I was surfing the internet not long ago when I thought to myself:

Why is it that there is no such thing as a music mapping software, platform, or website that could list all the artists/songs one likes together into a network diagram of how they relate to each other… Like a family tree of your music library?

Further, why couldn’t this Music Tree be a way to discover more music; like Pandora?

Yeah! Good question, no?

So I went searching like I usually do, and I ended up searching for a very long time (as I usually do). I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into at the time, but the trip took me to all sorts of places. From Musical DNA Software where they are trying to visually represent a literal DNA structure of music compositions based on scalar relativity (excellent article can be found here), to a very odd and almost disturbing film by TokyoPlastic . I’ll spare you all the things I discovered and give you the three best shots I found.

1. MusicBox is a development visualization and mapping software that analyzes an entire music library using a principal components analysis for specific traits and then displays each song in a format specifically customizable by you. The project is being made as a Masters thesis by a student of MIT named Anita Lillie.

HD version recommended

Fast Tube by Casper

2. Music-Map.com is an independent service of Flork (a social networking site) that displays a virtual network of similar artists. Input a specific artist you like, and it will generate a network display (based on relative sound) of any other artists that may be similar in taste. The closer they are, you may figure, the closer in sound.

3. MusicMap by Dimvision, is another virtual network, but based on artist or album. Further, it boasts a more robust visualization than its Flork counterpart, as well as allowing the user to explore a network diagram of albums enabling you to discover similar artists in a strickingly familiar way (I direct you to the Visual Thesaurus).

This story starts on Monday, November 24th.

My roommate and I go to the grocery to get food for the upcoming Thanksgiving Feast I decided in a deranged state to host. I had invited the group of friends I knew weren’t doing anything (because ultimately, *I* wasn’t doing anything), so the head count hit 5.

We moved quickly through the store as it was almost closing time, and when it came time to purchase the turkey, I found there was nothing available in the size I was hoping for. I was in search of a 10-12 pound bird; butterball. None were to be had, alas. The store was lacking any selection between 8-17 lbs. and I was forced to purchase the smallest 17 pound turkey I could find (if you must go for 17, you might as well get the smallest 17 there is, no?).

Then I found out that one friend was not going to join us, and had plans.

• Head Count: 4

Then I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in years, and invited her, to which she accepted with glee because she wanted to help cook (a blessing, truly).

• Head Count: 5

Then said friend canceled in hopes to finish a college calculus class.

• Head Count: 4

Roommate then invites coworker to take her place.

• Head Count: 5

Inform friends that mutual-cook-friend is bailing due to math. Friends guilt mutual-cook-friend into returning to the party.

• Head Count: 6

Wednesday, I get a phone call from one of my friends asking if it were okay to invite their coworker (and by extension the girlfriend of coworker).

• Head Count: 8

Frantic, I call home and get my mother on the phone:

Raul: “My party of 4 has doubled!”
Mom: “You’ll be fine, Raul.”
Raul: “I don’t think I have enough…”
Mom: “Good god, Raul. You have 17 pounds of turkey; that’s 2 pounds per person. You have enough.”

And around 10 I get the idea into my head that I probably should be cooking the deserts beforehand. I run to the store to get more essentials (flour, baking soda, etc…) and I start my confectionery. I make 2 loafs of banana bread, a dozen deviled eggs, then set up for raspberry/rhubarb crisp and apple cobbler before I crash at 1am.

I wake up at 10 and start the process all over. I made the cobbler, the crisp, started the crock-pot garlic potatoes (they take 6 hours), broiled some bread stale for my mad stuffing, stuffed the turkey with pineapples; apples; and oranges, used a smattering of basil, 3 cups of chicken stock and started the roasting.

I would now like to segue into a little something I call “Consumer Whore Minute” and bring your attention to this:

This allowed me to cook my 17 pound turkey in 4 hours, and giving me no reason whatsoever to carve the sucker. That’s right, the turkey was falling off the bone.

I used the soup it created as gravy, and added some of that to the stuffing (as well as sausage I cooked up for it).

Mutual-cook-friend brought sweet potato fries and homemade wine.

We jammed music (both listened and played… The piano is so much fun, I’m telling you.) and got buzzed together. Cigars were exchanged. The night ended around 3am, and we somehow lost three bottles of wine and two of champagne.

I woke up this morning to my friend crashed on my floor and a disaster in my kitchen.

• Head Count: 3

… The cleaning-up is still taking place.

Wow, it has certainly been a while.

What’s new? Well, work likes to toy with my mind. If there is one thing I’ve learned from my time in the military it is this: Don’t count on anything.

Schedules change, and nothing ever turns out the way it should.

Meanwhile, I’ve been hunting down the software for my Dell DJ so that I could update its library. I’ve been limited to my music collection circa 2004 (and have you all know: that is when my collection consisted of counting crows and coldplay). So you can imagine that updates are needed.

In other random news, I tried on all my uniforms today to see if they all still fit and to check what needs to be “updated” since I gained an extra rank (almost a year ago). It was then that I remembered why I hate the Navy’s Dress Blue uniform oh so much (I tried to find a photo to no avail. Imagine the crackerjack mascot). 14 buttons (one of which you button twice)!