this can't be true...

Yesterday i read about the saddest news for a long long time.

Terry Pratchett is a man whose brain has the overwhelming power of creating a whole new universe, which he did over the last roundabout 20 years. His books have everything I ever wanted to read : They are witty, funny and absolutely fantastic. His imagination and common sense are uncompared, in my opinion.

Now he has told the world that a rare kind of Alzheimer's disease has befallen him, a disease that will, eventually, make his brain disfunctional (loss of language, motoric skills etc.) and basically turn it into a plum pudding over the next 10-15 years.
Pratchett has also told the press that he "ain't dead yet", and i think he will never really be. The wor(l)d is printed, and - even if the man dies - it will remain. Only the good die young.

I want Terry to know that he has enriched my life in a way no one else could have, thank you, Terry. I hope you have many joyous days left. I will stick with you. Right now, I just feel like crying my eyes out...

If anyone cares to read the article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/13/terry_prachett_alzheimers/

hilarious!

Erfindungen, die die Welt nicht braucht...

Patent 962 : Der Multimedia-Kamin

just 'nother bout of music

I hardly believe it myself, but I had a few hours with my piano these days, which I used to experiment with a few instrumental tracks.
Finally I got around to make a kind of compound of 4 of my demo outtakes, which can be heard in my myspace profile as of now.

Furthermore I just made a rough mixup of a few Elton John covers I recorded from time to time, which can be downloaded here. More info on why the sound sucks so much can be found in this myspace blog entry.

I also had the chance to do some interesting new stuff : I recorded a piano segment for a quite cool track ("inquisitors") created by paul garcia, a spanish musician (www.paul-garcia.com). I'm not sure if it will ever be available for public listening, but I'll keep you updated.

So, I get to do things, but hardly have the time to improve my recording quality...well, this life's still got some days in it for me, I hope...

php5 likes transitive access levels?

When working on a singleton class in php, I noticed a funny behaviour.
The following code will lead to an error

Access level to B::__construct() must be public (as in class A)

class A
{
 public function __construct(){}
}
class B extends A
{
 private function __construct()
 {
  parent::__construct();
 }
}
$B = new B();
?>

Weird...

Yet another CD recommendation

Richie Sambora, who probably makes most of his fame by working in the Bon Jovi Band, has made some really good solo stuff in the 90s and probably before (I don't know). As far as I'm concerned, this is the best I've heard from him.

Check out my favourite track [Hard times come easy] from this album

Halleluia...

...is what I recorded two days ago and finished last night.
It's a nice song, written by rufus wainwright. check it out on www.myspace.com/edelmeier

edit : that's what happens if you don't inform yourself. the song was originally written by the man himself : Leonard Cohen

Yadda Yadda!

all's clearing up.spring is due, the air is full of birdsong, and the sun comes out more daringly.
we have moved and, despite all the remaining work, are happy to live through the year in our new home.The kids love it, and so do we.
I'm in a mood i can only call positive, although my laziness draws me to my PS2 rather than to the good-old PC in the evening hours. I'm taking some timeouts, which is a healthy thing, if I'm any judge.

Last friday, March 16th, I visited CeBIT with Steve and Roberto, which was a fun trip, but only little revealing on the products side. Seeing all those Chinese (sorry for summing up taiwan, PROC and HK like that) fair booths really made me consider opening up a cableshop and selling those cheap imports...The idea is dead, though.

My music production has suffered severely, but I spent a few evenings with my Clavinova and made up or refined some of my ideas, so that now I've got a pretty close-to-the-intended version of "Holding Back (What Walls Can't Hold)" ready for recording and a more concrete idea of "New Beginning". The mood of the former is also defined, the instruments are picked, now it's just a matter of time.
Another song called "Sands Of Time" is in it's early stages of being written, got chords, melody and first verse. it will be written as a duet.

Light on the horizon

BIIIIG news!!!

Well, at least for us...
We finally have the keys for our new home, so a major move is impending.
The next few days will mark the end of my Wuppertal citizenship,...somewhat strange.
I'm counting down the days till we pack up our belongings.

I know...who cares?!? I do!

xD

Ars Electronica - Shiny Toy Guns

Just stumbled over this great US-formation of youngsters who make pretty cool music. Beats and synth like we used to get in the 'olden days', flashy melodic stuff. I just like it and feel inspired to make use of some more synth here and there.

Nice Performance of 'LE DISCO'
their space on myspace
their homepage

Keep it up, guns.

Update: Their studio album "We are pilots" is quite nice, but definitely overproduced, the great drum sounds of the LE DISCO performance from the video linked to above is nothing alike.
You should see them perform to get the best of it. Still, nice for a change.

"Old Iron" - First vocalized song ready

Ciao,

I have finished recording all I wanted to for my Happy-Birthday-Elton-John-Song "Old Iron".
It is audible in my myspace account .
Please use this blog to criticise it, be fair but tough. I can take it. C'mon.

Web-Update : Missing Images and Ugly Errors

Hi folksy bits,

as you might have noticed, there are not all images and contents on my websites as of now.

The reason : I moved to another server. My backup via FTP didn't work in all path-depths
as it seems, so that everything deeper than 2 folders got lost. I think I have most of the stuff
at home and will restore my own world order somewhen tonight.

Cheers and happy existing

What January brought so far...

G'Day ;)

January is a very great month as far as I'm concerned:

Family
My family is in good shape, my daughters have their toothing and coughing troubles, but develop so well...I can't even imagine that a mere 3 years ago there was none of that in my life, they're absolutely the best thing that ever happened in my whole life...

...Gaming
After Metal Gear Snake Eater, which seemed the one and only extremely great game on PS2 I sold my black and blue console more than a year ago. Now "FF12" and "FF7 - dirge of cerberus" made me curious. So i went out (alone on horseback) to collect me a ps2, all used and torn, to try those games.
Not a bit of a disappointment, both games rock. I never would have thought that real time battle (like FF12) or an action-shooter concept(D.O.C.) would work that well for me, but i was wrong. I guess I will have to invent a spare-time-multiplier to get everything i want to do done in what little time i have. Final Fantasy 12 is so much better than it's soundtrack, far better than it's predecessors (talking leagues here, friend!), so I give it a lot of my time. Square is the best. Final Fantasy X and X-2 were notches in their otherwise perfect portfolio. Bring back Uematsu and you'll have me until FF-M!

Audio
my first audio-track, 'Old Iron' (a birthday song for sixty-years-on.com) is as far as finished by 99%. This week i will add another few keyboards and revise all that's in there already, then do some remixing and send it to Stephan Heimbecher.
Writing and mixing the song was such a great exercise to get to know the software...As usual, real-life usage turns out to be the only useful exercise. In February I will start other tracks, some of which have been named here...

I hope your January was as fine as mine.

Cheeeeeeers!

Apple iPhone - yikes!

Apple finally presented their iPhone, a completely touch-screen powered mobile phone with integrated mp3 player and video/photo player. Nice Gadget, and apple stocks have risen by 8% in a single day... to sad i don't have any :(

anyway, check this out:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/

PS3 is rocking it to the fattest

I just watched another few videos and reports and have come, once more, to the conclusion, that the ps3 will be worth a penny.
the graphics may be a bit below what x360 offers, but the capabilities are endless. nearly, that is.
I really see forward to the EU release of this mighty machine and hope that I will be able to get my hands on one of those.

Metal Gear Portable Ops

Really good.

Nearly as good as METAL GEAR AWESOME, which can be admired here

Sweet January

After quite some time it seems we don't have to make trouble a hobby.

The keys for our real estate will be handed over shortly, all flaws have been discussed away (that's talking until they don't disturb you anymore, because talking is far worse a nuisance...), and we will most probably be in the rotten bunker by the end of Sweet January.
Musicing goes on pretty well at the moment. nearly completed my never-to-be-released song "old iron" and will compose more after that.

I am in a good mood to do more right now. I hope I'll find the time. Business as ususal.