pmcray that the Tenori-on (Japanese for 'irksome device') as seen in a shop window looks rather small. And, indeed, from pictures and videos on YouTube it looks to me as though it should be 150% bigger on each side. If you are going to evert things, you should at least do it properly. Is that a verb? It is now. Anyway, by the power of Google I discovered that the creator had done a game for the Nintendo DS prior to the device - Electroplankton. This was my Christmas present from
t__m__i, along with the DS-Lite. My favourite game is the Hanenbow - you can see a few videos on YouTube e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXBsQh_OOMs and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3OgaSCiC1o
Essentially, you can control the angle of a number of leaves, and the tune depends on where the plankton hit the leaves and at what angle.
Endless hours of fun for the family. Or me, anyway.
I guess this is what Brian Eno would call 'generative music', which lead me to thinking that the promised reissue of 'A year with swollen appendices' hasn't appeared, so I emailed the publisher and on not hearing anything ordered a copy of the old edition from Abebooks. You can never tell with Eno, some interviews with him are very interesting - the one about Stafford Beer was, for example - others rather dull.
The book stack has a habit of growing since books are easier to order than to read. I am still working my way through 'Operational Research in War and Peace', worth it for the photos alone. I have as yet resisted writing the obvious Amazon review. The latest Ian Rankin has been temporarily abandoned in favour of the works of Mat Coward. He is another candidate, along with Kim Newman, for compulsory conscription to provide decent scripts / storylines for British TV series.
