July 2007
Monthly Archive
“Mambo Inn” with The George Gee Big Band
Posted by georgemc on 30 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: drumming
UPDATE (07 August) - I emailed George Gee asking who the drummer in the clip below is and he kindly replied with the name Dave Gibson, who has more videos on YouTube. George tells me “(Dave) is formerly with The Basie Band under Frank Foster’s direction!”. Cool!
just an amazing display of drumming in a big band context, this is the way to go:
dub reggae
Posted by georgemc on 30 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: drumming
my favourite groove of the moment, this visceral example by Billy Atwell reminds me of the Ozric Tentacles’ Merv Pepler in reggae mode:
PowerPoint Live 2007
Posted by georgemc on 29 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Perspector, PowerPoint, business, presentations
PowerPoint Live 2007, the PowerPoint user conference, is being held on October 28-31 in New Orleans. I’ll be going as an attendee, exhibiting Perspector and giving the seminar “Lessons from the Rocket Scientists: Building presentations that take off” - which draws on my experience in the requirements management/systems engineering industry. The idea of applying lessons from requirements management to giving presentations was inspired by this posting I did back in April.
Tim’s blog has special offer links for those considering going.
This is a wonderful event for presentation professionals and I’m very excited about participating and maybe getting a chance to show you Perspector in action.
Four Limb Independence
Posted by georgemc on 10 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: drumming
Never mind trying to pat your head while rubbing your tummy, see what elite drummers like Virgil Donati can do (I’ll report back in 10 years if I even get close to this…)
Tufte vs. PowerPoint
Posted by georgemc on 10 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: graphics, Perspector, PowerPoint, presentations
Edward Tufte’s marvelous series of books on the art of displaying information has long been a joy for me to read, and still is. His books as artifacts in their own right reflect and reinforce the messages and ideals of their author - I love that kind of recursion when it pays off - and I thank Richard Stevens of DOORS fame for drawing my attention to this work in the early days of QSS (1993ish).
It was therefore a shock to me when Perspector’s CEO Adrian Doyle was sent a copy of Tufte’s anti-MS PowerPoint polemic last year by the great man himself - which was very kind of Professor Tufte, but unnecessary as being the big fan I am, I had already bought a copy and I bore all my Perspector colleagues at any opportunity about the wonders of Tufte books. I should explain that Perspector is the product with which I enjoy the role of CTO, and it adds 3D and animation capabilities to PowerPoint (shock horror).
Of course, I disagree with Tufte about PowerPoint. I don’t disagree that there are dreadful PowerPoint presentations inflicted on long suffering victims every hour of every day, BUT, it has also been my pleasure to see great artistry and skill applied to the art of communicating to an audience, and, even more shock horror, PowerPoint played a useful role in some of those presentations. As an example, I suggest watching the webinar I blogged about here by Cliff Atkinson. Tufte himself has even written “Of course full-screen projected images and videos are necessary; that is the one harmless use of PP.” Sounds like a charter for exactly following the very visual style of presentations which Cliff is so eloquently promoting!
I think Don Norman has the best article I’ve read on why Tufte is wrong about PowerPoint, or to end with a flurry of mixed metaphors; bullets don’t kill, just the lazy so-and-so who puts too many on a slide.
The Body As Source
Posted by georgemc on 09 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: music
Nick Rothwell is a pal who shared my joy of electronic music and music technology when we compared notes on such stuff in the 80s and early 90s. We recently traded emails and it was with increasing pleasure that I listened to his mp3s on http://www.myspace.com/cassieldotcom - here is my review of them:
“The Body as Source” - excellent - I loved the build up, and then regretted that it had to end. Great “orchestral pads” in the middle. Bravo. I like the way Nick isn’t afraid to have different levels of VOLUME.
“Insidious Sedation” has a nicely isolated piano over a *very* Schulzey vocoder thing going on. (Schulze is Klaus Schulze, and you should seek him out, I recommend everything before, but including, Audentity).
plate 21 - splendid! Bells and drums and stuff.
fumi - sounds like the soundtrack to a David Lynch movie, which is fine…
Cheers Nick!