DaveBryan.com

Crikey, the last vid is dead, so how about this one kids?

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With too much going on at work I had little time this year to indulge in Macworld Expo. On Friday afternoon I was running around trying to find the most interesting booths and displays. Near the end of my trip, in the furtherest corner of the South Hall, I heard some interesting music coming from the shadows. My view was obscured by the hall's large support beams but when I went to check it out, it was a Best Buy mini-store. Standing behind a mixing desk with some video monitors behind him was Bauhaus' David J Djing some soundscape mixes! Now if Best Buy always had members of Bauhaus playing music I'd visit more often!

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Going to high school in late seventies Santa Cruz, my favorite local band was The Humans. They were a mix of the then emerging New Wave scene with a mix of surf, punk and avant garde theatrics. The first time I saw them was after Devo played a show at the Santa Cruz Civic in 1979. I hung out after the show and got to meetup with Devo so I could show them some pics from their previous Santa Cruz show earlier that year. While talking to them they got an invite note from a local band called The Humans that said they were inspired by Devo and that they should come check out their show later that night at JJ's Pizza over in the East Cliff neighborhood. The guys from Devo and their brother/manager said come on let's all go!.

So me and my younger brother booked out to JJ's in my Datsun 510 to go hang with Devo and finally get see The Humans which were getting some considerable buzz at the time. Half hour later, I'm sitting at a little table with a couple guys from Devo, their manager and a pitcher of beer! I guess those times were a little different.

The Humans came on stage and did a blistering set of punk/new wave music with great surfy guitar licks. I became a big fan of them that night and went to almost every performance they did around the Monterey Bay area. The band was always so cool and friendly to this dorky teenager with his ever present camera around his neck.

Recently I've been going through and digitizing some of my favorite old cassette tapes and I found this aircheck tape of Eric Gies and Sterling Storm of The Humans being interviewed on KLRB - the 'alternative' progressive FM rock station that broadcast from the Barnyard in Carmel Valley. Because of this station I was exposed to the Punk revolution, New Wave as well as artists like Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and anything else weird the DJs felt like playing.

Here's the cassette tape from November 1980.

Posted by Dave at 09:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

After a fun afternoon driving up to Vallejo to visit my good friend John Zorko, we took the ferry to SF to pickup his WWDC credentials. What's in store this week? Can't wait to find out! Probably some cool GUI interface tricks with Core Animation. John is hoping that Apple opens up the iPhone platform to developers to justify an iPhone purchase. I'll probably look into getting one when my two year contract is up with my Sony/Ericsson W600.

Another fun part of the day was trying out my new Canon SD750. I got it to replace my little Nikon that I squished a bit in NYC last month. This camera is pretty cool. It's super small but the quality is great. There's a slow sync mode reminiscent of the rear-curtain sync settings I liked using in the film days. Another surprise is the quality of the video this thing shoots. 30fps - very smooth! My first digital camera, the Canon G2 couldn't come close to this.

Bye-bye City! Um until Monday morning...

Posted by Dave at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What do you know - just as I upgrade my Flickr photo account to 'Pro', it's come to my attention that they are censoring users photos.

Noted blogger, Violet Blue, had her pics 'snowed over' to the regular viewer of her account page. What's strange is there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what gets snowed. The sexytime pictures of her on the floor that my friend Seventeenstars composed? Or maybe the pics of her with some SRL machinery Worldess Workshop Style?

This is all adding up to some bad publicity for Flickr. Maybe theres some room for an edgier, freer (more in the spirit of the Internet) photo sharing site?

Posted by Dave at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the last two years I've become a follower of several of the popular Podcast that emenate from the Bay Area.

As someone interested in the Mac Scene, I started listeinging to the Your Mac Life show which was a conventional webcast available by download or a live Internet stream. A couple years ago Your Mac Life stopped allowing downloads of their, only giving the option of purchasing the show through Audible.com. Since i like to listen at my convenience and didn't want to pay for the show, I listened less and less. The show would hype up thier annual party at Macworld, but if you tried to go to the party you'd get a pitch to have your comapny buy in to sponsoring the event.

Then along came This Week in Tech, or better known as Twit. Hosted by Leo LaPorte and other alumni of TechTV, he started a weekly podcast taking his idea of a lively roundtable of people in the tech field to discuss a range of topics. From this show, I learned of Kevin Rose and his The Broken series and the then new, Diggnation show and Merlin Mann's 43Folders.com.

What helped catapult these shows to the forefront of the scene, was using RSS to 'Podcast' the content for free. This is the best format for me and a lot of other listeners as you can listen when you want on your iPod; riding to work, jogging or on your stereo. Another aspect that makes the show a success is the community that was started around the shows. Leo started taping the shows at various spots around SF and invited the listeners to participate. A few shows were done at the SF Apple store and a few were done at local cafes or beer joints.

The Diggnation shows have also taken on a life of their own. The Podcast that started with just co-hosts, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht sitting on a couch, drinking some beers with their laptops on their laps. They discuss the top stories from the reader selected top stories on digg.com. Their public recordings have been usually recorded at the Beach House brewpub in San Francisco. Beer + geeks = good times!

Diggnation recently had a big party for their listeners at Club Mezzanine in San Francisco. They generously gave away two drink tickets and a t-shirt! I even got to meet my organization/life-hack hero, Merlin Mann.

I'm posting some of the pics I've taken from the many public shows I went too i the last couple years.

Posted by Dave at 09:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In 2006, I saw Patton Oswalt twice at Cobb's Comedy Club in North Beach. He's been a fave of mine and Dru since we heard his bit on Heavy Metal on a mix tape from a friend.

Couple weeks ago, I was coming home alone late at night when I drove by the local KFC. The Sadness bowl was indeed mine... all mine!

Now where was that This Mortal Coil box set?

Posted by Dave at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Being a Java Junkie always in pursuit of quality coffee has led me to a few places to mention. One that is very good and closest to home is Mama Buzz on Telegraph and 23rd. An adjoing room has a gallery and 50s style kitchen furniture to kick back. Free Wifi is available and the coffee is dark and rich! They also have some quality beers including Boont Ale. If you order a snack you will be surprised at the quality. Tomatoes on your sandwich are fresh ripe and tasty. An extra bonus is that they usually play a lot of old school spooky music (Virgin Prunes, Bauahus, Joy Division).

Mama Buzz is in an emerging little boho Booze, Art and Coffee zone. Being neighbors to The Stork Club and Rock, Paper, Scissors art collective. FYI, there's still plenty of crack activity on the corner and nearby Valley St.

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I miss going to Dark Sparkle. This is my favorite Darkwave/Goth club event since I've moved up to the SF Bay Area. It's usually held at either the elegantl Café Du Nord or the DNA Lounge. Lately they've been moving around other SOMA location. It's the spooky music with out the VNV synth gop that's permeated the goth scene the last five or so years.

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Rooz Café is now my fave Bean Hut. Compfy reasonably quiet interior, great coffee served in nice big mugs and tasty breaksfasts! Oh - and FREE WiFi!

Rooz is on Piedmont Ave. in Oakland.

I've been canvassing many East Bay cafés looking for good coffee and free WiFi. Went to check out some I saw listed on the BeastBlog.com site and was disappointed. Next time I'm firing up the laptop before I order. Brewed Awakening and Café Neffeli on Euclid were both a waste of time.

Some might disagree with me that WiFi is important for a Café. I like to be able to grab my laptop and work on projects when I'm out. I also enjoy the fact that people on laptops are usually quiet people. Having to overhear some UCSC TA blab on and on about them selves at the next table is no treat.

Posted by Dave at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last month I went to down to Santa Cruz and saw my old pal Jay in his latest project, The Pat McCormack Group. He pulled some strings and got me a free pass to get inside the historic Catalyst nightclub. It was a special evening as there was much anticipation for the headline act, Blue Oyster Cult.

Blue Oyster Cult use to be pretty big. They would play 3rd or 4th at a big Day on the Green stadium rock festival type of show back in the late 70s. Now they're better known as the mocked band in the SNL 'More Cowbell' skit.

View QuickTime Movie

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