by mkanderson on Mar 12, 2010
Mass - New Birth at Amazon
Ah, nostalgia. You are such a siren calling us back to things we dismissed and then letting us destroy ourselves on the rocky shores. You make us remember Def Leppard fondly only to temp us to listen 20 years later and vomit. You make us remember the time White Lion opened for Aerosmith and think maybe, just maybe White Lion didn't suck ass until we hear that song "Wait" again and realize ass was only one of the many things they sucked. Nostalgia, what did I ever do to you?
Thankfully, my objective ear for rock confirmed one album I loved from 80s pseudo-metal was great and still holds up well today. Mass' New Birth (1985) was and is still a standout album. It is epic and accessible. Mass is actually a band that is still around and didn't receive that much mainstream play. I should take the time to explore them further just to see if their other albums measure up to the quality of New Birth. When they released New Birth on CD a few years ago I bought it immediately and thanked Baby Jesus that my MP3s I ripped from the cassette tape were no longer necessary.
Veteran producer Tony Platt helped New Birth become a fusion of pop metal and progressive artistry. Songs like "Too Far Gone", "Do You Love Me", and especially "Watch Her Walk" were obviously products of the time. However other songs like "Voyager (Look for the Edge)" and "Time" have the construction only certain Canadian progressive rock bands can engineer.
I firmly believe this album is more important than the credit it has received. And since it's my own personal School of Rock, I'm right.
Read more about Mass at No Life 'til Metal.
Tagged as:
100 Days 100 Albums,
Def Leppard,
Mass,
Music,
School of Rock
by mkanderson on Mar 12, 2010
Prototyping by Todd Zaki Warfel
Since I finished reading Prototyping: A Practitioner's Guide by Todd Zaki Warfel, I've been rethinking everything except what color I'm going to paint my house this summer. Specifically I've been mulling the entire concept of requirements, process, and communication among the various groups who collaborate to make products.
Three opposing forces meet in the conference room battlefield regularly: Team SDLC, Team Legacy, and Team That's Not What I meant. Team SDLC has roots entrenched in a theoretical model developed when punch cards gave us joy. The SDLC mindset is based on the fact requirements drive everything. By "requirements" I mean a document of some sort that can either be well-written or, as I've seen of late, an Excel spreadsheet wishlist.
Team Legacy, while similar to Team SDLC, refuses to rethink anything unless it has to do with a variation of the phrase "We've always done it this way." Team Legacy is the enemy of actually getting things done.
Finally, Team That's Not What I Meant is full of people who have no real way to communicate to developers what they want. All they can tell you is after they see it graphically, they complain. When this happens the other two teams remind them dutifully that they did sign off on requirements.
Those of us in the development world who try to avoid any camp and want to actually accomplish something fight the process. That's the simple beauty of prototyping as an alternative to requirements. Todd's book articulated an idea that had been tickling the back of my brain for years: requirements suck. You can dress them up, give them lessons in manners, and even try to make them feel like part of the group, but requirements will always remain a CYA way of making sure everything has a central document to go to when they disagree.
Recently, I've seen firsthand how requirements are used to the advantage of one team over another. If you can suck all of the ego out of any meeting and get people to admit they all work together for a common purpose, you might find out that all the teams are simply having problems communicating. Building prototypes forces people to think more logically about where information comes from, who is putting the design together, and most importantly it communicates to the technical and non-technical alike what the end product will look like.
It's really that simple and I'm ashamed I didn't put this all together before I picked up Todd's book. But sometimes it takes somebody else to water that brain seed to help you see what's really wrong with your processes. If you are involved in the development process in any way, order a copy of Prototyping from Rosenfeild Media and start getting people on board with rethinking requirements altogether. You might actually get some real work done.
Tagged as:
prototyping,
Software development process,
Systems Development Life Cycle,
uxd
by mkanderson on Mar 11, 2010
On the Road to Freedom available from Amazon
Part of the responsibility of running my own personal School of Rock is that I have to go back and rethink what I loved the most, even when I haven't heard it in years. Alvin Lee and Mylon Lefevre's joint project On the Road to Freedom (1973) is an album that capitvated my imagination in a way only early 70s non-suck rock could.
First, you have Alvin Lee, the ground-breaking guitarist from Ten Years After who by '73 had a library of diverse and brilliant collection of releases in his wake. Leaving Ten Years After, Lee want to experiment and play around with different styles. He crossed paths with Mylon Lefevre, a Christian songwriter who penned Elvis Prestley's "Without Him" in the 1960. (Note: "Without Him" is now a standard him in many hymnals.) Lefevre was a consistent talent who worked behind the scenes and impressed many artists with his song-writing capabilities. The agreed to make On the Road to Freedom and it was recorded in Lee's newly constructed recording studio at his manor in England.
Contributing to this album are some other names you might recognize: George Harrison, Steve Winwood, Ronnie Wood and Mick Fleetwood. This little-known gem from the early 70s deserves much more recognition for the incredible song-writing and session recordings. If you are an Alvin Lee fan and don't own this album, well there's not much I can do to help you.
Tagged as:
100 Days 100 Albums,
George Harrison,
Mick Fleetwood,
Music,
Ronnie Wood,
School of Rock,
Steve Winwood
by mkanderson on Mar 11, 2010
Audioslave's debut album
There was a time I was an aspiring vocalist. I took voice lessons even and sang in my high school choir. The reality was I had a really good vocal quality but a major pitch problem. As much as I tried, I wasn't cut out to sing any place else than in my car, alone. Very alone. With the windows rolled up and with a 50 feet perimeter around the car. It's also recommended I sing in my car at night as to not look like a moron to other people at traffic lights.
All of this is completely reaffirmed by the existence of Chris Cornell. He is the kind of singer that American Idol wannabes imitate much to their own demise. Who else could take Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" and make it a serious rock song? Chris a dude with chops.
Now let's talk for a second about Rage Against the Machine. Rage is the most holy shit band I can think of. They are violently political, anarchist, offensive, and musically knee-capping. So for the brief history when Chris Cornell married Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine, I thought it was either too awesome to be true or the worst thing to happen to rock since Ween's "Push Th’ Little Daisies".
Audioslave's self-titled debut (2002) was fortunately one of the best rock albums to grace my ears in a long, long time. Audioslave was everything I could have hoped. It was a mixture of the best musicianship from Rage with one of the best vocalists to sing in modern rock. And there it was, 14 songs of pure rock and roll. It's what it's all about. The guitar riffs, the outrageous vocals, and the completely off-the-wall lyrics.
The best part of Audioslave is the appreciation you get for Cornell's journey from Soundgarden to be able to mesh with Rage Against the Machine. By the time they did their live album from Cuba, Cornell was singing old Rage songs and Audioslave was doing old Soundgarden songs and it worked.
While Audioslave is no more, get Audioslave and appreciate the fact that the cover was designed by Storm Thorgerson, best known as the guy who made so many righteous Pink Floyd album covers. Appreciate the fact the songs are all equally excellent. And finally, appreciate the fact that Audioslave is important rock history making you deaf in your car as you fail to hit Cornell's high notes.
Tagged as:
100 Days 100 Albums,
Chris Cornell,
Michael Jackson,
Music,
School of Rock
by mkanderson on Mar 9, 2010
Heavy Metal Soundtrack at Amazon
Some people have Eraserhead. Others have The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And I think a couple of people in Denmark like Gigli. However, my favorite cult movie is Heavy Metal. I'm taken back to a time when my grandmother would take me to the grocery store with her and I would stay in the magazine isle reading Heavy Metal magazine and feeling like I was getting by with something. To be fair, this grocery store in North Little Rock, Arkansas also had Playboy out in the open too and I never once read any of the articles.
The Heavy Metal Soundtrack (1981) is the perfect soundtrack. The movie itself was nothing more than a random smattering of adolescent boy daydreams as if they jumped off the cardboard cover of a doodled spiral bound notebook. But the music tied it all together. The soundtrack from the Heavy Metal film is kick-ass arena rock and oh yeah, here are some aliens, violence, and naked warrior women to go with it.
I highly recommend driving in the middle of the night between Dallas and Little Rock with the windows down and trying to belt out Sammy Hagar's "Heavy Metal" or Nazereth's "Crazy". Not only will you stay awake, but your car will transform into a 1960 Corvette that can reenter the atmosphere.
Tagged as:
100 Days 100 Albums,
Denmark,
Heavy Metal,
movies,
Music,
School of Rock
by mkanderson on Mar 8, 2010
Let's get a few things straight. I bathe daily. I am a super carnivore. I don't smoke pot. I can't normally keep a hacky sack in the air for more than one kick. Most of my clothes fit. Did I mention I bathe? With soap and shampoo? But....
I love, love, love Rusted Root's When I Woke (1994). I continually go back and play When I Woke. It's world, pop, and rock all fused together by bodily odor and hippie lettuce. The songs take me away to a place where nobody has a job and trust funds pay for endless Taco Bell runs and protest signs. And I like it!
"Send Me On My Way" was their big single from the album and reminded me of David Byrne with hiccups, but in a good way. Like all great albums to be studied at my own personal School of Rock, all the songs matter. When I Woke is tangled mess of dreadlock goodness. From the opening "Drum Trip" your senses will be overloaded with bohemian overdrive followed by moody feelings of free love. If you don't enjoy "Food & Creative Love" then you are dead inside.
Ironically, I first bought this CD at Walmart. That is all.
Tagged as:
100 Days 100 Albums,
David Byrne,
Music,
School of Rock,
Taco Bell
by mkanderson on Mar 5, 2010
Metal graphic by Mat Giordano
Every decade, some music journalist somewhere declares rock and roll dead and buried. This has been going on since the '60s. You know the spiel: corporatism, prima dona artists, greedy producers, the entire industry, take your pick, are all villains. Somehow rock and roll survives. I'm not a music expert. I'm a fan. I love music and have with a passion since my past life as a bush near the crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil so he could kick the blues' ass. Even as a young tot, there was something about rock that pulled me in. I clearly remember spinning Elton John, AC/DC, Three Dog Night, Steppenwolf, and Nazareth on my Winnie the Pooh record player. No, I'm not exaggerating and yes, Walt Disney's head is spinning in its cryogenic jar.
Pop music is what happens to good rock. Elton John, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, and Kenny Loggins, for example, morphed from straight-up rock to light, adult-rock pussies. (Note: Phil Collins started out as one so he is not included.) "Selling out" is what people say happens to artists after a while. I don't think it's that as much as plain old burning out. Once they've burned out, it's not rock anymore.
Now that you know where I'm coming from, I'm going hypothesize that we are in the midst a musical dark age. Since everything is a formula and everything has to be about money, music has become canned, uninspired. So-called "alternative" music is just pop music with fake English accents. The hard rock radio stations play bands like Nickelback and 3 Doors Down with straight faces. It's still pop but with formulated guitar riffs and Eddie Vedder impersonators. Sure there are good rock bands, but in the big scheme of things it's a dark time. Producers and corporate suits call the shots. They are all about making music that sells. So for bands to be successful, they play by the rules and become distanced from their own fans and illiterate in the ways of true art. I'm imagining meetings where a group of suits examine a band to see if the hooks in their songs make 14 year old girls scream.
Just like the Irish saved civilization by remaining one of the last literate places on earth during the Dark Ages, metal is going to save rock. Metal is the last bastion for musicians who want to do whatever the hell they want to do and if they succeed great, if not, there are always other bands. The musicianship of bands like Gojira, Revocation, Melechesch, Suffocation, and Obscura demonstrates a new wave of serious musicians making bad ass music. While there is interesting things happening in the indie music scene, the metal scene is breaking out and leading the way for rock to follow.
As a huge fan of rock, I've become the biggest fan of metal in the past few years for the simple reason that it's just good rock music. Today's metal is the way rock is supposed to be. People talk about the quality of the bands and argue technical proficiency and lyrics and stage performance and song-writing quality. The reason people argue so fervently about those things is because it's art. Metal is connecting to fans today like no other type of music.
There's symphonic metal, death metal, thrash, hardcore, metalcore, progressive (or math) metal, folk metal, fusion metal... You get the idea. There is something for everybody. Support your local metal bands and become metal literate. Today's metal artists are blazing trails while other mainstream musicians are still trying to figure out how to get airplay for the love ballad their producer made them record.
See also: Mat Giordano's post "Happy Metal Friday", which is where I got that kick-ass graphic. Also on Twitter, start paying attention to the #metal and #metalfriday hashtags.
Tagged as:
metal,
Music,
Rock
by mkanderson on Feb 25, 2010
I've waffled for years about publicly writing about my bout with depression. This article you're reading now has resided in my drafts in some form for about two years now. My depression is there as part of me. It runs in my family and consequently I have had to learn to just deal with it. I know it helps when you meet people who have depression and they can actually function. Maybe this article will help somebody out there.
Image via Wikipedia
In September of 2008 one of the greatest writers of our time, David Foster Wallace, committed suicide. He hanged himself. This was a complete shock to me. I enjoyed his work before, but I was unaware of his life-long struggle with depression. Wallace was the writer's writer. He was brilliant and made me look at fiction in a totally new way. After this tragedy, articles started popping up online about the link between his brilliance as a writer and his depression. Sadly, observers are quick to make this link about creative people as if they are show ponies.
While history is full of depressed geniuses the reality is that depression is called "depression" for a reason. Depression keeps its victims from functioning. There is nothing glamorous, fun, or vogue about depression. It is a continuous struggle and those in its throes can ruin their whole lives without caring about much of anything close to a creative thought. My most creative moments have been under a deadline not from within a cloud of self-loathing. Those who think depression is a plus for any artist, writer, or scientist have not slept through life, destroyed their families, or alienated themselves from all of their friends.
In my case, I'm biologically predisposed to having depression. The fact I had a fractured family and my father was in and out of my life like trendy fashion only sealed the depression into my life for good. It came to a head in 2003 when I moved my family from Chicago to the DFW area. I remember lying on my father's couch surrounded by stuff we didn't put in storage. I don't know how long I'd been on the couch but a lot of time had passed; my phone rang and my inbox filled up. I was avoiding clients and caught a clear glimpse of reality. I found a doctor and asked, "how do you know if you have depression?" Since then I've been receiving treatment, but it took a lot to climb out of that hole. Today I realize that even when I thought I was better, I was on my way to getting better but some of the behaviors and feelings still linger.

- Image by c@rljones via Flickr
Around 2007 I left a startup company and inadvertently burned bridges there. I took a full-time job and started my real recovery. Getting by with depression is as much about self discovery as it is about receiving medical treatment. I had to swallow the most bitter of pills: I was not meant to own and run a business. The specific stress associated with self employment pushed my buttons like nothing else. Piss-poor health care, risk taking, unstable income, and especially the sales process were triggers for my depression. After joining Sprint, a company I love more than any other I've worked for, my depression started improving. Having solid benefits and believing in my work started healing old wounds.
The second thing to happen to me was Twitter. My friend convinced me to join Twitter and jump in. Being the introvert I am, I mocked Twitter from the sidelines. However, as someone on Twitter pointed out, it was like study hall. I was connecting with professional people again, something I hadn't done since I lived in Chicago. I branched out and next thing I know I'm in the UX community. I think this is a unique community. I was used to people being protective of their knowledge and territorial with their experience. UX people aren't like that. They are a supportive lot and they encourage each other in ways that was foreign to me. They root for each other at conferences and help each other out with all sorts of problems. I felt at home. The UX movement was at a place I arrived myself, but from a different direction. I have this strange way of seeing how system interlock and I realized I was a UX'er without being called one (more on that in a future article). So Twitter fit like a glove and I've not looked back.
How do I deal with depression? Now I have a set of rules I made for myself that are based on how things should be, not how I feel. Regardless of how I feel, I must follow my rules. My rules include everything from keeping my job to adhering to a regular bedtime, all without getting caught up in the day's feelings. So it's not as easy as it sounds, but it's something I can use to keep me anchored. I know when I'm too far away from them and I correct myself. Feelings can betray me at a moment's notice but pre-determined rules override those.
I continue to stay heavily involved on Twitter because it's an excellent way to be in a professional community without sacrificing a lot of time. I try to keep my blog updated, but it's not how I make my living so it goes to the back of the line when necessary. It is possible to function with depression. I still have bad times that may last for days. However, it's manageable. In fact, overall I haven't felt this good, ever.
Tagged as:
David Foster Wallace,
Depression,
Mental Health,
Self Absorbed Clap Trap