koven j. smith http://kovenjsmith.com Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:02:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 en The Semantic Museum http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/110 http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/110#comments Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:59:59 +0000 Koven http://kovenjsmith.com/?p=110 Datasets in the Linking Open Data project, as ...Image via WikipediaI just wanted to write a quick post saying thanks to everyone who came and saw our presentation “The Semantic Web in Practice” last week at the Museum Computer Network conference. It seemed I couldn’t turn around all week without someone commenting positively on our presentation; your compliments were warmly received by both Don and me. Thanks.

The upshot of all this is that we have now officially formed a special interest group around the idea of creating truly “semantic” museums. More on this as it develops, but for the time being, you can join the discussion in the Semuse Google group.

In addition, the slides from Thursday’s presentation can be downloaded here. I’m not sure how useful the slides are without the accompanying narration, but hopefully the notes added to each slide will help clarify things somewhat. And, just so you don’t have to go to the slides for the list of resources mentioned in the presentation, here they are:

There are a few more resources listed in the slides, but I thought these would be the most helpful.

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]]> http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/110/feed That felt good. http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/106 http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/106#comments Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:05:16 +0000 Koven http://kovenjsmith.com/?p=106 Votin'! So there you go. After eight years, I waited in line for 90 minutes and pulled the damn lever. I have to say, the spirit in line at my voting precinct here in Prospect Heights was amazing–everyone was in great spirits, moms from PS9 were offering baked goodies to folks waiting, and people were driving around the neighborhood with Obama speeches blaring out of their windows. I wish that there were something truly momentous I could actually say, but I just don’t think I’m that good of a writer. I’ll leave my friend Kraig Smith over at Boy Hates Girl to write the things I wish I had the pithy prose to write. Suffice to say, I’ve never, in all my 15 years of voting, felt happier about a vote. Let’s do this thing, people.

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]]> http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/106/feed Start BossaNovember a few days early… http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/105 http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/105#comments Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:31:58 +0000 Koven http://kovenjsmith.com/?p=105 …with a visit to Spike Hill in Brooklyn to see Latin Hustle! We returnHustlin\'! to Spike Hill in historic Williamsburg to play more old school sambas about the ineffable sadness of existence and also George Michael songs for you. Forget the socioeconomic meltdown for about 45 minutes–it’s free. At least 50% of the set will be sung in Brazilian Portuguese, or your money back.

More information on the events page.

]]> http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/105/feed Are You Gonna Let Them Shoot You Down (Mixtape 10/23/08) http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/103 http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/103#comments Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:17:15 +0000 Koven http://kovenjsmith.com/?p=103 Shaft in AfricaImage via WikipediaAwright, so my new online/virtual/cyber m(i/u)xtape o-sphere is now up, meaning that all five of you who read this can collectively exhale and begin enjoying your lives again, free of the anxiety borne out of anticipation. Koven understands your needs. Also your wants. And occasionally, your desires. I finally went ahead and moved the mixtape widget over into the right hand column over there (seriously, look to your right–it’s right there!), so that it would be permanently available. It replaces the little-loved “Favorite Tracks from Last.fm” widget, which was cool, but relied too much on Last.fm’s occasionally questionable library of tracks (most painful was listening to my own “favorite tracks” and hearing an 80’s re-recording of Sam & Dave’s classic “You Got Me Hummin’” in place of the original). Anyway, I’m still using the Last.fm recent track list, for those of you who require up-to-the-second information on what I’m listening to. So here’s a list of what we’ve got this week, along with helpful/meaningless commentary inserted at random:

  1. The Frames - “In the Deep Shade”
  2. The Shins - “Sea Legs”
  3. King Geedorah - “The Next Level”
  4. Joao Donato - “A Ra” : we might be playing this jam at next week’s Latin Hustle show at Spike Hill in Brook-a-lyn. See the “Events” page fer more info.
  5. Lee Hazlewood - “Hey Cowboy” : Great tune that I discovered thanks to the excellent “Joe de Vivre” mp3 blog. Lee Hazlewood is a new thing for me, and I’m definitely digging his stuff. That trumpet intro really, really sounds like Burt Bacharach to me.
  6. Fleet Foxes - “Blue Ridge Mountains” : found myself surprised at how excellent this record is, given that the band is being advertised in Starbucks.
  7. Enon - “Raisin Heart”
  8. Deerhoof - “My Purple Past”
  9. The Four Tops - “Are You Man Enough” : Just a last tribute to the great Levi Stubbs. This is one of my fave Four Tops tracks, from the Shaft In Africa soundtrack.
  10. Daedelus - “Drummery Jam” : Oh man, how do I love Daedelus. He was responsible for one of the greatest concerts I’ve ever seen, as part of the “Sound Art” concert series curated by my friend Jennifer Stock. Daedelus just blew everyone’s mind.
  11. Stars of the Lid - “A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process”

    12. That’s it for now, kids. I hope you’re all well.

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]]> http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/103/feed Levi Stubbs, June 6, 1936 – October 17, 2008 http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/102 http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/102#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:43:56 +0000 Koven http://kovenjsmith.com/?p=102 I just learned this morning that Levi Stubbs, lead singer of the Four Tops and easily my all-time favorite Motown vocalist, passed away on Friday at the age of 72. Levi was just the absolute fucking best. It’s really easy to take the Four Tops for granted, given their ubiquity on oldies radio and the fact that, in many ways, they exemplified the sound of the Motown production machine more than somewhat more idiosyncratic acts like Marvin Gaye or Smokey Robinson. But goddamn, you listen to Levi on prime Tops tracks like “Bernadette,” “Shake Me Wake Me (When It’s Over),” or even late-period inconsequentialities like “Are You Man Enough” (from the soundtrack to Shaft In Africa), and you realize the man just sang with absolutely everything he had all the time. Nobody sounds more real, more heartbreaking, than Levi Stubbs. I miss him.

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]]> http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/102/feed An album for every year you’ve been alive http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/98 http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/98#comments Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:12:28 +0000 Koven http://kovenjsmith.com/?p=98 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album coverImage via WikipediaSo this is an internet meme that’s been out there for a while, but I’m only just now finally getting my contribution in (how typical). I first discovered this on the excellent music blog Idolator; the idea is that you choose one, and only one, album for every single year you’ve been alive. I’m not at all sure why, but this proved to be an utterly riveting exercise rather than an exhausting one. It’s strange what limiting you to only one album per year does–it forced me to choose Outlandos d’Amour, my least favorite Police album, because 1978 didn’t have nearly the competition for slots that 1982, the year of my favorite Police album (Ghost In the Machine), did. Certain years were particularly painful to do (2003 and 2006 were especially heartbreaking), with four or five amazing albums gunning for the top slot, while some years were so thin with competitors that a wild card like Weird Al’s Dare to be Stupid could make it in. Anywayz, here’s my list. Derisive comments, as always, are welcome.

1975 - Miles Davis, Pangaea
1976 - Joni Mitchell, Hejira
1977 - Fela, Zombie
1978 - The Police, Outlandos d’Amour
1979 - Gang of Four, Entertainment!
1980 - XTC, Black Sea
1981 - Mission of Burma, Signals, Calls, & Marches
1982 - Michael Jackson, Thriller
1983 - Men at Work, Cargo
1984 - Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense
1985 - Weird Al Yankovic, Dare to be Stupid
1986 - Paul Simon, Graceland
1987 - John Adams, Nixon In China
1988 - Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
1989 - Tone Loc, Loc’ed After Dark
1990 - Living Colour, Time’s Up
1991 - Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik
1992 - PJ Harvey, Dry
1993 - Sting, Ten Summoner’s Tales
1994 - Jawbox, For Your Own Special Sweetheart
1995 - Pie, Strictly Seance
1996 - DJ Shadow, Endtroducing…
1997 - Stereolab, Dots and Loops
1998 - Fugazi, End Hits
1999 - The Dismemberment Plan, Emergency & I
2000 - Faraquet, The View From This Tower
2001 - Bjork, Vespertine
2002 - Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2003 - Jay-Z, The Black Album
2004 - The Bad Plus, Give
2005 - The Books, Lost and Safe
2006 - Matmos, The Rose Has Teeth In the Mouth of the Beast
2007 - Caribou, Andorra

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]]> http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/98/feed Opentape http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/96 http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/96#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:49:30 +0000 Koven http://kovenjsmith.com/?p=96 As many regular readers of this site may know, I was a huge fan of the online mixtape site Muxtape.com. It was a simple, sleek way to share what you’re listening to, and relied on your own uploads, rather than publicly available mp3s, as sites like Mixtwit and blip.fm do. Well, as with all good things music+technology related, the RIAA has, for the time being, shut the site down. In the meantime, some totally fresh dudes have put together a downloadable open-source version of virtually the same software, called “Opentape.” For the hell of it, I’ve installed it here on the wildly overqualified servers at kovenjsmith.com for your listening pleasure. If this works out, and if I finally add some real styling to it to make it fit in better with the rest of kovenjsmith.com, I’ll put up some kind of permanent link to it. For the time being, you can get to the most current playlist/mixtape here. I totally put Boz Scaggs on there. Because as I’ve told many of you, “Lowdown” is the new “Easy Lover.” Cheers, everyone!

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]]> http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/96/feed Music cognition http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/93 http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/93#comments Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:56:32 +0000 Koven http://kovenjsmith.com/?p=93 Music Cognition Group at the ILLC / University...Image via WikipediaI’ve of late become a regular reader of “Music Matters“, an excellent blog on music cognition written by Henkjan Honing, an Associate Professor in Music Cognition at the University of Amsterdam (that’s him on the right in the picture). The blog is utterly fascinating, as it focuses on the search for answers that most musicians (myself included) have only begun to ask about why do we, as humans, process music the way we do. You should go there yourself and check it out, but there’s also an excellent introduction to the study of music cognition and Honing’s approach to it in the form of a 10-minute episode of the University of Amsterdam’s series The Fascination (De Fascinatie). Really, really interesting stuff. Enjoy!
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]]> http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/93/feed Dance For a Small Room - This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/92 http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/92#comments Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:36:47 +0000 Koven http://kovenjsmith.com/?p=92 Okay, kids–the time is now. “Dance For a Small Room,” a new work that is the result of almost eight months of collaboration between Ellen Cornfield and myself, premieres this weekend at the Abrons Arts Center. The work features the full company of Cornfield Dance in addition to two guest artists from the Jose Limon Company. Full details may be found on the “Events” page.

In addition to the electronic score, the work features the talents of several wonderful musicians who accompany the performance onstage throughout the work. I’ve been working with these folks (Ben Syversen-trumpet, Michael Eaton-tenor saxophone, Don Undeen and Morgan Price-bass clarinet, John Lindaman and Jeff Litman-guitar, and Madelyn Burgess-electric bass) all week in rehearsal, and their efforts continue to astound me. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

Here are a few excerpts from the score–enjoy:
Download audio file (DFASR_Part2_20080616.mp3)

Download audio file (DFASR_Part3_20080616.mp3)

Hope to see you there!

]]> http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/92/feed More “Dance for a Small Room” music http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/91 http://kovenjsmith.com/archives/91#comments Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:51:35 +0000 Koven http://kovenjsmith.com/?p=91 First off, thanks for those of you who came to the Latin Hustle show a few weeks back–the response was overwhelming and beautiful. There are some nice pitchers that various friends took of the show, which hopefully I’ll be able to post soon.

Aaaaanyway, I’ve pretty much been writing music almost nonstop since then, in preparation for the upcoming performances of “Dance for a Small Room” with Cornfield Dance (see the Events page for more information on that). So here, with little fanfare, is some very new music that you will be hearing as part of the new piece. It’s super-new (less than 24 hours old!), so please forgive the fact that it cuts off, seemingly right in the middle. That will be fixed later. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Added an ending, sort of.

Download audio file (Improv%20Section_20080604.mp3)

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