Aviary’s Incredibly Ambitious Art Project

The guys behind Worth1000 and Plime have been tooling away at a new venture called Aviary (although it's confusingly hosted at CreationOnTheFly.com ). With Aviary, the New York based team is aiming at the rather ambitious goal of not only creating a marketplace for multimedia artwork, but a suite of robust collaborative online applications with which to create the works.

The obvious question is "why both tools and a marketplace?" As founder Avi Muchnick believes, both are needed for the other to be successful. They need a marketplace for creators to sell their works and encourage use of the tools. They need tools so they can confirm and maintain the copyright of the works created on the platform.

The lingering question is whether online tools will be of a high enough caliber to produce marketable content. So far, signs are pointing to yes.

When completed, Aviary will consist of 14 online tools of varying complexity: an image editor, color swatch generator, pattern generator, vector-based editor, 3D modeler, audio editor, music generator, video editor, desktop publishing tool, word processor, painting simulator, custom image product creator, photo analyzer, and file system to store it all on. Each of the applications is programmed in Flex, making them ready to meld with your desktop upon Adobe AIR's public release. Adding an artsy twist, each tool will be named after a different bird.

All items created in these programs will be stored on their own file system called Rookry. From there, artists will be able to sell their creations on the open market. Even small pieces, such as patterns or sound effects will be marketable. If the works are made within Aviary, buyers will have the security of knowing they are buying an original work. If they incorporate outside content, they will be flagged as such. From within Aviary's platform artists will also be able also create derivative works while maintaining attribution and royalty rights upon sale.

The team will be releasing the tools as they're completed. They're already showing some pretty serious results with their image editor (Phoenix), Vector Editor (Raven), and 3D editor (Hummingbird) outlined below:

Phoenix

Phoenix is like Photoshop without trying to replace it. You get a lot of the familiar features such as brushes, patterns, stamps, smudging, shapes, blending options, and more.

The Aviary team decided on a core feature set by polling their band of PhotoShop fanatics using Worth1000 to find Photoshop's most frequently used features. The editor can work on an image of max dimensions of 2880 by 2880 pixels.

The editor does support importing and exporting images of familiar formats, but any Aviary work that includes an imported image not created in the suite will be marked as such in the marketplace. This will help alert buyers to the possibility that the creator doesn't have full copyright over the work.

Raven

Raven is their vector based drawing program. It's based on a lot of the design from Phoenix, but allows artists the flexibility of vector based drawing (e.g. easy scaling/rotation without losing quality). Raven will connect with Phoenix, allowing illustrations created in Raven to be rasterized and edited in Phoenix.

Click on the image to the right for a larger view.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird is their 3D editor designed completely in Flex. Right now they've just got a 3D model renderer along with some basic editing tools (element selection/deletion), but are working on a more robust UI for creating new models from scratch.

The hummingbird on the right was rendered with the engine in real time with a metallic gold skin.

Click on the image for a real time demo of the 3D rendering engine.
--
loved by http://evrewhere.com/andrewnewton/

Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode - New Solo Album Press Release

Punk.bz - USA

Dave Gahan Releases His Eagerly Anticipated 2nd Solo LP

‘Hourglass’ in October

Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan will release his second solo album Hourglass in October in Canada on Mute Records/EMI Music Canada. This release is the follow-up to his 2003 solo album Paper Monsters which marked his debut as a full-fledged songwriter. The LP earned critical acclaim worldwide - with Q Magazine citing it as one of the Top 50 Albums of the Year - and spawned sold-out solo tours of the U.S. and Europe as captured on the 2004 live DVD release Live Monsters.

Gahan’s growth as a songwriter was represented on Depeche Mode’s 2005 album Playing The Angel, the group’s first album to feature Gahan originals; his three contributions included the single ‘Suffer Well.’ A two million worldwide seller that vaulted to Number 1 in eighteen countries, the album was accompanied by a 2005-2006 international tour reaching 2.5 million people across 30 countries.

While Depeche Mode are catching their breath, Gahan recently returned to the studio to record an array of songs that would become the eagerly anticipated Hourglass. Created without the pressure of a deadline, Gahan wrote and produced all the songs in collaboration with Christian Eigner (drums) and Andrew Phillpott (guitars) of the Depeche Mode touring band. They worked at Gahan’s 11th Floor Studios in his adopted hometown of NYC where he’s lived for the past 10 years. Tony Hoffer, known for his work with Beck, Air, the Kooks and the Fratellis, has been tapped to mix the album this month.

Gahan says Hourglass is more electronic-sounding than his solo debut Paper Monsters, “but we were very aware of the importance of keeping urgency in the sound and a feeling of spontaneity. We didn’t want to get bogged down in trying to make everything sound perfect. You want to keep the rough edges.”

Gahan adds: “Christian plays drums and Andrew can easily find his way around bass and guitar–and then we’re basically cutting all this stuff up and fucking with it by using ProTools, effects and all kinds of stuff. Accidents do happen, and they’re good.” The album’s tracks include ‘Saw Something,’ ‘Use You,’ ‘Endless,’ ‘21 Days,’ ‘A Little Lie,’ ‘Deeper and Deeper,’ ‘Love Will Leave,’ ‘Down,’ ‘Miracle,‘ ‘Tomorrow’ and ‘Kingdom.’

With its themes of racing against–and running out of–time, the songs on Hourglass dig deeper into Gahan’s psyche. “I’m still that teenager who’s desperately trying to grow up, but in total fear of it really happening,” he says.

www.davegahan.com

See all stories on this topic

--
http://evrewhere.com/andrewnewton/

Real Ale Trail to pull visitors

Thirsty visitors will soon be able to sample some of Scotland's most popular pints on the country's first ever Real Ale Trail.  Over 50 Scottish breweries will be coming together to ensure visitors get to sample the quality and diversity of Scottish beer and ales.

Visitors on the trail will get the opportunity to tour some of Scotland's  world famous breweries to learn more about Scottish real ales and of course sample the tasty tipple.

A Real Ale Trail website is also being set up with the VisitScotland funding.  Yvonne Cook who heads VisitScotland's Challenge Fund which is funding the Trail said: "The Real Ale Trail is a superb example of the kind of partnership initiative we need to encourage to achieve our objective of a 50% growth in tourism revenues by 2015. "By linking up with hotels, attractions, bars and restaurants as well as breweries, the Real Ale Trail becomes something that benefits the wider industry—tourism really is everyone's business."

The trail will potentially take visitors to up to fifty breweries around Scotland, from Orkney to the Borders. It will be up and running later this year.

Jam! Showbiz - Canada

Feist, Fire get Polaris noms
-Julie Doiron: "Woke Myself Up" (Endearing Records/Fontana North/Universal Music Canada)

-Feist: "The Reminder (Arts & Crafts/EMI Music Canada). ...
-
retransmitted by http://evrewhere.com/andrewnewton/

muh-wah catagory

Software lets parents monitor kids' calls
When someone not on a parent-approved list calls, parents receive a real-time text alert on their cell phone.
um'd by http://evrewhere.com/andrewnewton/

Broadcast SEO will slap you in the face

Telefonica concludes sale of 'Big Brother' TV group Endemol
By European Journalism Centre(European Journalism Centre)
Telefonica bought Endemol in March 2000 for 4.8 billion euros but the firm's new board which took over later that year ruled it was a "non-strategic" asset as the company would focus on broadcasting rather than producing audovisual ...
EJC - Media News - http://www.ejc.net/media_news/

Terrorism and an open society Tony Blankley The ...
By Dick(Dick)
Amazingly, a British "expert" on television even claimed that the fact that the terrorists were imported rather than home grown was further evidence that the British are winning the war. His far-fetched argument was that the terrorist ...
THE RIGHT SCALE - http://dickmcdonald.blogspot.com/

--
http://evrewhere.com/andrewnewton/

What is it with network television's season-ending obsession with job loss? By D. K. Holm Special to MSN Entertainment

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Unemployment Lines

If the vastness of television somehow taps in to both the zeitgeist and mass subconscious of our culture at the same time, what are we to make of the 2006-2007 season finales? What fears or worries are producers touching on? What national upheaval are we going through that only the cultural antennae of television have picked up? Because almost every season finale ended on a similar note: Someone, somewhere in the show, lost a job.

Actually, it's a little more complicated than that, at least insofar as there was a great deal of variation on this common theme. The simplest version saw Assistant D.A. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) on "Law & Order" hand in his resignation after his boss, Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson), minimized McCoy's role in a celebrity murder trial. Branch didn't accept it, and the viewer's assumption was probably meant to be that McCoy would be back next season (though the political aspirant Thompson won't).

Meanwhile, over on "Criminal Minds," Supervisory Special Agent Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) spent most of the hour trying to justify his employment as head of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis unit to his boss, Erin Strauss (Jayne Atkinson, of "24"). The episode's surprise ending had upstart newcomer and senator's daughter Special Agent Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster, who came in to replace Lola Glaudini) assigned the undercover task of helping Strauss end Hotchner's career.

In the medical world, "Grey's Anatomy" ended with several people not getting the job of chief of surgery at Seattle Grace, which reverted back to Dr. Webber (James Pickens Jr.), while George's wife, Callie (Sara Ramirez), was named chief resident, a job Bailey (Chandra Wilson) wanted. Meanwhile, George ( T.R. Knight) failed his intern test and chose to leave Seattle Grace altogether.

On "House," the eponymous acerbic physician (Hugh Laurie) managed to lose all his little ducklings: Foreman (Omar Epps) quit earlier in the season, Chase (Jesse Spencer) was impulsively fired, and Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) resigned in solidarity with Chase. Are there any doctors left in this "House"?

Other shows have further variations. The whole of the current season of "The Shield" has been preoccupied with Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) holding on to his job in the face of much opposition. "Boston Legal" wrapped up its third season with Jerry "Hands" Espenson (Christian Clemenson) back at the firm; "Veronica Mars" ended the season (and the series) with Keith Mars' (Enrico Colantoni) future as police chief in question; the last few episodes of "30 Rock" dealt in part with Jack Donaghy's (Alec Baldwin) executive position in jeopardy; the whole future of "The Unit" now hangs on a governmental probe; the incident-heavy finale of "Ugly Betty" had Daniel (Eric Mabius) resign his editor's post to his brother/sister Alexis. On "My Name Is Earl" the titular character lost his recently-landed job because he chose to sacrifice himself so that another might go free. And Homer Simpson has been going back and forth on his safety inspector job at the nuclear power plant, though it is only one of about 156 jobs Homer has had on "The Simpsons" over the years.

Finally, on the only network program that is actually about ordinary old jobs, "The Office" ended the season with Michael (Steve Carell), Jim (John Krasinski) and Karen (Rashida Jones) all failing to get the new corporate position, which turns out to be Jan's job (and she is subsequently fired). When Michael fails to get it, he returns and takes back his old position as Scranton branch manager, kicking Dwight (Rainn Wilson), whom he'd assigned as a replacement, back downstairs. Oh, and to our surprise, Ryan ( B.J. Novak), whom we didn't know had even applied for it, does get Jan's old job.

Clearly America is worried about its jobs. Or maybe it is only Hollywood writers and show runners, whose guild is poised for a joint East and West Coast simultaneous strike.

But movies were there first. Back in the late 1990s, Hollywood issued so many films on the theme of the horror of the workplace that it was almost a genre unto itself. Call it heroic alienation. Some of the premiere films in the cycle were "American Beauty," "Office Space," "Fight Club," "In the Company of Men," and "Clockwatchers." Meanwhile, television, which has always alternated, especially in sitcoms, between the household setting and the workplace, began to evince a greater anxiety about jobs and survival on the job.

What's curious about most shows set in the workplace is how much fundamental equanimity there is among co-workers. Sure, there's the occasional spat, affair, or competition, contrived to punch up a story line. But for the most part, staff members all love each other so much. "Grey's Anatomy" takes this to extremes, with its constant closet fumblings and roundelays of inter-office romance. This surely runs counter to the experience of most working Americans, who hate all their co-workers just as much as their co-workers hate them back.

This is where "The Office" excels, as it does in so many other areas. There is a palpable tension among the fellow employees of Dunder-Mifflin, who otherwise have nothing in common. Yet they cling to their unrewarding jobs just as you or I do, fearful of change and of losing a certain income. Television, in its monolithic bumbling, apparently has stumbled onto something with its season-ending exploitation of viewers' subterranean fears of being dumped from their jobs. Clearly, other shows and new series developers would be wise to get with the program and start exploring with more realism the essential experiences of American life, or face their own form of cancellation. Or in the words of Donald Trump, "You're fired."

--
Plotted by http://evrewhere.com/andrew/