It is an unusual (but also very fascinating) topic.

RB: The ebook started out as a five page “report” about the subject and just grew from there. There is so much detail that is involved in collecting vinyl, and I just wanted to cover the topic in the best way possible, hence the ebook. And, I have made it very affordable at $4.99 a copy and certainly am not getting rich selling it, but rather I get a keen sense of satisfaction in detailing and explaining the hobby to others. But, the beauty of a digital product like this is that I can add information, interviews and updated material anytime, in fact just six months ago the ebook was at 40 pages, it is now over 70 pages. I wanted to delve into why people collect, the thrill and passion, that not only do I get from collecting, but what other collectors and dealers feel about the hobby. I have over 10,000 records and love adding to my collection, the thrill of the hunt is special to me (and as I found out, to others as well). I do not sell my records, rather, I think that they will be passed on to my family and continue to appreciate in value.

Many people argue about Vinyl and the “old good quality”, are they right? We lost something with digital media?

Oh, yes, there is a “sound fingerprint” that is lost when music is “compressed” into digital format. I call it “binary sound” and the human ear hears music in analogue sound and that is why music on vinyl sounds so much better. In fact, ask any musician (many of who are vinyl record collectors) and they can tell you what compressing the music into digital sound does to the music; that “sound fingerprint” is lost. As for my opinion, music wasn’t meant to be heard as a bunch of 1′s and 0′s compressed together to form the sound, and vinyl records have been around since sound reproduction began; and quite frankly, aren’t going anywhere (remember the reel to reel tapes, eight-tracks and cassettes? vinyl withstood those sound formats for a reason, the sound quality)

What can you tell us about the new media trends and their future?

I had to chuckle when I read about this marketing ploy-they have combined a CD and vinyl into one product. One side is the music in CD format and the other side is a 3 minute vinyl record. Now, I don’t think this is the answer, but I would assume if you can get a hold of one of these, do so, I would think they may be highly collectible once the dust settles.

I have also taken a keen interest in what the band Radiohead has done with their latest release, in fact I have an article on my blog about it.

I am also writing band biographies and reviews about new independent bands for an Internet radio station and I feel that, although a lot of bands still release their product via vinyl or CD, the distribution methods are changing, which to me, is a good thing; a music lover can get to hear so much more music that they may have otherwise not have heard. Many bands are releasing their music independent of the record labels (i.e. Radiohead) and going to MySpace or CD Baby to get their music heard. But, bands will continue to release music on vinyl, because that is what the consumer is looking for.

What about your next projects?

I am currently working on another ebook about “bird” and “animal” names and groups in rock and roll (a daunting task!) and I am having a blast doing this. I also write for www.gemm.com, which is one of the largest vinyl retailers on the Internet (I do band bios and articles). I am also busy working up a couple of more web sites, which I hope to go “live” very soon. I am also involved with a wonderful organization headed by Gary Freiberg called Vinyl Record Day, which helps educate the public about the cultural and social impact that the vinyl record has had on our society. Vinyl Record Day also helps promote and preserve the wonderful art work that has been created throughout the years. I also answer emails that people have about vinyl as well as pursue my fascinating hobby of collecting vinyl records.

On a personal note, I want to thank you for your time and the opportunity to discuss my ebook and hope that you got as much enjoyment out of reading it, as I did putting it all together.

And I thank you, Robert, I wish you big success, your ebook is really charming.

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About Dreaming

Manuel Marino — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 18:44:03 +0000

Peter Buckley just sent me this article he wrote for us, and I feel it to be really powerful… read:

About Dreaming

I wish to talk to you about dreams. I will try to resist sentimentality. Dreams are both beautiful and dangerous, and I want to demonstrate how they can be utterly pestilent, as well as a positive force that propels us through life, and writing.

I can discuss dreams with little reference to the “dreamer”, or “myself” – self-importance is futile in my case because I am not one of those “lucid dreamers” who possess the ability to control their dreams. My current project, “Peter and the Hare” requires me to evoke dreams, not entirely to the letter of the original inspiration, but, still, they are not “mine”. To say I “write” dreams would be like saying I lasso clouds. How can I claim ownership of something that only half-exists? And who creates the clouds? Writing for me is a collaborative effort.

The “something” that reveals itself to me in my writing is not particularly mysterious. It is always the same thing I am chasing, and that it remains a “something” hardly matters, as long as I have the desire and energy to chase it.

What I hope to produce is a body of work akin to a body of a centipede. This strange insect constantly grows extra legs and on those legs, more legs and more, more, more, until it dies or I do. Just to confuse things, the legs might not always be those of a centipede.

It is important for dreams to run free, yet to capture them we must impose rules, or make compromises. The most skilled writers can capture the energy of the original ‘dream’ while making it easy-to-read and accessible to others. You are writing with your readers, not against them. This is what I occasionally (and sometimes deliberately) forget…that centipede thing? What was that about?!?

“Peter and the Hare” is very experimental; please do not assume that I know what I am doing. The stories on my site are more like impressions, and it is up to the reader what impact they are allowed to make. The overall effect is anarchy. It’s a playground, but one I take seriously. It’s also just a place I put my stuff.

The fact that it’s a weblog affects the content. The internet is insane, uncontrollable – it can make us more intelligent or more ignorant. It can broaden our horizons, or expose us to unhelpful ideas. It feeds us this exhilarating white-noise. I’m hoping “The Hare” will confuse, shock, and entertain in equal measure – just as dreams do, and the internet itself is a dream.

If my blog is about anything, (and I want it to go anywhere, and be “…about anything”) it’s reality. So in an article about dreams, I should say something about reality. But reality can not necessarily be singled out as a “thing” separate from dreams. And dreams are real enough.

The whimsicality of dreaming can be seen in my work’s humorous elements. Laughing is better than crying, they say, and I laugh a lot. I’m not sure what “their” stance is on doing both at the same time, so I’ll assume that’s ok too.

I’ll reproduce some of my poem, Bubble, here – one of my worst poems (!) but it might at least demonstrate a point. The full text is here:

“When you live inside a bubble
the archway of the stars
becomes the pattern of the ceiling.

The edges of each table-leg
are softened with used teabags
that stain the carpet mahogany brown,
and the stain lingers perpetually.

…

you’ll be asleep
most of the time
and become proficient in dreaming.”

This character is trapped in a dream. Is he fortunate, or is he to be pitied? The most un-clichéd answer is “neither”, but even that’s been worn-out.

Dreaming = escape, and this is wonderful. But it can also take its toll. Firstly, it demands dedication – the dream will always demand “completion”. My characters often seem blinded by their dreams. “The Hare” is the most habitual dreamer – he can hop from world to world, and doesn’t seem troubled by this destiny. Conversely, there is Dmitri, a comedy-Russian stereotype I have a lot of fun with. Dmitri is a realist who has seen too much to dream. He dislikes dreamers. In the middle of this are a cast of anonymous people, who stage dreamlike conversations. It’s not clear when or where they are happening, and it doesn’t matter. What emerges from conversations such as “It Takes a Train to Laugh…” and “In England, We Say Toilet…” is the pain of dreaming; dreaming breeds loneliness, delusion, an inability, (even unwillingness) to communicate. Perhaps I feel guilty about dreaming and about creating, for as long as we each build our own castles, there will be wars.

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can play together all night.” – Bill Watterson

But we can deal with dreams in two ways – they’re both disposable and essential, because things can be simultaneously insightful and very, very silly. These “in-flight movies” can teach us to wander through life with a sense of humour. Confusion need not be a source of angst, but something to be embraced; a coping strategy that gives us hope.

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Free Dream Interpretation for Eleanor Image via Wikipedia I dreamed that I was able to drift (as opposed to fly) to any height with sheer mental effort. There were several friends who had the same ability but I could get to heights which they could not. At first we needed to feed on blood......
What To Write About on Your Corporate Blog Sometimes when you start a corporate blog you can feel as though you’re going to have plenty to talk about, but after a few weeks – this may change dramatically. If you’re getting a little stuck and there isn’t much news to talk about on your blog, you’re going to......
I Put Myself In Nick's Hands And The Dream Lifestyle System Does Make Money I Put Myself In Nick's Hands The brand new site called Dream Lifestyle System. I put myself in the hands of the owner, Nick Bramble, and 30 days later, here are the results: I have my own new business on the net I build a list of 125 members in......
Ideas for Blogging Content Pt 2 Business blogging is rife with benefits for anyone who is able to utilize it properly, as it adds a significant amount of value to a company's web presence, increasing search engine visibility and encouraging excellent and meaningful interaction from readers, driving an increase of traffic to your website in the......
Sunday Conversation #2 with Frugal Dad Welcome to Sunday Conversation #2! This is the first of many conversations between readers and yours truly. Any subject is on the table (remember, keep it family friendly). Simply ask your question in the comments section of today's post and I will respond next Sunday. Pull up a chair, grab......