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Category: Music

Oops, I Fugued It Again

How to write a fugue.  A la Brittney Spears.  Really. (via BD)…

How to write a fugue.  A la Brittney Spears.  Really.

(via BD)

Tennessee Travel

We had our last day of meetings yesterday — overall a good set of days of discussion, much less rushed and initiative-packed than some similar meetings we’ve had.  Good stuff…

We had our last day of meetings yesterday — overall a good set of days of discussion, much less rushed and initiative-packed than some similar meetings we’ve had.  Good stuff

After various delays and discussions, myself, a Colleague, and the Boss were all heading back to Nashville to catch early flights out this morning.  So it turned out that the Boss followed me the whole way back to the airport (where he’d pick me up for our hotel after I turned in my rental).  Being concerned about losing him (as traffic intervened) or about going slower than his usual speedy wont (when it didn’t) made it a less-than-relaxing trip, though it was amusing to pick up a very powerful (and clear) Chicago news station as I was getting into the Nashville metro area.

After we’d checked in, we went and picked up my Colleague and the Boss and headed over to some older parts of Nashville, in particular Broadway, which has gone though some serious urban renewal and is now home of many, many bars/music joints.  We went to Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and listened to the ear-numbing sounds of Anthony Orio and the Goodfellers and drank bad American light beer and generally had a great time for a number of hours.

That led to about three hours of sleep last night, since Rob was driving me to the airport this morning, meeting at 6.  Yawn. 

On the bright side, Rob got me into the Delta Premier Lounge, where the Elite Meet to Eat Morning Breakfast Treats. 

On the down side, that meant I was stuck there watching Fox & Friends, a “news” show that alternates between hyperbolic outrage, snide ridiculing character assassination, and self-righteous martyrdom by the ultra-far-left MSM.  I feel like scrubbing my brain with sandpaper>.

On the other hand,  I was able to sleep pretty much all the way on the flight back to Denver, which was refreshing if not comfortable.

The other down part of of the trip was that I managed to leave a pair of slacks and two shirts hanging in the closet at the Hampton Inn in Tullahoma — which a call to the front desk indicated have vanished mysteriously.  I will follow up with them, but …

Good to be home.

Rock-a-pella

Went to the Nylons concert at Hudson Gardens this evening.  Margie and I have followed along this group for, um, decades (including across previous relationships, ahem), and they’re still…

Went to the Nylons concert at Hudson Gardens this evening.  Margie and I have followed along this group for, um, decades (including across previous relationships, ahem), and they’re still as much fun as ever, even though only one of the original team is still on board.  This is at least the third time I’ve seen them in concert — previously I saw them in San Diego, and at the Greek Amphitheater in LA.

They did two sets, each running about an hour.  The first one was mostly old favorites.  It’s always amusing, btw, to watch musical acts come to Denver and deal with the altitude (and joke about dealing with the altitude).  With a full-throttle group like the Nylons, it’s a serious issue, and they were pretty badly lagging at the end of the first set.  The second half, though, they were recovered, and pulled in some more recent tunes, though their finale (a nicely reworked “Lion Sleeps Tonight”) and encore (three more tunes, with the signature “Hey-Hey Good-Bye”) were all “classics.”

Great fun.  Made me want to dig up all those CDs … er, MP3s and listen to them.

This was our first outing to Hudson Gardens, either as a garden or as an event venue.  As both, it’s nothing to write home about, but they did have a good concert series this year that we’ll have to watch for next year.  We went ahead and sprung for the “good seats” up front, and I’m glad we did.

On the other hand, though they encourage picnic suppers — Margie made a wonderful pair of pasties from leftover steak and spinich and onions and other goodies — they don’t allow you to bring in your own alcohol, instead selling it up at a booth.  Feh.

The only problem we had with the evening was some light rain from about 15 minutes before the concert started to right before the group came on.  We had umbrellas, but were a bit concerned if it was going to get any heavier.  Later on, the breeze got awfully cool (fall has definitely arrived) and I was glad both that we’d brought a blanket and that I’d found a spiffy insulated picnic cloth that the Ks gave us a while back.

The amusing part of the evening was the awful cranky lady seated behind us, who kept up a running commentary (before the concert and during the intermission) critiquing the very idea of an outdoor concert in September, how nice it would have been had she thought to bring a picnic suppert, the body forms of the folks who had done such a thing, and the relative strengths (few) and weaknesses (many) of the musical talent.  It wasn’t altogether clear why she was there, and she and her silent hubby bailed before the encore.  Her loss, our gain.

Again, a very fun time.  And a nice way to spend the evening with Margie.

(And, again, many thanks to Jackie, who made both this evening and Friday evening possible.)

A Note for My Mom

An NPR article on perfect pitch.  Interesting stuff — especially learning that not all “A” tones that orchestra tune to are the same “A.”…

An NPR article on perfect pitch.  Interesting stuff — especially learning that not all “A” tones that orchestra tune to are the same “A.”

Four Things Meme

You know how it works … Four Jobs I Have Had in My Life: Cooking/cleaning/sales at the local Burger King Line runner at Harwood Dining Hall at Pomona College Elementary…

You know how it works …

Four Jobs I Have Had in My Life:

  1. Cooking/cleaning/sales at the local Burger King
  2. Line runner at Harwood Dining Hall at Pomona College
  3. Elementary school teacher (Farmdale Elementary, LAUSD)
  4. Systems Programming, PC Tech Support, Xbase Programming, Oracle DBA, Site IT Management, Documentation Management, Enterprise Systems Management at my current employer.

Four Places I Have Lived:

  1. Mountain View, Calif.
  2. Diamond Bar, Calif.
  3. Fort Collins, Calif.
  4. Centennial, Colo.

Four of My Favorite Foods:

  1. Snickerdoodles (most cookies, in fact)
  2. Rum Raisin ice cream (most ice cream, in fact)
  3. Cottage Fried Potatoes (esp as cooked by Margie or her dad)
  4. Anything with my mom’s meat sauce on it.

Four Places I’d Rather be Right Now:

  1. At home in bed.
  2. At home in front of the computer.
  3. At home in front of the TV.
  4. With Margie, most anywhere.

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:

  1. Undercover Blues
  2. The Princess Bride
  3. Madagascar
  4. The Incredibles

Note: I always have huge problems with these sorts of questions if I’m not standing in front of my video library.  I always end up leaving off something I’ll regret later.

Note 2:  Having a kid is a great way to learn what movies you are willing to watch over and over (and over and over).

Four TV Shows I Like to Watch:

  1. Doctor Who
  2. Painkiller Jane
  3. Law & Order
  4. Dinner: Impossible

Note: I limited this to current/non-canceled shows only.

Four Websites I Visit Daily:

  1. Stupid Evil Bastard
  2. Blogula Rasa
  3. Father Jake
  4. Decrepit Old Fool

Note: I’m excluding my own pages, as well as GMail and the like.  I do most of my browsing via Google Reader (but I won’t count that), which means I most often hit pages that are most often updated.  There are some other sites that, when they post, I’ll go to immediately (e.g., good friends).  There are many others that I tend to fall behind on then plow through several dozen posts at a time, e.g., BoingBoing.

Four Early Musical Influences:

  1. Beethoven, Mozart, Hayden, Bach, and anyone else that my parents played chamber music by.
  2. John Denver
  3. Simon & Garfunkel
  4. The Monkees

Four Computers I’ve Owned:

  1. Commodore 64
  2. Mac SE/30
  3. A long array of desktops and laptops, past and present, none of which I have any inutterable fondness for and so cannot remember the particular model names.  They have included Compaq, Sony, HP, Everex, and IBM.
  4. Katherine’s first work-surplus Compaq notebook, on which she learned to play a variety of toddler games.  (Now looking for a good home.)

Note: I’m excluding company-owned computers I’ve used.

Four people I tag:

  1. Nobody!  I tag nobody!  If you want to do this, do it.  If you don’t, I don’t want anyone to feel obliged.  So there!

(via Terry)

UPDATE:

Evidently this meme has metastasized around the blogosphere, with new questions being plugged in.  Some that BD had that I didn’t:

Four places you’ve been on vacation:

  1. Walt Disney World
  2. Dry Creek Valley, Calif.
  3. Wales
  4. Santa Fe, NM

Four albums you can’t live without:

  1. Bangles, Greatest Hits
  2. Eurhytmics, Greatest Hits
  3. Hogwood & AAM, Handel’s Messiah
  4. Edwards & Sherman, 1776

Note: Okay, none of these I couldn’t live without — of the 7,918 songs I have loaded into iTunes — 20+ Gb, or 17.7 days of  listening — these are the albums with the most 5-star songs on them that I think I would most regret not ever being able to listen to again.

Four magazines you read:

  1. Smithsonian
  2. Comic Buyer’s Guide
  3. um … do comic books count?  Otherwise, I’m stuck.

Four cars you’ve owned:

  1. 1971 VW Super Beetle
  2. 1987 VW Jetta
  3. 1990 Honda Civic hatchback
  4. 1995 Saturn coupe

Four colors you like (not necessarily together):

  1. Cobalt Blue
  2. Fire Engine Red
  3. Lavender Purple
  4. Teal

Four Hollywood stars you want to have a drink with:

  1. Steve Martin
  2. Judi Densch
  3. Jon Stewart
  4. Joe Straczynski

Note: I’m using “Hollywood stars” to mean “Show Business Notables.” Also, I tend to draw sharp lines between actors and their roles, and I’m seriously not into the Entertainment Biz world, so a list like this is tough.  That said, I’m sure there are a dozen stars I’ve long said seem like they’d be fun to have a drink with — I just can’t think of any of them offhand.

 

Music, hark!

Had a faboo time at the concert last night at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Got there about 6:10a and about 3/4 of the concert pit looked full up.  We managed…

Had a faboo time at the concert last night at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Got there about 6:10a and about 3/4 of the concert pit looked full up.  We managed to find a spot that was (a) fairly close to the stage, (b) about 7 p.m. orientation (where the performer’s going to be standing and looking out at 12 Noon), and (c) about five minutes from falling into the shade.

Then we pulled out a very yummy picnic dinner.  Margie had stopped by Whole Foods and picked up some tasty things to put into tortillas (and tortillas to go with them), as well as various desserts — some cake, some truffles, etc.  I contributed a nice, chilled bottle of Tablas Vignonier and digging the picnic gear and low chairs out of the basement.  Nice.

The headliner for this installment of the DBG summer series was Loudon Wainwright III, who was delightful, witty, profound, scatological, and entertaining as ever.  Got to pick up CDs as gifts or something (I can think of couple friends who would enjoy him — really — at least for different reasons).  (Actually went to the entrance later to pick up a CD for him to sign, but they were out, so I had him sign our ticket instead).

LW3 was only out there for the first hour’s set, alas.  Being just five weeks after hip replacement probably had something to do with that.  We did get to hear the world premiere of the “Hip” song — either a clever improvisation or something that actually will show up on an album.  Hey, any time you can work the atomic weight of Titanium into a song, it’s gotta be recorded for posterity.

The second half of the show was a guitarist, Leo Kottke, who did great 12- and 6-string work (and, yes, more CD buying is likely in the works).

Then a leisurely drive home (more leisurely than the rush hour drive there), pick up Kitten from Doyce (hat tip), and to home and to bed.

Waiting for the concert …

And enjoying a yummy picnic dinner, courtesy of Margie….

And enjoying a yummy picnic dinner, courtesy of Margie.

Lookahead

Skimming the summer schedule … In late May, around Memorial Day, my folks are coming to visit.  That will be right after the end of the school year.  First week…

Skimming the summer schedule …

In late May, around Memorial Day, my folks are coming to visit.  That will be right after the end of the school year. 

First week in June, I have a most-of-a-week-long IT management soiree in California. 

Late June, we have our “KOA” weekend, followed by Katherine staying on a few weeks for “Grandma & Grandpa Camp” and Margie and I heading down to Santa Fe for a few days of R&R.  Then we get the Fourth of July.  The Ks will be bringing her back when it’s over and paying us a visit.

Late July, right after our Louden Wainwright concert, Katherine has a Girl Scout Camp for a few nights, assuming the we made it onto the list.

End of August is Labor Day, no specific plans at this time, but our Nylons concert tix are for right after that.

And somewhere in there we’ll probably be buying a car.

Probably one of the more deliberately busy summers we’ve had on tap for a while, but I’m looking forward to it.

Potpourri for Tuesday

“I say, old bean — the reactor appears to be on fire” — a line probably not heard during the Windscale Disaster in 1957. Divinely designed churches.  Some of these…

  1. “I say, old bean — the reactor appears to be on fire” — a line probably not heard during the Windscale Disaster in 1957.
  2. Divinely designed churches.  Some of these are just amazing.
  3. It is, indeed, possible for a plan to work too well.  That seems to be most true with plans (like the turkey one mentioned here) to introduce animals or plants to areas.
  4. Seriously … creepy … ads.  I think the one with the pig is the funniest creepiest.
  5. You thought “It’s a Small World” is the most annoyingly cloyingly mind-locking song of all time?  You’ve never heard “The Laugh Song”  — filmed, in part, at the infamous Chinese Disney-knockoff park.
  6. I did not know they still made Moxie.  Next time I have a friend heading off to the Northeast, I might bug them to pick up a can, just out of curiosity.
  7. Um … don’t jump up too high during that volleyball tournament on Maho Beach.  You might lose the ball (or your hand) to a 747 passing overhead …

Potpourri for $500, Alex!

Time to clean the “I can’t close this tab because I want to blog about what I have open here, but haven’t had the time” tabs.  So … How the…

Time to clean the “I can’t close this tab because I want to blog about what I have open here, but haven’t had the time” tabs.  So …

  1. How the CIA used a fake sci-fi film production to smuggle Americans about of Iran during the Hostage Crisis.
  2. An ecumenical round-table discussion about evolution.  There are, remarkably enough, religious people who believe in it!
  3. Named Gay?  Sorry, that’s offensive speech, we have to filter you now.
  4. Happy Birthday, Carl Linnaeus.
  5. A  discussion of basic civility in the UK.
  6. A rather awful (but official) remake of the classic Tootsie-Pop ad (“How many licks?”) in CG.  Fortunately, the original is still showing around (just saw it the other day).

  7. I’m the last one to post about it (BD did a week or so ago, as did Les), but the LOLTREK page is, pretty amusing, except where it’s not.  I do like the one I’ve posted here.  “Those who like that sort of thing …”

  8. Build a Counterstrike mod map of your school, get kicked out.  Nice.  Okay, so I can understand why it would make someone nervous and seek further investigation.  Investigation having concluded nothing’s up, then drop it.  (More here.)
  9. Got my Loudon Wainwright III tix for July.  Glee!
  10. Online petitions are generally worthless, but this one, by the ACLU to restore habeus corpus and due process (y’know, kinda like what’s in the Constitution?), is worth taking a look at.
  11. Congresscritters who get big money from the RIAA are sending nastygrams to universities asking how they’re cracking down on those Evil Music Pirates on their campuses.  Your tax dollars at work.  (And, sadly, it’s a bipartisan issue — Howard Berman (D) is an infamous shill for Big Entertainment.)
  12. I’ve always been fonder of PC Magazine than PC World, and now that the latter’s Editor-in-Chief has resigned after being pressured to tone down reviews critical of major advertisers, I’m glad I am.
  13. Some people have way too much time and bandwidth on their hands.  And, yet — very cool, even if you’re not a Leave it to Beaver fan.
  14. Rebit backup sounds very cool.  Must research (which means the tab is staying open) …

O Fleeting Fame

Who’s that guy singing scary songs to kids?  The answer, my friends … Kindergarten kids in ritzy L.A. suburb Calabasas have been coming home to their parents and talking about…

Who’s that guy singing scary songs to kids?  The answer, my friends …

Kindergarten kids in ritzy L.A. suburb Calabasas have been coming home to their parents and talking about the “weird man” who keeps coming to their class to sing “scary” songs on his guitar. The “weird” one turns out to be Bob Dylan, whose grandson (Jakob Dylan’s son) attends the school. He’s been singing to the kindergarten class just for fun, but the kiddies have no idea they’re being serenaded by a musical legend – to them, he’s just Weird Guitar Guy.

Of course, I’ve often thought Dylan was a bit weird, too …

(via J-Walk)

Fight fiercely, Bloggers, fight, fight, fight!

Ginny points to Accordion Guy’s suggestion that the “Vulcan Fight Song” (played during the famous Spock/Kirk struggle in Star Trek’s “Amok Time” episode) should be … … the official…

Ginny points to Accordion Guy‘s suggestion that the “Vulcan Fight Song” (played during the famous Spock/Kirk struggle in Star Trek‘s “Amok Time” episode) should be …

… the official song of internet discussions and blog comments. Like the Vulcan ritual that the music underscored, most internet arguments are triggered by a response in the most primitive parts of our brains, look silly to outsiders and seem to be taken up by people who are slated to have sex once every seven years.

 Bring forth the Trackback!

Bonus points if you don’t have to go to Accordion Guy’s site to be reminded of the music.  And bonus points if you have any idea of the episode I’m talking about.

I’d go a step further than that — the Vulcan Marching Song (played as T’Pau is carted in) would serve as a fine Pomp & Circumstance for most blog sites before they degenerate into atavistic conflict.

Concerted effort

Got the brochure for the Botanic Gardens Summer Concert Series the other day, and there’s at least one we’re planning to attend — Loudon Wainwright III (who we’ve seen there, ah, twice…

Got the brochure for the Botanic Gardens Summer Concert Series the other day, and there’s at least one we’re planning to attend — Loudon Wainwright III (who we’ve seen there, ah, twice before, and it’s always a good show).  The DBG venue — a “theater in the square” with picnic dinners and all that — is a hell of a lot of fun.

If anyone local wants to come along to that (or if something else on the site floats your musical boat — Ani DiFranco is at the Chatfield Arboretum in July) heave a holler.  I can start going on for tix on … 4 May.

“There may be many others but they have not been discovered …”

A trio of YouTube videos that use Tom Lehrer tunes: A very pleasant presentation of “The Elements.” An rather literal (if mostly family-rated) rendition of “The Masochism Tango” (visual rendition…

A trio of YouTube videos that use Tom Lehrer tunes:

  1. A very pleasant presentation of “The Elements.”
  2. An rather literal (if mostly family-rated) rendition of “The Masochism Tango” (visual rendition of the gags, plus sound track of screams, is somewhat less effective than just the song itself).
  3. An odd setting of Star Wars clips to “We’ll All Go Together When We Go.”

Despite the mixed bag, it’s always worth it to listen to Mr Lehrer.

Activated

I’m not all hep with this mod music and all, but I enjoyed the Dresden Dolls “Coin-Activated Boy” video that BD linked to.  Almost as much as the “flip side”…

I’m not all hep with this mod music and all, but I enjoyed the Dresden Dolls “Coin-Activated Boy” video that BD linked to.  Almost as much as the “flip side” video immediately thereafter.

The Donny and Al Show: “White and Nerdy”

A first take of the “Weird Al” music video, with Donny Osmond joining him in front of the green screen.  Hi-larious … and the song is pretty funny, too. (via…

A first take of the “Weird Al” music video, with Donny Osmond joining him in front of the green screen.  Hi-larious … and the song is pretty funny, too.

(via Kate)

UPDATE: I actually had a link to the lyrics, but the odd bug in ecto that duplicates sequentially applied links meant that rather than something that said “and the song is pretty funny, too” (with a link to the lyrics), it turned out as “and the Kate is pretty funny, too” (with a duplicated link to her blog page). Not that she isn’t funny (in a good way), but that’s not what I meant. Really. 🙂

Musical epiphany (on a Sunday afternoon)

It’s “you and me, endlessly,” with a bit of syllabic mangling. I always wondered why they were singing about “you and me and Leslie.”…

It’s “you and me, endlessly,” with a bit of syllabic mangling.

I always wondered why they were singing about “you and me and Leslie.“

The Music of Alfred Hitchcock

Or, at least, of his movies. From Saturday’s NPR Morning Edition, “‘Hitchcock’s Music’ Scores Big on Suspense”: American Studies professor Jack Sullivan examines the celebrated director’s relationship to sound in…

Or, at least, of his movies. From Saturday’s NPR Morning Edition, “‘Hitchcock’s Music’ Scores Big on Suspense“:

American Studies professor Jack Sullivan examines the celebrated director’s relationship to sound in his new book, Hitchcock’s Music.

Hitchcock’s fruitful and sometimes volatile collaboration with such composers as Bernard Hermann Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest) and Miklos Rozsa (Spellbound) created some of the most gripping scores of all time.

Sullivan tells Scott Simon about some favorite musical moments, notes Hitchcock’s fondness for waltzes and discourses on how his use of music has influenced generations of filmmakers.

Fun article (and, appropriately, an audio one).

(via Avocet)

Mambo bed time in Holbrook

Mambo bed time in Holbrook Arizona. Good night Kitten. UPDATE: After the the coincidence of nestling into bed just in time for Annie Lennox and “Into the West” on the…

Mambo bed time in Holbrook Arizona. Good night Kitten.

UPDATE: After the the coincidence of nestling into bed just in time for Annie Lennox and “Into the West” on the RotK sound track we were listening to, Kitten decided she wanted one of her standard going-to-bed discs — a collection of mambo tunes. Go fig.

this post enabled by airblogging.com and Margie.

Too many notes?

All the sheet music of Mozart (along with critical commentary) has been put online (and searchable) by the International Mozart Foundation. Keen! The response, evidently, has been tremendous (such as…

All the sheet music of Mozart (along with critical commentary) has been put online (and searchable) by the International Mozart Foundation. Keen!

The response, evidently, has been tremendous (such as to drive their servers to their knees), so be patient.

Good thing Mozart wasn’t owned by Disney or any of the other modern media conglomerates, or it would never have seen the light of day.

(via Les)