Ethereality News & Weblog

October 30, 2008

Putting my foot down

Filed under: My Life/Musings — Rob @ 11:10 am

I made a list of requirements for the contractors, demanding that they meet what I consider the most basic requirement that any professional contractor should be able to achieve, and when they read it, they were simply stunned into silence, because they have never been asked to step up to even the most basic requirements. In a way, maybe it’s not their fault because every place we go, be it a public place or a home, the average construction quality really is just as bad as what they’ve done in our home. That is the quality that the people in China appear to have no problem accepting. This is what happens when an entire society has no expectations and do not demand quality, even for themselves, let alone their service to others. It’s exactly this kind of mentality that leads to toxic foods and junk products.

Anyway, this is the list I gave the contractors:

Basic requirements:

1) All straight lines must be truly straight.

2) All caulking must be smooth, with no irregularly bumps, dirt, wood shaving, or other discolorations mixed in.

3) All gaps and holes must be filled in smoothly.

4) All corners must be straight and smooth, and not look like it was gnawed on by a dog.

5) All filled holes and gaps must be smooth, not full of lumps.

6) Anything filled by hand (glue, caulk, paint) must not be accidentally applied to or dripped onto surrounding areas.

7) Any shape or surface that’s supposed to be smooth must be smooth, with no deformation or bumpy surfaces.

8) All borders between various materials must be clean, attached properly with no gaps, and not crooked.

9) All moving parts (drawers, doors, knobs, switches) must operate smoothly and without glitches, and with perfect fitting.

10) There cannot be any scratches, dents, or scuffs on surfaces (mirrors, windows panes, sinks, doors, walls…etc)–we are paying for a finished home without accidental damages.

11) All Reworks must be done carefully to ensure that it’s done right, with proper precautionary steps such as taping edges down first, covering things with plastic sheets, using proper sized tools…etc. Any attempt to skip proper steps for the sake of rushing things will not be tolerated.

October 28, 2008

The horror continues

Filed under: My Life/Musings — Rob @ 10:56 pm

WEBLOG:
I started to reply to Jason’s comment in my previous blog entry, and as it got longer and longer I decided to just make it a new entry, detailing on how ridiculously bad the quality of China’s construction work is. Jason commented that he’d probably end up doing it himself after firing a string of contractors, and yes, there were indeed many times when I wanted to just grab the drill/screwdriver/knife/paint brush from the hands of the construction workers and just do it myself, but it would just take far too long, and I’m the kind of guy that only gets handy when I have absolutely no choice.

I’m not one for exaggeration, but I swear there were moments when I could almost hear the slow turning of the gears in one of the contractor’s brain as he proceeds to pound on the wrong spot and completely destroys our very expensive bathroom tiles–just to hang a towel rack. There were numerous moments when a problem needed a solution and they would just stand there scratching their heads, and it only took me a few seconds to come up with a work-around solution. I would suggest my solution when they appear to be totally defeated by the challenge, and they’d mull it over and finally the light clicks on and they’d go “Is that even possible? Hmm, oh yeah, it just might work!” Now, I’m not all that smart–I doubt my IQ is that much higher than average, but the difference is I’m willing to think creatively to solve problems, while these supposedly very experienced contractors who allegedly know all kinds of clever trade secrets and tricks, seems to have their brains stuck in 2nd gear permanently. I believe the key is professional pride. I cannot detect any hint of personal or professional pride in these people–not during any moment, in any of them, during the 4+ months of construction. It’s like you snap the whip and they move an inch, and if you look away for a moment, they’ll fuck something up in the most absurd manner. I commented to Elena yesterday that now I know why there’s no comparative saying in Chinese for what we often refer to as “common sense” in the west–it’s because they have very little of it over here. This is not me being overly critical–it is simply a very honest observation.

I know I sound like a drama queen when I get this way, but you know what, let me post some photos and then you can imagine how you’d feel if your home, after spending the kind of money that makes your sides hurt, still looks like this a few days before completion (click on photos to see detailed photos of the horror and read additional details of how they have fucked up our new home):
construction pics

These photos kinda puts things in perspective, don’t they? I bet you’d all be as pissed as I am–especially after having explained your expectations for 4+ months non-stop. They keep telling me “don’t worry about the rough edges–it’ll be clean when we’re finished” or “That’s only temporary–it won’t look like that when we’re done.” And now it STILL looks like that and they’re telling us they’re done. I’m going to be on them like white on rice until I get the home we paid for, and I’m not going to pay a penny for any kind of reworking they need to do to get the place looking like it should. I knew coming in that there’s absolutely nothing you can trust about China’s workers in any industry, but we hired a close friend–someone we trusted– to be the head contractor and he promised a rose garden. During the construction I even more than once asked why the contractors weren’t taping edges down or covering things up during painting, caulking…etc, and I was told over and over that they can clean it all up in the end. Now I hear “I guess my standard of excellence is different from your standard of excellence–this is just how we do things in China.”

I just hope we can get all of these problems taken care of so our original dream of building our little piece of heaven could come true. Our home will be our sanctuary, and we will not allow this kind of substandard work to be passed off as finished construction. Seriously, if it wasn’t the for the fact we have growing investments in China, and that I’d get to freelance doing anything I wanted at home, we’d never have moved back to China. Our only consolation was that we’d build our little cozy nest and we’d stay the fuck in as much as possible (it’s impossible to afford building a home according to our design in California), so it’s absolutely imperative that our home looks exactly as we had designed it. The next several days are going to jack our blood pressures sky high.

October 27, 2008

One step back and two steps forward

Filed under: Audio & Music,Food,My Life/Musings — Rob @ 9:06 pm

WEBLOG:
The new home is almost done–we’ll be moving in about two days or so. Right now we’re doing the final round of inspection, and it’s just so infuriating dealing with contractors in China, because they seem to have no common sense whatsoever, and doesn’t seem to have the ability to engage their critical thinking skills or think outside the box, let alone respect professionalism or work ethic. It’s even worse that they do not bother consulting you when they aren’t sure about where to cut/place/glue/nail anything–they just GUESS and then do it. By the time you find out it’s already too late. We’ve wasted a bunch of material because of that kind of bad work ethic. Unforgivable mistakes like dripping paint onto our expensive and rare lamps, installing the light switch cover so that it goes OVER part of the mirror frame, crooked frames and walls and wall sockets/switches, paint job where none of the edges are clean–like a three-year-old coloring outside the lines, windows where all the sealant look like they were applied with a finger, looking like someone rubbed chocolate sauce around the glass, wallpaper where the edges look like they were torn by hand–you name it, we had to deal with it. Over and over again I expressed shock at the ridiculous low quality of the craftsmanship displayed by the contractors in China, and every time the response was, “That’s just how things are in China.” But being the perfectionist I am, I don’t let anyone get away with that kind of low quality–especially when it comes to what’s to be our home for the foreseeable future. I would point out every little imperfection and demand that they improve/correct it. There are few things that they fucked up on so badly that nothing can be done anymore (such as cutting the wall switch hole so close to the bathroom mirror that the switch plate actually covers part of the mirror frame–in fact the dumbass actually cut a hole out of the the mirror frame so the switch plate would sit on it without too much of an angle!), and we’d have to live with the result of their dumb-ass mistakes. We still have a few more days of final corrections to go, and I hope all the imperfections could be fixed–they would have to be, otherwise I’d get angry every time I look at those problematic spots in our home.

The studio is pretty much done at this point–just need to get the door knobs and the curtains in there (and the cosmetic touch up’s ). Here are a few photos of how it looks now (the first reflection side panels with floor stands will be placed at where the window is):
studio progress-5

studio progress-6

studio progress-7

…

Elena and I will be back in California for a few weeks in November, taking care of her citizenship application. We’ll be shopping while in California and bringing a bunch of stuff back to China–things you can’t find in China (or are too expensive due to import tax), or the quality is far inferior. I look forward to being able to visit a half-way decent pro audio store again–even if it’s something like Guitar Center. The ones they have in Fuzhou are like a hole in the wall, selling the cheapest of the locally made brands–stuff that any serious musician wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. Anything above the lowest of the low-end you will not see here, and even the lowest of the low-end from known brands are considered the best of the best here. It’s really sad. It’s suppose to be a lot better in the big cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou…etc, but even if they sell the good stuff, they charge at least 25% or more (and often 50% to twice as much) than what the prices are in the States. The exchange/return policies in China are also not nearly as flexible as in the States. Returns are unheard of–you can only exchange for the exact same item if it’s defective, and maybe you can exchange for something else and pay the difference, but never something that costs less and get money back. Shopping is also a joke–they don’t even let you try anything out–they just want you to fork over the money and get the hell out.

While in California we’ll be pigging out too. Ever since the toxic food scare in China, we’ve tried to not eat out whenever possible, not to mention food in Fuzhou generally sucks anyway. You know it’s bad when McDonald’s and KFC are at the top of your eating out list (though to be fair, the Chinese branches do have inventive locally designed menu items that are very tasty–stuff you cannot find in the States, such as the Peking Duck wrap or Passion Fruit Custard at KFC, or the Szechuan spicy hot flavored items in McDonald’s). The only fine dining we found to be worth our time and money is the buffet at a four-star hotel in Fuzhou called Shangri-La. That is the only place with decent western, Japanese, or Southeast Asian food (though Ramada hotel in Fuzhou isn’t too bad either).

October 21, 2008

Sometimes I get what I want

Filed under: Audio & Music,Comics,Computers & Gadgets,Film/TV/Animation,My Life/Musings — Rob @ 10:30 pm

WEBLOG:I have contemplated a different kind of dual display setup (dual vertical rotation) for a while now for my studio, but wasn’t sure if it would technically work, since I’ve never seen anyone with that kind of setup. I finally went ahead and got a 2nd 24″ display (Samsung SyncMaster 2493HM) and tried it (with my other Samsung 24″, the 244T). After dealing with BSD (Blue Screen of Death) caused by Samsung’s Magic Rotation software for an entire afternoon, I finally gave up on Samsung’s software and used Nvidia’s display manager for the rotation settings, and BAM! It worked. I was singing and dancing with joy–a glorious moment–the kind of little thing in life that makes you feel so happy. Here’s how it looks:
dual vertical displays

The reason why I want dual vertical configuration is because when working with DAW sequencers, I find myself constantly scrolling/expanding the list of instruments in the track view–especially when the piece is orchestral and there are tons of instruments. It’s the same when doing any kind of MIDI editing work in the piano roll when I want a good overview of my chord voicing across all instruments in the orchestration, which usually spans just about all the existing octaves in the collective instrument ranges. With one display rotated to portrait mode, I get the vertical real estate, but then I’d have to scroll a lot horizontally–not being able to see more than a 8~10 measures at decent zoom level, which is just as annoying as not having enough vertical real estate. I could stack two displays top and bottom, but that would require a lot of work in practical placement, and would probably require additional purchase of some kind of display holder/arm accessory. So, the only logical option left is to put two vertical ones next to each other. I’m extremely happy with this setup, and the only complaint is sometimes I need to rotate one of them back to horizontal for watching a DVD or doing a horizontally oriented piece of artwork. Otherwise, I’m fine with using the portrait mode for everything else.

…

FM (Frequency Modulation) Synthesis is a bit of a daunting subject for some synth heads, since it’s not nearly as intuitive as subtractive synthesis. I’ve now gotten a pretty good handle on subtractive synthesis, but I still haven’t really gotten my hands dirty in FM yet, and while searching for some info, I came across this very helpful explanation of FM synthesis (but you must already understand how subtractive synthesis works). I’ve yet to see a FM synthesis tutorial that explains it by using analogies from subtractive synthesis, and it’s far more effective than trying to explain carriers and modulators and stacks without any references to subtractive synthesis.

…

Quickie Film/TV reviews:

Hellboy II: The Golden Army – This one had some pretty neat creature designs, with obvious efforts to take it closer to the kind of designs we saw in Pan’s Labyrinth, which is a smart move since Pan’s Labyrinth had the critics foaming at the mouth (though it didn’t do the same for me). I’m usually not a big fan of lighthearted bantering when I feel like it’s executed in a heavy-handed manner, where you can see the strings pulling the puppets, so to speak. HB2 had lots of those moments when you can tell the screenwriter is just trying too hard to make you like the characters. I think this is the difference between a really good writer and an OK one. With the really amazing writers, you never see the strings attached to the puppets–the characters are simply alive and have a will of their own, never resorting to clichéd dialogues or react with predictable gestures. I think Del Toro is a good director, but I’m not sure if his writing matches his directing ability.

Personally, when I used to read Hellboy back in the day, I never imagine him as much of a goof as in the film version. In the comics, he seemed more like a deadpan humor guy with a hard-boiled noir detective vibe (think Deckard from Bladerunner, but with more wisecracking), but in the films, he comes across as a bit too showy and with too much swagger, and quite a bit dumber than the comic book version, which is not particularly endearing.

October 10, 2008

The wonderful Toots Thielemans

Filed under: Audio & Music,Computers & Gadgets,Film/TV/Animation,My Life/Musings — Rob @ 6:59 pm

WEBLOG:
It’s been a while since I posted any progress photos of the on-going construction. We’re now about two weeks away from finishing, and it’s always during the last month when things start to get exciting because you start to see the fruits of your labor. Can’t wait until all the wallpaper, paint, cabinets, closets, lights, floor…etc are installed. We carefully picked out each item and we searched through a bunch of different stores during the last few months until we found what we both liked. I busted my ass working on the design for the recording studio, and it’s very rewarding to see things starting to shape up according to your design (although I had to skip the room-in-a-room part of the design because it would’ve delayed the construction for too long, and I also realized that level of isolation would be overkill since that area is not noisy at all). Here are a few photos of the progress on the studio:

This is how I’ve constructed the broadband absorbers (not sealing the sides provides even better performance):
progress1

Stuffing all the corners full of fiberglass panels for bass trapping (then covered with breathable fabric):
progress2

Closer look at the bass traps:
progress3

Unfinished first reflection traps (legs not painted yet):
progress4

The computer noise isolation box is a big headache and I’m still trying to figure out if my design will really work or not. I guess unless I can get some certified expert to take a look at my design, I’ll only find out if I actually build the damn thing and test it. Here’s the current design (hand drawn in Photoshop):
iso box1

iso box2

Here’s an alternative design for the airflow (not sure if it’ll make the box more quiet though):
iso box3

…

I remember falling in love with a particular style of harmonica playing many years ago (in particular on Morikawa Miho’s Holiday album, where she actually played the harmonica), and ever since then I’ve been toying with the idea of picking up the harmonica. Finally I’ve decided to take the plunge. I mean, I’m already playing four different instruments (guitar, keyboard, drums, bass), so what’s one more instrument? Besides, I need to have at least one instrument that requires me to use my lungs. I ordered a 16-hole chromatic (Suzuki SCX-64) and a couple of diatonics (Bushman Delta Frost in C, and Turboharp Twenty in Ab)–can’t wait to get started. I’ve promised myself that my next instrument will be the cello. That’s going to be expensive, but it’s one of my favorite instruments. I think it’s just as melodic and expressive as the violin, while having more gravity and tonal range.

I did some research and I found out the style of harmonica playing I love was actually pioneered by Toots Thielemans. If your impression of harmonica is either blues/rock or folk/ethnic, then you should take a listen to Toots–his wonderfully expressive and melodic style is nothing like what people usually associate with the harmonica. Listen to this short soundclip of his playing (from Hohner’s website, the track Velas from Quincy Jone’s 1970 album, I Never Told You): http://www.hohnerusa.com/multimedia/Toots.mp3

Just beautiful, isn’t it?

And if you want more technical dazzle, check out Larry Adler–his technical skills and expressiveness on the harmonica is just insane.

…

While researching on the harmonica (it’s far more complicated of an instrument than you’d think it is–I was very surprised), it got me thinking about just what is the most versatile and expressive instrument there is. The piano, guitar, and violin are usually considered the king of all instruments because of how expressive they can be, but they will always be limited by their physical forms. The piano cannot do sustain legato notes, and once the attack phase has passed you can no longer modulate the note that’s been played. The guitar is more expressive because it can do sustained notes via overdrive/effects, and there’s also note bending, hammer on and off, sliding, plucking, picking, strumming, fret-tapping, control with expression pedal, wah pedal…etc, and you can even bow it if you want. But the guitar is still limited due to its physical form–you can’t play more than six notes at a time, and the pitch range also has limits. The violin is considered one of the most expressive instruments, but the articulations and playing techniques are limited compared to the guitar, and there’s a limit to what you can achieve when playing pizzicato (your fingers can’t stand that much abuse).

So I thought about it for a while and I think the most expressive instrument today will have to be the synthesizer, because you can program any non-existing instrument with it, including combining characteristics of existing instruments with physical modeling–say, morph a piano with a cello and a guitar, and then be able to control various parameters with MIDI controllers such as breath controller, foot pedal, modwheel, ribbon strip…etc. I don’t know any other instrument that can morph between very percussive attack to very languid legato, while being able to control just about every parameter that could alter the timbre of a sound. Most people’s understanding of the synthesizer is cursory at best, and it’s like that even with most musicians. It’s only when you learn sound design do you realize the full power of synthesizers. Unfortunately, when it comes to real-time performance, the synthesizer doesn’t seem to be able to compete with acoustic instruments yet, since the physical control methods have not evolved enough at this point, or maybe just that not enough people are taking the time to work out a comprehensive system of mapping the most expressive parameters to controllers, and then master the skills required to perform them at an advanced level during live performances.

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Quickie film/TV show reviews:

Hancock – Another interesting premise squandered. The plot twist completely destroyed what little there was to like about the film. Hancock could have been a really interesting character study, instead it turned into a pointless Hollywood drivel.

Iron Man – For every crappy superhero movie (Fantastic Four, for example), there should be a good one like Iron Man. It’s definitely one of the most entertaining and fun superhero movies ever made. It doesn’t try to apologize for being about a comic book character–it simply tries to tell a comic book story without patronizing the audience and being sincere about it. Robert Downey Jr. rocked as Tony Stark. A lot more charismatic than any of the Bruce Waynes portrayed thus far.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall – I was surprised by how much I liked this film. I think the one core element about it that I found most appealing was that it had a big heart. There was no malice. Too many comedies rely on cruel situations and depictions of despicable acts by people with serious flaws, but in this film, no one was portrayed as worthy of contempt. Even Sarah, who is the cause of much heartache, is really just girl who doesn’t really know what she wants–she’s not a mean bitch and has her moments where you genuinely feel sorry for her. The character Rachel (played by Mila Kunis) was a real delight. She was far cooler than I thought she’d turn out to be. The character of Aldous Snow was also a real surprise. From that first music video it seemed you can’t help but hate that pretentious asshole, but he actually turned out to be a nice guy in general. And of course, you wouldn’t watch this if you didn’t already like Jason Segel. I may not have wanted to see his danglies over and over right at the beginning of the film, but I guess the ladies enjoyed it.

Mad Men (Season One) – It seems so odd that someone would want to do a TV series about an ad agency in the 1960′s, but as soon as you start watching you realize why. The contrast of that society and today’s form a very interesting dynamic, where you can see and trace how some of today’s norms had their beginnings back then, and just how much society has changed, or remained the same. If the show was about a present day ad agency it wouldn’t be nearly as intriguing. It’s always a real treat when the backdrop for the premise is like a character in of itself.

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