Digital Photo-realism

Most of us photographers who use Adobe Photoshop see it as a tool to refine our cameras' digital output. Bert Monroy is an artist who uses Photoshop to create original art that appears to be photographic in origin until you look a bit closer (remember the photorealism movement in painting a number of years ago?). For example, his digital painting, entitled "Damen", is described by Monroy as follows:

This is my latest and most ambitious digital painting of a Chicago scene unveiled at Photoshop World in Miami on March 22, 2006.
It is a panorama of the Damen Station on the Blue Line of the Chicago Transit Authority.
Adobe Illustrator was used for generating the majority of the basic shapes as well as all the buildings in the Chicago skyline.
The rest was created in Photoshop.
• The image size is 40 inches by 120 inches.
• The flattened file weighs in at 1.7 Gigabytes.
• It took eleven months (close to 2,000 hours) to create.
• The painting is comprised of close to fifty individual Photoshop files.
• Taking a cumulative total of all the files, the overall image contains over 15,000 layers.
• Over 500 alpha channels were used for various effects.
• Over 250,000 paths make up the multitude of shapes throughout the scene.

Holy cow! Take a look here: http://www.bertmonroy.com/index.htm.

Steven Cantor Is Back

As reported by OregonLive, Steven Cantor is back at another Portland radio station.

The Oregonian's classical music critic, David Stabler, had this to say:

Steven Cantor, the fabulous DJ who messes with our sonic sensibilities, has taken his "Beats and Pieces" radio show to KMHD (89.1 FM). If you didn't hear his show on OPB, you missed a treat.

His new show on KMHD airs from 9 p.m. to midnight Sundays.

As for the content, Cantor has tweaked it a bit because KMHD is a jazz station, after all.

"I've decided to begin each program with something by Miles Davis," he says, "something I
had actually wanted to do for some time at OPB, but I was unable to do so. What this means for this new incarnation of B&P is that it does give the show a jazz-related launching point each week."

To see why he's so good, here's the playlist of the final hour of last Sunday's show, followed by his rationale:

andrew hill - california tinge
mercan dede - engewal
jz - rooftops of vienna
karim ziad - el mouima
assad bros - agua e vinho
upper left trio - scriab-ish
scriabin - prelude op. 17 no. 1
sco - down d
sinikka langeland - treet som vekser opp-ned


so what you have here is andrew hill playing solo piano (i had just played angela hewitt performing a mvmt from one of the english suites to conclude the previous hour), followed by
turkish musician mercan dede (mixing elements of traditional turkish music w/electronics), followed by a joe zawinul tune (i've played a lot of his music in my first few shows, as tribute....he passed away quite recently.....) with north african elements, followed by a wonderful
moroccan musician (and former employee of mr. zawinul) who is creating this fantastic jazz-like contemporary music with a moroccan tinge, if you can imagine such a thing, followed by the assad brothers performing a very pretty little piece by egberto gismonti, followed by portland's own upper left trio (clay giberson, is the pianist in this group....in fact this tune i played is written by clay and, as you can gather from the title, is inspired by scriabin), followed by a scriabin prelude (for obvious reasons, but also in the same key.....that was a nice little segue) followed by a beautiful tune from john scofield's most recent album (also in the same key as the scriabin prelude), and concluding the set with another gorgeous song, this from the recent ecm album by norwegian singer sinikka langeland (also in the same key as the scriabin.....hey, it's one way i'm able to connect these seemingly disparate bits of musical beauty!!)

Now there's a DJ. Email him with your own suggestions, comments at beatzandpieces@gmail.com.

Now I just have to find out if I can catch him on Internet radio, as I can't pick up that station from here right now ...

Luciano, R.I.P.

Today was the passing of Luciano Pavarotti, whose high C tenor makes us feel alright that he never went on to become a professional soccer player (his youthful ambition). I first heard him on a recording that a nearby customer was auditioning in a record store in Hollywood one night sometime in the 1970s, and I started paying more attention from then on, as I had not really listened to much opera since my college music history classes. My opera consciousness had been raised.

I found that my photography sidekick Bill had Maria Callas in his musical stash, so I listened to that in his studio. When the very popular compilation (still highly recommended) -- The Movies Go To The Opera -- was released around 1990, it soon became one of my favorites to help me get through the daily downtown Los Angeles-Westwood commute. Then I discovered that an Italian accountant I had known since the 60s was an opera buff, and was given to breaking into song after he retired and had shed some inhibitions. About that time, Peter Sellars (not the Brit actor), a theatre director who led the Los Angeles Festival, put together some quite wonderful Mozart operas in modern settings and ran them on L.A. TV. My collection (mostly of individual arias, especially Mozart, Verdi, Puccini) started growing, and today I have the luxury of being able to pull Cecilia Bartoli, Anne Sofie Van Otter, Kathleen Battle, Dawn Upshaw, Maria Callas and many more off the shelf and into my ears. And I have some really, really old Enrico Caruso (on 78 as well as 33 1/3 and CD). Drop in sometime for a listen.

In the meantime, I may try to find something in the public domain that I can post here.

Cafe LA

Tom Schnabel, one of KCRW's long-time DJs ...

Guns 'N' Roses

Not that am a fan, but I do appreciate the serendipitous. Driving up the mountain on Fox Hill Road, we stopped for a view. Stepping on to the shoulder, I found a CD in the dust, shot full of bullet holes. Upon closer inspection, I found that it was a copy, appropriately enough, of Guns & Roses Greatest Hits. Presented herewith:

Tragedy at OPB

Tragedy at OPB

My single favorite music program at OPB, late weekend nights' Beats & Pieces hosted by Steven Cantor is defunct. To quote from http://www.opb.org/insideopb/opbnews/opbarchives/radio/

OPB Announces Changes in Music Programming

Last modified on April 2, 2007 08:45 AM

Oregon Public Broadcasting said it will continue to make changes in its OPB Radio (91.5 FM) music programming beginning with the April 1 discontinuation of Beats & Pieces.

Special music programming will begin April 6 and continue through mid-May when OPB will launch new programs featuring local and regional music and artists.

"We believe our listeners will be very pleased with this new programming, especially when it features the music of this region and some of our own most talented musicians," said OPB President Steve Bass. He said more details will be announced closer to the mid-May launch date.

He also thanked Steven Cantor, host of Beats & Pieces, for his many years of service as the program's host. Cantor was offered a different position with OPB but declined to accept it.

Bass said OPB constantly reviews its programming via member surveys, calls and emails, audience ratings and focus group research. Similar research guided OPB’s earlier decision to offer the Performance Today program to All-Classical 89.9 FM and its current decision to end Beats & Pieces, which had a loyal but very small following.

"We are listening to our members when we make these decisions and what they are telling us is that they want change and expect top-quality music programs such as those we'll be adding to OPB Radio," he said.

This is a serious blow. Steven Cantor was definitely the best DJ I found on the airwaves after moving from L.A., and I credit him with my discovery of the likes of Max Richter, Cheb i Sabbah, Spiegel im Spiegel and lots more. Steven had the uncanny knack of creating playlists that would easily transition from Bob Dylan to Beethoven to South Indian music to Radiohead and visiting klezmer music along the way. Sometime, when time allows, I will try to share some of these finds with the reader.

testing, testing, testing