Gophers and Masquerades

When I'm not working, I'm still thinking. When I'm not thinking, I'm asleep.

Holidays have always been a challenge to me. Turning my head off isn't easy. As a case in point look at a recent 'long weekend'... I went to an anime convention (anime is Japanese animation, pronounced 'annie-may', and is arguably the best animation on the planet, as well as the worst, and definitely the broadest range of topics, styles and rating.) called MinamiCon in Southampton (in the UK). I've been going to this annual convention for 14 years now, which makes me somewhat of a regular.

Having done stage lighting, PA sound, and been a roadie in the past, then I've slotted into the role of 'gopher' at conventions. 'Gophers' (aka 'gofers') are those 'almost invisible' volunteers who check badges, move chairs, enforce security, guard things, and do a zillion other essential tasks that make a convention possible. In recent years, I've been asked to look after the wrangling of the cosplayers who enter the Masquerade: the high point of the convention weekend.

Cosplayers? Derived from the Japanese 'cosplay' = 'costume player', this term refers to people who dress up as characters from anime - often a character from their favourite series.

Masquerade? This is a combination of spectacle, musical entertainment, sketch show and competition all rolled up into one. Cosplayers dress, act, sing or mime to music and compete against each other for best costume and a number of other variable prize categories that are definitely not made up on the spot by the judges.

At the Masquerade, I'm behind the scenes, making sure that the cosplayers are in the right order, which sounds deceptively easy. You can see both the cosplayers and the Masquerade from this year's MinamiCon by visiting Flickr and searching for the tag 'minamicon15'.

Apart from the Masquerade, there was Origami, Taiko drumming, panel sessions, and much, much more. A full weekend! Special mention should also go to the Novotel Hotel, Southampton, who were wonderful hosts - even putting on Japanese food!

One notable event at this year's MinamiCon was the Gopher Party at the end, where civilisation and decorum were present in much greater quantities than is usual. The gophers were also unable to consume all of the pizza, something which is unheard of!

Buying MP3 music tracks

I buy lots of music online. My normal practice has long been to buy CDs so that I get a physical object with linear PCM audio, and I then convert that to MP3 (OK: pedantically AAC) format to play on my iPods as I move around. I have bought a lot of CDs: high three figures, and maybe four.

But recently things have begun to change. I've discovered that some music is not available on CD, and that the only way to purchase it is to download it. And this is only the start. So here's the story of a not untypical purchase and where it leads.

I love anime. In the days before browsers, I used to 'surf' ftp sites using command line ftp, and joined the small and select band of insiders who knew about Japanese animation. In the early 1990s this was seriously obscure undergound stuff, and the rise of anime to the mainstream has been fascinating, from both an artistic and a technological viewpoint. So I've been a visitor to anime music video (AMV) sites like animemusicvideos.org for many years, and I'm continually astonished by the amazing talent that is displayed there - arguably some of the best music video editing on the planet.

Recently, I was moved to tears by a compelling piece of work called 'Auriga' by Nostromo_vx (aka Xavier Guinchard). Currently in the top 10 of AMVs on amv.org (see above), this uses a superbly-chosen range of anime clips and a brilliant dance music track. In fact, the trance track was so good that I decided to buy it - and anyone who says that no-one ever buys music because they heard it online has never met me. The detailed information for the video said that the provenance was:

• DJ Spoke: Watch Them Fall Down (Montano Dub)
• DJ Spoke: Watch Them Fall Down (Original Mix)

So I set about finding these tracks: as CDs or downloads...

eMusic.com didn't come up with anything useful. The more specialist Dancetracksdigital.com isn't normally very strong on Trance, and this was no exception. But Beatport.com came up with the download goods, as did Amazon.com, and so did that increasingly diverse source iTunes! My frequent UK supplier, Amazon.co.uk, had some tracks on CDs, but not the right ones, and pseudo-helpfully asked if I meant 'DJ Spore'?

Prices and format options varied enormously. Amazon.com offered MP3 downloads for $0.88 (but not to a UK IP address, and there's another story), iTunes offered AAC downloads for £0.79, and Beatport.com offered MP3, MP4 and WAV, with prices going from £1.48 up to £2.63 for that coveted linear format. In the end I paid lots of money for two 320 kbps high rate MP3 tracks because more than three times the cost of a normal iTunes download seemed like too high a price to pay, whilst 1.48 per track seemed to be the middle ground. So a viewing of a video led directly to the sale of two tracks, and I quite like DJ Spoke's style, so he's now on my list of 'artists to watch'.

The best bit about all of this is the ending. As it happens, the best remix of this track is the one from the AMV. Xavier's version has the end of the Montana dub as the beginning, uses the bass from the middle eight, and chops between the two versions, to create the best version by far. A version which, as far as I know, isn't available. Now if I was DJ Spoke, or his label, I'd be looking to add this version to the other remixes...