how to kill a software application

All the way back in April, I took a look at the explosion of twitter applications for OS X, after realizing that my then client of choice, twhirl, was essentially end-of-lifed after being acquired by Seesmic. After much exploration, I found EventBox, which was in beta and combined twitter with RSS feeds, Facebook and a bunch of other services. Unlike many of the other social networking clients out there, EventBox had a very Mac-like UI, and while short on some features, did a lot of things really well.

So I paid my $15 and used EventBox to manage my Facebook and Twitter feeds, and after NetNewsWire acquired ads, migrated my RSS feeds to Google Reader, which was supported by EventBox. So with one app, I could manage several things all at once. EventBox had a small development team that was pretty responsive, and while not associated with a large, trendy fan base like Seesmic Desktop, was a cool app nonetheless. Recently, EventBox development forked into a separate beta called Multibox, that had a lot of future features intended for EventBox. It lacked some functionality, though, like smart folders and even Facebook integration, so I kept using my EventBox beta, which served my purposes and held the promise of a lot of new functionality and even an iPhone app. I was a happy, nerdy social networker

Well, all that’s down the toilet.

Several weeks ago, EventBox was acquired by RealMac Software. I thought “Great-now they’ll have resources to bring new functionality to EventBox in a more rapid timeframe.” Boy, was I misguided. First, they renamed the app “Socialite” (note to RealMac Software: if you’re trying to build awareness of a new application whose user base is still pretty small compared with the big apps like TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop, don’t change the name).

Then they released a beta today that broke most of everything.

First I noticed that my Google Reader items, after being marked as Read, reverted to Unread after the service was refreshed. Then I quit Socialite to see if that would help, only to find that after restarting, the main window was not there unless I went into the menu bar and selected it. The Preferences item was grayed out, and a host of bugs ensued. I took the advice of RealMac and rebuilt the various services like Twitter and Facebook, and at least the prefs and window behaved as normal. But then I found that threads were no longer functional, whereas they had worked fine in previous EventBox betas. And Facebook keeps trying to update and fails. And yes, the Google Reader unread items bug is still present.

Realizing that one of my most-used applications no longer works, I went back and tried Seesmic Desktop, and while the interface is, to put it mildly, suboptimal, it works. Even better, it has a lot of functionality that isn’t found in Socialite/EventBox, and probably never will. Seesmic Desktop doesn’t do RSS, but I went back to NetNewsWire, and that works fine as always. I just have to ignore the ads, which is no big deal.

Back to Socialite. It’s a shame that RealMac killed it with this beta. I’m willing to wait it out and see if things improve, but I’d like to see new features, not bug fixes just to get me back to where I was before today. True, I could revert to the last beta of EventBox, but why bother when I have stability and added functionality, albeit with two applications rather than one?

In terms of social networking apps, I use Echofon (neé Twitterfon-what’s with all these social networking applications changing names all of a sudden? Geez…) on my iPhone, but could be convinced to use TweetDeck if I also cared to use it on my MacBook Pro, which I don’t, mainly because its layout is even worse than Seesmic’s. I’d be interested in seeing Seesmic’s forthcoming iPhone app, especially if it enabled syncing. EventBox was planning an iPhone app in the future, but that effort seems kinda dead for the foreseeable future. Which is a shame.

I’d love to have a single application that did twitter/FB/RSS and synced with my iPhone. But that isn’t the case so far. I paid for Twitterfon (now Echofon) and am pretty happy with that. I paid for EventBox (now Socialite) and am no longer happy with that. Seesmic is free, at least for now, and I can put up with the bad UI given that it works pretty well.

So this has been counterintuitive. I thought that a larger company acquiring a small application development team would be a recipe for success from a user perspective. It isn’t, at least in this case. I remember many, many years ago when Symantec acquired the makers of MacTools Pro. MTP was a really great system repair utility, perhaps the best ever. Symantec killed it after buying it. Norton Utilities for the Mac never approached the usability and versatility of MTP. In the case of RealMac buying the manufacturer of EventBox, it’s even worse, since the damned software doesn’t work. And who charges for a beta anyway? Paying for it sorta made sense at the time because it sounded like a 1.0 release was really on the horizon, and I could save a little money over the price when the official release came out. In retrospect, that was stupid. And it’s insane that the original developers (The Cosmic Machine) and now RealMac charged and continue to charge. I’d like a refund, although I doubt that will ever be in the cards. I’ll probably never ever pay for a beta, even as much as I like to support small software developers.

Sigh…back to checking my RSS feeds, Facebook and Twitter feeds. It’s an experience.

torture memos (a survivor from guantánamo) (2009) for nine instruments

Since June, I’ve been composing a piece for two female voices, flute, bass clarinet, marimba, electric bass, violin, cello and piano. The piece is titled torture memos (a survivor from guantánamo) and is one of three works I’ve written with a political/social action title (the others being darfur pogrommen and zichron (in memory of bisan, maye, aya and nur abu al-aish)). As mentioned in an earlier post, I had considered setting poetry by torture victims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo, but the source poems didn’t grab me. Besides, I’m not sure the music would have done the poems justice.

So tonight I managed to put the final edits into the piece, so it’s completed. A few comments:

• The piece is a bit of a departure from my recent music. At the same time, it’s also an evolution and natural progression. In other words, it still sounds like me, but it’s not a rehash of a lot of earlier works. So I suspect people will either love it or really hate it; there’s no middle ground. If you’re disappointed, no worries.
• Don’t expect doom and gloom despite the title. This isn’t “program music.” In most ways, the title has nothing to do with the music.
• While the wind and vocal parts are far easier than some I’ve written, in that there are rests and intentional spots to breathe, in some areas the performers are on their own; when they need to grab a breath, they can, since many of the parts are doubled.
• No matter what I did, Finale 2010’s playback put in some unwritten and unwanted accents in some of the repeated eighth note sections. I gave up trying to solve this problem, since it seems unsolvable. It might be related to the ambience plugin, but without adding in resonance the audio file sounds worse than with ambience + accents, so I’m learning to live with it. Same thing happened in the final measures of ushabti, and it still drives me crazy.
• The audio level is higher than it should be-the entire piece is actually p throughout, so feel free to listen at a low volume

The duration clocks in at just over 40 minutes. The audio file, such as it is, is here. The score (bass clarinet is written as it sounds) is here.

dangerous parallels

I’ve been very concerned, as have many, by the forceful, venal and often racist attacks on our president. Recently, I’ve been reading Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency by James Bamford on my iPhone, and it’s interesting to notice how much opposition, even at the level of a potential military coup, there was to Kennedy’s early administration. He was felt to be too soft on Cuba, decided against invading the island after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and engendered a lot of crazy opposition from the John Birch Society and others. Obama has the birthers and the teabaggers, but that might pale against the forces that were arrayed against JFK from the outset.

The scary thing is that we know what happened to JFK. And Rabin. As much as I wish Obama would do more to make good on his promised changes for the country, he is my president. Our president. The fact that folks on the right are cheering against this country because they so desperately want Obama to fail is mind-boggling to me. The atmosphere is toxic, and can turn deadly very quickly. We have talks about secession-serious discussions even-and some bring guns to town hall meetings and presidential visits.

This is why I feel eerily reminiscent of the early 60’s. I was born in 1961, two weeks before JFK was inaugurated. But I think I’m living it over again as I read more about the fervent rumor mongering and name calling the right did against another president who had a great vision for the US.

fan mail, I get fan mail! (part 2 of a series)

another piece is on its way

Looking back at the past year and a half, it’s actually been the most productive musical year I’ve ever had. By my count, I’ve composed six pieces, and another is on its way. That’s amazing, at least in my opinion. For the most part, I had tended to compose one piece of music per year. Maybe two on occasion, but usually just one. Sometimes it took me even longer to finish a piece; three years wasn’t uncommon. In terms of people actually hearing my music, I’ve had one piece premiered, only a few months after it was written. And a few weeks after that concert premiere, it was heard on the radio on WPRB-FM. That’s never happened to me before.

Similarly, Steve Layton released his beautifully crafted realization of my piano work textbook, and it was heard on the first Music from Other Minds broadcast of the 2009-2010 season, with the opening selected as the show’s theme music for this year.

So why have I been so productive composition-wise since April of 2008? Probably because I spend 1-2 weeks each month in the Bay Area for work, and when I’m in my hotel room at night can work on new pieces. Having the time to write has been extremely fleeting since I started composing music several decades ago. In order to compose, I had to compromise, and that usually meant giving up sleep, time with my family, etc. Since I’m home only half the time, I have no more time to give up for my music except when I’m out on the West Coast, so that’s worked pretty well. That doesn’t make the notes come any easier-if anything, it’s really hard to motivate oneself to write music when you’re sleep deprived, off by three time zones, and have to sit in a really uncomfortable position to get access to a portable keyboard and laptop because hotel rooms rarely have desks that can accommodate 88-keys.

So on to the new piece-it’s been a real slog, since it’s based largely on some improvisations I did over the past year and required me to notate them while scoring the output for a chamber ensemble. But this past week was the charm; I got past the drudgery and things started to come together. I was up until almost 1:30 AM last night getting a lot of the piece done. It’s not there yet, but it’s 21+ minutes and counting, not that that matters. If anything, that’s a pretty short work for me. The piece is scored for two female voices (soprano/mezzo), flute, bass clarinet, electric bass, marimba, violin, cello and piano. It’s an unusual ensemble, but was dictated by both my preference for some of the instruments along with the range requirements of the piece.

What’s it called? torture memos (a survivor from guantánamo). I wanted to write a piece that called attention to the crimes against humanity committed by the Bush/Cheney administration, and initially thought to set some poetry of US torture victims to music. However, the existing poetry by Guantánamo inmates that I found just wasn’t to my taste. So I thought that, rather than set words by the victims to music, it would be more fitting for the music to be the main focus. That doesn’t mean that the music is doom and gloom–I’m not Shostakovich, of course. To some extent, the music doesn’t seem to even have anything to do with the subject. And that’s the point; I don’t compose “program music.” But I do want the music to at least provoke some thought, even if only through a title.

I’m next out this way in late October, so hopefully I’ll have even more progress at that point to report. But in any case, this has been a very busy musical year, and with luck, it will continue. That’s great news if you like my music. If you hate it, then this has been the 18 months from hell. Sorry about that.

But if you aren’t freaked out by new music, here’s an eight-minute excerpt from the current draft of torture memos. Remember, it’s still a work in progress, but this is a good chunk of what I was working on last night. This part was a pleasure to write. Whether it’s a pleasure to listen to is beyond my pay grade.

odds and ends

My usual 7:45 AM flight to San Francisco got cancelled so I have some time on my hands here at Philadelphia International and figured I should do a quick update of some sundry items:

• I went to a Sharing Ramadan event at the Foundation for Islamic Education in Villanova, PA last night to break the fast with a lot of wonderful folks of all different backgrounds and faiths. I was very struck by how diverse the local Muslim population is and how accepting they are. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, white or of color, etc. Everyone shares with everyone else and there is a genuine community. There are so many similarities with Judaism, but at the same time I don’t know that every synagogue is really that welcoming or open to people of different backgrounds. There are indeed Jews of color, but they are often marginalized or dismissed (or worse, mistaken for the “hired help.”). The other thing that delighted me was how much the Muslims I spoke with truly want dialogue and friendship with those of other faiths. We need this, and badly.
• Still working on the torture memos piece very slowly. It’s coming along, though. I am also thinking of trying to put together a piece for harpsichord as well as another piano piece. Now, all I need are the ideas.
• I was really happy to have had two radio premieres in two weeks. I guess that’s not too bad for a gynecologist.
• Speaking of gynecology, I’ll be at the next AAGL meeting in Orlando. We have three abstracts being presented there. Also not too bad for a gynecologist.
• I think Twitter is starting to replace blogging, but slowly
• Great, the flight I got booked on leaving over six hours after the flight I was supposed to take is oversold. Should I take a voucher to wait some more for a flight that gets me in to SFO six hours later than I will now? Uh, I don’t think so…

bs piece: radio premiere Weds, 9/9 on WPRB-FM, 103.3

Last week I polluted the West Coast airwaves with textbook on KALW-FM. This week, it’s Princeton’s radio station WPRB-FM, where Marvin Rosen hosts Classical Discoveries, and will be programming a 24-hour new music marathon starting tonight at 7 PM EST. Marvin is going to program the radio premiere of bs piece as performed on 8/6 by Bill Solomon and Mike Lunoe at the Hartt School of Music. The broadcast should be sometime between 11 am and noon tomorrow (Weds, 9/9) and there’s a live audio stream at http://www.wprb.com. Enjoy!

radio premiere of ‘textbook’ (1984-1987) on Music From Other Minds

Friday, September 4, 2009, 11 PM PST on KALW-FM, 91.7, sections 1, 2 and 4 of textbook: music of solitary landscapes in hyperspace (piece for IPS), as realized by Steve Layton will be heard on Music From Other Minds. Amazingly, the opening will serve as the theme music for Music From Other Minds through next summer. Thanks to Steve Layton for taking two weeks out of his life to create a great realization of this two hour piano work, and to Richard Friedman for programming this monster on his wonderful new music program.

buy this album…seriously

Now on iTunes (and eMusic and Amazon). Thanks to Steve Layton, who did a phenomenal job making this all happen.

And did I mention you get over two hours of truly kickass music for $9.99? It’s a bahgain…

idiot music

Composer JC Combs commented on my Facebook page, “Your works are not easy to play. Only an idiot would think that.” He’s right. But what’s interesting is my music would probably be taken as the work of an idiot by folks who feel that nearly every note has to have a dynamic, articulation or some other marking specified. The above is from the piano work Mists by Iannis Xenakis. Not a bad work, and certainly looks more complicated than this:

This is the first page of this piece intentionally left blank, which is an open instrumentation work. See that single metronome marking and dynamic at the top left; that’s it for the entire piece. With the exception of a few sixteenth notes near the end, this is as rhythmically diverse as it gets: straight sixteenth notes that go on for around ten minutes.

Same with the recently premiered bs piece:

Now, I’ve written plenty of music that looks just as formidable and “acceptable” as the Xenakis excerpt above, certainly back in the late 70’s and early 80’s before I was unplugged from the matrix:

four landscapes for six instruments (1978-1979)

ineffabilities (1980-1981)

Ouch-scary stuff. Now, I love all the music I’ve just referenced, complex or “simple” on the face of it. What matters in the end is the music itself, not how many nuances are communicated to the performers or how difficult the notation appears. Anyone who has performed my “idiot pieces” knows how incredibly bitchy they can be to play, both technically and interpretively. My personal bias is that I don’t need to give a huge Rosetta Stone to performers in order for them to figure out how to play my music. They’ll figure it out, and place their own stamps on the music in the process. And many of my rhythms even within an “idiot piece” can be extremely difficult to pull off:

zichron (2009)

two rhythmic spaces (2009)

Any of a number of new music composers are writing “idiot pieces” on a daily basis, music that looks unrefined, “simple” and akin to the work of a novice. These folks include Steve Reich, Philip Glass and predecessors like Cage (particularly some of his early piano works like In a Landscape) and Satie (pretty much everything he wrote was “unrefined”). My point is that you don’t have to, and even shouldn’t, write music that is designed for the academic complexity crowd. Been there, done that. My music is difficult enough, and the world doesn’t need another Xenakis, Ferneyhough or Boulez (I can barely follow some of his scores, and after awhile I think to myself “why bother?” and go do something else).