Michael Bevilacqua

Mank has made a fan out of me with the release of Isbjorn. Short and sweet melodies in that cold Biosphere Substrata context with a good amount of well placed, syncopated rhythm and a nice, long excursion into the subconscious at the end of the album. The piano notes greatly compliment this rainy, Pennsylvania day. One of my favorite finds for 2008. And free for download in mp3 format from the site.

While sleeping in this morning and listening to the ambiance of rain on the roof top and the occasional running feet of our cats, I noticed that the cats can both run quickly and silently and quickly and heavily depending on their mood. The rapid, heavy footing is very much in triplet so I can imitate this sound precisely with my hands on the floor. With a not too gradual crescendo, this gives me great advantage in making the cats think there is a third cat approaching them from somewhere in the house. These sort of things amuse me.

Now that I’m taking a SSRI, I find Philip K. Dick’s use of a “Mood Box” in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep quite amusing. Did Dick see into the future where most Americans would be dialing down their moods with the use of prescription anti-depressants? From what I understand, this phenomenon wasn’t prevalent in the late 60s when he wrote the book. At least, from what I watched on Frontline, such regular medicating has become more common in just the recent past. What did people with such a strong affliction do before all of this? Self-medicate? End up in jail? It makes me wonder about the gradually improving pace of the mental status quo in society.

The girl who regularly cuts my hair brought up some conversation the other day that lead to what I was doing in High School. I mentioned that most of the time I was playing with one of the many groups at gigs, or at practice, or at shows. She asked why I didn’t do this anymore and I really didn’t have a good answer for her. Well, beyond my dislike of rock music that is (I’ve heard it all before). If I could, I’d still play in a jazz or world-music group. I do hope that someday I’ll start producing ambient and electronic stuff. The financial investment will be a large hump to get over though.

I completed a coding project recently that automates the setup of WebDav with SSL within Apache2. I wrote the whole thing in BASH so, it’s not exactly elegant. I plan on rewriting it in Perl and then releasing it as OpenSource. It’s pretty simple, and greatly simplifies the setup, modification and removal of multiple virtual domains and multiple users within those domains.

Speaking of code, I just read O’Reilly’s Wireless Hacks by Rob Flickenger. This is a great book containing some very usable information regarding wireless network protocols, monitoring, and hardware hacking. Some parts are more challenging than others, but over all, a great read if you ever wondered if you could manipulate the current technology for your own good (or the good of others). I think the sections on WEP are some of the finest I’ve read in a long time.

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us. Please comment here.

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us. You can comment here or there.

Looking at the Star’s of the Lid My Space page and confirming it at The Gatherings News page, SOTL is scheduled to appear in Philadelphia on May 3rd 2008 at Saint Mary’s Cathedral on the Penn Campus. This saves me a trip (possibly) to see them at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, although, I might just go to see them there anyway. I could use a road trip at this point. Travel is good for the soul. I suppose that means traveling to see SOTL at Andy’s might be great for the soul.

Last week I had a problem with while doing some intense stretches during physical therapy. I ended up loosing all of the feeling from my right hip down to my right knee. It took a few days before the feeling started to return. There still is no feeling on the side of my right knee. Fortunately, I had a Doctor’s appointment scheduled in this time period and he all but confirmed that I was stretching the front hip and pulled a nerve. And to keep my eye on it.

Beyond that, I’m pushing myself more and more at the gym, going every day, trying to regain my full strength and endurance. I’m also living away from home at this point which is putting some other challenges into play, mostly scheduling wise with trying to get out to PT, yet be at work, yet live my life. I now live much closer to work and much further from home. This was necessary and hopefully only temporary.

I’m doing work now on some of my deeper issues for the first time. A friend of mine has introduced me to The Work of Byron Katie. I’m not a fan of self help books, audio media, etc. But in this case, Katie manages to demand attention from me with her four question process. It is taking much practice to get used to. I’ll be interested to view the results this time next year in my moods, how I handle situations, how I come to understand more about how I tend to think.

Oh, and I received the final invoice for my hip replacement. $62,000. On the bottom it stated that this amount may not cover the cost of the Surgeon fees. For people in other countries, we paid $175,000 for our three bedroom, 1/2 acre home in Schwenksville. I think that puts medical expenses into perspective rather well.

Finally, my Uncle sent me these photos he snapped at 5am on Tuesday morning from his property in Quakertown. His house borders an wooded estate near Nockamixon State Park with many cabins. One of the cabins caught fire and was shooting fire into the sky some 80 to 100 feet. He stated “Good thing the wind was not blowing”. If it was, that would have been a forest fire engulfing his house and even my Grandparent’s house.

It is windy today in Pennsylvania.

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us. You can comment here or there.

It was 1989. I had just turned 14 in July. I was in my Freshman year at Cheltenham High School. I wouldn’t classify myself as a Goth as I was both on the Football and Track teams at the time as well as participating in High School band and orchestra. I did, however, love the dark sounds of the British Goth bands The Cure, Peter Murphy, and Sisters of Mercy. Not really a surprise if you know my current tastes in music. I just love the dark.

Life, on the other hand, was bright and interesting. I had spent the past two years in public Junior High ultimately recovering from the six years in Catholic Grammar School spent in Saint Luke’s in Glenside, PA. My first year in Junior High I made some incredible friends that had such real interest in life, living, sports, biking, music, partying, girls what have you. I was finally able to be a kid and happily did so. Such a wonderful and dramatic change in my quality of life.

At this point I had a friend named Colin. Colin and I had been friends for a few years now, lived sort of close to each other, and ultimately shared tastes in music. He even purchased me R.E.M.’s Green for my 13th Birthday. He also was very much into The Cure stemming mostly from his older sister’s tastes. At one point, his sister was kind enough to take Colin and I along to the TLA on South Street so that we could watch the film The Cure in Orange (France) on the big screen. At this point I was very into The Cure. Like a true musical intellectual, I studied much of Boris Williams’ drum chops from sheet music as well as learned the harmonies on the piano. I recall being very excited when my friend Colin told me his Mother was willing to take us to see The Cure at the Spectrum. I remember the night of the concert vividly.

It was my first concert. I was young and impressionable. But as far as concerts go, this was one unforgettable experience. They utilized high powered black lights like I had never seen before. The stage was set in almost a black lit fog as if they had somehow transformed the Philadelphia Spectrum into Sleepy Hollow or some Poe novel. All of the effects fit the music, and the music, the performance, and the sound simply blew me away. I had already memorized every track from Disintegration which they played most of live that night. It was truly an experience like no other. Not bad for my first concert.

And here’s the ticket stub to prove it.

It’s worn. I wish I had taken better care of it. Fortunately, I was able to reference this event through this site:

http://www.cure-concerts.de/concerts/1989-08-23.php

Yes, the Pixies opened for The Cure. I wasn’t ever a fan.

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

Alright, I promise this is the final months-old post. I’m sure you can tell with the amount of posts I’ve had in the past week that I have nothing better to do while sitting here in my chair, healing, in between physical therapy :)

Back in the summer of 2007 we stumbled across an ad for Sinead O’Connor to perform live at the Keswick Theater on mischief night, October 30th 2007. When I mentioned this to Elizabeth she agreed with me that we should probably see her perform while her vocal chords are still only just past their prime. We mentioned this to our friends David and Kathy and they purchased seats for the performance as well.

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Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

I supposed I should have created this years ago. But I did it now. And I will be updating it every once in a while when I find something that really makes me love life. Like that recent Stars of the Lid album I just can’t seem to get enough of.

Essential Ambient Page

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

Oct 2nd, we received the copy of our Star’s End 30th Anniversary Anthology CD Set.

It is comprised of both Berlin School Space Music on CD 1 and Ambient on CD 2, all captured live from performances on the Star’s End program except that of Jeff Pearce’s track which was recored at the Star’s End Donor Concert. Both CDs are expertly mastered into nicely transitioning sets making this some of the highest recorded quality live ambient music my speakers have ever been privy too. A real treat.

By far my favorite track from CD 1 is Air Sculpture’s “Argent Engine” Recorded 19 November 2006. The more I hear from this group the more I enjoy their composition techniques. In this track, they syncopate a few patterns over top of a sub bass, almost, sub-space pattern that makes the walls in my house hum with joy at high levels. Then they ever so skillfully solo over top. Elegant, live space music befitting for any comfortable clear night at the park.

CD 2 is just full of joy and of course, in my opinion, too short lived. I wish it could go on forever. However, as I said before, the selections are skillfully mixed together telling a very nice story making it feel like all of these talents are there in your living room performing for hand in hand. It’s very difficult for me to pick a favorite on this album. I’m going to go out on a limb and say Jeff Pearce’s “Sudden Light”. I really love Jeff’s work, both in the studio and live. And though this piece is extremely short, it absolutely captures his “live sound”. Takes me right back to his performances. Let me end this by saying that this release is one of those must haves for 2007 and leave it at that.

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

This has been one of the most spiritual summers I can remember, yet, I have only participated in a few large ceremonies. It was through my actions though, my daily actions, that I consider this to be one of the most spiritual times of my life.

As is with any spiritual ceremony commencement, there is a sharing period at the end. Since I already share with my journal at spirituality.bevilacqua.us now, I figured I’d share with music instead.

This is a mix I made for a friend of Elizabeth’s. She was over one day when I had Kettel’s Volleyed Iron playing on the speakers in the house. She was interested, so much so she brought it up a second time when I had forgot to answer her question a few weeks later. Yes, could this be a new true ambient fan? I sure hope so. And I hope this mix puts her on the right path.

I did this mix with that intention. I also did this mix with other meditations in mind, some very deeply spiritual, some worldly and chaotic. This is also the first time I’ve ever used Audacity to mix an entire release. No need for a mixing board, just my Gentoo Linux laptop and headphones. Some of this was completed out in my backyard using the wifi while smoking my pipe. Can’t beat that work environment.

Summer Meditations Part 1 By Michael Bevilacqua

http://bevilacqua.us/01-SummerMeditations-ByMichaelBevilacqua.mp3

2 hours in length
111 MB download in MP3 format
Seamlessly mixed, volume level normalized

1 Steve Roach, Kevin Braheny, Michael Stearns - Flatlands
2 Kettel - Wim Hoffman
3 Stars of the Lid - Humectez La Mouture
4 Vangelis - Blade Runner Blues
5 Michael Stearns - St. Francis
6 Patrick O’Hearn - 3 Circles
7 Thom Brennan - Afterglow
8 Ishq - Bhakti
9 Vidna Obmana - Mellow at Heart (vocal reprise)
10 Steve Roach, Patrick O’Hearn, Vidna Obmana, Stephen Bacchus, Vir Unis - The Eternal Expanse
11 Aphex Twin - Stone in Focus
12 Jeff Pearce - The Hidden Sky
13 Harold Budd - Little Heart
14 Aloof Proof - The Ghost Ship (excerpt)
15 Darshan Ambient - Azure Day
16 Brian Eno - An Ending Ascent

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

You may or may not have heard about the plans of a day of streaming radio silence to protest and raise awareness regarding the unfair royalty hikes by the Copyright Royalty Board.

XPN.org is participating http://www.xpn.org/petition/

Please get on the boat if you haven’t already done so.

Oh and, http://13thHour.net:8000 will be off tomorrow if you listen from 4:30am until 5pm to my atmospheric ambient all day stream. It will return Wednesday.

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

Elizabeth and I did not make it in time to see the two opening acts of Orbital Decay followed by Ministry Of Inside Things. We arrived just at the final portion of MOIT but decided instead to get dinner after sitting in what had to be some of the worst Saturday afternoon traffic I have ever experienced on 76 East. There was a pile up of cars and SUVs, which we were unfortunate enough to see, at the on ramp of 76 and 476 which was the cause of this traffic nightmare.

We arrived and checked in, went to an Indian food restaurant to eat, relaxed for spell after our meal, headed back over to the Iron Gate and purchased some of the artist’s media. Headed into the theater to watch and listen to Jeff Pearce get sound checked and then about a half hour later Jeff was on.

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Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

Ultraworld.

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Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

Tonight I’m heading to Baltimore for the 07 Starscape Festival featuring a few of my favorite DJs and a newcomer, Christopher Lawrence, who’s trance sets have been impressing me for a while now. It has been far too long since I have attented an Ultraworld party.

Then next weekend Elizabeth and I head to West Philadelphia for The Stars End 30th Anniversary Spacemusic Festival at the Iron Gate Theater featuring the first ever live colaborative performance of Robert Rich and Ian Boddy. I am very excited about this. Two of my favorite artists supporting a show that should never go away. And if that wasn’t enough Jeff Pearce will be there too.

And then to end what looks like a potential massive overdose of impossibly incredible electronic music at just the begining of the season, Elizabeth and I journey out to Artemas, PA for three days and nights of camping and dancing under the stars at the Gaian Mind Summer Festival.

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

The only thing better than Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana is Steve Roach and Byron Metcalf. I shouldn’t even be saying better. Just greater, I suppose, in the Shamanic sense. The Serpent’s Lair is one of those ground breaking neo-tribal-ambient albums that is up there in the my listening library. It’s moody, has a sense of light and body and just moves and grooves the whole way through.

And then I see this event in November facilitated by Steve Roach and Byron Metcalf.

Like I’m not already looking for reasons to put off hip surgery!

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

1- Put a full size antenna on the roof. Simple chimney mount would suffice. Rabbit ears are fine but higher quality would be grand.

2- 5 channel Aperion audio speaker set for the MythTV and computer setup upstairs.

3- New amplifier to handle both upstairs and downstairs simultaneously. Recommendations on a new amplifier would be much appreciated. I currently own a top-of-the-line 5 channel Kenwood with matching CD changer and dual tape changer components. The only drawbacks are the inability to power four stereo speakers at once and the lack of discrete amplification.

I am very happy with my Aperion investment.

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

Stars End featuring a Steve Roach live in-studio set 10am to 4pm:

http://bevilacqua.us:8000/listen.pls

Playlist:

http://starsend.org/playlists/05.20.07.html

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

When my friend Mike first pointed me at the Aperion line up speakers, my initial thought was “This is too good to be true. There is no such thing as audiophile quality speakers for hundreds less than the average.” I started the research, checking out reviews online mostly. What sold me was the 30 day in home audition period with shipping taken care of.

So, after checking out a few other brands including Outlaw, Klipsch and Axiom I decided to give a pair of Aperion’s Intimus 532-LR’s a try. The purpose they will serve will be the replacement speakers for living room’s electrostatic speakers destroyed by our kitten. I want to suspended these from the ceiling in the corners using modular ceiling mount hardware. This is the area where we do our reading and relaxing in front of the fireplace so these speakers should be able reproduce ambient and space music flawlessly. I know this doesn’t sound demanding to the average person. The fact is some of my audio tracks can produce an insane amount of resonance. With the simplicity of ambient and space music I also tend to hear all of the noise generated in poor reproduction.

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Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

This is the third time I have attended a Steve Roach concert. Any other time I have attended his concerts has been with him colaborating with someone. Each time has been unique. Each time has left me with a different set of thoughts. But this time, in his solo performance, he’s left me in nothing but awe. I truly didn’t want the show to end. It was, in my mind, the finest performance I have witnessed in the past 8 years of my attending his performances.

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Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

First I’m hearing this track. Completely addicted. Thanks dawaioser!

Lyrics as sung by Karin Dreijer Andersson (born 1975, my age!) Note, this is not the primary woman in the video, the secondary eating the apple. Brilliant!

It was me on that road
But you couldn’t see me
Too many lights out, but nowhere near here

It was me on that road
Still you couldn’t see me
And then flashlights and explosions

Roads end getting nearer
We cover distance but not together

I am the storm I am the wonder
And the flashlights nightmares
And sudden explosions

I don’t know what more to ask for
I was given just one wish

It’s about you and the sun
A morning run
The story of my maker
What I have and what I ache for

I’ve got a golden ear
I cut and I spear
And what else is there

Roads and getting nearer
We cover distance still not together

If I am the storm if I am the wonder
Will I have a flashlights nightmares
And sudden explosions

There’s no room where I can go and
You’ve got secrets too

I don’t know what more to ask for
I was given just one wish

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

I did a nice show tonight. No talking or promoting with voice overs, just an upbeat beginning that steadily decays into an ambient expansion and slowly turns into silence. I even borrowed Jochem Paap’s Dx-Snth from Asphalt Eden. Really love that track.

2 hours long in mp3 format. Track list is here.

Have a listen if you are in a chill-out mood.

More like it here.

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

David Byrne’s look at the situation:

http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2007/04/4107_your_gover.html

And another petition to sign:

http://savethestreams.org/

I really hope people start to understand how important this fight is. I’ve been getting many mixed messages from people lately. Regulation on the Internet is nothing more than a way to give an agency control over how you want to live your life. It doesn’t benefit you or anyone except the people in control collecting money from the large money holders.

Originally published at Bevilacqua.us.

Then it’s time to take action. Contact your Senators and your Representatives.

Need more proof?

SomaFM.com has a lot of good info as well.

An open letter to Representative Bob Mensch and Senator John Rafferty:

Mr. Mensch and Mr. Rafferty-

I’m writing you today to express my concern as an Internet radio listener, web media developer, PA tax payer and home owner. As you may be aware, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) royalty rate decision has increased the royalty rates that Internet radio broadcasters pay on the “sound recording performance” to SoundExchange. These fees are so high that if not changed will put most member-supported, small and medium-sized Internet broadcasters out of business.

There are a number of stations I support and listen to daily. They have grown considerably from the time I began listening. This wouldn’t have happened at all if this legislation was already in place. I see this legislation as being anti-progressive in our ever evolving and positive Internet radio community.

I am also a streaming Internet station developer for the Bryn Athyn Cathedral in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. We provide sermon broadcasts all over the globe to places like Africa and Australia. If this legislation is put into place, we will need to either pay $500 a year (the minimum per channel) in broadcasting fees or shut down our stream.

Furthermore, over-the-air broadcasters are exempt from paying royalties on the sound recording copyright. These royalties were legislated by the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 (aka the DPRA). The reason was that it was then thought “digital” broadcasts were “perfect copies” of an original work and should therefore be treated different from over-the-air radio broadcasts; hence the law was changed so that only over-the-air broadcasters were exempted from royalties on the performance of sound recordings. When the original copyright laws were written, Congress realized it was creating a legal monopoly to the copyright holder. So in order to balance out that government-given monopoly it also added provisions for fair use, such as copying for personal use, exemptions for libraries, and exemptions for radio broadcasters.

The DPRA is based on a fundamentally flawed assumption — that “digital transmission” allows unlimited perfect digital copies of the original work. But internet radio stations do not distribute perfect digital copies of the original copyrighted performance; instead, they use MP3 and WMA. Such broadcasts are drastically “compressed” and (I’m sure you know) nowhere near a perfect digital copy. They also segue songs together, and make announcements over the beginnings and ends of songs. It’s just like over-the-air radio, and in many cases, the audio quality of the internet broadcast is inferior to an analog FM broadcast!

Due to all the corporate consolidation in over-the-air broadcasting, it no longer provides a free flow of ideas and information. Internet radio has responded to fill that free flow of ideas, and there are thousands of internet radio stations with loyal audiences who look to them to discover new music. Many of these are advertising-free, and support themselves through listener donations. But if SoundExchange gets its way, advertising-free internet radio will come to an end, and only the largest corporations will be able to legally operate internet radio stations in the United States. US listeners seeking a diversity of viewpoints will be forced to turn to international broadcasters.

Achieving parity with over-the-air broadcasters seems to be the only fair solution for internet radio broadcasters and listeners. This can be done by amending 114(j)(3) of the Copyright Act to change the definition of “broadcast transmission” to include internet radio broadcasts, aka eligible nonsubscription transmission, as defined in Sec. 114(j)(6).

If amending the Copyright law is not feasible, then at a minimum, these royalty rates must be reduced to something reasonable; for example, 5% of revenues is in line with what broadcasters pay to composers (through ASCAP and BMI). It seems that the rates that the CRB has ruled for internet radio “sound recording” royalties are grossly out of line.

This is the only way that internet radio operators can achieve parity with their over-the-air peers, and the only way to insure a “marketplace of ideas” - an idea important to our democracy.

Please take all of this into consideration and act to save small, independent internet radio broadcasters. Please contact me if you have any questions with what I have presented to you today.

–
Michael D. Bevilacqua
michael at bevilacqua .dot. us