Everyone is confused. Sellers are skeptical and can’t catch a break, dare not raise their prices, but can’t afford to lose more, and buyers have been sold on this idea that the market is simply brimming with golden opportunities that slip just a little further away each day. Get ‘em while they’re hot.

The problem is that neither of these are right. Sellers are taking low offers, and buyers are everywhere, so the market gets flooded with great deals that disappear within hours. It’s disheartening, and it’s unfair to all parties except the lucky few who end up pocketing the deals. When I buy a computer, I do my research, I weigh my options, and when I decide I want something, it’s mine. Not so with houses: I do all of that, and suddenly it’s too late and someone offered ten thousand more to buy what I’d just gotten my heart set on.

Then there are foreclosures. Oh holy house, Batman, the foreclosures. Everything is bank owned, and they want all of their forms exactly right and on time just so they can ignore all of their own rules and deadlines. Remember that bailout, Fannie Mae? Apparently not. They’d be happy to let you take a number.

So what we’re left with is a market flooded with an array of houses abandoned in a state of semi-flip, a distorted view of availability for buyers, and a ravenous but underpriced market for sellers. I don’t know how long it’ll take to settle down and start to make sense again, but clearly this situation benefits only one party: the banks.

Every week, it seems, someone emails me and says something a little bit like this: Android is a great platform, you’re being myopic by not developing for it, and people like you are just trying to stop the inevitable domination that comes from any open operating system.

It’s a personal, idealogical battle with these people (the ones who email me, not Android users in general). They’re not satisfied knowing that you prefer one device and they prefer another, it’s war. They will not rest until your iPad is on a pike, alkaline oozing from its [obviously too few and proprietary] ports. So to them, I say:

1. It’s not personal. I like my Apple products, so I make stuff that runs on them. It’s fun, and I happen to get paid for my hobby, but if no one ever bought another app of mine ever again I’d still develop for iOS. Sure, I’d have to get a day job, but this is what I love doing and it really, honestly, has nothing to do with snubbing you.

2. Make it yourself! If you want an app for your device and it doesn’t exist, go make it! That’s what I did, and it was a blast. No one is stopping you, and I really don’t know why it’s my obligation to do this for you. Myopic? Only if making money was my sole purpose in life which, I’m happy to say, it is not.

3. You get what you pay for. If you want the cheaper alternative, you’ll get an inferior product. I’m not talking about the touchscreen, the battery, or anything like that—though that can certainly be true—I’m talking about the support systems you don’t see. Apple’s developer tools may be imperfect, but they’re incredibly accessible: download Xcode, start developing. Yes, Apple makes more money off of an iPad than most companies probably make off of their Android tablets, but if you consider that some of those profits fund the continued refinement of those developer tools, maintenance of their documentation, and many other resources—resources that make apps like mine possible—then suddenly it’s obvious why one platform has a plethora of amazing apps and the other is still underperforming.* With hundreds of devices running Android, it’s even more important that Google spends some time getting this part right. Until they do, I not only don’t want to develop for Android, I can’t.

So get your Android tablet if you want one. No problem, end of story. Just don’t come crying to me when things don’t work out.

Update:

Two more good reasons I’ve come across in my research, just to drive the point home.

4. Refunds must be handled directly by the developer and, for the pleasure, Android will still take 30% of your proceeds—the exact same amount that Apple takes for handling it all.

5. DRM exists for apps on Google’s marketplace, but it’s easily circumvented and already deprecated. Instead, it’s up to the developer to ping Google’s licensing service periodically (assuming the device is connected to the internet) and lock up features or disable the app entirely if a pirated copy is detected. What could possibly go wrong.

Some developers pursue the absolute best way of writing something, even if it means they’ll never actually ship a product. They believe in the vector—one absolutely perfect approach that is both infinitely scaleable and infinitely rigid. It never changes, but never has to. It’s the scientific equivalent of God, an ultimate truth.

The problem is that the premise is always changing. It’s as if Einstein’s equations only apply for eighteen months until the laws of physics themselves are rewritten by a new, more efficient manufacturing process. It may have been the perfect solution at the time, but ultimately you’ll end up spending too much time perfecting a popsicle in the sun.

Most developers balance their desire for a perfect solution with the more adaptable, “good enough” alternative. How long the solution works, how much work it takes, and how effective it is all depends on how many assumptions we make about the premise, about those laws of physics. Like biological evolution, the right approach is to make things mostly rigid and predictable, while leaving a few bits up to mutation and adaptation. Sure, you’ll have to go in and fine-tune your code periodically, but you’ll know that you’ve got a great answer for the current problem, not an axiom that leaves no room for tectonic shifts.

There’s no such thing as perfect code. Ship something broken, or ship nothing at all.

It’s not that he’s wrong about touchscreens being featureless and two-dimensional, or that there aren’t some significant issues with how we use technology, it’s that he’s convinced that strapping a screen to your head is the answer. Without a longer explanation, I’ll have to assume that what Sergey means is that touchscreens make us feel ineffectual because the interface we’re pawing at isn’t actually tactile. We’re given the concept of real things, but prevented from actually using them like real things. We can’t flip them over, smell them, weigh them in our hands. We’re kids in a museum and there’s plexiglass everywhere.

Google Glass, as an alternative, seems to tackle absolutely none of these problems. It’s primarily (though not entirely) controlled by one’s voice, so instead of reaching out and directly manipulating virtual objects with our hands—the most intuitive and obvious way of interacting—we ask politely for some information and hope it gets delivered to us sans source, context, or alternative. Sure, that’s way less emasculating. Just trust them, it’ll all work out.

Really, though, when is the last time you didn’t have your phone in your pocket when you wanted to look something up? How long does it really take to reach down, fish it out, and swipe to unlock? How far away is your computer if—gasp—your phone isn’t nearby? Our devices aren’t strapped to our faces, but it’s not like that’s usually a problem for anyone. That goes for the rumored iWatch too: ubiquity isn’t the thing that’s missing. We’re not frustrated by how long it takes to open a new tab in our web browser, or how slow our internet connection is (most of the time). Our devices are ubiquitous enough, and anything more is going to continue to erode our ability to breathe, concentrate, or enjoy the world around us.

What we do need, though, is better access. Access to the actual information we’re looking for when we’re looking for it. I’m fascinated by technology that learns from me, adapts to my habits, and makes the things I’m interested in available sooner, just in case I actually want to pursue them. It’s not about putting things in front of my face, it’s about using information to decipher patterns and make using technology more efficient. It’s caching. It’s transparent, passive, and has absolutely nothing to do with selling ads.

If we’re ready to seek out information that’s new and unpredictable, we’ll do what we’ve always done: we’ll find authors and companies with websites that resonate with us, and we’ll pay attention to them because we develop trust that they’ll be able to curate wisely and connect us with information that we may never have seen otherwise but that we’re likely to find interesting. Sometimes we just want to challenge ourselves.

And when I’m walking in the park, I won’t need something telling me every forty seconds what temperature it is outside. That will be ready for me if and when I choose to ask, but not until then. My direct, unfettered, whole and personal engagement with the world is worth far more than seeing my website’s live stats, the latest sports scores, or my Twitter feed. The assumption that this information should always be hovering over me, that’s what’s emasculating.

I’m now using a 15″ MacBook Pro with a retina display, a 256GB SSD, a quad-core 2.6GHz Core i7 and 16GB of ram. Simply put, it’s the best computer I’ve ever owned by a huge margin. I could rave about how powerful it is, how neat those asymmetric fans are, or why having a 15″ ‘portable’ computer isn’t as impractical as it may sound, but that’s nothing compared to the real icing on the cake—the display.

Maybe you’ve owned an iOS device with just such a display before. If so, you may remember marveling at it for the first time. This is better than that. It’s beautiful, and I think I’ve been spoiled forever.

Which brings me to the main point of this article. While most things look amazing on the IMAX-like screen, the web is a mixed bag. Sure, text looks crisp and neat, but most images look dull and fuzzy. Apple has plopped this great new technology into our laps, and as web designers (one of my many hats as a sole proprietor) we’re left to figure out how to leverage it without so much as a blip for the rest.

So what do we do? There are four basic options, as far as I can tell:

• Use double-resolution images and set their width and height to half of what they actually are. This works great on computers but looks inexplicably terrible and jagged on iOS devices. Since all of my sites feature iOS apps, that’s not acceptable for me. All of your images will be larger, too, so page loading will take longer for everyone, even if they’re not able to take advantage of the extra information.

• Use SVG images that aren’t pixel-based and can scale up infinitely. Unfortunately, they’re relatively unknown, harder to create, and not supported by all of the many browsers via which one’s site is likely to be visited.

• Use CSS’ background-image property to set the correct image before it even loads. I personally don’t feel as comfortable using DIVs for every image on a page and jumping back and forth between HTML and CSS just to insert an image, so while this works great for theme images (borders, menus, and the like), it’s not so great for content images.

• Use javascript to check screen resolution after the whole page has loaded, and—if necessary—replace all of the images with any double-sized alternatives that might exist on your server. Larger images will only be loaded when appropriate, keeping page load times down for the rest.

I chose a combination of the third and fourth options. For general theme elements, I use CSS to define the correct image before it loads. For the rest, I used a modified version of retinajs which caches images rather than forcing retina users to download the larger version each time they return. It’s easy: just put a copy of your image on the server with the @2x suffix, and run the script just before the closing body tag on your page.

There are some quirks, though, and I’m hoping that the Web At Large™ will come up with some better alternatives as retina displays become more common. One such quirk is the script’s inability to work with images that have dashes in their filenames. Another is the fact that loading a page on a retina display is a little jarring—you get SD versions of everything, then a split second later you get the HD versions. It’s like those old interlaced images from a decade ago that would load in alternating sets of lines.

Retina displays are great, and they’re becoming more popular every day, so I’m sure that this will be a very different story a year from now. For anyone wanting to get a head start, this is the best solution I’ve found so far.

With sixteen songs in all, Contact is playful, heartbreaking, and adventurous. The track ‘Zero’ is a collaboration of sorts, having been creatively composed and then algorithmically redesigned. The results are eerily automated but unmistakably human.

That’s just the start, though, and we can’t wait to share more with you as we leap into 2013!

I recently had two arrays and wanted to find the differences between them. Not just the things that existed in the first but not the second, or vice versa, but both. I searched high and low for an easy answer, though nothing really clicked with me. Every solution involved two trips: one to find the items in the first but not the second, and another to find what was in the second but not the first. I knew there was a better way.

Sure enough, by removing the duplicates rather than sequestering the differences I was able to get the results I wanted from both arrays in one quick sweep. An easy, elegant answer to a problem defined more by my insistence on seeing white on black instead of black on white. Sometimes you just have to think in opposites.

My history with higher education is tangled at best. I went to two traditional schools before finally signing up with the all-online Ellis College, at the time closely affiliated with NYIT. I made lot of progress, taking one intensive course at a time and actually getting into the material I was interested in.

I took a break, and when I came back Ellis College was Ellis University (an upgrade, right?) but was no longer connected to NYIT. I had gotten the sense that the faculty was stretched thinly, but it wasn’t until my very last class that I knew something was up. The teacher would disappear for days at a time (in a six-week course) and four weeks in I was being assured via telephone by the Dean of Students that the zombie teacher had been promptly fired, but the overall failings were clear. Ellis’ regional accreditation was under review, and ultimately pulled six months later.

I’m proud of my education, and I worked hard for it. I ended up with a degree from what was, at the time, a fully accredited school. Yet, when people google “Ellis University” the first thing they’ll likely see is how much of a failure the school is. When I received my degree, one of the two signatures was smudged—an apt expression of a tarnished achievement.

So who wouldn’t want a name change after that? Introducing: John Hancock University. In the past month, they’ve been pestering me relentlessly to enroll for a master’s degree. They simply won’t leave me alone, and I can’t be bothered to tell them to please take their insane push to boost their ranks elsewhere because, well, then their methods would be justified. I’d rather let them waste their time. I’m proud of my degree, but put simply: avoid Cardean Learning Group (the company behind the veil) and any of its incarnations at all costs.

That’s what happened with Facebook. People expected that I’d have a profile, and that I’d be their “friend” online even if we were only casually acquainted IRL. I quit, I never looked back.

More recently, I decided to quit Twitter in the way that I might become a vegetarian: for vaguely moral reasons and with weak determination. I disagree with the way Twitter operates, therefore I should abstain.

It’s time to confess, though: I like reading tweets, getting my tiny social fix in before diving back into code. It’s not substantial, not a replacement for anything, but it’s fun. It’s fun like Harry Potter and Avatar were even after I shunned both for way too long.

So with that in mind, I present my favorite Twitter memory so far, and it has nothing to do with the actual tweet: I was waiting outside a big box store for an iPad 2 (for work, mind you, I’m not like that) amongst two-hundred-or-so of Portland’s finest. A guy who looks like he owns a truck with big wheels but is really a hipster trying to look ironically hick-ish taps away on his phone for a few minutes then stops and yells into his phone, “That AIN’T what I TWITTED!”

Core Data is a funny thing, conceptually. It’s like a layer between you and your data storage that takes a little more work to understand and implement than most Apple frameworks do. You’re much better off designing an app around it than working it in later, and it can be inflexible if your needs change.

There’s something about it, though, that really just feels right. I’ve literally spent years working my way around it, cooking up complex caching schemes and fine-tuning my methods to an almost unreasonable extent. I just replaced 85 lines of code with 10—that’s proof right there that I should’ve done this from the start.

To be honest, though, I couldn’t have appreciated what Core Data does without having gone through all of that first. I respect it, I understand the problems it solves, and I embrace it.

Uh oh, not so fast. There are some peculiarities that anyone getting into this stuff should really know about, so I’m doing my part to highlight them. Today: NSOrderedSet.

Check the “ordered” button for a relationship and you’ll be using NSOrderedSet. It sounds easy enough, and Core Data generates a nice convenience method for you so you can add things later. If your relationship is to something called “item”, then you’ll get addItemsObject:(Item *)value which all seems reasonable, right? It doesn’t work. Not at all. It crashes your app and makes children cry. Instead, use one of the workarounds described here.

Hey, someone should tell Apple, right? I mean, they’re the only ones who can fix this! Yep, it’s been done. Over and over again. For more than a year. So, until then, you’ve been warned.

Big News From Mars? Rover Scientists Mum For Now

Rumors are swirling that NASA is in the middle of verifying some very interesting results from Curiosity’s soil sample analyzer. Few know what has them all aflutter, but since one of Curiosity’s major objectives is investigate Mars’ habitability, most guesses involve the discovery of organic compounds. For now, NASA is keeping quiet.

Now, I’m a big fan of science. When I was born, we knew of the nine planets in our solar system. Now there are eight and potentially dozens of “dwarf planets.” When the first exoplanet was discovered in the early nineties, I clipped out the articles from various newspapers and kept them all in a box, delighted to be living in such an era. Now there are over 3000 potential or confirmed exoplanets. If there’s any sort of real legacy humans can leave behind, I think it’s the knowledge we help amass by exploring, questioning, and analyzing.

So yes, I’m as excited to see what Curiosity beamed home as the next person, but I think NASA is right to play things down a bit. If the results are inconclusive or misleading, then hey—at least we’ve still got a robot on Mars that’s doing all sorts of incredible stuff. Even a disappointing result is more knowledge, which is the whole reason for going, right?

But Curiosity’s mission is NOT to conclusively determine if life does or ever did exist on Mars, it’s to give us information about what’s in the soil so we can determine the potential for past and present habitability. Of course, with all of those instruments and cameras it’s always possible that Curiosity could discover something beyond those parameters (it could snap a photo of Martian gophers popping their heads out of the orange soil), but don’t count on it.

What we do know for certain is that the data comes from SAM, the sample analyzer, so the latest discovery is almost certainly microscopic. I’d guess that they’re organic compounds that suggest favorability towards life existing or having existed, that improve the potential for habitability, but I don’t know the first thing about chemistry. So, until the press conference, that’s the best I’ve got.

No matter what they announce in the next few weeks, though, the fact is that we’re very rapidly approaching a point at which, if there really is or has been life on Mars, we’ll be able to tell. Are we ready? We’ve been gazing up at the stars for generations, wondering if we’re alone. What if we’re not? What if life here actually started there? Will our society change as much as it did for Galileo? If we’re lucky, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out.

Update: Alas, Mars disappoints. Like most rumors that sound too good to be true and all trace back to a single online source, this one has failed. But hey, “we still don’t know” is way better than “we’ve discovered the answer, and it’s no.”

One thing I hear a lot from people is “why not just make it optional?” It’s a fair question, and I understand why they gravitate towards it. The developer has one opinion, a customer has another, so it makes sense that adding an option to have it both ways is an easy out.

The problem is, it’s absolutely the wrong question. The real question is “how did we get here?” If you step back, look at the root of the problem and not just the symptom, you’ll usually find that there’s a better approach to the whole thing that makes the idea of a setting completely obsolete. Everyone can argue about how to put a bandage over a wound, but few people step back and think about preventing those wounds in the first place.

Simply put: settings are usually excuses for bad design.

Of course, there are genuine situations where there really are as many people who want something one way as there are who want it the other. Those are the times when settings make sense, but all too often developers try to fix the symptoms rather than tackle the underlying problems (*cough* Windows). It’s hard—really hard—but there’s almost always a better way. I may not make my customers happy in the short term when I tell them that I’m not going to add a setting for (fill in the blank here), but by refusing to put a bandage on the wound, I keep the pressure on myself to make a better app in the long run by simplifying, re-thinking, and evolving.

all i see is the user guide how do i close it and start using the ap

Dear Customer,

A few minor things: first, punctuation. There are so many different kinds! Why wouldn’t you take advantage of them all? Now, I know there are a lot of rules (and they don’t always make sense), but you can try—I don’t expect everything to be perfect. All I expect is that sentences be separated and that questions be clearly identified with the appropriate mark; it really makes a big difference.

Second, an ap is not a thing. I have never heard of this. Nor have I heard of an I-PAD, just in case that’s where this conversation is headed.

Finally, a user guide is a marvelous thing. It’s almost magical. If done right, it’s even pretty, but it’s not just there for you to marvel at my impeccable design sense—no, it contains actual, valuable insights into the very questions to which you seek answers! I’ve literally put the answers right in front of you, and instead of actually reading them, you’ve shaken your head, decided to visit the app’s website, written up a (nicely concise!) support email, and are now waiting for a response, probably wondering why I’m putting you through all of this rigmarole.

I don’t mind telling you, customer, that I really think this is going to be the start of a beautiful business relationship.

Best,
Justin

You’ve been a reasonable web host for a while now, and although your website suffers from the same design issues that all web hosts seem to suffer from, I’ve been pleased with your service, if not as much your price. But hey, for what you do, I’ll cough up the dough.

Sure, there are random outages from time to time and relatively slow page loads more often, but it was good enough. At least, it was until you decided to block 350+ customer support emails from getting to me. Oh, and that doesn’t count the people who tried to contact me about my music. Or the people who tried to conduct business with my parents through their site (which I also manage.)

Of course, you didn’t block ALL emails, just a significant number of them. See, if you’d blocked everything, then at least I’d know something was amiss, but you didn’t—you just blocked enough to really get me into trouble. For two and a half months this has been going on.

I get that spam is a real problem, and that you need to control the ways that people can use your servers to send messages. On the other hand, I use WordPress (compatibility with which you helpfully advertise, so it’s not like I’m in the vast minority here) and all of WordPress’ contact forms pretty much work this way. So thousands of websites may not be getting their information from you this very minute, and who knows how long it’ll take them to figure it out.

You could have at least told me. (Although, to be honest, you may have mentioned it somewhere in one of your long and loose newsletters so I’ll cut you some slack here.) Regardless, you’re now officially on my shit list.

Best,
Justin

P.S. For anyone having this issue, your contact form must send its email from an address ending with your domain, and use the sender’s actual email address as the reply-to value. Any messages you may have missed will be on your server under Maildir/new/.

I’ve also tried to keep my actual music/writing/app news on here separate from the kinds of casual rants and raves I usually post there, partly because I don’t want to offend my audience. I have lots of passions that I’ve never discussed openly (most notably politics), but I don’t think it’s right to try and separate my work from that and to baby-proof myself, as it were. Those opinions and thoughts probably shine through my work anyway, and censoring myself is an injustice to the real essence of what I do and why.

So we’ll see how this adventure goes, and what becomes of it. I’ll be re-enabling comments on those pieces to help foster constructive conversation, but based on some past abuses I’ll also be watching them carefully and removing anything that’s clearly incendiary. Internet anonymity breeds the worst kinds of hate, and I won’t stand for that here. I’ll also be separating the posts out so that music/writing/app news will still be on the news page, and the other stuff will appear on the “blog” page. I think it’s an inevitable inclusion, and I hope to see you there!

As summer begins (just a few days from now!), I’ll be heading into the final stages of preparation for Project Zephyr. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and I encourage you to take a look at the plan if you haven’t already. Most importantly, though, I hope this album makes you stop for a moment and wonder what you’re capable of, and what dream you just might be ready to turn into a reality.

Earlier this year I finally figured out what I was trying to capture with that melody. As the name suggests, it’s about beginnings, about creation in the greatest sense. It’s about the universe and our tireless efforts to explore and understand it. Yet the album is more personal than that. It’s also about being a kid and looking up at the stars, wondering what’s out there and hoping to see it someday. We all have big dreams when we’re young, and too many of us let go of them and say we’ve just grown out of them. My biggest dream still means as much to me today as it did when I was five, and I think that’s true more often than not.

This album is very important to me, and I truly believe in that message: that we can all follow our hearts and realize our dreams if we refuse to give up on them. My dream is to see space, and the earth from above, and I’m going to make it happen. In the next few days I’ll be posting more information about my plan to send a weather balloon up into the atmosphere with a camera attached to it, and I hope you’ll participate. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to share it with you. In the mean time, I challenge you to stop for a moment and think about the dream that made you wide-eyed when you were young. What if you went for it?

Update: Find out more about Project Zephyr here!
Update 2: Origin is now available on iTunes.

Of course, you can also get a free sample right now for iBooks, so be sure to visit the iBookstore and get a head start on the first two chapters. You won’t be disappointed!

[Update: Shipyard Rook is available now]

I was proud to be able to contribute to what turned out to be an amazing exhibition for an incredible artist, and would encourage anyone in the area to go see it and to check out the beautiful book that goes along with it. A segment of this week’s Art Beat by OPB takes a closer look at both the artist and the exhibition, below:

Also making its debut on the iTunes store this month is 2009′s RE, the re-imagining of Kingdom Crumble, released under the pseudonym Ambulephabus. RE has never sounded better, having been sourced from the original 24-bit recordings, and will also include the full liner notes for those who want to know more about each song and the concept of the album as a whole. It’s an exciting release, and ensures that this percussive, dynamic album will get the presentation it deserves!

With this release, though, it has been totally remastered, features all-new artwork, and includes a bonus track, “Comet.” It’s a fantastic album with gems like “Willow” and “Mechani,” and with this re-release it finally gets the fanfare it deserves. [iTunes]

The music page also got an update today, and you can now click on each album to see a lightbox-style popup with more information and track previews that work much better than the older version. It’s a streamlined setup that will make it easier to manage going forward, and it looks pretty great, too. Check it out, and be sure to come back soon and see all of the other updates that are still coming!

It’s no secret, though, that I wasn’t ever comfortable with their shift to a subscription-based model. I blogged about it two years ago, got some really helpful feedback (then a mean-spirited commenter showed up and ruined the whole thing—this is why we can’t have nice things.) Still, I gave it some time, waited to see the results, and in the end I found that it was contributing to an overall lack of enthusiasm and a dampened creativity for making music that’s probably evident by almost as long a period without significant news updates on this very site. I didn’t and still don’t think that any artist’s discography is worth a tiny slice of a $15/month subscription, and I’d rather make no money at all than get paid one penny at a time.

I want to be clear, though—I think the subscription model is a bad one for musicians, I don’t think that Magnatune is bad.

During this same period of transition I also quit my day job and became self-employed, finding creative satisfaction in helping to create a sheet music reader for iPad rather than making music directly. I had maintained this site independently of my other work until I realized, recently, that this isn’t justinbianco’smusic.com (yes, I know an apostrophe wouldn’t work in a URL anyway, but just go with it,) it’s justinbianco.com. Who I am and what I’m passionate about may have shifted somewhat, but it’s still all part of who I am.

As such, I’ve started making some changes to this site and you’ll be seeing a lot of new content go up over the next few days. I hope you like it, and if you have feedback please don’t hesitate to contact me on the About page. Just know that albums will be coming down and going back up on iTunes, Amazon, and other digital retailers as I work to make everything available on my own terms.

I’ve got a new album of solo piano compositions coming out soon, I just released my first novel, and I’m almost finished with my next brand new app. It feels like the beginning of an era, not the end of one, and I hope you’ll join me as I continue to explore what I love to do and how it can brighten the lives of anyone who hears my music, reads my book, or uses my app.

Rock on.

The site was recently moved to a new server, so we apologize for any downtime during that process (everything is finished now). We’ve also had to disable the comments system due to abuse, but we’ll be researching alternative methods of blocking spam and such, so hopefully we’ll be able to restore it soon. Thanks for your patience!

A few days ago, Magnatune.com- Justin’s non-exclusive label- made some abrupt and drastic changes to their site and business model. Instantly gone was the site’s physical CD sales, with founder John Buckman citing numerous issues with their manufacturer. Also killed off was the site’s streaming membership; essentially a high-quality pay-per-month radio station. Variable pricing, one of Magnatune’s killer features, was traded away in favor of $12 album pricing. Magnatune’s new product? Buffet. Magnatune.com now offers a $15/month download membership. Download whatever you want, in almost any quality you want, and keep them forever. Their new slogan is “Ten thousand songs for only $15/month” and they clearly mean it.

A few days ago they ditched album sales altogether. No more CD sales, no more digital album sales, not even for $12 apiece. It’s download membership or nothing.

I respect Magnatune and the marketing power they’ve helped put behind my music. Their music licensing capabilities are what helped fund my continued music production, and I value their partnership. I also think this is dead wrong. Variable pricing (the idea that you can choose what you’d like to pay for an album, between $5 and $18) was unique, and it was a great act of faith that helped solidify their market. Most people paid more than you’d expect, and felt good knowing half went directly to the artist. Full streaming before purchase was right on, and DRM-free music was there long before the rest of the industry figured it out.

The truth is, though, that Magnatune was always a company with a shrinking niche market. It was only a matter of time before the digital music industry matured and ditched DRM, making things simpler for customer ever more reluctant to open their wallets. The commodity of Magnatune was their willingness to stand up and say “we think we have great music, and we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt in the hope that you’ll think so too.” Now, it’s more like “please, take it, because it’s getting dusty.”

Numbers don’t lie, but there are two things going on here. First, the economy sucks. Second, if you push a product that’s far cheaper than the rest, your numbers will point straight towards it. That doesn’t mean that it’s the right choice in the long run. Raising prices on album downloads will clearly push more people to the membership when the difference is $3.

So I’m rethinking the future of my music. Is it worth it to me to get virtually nothing for months of work? Is it worth the emails I get from strangers telling me how much they loved it? Music is important- not just to listen to, but to create. I have passion for it and probably couldn’t stop if I tried. Heck, if enough people read this and tell me they agree, I’d even consider opening my own variable pricing store. But to say that a huge chunk of my best work is worth some small portion of $15 is simply short-sighted.

http://ambulephab.us/re

The Nocturnum LP has been updated to work with AppleTV software 3.0, so check it out if you can at the LP page.

Quoted as best as I can from memory: “We had been working with a piece for a while and it just wasn’t clicking, so Giacun [Caduff, Producer] and I started searching online for something. When we heard your song, we just knew immediately that it was perfect for the scene.”

It was a lovely evening (despite the terrible rain storm!) and I’m more glad than before to have been a part of this production. If you get a chance to see it, either via their upcoming international screenings, or their eventual and hopefully imminent DVD release, definitely do so. Thanks again to Jeff and Richard!

As you might have heard, Kingdom Crumble and Nocturnum already have free LPs on my LP page. I’m already working on others, but it’s taking time away from finishing up my latest musical project as Ambulephabus- “Kingdom Crumble Re-imagined.” So I intend to get back to both of these projects and make major headway, but alas, Apple has released updates, and they’re causing some interesting… things… to happen.

You can now view iTunes LPs in fullscreen mode. Neat!

Without their special manifest document, LPs can’t be imported into iTunes correctly. The files have been fixed, but that’s the problem with working on an unpublished “standard” (calling it that is a bit of an oxymoron at this point.)

The iTunes LPs will work with AppleTV software 3.0. Unfortunately, no one knows how yet, since even the iTunes LP’s currently sold by Apple are incompatible. So, as soon as we know, we’ll fix ‘em up and get them out the door all shiny and new. Until then, everything should work the same way in iTunes itself.

Oh- and one more thing. The Etienne! screening is next weekend, so if you responded with a “maybe” on Facebook, it’s time to commit! Go do it!

Thanks for the continued support and cheer, everyone! You’re the best.

Kingdom Crumble
Nocturnum

Also, Justin has been hard at work designing his first iTunes LP. Because iTunes doesn’t allow for anyone but a very select handful of big-name artists to participate in this fairly basic (technically) initiative, he has decided to offer LP files for free right here. Kingdom Crumble will be the first up, and it should be just a few days before we have more to report!

[Update: The first LP is now available here!]

Ambulephab.us is back up, and looking better than ever. Play individual songs from the upcoming album right on the homepage, and see all the latest happenings right away! Check it out at ambulephab.us.

The Magnatune iPhone app has been rejected by Apple. It’s not the end of the road for the app, but it is a big step in the wrong direction, so the timeline is now much longer. We’ll let you know as soon as something changes.

The screening of Etienne! at the Olympia Film Festival is approaching fast, so remember to clear your schedule if you can make it!

CreateSpace is still producing proofs for six albums that will be available via their (pretty fantastic) disk manufacturing services. Forge is already available, but since they’re doing six proofs this time (and they offer them for free) I can’t complain that it has taken over a month so far.

Update: More info on the Olympia Film Festival here. Etienne! will screen on the 7th at 4:30PM, and we’re coordinating an event on Facebook if you’re interested in going!

Also, a week or so back we brought up some concerns with disk production via Lulu.com’s print-on-demand service. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do to improve their services, but we’ve found two incredible alternatives. CreateSpace (an Amazon.com company) makes disks the exact same way for almost exactly the same price, but the quality is FAR superior. Forge is up there now, and more will be arriving in about a week or two. Expect Lulu.com to lose all disk printing options shortly thereafter.

However, since the quality at Lulu was about the same as you could expect from your own home printer, we’ve concocted an idea to cut out the middleman. As labels and companies struggle with proprietary solutions and half-standards, we’ve gone the simple route: build-your-own album. “Build-Your-Own” links have appeared on select discography pages (the “Music” link above) allowing you to download the same files used by CreateSpace to print their liner, tray, and booklet inserts. From there, you can, well, build your own album. Jewel cases will eventually go the way of the dinosaur, but we’re still a ways off from that. For now it’s a simple way to offer not just the music, but an entire album to everyone. Check it all out: Kingdom Crumble, Nocturnum, Blackbird, Siren, Forge, and Finality.

More importantly, you can now search for a song name and find out which album(s) it was on. You can see albums released under Justin’s name, or under the pseudonym Ambulephabus. A few albums now also have downloadable artwork that you can use to create your own jewel cases. What are you waiting for, check it all out!

So I’d like to apologize to anyone who has bought a physical CD of mine through Lulu. With as much attention to detail I have when it comes to designing every part of my albums, it might as well be yesterday’s recycling to them. My designs are deliberate, and I think my entire production is being ruined by this form of media.

I’ll open it up to the public. I’m considering removing all physical media from the Lulu store. Would anyone be sad to see disks go? Commence commenting.

You may have noticed that this site has been (for about three months now) called ambulephab.us.  While justinbianco.com has redirected here, this is just a step towards the inevitable divorce of the two genres.

And so, I now introduce you to two distinct artists, though they are the same person: Justin Bianco, continuing on in solo piano, and Ambulephabus, exploring electronic sounds.  Ambulephab.us will soon stand alone, and JustinBianco.com will begin to function separately and of its own accord.  This will take a little while, so please be patient, but it seems to be the right thing for both parties.  Or the same party.  It’s confusing.

To further confuse matters, the first stand-alone Ambulephabus album will be a remake of Justin Bianco’s “Kingdom Crumble,” in a more percussive manner.  Stay tuned right here for much more in the coming weeks.  It’s been an amazing decade of music, so welcome to the next!

First Flight: A Mother Hummingbird’s Story is an adorable book (and now a dvd as well) by photographers Noriko and Don Carroll. The DVD has now been released and features Justin Bianco’s “Mischief” from the album Forge. It’s a heartwarming story, and you can check out the trailer below, or find out more at hummingbirdstory.com.

For those who aren’t familiar with the film, it features two songs of the album Blackbird. Read articles about CineVegas and Etienne! at Reuters, Entertainment Today, and read a quick interview with Jeff on IndieWire.

Note: There are a lot of sources to sift through when getting this information, so please understand if information is incorrect or changes after this post is published. (“Dammit Jim, I’m a musician’s site, not a news source!”) Nonetheless, please let me know via the about page’s contact form should there be any inaccuracies or if you have information to add.

The winner was this entry:

Hey, Magnatune still doesn’t have that album listed? That’s why I need it as a free version!

Two birds with one stone, I say. Yes, Magnatune is an incredible company with a great vision and some awesome ideas. They’ve also been sitting on my new album for over four months now. So, with a lot of gratitude (but a little bit of spite) I choose this entry. I know, I have a slightly twisted nature.

Thanks, Glue, for the entry, and expect an email shortly. Until next time, contest friends!

P.S. No hard feelings, Magnatune; you pay me- I am grateful.

Now that the site has been moved over and all that spring cleaning brought back good memories of contests long ago, it’s time for another. Hence, the Kingdom Crumble WIDAFA contest begins. Thanks to the new infrastructure of the site, you can simply respond to this post in the comments and a winner will be announced on June 2nd; one month from today. Remember to make it about a normal-sized paragraph (a few sentences) and keep it funny, clean, and clever.

Good luck!

No purchase required, one entry per person, yadda yadda yadda. Spambots need not apply.

The built-in links are a little inaccurate for buying albums, so check back here for that if you’re interested. Otherwise, it’s quite neat! Here’s the current lineup: Forge, Finality, Phoenix, Blackbird, Kingdom Crumble, Extrasensory, Nocturnum, and Siren.

Some of the pages are a little spartan at the moment, but will be filled out shortly. The resources are all there, it’s just the presentation that’s a little shallow. The most pressing issue, however, is the gorgeous day we’re having outside! So if you’re having exceptional weather today, enjoy, and if not, you have all sorts of new justinbianco.com pages to explore.

(EDIT 04/15: The podcast is up on the iTunes store and looking great, despite some slight initial formatting quirks.)

Where am I headed with this? Well one of the eight Jackpot Premieres is Etienne!, which features two songs off of Justin Bianco’s Blackbird; End of Man and The Light (Part I).

Here’s the press release: CineVegas Film Festival – Opening Night and Jackpot Premieres
And info about the film can be found at their site, www.hamstermovie.com.

Now for some real news. Kingdom Crumble is in the hands of Magnatune, and has been for a bit now, so it’s just a matter of waiting for them to get the album up with their next major batch of releases. (Releases get lumped into major updates, instead of trickling in every week. It means they can do more with their resources, and it’s worth the wait, I promise.)

In the mean time, Justin has been working on new piano compositions. Keep your interwebs tuned to this channel for more soon.

And for those of you who were around then, remember the JustinBianco.com mascot, Pablo?

Otherwise, styles continue being tweaked, and content formatting rages on…

1. Titan
2. The Best Of Intentions
3. Faith
4. Kingdom Crumble
5. Canvas
6. Six
7. My Downfall
8. Spline
9. Procession
10. The Cost Of Peace
11. Loss
12. Algorithms
13. Leus Ang
14. Closing Lines

Tracklist:
1. Leus Ang
2. Tragic And Beautiful
3. Forgive/Forget
4. Animus II
5. Leus Ang (Remix)

In other news, two of Justin’s songs from Blackbird– “End of Man” and “The Light (Part I)” will be part of the upcoming feature-length film, Etienne! Screenings will be announced shortly, so stay tuned to hear more about that.

“SO atmospheric, we love the moody modernism of Justin Bianco’s original
piano compositions, and his style of playing is very natural.
Contemplative, elegant, and slightly brooding, this is the perfect music
to usher in your late fall. Highly recommended.”

In other news, Forge continues to hold strong over at Magnatune, and has become the best-selling Justin Bianco album of all time by quite a long-shot. It also holds the honor of being the highest-valued album this month, which is an interesting byproduct of Magnatune’s pay-what-you-want pricing scheme.

Secondly, it looks as though several Justin Bianco albums are primed and ready to be offered in the higher quality, drm-free iTunes Plus variety. At the moment the “iTunes Plus” label means little, as the tracks are still in their old format, but many sites are reporting that an announcement will be made soon regarding this. Stay tuned, and if you’re planning on buying any Justin Bianco music from iTunes, you might do well to wait a few days. This post will be updated when more information is available.

[Update: As suspected, Siren, Finality, and the Magnatune Compilations featuring Justin Bianco are now offered as iTunes Plus tracks for the same $0.99 per song or $7.99 for the album. The remaining albums will be upgraded when their respective intermediary companies (CDBaby and TuneCore) finish re-submitting their catalogues.]

Finally, Nocturnum (the full version) is available as a physical CD from lulu. Check out the Nocturnum page or the store to buy it.

Also, Magnatune has released another compilation, entitled Music For Meditation, which features the title track from Forge as track 9. Check it out!

Speaking of Magnatune compilations, Nothing Left, also from the album Phoenix, was featured at the Creative Commons Salon back in August. More information as well as full streaming of the entire compilations is available by clicking on the links below. [links removed during archival]

Meanwhile, mastering is just about complete on Blackbird, which should see the light of day shortly. As always, stay tuned for much, much more.

First, Phoenix got some new cover artwork, because-

Second, the Magnatune catalog is going to be offered shortly via physical CD distribution, which means that you’ll be able to find Justin Bianco CDs in stores, cafes, and more. More information will be posted here once it’s available. [Edit: It's live, so just head over and check them out!]

Typically, a single is a song that best represents the album in general. In this case, the opposite is true. Mechani, and the b-side Comet are both songs that are highly structured and almost artificial. This is a stark contrast to the very natural, free-flowing compositions that mark the rest of the album. The single artwork represents that style, with a very constructed and smoothed glowing look. You can find the cover artwork and the download in the Duality special.

Also, the first and only planned single from the album, Mechani, will be released within a few days. Some information is available now from the Duality special, so head on over and take a look, and remember to check back in a few days for the free download.

This means that linux users now have full access the Magnatune catalog, including four albums by Justin Bianco, directly through their music player. The internet is quite abuzz with news and interest in this new feature, so we’re doing something a little different today. We’ve created a new Special, but this special is not for an album or project. The Magnatune+Amarok special is a central location where news and information on this development can be found for those who are interested. You can find it here. [Edit: links removed during archival]

Also in time for the holidays, 56 Ways should be complete within a matter of days. 56 Ways catalogues over ten years of music, including the hand-picked best songs of each album to date. It’s a personal snapshot of years of music, brought together in a very raw and real way. Context change the meaning of any one thing, and the synergy of these personally selected songs brings the music to a new level.

While Magnatune licenses its catalog for many different kinds of projects, audiobooks represent a natural pairing of words & music. Portuguese poet Rui Diniz recently contacted us about using the work of Magnatune artist Justin Bianco for his new audiobook project “Corte d’El-Rei.”

Offered in both print & audiobook versions, the work is a collection of poetry and two tales exploring illusion and reality. For the audiobook Luiz Gaspar, a famous professional voice in Portugal heard in many commercials and documentaries read the text.

Forge has been highlighted lately by a series of requests for featuring several or all songs from the album on both commercial and personal projects. In other news, Justin is still in the process of moving and getting set up in Portland. Although he will be available through email, the site will be expectedly quiet for the next month, so please pardon the absence.

Also, a new Justin Bianco publication hits the streets today: Bones. Bones is the original score for six of the songs on Forge. The book is 30 pages, 8.5×11, retails for 11.99, and is available now.

In the midst of a very confused industry, Magnatune rises to the occasion by offering a sort of open-source attitude for their business approach. With a non-exclusive contract, variable pricing model and build-in commercial licensing capability, it was no contest when I was approached by MagnaTune to sign a deal. There are many nuances to the structure and attitude of the Berkeley-based label, so I’ll leave much of the explanation up to their site if you’d like to learn more. And, or course, as more details are finalized they will be announced here. In any case, it is quite an honor to be offered a spot on a record known for high scrutiny of the content they provide. Stay tuned for more!

There’s no news from February 2005 to October 2005. It simply can’t be recovered. Weep and then move on.

Horizon has been released! Oh, and it’s going to get it’s first review in a week or so, so stay tuned for that.

Other releases in the forecast: For February, Children Sublime might finally surface as a downloadable album, it depends on the possible collaborations. (Ontagon and I have been working towards something, but whether that’s Children Sublime or a whole new project is still up in the air. Once we figure that out, CS will most likely be released here.) Also in February, the elusive “Dragon Song” will also finally surface. My first piano CD in years; it’s kind of exciting to return to it.

March will see it’s fair share of releases as well, including a new album, tentatively entitled “Finality.” Also, a new website, but I don’t want to give away too much too soon. Just stick around, because there’s never a dull moment here. Oh, have you downloaded Pablo’s game yet? Check it out!

Just waiting until the HORIZON release date. Then it’s onto marketing and advertising… The soundtrack is awesome, and although the print quality is slightly less than I’d hoped, that’s the downside to print-on-demand. And, since I have no money for investing in high-quality products that I may never sell… well, you get the point. Go take a listen, and hang out. Remember, you can also hear a bunch of streaming audio on the media page, download some music, or sign up for the members-only section and hear ‘Flesh And Bone’ streaming.

As if that wasn’t enough to keep you all interested, I’m releasing a free mini-game. It’s a sort of racing game thingy, featuring our very own Pablo. You see him jumping up and down in the corner, don’t you? Well, you wouldn’t want to keep him waiting! DirectX 6.0 or later is required, along with a semi-decent computer. Other than that, you’ve got what you need, so go download and play! Tell me what you think, too, so I can find out what y’all like. Justin at JustinBianco.com.

In Horizon news, I just recieved my official ‘HORIZON’ tote bag. What? You haven’t looked at the store lately? Well you had better! Yes, tons of merchandise to start out the new year. Besides, after all the giving, isn’t it about time you get a little something for yourself?

Happy holidays everyone, and into 2005 let us all hope for as many good times as this year. (I already know it’ll be a fabulous year, since it is starting out with the release of HORIZON, which will take place in January…)

Now onto other news: It is with pleasure that I announce the latest in a string of upcoming releases – Flesh And Bone. That is, of course, the condensed title. The full thing is ‘Flesh Of One Flesh And Bone Of One Bone: Justin Bianco – Unplugged.’ Now you understand the necessity of a condensed version. Anywho, it’s an all-acoustic album with some older songs and a few new ones. Check it out in the ‘specials’ section on the right. Oh, and Pablo will be working hard to finish his promotional work for ‘Flesh And Bone’ in the next few days. Hopefully he’ll meet his deadline, with the help of coffee and whatever else it is that bugs of his stature prefer.

“Join us for the 36th Annual Progressive Lawyering Day (formerly Alternative Law Day), from 9:30am to 4:30pm on Saturday, October 9, 2004. Organized by the Bay Area law school student chapters of the National Lawyers Guild, law students, attorneys, legal workers, and activists will gather at the University of San Francisco School of Law, located at Fulton and Shrader Streets, to discuss progressive lawyering and public interest law under the theme “Reclaiming Democracy.

Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, will deliver the keynote address with an introduction from San Francisco Police Commissioner Peter Keane. This day-long symposium will cover issues including civil rights, prisoner’s rights, sex and the law, military law, combatting international violence against women, the significance of Brown v. Board of Education, and the implementation of San Francisco’s “Care Not Cash” program, plus many more. The symposium will be followed at 4:30pm by a beer and wine reception, including a performance by Nyla from Justice NOW!”

Nyla, of course, is a part of “The We That Sets Us Free,” of which I did the sound design. Also present will be one of the co-directors of Justice Now, Tre, an artist also on the CD, as well as numerous others. Please join us if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area.

End Future Justin Note.

Original post:

Meet Pablo.

Pablo, the newest member of our humble website, would like to introduce himself. He has prepared a small video to convey his enthusiasm about the things that go on here at justinbianco.com. Take a look. (Click on him in the top right corner.)

Now, onto more mundane matters. I have been working on a follow up to ‘Phoenix,’ and although the tone of this album seems a little more electronic, I still like to think of it as a continuation of the process I began with Phoenix. The name of the new album is ‘Children Sublime,’ and it should be out by the end of September. I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but each album I create seems so much better, so much more compelling than the last, that I love the process of making music, even if no one else in the world ever listens to it. Despite the rewards inherent to creating music, hopefully I’ll be able to pay the bills with this one… Ah, ever the struggling artist. Would I have it any other way?

Gift: Now offered for free download at the media page, along with a bunch of wallpapers and icons.

Destiny Of Heritage: Available now at www.lulu.com/justinbianco.

So, there you have it. Enjoy!

Two weeks after the release, as per my usual major-release style, will provide a solo piano CD, Dragon Song, to compliment Phoenix. More information on both CDs is available to the right. They will be available through CDBaby.com for the time being, although the upcoming single off of ‘Phoenix,’ entitled ‘Gift,’ will be sold through this website. Discussions with independent labels is in place as we speak, and a label re-release is the forecast for the end of the year, if not sooner.

Ahh, if you only knew the surprises in store for you. BIG changes going on behind the scenes. For instance: justinbianco.20m.com will no longer be a valid address for this website. From now on, it’s purely justinbianco.com, so update your bookmarks. Second: A new shop. It’ll all be happening shortly.

EVO is the name, and here is the site. Everyone, EVO. EVO, everyone. Now you’ve met. EVO is Justin Bianco and Alexander Moore, and their first album should be out later this year. Oh, and don’t try to email anything to the addresses on the ‘contact’ page of the new site, because the domain name is still under negotiation.

About my break: For the first few weeks I was in southern Oregon with my parents, where we almost got snowed in with about a foot of snow on the ground. Our new years’ visitors got stuck at our place for a few days. Also, I got an opportunity to see my newborn nephew (who is extremely cute, and about a month and a half old now).

From there we went to Kauai, which was a strange contrast to the snow of before. It was great fun, and now I’m back and ready for school to begin again. So that’s that! Take care, everyone.

So, first things first. Perpetuate The Evil will indeed be released on DVD on the 22nd, and it will be quite cool. I just tested everything out the other day, and it’s really something to see my work on a TV screen, rather than a computer. Anyway, hop on over to the special for more info, which is a little out of date, but should be redone today.

Next on the agenda, Destiny Of Heritage. Yes, indeed. I am having a bit of trouble with it, because every time I reread it, I’m not quite pleased with everything. If I’m going to do it, and I surely am, then I want to do it right. So, while the release date is still set for May 2004, don’t hate me if it is pushed back yet again.

Which brings me to “The Book Of Ronin,” which is my second novel being currently written. I am really enjoying the process, and I know it will be really neat when it is done. It is much more poetic than Destiny Of Heritage, so it takes a little longer to write. It will be worth it though.

Okay, enough chit-chat. Back to work.

Okay, with that said, there are two new releases. The first is the new ‘best of’ album, with some songs from ‘Future’ and some not. If you already own ‘Future,’ then you can buy ‘Future 2.0,’ which is shorter than the usual compilation (16 songs), and so is only five dollars. Cheers.

True story. Hence the title of the new album.

More good news… Today is a very special day. Today brings the official birthday of the Blue Bottle Collective. “What’s that,” you ask? Well, it’s an online musician’s co-operative cross-advertising community. What that means is that everyone who is a part of it does neat stuff like put links to other collective members’ websites. Also, when another member releases a new album, all the other members help spread the word. Casually, of course, other members may be mentioned at shows, etc. www.bluebottlecollective.com. [EDIT: No longer, sorry!]

The collective now has four members, soon to be five. The newest addition is Amy René Anderson, who will be collaborating with me on my next album. She sings real pretty.

Yes indeed, I believe that’s all. Keep it real, yoozles.

Laurel Brauns also has a new album, and it’s awesome, so buy it. www.laurelbrauns.com

Yes, so now I blabber. No more.

Okay, so it wasn’t nearly that dramatic, but there was a fire in my apartment building this morning. I was in fact deafened by the noise of the alarm, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. When I walked down the stairwell, however, I noticed a distinct odor of smoke. When I emerged from the building, I saw smoke wafting from a fifth-floor room. The fire was promptly put out, and there was no damage to most of the building, but we couldn’t enter it again for about an hour. By that time, I couldn’t sleep, and went on 3 and a half hours of sleep all day long. I am, therefore, quite ready for bed.

[Future Justin Note: From December '02 when I quit school until March of '03 I was in the process of getting my first apartment, which took far far far longer than it should have. During this time I had just quit school and was basically sleeping wherever I could- with friends, in the dorms, or wherever. Fortunately, never under a bridge! This is why, however, there is no real news during this period. Later during the summer of '03, a few albums were released that weren't all that great, and so I decided that re-posting the news items from their release was not all that important. In the Fall, I decided to move to San Francisco, and you'll see the news items pick up again at that point. Just thought you should know! End future Justin note.]

The first, Chelsie’s album which is complete. The second, Michael Graham’s album is complete. The third; I am done with school. Yes, this is the end of college for me, at least for now. Tonight I sleep in the dorms one last time…

Yet this is not the end of the wonders in store for the world! Elle McKay, longtime friend of mine and accomplice in crime, has just unveiled her gallery of sorts in Haven coffee shop. Everyone should check out the wondrous visions of Elle McKay at Haven (35th and Hawthorne.)

As always, rest assured there are always plans and projects on the horizon!

Allright… Here’s the deal. I’m working on the latest CD of mine, which doesn’t have a name yet. So far I’ve recruited a few people to be on my CD, but the only confirmation I’m making at this point is that Alexa Nadeau, veteran to my musical realm, has returned for another album. Stay tuned, and rest assured; the new one is on its way…