Chinese Food On Christmas

Here Comes Another Bubble - The Richter Scales

Dedicated to all of us who work in tech...

Bach's Passacaglia in C minor played on stick

Bach meets technology :) The canon effect is attained by using a looping pedal. Very interesting.

The greatest gift of all!

People will buy anything...

Portland drivers in the snow

Can't stop watching...Just DON'T drive in the snow...

RoboArmor

What better way to impress your friends than by getting an robotic exoskeleton?

Math humor

Imogen Heap

This one is definitely interesting. Imogen Heap, 29, from England, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and overall performer. She makes heavy used of electronica elements, such as vocoders and voice-overs. "Hide and seek" is the name of her first single from "Speak for Yourself". The track is completely vocal, i.e. no instruments are present. When I first heard it I thought the track was going to incrementally build up, i.e. adding a drum loop or something, but nay. Instead, Heap goes for an intimate, private yet surgical feel. The sound of the track is so crisp and clean that you can really immerse yourself into the different vocal lines created by the vocoder which is what the whole song revolves around. You can even hear the vocal click at the end of the word "seek", this adds to the intimate feel. The song also contains a more rhythmically inclined part ("mmm..whachah say?...") which adds to the song coolness factor.

Another track I love is "Just for now". The leitmotif here is building up by dubbing tracks over and over. I find the live version much more interesting than the album version, I guess you really see the artisanship of the artist shine through here

Keane - Under the Iron Sea - Atlantic

So I've been listening to Keane's latest album, "Under the Iron Sea". I must say...wow :), there are some remarkable tracks here, the first one that pops to mind is "Atlantic"

Let's see; when I first heard Atlantic, I thought "hmm, this is weird...I could swear I've already heard something like it". And it was true, the fact being that the 4/4 metric played in sextuplets by the drums, which gives the sort of pushing-back feel to the beat of the song, since every repetition of the intro pattern falls on a different beat each time (believe me, it's easier to understand this by listening to the song :) but it's like having to wheels of different radii turning against each other. At a certain point, they meet again.)
Aside from the not-so-weird metric effect, there is a very nice and abrupt change in the first part of the song. The song goes Bmaj7 - Emaj7 - Bb7 - Ebm/Gb. The change from Emaj7 to Bb7 is very strong (a tritone change), which is enhanced as the song grows by ethereal electronic sounds and a strings base. Very Radiohead-y.

There's a part where the song changes direction "and if I need anything at all". This sounds more like it could be something from U2.
The last part worth mentioning musically is "sing you to your sleep". There's a very classical "Disney"-like passage by going to that diminished chord, something nostalgic, pure, almost epiphanic, with the ending "the day's beginning".

The lyrics are on a league of their own. They are so dark and depressing it's brilliant :D They transmit fear, despair, but at the same time, hope and expectation.

The vocals float very nicely as in most Keane tracks, almost cherub-like. I like the distorted sound of the bassline, reminiscent of Bjork's Army of Me, or even some of Skunk Anansie's stuff, sans the violence :). The Wurlitzer piano sound choice is golden, a surgical sound, filled with angst. Luvvv it :)

Here's the music video. Enjoy.



The music video is somewhat related conceptually at least to "Tz!" a short film by my good friend Shay Levert:

Break down the doors !

I had totally forgotten about this song. It used to get me pumped back in the day :)
Erick Morillo feat Audio Bullys (sic), Break down the doors. Electronica for a Wednesday night.

Getting to Redmond

A Night in Seattle

Bellevue

North Bend, WA

SNL - Digital Short - Natalie Portman Rap

OMG...I luv 'er...luv 'er...did I mention that I love her? lol

Trip to Uruguay 2007

Forever Pavarotti

Nessun Dorma, the aria from Puccini's Turandot, sung by Luciano Pavarotti.

Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords

This is an actual Windows 2000 error message...poor sysadmins...:D. Check it out here

Desarma y Sangra

This is cover of a song by Seru Giran, a group from Argentina from the late 70s-early 80s. It's called "Desarma y sangra" (something like Disassemble and Bleed), and it's a great ballad with plenty of interesting harmonic structures to learn from !
Hope you all enjoy it!

Hysterical baby laugh

The effects Wii has on people...I guess this baby thought it was funny

360 degrees light field display

Sooo cool :)

On Vacation...not really...but sort of

So now that I don't work anymore (until October that is), I have some more free time. So I decided to give a couple of israeli songs a shot.

Bo (Come)

Original by: Ivri Lider. Lyrics and translation here

Ani lo maamin (I don't believe)

Original by: Daniel Solomon

Lyrics:
I don't believe in a quiet ending
I don't believe there is an easy ending
I don't believe in a sad ending
I don't believe in that at all

I don't believe that I have a path
I don't believe that the path is one
I don't believe that there is another one
I don't believe in that at all

There's a love that is good forever
And sometimes it hurts me
And it shows me the way
When I'm lost inside

There are good days of joy
they bring hope with them
so even when there's darkness,
there's a light that awaits me,
waits for me in the corner

I don't believe in an ending of death
For there is so much yet to live
So even when it doesn't look right for me
I don't believe in disappointments

Eviatar Banai - אביתר בנאי

Eviatar Banai is an AMAZING israeli composer, lyricist/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and singer. His songs always have great images spread over his lyrics with usually simple yet emotional harmonies and melodies. I don't exactly love his singing but I still find it soothing, kind of very natural and flowing.
Here are some videos of his songs

I have a chance (yesh li sikui) - יש לי סיכוי

Dog race (tacharut klavim) - תחרות כלבים

Fathers and Sons (avot ubanim) - אבות ובנים

Russian Theater (teatron russi) - תאטרון רוסי

Freed iPhone

Israeli soldiers. The side that doesn't make it to the news

Dynamic image resizing.

Very cool

Redimensionnement intelligent d'images
Uploaded by Mickael-L

Dramatic Chipmunk!

A Needy Turtle

Rubik's cube...fast...and...with one hand

I've never been able to solve one using two hands :S...so, there.

Life and music

Prometeus, a short film about the future

Prometeus - La Revolucion de los Medios
Uploaded by Razorbuzz

Where DA GOLD AT!?

Leprechauns in Mobile, Alabama...

Montevideo, Uruguay, in the year 2056

I Can Go The Distance

Ok so, I gathered some courage and decided to post my cover of "I can go the distance" from the Disney movie "Hercules"; I chose to do the Spanish version...just because :D Hope thou liketh.

Tutorials

I found a nice little repository of AI-related tutorials while doing research for my thesis, here.

Oh my zoom!

My technophile friend krahd pointed me to this AMAZING video. It's basically visual technology on steroids. Forget being limited by your screen size, resolution and such. Enter this:

The BBP Algorithm

(or should I say, the Plouffe algorithm?)

I found a letter from Mathematician Simon Plouffe, discoverer of an algorithm to find digits of pi; it truly is a sad story...let it serve as a warning for everyone, especially aspiring technocrats

Originally posted here


The story began many years ago in 1974 when I wanted to find a formula for
the n'th digit of Pi. I was studying rational and irrational numbers. With
my calculator I was computing inverses of primes and could easily find a way
to compute those inverses in base 10 to many digits using congruences and
rapid exponentiation. Since it appeared impossible to do the same for Pi, I
wanted then to find a simple formula f(n) that could compute the n'th digit
of Pi. I had that idea for 20 years.

Since the computation of Pi looks more complicated than the number E , i.e.
exp(1), I studied a way to compute that number instead. At that time (around
1983), I had a simple Basic program that used a spigot algorithm to compute
E, as expected that algorithm worked but of course but was taking an
increasing amount of memory. My question was : why can't we do it for E or
Pi or any irrational numbers like sqrt(2).

It was during the year 1994 that I began to compute arctan series but I did
not realized that this meant a lot. I was able to use an algorithm to
compute arctan of 1/5 with fast exponentiation without realizing that it
could compute arctan(1/5) in base 5 very fast since the rapid exponentiation
was natural in that base.

Later in 1995, around august 7 of that year I suddenly realized that log(2)
was fast computable in base 2. Since I had a bit of experience with spigot
algorithms and also my little Basic program to compute arctan, it was not
difficult to adapt the algorithm to log(2). In the next few days I made my
first program : A program to compute log(9/10) in base 10 using a very small
amount of memory and very fast. The program had 432 characters long.

That discovery was a shock to me. I realized that I had found it yes but it
was not new to me since I could do arctan(1/5) easily too but it took me 2
years to realize it.

This is where I began to use Pari-Gp, that program could find an integer
relation among real numbers (up to a certain precision), very fast.

During my stay at Bordeaux University in 1992-1993 I perfected that program
I had that could interface Pari-Gp and Maple. That little Unix script had an
enormous advantage of flexibility because I could set up a series of real
numbers to test among 1 unknown. At that time I was beginning to find new
results, the programs were able to find identities.

That program was the one that found the formula for Pi in hexadecimal (or
binary). I also used another one : PSLQ. It was a good program but a bit
cumbersome to use since it is written in Fortran. Nevertheless I made an
interface to Maple too. Pari-Gp was by far easier to use and faster for
small cases (up to 10 real numbers at the time with 100 digits precision was
enough for those kind of problems).

This is where I made the biggest mistake in my life : To accept the
collaboration of Peter Borwein and David H. Bailey as co-founders of that
algorithm and formula when they have found nothing at all. David Bailey was
not even close to me when I found the formula. He was added to the group 2
months after the discovery.

I was naively thinking that I could negotiate a job as professor at Simon
Fraser University, which failed. I am very poor at negotiations. I remember
that day when the Globe & Mail newspaper article went out in October 1995. I
was at Jon Borwein's house and he had a copy of the newspaper in hand. This
is where I asked him to become a professor at SFU. He simply replied right
away < don't even think about it >. I thought, this is the best chance I
will ever have to become a professor there, since it failed, I decided that
I had to leave that place.

I was very frustrated at that time, in late 1995 after the discovery. I
realized that many small details where terribly wrong. They were getting a
lot of credit for the discovery and I had the impression of not getting
anything in return. My strategy failed. One of those details was the article
of the Globe and Mail, I asked Peter Borwein : why did they putted the photo
of you and your brother on the article ? Your brother has nothing to do with
this!. He simply replied that the Public Relations at the University made a
mistake. Later that year, I was invited to a ceremony in Vancouver for the
CUFA (faculty of the year Award). This is a prize with plaque and mention
that those 2 brothers received for the discovery of the formula. They simply
mentioned my name at the ceremony and I received nothing at all. They made a
toast to the queen of England, I did not stand up.

In late 1995, there was that Canadian Math Soc. congress in Vancouver, I was
not invited to talk about the discovery. There was even a guy (Stan Wagon)
that said to me, I don't know if you have anything to do with this but in
all case, this is good for you isn't ?

Then in 1996, I realized that if I get up at night to hate them it is a very
bad sign, it means that I have to leave that place (Simon Fraser
university). I was convinced I had no future at all with those 2 guys
around. I was making serious plans to leave.

The story of the formula (my formula), was not the only one. The same thing
happened with the ISC (the Inverse Symbolic Calculator). The story is even
more ridiculous. I opened the site with my constants in July 1995 and it was
an immediate success. The 2 Borweins had nothing to do with that thing, I
had made the tables and all of the Unix programs to run it. The precious
help I had was from Adam Van Tuyl, a graduate student, he made most of the
code behind the web pages, later Paul Irvine made some additional code.

At that time the local administrator of the lab. tried to convince me to
stay even to pay me for maintaining the ISC, I refused. I wanted to leave
with what I had : my tables of real numbers and sequences I worked for years
(since 1986). This is why I opened the Plouffe Inverter with my name in
1998, to keep what was mine. When I realized that I was about to loose the
paternity of the ISC, I left in march 1997. I went to Champaign Illinois to
work for Wolfram and Mathematica. (this time it took me less time), that one
was worst than the 2 brothers combined. I simply left as soon as I could, 5
months later.

Peter Borwein wanted very much that I do a Ph. D. on the ISC but he wanted
also to publish (with his name of course) an article before I deposit the
thesis. Again the same story was going on, these 2 guys are so greedy I
can't believe it. The behavior they had with me was not exclusive,
especially Peter Borwein he was the same with most of his students,
especially the good ones, sucking the maximum. Jon is the same but he has
more talent in politics (more money too). He is good but has a tendency to
site himself a lot. He thinks that if he had the idea of the sum of 2
numbers at one point in his life then all formulas in mathematics are his
own discovery.

About David H. Bailey. He came after the discovery of the formula and my
small basic program , I had also a Fortran version. This is where Peter
Borwein suggested to add him as a collaborator to the discovery since he
contributed to it (as he said), this is my second big mistake. Of course he
accepted to co-write the article, who wouldn't ?! David H. Bailey (and
Ferguson) are the authors of the PSLQ program. That program is the
version of the Pari-Gp program. I used it a little it is true,
but what made the discovery was Pari-Gp and Maple interface program I had.
So actually, that person has nothing to do with the discovery of that
algorithm and very little to do with the finding of the formula. The mistake
was mine. Saying that Bailey found the formula is like saying that the
formula was found by the Maple and Basic program.

I tried very hard to correct the situation avoiding the subject of the
actual discovery of the algorithm and the formula, I made an article in 1996
for the base 10. I thought naively again that this would re-establish the
situation, it did not. I almost accepted to do a film at one point in 1999
when a certain guy from England that wanted to make a movie on Pi and the
discovery of the formula. he asked me if I would accept to talk about my
with the Borweins. I did not wanted to go in that direction, I
should had. There was that book of Jean-Paul Delahaye (le fascinant nombre
pi) that mentioned the Plouffe algorithm and formula because I told him part
of the story. In some way I was afraid of revealing that enormous story.

Why was I so naive ? I had a previous collaboration with Neil Sloane and the
Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences and the web site, this was really a big
success and Neil is the person I respect the most in mathematics so this is
why I thought (wrongly ) that my collaboration with the Borweins had to go
well, a big mistake.

Why do I write this ? To tell the truth and also the arrogance of those
people makes me sick.

Will I gain something from this ? I don't care, I have nothing to loose.

Simon Plouffe Montréal, le 22 juin 2003.

####################################################

Thirteen Years Since the Terrorist Bombing to the Argentinean Jewish Community Center (AMIA)

The Argentinean Justice System Rests in Peace. The 85 victims of the AMIA do not.

Show your support and use this image in your favorite IM app as your buddy icon.

Slide lap guitar

Subliminal phrases hidden in songs!

We've all heard this before...now it's gone global; this video shows some songs that are supposedly sung in English but carry hidden messages in Spanish lol !
Hilarious !

Talk about politically incorrect...

Check the reaction of this very serious Dutch TV host when he hears his interviewee's falsetto speaking voice...priceless

Amps of the World, Unite!

Poor store clerks, I bet they've had it with people trying guitars and playing the same songs over and over again...lol

Haven't we all been there...

I've had the dubious pleasure of being on the tech-support side...People usually complain about sysadmins having god complexes...but can you really blame us? :)

Have yourself a merry little xmas...now

Youtubing as usual, I found this little gem of vocal acrobatics. In this video we have our usual Christina Aguilera, but this time she is joined by Brian holy-shit-how-does-he-do-it McKnight. He is out of this world. Let me say that again: He is out of this world. A superb performance.

God Only Knows

Today I recorded this song by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. I absolutely love this song !!
Comments ?

I want you for agrimensura (land surveyor)

This is a short film some of my friends at the Universidad de la Republica in Montevideo, Uruguay made, in order to promote (?) the noble occupation of the land surveyor/topographer.
Very funny if you know Spanish and even more if you have had the chance to study at the School of Engineering :)

No Sex Tonight [1]

I never quite figured out why the sexual urge of men and women differ so much. And I never have figured out the whole Venus and Mars thing. I have never figured out why men think with their head and women with their heart.

FOR EXAMPLE: One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed.

Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says “I don’t feel like it, I just want you to hold me.”

I said “WHAT??!! What was that?!”

So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to hear…“You’re just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man.” She responded to my puzzled look by saying, “Can’t you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?”

Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep.

The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, big unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn’t decide which one to take so I told her we’d just buy them all. She wanted new shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I said lets get a pair for each outfit. We went onto the jewelry department where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings. Let me tell you…she was so excited. She must have thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she was testing me because
she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn’t even know how to play tennis. I think I threw her for a loop when I said, “That’s fine, honey.” She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement. Smiling with excited anticipation she finally said, “I think this is all dear, let’s go to the cashier.”

I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, “No honey, I don’t feel like it.”

Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled WHAT?”

I then said “honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You’re just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman.” And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, “Why can’t you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?”

Apparently I’m not having sex tonight either.

[1] Original text at http://www.ofuzi.com/2007/05/28/no-sex-tonight/

Cheoptics
A new way to see the world ? Maybe. But definitely a new stage in visual representation of information. 3D Holographic images on steroids, people.

The greatest love of all

Version 1.0

Hey all, I decided to get a webcam and start posting stuff on youtube. My first posting is of me practicing Whitney Houston's "The greatest love of all". As you may or may not know, I'm a musician, and among other things I play the piano and sing. This is one of my favorite warm-up songs :P I'm not a 100% happy with the way this version came out but what the hell :)
I hope you enjoy it !

All is full of love and Hunter

I wanted to share two songs from Bjork, an artist that never ceases to surprise. The first one is for "All is full of love". The song and the video combine to give a fused aesthetic, namely a glimpse into the future, a surgical, cold, environment, and the relation between man, machine, and love.




The second one is from the song "Hunter". In this video, technology is also a present topic as in most of Bjork's cosmogony, but in addition we find this primal element. Both of these aspects are represented as duals, in the video as naked Bjork morphs into a digital polar bear, and in the music, the orchestration combines electronic beats with strings from afar and chant-like sounds.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a whistler

In singing you always hear of women using the whistle register (Mariah Carey is a notable example of this technique). But today for the first time I came across Adam Lopez, an Australian singer who holds the World Guiness Record for highest male vocal note. He used to have it for holding a D7, until in 2005 he broke his own record by attaining a C#8. For those of you not musically trained, that's very high. If you don't believe me, check out this video.

Adam Lopez - Guinness World Record attempt 2005

He claims to have a 7 octave range...that's unheard of

The female holder of the record for highest note is Georgia Brown, a Brazilian singer. Here's a video of a live performance, the host of the TV show cannot believe her ears. She gives a G10 !!

Animation vs. Animator


Another example of art imitating life imitating art imitating...

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART
From the artist's website:

Artist's Comments

An animator faces his own animation in deadly combat. The battlefield? The Flash interface itself.
A stick figure is created by an animator with the intent to torture. The stick figure drawn by the animator will be using everything he can find - the brush tool, the eraser tool - to get back at his tormentor. It's resourcefulness versus power. Who will win? You can find out yourself.

-- This took three long months.. i think it's worth it.

YouOS

There has been a lot of buzz lately about this new trend where operating systems shift to now be included within the confines of a web browser...I'm not 100% convinced this is a good idea...but...whatever.
I came upon one of the many websites that provide this kind of online OS service, and I must admit it's pretty cool the things that can be done with some javascript :) One might dare to say, javascript has become an OS-creation language !! (Heresy!!)
Anywho, here's a snapshot of some of the content on the website (www.youos.com)

Do the Robot Dance!!

Check out the third guy...he's amazing.

Wireless Energy is a reality !!


A group of researchers from MIT have successfully tested an experimental system to deliver power to devices without the need for wires.

From the article:
The setup, reported in the journal Science, made a 60W light bulb glow from a distance of 2m (7ft).

WiTricity, as it is called, exploits simple physics and could be adapted to charge other devices such as laptops.

"There is nothing in this that would have prevented them inventing this 10 or even 20 years ago," commented Professor Sir John Pendry of Imperial College London who has seen the experiments.

"But I think there is an issue of time. In the last few years we have seen an exponential growth of mobile devices that need power. The power cable is the last wire to be cut in a wireless connection."
Professor Moti Segev of the Israel Institute of Technology described the work as "truly pioneering".

Source - BBC News


Take that, Tesla ! :)

The Online Communities Map

I got this pic somewhere in the web...

Bjork - Hyperballad

I think Björk must be one of the most original artists to have risen in the last decade. Her sound is completely uncommon, that's why people tend to be torn about her, either loving or hating her music. To me, she has a very interesting feel for music, and while vocally she isn't a powerhouse as Mariah or Whitney, she delivers a lot of emotion in her performance.
Here's a clip of one of my favorite songs, Hyperballad. I love the contrast between the electronic ambience of the song and the string section, very eclectic. The drummer in this performance is amazing too.

Microsoft Surface

Ok, now...this is some awesome technology. I love it. I love it. I love it.
The possibilities are actually endless, from everything they show here, to playing foosball or...whatever ! Props to Microsoft for this.

A "Manualist" plays "The Entertainer"

Geva, the first and only Israeli music band in Uruguay

These are some videos of Geva, an israeli rock band I directed and played in. They are from a welcoming ceremony the local Jewish community threw for a World Jewish Agency representative.

The band was composed of:
Alexander Sklar - Direction, Arrangements, Keyboards, Vocals
Mike Hinkediker - Drums
Nicolas Noechwicz - Guitar
Carolyn Teitelbaum - Vocals
Monica Zingman - Vocals
Gabriel Catan - Tenor Sax
Marcelo Pustilnik - Bass

Von Lee Smith

Este cantante salto a la fama a traves de youtube.com, donde posteo un video cantando "And I am telling you" de la banda sonora de Dreamgirls. Fue invitado en "The View" (un programa de TV), y el resto es historia. Aca están algunos de sus videos. Simplemente, increible

Graduation Spring 2007

These are some pictures from my graduation ceremony on May 10th 2007 at the BankUnited Center at the University of Miami, Florida, where I was awarded the 'Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering' (MSECE) degree.

Música que me gusta: John Mayer

Existe gente curiosa, que quiere saber qué música me gusta. Hay otra gente que dice que no le importa, cuando aún no lo sabe que en realidad quiere saberlo. Otra gente no dice nada, y esa es la clase de gente que no está preparada para preguntárselo.

Voy a ir compilando una lista de artistas / discos / canciones que me gustan.

• John Mayer
• Inside wants out
• No such thing
• My stupid mouth
• Comfortable
• Quiet
• Neon
  
• Room for squares
• Not myself
• Why Georgia
• St. Patrick's Day
• Heavier things
• Clarity
• Bigger than my body
• Daughters
• Try!
• Gravity
• Continuum
• Waiting on the world to change
• The heart of life
• Stop this train
• Slow-dancing in a burning room
• Bold as love
• Dreaming with a broken heart

Un-freakin'-believable

Grandes Canciones

Hola a tod@s, esta es la primera de (espero) una larga lista de análisis de "grandes canciones". Mi idea es poder extraer algún tipo de conclusión acerca de qué hace a una canción genial. Espero que les guste la idea y los invito a colaborar/participar.

Hoy escuché por primera vez una del disco nuevo de John Mayer, "Continuum". Para los que no lo conocen, es uno de los compositores para mi gusto más interesantes de esta generación, además de un excelente guitarrista. En la parte vocal, en este último disco muestra mejoras sustanciales respecto a los discos anteriores en los cuales la calidad interpretativa de la voz opacaba la brillantez de sus composiciones y su exquisita técnica en la guitarra.

La canción en cuestión se llama "Stop this train". Es una canción sobre el proceso de crecer, envejecer, y morir. Una mirada introspectiva, desesperada y a la vez esperanzadora. Acá va la letra:

No, I'm not colorblind
I know the world is black and white
I try to keep an open mind
But I just can't sleep on this tonight

Stop this train
I want to get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

Don't know how else to say it
I don't want to see my parents go
One generation's length away
From fighting life out on my own

Stop this train
I want to get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say that life has just begun

Had a talk with my old man
Said "help me understand"
He said "turn sixty-eight
You renegotiate"

"Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
Don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly we'll never stop this train"

Once in awhile, when it's good
It'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
Till you cry when you're driving away in the dark
Singing

Stop this train
I want to get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
Cause now I see I will never stop this train

Análisis musical
Instrumentación
La instrumentación es escasa. Una guitarra acústica en primer plano, protagonista y fundamental, crea un clima melancólico. Al mismo tiempo, una percusión muy minimal que asemeja el andar de un tren, agrega a lo que podría ser un paisaje de una tarde lluviosa.
En un muy segundo plano se escucha una segunda guitarra eléctrica limpia, apoyando en la mayoría del tiempo en el primer tiempo de cada compás. Luego del segundo estribillo, hay un piano que repite una frase dos veces y después desaparece por el resto de la canción.

Estructura
Se distinguen tres componentes que alternan, estrofa, estribillo y dos puentes.

Armonía y melodía
La estrofa consta de una progresión simple IV-I
El estribillo sorprende con un primer acorde de IVm7+, con la melodía comenzando sobre la nota sensible. Luego pasa a un acorde de I(3,4) (1er grado en primera inversión), y después a un II mayor, y para finalizar el estribillo hace una cadencia V7sus4--V7--Vm7--IV2--I. El cambio del mayor al menor agrega al clima melancólico.

El primer puente va desde 'Had a talk with my old man' hasta 'you will renegotiate': IV IVm I(3,4) II7b9 y luego va al estribillo. En esta parte es donde hay un cambio de 180 grados en la historia de la canción. El sentimiento de impotencia de no poder detener el tiempo queda anulado por el hecho de no querer detenerlo. La melodía entra en una sucesión de intervalos ascendentes que hacen ingresar en la zona de falsetto o voz de cabeza, una marca registrada de John Mayer ya. La última frase del puente es darse cuenta de nuestra impotencia ante el tiempo y hacer las pases. Una frase reflexiva e introspectiva "John, honestly, we'll never stop this train".

En el puente final hay unas voces en segundo plano. La melodía entra de nuevo en una sucesión con tendencias hacia el falsetto. Hay un quiebre en la parte que dice "you're driving away in the dark". En esta parte la armonía hace I--Vm7--IV para después enganchar con el estribillo.

Una gran canción, sin duda. Subámonos al tren :)

Alex

Academia 2006-2007

Academia 2006
Parece mentira pero ya pasó otro año más! Es más, ya hace casi 5 meses que estoy viviendo en EEUU. No se si el hecho de que pasó volando sea una buena señal o no, pero así es la cosa.
El 15 de diciembre terminé mi primer semestre en la UM, luego de unas tres semanas de estrés . En este semestre cursé tres materias:

• Digital Signal Processing
• Engineering Acoustics
• Advanced Topics in Electrical Engineering: Filterbanks and Wavelets

Fue un semestre bastante raro, por ser el primero, pero fue muy bueno. La universidad manda las notas/escolaridad por correo, y recibí A+, A+ y A respectivamente, así que super contento con eso.
Mis profesores me aman . Punto.
Uno de ellos me ofreció participar en un convenio que tiene la Universidad para hacer research en Automatic Speech Recognition. La idea es que el research que yo haga lo uso para mi tesis, que será a distancia ya que como muchos sabrán, recientemente acepté una oferta de trabajo para empezar en Octubre de 2007 en Seattle junto a los amigos de las "ventanas".
Entonces cuando termine de redactar mi tesis a distancia tendré que venir de nuevo a Miami para defenderla y pasearme en toga y birrete .


Academia 2007
El semestre empieza el 16 de enero. Voy a cursar de nuevo tres materias (que es lo que cubre mi beca) que resultan ser dictadas por los mismos profesores:

• Engineering Analytical Techniques
• Digital Audio and Speech Processing
• Advanced Topics in Electrical Engineering: Adaptive Filtering

Videos de fin de año

Nunca des las llaves de tu auto nuevo a nadie...

Pelicano canibal!!

Entrevista a un congresista...muuuy divertido