The Angry Frenchman Says...

Keyboard Cat app for iPhone!

2009-08-14T06:18:37Z

After many weeks of delays for what should have been a no-brainer app, Apple finally approved my first iPhone app submission yesterday, and it is now available on the App Store!

If you like the Keyboard Cat Internet meme and you have an iPod touch or iPhone, then you'll like this app. Its features are pretty simple :

"Play off" people by playing the original keyboard cat video;
Watch a selection of the best YouTube videos where Keyboard Cat plays off somebody, updated daily.

There are more features coming soon, such as a way to e-mail videos and a connection with Facebook and the corresponding Facebook app.

Help support indie developers like myself and grab a copy now! :) I need to build up a user base. Positive ratings and/or reviews in iTunes are also greatly appreciated.

Web site for the app, with more info : iphonekeyboardcat.com - please pass it on!

Metal Keyboard Cat video

2009-06-27T02:41:52Z

I haven't recorded a video in quite a while, but there is my latest! Just riding the Keyboard Cat wave...

Finally, after 5 long years, the wait is over...

2009-02-11T00:33:33Z

A couple of minutes ago, I have finally received the magic email I have been stressing about for the past 5 years or so:

Application Type: I485 , APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS

Current Status: Notice mailed welcoming the new permanent resident.

On February 10, 2009, we mailed you a notice that we had registered this customer's new permanent resident status. Please follow any instructions on the notice. Your new permanent resident card should be mailed within 60 days following this registration or after you complete any ADIT processing referred to in the welcome notice, whichever is later. If you move before you get your new card call customer service. You can also receive automatic e-mail updates as we process your case. Just follow the link below to register.

In short: I AM GETTING MY GREEN CARD!!!

After living here in the US for almost 10 years now, I am just NOW being considered a permanent resident! This new status gives me a new level of freedom: to travel, work for whom I want, etc.

We will be having a green card party at our place very soon. Stay tuned for details!

I am incredibly excited and so relieved about this!

R.I.P. Gretchen

2009-01-20T09:27:57Z

March 1989 - January 19, 2009

After a sudden turn for the worse late last week, jennhi and I had to put our dearly beloved cat Gretchen to sleep on Monday. She was affected by a variety of internal health conditions, but it became apparent that her quality of life was degrading significantly.

She lived a long and happy life, coming just a few weeks short of reaching the 20 year milestone, which in itself is quite the achievement. We knew that this moment was coming sooner than later, but it didn't make it any easier.

I have only had the privilege to know her for the past two and a half years, yet it was enough time for a strong bond to form between us. I will miss her terribly. We loved her like our own daughter; that ultimate decision was all the more devastating as she kept her kitten external appearance up till the end.

We can only keep solace in the hope that we made the right decision. It has been a very tough weekend, but it gave us all a chance to say her goodbyes and give her all the attention she deserved.

May she rest in peace.

As a kitten, circa 1989

Wash + TGCMS

2008-10-24T08:40:34Z

For the Firefly fans out there!

Coming out of retirement...

2008-08-30T00:42:34Z

Well, I haven't posted on LJ in a long time, and I especially haven't posted any music reviews in a very long time... I just came to the point where I couldn't catch up with my backlog of concerts, and got busy with other, more interesting side projects.

However I am happy to announce that I am temporarily coming out of blogging retirement to write about the trip jennhi and I made to Pittsburgh, PA last week-end. We attended the Three Rivers Prog Rock Festival, and had a fantastic time. I felt compelled to write a review of the entire event, complete with pictures and many videos.

Check it out on last.fm if you are interested.

It was truly an unforgettable weekend!

I really doubt I'll get back to blogging more regularly, even though I still browse my LJ friends almost daily. I'm going to be busy with my new project: iPhone applications. Fun fun fun!

We're moved in !

2008-03-07T03:19:26Z

This update should probably have been posted much sooner, but in case you didn't hear, jennhi, Gretchen and I moved together in our new place in Culver City last month! This has been keeping both of us rather busy, but it is finally starting to feel like we're settled in at last. Everything seems to be in place, with a few exceptions, but the bulk of the work is finally done! Woohoo!

A bit more on the place itself: it's a 2-bedroom/2-bath condo (that we're renting out from the owner) in Fox Hills. We're right across from the Fox Hills Park, of which we have a great view from the large windows in the living room. We got a great kitchen, HUGE balconies, an office full of various geekery and all sorts of musical instruments, and my large screen HDTV and 7.1 surround system are now comfortably set up in the living room. :)

To top it off, the complex features a nice swimming pool, outside BBQ area, club house with pool table (!!), sauna, gym... Perfect for gatherings of friends! So be on the lookout for an invitation to the housewarming party soon! :D

On that note, I have a couple of things to get rid of, so if you're interested by any of these items, just let me know!

My old corner desk, which is great to store a computer in the corner of a room. I got a bigger one so don't need that one anymore. It's easy to put together (I took it apart) and has plenty of cable management. The desk is exactly 3 feet by 3 feet, with a little cut-out for the outside corner. Check out the picture!
My old Dolby Digital / DTS 5.1 A/V receiver (Kenwood VR-309). I just changed it for a much better new one, but that one served me well for many years. It doesn't include the speakers you would need to attach to it, but it supports video (composite and S-video only) and can be used as a switchbox between many sources. 100W output for each channel. Note that it has been flaky lately, hence why I changed it...

LOLgretchen pics :)

2008-01-04T23:12:36Z

What better way to celebrate the new year than with some lolcat pictures of jennhi's kitty, Gretchen? Here are a few of my attempts. Click on the picture to go rate them if you like them.

Happy New Year 2008 to everybody!!

'Twas a Kittymas weekend

2007-12-26T23:51:49Z

Sci-Fi Sounds Quiz

2007-12-22T21:01:18Z

	I received 77 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Take the Sci-Fi Movie Quiz digital camera ratings

Yaaar, my mateys

2007-09-19T20:03:09Z

In honor of talk like a pirate day, the following instructional video that I had posted here last year is still a good reference!

Avast!

All hail the Cool Nerd King !

2007-09-10T20:09:45Z

My nerd test results :

One more reason why Brian May is awesome

2007-07-18T00:14:33Z

Rock star back at university again after 33 gap years

From the article :

Brian May, the multimillionaire guitarist who founded the rock group Queen, has finally completed the PhD in astrophysics that he abandoned more than 30 years ago.

The 59-year-old composer of hits such as Fat Bottomed Girls and We Will Rock You turned his back on the stars for international fame with Freddie Mercury and his band. His thesis on interplanetary dust clouds lay gathering dust of its own in the attic of his home in Surrey.

May’s interest in the subject was rekindled last year when he co-authored a children’s science book with the astronomer Sir Patrick Moore. He discovered that remarkably little research had been done in the intervening 33 years.

He dug out his old handwritten notes and spent nine months conducting further research at Imperial College, London, where he had studied before Queen hit the big time.

May revealed his achievement when he received an honorary doctorate at Exeter University this week. He told students: “For the last nine months I’ve done nothing except slave over my PhD, which is now written up, thank God. But there are times when you really want to give up. There are times when you go, ‘Why on earth did I take this on?’ ”

After the ceremony he said: “I worked on my thesis at Imperial from 1971 to 1974 when I had to give it up because Queen became a full-time thing. I kept all my notes and I was able to find them in my loft and start working on them again.”

Using a giant telescope in the Canary Islands, May was able to show for the first time that dust clouds in the solar system are moving in the same direction as the planets. He will receive his PhD next May, provided that his thesis is approved by assessors.

Abigail Smith, a spokeswoman for Imperial College, said: “People are aware he is here and there is a feeling it is pretty cool that he has come back to finish his PhD, even if he has not been hugely visible.”

Simpsons + me = <3

2007-07-10T20:09:38Z

Here is what I might look like in the Simpsons world :

You can make your own avatar on the Simpsons Movie site.

In other news, I was one of the lucky recipients of a backstage pass for the upcoming Steve Vai tour. I'm going to meet Steve at the 9/11 concert at the Wiltern Theater in LA.

*squee*

Guitar Trainer mobile game is out!

2007-06-10T05:51:52Z

I am proud to announce the final release of my Java application for cell phones, Guitar Trainer !

It took me quite some time to complete the mobiletutor.org Web site on which it is hosted, but everything is now online and open for business.

Feel free to try out the free demo (that includes unlimited usage of the built-in instrument tuner!), or even purchase the full version.

This small application for mobile devices is an educational tool for musicians to help deepen their knowledge of the fretboard of their instrument. Here's a quick recap of the features :

Learn the location of notes on the fretboard of a guitar or other stringed instrument.
Supports a variety of standard and alternate string tunings: guitar, bass, banjo, ukulele, mandolin.
Training mode allows to focus learning on particular parts of the fretboard.
Game mode provides a fun way to make progress. Work your way through levels of increasing difficulty!
Train your ear at the same time as you improve your working knowledge of the instrument.
Left-handed and right-handed neck types.
Tune your instrument with your cell phone. Open string tones can be produced for any of the supported tunings!
Dynamic user interface that works on a wide variety of mobile devices.
Support for pointer input (stylus, touch screen, etc).
Available in English, French and German languages.

So if you know anybody interested by this kind of application, please spread the word! This can be an interesting tool for music teachers as well as apprentices, and musicians of all levels. I know I certainly wanted something like this as a guitarist, hence why I ended up writing it myself. :)

www.mobiletutor.org

VisualDNA meme

2007-04-27T02:37:04Z

Another thing that everybody else seems to be doing...

Secret Project X: help needed!

2007-04-25T21:59:41Z

For the past few weeks, I have been working on a pet project of mine in my spare time: an educational music game for cell phones.

It is now ready for wider testing and I need people with a variety of mobile devices to help me make sure it works well. If your phone is capable of playing games, you should be able to test this.

The game is called Guitar Trainer, and it is basically a fun way to learn your way around the fretboard of any stringed instrument (guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, ukulele so far).

Here is a quick screen shot of the thing in action!

So please head on to guitar.mobiletutor.org for more information (I own this new domain) and sign up for the beta! You just need to fill in a short form and installing it is easy. At worst, there's also a Web demo you can try straight from your browser.

Please let me know of any feedback/suggestions/ideas/compliments, your help is very much appreciated!

BoRhap covered by 25 artists!

2007-04-09T23:32:32Z

Here is an amazing rendition of my all-time favorite song, Bohemian Rhapsody :

I should also mention that I have posted two more reviews: the Abe Lincoln Story and Mike Keneally.

This morning, I also bought tickets to go see Rush at the Hollywood Bowl this coming July. w00t!

Concert: G3 '07 at the Orpheum Theater

2007-03-29T22:19:50Z

My review has been posted. Check it out if you'd like.

Going back to the Echo tonight to check out a last-minute show by the Abe Lincoln Story. I met their frontman, Steve Moramarco, at a party last week-end and he let us know about this show. Should be fun!

Concert reviews now syndicated!

2007-03-25T03:23:44Z

I've been thinking of doing this for a while, but I will now be posting my future concert reviews exclusively on my Last.fm journal, which is more friendly to this kind of material, providing automatic link to artist pages, events, etc.

It will also free up this personal blog, although I will probably still post links to the reviews here. I have created a syndicated LJ, angryfrenchman, which is just the RSS feed from the original journal. So if you enjoy my reviews, feel free to add it to your friends list!

I have already cross-posted the last 10 or so reviews I have written, so this will mostly save me the trouble of cross-posting. My only regret with this is Last.fm's inferior formatting capabilities for journal entries (no real HTML), but it's a minor detail compared to the community it builds.

And of course, all my old posts will stay here. Once again, feel free to add me as a friend on Last.fm if you have joined the site - which I highly recommend! It just keeps getting better.

Concert: The Poxy Boggards at the Galaxy Theater

2007-03-22T23:53:09Z

I went to Santa Ana's Galaxy Theater last Saturday for a special St Patrick's Day concert featuring the Poxy Boggards and the Merry Wives of Windsor.

Both groups could be better characterized as acoustic folk, of the kind that is routinely featured at Renaissance Faires. These two bands seem to have a tradition of coming together annually to celebrate the drinking on St Patrick's Day.

The Merry Wives is obviously an all-female group (with ten members in total if I counted right), quite fun with a few backup instruments.

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Poxy Boggards on the opposite, were an all-male group (of twelve members). They played very much the same kind of music, though on a rather raunchier side. They split their set with an intermission, probably to rest their voices?

Casting themselves as the "drinking group with a singing problem", they lived up to their name! There was an impressive amount of Guinness flowing to that stage. :)

The Poxy Boggards

It was an entertaining evening, though a bit exhausting standing up for most of the night, so we didn't stick around till the very end. A far shot from the usual progressive rock concerts I usually attend at this venue. Both bands were throwing away various St Pat's day goodies to the audience during the evening, though I didn't really catch much myself.

Coming up: my review of the fantastic G3 concert from last Sunday. It also looks like I don't have any more concerts scheduled for March, and April should be rather light as well.

Google meme

2007-03-14T18:27:44Z

Funny meme stolen from march__hare.

Google your name and "needs" and select the top 5 funniest selections.

And I get the following:

Stephane needs a woman and he has come to the right place. They're quite cheap. We are going to buy a bong and get STONED! Again.
I do think Stephane needs to work on his English a bit though.
Maybe Stephane needs to do some research before asking questions, as he is being smacked down now has become a daily occurrence.
With childlike innocence, Gondry shows that Stephane needs to use his imagination in order to communicate and love.
In fact, I was just saying to my hubby yesterday that Stephane needs a makeover. Perhaps a shorter, edgier "do". And some trendy new glasses!

:-P

Concert: Blackfield at the Knitting Factory

2007-03-14T00:59:53Z

On Saturday night, I headed to Hollywood's Knitting Factory to go check out one of my favorite recent side projects, Blackfield, a collaboration between Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree and Israeli pop star Aviv Geffen.

Being a big Porcupine Tree fan, and having really loved the first Blackfield album, I was really looking forward to seeing them on their first US west coast tour ever, in promotion of their second album (aptly titled Blackfield II).

Blackfield's music has Steven Wilson's mark all over it, yet it is very far from the technical prowess of Porcupine Tree's progressive rock. This music is much shorter, pop-oriented songs accessible to a mainstream audience. Think Porcupine Tree meets the Israeli equivalent of Justin Timberlake.

Knowing the club's tendency to feature their headlining acts really late in the night, we only got there a couple of hours after the doors opening time, apparently missing the first opening band. The show was sold out, so I was happy to have bought tickets way in advance for this show, considering they have a very successful following in Israel and large parts of Europe.

The setup at the Knitting Factory was really rather disappointing, as they didn't put them on their main stage, as they should have. Instead, they were relegated to the smaller and more awkward "front stage", where the stage itself is not as elevated (creating some real sight problems for most of the standing audience), and in a corner of the room. On top of it, the air conditioning didn't seem quite powerful enough for all the people, and it got really hot in there. Having gotten there rather late, we were stuck rather far from the stage.

Opening right before Blackfield was John Wesley, an American guitarist and songwriter who is well known for Porcupine Tree fans as he plays in all their live shows as the second guitar player. I've seen him a couple of times before doing his solo act, and he is also a very friendly person who takes the time to socialize with fans.

He played a few of his own solo songs, all by himself with his acoustic guitar, his voice and a basic looping machine. Pretty cool stuff. He was helped on his last couple of songs by a female vocalist, Chris Bradley. His set must have been about a half hour long.

Chris Bradley and John Wesley

After what seemed like a rather long break, Blackfield finally came on. Steven Wilson was wearing what seemed to be a Hebrew version of a red Coca-Cola T-shirt. In addition to Aviv, they had a full band, including drummer, keyboards and bassist.

They played songs from both of their albums, alternating pretty regularly between old and new. Their new album had just been released in the US on this week, and I had not had a chance to obtain a copy or listen to it yet, so a lot of what they played was new to me. I was hoping to pick up a copy at the show, but alas they didn't sell anything but T-shirts...

An interesting surprise was Steven Wilson's cover of an Alanis Morissette song, Thank You. He actually did a great job with that one, but that was just another proof of the rather pop feel of the night.

Blackfield: Steven Wilson and Aviv Geffen

Aviv showcased his own talents by playing guitar, as well as soloing on keyboards and vocals on a couple of songs. The show wasn't very long considering they didn't have that much material in the first place, but it thoroughly kicked ass!

It was rather hard to take any good pictures considering my position in the audience. After the show, I picked up a Steven Wilson CD that was on sale, Cover Version, which includes the Thank You cover he did earlier.

We waited a little bit, hoping to see the band and get some autographs - I had come fully equipped with PT and Blackfield CDs to have signed. While we did catch a glimpse of Aviv, once again only John Wesley was gracious enough to actually hang out with the fans. He signed my Deadwing CD and even got a picture with me! :)

John Wesfield and me!

So it was a really great evening of music, hanging out with a nice mix of a prog rock crowd and a good mix of a more mainstream audience. It was a privilege to see them on their first stop of their US tour, and I am looking forward to the Porcupine Tree show this coming May, when I'll see both Steven and Wes again on stage.

Coming up this week: the Poxy Boggards on Saturday, followed by the G3 tour on Sunday at the Orpheum, with John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert!

Concert: Frank Gambale at the Baked Potato

2007-03-13T00:10:17Z

On Friday evening, I went to the Baked Potato for yet another Frank Gambale gig. I have seen him a number of times in this club now, so I'll keep the review short.

Having the choice between this gig and a screening of 300, the decision was made for me when said screening sold out. Oops. In any case, Frank is always a lot of fun to watch, for any guitarist.

We got to the venue at 8pm, which surprisingly for a Friday show allowed us to find a parking spot right outside of the club! It turned out that we were the first in the club, and were thus able to secure the best seats, watching Frank warming up by himself on the stage.

The band was his usual trio, featuring Ric Fierabracci on bass and Joel Taylor on drums.

Ric Fierabracci and Frank Gambale

The two sets covered many of Frank's wide jazz-fusion repertoire, with quite a few songs featuring his double-neck guitar, the lower neck of which featured his famous alternate tuning. All three musicians were of course top-notch as usual, with Joel kicking much ass. Frank's trademark sweep-picking technique was as jaw-dropping as usual.

The last song of the night was one of Frank's older rock songs (before he refocused on jazz), which really rocked the house!

During the second set they seemed to have made a very strong impression on a loud, obnoxious drunk who started loudly cheering them on until the end of the show. Amusing at first, but quickly becoming creepy. At least nothing got violent.

The turnout at the venue was rather disappointing (the club was far from sold out), but it was a very good show. It's too bad Frank doesn't get as much exposure in his solo act as he does when paired with more prominent musicians. The last shows I saw him, with CAB and Alain Caron, had a much bigger attendance.

I took advantage of my privileged point of view on the stage to capture a few videos from the night. Check them out below!

On the double-neck guitar

Double Helix, a bluesy song

Coming up: review of the Blackfield show on Saturday!

Concert: WesFest 2 at the Gig

2007-03-10T03:03:58Z

On Tuesday I attended the second edition of WesFest at the Gig in Hollywood, a benefit concert raising funds for the Wes Wehmiller scholarship at Berklee School of Music.

The event featured 7 bands during the evening (from 7pm to around 1am), following last year's performance in February at the same club. Wes was a professional bass player (who most notably played in Duran Duran) who passed away from thyroid cancer about two years ago. Wes worked with many artists I personally enjoy, particularly Bryan Beller and Mike Keneally, which is what prompted me to go to WesFest in the first place. Last year's gig was a blast, and I was naturally looking forward to its sequel.

I got to the Gig on Melrose past 8pm, which means I missed the first artist, Janet Robin. I remember seeing her before in similar events, and she was pretty good, but of course I can't comment on her performance on this night.

The first band I saw was Jariya, an all-girl indie rock band featuring some Berklee alumni. They didn't have a drummer, but had two guitars. Eve Burgues, the lead singer (with a shaved head!), was also featured on keyboards. It was an interesting band, probably the most mellow of the night.

Jariya

Following them was Jude Crossen's band. Their material was much heavier, on the power-pop / punk side. They also had a female bassist.

Jude Crossen

Next were the Dirty Janks... One of the highlights of the evening for me. It featured Joe Travers on drums (from Zappa Plays Zappa and Mike Keneally), Rick Musallam on guitar (also from Keneally's band), wizard keyboardist Arlan Schierbaum, and Dorian Heartsong on bass.

The band played some very energetic jazz-infused instrumental rock. For a while I didn't really recognize Rick as he had shaved his head and was playing a different guitar than his usual Les Paul. Joe Travers kicked much ass as always, and it was fun to see him perform again after the Zappa tour. Arlan was a very good surprise, expertly playing a massive vintage keyboard setup, comprising a couple of mini Moogs and an Hammond organ.

Their set received a very warm welcome and really set the stage for what was going to follow. Most of these musicians would be back later in some of the other bands.

The Dirty Janks

The following band was really seven bands in one: the WesFest All-Stars, featuring performers from the first WesFest in 2006! Each of the songs in this set was featuring a slightly different line-up, highlighting the particular artist. Many of the musicians were shared, especially Bryan Beller on bass.

I, Claudius was the first band, featuring Colin Keenan on vocals and Griff Peters on guitar.

I, Claudius

Kira Small, who was contributing vocals on many of the bands, also had her own spot.

Ali Handal, a talented female guitarist / singer / songwriter was also featured on one song. Tristana Ward, who was also providing backing vocals a lot, even got a chance to showcase her solo performance.

On Bryan Beller's song View, on which he played piano, he was replaced on bass by Zappa Plays Zappa's bassist Pete Griffin. With Joe Travers still on drums, there was a strong Zappa vibe in the room!

Ali Handal

For a while I was worried that MIke Keneally would not be performing, as the end of this set was nearing and he was still a no-show. Fortunately, he finally joined Joe Travers, Rick Musallam and Bryan Beller on stage for a kick-ass rendition of his classic Lightning Roy. That alone made that gig worth it, my only regret however being that it was his only performance of the night.

Mike Keneally's band

For many people, the headliner of the night was really Stu Hamm, a very famous bassist who contributed with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai (among others), and was idolized by Wes and Bryan while at Berklee.

Stu Hamm

I had never seen Stu live before, and until that evening, I had not realized how great of a bassist he was. He performed the entirety of his set by himself, with just his electric guitar and his two hands. His technique is really mind-blowing, and he manages to play complex lines and take his instrument to a whole new level. Who would have thought 30 minutes of solo bass would not be boring?

On top of it, he had a great sense of humor. I captured several of his songs on video, which I posted below. I didn't record one of his songs, that blended Beatles and Beethoven flawlessly, but I did get his final song, which at almost 10 minutes long included several popular themes... from Peanuts to Star Trek!

Star Spangled Banner

Last Stu song

The last band of the night was Danny Mo and the Exciters. Danny Morris was a teacher, mentor and friend of Wes Wehmiller, and it was a fitting finale for another festival in his memory. He was joined by the recipient of the first Wes scholarship, Will Snyder, who was featured on both bass and keyboards. They were joined by legendary R&B drummer James Gadson.

Danny Mo and the Exciters

The music they played started rather jazzy, but then took a stronger rock/blues/funk turn as more of the previous performers joined in, including Arlan, Kira Small, Bryan, etc... It all turned out to be a big final jam!

All in all, it was another great success. The music was top-notch, and the event was very well organized. The down time between the bands was very reasonable, as they shared a lot of their equipment. The event didn't particularly run late at all, which is good for a show in the middle of the week. One nice thing was the free DVD program that was given to everybody in the audience, which basically includes a long slide-show about Wes' life and the performers of the evening.

This month is rather busy in terms of concerts. I'm just about to head out to the Baked Potato to check out Frank Gambale, and tomorrow is Blackfield at the Knitting Factory. Then next week the G3 tour and the Poxy Boggards. I also just got tickets for Roger Waters in June, who is coming back to the Hollywood Bowl!