Nothing much Sunday

Grilled some hamburgers today, and built a teeny-tiny "campfire" so the kids could roast marshmallows. Ripped a couple of tapes (forgotten gems by Jeff Beck) and had a potluck lunch at church today. Have a usb hard drive on order and should be able to order a usb turntable before too long--then the vintage album ripping is going to get serious.

Got a call from my dad today, he tracked down the hymnal that has "Angel Band" in it. I'm looking forward to seeing it and seeing what other great old songs might be in it.

Tomorrow will probably be pretty slow, too. I have been so beaten down by working outside in this heat that I just don't have the heart to do anything recreational outside right now. Maybe in a few weeks or a month when it cools off a little.

If Lovecraft had been a Whitman's Sampler copywriter

At McSweeney's Internet Tendency:

Chocolate Cherry Cordial

You must not think me mad when I tell you what I found below the thin shell of chocolate used to disguise this bonbon's true face. Yes! Hidden beneath its rich exterior is a hideously moist cherry cordial! What deranged architect could have engineered this non-Euclidean aberration? I dare not speculate.

And this is the kind of song I have written

Since I'm in a rare mood tonight, here's one of the last sets of lyrics I committed to paper. The first stanza and chorus were written sometime in the mid-late 80s, the last two stanzas several years later. It took a while. I never have been able to think of a title for it.

Monday took me by surprise
Tuesday didn't find me any more wise
Wednesday came and Thursday went
I thanked God for Friday, but it wasn't heaven sent
Saturday took too long, everything went all wrong
Then Sunday came and I still felt the same

(chorus)
So take me by the hand
Lead me to the promised land
Take the long way home
Let the tears fill up my eyes
I've come a long, long way
From those hometown days
But I still can't say goodbye
Gotta find my way,
Gotta find my wings and fly

Heaven only knows the score
I haven't tried to keep track of things since 1984
I don't have much to do or say
I don't think that it would really matter much anyway
It makes no difference at all if I run or if I crawl
Or if I fly so high I touch the sun

(chorus)

I feel like a pair of old blue jeans
Kinda comfortable, faded and frayed
I get a misty kind of laid-back feeling
When those psychedelic blues are played
Sometimes I think that I was born too late
Sometimes it seems that I was born too soon
Sometimes at night I to hide away
On the dark side of the moon
I'm too far gone to be confused, I think I paid someone else's dues
Or maybe someone else paid my dues for me

This is the kind of song I wish I could write

After converting the old tape of "Eldorado to the Moon" and moving the file into a "misc" directory, I loaded up the directory and am listening to it. Here's one song that I can't hear without getting choked up. This is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.

I Try by Macy Gray

Games, changes and fears
When will they go from here
When will they stop
I believe that fate has brought us here
And we should be together, babe
But we're not
I play it off, but I'm dreaming of you
I'll keep my cool, but I'm feigning

I try to say goodbye and I choke
Try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide it, it's clear
My world crumbles when you are not near
Goodbye and I choke
I try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide it, it's clear
My world crumbles when you are not near

I may appear to be free
But I'm just a prisoner of your love
And I may seem all right and smile when you leave
But my smiles are just a front
Just a front, hey
I play it off, but I'm dreaming of you
I'll keep my cool, but I'm feigning

I try to say goodbye and I choke
Try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide it, it's clear
My world crumbles when you are not near
Goodbye and I choke
I try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide it, it's clear
My world crumbles when you are not near
Here is my confession
May I be your possession
Boy, I need your touch
Your love kisses and such
With all my might I try
But this I can't deny
Deny

I play it off, but I'm dreaming of you
(but I'm dreaming of you babe)
I'll keep my cool, but I'm feigning

I try to say goodbye and I choke (yeah)
Try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide, it's clear
My world crumbles when you are not near
(when you are not near aahh)
Goodbye and I choke (yeah, yeah, yeah)
I try to walk away and I stumble (hey, hey, hey)
Though I try to hide it, it's clear (sick of love)
My world crumbles when you are not near (your love, kisses and)

Goodbye and I choke (I'm choking)
I try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide it, it's clear
My world crumbles when you are not near
(when you are not there, yeah, yeah yeah)
Yeah, yeah..

Take right off into the starry skies...

A long time ago I used to tape songs from a local radio program called Sunday Night Session. It's on Sunday nights (naturally) on the public radio station KSTX, and it's an hour-long program of "Texas music." One night I captured this really cool song by Michael Nesmith, but I had trouble tracking down the details, lyrics, etc. Don't know why. But today my daughter came across the old tape and it got me looking again. Today I finally succeeded in nailing down the album.

The Newer Stuff by Michael Nesmith is the album I've been looking for, and the song is "Eldorado to the Moon." The song has a calypso kind of beat, with very sweet vocal harmonies in the chorus. And here are the lyrics.

We know someday mankind will travel to the stars
But it will not be done in tiny compact cars
The interstellar trip would take a hundred years
And we don't want to cramp your pretty legs up, dears

So I will pick you up
About a quarter to
And we will pick up speed as we hit the hill
And then I'll drop the Caddy into overdrive
And we will take right off into the starry skies

We got a million dollars worth of ethel gas
And a reservation for the room
Tonight we're gonna fly the Eldorado to the moon
We're gonna fly the Eldorado to the moon

I know the Soviets (la la la la)
They must be most upset (nyet nyet nyet nyet)
Because they cannot build a car like me El-D yet
It's got the fireplace
It's got the swimming pool
If we need extra space, it's got the backseat, too

We got a million dollars worth of ethel gas
And a reservation for the room
Tonight we're gonna fly the Eldorado to the moon
We're gonna fly the Eldorado to the moon

Cthulhu statue by Paul Carrick

At The Nightserpent Blog.

So we don't have to...

Dan O'Brien Reviews Roseanne Barr’s Blog.

I thought she was just another wanna-be celebrity *ssh*l*. I didn't realize she is actually a total raving lunatic.

What is fusion, anyway?

Today I finished work early enough to hear the last hour or so of the lunch time special on KRTU. This week's focus has been on various "jazz fusion" musicians and groups. Today I got to hear some Pat Metheny, which is always nice and unusual on KRTU since they usually stick to more "classical" jazz. So it reminded me that I thought I had some dub tapes of Metheny. I found one of them and converted them to mp3 today. I also logged back into yourmusic.com and checked my queue, and yes I have already added several of his to the queue so I'll be getting the CDs before too long.

Ripped today was American Garage of 1980 and Offramp of 1982. Now these are both dubs of records, so the quality isn't up to CD-level, but they will get me by for now because they still sound pretty good. I know I used to have a dub of As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls also, but haven't been able to find that one. All three of these are in the yourmusic.com queue, as well as Pat Metheny Group's eponymous debut album. I also currently own CDs of the Group's Still Life (Talking), Metheny's Secret Story, and the album Question and Answer that Metheny made with Dave Holland and Roy Haynes. Still Life is one of my favorite albums.

It seems to be a quirk I have of being able to remember the place and circumstance of almost every book and music purchase I have ever made. I didn't purchase these exactly, but I should still be able to remember from whom I got the albums to create the dub tapes. But I can't. I have no idea who owned these records from which I made the tapes. It strikes me as quite strange. It must have been sometime around the very late 80s or early 90s, but I just can't remember.

Well, I've been trying to think of something clever or at least intelligible to write for the next installment of the Digital Collection (tentatively subtitled "If you want to get into it, you've got to get out of it"), but since nothing much has come to me I've just been putting it off. Also I'm trying to think of another book review. I've already picked out the book, and it relates to music, I'm just trying to think of something interesting to write about it. I looked for it on Amazon today and discovered it's another book of mine that has become a collectible, with used prices starting at $66. Here's a sneak peek at the cover.

I got your 'KAPOW!' right here!

via Oddee

Awesome!

The only word I could utter when it was over. While driving home today and listening to KRTU, I heard a version of the old jazz standard "Night Train" by World Saxophone Quartet. I had never even heard of them before, and I was totally blown away. I almost had to pull off the road. All those textures of golden brown generated by four saxes in perfect synchrony was almost too much.

Another group to collect!

Exactly

via Cryptomundo

No they weren't

A meter reader from the other company got caught estimating:

"They were essentially stealing from us," said customer Steve Kulawik. "To find out that the water we're being charged for may not be what we're actually using. There's no trust in that anymore."

No one was stealing from anyone. One person got caught fudging the numbers, and he was fired. The next guy will read all the meters, you get an accurate bill, and everything evens out. You had a bigger bill this time but you'll have a smaller bill next time, so get a grip, Steve.

The other company has bigger problems than this, believe me, but they took immediate and corrective action, so get your knickers out of that knot.

"It must have been a hot day or something..." You have no idea, Mike.

P.S. I don't work for this company. And my language is intentionally vague so this post will be difficult to g00gl3.

Mixing cocktails with cocktails

Self and property defense in San Antonio:

Police say Shawn Degan, the owner of Perfection Tattoos at 3507 Blanco Road, shot and killed Ricky Davis Jr. about 2:35 a.m. in front of the business.

Degan was sleeping inside his shop, police said, when he heard breaking glass at the front window. He looked outside and saw a man going to a car. The man returned with a Molotov cocktail and tossed the burning object inside the broken window.

Degan retrieved a shotgun and fired toward the suspect, police said, later identified as Davis, 29.

So, a question for gun-banners. Are you also going to ban glass bottles, rags, gasoline and oil?

The worst thing about all this is that it seems that the Molotov-thrower was after the wrong tattoo artist. What a stupid, senseless waste.

Thanks again to Strange in San Antonio.

Interesting observation

Cabinet of Wonders posts a summary of the recent Bigfoot hoax fiasco, and concludes with this interesting observation:

So who came out of it well?

As you can probably guess from the name checks throughout, it was Blogsquatcher, who have have done sterling work keeping everyone updated with a storm of blog postings (sacrificing sleep in the process) as examined all the angles and the developing shitstorm, with a suitably critical eye. Also thanks to being hosted by Blogger they seemed to suffer very little from the vastly increased traffic (even as bemused bystanders we got a big spike in folks coming from Google), which meant they could keep going while all around them were falling over due to hacking and server overloads.

Blogger takes a lot of **** for being a free blog service, but there's something to be said about a free service that thus far apparently has no bandwidth limit. That was a big problem I had with Eponym. Ten dollars a month and I really only got 3 weeks of service per month because the last week I was over the bandwidth limit and got shut down. If I accidentally made a popular post I might be online for only half the month.

By the way, Cryptomundo had to be rebuilt, and the RSS feed is now different. Just figured that out today.

The answer is obvious

Man Attended Church Mass Before Going To Nearby School With Gun

Police don't know why he showed up at the school.

Obviously because he knew that there were going to be lots of easy targets there, and no opposition. He only had the bad luck to run into an off-duty deputy who held him in check until reinforcements arrived. And if the deputy had not been there, what then?

via Strange in San Antonio

Not much done today

I haven't been feeling all that well since Friday, probably got the cold that my wife had, although at least I didn't get the fever like she did (so far).

Logged onto yourmusic.com today and did some browsing. They have a whole bunch more Jimmy Smith albums available now, including a remastered version of the legendary Back at the Chicken Shack (which I have on vinyl).

I've also been snooping, both on- and off-line, for a possible SATB (church music) version of the old song "Angel Band," which was part of the O Brother Where Are Thou soundtrack. That version is by the Stanley Brothers, but I also have a version by Carl Story. My dad thinks he knows where there's a hymnal that has it, so it's looking good. If that fails, I've already started working on arranging such a version myself, partly by ear and partly by guitar tabs that I snagged off the internet.

We didn't go to church today because my wife was working and I felt terrible and didn't want to get out of bed unless I had to, so I got almost nothing accomplished today except writing a few notes on "Angel Band." But I was also looking through one of the old hymnals and found a version of "Amazing Grace" with 5 stanzas. I had never seen more than 4 before. I also found a version of "How Great Thou Art" written in C, which is different to me. Every time I've ever seen it, it was in B♭. And that's about all I did today.

Interesting wall decoration

At Sam's Burger Joint. Scroll down to the third row of photos, the one on the right. That's the standard silhouette target as used in the Texas CHL qualification. Heh heh.

"Grendel"

Written by Derek Dick (Fish), recorded by Marillion. Interesting take on the story. I'd say it could have been inspired by the John Gardner book, if I had to take a guess.

I. Heorot's plea and Grendel's awakening

Midnight suns bid moors farewell, retreats from charging dusk
Mountain echo, curfews bell, signal ending tasks
They place their faith in oaken doors, cower in candlelight
The panic seeps through bloodstained floors as Grendel stalks the night

Earth rim walker seeks his meals
Prepare the funeral pyres
The shapers songs no longer heal the fear
Within their eyes, [their eyes]

Wooden figures, pagan gods, stare blindly cross the sea
Appeal for help from ocean fogs, for saviour born of dreams
They know their lives are forfeit now, priestly head they bow in shame
They cannot face the trembling crowd that flinch in Grendels name

Earth rim walker seeks his meals
Prepare the funeral pyres
The shapers songs no longer heal the fear
Within their eyes, [their eyes]

As Grendel leaves his mossy home beneath the stagnant mere
Along the forest path he roams to Hrothgars hall so clear
He knows that victory is secured, his charm will testify
His claws will drip with mortal blood as moonbeams haunt the sky

As Grendel leaves his mossy home beneath the stagnant mere
Along the forest path he roams to Hrothgars hall so clear
He knows that victory is secured, his charm will testify
His claws will drip with mortal blood, as moonbeams haunt the sky

Earth rim walker seeks his meals
Prepare the funeral pyres
The shapers songs no longer heal the fear
Within their eyes, [their eyes]

II. Grendel's journey

Silken membranes span his path, fingerprints in dew
Denizens of twilight lands humbly beg him through
Mother natures bastard child shunned by leaf and stream
An alien in an alien land seeks solace within dreams
The shapers lies his poisoned tongue malign with mocking harp
Beguiling queen her innocence offends his icy heart

III. lurker at the threshold

Hounds freeze in silence bewitched by the reptile spell
Sulphurous essence pervades round the grassy dell
Heorot awaits him like lamb to the butchers knife
Stellular heavens ignore even childrens cries

Screams are his music, lightning his guide
Raping the darkness, death by his side

Chants rise in terror, free round the oaken beams
Flickering firelight portraying the grisly scene
Warriors advance, prepare for the nightmare foe
Futile their sacrifice as even their hearts must know

Heroes delusion, with feet in the grave
Lurker at the threshold, he cares not for the brave, he cares not for the brave

IV. finale

So you thought that your bolts and your locks would keep me out
You should have known better after all this time
You're gonna pay in blood for all your vicious slander
With your ugly pale skins and your putrid blue eyes
Why should I feel pity when you kill your own and feel no shame
Gods on my side, sure as hell
I'm gonna take no blame
I'm gonna take no blame
I'm gonna take no blame

So you say you believe in all of mother natures laws
You lust for gold with your sharpened knives
Oh when your hoards are gathered and your enemies left to rot
You pray with your bloodstained hands at the feet of your pagan gods

Then you try to place the killers blade in my hand
You call for justice and distort the truth
Well Ive had enough of all your pretty pretty speeches
Receive your punishment
Expose your throats to my righteous claws
And let the blood flow, and [let the blood flow], flow, flow, flow.

Downloading

I've downloaded some singles from Amazon before, but today I decided to go for it and download a whole album. It's going to take a while on dial-up, even though I have almost the fastest connection possible for dial-up.

One reason it's going to take extra long is that the mp3s are at 256 kbps. When I rip CDs or digitize my analog recordings, I just save them at 128. I'm not sure my ears can even hear the difference between 128 and 256. But one of these songs I had downloaded from a file-sharing system several years ago (and subsequently lost). At 128 it was about 16 megs (it's a long song). At 256 it was over 29 megs.

I was hoping to be able to individually download only the bonus tracks on the 1999 re-release of Marillion's Clutching at Straws, because they document a transition phase between Marillion with Fish and Marillion after Fish. But unfortunately, none of the tracks are available for download, so I'll have to buy the CD set (I already have the original Clutching at Straws).

So today I'm downloading B'Sides Themselves, which is a collection of b-side singles from Marillion. The opening track is the epic "Grendel," which is the 29 meg file I mentioned. It was the b-side of a 12-inch single, not a 7-inch.

More details on all this stuff when I work my way up to Marillion in my collection.

UPDATE: I was wrong. They are not recorded at 256, but at 320. This makes more sense, because if I recall correctly, 320 is considered "CD quality."

Feedburner stats

Wow. I don't know exactly when I broke 50, but this has gotta be a record for me.