I used to go to a boys school and my friends and I were understandably delighted one day to learn that an all-girls group from a Himalayan boarding school were soon going to perform in our auditorium. It would be a musical, we were informed, though at that time I didn't really know what that meant. My only exposure to music outside the staple fare of Bengali and Hindi songs had been some Western classical -- mostly Mozart -- and a heterogenous collection of old pop -- ABBA, Cliff Richard, John Denver.

On the day of the performance I was dismayed to learn that most of my friends had made other plans. However I decided to go ahead on my own. I had never seen a musical before and was also curious to see how well these girls from the school with a quaint name (which I have sadly forgotten today) would carry it off. The musical was called Evita, of course, and the brochure handed to us neatly summarised the story and even had the lyrics to most of the songs. I thought that was very professional and it gave me a good feeling about the show itself.

The moment the show started, I realised that it was going to be nothing like I had ever seen in my life.

For those girls were good. They were really damn good. They sang effortlessly and acted brilliantly. Everything about them seemed to have been choreographed to perfection. There were no slip-ups, indeed no mistakes worth pointing out. They were all so pretty and graceful as they danced and emoted and moved around the stage that I was simply mesmerized. And they were just kids my age!

And the songs. I just loved them! Since then I have heard a lot of other work by Andrew Lloyd Webber but the magic of that night was something special. As I left the show there was no doubt in my mind that I had witnessed something utterly spectacular which I would not forget as long as I lived.

And indeed, as I heard the same music today, nine years later, those memories came back to me clear as ever. That was a memorable night and not just for the performance I witnessed. It was also the date when I discovered certain swellings on my neck that terrified me and changed the course of my life for a long time. That, however, is another story entirely.

I haven't heard Mariah sound this good live in a very, very, very long time! It's not my favourite track on "E=MC2"(something about the title, just doesn't sit right with me lol!), but she most def tore it up vocally - actually this makes me think she was miming! Was she?

Peace, Love & MCC

SpeakerBox

The stock market does not go up 10% per year in the long run

• The math is just plain wrong. Lying averages tell us if you average the annual returns of the stock market it will equal its performance... but, as the name implies, it is not true. Lying averages tell you that if you are aiming for a 10% average return, and you have a 20% loss one year, it will take a 30% gain the next year to get back on track. Truthful math will tell you it will take a 50% gain just to get back on track for a 10% average annual return. Think about that in light of the stock market activity in 2000, 2002, and 2007.
• Any returns less than inflation is truly a loss. With inflation currently at 11.58%, you'll need a 21.58% annual return to grow your wealth at 10% per year.

Just look at the last 10 years of data...

On the chart above, the red line reflects the inflation rate as published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This calculation interestingly excludes certain factors such as the price of oil, food, and in the future, anything else that rises rapidly in price due to inflation. Social Security benefits are increased according to figures based on these BLS calculations (you may as well remove the "L"). Most of us actually eat food and use gasoline, so luckily there are other sources that track inflation as indicated by the blue line.

During the last 10 years, there was a stock boom and bust. Overall, the S&P 500 returned 4.18%. As you can see above, inflation during that time fluctuated between 8% and 12%. If you had invested $100,000 into an S&P 500 index fund from 1998 to 2008, this is how it would look:

...a loss of $37,417. So you lost 37% or 3.7% per year rather than experiencing the mythological 10% return of the market.

What if you could earn a predictable income in excess of 10% annually? Would it be worth wiping the slate clean, dropping the conventional adage, and learning how to understand financial statements and private financial instruments? What if you could build your wealth using methods employed for centuries by the world's wealthiest individuals?

La prima.
Le synthetic performances in SecondLife degli 01.org, come ho già scritto (ne hanno parlato anche Laura e Fabio), ripropongono dei momenti "classici" della storia della performance. Sono vere e proprie forme di riattivazione; rimodulazioni della sensibilità artistica nello spazio del digitale in cui il gesto artistico diviene gesture, script alfanumerico che l'avatar indossa. 
Lo stesso pubblico inworld per interagire deve "installare" un comportamento: se vuoi passare fra i corpi/avatar nudi di Franco ed Eva Mattes devi cliccare su una pallina (azzurra per il lui-avatar e rosa per il lei-avatar) e il tuo avatar sarà "posseduto" dallo script, etorodiretto nei movimenti. Il gesto performativo del pubblico-avatar diventa il prodotto dell'artista, pura costruzione, vincolo, momento illiberale.

La libertà resta nei commenti che scorrono in chat durante la performance o nei possibili gesti performativi autonomi dentro la performance. Come l'immagine scattata durante la serata ci racconta.

 

La seconda.
Lo spettatore era qui triplo. Il primo in RL assiste alle performance dentro SecondLife. Il secondo è l'avatar/partecipante alle perfomance. Il terzo è il corpo dello spetattore dietro l'avatar che guarda se stesso e gli altri dallo schermo del suo computer.

Il secondo spettatore, quello partecipante inworld, è necessario affinchè "l'evento di arte contemporanea", così come viene pubblicizzato ci sia. Quello in RL. Sì perchè lui è parte in-consapevole dello spettacolo per il pubblico in RL. "Vieni a vedere l'avatar!", sembra sentire gridare. "Vieni a vedere l'avatar animale, quello alieno, quello che è un oggetto!".

La partecipazione dello spettatore/avatar è funzionale alla distanza dello sguardo dello spettatore in RL. E' linguaggio che si piega al'intrattenimento artistico. E anche le sue imprevedibilità (come l'avatar con cartello) diventano funzionali alla macchina scenica.

Ecco, credo che questo sottolinei la rilevanza dell'operazione degli 01.org: lo svelamento di una dinamica della spettatorialità complessa e mutante nella relazione fra in e outworld, fra scena reale e digitale; la sottolineatura di una economia politica dell'avatar tra libertà ed oppressione, fra sfrutamento comportamentale e scelte dell'abitare che sono tanto più potenti quanto più ti sai scrivere nel mondo - appropriandoti della capacità di progettare i tuoi comportamenti, ad esempio.

eita noise!

um live dele em Tokyo

é mais ou menos por aí.

One of the most discouraging thoughts is that nothing is original anymore. With so much creativity happening online in multi-media ways, you could practically google your idea, song, or concept, and find that someone else did it first.

So this passage in Steve Martin's new book, "Born Standing Up," has me believing in original thought again.

Martin bought a copy of this book, "Showmanship for Magicians," by Dariel Fitzkee. In the forward, Fitzkee writes that the "handbook is meant to turn amateurs into professionals."

Each show should have music, rhythm, comedy, sex appeal, personality, and an element of selling yourself. Each one is vitally necessary, Fitzkee writes.

In particular, one line in the book made a young Martin cut all ties to the high expectations of history's greatest vaudevillians, comics, and magicians.

"Magic is old fashioned," Martin writes, about what he read in Fitzkee's book. "All entertainment is or about to become old-fashioned. There is room for a young performer to do something new."

1. se um método pode ser static, declare-o como static. Isso irá aumentar a performance umas 4 vezes.
2. echo é mais rápido do que print
3. utilize o unset nas suas variáveis para liberar memória (bons tempos em que todo mundo sabia programar em C :P.. "free your mallocs")
4. não use require_once()
5. utilize o caminho absoluto na hora de dar os includes, assim o PHP não perde tempo tentando resolver o caminho.
6. str_replace é mais rápido do que preg_replace porém strtr é umas 4 vezes mais rápido do que str_replace
7. utilizar @ para suprimir os erros é muito lento.
8. habilite o mod_deflate no apache
9. feche a sua conexão com o banco se você não irá mais utilizá-la (mas não fique abrindo e fechando toda hora!)
10. $row['abc']  é 7 vezes mais rápido do que $row[abc]
11. não use funções dentro de um laço, como por exemplo, for ($x=0; $x < count($array); $x++)  porque count() vai ser executada em todo ciclo do laço. Utilize: for ($x=0, $c=count($array); $x < $c; $x++).
12. Incrementar uma variável global é duas vezes mais lento do que incrementar uma variável local
13. acessar um atributo de um objeto ($obj->atributo++, por exemplo) é 3 vezes mais lento do que acessar uma variável local
14. incrementar uma variável local não inicializada é 9-10 vezes mais lento do que se ela tivesse sido inicializada.
15. aspas simples são mais rápidas que aspas duplas
16. uma aplicação que faça cache dos scripts php vai aumentar a performance entre 25 e 100%.
17. utilize cache sempre que possível. SEMPRE! (claro que isso tem um onus, mas estamos falando apenas em performance aqui)
18. Se quiser testar o tamanho de uma string, utilize isset ao invés de strlen. Por exemplo: if (!isset($foo{5})) echo "foo eh mto pequeno!";
19. nem tudo precisa ser OO. Métodos e objetos tendem a consumir muito mais memória.
20. não converta toda estrutura de dados em classes. Utilizar arrays é muito mais rápido.
21. se você possui funções que demandam muito tempo de execução cogite transforma-las em uma extensão em C.
22. habilitar o mod_gzip pode economizar em até 80% o tráfego de dados. Sua largura de banda agradece.
23. evite usar SELECT *. Isso dificulta a manutenção e gasta tempo desnecessário de processamento para descobrir os campos e obter os valores do banco
24. use switch ao invés de um monte de ifs
25. json é mais rápido do que xml.

 Guess the drink was good, eh? Haha. We kept telling her she was tipsy, though she insisted she wasn't. It's alright Bena, you can pull off the pink-cheek look.  The later orders that kept coming in and making Sanket run around confirmed that his cocktails were good, so yeah to Frujchaholic initiative #1! :)

HALF-TIME started slow and easy, with Jamiel warming up the crowd.  Jamiel, Jamiel, Jamiel. The guy who used to have "LOVE MACHINE" spelt out in red tape on his bike and the guy who wanders into Frujch on some afternoons that we're lucky, and plays for us impromptu.

Like The Rockstar Lullaby? So do we. AND he comes with his own license plate.

Next up was EN-X,which we unfortunately didn't manage to get a picture or video of because we were glued to the bar with orders(send us a photo please, someone, or a video! Anyone!). We're sorry, guys! :( We still love you! Especially this past week since you performed at frujch on THREE nights (i.e. AMPLIFY, including Wilfred)! That has to be some sort of record. They were here Tuesday for Social Science's Chillax, on Tipsy Thursdays and today. How mad is that!

The 3rd set was helmed by Aben - Jerome & Ser Ching, who we managed to get quick shots of`f by dispatching Mr. Jonny to do the job. This was their frujch debut, so welcome guys!

Kekkou played the closing set and it's almost unbelievable that this was the first time they were playing together. It was an unexpected mix of performers - a saxist, a keyboardist, a guitarisit and a vocalist - that was just perfect for a 11pm unwinding...

video courtesy of andatu.
for more kekkou videos visit http://www.youtube.com/user/andatu

It's just so heartening when the performers come up at the end of it all and say that they would like to perform at Frujch again. I mean, these are people who can easily command a better remuneration (in their gigs outside and all),  but are willing to play here - again and again, because of the crowd, because of the atmosphere, because of the sandwiches, we don't know, but it means a lot to us, guys.

As for the crowd, this term's was slightly smaller than last year's (damn mid-terms to hell), but in the end, it didn't matter. Because the atmosphere was still the same - with everyone lounging and listening to the music or having fun with foosball or airhockey; with the performers having a good time and us, having a good time knowing people were having a good time. So, the goal of unwinding? Check. Therefore, we would declare HALF-TIME a success, but for those of you who were there, you probably already knew that. And besides, success is such an overused, overly competitive-sounding word these days.

Welcome back to Half-Time.
It's been 7 weeks since term started,
It's time to take a break.

"The Acoustic Life. Unwind while doing what you do best. Perform. Down a beer. Lounge around with your friends as you enjoy the slow moments. Relax. Now's the time for that."

After last year's response, we knew we had to bring back Half-Time this year. The atmosphere then was heady with all the cheering and clapping and smiles. Because everybody was just having a good time.  It's fantastic to have an night whereby there's no competition, where no one's there to show-off, where everyone's simply taking it slow and easy, ready to cheers their drinks with the people sitting next to them, even if they don't know them.

The lineup this year is solid: All natural performers who, in other words, are the best entertainers.

___________________________________________________________

5th OCTOBER 2007, FRIDAY
7.00pm - Late
 

1. THE ROCKSTAR LULLABY
7.00 - 8.15pm

Cheesecakes make him happy.

2. EN-X
8.30 - 9.30pm
Alvin, Arden, J.R. & Joshua

3. Aben
9.45 - 10.45pm
Jerome & Serjing
A duo of N.S. buddies who are looking for nothing but pure fun. Great music, great looks, what more are you asking for?

4. Kekkou
11.00 - 12midnight
Dominic,Yazeid, Jamiel & Yuhong

We have a saxy person in our band.

(there will be PROMOS FOR BEER, SPIRITS & COCKTAILS too!)

It's week 6 and everybody's starting to rush to the books because we all know the mid-terms are next week, but the guys from AMPLIFY? They're still keeping it cool, going with the flow and playing it up at Frujch.  

Amplify =   J.R. + Arden + Alvin + Wilfred

With the exception of the sound system cocking up a little in the beginning (sorry about that guys), the entire 3 sets they played were fantastic and went by much too quickly.  The lineup they picked suited them very well, and with Alvin's easy-on-the ears vocals, J.R's rhythmic drum box and Arden & Wilfred's playing, it was easy to tell everyone was having a good time listening. Because they didn't move an inch from their seats.

More people kept coming in as well and that kept us busy with orders, but luckily, we managed to squeeze a little time to run off and video some snippets of AMPLIFY for.. posterity:

Have to say that Wilfred wins the award for gathering the most supporters so far! He had church friends down, relatives down, SMU mates.. the whole works. Way to go, Wilfred! Heh.

 They'll be playing again next week for Tipsy Thursdays, so come down at 7.30pm if you didn't manage to make it this time around!

Think many would agree when we say Ann's voice is a lovely mellow, with spot-on pitching and that Joel's playing gets you moving to the beat. Well, don't believe us when we say how good they are; check it out for yourself!

And they sure got the applause they deserved.

Next week, catch Joel going solo in Tipsy Thursday #2!

______________________________________

A happy happy birthday to Crystal too who was there
with her friends!

(L-R) desmond, marcus, BIRTHDAY GIRL!, may

Le nuove audience. Il loro valore performativo, produttivo, di connessione e creazione attorno ad un prodotto mediale. E' sempre più visibile. Oggi evidente più di ieri.

C'è stata una mutazione antropologica delle audience quella che passa dall’idea del pubblico in generale – e dei fan in particolare – da textual poachers (bracconieri testuali) a textual perfomers (Henry Jenkins).

I linguaggi dei new media, dell’interattività, della ricombinazione di forme e contenuti, dell’ubiquità crossmediale, sono stati interiorizzati e fanno parte dell’habitus mediale degli individui che hanno imparato ad abitare i media, contribuendo concretamente a forgiarne i territori. Le fan culture analizzate da jenkins, con il loro plus di partecipazione, rappresentano una modalità di relazione tra individui e media, tra soggetti e mercato, che sta diventando sempre di più la condizione normale e normativa. Da subculture a forze mainstreamizzate, nel bene e nel male.

Forse anche la costruzione dei palinsesti ne dovrà sempre più tenere conto. Heroes rappresenta un ultimo caso paradigmatico di prodotto che viene programmato in un paese le cui audicence sono già attive sul prodotto.

Ci troviamo di fronte ad audience che hanno fruito già dei prodotti in lingua scaricandoseli, vedendoli assieme ad altri, costruendo ed aggiornando siti dedicati, traducendo serie, diffondendole, costruendo costumi per sfilate cosplayers, producendo narrazioni alternative partendo dal plot, creando filmati con parodie-citazioni-straniamenti...

Prima o poi dovremo tenere conto di queste audience, del "modo" di essere audience. Dovremo farlo perchè forniscono indicazioni sulla qualità del pubblico, sulle logiche di consumo; producono tracce utili per la pubblicità, per i modi di pensare i palinsesti; sono fondamentali per co-produrre i prodotti mutando la direzione delle storie, pilotando gli scenari; diffondono culture e pratiche connesse...

Se poi vogliamo vedere i numeri, pensare le audience come "spettatore" ecco quelli delle puntate trasmesse ieri di Heroes: il primo episodio “Un grande passo” (ore 21.07) ha ottenuto 2.316.000 spettatori (9,97%), il secondo episodio “Collisione” (ore 22.02) ha avuto 2.490.000 spettatori (11,61%).

Nei dati mediaset:

Su Italia 1, in prima serata, ottimo risultato per il secondo appuntamento con la nuova serie "Heroes" che ha registrato il 12.17% di share sul target commerciale (2.316.000 telespettatori totali) nel primo episodio e il 14.28% di share sul target commerciale (2.490.000 telespettatori totali) nel secondo episodio.

Ci basta ancora?

(to read an extensive article, visit we-make- money- not-art)

i am writing about some mobile-music pieces, others directly linked to mobiles, others to education and others to geo-tagging and gps.

01_Gamelan Playtime, by Arlete Castelo & Melissa Mongiat, UK ( http://www.milkandtales.com)

This installation draws in passers-by as they walk along Hungerford terrace on the South Bank. By moving their hands across an invitingly tactile surface pedestrians trigger sensors that release recordings of the Royal Festival Hall's Gamelan set being played by a group of Lambeth school children. The sounds are made up of the Gamelan instruments themselves, human voices and song. The installation is a 30m long "wall", bringing about unexpected interaction not only between each individual and the surface but also amongst the all the different groups of people engaging with the installation at the same time. more...

02_PLAY.orchestra, by Arlete Castelo & Melissa Mongiat

Play orchestra, recreates an empty orchestra pit of 60 seats. Passers-by can take the stage and experience a musical piece
from the player's perspective. By taking a seat, the public triggers a recording of the correspondent musical instrument. As more people sit down, the composition is progressively revealed in its whole. They can further engage with the piece through their mobile phones, by receiving ringtones of the experience they just created, or sending
their own sounds. These will then be part of a new composition to take place within the installation, for other passers-by to discover.' more...

o3_Net derive, by Atau Tanaka and Petra Gemeinboeck

Participants are given a kind of scarf with a mobile phone in each end and off they go to explore the neighborhood. One of the phones takes pictures every 20 secs and collects sounds, the other talks to the GPS (also in the scarf) and to the server inside the gallery space. On a radar they can see themselves pictured as dots but also the images they're taking. The sounds and pictures collected in the streets are sampled and mapped to a 3D city map in the gallery. As users are walking they can hear some voice instructions through a pair of headphones. Those comments suggest paths to follow or turns to make, they are generated and heard in a musical fashion.

04_Sonic City, Lalya Gaye, developed by a the Viktoria Institute and RE:form in Sweden, 2004

Sonic city, enables people to compose music in real time by walking through the city, through a mobile wearable interface. The system retrieves information about the environment and user action, and maps it to the audio processing of urban sounds, resulting in music heard through headphones.

--how it works--

Wearing a sensor-equiped jacket, the person can create a personal soundscape co-produced by physical movement, local activity, and urban ambiance.

05_Taking Soundings, by Yolande Harris, KHM

'Taking soundings is a series of pieces that are emerging from the investigation into landscape and navigation. Taking soundings is a traditional technique of determining the shape and depth of the sea or river-bed by means of a lead and line, and I find an obvious continuity in the gathering of information from satellites via a GPS receiver. Taking soundings of ones position relative to satellites orbiting the earth rather than relative to ones immediate environment, strikes me as a kind of blind guidance, which encourages feelings of security or insecurity. Certainly this giving up of something of ones own intentions and perceptions, being taken by the hand as it were, has parallels with an experience of art. My intentions, rather than taking away peoples ability to act, is to encourage an unfolding of experience, a drift.' More...

06_Talking cities, Hybrid Space Lab in KHM

The four sculpted audio seating areas are traversed by broad bands, each carrying the audio signal of one of the four radio stations. By means of little cable spools in which loudspeakers are integrated, visitors can go to any point along a band and listen to the programme of that particular radio station in German, or in English. More...

01_Uncle Roy All Around You , Blast Theory, UK 2003

Uncle Roy All Around You is a game played online in a virtual city and on the streets of an actual city. Online Players and Street Players collaborate to find Uncle Roy's office before being invited to make a year long commitment to a total stranger.Gameplay: Street Players buy a ticket and then are shown to the registration desk. They have their photo taken and hand over all their possessions: phone, purse, bag, loose change, etc. The Street Player receives a unique code, which they enter into their handheld computer thus triggering the 60 minute countdown to begin.Having been told they must meet Uncle Roy within 60 minutes, Street Players take their handheld device out onto the streets. Their device shows a map and the names and positions of Online Players. Once outside, they receive a message from Uncle Roy asking them to meet him in a specific location. Each time they ‘meet' Uncle Roy, he gives a task and a new location. Once the street players confirm they are standing on a specific location, their avatar appears on the map.Online players, are watching street players avatars appearing on the virtual map. (see also mogi mogi). Selecting a Street Player's card allows the Online Player to send private messages to the Street Player. The Street Player can record audio replies or ignore these messages. Only the most recent audio message from each Street Player is available: a new message 'overwrites' the previous one.Through collaboration of online and street players, street players move towards Uncle Roy's office. Once they have reachedg the office...Online Players are informed that the Street Player is in the office and are invited to join them. Once in the virtual office, they see the Street Player on a live web cam. The Online player is asked a series of questions culminating in: "Somewhere in the game there is a stranger who is also answering these questions. Are you willing to make a commitment to that person that you will be available for them if they have a crisis? The commitment will last for 12 months and, in return, they will commit to you for the same period." The street player is asked to move to a phone box outside the office and then answer the same question. If both agree a white limousine is waiting to take the street player to his/hers online match. More...Similar project by blast theory is -àI like Frank in Adelaide , where players at the streets and online collaborate in order to locate Frank.

01_Mobile Geographies @ Parsons (Hanuman Theater by Diana Baltazar, Lihn Pham and Marcus Pingel), 2006

  Mobile Geographies is a collaboration project that aims to create a platform for the production and dissemination of geo-tagged urban information. Hanuman Theater is an interactive show proposed for the most celebrated and the last surviving tamasha theater in Bombay.   This mobile phone driven intervention allows audience members to influence the performance through text messaging. The rules go as following. Firstly, players are assigned of "housie" number . Whenever their housie number is called by the moderator players have to make a choice through  a content menu they have received via SMS in their mobile phone. The word they choose, will then appear under a projected image, calling the actors  to improvise. The result is a hilarious interactive stand up comedy...

More...

02_Asphalt games by Intel Research, 2003

Asphalt games, is based on techniques for improvisational theater games, game moves ("stunts"). Stunts have three components: an object, an action, and a theme. The stunt generation engine randomly selects these components from a database and sends a combination to the player, who may then "roll again" until an exciting combination presents itself. An object can be any item often found in a city, such as coffee cups, newspapers, and fire hydrants. An action can be any traditional American outdoor game such as hopscotch, hide-and-go-seek, and tag. A theme is an event or situation prevalent in metropolitan life, such as "happy hour", "vice", or "hailing a cab." It is a wild card altering the interpretation of the other components. the gameplay goes as following, each stunt is associated with a node, which is the street corner in New York where the stunt took place. Nodes are marked on the virtual map with their owners' tags. Stunts are always situated within a specific neighborhood or even street corner, so they must be judged in context. Players document their stunts through digital photographs uploaded to the website. The photographs and accompanying description inspire community ratings. Players may only rate a stunt once, but they can comment as much as they like. Team that has the more ratings wins.

What I find interesting about asphalt games is the fact that players choose their own action, from tag to hiding...In a way they choose their own core mechanic, thus in a way they create their own game within the game.

More...