2016

Sat, Dec 31, 2016 3-minute read

Years are starting to pass by at high speeds. Not light speed, not hyperloop speed, but maybe high-speed-trains speed. My first year in Oakland is waiving goodbye, and while crazy shit has happened in the world this year, I certainly can’t complain of who and what is around me. I feel extremely privileged and thankful for having had the opportunity to be on this fast-paced ride that only stops once. Let’s keep moving.

List of things that gave meaning to this little (highly probably simulated) life:

  • Cover of Time Travelers by Riverside
  • Performance with Los Pandejos at the Pandora Music Analyst Fest
  • I join Arkaen, a new metal band from Concord that will save the world
  • My music structure analysis algorithms make it to the new Harmonix Music VR game by the developers of Rock Band
  • First time skiing in Tahoe like a real white male in his 30s who works in tech
  • Dagstuhl Seminar in Germany
  • Nathalie studies in Oxford and I visit her and it is more magical than Hogwarts
  • Trip to Barcelona to do some tourism
  • La Bossa d’Urina Aznar Spring World Tour 2016
  • Organized the BISH Bash at Pandora (Los Pandejos also play there)
  • Mom visits the Bay Area!
  • I start, finish, and get obsessed with Infinite Jest
  • Freak Kitchen features the cover I made a few years ago in their page
  • Pliny The Elder becomes my favorite beer
  • Jordan Rudess invites me to his backstage room to talk and play with some of his newest toys
  • We record our first demo with Arkaen
  • James Hetfield suddenly shows up in a Corrosion of Conformity show and reminds me how awesome the Bay Area is
  • Cover of England by The National (for Natis)
  • One of my dreams come true: cover of The Beginning and The End by Anathema WITH JORDAN RUDESS
  • Cover of Anna Molly by Incubus with some of the titans of Sargon
  • Cover of The Last Goodbye (The Hobbit) with the titans Andy Feehan et al.
  • ICML in NYC: organized the Music Discovery Workshop
  • Cover of Mother by Pink Floyd with the titan Alek Darson
  • I buy a second-hand Mesa/Boogie Mark-III
  • Nat comes back from Oxford and is ready to take over Berkeley
  • Another Winter in Lima
  • First time surfing (in Miraflores!)
  • ISMIR in NYC: presented this paper and organized the JAM session.
  • Cover of the Dragon Ball intro with The Only Deer Alive
  • First Arkaen show
  • Sister visits me in Oakland
  • I give a long talk at the Stanford Biostat Seminar about deep learning and music
  • Los Pandejos Show @ Pandora Performs (The Fillmore)
  • Cover of The Pretender by Foo Fighters with the titans Alek Darson et al.
  • Post-Trump election anti-depression concert by Los Pandejos
  • Thanksgiving in Miami with Natis’ family, sister, mom, and Eliseu (first intra family encounters are a success!)
  • I give a talk at the Seminar of Music Knowledge Extraction using Machine Learning at UPF, Barcelona
  • NIPS in Barcelona
  • Another dream comes true this year: Venga Monjas Videoclip for La Bossa d’Urina (EPIC)
  • La Bossa d’Urina La Vida Secreta d’en Follet Tortuga Winter World Tour 2016 (most extensive World Tour we’ve made so far)
  • Natis is among the top two students in her Torts class, because she is the titanest (congrats!)
  • Christmas and New Years Eve in Barcelona

Happy 2017 titanics!