I’ll be at BarCamp LA this Saturday, attempting to initiate a music-nerdery session that covers such topics as MIDI control in Processing, Mechanical Music and Process Music. I may also do a session on Mind Reading with Google, or Flickr Hacks, if there’s sufficient interest. If there’s something special you’d like me to cover, such […]

I found this old video of mine while looking at some old backup CDs. Back in the early 90s, while playing with Gryphon Software’s “Morph” software, I accidentally stumbled upon a technique for making a still photograph or painting look like a hologram. The basic idea is that you make a mirror image of the […]

I’ve been posting the above ad at local chess clubs in Los Angeles, in preparation for a June concert in which a live chess game will be translated into music. Contact me if you have leads. Thanks!

The other day I found this DIY music box kit over at Think Geek, but they were out of stock. So I found a supplier in the UK, called Grand Illusions. They actually carry two models, including one with a larger number of tines (20 tines covering a 2 1/2 octave diatonic range ). Naturally […]

The music box disc I’m getting prepared, mentioned in the previous post, looks something like this. Here’s a simulation of what it would sound like, played on an antique Stella music box, assuming the box’s spring-wound mechanism has the strength to play the first chord, in which every tine sounds at the same time. It […]

Oh, I’ve been bitten by this mechanical music bug big time. I’m now working on composing some new music for an orchestrion. This will be no mere weekend-long project (as most of mine tend to be), and hopefully I can share some audio snippets with you as work progresses. I imagine most of you don’t […]

I’ve added a new collection of Slitherlink puzzles to the site, which feature six-different tile layouts. Enjoy!

Today, on the spur of the moment, I decided to visit the Nethercutt museum in Sylmar, which I had heard about a couple of years ago when I was researching automatic music instruments. The museum, an unexpected display of wealth that sits on the corner of an industrial park in an economically depressed area — […]

Today, I accidentally discovered the game of Facebook-whacking (remember Googlewhacks?), in which you find various search phrases for which your friends are the number one result, when you search on Facebook. You can accomplish this by stringing out-of-context words from the “Info” section of someone’s facebook profile. The more TV shows, bands, and movies they […]