Results of the Lights in the Sky Tour.

OK so the follow up to the Nine Inch Nails concert (Lights In The Sky Tour). At first it was basic lighting, nothing special. I was like “man this seems a little weak for NIN” then slowly the stage setup got more elaborate. With the 3 screen/light curtains that kept coming down. Allowing you sometimes to see the band through it and sometimes images. They put on one hell of a show. So good in fact that they are coming back to the Detroit area in November up to Grand Rapids and I am very tempted to make the drive. The concert was that good.

As far as playlist, they played obviously all of The Slip (which I might add is free off of the site). Played the usually stuff from Pretty Hate Machine and Downward Spiral. They touched on Year Zero and With Teeth. The one I was shocked to hear was they did quite a few songs from Ghosts which I think is a great set of instrumental albums. They did Echoplex with a touch screen monome, which was sweet.

The moral of the story is: if you are a NIN fan or even sort of like them, you will love the concert. So go out and get tickets.

Lights In the Sky Countdown.

Oh yes, the countdown is near. Four more days and I will be at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan. For what you ask? Well to see one of my favorite groups, Nine Inch Nails. I have been waiting to see them for many years.

Trent Reznor has probably been one of the biggest influences and inspiration to get me off my ass and back to making music again. I have played guitar since I was 12. Taught myself how to play the piano at the age of 6. Played the saxophone when I was 10. Music consumes my life everyday. I am listening before work, during work on the way home from work when I am home, when I am studying. Music is my escape. My escape from a bad day, a sad day, my feeling good day, mad day. Music can put into or keep me into what ever mood I choose. That is the power of music. I never have let anyone hear my music because I felt, well, it's my music....my feelings. Then I think well the music I have grown to love from Nine Inch Nails, to Johnny Cash, to Pink Floyd, to Benny Goodman, to Nirvana, to Beethoven, to Eminem, all of the music they make and I enjoy is the feelings they had, or the porblems they faced. Then I thought how some of the songs they made, made me happy or feel good when I was down. Then I thought, what if something I made, makes someone else smile or have a bad day turn good, or maybe feel like they are not the only ones that feels/felt that way or have been through that. So then the journy begins.

My motivation came from a site Nine Inch Nails has called Remix. Basically it gives you the multi-tracks that make up the songs and you can see how they were made and switch them around to make your own. Before I felt very one dimentional in my music. Since I have seen the way Trent puts things together it makes me feel that the music I make now is very threee dimentional. Like i have said in a previous post, I use Ableton Live 7 and I love it. I have used many computer software to creat and manage music but this is by far the best because it works the way I think. I encourage anyone who is interested in music, even if you are a begininer to go to Ableton's site and download the trial. If you like NIN then head on over to the Remix site and download the multi-tracks.

I plan on linking something soon to here or the site I have been working on, showcasing my music. It will be free to download. It will all sound different depending on what mood I was in while making it or what part of life I was in when I wrote it. I make music because it makes me feel good. I can play my guitar for hours and it feels like just a few minutes went by. Growing up, that was my escape from the world around me. My goal is to make one person smile, one person to realize they are not the only one that feels that way or has felt that way or been through the same thing they have and they arn't alone. If I do that, then my goal has been made and I will keep making more to maybe make that 2 or 3 and so on.

So I will be posting after the concert to tell you all how great it was! ;-) I will also post when the music is ready for a listen. Been so busy with work trying to get this WPF, XAML & Silverlight down.

Visual Studio 2008 & .NET 3.5 SP1

Yesterday an Microsoft released a (in my mind) much needed update to Visual Studio 2008. If you are learning WPF, XAML & Silverlight, this is an update I think you should be interested in. I have been using VS (along with Expression Blend) for my development needs in learning WPF, XAML & Silverlight but found the intelliSense was sometimes a little buggy when it came to these tehcnologys. Now with the SP1 installed all the intelliSense is perfect for doing development for these technologies. Information on the what is new in the SP1 can be found here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2008/products/cc533447.aspx

This past week.

This past week has been full of a few things that I have been working on a lot of lately. First I am learning WPF, XAML & Silverlight. Let me tell you I am not finding too much information (same went for SharePoint and now so much information is out). Not may books are out and of the ones that are, they are a little outdated. I have decided to jump into these technology's because it is similar to what i used to do years ago which was Flash & CSS. I had a job a few years back that was a Flash only .com. It was fun and always different. So I have decided to work on these while still doing SharePoint. My goal is to mesh these technology's together to make a very unique user experience.

Second, I have been working with my favorite program Ableton. For those who know me the best know that music is my life. I have played many instruments since I was a kid. My music collection consists of over 200 cassette tapes, 400 Cd's, over 10,000 MP3's and approximately 20,000 records. When I say listen to everything, i mean everything. I have Jimi Hendrix to Frank Sinatra to Nine Inch Nails to Detroit Symphony Orchestra to 50 Cent. I don't call what I do any particular thing but "My Music Projects". I say this because one set of songs might be a grunge guitar rock to a violin solo, to a hard hitting industrial beat. So the each are my "projects" When ever I get my site finished, I will post them up for download.