One Note Song(s)»

Posted: April 29, 2010
Filed under: Words and Expressions

I discovered my new delay/looping pedal can do continuous notes. No gaps! My old pedal (which admittedly wasn’t so hot) couldn’t do this. I didn’t think my new one could do it either, until I accidentally did the following:

  1. Start a loop, but don’t actually play anything
  2. Play a note with the guitar’s volume all the way down
  3. Slowly fade the volume back up
  4. Repeat steps 2–3 as necessary
  5. ????
  6. SPACE ROCK!

At some point I should really make a video of this process, so I can put it on youtube and have everyone say that it’s FAKE. Yeah, about that: see below!

Examples

  1. almost three minutes of building a chord
  2. about one minute of a different chord (already in progress)

Needs work

  • So far my output has been really quiet for some reason
  • And I have really bad line noise coming from somewhere (shitty cables?)
  • Distortion makes the bad line noise even worse, so no bowel-shaking drone metal just yet

 

NOTE, FROM THE FUTURE: Here is a totally FAKE video I made:

 

ANOTHER NOTE, ALSO FROM THE FUTURE: The line noise/quiet output only seems to be a problem with headphone rockin’ (which is a problem in many other ways). I’ve been playing through an amp, really loudly, and the output’s been fine. The line noise is about what you’d expect when you also have a billion other pedals, so no complaints here.

To-do list: December, 2012»

Posted: November 15, 2009
Filed under: Words and Expressions

December 21

  1. Buy new “long count” calendar
  2. THAT’S IT

December 22

  1. Wake up
  2. Keep on living in a world that has not ended

Can’t buy me lulz»

Posted: August 27, 2009
Filed under: Words and Expressions
Tagged: ,

Here are totally random things that make—or have in the past made—me unspeakably sad to think about:

  • A dude crying in the shower (not me)
  • A single, delicious ear of corn on a plate
  • Eating at Hardee’s—delicious burgers, but:
    • the starkest decor ever
    • utter chaos behind the front counter (bonus sadness if there is one employee trying to maintain politeness amid the chaos)
  • This pic (from Zeta Gundam):
    He doesn't know what's coming
  • The Smashing Pumpkins song “Spaceboy” (not related to above pic that I know of)

This list to grow exponentially as I continue to stay off my happy-pill prescription!

Always two there are»

Posted: August 24, 2009
Tagged: ,

I keep forgetting to do this list, but this is one of those weird phenomena that I have noticed. Say there is a band you like. No, not them, that other one. Similar names are the death of me, especially when I love one band and hate the other. I spent years of my life not liking Chavez, because I saw a video by Gomez (which I hated), and the names were permanently mixed up in my mind.

SOOOOO, in no particular order (except alphabetical), and varying levels of similarity…

  • The Arcade Fire / The Fiery Furnaces
  • Black Dice / Black Lips / The Black Keys
  • Cake / Cake-Like
  • Chavez / Gomez
  • Codeine / Morphine
  • Deerhoof / Deerhunter
  • Del Fuegos / Del Lords
  • fIREHOSE / Firehouse
  • Fucked Up / Holy Fuck (and they’re both from fuckin’ Toronto, fuck!)
  • Garth Brooks / Brooks & Dunn
  • Jawbox / Jawbreaker
  • The Mars Volta / Volta Do Mar
  • Mew / Muse
  • Modest Mouse / Mouse on Mars
  • Múm (from Iceland) / Mum (NOT from Iceland)
  • OMD / OMC
  • Panda Bear (from Animal Collective) / Grizzly Bear (not from Animal Collective)
  • Polara / Polaris
  • Stroke 9 / The Strokes
  • Super Furry Animals / Animal Collective
  • Supergrass / Superdrag
  • Television / Telephone
  • The Verve / The Verve Pipe
  • The Vines / The Shins
  • Wolf Eyes / Wolf Parade / Wolfmother / Wolf Balls (ok I made that last one up, but it’s only a matter of time)
  • Yeah Yeah Yeahs / Hot Hot Heat / !!!
  • Honorable mention: the seven hundred or so bands during the 80s that had all one word names that started with a C.
  • BONUS ROUND: XTC album “Black Sea” / X album “Under the Big Black Sun”

It seems like there were more, but my memory is terrible—which is why I am always mixing these groups up in my head to begin with.

Why I hate computor»

Posted: August 22, 2009
Filed under: Words and Expressions

Dear Photoshop,

Stop showing me this dialog!

your mom couldn't complete my request because SHE'S an error

From experience and googling, I have noted the following possible actions that bring up this dialog:

  1. opening a picture
  2. closing a picture
  3. saving a picture
  4. looking at Photoshop
  5. not looking at Photoshop
  6. having an old version of OS X
  7. having a new version of OS X
  8. installing a brand new copy on a brand new computer and trying 1–5 for the first time ever
  9. existing

I have not yet begun to complain! »

Partly tag-lazy»

Posted: July 16, 2009
Filed under: Words and Expressions

Tagging is:

  • Handy
  • A pain in the ass to do after the fact

I’m working on it. Not really, but kind of.

 

NOTE, FROM THE FUTURE: I’m probably about as caught up on tags as I’m going to be. That still amounts to “not very”, but that’s all you get.

Transit Odyssey 2009»

Posted: March 08, 2009
Filed under: Words and Expressions

Today I finally got my money’s worth from the all-day Saturday pass ($2 for unlimited bus rides).

  • 20 Red South: downtown to campus, for pizza and witnessing whimsical conveyances
    WAT
  • 100 Yellow South: campus to Savoy, for the viewing of latest “talkie” film involving masked adventurers
  • 100 Yellow North: Savoy to Target (this is practically the entire length of this route, from the southernmost to northernmost and took about an hour)
  • 20 Red South (again): back to downtown
  • 50 Green East: downtown to easternmost edge of Urbana, ostensibly for more grocery shopping but mainly I was engrossed in my reading material and kind of aimless
  • 50 Green West: back home (downtown)
  • NEVER DOING SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN

Actually, I had an idea once, when I was driving all up and down the Olympic Peninsula. I’d be out in the middle of nowhere, and there’d be a bus stop sign there. Western Washington has a whole mess of different local, county, and community bus systems, so I wanted to see how far I could get, starting in downtown Seattle. I could get pretty far into the Peninsula, for sure, and heading north and east I could probably get close to the Cascades.

Frances McDormand movies I have and have not seen»

Posted: February 17, 2009
Tagged: ,

Bold means I’ve seen it, not-bold means I have some catching up to do…

  • Burn After Reading (2008)
  • Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)
  • Friends with Money (2006)
  • Æon Flux (2005)
  • North Country (2005)
  • Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
  • City by the Sea (2002)
  • Laurel Canyon (2002)
  • The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
  • Almost Famous (2000)
  • Wonder Boys (2000)
  • Talk of Angels (1998)
  • Madeline (1998)
  • Johnny Skidmarks (1998)
  • Paradise Road (1997)
  • Lone Star (1996)
  • Primal Fear (1996)
  • Fargo (1996)
  • Palookaville (1995)
  • Beyond Rangoon (1995)
  • Bleeding Hearts (1994)
  • Short Cuts (1993)
  • Passed Away (1992)
  • The Butcher’s Wife (1991)
  • Barton Fink (1991,voice/uncredited)
  • Hidden Agenda (1990)
  • Miller’s Crossing (1990,uncredited)
  • Darkman (1990)
  • Chattahoochee (1989)
  • Mississippi Burning (1988)
  • Raising Arizona (1987)
  • Crimewave (1985)
  • Blood Simple (1984)

(source, dogg)

I have seen Fargo and Raising Arizona about a hundred times total, though, so it kind of evens out.

Exchange rates are not so good»

Posted: January 05, 2009
Filed under: Words and Expressions

Due to the weakening economy (don’t say the “R” word!) many currencies have lost their value. A year ago, your problems could fetch as much as two shits. Today, I can barely give half a shit (0.47shit, to be exact). Also affected: damns, tinkers’ damns, hoots (in hell or otherwise), figs, flips, fugs, fucks, flying fucks, craps, tosses, a good goddamn (devalued to just a mediocre goddamn), and many more that I couldn’t find on google but probably exist even though they’re not Avril or Eminem songs. Anyway, the currency hardest hit has to be the poor rat. Lately I find I cannot even give a rat’s ass for the concerns and issues of the day.

To summarize: shit ain’t worth shit anymore!

I am hell of old, people»

Posted: December 16, 2008
Tagged: ,

And now, a favorite album for each year I have been alive on the earth planet:

1972: Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street
1973: Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy
1974: King Crimson – Red
1975: Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
1976: Joni Mitchell – Hejira
1977: Television – Marquee Moon
1978: The Jam – All Mod Cons
1979: Talking Heads – Fear of Music
1980: The Pretenders – s/t
1981: The Cure – Faith
1982: X – Under the Big Black Sun
1983: U2 – War
1984: The Replacements – Let it Be
1985: R.E.M. – Fables of the Reconstruction
1986: Metallica – Master of Puppets
1987: Guadalcanal Diary – 2×4
1988: The Church – Starfish
1989: Pixies – Doolittle
1990: Uncle Tupelo – No Depression
1991: Slint – Spiderland
1992: Beastie Boys – Check Your Head
1993: Girls Against Boys – Venus Luxure No.1 Baby
1994: Rodan – Rusty
1995: Hum – You’d Prefer an Astronaut
1996: Failure – Fantastic Planet
1997: Yo La Tengo – I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
1998: Don Caballero – What Burns Never Returns
1999: Trans Am – Futureworld
2000: Sleater-Kinney – All Hands on the Bad One
2001: Les Savy Fav – Go Forth
2002: Ms. John Soda – No P or D
2003: The Sea and Cake – One Bedroom
2004: Laura Veirs – Carbon Glacier
2005: Kylesa – To Walk a Middle Course
2006: Mastodon – Blood Mountain
2007: Baroness – Red Album
2008: Boris – SMILE
2009: Baroness – Blue Record / Polvo – In Prism (I CAN’T DECIDE)
2010: ????

NOTES:

  1. 1977 and 1984 (and even 2009) were banner years for good rock, which made it hard to pick just one.
  2. 1991 was no contest, but there were a few trying for “close second”.
  3. If I were even older, 1966 would have been another such year.
  4. I recycled this post from my el-jay, just because.