Gothic Cruise 2008 – October 16th

Posted on 10/26/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

On Thursday the Carnival Glory arrived at Grand Turk Island and docked at the Grand Turk Cruise Terminal which Carnival built for $50 million dollars. This was the most picture perfect Caribbean island we visited and the only one were I lay on the beach, briefly. I shot lots of video and photos of the cruise ship, the beaches, the palm trees, and the island.

There wasn’t much to do on this island and I only bought a yellow t-shirt at Piranha Joe. When I returned to the ship I had an Absolute Vodka on the Lido Deck but I did not like the taste. At 4:30 PM I saw the movie “Alvin & The Chipmunks” in the Ebony Cabaret. I have to admit that this movie was totally inappropriate but I’d never seen it before and it put me in a good mood.

Dinner that night was Cruise Elegant again and this was the night for the Masquerade Ball so everyone was dressed up. For the goths this meant they wore their most outrageous costumes to dinner. One girl at my table even arrived in full fetish gear which was pretty daring! I wore a shiny black dress shirt with shiny white cuffs. This shirt looked really elegant when I bought it online but I was a bit surprised when it turned out to look like black silk. I had shrimp and baked Alaska for dinner. Carson and his friend did not come to dinner but the three girls and Sam and his wife were there. She was wearing a fancy green gown.

At the Masquerade Ball someone tried to stop me from going in again but Sam vouched for me. They thought I was one of the crew because I was wearing a vest. That was the second time I almost did not get into an official Gothic Cruise event. The Masquerade Ball was so wild that I immediately decided I needed to get drunk to handle it. There were people in borg cybergoth outfits, fetish wear, Victorian gowns, and other wild goth costumes. It was really freaky! I had two vodkas on ice which was enough to get me very drunk. Maybe the wine at dinner helped. I think that was the first time in my life that I got drunk. Maybe that sounds sad but I’m a good boy and some people pride themselves on never touching a drop of alcohol. So being drunk was a new experience for me. It made me comfortably numb so I didn’t get nervous or feel too self-conscious at the Masquerade Ball although it did make it seem slightly more unreal. I felt very woozy and heavily sedated. It really impeded my ability to appreciate the  Masquerade Ball because my imagination was not working and I felt indifferent to the aesthetics. From now on I will consider anyone who finds their vision at the bottom of a bottle to be full of shit! It was sort of like it is portrayed in a movie because everything seemed to happen in a dizzy blur.

Several people asked me to take their pictures which was kind of hard because I did not know how their cameras worked and I was drunk. Fortunately my head began the clear when it came time for the Rocky Horror Picture Show movie with audience participation. Zaida, the Gothic Cruise travel agent and event promoter seemed to be really into this event. I’ve seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show performed live as a musical at the Lycoming College Theater which is probably the only gothic event that has ever taken place in Williamsport, although it was not meant to be. I think the Rocky Horror Picture Show is popular because the movie seems like a wild party that you would like to be invited to. I was given a piece of toast which I threw when Dr. Frank N. Furter calls for a toast. That movie reminds me of The Theater of the Ridiculous which was influenced by gothic horror novels and popular culture. I only know of that theater from a collection of plays in a book which I’ve had a long time. It always struck me as the theatrical equivalent of the Andy Warhol crowd.

Yesterday I discovered a gothic rock musical which aims to eclipse the Rocky Horror Picture Show as the premiere midnight movie, REPO! The Genetic Opera. It was kind of strange to come across this movie so soon after the Gothic Cruise because I’ve never heard of it before and it almost seems like something inspired by that adventure and inserted into reality. And I found this movie while specifically looking for something to replace the Rocky Horror Picture Show, i.e. something new in “dark culture”. Of course, there is a logical explanation for this. The REPO! The Genetic Opera movie has not been given the major theatrical release it deserves so there hasn’t been any buzz about it. Few people have seen the movie even though everyone who sees the short video clip for the Zydrate Anatomy song instantly falls in love with the movie and becomes desperate to see more. Paris Hilton stars in the movie and that just isn’t right. I ordered the soundtrack on CD from Amazon and I hope it is released on DVD some day.

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Gothic Cruise 2008 – October 15th

Posted on 10/26/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

Wednesday was another “Fun Day At Sea” which I spent in my stateroom listening to my DELL Axim Pocket PC and reading the mass market paperback “The Lost Tomb”, a 400 page plus book which I almost finished reading on the voyage aboard the Carnival of Souls. I really didn’t do anything until dinner that night. I had duck and raw lamb which are meats I’ve never eaten before. Desert was a choice between Batman or Robin. I had Batman which was chocolate cake with a bat cookie. I bet everyone picked that!

I almost didn’t get in to see the CombiChrist concert at midnight because I was not wearing a pink wristband and did not have an Open Bar Card. I guess I did not look goth enough. The doorman had to get Zaida who fixed me up with an Open Bar Card at the purser’s desk. This kind of pissed me off because it felt like a rejection. I should not have taken it that way but they are fortunate  I cannot summon demons.

Everyone stood up for the CombiChrist concert although we were in a theater and could have remained seated. They really cranked up the sound until it was deafening and later bragged about the decibel level. They must have been measuring it. But I have to say that CombiChrist sounds better when you crank up the volume. Andy LaPlegua, the singer for CombiChrist, commented on the rocking of the ship which reminded him of the back of a moving tour bus. Kourtney Klein, the only amazon in the group was wearing an outfit to show off her very flat midriff and energetically played a bass drum. Some of the ship’s crew were allowed to see the show and I think even the captain made an appearance. The man who was interested in concert footage filmed the entire concert but I think he got permission. I watched a technician seated in front of me control the lights using a laptop. I noticed that all the bands had Macbooks on stage which they must have used as digital audio workstations. They were probably running mixing software or software synthesizers. I may invest more money in digital audio because even if you don’t understand music it is really cool to play around with the software. You can get Industrial music loops and sound samples if you are into that kind of music.

Before the concert began they played some new tracks that nobody else has heard before, not even their record label. Andy LaPlegua also mentioned that the CD we got included exclusive material which would not be released unless we spread it around.

The show ended at 2 AM in the morning so I went immediately to bed. There was a Goth Club at Sea every night from 2 AM to 4 AM but I skipped them all.

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Gothic Cruise 2008 – October 14th

Posted on 10/24/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

Tuesday was the day we arrived at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. I got up early, ate breakfast, and then filmed the islands as we approached them. There was a light rain and this caused my Panasonic PVGS120 MiniDV Camcorder to display a dew warning. That was the first time I’ve seen that error message and it took me awhile to figure out that the only way to solve the problem was to swap the battery. After we had docked at Charlotte Amalie, the Cruise Director announced that most of the shore excursions had been canceled due to the weather and Magen’s Bay was flooded. I had booked a shore excursion for a day at the beach on Magen’s Bay so I assumed that was canceled. Later on the captain announced that a tropical depression, which later became hurricane Omar, would pass over St. Martin so we would not be going there. I saw several yachts in the Yacht Haven Grande.

Before we could disembark we had to go through US Immigration because we had just been in a foreign country, i.e. Nassau Bahamas which is not a US Territory. Going through immigration just required showing an official my passport so it was no big deal. As soon as I got off the ship I went to the nearby Havensight Mall which is non-enclosed strip mall at the cruise port. The stores sold the usual souvenirs, jewelry, watches, t-shirts, rum, liquor, and other Caribbean tourist trap stuff. I did buy a nice little trinket at one of the small shops, a small black guitar on a stand with the words “St. Thomas” on it. I thought it was an appropriate souvenir. I shot some video of the Carnival Glory from the Havensight Mall.

I then managed to find an Apple store in the Al Cohens Mall. Leave it to a geek like me to find a computer store in the Caribbean! I bought an iPod 8GB touch for $319.00. This seems to have been $100 more than the average retail price but at least I did not pay any taxes or duty on it. After that I went to the Barefoot Buddha Cafe and ordered a passion fruit smoothie. The Barefoot Buddha Cafe is a quaint little coffee shop which I was attracted to because I’ve studied and respect Zen Buddhism. They had computers with Internet access so I was tempted to check my email. The chairs required you to kneel to sit on them and I saw a woman land on her ass trying to seat herself before a computer. I walked another block and then found a Subway. I usually boycott fast food restaurants because they treat their employees like dirt but I make an exception when traveling. Like many travelers I appreciate a familiar restaurant where I can get familiar food. Actually, St. Thomas is a very American island with a K-Mart, McDonalds, Burger King and many other typical establishments. It makes a very curious impression because it mashes up the familiar and the exotic. It was sort of like a dream where familiar things have undergone a subtle distortion. For example, I found some black islanders in the Subway restaurant but they were watching Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on the TV. He was giving a press conference on the fires in Los Angeles. The man in front of me was very talkative and tried to amuse the server but she was being very cold towards him. I had a crab and seafood hoagie on a toasted bun with onions.

I then went on a long walk up the street, occasionally stopping to videotape the Carnival Glory from different angles and perspectives. I was accosted by a crazy man who may have been out of his mind on drugs. I was tempted to scare him away with some dire threat of “exterminating angels“.  The goth scene provides many colorful phrases like that. Eventually I circled around back to the bay and then found the walkway that leads downtown. I saw a small lizard scampering around the rocks and I managed to videotape it. I crossed a very busy street to tour the shops and then found a Catholic church on a side street which I also videotaped. I thought a Catholic church would look great in my Gothic Cruise footage. I walked past the Green House restaurant and debated with myself on whether to enter. My shore excursion was supposed to take us there for lunch and a Bushwacker or 2 so I decided I may as well. I drank two Bushwackers at their bar. I don’t know how much alcohol is in a Bushwacker but I gulped down two of them really fast because I was powerfully thirsty. They did not not seem to have any effect. It was like drinking milkshakes. The bartender did not offer me another so I guess two was the limit.

I started to walk back to the ship but then I got caught in the rain. Pretty soon I was soaked and had to take shelter behind a dilapidated shed where several other goths from our group had taken refuge. They were headed towards the downtown area.  Fortunately a van was passing by and the driver honked his horn to see if any of us wanted a ride. The van was a one of the many taxis shuttling the cruise passengers back and forth from the cruise ship to the downtown area. I was the only person to get in the van because I was the only one heading in that direction. Wouldn’t you know it, but the van was already occupied by someone else in our group, a girl from LA named Alice, as in Alice In Wonderland. Cute. She engaged the taxi driver in a very amusing conversation. First she asked him about all the whacked out druggies or crazy people that seem to be wandering around the place. I thought that was curious because I’d encountered one myself. The driver didn’t seem to want to give a straight answer to that question but she kept probing like an investigative reporter who smells a story. I began to think there was some dark secret on the island. Maybe drug smuggling or something like that. Then she asked him if he had a gun and really gave him a hard time. Many of the goths were like that. They seemed to enjoy having an unsettling effect on people.

I’m not sure what I did between my return to the ship and dinner. I remember I tried to order a pay-per-view movie, “The Ruins”, which would have been a good choice but their pay-per-view system didn’t really work. Since my pants were soaked I had to wear the Ghast String Raver Dance Shorts I bought. I was wearing them when I went up on the Lido deck to shoot some more video. I passed the drummer for CombiChrist who seemed to do a double take when he saw me so that was kind of embarrassing. 

At dinner that night I managed to catch a few names. There was a couple from Chicago, Sam and his wife, who seemed to enjoy teasing me. And Carson had us listen to a few songs from one of the bands he was in. They invited three other people over because the girls arrived late. They may have been pissed because they had to find other tables. The woman who was teasing me must have been very drunk because she felt my hair and asked me what shampoo I used to make it so soft. LOL!

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Gothic Cruise 2008 – October 13th

Posted on 10/22/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

Monday was a “Fun Day At Sea”. Or at least that is how Carnival Cruise Lines puts it. I was bored silly, or least I would have been if I was not psyched by the goth scene onboard. I spent most of the day lying in my cabin listening to music on my DELL Axim Pocket PC. Fortunately I loaded it up with MP3s before the cruise. I had lots of Clan Of Xymox songs although I did not listen to them much and some of my very favorite songs like; Covenant “We Stand Alone”, Rammstein “Amerika”, “Mein Teil”, and “Reise Reise”, Lauren Rocket’s cover version of “Cities In Dust”, Moby “New Dawn Fades”, and Apoptygma Berzerk “Love Never Dies”. I should have put a lot more songs on its SD card because that playlist got to be repetitive.

There must have been a  psychic vampire onboard because I felt unusually drained a lot of time. Or it could have been my feverish imagination drawing a lot of energy from my body. While I was listening to my music I would slip in and out of dreams and strange reveries. The word reverie is an old fashioned phrase that isn’t used much in our day and age because people crave sophisticated entertainment and are unable to entertain themselves with their own thoughts and dreams. Fortunately this is far from being the case with me. I do not care that much for my thoughts but I dream exceptionally well. I like to quote Rimbaud’s line “I came to find my mind’s disorder sacred” as if that conveys exactly what I mean but I should probably express it better. The subtle workings of my mind is endlessly fascinating to me and quite capable of diverting my attention from the world. Even the splendor of the Carnival Glory and the spectacle of the goths was sometimes eclipsed by my own vision.

However, reading Asmodeus X bio last night reminds me that Industrial and Gothic Rock music is often specifically geared towards putting you into a trance state and directing you inwards. People have been using shamanic drumming, chants, frantic dancing, and fantastic animal costumes since the dawn of time to put themselves in a trance state in order to make an inner journey. The club scene is sometimes no different than a shaman’s ritual. If you have not done your homework you may think this is a ridiculous comparison. But I can cite a long list of sources to back me up. For example, there is even a sub-genre of music known as Technoshamanism. According to the Wikipedia article, Binaural beats can influence functions of the brain besides those related to hearing. This phenomenon is called frequency following response. The concept is that if one receives a stimulus with a frequency in the range of brain waves, the predominant brain wave frequency is said to be likely to move towards the frequency of the stimulus (a process called entrainment). Many goths are well aware of the relationship between shamanism and their music scene. I recommend Raven Digitalis’s book “Goth Craft: The Magickal Side of Dark Culture” if you want to find out more. There really is no need for me to elaborate on this topic when there is an excellent book available.

But I do need to mention that I am quite susceptible to music that is meant to induce a trance state and it often fills me with a sense of power.

At 3:00 PM it was time for the next scheduled goth event, the Champagne Gothic Piano Recital in the Ivory Lounge. The piano recital was performed by Kael, a young man dressed in a puffy white shirt and an elegant velvet jacket. He looked like an emo Amadeus. That may be really insulting but I can’t think of any better description. He may have been inspired by some Final Fantasy fashion. He played a few classical numbers, some music from video games, and a piano cover of a VNV Nation song which was practically the only music I found familiar. He missed many notes and stopped frequently because he did not know how to play all of the songs he was attempting. I didn’t mind because this clearly was not meant as part of the entertainment. It was more like a group tradition among the regulars who were good friends. A few old ladies had to be asked to leave because they thought the piano recital was a Carnival Cruise activity.

I ordered a long island ice tea and put a lighted ice cube in it. I was rather pleased by that because I’d brought several lighted ice cubes along to add to the festivities but I wasn’t using them. The man who was interested in video footage approached me and got my email address. Then I overheard Zaida talking about her plans for next year’s cruise. I only remember that she insists on October for the Gothic Cruise and prefers the larger vessels.

After the piano recital there was a Gothic Beauty fashion show in the Ebony Cabaret.  Gothic Beauty is one of my favorite magazines and I’ve been a subscriber for years. It is one of the few glossy magazines remaining that is devoted to covering the gothic scene. There are no more fanzines because it is easier to create a web site instead. Although it is mainly focused on fashion you can find advertisements for horror novels and music reviews in it’s pages. I usually browse through a new issue looking for some new contribution to dark culture but there is rarely anything significant. I saw the publishers of the magazine preparing the show, Steven Holiday, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief and his wife, Ruby Holiday, Fashion Director. Also at this time I finally recognized the founder of Vampire Raves, Cancer, who wears red silk Chinese jackets. I recognized a few of the songs that were played during the show. One song that seemed hauntingly familiar was Public Image Limited’s “The Order Of Death” but I could not place it. I thought it was a song from “The Lost Boys” song track but I probably remembered it from the movie “Hardware”, an obscure sci-fi movie which I have on Laserdisc. It is certainly a movie the Industrial crowd would love. They also played Covenant’s “We Stand Alone” which sounds like a vampire’s anthem and a song from the Fifth Element movie. That movie was like a really bad fashion show so I guess it was appropriate.

The models for the fashion show were actually members of the group. The girls that I thought were fetish models didn’t even participate. Maybe they were just fans. I didn’t try to find out anything about them. Some of the models did not stop for the photographers. They just walked on by without posing. That was funny and made the entire show seem less imposing.

First there was a raffle to give away some record company promotional merchandise only the guy giving away the stuff was not there. Zaida’s voice was hoarse, probably from trying to have conversations in the noisy environment of the cruise ship. I didn’t do any socializing because nobody would have been able to hear me at dinner, at the concerts, or anywhere else what with all the noise. You really shouldn’t expect me to say anything intelligent unless it is quiet.

The fashion show featured jackets with long flowing sleeves that looked like straight jackets. Do people actually wear something like that at a club? There were the usual Victorian gowns, one skimpy outfit, and outfits based on Bohemianism and Dark Romanticism.  Personally I prefer a good old Siouxsie Sioux clone. But you are not going to find any goth fashion victims in Pennsylvania. Nobody dresses all in black except for the Amish. I guess you could say the Amish are like gothic farmers or rusticated goths. I haven’t even seen a goth locally in years.

The ship was rocking a lot in the aft where the Ebony Cabaret was located. It must have been tough on the models. Maybe that is what made me so sleepy all of the time. The ship rocked like a cradle. During the fashion show my mind wandered and I thought about how the goth scene needed to be a little more sublime. It should try to capture the essence of a nightmare, the soul of the dream, and abandon the grotesque. It is difficult to remain in the scene as you mature if it isn’t elevated. I can take it as deep as it needs to be and refashion everything I see in my imagination.

An example of this occurred as I was sitting in the lobby waiting for dinner. I became curiously fixated on a light shining in the depths of the elevator pulley system. It was a strange thing to focus on given the lavish surroundings. Nevertheless it inspired a vision of a bleak industrial complex except for the incongruous image of an elegant businesswoman sitting at a desk in a vast and lonely space, sipping champagne. It was a very mysterious scene from some inscrutable drama.

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Gothic Cruise 2008 – October 12th

Posted on 10/21/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

On the second day of the cruise we docked in Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. I was well prepared for this port of call because on my previous visit I bought the book “A History Of The Bahamas” by Michael Craton.

This book provides the historical background you need to really appreciate the historical sites you’ll find on the island. However, I did find it kind of boring due to its emphasis on the changing political structure of the Bahamas and its skimpy material on the modern period. Based on what I read in the book I made sure to videotape The Assembly on Rawson Square and the Government House on George Street.

I did not have any shore excursions booked for Nassau and only planned on shopping downtown. Therefore I put on plenty of sunscreen which I accidentally rubbed into my eyes. I did not get any sunburns on this trip. In deference to the goth style I dared to wear my Greek Fisherman’s cap. It is not exactly goth but it is black and nautical. 

I found the streets of Nassau deserted and most of the shops were closed so I had a Frappuccino at Starbucks just like on my previous visit to the island. The Carnival Glory docked next to the Royal Carribbean International Majesty Of The Seas which was also there on March 11th. I believe Nassau is its home port so you will often find it there. I cooled off at Starbucks until 9:30 AM when some of the shops would be open. I was looking for a Hot Topic clothing store or an occult bookstore at all of the cruise ports of call but I guess the Caribbean economy is based on expensive watches, jewelry, liquor, and souvenir t-shirts. I searched for hours for a leather belt and eventually found one in the Bonneville store on Bay & George Streets. The leather belt cost $55.00 and they were unable to give me change for a $100 bill so I had to put it on a credit card. I needed a new belt because I was wearing my special belt with the plastic buckle that does not need to be removed to go through a metal detector. Unfortunately this belt does not cinch very tight so it frequently feels too loose.

I tried to shop at The Island Shop which has a bookstore upstairs but it was closed. So I went to the Pirate Museum store instead and bought the book “Under The Black Flag” by David Cordingly. I saw some other people from our group there which was only to be expected because pirates are like the goths of the sea.

A woman on the street conned me into paying $5.00 in donation for a cheap bracelet. What really bothered me about this was the blue and yellow dye that came off the plastic seashells to stain my wrist. I had to remove my pink wristband because of that. Eventually I got tired of walking in the hot sun so I returned to the Carnival Glory early. I took a shower to wash off my sweat and then went to the Ebony Cabaret to see a movie. The movie was the “Spiderwick Chronicles”. This was an appropriate movie for the Gothic Cruise 2008 because its subject matter is a hidden dimension of magic and wonder which is not apparent to the everyday world. It seemed to be based on the turn of the century mania for fairies that some hoaxers would pretend to capture in the new media of photography. I’ve read an interesting book, “Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide To The Otherworld” by Patrick Harpur which explains how fairy abductions were strangely similar to modern alien abductions in various respects, for example, the same descriptions of colored lights. You could say that “Spiderwick Chronicles” is really a movie about the daimonic reality. However there were not many cruisers who wanted to watch a movie while docked at Nassau so the Ebony Cabaret was virtually empty.

The Carnival Glory had a Starbucks onboard although they called it the Creams Cafe. I ordered a lot of cappuccinos and frappuccinos but every time I asked for an iced drink I would get a hot drink instead. These would show up on my bill which I could review on my TV by pressing the menu button on my remote. This reminds me. I never did get the itemized bill for my Sail and Sign card on the last day of the trip.

At 3:00 PM it was time for another special Gothic Cruise event. It was the first rock concert on the cruise ship and the band should have been Deepest Symphony but they were a no show, no call. Fortunately the promoter managed to find a replacement act from among the group which must have included many musicians. The band that did play that afternoon was Asmodeus X. According to their web site, Asmodeus X is a project that fuses electronic beats and metaphysical themes, – a hybrid of ancient teachings and esoteric schools of thought. Hmm, that is rather suggestive. And they draw inspiration from euphoric trance and industrial influences best described as Daemonic Body Music. Wow! I was just writing about daimonic reality.

I saw several people with cameras and camcorders so I felt free to videotape the concert but about half way through the show someone associated with All Genre Travel asked me not to film the entire show as only short clips were allowed. After that I decided not to videotape any of the concerts or events because it seemed better to let other people handle that. But I still shot a lot of video of the Carnival Glory and the ports of call. Nevertheless a man approached me later and asked me to contribute some footage for a private DVD which kind of confused the issue. There was a lot of theatrical fog during the show and some spotlights were used to make sure the swirling mist caught the light. This got me thinking, I could reproduce that in After Effects. You can easily create swirling curtains of mist in After Effects and you may be able to set lights that interact with the mist in 3D. I’ll have to try that when I have the time. I found a web page that claims theatrical fog may damage your lungs if it contains gylcol. This is probably a health hazard for a few sensitive people who work in a club but it would not affect you after just one show.

I got a free CD sampler, 8 tracks from the Asmodeus X Digital remix album from Next Gen records. I really like Track #7, Typhoon which I played 10 times in a row last night. It has a very stately beat and reminds me of the martial song Gloria by Life’s Decay.

Dinner that night was supposed to be a formal affair, dress code Cruise Elegant, so I wore a skinny white tie and a black vest. I probably looked like an ugly hit man. I was complimented on my skinny white tie which is classic punk. It is hard to find skinny white ties but I ordered one online back when I was feeling nostalgic for the 80s. A girl wearing only half of a black dress showed up with the CombiChrist drummer and was laughed at by the regular cruise goers for being too risque. The CombiChrist band had dinner at the same time as I did and always sat at a nearby table which was cool because they were the major attraction. There were not enough seats at our table because someone new showed up although he only sat at our table on that night. I had lobster and a rather strange strawberry soup. I’ve never had soup made from a fruit before. Soup is always some combination of vegetables and meat. I also had white wine. They always poured wine at dinner although on my previous cruise you only got wine if you bought a bottle. I don’t particularly like wine although I prefer white wine. It tastes like grape juice mixed with antiseptic.

That night I saw the only main show I was able to attend, Living In America starring the Glory Dancers in the Amber Palace. It was your typical fast paced mix of Broadway show tunes, a Vegas style show. I sat with some of the more mature members of our group who could appreciate a change of scene. I experienced only a mild reaction to this theater. I think the most interesting aspect was some old Broadway photos in the backdrop which presented a bit of ancient street cred. Live dancing and singing can be charming the first time you see it in real life but after awhile you get bored with its rigid conventions and phoney smiles.

Even later that night I went to the Ebony Cabaret for the R rated adult comedy show staring Michael Macy. The funniest part of this show was his interaction with some goths he spotted in the audience. I think he asked them what goth was supposed to be about and they replied that to be goth is to shit bats. Well the comedian didn’t think shiting bats was something he would want to be doing!  I wish I had my camcorder to record exactly they said because it was hilarious. I fantasized about extending the joke with something to the effect that you can’t shit bats until you get them crammed up there, like maybe through fudge packing only with bats.

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Gothic Cruise 2008 – October 11th

Posted on 10/19/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

I may as well reveal that the cruise I went on was actually a special theme cruise, the Gothic Cruise which is offered by All Genre Travel and sponsored by Gothic Beauty Magazine & Vampirerave.com. Since this may raise a few eyebrows among people who don’t know me very well, I feel obliged to offer an elaborate explanation.

You may ask, “What possessed you to go on such a cruise”? It was the disquieting muses who have me under their spell that lead to this. I think that explains everything. But for those of you who are unfamiliar with the disquieting muses I will try to describe them. “The Disquieting Muses” is a famous metaphysical painting by Giorgio de Chirico. The muses are depicted rather strangely as dummies in a desolate urban landscape that seems timeless. You could regard it as the quintessential statement of modern art in which the inspiration of the modern age is sarcastically shown to be the soulless industrial revolution with mute showroom dummies as its muses. However I interpret the painting as an attempt to paint the eerie muses of one’s most curious nightmares. Sylvia Plath wrote a chilling poem based on this painting in which she embraces the disquieting muses, “I learned, I learned, I learned elsewhere, / From muses unhired by you, dear mother“. I was charmed by Sylvia’s appropriation of the disquieting muses so I’ve made them part of my fantasy life. But of course, the disquieting muses must have a different aspect for me. In my personal mythology they are the geniuses behind meaningful dreams, the source of unearthly visions that cast a heavy spell on the soul. I think I have something of their genius.

To say you have the genius of the disquieting muses is a dangerous revelation. Or it would be if you knew exactly what I meant. However I’ve found that it is quite safe to talk about this because it is easy to dismiss mere words, no matter what they imply. But it isn’t safe to talk this way around me because it will arouse my curiosity. There are a few individuals in the gothic community that have aroused my curiosity…. Just to put out a name, John Santerineross.

I want to write about every detail of my trip to fix it in my memory. But since this isn’t the right blog for such an account I’ll have to be a little conservative. I’m going to record all the tedious travel details because these are things I may want to remember on future trips.

One of the reasons that I felt comfortable making this trip was my previous cruise this year, the YouTube cruise in March. The YouCruise went remarkably well and gave me some idea as to what to expect so I wasn’t too nervous about traveling or expecting it to be a disaster. However, the heightened security at the airports still makes me nervous. At the Williamsport Regional Airport (IPT) I saw a woman being questioned by a police officer. I  think she did not have any money or something. Being arrested or hassled for poverty is so typical of Williamsport. I gave the baggage clerk a $100 bill to pay for my checked bag and he had to go in the back to get my change. I had printed tickets that Travelocity sent me through Federal Express but I was given blue printed tickets as well which I didn’t get on my earlier trip. The plane left Williamsport at 6:00 AM and it was still dark out so I looked out the window at all the lights on the ground as we flew to Philadelphia. We were flying pretty low so I could see all sorts of deserted parking lots, streets, and back porches brilliantly lit in the night like tiny stages.

At the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) I bought a mass market paperback book to read on the long flight to Orlando Florida. There is a Hudson News/Euro Cafe at Concourse F where you can buy reading material. There was not much of a selection but I managed to find something that was somewhat appropriate for a gothic cruise, “The Lost Tomb” by David Gibbins. It is a novel about the fabled lost libraries of antiquity and concerns the hunt for the written words of Jesus Christ. The hero of the story visits many ancient tombs which still manage to retain grisly human remains including a memorable description of body liqueur, saponification, the conversion of the fat of a corpse into adipocere, often called “grave wax.” The Lost Tomb

I took a shuttle bus from Terminal F to Terminal B to get on the plane to Orlando Florida. The Philadelphia International Airport is so big that you need to take a plane just to get from one end to the other. I saw a young woman at the gate with her hair dyed red and I thought she must be one of the goths going on the cruise. However, I never saw her on the ship. At the Orlando International Airport (MCO) I took the AGT (Train) System to the Main Terminal and Baggage Claimway. The train was a futuristic monorail that looked like something out of Logan’s Run. After I got my bag I found a Carnival Cruise Line representative who directed me downstairs. I saw a bus loading passengers bound for the cruise ship, Carnival Glory, which I could identify based on their orange luggage tags. I bought a transfer  from my travel agent but I was not sent it so I had to asked about getting one and was directed to the Carnival Desk inside. This proved to be hard to find and I was the last person on the bus.

At Port Canaveral we were able to see the cruise ships Carnival Glory and the Disney Cruise Line Magic off in the distance long before we arrived. We got stuck behind a limousine so I was able to snap some photos of the Carnival Glory. I imagined that the rock stars arrived in the limousine but they probably aren’t big enough stars for that special treatment. Really anyone could rent a limo to arrive in style.

Fortunately, the Mears Transportation Group bus took care of getting my checked baggage on board the ship so I only had to deal with my carry on bag. It seemed like I had to show my passport, Fun Pass, and eventually Sail & Sign card to everyone before I could get on the ship. I had to show identification at least 5 times.

I was unable to go to my cabin because they would not be ready until 1:30 PM and I arrived at Noon so I went to the Lido deck where I saw a few goths I recognized from photos on Vampire Raves. I had a cheeseburger for lunch and then took out my camcorder to take some great video of the Disney cruise ship. I’ll be posting video later. That kept me occupied until I could go to my cabin, #8357, although my other bag was not there yet. So I toured the ship and shot some video of the empty Amber Palace theater. When I went back my room I found my other bag outside so I was able to change into a black short sleeved shirt.

At 4:00 PM it was time for the first event on the 2008 Gothic Cruise Onboard Itinerary, the autograph signing. Now at this point I had no idea what to expect so I was not feeling a lot of dread. I could only picture a crowd of people lined up before folded tables like at a rock concert. When I entered the White Heat Disco there were only a few people there and nothing much was going on so I just looked around. I saw Zaida and Chris of Red Flag although I did not know their names then. Eventually I approached Zaida and got the complimentary CDs and a pink wrist band. Many more goths began to show and they were all dressed up which began to make me feel conspicuously normal. I was dressed all in black but it was just black slacks and a black short sleeve shirt. Not appropriate for a cruise but not so unusual as to get looks from the vacationers.

If you feel at all self-conscious you should definitely avoid  the gothic cruise like the plague. You’ll either feel awkward and uncomfortable at the special events if you don’t look gothic enough or you’ll feel absolutely mortified when you are just around  the average cruise goers. I have to admit that everyone seemed pretty brave and totally unconcerned about their appearance, unless they drank a lot to brace themselves for going out. Personally I was cursing the disquieting muses for getting me into this. I’ve never felt so awkward in all my life! I looked at a lot of photos of past gothic cruises and saw many people my age dressed in band t-shirts so I was not expecting to stand out like a sore thumb.

Of course there was a masquerade ball which required some sort of fancy dress but I thought the heat would discourage anyone from wearing trench coats and combat boots or anything like that. After all, there isn’t a fashion line for gothic cruise wear and you don’t wear black in the hot sun. Oh well, it was pretty funny to get myself in such a predicament and at least I wasn’t wearing a dress. You can’t complain too much in the circumstances. It was really outrageous and secretly I loved it but…

I got my CombiChrist CD signed by all the members of the band and bought one of their t-shirts. I was reading Joe Letz’s blog on VampireFreaks before the cruise so I recognized him. To be perfectly honest, I’d never heard of CombiChrist before the cruise, although I bought all their albums after booking. They are on Metropolis Records which is currently the major label  for the electro-industrial, synthpop, futurepop, darkwave, and gothic musical genres. I can remember when Cleopatra was the major label for gothic music and Propaganda magazine was the major publication. I have lots of CDs on the Cleopatra label. I still have a Propaganda VHS tape called “The Ritual”. This seems to be pretty rare. I can’t find any information on it online and even YouTube does not have any clips. I should transfer it to DVD to preserve it.

I went back to my cabin and napped until 8:15 PM when I made my way to the Golden Restaurant, table 188, for the late dinner. My table mates for the entire cruise were three girls who looked like fetish models (didn’t catch their names), two Digital Audio Workstation resellers (or audio technicians) and occasionally another couple. The only names I remember are Carson and Sam. Maybe I can fill in the details later. Any way, everyone introduced themselves and were very friendly so that made me feel a lot better. I got a little moody after the autograph signing. The conversation was typical goth intellectualism concerning organized religion and spirituality, the sort of talk I’m familiar with from GothicCemetery on BlogTV.

After dinner there was the Bon Voyage Deck Party on the Lido deck. I videotaped the entire party but the audio will probably be terrible due to the wind. I may still be able to identify some of the music though. I remember the moon was lighting up the clouds for the perfect atmosphere.

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Vacation Notice

Posted on 10/8/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

I will be going on vacation soon. I will be gone from Saturday October 11th through Saturday October 18. I won’t have Internet access so I will be unable to check my email or attend to any emergencies.

I’m going on another cruise to the Caribbean; Nassau, St Thomas Island, and St. Maarten Island! I wouldn’t have booked another cruise this year if it were not for the fact that this is a special themed cruise. The cruise is being sponsored by my favorite music magazine and will feature live performances by three alternative rock bands. Originally one of my favorite rock stars was going to be a DJ on the cruise but he canceled and that was a big part of my justification for the expense. I’m sure it will still be an extra special vacation. I probably won’t be doing much traveling in the future now that the economy has tanked. There isn’t much interest in having any more vlogger gatherings.

Last night I watched the movie “French Postcards” on DVD. This movie was made in 1979 and serves as a classic 80s teenager flick. I don’t remember ever seeing it before so it was an undiscovered gem for me. It is a good movie to watch just before you do some traveling.

My cruise is on the Carnival ship, Glory, which is much bigger and more lavish than the old Celebration. I plan to shoot lots of video which I will post on my YouTube channel.

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Pennsylvania Congressmen Who Supported The $700 Billion Bail Out

Posted on 10/5/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

A lot of people are angry about the $700 billion dollar bail out of Wall Street banks for their bad mortgage debt, but how many of them are going to take any action? Congress frequently gets away with defying the will of the people because the public is too lazy to hold them accountable. Don’t just get mad, get even.

You can visit this web site: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/vote-against-bail-out-supporters-in-congress.html to find out if your representatives voted for the bail out. It looks like both Pennsylvania Senators voted in favor of the bail out; U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. You’ll need to remember this when they come up for re-election. I’m going to vote against Bob Casey even though I probably voted for him. If you don’t like voting for a Republican or a Democrat then at least try to vote against these congressmen in the primaries. Lycoming County is represented in the House of Representatives by U.S. Congressman John Peterson (R-PA/5) and it looks like he voted for the $700 billion dollar bail too. I doubt that many local residents will vote him out of office, being too lazy to take note of how he voted and too loyal to the Republican party to vote against their candidate.

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Hamlet

Posted on 10/4/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

Last night I saw the William Shakespeare play “Hamlet” performed live at the Community Arts Center downtown. I have not gone to that theater in a long time because their selection of entertainment has been terrible. This is possibly due to the commercial nature of touring performances or it could be the bad taste of their patrons or the selection committee. Hamlet was the only show with any cultural value that has been on their schedule in years.

I have to admit that the downtown scene seems to have more energy and my night out was unexpectedly impressive and highly enjoyable. There was someone performing live music out on the street across from the theater and that lent a certain festive air to the neighborhood. I also saw the huge mural that is being painted on the buildings around the coffee shop.

Before the show started I went upstairs and saw a couple performing Scottish music on a fiddle and drum. This took place in a swank bar in the Community Arts Center.  I didn’t even know that such a facility existed. It was a very impressive performance space with a wood paneled stage, a wide screen plasma monitor and Microsoft Media Center computer, and a bar. There were classy theater posters on the walls, a skylight, and outside terrace. I thought it was really ritzy and a great way to begin the evening.

Hamlet was performed by the American Shakespeare Center. They seem to adopt a very comical approach to Shakespeare and struck me as being rather like a community theater troupe, although no community theater would attempt Hamlet. They did a coin toss to determine whether to do the First Folio or Second Quarto version of some scenes. A few lucky audience members were invited onstage to sit off to the side during the play. They were subjected to a few indignities like having costume hats placed on the head and being involved in the gravedigger scene (simulated pouring of a tankard on the head). 

Ophelia was played by Brandi Rhome, a black woman. Personally I find unconventional casting distracting although it would be appropriate to have the female roles played by boys as was the practice in Shakespeare’s time. It is as bad as having one character in modern dress while all the other characters are in period dress. Unconventional casting should only be used in a production that is going to be entirely unconventional. I’m just saying it was a bad choice for aesthetic reasons.

It is a rare opportunity to see Hamlet performed live. I doubt that I shall ever see Hamlet on stage again. Not too many community theaters would have the ambition to perform Hamlet and commercial productions are rare. You definitely should not pass up such an once in a lifetime opportunity. When you are young you may imagine that theaters are performing Shakespeare all the time, which is true, and you can wait until later to catch a show. However theaters prefer comedies and are much more likely to perform Shakespeare’s comedies. They rarely do the great tragedies. I have not seen MacBeth, King Lear, King Richard III or Othello.

There are a few other things I want to note about this production so that I will remember them much later. The fight scene was not as energetic as you may see in a movie. There were very few stage props used. The house lights were left on during the entire play which made it seem more like a rehearsal. I could clearly hear the dialogue even though it was not amplified. The theater was about half full. The Community Arts Center director came out before the play and made some announcements. He made some comical attempts to blow a trumpet.

Hamlet was played by Luke Eddy and he gave a very impassioned performance such as you would expect. The ghost of Hamlet’s father was played by Daniel Kennedy and I thought he looked very royal. Overall it was a very satisfactory staging of Hamlet and can serve as your only live experience of the play.

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Office Equipment Status

Posted on 9/27/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

If you are going to run a home office and do freelance web development then you need to invest in your own office equipment. When I left my old job there were a lot of things I needed to buy in order to work at home. It is better to make these purchases while you are still working full time rather than wait until you begin working freelance for your entire income. Some of the things I needed to buy were an UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply), a back up computer system, and some software.

Once I started working full time again and had more money I bought some other things that I needed for my home office. I bought a new laser printer, a Mac laptop, and a wireless router.

I’m currently paying down my debt but I should think about putting some more money into home office equipment. I really need to upgrade my computer. Its specifications aren’t bad by today’s standards but it would save me a lot of time if it were faster. I need a modern dual processor system. I’m not sure if more than 2GB of memory would do me any good but dual processors would certainly be an improvement.

The problem with upgrading my system is the work involved in re-installing all my software on a new computer. As a web developer I use a lot of software and I have more than the average number of applications installed. There are also many system configuration settings I would need to reproduce. For example, I would need to copy my PATH environment variable, install various DLLs I need for PHP web applications, install all my After Effects plug-ins and additional video codecs, etc. I’m sure I could not even remember all the things I would need to install or change. Just installing Visual Studio would take at least four hours. Then I have to hunt down many application keys. I would lose a lot of time initially in migrating to a new computer and that would negate the time I would save with a faster computer.

In the meantime I just use my back up computers and my Mac laptop for their extra processing power. If you just want to multitask then you should realize that an additional computer gives you more memory and processors to use for your work. When I really have too much to do on my overtaxed system I boot up my laptop for web browsing or my other desktop system. Usually the other desktop system needs many updates installed so I waste time on that.

Other than a faster computer I should think about getting a good office chair, although the cat would probably destroy it.

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Business Status Report

Posted on 9/24/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

So what is the status of my business these days? My pool of clients is shrinking. I now have only two paying clients and one of them hasn’t been paying my invoices. I may need to concentrate more on my one remaining good client who has always been prompt with payment. I think he deserves more of my time and attention. This does give me more time for skill building and personal projects. I just closed a web site that was a side project for my good client. This leaves me with just two projects to work on and that is really enough for one person.

However, I am finally working on a high profile web site, Vloggerheads. Vloggerheads is a Ning site which has attracted the majority of the vloggersphere, if I may coin a phrase based on bloggersphere. There have already been two news stories done on Vloggerheads by minor online media sites.

As always, it is difficult to gauge the significance of what is going on in the vlogging community. Within the bubble of the vloggersphere everything seems really exciting and important. However, the outside world often shows complete indifference to the vlogging community and fails to take any notice. I would say that Vloggerheads is now a major web site in the Web 2.0 world but luckily for me not many people appreciate that fact so it was relatively easy for me to become involved in a major capacity. For example, most of the other developers that offered to work on the site have bailed leaving all the glory for me.

The site was founded by Paul Robinette and Tom Guarriello, two prominent YouTube vloggers. They are both highly successful businessmen with many connections. I think they know venture capitalists and other major players, although I’m not sure. Anyway, they have more business savvy than most of the small business entrepreneurs I’ve worked with. They appreciate the potential for vlogging to transform the way we communicate with each other and they are determined to shape the future. That shows a lot of vision.

I’ve been very busy trying to turn this Ning site into a clone of YouTube, something I would normally consider a horrible idea. The Ning platform is very poorly documented and working with it is a major challenge. However I have managed to implement some features that everyone really wanted and that has made me a hero. Some vloggers even built a shrine to me (there is an actual video of this) which is really hysterical.

Vloggerheads could turn into my big break. Doing a good job on this web site could give me a valuable reputation in the Web 2.0 world and become my calling card with venture capitalists and startups. Or it could be a big waste of my time because trying to clone YouTube on a social networking platform like Ning is a dumb idea. You’re not going to find Robert Scoble or Michael Arrington getting all excited about that sort of business plan. But business requires taking risks and showing some vision.

Even if Vloggerheads turns out to be a waste of time, I’m still learning PHP and picking up a lot of good technical knowledge. I always make sure I walk away with some new skills. If Vloggerheads fails and my client pool shrinks I may attempt a major break from programming into content creation.

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Firebug, PHP, JavaScript, and Media RSS

Posted on 9/14/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

I continue to spend a lot of time just on improving my web development skills. Recently I’ve been working on some complicated JavaScript which required me to spend an entire day researching how to parse XML using JavaScript. I created a cheat sheet on that topic and added it to my notes because there are many tricky technical details to XML parsing with JavaScript.

Due to the difficulty in debugging my JavaScript I also spent more time on learning how to use Firebug. You frequently find Firebug on lists of favorite web developer tools but there are few articles on how to actually use it to solve problems. Firebug did fail me when it came to troubleshooting one problem because it uses Firefox’s normalized html which may not match the actual source code. In other words, the problem was due to some invalid HTML which Firefox cleaned up to be helpful so Firebug was not revealing the problem. I installed a few useful Firebug extensions like YSlow and FirePHP. FirePHP required me to upgrade my PHP version that I have installed so that took up even more of my time.

Speaking of PHP, I have been steadily improving my knowledge of this important web programming language. I had to create several RSS feeds using PHP so I learned a lot about creating XML documents from scratch. I have ordered a book on CakePHP and Elgg, a social networking framework based on PHP.

I spent another full day researching RSS. I added topics on Atom 1.0 and RSS 2.0 to my notes. Atom feeds use the ISO 8601 date format while RSS uses the RFC822 date format. However, what interested me the most was the Media RSS version of a RSS Feed which was developed by Yahoo! to deliver media files in feed enclosures. YouTube uses Media RSS for its feeds although I don’t think many people use them. But I did discover that the Adobe Media Player can handle a YouTube RSS feed. It does an awesome job of handling the video and even downloads them for later viewing. I was quite impressed. I created my own Media RSS feed but it did not work in the Adobe Media Player. However, it did work in Miro which also supports Media RSS feeds (it calls them channels). “Miro is a free, open source Internet TV and video player that can automatically download videos from RSS-based channels.” Media RSS is another example of the evolution of the Internet as a video entertainment platform. Unfortunately it is under-utilized because it requires some technical skills. Most web sites do not provide Media RSS feeds and it requires custom programming to create a custom RSS feed.

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Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 on Windows XP

Posted on 8/31/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

This week I decided to be daring and install Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 on my Windows XP computer at home. I especially like the Developer Tools which are similar to Firebug and Firefox’s Web Developer toolbar.

The ruler is a nice tool which will eliminate the tiresome chore of launching Photoshop and copying and pasting a cropped image to find its dimensions. Please note that another tool will show you an image’s dimensions. The ruler is for measuring something without dimensions that can be revealed. Here is a hot tip for you; select an element to get a blue border around it before trying to measure it with the ruler.

Something you may not notice right away is that there are improvements to the JavaScript error dialog box. This dialog box provides more information and includes a handy button to copy the details to the clipboard.

The HTML Layout tab features a fancy diagram of the box model for a page element. Notice how actual values are being given. This will prove invaluable when you are trying to troubleshoot any problems with margins and padding.

You can generate a detailed report on all the images in the page:

You can also outline a variety of page elements which eliminates the chore of adding borders to your tables and divs in order to solve layout problems.

There is an option to show class names and ids and image alt text and image file paths which saves you the trouble of digging through the page’s source code. You can also show the image dimensions which will be easier than using the ruler.

And finally we have the color picker which again saves you the trouble of launching Photoshop to pick a color from a screen capture:

So far Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 has not negatively impacted my web browsing or web development. My WordPress blog has been the only web site that looks really terrible in this new browser so I have to look into that problem.

I have not investigated Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 support for advanced CSS except for the border-radius property which gives you rounded corners. Apparently IE will not be adding support for that CSS feature. I think they are supporting before and after as selectors now.

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PHP Encryption And CakePHP On The iBook

Posted on 8/22/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

Today I continued my intensive work on PHP web development. I spent about 3 hours studying PHP’s many methods of encrypting data. There are a variety of encryption algorithms that you can use including MD5, SHA-1, DES etc so it took me awhile to explore them all.

This evening I spent way too much time struggling to get CakePHP working on my iBook. I suppose it was worthwhile because it forced me to spend much more time exploring the system. I now know where the php.ini file is and found the apache error log file as well.

The first struggle was to get a database connection. The mysql.lock is not where CakePHP expects it to be so I had to edit my php.ini file to specify its location for my MAMP MySQL Server. I would probably have less problems if I was not trying to use it for everything but I don’t want to manage two database servers on one laptop.  

I had to change permissions on many files. I’ve begun to use Komodo Edit rather than emacs to edit my configuration files. It is a lot easier to use although I wish it would show line numbers by default.

So after I get the database connection working I still had to fix mod_rewrite. The key to getting this to work was to edit the special user version of the httpd.conf file which was located in /etc/httpd/users/admin.conf for the admin user. Then I got a Forbidden error “You don’t have permission to access /posts/index on this server.” which required another edit of /etc/httpd/users/admin.conf to add FollowSymLinks to the Options.

   1: <Directory "/Users/admin/Sites/">
   2:     Options All FollowSymLinks Indexes MultiViews
   3:     AllowOverride All
   4:     Order allow,deny
   5:     Allow from all
   6: </Directory>

After all that I found my posts table did not have any records so I had to go back and run the INSERT SQL statements again. I was up until 2:00 AM in the morning working through all those problems!

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PHP Web Applications

Posted on 8/20/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

Today I figured out how to add a custom property to one of the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit’s controls, the Calendar control. I added  a property so I could set its initial mode to years. You can read all about it on my ASP.NET Web Blog.

I stayed up really late tonight working on my iBook. I corrected a misconfiguration of my Apache httpd.conf file which was preventing my VirtualHosts from working. Then I upgraded PHP from version 4 to 5.2.4. After that I was able to install MediaWiki on my iBook. I also have Joomla installed. It is really shaping up as a web development workstation. I mostly use my iBook to run Stickam so it does not bog down my PC. However, I’m not just installing PHP web applications like I’ve done in the past. I’m really making some progress in mastering the language. Recently I’ve added PHP topics to my notes on classes, arrays, file handling, server variables, cookies, and libraries.

I have PHPMotion installed on my PC but it is not 100% ready. PHPMotion is a YouTube clone. However, it lacks many social networking features like video responses or comment responses.

I’m now down to just two clients which is a lot more comfortable work load for me. I really can’t handle too many projects at once. Just having two clients keeps the money coming in but allows me to spend more time on research and study. I have a huge list of technology I need to study. I’ll list everything I can think of now so I won’t forget; Silverlight, Visual Studio 2008, Internet Explorer 8, Flash Cartoons, ActionScript, CakePHP, After Effects, and Video.Show.

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The Improved YouTube Tag Cloud

Posted on 8/2/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

I have made an improvement to my YouTube Tag Cloud page. While browsing some web design sites I came across a blog post about Beautiful Word Clouds which showed some images of fancy word clouds. They used a fancy font and varied the colors of the words. They also shaped the words into a cloud shape. These simple ideas managed to give the word clouds more style. Word clouds aren’t very interesting so anything you can do to enhance them is welcome, even if it is just a cosmetic change.

I have changed the font for my YouTube Word Clouds to Mirisch, a fancy font popular in Flash animation. If you don’t have that font the word cloud may use the Ravie font which I list second in the CSS. And if you don’t have that font then your browser will use a fantasy font because my third choice was the fantasy font family. On my iBook G4 a random font in the fantasy family was used. Here is how you specify these font possibilities in CSS:

   1: font-family: Mirisch, Ravie, fantasy;

Alternating the word colors was more difficult. I used JavaScript and the jQuery JavaScript library to accomplish that trick. jQuery features many selectors to get DOM elements so I was able to get all the links within a div. All of the words in my YouTube Tag Cloud are hyperlinks with a title attribute so you can see how many videos used that word as a tag. The number in the title attribute provides a convenient value to base the font color on. For example, I can give all the tags that were used 2 times a green color and all the tags that were used 5 times a blue color, etc.

So I managed to make YouClouds look more colorful and fancier. I could have gone further and shaped my cloud using some more CSS but it is probably not worth the considerable effort.

It is important to keep your eyes peeled for interesting web design ideas as you browse the web. In this case it was a simple typography improvement that gave the uninteresting tag cloud a new lease on life.

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Flash Cartoon Animation

Posted on 7/29/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

Over the weekend I finished reading the book “Flash Cartoon Animation” by Kevin Peaty and Glen Kirkpatrick. Flash cartooning interests me because it could be an easy way to create original content for video sharing sites. A simple Flash cartoon series could generate some income on the sites that share revenue. My previous employer used to create a few Flash cartoons for advertising purposes but I was not involved in that. After Effects is also considered an animation tool and my books on Flash animation recommend enhancing the work in After Effects.

I’m currently devoting most of my time to client projects but I have been doing some PHP research. I’ve been studying CakePHP which brings the Model View Controller architecture to PHP web application development. Microsoft is currently working on MVC for ASP.NET so CakePHP allows me to familiarize myself with the basic concepts. I’m learning about models, controllers, unit testing, scaffolding, and views. MVC is a really hot technology in the web application field now because it allows you to quickly create the admin for a web site. Ruby on Rails made it very popular so now it is being imitated for other scripting languages like PHP and ASP.NET.

In addition to CakePHP, I’ve also been exploring the Joomla content management system because I may be dealing with a web site built using Joomla soon. So far I have learned how to manage the site content and a little bit about applying templates and creating custom designs. I need to learn more about creating custom modules.

Posted in Flash, PHP, Web | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Philadelphia Trip – Sunday

Posted on 7/13/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

Since I stayed overnight in Philadelphia, I decided to do some sightseeing on Sunday. It is too much of a hassle to drive to Philadelphia for me to waste the opportunity to see the historical sites. I got up very early at around 6:00 PM and headed out with my camcorder and guide book, “The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Walking Tours of Historic Philadelphia“. This book was not very helpful for finding things because the maps aren’t very detailed but since I read the entire book before making the trip, I was able to spot many historical sites that I may have walked by without stopping. It also provided all the necessary historical context required to appreciate the sites.  By the way, this book was on display at the Liberty Bell Center gift shop.

I will be posting a lot of video on YouTube and may embed some video here later. For now I will just mention some of the historical sites I managed to find.

First I came across the Betsy Ross House on Arch Street because it was very close to my hotel. Then I found  Elfreth’s Alley which is a quaint street of colonial hours. I shot a lot of video along this alley, holding my camera up as I walked even though it killed my arm. Then I proceeded to Race Street and filmed the Race Street Cafe which I remembered on a previous visit. Unfortunately, they tore down a building across the street from this where I bought my tickets for the Philly Fringe Festival. I also found the art deco building on North Second Street. This building seems to be something of a mystery because I cannot find any information on it online. It has big display windows and a large sign on the front “National”.

I managed to locate and video the following historical sites;  Thomas Jefferson Statue in front of Independence Hall, statue of Commodore John Barry in the State House Yard behind Independence Hall, Second Bank of the United States, Library Hall, Philosophical Hall, Congress Hall, First Bank of the United States, Carpenter’s Hall, Old Pine Street Church and its cemetery, Physick House, and various colonial houses and buildings. I also found the Signer Statue in Signer’s Garden which does not appear to be mentioned in my guide book.

I had to keep putting my guide book down on the sidewalk to operate my camcorder. I filled one 60 minute MiniDV tape and around 20 minutes of a second tape. I must have been walking around and filming for 2 hours so eventually I got very tired and very hot. Walking on all those brick sidewalks and even cobblestones will kill your feet. Fortunately there weren’t many people around that early in the morning on a Sunday so I did not have many pedestrians to obstruct my view. There was some sort of bike race going on so I saw a lot of people on ten speed bikes which you’ll see in my videos.

I was planning on leaving in the afternoon but since I got up so early and had my fill of historical sites I decided to leave early. I lucked out when I left the parking garage because there was a ticket stuck in the electronic booth and the gate raised when I pushed it in. Unfortunately I had several problems getting out of the city. I wound up crossing a bridge into New Jersey and had to pay $3.00 to cross the Ben Franklin Bridge to get back to Philadelphia. At least I got to drive across the Ben Franklin Bridge! After some careful driving I managed to get on Interstate 76 West but then accidentally got on the wrong exit. That caused me to go far out of my way until I got impatient and managed to make an illegal u-turn. I almost caused an accident merging back towards Interstate 76. After that I drove even more carefully and followed my Google Maps driving directions to the letter. It is always a nightmare to get out of Philadelphia on Interstate 76 without getting on a wrong exit. I remember this happening to me before. I don’t know if I’ll be visiting Philadelphia again any time soon. This trip just reminded me of how awful it is to drive around that city.

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YoTube – Philadelphia Gathering – Saturday

Posted on 7/13/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

I will describe my recent trip to Philadelphia for a YouTube gathering in depth because there are various travel related details I want to remember for future trips. I’ve been to Philadelphia twice before; once for the Philly Fringe Festival and once to visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I drove to Philadelphia going East on Route 80 and then South on Interstate 476 which is a Pennsylvania Turnpike. The only interesting part of the road trip was the Lehigh Tunnel which cuts through Blue Mountain.

Once I reached Philadelphia, I didn’t make the correct exit in Central Philadelphia so I would up driving far to the South and had to make my way back downtown through a lot of narrow one way streets. That is why I hate driving around Philadelphia! It is easy to miss an exit and then you have to drive pretty far to get back on track. All those one way streets make it difficult to keep going in the direction in which you want to go.

Eventually I made it to my hotel on Arch Street. I stayed at the Holiday Inn which is conveniently located in the Historic District. I had to circle around the block several times before figuring out how to enter the parking garage. This is the kind of detail I want to record for future trips. To enter the 6 story, above ground enclosed garage, you drive up to the hotel entrance off Market Street, the entrance with all the flags and the revolving door, and then to the parking garage entrance on the left. When you take a ticket at the electronic booth, the gate will go up. I parked on the second deck. I could not check in until 4:00 PM so I took my video camera for some sight seeing.

The gathering was at the Independence Visitor Center which was a short walk from my hotel. I showed up at 10:00 AM which was two hours too early so I shot some video of the National Constitution Center across Arch Street and Independence Hall in the distance. I also shot some video of the Free Quaker Meeting House, a small building in a corner of Independence Mall.  Then I walked past the Independence Visitor Center and past the Liberty Bell Center to film some close ups of Independence Hall. I got some footage of a horse and carriage driving by.

Then I crossed 5th Street and entered The Bourse, a small shopping mall.  The Bourse features many gift shops for tourists filled with mementoes of Philadelphia. I bought some antiperspirant because I forgot to bring some and then I bought a Declaration of Independence scroll and a book Philadelphia In Photographs by Edward Arthur Mauger. According to my sales receipt the store was called “Making History” and my total was $22.47.

Philadelphia in Photographs: Ed Mauger: Books

ISBN: 0517228742
ISBN-13: 9780517228746

After spending a few tourist dollars I went back to my hotel and put the bag in my car. The parking garage has a stairwell and an elevator. Then I went back to the Independence Mall to wander around some more. I bought a sprite at a small cafe off to the right of the mall, overlooking Christ Church Burial Ground. Most of the gathering took place in front of this cafe where there were plenty of benches and tables and a few tree to provide shade. The trees were much too small for any shade though.

Then I entered the Liberty Bell Center and got in line to see the Liberty Bell. Unfortunately the line was pretty long and it was almost 11:00 AM by that time so I sent to the gift shop instead. I bought a small bronze bust of Ben Franklin and a small biography of Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan. I then walked back to my hotel and put that bag into my car.

Benjamin Franklin (Yale Nota Bene): Edmund S. Morgan: Books

ISBN: 0300101627
ISBN-13: 9780300101621

Back at Independence Mall I kept my eyes peeled for anyone with a video camera or camcorder but there were plenty of tourists milling about with cameras. Eventually AnthroVlog came up to me and asked if I was there for the gathering. (Later on, I learned that she was making a documentary. She interviewed several people and had them sign release forms). We searched the area until Noon looking for anyone else. Finally we sat down at the Free Quaker Meeting House where she assembled her video camera. Then I found one more woman looking for the YouTube gathering. So for awhile there was only three of us and we were worried that Independence Mall was the wrong place. What was going through my mind was the thought that some people met early on Friday and may have decided on a change of plans.

At about 12:30 PM, one of our scouting party found a large group of YouTubers under the pavilion. I think Jill, xgogobeanx, was the only user I recognized in that group. We wandered over to the cafe where the rest of the YouTubers eventually trickled in. I would estimate that between 100 and 150 people attended this event so it was not a large gathering considering how many subscribers someone like Nalts has or how many people use YouTube.

At about 1:00 PM Pipistrello showed up with a group of people. I’m pretty sure BigFatLamp (Nic) was with him. OHdulcenea! was there with her husband. She looked vaguely familiar to me but I did not recognize her from the NutCheese chat room until someone addressed her by her username. Some other familiar vloggers I met include; LittlePandaExpress, PrincessDiana and her husband Frankie and her daughter, Charles Trippy, OlgaKay, SneakyPreacher (seemed to feel very awkward being there), VioletKitty411, KatiesOpinion with ZanyBear, FantasticBabblings, and funkwurm who came all the way from Holland.  TheMightyThor did not show up until later and Nalts arrived last. Nalts soon had a crowd of people surrounding him. He was the most popular YouTube vlogger there. Unfortunately NutCheese and Reynaldo could not make it because Rey had an infection and was in the hospital. This was a real shame because a lot of their crowd was there.

Chris Barrett set up a professional video camera on a tripod and filmed people against the backdrop of Independence Hall in the distance for a documentary. Someone was playing guitar with TheLilRedheadedGirl. I thought a few people were a little rude in interrupting me while I was filming, as if you would not expect anyone to film the gathering. That was mildly annoying. Nobody said anything to me when I videotaped a lot of the historical sites.

It was very hot and a few people commented on the fact that I was dressed all in black except for a skinny white tie. I just thought that looked better than a t-shirt. Eventually the gathering moved to The Bourse which had air-conditioning. I had a slurpy and sat with gang on the lower level until 4:30 PM when I had to leave to check into my room.

I was asked for my credit card which surprised me because I made reservations online and prepaid. They better not charge me twice for a room. I brought my bags up to my room and changed into a t-shirt and freshened up. At 5:00 PM I went back to The Bourse but almost everyone had gone so I went back to my hotel. I decided to leave immediately for the after party at Dave and Buster’s because I figured I might have trouble finding the place. It cost me $28.00 to leave the parking garage. Fortunately, I did not have any problems finding Dave and Buster’s which is located at 325 North Columbus Blvd. It is slightly difficult to get there because you must find a street that leads virtually into the Delaware River and under Route 95. Race Street allowed me to head in that direction, although I got stuck behind a horse and carriage that was traveling about a mile per hour.

Dave and Buster’s has its own parking garage. It cost me $8.00 to park there although I got a ticket worth $4.00 off a meal or drinks. I had trouble finding a place to park in the garage because it seemed pretty full. Parking is very expensive in Philadelphia. It really isn’t a good city to visit by car. Dave and Buster is a large dining complex with pool tables, a large bar, multiple seating areas, and an extensive game room. I walked through the place looking for my friends. The game room was very noisy and seemed to have everything including a western showgirls shooting gallery. LOL. I did not see anyone I recognized but I was early so I waited in the lobby. Eventually I met the same documentarian who was early  for the gathering so we wandered around inside until Pipistrello arrived with 5 other people.

We were seated at a table and ordered drinks. I had a vanilla milkshake because I’d been too hot all day and was driving so I didn’t want any alcohol. Unfortunately, they could not take any food orders because their computer was down. This eventually became quite a problem as more YouTubers arrived. They could not be seated. It took over an hour for our food to arrive. I had a Philly Cheesestake! It didn’t seem like anything special. Maybe the bun was a little bit better than usual. Otherwise it is just ground beef glued together with cheese. Meh! Since nobody else could be seated they decided to head over to South Street. This did not make much sense to me because South Street is like the Greenwich Village of Philadelphia, a lot of small boutiques and little restaurants along a street that stretches for several blocks. It was not like a specific place to move an after party to. After my meal I decided to head back to my hotel room rather than try to find people along the entire stretch of South Street.

I noticed that it was getting dark and the bright lights of the city looked attractive. I decided it would be a shame to miss this opportunity. So I took my camcorder and walked up Arch Street. I got some great footage of Philadelphia skyscrapers all light up, the ChinaTown Friendship Gate, and close ups of City Hall including the huge sculpture of William Penn at its top in spotlights. For some reason, there were a lot of police and security on Arch Street that night. There must have been 15 or more police vehicles lined up and even more police on bicycles. They made me kind of nervous.

When I got back to my hotel room I got out my Mac iBook G4 and managed to connect to the Internet. I logged into NutCheese’s Stickam room and told the few people there that I was at the gathering in Philadelphia. NutCheese and Rey did not seem very interested in that bit of news. Maybe they were disappointed and didn’t want to hear about it. I’m used to people ignoring me so I didn’t say much.

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Making Progress Learning Flash

Posted on 7/7/2008 by Robert S. Robbins

I made excellent progress in learning Flash over the July 4th weekend. I added ten pages to my notes on Flash and ActionScript. I used to know a little about Flash back when I worked for Kolb Net Works but I only had four pages of notes from back then. We had professional web designers who did most of the Flash work so I only did a little ActionScript.

I’m currently reading “Macromedia Flash MX ActionScript For Dummies” by Doug Sahlin but I’ve ordered three more current books.

Last night I finally learned how to import video into Flash, a topic not covered in my books, and saw the various video skins you can choose from. I positioned a transparent PNG file over the video as a logo. The advantage in doing it that way is you can swap out the video and still have the logo appear over the video without editing the actual video footage.

One thing that always gave me problems with Flash was trying to edit a movie clip. Sometimes I would edit the symbol instead because it is hard to tell exactly what you are editing. I think I’m getting the hang of that now. The layers and frames in the timeline is also starting to make more sense to me. My ActionScript book does not really cover the design aspects of the program but I’m still picking up enough information on that.

I can use Flash in my Notes help collection. Since my SWF files are fairly small right now I can include actual examples of working movies in my notes. I’ve always had a few simple Flash movies in my notes like a typography Flash file that highlights part of the font as you move your mouse over font terminology.

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