The Arc Choir

Okay, here is one thing that I would really like to be able to do here on this blog, music reviews. This week, The Arc Choir's "Walk With Me" album [more info].

This album is great and is perfect for February, Black History Month. This collection of gospel music is performed by the Arc Choir, the Addicts Rehabilitation Center Gospel Choir. It is truely amazing. Here is what Fred Kaplan wrote in 1997 concerning the ARC choir.

"Before you slip on The ARC Gospel Choir's Walk With Me [Mapleshade], be forewarned: this is no soothing daisyfield of New Age serenity. ARC stands for the Addicts Rehabilitation Center of East Harlem, its singers are former druggies whose souls were wrested from the flames of hell by the Hand of Jesus, and they want you to know the joy of their redemption. This is raw, raucous stuff, thirty-two proud, strong voices crooning, hollering, and sweetly harmonizing as if at the portals of Heaven's gate, hands clapping, feet stomping, swaying to the tough-love discipline of a tight ensemble order. Pierre Sprey, Mapleshade's proprietor-engineer, captures every ounce of it, with an analogue tape recorder and three PZM microphones — a pair mounted on either side of his custom Plexiglas wedge, another single mic lightly spotlighting the basses. Hamiett Bluiett, the baritone saxophone player who has produced several Mapleshade discs, led Sprey to the choir and to the church where he recorded them. As Sprey says in the liner-notes, "The acoustics were just right for recording a choir: warm and reverberant but crystal clear so that individual voices wouldn't be lost in a haze of murky echo." You've got a front-pew seat at the Kelly Temple Church of God in Christ, the dynamics quake and thunder, and even a heathen like me can't help but be inspired. "

Check it out.

For T452
www.bencrum.com
The Soon to be Updated BC Online
Okay so I don't think this would really count has posting a blog entry, but I did want to have this up here so that everyone can check out BC Online, my personal web-site and soon to be portfolio. There are however two articles that I was reading tonight that I thought were great. First is this one from Wired in which I find that people actually believe in some scams that go around online. I find it hard to believe that some of this email scams actually work but I guess if you find a wealthy enough dumb person it might just fly (I would recomend scamming Hollywood CA in that case). The second article comes from the best News source on the web, The Onion, okay so this one has nothing to do with technology but I think this whole Atkins thing is a joke, so enjoy.

Nota Bene
I would like to point out quickly the header of this blog and state that some day soon I will in fact endevour to meet such goals. However, I am not reading current events but rather great works of the past, thus my view of the world exists but is not judging events swirling around us. Perhaps the future will hold more opinion and less drival.

Time Rolls On
What do I do with myself? I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing as I sit arounf Bloomington with no work to do, no job to go to, and no Michal to keep me company. Now I really don't want to be sappy, I just have nothing to occupy my time. I have both hobbies and classwork, neither though truly fills time. I have started reading more and more often but still I feel hopelessly bored. I don't want to get back into a routine of sleeping when I am bored because that made me sleep all the time (which I am suggesting is not good). Well, I guess this is not supposed to be an online personal journal but I do not think that one such post will be too bad.

A Long Day Begins
Today is, and will continue to be, one of those days that drags on and on. I didn't go to the men's group thing this morning but I did get up at 7:30 and took a shower. I don't know if I am suposed to attend the wednesday meeting of my I451 class but I didn't bother with it this morning. Now I am sitting in my Telecom Flash class and I have another Fine Arts Flash class later today. After that I have Kid's Quest at church and then some more work for Broad Reach Recordings.

New From Zambinia
I checked my mail today and found that I had two messages from Michal, one nice and long and full of wonderful detail into everyday Africainian life, and the other short and sweet and just what I wanted to hear. I look forward to hearing more soon.

The New Semester Begineth - or - Flash, the Final Frontier
As I look at my schedule for the next semester, that's not what I am doing right now, I see that my semester will be almost compleetly tied up in a little application called Flash. As of right now I have three classes on the subject, one (telecom's T425 on flash apps on unconventional devices) will be all new and moslty conseptiual, another (fine art's T330) will be almost all dealing with Action Script and will be very helpful in my Informtaics capstone class. The third and final Flash class is based on design and advertising and I am going to drop it. I just cannot handle three classes, in a row, in front of a computer.

One thing that has been on my mind recently is what this all will mean for my future. Will I inevitably sit in front of a comuter and deign "cool" graphics that fly across stranger's screens and help them have a more enjoyable web-surf? I sure hope not.