Mikael Fernstrom

>I just read on Aftonbaldet’s web site that Totta Näslund passed away. I’m sad. Totta was one of the best bluesmen I’ve ever known. I got to know him in the mid-70’s when he was with Nationalteatern. I worked at AVAB. When the Tent Project (Tältprojektetet) started, Totta was one of the anchors. We, at AVAB, built all the equipment, but also discussed the political and ideological grounds for the narrative. Later, when the Tent Project was over, I had left AVAB and running my own company (working together with Musik Utan Gränser), Totta, Bernt and Nicke (now Totta’s Blues Band) often called in to our shitty lab in Gothenburg city.
One particular occasion I remember is a wintry day. Tottta had bought a new Davy Crocket hat. When he walked into our lab (a.k.a. Gruvan [the Mine]), our St Bernard “Bastian” went apeshit. It was the fecking hat! Also, around the same time, Bernt’s Hammond B3 motor failed. We ordered a replacement, but it was for 60 Hz, not 50. So, overnight, I designed an inverter that took 50 Hz mains and converted into 60 Hz. As we didn’t have the parts to make it spot-on 50, we decided to cut a hole in the left-hand panel of the Hammond organ to fit – a pitch-wheel! So, after that Bernt’s B3 was probably the first (perhaps only) B3 to have a pitch wheel.
I’ve been listening to my Totta’s Blues Band tracks on my iPod tonight.
Peter Sikström, Bruce, Roger, Kent Flood, and many others, if you happen to read this, you should comment!
The blues goes on.

>After rebooting our exhibit in the City Gallery a few times, I have decided NEVER to use Microsoft Windows again for a public installation. Despite the fact that it’s running on a fine little machine (Shuttle), and works fine on any Mac OSX, on Windows XP you get all kinds of trouble. In my case you’re talking about a pretty normal multimedia file (Flash), about 230 Meg. EVen when everything seems to be running smooth, suddenly the evil Microsoft stuff pops up a dialogue that perhaps we need a Windows Update! No, no and no again.
So, from now on, if we’re putting up machines in public installations, it should be Linux or OSX.
Goodbye Mr Gates. May you rot in reboot hell.

>
Sean and I (softday) installed our inflatable pool in the (Limerick City Gallery. The exhibition opens on Thursday… We had a great day out, as always, immersed in creative thoughts and action (pumping, inflating the bloody pool!).

>
This evening we had our home-grown artichokes for dinner. Wow. I love artichokes and normally buy them either (semi) fresh or canned. But I have never tasted artichokes this good, cooked 10 minutes after harvest.
So now you know that artichokes can be successfully grown in Ireland!

>I hate it. And love it.This evening, in so called semi-finals, I loved Moldovia. Slightly ethnic, good stage show, interesting music with contemporary flavour. In all the acts the scenography (the set) was great. Well down to Ukraine.
My main worry is that the backing appears to nowadays be backing tracks, not a live real orchestra, which results in lack of real live performance emotion. Why?
[well I can think of a number of reasons why, but it’s kind of counterproductive]

>Wow. Quite a difference, from one Sunday to another. Last week, it was all score, this week, all blues and rock. The Olde Band got together and we palyed the Globe, or rather, Thermights. Small audience, but if word spreads and we agree to another gig it could be a good venue.

>It’s finished. Done. Broadcast. Last night, TXTULTR was performed and broadcast, via air and the web.
Thanks to the staff of Lyric fm, the audience (on site and radio listeners), friends, neighbours and Mona.

>We had a good weekend. Lau visited, she gave a great talk.
The rain was gone. Temporarilly.
I spent the morning in the Limerick City Gallery . Good meeting and great potential.
In the afternoon, I started some serious hacking to get my head around some tricks with OSX and xcode. Good progress, and txtultr should be OK. My code can talk to pd.
I think I need days like this. A few hours in the arts community, then a serious appreciation of maths and hacks. Life is great.

>I’ve been evaluating devices that allow me to carry my music around with me. I’ve been using the iPod for a couple of years now. I’ve listened to other people’s MP3 devices (crap). But, I have to write this, the Apple iPodshuffle is far better than anything I’ve heard! It’s amazing in this day and age, that somewhere (either in algorithms or electronics) there can be such a substantial difference in sound quality. What have they done? I don’t know, but, for example, listening to some Clapton tracks today on the iShuffle, I could even hear a conversation in the back during the recording! I have the same data on my iPod, but on that one it cannot be heard. Same thing if I take the original CD and play it in any of the Hi-Fi systems around the house – you can’t hear it. Most amazing though was, that when I was out walking my dog (as usual…), the iShuffle picked a track from my Final Year Project in 1975 (Radiata Mortificata, third movement). It sounded EXACTLY the way I remember it from mixing the master – reel-to-reel, tape 30 years ago. Apple! – you’re on to something good here 😉

[Steve Jobs, if you read this, we’re open for consultancy! I’d love to do a hack that contributes to Apple’s mission]

>Well, I strongly disagree with this concept. OTH, I’m very happy to have received a new Palm Pilot T5 and an Apple iShuffle yesterday. To me, they are not toys. They are both tools for work and objects for research. I’ll have to recompile my Palm OS code and see if my sound models run better and faster on the new CPU. With the iShuffle, it’s both data storage and handling music. It’s quite interesting to think about what you can do with such a minimal user interface – that has no visual display at all!.