Rocket Ride

I consider myself a Simplified Musicologist. By that, I mean that I’m kind of a student of music having been a musician and having had a short stint in the music business but I’m not an expert by any means.

Not long ago, I theorized that most artists who have made a strong impact in their respective genres (for example, artists that make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) are usually influenced by artists who obviously had impact but managed to stay on the down-low. Simply put: the underground tends to influence the mainstream. I say that because often times those artists who make that strong impact actually bring a fresh sound or style to the market and they were clearly influenced by something or someone.

The same holds true in the world of design….web, video, print…whatever. We, as designers, are often subject…and I think privileged at times, to seeing the next hot thing long before it becomes mainstream. Of course, by the time any specific style hits the mainstream, we designers are usually sick of seeing it anyway, not to mention, we’re working on the next hot thing. We’re like parents teaching our kids to ice skate and then proudly watching them take Olympic gold in Hockey.

I’m reminded of a quote by Alan Kay, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

We’re designers…unsung heroes inventing the future. No mainstream credit..but proud to watch our kids grow.

Since the channel merge with Sirius/XM, I’ve found myself listening to more current metal lately.  Having that one channel, for me, was a great compromise between old school metal and hard rock.  But as a result I’ve discovered a few really amazing metal tracks that I totally love.  I’ve also heard some stuff that’s scare the shit out of me…not really, but has made me think “Whoa…that’s waaay hardecore.”  I don’t really get the black/satanic metal…I mean..I get it…but it doesn’t really speak to me.  Even after I learned about King Diamond and his satanism thing, listening to his stuff kind of made me uncomfortable. But, I have my moment’s where I really want to just go headbanger nuts and finding new music is always a rush.

A old classmate of mine, Alan Queen, who is an musician/audio engineer turned interactive developer has created an audio mixing application called digimix. Quite tasty looking.  I missed out on the alpha version so when a revised version comes out, I’ll be all ova dat.

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