Sunday, August 23, 2009
Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up
This video mash-up has been around for a while, dropping Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" into Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", but I only became aware of it recently. Seems to work out far too well. If I ever have the chance to sing "Smells Like Teen Spirit", I just might lapse into "Never Gonna Give You Up", just for laughs...
Saturday, August 22, 2009
The Music Project - Most Recent Session, and the Naming Process
We almost had two guitar players for today's session, so we still had one left when one of them went down with an injury. I'm not kidding. My stepnephew was supposed to make his second appearance with us, but did his thumb some serious mischief in an accident while painting a house. He tried to play guitar afterward to test it, and when the bandages kept getting bloodier, it was obvious that this wasn't a good idea.
The new guy, Rob, hadn't yet learned all of the songs, so we primarily focused on the ones he was able to learn for the session. We really only got through four songs with him, though we did each a couple of times, and they were improving on each attempt, so we're going to invite him back and hopefully we'll be able to get more done when he's had the chance to work on more of the songs we've been playing. Unfortunately for me, he doesn't sing, so I'm still on my own in that department unless Bryan or Bob shows up again. And Rob's tastes run heavier than ours, so there are signs that if we let him pick some songs (and it's only right that he should if he'll be sticking around), I'll be putting some serious strain on my voice in the near future.
It was a real joy to stay on bass again and just focus on singing and how the bass worked with the drums for a change. I think Jason and I sounded good together for the most part, if a bit rusty in spots.
After Rob had to leave, I picked up the guitar and Jason and I ran through some new songs we haven't tried before. "Cath" by Death Cab for Cutie probably sounded the best of them. It's definitely not a song I would've chosen myself, but I really like the lyrics.
It seems as though Rob is likely to stick around, and Bryan had shown new interest (at least until he was injured), so Jason raised the issue of naming the group. I'd been thinking we didn't really need a name, since we weren't planning on playing in public apart from the odd party, but it would make some things easier if we called it something. We have a few ideas we like, but nothing finalized yet. If anyone reading this has ideas on the subject, I'm more than willing to listen.
The new guy, Rob, hadn't yet learned all of the songs, so we primarily focused on the ones he was able to learn for the session. We really only got through four songs with him, though we did each a couple of times, and they were improving on each attempt, so we're going to invite him back and hopefully we'll be able to get more done when he's had the chance to work on more of the songs we've been playing. Unfortunately for me, he doesn't sing, so I'm still on my own in that department unless Bryan or Bob shows up again. And Rob's tastes run heavier than ours, so there are signs that if we let him pick some songs (and it's only right that he should if he'll be sticking around), I'll be putting some serious strain on my voice in the near future.
It was a real joy to stay on bass again and just focus on singing and how the bass worked with the drums for a change. I think Jason and I sounded good together for the most part, if a bit rusty in spots.
After Rob had to leave, I picked up the guitar and Jason and I ran through some new songs we haven't tried before. "Cath" by Death Cab for Cutie probably sounded the best of them. It's definitely not a song I would've chosen myself, but I really like the lyrics.
It seems as though Rob is likely to stick around, and Bryan had shown new interest (at least until he was injured), so Jason raised the issue of naming the group. I'd been thinking we didn't really need a name, since we weren't planning on playing in public apart from the odd party, but it would make some things easier if we called it something. We have a few ideas we like, but nothing finalized yet. If anyone reading this has ideas on the subject, I'm more than willing to listen.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
New Toy - Boss ME-50
My wife has been particularly supportive of my musical activities recently and has actually been encouraging me to spend money on it (time remains a trickier issue). We discussed her philosophy behind it, which I won't go into here, but the bottom line is that I don't think this point of view is going anywhere soon. She's been very encouraging regarding my progress on guitar over the last several months. Life is good.
And so I picked up an effects device that I can use for both guitar and bass, spending a couple of hours playing with it this afternoon. Big Fun, and practical in several respects. One of the effects will allow me to play a bass part and a guitar part at the same time, which is especially useful since we have only two players at the moment. At the very least, several of the effects will help fill out the sound, and some of the stranger effects will at least add novelty value for jamming. I've never had a wah pedal before, and had a blast playing bass with it.
My wife actually gave me heck for not coming home on the same trip with a Fender Stratocaster I've had my eye on. I hate to miss such an opportunity, but at the same time, there are more practical things I should probably be putting money into at this point.
And so I picked up an effects device that I can use for both guitar and bass, spending a couple of hours playing with it this afternoon. Big Fun, and practical in several respects. One of the effects will allow me to play a bass part and a guitar part at the same time, which is especially useful since we have only two players at the moment. At the very least, several of the effects will help fill out the sound, and some of the stranger effects will at least add novelty value for jamming. I've never had a wah pedal before, and had a blast playing bass with it.
My wife actually gave me heck for not coming home on the same trip with a Fender Stratocaster I've had my eye on. I hate to miss such an opportunity, but at the same time, there are more practical things I should probably be putting money into at this point.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
May
No, not the month. It's a movie title, and specifically the name of the main character. But on to the point...
This movie is a disturbing little affair I found on Netflix, and wouldn't have taken a chance on pre-Netflix. It focuses on one of my favorite subjects, which is the weirdness behind the person next door. I probably find it so fascinating precisely because it's exactly the sort of thing most people don't like to think about.
May is an attractive, but shy and odd sort of girl (and she has reason to be). In the course of the movie you follow her through a series of attempts to relate to other people, which of course don't work out very well, or it wouldn't be much of a movie. The point is that you really come to feel for her, even as she becomes stranger and stranger. There are no supernatural elements here, and I think they would actually have taken away from the impact. It's a lot more frightening to think that people can do this without some kind of powerful interference than if you had the Irresistible Boogie Man clearly running the show from behind the scenes.
One of the Netflix user reviews described "May" as being more of a character study than a horror film, and I'd say that's exactly correct. There are horrific elements, but they're not the point, really. This one is well worth a rental some time when you're in the mood for something off the beaten path. It's low budget, so don't go in expecting much, but it's quite well done and worth a look. I won't even try to give a numeric rating because your viewpoint on it will depend a lot on what you're looking for in the first place.
This movie is a disturbing little affair I found on Netflix, and wouldn't have taken a chance on pre-Netflix. It focuses on one of my favorite subjects, which is the weirdness behind the person next door. I probably find it so fascinating precisely because it's exactly the sort of thing most people don't like to think about.
May is an attractive, but shy and odd sort of girl (and she has reason to be). In the course of the movie you follow her through a series of attempts to relate to other people, which of course don't work out very well, or it wouldn't be much of a movie. The point is that you really come to feel for her, even as she becomes stranger and stranger. There are no supernatural elements here, and I think they would actually have taken away from the impact. It's a lot more frightening to think that people can do this without some kind of powerful interference than if you had the Irresistible Boogie Man clearly running the show from behind the scenes.
One of the Netflix user reviews described "May" as being more of a character study than a horror film, and I'd say that's exactly correct. There are horrific elements, but they're not the point, really. This one is well worth a rental some time when you're in the mood for something off the beaten path. It's low budget, so don't go in expecting much, but it's quite well done and worth a look. I won't even try to give a numeric rating because your viewpoint on it will depend a lot on what you're looking for in the first place.
Saturday, August 01, 2009
The Happiest Man in the World
I wouldn't have expected something like this to be measurable, but apparently some scientists have given it a pretty good try, and the best results were from a Buddhist monk named Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.
An organization called the Mind and Life Institute worked with Richard Davidson, the director of the Weisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin. The bottom line result is that people who had spent a lot of time meditating (they compare it to the amount of a time an Olympic athlete puts into training for the Olympics) showed much greater activity in the parts of the brain associated with happiness than the average person, showing as much as 700 to 800 percent more activity. And our boy Yongey was the champion of the bunch, standing out significantly even from the other champion meditators.
The good news for more mainstream folks is that even beginning meditators showed a 10 to 15 percent improvement over average people, so you don't have to devote your life to it to feel results.
So now I'm reading Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche's book, "The Joy of Living". It's interesting stuff, drawing from both Buddhist training and science. His father was a scientist and had a lot of friends who were significant figures in the world scientific community while he was growing up, and they were more than willing to talk with him about science, so he learned everything he could from them. His main point is that the more he learns about science, the more he feels it validates spiritual ideas that have been around for thousands of years.
The most significant application for me has been his detailed descriptions of various meditation techniques, which I've been putting to use. It's far too soon to expect results of any kind, but I don't think I'll ever be bored again. There's too much available to do with a human mind, even in an empty room with nothing in particular to do outwardly. Maybe in a year or two I can honestly claim some of that 10-15% improvement in my mental well being.
An organization called the Mind and Life Institute worked with Richard Davidson, the director of the Weisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin. The bottom line result is that people who had spent a lot of time meditating (they compare it to the amount of a time an Olympic athlete puts into training for the Olympics) showed much greater activity in the parts of the brain associated with happiness than the average person, showing as much as 700 to 800 percent more activity. And our boy Yongey was the champion of the bunch, standing out significantly even from the other champion meditators.
The good news for more mainstream folks is that even beginning meditators showed a 10 to 15 percent improvement over average people, so you don't have to devote your life to it to feel results.
So now I'm reading Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche's book, "The Joy of Living". It's interesting stuff, drawing from both Buddhist training and science. His father was a scientist and had a lot of friends who were significant figures in the world scientific community while he was growing up, and they were more than willing to talk with him about science, so he learned everything he could from them. His main point is that the more he learns about science, the more he feels it validates spiritual ideas that have been around for thousands of years.
The most significant application for me has been his detailed descriptions of various meditation techniques, which I've been putting to use. It's far too soon to expect results of any kind, but I don't think I'll ever be bored again. There's too much available to do with a human mind, even in an empty room with nothing in particular to do outwardly. Maybe in a year or two I can honestly claim some of that 10-15% improvement in my mental well being.
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