I feel bad for pushing that .GIF off the front page

"Reaction"

For some reason the title of this song reminds me of another song, which is going to be stuck in my head for the next week. Thanks a lot, me. (More words later)

UPDATE 6-3: First of all sorry I haven't been doing more of these. It's been harder to make time then I thought it would be; I keep sleeping weird hours-- Monday I went to bed at 1 AM and woke up at 4 AM; Tuesday I went to bed at 1 AM and woke up 4 PM; four out of the last six days I've still been up when the sun rose (it's 5:35 AM as I type this). So figuring out a time to make a lot of noise when you won't be waking people up requires a small amount of planning & a much larger amount of luck.

As for the song itself, here's what I like:

-The contrast between rough heavy metal and shimmery shoegazey textures. The guitar somehow manages to switch between sounding really clean and really distorted and back again almost within a single note. Part of this was accomplished by setting my Expensive Whammy Pedal to harmonize a fifth below; mostly it was just raw natural talent. The drums are really cymbal-heavy, but then there's that breakdown at the end with all the off-beat hits (originally I was going to make the guitar part go crazy here too, sort of like "I [spade] Noise" or the end of "22 Minutes," but I like that it stays into that three-chord pattern). The vocal part is ragged and shouty, but it's mixed so low that at barely registers that way. Speaking of which...

-The low-mixed vocals. I wasn't going to do vocals at all, but my instincts suggested listeners need something to sing along with here. The words are pointless--they actually make sense and are internally consistent, but mostly I just needed something with "Reaction" in it, since I had already figured out the title (those instincts again). So I sort of shouted them away from the mike, almost like someone was just listening and started singing along. Plus that way you (hopefully) focus on the melody and emotion of the singing, which is more important than the words anyway. I seem to be doing this trick a lot-- see also: "Toybox," the aforementioned "22 Minutes"-- so my next song will probably have to have really loud vocals so I don't look like a one-trick miniature horse.

-I forgot what I was going to put for this one.

-Another contrast: the simplicity of the arrangement vs. the complexity of how it fits together. I used the White Stripes band setup, plus a clone of the guitar track so I could add a phaser (phasers are cool. They make me feel like I'm living in what people in 1975 thought 1999 would be like. For more cool phasers, see "Taps"). So there's no bass, no keyboard (speaking of which*), no cowbell. On the drum part a I don't even use the high-hat. The guitar is just three chords (Cb, A, and G, but the harmonic effect makes it a little more complicated). For almost half the song all you hear is that rapid bass drum pedal. But at the same time it's an insanely fast tempo, a weird key**, the rhythm is constantly shifting around (at one point the guitar rhythm is identical to "Duel," which is, sadly, unintentional), and at any moment it might stop or start up again.

-Which is the thing I don't like. This song is hard to get into. Once I finished it I wasn't sure if it was actually a good song or just one that was fun to record. It only after two or three listens that the groove of it made sense, and I was sure that it was worth doing. And I wrote the damn thing. Of course, once I got into it, I really got into it, and now I've listened to it maybe more than any other song of mine I've recorded in the last two years (though there are some unfinished songs that get stuck in my head a lot). So give it a few chances. And if you still hate it, lie and tell me how right I was.

*And speaking of that, between the bass pedal, the simplistic guitar part, the atonal singing, and all the empty lpace, I think I've written the least fun Rock Band song ever.
**It's possible I just don't understand key signature, but I believe it's played mostly in G but resolve on A.

DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: This one's exactly the same.

Some GIFimations

There are some even-more-impressive ones (which I can't embed for stupid technical reasons) here.

Something Different for Today

I have a question I want you guys to think about. Don't feel like you have to answer, because I'm not sure an answer even exists.

This is the first steam engine. It was built in the first century AD. It was considered a toy; no one could think of a practical use for it. We wouldn't build a useful steam engine for at least 1500 years after.

This is a magic spoon, which is basically another way of saying "ancient Chinese compass." It was built in the 200s BC; it was used to help lay out buildings, because for some reason every ancient culture thought buildings needed to point exactly north or south or whatever. The Chinese wouldn't build a compass specifically for navigation for about 1200 years.

So my question, which you probably already guessed, is this: is there a similar technology today, something trivial that, if we only used it in a different way would change the world, like the steam engine changed transportation and the compass changed navigation?

P.S. Happy Towel Day!

Still better than Guitar Hero: The Beatles

Seinfeld Rock Band - watch more funny videos

Too-lazy-for-a-real-review Review

I really like the pilot for The Good Guys, but I feel like they missed a real opportunity by not calling it "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." If you watch you'll understand why:

Two videos in one day...

...how do I do it. I'm a machine. Honestly, someone should give me an award. (Those sentences work best if you read them aloud in a low, nasal monotone. I'm not sure how to type that out).

This is really stupid, but I can think of at least one person who will find it funny:

What Am Watching

Like every post, I meant to write this a long time ago. I suspect that now might actually be a good time though, since I'm guessing a lot of you, like me, suddenly find yourself without a whole lot to do. So here are some things that you can watch, most of which are on the internet somewhere or other. Introductions are hard.

First of all, if you didn't see last week's Community, all you need to know is 1) it was maybe the best thing to air on television in the last year, and 2) you are dumb for missing it. The good part comes after three minutes (an aside--what's up with New-Hulu? They seem to have change it--and Wikipedia--in the last hour or so, when I wasn't looking). Since it's not letting me embed, here.

A while back I somehow got pointed toward the works of Charlie Brooker, of which the biggest and best is Screenwipe. Basically a combination of a TV review show and a deconstruction of television itself, it's one of the few TV shows that might actually make you smarter. But not boring like I made it sound--the style is a lot like (and actually inspired) Zero Punctuation, so if you like that, you'll like this. There are six seasons, but those are British Seasons so it's really like two real seasons. Also worth checking out are his other shows, Newswipe, Gameswipe, and You Have Been Watching, all of which are good in their own way (especially Newswipe), but don't have as many episodes (you can get through all three over a long day).

Why We Fight is basically the same as Food Inc, in that it could be really preachy and one-sided, and just take potshots at George Bush (in other words, it could be Fahrenheit 911), but instead it really transcends politics and gets to the bottom of the issue itself. As a result, it's still worth watching no matter who the president is. The whole thing is on Youtube but for some reason the only playlist is backward. Here's part one.

Party Down is another good show that I know you're not watching. Shame on you all. It's a black comedy about caterers in Hollywood, which is a premise that sounds really lame but is actually genius, for reasons I'm not very good at articulating. If you have Netflix the whole thing is on Instant Watch (with new episodes up Friday Mornings); if you don't there are a few episodes up here.

Lastways (that's a word, right?), Doctor Who. I started watching the new episodes and then went back and watched the whole (new) series, which is also Flixable. I sort of assumed this was one of those things nerds liked because nerds like anything with spaceships, but it's actually, gripping, funny and heartfelt, and all around good television. On the other hand, I'm trying to get through Torchwood, but all I can think is "I liked this show better when it was called Angel" (which, incidentally, is also Flixable, but I didn't mention because I already saw it).

Allright, that should hold you guys until the next one of these.

Why does my dvr not have a recycle bin? Shit gets deleted from that all the time that someone else wanted to watch, and then yelling is ensued that could be averted by a feature that's been standard for almost thirty years.