Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop Pioneers Guru & Solar – Interview 2

Beneath The Beat: Hip Hop explores the authentic essence of hip hop culture. We offer an independent voice, free from record label and big business imperatives.

This is part two of our Legend series. Hip Hop legend Guru (formally of Gang Star) joins forces with Super Producer Solar as co owners of 7 Grand Records. Guru and Solar have worked with some of the biggest names in Jazz, Hip Hop, Funk & Soul. It is recognized that Guru is one of the founding pioneers of the Hip Hop Jazz component of Nu Jazz fusion. Check out the audio interview below.

Image provided by westword.com

Tracks playing in order during the interview:

1. “Plenty” Guru Featuring Eryka Badu
2. “I’m Jazzy” Guru Featuring Slum Village
3. “Power Money Influence” Guru Featuring Jean Grae & Talib Kwali
4. “Real Life” Guru Featuring B. Real.
5. “Step in the Arena 2 ” Guru Featuring Doo Wo
6. “Lift Your Fist” Guru Featuring The Roots

beneath the beat hip hop

Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop Pioneers Guru & Solar – Interview 1

Beneath The Beat: Hip Hop explores the authentic essence of hip hop culture. We offer an independent voice, free from record label and big business imperatives.

This is part two of our Legend series. Hip Hop legend Guru (formally of Gang Star) joins forces with Super Producer Solar as co owners of 7 Grand Records. Guru and Solar have worked with some of the biggest names in Jazz, Hip Hop, Funk & Soul. It is recognized that Guru is one of the founding pioneers of the Hip Hop Jazz component of Nu Jazz fusion. Check out the audio interview below.

In the audio segment above features the following artists:

1. “Down the Back Streets”  Guru Featuring Lonnie Liston Smith
2. “Feel the Music” Guru Featuring Baybe And Paul Ferguson
3. “Talk to Me” Guru Featuring Jaguar Wright
4. “State of Clarity” Guru Featuring Common and Bob James.

Visionary: Michael Rubin author of “Droidmaker”

Visionary is the celebration of extraordinary individuals, innovations, ideas and events that offer progressive or foretelling insights.

Michael Rubin is the author of “Droid Maker” a book about the digital video revolution. Rubin states that Francis Ford Coppola, Steve Jobs, and George Lucas were the pioneers of the movie making: special effects, gaming avatars and video editing. The innovations that were created has given tools to everyday people to create motion picture stories in their own homes. This video was created at Macworld in 2006 when Podcasting and video-sharing were just arriving on the scene. The following is a tribute to the pioneers who paved the way for all of us to be able to create movies using the digital format.

- Bendrix

Visionary: Steve Jobs End of Macworld Dynasty?

Visionary is the celebration of extraordinary individuals, innovations, ideas and events that offer progressive or foretelling insights. Bendrix highlights his thoughts and other lunatic fringe thinking.

January 9, 2009 marks the end of the Macworld Expo 25 year run.

Its Tuesday January 10th, 2006. I wake up at 3AM with the hope to be the first to tell my story. I am tired but energized by the excitement of the day. Steve Jobs is going to present another legendary keynote and this year its going to be big. For the past 3 or 4 years any news Apple puts out becomes an instant industry game changer. That year I really didn’t care about the big news I just wanted a simple way to express my deepest regard to the atmosphere of the festivites. I wanted to share my video experience with my brothers and sisters back in the east. Our beloved Macworld had ended in Boston 2005. I wanted to be the first of several pioneer video producers and podcasters to promote the event on the web.

I take pride in being an 18 year Apple loyalist. It’s not a blind pride but rather a thankful loyalty to a product and service that has kept me employed and has been part of my personal lifestyle since college. I used to be the guy that could predict the products with 87% accuracy. Its not a gloat, its more of a statement that I took it serious about being an expert in the field the main reason I was astute about my Apple passion. Over the years having that passion has served me well with many opportunities that have been presented due to my Apple gear, software and skills.

Its now 4AM Tuesday, January 6, 2009, I am not at Macworld this year and it happens to be the last of a 25 year run. Apple will no longer host the inescapable Macworld Expo and Steve Jobs will apparently not give his Keynote address, which If i can remember correctly has never happened at the San Francisco event since his return back to the company in September 16, 1997.

i think the world media will be watching today very closely, For Steve not to speak Apple had better have some serious announcement or they will see investor confidence in their stock plunge in a major way. I am no longer that kid who can guess with 87% about the products and services, but I will make an attempt at gauging the enormity of what may happen today:

1. Steve is not speaking because he has been unwell and almost did not speak at his last several keynotes do to his health. People have been rumoring that his cancer may be back and it was evident something was wrong with him at the WWDC in 2008. Investors were nervous then and if that was any indication then I am sure they would be less comfortable now. In this market Apple can not afford to freeze their confidence, because it will be the beginning of the end of their current stranglehold of tantalizing the world with goodies. I believe that Steve will pass the mic off to his protege. A protege that has been around for a while shadowing him. Could it be Phil Schiller the senior vice president of worldwide product marketing or Jonathan Ive the genius who brought award winning industrial designs for the original iMac, aluminum PowerBook G4 (and MacBook Pro), iPod and iPhone. Phill has the marketing savvy but not the showmanship of Steve, I have heard Jonathan speak a few times he’s got the charsma but not sure how he would work out as a Keynote guy. He’s never really been on stage to present and maybe this is the reason why. Anyway whom ever this mystical protege is he/she will have to be so dynamic and assuring that it convinces the Apple faithful and their investors. Steve and company are the masters of secrecy and they will keep us all guessing until the last minute. Will Steve actually retire today?

2. Lets look at Hardware. The basic Macbook, Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro models, the Mac Pro, the iPod nano and iTouch), and the iPhone 3G lineups were all updated during or a little after the summer. Thats pretty much everything form hardware except the iMac, the Mac Mini and Apple TV. I believe that the Mini may be getting phased out if it hasn’t already. Apple TV doesn’t really need a design overhaul and it had a firmware update this summer. Which leaves the iMac. It seems way too obvious that this is the one huge announcement that Apple will make. The last release was in April 2008 which means they are way over due. What could Apple possibly do to make it more appealing than it is… umm maybe they could make a touch screen Kiosk, or better yet they may skip the iMac again because April 2008 was not that long ago and they will wow the world with the worlds first successful “TABLET,” something that the PC world has failed miserably since Bill Gates demonstrated the first public prototype of a Tablet PC version of the Windows operating system at Comdex. Its the right time for Apple to release a Tablet with the growing success of the Kindle and the iPhone, its only logical to think that would be the HUGE news for today.

3. Lets look at Software. This is a labyrinth of an undertaking. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard came out in June of 2008 I doubt they will update it this soon its still very new. The iApps will get a push, The Pro Apps will get no push at all, because its a consumer level show not for us uber geeks. What may happen is they will probably make more Mac products windows compatable like iMovie and iPhoto, or they might just make Cloud computing a reality and have these applications for use online just like Google apps. Thats pretty far fetched but its the 25h year anniversary they have to do something that ultra cool like that. OH wait iTunes, could get its big day in the sun, I have always thought of it as a do it all application. I think it will merge with Safari as the media browser of the future. if not this year its coming soon.

4. iPhone enhancements – I think the gaming community has found a new home. I think that the PSP and the Nintendo DS may be in trouble this year. Apple will become a gaming platform in a big way this year starting with the iTouch and iPhone. I do think there will be some cool features of both products but its gonna be mostly about the games.

5. Big announcement that Apple will do some type of big partnership with some cool company, maybe like Google. Shhh you didn’t hear that from me.

Ok its now 5:57 and I’m tired of all this guessing. I just want to post this. Keep in mind I have deliberately avoided chatting with my Mac pals and the Mac rumor forums so I have no idea what they are thinking. I’ve lost my edge a bit. we shall see later on around 12 AM EST. In the meantime Njoy a trip down memory lane, of the videos that I constructed. I woke up at 4AM to tape people who had been waiting on line since 2AM. I bet there are people in line now as i write this at 2AM PST.

Codedsignal.com is a Digital Media Network featuring: Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop | Beneath the Beat: Electronica | Shanxi Nan Lu: Travel | Digital Media Tips: Web Culture – and hosts a variety of other related media properties.

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Visionary: Brian Maffitt baffles After Effects Group

Visionary is the celebration of extraordinary individuals, innovations, ideas and events that offer progressive or foretelling insights. Bendrix highlights his thoughts and other lunatic fringe thinking.

iPhone Photo taken by Bendrix

On Thursday September 27th, the New York City After Effects (AE) meet-up group was treated to a master session from the master of motion graphics. The legendary Brian Maffitt graced the stage and presented a 45 minute demo on a filter called “Vanishing Point.” For those of you that don’t know, Brian is a pioneer and the original trainer for the AE Total Training DVDs and since the mid-90s he’s been one of the leading world authorities. His alpha tests and contributions over the years have helped to make the AE environment a powerful and more easily understood application for the rest of us mere mortals.

More on Brian in a bit… SO!!! Back to this demo… Vanishing Point is a filter found in Photoshop that maps out a perspective grid within a the selected Photoshop window. An example would be a newly opened file like a PSD, TIFF, JPG, or PICT. Basically the key or ideal photo should be high resolution with lots of pixel information and there should be some kind of perspective object relationship between the foreground and its background. Once this photo is selected >>> go to the filter section and select “Vanishing Point” >>> it will bring up a special window pane that provides tools to map out a grid on this flat surface plane. Once a perspective grid is mapped out on the various foreground and background planes within this photograph >>> “export for After Effects CS” and it will create a series of PNG files, where ever its chosen to export.

Next open After Effects and import this series of multiple PNG files >>> Create a Composition window. When the imported PNGs recompile in this composition window a 3 dimensional texture map is generated onto a 3D plane allowing for each of the elements to be operated within the various x, y, z axis. For the astute pixel pusher and effects whiz, its absolute eye candy. It tricks the eye into believing that one is navigating within a 3D space. Due to the mathematical averages of this filter effect, there is a limit to the distance the image position can be zoomed into before the background pixels start to wash out and loose their resolution. The ultimate goal is to subtly create a 3D experience using a mere photograph. Brian then went a step further to show us how to animate text on a 3D path. That was a killer tip that everyone was also fawning over. Yes there were lots of “I can’t believe its!!!” and people doing Lord of the Rings jigs in the lobby afterwards.

I cannot stress how meaningful it is to witness Brian’s mastery of AE. His value to the motion graphics community is immeasurable. If I were to equate his parallel I would say that Brian is to AE what Jonathan Ives and his engineering teem is to Apple. The whole look and interfacing of an iPod, iPhone, and many other product innovations from Apple in the past 11 years are all Johnathans doing… Actually this is how I equate Brian in the realm of AE. If you are into motion graphics and want learn more about After Effects, go to the totaltraining website, do a tour, check out the online demos. From novices to intermediates to the pros everyone that uses or wants to learn AE can benefit from these tutorials.

Even though I generally do not post tutorial segments, I think this demo was so enchanting and inspirational, that I had to write about it. I did ask Brian to see if he could release an example or two for my blog so I could post it up and show these undisclosed demo’s to the rest of you. To be honest I totally did not do it any justice with this post. This is something you just have to see in motion. Whenever I get these samples I will be sure to post them up on the blog. Till soon…

- Bendrix

Visionary: RSS Pioneer Bill Bercik Passed Away

Visionary is the celebration of extraordinary individuals, innovations, ideas and events that offer progressive or foretelling insights. Bendrix highlights his thoughts and other lunatic fringe thinking.

I am in deep mourning because my RSS and Web Stats provider Bill Bercik died on May 2, 2007. I never met Bill face to face, I purchased his webpasties.com service back in September 2005. Bill and I have been working together since then to make his service a viable alternative for podcasters and video bloggers. Webpasties is the best RSS and statistic analysis application that I’ve located since I began podcasting.

I called Bill several times a month, soon our tech talk evolved into a friendship. I really enjoyed his gentle nature and I admired his innovative ideas. Bill was a MAJOR influence in my career, because it was his service that enabled me to podcast and he mentored me on several career altering pursuits. I am deeply saddened by his passing and offer his family and friends my condolences.

“Bill” was born on April 14, 1964 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and passed away on May 2, 2007 at the age of 43.

Bill graduated from Spartanburg S.C. High School. He received a B.S. degree from Clemson University and attended graduate school at California State University in Chico, Ca.

He was employed for 20 years as a computer programmer at the U.S. Navel Air Station in Patuxent, MD., the Navy Post Graduate School in Monterey, Borland, Corp in Scotts Valley and was presently working as a consultant Bercik Software. He published 2 books on computer languages and was a member of Theta Chi Fraternity.

Bill is survived by his parents Robert and Mildred Bercik of Stuart, Fl and Dulthe, Ga., a sister Mary Bercik and two brothers, John and Jim Bercik and his two beloved nieces, Bailey and Samantha Bercik.

Bill was an adventurer. He loved to travel and biked throughout Europe, North America and Central America. He loved sailing, wind surfing and hiking. He was happy in California and loved his friends, family and 2 birds “Gus and “Greta”, and his beloved companion April Hyder.

A Memorial Service will be held on May 8, 2007 beginning at 6:00 p.m. at Benito & Azzaro Pacific Gardens Chapel, 1050 Cayuga St Santa Cruz, Ca.

He was dearly loved and will be missed. In lieu of flowers, friends may donate in his memory to their favorite charity.

- Bendrix

Codedsignal.com is a Digital Media Network featuring: Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop | Beneath the Beat: Electronica | Shanxi Nan Lu: Travel | Digital Media Tips: Web Culture – and hosts a variety of other related media properties.

Subscribe to our: Twitter | Youtube | Delicious | Forum

Beneath the Beat joins forces with Chuck D

Our show Beneath the Beat: hip hop joins forces with Rapstation, founded by Chuck D (frontman of legendary rap group Public Enemy). Rapstation.com has become one of the leading entertainment sites on the net, partnering with, RealNetworks, House of Blues Digital and TWOCOWS. Our team is honored to be part of this growing media network… come check out rapstation.com and be part of the movement.

- Bendrix