MLRv is a great tool for live performance, as proven by a number of talented button mashers such as Galapagoose and Daedelus. It creates an immediate feedback loop between button presses and sounds that audiences just “get”. But if you’re only using MLRv for button mashing, you’re missing out on a ton of potential it has […]

In my last post, I suggested that MLRv could be used to enhance your production workflow, outside of its abilities as a live performance tool.  In this post I’ll cover the configuration necessary to get MLRv set up for automation with Ableton.  In the post following this, I’ll give an example of how this setup […]

In post 1 and post 2 of this series, I talked about why it’s worth trying MLRv as a production tool, as opposed to a live performance tool.  Let’s get to some examples of what this really means. A couple months back, I was approached by Edison to do a remix of his track My […]

Last Tuesday I played in a fairly eclectic line up which included girl-punk band Whorepaint, noise rockers HexMap, and hip-hop group Immigrant.  I’d forgotten how great it is to play at a venue with a legit sound system and a keen sound engineer. Check out the video below for some pretty sweet button mashing.  Mike G […]

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Updated at 4:12 p.m. ET The Federal Reserve left interest rates near zero Wednesday and once again promised to deliver whatever monetary medicine it can to an economy that's badly ailing from the coronavirus pandemic. "The Federal Reserve is committed to using its full range of tools to support the U.S. economy in this challenging time," the central bank said in a statement . While noting that "financial conditions have improved, in part reflecting policy measures to support the economy," the Fed's rate-setting committee reiterated its intent to leave interest rates at rock-bottom levels, "until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals." Notes released along with the committee's statement suggest no rate increases are expected at least through 2022. "We're not thinking about raising rates," Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference. "We're not even thinking about thinking about

Our national fascination with sourdough starter appears to have stopped. Or at least slowed down a bit. The price of baking flour fell last month along with the price of eggs, suggesting that the baking craze that gripped hungry and housebound consumers in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic has cooled. "Sourdough is definitely a commitment," says Kristin Hoffman, who makes instructional YouTube videos for aspiring bakers. "I have heard a couple of people say that they really don't understand why somebody would want to put so much effort into a loaf of bread." Hoffman's Baker Bettie website saw a surge of interest from first-time bakers in late March and April, when tens of millions of Americans found themselves stuck at home with time on their hands. "I saw four to five times higher traffic than even during peak holiday-baking season," Hoffman says. "It has started to kind of level back out, now that things are reopening." Even if the bake-off was a turnoff for some, people

Shanna LaFountain has been a nursing assistant in New England for 20 years. About two months ago, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, she stopped working. "It was an extremely hard decision," she said. LaFountain has three children and made the decision once their schools closed and their learning went online. "My son was not answering teachers, not doing assignments," she said. "I had to be home with my children." Instead of working, she gets state unemployment benefits and receives another $600 each week from the federal government. She is making more money now than when she works. LaFountain is not alone. As part of the CARES Act, the federal government added an extra $600 per week to individuals' unemployment checks. Such benefits may be available not only to those who were let go but also to those who quit their jobs due to the virus. While a Federal Reserve report said the expanded benefits provide a critical lifeline to many individuals, there is concern that the

Editor's note: This is an excerpt of Planet Money 's newsletter. You can sign up here . Geoff Caddick / AFP via Getty Images Brooklyn Heights sits across the East River from Lower Manhattan. It's filled with multimillion-dollar brownstones and — usually — Range Rovers, Teslas and BMWs. These days it's easy to find parking. The brownstones are mostly dark at night. The place is a ghost town. And the neighborhood's sushi restaurants, Pilates studios, bistros and wine bars are either closed or mostly empty. It's a microcosm for what has been the driver of the pandemic recession: Rich people have stopped going out, destroying millions of jobs. That's one of the key insights of a blockbuster study that was dropped late last week by a gang of economists led by Harvard University's Raj Chetty. If you don't know who Chetty is, he's sort of like the Michael Jordan of policy wonks. He's a star economist. He and his colleagues assemble and crunch massive data sets and deliver insights that

Many people with underlying medical conditions are worried about what's going to happen at the end of the month. It's not currently safe for many of them to go back to work. The COVID-19 death rate is 12 times higher for people with underlying conditions. But an extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits, which has been enabling them to pay their rent and other bills, will stop coming at the end of July. "We don't have a whole lot of options that don't involve risking our lives," Lauren Van Netta says. "We need help. We really do." Van Netta lost her job at a perfume store in New Orleans during the outbreak. She says she's had serious bacterial infections that have damaged her lungs and compromised her immune system. And she has asthma. So even if she could find another job in retail, she says her doctors have told her it would be risky. She says even wearing a mask and trying to keep social distancing in a workplace, "it's like the fear of, you know, I could make a mistake.

Updated at 8:44 a.m. ET From airlines to paper mills, the job news is grim, and there are growing signs it won't be getting better anytime soon. On Thursday, the Labor Department reported nearly 2.4 million new applications for state and federal unemployment benefits last week. And United Airlines is warning that it may have to furlough as many as 36,000 employees this fall. Demand for air travel has collapsed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The president of the flight attendants union called the warning a "gut punch" but also "the most honest assessment we've seen on the state of the industry — and our entire economy." Union President Sara Nelson tweeted that demand for air travel had recovered a small fraction of its pre-pandemic levels this summer and "even those minimal gains evaporated over the last week due to surging COVID-19 cases across the country." Jobs in other industries are facing similar threats as the coronavirus tightens its stubborn grip on the country. Derse

A Free 42-page PDF you can read on your phone, tablet, or laptop and enjoy!

My friend Jordanlafordan, organised and compiled a Fanzine to celebrate Star Trek: Discovery. Full of Fanfic, essays, photos, games, poems, and quotes from our beloved Star Trek: Discovery, this is the first annual Celebrate Disco fanzine! I (Faintdreams) submitted the crossword. Enjoy! If you like it please let the organiser know. They have a mastodon account here: ( https://tenforward.social/@jordanlafordan )

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In which I write about Islam, spirituality, my Hajj pilgrimage in the summer of 2024, living as a USian in southern Spain, and change both voluntary and unwilled.

Example of what I write about: I just added a post about how fear of Satan, which was encouraged by the Catholic church and pop culture, scared me off from belief in ANYTHING Unseen (including God) for decades.

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For the past almost 40 years, Treb Heining has engineered the balloon drops at every Republican National Convention and most Democratic National Conventions. I photographed how he and his team inflated and then dropped 100,000 balloons on the final night of the RNC this year in Milwaukee.

This is a story I'd been wanting to do since I noticed the balloons suspended from the ceiling during the 2016 conventions. I though, "Huh, there's got to be a story behind these balloons." What I found was Treb Heining, who got his start in balloons at age 15 selling balloons on foot at Disneyland. Heining went on to invent the balloon arch and built a balloon decorating business that now spans the globe. He invented the Glasshouse Balloon, a clear balloon surrounding the Mickey-shaped balloon sold at Disney resorts worldwide. And he's been in charge of the balloon drops at every RNC since 1988 and most DNCs since then (he was not involved in the 2004 DNC failure). He's also been in charge of the Times Square New Year's Eve confetti drop for more than 30 years and engineered balloon events at Super Bowls and Olympics opening ceremonies. For the conventions, Heining and a team of balloon decoration professionals and some local volunteers spend a couple days before the convention inflating and tying approximately 100,000 balloons by hand, putting them into giant net bags, and rigging them to the ceiling of the arena. Then, after the final speech on the last day of the convention, the balloons are dropped onto the delegates. I pitched this story to Bloomberg Businessweek in 2020, but the conventions were initially cancelled and then held in a modified form without balloon drops, so the story was killed. I pitched it again for this year, and it all worked out. Here's the Businessweek piece online and the larger edit with some videos and animated gifs on my website.

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A fundraising drive for the Election Protection Hotline. (Not a US resident or US citizen? Hate all the major parties? No problem! You can donate!) Then, on Oct. 26th, watch 8 minutes of nerd jokes about open source software and how programming skews your brain, and none about politics.

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A 6-page guide for research-group leaders in academia, providing concrete suggestions to make labs more welcoming and accessible to autistic students and postdocs. Written by a late-diagnosed autistic academic.

Contents: 1. Dispel your misconceptions. 2. Communicate clearly. 3. Check the sensory environment. 4. Be aware of different cognitive profiles. 5. Model inclusivity to your group.

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Toronto/Los Angeles-based indie pop artist Julian Daniel is making waves with his infectious new single, “do you feel me?,” a track he hopes will stir listeners' emotions through its seductive…

Eclectic Belgian singer/songwriter Sylvie Kreusch digs deep into the unbeaten path in her new LP Comic Trip. The 11-track album is adventurous, emotionally dark, and revealing all at once. Straying…

Atlanta-based emerging artist Captain Highside hones in on his funky yet sultry musicality with “Technicolor Rewind,” the focus track from upcoming LP SAGITTARIUS II, a smooth neo-soul anthem that comes…

The sweet and soulful DJ Teddie Bear marries country music with the sounds of down south blues in his latest single “Southern Soul Twerk.” DJ Teddie Bear is a Georgia…

Minneapolis-based singer/composer Nona Invie unveils gentle offering “Forget My Name,” from forthcoming LP Self-soothing. Giving us a glimpse of the health and cathartic project, the new single is built on…

Bronson Scott’s new single, “Mistakes,” is the anthem for anyone who's ever wrestled with regret and wondered what life would look like without a few of their bad decisions. Scott…

Today, we get an update on the 'Golden Gate 26'. Then, it's time again to celebrate all things pumpkin! And, a new musical shows how enslaved Black people sought freedom in Mexico.

Today, we hear from young Native Americans on what the land back movement means to them. Then, a Coast Miwok family advocates for the native people of Tomales Bay.

Residents in Richmond’s District 5 are calling for investment in arts and culture from their city leaders. And, in a new episode of Book It, the power of stories in medicine.

Even though they can’t vote, folks in California prisons will still be affected by this year's election. Uncuffed goes into San Quentin for this special elections episode.

Today, the contested future of SF's Great Highway. Then, a community group that’s building trust for better health. And, we honor Barbara Dane’s life and revolutionary music.

Today, we hear how states can begin to repair fractured histories around slavery. Then, local experts weigh in on Kamala Harris’s track record. And, we consider the power of Black immigrant voters.

Today, we hear from unhoused people in the East Bay on their role in the presidential race. Then, photos and voices from the lives that are swept up when an encampment is cleared.

Today we go inside San Quentin’s mock elections. Then, we hear about comic books and mental health — for veterans. And, the passionate mix of music and movement of Flamenco.

Today, a local Iranian farmer grows the herbs of home. Then, an art exhibit encourages visitors to look inside themselves to feel empowered. And, Bay Poets brings us an oracle.

Do you need to be perfect to be saved? How do you live a perfect life in a wicked world, and how perfect do you need to be to be saved?

Salvation is not a one-time thing but an ongoing, following, surrender to the King. Are we more afraid of what the devil is going to do with our life, or have more faith of what Jesus can do?

The Bible says before the Lord comes again there will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It won't be just the Spirit giving comfort and conviction but a baptism of the Spirit with signs and wonders and miracles.

Christians and politics. Do the two mix or are they diametrically opposed?

Why should we go to church on Sabbath? How did Jesus observe Sabbath?

Bread is the most common food. Jesus is our Bread of Life.

Many things are invisible, we can't see them, but they are real. After sin entered the world we lost the ability to see and tune into the spiritual realm. What is the difference between being spiritual or being religious? Why is this important?

Unless you nurture it, reverence is lost and in losing reverence you lose the comprehension of what sin is and what salvation is. The nature of God is affected by our attitude about God and His holiness.

There are interesting similarities between the feast at Simon's where Mary anointed Jesus, and his burial where He was anointed again. We need to pay attention to Jesus while we still have time.

A real-time generative device to create evolving patterns, interesting rhythmic sequence, and someth...

FM Waveform Synthesizer free download: https://www.remodevicocomposer.eu/maxforlive/ ...

Mario hit rock-bottom hard. His life of drugs and alcohol led him to prison. When he cried to God for help and was released early, he found an Amazing Facts television program produced in New York City, and it turned his life in a new direction. Thank you for sharing hope in a loving Savior who changes lives!

John was overwhelmed by shame. He couldn’t shake his addictions and felt alone and helpless. Your gifts lead the broken into the healing arms of our loving heavenly Father. Thank you for sharing!

Lance’s life was out of control. His addictions were destroying him, and he urgently needed help. Because of your generous gifts, Lance discovered Amazing Facts online and it changed his heart. Learn how your support brought freedom to Lance!

Christ gave Everything to simply have the possibility that you could accept His sacrifice (T. Gibson), so what will you do about it ? Accept His gift and pass it on ! Spend time with Christ in His Word. Join us ! We’ll discuss God creating sin, contradictions in the Bible, and many other topics. Christ deserves all our love, all our mind, all our life, all our time. “Nothing is too little which relates to man’s salvation, nor is there anything too little in which to please God,” (E. Pusey).

“The sweetness of the Bible lies in the possessive pronouns,” (Charles H. Spurgeon). The Lord is YOUR deliverer, Your help and Your salvation. The Lord is OUR strength, Our power and Our victory. Do you believe it ? Join us now as we learn to believe the truth and not Satan’s lies, to believe in His power and in His sure word, to trust Him, to see others as our Father sees them, and thus love them as He loves them; and to believe His prophecies and keep His testimonies. Grasp your Lord, lay hold on Him ! Study with us now !