CR Rollyson Used My Drum Beats
I got an email last night from CR Rollyson, he recorded guitar and vocals over one of the drum beats I had posted and wanted me to hear it. He’s the first person to ever send me anything that’s been created with the drum beats I give away for free. I think it’s awesome.
Check out his MySpace for more good stuff: http://www.myspace.com/crrollyson
The Song
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The Original Drum Beat – 118bpm – 2 Verses 2 Chorus – Rock
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There’s talk of getting some better recording done and sharing more drum beats so stay tuned.
When We Become Dinosaurs
- Posted By:
- Matt
- Posted On:
- July 26th, 2009
- Posted In:
- Blog, Nonsense
- Comments:
- 2 Responses, Join The Conversation.
Disclaimer: While reading this keep in mind that I only know what I learned at the museum. I have no idea what I’m talking about.
What We Know About Dinosaurs
Whenever I visit the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) I’m amazed at their vast collection of humongous dinosaur skeletons. I think, this huge thing died and it’s bones were fully preserved until a ROM expedition decided to dig it up, clean it up and set it up for me to see. Amazing! They know how it lived, what it ate, how much it ate… they know everything, it’s amazing.
My amazement lasts the exact amount of time it takes me to look down to read the plaque about whatever dinosaur I’m currently standing in awe of. The plaque tells me only 3 of the bones are real, the rest is made of plaster, the rest is made up. The truth is they rarely find full dinosaurs, they find a leg bone here a vertebrae there and try to match it up using everything they have learned in University. Everything we know about dinosaurs is just the most plausible guess of thousands of extremely intelligent paleontologists.
When Humans Become Dinosaurs
Look around, imagine how much of this stuff will be around a million years after humans cease to exist. They’ll find my perfectly preserved arm bone, your perfectly preserved knee cap, a foot print and an old water well. Based on that they’ll make their best guess as to what humans were all about. If your knee cap shows that you have very strong leg muscles they’ll assume all humans did. If the foot prints show the person walked with a limp they’ll assume all humans did….. Even if they find an entire town preserved perfectly they’ll still only know a tiny bit about a tiny part of one culture in one area of the world.
There’s no real point to this post, it’s just another thing I think about often. I still enjoy looking at dinosaurs in museums and watching dinosaur based shows on tv. I guess it speaks to the diversity of humans and the vast differences in all of us. Imagine if you are the perfectly preserved skeleton they find and base all of their assumptions on? That might be kinda cool….
Six Word Stories
- Posted By:
- Matt
- Posted On:
- July 25th, 2009
- Posted In:
- Blog, Nonsense
- Comments:
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For the past few years I have been thinking a lot about six word stories. I am not very good at writing and I didn’t pay much attention in high school English class but I love the idea of telling an entire story in six words.
What Is A Six Word Story?
Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words and is said to have called it his best work:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
It tells an entire story in just six words and it blows my mind. I have seen many attempts but most miss the point entirely. Take McGill University for example: McGill – Think Big In Six Little Words, a bunch of six word statements and not one story. Or this user generated site, Six Word Stories, not bad but still miles away from Hemingway.
Could it be that the first ever six word story was the best; unbeatable? Wired magazine got a bunch of notable authors together to try to top it with decent results but again most are not stories: Wired 14.11: Very Short Stories.
The Best I Could Do
Here’s the best I could ever come up with, it’s more of a chapter than a story, it doesn’t start or end well. What did he stop trying? What was the accident? I vow to keep trying…. in my head… when I am trying to clear my mind.
He stopped trying after the accident.
Think about it and post one if you come up with something, I’m really into six word stories.
A Seal In Fisherman’s Wharf – Victoria, B.C.
- Posted By:
- Matt
- Posted On:
- June 23rd, 2009
- Posted In:
- Blog, Drumming, Nonsense
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- Comments Off
A Seal In Fisherman’s Wharf – Victoria, B.C. – June 19, 2009 from Totally Stupid on Vimeo.
While visiting Victoria, B.C. we went to Fisherman’s Wharf to buy a few crabs for dinner. There’s a seal that hangs out looking cute and begging for fish so I filmed it with my Flip Mino HD. Then I did the logical thing and recorded myself drumming, added crazy effects and made it the soundtrack; sweet?
Dream Aquarium
- Posted By:
- Matt
- Posted On:
- June 10th, 2009
- Posted In:
- Blog, Nonsense
- Comments:
- 3 Responses, Join The Conversation.
We got sweet new computer monitors at work and after getting bored of the weak default screen saver that comes with Windows Vista we remembered Dream Aquarium. Dream Aquarium turns your computer monitor into an insanely life-like aquarium every time you get up to pee or turn around to chat about something inappropriate with your co-workers.
You have a bunch of options to add fish, delete fish, feed the fish, speed up and slow down the tank, move the bubbles, set different tanks and even choose an image of your own for the tank background. You can even switch the tank to wireframe mode so you can see the entire tank without it’s skin, check it out.
Here are my fish eating.
You can add a crab to your tank and set it’s mood. The crab can hate fish or just dislike fish. Mine hates fish and tries to grab them when they get near.
Dream Aquarium is an excellent way to spend $20, 20% of the profit goes to environmental charities, and it’s made by a fellow Torontonian. It’s crazy how life-like it is, download the demo and check it out.
New Song: Smokey Clav Bass
- Posted By:
- Matt
- Posted On:
- April 26th, 2009
- Posted In:
- Blog, Music
- Comments:
- 2 Responses, Join The Conversation.
Look at that title, so descriptive right? I was messing around in GarageBand using the Smokey Clav sound for a bass line and it sounded good so I went with it. I suppose I could come up with better titles, something like “Remember when all the bees were dying and everyone was worried?” or “Nine foot nine year olds”… now you see why I called it “Smokey Clav Bass”. Enough reading, now comes the listening part. It’s long so imagine someone singing over top. If you want to be the one singing over top email me. Enjoy….
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Flip Mino HD Examples
I got a new Flip Mino HD video camera. I didn’t think amazon.com would ship to Canada but they did and it only took 36 hours, crazy! Click here to check it out in HD, it’s way better.
Flip Mino HD Test from Totally Stupid on Vimeo.
I recently bought a Flip Mino HD and I wanted to test it out in different lighting situations. Here it is.
Old School Dance Party
- Posted By:
- Matt
- Posted On:
- April 18th, 2009
- Posted In:
- Blog, Music
- Comments:
- One Response, Join The Conversation.
Back before I ever had a Mac or GarageBand I had the best beat sequencer ever, Fruity Loops (now called FL Studio). If Fruity Loops worked on a Mac I’d buy it right away. When Alison and I first started dating over 700 years ago we needed some music for a dance party we were having in my bedroom at my parent’s house so we made some. I think it’s awesome, what do you think?
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More Free GarageBand Drum Loops – Rock and HipHop
- Posted By:
- Matt
- Posted On:
- April 9th, 2009
- Posted In:
- Blog, Drumming, Music
- Comments:
- 3 Responses, Join The Conversation.
Over 325 people have downloaded my first set of free GarageBand drum loops so I decided to make more. This time I made the loops longer to give you the option to cut out whatever you want to use or keep the whole thing as is. There are 2 Rock drum loops and one HipHop drum loop. These free GarageBand drum loops are made using electronic drums in my apartment. I play to a metronome and the loops are not quantized in order to keep the feel. They are free so go ahead and use them. If you get rich using them I might call you begging for a cut but if you ask me to drum for you when you tour we might call it even.
I hope you like them and I want to make them better so please leave feedback and I’ll keep at it.
Download the loops here: MM-Loops-9apr2009 (632)
Listen to them below:
100bpm – 2 Verse 2 Chorus – HipHop
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174bpm – 2 Verse 2 Chorus – Rock
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118bpm – 2 Verses 2 Chorus – Rock
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How To Use The Loops
- Download and unzip the file above.
- Import the MP3 files into Garageband.
- Make loops (track > add to loop library) if that’s your thing.
- Make music.
Rahaf Harfoush’s Website
- Posted By:
- Matt
- Posted On:
- April 7th, 2009
- Posted In:
- Portfolio, Wordpress, XHTML & CSS
- Comments:
- Comments Off
A custom WordPress theme designed by Alan Smith of The Movement and turned into a WordPress theme using standards compliant CSS, XHTML and some PHP black magic (really just if statements.. shhhh). Some highlights include a different home page template, different colour highlights for each category and a totally different work category layout. Visit Rahaf’s site or click “Read the rest of this entry” to see some screen shots.
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