(Note to my family: This is not a gift list for me. You should have gotten your 2009 Gift List on December 26^th of last year, please refer to that and ask me for a new copy if you some how lost or original).

It’s that time of year again, where we all force ourselves to cheer up and see the brighter side of life, and part of that brighter side is giving gifts to all of our coworkers, neighbors, bar tenders, and if we’re feeling super generous, friends and family.

Now chances are that if you know a fan of progressive rock, it’s been a huge pain in the ass to find them an appropriate gift. They already own all the music they want, since they never wait more than 4 hours until after a record is released to get their hands on the limited collector’s vinyl edition with 300 page color art book and band commentary DVD. On the other end, the only things they don’t have that they want cost tens of thousands of dollars (see: Neil Peart’s drum kit from the Test For Echo tour, Robert Fripp’s stage stool, the 2^nd neck on Chris Squire’s 3-neck bass, etc). So you usually just end up buying them something from the Apple store and move on.

BUT NOT THIS YEAR! This year you have the Prog Blog’s guide to holiday shopping for the common prog fan. While things like a gym membership, soap, or clothes that they weren’t wearing back in high school may provide more immediate and obvious benefits, I’m here to help you find the gifts that your prog fan boy or girl (ok, lets be honest, boy) truly desire:

Applications for our iPhone that lets us make music as if we were a 3-year old:

This is why all iPhone drum apps fail

Prog fans, like all dirty hippie creative types, love Apple products and probably had an iPhone before Steve Jobs had one. You can tap into this irrational love for a nominal product by getting them one of the many iPhone apps that let regular douche bags sound like cutting edge musicians.

Bebot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpgxd8bljtg) is one app that lets you create all sorts of noise just by touching and dragging your fingers across the phone’s screen. You can also add tons of effects to make it sound like you’re doing something much more complicated than randomly pointing at the screen. I will commend the creators of the application here because I think they’ve created something that, by default, allows the user to sound at least as skilled as Sigur Ros.

If this is too ‘artifical’ for someone trying to use their iPhone as an instrument, you can get them Pocket Guitar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51cWRrZdkwk&feature=related) which will let them remember why they hated their first guitar teacher AND make them sound like a crappy midi file. Or, if they’re a wind player, you can get them the Ocarina app (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdQvSWXaODs&feature=related) which has already been used to play every single song from Zelda about 8 billion times on youtube, shockingly.

Invent a new audio format

'Rubber Ducky' never sounded so good!

Prog is all about one-upmanship. So you can play the guitar AND bass part to “La Villa Strangiato” at the same time AND do it at twice the tempo Rush played it at? So what, I can do that AND play drums!

One thing prog fans love to one-up each other on is the audio format of their music collection. From vinyl to eight track to cassette tape to compact disc to WAV to MP3 to DVD-A to FLAC to OGG back to vinyl again for some stupid reason, we always want to tell other people how ‘pure’ sounding the music we listen to is. No one ever really wins this battle, but we still all scramble to convert our archives any time a new format appears claiming to be the only true way to listen to an artist’s music. Thus, if you want to give your prog fan a special gift, invent an audio format that no one else has. Then present it to them and tell that that NO ONE ELSE IN THE WORLD HAS THAT FORMAT. He or she will probably leave immediately to update their collection, half joyful that they will be ahead of the curve and half shameful that they didn’t have format before you invented it.

If you need help with an idea for what format you want to use, here are a few free ones I promise don’t exist yet:

-Honeycombs full of bees

-Wood

-ACTUAL solid gold and platinum records

-Human flesh (depending on the body part, they may REALLY enjoy this one)

-Waffles

See, it’s easy. And no, don’t worry, they won’t question whether or not the bees moving and stinging the listener is a disadvantage. They should have done a better job preserving the media!

The album cover from In the Court of the Crimson King on anything

The Mona Lisa. If she liked prog.

We love this album cover. We don’t care that it freaks other people out. It’s basically our mascot. We’d paint it on our houses and cars if it didn’t kill the resale value. Honestly, if we woke up one morning and found it had been tattooed across our back, we’d love it. Just go over to cafepress.com and stick it on a shirt or a mug or a bumper sticker or baby or whatever and give it to us. We won’t care that we’re breaking numerous laws by owning an illegal piece of merchandise, and neither should you.

Stuff for an instrument we don’t actually play

How did you know I wanted to start playing Normaphone? You're so thoughtful!

The first thing prog fans love feeling is superior, but the second thing we love feeling is eclectic. Chances are we already own everything we can possibly want or afford for our main instrument (because we all play at least one instrument, DUH), but you can encourage that we waste time on a new instrument by buying us something for an instrument we barely play, or even better, don’t even play at all.

For instance I am a drummer, but I own a guitar that I can’t play for shit. It hangs on my wall and laughs at me whenever I try to pick it up. What I SHOULD do is put it in its case and find someone who wants a great Babicz Tribeca acoustic guitar (mmm blatant shilling for Babicz guitars goes here) so that my roommate doesn’t have to suffer needlessly through my ‘practicing’. However when my sister gave me a Rock Band (mmm blatant shilling for Rock Band goes here) song book for said guitar for one of the various winter holidays my family celebrates, I loved it.

You can do the same for your prog fan. If they have a drum kit sitting in their basement that was left their by the drummer in their last band, buy them some drum sticks (and yourself some ear plugs). If their grandmother left them a keyboard in her will, get them a sustain pedal! If you want to be really creative, get them something for an instrument they don’t even play, like slide lubricant for a trombone or bow rosin for a cello. They’ll get the hint, trust me!

Hopefully now your head is full of great gift ideas for the prog fans in your life. Go forth with new confidence that for the first time since they became a fan of the best music in the world, you’ll have found a gift that truly fits their totally awesome life style. It might kind of be like giving a crack addict a pipe for the holidays, but don’t worry, at least one person always loves an enabler!

Aun no tengo claro el nombre de la empresa, acepto consejos, además los necesitoo!! La organización de la revista si la tengo más o menos clara.

Decisiones tomadas.

Subo mi mapa mental, acepto consejos! los necesito… ya que el nombre de la empresa significa chica guapa en Filipino y no encuentro ningun termino que se identifique con la marca por eso he pensado en jugar con la propia marca separando Be y Bot o simplemente dejarlo en B…

The thing I’m wanting from Greece most … warmth. There’s no heating at all in the bathroom at the guesthouse I’ve been staying at and when in the shower this morning the water started to cool just after I’d applied shower gel to my body, it was then a frantic race to get as much of it off before I was pouring ice cold H2O all over my sen. Not fun.

So I’m just off to begin my trip to Athens via a bus to Skopje (that I’m still gutted I have to get), I’ll be picking up a big juicy burek on route to the station don’t you worry.

That was a bit scary. Only 5 minutes from the bus station in the centre of Ohrid the bus stopped and a moody looking policeman got on, I didn’t realise at first as I was busy making haunting synth music on Bebot, ahem. Anyway he was checking passports but mine was in my bag as I’m not going to be crossing a border on this leg of the journey.

To make me sweat a bit more he put some lad in handcuffs (behind his back too) before me, gulp. I showed him my driving license and asked if he wanted me to ask the driver to let me get to my bag, luckily he wasn’t really interested though.

Not so for the guy on the seats adjacent to me, who he handcuffed to felon number 1. In all he took 4 people off the bus, I presume they were immigrants of some kind, they did have a more eastern look to them than everyone else.

Currently we’re driving through the mountains and there’s snow and a thick mist everywhere, it just looks like a great white abyss to both sides of the road.

The album ‘Hold on now, Youngster‘ by Los Campesinos! has been listened to today. Its breezy indie-pop with elements of art-punk and there are some pretty good tunes, but ultimately it’s low on backbone and won’t hold your attention very long at all. This also applies to their mini-album ‘Sticking Fingers into Sockets’.

We’re in a bus depot in some town now and there’s a fat kid singing his heart out on a bench with very animated features. I’m still on the bus so I don’t know what he’s singing to (though if anything, I’d hazard a guess it’s one of the tunes I despise so much). He’s spotted me laughing at him and started laughing himself, highly amusing.

When I got to Skopje it was time to find the train station. It’s the mankiest, most decrepit, inaccessible, unhelpful station I’ve ever been at. It’s a good thing I didn’t get the later bus as I considered as that only left me an hour before the train out, it took me more than an hour to sort the ticket.

The ‘information’ desk was named poorly really. There was one of those little speaker-holes in the window bur the bloke on the other side was sat slouching and reading his paper about a metre away from it (as were the other 2 ‘workers’ in the room) so when he did bother to speak you couldn’t hear a word, not that it mattered as he didn’t speak English. I showed him the train(s) I wanted to book on my phone and said billet (French for ticket but I think they use a very similar word here) he just repeatedly said “Skopje, Thessaloniki, okay” and I couldn’t get anything else out of him. Thanks for that D’Artagnan.

I found a ticket office after a bit of wandering and the woman spoke a bit of English, eventually we got there and I got my ticket for about €27 with my ISIC but for a long time it was looking like I could only get a ticket to Thessaloniki which would be a problem as I wouldn’t have had time to get the ticket to Athens. Phew.

Then I had an hour or so to find some grub. Irish Pub St. Patrick (genius stuff naming wise) looked a good bet and the bacon cheese-burger and chips I got were proper beaut, the burger was massive as well. At under a fiver including a pint, it was just what the Doc ordered.

I also got to catch the last few minutes of the Villa vs Chelsea game (our draw at Villa Park looks even better now) and the first half hour of the Rags vs Wanderers game, what a flukey goal for Owen.

In an effort to rid myself of all Macedonian readies I just bought 5 croissants with a touch of cocoa in them. The brand being 7 Days, I’ve become addicted to them lately. That’s my brekkies sorted for the short-term.

When I get to Thessadonachie at 22:34 (in theory) I’ve got 24 minutes before the train I need to be on departs to Athens. By the law of sod I’ve just noticed on the screen that it’s already 15 minutes late. I’m on it now and considering it’s already late it doesn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to get going. It finally departed at 17:45 which puts me 6 minutes over the buffer I had right from the off. I hope the driver has a turbo button.

It did indeed transpire that I missed my train as we didn’t get in until about 23:15, 40 minutes or so late. Luckily there was another train at 23:33 but I had to pay an extra €11 as it was all couchette. I don’t know why you have to pay more though as there are 6 couchettes in a room and it’s 6 people to one of those rooms without the couchettes in anyway. So basically you are paying 11 Euros for a pillow, blanket and sheets. Though I couldn’t actually apply my sheets as I was on one of the highest bunks and I had about 2ft clearance between me and the roof. It was all pretty uncomfortable but I was that tired I still slept for 4 hours+ of the 6 hour journey (though it was closer to 7 hours in the end, not too reliable these Greek trains).

The hostel seems pretty good. Though I went in my room and there are lots of half-cut (by the smell of them) snoring men in there. I can’t figure out which is my bed as they’ve all just put their clothes on all of them. It’s 08:00am though so I’ll just do the stuff I need to on the internet and then sort it in a bit.

Expect lots of dodgy Greek references (like the Anchorman inspired post title) over the next few days.

Pic is from Ohrid.

Before getting on the bus last night, I nipped to the restaurant I’d gone to the night before. I then filled myself up with penne arrabiata and left. Just the trick.

I also had time to do a bit of research for getting to Thessaloniki, there are many different options with different complication, price and duration levels. The most promising is the train from Skopje to Thessaloniki on Saturday at 17:15 getting in at 22:34. Though this would mean going back on myself and I refuse to do that, so what I want to try and do is pick the same train up at Gevgelija on the Macedonian/Greek border at 19:55. This morning I need to look at how to get to Gevgelija from Ohrid and also somehow confirm with the Macedonian railways that the train details on the German Rail site are correct. This also means that I’ll stay another night in Ohrid.

While on the bus I entertained myself in a multitude of ways; I read some more of ‘Don Quixote’ which I’m now 60.40% into, I messed about with the simply brilliant Bebot iPhone app which I’d bought for a quid that day, I listened to loads of music in Itunes and Spotify (mainly to keep from hearing the truly terrible usual pap that comes with the buses in these parts, I don’t mind going on record as saying that the Balkans has produced some of the worst music to ever grace this planet) and lastly I came up with the below.

Fri 16 – Ohrid
Sat 17 – Night train
Sun 18 – Athens
Mon 19 – Athens
Tues 20 – Night ferry
Wed 21 – Taormina
Thurs 22 – Taormina
Fri 23 – Siracusa
Sat 24 – Palermo
Sun 24 – Night ferry
Mon 26 – Naples
Tues 27 – Naples
Wed 28 – Rome
Thurs 29 – Rome
Fri 30 – Rome
Sat 31 – Florence
Sun 1 – San Marino
Mon 2 – Venice
Tues 3 – Venice
Wed 4 – Milan
Thurs 5 – Vaduz
Fri 6 – Munich
Sat 7 – Munich
Sun 8 – Zurich
Mon 9 – Bern
Tues 10- Geneva
Wed 11 – Monaco
Thurs 12 – Andorra
Fri 13 – Madrid
Sat 14 – Madrid
Sun 15 – Madrid
Mon 16 – Lisbon
Tues 17 – Lisbon
Wed 18 – Seville
Thurs 19 – Seville
Fri 20 – Valenicia
Sat 21 – Valenicia
Sun 22 – St Jean D’ Angely
Mon 23 – St Jean D’ Angely
Tues 24 – St Jean D’ Angely
Wed 25 – St Jean D’ Angely
Thurs 26 – Normandy (town/city TBC)
Fri 27 – Normandy (town/city TBC)
Sat 28 – Normandy (town/city TBC)
Sun 29 – Paris
Mon 30 – Paris

Now this is anything but set in stone and probably unachievable really, a lot of it is based on guestimates on travel times but it’s a rough plan at least. I’m already missing plenty off that I’d like to fit in and another month would be perfect, the way I see it though I’ve a lifetime to comeback and fill in all the gaps.

I got a cool stamp when leaving Albania, whoo! That was the good bit of customs.

On the Macedonian side was the bad bit. Things took ages, my bus that was due in Struga at 23:30 didn’t actually get in until 02:00 because they kept us sitting there on it for hours and then we were standing outside for another 45 minutes or so in weather on par with a Mancunian January. Finally for some reason we then went on a different bus, I’ve no idea what it was all about and I didn’t even get a stamp for all my troubles. I rang the hostel at about 1 in the morning and the bloke said he’d wait up luckily. I’m now not a fan of Macedonian customs, though maybe it was the bus company’s fault, who knows.

It was even hard work after that. I knew Struga should be about 15 minutes from the border and when I saw a sign saying it was 2KM away I kept alert. Then the bus pulled over and it was clearly not a bus station or in any way what could be considered a town, I was worried. Of course no one spoke English so I was in a bit of a pickle. I gathered just about from the driver that this was indeed deemed as the Struga stop but there was no taxi rank. An old woman and a young lad had got off the bus and a taxi pulled up from nowhere for them, the driver was gesturing and I took it that he was advising me to get involved with that taxi before it scarpered. It was pretty much my only choice after all and if that was a no go I would have been stranded 15KM from where I needed to be in the cold and rain with no plan B.

The taxi driver didn’t speak a word of Blighty talk but I showed him the address and asked how much and after a little bit of confusion (all the while with my foot in a big puddle) I finally got that he’d take me there for €5. So he dropped the other people off in Struga (where the bus had stopped was on the outskirts then) and then proceeded to go to Ohrid. But he didn’t know the guesthouse, so then he stopped and asked another driver and we ended up following him, at this point I think he was trying to say it was €5 to here and more beyond. As none of this was in English though I wasn’t sure and certainly wasn’t going to help him out in that respect.

We ended up on some street in the pitch black and the other driver assured us this was it, though the place they were pointing at didn’t look right to me. While checking the address on my phone he then inadvertently deleted the email which had the address and directions from the centre (which I was going to use to try and find it on foot), so rather miffed and dejected I paid him and set out on a bit of a hopless task to find the place.

Within seconds I’d walked past it, whoo! So he had dropped me on the right street after all just not at the right house. Phew.

A bit of a nightmare journey all round really. But just after 3 I was finally in bed and enjoying the fact that there were 2 large blankets to keep me warm.

Though it transpired that they weren’t enough and I had to dig my sleeping bag out at 6 in the morning. I got a solid 4 hours after that.

One thing I’ve forgot to mention is that since I’ve been in Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, power cut are very regular. I suggest if you’re a gamer to save very often or have a back-up generator?

The place (Antonio Guesthouse) I’m staying is alright, not much fun but I’ve privacy and it’s clean, cheap and secure. It’s advertised as having WiFi everywhere but the router is in the adjacent building and the signal is that weak that I lose it every minute and have to manually reconnect, is driving me mad!

When I got out and about today the first thing I went to do was have a look at the actual lake which is lovely, but I have to say I think there are better in Cumbria.

Then I was just mooching around the old cobbled streets and came across a few historical landmarks, first up was the Church of St. Sophia, next was Czar Samuel’s Fortress (which offers the best views available of the town) and lastly the Plaosnik Monastery (I found it to be a serenely peaceful place, though it helped that I was the only person in it).

I’d never had roasted chestnuts before and you see plenty of street sellers flogging them round this side of Europe so I finally gave them a try. I shall be having them again in the not so distant future.

Just an afternoon was long to see the sights of Ohrid really as they’re all very close together, though I imagine that in the summer you could happily spend a few days here. It’s a nice place.

After that I walked to the bus station so I know where I’ll be going tomorrow and also to get times and prices. My plan to get to Gevgelija and pick up the train to Thessaloniki is in tatters as even though it’s closer, it involves 2 or 3 changes which could be complicated or lengthy for all I know. There is another quicker option but it involves crossing the border between bus stations in a taxi and it could work out to be pretty expensive. So, even though I don’t like it, I’ll have to go back to Skopje in the morning which will take around 3.5 hours and then wait round a few hours there before getting the train I mentioned earlier. Boo.

By this time I was well in need of a substantial meal and I was getting a bit bored of pasta, pizza or lasagna all the time. I was full of the cold, tired and weak and wanted a meat feast God damn it.

I found a nice little restaurant doing a mixed grill but they had no room at the inn, man. Then eventually I came across a large but completely dead (I was the only one in it, not a good sign eh) called B.A.D Restaurant, what a terrible name.

I ordered ‘Alexander’s Sword’ (pork, veal and chicken on a large skewer with salad and fries). It certainly met the substantial requirement and the meat was all very tasty, so a good selection. The obligatory local beer I had was in Cyrillic so I don’t know the name.

I figured out why the place was empty though, when I came in they put on and turned up that music I have had to face on the buses a lot recently. I’m honestly really looking forward to getting out of the Balkans to escape it as it’s everywhere, they all seem to love it as well.

3 of Cobra Killer’s first 4 albums (Cobra Killer, 76/77 and Das Mandolinenorchester) are what I’ve listened to today. There is a bit of hype around the German outfit at the moment apparently and I think it very unjustified, all 3 of the albums are boring and juvenile. They should take a look at Crystal Castles to see how that sort of thing should be executed. Avoid them like the bubonic plague (which incidentally around 3000 people a year are still diagnosed with, I discovered last night on the National Geographic channel). One thing I should say to be fair, the hype is about their 5th and latest album which I haven’t heard, the predecessors have left me with absolutely no desire to though.

I spent the next few hours in an internet cafe and it’s here that I discovered that all my planning for Thessaloniki was a waste of time. There’s no hostels there and I’m not paying for 2 nights in a hotel, bugger. So I will go straight to Athens. I still need to go to Skopje and in fact I’ll need to get the same train to Thessaloniki, but then change there to get in Athens at about half 5 in the morning. On the plus side it frees up a few extra days. I’ve amended my rough plan above already, it didn’t even survive a day!

So tomorrow day and night (and well into the next day) will be a complete day of transit, I can’t say I’m relishing it.

Have you guys seen this past episode of Ugly Betty (U.S. version with America Ferrera in the title role) where the main characters are seen in the company of Japanese fashion designer Oshi and his entourage? I find it amusing that they used Apl.de.ap’s Tagalog rap Black-Eyed Peas ditty “Bebot” in the musical score of the scene. Instead of using some Japanese-inspired eclectic pop or J-POP, they picked this one instead.

Here’s the video of the scene:

video courtesy of YouTube/eyesthere

Just thought of sharing because I enjoy seeing some Pinoy connections in things foreign like this one.

Take me to the Philippines  by apl.de.ap (Black eyed Peas)

While watching the video, it really made me proud of who i am and where i came from. I mean, yeah, people call Filipinos as *brown monkeys* and whatevers… but what other nations should know is that Filipinos, beneath

their tans, are the hearts that are very sensitive to other people’s  needs. I am very proud of apl.de.ap, because he really shouts to the whole world that he is a Filipino, and is never reluctant to admit it.

This is not the First time he wrote a song for the Filipinos, he also has the other song entitled BEBOT, and what a great song it is. Check it out.

Bebot by Apl.De.ap

For SP133: Argumentation and Debate class, we were tasked to do an interview on the topic role of communication in lobbying. We were the last group to present, and so we wanted something new to come out of our interview.

The group decided to narrow down the topic into lobbying through blogging.

We subdivided into two groups: one for reporting and the other for the interview. Bebot gels (Paula Batalla , Nash Albacea, and Jena Lariza) and Ping (formally known as Joanna Armendez) volunteered for the interview part.

Why? Because we don’t want to read the readings and report in class. Hoho!

Anyway, we were very lucky to get an appointment with Victor Villanueva, also known as “Bikoy,” the first Filipino male blogger, Airah Cadiogan, and Cong. Mong Palatino, all of whom are from Kabataan Partylist.

I shall post our video interview when I already have a copy ;p

Note: The interview with Mr. Mong Palatino was set on another date.

Ms. Airah Cadiogan and Mr. Victor Villanueva

The interview with Sir Bikoy and Ms. Airah took place last September 11, 2009 at the Shangri-La Plaza Mall.

As mentioned earlier, we wanted to spice up the interview and so we decided to use a “cheerdance” theme. When we arrived at Shangri-La, our interviewees were still not there so we decided to video our webcast-ish interview introduction. Nash was our official video person because it’s her videocam and she’s not feeling very well at the time. We were very excited and nervous that we kept laughing and laughing in front of the camera; and when we ran out of things to say, we chanted a letter per letter BIKOY cheer. We were surprised and embarrassed at the same time when a man in a lime green shirt approached us and asked us if we were the students from UP Manila. Yes, it was Mr. Victor Villanueva. He was already there before we arrived.

Here are some relevant insights from the interview:

- 5 simple steps in lobbying: (1) identify the issue, (2) know how you will defend your issue (3) identify the people you have to talk to, (4) organize an activity, and (5) follow-up. “An instance of lobbying is not enough. It has to be sustained.”

- Blogging is an effective way of encouraging your targeted audience to join your cause or advocacy. However, it is only a tool. Complementary activities must be done.

- Many of the youth today thinks that when they joined a group or cause they were invited to join through SNS, they are already helping in bringing about the desired change. “It is not advisable for youth to be online activists.”

Ping, (Me), Ms. Airah, "Bikoy", Nash, Jena

Mr. Victor Villanueva, who always has a camera with him, took a picture of us and told us that he’ll make a blog about our interview topic and he’ll place our picture there. Again, we were delighted. We will be placed in the blog of the 1st Filipino male blogger. Haha

Nash and I checks his blog from time to time. Haha

Here’s a link to his blog:

http://www.bikoy.net/archives/2009/09/14/lobbying-through-blogging/

Bebot gels did great that day, I think. Minus the traffic and LRT rides, it would have been perfect.

Why?

One: After the interview, we went to SM Manila to watch Greenwich’s Grand Gig, where Ace Acosta’s band, “Rapid Pagongs”, will be performing. But actually, a more powerful force that brought us there ,despite the traffic and rain, was the fact that John Lloyd Cruz will be there.

Two: We Rock!

iAno una apliación usada para crear música en el iPhone

Sin duda el iPhone es uno de los gadgets con más aplicaciones que existen actualmente en el mercado. Algunas de las posibilidades que ofrece el teléfono móvil de Apple es la de componer y crear melodías musicales.

 En este video podemos escuchar  una canción usando aplicación de nombre Bebot; por el  músico Jordan Rudess:

Otro video que me gusta mucho por la música que presentan es el siguiente clip del grupo británico The Mentalist, quienes fusionan la Ocarina, Retro Synth, miniSynth y el DigiDrummer Lite:

También el llamado RjDJ  que convierte el sonido ambiental en música:

Sin duda son melodías muy rítmicas y bastante interesantes para haberse creado en el iPhone, ¿Conocen otro tipo de música de este tipo? ¡compártela!.

Para escuchar más:

http://de10.com.mx/wdetalle3648.html

Relacionadas:

Escucha: “King Rat” de Modest Mouse, el último trabajo de Heath Ledger
Escucha: El coro PS22 transforma éxitos musicales en melodías escolares
Escucha: For Orchestra convierte música pop en clásica

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There are many synthesizer apps for the iPhone and Bebot Robot Synth is one of the more interesting ones. It was recommended by a colleague because her daughter loves it. I don’t think it was made with children in mind but somehow the kids love it. I went ahead and downloaded it and let my son try it out. The app is pretty simple to use – you create musical notes by sliding your fingers around the screen. Yes I did mention fingerS because it’s multitouch enabled. You can change the pitch by moving your fingers in different directions. My son was totally captivated by the robot’s mouth – it moves in sync with the noise. In all I think Bebot Robo Synth is a great little app for your little one and you won’t regret paying $1.99 for it. You can download the app by clicking on the icon above. Have fun. (jackson)

On Wednesday June 24th, 2009 my band The Compilers played our first gig. We opened for Kevin Hoyt at Adobe’s ‘Next Generation Flex & ColdFusion tour’ in Denver CO. The venue was The Magnolia Ballroom in downtown and it was a great time.

The Compilers band is a pure geek rock mashup of music, power, and big brain tech know how. I play bass in the band, and I also play the iPhone on a few songs. I never thought I’d play my phone in a band, but I do and it’s one more reason why the iPhone is the best device ever.

The first tune I played the iPhone on is our version of the ZeroWing inspired ‘All Your Base are Belong to us’. For this song I use the AllYourBase iPhone app to play sound clips from the video, while Scotty and Jun rock out on drums and guitar.

The second song the iPhone appears on is called ‘TweetJam’. This is a real mashup song. Jun the guitarist wrote an Adobe AIR app that reads the band’s Twitter feed ( @thecompilers ), sends the messages to a Java text to speech engine, thanks to Merapi, where the tweets get read by a robot voice. There are a few solo parts to this song, and I have an iPhone solo where I play my favorite app BEBOT. The latest version of BEBOT supports saved presets which makes it perfect for playing different songs on the fly.

So that’s that. My phone is officially an instrument as well as all the other cool things it is. Here are some screenshots and photos from the gig. At some point I’ll be writing my own iPhone apps, now I have a reason besides work.

I love making music. The problem is I suck at it. With that being said I can’t tell you how much I love to fuck around with this app. It’s called Bebot. It is a robot multi-touch synthesizer app for the iphone and ipod touch.

The app is a synth that comes with a bunch of different modes. It has your basic robot noise all the way to a theremin. You choose which preset you want or you can mess around and create your own. Then you basically just touch around and Bebot “sings”. Left to right controls the pitch where up and down controls the timbre.

It’s honestly as simple as that. Check out this video and then go buy this app for $1.99. 

Watch the video:

This thing looks like the most complete musical instrument (disguised as a toy) to appear so far. £1.19 seems a small price to pay for becoming the new Ray Lynch or Vangelis.

2 small problem blocking me from musical stardom:

• Sound is still broken on my phone;
• I’m crap at music.

The normalware.com website has a nice manual for the app, but sadly it does not include instructions on how to acquire musical talent.  Hopefully there will be a flood of tutorial videos once this app takes over the world.

More from the app store:

Bebot is a feature-packed, polyphonic musical synthesizer with a unique multitouch control method, personified on-screen as an adorable animated robot character who moves and sings the notes while you play.

Featuring four different synthesis modes, juicy analog-sounding filters, a versatile delay/looping effect and overdrive distortion, Bebot is a full-fledged realtime synthesizer, offering a wide range of sounds and a high degree of control via the multitouch screen.

Up to four notes can be played and controlled simultaneously using multiple fingers. The note grid display, autotune system and user-programmable scales help you to play in tune with ease. Don’t just listen to your iPod music – play along! Or simply have fun making noises with your fingers, and let the cartoon robot entertain you and your friends.

Verdict: why oh why haven’t I replaced my phone yet
Version: 1.5, 1MB
iTunes store link (iTunes rating: 4 star, 100 reviews)

Category: Music
Publisher: Normalware
Size: 0.9MB
Price: $1.99

The iPhone is a perfect candidate for being a synthesizer, and Bebot is the perfect app to do so. Hit the jump for the review.

Bebot combines a fully functioning synthesizer with a cute little robot animation. The layout looks crayon drawn, but that fits the app astonishingly well. As you move your finger from left to right to change the pitch, the little robot moves back and forth. As you move up and down to control the timbre, he changes the shape of his mouth to fit the sound. So, the robot is a nice little touch of fun to the app.

There are four effects to choose from: Bebot, Pulse, Theremin, and Pulse-width modulation. The Bebot mode lets you change the timbre, the Pulse mode lets you change the timbre and the pulse width, and the PWM mode lets you change the cutoff and the resonance. All of the effects let you add echo and overdrive.

Bebot lets you choose whether you want to show the note grid or not. You can zoom on the grid to show only a section of the available pitches. You can also control the pitch, so when you’re zoomed in you can easily go to a higher or lower pitch.

There are four options for autotune. The first is easy: OFF. Then there’s slow. It tunes to you nearest note relatively slowly. Fast does it quickly. For these two options, tuning occurs on the first touch immediately and then after sliding. The last option is snap, which simply snaps to the consecutive notes. You can turn specific notes on the grid on and off to your liking.

Bebot is great for musicians and non-musicians alike. You can plug it into a computer or an amp to get bigger sound. Everyone should try it. I’ve been having a lot of fun playing it here in the basement. In all honesty, this review does not do it justice. You really have to see it in action to get it. We would do a video review on this site, but we have yet to get a good camera. I reccomend going to the developer’s website, and checking out the videos on there. This app deserves a perfect score, so that’s what I’m giving it. 5/5

Lubic4sho’s Comment: All he’s been doing is walking around the office playing all the sounds! (Actually pretty good I must say.)

Last week I bought my first app for my phone. Up until now I’ve been on a strict free only diet, and haven’t felt like I’m missing out on anything.

I paid $1.99 for BEBOT, and have gotten at least $19.95 of enjoyment in return. My dad built me an electric noise box when I was a kid, and this is the first noise maker that trumps it.

BEBOT is a Jetsons-esque singing robot. In this app he’s playing a 60s style lounge. My new robot sings in four voices : Bebot, PWM, Theremin, and Pulse. Each of which have different inflections and whatnot.

When you fire up BEBOT, your phone’s screen in the playing surface. Left Right to walk the scale, and Up Down to tweak the soundwave. Get this, you can have up to four fingers playing at once.

I’m learning to play it for some upcoming Indaba studio work. BEBOT start a new electronic genre.

I love this app. Here are some action shots. You can’t save settings, so these shots are a setup I was digging.

BEEP BOP BOOP OOOOWHEEEEEE

There are actually two versions of the video.
I found this one infinitely more “interesting” though, especially because of its obvious.. high regard for Filipino culture. Really, truthfully. Ohyes, because we’re all like that/this. And that we all ride around in rice rockets (stock cars pumped up with fuel injections, mufflers, etc), all girls dress like import models (high mid-rifts, low waists, and high heels), all boys can break dance. Stereotype, much? But anyways, I do have to admit, the girls they had dancing in the house parties, and block parties, and parking lot parties, were really pretty.. Too bad a little more research into their casting revealed that less than half of them were actually from the Philippines.. Also, other YouTube versions of the video did include “Translator Noes” stating that “Bebot” is actually just slang for girl / hot chick, and not meant to be derogatory. They proved that right with these videos, right? I think so. ^.^

Hmm. I would translate if need be, but nope. Not really.

And to see the other version;
Bebot (Gen One) – Black Eyed Peas

When my mother telephones me, the word “Bebot” appears on the screen of my Blackberry. It is what her seven brothers call her, and it is what I like my phone to call her. However, I have never actually called her Bebot, simply because I don’t feel comfortable referring to my mother as a hot chick, even if it is in another language.

Even if I did call my mother Bebot to her face, she wouldn’t disagree with me. “When I was young and first came here from the Philippines,” she always begins the all-too familiar story, “one of the men that I worked with told me that God must have spent a lot of time constructing my nose.” Whenever she tells me this story, she cocks her head and her eyes become doe-like, her distinctive nose pointing toward me as her thin lips formulate something in between a smirk and a smile. She often takes these trips down memory lane while she is cooking dinner, her arthritic fingers chopping vegetables slowly and rhythmically. “I could have chosen from so many men,” she always says, “but instead I got married to your daddy.” She laughs at this and then shakes her head. “But you know, Sonia, I did that because I listened to my father. When you are young and you are in love, you only see it from that angle, love. But when your family is looking too, then they make sure to see all the angles that you don’t think of.” Being left-handed, she often gestures somewhere in the air when she says “all the angles.” She then dumps the vegetables into the big pot heating on the stove, which is usually preparing some sort of soup. Soup is my mother’s favorite food.

My mother loves to cook. So does my dad. Every night, the two of them cook up a storm, even if they have leftovers from the night before. “For variety,” my mother always says to me whenever I tell her not to cook. “Even if I am old, I don’t want to be eating the same thing over and over again.” My parents relate to each other their events of the day while they cook, and in between their discussion, my mother telephones my grandmother so the two of them can have their gossip session for the day. My mother has a loud voice, and because she has to compete with the fans over the stove during cooking time, it becomes even louder during these phone conversations. The only words I can actually ever decipher are “Oh oh,” which she says with a Filipino accent multiple times during the conversation, I suppose to encourage the proceeding of my grandmother’s narration. After she gets off the phone with my grandmother, my mother will invariably gossip to my father, in English, the entire conversation she has just had. My father will listen intently, setting out the plates and silverware because it is too painful for my mother to reach for these things herself, while asking questions at the right places.

Although my mother complains that my father had it so easy coming to America from India because she had a green card, and even though she and my father always get into at least one kind of argument every day, she can’t deny that the two of them are best friends. They cook together. They eat together. They gossip together. They had five children together. Still, my mother is a critic. She likes to live in the past, detailing how she did this and that for my father when they were newlyweds living on top of a laundromat on University Avenue in Berkeley. “Why are you complaining?” I always ask her whenever she goes off into a rant. “That was then. Look who’s doing all the work now.” The last time we had this conversation, my mother and I were walking alongside the Berkeley Marina. She was using two different canes to help propel her mobility and looked like a cross-country skier in the middle of a snowstorm, especially because she was bundled up in her light green fleece jacket from the Northface outlet and was wearing a muffler and a beanie. Indeed, she was wearing all of the notable articles of clothing except for mittens, but that’s only because her fingers were too swollen to put them on. When I alluded to my father’s workaholic tendencies, my mother laughed at me and then shook her head. Speaking into her muffler, she said, “You are always defending your daddy.” Her voice would have sounded muffled, but because it is so loud anyway, I was able to hear her clearly. She then continued, at her snail’s pace, to walk alongside the Berkeley Marina, because she knows it is good for her to practice walking and she likes to smell the ocean air.

My mother is the most independent and dependent person I know, always reminding my siblings and me of how she came to this country by herself and did this and that for my father. But then she contradicts her self-assertion when she reminds us that our grandfather planned everything for her. And now, with her arthritis and lupus, her disabilities are influencing her pride. So at the same time she complains about everything she had to go through, she admits all that my father is doing for her. She often accompanies him on his business trips, the two of them hitting two birds with one stone by combining work and vacation. My father likes to brag that every time my mother wears a sari to one of these conference dinners, all eyes are on her. And my mother, Bebot, does nothing to deny this. Instead, she just cocks her head, turns her specially constructed nose toward me, and says, “I am still beautiful,” her dark brown eyes doe-like, shaking her shoulders to remind us of her femininity. The she laughs and shakes her head.