Recording

Because I am going to be in Washington DC at a conference at the end of this week, I decided to give you all some time to work in the lab on your projects as well as your blogs. Try to devote all of the class period on Friday to either posting or commenting on somebody else's blog. See the links in the right-hand column for more info -> -> ->

As some of you know, I am heavily into music. Beyond the 250 vinyl albums in my basement, I have computers at home dedicated to the storage of thousands of songs from a diverse range of artists. I consume music like other people eat baked Cheetos. At the present moment, I am listening to groups like TV on the Radio, Pheek, Muslimgauze, Off the Sky, and the soundtrack from City of God. But that might change within a day or two! One of the great things about teaching high school is that my students are always exposing me to new bands.

I also use my computers to create my own music. My musical partner, Jayne, and I released our very first CD this past summer under the name, SharashkA. If you like this sort of music, please ask me for a CD. We're not pretending that we're going to become rich and famous anytime soon!

Jayne is an amazing vocalist, and I am responsible for the music and design. I even created a studio in my basement called "Killjoy". This is part of my trait-curious personality, I think. I was able to learn how to do all of the technical aspects of creating a CD from start to finish by demonstrating a "rage to master" -- spending countless hours reading professional audio magazines, books, and webpages in an effort to acquire the skills to become a truly "DIY" artist; that is, a "do-it-yourself" person.

Although we were satisfied with the results the two of us were able to achieve, Jayne and I wanted to create a live band and record some new songs, also. Therefore, along with two other musicians (Rich and JoBella), we wrote some new material and started recording more songs at another studio called The Noise Floor.



This has been so much fun for me, especially, because as a trait-curious person, I can learn a lot from Garret, the owner of this studio. Garret has played with REAL bands like Kill Hannah, and has loads of experience. I have taken the opportunity to ask him about every thing he is doing while recording us and I'm sure I am driving him crazy with all of my questions:

"What mic are you using?"
"Which effect are you putting on the vocals?"
"If I make a mistake, can you fix it later?"

Luckily, he is a very patient person. We have already finished one of our songs which you can hear on our MySpace page, but of course, not at school :(

RACE: The Power of an Illusion

Based on the film we saw in class, here is a great link that explains more about the science of race. It's called: "10 Things Everyone Should Know About Race".

If you *really* want to test your beliefs about race, try this sorting activity.

Race IAT

My fault. The link to the Race IAT was confusing. Click HERE for the correct website. You should be able to navigate from there.

Click "RESEARCH".
Click "IAT Home" (upper right-hand corner)
Click "Go to the Demonstration Tests"
Click "I wish to proceed"
Now choose "Race IAT".

Whew!