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Dub Wiser Live Longer!

DJ Super Buffet — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:01:00 GMT

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Dub music is a form of Jamaican music, which evolved out of Reggae in 1960's Jamaica. The dub sound consists predominantly of instrumental re-mixes of existing recordings and is achieved by significantly manipulating and reshaping the recordings, usually by removing the vocals from an existing music piece, emphasizing the drum and bass frequencies or 'Riddim', adding extensive echo and reverb effects, and dubbing occasional snippets of lyrics from the original version.

It is widely accepted that Jamaican musicians Osbourne Ruddock (more commonly known by the pseudonym King Tubby), and Lee "Scratch" Perry pioneered the style in the 1960's and early 1970's. Ruddock and Perry each called upon the mixing desk as an instrument, with the Deejay or "Selector" playing the role of the artist or performer. This early 'Dub' music experimentation can be looked upon as the prelude to many dance and pop music genres.


Lee "Scratch" Perry		King Tubby

Dub music is characterized as a "version" or "double" of an existing song, often instrumental, using B sides of 45 RPM records and typically emphasizing the drums and bass for a sound popular in local sound systems. The instrumental tracks are typically drenched in sound processing effects such as echo, reverberation, part vocal and extra percussion, with most of the lead instruments and vocals dropping in and out of the mix. Another hallmark of the dub sound is the massive low-pitched bass guitar. The music sometimes features processed sound effects and other noises, such as birds singing, thunder and lightning, water flowing, and producers shouting instructions at the musicians. It can be further augmented by live DJs. The many-layered sounds with varying echoes and volumes are often said to create soundscapes, or sound sculptures, drawing attention to the shape and depth of the space between sounds as well as to the sounds themselves.

Dub Wiser Live Longer

There is usually a distinctly organic characteristic of the music, even though the effects are electronically created. Often these tracks are used for "Toasters" rapping heavily-rhymed and alliterative lyrics. These are called "DJ Versions". As opposed to Hip Hop terminology, in Reggae music the person with the microphone is called the "DJ", elsewhere referred to as the "MC." (Abbreviating "Master of Ceremonies," "Microphone Commander" or "Mic Control," this term varies regionally and demographically). Additionally in Reggae the person choosing the music and operating the turntables is the "Selector" (i.e., the DJ).

The Dream King T-Shirt

Lumbergh — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:01:00 GMT

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As seen in the recently released film "Rockin' Around The Shrine" – The Dream King.
Very hip-notic! Get yours today at the EricHatheway.com OnLine Store!

The Dream King Available only at EricHatheway.com

The Dream King is available in many styles,
sizes and colors for men and women!
Check it out (we mean it).

Photo Series: Random Animal Portraits

The Artist — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:01:00 GMT

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Portraiture with an emphasis on animals. Like all portrait endeavors, it's all about capturing the spirit of subject at the right moment in time. We'll keep adding to the series. Thanks for visiting and please come back often!

Random Animal No. 1
©2009 Eric Hatheway
All Rights Reserved

Random Animal No. 2
©2009 Eric Hatheway
All Rights Reserved

GeoTag
36.209053° N
95.908669° W

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UPDATED Photo Series: Last Night At The Woodland Lounge

The Artist — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:01:00 GMT

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The Woodland Lounge – a shoebox sized tavern in a little strip center in a midwestern city. The bar, for some twenty or twenty-five years catered to those who golfed and enjoyed a few cocktails after their round of golf. The Woodland Lounge also saw its share of patrons who drank all day and played cards until their wives called them home. The evenings were filled with live entertainment that could only be called smokey lounge music. A crude hand-painted mural on the east wall of the bar involves a golf theme and the images of who are most likely the original owners and/or investors in the tiny neighborhood tavern. These are the last pictures of the Woodland Lounge. It will meet the wrecking ball in the morning. The last night at the Woodland Lounge. The walls then came down and all those memories rose up into the air upon a cloud of dust and stale smoke.

Last Night at the Woodland Lounge 1
©2009 Eric Hatheway All Rights Reserved

Last Night at the Woodland Lounge 2
©2009 Eric Hatheway All Rights Reserved

Last Night at the Woodland Lounge 3
©2009 Eric Hatheway All Rights Reserved

Last Night at the Woodland Lounge 4
©2009 Eric Hatheway All Rights Reserved

Last Night at the Woodland Lounge 5
©2009 Eric Hatheway All Rights Reserved

GeoTag
36.089668° N
95.937126° W
Altitude: 600ft

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Kodachrome Scenes Unseen (Part 4)

The Artist — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:01:00 GMT

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Kodachrome bit the dust as the favorite film of our memories when it was retired in 2009. It was about that time the artist discovered the tin boxes full of Kodachrome slide transparencies. These images had not seen daylight or been viewed for many years. After scanning all 561 of the sides, he was able to see many images that had been forgotten with time. The look of Kodachrome is warm and inviting. A very special look, especially in the digital era. The artist decided to practice on these images in Aperture 3 to see what can be done with these "color positives" on both good images and bad images. For more information on Kodachrome please read our article, "Rest In Peace: Kodachrome". Thanks for visiting!

Mao's Place
1979 Peking, China
©MMX Eric Hatheway
All Rights Reserved

Great Wall Boy
1979 China
©MMX Eric Hatheway
All Rights Reserved

Mao's Buddies
1979 Peking, China
©MMX Eric Hatheway
All Rights Reserved

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Dandy Livingstone: The Original Rude Boy

DJ Super Buffet — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:01:00 GMT

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Probably one of the first Rude Boys, or at least one of the first to sing about the Rude Boy, Dandy Livingstone is a Jamaican ska and reggae musician that was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1943. He was born as Robert Livingstone Thompson and he made his way to the United Kingdom when he was 15 years old. He unwittingly released his first record when he discovered that someone in the building where he and a friend had recorded some tracks peddled the songs to the Planetone Label without his knowledge.

Meanwhile, in London, the Carnival Records label was shopping for Jamaican vocal duo. Dandy stepped in and got the job by making double tracks of his voice to satisfy the requirement for a pair of Jamaican voices. He continued to release music using this studio technique under the name Sugar & Dandy. When live performances required the addition of a real second vocalist, Roy Smith and Tito "Sugar" Simone were called upon to fill in with Dandy.

Ska Beat Records signed Dandy Livingstone in 1967 and he made a debut album in 1968 called Rocksteady With Dandy. Of course, Rudy A Message To You scored big with listeners in the United Kingdom when it became a Top 50 hit. As his career progressed, Dandy began to make his mark as a very fine music producer. An association with trombonist Rico Rodriguez, who later played with The Specials, saw Dandy's Rudy A Message To You covered by The Specials in 1979.

Dandy found a real music home when he signed with the famous Jamaican record label, Trojan Records, in 1968. Dandy was given his own production function at the studio and he operated under the Down Town Records label during his relationship with Trojan Records. Dandy stayed in Jamaica until 1973 when he returned to the United Kingdom to continue his career as a musician and producer.

The 2-Tone ska revival in the late 1970s saw a well deserved interest in his music develop. Dandy's best known work is his smash hit Suzanne Beware Of The Devil in 1972. The entire album, currently released under the Trojan Label, is a wonderful summation of his career and his masterful skills as a musician and producer. Dandy Livingstone was a big part of early Jamaican reggae music and Jamaican ska music – there is much to appreciated from this work especially the sophisticated groove that Dandy lays down on each and every track. Very highly recommended!

Basic Animation Techniques

The Artist — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:01:00 GMT

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Basic graphic animation is produced by a technique called stop-frame cinematography. The camera records, frame by frame, a sequence or succession of drawings or paintings that differ only fractionally from one another. The illusion of progressive movement is created by projecting the series of frames through a camera at the normal rate for sound film (24 frames a second). The same method is used in puppet or object animation; the position of the figures or objects is changed very slightly prior to each exposure. In graphic animation, the drawings may vary from the simplest outlines, as in such traditional animated films as Felix the Cat, to elaborately modeled and colored paintings, such as those produced in Walt Disney's studios during the 1930s.

The first animated cartoons were produced before 1910 by pioneers such as Emile Cohl of France and Winsor McCay of the United States, whose Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) has been called the first animated feature film. In these early productions, a simple drawing of a mobile figure was photographed against an equally simple background, and a new drawing was required for each exposure. Relief from the labor of drawing hundreds of pictures for each minute of action came only when the figures could be made momentarily static. The evolution of cel (for celluloid) animation after 1913 enabled animators to use a single, more elaborate background for each shot or scene in the action. The mobile figures in the foreground were inked in black silhouette on transparent celluloid sheets and then superimposed in series on the background.

With the introduction of color filming early in the 1930s, animators began to use opaque paints in place of black ink. Greater efficiency was achieved when artists began to specialize in particular figures or other mobile elements of cartoons. Such teams of animators collectively created drawings for feature-length films, for example, Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Fantasia (1940). Most animated films are recorded by an automated rostrum camera. The many improvements made in this camera since the 1950s have contributed to the increased technical capabilities of the medium. The adjustable camera is suspended above the horizontal table on which the combination of cels, one upon the other, have been superimposed on the background and locked or pegged into position. The cels are then successively photographed to produce a precision image offering a faultless illusion of movement. Such cinematic effects as tracking, panning, and zooming may also be achieved.

A Brief History Of Animation

The Artist — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:01:00 GMT

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Film animation applies techniques of cinematography to the graphic and plastic arts in order to give the illusion of life and movement to cartoons, drawings, paintings, puppets, and three-dimensional objects. Beginning with crude and simple methods, animation has become a highly sophisticated form of filmmaking, involving the use of automation, computer, and even laser technology to achieve its effects. Some animation techniques overlap with those used to produce special effects in live-action cinematography. In watching such films as 2001--A Space Odyssey (1968) and Star Wars (1977), a person often finds it difficult to tell whether a certain result has been achieved through animation or through special effects.

Since the early, popular shorts involving such animals as Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, the international history of animation has been characterized by the almost constant introduction of ever more complex forms. Many advances were made in Europe: Lotte Reiniger employed mobile silhouettes; Oskar Fischinger and Len Lye experimented with abstract designs choreographed to music; and George Pal of Holland created techniques of puppet animation. Since World War II, animation was increasingly used in instructional films and in television and cinema commercials. Advanced forms of graphic design, both in black and white and in color, and new methods of puppet and object animation have been developed. From the 1940s until the early 1980s, Norman McLaren, one of the versatile of all animators, experimented with three-dimensional animation and with other innovations as drawing images directly on film.

Beginning in the 1960s, films showing abstract color designs in motion were programmed by means of computers that calculate intricate movements with amazing precision. Today, computer animation has achieved the ability to create moving images and backgrounds of great complexity. The basic tool, usually called a paintbox, is an electronic surface on which the artist draws figures and backgrounds and selects colors. Other devices manipulate the figures and change the backgrounds. The work is reproduced on a TV monitor and stored on a computer disk. Computerized animation is widely used in television commercials, titles, and in making music videos and provides many of the special effects in the films of directors like George Lucas. Old-style cel animation continues to be the sole technique by which high quality animators, such as Disney Productions, create their characters. Backgrounds, and the movement of objects within a scene, however, are often computer-generated.

Television, with its insatiable need for new material, introduced a type of semi-animation in its cartoon programs for children. Compared with traditional animation, on television the movement of characters is primitive in its rendition, colors are limited, and detail is stripped down to bare essentials. Costs of TV animation are a minute fraction of the cost for quality movie animation. For the cartoon-and-live-character film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), the Walt Disney Company spent $250,000 per minute to make one hour of animation.

Visit The Galleries At EricHatheway.com

The WebMaster — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:01:00 GMT

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The WebMaster

Check out the awesome swag
at the EricHatheway.com Gallery.
Hundreds of pictures for you
to gaze your eyes upon. Yeah...

Collected on our various trips
through the cyberspace every
now and then. And, recently added,
the art & photography of our resident
artist, Eric Hatheway. Peace peoples.

URL to Main Gallery Page
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Don't Be A Don't Bee! Be A Do Bee!

Lumbergh — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:01:00 GMT

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Remember, play well with others and be cooperative.
And, don't be a don't bee...be a do bee!

A vintage kindergarten classic in a retro distressed finish.
Now Available At The EricHatheway.com Online Store

We have the best vintage t-shirts available! Finest quality!