Hip-hop/rap for me is not about the fashion element or the graffiti element. In fact these things are quiet alien to me. The fashion and even the dancing really doesn't represent hip-hop to me. To think of these as active culture elements seems rather foreign. For me, hip-hop is about samples, beats and rhymes. Nothing more and nothing less.

My copy of Write Your Own Fantasy Games on Your Microcomputer arrived today fresh from eBay/Australia. In terms of its pluralism, it's a classic. Good afternoon.

Ironically as I wrote this log entry, I got a ''messenge'' from Brian C. Wiles. It turns out the DVD edition of the Pirates of Silicon Valley is released on Tuesday. I have met two of the folks represented in the Pirates film. I have good word that the remaining participants have body odor problems. Some other insider knowledge, John Draper can't roll a cigarette no matter what he substitutes for tobacco.

The interesting thing about the Pirates movie is that it typifies my childhood of idealised exported culture. The reality is very different and knowing just half the stories from the actual sources - because their lives are the stories - give you a sense of the export of false (perhaps romantic) culture.

Prior to Brian's interaction I was thinking about Malaysian bohsia culture coming from just taking certain aspects of American films and making a culture out of it.

Another mailout out this month. Already one error - Pedro is 20. Good night.

A number of small musings this evening.

I found an entry on the front of Black Tree Design's site that indicated they were looking for historical figure sculptors. I emailed Kirill. It would be great if he could get some mainstream sculpting out there. BTD does volume.

I've often wondered about PG-13 films. In general, I can't watch them - reality just doesn't exist at a PG-13 level. I was reading through Jason Della Rocca's weblog and I found Media Family's KidScore. It seems like parental raters don't like PG-13 films either.

The Iraqi constitution - the draft at least - specifically bans the Baath party. Such a document should be timeless. It would be like the American constitution banning the British. The importance of things for politicians vs people.

Charlie and I went for a long walk and discovered a cat that lived in a wall. From that time, Charlie has taken to hiding in small spaces in the apartment.

New Noble Ape developer, Pedro, has just returned from Taize. He was in the church when ''Brother Roger'' was murdered.

I went through the ApeScript code with Pedro late this afternoon via Messenger. Feel free to subscribe me to your messenger service - barbalet at hotmail dot com.

I picked up a copy of Dungeon Siege about three months ago. I have finally installed it. Very calming and addictive.

This month's White Dwarf is rubbish. No battle reviews. A Howling Griffon article that doesn't mention Fred Reed - for shame. And a joke letter about old orcs actually painted by the author. I represent!

Good night.

The usual warnings apply about the language content of Loe Pesci tracks. Please do not download if you are easily offended.

Seriously WeFunk

I remember last year when WeFunk played Memphis, there was a review online from a Memphis listener who went to the show expecting to see a particular image of the WeFunk crew - possibly iced out with plenty of fur. Possibly pimp suits? Professor Groove and I speculated at the time about what they thought they were going to see. The review described them as ''high school teen comedy nerds''. Unfortunately, the review has been pulled offline.

I've never met Static or Groove. Long time correspondent, but I found this online today;

http://www.lpmusic.org/mang_Wefunk.html

It begged for some high school photograph-ising. Clearly members of the AV club...

As a fellow nerd photographic suffer, you have to authorise all photos that go online. For example, this is what I'm wearing whilst writing this log. I never go anywhere in the house without my Poohs or the Orc's Nest t'.

Good afternoon.

I was going though old CDs last night. Through my travels I seem to be missing a good number of my CDs. But the important ones remain. Through the CD cases I found my first CD Isle of the Apes, circa 1997, and recorded exclusively in the Shed. A couple of the tracks caught my attention. It seemed appropriate not just to include Loe Pesci tracks in the Log but also old Barbalet tracks.

The first track, Genetics (5 Mb MP3), was a favourite of Australian radio (it was played twice, to my knowledge). The second track also features substantial polymorphic post processing. This was something I always wanted to move from the post processing regime into a real-time effect. Modern computers are just fast enough.

In any case the second track, the Originator (4 Mb MP3), is a combination of Canberra producer MC Turing's ''in the Contrary Room'', my freestyle polymorphic keys, a little Barbalet comedy choral work and some scratching. It would be a great project to make video clips for both tracks. Without access to Canberra, I suspect any video creation wouldn't capture the original element. Although something has to be said to a new visual interpretation.

Something that shocked me, in a strange familiar way, was that iTunes recognised the CD. Apple has two copies on file from 1997. But for some reason all the tracks were +1 up, so the naming was totally useless. Someone keyed in the names but didn't listen to the CD. It is obvious the Genetics track is called Genetics. All the tracks were listed in the Unclassifiable genre. So I must have been doing something right.

Good afternoon.

I got a message from my man, Loe Pesci. Barbalet's Log appears to be the place online for the latest Loe Pesci tracks. Thanks to Loes for another release.

Loe Pesci - Loes on the 9th Wonder

Quite a laid back circa 1970s element. As with all Loes tracks, this one contains a number of expletives. Don't download if you easily offended.

Digital Beating Monkey Hearts

New over the past three days has been working on the heart beat implementation of the Noble Ape Simulation. It's an interest and somewhat implicit graphic a heart beat monitor. And yet surprisingly difficult to do well. I have tried shifting the pace. If it doesn't beat at about 10-12 bpm then it doesn't look plausible (even though this is roughly 1/5th the real speed).

Here's the particular difficulty - the Noble Ape Simulation's smallest time step is one minute. A minute of real time equals about a day of Simulation time. So in a minute of real time where you would expect to see 50-70 bpm, you should see 50*60*24 = 72,000 beats.

Returning to the plausible beat speed, working at 10-12 beats per minute, in stages of extreme stress you might want to see the beat rate move to about 15-17 beats per minute - to look plausible.

This is an ongoing project. More from me on this in the near future.

Malek's Philosophy

For the past month or so, I have been receiving long emails from my man, Malek Qtaish. Through life I have found myself picking the road less traveled. Particularly the issues of science vs religion.

His emails regularly construct the paradoxes that thought brings about. His English is solid and without punctuation, but that adds to the philosophical nature of it. I suspect I should attempt to write a Malek inspired Log entry.

Transition vs Revolution

I have imported all my WeFunk shows onto my wife's Windows machine. I have been looking for a particular interchange and was trying to remember the show;

http://www.wefunkradio.com/show/2002-12-13

ghostface killah - motherless child
encore - it's time

Similar to;

http://www.wefunkradio.com/show/2001-02-02

ohio players - funky worm
method man - p.l.o. style (remix)

The Encore track reminds me of recording the BBC Radio 4 interview. I have always felt Noble Ape was about me vs the world in some quite profound sense. It seems strange, but I have a comradeship with Dave Kerr for similar reasons. I think developers of ALife, developers of ALife in our mid-late 20s, were really the second generation of ALife and developed in remote locations over the world. In fact finding Dave Kerr was a great experience. You always want to find someone who has lived similar experiences.

Now Noble Ape has a mentoring role for a new generation of ALifers and long suffering Mac developers.

Good night.