I’m always looking for creative new music-making apps to play on my iPod touch, and today I discovered Bebot Robot Synth. The iPhone app is developed by Normalware. Bebot features 4-note polyphony (you can play up to 4 different notes at once) and sports some cool effects like echo, overdrive, and chorus. You can even play along with music from your iTunes library. One of the most interesting features of Bebot, however, is the singing robot that appears in the background. Check out the YouTube demo video above, or go to www.normalware.com for more details. It’s only $2, which is a pretty good deal for a powerful little synth like this! I wonder when this app will come to the Android Market. Aesthetically, It seems like a perfect match for the new Google phones.
For the past few months I have been designing my official website, www.kevinsiwoff.com, and today the website is finally launched. Hopefully this website will give a little insight into my professional world. My main goal has been to present a cross section of my work in a unique way, combining elements of what I do into the framework of both a portfolio and a blog. The blog will serve not only as a “news” page, but also as a journal for my creative process.
I hope you enjoy my new website, and please bookmark or subscribe to my blog’s RSS feed if you are interested in seeing/hearing the newest developments in my professional life as they happen.
Last year I wrote and produced a podcast series for the New Jersey Repertory Company. The goal of the project was multifaceted. The folks at NJ Rep wanted to develop online content that would work in conjunction with “traditional” marketing initiatives, driving traffic to NJ Rep’s main website and more importantly to their box office. I was excited by the opportunity to create an online identity for their company. I was using sound as my main tool for ushering in the new marketing initiative, but I wasn’t just looking at the project in terms of its marketing potential. This was a chance for creative content to augment – not replace, the theater experience. Read more…
Ever since I got an iPod Touch a couple of months ago, I’ve been looking at websites in a new way. That is to say, I’ve become increasingly frustrated by having to zoom in and out, scroll side to side, just to read a few paragraphs of text on the Touch. Well luckily I found a plugin for Wordpress (the platform used to power this blog) called WPtouch. WPtouch automatically formats my blog posts for iPhone/iPod Touch, Blackberry Storm, Palm Pre, and Android users. No more unnecessary zooming or scrolling just to read a paragraph.
Unfortunately, when it comes to graphical design customization, WPtouch is slightly limited (it would be cool if I could use some of the graphical elements from the web designed blog in the mobile design). But though it lacks in style, WPtouch makes up for this in its ease of use and cross compatibility with most mobile platforms.
Now if only I posted to this blog more often, you’d have more content to read on your mobile…
If you have a blog running on Wordpress and are interested in mobile compatibility, check out the WPtouch plugin here: http://www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch/
A few months ago, I composed the music for Joey Della Russo’s Scrabble spec. It was a fun piece to work on, especially because I got to use my vintage wah wah pedal, a piece of equipment that doesn’t see a lot of action these days (no pun intended). Check out the 30 second spot via Joey’s Vimeo page , and you’ll hear what I’m talking about:
Today some friends and I drove to New Haven, Connecticut, to attend a record fair and eat some famous New Haven pizza. It had been quite some time since I was at a record fair, and I had a great time digging through the crates again. I happily walked away with a few good reggae and 60s R&B records.
As for the pizza, I was a bit incredulous about the hype surrounding New Haven’s Frank Pepe pizza, especially after finally making it to Brooklyn’s amazing Di Fara Pizza a few weeks back (those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know what I’m talking about). But nevertheless, Frank Pepe lived up to its reputation and made for a pretty serious competitor to the New York pizza titans. Note the line outside of Frank Pepe. Doesn’t this remind you of the pizza madness we are used to seeing in New York? I won’t say which pizza is better, but at least here’s some pictures for your enjoyment. Read more…
Last Thursday, I stopped by The Change You Want To See Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to hear Stewart Ewen speak about “Symbols, Branding, and Persuasion”. Stewart has written many books on media and politics, one of them being PR! A Social History of Spin.
Though I haven’t read this specific book, I was familiar with the BBC series “loosely” based on it titled The Century of The Self. In The Century of The Self, director Adam Curtis draws connections between the history of political power and execution, propaganda, and Freudian psychoanalysis (amongst other things).
And while Mr. Ewen clearly wanted to remove Freudian connotation from his own work (he was much more interested in theorists Bernés and Gustave Le Bon), the topics at hand were equally heavy and entertaining. Case in point, at the end of his lecture Mr. Ewen played the opening from the popular children’s show Bob The Builder. All I can say is, what does the message remind you of? (By the way, I apologize if the theme song gets stuck in your head for at least the next couple of days.)
Check out some of the other programming at The Change You Want To See Gallery: here.
I’ve been looking to some of my favorite blogs for inspiration on posting format, and therefore, I’ve realized that short and sweet is a good rule of thumb. So I’m taking a page out of Alex Ross’s blog (figuratively speaking): The Rest Is Noise, and writing a short list of things that have been influencing my work and thoughts. Oh… And speaking of work, stay tuned for some new compositions and a design collaboration with my friend Paul from Fridgebuzzz Electronics (early October).
Reading:
Malcolm Gladwell “Outliers”
Listening:
Yo La Tengo “Popular Songs”
Lee Fields “My World”
Watching:
Mad Men Season 3
That’s all I got for now. Thanks for following me.
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