Synergy: when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Let's see if I did this right...

"Zero":

Now if all goes according to plan, this should be the first song released in 2010, assuming you live just next to the International Date Line*. So doing this now seemed appropriate.

Astute readers may recall that I previously did a song called "One," with the idea that said song was played by only one hand. That and this inspired me to try and write a song with only one note, total. I couldn't call it "One", hence "Zero". Then I was all (and notice I've abandoned all pretense of a formal tone by this point in the paragraph), one plus negative one is zero, and a song was born.

I went back and forth on which part should come first. Ultimately I decided the original chord (A major 7th, if you're interested) should go first, both because it gave the song more attack and because I couldn't get them to sync up right. There were volume issues and the program I used to turn them backwards didn't record or play things back well and I had to figure out how to do the effects and mixing properly. It was a nightmare, especially for a song that took ten seconds to record.

*If you think that doesn't count, you're an asshole I have a song coming up at midnight in my own time zone, assuming I can get it finished in time.

Anyway, Happy New Year. I'll see you again in eighteen hours, either resolute and triumphant or shamefacedly apologetic.

Downloadable Version:
Rerelease Notes: Mixing-- echo, louder ending, eq.

SotW 2.0

"Programming"

(Featuring Jonny Greenwood)

And so year 2 begins, after an inexcusably long hiatus. Remember a few weeks ago when I said I'd be done really soon? I'm a liar. And I wasn't even talking about this song then, so I'm like a double-liar.

As with a lot of other Songs of the Week, this one started with the title. I thought ,hey "Programming," that can mean a lot of different things. And so I went from there and tried to reference those different meanings in the song, so you get stuff from TV static, to computer-y blips and bloops, to out-of-context quotes about individuality* (the church bells, however, are just there to sound good).

That said, this is probably the hardest song I've done yet for two reasons. The first is that I'm a shitty piano player, and 90% of this song is done on synths, so there were a lot of retakes (especially for the electric piano part, which is the first time I've actually had to write something down before playing it). The other is that this song falls squarely into two genres I don't know much about, namely electronic music and jazz.

Most of the jazz influence has stripped away; originally the horn part was supposed to be more frantic and bebop-y, but I couldn't do it with the software, proving Mr. Greenwood has a point. The electronic parts, of course, stayed in. My total knowledge of electronic music goes as far as not just calling it all "techno"; I don't really know much about samples or synths or what subgenre this falls into. In some ways I think that works to the song's advantage, since I could just do what worked for the song itself, and it stands on its own more (which, of course fits the whole "technology and individuality" theme I was going for).

I was trying to find something that sounded futuristic, but familiar; ten years gone, not a thousand (or to put it another way, The Matrix, not Star Wars). The biggest influence was probably movie soundtracks, but I can't think of a specific movie. I'm working on a Soundtracking Your Life song that's similar, I might try and go into more detail there. There's a connection between all these sentences, and if you can actually make sense of all this, you get a cookie. The problem is, I wasn't thinking in words when I wrote the song, and I'm not sure how to translate. More later, but about something else.

*Speaking of which, is anybody else still watching Dollhouse? Somewhere in the last couple weeks, they went from "interesting but flawed" to "best show of 2009."

Downloadable Version:
Rerelease Notes: Some minor mixing stuff--fewer gaps, mainly.

"Variations on a Brushstroke"

I can't decide if I like the Windows 7 version of Paint or not. On the one hand, I can do stuff like this*:

On the other, it seems like they took out twice as many features as they put in, which is why I don't do the logos in Paint. At any rate, it's still good for doodling.

*Have I posted that one before? I feel like I might have, but I don't remember doing it.

ADDENDUM: Why is Blogger (which is owned by Google) an even bigger pain in the ass on Chrome (which is made by Google)?

Copyright 2009

The Love Bug:
Sidenote: Photoshop is kind of a pain in the ass.


Song of the Week as soon as I get over the world's worst cold.

This is the kind of thing only I care about...

The best (and only) movie about comparative linguistics and Germanic voicings I've seen all year!

Part 1:


Part 2:



Part 3:


Thanks, Internet!

Free game!

This one doesn't suck!

http://jayisgames.com/cgdc6/?gameID=9

Yes, I'm still here.

And this is awesome.

Every once in a while you hear about something...

...and you think, no way is that true, except it is true, and you know it, and then you're like "whaaaat?!". Like when I found out Norah Jones was Ravi Shankar's daughter. Here's another, even stranger one. It has blimps.

Wait, I could have sworn I've done more than six of these

"Rise":

(Soundtracking Your Life, Part Six): This song is very old. I want to say two, three years old, but at the least I know it's older than Song of the Week itself, let alone Soundtracking Your Life. And today I did it.

Once I realized that this project already had a song named "Rose" and another (as-yet-unfinished) named "Rising", I remembered this old idea I had called "Rise" (which mostly consisted of its title as the only lyric, and a sound I describe as "dun-dugga-dun-dukka-dun"). Somehow that became this.

I like to have a story in my head when I'm writing StYL songs. Here the story was that they were trying to summon a monster or something, but nothing was working, so they had to keep starting over and trying something new, hence the start-stop nature of it. By the time I had finished the drums and bass, and played them back, the story seemed very different; it became sort of a war story, which I like because it connects "Rise" with "Two Warriors Meet On an Ancient Battlefield", which sounds similar, and is also about fighting (I've been trying to walk a line of making the songs all fit together very tightly while at the same time being distinctive and unique).

My guitar is broken; you can hear it cut out and back in if you listen closely. Normally I'd rerecord it, but I like the effect, and it fit the chaotic nature of things. It sounded better when I was recording, though. Probably put the microphone in the wrong place.

DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:

Rerelease Notes: This version is largely unchanged; I removed the drum loops because you couldn't really hear them anyway, and I think the effect works better when the drums are "one man, one take," as it were.

My name is Drew...

...and I suck at Photoshop:


...give me a break though, I've only been doing this for like an hour.

Why do so many Internet ads want me to vote for Mike Bloomberg?

also holy shit has it really been ten days?

Microsoft Word's spellchecker gives me two results: "Budgeting" (the word I was trying to spell) and "bud getting". Now all I can think about is, in what context would the words "bud getting" be uttered?

Oh God, the horror. The horror. Look at all that blood. What have we done to deserve this. Who could do such a thing.

"Insanity in 9/8 Time":

Soundtracking Your Life, Part Whatever We're Up To: This one is hard to explain. It's essentially an accident, dependent upon three separate, distinct events converging.

The first was my discovery of Garageband's Auto-tune Effect. I don't like Auto-tune--it's pretty much the musical equivalent of outright lying-- but if you're honest about it, it has its uses. I figured there was no harm in playing around with it, even if I never actually used it.

The second was learning how to use Garageband's built-in monitor (coincidentally*, from the same video). Previously I had though it was a worthless setting that did nothing but generate a metric fuckton of feedback. Apparently I was doing it wrong.

The third, and this is the one that was really important, was that I had been playing with the program's built-in metronome, trying to write a song in 9:8 time, just to see what it would sound like. When I was done I saved the file instead of deleting it, for some reason, and an hour ago I opened the (empty) file by accident to try some stuff out.

Anyway, headphones plus feedback plus trippy special effect meant equaled strange whooshing sound and long echoes every time I made any noise (even something like picking up a drumstick off a shelf). It turns out the special effects that sound like a famous R&B star at 90BPM sound like Hell opening up at 55BPM. It reminded me of the part of the movie where the guy is going insane so I though "Soundtracking Your Life gcrrble flrrgl flob" (I'm an abstract thinker). Live and learn and know when to exploit it.

I hit record and just started hitting stuff to see what sounds it made. Then I layered some fake piano to up the creepifictation, and the easiest Song I've ever written was done. And now you can hear it too. Wear headphones.

*Actually, it's pretty much the opposite of a coincidence? What's that word?

DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:

Rerelease Notes: This was the only StL song that was fully redone, partly because of audio quality issues and partly because there were some things I wanted to add to it, like the use of windchimes as percussion or using a half-decent MIDI instead of a MacBook keyboard. As a result, the album version is almost a minute longer. I added two new "noise" tracks as well, one of which has me playing, in turn, twelve different harmonicas (one in each key; this is my first song to use harmonica, though I've been playing it for years). The other new track has me playing various screeching noises on the violin, an instrument I'd only started on the day before--this is probably the only song where that wouldn't make a difference.

AAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAA:

The name of, and basically everything else about, this song was inspired by this. I decided to write a song that would be first in your iPod. Then I decided that that song would be violent and chaotic and feature lots of screaming. Then i forgot about it for a while. Then I remembered and decided that "AAAAAAAAAAAAAA*" should be the only lyrics. At some point a triangle solo got folded into the mix.

I'm working on song that will be the hardest Guitar Hero song ever (its title is "Hardest Guitar Hero Song Ever"). With this I sort of wanted to sketch out some ideas for that. Playing "AAAAAAAAA" wouldn't actually be that hard, except maybe on drums (the trick is to hit the cymbal and tom on the same stroke, and to alternate hands in the first part), but there are some ideas there. The final song, if I ever do it, will probably be longer and feature more shredding (though probably less screaming, since they always just make that a talky part, and that would kind of negate the harditude).

That's it, I guess. See you.

*There are nine A's, and don't you forget it.


DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: The drums and organ are louder, the vocals quieter. I'd say this is the song most improved by a different mix.

...and anyone who tells you otherwise is out of their mind...

Liveblogging The Beatles: Rock Band: Part 2

OK, I'm gonna be singing b/c I's too lazy to put the instruments together. Also my strumming arm hurts and I haven't got the cymbals yet.

Mic stand is pretty nice. probably should have a controller holder on it though. Or, you know, buttons.

And I thought that opening cinema looked good in a tiny window...It's a bit more impressive at 65 inches in HD. Also, I found a ghetto way to hang my controller with the cable clips. I am the genius, goog-goo-g'joob.

First thing after "Press Start" is something about cache and system profiles. I breeze through, but then I'm not one of the old people they want this game to bring in.

Liverpool, 1963
"Twist and Shout", Expert: Takes two tries (probably should stick to "Solo" vox), but it got me TWO achievements. Those ah-ah-ahs are hard, by the way. ***
"Boys", Hard: Couldn't do expert.Hard might be too easy, though. Too bad they don't let you go straight from practice mode back to story-- you'd think someone would have figured that out by now. ****
"Do You Want To Know A Secret", Expert: I think this game is going to make "Fab" cool to say again. Also, this song was a cool choice-- you'd never see it in Guitar Hero: Beatles. ****
"I Saw Her Standing There", Expert: Now we're talking. Also, how does Paul hit that high note? He must have used Auto-Tune. ***

Look, the band is meeting the queen!

The Ed Sullivan Show, 1964
"I Want to Hold Your Hand", Expert: ***, but I think I'm getting better. Also, I forgot how short a lot of these songs are.
"Can't Buy Me Love", Expert: Are you supposed to shout? I shouted the whole thing. On an unrelated note, my throat hurts for some reason. ***
"A Hard Day's Night", Expert: Good thing it's short, too, I'm about to go hoarse. Still got ****, though.
"I Wanna Be Your Man", Hard: All right, I'm starting to notice a pattern where I do better on songs I've heard of. Also, The Beatles moved pretty fast from just wanting to hold your hand to "I wanna be your lover, baby".

OK, I'm gonna take a break.

...And we're back.

Honestly, this game is worth at least a rental just for the between-levels animations.

Shea Stadium, 1965:
"Ticket To Ride", Expert: According to the loading screen, they took out headset functionality. That kind of sucks, but no one used it anyway. ****, but I almost failed at the end there.
"I'm Looking Through You", Hard: I don't even know how I made it through this one. Just lucky I guess.
"Eigh Days A Week", Expert: First song where I had to drop an octave (or two). Voice hurts less now. ****
"If I Needed Someone", Expert: I like the message of this one: "you want me? Get in line, girl." Of course, there probabl really was a line at that point. ***
"I Feel Fine", Expert: Hey, why does this level have five songs? Whatever, it's cool. ****

Budokan, 1966:
"Day Tripper", Hard: Has anyone ever figured out what a day tripper is? Seriously? ****
"And Your Bird Can Sing", Expert: Y'know, if someone released this song today, nobody would realize it's over forty years old. It's somehow...I don't know. Maybe it took a while to be influential. ***
"Drive My Car", Hard: Another song that sounds ahead of its time-- this one would have fit in just as well in the 70s. ****
...And then my parents got home and i had to stop start move relogisticize...hang on.

"Taxman", Expert: Someone should make a show about a superhero called the Taxman, because I just found its theme song. Picture it: by day, Albert Taxmann (Eugene Levy*) is a mild-mannered tax auditor--but by night... ***
"Paperback Writer", Expert: This is one of my most favoritest Beatles songs because I think its a funny song I think this one would also make a good TV theme but maybe the idea is stuck in my head.

*If nothing else, maybe we could stop the endless flood of American Pies.

Abbey Road, 1966-67:
"Yellow Submarine", Expert: Wow, they just dive right in to the wierdness, don't they? Also, what's with Ringo and songs taking place under the ocean? ***** (This one's pretty easy)
"Sgt. Pepper's/With A Little Help From My Friends", Expert: It's kind of ironic to be off-key on this song, innit? Also, when you fail, it'll say "take two" on your second try. Not that I would fail, no sir. ****
"Lucy In The Sky With Drug Reference", Expert: Actually, I expected them to do a lot more with this one. It's relatively sane-looking. Well, "I Am The Walrus" is still to come. ***
"Getting Better", Expert: Like how it has the date they were recorded. "Me used to be angry young man" was totally stolen by you-know-who*. ****
"Within You Without You/ Tomorrow Never Knows", Expert: Huh, I figure this would be like a bonus or something. Still, "Within You Without You" is one of my most favoritestest Beatles songs, and I really like the mash-up, so I can't complain. The only real problem I have here is that it cuts down the length of the real song, but it's cool, yo. ****
"Good Morning Good Morning", Expert: Song so nice they titled it twice. I never realized just how wierd this song is--a guy dies in the first line and the song end with its title line in German. It's almost Bob Dylan-level weird here. ****

*Coulton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >=(

Some animator's been watching The Wall on a maddening loop, which is probably the best way to watch The Wall.

Abbey Road, '67-'68
"I Am the Walrus", Texpert: Every bit as advertised. Also, I just realized the talky parts don't seem to affect your score, positive or negative. And they took out the tambourine, but I figured that out like four chapters ago. ****
"Hello Goodbye", Hard: The Beatles covered that Target commercial song? Anyway, this one's kind of long but OK; it's a step down from "Walrus", but what wouldn't be? It was clever how they trick you into thinking the song is over (by they I mean the developers, but it also applies to The Beatles themselves). ****
"Hey Bulldog", Hard: The video for this part is pretty cool, despite never leaving the studio; it's a tribute to the original video or something, I forget the exact story. Note the cigarette smoke in the beginning--is that the "tobacco reference" from the ESRB label? *****
"Back In The USSR", Expert: Back in the what? Anyway, ***, but it would have been four if I'd done star power right. Also, they do weird thing where the vocal line will move before you start singing it--probably something to do with harmonies, but it's friggin confusing ("Hello Goodbye" does it too)
"Dear Prudence", Expert: Wow, I butchered that. Still got ***, though. Also, cool video, takes you in and out of the dreamthing multiple times.
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps", Expert: So no Clapton cameo. He probably doesn't deserve it. Also, surprisingly dark choice to end the chapter on, especially in such an upbeat game.

Abbey Road '68-'69:
"Helter Skelter", Hard: When I checked the leaderboard, only 450 people had played this song. I am not one of them. I'll finish it later, this song is fucking hard.
"Revolution", Expert: After "Helter Skelter", anything looks, easy: *****. It's weird they put these two songn together because I always pair them in my mind--both are attempts at a heavier sound (I think the differences between them say a lot about the differences between John and Paul, too).
"Birthday", Hard: Actually it's John Bonham who has my birthday. Good guess though. *****

-Takes Dinner/ XBox-Is-Making-It-A-Million-Degrees-In-My-Room Break-

OK from here on I'm playing guitar--I want to see if I can finish the game tonight.

"Helter Skelter", Expert: The Höfner bass that comes with the game is pretty awesome-looking, but they made some odd design decisions. The strap is placed so it's always twisted; the strum bar is in a weird position; the start and XBos buttons are hard to trigger (making pausing really hard). Time will tell if I can get used to it. ***
"Octopus's Garden", Expert: Hey, this song is pretty hard. Still not sure if it's me or the guitar. ***
"Something", Expert: Maybe it's me. I was playing Guitar Hero most of the summer. Also, the longer scale of the bass controller actually makes using the higher-up frets worth it, since you're more likely to hit the right note. ***
"Come Together", Expert: I always liked this song-- it feels like it's getting away with something, but you can never be too sure what. Plus it's a great example of what people always say about the Beatles-- it's incredibly easy and simple and yet still really fun. **** (but just barely not five)
"Here Comes the Sun", Expert: ACoustic songs always translate to these games kind of off; chords turn into triplets, it's the right notes but they're not played the right way. Still fun though. ***

Apple Corps Rooftop, 1969:
"Dig A Pony", Expert: Man, we've been at Apple a while now, huh?...And I thought my lyrics were nonsensical. Seriously, why do some of the best songs have some of the worst lyrics (see: U2, One, "we hurt each other than we do it again"). ***
"I've Got A Feeling", Expert: I don't know. It's great. They should make more songs like this, and play this one more on the radio. What do you expect me to say? ***
"Don't Let Me Down", Expert: I've actually seen the real version of this, which is every bit as awesome. Here. ****
"I Me Mine", Expert: Why do I have a feeling this song is about the other Beatles? Also, it's pretty hard too. ***
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Expert: We're a long way from just wanting to hold your hand. I had a rant that carried on the theme of "we need more songs like this" but I forot most of it by the 6-minute mark. Maybe it'll come back later. **** (and an achievement for using Star Power Beatlemania 5 times.)
"Get Back", Expert: John's made-up lyrics to this are the funniest thing ever, you can hear them before the song starts. Also this song is really hard (***). But who cares because...
Oh Jebus it's all over! Oh well, the ending animation (set, appropriately, to "The End") is even more awesome than the beginning one, albiet short. Watch it on Youtube tomorrow, it'll be up by then.

Interesting choice, setting the credits to studio noise instead of a song, which would have been the more obvious way to go.

I think that's it. I'll have more to say tomorrow (I haven't even tried drumming yet.)

Liveblogging The Beatles: Rock Band: You Knew This Was Coming (Part 1)

The Unboxing:
Box is friggin huge

Kitten Sold Separately.
I don't know how to rotate these.
Box, opened.

View with the drums removed.

The goods
The not so goods.

[throat-clearing noise] I would watch...actually I'd watch any of these.












T-Pain should cover "In the Air Tonight"










Also, who gives a shit. Beatles Rock Band is here!

I've almost finished Guitar Hero 4...

...and this about sums it up. I'll do a full review if I can finish it before Beatles Rock Band lands on my doorstep. If not it'll be whenever I actually finish it, probably around 2011.

Also: A cup of coffee has 5 times as much as a Mountain Dew, and three times as much as Red Bull

What happens when you give spiders caffeine:

Scanning for Funny Title...444 Error: Funny Title not found

The Sound of A Guitar Exploding:

There's not a lot to say about this one. I made my guitar make some weird sounds and then came up with the title, and I was like, "I have to use that" and the next day, which is the day that is currently today, I did. Hopefully I'll have time to do another song with more words below it later. We'll see. I'm like ten behind at this point. On the other hand, I'm probably upgrading my computer, so who knows how long that'll take. Fingers crossed.

The Infinite (The Blog Post)

The Infinite (The Song):

So I knew I wanted to do something special for the 150th post, and the idea of writing a title track for a website just seemed hilarious for some reason. I had no idea what the song would actually sound like--among the discarded ideas were a mock-epic about how awesome a blogger I am and a music video, which I couldn't do because of technical difficulties (I don't have Movie Maker inntalled and iMovie is a pain in the ass). I eventually latched on to the idea of Infinite as "like echoes or something" (I didn't want to overthink this), and grabbed my guitar. I didn't even really care if it was good; mostly I just wanted it to be loud.

Inasmuch as there's an influence here other than "make a lot of noise", it was probably Sunn 0))), which takes itself to such an extreme it's barely even music anymore, and can get so loud (that's not a good word for it, but it's the only one I can think of) that the room will start shaking*. I tried to do the latter by playing with a sub-bass that GarageBand has built in, but I'm not sure how well it worked. Either my laptop's crappy speakers can't do those frequencies, or they can and it doesn't do anything. Someone with a good sound system will have to tell me.

I kind of failed at the "barely even music" part, because there's definitely some kind of rhythm or riff or something. It even has chords--one of them is G, and another is so obscure it's not even on this list (it's 022010, basically a modified E chord), and the other one is just whatever it's called when you don't fret any strings (hang on...apparently it's known as both Gm6add9 or Em7add11. Hooray for ctrl+F).

By now you've probably heard the banjo-ey (banjaux?) part, which was based on the idea that if this is the Song of the Blog, it should reflect the blog: long stretches of almost nothing broken up by ridiculous ad nonsensical torrents of whatever. I came up with it last weekend and put it in this song more or less accidentally: what you do is, you make an open-G chord shape, and you move it up and down the scale. It only works at certain frets (3rd, 7th, 10th and 15th work the best--something to do with pentatonic and major and something), but it's worth it if you want to make your guitar sound like a banjo (like for example, if you're really really bored).

In the spirit of "Mixology" (which inspired my "just play something and hope it works" approach to writing this, albiet not the song itself or its sound), here are them sped-up and slowed-down versions, the latter of which is not for the faint of heart impatient. Seriously, even I'm too busy to sit through the whole thing. I dare you. Do it.

fast version:


slow version**:

*or maybe I was shaking and the room was standing still...mind successfully blown.
**I like to call it "The Infinite...Amount of Time You'll Spend Listening to This Song" and then I laugh and laugh and then I cry a little.

DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: The drums aren't processed, some synth tracks were added.

Liveblogging The Simpsons Season 12

Because I'm bored and my writer's block is keeping me from doing Song of the Week. OK let's go.

-First thing's first, the box is still pretty stupid. Hard to open, hard to figure out where our DVDs are, big Comic-Book Guy head making it hard to go on the shelf. At least they give us a cutaway to help get the discs out.

-Matt Groening gives his usual intro, which isn't really noteworthy but still kind of cool, with the listing of guest stars and specfeats and all. How come nobody else does those?

"Treehouse of Horror 11"

-Surprised it took this long for a "Munsters" gag
-"Snakes: Nature's Quitters"
-Broccoli is one of the deadliest plants on Earth
-One cool thing about the "Treehouses" is that they can do stuff like kill Homer and have him be all ghostified. The show's normal, albiet tenuous, connection to reality kind of keeps it from exploring as many stories as they can. Oh well, I'm sure they'll never run out.
-Did this one air before or after Halloween? I just heard this year's would be before for the first time in a while.
-"Hansel & Gretel" is kind of a stretch for a horror episode, ain't it? I mean, I know the original stories were violent and gross, but still.
-Oh, it's the dolphin one! Swizz-eet!
-"They made me do tricks--like a common seal!"
-I know the later seasons get a lot of flack, but I can't think of anything funnier than dolphins marching on their fins.
-Snorky's voice sounds a lot like Principal Skinner's.
-OK, one more thing about the dolphin one. That had some of the best animatin' I've seen on this show, especially the crowd shots woth 90 billion people and the getting dolphins to walk on land. OK, next ep.

"A Tale of Two Springfields"

-"I will not plant subliminAL messaGOREs"
-Carl's explanation of whether 636 or 939 was better--awesome.
-The Simpsons' number: 939-555-0113
-"Your fears are groundless and your complaints moronic"-- a very useful quote in this day and age.
-"We Joe Twelve-Packs"
-Wackiness: Homer attempts to suicide-bomb town hall.
-"That's my novelty flying disc"
-"They were looking at me...with their eyes"
-"There's nothig like revenge for getting back at people"/"I don't know, vengeance is pretty good"
-"Because of you, we're taking golden showers...what"
-Part of the Springfield wall is the angel skeleton
-"Who huddle"
-Keith Moon is still The Who's drummer in the Simpsonverse.
-Season 20 had an episode with a wall in Springfield too...except this was the Berlin Wall and that was the border fence...or something.
-Wouldn't Pink Floyd have been more thematically appropriate (puns!)

"Insane Clown Poppy"

-Couch Gag is a bullet-time joke. I'm pretty sure they do the same thing later in the season.
-"It's gonna take a lot of fireworks to clean this place up."
-"Maya Angelou is black?"
-Hey, it's John Updike!
-Springfield has a beach in this episode.
-Finally, someone who's a worse parent than Homer.
-Why are Homer and Moe playing cards with Krusty and Fat Tony?
-"It's not worth much cash, but its sentimental value is through the roof"
-Apparently, a ukulele is "the thinking man's violin" and "four aces is no gamble"
-"If I know Fat Tony, which I don't..."
-"Our website name will be crime.org" (it's for sale, maybe I should buy it)
-OK so this episode kind of sucked, but lots of great one-liners. And they didn't let the guests overwhelm the plot. Maybe could have used more Homer.

"Lisa the Tree-Hugger"

-Wait, hasn't Lisa always been a tree-hugger?
-Teletubbies joke...that aged well.
-Is "Gamestation" the go-to fake video game console name? (To The Max!)
-You Thai Now
-Bart's ninja costume is back! And another bullet-time joke.
-"Take that, Lisa's beliefs!"
-"In New Orleans they hose us with Tabasco"
-"I get enough flaming toilet paper thrown on me at home"
-"I'm a level-5 vegan, I won't eat anything that casts a shadow"
-"We might have an opening at the 'poser' level"
-Apparently, Homer has a "stash"
-From Lisa's tree, you can see Shelbyville, St. Louis, Hollywood, Paris, New York... in that order
-"Dad is building a ladder, but it is of poor quality"
-"This family has had nothing but bad luck when it comes to farce"
-"Oh right, I don't have superpowers...yet"
-They even used the Matrix song.

"Homer vs. Dignity"

-This is the one everyone hates, right? With the panda? Let's see if they're right.
-Bart's story of how he gets an A gives me an idea for solving the education crisis.
-This is the "Retirony" episode? Can't be that bad.
-"There's a New Mexico?" (wouldn't be funny except Burns is saying it)
-Lenny's a war hero?
-"...calmly eating candy like Spaniard"
-"[Smithers] doesn't know the meaning of the word gay". Cut to his musical about dolls.
-Bart gets his shot in his right arm, because he's left handed. Callbacks!
-The shots of Homer getting zapped in the panda suit were actually pretty cool-looking.
-Yeah, that panda part did suck. At least Homer was mad about it.
-Wait, this is a Christmas episode?!
-Homer throws a present to Ralph, which just bounces off his head.
-Homer is throwing out Lil' Lisa's Slurry. Callbacks!
-OK, so it wasn't great, but, I don't know, I didn't hate it. There were worse episodes, at least this one had a plot and actual jokes.

"Homer vs. Dignity" w/Commentary

-Let's see what the they have to sat about all this.
-So this episode is based on a book?
-They're surprisingly quiet on this commentary, breaking in namely to point out/ laugh at the jokes.
-Apparently even the cast and crew weren't sure what to think of the panda-rape stuff.
-And the first draft was even worse (in terms of like dark, not quality).
-Part of the problem: people didn't get the references to the book, probably because who reads books?
-Groening assumed the panda stuff would be taken out, so he didn't even bother fighting it.
-"In hindsight [old, discarded idea] doesn't sound too bad"
-Like I said, this was a pretty quiet commentary. I expected them too have more to say about such a controversial episode, especially with eight (eight!) people in the room. Oh well, if I wasn't blogging it I probably wouldn't have cared.

Anyway, that was disc one. I may or may not go back for discs two and three. It sort of depends on junk and stuff.

Life Imitates Mr. Show

First real-life Mayostard (TM), now this crap?

TV host accused of ordering killings.

Compare:



Is someone trying to tell us something?

My fortune cookie:

"Traveling east will bring you great rewards."

I'm not sure what to make of this one. How far east? What kind of rewards? When? Now? Be more specific fortune cookie!

Wish I'd thought of this first:

dsbttxbvnkbn;eomtj-wsujtsntkj/-reo/ntp./-

"Look out, he's got a gun!"

Now that I've got your attention, here's something completely different.

Do you ever see something on TV and think, holy flerking snart*, how did they get that on TV? Apparently this was on TV (but only once, but still, but keep in mind the network):

Untitled 144th Post

I got my hair cut today. I'm pretty sure I don't like it. Maybe I should have just told the guy "long enough to headbang".

hey yall i dont know if you guys heard but futurama the best show ever is on sale the whole thing for 42.99 usually its like eighty bucks so you know maybe you gets it today cause its awesome and the dvds is great they have commentary and shit on everything so go do it man go do it

I'm back, bitches (again)

All right, now my other summer class (which didn't decide it would be a pain in the ass until I started trying to do stuff).

In the meantime, here's another thing, which I did whilst procrastinating:I like this because who knew I could draw? I didn't. Maybe I can only draw when I'm supposed to be doing something else. See you tomorrow.

Hark, 'tis a glorious day!

Forsooth, the benevolent lord that is Hulu has seen fit to bless us with the gift of Spaced! Verily, 'tis a fine and righteous show, one I have viewed with considerable enjoyment on Digital Video Disc not long ere today. Once I had deigned it fitting to write a review, but it seemed that the moment had long past, given this second chance, I shall try again:

Spaced is good comedy because it's unique. It has a viewpoint and tone that, while not without influence, is more or less unpecedented, and would never truly be seen again, though Wright and Pegg's movies come pretty close. On top of that it's funny and you can watch the whole thing in a day. End.

Hark, 'tis a glorious day

This song is good, but I wish the title could have been some kind of pun...

"Heavy Wood":

The idea here was, very simply, so simply that I can't even use the word "originally" to describe it: write a heavy metal song on acoustic guitar. Now, it's gone through several differen incarnations, from a hair-metally thing about the devil and how awesome he is (too dumb), to a story-song about a kid who wants to be a heavy metal singer but can only afford an acoustic guitar (too meta, plus the lyrics weren't great). But despite wanting to go all Bruce Dickinson on all y'alls assets, I realized that doing a whole band or even doing lyrics on the song kind of distracted from the main point, which was riffage with a capital Z*. I think I actually succeeded, despite my recurring problems with recording acoustic guitars (those pops you here are because I was playing too loud).

*Plus I'm starting to realize traditional "songs" give me the most trouble with this. In general, I tend to let my expectations get all f'ed out the a**, and nothing sounds good enough. Rock music has extra problems, since a lot of what makes it work well is the interplay between the band members. What seems to work better for Song of the Week is kookier, more experimental stuff, because it's harder to get expectations with those, and covers, because there you can build on what other people have already done. Speaking of which, the other song I wanted to do this week (but school, etc., you know the story) is weird as shit, but it also has a lot of instruments, so I might end up contradicting myself.
**(Fucked out the asshole)

Happy Bastille Day!

...And on a completely unrelated note, here's a thing:

Song of the Week Week 2 Update

So I think Monday highlighted the "denial" stage, Tuesday the "bargaining" stage, and yesterday the "anger" stage (wait, does anger come before or after bargaining? Whatever, let's just go with it); today I've finnaly accepted that SotWWII just can't happen right now. There's some kind of hard-to-describe mental business I have to do for these, and after stopping for so long I'm finding it hard to get back in the literal and figurative groove. I think while I spent all that time in that class my expectations got all wierd, and I was all, yeah I get back I'll be makings the best songs ever woot, and then this week actually comes around and nothing sounds good enough or I haven't gotten enough sleep or I've slept too late and don't have a lot of time, or my sister's borrowed my computer so I can't do anything anyway, or my parents are making too much noise or preventing me from making too much noise--stuff I can usually work around, but it's just been so long it's like I have to re-learn how. And I still have to write a paper and 5 one-to-two-page answers for a test, and read the second half of a book, and sign up for Fall classes and wow I should really have started all that already.

Hopefully I'll be able to do Song of the Week Week 2 Take 2 in earnest as soon as possible. In the meantime I'm downshifting back to the regular one-song-one-week schedule to fit in more Guitar Hero time*. Expect something tomorrow or Saturday (but not both).

*Short, haven't-yet-finished-the-game review: just get Rock Band 2. It has better songs and they're all in English, except for that one part of "Psycho Killer".

I just threw up in my mouth a bit and now everything tastes like chicken wings.

Sorry. I'm pissed off because I can hear noise and I'm not the one making it. For some reason it's necessary to have the [random mumbling] TV so loud I can hear every word in another room. I can't work like this. I swear, it's like...[sighs]. Why do I even try to do things?

I'm just gonna do two songs tomorrow, which I wanted to do today but [AAAAAAAAARRRRGGH!]-- I don't know. I'll be in the angry dome.

Song of the Week Week 2! (Part Two)

"X's Theme or X's Lament or Letimotif for X":


(Soundtracking Your Life Part Four). So I'm not sure where this fits into the whole scheme of StYL, but I liked it. Originally* this was a part of a (slightly) longer songer, sort of a takeoff of "One" (Metallica's "One", not the"One" I wrote, or any of the others). Except my version would have been 1 and a half minutes long instead of one and a half hours (Burn!). But then I realized this would stand taller on its own, and decided to cannibalize it for the Sountrackage. And yes, I know that's not what cannibalize actually means. Fu--I mean, sue me.

That said I feel kind of lazy using this. This was recorded at the same time as yesterday's so it's like I didn't even do anything today (it doesn't help that this one is so very short, and only has one instrument with literally zero production). I guess that lazy doesn't mean bad (this is actually pretty good), it just feels like I should be doing more or something?

But let me tell you why. I don't know if there's some kind of clinically definition of exhaustion, but I got maybe five minutes of sleep and drove an hour in a car with no air conditioning (and this car, keep in mind, had been sitting in the midday sun for almost three hours). Most days, when the guitar parts I'd did needed another take or the mike levels on the drums turned everything to mush**, I would ignore the suspicious omnipresent ringing in my ears and just push through it. Today I'm just glad I already had something in the can. See you tomorrow, if I can still move.

* Try and find a Song of the Week post not containing that word.
**God, you should be glad you don't have hear that.

Oh, right, about the song.

I'm not entirely sure what a leitmotif is supposed to sound like, but this totally is one. As a bonus, it also bears a passing resemblance to "Dread" (normally that'd have a link), from earlier, so it gives the whole project a little more cohesion. I'm not sure whose or whats theme music this is, but it seems like it would fit a place more than a person, especially a place you're not too fond of (hint school hint hint/ been made more money wherever I went/ rollin' in green like I'se lives at the mint*/ some something blahdy blah blah spent), or someplace you find depressing (like I'm not sure where/ but when I get there/ I'm dropping more dollas than I can spare/ I spend it on ice/ I spend it coke/ Just a couple months 'til I be broke). Now what was I talking about?

*'Cause mints are green so it's a pun. I am the world's greatest rapper!

DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
[This song can only be downloaded by downloading the full album. To see the page for this track, go here.]
Rerelease Notes: Same recording, but mixed completely different--more echo, less static, more presence blah blah blah.

Song of the Week Week 2! (Part One)

(Yeah, you read that right.)

"2-Note Shuffle":


I've been trying to write stuff that's fairly short, inspired by my new favorite song. This actually has nothing to do with that. I was working on another song but didn't have time to finish it (hooray for school!), and so I started something fairly simple for Soundtracking Your Life, and then I remembered this thing I wrote a long time ago, just this little thing with only two notes. So I hit record, and...actually, that's the whole story.

I think the original version of this is slightly longer, but see above. More tomorrow, probably. Hopefully. Don't hold me too anything. Quit looking at me like that, at least I'm trying. Shut up, I hate you! Get out of my house! [sniff!] (And scene. Now what was I talking about?)

You can never have too many videos.

Happy Birthday, 'Mrka.



Now get back to work, slackers.

I'm back, bitches

My stupid class is over! I've been working non-stop for a few weeks now, did I miss anything?

Here is what I learned in a my intensive four-week online self-directed ethics class: if you press Ctrl+Backspace (or +Delete), it deletes the whole word, not just one letter at a time.

Whatever. I'll tell what actually went down later. If you can handle it.

Random Music Video Week Part Five

The first four were easy. Picking the fifth was kind of hard.



Honorable mentions:
Because you've probably already seen it.
Because of my rule against slideshows.
Because its so awesome your head would asplode.
Because I only had five days.

Random Music Video Week Part Four

Tis is self evident. Watch it and you'd know why I posted it.

Random Music Video Week Part Three

This is a twofer. I picked these because I think they demonstrate everything you need to know about the 90's

1994


1999
(OK, so they won't let me embed it. It's this.)

Random Music Video Week Part Two

This one I just think is funny.

Random Music Video Week Part One

OK, so like I said before I'm tkaing a stupid meany jerkasst four-week Summer Course that's eating up more and more of my free time. So instead of not blogging at all, I'm going to post a music video every day. Actually, I'm going to post five today and set the timer so they go out automatically. Cool, huh?

Anyway, I'm starting with this one because I think it effectively demonstrates how ridiculous commercials are.

I just found out I know all the words to Matchbox 20's "Push". Stupid wasted youth. I'm gotta go do something cool before it spreads. (P.S. "I'm gotta" is not a typo, not even in the "I did in on accident and left it in" sense.)

I don't have a whole heap of time...

...I'm taking a class and I'm way behind and I have 14 days to do 40-something days of work but I can still link to this which is funny. Whew.

Accentuate the Positive

The bestest thing ever just happened! Hooray for everything! Insert quote here!

Needs no explanation...

Just click here.

Then, whence* you've done that, here's some more stuff:

*Couldn't decide between "when" and "once".

I did it!

"Two Warriors Meet On an Ancient Battleground":

(Part three of Soundtracking Your Life). This is the battle theme. Because every great story has a great fight scene, and now you can pretend you're in one! Now every opponent, be it the morning commute* to that crap on your teeth to the giant samurai warrior right in front of you right now as you read this good god why are you still reading this get up and fight man, can seem as important as, I don't know, some kind of Japanese fighting guy. You know, like a ninja or those other guys. The ones with the swords. Jedi, I think they're called.

This one just sort of happened. I was playing drums and came upon this riff I liked (it's the doo-dododo-doo-dododo part), and decided to build a song around it. I was going to give it a more complex arrangement, but everything I tried sounded worse, not better. Maybe if I could afford a gong.

*Provided your morning commute is less than 3 minutes 19 seconds long.

Not sure when the next two will be done. I wrote 2 and a half minutes of one and realized all I had was a great intro to a song, and now I have to write the actual song. The other song I was gonna do (covering this'n before my birthday invalidates it), I decided I couldn't do anything interesting with it. End transmission.

UPDATE, 1/20/2011: The song mentioned in the previous paragraph almost became the last song of year two; issues of guitar tone forced me to scrap it and do "Lower" instead.

DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:

Rerelease Notes: None. This is the same track as above.

Could it really be National Spelling Bee time already?

Why is everything I want a hoax?

First the movie, now this?



Song of the Week is coming soon. Be patient, gentle readers.

SorryIhadthesedonehoursagoandthenIkindofforgotOhwellwhat'sdoneisdonehere's SongoftheWeekIhopeyouenjoyit

[Song of the Week is...screw it, you should know by now]


What you are looking at is but one reason why I'm two songs behind. Well, not really, I just thought it was interesting-looking. I mean, I had spares. I'm not a total dumbass.

No, the real reasons were boring and logistical and had everything to do with just being unable to spend one to six hours making as much noise as possible. I wanted to do threefer, but the other two songs I did today turned out--well, they didn't really turn out at all.

"Dread (023-3202)":


For a long time-- probably dating back to when I first started this project-- I've been obsessed with movie (and video game) soundtracks. It's not really intentional, but this song bears a lot of resemblance to some of the stuff by E. S. Posthumus, who do a lot of the soundtracks for movie trailers. Anyway, I've been kind of obsessed with the idea of creating a soundtrack for everyday life-- to make the drive to McDonald's feel as important as blowing up the Death Star. My plan is you can put this on your headphones, go outside, and instantly feel (estimate) 300,000% more awesomer. I call it Soundtracking Your Life. Obviously you can't download this, so consider it (and the next song, which is also a part) a preview for the whole thing.

As for the song itself, it was my attempt to avoid some of the ruts I've been falling into. A lot of my songs are fast or mid-tempo, so I made this one intetionally slow and dirge-ey. I feel like I've been overusing guitars, so I didn't use any here. Originally it was going to be more of a drum 'n bass thing, but I put in the MIDI strings to give it some more definition and variation. Also the bass kind of sounded shitty. I came up with I thought was this great riff and then it came out kind of flat, muddy and not nearly loud enough. (here I'm talking about sound quality. It's not the riff's fault it came out wrong).

Also, the song's title is the riff, not a phone number. I was calling it that till I got a better view of how it came out, which is when I added "Dread". The More You Know [chime and star].

"Rose":


This song is one of few songs in existence named after another song (I can only think of one other*), though upon listening to it, I'm not sure where I drew the connection. The original title was "Gypsy", but I'm pretty sure that's kind of offensive, plus it doesn't fit the finished product very well, though it should give a hint what I was originally shooting for.

Anyway, as I mentioned, this is part 2 of Soundtracking Your Life. I think my plan is to release the whole thing for free on the blog, and then take all the videos down and force you to pay for them. I'm just a little evil that way. I'm calling this the "Dream" section, because for some reason I can't listen to it with my eyes open. This is about half on purpose and half just how the chimps fell.

I've mentioned before how I think we need more improvising in music, and I think it works better here than anywhere else I've done it. This is more about tone and emotion than melody, and the unfocused directionlessness of the whole think just make it more illogical and dreamlike**.

*As I was writing that, I thought of a more obscure example, but I've decided to keep it a secret.
**If you liked that BS, contact me and I can make one of your accidents look intentional, today! Only $19.95. Accident not included. (Will not actually be done today. Expect a ten-to-ten-thousand-day waiting period.

DOWNLOADABLE VERSIONS:

Rerelease Notes: For this version, I re-edited the bass and drum loops to remove the gaps and pauses. Doing this made the song shorter, so I also had to re-record the strings (which I probably would have done anyway). I also added a fourth strings track and changed some mixing and volume issues, mainly to make the drums louder and change the bass tone.


Release Notes: I remixed this song to make the drums more prominent, and give the guitar more volume, but changing the EQ settings gave the guitar a weird, robotic sound that was all wrong for what the song is. So I ended up just using the original version that you hear here, though the download should be significantly higher quality.

New Year's Resolution No. 3: Read More

Hey guys! I Accomplished Something today! I read all of the Things that White People Like! Where's my prize?

What? I hear you laugh? You say, "After all that fuss about doing something important, you waste all day on teh interblags?

To which I say, "Oh yeah?" and you say "Oh yeah" and that goes on for a while and then at the end I'm all "I bet you couldn't do it!" And you can't, can you? Think you can click that link?

...

Hooray I made through a whole post without using a period! It's like in comic boox!

Then Again, Maybe a Year is Just Less Time Then I Thought It Was.

A year ago today I graduated from high school. I don't know if it really means anything, or what it would mean if anything, but I don't know, it feels important for some reason.It feels like I should have got more done in the last year. Secretly I always figured I'd be rich and famous by now.

Oh well. I'm taking a moment, is all. And using my Blog-given powers, compelling you to do the same.

If nothing else, I saw a lot of great movies this year, and I managed to keep blogging for eight months, which is probably three times the average blogger. And I do feel like I've learned a lot*.

*Most important thing I've learned: don't try and blog everything you watched on TV. It makes watching TV less fun, and you always feel guilty not doing it.

Words escape me...

...when I see something like this. Observe:

Merry X Mas, Scrubs is Over

Anyway, partly as a tribute, partly to figure out how to use Embedr, and partly so I could link to the Turk Dance, I made a playlist of the best Scrubs moments I could find on such short notice. I wanted this up a little earlier, but my computer was running slow. Maybe you can watch it during commercials? Or after... but Lost is after. Oh well, it's up to you.

I tried to keep it to musical stuff, but one Space Invaders-shaped video snuck in. I couldn't not use it.

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

PS. I thought I lost this and had to start over, only to find out it had not only worked, but it made it onto the front page. This is the closest to good luck I've had in a while. Now I'm gonna go watch TV.

Sequel to a previous movie review.

OK, I'm watching that Ralph Nader movie right now, and between that and Who Killed the Electric Car?, I'm actively rooting for General Motors to fail. Fuck 'em. They've earned it.

(Full disclosure: I drive a Jeep. Not sure why that's significant, but whatever.)

Two pieces of news.

First of all, I won! ABC.com is dead! I should demand things on the internet more, if it works this well!

Let's try it: Suggested donation, $1,000.

Also I broke and bought some drums. Song of the Week time!

[Song of the Week is a "weekly" feature which is supposed to update every Thursday Friday, but almost never does. In it, Drew records a song, or attempts to record a song, or gives up and writes another movie review.]

"Baby's First Drum Solo":


I think I'm pretty good for someone who started six days ago. Otherwise not much to say here. If I can I'll get a song up tomorrow.

Postscript: How weird is it that I haven't posted in a whole week? I mean serious, weird. Not sure what happened. Apparently nothing blogworthy.

Post-postscript: That noise that sounds like someone breathing is just feedback. The cough, however, is real, and I did it on purpose. Not sure why.

Don't trust Ancient Greeks!

Or your parents. Also no SotW today, I have some kind of cold-type thing.

No questions asked...

...Just read the description here. Honestly, there's just so much awesome there, it's like, I don't even know, man.

Things I don't Like

Usually I like to write about stuff I like. Not today.

Justified Text: So it's bad enough I have to read these boring-ass textbooks. Why do they use the worst possible format? Justified text a) Wastes paper and b) is hard to read, for three reasons: b1) the identical-length lines are indistinguishable from each other, making it easy to confuse them, meaning it's easy to lose your place; b2) the words are different spaces apart, which is visually distracting and can cause headaches and eye strain (probably. I have no proof of either); b3) so-called "rivers" of white space, which are also distracting. So you get distracted, and then it's harder to find your place when you go back to reading. And you have a headache. This is serious issue. Hours of my life, and probably other people's as well, have been lost because of justified text. And...why?


ABC.com: not enough episodes, loud, annoying (and automatic) video ads, proprietary install, confusing interface, and low video quality. And you have to restart it after commercials. Imagine if you had to get up and press a button on your TV after every commercial so you could keep watching your show. No would watch TV, we'd all still listen to the radio. ABC, just give up and jump on the Hulu boat with everyone else. Or at least fix that commercial thing.


And on a related note, Firefox on Macs. Make me lose my twenty some-odd open tabs because I didn't notice a popup ad? Or because some website (cough*ABC.com*cough) needed to install some update?


Oh, and I just found this out, ABC.com doesn't let you pause if you're watching fullscreened. It's like they want this to fail. And it auto re-sizes your browser window, wich is a cardinal sin of internet-anything.


Canker Sores. I have two. Not fun.


Those TLC shows about the families with too many kids. At what point does television stop being entertainment? If you have ever enjoyed any of these shows (I think there are two of them, and they just added a third one), congratulations, you are officially old.


OK, one of the ABC commercials was for the show I was watching. Listen, ABC: The whole point of putting shows on the Internet is promotional: the show itself is the commercial. If all you can get to advertise during your shows is yourself, your business model is flawed f'd up the a'.

The Phillips-head Screw(driver): better screw(driver)s exist. It's an old idea we just can't get rid of, like the QWERTY keyboard or the system that's not the metric system. Or justified text.

Negative Internet Articles and Blog Posts. Find something nicer to say, douchebag.

And one thing I like: Lists. Excellent way to organize information. I was just going to write about justified text and then I thought, no, no one will read that. So I made a list and now its like I don't have to remember to hate those things anymore. It's very therapeutic, those of you with blogs should try it.

Double Song this Week...

[Song of the Week is a "weekly" feature which is supposed to update every Thursday Friday, but almost never does. In it, Drew records a song, or attempts to record a song, or gives up and writes another movie review.]

...But don't get your hopes up. No, just kidding, go ahead. Wait, don't. I don't know.
"One":


"One" gets it's name because it is played entirely with the right hand. This is a revolution. finally are we free from the tyranny of two-handed guitar-playing! Just think of all the things you can do with your left hand now! Now stop thinking such things, pervert. There's still a whole post to read.

Actually, I wrote a whole song this way. Ironically, it was my singing that was was the problem, and the whole thing was scrapped. Probably. Maybe. If that song ever happens, I never said any of this. Also if you want to hear part of it, it's buried far back in the mix here (named as track 6, 7, 8).

Also, the other thing here is, of course, the fuzz. There is no way to avoid the fuzz. I tried recording in a different place, I tried mixing it out, but the problem remains: my guitar isn't loud enough on its own and to record it at all I have to overcrank the mikes. Microphones and I have a long history of animosity.

"Testify (Acoustic)":

As promised. I actually had something much more ambitious planned, but if I had started it this morning, I'd probably still be working on it. Which wouldn't work, since I was asleep this morning. Plus I heard the original on the radio yesterday and it sort of reëntered* my brainstream.

This song is worth hearing for the first thirty seconds alone, but I'm worried maybe it goes on too long. There's a lot of noodling, which I would have cut, but on the other hand, I like to have things kind of loose and extemporized. I'm a big fan & supporter of improvisation, but I don't know, maybe I went too far here.

On to lighter things. I've been thinking about the subtext of this cover and it's twin (linked to above). When I first did "Sleep Now In the Fire", I wrote it off as a joke, a parody of the slow, "serious" acoustic covers we've all heard before. But while I was doing it, and after I finished, I got sort of soured on Rage Against the Machine for a while. It was almost like, without really meaning to**, I had sent out my attacked in both directions. For a while, I couldn't help but think of the whole thing as a bunch of posturing-- a lot of words but no meaning.

Eventually I stopped caring. Bad lyrics never killed any bands before, and "Testify" is a great song even if its actual politics are murky at best. Tom Morello*** is still pretty good at that whole guitar thing, and those guys no one can name in the rhythm section do what they do pretty good. And even if he can't write lyrics (and his side project sucked, you know it and I know it), Zach Hardtospelllastname can shout (it's not really rapping-- you know it and I know it) with the best of them. So no hard feelings.

So with all that on my mind****, I can't decide if this cover is more serious or less serious than that one. I wasn't thinking as hard about that one as this one, but I was trying not to overthink it as I did it, and just concentrate on the music and the emotion and all that other gay shit.

*Alt+137
**Maybe a little, but not all the way.
***And on a completely unrelated note, did anyone else know that Tom Morello is black? I just found that out a couple weeks ago.
****Kids, feel free to use that transition in your little homework papers about George Washington and mathematics and To Kill A Mockingbird.

[Man is this post long.]

DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: "One" is remixed for hopefully better quality. "Testify" is unchanged.