Mobius Street

Member Of The Family (instrumental)

2012-02-01T15:02:00.001-06:00

Here's an interesting item from 1979 when Spooner was recoding their debut EP at Hedden West studio in Schaumburg. An instrumental mix of one of the songs from that EP. I don't recall if the vocals were not yet recorded, or what. It's entirely possible that Doug hadn't quite finished 100% writing the lyrics, yet. Sing along if you know the words. Be the hit of your next karaoke party.

Oh, if you click where it says "Share", you should be able to download the mp3 to your very own computer. As always, play it loud, and if it makes you wanna dance, don't fight it!

Unknown Spooner Songs From 1982

2011-06-22T10:52:00.001-05:00

Both of these are from the September 4, 1982 "Friday Night Live from Teddy's" broadcast on 93QFM. Educated guesses for the song titles are encouraged in the Comments!

Check Spooner on Facebook to hear some rare vinyl and great unreleased tunes remastered by Butch.

UPDATE: We're gonna go with "She's The One" and "She's A Lot Like You", despite any similarity or reference to Springsteen or Ocasek songs. Thanks for playing.

Spooner - Unknown Song from 1983

2011-06-02T12:40:00.004-05:00

This is the second last tune of the live broadcast from Teddy's in 1983, and I have no idea what's the title of the song. It seems more like a cover than a Doug Erickson original, but what few lyrics I've been able to decipher have not Googled up up any promising candidates...

UPDATE: It's probably called "Hey Boy", written by Doug (per Dave Benton).

2011-03-11T20:51:00.003-06:00

Spooner Live In The Studio On The Radio 1980

96 Tears, A Shot of Rhythm & Blues, The Night Is Young, Let Her Dance.

Play it on your computer or download it and burn it to CD-R, but be sure to play it as loud as you possibly can, and get up and dance if you get half a chance.

The final segment of an hour-plus broadcast on WIBA from Full Compass Studio in April 1980.

2011-03-09T10:35:00.001-06:00

Apropos of Nothing

"There is no tragedy in a life well lived; but there is loss."

- Robert Fripp

2010-10-25T22:22:00.002-05:00

Mark's New Song

"Our Church"

2010-10-01T20:33:00.004-05:00

Some Audio

Generated entirely with Cool Edit 96 and Audacity, the shortest piece intended for a recording project that is probably just about finished, "Locust Street".

A "Minor Effort" with some new hardware; two semi-inept guitar tracks tweaked and massaged into song format, I fantasize...

And, finally, from the Archives, Spooner "Photographs"...

2010-08-14T08:48:00.003-05:00

Althouse Ate An Egg Salad Sandwich

Two, actually. The Video Blog provides the backstory and visual evidence of the second one.

I was amused enough by watching that again, that I recorded the audio track and put some of my editing "skillz" to work.

Perhaps not my most successful slab of musique concrete to date, but an enjoyable enough waste of time...

2010-03-15T21:50:00.001-05:00

Pi Day Sermon

Pastor Mohn gets a bit choked up at the end!

2010-03-03T14:55:00.002-06:00

Music Video Of The Moment

By OK Go, the band that made that "Choreography On Treadmills" video a couple years ago...

Very cool entertainment. I wonder how much money they owe their record company now?

2009-08-14T14:58:00.002-05:00

Burning Airlines Give You So Much More

According to my incomplete documentation, this cover version of the first song on Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) LP is more or less thirty years old. Remixed last winter, I tweaked the EQ and decided it needed a little more stereo flanging this afternoon. Still not quite definitive, but it's getting there. Another thirty years oughta do it. If there's anything left to sit on, as Frank used to say.

Some Canary Music

2009-08-14T13:42:00.004-05:00

Some Canary Music (Re-Loaded)

Kicking off the End of Summer Clearance with a new feature, for as long as this free account at divShare lasts...

Well, our foster canary went back to his owner yesterday, so I'm happy I recorded a half hour of his chirping last spring (and edited it down to five minutes) for those times when only Canary Music will do. Enjoy!

BTW, he's apparently just called "Birdie" by his owners, but we decided he needed more name than that... Considering his inventive singing style, we decided he should have some appropriately musical sobriquet, and settled on Giacomo Puccini, the Italian opera composer. "Pucci" (or poochie) for short.

2009-06-30T09:53:00.002-05:00

LOL Senator Craig

Yeah, not so topical anymore, but so what. Some fool politician earns the right to ridicule nearly every week, indulging personal vices on the public payroll, but who's got the energy and attention span to keep up with it all? Not me.

2009-05-14T15:32:00.002-05:00

J. Edgar Hoover

"Meh."

The caption just cracked me up. Maybe it was the context...

2009-03-09T17:03:00.008-05:00

Progress

2009-01-17T08:44:00.002-06:00

Saturday

If I get half this accomplished, it'll have been a busy day.

Try to fix the Mystake's Dash Lights again.
New Tyres for the Secretary of Transportation.
Library Items to Pick Up.
Get Peter to MYSO Rehearsal. Attend Trip Meeting.
Reorganize Tool Carry-All to Address Complaints about it being Too Heavy.
Evict the Asian Ladybugs from the Kitchen Lights.
Sell the Velvet Underground LP on eBay. Also some spare CD's.
Symphony Concert. Conflicts with Wigs Reunion Show, sad to say.

2008-11-07T14:49:00.004-06:00

Mellotron Mania

Some pretty amazing Mellotron music for free download can be found here. A fellow named Mike Dickson owns a Mellotron M400, a mixer, some computer with recording software, a measure of musical ability, and apparently a certain amount of time on his hands. So, he recorded All-Mellotron versions of Holst's "Mars, The Bringer of War" (inspired by King Crimson's assaults on the tune nearly 40 years ago), swell interpretations of Adagios by Albinoni and Barber, Bach's famous "Air on The G String", ~~Taco Bell's~~ Pachelbel's Greatest Hit "Canon in D major*", and so on... Very nicely done, and worth every penny!

For more authentic orchestral sounds, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra has free samples of their recordings (generally complete movements from larger works) available for the asking here. Click on the "MSO To Go" picture, surrender an e-mail address, and broaden your horizons. Also recommended.

*For playing along at home, try these variations on a Ground ~~Beef~~ Bass: D-A-Bm-F#m-G-D-G-A

2008-09-15T15:40:00.003-05:00

A Ha Ha Ha Ha Hah

This appeared in the Spam Folder today:

Security and confidentiality are at the heart of the Associated Bank. Your details (and your money) is protected by a number of technologies, including Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption.
We would like to notify you that Associated Bank carries out customer details confirmation procedure that is compulsory for all our customers. This procedure is attributed to a routine banking software update.

Gotta love the grammar of those phishing-for-passwords e-mails. Kids, moms, and grandmas, never click the links in these! Even in the unlikely event that they manage to stop mixing plural and singular referents in such an amusing manner. Your details is protected! Note that while the link is supposedly to http://bolb9.associatedbank.com/, the link shown when you hover over it is actually ww1.associatedbank.com.4ssl.ws/, not the same thing!!!

2008-07-17T12:57:00.003-05:00

Viv & Roy

Former Bonzo Dog Band front man and head loon, the late Vivian Stanshall, with Roy Wood, founder of the Move, ELO and Wizzard, apparently during the recording of some version of Tommy in 1973. What a pair.

2008-06-10T13:46:00.005-05:00

Nik "Pascal" Raicevic - Head LP (Buddah BDS-5062 - 1970)

At the bottom it says, "Inside you will find something colorful to do with your hands while you're listening to this album." A coloring book of some kind was apparently included with the LP.

2008-05-23T09:18:00.002-05:00

A New Wigu Webcomic Storyline Has Begun!

Way to go, Jeffrey Rowland. Updated wigu.com link is to the left.

2008-05-15T14:19:00.001-05:00

So, What's Your Point?

2008-05-05T16:23:00.000-05:00

Cereal Mascot Reunion

2008-05-02T16:21:00.006-05:00

Jan & Dean - Singles, Cars & Girls

Back in the seventies, United Artists released a series of double-LP anthology albums called Legendary Masters, or something like that, attempting to flog some sales out of artists that really weren't considered very hip anymore, like Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson, and Jan & Dean.

The gatefold of the Jan & Dean album included an amusing chart delineating the equipment their hit singles were recorded on, chart success, et cetera, and most amusingly, what cars the boys were driving and who their girlfriends were at the time. (Click on the picture to see a legible version.)

This is the album that contains this fine sociological data, but I don't know if the CD version includes all the informative notes from the vinyl release.

2008-02-28T15:07:00.003-06:00

An Achewood Cartoon: Lyle Crushes Teodor's Budding Appreciation of the Grateful Dead

The views of the cartoonist are not necessarily those of the blogger. I actually like a rather large number of Dead songs. I used to have a pretty meager opinion of all those live Dead tapes since WMSE used to broadcast about 3 hours of hissy low-fidelity audience recordings every Friday evening... However, the Dick's Picks series and live things I've heard from archive.org and even more esoteric locations have led me to concede that they could, indeed, make interesting and accessible music in a live setting... There have been some very nice legit archive mainstream releases in the last couple decades, too. The compact disc format, and digital storage, transmission and manipulation of music in general, has served the Dead's Live legacy well, in my opinion. It's nice to not have to turn the record over every 17 to 22 minutes, for one thing. Also, the average tape deck generally provided pretty average sound reproduction, whereas the average CD player and computer sound card deliver performance to drool for by 1970's standards. Relatively inexpensively, too. Don't you think? Or don't you?

2008-01-30T10:51:00.000-06:00

Self-Improvement

Heh. Or something. The book was co-written by my old high school friend, Tom Potter. I'm still only about halfway through it, because I keep getting sidetracked with other books and such. The India Pale Ale is one of the better IPA's I've had: adequate bite but not aggressively bitter. Lora found some Brooklyn Brewery products at a supermarket of the upscale variety while visiting Rochester Hills for New Year's. We also sampled the Brown Ale, which was, again, one of the better examples of the variety I've tasted. Reasonable hoppiness, and not as caramel-sweet as many brown ales. They also had two other varieties, but the flagship Brooklyn Lager was beyond its "Best If Served By Date", and in fact, the bottles were dusty. The problems of distributing specialty beers over an extended geographic area is discussed in depth in the book. (It's called Beer School, by the way, since the flash kinda washes out the title.) In hindsight, I wish I'd at least wiped the dust off the bottles. Oh, well. I'm enjoying the book, but have a bit less interest in entrepreneurship than, perhaps, the target audience here. If it gave a more well rounded "what was going on with the protagonists outside of work" picture, I suppose it would be a different book altogether. And, the Steve & Tom Autobiography probably would have been a tougher sell to the publisher.

Okay, that's the rambling blog post for the month, just under the wire.

2007-11-07T12:02:00.001-06:00

Where Am I?

2007-09-13T15:41:00.001-05:00

Some Random Album Covers

2007-09-12T09:51:00.000-05:00

Status Report

Ha. Well, just a little levity from R. Crumb to interrupt the ennui...

Okay, naptime!

2007-07-13T14:05:00.000-05:00

It's Under Control

From the Wigu cartoon here. Or read The Case of Atlantis! from the beginning...

What can I say? I relate to Quincy Tinkle on almost the same level as Bob Parr aka Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles:

2007-05-24T12:38:00.000-05:00

Paddington Rose

(2001-2007)

2007-05-04T10:59:00.000-05:00

Some "Goats" Dialogue From The Archive

Diablo (holding drink): That red dude! He's the one who gave us those spooky demon matches back in New Jersey.

Fish (Out of beer glass, sitting, wide-eyed): The matches that burn space and time. The matches that Toothgnip wants. Do you still have those?

Diablo (holding drink): Yeah. They're in a safe but uncomfortable place. One of these days I'm going to have to get myself some pockets.

(Diablo is a chicken, you see. Fish, is of course a fish. I think he's a Pisces. Probably working for scale...)

2007-03-26T13:07:00.000-05:00

Time Magazine Makes An Observation

"Achewood", "Penny Arcade" and "PvP" are among the internet-only comics mentioned in an article at the Time magazine website last week...

In one story arc a wealthy pleasure-loving cat named Ray dies and goes to hell, where he's forced to drive a 1982 Subaru Brat and gets drunk with legendary bluesman Robert Johnson at a Best Western. This kind of thing never happens to Garfield.

Read the full article here, or just click some of the webcomics links on the left.

Oh, and another recent add to my regular web browsing: "xkcd", which occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

2007-03-08T10:15:00.000-06:00

Plunderphonics

John Oswald is a Canadian avant-garde composer and conceptualist who was involved in audio splice 'n dice years before the ubiquity of computer sound cards made mash-ups the the domain of so many DJ's, music lovers and tech geeks.

"Plexure" is a composition Oswald created in 1992, constructed entirely from brief fragments cloned from thousands of mostly pop recordings from 1982-1992, the first decade of the compact disc era. It's built on a structure that begins with the slowest songs from that time (mostly ballads and blues), and proceeds gradually to the fastest (bluegrass and speed metal).

Since Plexure's release, Oswald has continued to play with, tweak, and refine the piece, resulting, more than ten years later in "prePlex". The original bar-of-each-song version of "prePlex" was about 33 minutes long. But, Oswald thought there were parts that worked, and parts that didn't; he wished to hear a version that in a way, swung all the way through.

Lengthy rounds of editing, throwing out material, listening, and making further improvements ensued. He couldn't listen to the thing right through without stopping the playback to change something. Finally, he began playing back "prePlex" all the way through without stopping, for himself, and for others. After a few minor adjustments, he decided it was working like accelerating clockwork, and ready to be heard by the world. Which is not to say that there won't be more revisions before the track ends up on vinyl and DVD.

In its current "final" form, "prePlex" is fourteen minutes and twelve seconds, not necessarily just the intros, but often recognizeable samples of a whole lotta different songs, blended, mixed, morphed and organized into a composition of steadily increasing tempo. The original 1993 CD version included artists such as Aretha Vanilli, Bing Stingspreen, Bo No Ma, Sam & Deee-Lite, Sam & Dead, Engelbert Costello, Ice Garfunkle, Bolton Chili Overdire, Moody Crue, XTZ Top, John Lennoncamp, Bee Jesus, B.T.O'Conner, Sinead O'Connick Jr., Twisted Steely, Axl Galas, 9 Inch Monkees, Bo Dire, Percy Faithful, Joni Cocker, Superloaf, Jon Bon Elton, Little Keith Richard, Twisted Kross, Madonna & Englishmen, Fats Bono, Spinal Top, Dire No More, Doobie Osmond, Debbie Idol, Frank Sinappa, Allman Dominoes, They Might Be Grateful, Anthrax Squeeze Factory, Halen Oates, U-52s, Depeche Mould, AC/Dylan, Marianne Faith No Morrisey, Blondie Sabbath, Ozzie Osmond, Cheap Pixie Peppers, Beastie Shop Beach, Lynrd Lovett, Cream Styx, Jerry Harry, Jello Bellafonte, Milli Fudge, Ozzy Loaf, The Captain & Terence, Joni Shithead, Spiro Giants, Stevie Ray Vangelis, Jethro Byrne, Mariah Cocker, Sound Garth, Yo Yo McCartney, T.L.C.& C. Meat Factor, Whitney REMTV Hammercamp, Bonnie Ratt, Alannarama, 10,000 Nine Inch Megasmiths, Bobby Bon Jackson, Julian Lennox, Paula McCarey, and Kool Mo Chuck. Yeah, I hear a lot of that!

Click to read more about "prePlex" and other Plunderphonics projects...

And here's the "Save As..." option.

http://www.plunderphonics.com/

http://www.pfony.com/

2007-02-08T17:24:00.000-06:00

Roy Wood - "Dear Elaine"

Known in the UK as leader of the Move and Wizzard (and founder of ELO), Wood is largely unknown in the USA. The song is from Roy's 1973 Boulders solo LP on which he plays all the instruments and supplies all the vocals. I don't know if there's actual lute on the recording, and I doubt if it was recorded in his back garden, but it's a gently surreal promo film for a pleasant tune.

Two blog posts in one day, yow. Little to no content, of course, but that's our pledge to you, the blog consumer!

2007-02-08T13:45:00.000-06:00

Winter Scene

This was actually early December, before the Winter Solstice, but you know what I mean.

Currently there is a little less snow and it's much colder, but the photo turned out okay, so here it is.

2007-01-09T08:26:00.000-06:00

Spamalot

My work e-mail address has finally been found by spammers. The amount that makes it all the way to my computer is still fairly low, so I take a look at it sometimes... Seems like most of it is advertisements in the form of a jpg with enough accompanying text to make it seem legitimate. The text is generally one of two forms: what reads like excerpts from one or several unrelated books or what reads like sentences randomly generated from noun adjective verb clumps. Today's example is in the latter category.

The dope was coming in heavier and heavier waves, and now he just wished she would shut up and go away. When a recliner defined by the insurance agent is proverbial, the judge inside a pine cone can be kind to a phony avocado pit. The power drill buries a salad dressing from another movie theater, and a nation from the cough syrup plans an escape from the short order cook related to a plaintiff a hesitantly shabby industrial complex.

The former category can have some intriguing plot twists, almost enough to make you wish there was more of it. Maybe they should try to sell fiction instead of replica watches, herbal weight loss pills, and hot stock tips.

He was finally able to convince her that returning to work would put him forward, not back. Annie's marriage had been dissolved in a much more legal fashion than Paul had anticipated. Annie lay silent and face-down in blood and spilled champagne and fragments of green glass. It dripped steadily from one side of the board which lay across the arms of the wheelchair.

Well, you get the drift. I'll leave you with a final thought:

Sometimes a green submarine hides, but a girl scout always sanitizes the paper napkin! Indeed, another fried judge figures out an avocado pit defined by a short order cook. A pig pen starts reminiscing about lost glory, and an obsequious crane takes a coffee break; however, the chestnut living with the tomato makes love to an ostensibly stoic customer. Furthermore, the purple bowling ball self-flagellates, and a turkey feverishly is a big fan of a jersey cow inside a chestnut.

2006-12-19T11:29:00.000-06:00

The Christmas Photo 2006

2006-11-27T16:48:00.000-06:00

Eight Point Buck

Yes, I bagged my first white-tail deer a couple Tuesdays ago. An impressive specimen, but I did not have a camera with me. Instead, here's the weapon that killed it, and for the record, he attacked me.

That's $4708.30 of damage there, according to the estimate the body shop gave the insurance company. The driver's door took the most direct hit, and the window sprayed the front seat pretty thoroughly. I received minor cuts on my fingers, removing glass from my lap and climbing out the passenger side, then back in and out a few times. No other personal damage is evident, though I'm always on the lookout for excuses relating to mental and behavioral shortcomings... Well, it's supposed to be all repaired and ready for pickup tomorrow. We shall see. It'll be nice to have it back.

2006-10-17T09:08:00.000-05:00

Quote of the Day

"Like all good ideas, elephant polo came about as a result of a few too many drinks in a bar one evening."

(Several Deep Thoughts from Jack Handey were also in the running, but the irrefutable assurance of universality expressed in this quotation make it the clear champion. Just the same, remember that if you lose your job, your marriage and your mind all in one week, try to lose your mind first, because then the other stuff won't matter that much.)

2006-09-20T17:34:00.000-05:00

Another Reason To Read Achewood

Chris Onstad's Golf Memoirs.

...By the fifth or sixth hole we were doing all the usual stuff they edit out of PGA coverage: peeing while walking sideways down the fairway, aiming at houses, yelling at cats, and flicking coins at each other in mid-swing. Also: teeing off empty bottles of Sierra Nevada, making plans to go pistol shopping together, and promising to open a calzone restaurant together ("...and why the hell not!"). I can't remember if we played all nine holes, or if we just wandered back to his place at a convenient break in the fence...

2006-09-19T08:29:00.000-05:00

It's Also A Mobile mp3 Player!

My new car, in its natural habitat, one of the last cars in the parking lot at work:

As for the headline, the stereo does include a line input for external sources such as iPods, which is cool, but the CD player will also play mp3 CD-R's, which is an acceptable alternative to a CD changer in terms of having several hours of music randomly accessible. Last week I figured out that this will also give me the opportunity to listen to a mess of podcasts on my commute that I've accumulated but never found the time to absorb. Actually listening to someone (or several people) talk doesn't quite make it when I'm trying to get some work done. I don't ususally walk around the house with headphones on, either, so playing a Talk CD-RW instead of listening to Talk Radio in the car is working pretty well this week.

I'm about half way through the dozen or so Instapundit / Instawife "Glenn & Helen Show" podcasts I cleared off the hard drive onto a CD-RW. (Along with the Barry Lyndon soundtrack, an Island records sampler called Bumpers, Dave Cousins' Two Weeks Last Summer, Cat Stevens' Mona Bone Jakon, the Doors' Other Voices and a preview single from the next Who album I threw on for the occasional necessary change of pace.)

The thing plays wma's in addition to mp3's, but I suspect it won't handle m4a's, so I'll have to manage listening to Lileks' The Diner podcasts some other way. Once I get through a backlog of TMBG, Coverville, Ricky Gervais, and Althouse. There's people out there making Dylan's Theme Time Radio available to folks lacking satellite radios, too. And there's almost a half a Gigabyte of DGM Hot Tickles and Firesign Theatre Archival Podcasts awaiting further attention, too. If gas prices were lower, I might start looking for a longer commute!

Finally, just to complete the panorama, here's the stacks of pallets casting the late afternoon shadows in the previous picture:

Panoramic photos created using "Autostich" software.

2006-09-15T10:19:00.000-05:00

Pre-Flight Announcemnent

...Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.

Please switch off all mobile phones, since they can interfere with the aircraft's navigation systems. At least, that's what you've always been told. The real reason to switch them off is because they interfere with mobile networks on the ground, but somehow that doesn't sound quite so good. On most flights a few mobile phones are left on by mistake, so if they were really dangerous we would not allow them on board at all, if you think about it. We will have to come clean about this next year, when we introduce in-flight calling across the Veritas fleet. At that point the prospect of taking a cut of the sky-high calling charges will miraculously cause our safety concerns about mobile phones to evaporate...

2006-09-08T13:27:00.000-05:00

My New Car

2006-08-04T14:17:00.000-05:00

Recent Photo

2006-07-13T09:04:00.000-05:00

Marheine Photos

My Grandfather and Dad, circa 1918...

Extracted from an oval Family Portrait (under a strange semi-domed egg-shaped piece of glass) that I didn't get real good digital captures from. A little sloppy editing and retouching by myself. Improved version is a project for another day. Hopefully I can spend less time eliminating reflections and spend more trying to build a flat version of the picture and fixing scratches, tears and spots. The water damage will be a challenge, though. Thanks to Edwin and Zona Schufletowski for bringing it to Brantwood last weekend!

2006-06-13T12:06:00.000-05:00

Reginald Kenneth Dwight

Empty Sky is Elton John's first album. The self-titled LP with the hit "Your Song" was first to be released in the USA, but was, in fact his second album. Just thought you might want to know.

(A totally different cover design was used when MCA eventually released it in the USA, after he'd become a big star and huge commercial success...)

The title of this post, by the way, is the dude's birth name. He legally adopted the moniker Elton Hercules John sometime in the late 70's, I believe. "Elton" after saxophone player Elton Dean and "John" after singer Long John Baldry. "Hercules" comes from the song of the same name ("...A cat named Hercules...") on the Honky Chateau album.

2006-05-31T22:14:00.000-05:00

Memorial Day 2006

2006-05-01T17:00:00.000-05:00

Tom Verlaine

Shortly after learning that TV put out an album I never heard of called The Wonder back in 1990, I learn that he also put out two albums (one totally instrumental, one not) last month. Yow!

2006-03-16T08:43:00.000-06:00

What Are You Looking At?

2006-03-02T11:56:00.000-06:00

What's New?

Not much that I have time to write about, I guess.

2005-12-18T21:45:00.000-06:00

Christmas Letter 2005

Happy Holidays, Friends!

Well, here I sit again, listening to old music and trying to summarize 2005 in fifty words or less, while Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation" quietly adds additional quirky holiday cheer to the glow of the computer monitor...

For those of you keeping score, yes, I made the half-century mark this year. Lora is still a youthful something less than that, as I keep reminding her. She still practices at the Small Animal Hospital at its new location on Milwaukee's Fashionable East Side. I continue to commute to Marlin Technologies in Horicon, and my '93 Toyota surpassed a quarter million miles this Fall. Woo-hoo!

Sarah graduated from Wauwatosa West High School in June, and she started at Lawrence University up in Appleton this September. She's made a great transition to college life, is having lots of fun, has made many new friends, and still finds time to get good grades. Smart kid. Keep that scholarship money coming. She has a very compatible roommate, is playing clarinet and bass clarinet with the symphonic band, has joined the fencing club, works, plays and even writes or phones Mom and Dad once in a while.

Matt turned sixteen in March, and got his driver's license just as soon as Mom and the DMV would allow. Filling a need for people who know what they’re doing in the low brass section, he's playing almost as much trombone as trumpet these days, including pit orchestra for TW's fall musical. He and Sarah both got jobs at Rocky Rococo's last summer, and Matt's continued to work part time during the school year with the understanding that he keep his grades up to the accustomed standard. No problem, so far. Mmm, leftover pizza.

Peter is now a freshman at Tosa West, and is also playing bassoon in the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra again this year. He joined Matt on Stage Crew, building sets and 'running the show' for "Anything Goes". (The Cole Porter show, not the Monty Python song.) Besides the usual X-Box and computer games, he's taken to writing programs for his TI graphing calculator, something I never quite learned to do to a slide rule at his age.

Paddington, our Wheaten Terrier, continues to make sure I get a walk around the block before bed nightly, something that's a little overdue as I exercise my proclivity for run-on sentences on into the night... So, further details, rumours and opinions are available on request. We hope you, too, are staying busy, happy & healthy. We'd love to hear from you!

Dave & Lora

2005-11-30T10:26:00.000-06:00

November Ends

For no particularly urgent reason, I figured I should post a blog entry some time this month. And since I was logged in updating some links to the left (expanded Blogcritics link even though I haven't found the time to post anything there in a while - updated Fripp and Spoilt Victorian Child URL's - a big welcome back to Marcello Carlin, who writes extraordinarily well and at great length about music I often have not and may never actually hear - et cetera), now is as good a time as any to say nothing much.

The weather is turning wintry, Sarah is nearing the end of Fall term at Lawrence, Peter has been diagnosed with migraines, we got our photo Christmas cards ordered and delivered already, and lots of the usual busy-ness.

I found out that TW's principal, the late Mr. Steiner went to the same high school as me, Brookfield Central, though a few years before I was there. He'll be missed. The first death in the state attributed to West Nile Virus. Presumably his immune system was depressed from anti-rejection drugs from his kidney transplant some years ago. A former boss's forty-something wife died suddenly this month, too. Well, enough on that subject for now... Lora's dad was in the hospital for some tests over the weekend, but he's back home adjusting to his new medications now. Perhaps he just had a little too much turkey.

I didn't mention Matt yet, so I'll note he's still working part time at Rocky Rococo's Pizza, getting good grades, helping out on Stage Crew a lot and killing time on the interweb at every opportunity. I wonder where he gets that tendency?

2005-10-18T15:35:00.000-05:00

Tom Rapp – Stardancer (1972)

(A Record Review)

After a pair of LP’s for the legendary ESP-Disk label and five for Reprise records, Tom Rapp / Pearls Before Swine landed on little Blue Thumb Records for a final pair of albums in the early 70’s. This is the only album of those nine still never released on Compact Disc anywhere in the world.

From the cover art to the music within, Stardancer revisits much stylistic and thematic territory covered on the previous records, but Rapp succeeds in avoiding the impression of repeating himself. (The concepts of cashing in and selling out presuppose some prior commercial success, so that’s not particularly relevant in this case!)

The title song and “For The Dead in Space” each return to the theme of the doomed space explorer (outer or inner space?) from 1970’s “Rocket Man”, an acknowledged inspiration for Elton John’s song of the same name as well as Bowie’s “Space Oddity”.

You won’t hear “The Fourth Day Of July” on any Country Music station on Independence Day. This is a Nixon-era nightmare of the dead children of Vietnam silently streaming to the White House and the “men who got too far away from what was done in their name” on the title holiday. Acid-Folk Protest, anyone?

“The Baptist” is a lovely tune along the lines of Balaklava's “There Was A Man”, with a touch more Nashville in the sound. Florence Warner’s Emmylou-esque harmony vocal joins Rapp in an allegory of spiritual questing, redemption and loss. “Every day I see old men like mountains and they just crumble and they fall / And I don't know what these days are doing to us all.” “Les Ans” combines a French lyric (see “Mon Amour” - These Things Too) with accompaniment from a string quartet (see “Guardian Angel” - Balaklava). Unfamiliarity with the language is no barrier to enjoyment of this brief love song.

The old-timey ambiance of a shellac 78 touches the jaunty “Why Should I Care”, and “Tiny Song” features a whistling tap dancer, further evidence of the whimsical mind that sent former Boy Scouts an obscene coded message in “Miss Morse” (One Nation Underground) because L-O-V-E just didn’t have the catchy meter of F-*-C-K. (That second letter is dit-dit-dah, by the way!)

Alternately light hearted and thoughtful, love songs make up much of the remainder of this LP. Lyrics such as “If you'd rather talk about it / Than think about it / You better get it together now” and “If I knew myself I'd tell me not to be so silent now” and “Hello Hey - It sure is good to see you” may not have much Nashville Costello single entendre cleverness, but they overflow with warmth and humanity. No wonder Stardancer got no airplay and minimal sales.

It’s a credit to Blue Thumb that they actually released Rapp’s follow-up Sunforest in 1973, but when Blue Thumb disappeared into ABC Records, which got bought by MCA, which eventually got swallowed by one of the mega-conglomerates, Tom determined he’d accomplished what he needed to in the music business and went back to college. His rediscovery and semi-un-retirement several decades later is a story for another day!

Disclaimer - I did not actually listen to this album to write this review. At least, not in the last few years. When Ms. Licky requested some content for a Record Review Page at the Roadhouse, I figured a little more Stardancer verbiage on the web couldn't hurt its chances of someday seeing a polycarbonate re-release. I referred to the fine Pearls Before Swine Connection website to refresh my memory of its contents, but relied mainly on my memory of this great album to fill in the blanks.

The last time I did listen to this album was probably when I bought an 8-track of it on eBay a few years back. Yes, I actually did that, and yes, I have a functioning 8-track player, though it's not plugged into a sound system at present. Anyway, upon playing the tape, I discovered that some previous owner had recorded a Harry Chapin album over two and a half of the four programs on the 8-track cart. Blasphemy! So, I had to rectify that situation. Fortunately, my 8-track deck is a recorder as well as a playback device, so I was able to replace the offending material with properly resequenced Tom Rapp tunes. Pearls Before Swine, indeed.

Anyway, Stardancer is definitely on my list of Top 100 Albums of All Time, often in the Top Ten. So, I need to record this thing to a CD-R Real Soon Now. Along with Sharks' First Water and Nils Lofgren's Back It Up Live on KSAN and Triumvirat's Illusions On A Double Dimple, and the long version of "Bluebird" and the tunes from Last Time Around that Neil left off the Buffalo Springfield Box Set...

2005-09-22T15:47:00.000-05:00

Not Exactly A Concert Review

Well, I did go to see Richie Furay in concert last week. Yes, I did. I spent the better part of a month convincing myself that it was a rare opportunity that I should not miss, and while I nearly did, I didn't. The guy's voice is in unbelievably good shape after all these years. He played a few songs from his more recent "Christian" albums, but did a lot of his classic material, including SHF Band, Poco and Buffalo Springfield. Not just the songs he wrote, but Stephen's "Go And Say Goodbye" (which he also covered in Poco) and a whole lot of the Neil songs that Richie sang on the original Springfield LP's. Richie played acoustic guitar, joined by a guy on keyboards, mandolin, banjo and Telecaster by turns, plus a young bassist and a percussionist. Looked like fewer than 100 (predominantly male and middle-aged) people in the club, but those of us smart and lucky enough to be present were, and I believe this is the correct usage of the term, fookin' gobsmacked.

2005-09-08T13:05:00.000-05:00

Six Years Ago

Those familiar with the album Lizard by the group King Crimson may find this excerpt from the Fripp online diary interesting. Most others will not, I suppose. When other readers of this page outnumber me, I will give the content of this blog due consideration. For now, this is stuff I'm interested in reading, and since this won't roll around again on the Fripp Calendar again until 2006...

Wednesday 8th. September, 1999

08.20 Simon [Heyworth] & Robert [Fripp] have returned to the terrors of "Lizard". "Indoor Games" now sounds more musical than since it left the studio.

An ace tune well played mixes itself. Difficulties in mixing are commonly the result of poor musical conception and / or performance. An unsolved problem in mixing passes the problem to the mastering engineer. The main technical difficulty in mastering "Lizard" is how to deal with the mellotron. Controlling the mellotron's middle-range screech unsettles the rest of the spectrum. Past solutions to mastering "Lizard" have failed to find a single all-win solution. Simon the Hero, with new technology, is now closer to reconciling the unreconcilable elements of "Lizard" than ever before.

"Lady Of The Dancing Water" is about-to-be-becoming-having-been tickled. Mel's flute playing is so good. "Prince Rupert Awakes" - Rupert would have done better to stay in bed that day. Jon Anderson has sung the unsingable: neither melody writer nor lyricist helped him on this one. An early edition of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (from any good secondhand bookshop) is an essential aid to interpreting the lyrics.

At last! The Bolero! Robin Miller's oboe has entered, left, and Keith Tippett, Mark Charig, Nick Evans & Mel Collins are blowing away. This is the only part of the album I am able to remember with anything other than fear, terror, misery & suffering.

"The Battle", "Lament" & the whirligig of "Big Top" all now recalibrated & fine tuned.

12.15 Hooray! All the tracks ready for glueing together.

In Sum:

Lots of ideas, mostly presented simultaneously and very few of which work. Various bits are unsure whether to try & make connection with a unified central theme, or maintain their independence. Mostly, the search for a unified central theme escapes satisfaction & the constituent elements adopt a semblance of neutrality, so as not to attract culpability for their involvement. Labour & labouring, mostly joyless, strive effortfully to present the appearance of cohesion.

There is one exception: the Bolero. The main theme, played on oboe by Robin Miller (co-principal oboist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Boulez at the time) is a gift. This is a melody which sustained me in difficult times.

Overall, the album is unlistenable. Our remastering shows just how unlistenable. I am unable to recommend that anyone part with their hard-earned pay for this one, unless they want to take it to parties and play it at unwelcome guests. There are some "Lizard" lovers, I know. They must be very strange.

14.08 At 14.00 our final listen-through & hyper-tickling was completed. A huge improvement.

15.22 Simon is now playing the test tones for "Islands". The tape box is marked "Command Studios". This is enough to strike fear into the heart of those that know the name.

2005-08-19T10:09:00.000-05:00

August News

The big music news around here (as far as I'm concerned), is that Richie Furay will be doing a concert next month, the day after my birthday, in fact. I never expected another chance to see the guy perform, as semi-retired (from recording) as he's been for the last 20+ years...

The BoDeans were supposed to do a rooftop concert Wednesday night, and some neighbors tried to squash it on account of the noise. Apparently they went ahead and did it anyway. 7 PM is an early enough start, what the heck. Gotta check the newspaper to see how that went down.

Finally, my car reached 250,000 miles Wednesday evening, on North Avenue south of Mayfair. Peter and I were on the way home from hitting a bucket of golf balls out Capitol Drive in Brookfield. I might buy the "Yo" some new brake pads to celebrate.

2005-07-11T14:01:00.000-05:00

Marcello Carlin on the Bonzos

Ginger Geezer:

The Bonzo Dog Band ... simultaneously the most savagely unforgiving and most humane of pop bands - certainly the Brit equivalent of the Mothers of Invention, but crucially with a love of humanity replacing Zappa's cynical misanthropy, thus again reminding us of what the latter COULD have achieved with the subtraction of bad jazz-rock and the addition of a heart.

Still waiting for the next successor to Koons Really Does Think He's Michaelangelo, Church of Me, and The Naked Maja...

2005-06-03T15:40:00.000-05:00

In 1998, University of Iowa professor Kembrew McLeod trademarked the phrase "Freedom of Expression" and created a zine with that title. He enlisted a friend, Brendan Love, to pose as the publisher of an imaginary punk rock magazine also called Freedom of Expression, whom he then pretended to sue. McLeod hired a lawyer and didn't let her in on the hoax. The lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to Love:
We represent Kembrew McLeod of Sunderland, Massachusetts, the owner of the federally registered trademark, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ... Your company has been using the mark Freedom of Expression ... Such use creates a likelihood of confusion in the market and also creates a substantial risk of harm to the reputation and goodwill of our client. This letter, therefore, constitutes formal notice of your infringement of our client’s trademark rights and a demand that you refrain from all further use of Freedom of Expression.:
Shortly thereafter, the Daily Hampshire Gazette ran an interview with McLeod. He played it straight, telling the paper, "I didn't go to the trouble, the expense and the time of trademarking Freedom of Expression just to have someone else come along and think they can use it whenever they want." Two years later, when McLeod asked to reprint the Gazette article in his book Owning Culture, the paper denied him permission.

(Reprinted without permission...)

2005-06-01T09:28:00.000-05:00

Tim Blair - Continuing Crisis in The Bulletin

"The United Nations celebrates its 60th anniversary this month. Mark the occasion in appropriate style by appeasing any neighbourhood dictators, imposing damaging environmental restrictions on local employers, and entering into lucrative oil sales agreements with murderers."

The link to Tim's blog is on the left. Professor Bunyip writes another blog with Tasty Down Under Flavor... Another tube, Bruce!

2005-05-10T10:08:00.000-05:00

4'33"

I recently found this site, which features recordings of John Cage's 4'33" available for download as both a zipped wav and as a MIDI file. The wav apparently didn't unzip correctly, however, and the MIDI file wants to download a sample it can't find, so I'm not sure I'm hearing it correctly. Anyhoo, I had the idea of converting it to a ringtone and promoting it widely, maybe even selling it on eBay. But since I don't own the copyright to that particular piece of music, I guess I'll just release this particular bright idea into the Public Domain. I still think I'll create my own mp3 file of the thing. I wonder what sort of variable bitrate will give the best fidelity...

"I have nothing to say
and I am saying it
and that is poetry
as I needed it"
-- John Cage

2005-03-25T09:30:00.000-06:00

Bassoon & Poetry

"Kitchen-sink sackbutt" by a "master of freak-out free-medieval pervertamento bassoon" and "30 pages of hot gibberish" by polemicist Out To Lunch (aka Ben Watson).

A twin assault pack of scronching reeds and hyper-viper conscious anti-poetry ... OTL's texts written specially for the occasion met Becks's medieval snorks & other aromas from his idiosyncratic kitchen-sink sackbutt. Censorship by magazine editors, radio ethics and the authorial Ego were evaded in a real-time in-fest of automatic critico-poetic effusion ...

Very interesting texts, it's a pity there's no audio recordings. I wonder if I could talk Peter into blowing some bassoon improv into a microphone?

2005-01-25T09:55:00.000-06:00

Robert Fripp on Colin Blunstone
(...and Paul Buckmaster?)

Monday 25th. January, 1999

Hooray! At long last Colin Bluntstone(sic)! His recent CBS compilation Some Years (from Colin's three solo albums) has seven tracks from One Year (1971). He is probably best known as the singer with The Zombies. I have been waiting to hear again 'Say You Don't Mind' for years (Paul Buckmaster the arranger?). And 'Misty Roses'!

Sometimes pop speaks to the place where we are all the same person; where a simplicity of form allows only sufficient time to say what has to be said, and say it directly. There is no room to miss the point, or lose focus. 'Say You Don't Mind' has now played repeatedly, and quite changed my state.

I bought this compilation last year, and have a similar fondness for it.

But All Music Guide says Chris Gunning is responsible for the string arrangements on the first LP. Tony Visconti is listed as an arranger, too. Hmm. Going back to the original sleeve seems called for. Buckmaster's impressive (if easily mistaken for "overblown" by those disinclined to soak them in) string arrangements did have a large part in making Elton John's eponymous breakthrough LP the unique classic that it remains.

Blunstone's first LP is acknowledged as the best of the three, but some fine tunes grace Ennismore and Journey as well. I'll admit to having an immediate negative reaction to the King's Singers backing vocals on the latter, but somehow, it really works on "Beginning"/"Keep The Curtains Closed Today". The madrigal-ish vocals wrap impressionistically around Blunstone's ethereal voice and a lone nylon string guitar, making a beautiful, wistful, romantic whole. For me, a major Guilty Pleasure on a par with the Moody Blues' Most Overblown Cosmic Romanticisms.

Anyway, continuing to cut 'n paste just cuz it's there:

John Payne of L.A. Weekly came to interview me at 14.00. He began by apologising for the description of Crimson as 'prog rock pond-scum set to bum you out' (announcing our three nights at the Beverly Wilshire in 1995). But how could anyone be offended by such a dopey moniker? We adopted it as our own, and raised it on flags. John is concerned with the current state of the mainstream record industry. This is a debate worth having in the media, but inevitably the interlocking nature of business in the US will provide its own problems when the debate becomes public. Like, mainstream companies don't tend to advertise in papers which criticise their fundamentally exploitive nature.

And exciting news from Crafty Patrick Shuleit, who works for Washburn guitars. He has persuaded a firm to manufacture the design of picks we use in Guitar Craft. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon I'll get to fondle the test batch, in the privacy of my hotel room.

I believe this quest for the Perfect Pick never did come out entirely satisfactorily. A unique shape, feel and variable flexibility is required, and, apparently, difficult to reproduce. For myself, I've been using the lighter gauges of Dunlop's nylon picks lately, switching to heavier gauges when cranking up the distortion. But, I mostly have need of cleaner tones these days, albeit disguised with chorus, flanger or phaser effects (70's Telecaster Custom through a Roland Cube 30)...

2005-01-07T13:55:00.000-06:00

Poultry In Motion

I still get a comment from this October 2003 Blogcritics post about "Chicken Fat" e-mailed to me every now and then. If the refrain "Go, You Chicken Fat, Go" brings back fond (or horrific) memories from your childhood, you may want to follow the linkage for a Blast From The Past.

2005-01-03T13:41:00.000-06:00

Lost And Found

Nth of Pril has returned to a new location. I should update my link before this post scrolls off. Should be easy to do, as seldom as I write anything here! Coincidentally, Deep Purple's cover of Cream's "I'm So Glad" just came up on the CD player...

Also, the final Wigu comic has been posted. I recommend you follow the link to the left and read the entire archive, then order copies of the books and whatever merchandise they got what strikes your fancy. Then, send me the books when you're done reading them. Thanks!

2004-12-09T09:54:00.000-06:00

Piano Music CD's For Sale

I've made a public notice concerning my mother-in-law's piano music CD over at saintsteven's place. According to theory, linkage to and from this page will increase this information's visibility to certain search engines. We shall see.

My e-mail address is seen to the left under the Correspondence heading, in case you followed that link in order to contact me. Presumably, the CD can be ordered directly from CDBaby when they have stock on hand once again.

It occurs to me belatedly that I should mention the artist's name. Marjorie Bliese Gluckstein. CDBaby indicates you should go ahead and order a copy since CD's are "on the way", which roughly translates as lost somewhere between the receiving dock and the proper shelf in the warehouse.

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there usually is." - Robert Pease

2004-11-23T09:28:00.000-06:00

Overcompensating

Jeffrey Rowland, creator of Wigu and CEO of TopatoCo has a cartoon blog that is very entertaining. Just thought you would want to know about that.

Fripp continues to crack me up. This is from Tuesday 23rd November 1999:

Rocco Farte (pronounced "Far-tay") has spent many years on the inside of the music industry, with varying degrees of success. He has worked with many of the most important artists of the last 30 years, such as pomp rocker Legs Blake, Blane Fury & Bari Neon (two bright lights of the glam-rock era), plus even more of the completely unknown, like Teddy Valiant. Regrettably, all of this has taken something of a toll upon his vital presence. But he continues to breathe, seek territory, food & sexual partners. On a clear day, his reminiscences are startling. On a day when his personal sun is obscured by clouds, even more so.

UPDATE: Bari Neon (like Brain One) is an anagram for Brian Eno. Whether Legs Blake and/or Blane Fury might be anagrams or obscure references to other musical luminaries of Fripp's acquaintance (Brian Ferry? David Bowie? Peter Gabriel?) is a matter for speculation. R.F. seems to have quite a self deprecating sense of humour, in any event.

2004-10-22T13:05:00.000-05:00

Links Updated

Rearranged, added a couple, demoted a few... No other reason for this post, just wanted to make sure the Template didn't get hosed...

Oh Yeah, One More Thing

I don't quite have the time or motivation to produce a major post about the ~~performances~~ rehearsals of Jim Grimsley's "A Bird Of Prey" at Tosa West last night. I will note that the people who raised the stink about it are dopes, the "acting" school superintendents are invertebrate weasels, and Ms. King and the troupe did a tremendous job presenting a significant and moving piece of drama. So there.

2004-10-04T15:28:00.000-05:00

What Happened To September?

Keeping busy, and out of trouble, I guess. I turned 31 (hexadecimal) last month, and it would have been my father's 90th birthday (decimal) two weeks ago today, as well.

Family news includes tidbits such as Matt's got his Learner's Permit and is taking Driver's Ed, and Sarah is a National Merit Semifinalist and is keeping busy with rehearsals for some play whose name I don't recall... Plus she's starting to learn music to play in the "West Side Story" pit orchestra in addition to UWAY and marching band and State Honors band. A busy little clarinetist, though she plays bass drum in marching band! Peter plays bassoon with the MYSO Junior Winds again this year, but he's the only 'oonist this year! (Last year there were three.) He's not the most active or merit badge motivated Boy Scout, but he did go camping once last month.

Matt and I finished painting the trim and windows last weekend, and Lora tried the sponge-painting thing on the fourth wall of our new enclosed patio / three season room (we haven't decided quite what to call it yet!). Results are very nice. We have some trim to install, but it's livable again. Lora may be planning to refinish the French Doors, too. We'll tile the floor next Spring or Summer, but until then it's a very nice space to sit of a summer or autumn evening or weekend morning... It'll be interesting to see how late into the Fall we end up using the room. Overnight temperatures are starting to dip, now that October's here...

2004-08-31T15:34:00.000-05:00

A CD Review...

Through the graces of Blogcritics, I've been supplied with a few promo CD's for reviewing purposes in recent months. The first one to arrive proved to be a difficult nut to crack. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, and I felt I needed to study it pretty hard and educate myself a bit before putting my impressions onto pixels. And, quite frankly, I felt that it deserved at least a somewhat positive review, even though it didn't really excite me on first hearing. So, I've ended up listening to it a dozen or so times over the last month or two, and gradually pulled together the following. I'd probably call it a three star CD on a five star scale. (Or maybe 7 on a 1 to 10 scale... I think American Bandstand has a lock on the zero to one hundred "it's got a good beat you can dance to it" concept!)

Sir Roland Hanna - Tributaries (Reflections On Tommy Flanagan)

Detroit developed a burgeoning jazz scene following World War II, but like many midwestern urban centers, it's lasting heritage is the string of Jazz Musicians it fed to the gravitational pull of New York City rather than the fruits of its own indigenous scene. Consider the effect on the Big Apple music scene had Milt Jackson, Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, the Jones brothers (Elvin, Thad and Hank) and Kenny Burrell not gone East in the 50's...

Sir Roland Hanna (Unlike 'Duke' Ellington and 'Count' Basie, 'Sir' was not a nickname, but an actual title, bestowed on him by the President of Liberia in 1970 for humanitarian efforts on behalf of that country!) was another Detroit native who made his mark in New York. He approached jazz from the classical tradition, having studied at Eastman and Julliard, then served with both Benny Goodman and Charles Mingus in the 50's before concentrating on his own trio and a steady gig with the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis big band. A tenured professor at Queens College in New York, Hanna finished "Tributaries (Reflections on Tommy Flanagan)" just before his own sudden death in November 2002. (Flanagan had passed away the previous year.)

This Solo Piano CD begins and ends with Flanagan compositions. "Sea Change", the opener, begins in a George Winston mood, then segues into a march tempo with unexpected harmonies and syncopation, relaxing again to the contemplative by the end. The closing "Delarna" sounds like a song with no words, putting me in mind of Bryan Ferry's "These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You)" for some reason. Lyricism may be the dominant characteristic of the CD, reflecting, perhaps, Flanagan's decade-plus spent as Ella Fitzgerald's accompanist, or Hanna's own time spent with Sarah Vaughan.

Hanna's take on Thad Jones' "A Child Is Born" seems to quote from "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". If it's good enough for Mozart, why not a 20th Century jazz composer? I wonder if this is intended to evoke a Christmas mood? Not quite the Vince Guaraldi Trio, this feels more like sitting back with a glass of egg nog and rum at midnight after the presents are finally wrapped and under the tree. In contrast, another Jones composition, "'Tis", features considerable energy, syncopation and dynamics.

Gershwin's "Soon" has a nice angular, percussive feel under the melody. Further standards by Cole Porter and Mercer Ellington, and the chestnut "Body And Soul" are explored in a laid-back fashion, swinging melodically, with restrained dynamics, at medium tempos...

Illinois Jacquet's "Robin's Nest" is probably the most upbeat number on the disc. It's easy to imagine a Forties or Fifties tenor sax quartet ripping through this one. Sir Roland flirts with a boogie woogie beat and keeps my toe tapping throughout.

Overall, this is not avant-garde or especially propulsive piano music, but melodic and elegant, with subtle variations in style and texture. A relaxing hour of late evening or weekend afternoon listening. My usual taste in piano players tends more to Professor Longhair and Glenn Gould, and while Hanna shares few obvious characteristics with that odd couple, he also steers clear of the overheated pounding with the sustain pedal that used to pass for dramatic romantic dynamism in the days before heavy metal. Overall, a worthy recording, and a fitting tribute to the memories of two fine musicians.

Comments may be posted at Blogcritics.

2004-08-23T12:05:00.000-05:00

Twyford Vitromant Update

Via Ben Turner, corresponding from olde Blighty, Twyford Vitromant is apparently a brand of Toilet fixtures over there in England. Thanks!

I remember being mystified by the neat blue text "K of K USA" on the urinals back in elementary school, eventually deducing that the fine porcelain items in question were probably manufactured by the Kohler Company up there in Kohler, Wisconsin. I never wrote a song about it, though.

2004-08-23T10:06:00.000-05:00

The Thoughts of Chairman Bob

Part of the reason I find it worthwhile to check out Robert Fripp's online diary (link to the left) even when he goes weeks without uploading new posts (a common side effect of touring Eastern Europe, running a Guitar Craft seminar in South America, or other extended absences from internet access) is that they automatically revive postings from "this date in history", as well as a randomly selected entry. Recent postings concern the editing and preparation of a 21st Century Guide to King Crimson and his various dealings with home remodeling tradesmen as well as his small pleasures with his wife, his home, and his village. Interesting to me, if not of major importance. And once in a while an observation from the past feels useful in the present tense...

Wednesday 23rd. August, 2000

Part of my morning's reading & reflection: how help is always available, even though we are often not available for help to help us.

The centre of gravity of the act of redemption is love. How easily said, how easily typed. What can this mean? I don't know, and I don't believe it is possible to know redemption on its "own" terms.

The first paragraph resonates especially in my work life just lately. I must attempt to find a way to seek and accept "help" when I find myself spinning my wheels, in loose sand with no traction. Remaining "available" at home is a continuing challenge, as well. And redemption, I suppose, is a gift that needs mostly to be accepted, not necessarily understood.

And I think that's all the bloviation I have time for on that subject today. Now to work!

2004-07-21T15:08:00.000-05:00

Happy 13th Birthday, Peter!

Well, as of yesterday, we now have three teenagers in the house. Yow. Good kids, one and all; I hope I can somehow afford to send them off to college in a few years.

I see all the text formatting buttons have disappeared since my last posting. I guess I'll find out what this looks like after I post it. Gotta put something up here before the month disappears, or so the contract requires...

Lots I could write about, but I have a tendency to get things out of my system in various e-mail exchanges, so they don't wind up here. Considering there are but infrequent clues that anyone may be reading this stuff (and that's okay, of course), I see no reason to change at this time.

The Gala BCHS 73 31st Classless Reunion was great fun a couple weekends ago, and if I saw you there, I hope you felt the same. If I didn't see you there, you may be hearing from me yet! My sunburn is nearly done peeling off my shoulders, the photos aren't back from the drugstore yet, and I hear Bruce's stereo is rebroken already. And I have lots of Work to do and not a lot of time to do it in.

Till next month...

2004-06-22T12:50:00.000-05:00

James Lileks, Michael Moore, George Orwell and Bob Dylan

The Daily Bleat pointed to Christopher Hitchens' response to Fahrenheit 9/11 over at Slate/MSN. Interesting reading, but if you don't make it all the way through his deconstruction of Moore's disjointed anti-Bush spew, don't miss the George Orwell quotation near the end:

Perhaps vaguely aware that his movie so completely lacks gravitas, Moore concludes with a sonorous reading of some words from George Orwell. The words are taken from 1984 and consist of a third-person analysis of a hypothetical, endless, and contrived war between three superpowers. The clear intention ... is to suggest that there is no moral distinction between the United States, the Taliban, and the Baath Party and that the war against jihad is about nothing. If Moore had studied a bit more, or at all, he could have read Orwell really saying, and in his own voice, the following:

The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States …

And that's just from Orwell's Notes on Nationalism in May 1945. A short word of advice: In general, it's highly unwise to quote Orwell if you are already way out of your depth on the question of moral equivalence. It's also incautious to remind people of Orwell if you are engaged in a sophomoric celluloid rewriting of recent history.

I'll try to remember.

On an unrelated note, an eminent poetry scholar has published a 500 page book about the poetry of Bob Dylan, and more or less misses the point. Good article if you're a Dylan fan, or especially if you're a high school English teacher subjecting the kids to a "Poetry of Rock" curriculum.

2004-05-18T08:35:00.000-05:00

Cartoon Cat Commentary

Ray's Place is a bit short on advice today, but his analysis of (I guess you'd call it) Today's Alternative Rock sure strikes a chord. (How about G⁷?)

It is some hot heavy that you got a gig at Live 105... For those of you who don’t know, Live 105 plays alternative hits from the 70s, 80s and 90s, but they also spin the latest generation of alternative, you know, where a bunch of haircuts who are 20 play in a band that has the levels mixed essentially correctly and the lyrics are:

I’M A KID AND I’M KID KID YELLIN’
I’M KID KID YELLIN’
I’M A KID AND I’M KID KID YELLIN’
KID KID YELLIN’ AT YOU

So sometimes when Live 105 does “flashback lunch” or whatever, I can get meaty bones on old Iggy or also on an old Blondie track. But when they play Kid Kid Yellin’, I just feel like I have a big shit in my pants, and that Live 105 put the shit there with that type of tri-nozzle machine that fills up Twinkies.

Ray has a hella way with words. All hail, Chris Onstad.

2004-05-04T08:32:00.001-05:00

The Daily Fripp

As an adult, in situations where there is no intention on my part to upset or disturb, the reaction of others is not, and cannot be, my responsibility. As adults we accept responsibility for our own emotional lives. If I hold a grudge over time, this is my responsibility, not the responsibility of the person who gave offence. The benefit of several decades of observing negativity closely held is a powerful argument to forgive, let go, move on.

Where someone is deliberately nasty, what registers is the intent. This is often, for me, like being pierced. It is an attack, and an attack does not take place by accident. The attack is not my responsibility. How I respond to that attack is my responsibility. In some situations, sometimes no response is a response, especially when past responses to the antagonist have been seized upon as an opportunity to engage in the dumping of more nastiness, or locking me into negative conversational knots.

Quietly sending goodwill, even when difficult, mysteriously changes something and sets up a series of unexpected & unanticipated repercussions. - RF - Friday 4th May, 2001.

That's some of his serious side, and this bit resonates with me somehow. The Quiet One. Hmm.

Previously, in the same post he queries: "Ian's English humour shines through throughout. The question is: why has he not written material before now?" My question is, why doesn't a literate, clever, insightful and intelligent (not to mention small and mobile) unit like the Fripp write any lyrics for King Crimson? I guess the short answer is that the singer must write his own words if he is to believe them and deliver them believably. With certain historical exceptions. Playing guitar is hard enough. What Belew does within the band is demonstrably miraculous. Still, a more overt reflection/incarnation of the Head Crim's remarkable outlook within their recorded output would be a cool addition to the KC fabric...

2004-05-04T08:32:00.000-05:00

Recommended Download

The Master Plan - "Find Something Beautiful" from their new album, Colossus Of Destiny. The band is Andy Shernoff from the Dictators, Keith Streng and the drummer from the Fleshtones and another guitarist from the Waxing Poetics, who I haven't heard of previously. Yes, it rocks; intelligently, with good spirit and emphatically. Excellent quality complete song, 192kbps mp3, and the CD is available directly for $12 postpaid. Paypal accepted. Recommended.

2004-04-26T12:28:00.000-05:00

Where To Find People

Langenberg.com has Zip code lookups, White Pages, Yellow Pages, etc. It's a meta-lookup thingie, if I'm using that technical jargon correctly, as it will submit your search info to a number of sites and link you to the results. Anyway, it works pretty good, and at home the other day I couldn't remember it and Google just seemed to point me to a bunch of frickin' pay sites...

2004-04-26T09:41:00.000-05:00

Twyford Vitromant

That's a two word phrase that's been stuck in my head for some time. I have no idea what it means, other than it's Bonzo Dog Band related. A bit of Googling suggests it's a Neil Innes song, and uncovers an excellent Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band page. Educate yourself, and if you don't have a mess of recordings by these guys, you've only yourself to blame. Or maybe you had to be there. I never was, quite, myself, but your mileage may vary. Still, classic immortal British insanity in abundance, if that sort of thing appeals to you.

2004-04-07T13:57:00.000-05:00

Stop Grovelling!

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!

If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!

How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I don't know what my score was out of the twenty questions, but I can't argue with having Divinity bestowed upon my person, now can I?

2004-04-01T16:55:00.000-06:00

Debra Niswonger Foote

So, right now I gotta go say goodbye to a friend who died of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) a few days ago. At this evening's "Time of Rememberance", I shall, on the advice of my Spiritual Advisor (The Reverend Doctor Pastor Mojo Blarney), praise God and give thanks for the resurrected Christ in addition to sharing her memory with her family and friends. Peace, Deb.

2004-04-01T16:41:00.000-06:00

Now, That's Writing!

I read Penny Arcade's "News" section as well as the webcomic itself every Monday, Wednesday and Friday... I seldom know much about the games that are their obsessions, but the sense of humor and skewed outlook is highly recognizable. Apropos of Nothing, as the saying goes, and somewhat out of context, this, from yesterday, made me laugh out loud...

Despite some comics you may have seen online, Gabriel and I are not gay and we rarely have sex with one another. Indeed, long ago we solicited the services of two young women for this exact purpose and eventually went about securing them in exclusive contracts. I chose the Brenna model and have thus far been reasonably satisfied with the purchase. There's only one facet of the union that grinds, and that is her acquisition of a nicotine addiction. She doesn't chew, I never retract from intimacy with any kind of mulch on my face. She smokes. I don't care if you smoke, as the odds are good I never have to taste the inside of your mouth.

It's a "hobby" she picked up during one of her bacchanalian summer drama tours. I asked her if it was accurate to say that she started doing it because the cool kids were, and she replied that, no, it was because everyone else was doing it. Apparently there are points of distinction between those two things that my apparatus doesn't have the magnification to detect. For a long time, I only suspected it - when I would kiss her during some college visit, it would taste as though she had been eating cats still crisp from a barn fire.

She has tried to quit before, but she clearly didn't mean it and I had no energy to support her in some grueling ordeal she had only nominal interest in. This worked out great for her, because then when she failed it could be my fault. It's a service that I provide people too lazy to take the reins of their own lives.

2004-04-01T09:20:00.000-06:00

Photo Phunnies

John Kerry on the Campaign Trail

2004-03-26T09:05:00.000-06:00

Google Spamming

Okay, if you found your name here via Google search and you know who I am, why not drop me an e-mail? (See the Correspondence address to the left?) Good. Here's a high resolution satellite image of what I looked like a year or two ago. Your mouse pointer can tell you the correct spelling of my name. Try it!

Glenn Weissinger Dave Marheine Kris Dugas Bob Bucci Mary Pat McKinley Mark Singel Dave Bradford Gary Wedemayer Glenn Emil Weissinger Robert Orlick Kristine Dugas Dan Gross Jeff Garland Jim Urban Dale Dolence Dean Dolence Jeff Gullickson Rick Olson Pat Furlan Don Kotek Frank Owen David Marheine Kristine Ann Joan Dugas Craig Liebel Dana Stonerook Rick Piel Les LaPhilliph Jerry Meyerhoff Lauren Bandler...

Man, this is hard work accessing these dusty memory banks. There are other names at the tip of my tongue that can't quite make it to my fingers right now. And some I don't feel confident enough about the correct spelling to put 'em in here... So, a general invitation to old friends from Walker School in West Allis, Linfield, Pilgrim Park, BCHS '73, UW Madison, Sellery Hall, Motorola, Eagle Monitor Systems, Square D, Oster, et cetera, etc... Let's Keep In Touch!

2004-03-26T08:54:00.000-06:00

Spammity Spam Wonderful Spam

Spammers certainly seems to be adapting to anti-spam measures. I assume the "content" of this message (and probably the tracking of live addresses) was actually in the embedded graphics (not displayed). The text portion of the message, evidently intended to tempt me to accept free dog treats or something was as follows:

I was just thinking. I was just thinking. Suddenly, she wasn't there. Why do guys like you and me know what a duvet is?

Hi, I said to all the animals. I'll tell you what happened next. I want you to hit me as hard as you can. Are you getting pieces of this?

Just tell me your answer, even if it sucks. Why do guys like you and me know what a duvet is? He extended his hand by way of introduction. (I'd seen something really weird. :)

Are there a lot of these types of accidents? You can't go up to the unit. Nobody's allowed up there. It was cold and sweet. I can never describe the walk back to my truck. Suddenly, he disappeared.

This is even more amusing than the "names" of the senders in a day's spam harvest, which today includes Marty Thurman, rigoberto rayside, Fletcher Dean and Ethel.

2004-02-27T09:56:00.000-06:00

A Recent E-Mail

Hello mrdave,

Recently we became aware that your eBay registered account was involved in the following activity:

Posting material containing profanity, vulgarity, hate speech, or threats of violence.

which is not permitted at eBay.

This is a copy of your post:

Posted by mrdave (133) on Feb-26-04 at 10:01:15 PST

Today's Lileks: I think it’s a shame [Howard Stern] was reprimanded. I don’t think people understand what’s at stake here. We need to coarsen public discourse as much as possible as quickly as possible, because a free and open society depends on the right of Pink to flash her labia at the next Superbowl. I’m serious: if we don’t see a clitoris on the Jumbocam, this nation is OVER. (Breast, labia - what's the diff? Please don't tell me you're one of those bluenoses who thinks a boob's okay but explicit gyno topography is somehow unsuitable for prime-time. It's the HUMAN BODY, people; what's your hang up? ) I’m tired of people who think that it’s the role of large media chains to hit the panic button when a caller to Stern’s show calls him a f--ing k-ke, and bleeps Howard when when he says the caller a sh-head ch-nk. People! Come on! What is this country coming to when people can’t call other people sh-thead ch-nks on the public airwaves?

...And we'd be paying what for gasoline under President Gore's People's Green Petroleum Collective Distribution System? Call me a middle aged conservative white guy, but I don't think all the dishonest moron assholes are in the Bush administration. ...

We realize that you may not have been aware there was a rule against this activity. Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity to invite you to review our site policies, which can be found at:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-board.html

Please understand our goal is to help you understand our policies to ensure successful experiences at eBay. Therefore, we respectfully request that you refrain from this activity in the future to avoid the possibility of a suspension of your eBay registration.

Thank you for your cooperation in this important matter.

Regards,
Mary
eBay Moderation Team

*****

Okay, so I deserve 40 lashes with a wet noodle, as Dear Abby used to say. I guess I'm not as PG-rated as I should be sometimes. D'oh!

2004-02-12T14:39:00.000-06:00

Hidden Text
Highlight by clicking and dragging:
Hidden Text !
<font color=#e0fde0>Hidden Text !</font>
A good subtle keyword spamming technique. Eventually, I'm going to salt this blog with names of (more) people I've lost track of over the years to see if they ever Google their own names. And if so, if they have any interest in sending me a damn e-mail. I'm not embarrassed enough about doing it myself to pretend that I don't! Googling my own name (in quotation marks, of course) doesn't point to any of my own web presences, so I guess I better take care of that in some subtle fashion, too. I think the surname by itself turns me up, just after lots of pages of distant relatives and genealogy results and junk. "Hazy Dave" and "MrDrDave" and even "mrdave" return some valid results, but that's of little use to anybody who doesn't already know any of my web aliases. So. Of course, I still live in the same metropolitan area where I grew up and went to high school, so I generally assume that the people who never call or write don't want to talk or correspond with me anyway. Well. Linkage and keyword spamming I can handle, the rest is up to you people. But it appears I need to update my "home page" now and then, or it disappears from the Google cache. "Further Clues" to the left! Whatever. Back to work...

2004-02-12T14:36:00.000-06:00

Streaming Audio

Airchecks: Top 40 Radio Repository - RealAudio airchecks from the Golden Age of Top 40 Radio. Good amounts of classic Chicago radio (WLS and WCFL) and even some Milwaukee radio, mostly WOKY, with perhaps mention of WRIT and WEMP... And Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, etc. of course.

WMSE Archives - Also downloadable! Planet Prog at 9PM Sunday night, the Chicken Shack at 9 AM Friday morning, and Jerry Glocka's show Friday at 6 PM are all worth tuning in. If I had a high bandwidth connection, adequate hard drive space AND a CD burner in the same location, I think I'd burn a whole lot of these.

2004-02-10T16:35:00.000-06:00

Shindig! Magazine

Oooh, reviews of obscure 60's psych & pop reissued on CD. Bookmark for post-lottery-win shopping spree...

2004-02-09T09:29:00.000-06:00

The Real Kerry?

Following some links this morning (perhaps Vodkapundit, who I mainly read for the recipes - heh), I found an amusing article concerning the likely Democratic nominee from the New York Post, written by a talk show host / Boston Herald columnist... I assume he's not of the Left Wing variety since he writes about all the money and privilege Kerry married into, rather than his War Heroism and Devotion to Public Service. Well, I don't expect people to sneer at Bush about being a "child of privilege" if Kerry is nominated...

2004-02-04T09:43:00.000-06:00

Note To Self
Read this Interview With Emmylou Harris later.

2004-01-30T15:08:00.000-06:00

Odd Amazon Reviews

I first became aware of the subculture of spoof and parody reviews on Amazon with regard to various New York Times Book Review-style literary criticisms of Family Circus cartoon books...

Today I'm killing a little time with the demented mind of Henry Raddick. Some amazing stuff, here, if you're in the right mood. A few examples among 284 reviews:

Creative Healing : How to Heal Yourself by Tapping Your Hidden Creativity by Michael Samuels, Mary Rockwood Lane
A nightingale finds its voice November 26, 2001
Many thanks to the authors for helping me to tap into my boundless creative energy and thus tackle my morbid obesity. My poundage has remained pretty static but at least I have been able to detract from it by holding my friends and family spellbound with my beautifully crafted semi-autobiographical free-verse epic poems and impressed by my congealed lamb fat sculptures. Thank you Mr Samuels for allowing my spirit to soar.

The Ale Master: How I Pioneered America's Craft Brewing Industry, Opened the First Brewpub, Bucked Trends, and Enjoyed Every Minute of It by Bert Grant, et al
Excellent November 16, 2001
Despite the title sounding like something a barfly might slobber at you before he pitches into the details of his acrimonious divorce, this is a facinating and thought-provoking autobiography.

Don't Shoot the Dog by James L. Kopp
Tremendous November 16, 2001
Kopp's marvelous guide shows how to train a dog without resorting to desperate measures. Thanks to this book I have kept my spaniel Barry in line with a couple of mock executions.

2004-01-30T10:15:00.000-06:00

Super Bowl Commercials

The Channel 4 morning news show previewed some Super Bowl commercials today. Don't let me ruin your weekend if you want all this to be a surprise Sunday afternoon/evening...

My favorite was Homer Simpson for MasterCard. I never knew the Kwik-E Mart accepted plastic, much less Moe.

Jimi Hendrix for Pepsi loses points because it features a Telecaster instead of a Stratocaster. C'mon, people...

Muhammed Ali for Linux/IBM loses points for comprehensibility, but gains points for incomprehensibility.

Parading Scotsmen for Sierra Mist is not bad, considering it is, as they point out, just Wrong. Is that some kind of Marilyn Monroe homage?

I hope it's a good game, cuz I sure as hell have no interest in the pregame hype or half time show. Anyway, Papa Murphy's pizza is on the menu for Sunday, so there's always that to look forward to...

2004-01-30T09:48:00.000-06:00

Bootleg Series Volume Six

News about a forthcoming Bob Dylan double CD...

On March 23, Columbia/Legacy will release Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall -- The Bootleg Series Volume 6, a two-CD set documenting the all-acoustic, October 31, 1964, Halloween-night concert by Bob Dylan at Philharmonic Hall in New York City. The recording captures a 23-year-old Dylan at a transitional moment in his career, two months after the release of Another Side of Bob Dylan, the last acoustic album he would record before ... the electrified rock heard on Bringing It All Back Home, several songs from which he previewed at this concert.

2004-01-26T14:49:00.000-06:00

Woody Guthry? Moe Asch?

Smithsonian Label to Sell Folk Catalog as Downloads

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Billboard) - Nonprofit label Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is making its entire collection of 33,000 folk and world music songs available as downloads for 99 cents apiece. The service will debut April 1 on the label's own site, http://www.folkways.si.edu, and later this spring on the Smithsonian's http://www.globalsound.org site.

The Folkways catalog was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., after the death of label founder Moe Asch in 1986. The recordings, which date back to 1948, include material by Woody Guthry, Leadbelly, Brownie McGhee and Pete Seeger.

Reuters/Billboard

Well, typos notwithstanding, it'll be worth browsing the catalog in a few months to see if there's any more Ellen Stekert tunes available in addition to that Songs Of A New York Lumberjack CD-R we got for Aunt Etta last year...

2004-01-16T10:05:00.000-06:00

Recent Playlists

Nth of Pril has been posting WinAmp playlists recently. Interesting to see what other people are listening to, especially when it's not completely unfamiliar stuff! I was unsuccessful in creating a new playlist yesterday, so instead, here's the track listings for a couple recent CD-R's.

Radio Dave - Twisted Mix 2004

1 Lou Reed - Perfect Day (demo)
2 Lyle Lovett - The Summer Wind
3 Pearls Before Swine - Wedding
4 Gene Clark - One In A Hundred
5 Flying Burrito Bros - Lodi
6 Souther Hillman Furay Band - On The Line
7 Mallard - A Piece Of Me
8 Lyle Lovett - Moritat (Mack The Knife)
9 Lou Reed - Hangin' Round (demo)
10 Flying Burrito Bros - Bony Maronie
11 Graham Parker & the Rumour - Pouring It All Out
12 Flying Burrito Bros - Pick Me Up On Your Way Down
13 Richard & Linda Thompson - Calvary Cross
14 Jorma Kaukonen - Song For The High Mountain
15 Pearls Before Swine - Did You Dream Of
16 John Martyn - Couldn't Love You More
17 Richie Furay - I Still have Dreams
18 Randy Stonehill - I've Got News For You
19 Leonard Cohen - Story Of Isaac
20 Lyle Lovett & Randy Newman - You've Got A Friend In Me
21 Flying Burrito Bros - Wake Up Little Susie
22 Flying Burrito Bros - One Hundred Years From Now
23 Flying Burrito Bros - Money Honey

Like a lot of my CD-R's over the last year, this was intended to free up a little space on the hard drive by making one last backup of some stuff that's been on there a long time.

Radio Dave 2003 - Mental Movie Music (Director's Cut)

01 Tornadoes - Telstar
02 Spooner - Feeling Good Is Gonna Come Easy
03 The Toys - A Lover's Concerto
04 People - I Love You
05 Justin Hayward - The Actor
06 Wild Man Fischer & Mark Mothersbaugh - The Way We Were
07 Spooner - Wild Winds
08 Graham Parker & Rumour - Pouring It All Out
09 Blues Image - Ride Captain Ride
10 Bloodrock - D.O.A.
11 Nick Cave - Time Jesum Transuentum Et Non Revertentum
12 Spooner - Fugitive Dance (House Mix)
13 The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
14 Dondero High School Choir - Fox On The Run
15 Eddie & Edie & Reggaebots - Some Velvet Morning
16 Van Morrison - Ringworm / You Say France And I Whistle / Have A Danish
17 Jorma Kaukonen - Song For The High Mountain
18 Hugo Montenegro - The Good The bad And The Ugly
19 GE Silicone Products - Sand
20 The Dictators - Kiss My Ass

Same deal applies here. The original version contains 100MB or so of movie files instead of the last three songs, but it made a pretty decent Road Movie Soundtrack when Paul and Michele and I went to Madison between Christmas and New Year's, so I assembled this version for distribution through the usual channels, if you follow me. Since I don't have the technology for visitors to leave Comments, you'll have to write me (e-ddress to the left) if you have any questions. I got a nice note from somebody once after I posted a Playlist with a couple obscure Cat Stevens songs on it. Hopefully those will continue to outnumber the cease and desist orders and threats of legal repercussions from the RIAA and other friendly entitities dedicating to Protecting The Rights Of America's Recording Industry.

2004-01-13T16:47:00.000-06:00

Teleology and Solipsism

USS Clueless is the domain of Steven DenBeste, who works as some kind of a software engineer in San Diego. He's justly renowned for his lengthy essays on various scientific, intellectual and political subjects. I find "Teleology and Solipsism" to be very amusing and interesting, considering I couldn't define either term if my life depended on it.

in 1991, computer programmer Chip Morningstar and a couple of other programmers were invited to give a speech at a two-day "interdisciplinary" Second International Conference on Cyberspace.
Randy and I were scheduled to speak on the second day of the conference. This was fortunate because it gave us the opportunity to recalibrate our presentation based on the first day's proceedings, during which we discovered that we had grossly mischaracterized the audience by assuming that it would be like the crowd from the first conference. I spent most of that first day furiously scribbling notes. People kept saying the most remarkable things using the most remarkable language, which I found I needed to put down in writing because the words would disappear from my brain within seconds if I didn't. Are you familiar with the experience of having memories of your dreams fade within a few minutes of waking? It was like that, and I think for much the same reason. Dreams have a logic and structure all their own, falling apart into unmemorable pieces that make no sense when subjected to the scrutiny of the conscious mind. So it was with many of the academics who got up to speak. The things they said were largely incomprehensible...

We retreated back to Palo Alto that evening for a quick rewrite... Then we set about attempting to add something that would be an adequate response to the postmodern lit crit-speak we had been inundated with that day. Since we had no idea what any of it meant (or even if it actually meant anything at all), I simply cut-and-pasted from my notes. The next day I stood up in front of the room and opened our presentation with the following:

The essential paradigm of cyberspace is creating partially situated identities out of actual or potential social reality in terms of canonical forms of human contact, thus renormalizing the phenomenology of narrative space and requiring the naturalization of the intersubjective cognitive strategy, and thereby resolving the dialectics of metaphorical thoughts, each problematic to the other, collectively redefining and reifying the paradigm of the parable of the model of the metaphor.

This bit of nonsense was constructed entirely out of things people had actually said the day before, except for the last ten words or so which are a pastiche of Danny Kaye's "flagon with the dragon" bit from The Court Jester, contributed by our co-worker Gayle Pergamit, who took great glee in the entire enterprise. Observing the audience reaction was instructive. At first, various people started nodding their heads in nods of profound understanding, though you could see that their brain cells were beginning to strain a little. Then some of the techies in the back of the room began to giggle. By the time I finished, unable to get through the last line with a straight face, the entire room was on the floor in hysterics, as by then even the most obtuse English professor had caught on to the joke. With the postmodernist lit crit shit thus defused, we went on with our actual presentation.

That's taken from How To Deconstruct Almost Anything, which is worth reading in its entirety.

2004-01-09T12:17:00.000-06:00

Rhino Handmade

Okay, just had to link this page. The Rhino Handmade Catalog. Limited Edition rereleases, $20 a pop. Good buddy Paul gave me the Television Live disc for Christmas, but I still need the Stalk-Forrest Group, and the Neon Philharmonic would be nice... Yeah, I could spend a lot of money here. Not as much as at Mad City Music, but on a par with Discipline Global Mobile, I'd say! (I'd make the preceding links, but the Mad City website doesn't do justice to the store, and uh, I'm too lazy to link to DGM. Click on the Fripp blog to the left and navigate to the store, okay? Cool. See ya later.)

2004-01-09T11:59:00.000-06:00

"Johnny's Garden"

A song from Stephen Stills' Manassas double-LP. Here's a 1970 photo of Johnny the Gardener (Taken by Henry Diltz courtesy the Rhino Records website) in the garden with Stephen and Peter Sellers. Sellers evidently sold the house (and garden) - Brookfield House in Elsted, Surrey - to Ringo Starr, who later sold it to Stills...

2004-01-09T09:24:00.000-06:00

Noel Harrison CD from Rhino Handmade

My old friends Pete and Carole Stultz should order up this CD: Noel Harrison - Life Is A Dream - from Rhino Handmade. It's a 26 track collection from the three Reprise albums, Collage (1967), Santa Monica Pier (1968), and The Great Electric Experiment Is Over (1969), plus "Windmills Of Your Mind" and something like 3 unreleased tunes.

Folky soft rock on the surface, this material often leans into psych with its daring orchestrations. Anyway, that's what it says here. Don't think there's any Dylan tunes here (he'd done some on a previous LP for London), but there's around three Leonard Cohen songs as well as Arlo Guthrie, Donovan, Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Paxton, Joni Mitchell, and Judy Collins...

I wonder if I can find an e-mail address for Pete Stultz? I haven't heard from him for a while. But, I might have gotten a Christmas card from them again this year; I'll have to check. Good folks. I thought of them when I bought an Elgin Community Orchesta LP at Goodwill last Fall. Okay, that's enough keyword spamming, maybe Carole or Pete will Google their name and find this blog. Hi, guys!