Recently, the folks at Expanding Electronic Diversity were kind enough to feature me (as Obfusc) in their first-of-many Q&A sessions with “friends and music-makers that [they're] into.” If you’re interested, you can read the Q&A here. 

For those of you following that side of my existence, you may recall I’d also been a [proud] part of their marvelous “EED’s Summer Vacation ‘08” compilation this past August alongside several prominent notables. As always — and I suppose it goes without saying — I’m always super pleased to be associated with such awesome, productive sorts, and am quite honored to have been chosen as their first Q&A installment.

Throughout my entire life, I’ve always found a great deal of comfort in the interactivity afforded by the existence of video games. There’s the overwhelming (and obvious) theme of escapism in the act of gaming, but more and more, I think there’s little doubt in most minds that mere engagement in gaming — within reason and moderation, of course — expands and exercises a part of your brain that [most] other daily rituals leave relatively untouched. Alongside the rapid proliferation of affordable, able graphics processing systems in console and home computer alike, immersive, seamless worlds can be developed and explored. Textures are more detailed, moments more cinematic and realistic. Video gaming has become positively epic.

Developing — albeit in a much different regard — alongside the graphical insanity, seems to be the amazing promise of true conceptual progression. Where a game like Portal — based off the DigiPen Institute-developed Narbacular Drop (a senior project of some of the students) — made me completely re-imagine how a first-person shooter environment could be interacted with and manipulated to form entertaining, oft-challenging puzzles, other games, much more abstract than this (and many of which will go nameless for the sake of delineation), beg a similar focus.

I’m excited by games like Dyson, currently independently-developed (and available for free on the game site), in its faithfulness to true abstract style. It’s a real-time mining strategy game with beautiful, simple graphic aesthetic and ambient music (of which my good friend and co-hort Brian Grainger, aka Milieu/Coppice Halifax/etc., has composed). The dialog that projects like this birth is interesting, too; to be actively engaged in the discussion (via the site’s forums) and improvement of what is ultimately a form of entertainment seems to me a marvel in and of itself. As stated, it’s available for free for both PC and Linux with a Mac build apparently on its way.

The developers have submitted the game for various competitions, including a rather large one – so, in closing, good luck to them, and ultimately (having not yet even played the game itself!), thanks to them for inspiring some moments of late, late-night (or is it morning?) video game pontification.

For our wedding, my now-wife Katie and I collaborated on a Bauhaus/modernist-inspired aesthetic — above are the invitation, RSVP, map, and various envelope components; not shown are our save the dates and takeaway bags containing 1″ buttons, magnets, and mint tins. The wedding was held in Central Park in Manhattan on October 18, 2008 and presided over by our good friend and neighbor Marcus. Following, an aesthetically-pleasing line of fourteen assembled pedicabs transported our close friends and family (twenty-eight attended, in total) to Candle 79 Restaurant for a vegan reception. Photos to follow.

Yesterday, Network World published a follow-up article to the Government Accountability Office’s report on electronics recycling and disposal of “e-waste.” Not worth reading if you don’t have the time (or just dedicate yourself to following even more depressing ecological/economic exploits transpiring the world over), but the report brings up some interesting points that make me a tad curious if my annual effort to collect and recycle personal electronics (cell phones, batteries, monitors, etc.) through various corporate-sponsored, city-wide events is nothing more than an indirect method of relocating my shit to uglier, more troubled parts of the world.

While I perhaps was naive in assuming that the recycling process was performed by dudes wearing lab coats [and listening to Kraftwerk] — and that’s an image I’ve never actually fully had, thanks to the internet, reading, and the works of artists like Edward Burtynsky (whose images of e-waste dumps in Chinese villages are beyond words) — I’d atleast suspended my own frighteningly vivid skepticism for long enough to amass a pile of monitors, dead computer components, cell phones, and batteries in my Brooklyn basement in anticipation of moments affording ecologically responsible disposal.

The article goes on to state that a good bulk of these “recycled electronics” from various sources end-up in China and India — contrary to the aforementioned naive, Kraftwerk-and-lab-coat-filled vision — where devices meet hazardous, open-air incineration or acid baths (to strip precious metals from circuitry). Mixed loads of working and non-working electronics alike are also reported to be dumped indiscriminately in Africa for scavengers to pick apart. Naturally the EPA turns a blind eye to these activities.

Is this forming a rich tapestry of post-apocalyptic landscape visions for anyone else? Fucking hell!

To anyone with interest, my album “Cities of Cedar” (released July 29 on UK-based Boltfish Recordings) has been chosen as the Instrumental Record of the Week on the Now Like Photographs radio program (based out of Minneapolis). Check out the live stream [now archived!] between 7-9PM CST (8-10PM EST, naturally) or download the podcast featurette within a day or two. Very honored to be a part of a program I personally follow and enjoy.

In addition, a new Obfusc track entitled “Beneath The Cumulus Expanse” proudly accompanies the fine stock comprising a new compilation on the Expanding Electronic Diversity label dubbed “EED’s Summer Vacation ‘08.” Also included on the compilation are Milieu, Electricwest, David Tagg, Am-Boy, Canyon Country, and several other notables. Again, a great honor — very pleased to be associated with the always charming EED.

“EED’s Summer Vacation ‘08″ will be available soon for purchase through the label.