Category: Music

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Music

Who says men can’t have odd cravings during pregnancy?

Case in point – my strange cravings tonight consisted of “Fire!” by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and “Humans Being” by Van Halen (preferably the version from the movie Twister that has that huge kick-ass orchestral intro on it). It’s an odd double case of Mystery Melody Malady. Consider it the musical equivalent of a midnight run for rocky road ice cream and pickles. I must have them.

Apologies to any and all concerned for the lack of replies to voice mail, e-mail, snail mail, grail mail (holy…) and flail mail (hey, kinky). To say that the amount of sleep I get in every night, and my mental acuity, are dwindling would be a vast understatement. Any reply from me right now is likely to be “I like mittens” or “stand back, or I shall ignite homo sapiens!” or “Doctor Chandra, will I dream?” – i.e. incoherent, and only if you’re lucky will it even be relevant.

And keep in mind, this is before the baby gets here. Shine on! Shine on! :mrgreen: I know, I know, probably oughtta stop blogging before I start to sound completely ludicr…oh. Never mind.… Read more

Categories
Cooking With Code Gaming Home Base Music ToyBox

Random, irregularly-shaped chunks of thoughts

Burchuss. Now compatible with your Atari VCS.Oh man. I love the Atari 2600 Labelmaker site, but it’s gonna put label fetishists like me out of business. Doesn’t even pay to think about what it’ll do to the next AtariAge label contest to come down the pike. Just between you, me, and the entirely metaphorical lamppost, I had to resist a momentary (and utterly mad) geeky urge to do “Atari cartridges” for, oh, everyfreakinthing on the whole site. I’ll keep that option in my back pocket if the site ever undergoes some kind of radical rethink. 😆 Anyway, it’s an awesome idea, a neat (and rather alarmingly versatile and powerful) site to have some fun with, and I sincerely hope that its maker will consider expanding the repertoire to include such things as the “silver label” style, 5200 cartridges, and so on.

The DVD review section of theLogBook has now been rolled out, WordPress-style, and I think it’s lookin’ mighty sleek ‘n’ foxy. But then I guess I would, wouldn’t I? If anyone thinks they’re detecting a mad dash to get as much of the WordPress-ification of theLogBook done before the baby gets here, they are about 1000% right on the money. There are only three sections left to be WP’ed, and we’re already deep into the work on one of those, so perhaps we can whittle that down to two sections remaining by the end of the year.

I’ve got a big Stack Of Stuff piled up at the house that needs to be sold, mainly Star Trek and Babylon 5 and other sci-fi related stuff – action figures, models, Christmas ornaments, magazines by the truckload, and so on – and I’d really like to avoid eBay. If anyone out there would like some of this stuff, please drop me a line. I’m not inflating prices or charging the gross national debt for shipping – I just need the stuff out of here. I’m still drawing up a list, but I can tell you that there’s a collection of Starlog’s dedicated Star Trek: The Next Generation magazine that, if it isn’t the complete run, it’s damn close. I also have binders full of Cinefantastique’s annual ST:TNG wrap-ups – I remember around 1990-94 when Robert and I would descend upon the bookstores to find those every summer, and we’d study Mark Altman’s well-observed comments and reviews like devout Bible scholars. 😆

Over at NotNews, Dave has an in-depth after-action report from the Philadelphia Crowded House concert with Pete Yorn and Liam Finn (i.e. son of Neil) as the opening acts. Dave has also gotten to see R.E.M. live without having to venture to another state. Have I mentioned Dave lives in a real city? Heck, I bet Danny Boyle’s Sunshine is even playing in a theater up there somewhere. 😛 … Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Home Base Music

Dispatches from the Bizarro World

Jan recently got a call from the hospital to let us know that our evening childbirth classes, which were were signed up to take through July, have been cancelled due to lack of interest. Did people suddenly bring the baby-makin’ to a halt? Can I help? You know where to find me if you need me to repopulate the species in my own image. Seriously, I’m having a hard time buying that – lack of interest!? On the flipside of that, we were directed toward internet videos to replace the classes. This reminds me of one of my all-time favorite off-topic threads at Digital Press, the two best posts of which were as follows:

  1. anyone know a website that explains how to wield a katana? videos/pics whatever, like a Katana Wielding for Dummies type thing.

    thanks..

  2. I like your traditional ideals, learning the subtle beauty of the weapon the same way the samurai masters did a thousand years ago… through pictures… on the internet.

That thread sprang to mind immediately. I know humans have been pumping out babies since day one, without classes, but it’d be nice to have. Until then, I’ll just have to learn myself… through pictures… on the internet. (But when I’m not doing that, my offer of help still stands. Trust me, extinction’s uglier than I am. 😆 )

The summer of swimming continues, and I’ll admit that it’s probably slowing down my work on the baby room. But I’d forgotten how good it feels to just float around (and how much better it feels to put in some actual laps). When you’ve got skin problems like mine, there’s nothing like just being in water up to your ears for a couple of hours. On so many levels, it feels so much better.

Also, last but not least, I just gave Frost*’s cover of ELO’s “Here Is The News” a listen or three, and I’ve officially declared it brilliant. This is how you cover ELO – maintain the strengths of the original, and feel free to rock it the heck out where appropriate.… Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Critters Gaming Music

Chillin’ like Obi

Here’s Oberon, chillin’ in my wife’s portable cooler bag:
CHILL, MAN 😆

So apparently the results of yesterday’s listening were as followed: almost no movement at all for the whole Carl Stalling Looney Toons music CD, but switch over to the Moody Blues, and the little guy started kicking. A lot. Whether this means “more cartoon music” or “more Moody Blues” or “make with the Katamari music”, there’s no telling.

In other news, I’m trying to round up a raiding party of folks from the Digital Press and Retroputing forums to storm the castl…erm, I mean, visit 1984 Arcade in Springfield, MO, on July 11th or 12th. (Leaning toward the 11th for a variety of reasons.) I’ve been wanting to go there since last year, but Rob’s recent visit has me positively salivating to go there now. In a way, this is going to be my “last fling” before I have to start preparing for baby on an almost full time basis. And if the kiddo likes these old games as much as I do, I’ll bet there’s another visit to 1984 down the road.

I wonder if they have a TV ad? 😉 … Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Music

Evan’s wittle wistening womb

We decided to start giving little E a bit of listening time while he’s still swimmin’ around without a care in the world. This is what we’ve started him off with today:

  1. Days Of Future Passed – Moody Blues
  2. Eldorado – ELO
  3. True Colours – Split Enz
  4. The Carl Stalling Project Volume 1: Music From Warner Bros. Cartoons 1936-1958
  5. Katamari Fortissimo Damacy
  6. Reckless Nights & Turkish Twilights – Raymond Scott

Hey, he’s gonna be hanging out with the old man listening to this stuff all the time anyway. Might as well get a little bit of pre-programming done. (How his mother feels about listening to this stuff – and keep in mind, my wife (A) is under the impression that I don’t listen to anything that isn’t either instrumental or somehow related to the Beatles, and (B) doesn’t like most of my listening choices anyway – I’ll find out some unspecified future date. Probably quite loudly, I suspect.)

My criteria for this first round was: happy, bouncy stuff with some rhythm. Sure, rapidly changing rhythm, in the case of Stalling, but stuff with a clear rhythm. I’ve got all three volumes of Raymond Scott’s Soothing Sounds For Baby (yes, the ones packaged like a 1950s Gerber ad in a CD case with the subtitle “Your Infant’s Friend In Sound”), but those’ll drive mama crazy faster than the whole Katamari CD.

It’s probably safe to expect a seismic shift in what kind of music gets reviewed in the music section here late this year. 😆 We’ll see how long it takes Evan to figure out that the Enz’s “Nobody Takes Me Seriously” is his daddy’s theme song.

If you’ll excuse me now, I’m gonna go swim around without a care in the world.… Read more

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Critters Music Television & Movies

I like to run like a horse. I like to swim like a fish. That’s what I like.

Okay, get a load of this. My wife says I’m not blogging enough. Heh. Sorry I’ve fallen off the blawgwagon just a little bit of late. Blame it on the swimming pool: if I’m going and spending an hour or two in the drink every day, that’s a couple of hours I’m not getting to spend on the computer. Where, between moving massive chunks of the web site to WordPress and other projects, I’ve kinda felt like I’m spending plenty of time lately, thanks very much.

I completely forgot to mention how things wrapped up with the little grey kitten. I took her up to my sister-in-law’s farm, where she was immediately set to her first task – mousing in the tack room. I think she’ll do well. So we’re back to the fearsome threesome, though I think Oberon actually missed her for the first couple of days. I don’t think there’s a single honestly mean impulse between him and Olivia.

I was watching the little mini-series spin-off thingamabob “After The Catch” tonight, where the crab boat captains from “The Deadliest Catch” sit around and tell fish stories – well, okay, crab stories – and I’m thinking we need at least a one-hour special just talking to the photogs who shoot that show. Again, talk about a gig I would not want. Yeesh.

Orac 3.0 is up and running, so far, so good. I’m still not-quite-up and hobbling. Hence all the time in the pool.

Mini music brag of the week, with a little ‘support’ from Sy the Cyberman:
Witchblade CD
…signed by Joel Goldsmith no less. Really, really trippy stuff. Memo to Warner Bros.: this show needs to be on DVD, stat.

I’ll say more when I have more to say.… Read more

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Gadgetology Music

Flat on our backs, taking the rest of the day off

I’ve had a couple of days this week where just about nothing got accomplished. My right foot, or more specifically the middle toe of my right foot, has been killing me for a couple of weeks now, and the pain got to where I almost couldn’t walk. I went to see the doctor, thinking “broken toe,” had X-rays taken…and lo and behold, no fracture.

I do, however, have funky mutant feet. I’ve always been able to pick things up off the floor with my toes and then “hand” those things off to an actual hand. Turns out there’s a reason for that. Two of the toes on my right foot are actually fingers – they have three segments and three joints, whereas your typical human toe has only two of each. The injury is an inflammation of a joint that, if you just look at the toe from the outside, doesn’t seem like it should be there. The one next to the little toe on that foot looks like a talon waiting to be deployed. So now I suppose the real question is: will my son have funky mutant feet too?

Anyway, my “sentence” is to take anti-inflammatory stuff twice a day, soak my foot a lot (and it just so happens that I’ve got a little mini-hot-tub thingy for that, something I bought for my wife for Christmas 3 or 4 years ago that never came out of the box until yesterday), and not walk any more than is necessary. I was given pain meds as well, but the first one I took – over 12 hours ago – is still just now trying to wear off. (I probably have the opposite of an immunity to pain medicine, because I don’t regularly dose myself with aspirin, Tylenol, Advil, etc. etc., and I can’t even imagine taking this stuff “every 4 hours as needed” like the label says – I’d be in a coma.)

In other news, I haven’t been checking homestarrunner.com as much as I used to, but this thing is pure gold. I must have played with that for half an hour. That has to be one of the neatest Flash apps I’ve ever seen, and it beats the pants off of a similar (well, similar in concept, certainly nowhere near this in terms of graceful execution and ease of use) thing the BBC did a while back to let people remix the original Doctor Who theme to their liking. Even if you just watch the cartoon, it’s very amusing, but don’t forget to click on “mix your own style” at the end. Even folks who aren’t Homestar fans can appreciate this one for its sheer creativity.

Speaking of making strange sounds come out of the speakers of electronic devices (I should have the equivalent of a degree in that by now), I recently tried some experiments with my cell phone to see if it would play an MP3 as a ringtone, and voila, it does. Suddenly, all those classic video game sound FX CDs that I’ve accumulated and thought “Well, that’s neat, but what possible use could anyone have…?” have become much more useful.

Oh, and one tiny little plug: if you like a bit of Star Wars, you might want to check theLogBook.com’s Monday update. 😉… Read more

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Funny Stuff Music

Foghat’s revenge

Dammit, dammit, dammit.

It’s three in the morning. I just read an old post of Sothy’s on the Digital Press forums.

And I cannot, for the love of all things holy (and a few things that aren’t), get “SLOW RIDE! TAKE IT EEEEEASY!” out of my head now.

I mean…this is how wars start. A small number of very select, obscure, Foghat-oriented wars, that is.

I’m ready for the itching to stop, by the way.… Read more

Categories
Music

Mid-Year Album Anticipation Thread

Well, not so much anticipation – quite a few of these are already out, I’ve just been too broke to pick ’em up, what with constant vehicle repairs and all, and truth be told I’ve tried to limit my musical lust this year – heck, I’ve tried to limit my lust across the board, society demands it, you know? – since we have many other important things to spend money on (around Casa Green, we’ve developed a special code name for these purchases: 4DBB. Say it out loud, you’ll figure it out!).

Anyway, here goes:

Alan Parsons: Let's Talk About MeAlan Parsons Project remasters. I really haven’t had much to say to the major labels lately unless they throw stuff that I already know is good at me, this time with bonus tracks and other goodies. The Alan Parsons Project remasters aren’t quite up to the level of the ELO remasters for real live new/newly-discovered material, but I’m loving them all the same. I Robot, Eye In The Sky, Vulture Culture and Tales Of Mystery And Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe are out, and so far I’ve pick up all but Poe (it’s a double-disc set, and apparently import only, so it’s kinda expensive). Yet to come this year: Ammonia Avenue, Eve, Gaudi, Pyramid, Stereotomy and The Turn Of A Friendly Card. If they really want to score points with me, patterning future remasters after the new release of Eye In The Sky is not something I’d kick someone out of bed for.

Jason Falkner - I'm OK You're OKJason Falkner: I’m OK You’re OK. I’ve been waiting years for this. Literally years! After his 1998 album, Jason’s only given us a six-song EP as a solo project, and has been involved in a variety of side projects (TV Eye, Logan’s Sanctuary, Bedtime With The Beatles), all of which I’ve liked, but man, I love the music this guy makes on his own. There’s nothing quite like it. If you want someone who just “gets” that ’70s power pop vibe, with strong hints of ELO, Todd Rundgren, Argent, etc., and yet it’s brand new music, you simply cannot go wrong with some Jason Falkner. Again, this one’s import only thus far, and from Japan no less (why, God, why?), so…$$$.

Royksopp - Back To MineRoyksopp: Back To Mine. I remember a time when I insisted that I just don’t “do” club music. Being exposed to quite a bit of good stuff in that genre since then has helped me to get the stick outta my ass regarding that genre, and one of my consistent favorites is Royksopp, a duo from Norway which makes downtempo sound epic and majestic. Back To Mine sounds like a really interesting and probably fun listen, in which the guys take the songs that they cite as key influences on their style…and proceed to remix the heck out of ’em. So it’s not a new original studio album, but I’m interested enough to give it a listen.

Idle Race - Back To The StoryIdle Race: Back To The Story. This 2-CD set containing the complete recordings of Jeff Lynne’s first band was released quite a few years back, and then went out of print. For me to have tracked down a copy on the ‘bay would’ve meant choosing between this and a house payment, so a reissue is a dream come true. Even though it’s an import, it’s a pretty budget-priced import, and again, I’ve been waiting years for this. I’ve heard some of the songs before, but haven’t heard the Race’s third and final (and only post-Lynne) album before. Listen up for “The Lady Who Said She Could Fly” and ask yourself why, if ELO was up for covering “Do Ya”, they never revisited this song. Just gorgeous stuff, and some of Lynne’s early songwriting is up there with the best of his later works.

Levinhurst: House By The Sea. I haven’t grabbed a cover for this yet, but I really enjoyed Levinhurst’s first album, and I’m glad they found a home for a second one. (Levinhurst = vocalist Cindy Levin – I think that’s her name, I could be wrong – and the Cure’s Lol Tolhurst, by the way.)

Ben Folds: Supersunnerspeedgraphic: The LP. Granted, I’ve heard a lot of this material before too, because I was one of those suckers who bought the three EPs Ben turned out in the years between Rockin’ The Suburbs and Songs For Silverman. But throw in some remixing, some re-recording, and a couple of new tunes, and this becomes a whole different stopgap release.

Tori Amos: American Doll Posse. With each album Tori releases, I’m a little more uncertain of whether or not I really “get” her anymore, but damned if I’m not intrigued. This one just came out, and it sounds really interesting from a conceptual standpoint. Of course, I’m sure that I felt that way at one point about Strange Little Girls before I got to hear it…

Bear McCreary: Battlestar Galactica Season 3. Four words for you: “All Along The Watchtower.” Okay, that’s not the only reason to pick this one up, because Bear’s music just rocks across the board. But it’s one that I can’t get out of my head.

Last but certainly not least, the single most anticipated thing this year aside from Falkner:

Crowded House: Time On Earth. Neil and Nick? Back together? Any Neil Finn album is a cause for celebration, but this reunion, even without Paul Hester in the drum seat, is something I’d never thought I’d hear. And they’re going to tour? Please proceed to rock the hell on!

I know one can’t live in the past, and it’s unwise to try to inject one’s kids into one’s own childhood, but a world in which Star Wars and Crowded House and Doctor Who are back among the living sounds kinda like a neat world to me – not a bad place to grow up. If, out of that list, there’s even one thing that sticks around long enough for my kid and his old man to enjoy together, then I’ll consider us both lucky.

P.S. Dear Mr. Finn: please consider playing Tulsa or Little Rock. I promise, you don’t have to get any closer to Atlanta than that.… Read more

Categories
Gaming Home Base Music Television & Movies

A brief, and yet still boring, look at my day

The past 24 hours or so are really supposed to have constituted my “day off,” a concept which increasingly is fading from the realm of the real and being relegated to the realm of the mythological. (I know, I know – just wait until the baby arrives and “8 hours of sleep” also fades into myth.)

I spent a good chunk of my day mowing the front yard – as much of it as I could – with a weed eater whose battery goes kersplat after about 45 minutes. We have yet to pick up the push mower that I lusted after a while back, as Jan’s vehicle had another breakdown Friday. If the vehicle’s not a lemon, then the place in Rogers we’ve had to keep taking it to is, at least in my mind, highly suspect. I can’t come up with words to express how much we don’t need this go-in-for-one-repair-and-three-other-things-that-were-fine-suddenly-fall-apart-the-next-week crap right now. It’s just getting extremely suspicious. If I do find out they’ve been screwing us, I’m not going to walk in there and kick their asses. I’m going to let her do it – and trust me, that’s gonna hurt a hell of a lot more. (I know of what I speak here.)

Anyway, I also sprayed some weed-killer along our fence rows, tried rather not-at-all-successfully to install a screen on yet another window, and got some fallen limbs and hedge clippings out of the yard. I even remembered to wear something on my head – which is now a crispy golden-brown – during most of this activity.

Late last night, I got a bit of gaming in, trying out a few old friends and testing out some new ones I hadn’t played before, and I’m working on the reviews of those games right now. I set up a new video segment to render on the Avid today every time I came inside to get a drink, go to the bathroom, install some new weed-eater cord, etc., so it was digesting all that raw footage and farting up video segments while I was working outside. (On second thought, there has simply got to be a better way to put that.)

During the height of the mid-day heat, I came inside for a bit to wash, dry and fold clothes, and watched the Doctor Who Keeper Of Traken DVD with the commentary on. It’s funny how art imitates life (I’m one of the few folks out there who openly admits to enjoying Matthew Waterhouse and his portrayal of Adric, but by the beginning of part 3 I was mentally willing him to shut the heck up and let the other folks get a word in edgewise) and how it doesn’t (it’s incredibly sad that Anthony Ainley only got to do this one DVD commentary before his death a few years ago, because he seems like such a nice fellow, a real old-school British showbiz gentleman). There’s a nice dedication to him at the end of part 4. I’ll have a full review up, maybe as soon as next weekend, time permitting.

Jan and I watched the Olivia de Havilland / Errol Flynn Robin Hood tonight. Man, I love that movie. Flynn’s just the quintessential cocky-bastard-with-a-heart-of-gold in that one, and everyone from Harrison Ford on down who’s essayed some variation on that basic archetype owes him at least a nod. For the record, I have yet to see a movie or TV take on the Robin Hood legend that I like better than this. Seriously. And let’s not get started on Korngold’s put-the-whole-brass-section-right-in-your-face score.

I’m so looking forward to the push mower – I could actually listen to something on my minidisc player while I’m mowing the yard. And hear it. I was trying to listen to the score from The Incredibles today while doing my weed-whacking (hey, you have to afford me at least one big beefy delusion of grandeur a day), and that music is not quiet and it is not subtle, and I could barely hear it.… Read more