Category: Music

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Critters Music

Show us where the bad cat touched you…

frisky CatNow I remember the other stuff that was eluding me in the wee hours of the morning.

For the past several weeks, Oberon has developed a really peculiar routine whenever I lay down to sleep, and this routine is apparently reserved just for me: after I’ve been laying down for a while, wherever that happens to be, he jumps on one of my legs and starts kneading it relentlessly. If I try to shake him off, he tries to bite down (and doesn’t particularly care if he’s biting a big wad of blanket or my leg) and hold on. It would seem that somebody thinks I’ve got awfully sexy legs, because he certainly seems to be trying to mate with them. Sometimes I get annoyed enough to sit up and remove him, other times he disengages and leaves me alone. When I remove him, there’s a pretty good chance he’ll come back and start again. Before anyone asks, yes, he was neutered when we first took him in (almost exactly two years ago), and no, he doesn’t try to get fresh with Olivia. He harrasses her, sure, but in a nosy brother kind of way. And he doesn’t do this with Evan or my wife.

Face it, I’m irresistible.

In other news, the end-of-the-year favorite-music-podcast-thingie I keep talking about doing is probably going to wind up being a beginning-of-the-year favorite-music-podcast-thingie. I recorded some of my intro pieces a couple of weeks ago before I wound up feeling like chicken fried crap on a full time basis, but I hated how they turned out (iwastalkingwaytoodamnfast), and I haven’t had any kind of voice with which to redo them since I’ve gotten sick. So…probably after the first of the year, I’m afraid.

OK, that’s all. I’m gonna go sit and get molested by my cat again. Bye bye.… Read more

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Music Television & Movies

The Electric Light Jedi Orchestra

Lumpy!Every once in a while I run across something that really makes me believe in synchronicity – that there are simply no coincidences whatsoever. This interview with David Acomba, who was initially slated to direct the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, really keeps me thinking that way too. An excerpt discussing the original intentions for the legendarily lousy show’s musical direction:

FAX: It’s interesting imagining “The Star Wars Holiday Special” as a rock musical.

ACOMBA: It definitely would have had more rock ‘n’ roll in the same way that Robin Phillips is more rock ‘n’ roll, it’s just crazier. It needn’t have been loud, grungy stuff, but it would have been much more contemporary and much simpler. I like really simple music tracks. I think it would have turned out to be much better.

FAX: Who might you have used?

ACOMBA: Let’s see, who was available at the time? The new version of Jefferson Starship had some big hits at the time and that was okay for me. The Electric Light Orchestra, not my favorite group but, on the other hand, it does have some relevance because they were very big at the time.

It just goes to show that I’ve been right all these years: as hairy as he is, Jeff Lynne is a Wookiee. As many sci-fi references and concepts as he managed to sneak into ELO’s lyrics over the years, one can only imagine that old Jeff would’ve jumped at the chance. On the flipside, I’m glad that things didn’t happen that way – it took long enough for me to get my hands on “Beatles Forever.” Considering that Jefferson Starship’s song from the Holiday Special was never an album track (and so far as I know, hasn’t even shown up on any career retrospectives), the last thing I would’ve needed would be another impossible-to-find ELO song.

But given that I’m a huge fan of both ELO and Star Wars, I’m sure I would’ve figured something out. 😉… Read more

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Music

Carnival of Light

Abbey RoadCNN reports that there are hints – based, really, on nothing more than a random soundbite from Paul McCartney – that the lost Beatles experimental sound collage (or collision, maybe more like) “Carnival Of Light” might finally see the light of day. What’s really funny is that he’ll have to have the permission of Yoko Ono to release it, as well as George Harrison’s widow. And while that’s completely understandable, I find myself wondering…could “Carnival” actually manage to be any less comprehensible than, say, every other thing Yoko’s ever done?… Read more

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Cooking With Code Music

Just a little regeneration

Scribblings version......whatever version it is nowAfter a little bit of tinkering with a woefully crippled but otherwise very attractive theme (I think the idea was, though I didn’t see this explicitly stated anywhere, that you’d pay for an uncrippled version), I’m happy to unveil the latest regeneration of Scribblings Of The Public Restroom Stalls Of The Gods.

If you’re reading this on Livejournal or Myspace…this won’t affect you a bit. Carry on. (My wayward son.) Those who do occasionally drop in on the point of origin of all of this blithering that I do, go have a look – I think it’s pretty cool, and I’m happy with the job I did of excising the not-quite-expert job of hobbling the original theme. I can live with the results. There are still a few very minor bugs to work out, but not game-killers.

I’m still picking out stuff for the end-of-year favorite-music podcast-o-rama. How’s three hours sound to you? No?… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Critters Music

The opposite of cold dog

We have our first freeze warning of the season tonight, and the wind is positively fierce into the bargain, so Xena’s spending a rare night inside with us. Too bad Evan was already in bed – he’d be delighted to see her. As much as he loves kitties (and he even says “kit-ty!” when he sees one of the cats), he gets so excited and forgets to be gentle. Olivia bears it up to a certain point and runs away; Oberon takes a lot more abuse, probably because he’s bigger and obviously not as “fragile” as Olivia, and will make a token “I’m gonna bite you” gesture before taking off and hiding. (He never actually bites. He just tries to psych the kid out.) With Xena, Evan’s not-so-gentle pats are par for the course. And since he’s learned to say “dog-gie” too, she’s perfectly happy. If he gets too overbearing, she just asks to be let outside – problem solved.

Doctor Who: Series 4I gave the 30-second track-by-track previews for the Doctor Who series 4 soundtrack a listen today, and I’m much more excited about it than I already was – it’ll certainly be better than the series 3 soundtrack, which was heavy on stuff from Human Nature, which, while it was based on my all-time favorite Doctor Who novel, turned out to be far from my favorite episode. Now, the flipside of that is that there seems to be a notable lack of action music from the Sontaran 2-parter on the series 4 CD – at least if the track samples are anything to go by – including the repeated build-up to (and avoidance of) the nuclear launch, but I’m waiting for the CD itself to see if any of that stuff is tucked away somewhere. You can pretty much bet on a couple of selections from this working their way into what’s looking like it’ll be an epic-length year-end favorite-music podcast. With my recent lucky find of a very, very cheap (i.e. less than $3 – yay eBay) copy of Levinhurst’s House By The Sea album, as well as the final trio of Alan Parsons Project remasters, the Doctor Who CD is the last thing on my music want list for this year. At least soundtrack-wise, this has been a dandy year for music (Lost Season 3, Torchwood, Prince Caspian, Wargames, the Stargate direct-to-DVD movies, and new Indiana Jones and Batman music); I’m not complaining too much on the non-soundtrack front either.

How I made the leap from Evan and the dog to soundtrack music, I have no idea. Which probably means I need sleep.… Read more

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Music

That annual thing I do with music and crap.

They're on instruments....GET IT???!??So, I’m sitting here doing some stuff, and listening to some music I’ve gotten this year, thinking about carving stuff up for the annual “best music I discovered this year” compilation that I make available for a couple of weeks around Christmas before “disappearing” it to placate the copyright gods. I thought I’d ask a couple of questions before I even bother to start on this year’s, though:

  1. Does anyone even listen to it? (If you’re scratching your head and going “What compilation?” I’m gonna take that as a no.)
  2. What’s your preference: a continuous running compilation with brief excerpts of each selection, or a longer radio-style podcast with introductions/comments/etc. between full-length selections? Or something else entirely?

One is actually much easier to do than the other – and it’s probably not the one you’re thinking, either. The compilation has become my own little mini-tradition that 2.8 people probably pay attention to, combining my personal favorites from the mainstream (and, more often, from way the hell outside the mainstream – it’s not like I really bother with radio or music video channels, or, for that matter, music videos anymore) and from various film/TV scores I’ve really dug.

But I thought I’d ask before taking the plunge. I’m picking music. That’s the easy part (almost). Putting it all together, that’s the tough stuff. Since you’re the poor sods who would, in theory, actually be listening to it (and perhaps I’m assuming too much there), I thought I’d ask.… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Home Base Music Television & Movies

It is broken. We look for things to make it go.

You are smartArgh. For some reason that I can’t figure out and don’t really have the time to screw with much, Scribblings (the original, you might say, at theLogBook.com) is broken. Videos don’t work anymore for no real reason that I’ve been able to fathom, actually getting it to accept new content is hit-or-miss, and it’s just emblematic of the site as a whole – WordPress was supposed to liberate me to some extent, and let me just concentrate on generating content, because I write almost constantly, and don’t want to have to code pages almost constantly. But it’s maintaining the infrastructure that’s killing me. When I upgraded the WordPress that drives the episode guide, it completely wiped out all categories, and I’m still going through those 2,500-odd entries and re-categorizing them (i.e. Star Trek? check. Deep Space Nine? check. Season 4? check.)…I’m up to 1995 now. Which is quite a feat when the thing starts in the ’50s. It really renews my appreciation for just how much ground the site covers, how much written material (and hopefully well-written material) it represents…and makes the back of my brain throb and beg for More Help With The Damn Thing. It’s not WordPress’s fault, but the early days of the toddler era is not a good time for me to be able to find the kind of time it takes to prop up that infrastructure all the time. The news page has also been hit by the same bug, and I just. don’t. have. the. time. I’ve stopped updating the news page. I’ve looked for someone to take it over, but there’s only so much I can offer when the site’s revenue basically covers its own bills (and to be honest, that’d be a misnomer this year – the PDF DVD is what’s paying the site’s bills right now; the site itself – aside from hosting the ordering page for the DVD – hasn’t made a cent this month). Next year is theLogBook’s 20th anniversary, but I’m starting to wonder if it might not be time to start dialing the whole thing down a bit and just doing sporadic updates. When I feel like it. Rather than trying to generate, on a weekly basis, what I would’ve needed to fill the 6-page print fanzine that theLogBook was in the 1990s.

I don’t even know if this entry will post, so before I hit the ‘submit’ button, I’m going to grab the whole thing and copy it to the clipboard. 😆

On the home front, I’ve just finished a bit of marathon data entry for the in-laws, which proved to be an exhausting, round-the-clock-for-several-days exercise that made me want to say “Uh…you guys do realize I have a child to look after…right?” I’m relieved that that’s over.

Today Evan uttered a new word quite clearly while patting Xena on the nose: DOG-GIE! Her tail started wagging so fast that I was afraid she’d start helicoptering and her butt would raise into the air and lift the rest of her away. Evan has also proven quite capable of playing with Oberon with a length of thick string (I think it’s the drawstring from the swim trunks I wore incessantly in 2007 that no longer fit me – even with the drawstring, they’re too big). He’s really picking up on the “animals-are-your-friends” thing at a very early age, and he seems to have a natural tendency to be gentle toward them (aside from occasionally wallowing all over Olivia like she’s an escapee from his stuffed animal collection that jumped out of the crib and somehow attained free will). Hopefully he’ll never outgrow that.

Work is continuing on the CGE DVD project, and after that I think I’m going to take a break of a week or so to just chill out and not edit any video for a bit. I’ve done more editing lately than I’ve done since the first PDF DVD, or maybe even since the TV station days, and it’s worn me out just a little bit. (The data-entry-o-thon sure as hell didn’t help to alleviate that sense of fatigue.)

Listening-wise, I’ve been devouring the last trio of Alan Parsons Project remasters, Ben Folds’ really uneven new album, and some other stuff. Supposedly, tomorrow we’ll have the tracklist for the new Doctor Who soundtrack album due in November, which I’m looking forward to tremendously. There was some fantastic music this season, moreso than in season 3 I thought. As far as watching stuff… I’m so far behind on Heroes that I’ve almost given up on it. It’s going to become one of these things where I’ll just wait until it’s all over and watch it in marathon viewings, the way some folks are doing Lost if they haven’t been in on the joke from day one. (For that matter, I’m beginning to feel that way about Lost too.) I have been watching The Sarah Jane Adventures (cool), as well as meandering through a couple of other short-lived BBC series, Star Cops (very ’80s, but really not bad) and Moonbase 3 (an early ’70s British companion piece to The Starlost…with about the same tone and pacing and bizarrely overdramatic characterization). I recently finished watching the first season of Alien Nation, picking up on all the episodes I missed out on the first time around, and while it too is hopelessly ’80s, it had so much potential that I’m depressed all over again in retrospect. The TV movies were initially a nice consolation prize, but then they became victims of the law of diminishing returns. A lot of this stuff I’ve been watching to add to the episode guide section, and between that and my general state of fatigue, I’ve been doing all of this viewing and listening in a kind of dazed mode. I haven’t picked up any new viewing habits from the new season, and I think it’s just a combination of not having the energy to devote to appointment viewing and the current crop of stuff just not hitting me the right way. Even The Sarah Jane Adventures don’t really qualify as appointment viewing – I download the episodes, burn them to a DVD-RW, and watch them when I have a chance, and then wipe the disc and reuse it when I have both parts of the next story. Suddenly I understand how/why parents can seem like they’re so out of touch: here I am, listening to new releases of old music, playing (or thinking a lot about) old video games, watching (for the most part) old TV shows. I’m clearly way past it.

I should probably hold off on writing anything else until I’m – ha! – less tired.… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Music ToyBox

Dancin’ with Delia and other random thoughts

You know, anymore, it seems like 50% of everything I blog about has something to do with Doctor Who. I really don’t try to do that deliberately, but it just kinda happens. I’m on a Who high at the moment – even rewatched Turn Left on Sci-Fi tonight. I’ve been kinda bummed lately, so I guess I’m clinging tenaciously to whatever has most recently brought a smile to my face. *shrug*

That also means clinging tenaciously to a certain baby. He’s now cruising around the house under his own power, delighting in his mobility, practicing standing up at every possible opportunity, and finding new and exciting objects that he really shouldn’t even think about putting in his mouth, and yet manages to at least think about doing it anyway. He loves chasing Oberon. Poor Obi woke up today, having slept most of the day away in Evan’s bouncy chair, to find Evan standing over him. You could see the fear: oh my God, he’s going to be able to chase me around now. 😆 Today I read him “Sammy, The White House Mouse,” a book that was given to me when I was an extremely young’un – it still has my nameplate sticker in the front of the book. I hadn’t read it in…well…let’s say 30+ years. I’m glad I still have so many of those old books of mine hanging around. (I’m loathe to do away with a book that isn’t a duplicate.) … Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff Music

I just thought you’d like to know that

liquid Q*Bert delivered hot - or at least disturbingly warm - and fresh to your doorOne of my antibiotics that I’m on turns my pee orange. And my sweat too. We’re talking bright orange. Melt down Q*Bert, pour him in the toilet, that’s what it looks like. Complete with @#%&*!.

Now there’s a point to this story. I went Sunday after my first doctor’s visit to procure the aforementioned orange-pee antibiotic from Walgreen’s. There were two pharmacists on duty, an older guy and a younger lady. He briefed me on side-effects, and as he was doing this she was walking toward the counter. His litany of affected bodily fluids got to “If you wear contacts, this’ll stain your contacts orange. If you sweat, it’ll stain your underwear orange.” To which I replied, “Well, I don’t wear contacts. But I do wear underwear.” [pause] “Most of the time.”

At the sound of that statement, the lady pharmacist very quickly turned on her heel and went back the other way. 😆 I went to the same store today to pick up more crap that had been prescribed to me, and lo and behold, she stayed right away from me for some reason…

I’m listening to the new “Peter Gabriel & Friends” album, and so help me, first thing on the album is one of these tracks that I’ve been wondering about for years, featuring Tim Finn. Actually, featuring Tim and Andy White, which might date their contributions back to their brief collaboration as ALT (Andy, Liam O’Maonlai, Tim) in the mid-90s. Given that not all of the songs on the album even feature Gabriel himself, my first impression was that some of these tracks were very literally dusted off so they could find a home somewhere. I’m not saying that the “guest artist” tracks are necessarily bad, but it’s perhaps not what you’re expecting when you’re enough of a fan that the words “new Peter Gabriel album” trigger that Pavlovian buying response. I also notice that there’s a lot of Karl Wallinger (World Party) on here – and rather fewer of Gabriel’s usual session players. And “Burn Me Up, Burn Me Down” finally gets a proper release…even though it was finished at the time of Up and damn well would’ve been a better lead single. Sorry, I know I’ve said that before. I’m just bitter.

And orange. Yes. Bitter and very, very orange.… Read more