Notebook / Archives / January 2004

« Parution simultanée de deux ouvrages de Pierre Lévy, « penseur » du cyberespace, exilé lui aussi de France au Québec.
Voici ce que cet histrion de la world philosophy nous inflige, dans un ouvrage pondu à deux, lui et sa femme (c'est la grande époque de la littérature en couple, autant dire de son annihilation), et qui ne trouve sa vraie place qu'au rayon mysticisme new-age de la première librairie astrologique venue : « La pensée nous amène à souffrir. Elle nous entraîne dans l'avidité, l'agression, la peur, l'espoir, l'illusion. Si nous nous contentions de sentir (c'est moi qui souligne), nous éviterions tout naturellement la souffrance. »
Nous contenter de sentir. Arrêter la pensée. Supprimer la souffrance. »

Si vous possédez l'édition nrf, vous êtes en bas de la page, un filet de bave coule délicatement mais néanmoins dangereusement vers votre livre préféré (oui, je suis maniaque, d'ailleurs je ne suis pas fier de moi car j'ai bavé dans la semaine sur mon Babylon Babies, mais c'est une autre histoire)... la souffrance en bas de page, ça met en appétit. Reprenons :

« Le programme est clair, il l'a toujours été : bouffez végétarien, faites de la méditation, développez votre « potentiel personnel ». Achetez mes cassettes.
Voici donc ce que le cyber-universitaire de la première (dé)génération postsoixantuitarde fait de deux mille cinq cents ans d'esprit critique occidental, devenu depuis un certain temps déjà la cible privilégiée de tout ce que l'Occident lui-même peut produire de nihilismes (autant dire une industrie). Il n'est pas le seul de son espèce à cracher ainsi dans la main qui l'a généreusement nourri. Même les plus féconds d'entre les penseurs sont désormais tentés d'imiter cette pathétique parodie de révolte œdipienne.
La régression new-age n'a pas toujours la naïveté d'affirmer haut et clair un tel programme, l'anéantissement de la pensée est parfois habilement camouflé par quelque jargon pompeux ou posture de rébellion. Pierre Lévy a le mérite d'exposer sa non-pensée sans le moindre artifice, et avec l'aplomb qui caractérise l'idiot terminal : world philosophy (on croirait à s'y méprendre la dernière campagne de pub Benetton ou de l'Unesco, ou le dernier disque de Sting), néopaganisme solaire, astrologie du feu, humanitarisme pseudo-bouddhiste et adaptation (post)moderne du christianisme noosphérique de Teilhard de Chardin, bref un effondrement général de la pensée qui, bien sûr, vise à s'ériger comme finalité téléologique du « phénomène humain », et nous conduit automatiquement au fou rire. »

Maurice G. Dantec, Laboratoire de catastrophe générale – Le théâtre des opérations, Journal métaphysique et polémique, 2000-2001
[pages 107-108, Éditions Gallimard (2001)]

« « Par jeu conjugué de deux courbures, toutes deux de nature cosmique, – l'une physique (rondeur de la Terre), et l'autre psychique (l'attraction du Réfléchi sur lui-même) –, l'Humanité se trouve prise, ainsi qu'en un engrenage, au coeur du “ vortex ” toujours accéléré de totalisation sur elle-même ».
Voilà le fait brutal.
Essayons de comprendre. »

Père Teilhard de Chardin, La place de l'homme dans la nature – Le groupe zoologique humain
[page 216, Éditions Albin Michel (1956), collection Espaces libres (1996)]

Moi ce qui me fait délirer, c'est que cela ressemble presque à du Dantec, en plus pompeux (non, sérieux, Dantec est quand même bien plus métallique du tranchant... je rigolais), mais que Dantec ne peut apparemment pas saquer Teilhard (ni Werber comme je l'ai déjà mentionné), ou alors je saisis mal les allusions, ce qui est possible.
Mais ne vous y trompez pas, La place de l'homme dans la nature est un bon livre, évoquant le développement de la pensée globale avec une visée scientifique ; ce n'est que dans les dernières pages qu'il part un peu en vrille vers des aspects plus religieux. Une mention spéciale à la présentation de Jean Onimus indispensable pour comprendre le contexte de publication d'un ouvrage scientifique tel que celui-ci (notamment pour un père jésuite en légère rupture avec sa hiérarchie terrestre).

Yet Another Social Network Service: Yet Another Way of Laughing.

(On Omar Shahine's WebLog: Bill Gates on Orkut.. well not really, via Erik's Weblog – The Truth is Out There: TGI Atkins [@430].)

« Il était en train de laisser un pourboire en pièces de vingt-cinq cents lorsqu'une voix féminine l'apostropha :
– Salut, tu viens-tu souvent par ici ?
Il reconnut l'accent et la grammaire locale.
Il se retourna, offrit le meilleur sourire de bienvenue qu'il avait en magasin et mentit effrontément.
– Oui, c'est mon bar préféré dans le coin. »

Maurice G. Dantec, Babylon Babies
[page 191, Éditions Gallimard (1999), collection folio SF (2001)]

Statement of Audience
I realize that nothing I say matters to anyone else on the entire planet. My opinions are useless and unfocused. I am an expert in nothing. I know nothing. I am confused about almost everything. I cannot, as an individual, ever possibly know everything, or even enough to make editorial commentary on the vast vast majority of things that exist in my world. This is a stupid document; it is meaningless drivel that I do not expect any of the several billion people on my planet to actually read. People who do read my rambling, incoherent dumbfuckery are probably just as confused as I am, if not moreso, as they are looking to my sorry ass for an opinion when they should be outside playing Frisbee with their dog or screwing their life partner or getting a dog or getting a life partner. Anyone who actually takes the time to read my bullshit probably deserves to ingest my fucked up and obviously mistaken opinions on whatever it is that I have written about.

Signed: Jean-Philippe

(Via Stefano's Linotype – Typesetting some of Stefano Mazzocchi's random thoughts: Statement of Audience.)

Comme cela avait été fait pour Muscle Museum à son époque, un coffret regroupant tous les singles/MAXI de l'album Origin of Symmetry va sortir (oui, cette fois pour de vrai, après plus d'un an d'attente!) ; date de l'impact : 27 janvier 2004... Dans la foulée, le premier coffret est réédité ; encore une bonne occasion pour compléter sa collection du groupe le plus Rachmaninovien à l'Ouest de Vladivostok. Ou de vider son compte en banque, selon le point de vue. Ces coffrets vallent entre 45€ et 50€ pour 9 MAXIs, ce qui fait 5€ le MAXI, soit environ 1 MAXI gratuit dans l'affaire. Les sites de vente en ligne comme fnac.com ou amazon.fr ne sont pas encore surs (coffrets toujours annoncés indisponibles), la faute à cette année d'attente. La meilleure solution pour les acquérir semble encore d'aller en magasin.
Le premier coffret était vraiment très très bon, contenant quelques performances live (acoustiques) mais surtout de nouvelles chansons, souvent très intéressantes par leur aspect alternatif. J'espère que la qualité sera au rendez-vous pour ce nouvel opus.

(Via Muscle Muse qui a couvert les retards de cette annonce depuis de nombreux mois.)

Le calendrier #echoes 04 est arrivé dans les bacs! (via contingences – ex-cramoisi.net : Temporalité).
La croix est mortifère.

Yeah! that's a good idea.
When I will have re-installed all my music software and plugged mics and MIDI cables, I might try to do some musical patterns blogging: read, watch and hear the creative process step after step.
At the end, is this *really* a so good idea?...

Last year, when talking drums with Emmanuel, I said him I did some percussions in my childhood and that with time I discovered in me small aptitudes to write scores for percussions. As a small example, I released a remix (well, a sort of “proof of concepts” lol) of SouvImage Part 6: And into Paradise....
The MP3 file is very big (11.7 Mo for 5:07 min – 320 kbps, stereo, 44.1kHz). The mix was done with Digital Sound Planet's Quartz AudioMaster Freeware (it was my first try with this tools). I am so sorry for the crappy sound when there are too many instruments (grand piano wide range chords). :-(
As I said before, I will make new versions on these songs and all will be remixed (and many parts also rescored). Same story for the name of the song, the scoring, strange chords and instruments: I will explain all of that later.
Keep watching!

Tom Cruise (« qu'il est beau, qu'il est beau! ») + Edward Zwick (souvenez-vous, Légendes d'Automne, avec « qu'il est beau, qu'il est beau! » Brad Pitt) + Hans Zimmer (à la musique) = Le Dernier Samouraï.
Un ch'tit résumé ici.

Guys from musicplasma developped a graph engine to display musical links between bands; you can also navigate through them and hear edits of songs. I think all is developped on the AWS SDK (Amazon Web Services Software Development Kit).

Nevertheless, you can compare with my previous entry and see that many side projects are missing, the fault to the Amazon database (I think) which is not absolutely complete.
However it's a cool tools to discover new bands easily!

(Via apophenia – making connections where none previously existed: beautiful music visualizations)

As all of you know, I am a big fan of Evanescence, not because they are “in the move” but because of their originality (ah... yes, and I was happy to read here someone linking Evanescence to Enya, whose music was introduced to me by my brother, but that's another story). Undoubtly it could change very fast: after their first album, Fallen, I need more, and... *further* (the classical side would be cool).
Indeed all is not going in the good way: in late october, Ben Moody left the band; Ben was Evanescence's co-founder (composer and lead guitarist) with Amy Lee (composer, vocals and piano). Well, Ben (aka “the void”) is not the best guitarist in the world, but it seems to be a very good composer, I mean someone able to glue many influences in songs. A love affair could have been the origin of this departure: there is a rumor about a persistent love relationship (frozen or not...) between Ben and Amy (unfounded?). Ben might not have accepted the new relationship between Amy and Shaun Morgan from Seether (well, I doubt that this guy is the best choice), band which toured with Evanescence (more here, here and here, the second link from Metal Underground . com saying that Amy could sing on next Seether's album, the third talking again of the rumor between Ben and Amy).
In mid november, at the 2003 American Music Awards, Evanescence made their first appearance without Ben, being replaced by Cold's guitarist Terry Balsamo (at the beginning of this affair John LeCompt, the second guitarist, was handling front guitar):
Evanescence gave their first American performance since founding member and guitarist Ben Moody unexpectedly took leave from the group during its recent European tour (...). Dressed in a colorful poodle skirt, black tank top and sporting flower-shaped tattoos on her forehead and neck, singer Amy Lee led the band through a powerful rendition of "Going Under." During the pre-show, when asked what super power she'd like to have, Lee joked about wanting Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth because, she said pointedly, she just wants "people to be honest."
You can find photos of Evanescence performing at this ceremony here, on the wonderful Evanescence: Fallen Creatures website.
Evanescence and Cold met on stage but feelings may not be at the top between the two bands (at least between Amy and Scooter, the Cold's singer).
Nevertheless, after having postponed many shows cos of the brutal departure of Ben, the new line-up-ed band seems to be going... on.
On Moody's side, the news are even more surprizing: according to mtv.com, he “volunteered his talents” to Avril Lavigne's staff. He joinded the team of songwriters for her second album, and he might touring with her... or not, according to Yahoo's Launch:
Meanwhile, former guitarist Ben Moody is reportedly working with Avril Lavigne "on a track or two" for Avril's upcoming album, according to a posting on the Avril fan site, Avrilbandaids.com. Unconfirmed reports suggest Moody may also join Avril's touring band.
On Amy's side, Wes Borland (ex-Limp Bizkit) could write songs for Evanescence:
Borland said he is also in talks with Evanescence about producing some tracks for their next LP. "I would like to give it some of that old-world vibe so it sounds like a band of gypsies," Borland said. "I want to give more depth and richness to the guitars, but at the same time make them not as processed and more organic."

If you have time, watch the wonderful video clip of My Immortal, filmed in the gothic quarter of Barcelona, Spain. You can also take a look at the making-of (Behin the Scenes).

For more informations, see [exodus]Evanescence or evanescence.info.

Notre société crée des gens qui ne savent plus lire.
Notre société crée des gens qui ne savent plus écrire.
Je ne sais plus lire.
Je ne sais plus écrire.
Y'a trop de gens.
Je suis sûrement du surnombre.

Maybe the best: TWiki.
I think I will install this one on this website to be able to develop some points a bit further.
Here is an example of a wiki about Movable Type (via Virtual Venus in MT Wiki): really beautiful... and useful!

For those of you who know me for a long time, you know that music has always had a big place in my creative works (until 1998...). Now, with less time, it remains my principal “cultural” activity. I spent many years in a city-wide music conservatory, studying solfege, rythm (I played percussions, xylophon and metalophon). After a few years, I started learning flute, and some years after, recorder. I only regret that I did not spend enough time developping my musical knowledge and doing exercices (and learning piano – I own however a YAMAHA PSR-410 electronic keyboard very useful to compose – or guitar). But I loved composing music in my spare time, that was very entertaining moments.
At this time I met many cool people who are now very good friends (for those I still see): Pierre-Jean who played (and still plays) guitar and composed (and still composes) music (and his brother Mathias who played violin, and who plays drums now), Mélanie who played piano and flute, Nathalie who played piano and cello (and who was singing with Oriane), Stéphane who played piano and composed (and who went to university to study musicology). I mainly composed music with Pierre-Jean, but we tried to do something with Stéphane. Pierre-Jean and I wrote a little title for two flutes and guitar which was interpreted by him, me and Mélanie (and played for an examination in 1996 in a very extended version by me and Pierre-Jean), Pierre-Jean who founded a band where Nathalie (and Oriane) sung, and where his brother played; well, I have now problems to watch all Pierre-Jean's musical activities...
As I said in a previous entry, I plan to record these creative works. There are SouvImage (15 minutes long, but there are two versions, cos I lost a big part of the songs after a disk crash, so I rewrote many parts of these creations, which sound quite different), a small musical background music project for a game, and some experiments for another dead project: Light versus Shadow. I will remix and record these scores as they sound at this time, with my old soundcards. There are very poorly composed scores, but I love them, there were my first notes put on a sheet. However we plan to go to studio with Pierre-Jean to record with real instruments the extended version of SouvImage: Part 1 (the original extended acoustic version with acoustic guitar, recorder and flute), and maybe another new metal version. ;-)
That conducts me to another point. When I was learning music, I listened only to Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, and Starinc (the “Synthetizer Greatest” series). I started listening to Queen in 1993, who was my very first real experience with rock. I worked for the 1996 baccalauréat listening to Dream Theater's A Change Of Seasons and The Prodigy's The fat of the land (including the insane and psycho track Breathe), but they were exceptions to my glam rock period.
Undoubtedly my musical influences are now so large that all I could actually write will be very different from what I wrote in these past times. And we have now new incredible tools like digi-sequencer software which we can write very impressive title at home with. Yes, I will restart to play flute and recorder, these are my primary front/lead instruments, but I want also to learn bass-guitar (I love YAMAHA's bass guitars, and take a look at YAMAHA's new MagicStomp muti-effets) to play and write metal music. I will see what it will produce. Maybe it could be very crapy, but it might be the start for some strange experiment.

Well, but that wasn't my purpose. I wanted to talk here about what I listened to this year! The major change/opportunity came from the buying of a DENON Micro Component System (D-M50 system with a DRR-M30 cassette deck). This system do nothing but the sound, only the sound. Tha's why we must buy audio system, isn't it?
I will start this list by the sequel of my likes.

I love motion picture soundtracks (well, scores in fact – good website here and very good here): John Williams naturally (take a look at this excellent website: John Williams Fan Network), but Elliot Goldenthal and Danny Elfman too (those two last being far darker), the poetic Joe Hisaishi, Howard Shore, Michael Kamen (passed away last year), Hans Zimmer, James Horner, Ennio Morricone, etc. I am trying to get as many John Williams soundtracks as I can, but sometimes I give other maestros their chance... This year:

• Midway (1976) – Original motion picture score. Music composed by John Williams, music conducted by Rick Wentworth, performed by The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (1998, Varèse Sarabande Film Classics)


• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – The 20^th Anniversary (1982/2002) – Original motion picture soundtrack. Music composed and conducted by John Williams (2002, MCA Records)


• The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973) – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Music Composed and conducted by John Williams, music from the unused score composed by Michel Legrand (2002, Film Score Silver Age Classics) [This pressing is limited to 3,000 copies]


• The Fury (1978) – The Deluxe Edition (2CD). Music composed and conducted by John Williams, performed by The London Symphony Orchestra (2002, Varèse Sarabande) [Limited Collector's Edition of 3000 copies]


• Home Alone 2 – Lost In New York (1992) – The Deluxe Edition (2CD). Music composed and conducted by John Williams (2002, Varèse Sarabande) [Limited Collector's Edition of 3000 copies]


• The Indiana Jones Trilogy (1981, 1984, 1989). Music composed by John Williams, The City of Prague Philharmonie Orchestra & Chorus conducted by Nic Raine (2002, Silva Screen Records)


• Minority Report (2002) – Original motion picture score. Music composed and conducted by John Williams (2002, DreamWorks Records);


• Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets (2002) – Music from and inspired by the motion picture. Music composed by John Williams, music adapted and conducted by William Ross, performed by The London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices (2002, Warner Sunset / Atlantic Records) [with limited edition CD-ROM]


• Catch me if you can (2002) – Music from the motion picture. Music composed and conducted by John Williams (2002, DreamWorks Records)


• The Batman Trilogy – Batman (Danny Elfman) . Batman Returns (Danny Elfman) . Batman Forever (Elliot Goldenthal). Music conducted by Joel McNeely, performed by The Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus (1997, Varèse Sarabande Records)


• Ennio Morricone – Film Music – Music for Piano – Chamber Music – Symphonic Music (2002, Milan Music) [4 CD BOX + 28 Pages Booklet]

Classical interlude. I bought «à la Fnac», mainly by Deutsche Grammophon or Decca Classics: Schuman – Piano Works interpreted by Wilhelm Kempf, Orf's Carmina Burana (Eugen Jochum), Mozart's Musique Maçonnique (István Kertész), Mozart's Requiem (Hervert bon Karajan), Haydn's Messe de Sainte Cecile (Jochum) with Mozart's Messe "Du couronnement" (Fricsay), Mozart's Grande Messe en ut mineur (Fricsay). All come from Deutsche Gramophon, except Mozart's Musique Maçonnique from Decca, but in the «100 classiques» collection where you can find title from Deutsche Grammophon (globalization: these two brands are owned by Universal Classics). Yes, I try to go on with my classical musical knowledge... I have to learn, a lot.

After that, I will do a little travel through France. I listen less and less to french music. Only one reason: french music is in a very bad creative state (we have hopefully bands like Matmatah). That's all. I buy a bit of music from french artists, but I do not listen to them very often, and sometimes it's more to ask me: what are them becoming? Among them we find Pascal Obispo: my father (and the rest of my familly, but he found the disc) offered me the live 98 (1998) for my last birthday; but Obispo is beginning to write always the same thing, so I am a bit afraid of what will come with the next double album... and the lyrics are going dumb and dumber. But the new comer is here: Calogero, a friend of Obispo. After his latest album (see this entry), I bought his first one, Au milieu des autres (2000). I like this guy and he his a bass player, so we can hear songs with good (melodic) bass lines.
In the set of those who are beginning to be less productive, we find Yann Tiersen. His last live performance, C'était ici (2002, édition limitée) was good, but his last creative work, 3 titres inédits au profit de la FIDH (2003) is really cheap, but really bad too (what the hell did he put this noisy electric guitar?).

I think it was the previous year, but I continue to buy Queen's discography and solo projects. The latest purchases were Live at Wembley'86 (1992) and Live magic (1986). I was really very impressed by The Queen Symphony (2002) composed and conducted by Tolga Kashif, performed by The Royal Philarmonic Orchestra (London): this is not a classical interpretation of Queen's music, it's really a symphony built upon Queen's most known musical themes and patterns; I love the dark part in the first movement (Adagio misterioso – Allegro con brio – Maestoso – Misterioso – Allegro). Many people do not know that in the beginning, there was three singers in Queen: Freddy Mercury, Roger Taylor and Brian May. And I appreciate Roger Taylor's rock voice. I had all solo album from this guy, but not the second: Strange Frontier (1984, digital remaster 1996). I got it! Some people said Taylor is the new John Lennon, so it's sad he is not “in the move”: he is a complete instruments player (drums and percussions, guitar, bass guitar, keyboard) and his lyrics are very engaged.

Pierre-Jean, you can say I continue to listen to « rock à minettes », but yes, I bought two new albums from Bon Jovi. And no, Bon Jovi is not only for girls. They are far from their Hair-Metal period, but you can laugh at me on they Arena-Rock style, still present. It's good Pop-Metal with a bluesy side, sometimes sentimental, sure, but sometimes funny (Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen from Mars on the album Crush). So I bought Bounce (2002) with the very powerfull Undivided (post-september 11, 2001) and the semi-acoustic This left feels right (2003) with an incredible acoustic performance on the DVD in the limited edition: Richie Sambora is really a guitar player with an impressive feeling! I love also the new acoustic version of It's my life.

To make a link with the past, I bought In time 1988 - 2003 – The best of R.E.M. [special edition, with rarities and B-sides] (2003). I won't say anything, cos I listen to it only two times I think... But R.E.M. was (is?) a cool band.
For my birthday, my father found G – or Garbage (2003, re-release) from Garbage. I love this band, a brilliant Alternative-Dance/Pop-Rock formation, using an incredible sophistication in samples. I am really waiting their next album release.

What else? Brit-Pop. I am a big fan of britpop. Here in France we have almost nothing. And there, beyond the sea, they have britpop... How can it be possible? I got Hail to the Thief [Special edition] (2003) from Radiohead, always experimental... And Absolution [Limited Edition] (2003) from Muse, my favourite alternative pop-rock band in the world, or: when Rachmaninov music meets grunge rock; the DVD from the limited edition is, well, very strange, but it's a good place to watch how they have built this new album (it seems to have been very funny: for example the recording of the feet march at night, to create the Intro...).
I listen to Placebo for a moment in MP3, but never bought a CD (and I really do not like to listen to things I did not pay for, or only for boolegs or songs you can no more found). I got Sleeping With Ghosts [Special Edition] (2003) with “10 cover versions”: these covers are among the best performances from Placebo. I bought too the pack containing Placebo (1996) and Black Market Music (2000). I did not purchase Without you I'm nothing (1998) for the moment (my prefered album) wich contains the introductory song of the soundtrack from Sexe intentions (I love Les liaisons dangereuses du marquis de Sade).

This year I began to buy J-Pop in... Japan, starting with my favourite band, the french named L'Arc-en-Ciel. They released a best of in three parts (I talked about that story here): The Best of L'Arc-en-Ciel 1994-1998 (2003), The Best of L'Arc-en-Ciel 1998-2000 (2003), The Best of L'Arc-en-Ciel c/w (2003). Hyde is a unbelievable singer (and musician) and Testu an incredible bass player (bass players have nowadays very poor musical basis... so it's always a great pleasure to hear so melodic players). For the first two best-of, I was able to get the special edition with a DVD, so I had the opportunity to see the beautiful Hyde with a dress and compensated boots...

With the soundtracks from La Sirène Rouge, I discovered Rammstein (well, I knew them, having made eight years of german...). This industrial-metal band has lyrics (well, you are responsable of your interpretation of the meaning) and a powerful music. Moreover they are very strong to provide incredible live performances (see the gothic Live aus Berlin). I first purchased Mutter (2001), after Sehnsucht [Australian tour edition with Stripped from Depeche Mode and a bonus CD with one title from the first album and five live songs] (1997), and Herzeleid (1995). I love. that's all. Great music to code fast and be punchy all the day. So for the moment we have : France is dead, but U.K. and Germany have good performers... you will see later that Europe has other good creative bands.

But I really love ;-) Evanescence, with a first “debut” album Fallen (2003). Well. post-grunge, alternative-metal... okay. chamber-pop? yes, clear. goth-metal? sure. Songs formated for the radio. No need for radio-edit versions. But Evanescence, this is a voice and lyrics: Amy Lee.
I bought the first album and the two EP, Bring Me To Life and Going Under, waiting for the new ones (the two My Immortal EP) and the new album (but things have changed... more to come in another entry about the band).

I found in MP3: Evanescence EP (1998) (on the left), Whisper EP (1999) and Sound Asleep EP (1999), Origin (2000) (on the right) and all their first demos (Demos 1997-1998 and Demos 2001-2002). In fact this is not really a debut album as we can see...

Before finishing with what I am listening now, I will dive into the “Dream Theater galaxy”. I am becoming what we can called a die hard fan of DT... a Progressive-Metal band, but the more complexe Prog-Metal in the world... I began to buy the lives I didn't own: Live at the Marquee (1993), Once in a LIVEtime (1998) and the impressive three hours masterpiece Live Scenes From New-York (2001). After buying their latest album, Train of Thought (subtly Metallica inspired, whose shadow is flying over this dark album), I was CHOCKED (well, I was a bit prepared by their two precedent albums: Metropolis Part.2: Scenes From A Memory and Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence). Yes. Genius. WHO in the world can play THAT? John Petrucci is at his best, Mike «patator» Portnoy splashes his cymbals, John Myung pulses, James LaBrie modulates and Jordan Rudess... does his job (well, I prefer his perfomances on “sfam” and “6doit”), but what a job! This week I bought the EP from Scenes From A Memory, Through her eyes [Japan Import] (1999), known sometimes as Lives and remixes.

With Portnoy's side projects, I discovered Transatlantic, a progressive-rock band. I bought Live In Europe [Limited Edition – Double DVD & Double CD] (2003), a very cool show. You know, it sounds like a band of friends. I continuated with The Transatlantic Demos (2003) from Nearl Morse and Archive Series: SMPT:e As Mixed By Roine Stolt 1999 (2003) from Transatlantic. I got Neal Morse's Testimony [special edition, limited edition box set with a third CD] (2003) whose Portnoy did the drums. Another good choice was One Night in New York City by Yellow Matter Custard, a tribute band to the Beattles with Mike “Ringo” Portnoy and Neal Morse. I like Transatlantic, it's good ProgRock, and Neal Morse's demos are very cool to understand the creative process in this kind of bands (you know: it sounds like a “I take my digital recorder everywhere with me, who knows where the muses will talk to me?” And Mike Portnoy is a god. You will never hear drums the same way after seeing or listening to him. I was a big fan of Roger Taylor, a great rock drummer, but Portnoy is a god. The god of patators. He must have four feet and twelve hands... For the last album of Neal Morse: I listened to him only one time, and I think there wasn't enough good material for a triple album.

Portnoy also played drums on John Arch's A Twist of Fate (2003) but I listened to this mini album only one time... We have too Office of Strategic Influence [limited edition] (2003) by the supergroup OSI (with Mike Portnoy, always him, and the ex-Dream Theater Kevin Moore on keyboards and.... vocals). Pure Pink Floyd, a great flying moment.

If you love Dream Theater for their “how can they play that?” side, you will love the almost-DT band but supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment, with John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, Jordan Rudess and Tony Levin at Bass (very different style from Myung). There are two incredible-must-have-jazzy-rock albums: Liquid Tension Experiment (1998) and Liquid Tension Experiment 2 (1999).

On Jordan Rudess's side: the Rudess Morgenstein Project (1997) and Rudess Morgenstein Project – The Official Bootleg (?) by the Rudess/Morgentein Project. The keys of Dream Theater meets a great drummer. That's a bit for the big fans, but that is pleasant and virtuose music (the bootleg contains very cool live performances). I got also Listen (1993) and Feeding the Wheel (2001) but I did not have time to listen to these two discs.

For James LaBrie (on vocals), we have frameshift – unweaving the rainbow (2003) with lyrics based on ideas from the socio-biologist Richard Dawkins. And also his two solo projects, Mullmuzzler (1999) and Mullmuzzler 2 (2001) which show us again that he has got not only one the most complete metal voice, but a voice for all styles of music. Another must have is Leonardo – the absolute man – Original Cast Recording (2001), a ProgMetal opera about the life of Leonardo da Vinci from Trent Gardner (with his trombone lol... yes, metal music with a trombone)! Really A MUST HAVE, even for those who do not like metal (a kind of metal Tycoon, the english version of Starmania from Michel Berger). I love the duet This time, this way between Leonardo (James Labrie) and Mona Lisa (Lisa Bouchelle).

And I am now listening to Luca Turilli's King Of The Nordic Twilight (1999) and Prophet Of The Last Eclipse [Limited Edition] (2002), solo projects of the guitar player, composer and writer from Rhapsody (with Olaf Hayer to vocals). This guy is italian and live in France. When progressive-metal mixed with a bit of industrial metal (mainly speed/power metal) meets european classical musics crossed with fantasy metal! That is actually very impressive, maestro Turilli is a great artist, very complete. The melodic lines are entertwined e, you can hear big heavy metal guitars talking to pan flute, recorders, harpsichord, accordion, strings, brasses, etc. I am now a big fan of this kind of music mixing completely different instruments and styles. The limited edition of the second album comes with bonus tracks and a version of Demonheart sung by Andre Matos from Angra (and you know what: very cool!). Well, and this paragraph ends my rant about music in Europe: Italy produces good things!

That's ALL (I think). I listed only albums I own. I listen to other things (yep yep). I was also very short describing these albums, but I will make more complete and detailed reviews of them this year.

What can you expect from me this year? I will certainly continue to explore the Dream Theater galaxy (bootlegs, rarities, clinics and side projects). I plan to get all the album of L'Arc~En~Ciel, Rhapsody and Symphony X. I need to purchase the Japan albums from Muse (and I am waiting for the release of their second MAXI boxset).

And thanks to Russell Beattie, I discovered The Flaming Lisps, a very strange alternative/experimental-rock band; I will try to get a compilation and the two latest albums and some recent EP; take time to watch their website, it is very complete (discography for example), and you can listen to many tracks from the latest albums.

However I need to ingest all these influences, and it will take time. I have really many ideas, but you know; between what you think and what you can do, there is a gap... and music composition takes time...

The end of my musical digest, next time it will be about movies!

For my security needs on my personal computer, I use Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 6.0, with a licence (it comes in a security bundle from my bank in its Internet pack: Carte ou Formule BNP Net). But I am always searching new software for the other computers I have at home. Here are the free opportunities available:

• avast! 4 Home Edition (ALWIL Software);


• BitDefender Free Edition – french website here (SOFTWIN) – you can find other free AV products, like AV for instant messaging (ICQ, Yahoo!, MSNm), IRC (mIRC) and Netmeeting;


• AntiVir Personal Edition (H+BEDV Datentechnik GmbH) – well, I do not love the look and feel of this tools, but it seems to work well;

• HandyBits VirusScan Integrator – “Some antiviral programs are good for one type of viruses, other programs for other viruses. With VirusScan Integrator you multiply strengths of each antiviral program.”


• BigFix Consumer Edition (BigFix, Inc.).

« On peut donc réutiliser des matrices d'input-output économiques et les retraduire en termes d'énergie afin de mesurer la quantité totale d'énergie et de travail (sous forme de biens et de services) nécessaires pour atteindre un niveau de production donné. Ce qui a été réalisé par Bruce Hannon, de l'université de l'Illinois, en 1974.
Par exemple : pour produire 100 000 dollars d'aluminium de plus, il faut 9,5.10⁹ Kcal de plus et 5 personnes. Mais, pour produire la même valeur supplémentaire de tabac (industrie faible consommatrice d'énergie), il ne faut que 1,2.10⁹ Kcal et la création de 32 nouveaux emplois. En d'autres termes, un transfert de 100 000 dollars dans la demande finale de l'aluminium vers le tabac réduirait la consommation d'énergie de 33 % tout en créant 27 nouveaux emplois.
La construction d'autoroutes est un des plus gros consommateurs d'énergie, à cause de l'utilisation de l'asphalte dérivé du pétrole, et de l'emploi du ciment, dont la fabrication consomme de grande quantités d'énergie. Un programme de construction d'autoroutes de 5 milliards de dollars consomme 55,4.10¹² Kcal et fait travailler directement ou indirectement 256 000 personnes. La même somme investie dans la création d'un réseau de voies ferrées consommerait 20,1.10¹² Kcal et ferait travailler 264 000 personnes, soit un gain de 8 000 emplois sur le programme d'autoroutes. Enfin, la même somme dépensée dans un vaste programme de santé publique consommerait certes de l'énergie, mais permettrait la création de 423 000 emplois (167 000 de plus que le programme d'autoroutes et 159 000 de plus que le programme de réseaux de chemin de fer).
L'analyse énergétique contribuera de manière très positive à faciliter les choix des moyens les plus avantageux et les plus appropriés pour résoudre certains des problèmes posés par la crise de l'énergie, la crise de l'alimentation et la crise de l'environnement. Car elle permettra, par exemple, de répondre, chiffres à l'appui, à des questions de ce type : est-il plus coûteux de mettre en oeuvre de nouvelles sources d'énergie ou d'améliorer l'efficacité de la production d'aluminium ? »

Joël de Rosnay, Le macroscope – Vers une vision globale (1975)
[pages 174-175, Éditions du Seuil, collection Points Essais]

Voilà. Il ne reste plus qu'à développer l'industrie du tabac. L'emploi s'en portera mieux. Et puis cela fera effet boule de neige. Plus de malades, d'où besoin de développer de vastes programmes de santé publique. Tout ira pour le mieux!
Ce livre écrit quelques années après mai 68 et en pleine crise de l'énergie mondiale a un peu vieilli, c'est dommage. Outre le fait qu'il contient ici ou là quelques coquilles, on y trouve je pense ce que l'on peu considérer comme des erreurs scientifiques. Cela reste cependant un formidable livre d'introduction à la systémique.

Well, I was working, teaching, reading and creating a new website.
Can I introduce you to Jean-Philippe Leboeuf - recherches 1999-2004? This is my french website where you will be able to find pieces of my research activities. There are already documents, but I will put many others soon. Keep watching!

I was expecting it would be harder, but no: this is very easy and it worked at first sight!
Before processing to the migration, you can read good stories on elise.com: On the Job.
The first step is to find a good webhosting service; in France, price are too high, you are considered like a cow (you have to give the cash, that's all) and functionnalities are very poor: it's why I would advice you to take a look at foreign (US) hosting services, especially friendly for hosting Movable Type. DreamHost meets all the needs and goes far beyond ;-).
The next step is to make the backup. There are instructions on the precited weblog, but I am going to be more concise (this procedure is for a MySQL hosted MovableType):

1. backup your files with a FTP client (the best - and it is free - being SmartFTP);


2. backup your MT database (it will be easy to dump your database if your webhosting service provides phpMyAdmin; if not... I hope you have a shell access to use mysqldump; in the worse case, you will have to turn back to Movable Type own export function);


3. install Movable Type on your new host;


4. empty the newly created MT database from its data (keep the schema) – it will be easy to retrieve the Movable Type default templates here;


5. restore your old MT database into the new one (in fact, batch SQL INSERT new entries);


6. upload your additional files (images, files you used in entries, etc.);


7. login to Movable Type with your previous user and password;


8. change the absolute path to directories;


9. rebuilt your website.

Ouff!!! Back to the blogosphere! Happy New Year!
For those of you who did not know, my notebook disappeared in early december, following a DNS change made by my previous hosting service (go2.fr). They never contacted me to inform my humble person of this modification, and furthermore, they took two weeks to answer my e-mails! Moreover, they loose my blog entries for december... and among them was a very long story about my modem crash. :'-( I will have to write it down again, but not for the moment...
I am now hosted by DreamHost, an USA hosting service, and I have a very big plan. DreamHost is unbelievable, they have a incredible web interface to manage the plan (full of goodies that you can only found in professional hosting services – press release here, tour here), they are cheap, they work and answer very fast, users seem to be very satisfied (they are in the business since 1997), they have many forums and a wonderful knowledge base. I will now host friends and family, the first being Cédric. I heard of DreamHost on Peter Saint-Andre's weblog (I changed of hosting service a few days after him... but I forgot to use his id for him to get advantages offered by the reward system - if you read this someday, excuse me :-|). DreamHost is a “Silver Sponsor” of the JSF (Jabber Software Foundation), a good point to note (they offer Jabber services on all hosting plans – press release here) – Peter Saint-Andre is not only a philosopher, but a Jabber guru too. I will write a story later about the migration/reinstallation/update of my previous Movable Type installation (and other things worth saying for this new year...), but now, I just want to write down my new resolutions; here they are:

• sleep less, do not work at night;


• go beyond what I can do: write my Ph.D. thesis (lol); this is linked to the next item...


• schedules are schedules, timetables are timetables;


• read more, and more generally, split my time between (at least) work and cultural activities;


• record my musical works from 1995 to 1997 and begin my new musical project (with Pierre-Jean);


• update my previous book, try to write another;


• blog more regularly;


• find time to make physical exercices.