Beautiful doom

So I haven't had much activity here this week except to update some old posts. I've had a bad head cold since last Sunday. I called in sick Monday, worked sick for three days, and took off Friday to stay in bed and take cold medicine. I'm starting to come out of it now, although I'm still not completely recovered.

The new internet service has been mostly working, and when it works, it flies. I've downloaded a few samplers that I've been trying to get time to listen to but have been spending almost all my time at home just lying in bed being miserable and trying to stay warm. So with this post I will try to catch up on the week.

I came across another amusing site that posts weird album cover art, which you may enjoy: Regrettable Music. For example:

My young son was looking over my shoulder as I was first scanning over this site, and his remark was: "Eewwww!"

I got one of those FM stereo transmitter thingies that you use to listen to your mp3 player over your car stereo speakers, and it works great. I had an old one that I bought from Radio Shack about 20 years ago, and it just didn't work well at all. It was hard-wired to work on only four different frequencies, three of which were in use by real radio stations in San Antonio and its signal wasn't strong enough to block them out. This one I just got can tune the whole FM band and can block out even some of the stronger stations, although that isn't necessary since with the whole band it's a lot easier to find a more vacant(-ish) frequency. Also the old one ran only on batteries, whereas the new one can run on either batteries or being plugged into 12 volts DC. This one only cost $10 via eBay. So I should be able to keep up with listening to new downloads more easily now. I quit wearing my mp3 player while working some time ago because it interfered too much with me being able to hear my surroundings.

Amazon has been releasing some really good samplers in the doom/ambient/drone metal genre recently. In no particular order, here they are.

With a title like Melancholy Epiphony (note the pun), I clicked the download button on this one before even reading any comments or anything. Eleven tracks for about 90 minutes of music.

The Solitude Productions Compilation has 14 tracks for about 80 minutes of music. A particular "group" that recently caught my eye--The Howling Void--turns up on this one again.

Thirteen tracks for about 75 minutes of music, but the first track sounds like it was cut short. All three of these compilations have a mixture of doom/ambient metal, some instrumental, some with growling vocals and some with clean vocals. It's all in there.

And finally, although this was the first of this group that I downloaded--my first big download with the new internet service--is Metalhit's sampler of doom metal. It was on this album that I first came across The Howling Void.

Although I haven't hunted down all the countries of origin for all of groups on these samplers, I did do so for all of the Metalhit samplers, of which the doom metal sampler is the fifth (or sixth? I don't remember). Very few of these groups are from the United States, in fact I joked with a co-worker that I usually expect them to be from Finland. However, The Howling Void is from the United States, from San Antonio, Texas, in fact. It's actually only one person named Ryan who does all instruments and vocals. Here's his blog: Voidlight.

So far I've just been using Windows Movie Maker to make the stuff I've uploaded to YouTube, but I've downloaded another program that I'm going to take a shot at. It doesn't seem to be very intuitive to me so it might take me a while to get the hang of it. It does have some snazzier effects than Movie Maker though, so I'm going to try and learn it.

I am able now to read more, faster than I was before when I was stuck on dial-up. So I'm finding I actually have more time to do other stuff without feeling like I'm losing out, and that's nice. I guess that's about all I have to say for now.

Oh yeah, I also wanted to mention one other new blog I came across. This one is being written by someone who is watching every Doctor Who episode and commenting on them. He's just begun--only 7 posts so far--so you can still get in on the beginning. Just go to TARDIS Eruditorum.

Mark Twain has some fun with extrapolation

In chapter 14, "Cutoffs and Stephen," of Life on the Mississippi, Twain explains how the river has shortened itself. This happened when the river cut across various bends in its course, creating a new island, creating new riverfront property, and taking a more direct course south. In fact, the river was thus shortened more than once intentionally by landowners who wanted their property to front the river itself, by simply digging a ditch to start the course going, and once it began, there was no stopping it. This also often resulted in ill-will, to say the least, not excluding actual killing because of it.

But then he goes off on a slight tangent to show the dangers of extrapolation:

In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oölitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three quarters long, and Cairo and new Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

Various artists - Potatoes Volume 1 (1987, LP)

UPDATE: Bumped to the top to note that you can listen to the full album at YouTube if you wish by going to my YouTube channel and looking for Potatoes Vol. 1.

NOTE: This is an update to a post from August 27, 2008. I recently ripped the album with my new turntable, so I'm updating the post.

There used to be a small, obscure record label called Ralph Records. Technically there still is, but now it's not actually a music label. It's actually a distribution company for The Residents, for whom Ralph was originally created, after all. Also it's now called Ralph America.

I bought some stuff from them when I used to get their mail-order catalogs back in the 80s. As I said before, I probably discovered them via the book High Weirdness By Mail. I would have bought a lot more if I'd had the money, but alas. One of the albums they put out was Potatoes: A Collection of Folk Songs from Ralph Records in 1987. The spine of this jacket says it's Potatoes Vol. I. Was there ever a Vol. II? I don't know. I never heard of it, but of course I could be simply be ignorant of it.

This was one of the first albums I converted to mp3 back when I had my old turntable, but I didn't do the whole album. I skipped some of the songs that I didn't particularly care for--something which I'd never do now (UPDATE: this time I ripped the whole thing).

You won't find an entry in Wikipedia on this album, but you can find a different version (CD re-release) of it at Amazon.

From the notes:

As far back as any musical memory, and up to this very record, artists have tried to define and appropriate to their own satisfaction the ever elusive expression of folk music.

Ralph Records is proud to announce its seduction by the folk muse and to present the progeny of this joyful union.

Folk music is a reflection of life in the world. Given the world of today, folk music aficionados should be prepared for some novel twists. However, they shouldn't be surprised to hear traditional strains as well.

This collection of songs is what a handful of artists have done with what was handed down to them. Maybe these songs will in turn serve as motivation to future folk heroes.

We hope you enjoy them.

So...what's it like? I am glad you asked.

It starts out with a traditional American fiddle tune called "Fire on the Mountain" by Blitzoids, except that they "have chosen to arrange it like a mutant square dance." Except it's not so much a dance as a series of crashing lurches. Very nice.

Renaldo and the Loaf were associates of the mysterious The Residents. They perform song #2: a traditional Liverpudlian sea chanty called "Haul on the Bowline."

Song #3 is one of my favorites, "Canto del Pilon" by Maria Marquez and Frank Harris. It's a traditional Venezuelan woman's work song but all sounds except the singing were made with the Synclavier (totally state-of-the-art synthesizer music system in 1987). Very hypnotic and beautiful, even though I don't understand the language.

The Residents come in at #4 with their interpretation of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." If you know what a Residents interpretation of a song can sound like, I don't need to explain it. If you don't, there's no way I can explain it. But once you've heard it, you probably won't ever forget it.

Terra Incognita are at song #5 with the traditional country folk hymn "Rank Stranger." Most people are more familiar with the version recorded by the Stanley Brothers, but this is a good version, too.

The last song on side 1 is "The Ballad of Sawney Bean/Sawney's Death Dance" by Snakefinger's Midi-Evil Vestal Virgins. Snakefinger is another associate of the Residents, and gained his nickname from the way his fingers fly while picking his guitar. This song was written by him, based on the true story of Sawney Bean, who led a clan of inbred cannibalistic Scots in the early 1400s until King James had him hunted down and executed. (click to download a sample)

Side 2 opens with "My Hometown" by Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo fame. A quick little guitar-accompanied anthem to Akron, Ohio. I intend to write a whole post about this song eventually, but I am still in the data-gathering phase. Teaser: unless I am mistaken, this song has a tie-in with an old Andy Griffith episode.

After that is "The Billy Bee Song." The female singer who recorded this did so anonymously. It sounds like she's sitting in a rocking chair on her porch singing this between slugs of moonshine. A sad, desperate song. This one presented some special problems for me because it was intentionally recorded to sound like it was being played on a very old, crackly record. Unfortunately it had a few real pops, which I had to try and dig out manually so the auto-filters wouldn't screw with the fake crackles. As a result, this is the only song that I don't consider to be a perfect rip. But what's left of the real pops probably aren't noticeable unless you've actually looked at the waveform and know what to listen for.

Then we have the legendary Negativland with "Perfect Scrambled Eggs." The milk makes all the difference.

"Mamma Made Me Do It" by Voice Farm is probably my second favorite song on the album, after "Sawney Bean" (and tied with "Canto del Pilon"). This is another of the original songs on the album, written by members of Voice Farm and inspired by a film called La Juajira (I think that's misspelled. I think the title is really La Guajira, with a "G"). A sweet, creepy song with a spoken-word ending.

This is the part about the bones...

There's a little sleepy village in South America where they have a little ritual, and they...they dig up the bodies of the dead after they've been buried for about eight years and, uh...they take the fleshy part...what was the fleshy part off the bones and...it's considered an honor to do this...the women, mostly, and...the men are sitting around playing cards while the women are crying...

Next is Clubfoot Orchestra with "Japanese Song Too," which is either an adaptation of a Japanese folk song or a song they wrote that sounds like a Japanese folk song--I'm not sure which. Then there's Rhythm and Noise with "Berta's Hammer," a two-song medly of prison songs that sounds like it's being sung by a real chain gang. The closer is a short traditional song called "Potatoes."

So... used CDs at Amazon start at around $30 (new ones are selling for $70). Is it worth it? To me, no. Especially since the re-release seems to have deleted a couple of my favorites and replaced them with songs I've never heard. I guess it's a good thing I bought the LP for less than $10 back in 1987. Especially since it provided so much entertainment way back when by way of my memorizing, and subsequently singing, "Sawney Bean" after I'd had a couple of beers.

Way back when, like I said. But I still have the song memorized.

Ripping results: perfect except for "The Billy Bee Song," as I mentioned above.

If you've ever wanted to hear harpsichord metal...

Here you go.

Thomas Jefferson and His Dixieland All Stars - If I Could Be With You (LP, 1974)

UPDATED to include the track below and a cleaner scan of the cover art.

Not too long ago I wrote about a Dixieland album by Teresa Brewer. Well, here's another one that also came from my late mother-in-law's record collection, and this one is the real thing.

The Brewer album, excellent as it is and I suppose technically authentic in its own right, is somewhat (how shall I say...) whitewashed. Perhaps recorded for the Lawrence Welk set, with a pretty white face to disguise the true origins of the music.

The liner notes for this album are quite extensive and I have tried to provide the whole thing (click the graphic to enlarge), but my stitching was a little off so I apologize for that. I recommend reading them if you want to know all about Thomas Jefferson. His parents were from Louisiana, but they moved to Chicago briefly, where he was born in 1921. Then they moved back to New Orleans where he grew up learning music in church. He showed such great proficiency playing with toy wind instruments that a church friend gave him a bugle which he became very good with. He then began playing a cornet that belonged to a friend of his until his mother saw how good he was and bought him his own cornet for $65 (an astounding sum to spend on a instrument for a boy back then, I'd say). He learned to play gospel music by ear, or by "head" as he called it.

When he was 14 he was sent to a "Home for Waifs" because he got caught skipping school and skinny-dipping, and it was there that he encountered a real music teacher who taught him to play the French horn and the trumpet. He got a part as second trumpet in a real jazz band in 1934, and was fronting his own band by 1935.

Wikipedia has a very brief entry on him, and the liner notes here are exhaustive by comparison. According to their entry, he is still living.

The music on this record is real Dixieland, the gruff vocals somewhat reminiscent of Louis Armstrong, although not quite up to that level. But wow, this is great stuff. Another hidden gem.

The liner notes say this was recorded at a place called The Lord Napier in England. Not a recording studio, I don't think. It sounds like a pub or club or something was emptied out just for the recording. It has a very "live" feel, in fact the song "Blueberry Hill" was recorded in one take according to the notes.

Track list:
Side One
1. Baby Won't You Please Come Home
2. Blueberry Hill
3. It's a Long Way to Tipperary
4. If I Could Be With You
5. Who's Sorry Now

Side Two
1. Tell Me Your Dreams
2. Ting-A-Ling
3. Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter
4. Blues for Jefferson, Jr.
5. St. Louis Blues

Ripping results: I had to give an extra-thorough cleaning to side 1, track 2 because of some gunk causing a skip, but once that I was fixed, I got a perfect rip. No pops or skips.

Here is the title track, which has both his trumpet playing and his singing.



This album is not currently in print, and it probably didn't have a very wide distribution to begin with. I have found only one collection at Amazon that involves him. The link is below. It is available only as an mp3 download and there are samples of all songs on the album that you can click to hear.

Kathy Dalton - Amazing (1973, LP)

click to enlarge

UPDATE: This post has been bumped back to the top for the videos embedded below and further information.

I had originally grabbed this one for a "weird album covers" post, but I remembered liking it back about 25 years ago so I put off posting until I had finished ripping it. The editing isn't good; a couple of songs have a scratchy sound that I can't get rid of. I really wish someone would re-release a CD of this one. Possibly the most remarkable thing about this cover art is that the album came out a good 10 years before Jabba the Hut took Princess Leia captive.

It's hard to find information about this one. Collectible copies in near-mint condition are going for around $90 in various places on the internet. Pretty much everything I know about it comes from the liner notes on the back jacket. Since the cover art is quite, shall we say, fanciful, here is a photo of the actual Kathy Dalton from the back cover.


Her main backing band was Little Feat, who you have probably heard of. There were lots of other musicians who contributed to the album, and of them the only one I've heard of is Van Dyke Parks. Parks also has an a album called Tokyo Rose from 1989 on which Dalton contributes vocals. All the songs on Amazing were written by Greg Dempsey, but he's another one who I can't find any real information about, although if you wiki or google his name he turns up in all kinds of places as a song writer. Amazing was later re-released with the title Boogie Bands and One Night Stands with a slightly different track list (I think), but it is no more easily available than Amazing.

UPDATE: Kathy Dalton (then Kathy Yesse) was in an earlier band called Daughters of Albion who released a self-titled album in 1968. Below is one song from it, "Hey, You, Wait, Stay."



Amazing is another album that I picked up at Yesterday's Warehouse, and as you can see if you enlarge the cover art, it belonged at one time to the Schertz Library. (This is not the only album I have with that stamp on the cover). Eleven tracks with a total playing time of around 33 minutes. The songs range from boogie to rock to country. Favorite tracks of mine are "Pour Your Wine" and "I Need You Tonight," but to me the whole album doesn't have any weak spots. One song called "Ride Ride Ride" seemed vaguely familiar to me, so I looked it up and it turns out it was recorded by Lynn Anderson in 1966, so that's probably where I heard it long ago. Never mind, it's not the same song. There seem to be several songs with this title, none of which are this one.

If I ever come across another decent copy of this--LP or CD--that I can afford, I'll buy it.

--

UPDATE: Embedded below are two tracks from this album. The first, "Ride Ride Ride" is a more up-tempo rocker; the second, "I Need You Tonight" is sort of a countrified power ballad.

Next side project

I'm going to go back over some of the more obscure albums I have posted about, and if I can't find any evidence to show that they are still available somewhere, I will attempt to put some representative tracks up at YouTube. So that's what I'm working on now. Any suggestions?

A Daring Deed

I have several books in progress now; it's very hard for me to stick with only one unless it really fascinates me. Usually, I can't understand this fascination. However, in my life of reading I have come to one realization: I am fascinated by books that allow glimpses into little-known subcultures. Such as the subculture of fire-jumpers (Young Men and Fire), the subculture of map collectors (The Island of Lost Maps), or--currently--the subculture of Mississippi steamboat pilots. A particular subculture that no longer exists, and hasn't for many decades. I've begun reading Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi and I'm finding it quite fascinating. I would suggest, for a taste, that you read chapter 8: A Daring Deed.

Now the engines were stopped altogether, and we drifted with the current. Not that I could see the boat drift, for I could not, the stars being all gone by this time. This drifting was the dismalest work; it held one's heart still. Presently I discovered a blacker gloom than that which surrounded us. It was the head of the island. We were closing right down upon it. We entered its deeper shadow, and so imminent seemed the peril that I was likely to suffocate; and I had the strongest impulse to do SOMETHING, anything, to save the vessel. But still Mr. Bixby stood by his wheel, silent, intent as a cat, and all the pilots stood shoulder to shoulder at his back.

'She'll not make it!' somebody whispered.

If you are of the inclination, you can follow that link above and read the entire book online. Personally, I have not yet developed a taste for reading books from a computer screen.

H.R. Pufnstuf Original Soundtrack (1969, EP)

UPDATE: I'm bumping this back to the top in order to announce that this record may now be listened to in full by visiting my YouTube channel.

And here is one of my prized possessions. One day when I was five years old, a large, stiff manila envelope arrived in the mail, and it had my name on it. Without my knowing about it, my mother had taken advantage of an offer on some cereal box to enter me into the H.R. Pufnstuf Fan Club. There were other items in the package. I think there was a certificate, and I remember some kind of pin that I wore on my shirt everywhere until it broke. But this record was the best part of it, and I somehow have managed to preserve it intact for 40 years.

It is a 7-inch, 45 rpm EP including 11 songs that were used on the show. There are a few songs left out, but these are all the best songs.

Having recently watched all 17 episodes plus all available extras and interviews on the DVD set, I can say that the songs on this record are not exactly the same as they were presented on the TV show. For example, in the show the song "Pronouns" had a flute solo played by Freddie, but on the record there's just an instrumental bridge with no flute.


I played this record over and over and over again when I was a kid. When they stopped running the show on Saturday mornings I still had this record to remind me of the best TV show I had ever seen. The sequence of songs has become firmly fixed in my head. If I see that episode where Witchiepoo sings "Ice Cold Lemonade" I immediately hear the beginning of "A Bucket of Sunshine" in my head when she stops singing.

Track list:
Side One
1. H.R. Pufnstuf (theme song)
2. When We Woke Up This Morning
3. Mechanical Boy (another favorite of mine)
4. How Lucky I Am
5. I'm So Happy to Be Here

Side Two
1. Oranges, Smoranges
2. Pronouns
3. Ice Cold Lemonade (if you ever hear a meter reader coming down the street whistling this song, you'll know it's me)
4. A Bucket of Sunshine
5. End of the Road
6. H.R. Pufnstuf reprise

Yes, the jacket is somewhat tattered, but this is understandable when it began as the last thing a small child could hold in his hands and stare at to make sure he didn't forget his favorite escapist fantasy as he slowly grew older and came to realize that childhood was slipping away. But now we have the DVD, and some things are good again.

The record itself is in remarkably good condition, some pops and clicks but no jumps, and the mp3 files I created cleaned up very well. Another notable thing about this record is that it is one of the few I ripped with the old turntable before I gave up on it, and I still have the old files I created a few years ago when I did that. So I was able to compare the old files with the new, and there is a huge difference in sound quality. That old turntable was so horrendously noisy that I shouldn't even have bothered.

Here's one of the first songs I ever memorized as a small child. I still sing it sometimes, when I feel I need some encouragement.

Novus ordo seclorum

I would like to announce my first ever upload to YouTube.



Now I can have my own channel! And I think this calls for a new category of blog posts.

"uncivil"

It was you again.
Your unhealthy addiction to freedom of speech.
Your discourse has gotten too "uncivil".

The Discourse on Civil Discourse. Good reading.

Note for future reference...

Kel-Tec Shotgun (KSG)

Found this in the house today...

Thought it might jog some memories.

Sweet dreams.

He's a millionaire!

I always thought they were singing about Boy George. The song is being told by your average everyday Larry Lunchpail, so how the heck do you think he's going to talk? As usual, political correctness as thought control. Screw you, anyone who approves of this ban.


In other news, boy it's been cold this week. I've been wearing a pair of flannel pajama pants under my blue jeans for warmth. Actually today wasn't bad at all after about 8:30 or so. I think I'll go without the extra layer of pants tomorrow.

I've been revisiting a couple of sites I bookmarked long ago against this day: when (if!) I would be able to actually stream audio. I'm quite happy that I will now be able to listen once again to my favorite ambient music program: Musical Starstreams. I checked out a couple of other channels at Live365 but have done nothing serious yet. I took a good hard nap after work today and then just laid there for a while after I woke up, watching old sitcoms on TV Land, and then we had Cub Scouts tonight so I haven't spent much time on the internet today. I would usually be in bed right now but between that nap and the cool weather today (did not sweat at all--didn't even feel thirsty after 4 hours without drinking any water) I'm not feeling very tired.

Enjoyed having a discussion about Greek mythology on the drive in to the Cub Scout meeting today. My son is still trying to work out which ones are which and what the Roman names are.

I am also enjoying very much being able to quickly read sites like Cracked.com and Oddee. Man on dial-up that was almost a chore.

One of my co-workers today showed me a picture he had taken (with his phone) of what he said was "the weirdest thing I've ever found in a meter box." He found it just yesterday. It was purple, and was of the design that has an auxiliary...uh...stud on it so that it can be inserted into two orifices at once. Yeah. People stick all kinds of weird things in meter boxes.

Further adventures with WiFi

I set up the Wii to use the new internet service today. Now we can browse the web on the TV, although I have no idea why anyone would want to. Set up my Netflix account to watch movies via WiFi, but the service isn't quite perfect enough. I was able to watch about the first 10 minutes of the very first Fat Albert episode before the signal had one of its hiccups and it shut down. Oh well.

Huh...

I guess that means I don't need to call them and cancel my service.

Zoom!

Some comments on the new internet service.

I asked the lady yesterday how long this service has been around...she said 3 years. My jaw dropped. "And I've known about it for two," she added. I told her I had been searching for a long time for such a service in our area and this one had never turned up on G00gl3. "Yeah, it's just been a word-of-mouth kind of thing...this is the first mailing we've ever done." "You're going to get swamped," I said. "Today has been insane," she confirmed.

So I hope their infrastructure can handle what will certainly be a big jump in clientele. It's not completely smooth. Occasionally it loses the signal or something and I have to "repair" the link, mostly it's working quite well. I put it to the test last night and downloaded that full Metalhit sampler that I couldn't get before on dial-up, so I have the complete collection now. I moved the router around to different parts of the house to see if the signal was any better, but I ended up back here in the computer room.

Big difference: I can stream videos now. I think I'll go see what this YouTube thing is I've been hearing so much about.

update update

I spoke too soon. Apparently it took them longer to activate my account than they thought it would. About 8:30 last night I tried it again and this time I got the blue & green signal lights instead of just flashing red. Well, web surfing is blazingly fast. Downloading large files isn't as fast as I had hoped for, but it is much faster than dial-up. I think I'm going to have to tweak some things on this computer to get it working just right.

The more you look at English, the more you realize...

It's horses all the way down.

On the other hand...

I did get a micro USB adapter so I could fiddle around with my phone. It's pretty cool. It can sync with Windows Media Player for loading mp3s or playlists, or you can just drag & drop files manually. Also, once you start the mp3 player, you can close the phone and it keeps playing--you can listen to it without headphones. That's kinda cool, but I suppose it puts a drain on the battery. Unfortunately I can't connect to it with Motorola Phone Tools like I did with my old phone, so I'm going to have to rebuild the phone book manually with the phone keypad.

Also I took a couple of experimental pix (of my mouse and a new CD) and they do look quite a lot better than the old phone's pictures. I'll see if I can take some work pix tomorrow and post something.

update

I picked up the hardware for that wireless broadband service I mentioned. Nope. Can't get their signal here. That's what I expected. So I'm still on dial-up. I'll have to take the stuff back for a refund tomorrow.

Wolverines!

I was going to try posting another album commentary (can't bring myself to call them "reviews") but I got sidetracked so I'll try it tomorrow. I got several albums from a friend who shall remain nameless here but you know who you are and thanks again--I'll be writing some posts up about them soon.

I was in Wal-Mart the other day and happened across their big...what do you call that thing? It looks like a cage, but without a top, and it stands about 4 feet tall and is about 6 feet on a side and it's so full of DVDs they're about to cascade out onto the floor. Anyway they had all these DVDs for $5 each so I perused them for a while and came away with two that I think will be pretty good. One is a collection of several horror films from the 60s. I was quite amused when it was rung up and beeped for the cashier to make sure the buyer was over 18 years old. The other is a collection of Alfred Hitchcock pieces, some episodes from his TV series and some movies. I think they'll both be pretty good, although I'm afraid the horror collection will generally seem quite hokey--I'm not familiar with any of the movies (on first glance) except for the original Night of the Living Dead which I've seen before. Many years ago, at a Christmas party at the pizza restaurant, a co-worker gave me a double-feature VHS tape of that movie along with Reefer Madness.

I was just looking at that film's entry at Wikipedia, and because I typed in an error I came up with a list that has revealed to me that Red Dawn is being remade. Good grief. This time it's going to be a Chinese invasion in the Pacific Northwest. Yeesh. One of the main characters is to be portrayed by Josh Peck, who you may remember as a child star on several Nickelodeon shows such as The Amanda Show and Drake & Josh. Or, if you don't have any kids who ever watched those shows, maybe you don't remember him--which may be a blessing. I'll be forced to watch it just to see how he looks now. I'm pretty sure it's going to be weird watching him in a dramatic role.

I have been becoming more familiar than I would ever have expected with the world of Percy Jackson. The books are quite the mish-mash of Greek mythology, but it's gotten my son interested in Greek mythology so I can't find too much fault with it. I've been looking around on Amazon for some good Greek myth books written for kids. The only book I have on them now is the classic Bulfinch's Mythology, but I never liked that book much because it's too much a combination of tales and commentary, with not enough tales. Also Bulfinch had a terrible habit of mixing Greek and Roman names together which I think is too confusing for a beginner. I read all the myths from library books when I was in elementary and I still wish I had those books now. At one point I even created a large poster-sized family tree of the gods which--get this--was stolen. I couldn't believe somebody would actually steal such a thing, but it happened.

What's up

I guess I should post something. I've had a few posts cooking but blew them off since I'm not much in the mood to post anything right now.

My cell phone is in the process of biting the dust. Right now the display has given up the ghost. I can still use it, but mostly only for receiving calls because making calls is kind of difficult without a display. We've been planning on dropping our old service anyway and going with one of the prepaid services. So I picked up a cheap phone today from the local Dollar General. I was going to play with it some because--even for a cheap phone--it has a better camera plus an mp3 player once you stick in a 2GB microSD card (which I've already done); unfortunately file transfers require a micro USB cable and I have only regular and mini cables. So that will have to wait for a day or two until I can get the right cable or an adapter.

I got an ad in the mail today for a wireless broadband service that is focusing on providing such service to rural areas called Stelera. $30 a month. So this coming week I'm going to stop by the the local rep's office and ask about it. If they actually do reach where I live, I'm going to give it a shot. I'm not getting my hopes up though, because according to their coverage map I'm right on the line. Also, something I don't like about it is that it's a connection only--no email service or any of that. I guess I'm still old-fashioned enough to think that internet service should include email and usenet, although I haven't had a service with it's own usenet servers for a long time (and I still miss it--using G00gl3 Groups just isn't right).

I tried downloading the full album of the latest Metalhit Free Download Series. Can't do it. One of the tracks is an "album only" track meaning you have to click on "download the whole freakin' album at once" to get it, and the album is too big.* However, in researching the bands from this collection, I discovered a thing or two quite interesting about the group that made this one track that I can't get (also: the track is 12 minutes long) which really makes me want to hear it. So, I'm thinking as a last resort I can see if the album is still available and download it again later on, next time I visit my mother and can use her broadband connection. Or I might just go ahead and buy the album that it was originally released on. In any case I can still get all the other tracks and my first cursory listen was quite enjoyable; doom metal tends to be very atmospheric and even if the vocals are non-melodic they are usually so buried in the mix that they are more of a "vocal instrument" or even "vocal effect" than actual singing.

Having done some research on the fireplace model that came with our house, I have discovered that there is a blower kit manufactured for it and I can get one online for $84 plus shipping. I'm still looking into that and deciding whether to go for it or not, but I'm sure that would help a great deal toward making the fireplace something that actually heats part of the house instead of something that's just for looks. There's also a fireplace insert that will fit it, which essentially turns your inefficient old fireplace into a real wood stove. Unfortunately, it costs about $1,400.

I discovered, thanks to Oddee, another funny website this past week called DamnYouAutoCorrect.com. Some of those make the think the smartphone makers are intentionally screwing with people.

*I don't understand why they do this with free samplers. With real albums, I can understand it. But these freebies? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Interesting...

10 Mind-Blowing Easter Eggs Hidden in Famous Albums at Cracked.com. I knew about a few of these already: the Information Society thing, the Pink Floyd thing and the Beatles thing. The way I learned about the Beatles album was kind of funny. One night at work (back in the pizza restaurant days*), we were talking about albums (a frequent topic) and I said, "You know, it would be cool if someone made an album with two parallel sets of grooves, so you would hear a different bunch of songs depending on which groove the needle went into when you started the record." Answer: "It's been done. The Beatles did it."

I read somewhere about that Information Society album a long time ago. Possibly in the pre-internet days, I'm not sure.

*I dreamed I was working there again just a few nights ago...AGAIN--will I never stop dreaming about that place? This will mean something to one of you. Or possibly two of you.

Bullfrog Books is no more

Our local used book store, Bullfrog Books, has gone out of business. Honestly, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did--a few years, I guess. We hit it one last time last week during their closeout sale and the kids used some Christmas money to pick up a few books. I also got a few. It took some poring over the shelves (note: that's PORING not POURING). I found Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain and a collection of Herman Melville short stories ("Huh," the store guy said, "I'm surprised no one else has already picked these up.") Also picked up a few sci-fi books. Two of them are the first two books of a trilogy that looks promising just because of the premise, and I made a start on the first last night. I think I will be hunting down the third volume on Amazon pretty soon. The trilogy is called The Songkiller Saga by Elizabeth Scarborough, first volume published 1991. Also found a copy of The War of the Worlds because I was looking for my old copy a while back and couldn't find it, and some other dystopian-type sci-fi that might not be too terrible. Although I suppose it should be terrible if it's dystopian.

As I was paying for my loot, I noticed an old Louis L'Amour paperback up high on a shelf behind the counter, so I asked if it was for sale. The lady said no, she just kept it up there so people could see it and ask about it and she could boast about it, because it was the first paperback edition of that book, called To Tame a Land. So I told her that when I was a teenager I had borrowed that book from someone and read it, and it was one of my favorite books regardless of genre, but I had never come across it where I could buy it for myself--I even described what the cover art had looked like from the one I read. So suddenly she said, "Okay, I'll sell it to you. Seventy-five cents sound good?" So of course I bought it, too. Way back when I actually used that book to teach myself how to quick-draw with my old Ruger Single-Six. I still think it's right up at the top of the list of L'Amour's best books, and I'd still rate it quite highly, regardless of genre.

There was also a box with a couple hundred copies of the CD pictured above (Claymhor, The Water is Wide). They were free. The guy told me that a friend of his from S.A. had been in this group, now defunct. There is one long live track on there in which they say they drove all the way to S.A. from South Dakota, so I'm not sure about all their origins. In fact I can't find any details about them on ye olde internette except a mention that they once had a gig in San Antonio, which I already knew from what the guy told me. It's mostly traditional Celtic music, with what sounds to me like at least 4 singers--2 male, 2 female, and a collection of traditional instruments. That's about all the information I can give you about it. It's all studio recordings except, like I mentioned, one 17-minute "live" track that I'm pretty sure was recorded at a gig in S.A. About an hour long, total playing time, and I like it.

Rock Slyde (movie, 2009)

I've been a fan of Patrick Warburton for quite some time--I guess I would have to put him close to the top of my list of favorite character actors as well as voice actors. I have found recently that he keeps turning up in unexpected places--the voice of the Wolf on Hoodwinked, which I and the kids saw recently and was quite funny, especially the parts including the Wolf; and the voice of the sheriff on the newest incarnation of Scooby Doo, to name two. Of course he's the voice of Brock Samson on The Venture Brothers, which is probably my favorite animated series at the moment. I was first introduced to him as Elaine's weird boyfriend on Seinfeld, who always wore that huge furry coat. But I've never seen him in a leading role. So I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a movie (I think it was on The Movie Channel) starring him, called Rock Slyde.

Rock Slyde is a comedy that spoofs both hard-boiled detective stories and villain-who-wants-to-take-over-the-world stories. Other major characters are played by Andy Dick (the villain), Elaine Hendrix (Slyde's secretary), and the beautiful Rena Sofer (Slyde's client). The rest of the cast is made up of many people who could, and have, starred in their own shows & movies but who play relatively small parts in this movie, which is unusual. For example, Jason Alexander plays a small part as a mailman. All three of the aforementioned supporting actors have appeared in lots of places and I'm sure you know them well.*

Andy Dick plays the leader of a weird pseudo-religious cult known as Bartology (which in itself is a spoof of Scientology), because his first name is Bart, although all his followers refer to him as "the blessed guru." However, instead of wanting to rule the entire world, Bart wants only to occupy one whole office building. The only one who stands in his way is Rock Slyde, who refuses to give up his office. Slyde has a shameful secret from his past, in that when he was younger and desperate for money he appeared in a gay pr0n musical called The Jolly Roger. Bart uses this information to attempt to blackmail Slyde. Slyde's skills as a detective remain in some doubt; he has a reputation as a poor detective and often makes stupid mistakes, however he has certain genius-level abilities such as being able to identify the make of a car, the key from which was used to key his own car, by simply looking at the shape of the scratch.

The humor is not over-the-top. I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it "subtle" but it doesn't usually (usually, I repeat) hit you over the head. I did laugh out loud several times, and I would recommend catching it sometime if you can. I think it's worth spending 90 minutes on.

*By the way, the first time I saw Rena Sofer, she appeared in a short-lived Sci-Fi series called The Chronicle which I enjoyed quite a lot. Unfortunately it seems this series has never been released to DVD; Netflix isn't even aware of its existence.

Stuff I want to see but can't get from Netflix

A self-explanatory post title. There are some titles that you can look up at Netflix, and they are listed but not available. So, instead of adding them to your queue, you can "save" them so you won't forget about them just in case they someday become available. So here is the list of stuff on my "saved" list. Some of them I've never seen and some of them I don't even remember what prompted me to add them.

Davy Crockett -- the TV series. Never seen. I've seen the movies.
Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow -- movie. Never seen.
Fat Albert -- the TV series. Saw it. Wanted to get them so my kids could watch them.
Get a Life -- TV series. Saw them all when they were on TV, but want to see them again.
Haibane-Renmei -- anime series. Never saw it.
Le Femme Nikita -- the movie. Saw it several years ago on some movie channel. Never saw the TV series, which I've read totally sucked if you were a fan of the movie, so I'm not interested in it.
Lupin the Third, volumes 1, 2, 3, 7 and 10 -- anime series. Never saw it. Volumes 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 are available, for some reason.
Philip Marlowe, Private Eye -- British TV series. Never seen.
Monster Squad -- Saturday morning live-action TV series starring Fred (Gopher) Grandy. Saw them all, I'm pretty sure, when it was on TV. Just thought I'd give it another go and also the kids would probably like it.
The Sword and the Sorcerer -- Saw this one in an actual theater, which is unusual for me. Of course they do have Krull (which I have ranted about before), so I don't know why they don't have this one. I saw Sorcerer as a double feature with the first Death Wish.
Tron -- They don't have Tron. WTF. Saw this one in a theater, too.
Vampire Hunter D -- anime movie. Never seen. Read about it. Read that Hellsing bore a lot of resemblance to this earlier movie.
Walking Tall -- the original. Can't believe they don't have it.

Worst album covers of 2010

Link. I agree with most of them, but I thought the Devo cover was quite good.

Death Metal: Metalhit Free Download Series (mp3 download, 2010)

As I said before, I knew I wouldn't enjoy listening to some of this series, and this is one of them. I still downloaded it because all the intricate variations of the metal genre interest me.

Like all the other Metalhit samplers thus far, this collection focuses mostly on outside-the-U.S. bands; only one band from the U.S., the others being mostly from Europe, with a few from Russia, Mexico, and South America. Several of them are listed at Encyclopedia Metallum as "technical death metal," which is defined at Wikipedia thus: "a musical subgenre of death metal that focuses on complex rhythms, riffs and song structures." Further: "Phil Freeman, ex-editor of Metal Edge, has described the sub-genre of technical death metal as 'the hidden side of its genre, having more in common with prog-rock and jazz fusion than with the mechanistic, Satan-obsessed grinding that's the music's dominant public image.'"

I can't vouch for any of this stuff being "Satan-obsessed" or not, because I can't understand a word they're saying. It's all gutteral vocals, some reduced to the point of a monotone growl, which doesn't do much for me. I didn't hear a whole lot that seemed to be influenced by prog-rock or jazz fusion, either, but maybe that's just my uneducated ear.

There's not much point in me giving this one a rating of any kind, although if forced I guess I'd give it a 1.0 but I'll try listening to it more and see if I can hear anything I like. Still, it goes into the archive as a good collection of examples of what death metal sounds like.

Two more of these yet to go: Thrash, which I haven't listened to yet, and Doom, which hasn't been made available yet but which I'm looking forward to because it tends to be more "musical" to my ears and sometimes uses "clean" female vocals, which I really like.

Around the corner at Bill Miller's, probably

In the department where I work, we use our own personal vehicles when we have foot routes. Some routes must be driven, however, and for those we use a company truck. It was decided this past year that each employee should have his own permanently assigned company truck and never use his own personal vehicle again. That means we're getting 27 new trucks.

Today as I was working, I was struck by a thought. All parking at our office is full. There is no place to put 27 new trucks. So called in and asked my boss: "Where are we going to park all those new trucks?"

The answer: "That's what everyone is speculating about. I have no idea. I guess we'll find out when they get delivered."

I hadn't had a good, hard laugh like that in a long time. [Your utility company] in action, folks!

Cleaning My Gun

I keep a weather eye on the horizon, back to the wall
I like to know who's coming through the door, that's all
It's the old army training kicking in
I'm not complaining, it's the world we live in

Blarney and Malarkey, they're a devious firm
Take you to the cleaners and let you burn
The help is breaking dishes in the kitchen, thanks a lot
We hired the worst dishwasher this place ever got

Hidden below the radar
They want to spoil our fun
In the meantime
I'm cleaning my gun

Remember it got so cold ice froze up the tank
We lit a fire beneath her just so she would crank
Keep a weather eye on the horizon
Tap the stone glass now and then
We got a case of old damnation
For when you get here, my friend

We can have ourselves
A party before they come
In the meantime
I'm cleaning my gun

We had women and a mirror ball, we had a DJ
He used to eat pretty much all that came his way
Ever since the goons came in took apart the place
I keep a tire iron in the corner just in case

Hang a little magic bullet on a little chain
Keep me safe from the chilly winds and out of the rain
We're gonna might need bullets should we get stuck
Any which way, we're gonna need a little luck

You can still get gas in heaven
And drink in kingdom come
In the meantime
I'm cleaning my gun

--Mark Knopfler, "Cleaning My Gun" from Get Lucky (2009)

Have a Heebie Jeebie Christmas

A really creepy Big Brother Santa flanked by a pair of sinister black-shirted elfenstürm. (I made that word up). Found today in a yard on a street that shall remain nameless in the far northwest nosebleed zone of S.A.

Merry Christmas!

I hope all of you had a great Christmas. Ours was one of the best so far, I think. My best gift was just seeing the kids happy.

The new Wii is a lot of fun--it's some kind of special anniversary version that came with an extra Mario game plus the usual Sports disc. Oh yeah, and it's red. The kids are busy running Mario to death. I played quite a lot of bowling and tennis (btw, I almost look like I know what I'm doing with Wii tennis--completely the opposite of how I would look on a real tennis court), and after about the fifth round of bowling I really started wishing I had some demons or zombies or various other monsters to shoot or hack apart with a sword or something. I'm going to have to find something with a little more violence in it.

I fired up our little fireplace today, for the first time ever. It's nice. Doesn't do much to heat the house, but I still like it. I'll have to see if I can get my chainsaw working and start cutting up some of the dead wood around here.

As far as material gifts went today, I got a couple of new shirts, a new toolbox, some chocolate-covered cherries (a traditional gift for the adult males of our family, for some reason), and $50 cash. I also count the Wii as part of my own Christmas because I know I'm going to have fun playing with it, too.

I stuffed one of those pre-paid Net10 phones in my daughter's stocking. We activated it this morning and took it with us because I wanted to check its signal strength. That sucker had 5 bars solid all the way from La Vernia to Gonzales, while my T-Mobile phone is completely without signal starting around Stockdale until just outside Gonzales. The rest of the time the best I could get was 2 or 3 bars with T-Mobile. The Net10 phone lost its signal completely for a little while around the Nockenut area on 1681 on the way back (alternate route because I wanted to see if it had a signal back there in the boonies) but it just beat T-Mobile all to h***. I think I'm going to be switching mine and my wife's phones to Net10 also.

By the way, the reason we use T-Mobile is because way back in the olden days when we first got cell phones, back when T-Mobile was Voicestream and Jamie Lee Curtis did their commercials, that was the only company that got any coverage out here at all. We had tried AT&T before that but their coverage out here sucked--I actually had to stand on the roof of my truck one time to get a signal for a semi-emergency. Even now I have to stand next to a window to use my cell phone at home, and then I only get 2 bars and have to stand on the east side of the house or it goes completely dead. My daughter can go anywhere in the house with hers and get 5 bars.

And Happy New Year!

There ain't no such thing as a universal universal remote

I don't for sure how long ago it was now, but I guess 4 or 5 years ago, one of the remotes for one of our DishNetwork receivers wore out. I was able to extend its life for a few months by carefully opening it and cleaning all the contacts with a pencil eraser (old computer tech trick), but eventually it gave out and many of the buttons had stopped working.

Thus began my quest to find a universal remote that I could use for a replacement. Note: I did not need a universal remote that would run everything. I just wanted one that I could program to replace the worn out satellite remote.

The first one I ever bought worked very well. Unfortunately, it wore out quite soon. I don't know why it wore out so quickly, but it did. Buttons stopped working, cleaning didn't help, it was shot. After that, I was never able to find one that worked exactly like I wanted it to. Something was always wrong with it that made it very inconvenient--something that I always had to figure out a workaround for. The last one was still working, sort of, but it kept doing things that infuriated me and finally I smashed it to pieces with my bare hands. I bought a new replacement a few days ago, made by Philips, which completely sucks. It sends the correct codes all right, but it sends a burst of repeat codes several seconds long so it's impossible to enter only one command at a time. Try selecting a channel with a remote that does that. My current workaround? I press a button and then quickly put my hand over the IR transmitter to block the remaining burst until it's finished.

And then suddenly it occurred to me: why not just see if I can get an identical replacement from DishNetwork? Man, how stupid I have been. I've probably spent $50-$60 trying different universal remotes during the past several years when I could have just spent $20 for an identical replacement.

So, the replacement is now on the way.

Don't think so...

You'd have to pay me a lot more than $1.00 to subscribe to that worthless garbage.

Bizarre Records

Recently found this: Bizarre Records. Posts scans of strange record covers. Check it out.

I have pretty much lost all motivation for posting. I did make a start on writing up a review of Viva Max today, but those movie reviews I did before are very time-intensive, and it's going to take me a while.

So...that's all for now.

Blogiversary

Today is this humble blogger's seventh blogiversary. Just thought I'd mention it. Nothing to see here now, just move along...

Folk Metal: Metalhit Free Download Series (mp3 download)

The Metalhit label ("the first extreme metal digital music store and digital record label") is releasing a series of free samplers via Amazon.com. I wrote about their Gothic Metal sampler previously. I have learned over the past few years that I have an affinity for this type of music (and goth-rock in general), and as I mentioned I liked the sampler quite a lot. I am looking forward to downloading more of their samplers, mostly for my musical education and not necessarily because I think I'm going to like the stuff. In fact I know I'm not going to enjoy some of it.

The "Folk Metal" label piqued my curiosity; I had never heard of such a sub-genre before. Upon looking it up and reading about it, I didn't like everything I read. So I'll have to make a clear qualification here.

Musically, I really like this collection. It's metal, but with mostly clear (or clearish) vocals, and it incorporates various folk instruments from the various groups' countries of origin. Most of this sampler is European and Russian, with one British group and one Australian group (updated to add: and one Canadian group). Many of the lyrical themes are based on folktales and mythologies from those countries, which to me is also interesting.

The dark side is that these groups tend toward nationalism, along with all the uglinesses that can entail. Two out of the twelve groups on this sampler are openly racist--not necessarily in the songs included here, but according to some things I have read. So, you have been warned. This sampler gets a 2.4 in my personal scale of 0 to 3.

Nevertheless, there are songs on here that I will include in my general favorites playlist, the stand-out groups being Fferyllt (who, in spite of being Russian, seem to be focused on Celtic lore), Leshak and Temnozor from Russia and Heorot from Finland.

A couple of free Christmas Samplers

Both from Amazon.com. If you do listen to some Christmas music this time of year, here are a couple of quick samplers to inject some freshness into your playlist. The Acorn sampler is all instrumental, while the X5 sampler is all vocal and sounds like groups of professional carolers. I would especially recommend track #1 of the Acorn sampler ("God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen") for a great example of some hammered dulcimer music. That's an instrument I haven't heard very often. If you haven't ever heard the hammered dulcimer, here's your chance.

The Cthulhu Ngram

From Ars Technica:

Is it possible to study something as ill-defined as culture in a quantitative manner? Researchers from Harvard have collaborated with Google and some traditional publishers to answer that question with a qualified "yes." By leveraging a portion of Google's massive library of digitized books, the team has created what they call a "culturome," with which they can track the use of language and terms across hundreds of years. This lets them track not only trends in language and usage, but the rise and fall of celebrities and historic events in the books of many eras. And, thanks to Google, the underlying data has been exposed via a Web interface, allowing others to perform their own analysis.

The authors didn't work with the full complement of Google's digitized texts, but the amount of material they did use is staggering: over 5 million books. They estimate that's about four percent of the books ever published. Google has about three times as many works scanned, but the scan quality and metadata on these—date and location of publication, etc.—isn't uniformly good, so the research has focused on the material with the best quality. Works start appearing at 1500, and include significant contributions in seven languages. They estimate that it would take someone 80 years to read it all, assuming said individual didn't eat or sleep.

Given this data source, the authors performed a simple analysis, identifying the frequency of a word relative to the total number of words produced that year. This compensates for the vast expansion in the printed word. In 1900, about 1.4 billion words a year were being printed; by 2000, that figure had reached 8 billion. With this data in hand, they performed a similar process for what they call "n-grams," or short phrases of up to five words.

And it's fun to play with. You can see it here.

click to enlarge

I don't know where that little blip at 1900 came from. Curious.

Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane (2002, yard sale CD)

I don't really bother to keep up with contemporary pop groups anymore. It took me several tries to listen to this; about 30-40 seconds into the first track I kept bailing out. Tonight I finally listened to the whole thing. This is the last of the CDs my wife picked up at a yard sale for 14 discs for $1.

Well, it's not really my thing. I understand this was one of those multi-platinum albums, but that doesn't mean much to me. I'm not going to delete it--it will go into the big archive, but that's about it. There's nothing on it that offends me musically, but I'm not thrilled by it, either, and occasional flare-ups of autotune doesn't help (apparently the singer isn't too solid on the high notes). So...mostly, this is the kind of group that would not make me change the station on the radio, although I'm stumped as to why I would be listening to a station that would play this in the first place.

I do like the cover.

Various Artists - Verve Unmixed 3 (2005, CD)

Just got this from yourmusic.com yesterday. Apparently, Verve had put out a collection called Verve Remixed 3--part of a series in which jazz classics "were remixed by today's finest DJs." I am so totally uninterested in any such thing that I can't accurately say I have "zero" interest. My interest in it would be something more like negative 15. Anyway, they followed it up with this collection of the original untampered-with recordings which did interest me. It's basically a jazz sampler, mostly vocal, mostly female artists. Included are Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Anita O'Day, Sarah Vaughan, Shirley Horn, Blossom Dearie (who I hadn't previously heard of), Astrud Gilberto (who you probably know as the woman who sang "The Girl from Ipanema"), Jimmy Smith (instrumental), Hugh Masekela (instrumental, mostly) and Dinah Washington.

Pretty good collection, and it doesn't duplicate anything I already had except for the Jimmy Smith track. The Dinah Washington track is from her more jazzy stuff--not the kind of thing that could be considered pop by any means. "Little Girl Blue" by Nina Simone has a very strange and poignant juxtaposition of melodies--the piano is playing "Good King Wenceslas" but she's singing a completely different tune.

So...a good addition for the collection.

Ultravox - Vienna (1980, LP)

I have mentioned this one before but I recently re-ripped it to encode it at a higher bit rate. In short, I bought this one because I heard Geddy Lee mention it in a radio interview. I have one other album of theirs but I haven't re-ripped it yet. Ultravox were a British synthpop (for lack of a better term) group, fairly heavy on the electronics. Their music--that is, of their music that I'm familiar with--has a kind of darkness of atmosphere to it. I like it quite a lot. It's not the kind of thing that ever got played on any radio stations around here, to my knowledge. They recently re-formed and are active again, I think. This was their first album with then new lead singer/guitarist Midge Ure. They had three previous albums with a different lead singer.

Gothic Metal: Metalhit Free Download Series (mp3 download)

I haven't been downloading as much this year as last year, mostly because I've been spending more time trying to digitize my old records. Anyhow, I've seen others from this series before but skipped them. This one was in the regular email from Amazon several days ago and I decided to download it and see what it was like.

I like it a lot--the lyrics I posted yesterday were from a song in this collection. In my personal ratings system, which, as a reminder, goes roughly from 0 to 3, although higher than 3 is possible but extremely rare, this album gets an overall 2.9.

Generally, in this collection you're going to hear metal that is heavy yet melodic and harmonic (that is, musical), some keyboards (including piano!), and some growled male vocals along with "clean" female vocals. Tempos tend to be slower and lyrics tend toward the dark and doomy, as they should in this kind of music.

One problem with this one, however, is that track #10 is incomplete. It is a sampler collection, after all, but since all the other tracks are complete and this one just abruptly stops at 5:55, it must have just been a goof on someone's part. A commenter at Amazon said that the actual track is about 3 minutes longer.

Twelve tracks, total playing time about an hour. I might also mention that I tried to look up several of these groups on Wikipedia, but of the ones I looked for none of them were included there. However, the Encyclopaedia Metallum has proven most helpful in filling in more information on these groups.

Word of the day: Mysteriarch

Darkness devours me again
the whirling, black depth of abysmal night
And he stands before me like a dreadful prophet
like some ancient Mysteriarch

O those eldritch eyes
they glow like sorcerous orbs
like fearful stars of unseen spheres
wise with the secrets of Time

I know he came for me
through the vast gateways of hell
passing from fearful, grey worlds
hidden deep in nightmare's well

The ravenous demons of time fed upon me
like vultures upon the flesh
O, cryptical phantasm let me drown
with the oblivious flow of non-existence

Come swiftly sublime spectre
reveal the endless voids that Night does hide
Spread thine empyreal wings
and lead me to the vast eternity of dark

--The Nameless Eidolon
Even Song

Doom metal. Very beautiful and ethereal music. Man, I'm really liking this stuff. Here's a link to the video, possibly, but I haven't watched it yet. Might download it later tonight. I actually had to use a dictionary for a few of these words--I felt like I was reading Clark Ashton Smith again.

More on this later.

A glimpse into the future...

Me in 40 years.


Actually that's Thomas Johnston Taylor, a.k.a. Lord Taylor of Gryfe, found at Famous Pipe Smokers.

If, and I repeat, if I lose that much hair. If I take after my father's side of the family, I will lose my hair but keep my hair color. If I take after my mother's side, I will keep my hair but it will turn a magnificent silvery-white, which is what I'm hoping for. Also my eyes will probably not change from blue to brown, but you get the idea.

Nutmeg!

Found this carefully laminated recipe today lying in the street near Fantasia & Reverie.

I got the stomach bug. I started feeling it Sunday afternoon, it hit with full force about 8:00 Sunday night, and kept me horizontal almost continuously through this morning, when I was able to get up and go to work even though I still felt (and feel) shaky.

My jerky supplies came in today but I don't think I'll be making anymore jerky just yet. I don't know if I'm up to handling raw meat yet.

Another pointless ramble

We were supposed to be at a Christmas tree lighting/flag raising ceremony tonight, but my daughter has come down with the stomach bug that my wife had last week. She is miserable, weak, tired and sporadically feverish. Since my wife has to work tonight I've just been trying to ease my daughter's discomfort all day.

Other than that, I have been setting up more "Santa with pipe" posts for The Briar Files, finished cleaning up/converting another record, and tried a couple of dehydrating experiments. Dried apple slices are quite nice and I have been enjoying them by popping a couple in my mouth along with a piece of jerky. I'm slowly working up to creating homemade pemmican.* Dried banana slices are also okay--my son likes them much more than the apple but he doesn't really care for apples. I'm just the opposite--I greatly prefer apples over bananas. And lastly, I tried dehydrating a little yogurt to make a yogurt leather. It tasted great, but I forgot to spray "Pam" on the leather sheet first so it stuck pretty bad. We scraped it all off and ate it, anyway.

My curing salt and liquid smoke have been shipped. Should come in this coming week. I bought more meat yesterday so I can get started as soon as the stuff comes in.

I note that my followers list for both this and The Briar Files have grown a little recently. Welcome aboard to all the new folks. Glad to have you around.

I have it on good authority that Santa is going to be bringing our family a Wii this Christmas. Can anyone recommend any halfway decent similar-to-D&D games available for it, if any? I understand that the system will also run older Gamecube games, so any of those are acceptable for recommendation, too.

I found two $20 bills blowing around in the street in Helotes this week. Christmas bonus!

"Pemmican" is in Firefox's spellcheck dictionary, but "briar" is not? My next project is to edit my own spellcheck dictionary. Also apparently in the previous sentence the first "spellcheck" is spelled correctly but the second is not. Neither is the one in that sentence. If anyone can see the difference, please let me know.

The Last Airbender (the movie)

Spoilers ahead.

Saw the movie version of Avatar: The Last Airbender tonight. If you haven't seen it yet, and if you have never seen the animated series, here is my recommendation: don't watch the movie. Just watch the animated series, from beginning to end if you can. The movie attempted to condense 20 half-hour episodes into an hour and 45 minutes. It resulted in about the same kind of movie that Dune was. If you had already seen the series, you knew what was going on, or what was supposed to be going on. If you hadn't, well... The bad news is, there has to be two more movies like this to finish the whole series.

A couple of technical gripes. Aang running sideways along a wall (using his airbending skills) looked really slow and lame. Actually, pretty much all of the elemental bending special effects looked far too slow. Also Aang never used his airball technique, which was a disappointment for both me and the kids. I was looking forward to seeing a CGI version of that. Another thing that bugged all of us is that the pronunciation of some of the names was changed from the series. And if you only watch the movie, you'll never know that Appa and Momo had names. Also the movie was entirely lacking in the humor that made a large part of the series, which meant there was no tension at all between humor and suspense. Another weird thing was that the Fire people all looked Middle Eastern, the Earth tribes looked Asian, and the Water and Air people looked like everyone else.

Another thing that was different was that in the movie, Aang was told by a spirit-dragon that the Avatar is not allowed to hurt people. This was absolutely not so in the series. Aang's avoidance of killing and even injuring when possible was purely his personal choice, and several spirit beings as well as the spirits of previous Avatars told him he was going to have to get over that if he was going to save the world.

And for the love of sanity, don't form an opinion on the overall story arc if you only see the movie. There is so much more background and development in the series that the movie is just a joke, but not the funny kind.

I keep thinking of more things I could say that were wrong with it, but I think I've had enough. Like I said, just watch the series.

I'm speechless

NSFW.

Penelope Pitstop in 3D.

Another jerky update

The last batch of venison jerky was very good. Very simple and old-fashioned, no measurements, just eyeball everything. Sprinkle lightly with tenderizer, bang it with a meat mallet, sprinkle with a little black pepper, flip all the pieces over and repeat for the other side. Then I dry them at 155 for about 3 - 3 1/2 hours, the smaller pieces get a shorter time than the larger pieces. Then just to be safe, I used a trick I read in a book on dehydrating that I recently got. I pop them all into a pre-heated 200-degree oven for about 30 minutes to make sure they're safe to eat.

I've begun carrying a small ziplock baggie with several pieces in it to snack on while I'm working; I'm able to go without stoking myself up with junk food to get more calories. That's sure to be a good side-effect in the long run.

One advantage of our new house is I have a lot more room for this stuff; I don't have to constantly move things around in the kitchen to make room for the dehydrator. I plan on soon getting more accessories for the dehydrator and trying some fruit leathers this weekend. Still waiting for my shipment of liquid smoke to come in. I won't be making any ground meat jerky until I get it.

I draw the line at tofu jerky, however. I'm not going to touch that stuff.