Thursday, December 24, 2009

Furor Erupts Over Atheist Display At State Capitol

Comptroller Candidate William J. Kelly Tries To Take Down Sign, Is Escorted From Building



The sign reads:

"At the time of the winter solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is just myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Chopin's Hand - Playlist For A Snowy Sunday




Frederyk Chopin :

Etude No. 1 - Opus 10 No. 1 - in C
Etude No. 3 - Opus 10 No. 3 - in E (Tristesse)
Piano Sonata No. 2 - Opus 35 - in Bfm (Marche Funebre - Lento)
Piano Sonata No. 1 - Opus 4 - in Cm (Menuetto)
Piano Sonata No. 1 - Opus 4 - in Cm (Larghetto)
Piano Sonata No. 1 - Opus 4 - in Cm (Finale - Presto)
Piano Sonata No. 2 - Opus 35- in Bfm (Grave - Doppio Movimento)
Piano Sonata No. 2 - Opus 35- in Bfm (Scherzo)
Piano Sonata No. 3 - Opus 58 - in Bm (Allegro Maestoso)
Piano Sonata No. 3 - Opus 58 - in Bm (Scherzo - Molto Vivace)
Piano Sonata No. 3 - Opus 58 - in Bm (Largo)
Piano Sonata No. 3 - Opus 58 - in Bm (Finale - Presto non tanto- gitato Maestoso)
Piano Sonata No. 1 - Opus 4 - in Cm (Allegro)


Arthur Rubinstein plays Sergei Rachmaninoff  : Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Romantic song of the day

By the long forgotten genius that was Gilbert O' Sullivan. Stupid cap and shorts and all, the guy had a genius knack for writing pop songs of very high quality.

I remember singing below quote out loud when I was about 10 year old, without actually realizing what the man sang about of course. And coming back to make an impression on me year later when I finally paid attention to the words.
"When I'm drinking my Bonaparte Shandy
Eating more than enough apple pies
Will I glance at my screen and see real human beings
starve to death right in front of my eyes"


'Nothing Rhymed', 'We Will', 'Matrimony', 'I'll believe it when I see it', and so on and so on. One brilliant pop song after the other.


About the lyrics below : I heard the words again by chance yesterday evening : 'In a world so distorted, where the worst is best reported' and I can still totally relate to the words. Although they were written in the 70ies nothing has changed. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Anyway; there is something to be said for songs with lyrics that are not extremely idealistic or downright stupid. Songs that are about life as we experience it,  about the human condition, instead of life as we wish to experience it.

Then again: I ain't no 16 years ol' anymore so it's probably an 'age-thing'!

Links : Gilbert O' Sullivan Homepage / Gilbert O' Sullivan at Wiki.

When the evening is over
Put your head upon my shoulder
And I'll tell you something
I believe is true
Happiness is me and you

In a world so distorted
Where the worst is best reported
Love maybe something
That will see us through
Happiness is me and you

There maybe girls that I'll remember
That made me happy for a while
But none of them compare with you my love
However hard they all may try

If the bus that we're taking
Has for ages kept us waiting
What does it matter
Even in a queue
Happiness is me and you

There may be days when you discover
I'm not the man you think I am
But through it all we will recover
Without the aid of any plan

When the weeks turn to hours
And in June it's April showers
I'll tell you something I believe is true
Happiness is me and you
Happiness is me and you
Happiness is me and you

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

From the archives...

A weblog-posting I published some time ago. Worth reading, still relevant.


"One wonders just how vast and gratuitous a catastrophe would have to be to shake the world’s faith. The Holocaust did not do it. Neither did the genocide in Rwanda even with machete-wielding priests among the perpetrators. Five hundred million people died of smallpox in the 20th Century, many of them infants. God’s ways are, indeed, inscrutable. It seems that any fact, no matter how infelicitous, can be rendered compatible with religious faith. In matters of faith, we have kicked ourselves loose of the Earth."

Monday, December 14, 2009

Setlist December 14th 2009




Al Stewart All Over... :

Clifton in the rain
Almost Lucky
Time Passages
Running Man(!)
Merlin's Time


Gilbert O' Sullivan :

We Will
Happiness Is Me And You



Aries...

Alright, let's get the whole thing cooking...

I try to run in a different race
But every time I seem to lose faith
Making it is hard, but taking is easy
But I got to keep trying to lessen my pace
Oh, dubidaidai, dubidaidaidada...
Aries...
I try to walk down a city street
I say hello to the people I meet
They're walking their way, thinking I'm crazy
But I have so much trouble just keeping the beat

Well my way of life is simple
'Cause I just do what I please
Whatever I was blessed with
It wasn't a life of peace
It's all right, yeah, here she comes

Oh, maybe I'm just a country boy
The city life will bring me no joy
Well it's bringing me down, it's making me lonely
You see I'm fooling with life and it ain't no toy

Well my way of life is simple
'Cause I just do what I please
And whenever I got problems
I just call upon Aries

All right yeah
Here she comes
Here she comes

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Setlist Wednesday December 9th




Chris Cornell : Billy Jean(live)
Caravan : The Show Of Our Lives
Counting Crows : Hard Candy
Harry Chapin : W.O.L.D.(live at 'The Bottom Line')

Hall & Oates : 

Wait For Me
Open All Night

Gruppo Sportivo : Armee Monica

Gentle Giant : In A Glass House
808 State : Mozes
Adam F. : The Tree Knows Everything
Bruce Springsteen : Growin' Up(demo version from 'Tracks')

Dave Matthews Band :

Cortez The Killer
All Along The Watchtowe l r



Developing...

Wooden keyboard

Pretty awesome. 


Tuesday, December 08, 2009

No explanation necessary...

...


And by the way people :


"columbia now nine times the speed of sound."
"roger that, dan, I've got a solid tacan
Locked on, uh, tacan twenty-three."
"the, uh, tracking data, map data and pre-planned
Trajectory are all one line on the block"
"roger (? ) your (? ) block (? ) decoded (? recorded? )"

Hello, earth.
Hello, earth.
With just one hand held up high
I can blot you out,
Out of sight.

Peek-a-boo,
Peek-a-boo, little earth.
With just my heart and my mind
I can be driving,
Driving home,
And you asleep
On the seat.

I get out of my car,
Step into the night
And look up at the sky.
And there's something bright,
Travelling fast.
Look at it go!
Look at it go!

[a men's choral passage in either czekh or russian is sung here.]

("listen!")

Watching storms
Start to form
Over america.
Can't do anything.
Just watch them swing "columbia now nine times the speed of sound."
"roger that, dan, I've got a solid tacan
Locked on, uh, tacan twenty-three."
"the, uh, tracking data, map data and pre-planned
Trajectory are all one line on the block"
"roger (? ) your (? ) block (? ) decoded (? recorded? )"

Hello, earth.
Hello, earth.
With just one hand held up high
I can blot you out,
Out of sight.

Peek-a-boo,
Peek-a-boo, little earth.
With just my heart and my mind
I can be driving,
Driving home,
And you asleep
On the seat.

I get out of my car,
Step into the night
And look up at the sky.
And there's something bright,
Travelling fast.
Look at it go!
Look at it go!

[a men's choral passage in either czekh or russian is sung here.]

("listen!")

Watching storms
Start to form
Over america.
Can't do anything.
Just watch them swing
With the wind
Out to sea.

All you sailors,
("get out of the waves! get out of the water!")
All life-savers,
("get out of the waves! get out of the water!")
All you cruisers,
("get out of the waves! get out of the water!")
All you fishermen,
Head for home.

Go to sleep, little earth.
I was there at the birth,
Out of the cloudburst,
The head of the tempest.
Murderer!
Murder of calm.
Why did I go?
Why did I go?

[the men's choral passage is sung again several times here.]

"tiefer, tiefer.
Irgendwo in der tiefe
Gibt es ein licht."

Go to sleep little earth.
With the wind
Out to sea.

All you sailors,
("get out of the waves! get out of the water!")
All life-savers,
("get out of the waves! get out of the water!")
All you cruisers,
("get out of the waves! get out of the water!")
All you fishermen,
Head for home.

Go to sleep, little earth.
I was there at the birth,
Out of the cloudburst,
The head of the tempest.
Murderer!
Murder of calm.
Why did I go?
Why did I go?

[the men's choral passage is sung again several times here.]

"tiefer, tiefer.
Irgendwo in der tiefe
Gibt es ein licht."

Go to sleep little earth.

A thumbs up to TPR

I can recommend Ron's Little Texas Progressive Radio Station in the middle of nowhere..


Email with requests : ron@trueprogressiveradio.com

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Setlist Saturday december 5th




Peter Gabriel :

Mercy Street
Red Rain
In Your Eyes


Paul Simon :


Graceland
Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Feet
Under African Skies



The Alan Parsons Project :


You Won't Be There
Step By Step
You Lie Down With Dogs(You Get Up With Flees)
Ammonia Avenue
I Don't Want To Go Home
The Turn Of A Friendly Card
Nothing Left To Lose
The Turn Of A Friendly Card(Finale)


Saint Etienne    : Side Streets
Jamie Cullum   : Twentysomething
James Blunt     : Same Mistake
Razorlight         : America
Al Stewart         : Merlin's Time
Cat Stevens      : My Lady D'Arbanville


Al Stewart :


Running Man
Time Passages


Peter Skellern                 : You're A Lady
Sammy Davis Jr.            : Mr. Bojangles
Steely Dan                       : Time Out Of Mind
Supertramp                     : From Now On
Fairport Convention       : Fotheringay
Rush                                : Tears
Fairport Convention       : Who Knows Where The Time Goes
King Crimson                 : Epithaph
Renaissance                   : Northern Lights
UK                                   : Rendez Vous 6:02

Jeff  Wayne                    :


Forever Autumn
The Spirit Of man

PS : I can recommend the 2002 remix of the album. Rarely have I heard such a positive difference compared to the original.

Supertramp                    :


Surely
It's A Long Road
Aubade and I Am Not Like Other Birds Of Prey
Words Unspoken
Maybe I'm A Beggar
Home Again
Nothing To Show
Shadow Song
Try Again
Surely(II)
Aries
A Soapbox Opera

(This is almost all very old Supertramp before they became famous. And it is GOOD! Hippies!!)



Al Stewart                  : Year Of The Cat(Live)
10CC                          : The Things We Do For Love
10CC                          : I'm Mandy Fly Me

Bruce Cockburn       : If I had A Rocket Launcher
RUSH                         : 2112

developing...

Thursday, December 03, 2009

R.I.P. Eric Woolfson



And thank you.

Art Rock Will Never Die 


Now is the hour and moment
Don't let a day pass by
Your ship is sailing with the high tide
You could be standing on the inside




Same Old Sun

Eric Woolfson - Lead Vocal

Tell me what to do
Now the light in my life is gone from me
Is it always the same
Is the night never ending

Tell me what to do
All the hopes and the dreams went wrong for me
There's a smile on my face
But I'm only pretending

Taking my life
One day at a time
Cause I can't think what else to do
Taking some time
To make up my mind
When there's no one to ask but you

The same old sun would shine in the morning
The same bright eyes would welcome me home
And the moon would rise way over my head
And get through the night alone

And the same old sun will shine in the morning
The same bright stars will welcome me home
And the clouds will rise way over my head
I'll get through the night on my own

Tell me what to do
Now there's nobody watching over me
If I seem to be calm
Well it's all an illusion
Tell me what to do
When the fear of the night comes over me
There's a smile on my face
Just to hide the confusion

Taking my life
One day at a time
Cause I can't think what else to do
Taking some time
To make up my mind
When there's no one to ask but you

The same old sun would shine in the morning
The same bright eyes would welcome me home
And the moon would rise way over my head
And get through the night alone

And the same old sun will shine in the morning
The same bright stars will welcome me home
And the clouds will rise way over my head
I'll get through the night on my own 






Good Night My Art Rock Brother

Peter Gabriel




Now for THIS I'll walk to the store...

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Setlist Saturday 28 November 2009



Al Stewart :

Time Passages
 A Small Fruit Song
 Life In Dark Water
Clifton In The Rain
Timeless Skies
Running Man

Chris DeBurgh :

Broken Wings
Crusader

Chris Rea :

Fool If You Think It's Over
Road To Hell - Part II

Genesis :

You Might Recall
Me And Virgil
Evidence Of Autumn

Easy Star All Stars :

With A Little Dub From My Friends
A Dub In The Life

Maybe there still is room for an internet radio station for old people...? ;)

Nena : 99 Luftballons

"99 Jahre Krieg
Liessen keinen Platz fuer Sieger
Kriegsminister gibt es nicht mehr
Und auch keine Duesenflieger
Heute zieh ich meine Runden
Seh die Welt in Truemmern liegen
Hab' nen Luftballon gefunden
Denk' an Dich und lass' ihn fliegen"

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Cowardly Republicans With A Big Mouth - Episode 219b



Perhaps you have followed American Politics under George Bush. In that case you may have heard of John Bolton. Bolton was Bush's candidate for the post of United States Permanent Representative at the United Nations. He did not survive all the criticism so after he filled the Permanent post Temporarily(...) he left the job before the Senate could throw him out.

As somewhat informed people know, the US government/Obama has decided to put the 9/11 mastermind(Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) on trial in New York. This has resulted in a lot of criticism from the Republicans(of all people!). They think that it is not wise to put a foreign moslim terrorist on trial in the US. The reasoning behind this criticism is that the trial may be the/a reason for other extremists to strike again.

I find it utterly ridiculous that the same political group that started the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq now crawls under their tables out of fear for more attacks.  These people are the bloodspitting over-the-top militaristic warmongers of 6 years ago yet they come up with 'security-reasons' to prevent terrorists from being tried in the US.

Anyway : I found this article about John Bolton's hypocrisy. It is just as valid for a Hell of a lot of Republicans.

Host Melanie Morgan: Given the nature and danger of bringing these terrorists to American soil, where do you think is the most safe place to be when they get here and this trial begins? Where would you put your family?

John Bolton: Well, not New York City, I'm afraid to say. This is part of the callousness and the really, lack of professionalism and judgment to put them on trial anywhere in the United States in civilian courts.

Declaring that you are 'afraid' of trials in the US is downright cowardly. Terrorists have already been on trial in Germany, the UK, Spain, etcetera. I guess the people in those countries do take their responsibilities.

The US Republicans apparently don't have the stamina to go through with this. Instead, they are organizing 'Tea-parties'. As Marie Antoinette said : "Let them eat cake".

Update : As an  extra : one of the sublinks in the article goes to this German site
In Paris, the headlines and the political talk I heard and read did not focus on our president or our prospects, but on the selection of a new — and no longer merely symbolic — leader for a United Europe. Europeans were talking to each other directly; Americans were not, as far as I could tell, very much a part of the conversation.

The narcissism of the 'American Elite' is indeed strikingly misplaced. For once I fully agree with the German(s) :
Look, man, the fact that your mom and your dad happened to conceive your pasty white ass on the hunk of soil known as the United States of America doesn’t make you Luke Skywalker. Grow up and get real.


Indeed.

Only for true fans

"The satirical newspaper The Onion contained a tribute to him soon after he died, with a reference to one of his works, stating that he shouldn't be referred to as dead "without checking Dresden for his younger self first"


I think it's time for 'Hocus Pocus' again soon.


Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Music - Al Stewart




Recently laid my hands on some Al Stewart. That guy from 'Year Of The Cat'. Songs like 'Time Passages', 'Almost Lucky', yes, sometimes the old times weren't so bad.

I'll have to write a better entry about Al soon. The man has been quite pivotal in the British Folk Scene and I've noticed that even among the older music fans there aren't too many people who know that. Due to the success of Year Of The Cat and Time Passages the rest of his impressive career got snowed under a bit.

Anyone who can write and sing with feeling about a love affair between an apple and an orange can't be all bad...

Said the apple to the orange
Oh I wanted you to come
Closer now and kiss me to the core
Then you might know me
Like no other orange
Has ever done before

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Expression of the day

And one I may use more and more often...


NOBODY puts baby in the corner!

Web Query and how one often must return to The Old Days Of ICT

Well well,

Just got a question or two from the management at the company I work for : Can we use WebQuery/400 to generate graphical overviews and spreadsheets on PC's using data on the AS/400(oooooppppsss, sorry ; System I...).

Of course you can and the graphical Query Application/Workbench/DevelopersSuite/LatestBuzzword(...) is actually free if you already use the old version.

So now it's back to the JavaScript fast-track tutorials because I haven't seen that shit in years. Apparently the WebQuery/400 software generates PHP which in turn generates JavaScript/JSON. JSON in turn, is the latest preferred DB-access method in browsers nowadays and is supported fully in FF 3.5 and IE 8.0.

Mind you : I probably have the idea above completely wrong and the experienced JavaScript coders howling and shedding tears of laughter right now...

Oh well, One Keeps Learning and that is, I think, perhaps the main purpose of life.

To be continued...

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Setlist Saturday 21/11/2009





As a reminder I sometimes publish the setlists of the music I DJ, both at venues as well as at home. This one is from home...

Al Stewart - Midas Shadow / Broadway Hotel / On Stage Before
Buckingham/Nicks - Without A Leg To Stand On
Camel - Never Let Go
Camel - Echoes (Rock on!)
Camel - Ice
Eric Clapton - Layla
Eric Clapton - Forever Man (How come you don't hear ThAt song on the radio anymore?)
Dire Straits - Down To The Waterline
Dire Straits - Once Upon A Time In The West
Roy Buchanan - Sweet Dreams
Jool Holland And His Rhythm And Blues Showband Featuring Ronnie Wood - Ooh La La

A little practice as I have just been asked to spin some platters in Cafe Kwatro. Has to be 'blues'... Ok!

Stuff people will hear tonight :

Gary Moore
Eric Clapton
Roy Buchanan
Steve Earle
Bad Company
Robert Johnson
John Martyn
Joe Walsh
Solomon Burke
Johnny Guitar Watson

and so on and so on...


*** Slight update***

Not me, I'm letting my girlie have this gig. She has almost everything I have in Spades anyway, especially the Blues.

Although Solomon Burke & Eric Clapton sound perfectly fine to me at the moment. Nope, nothing wrong with them...

And now for Wishbone Ash - Jail Bait!

Friday, November 20, 2009

A Day In The Life Of The Sexiest Man Alive

According to Weekly World News... ;)

On a typical day Johnny Depp wakes up nude in his four poster to the sound of Spanish Bolero music.  Before anything else he rubs his body with essential oils and goes to his veranda where he does yoga while watching the sun rise on his French vineyard.  Then he puts on pants...

Oh, I don't think I said this before, but GodlessGeeks is one of my favourite relatively unknown bits on the Web.

Internet censorship - Information Is Like People : It Wants To Be Free



An interesting background information article about censorship on the web by the good people of Wikileaks

In Internet history, 1994-2004 was the era of the pioneers. 2004-2007 was the era of the merchants. Now we’re entering the era of the bullies. Everywhere in the world, sites are going dark, arrests are increasing, more people are going to prison. The Web just celebrated its 20th birthday. Nobody used to take it seriously, but those days are gone.

Although Wikileaks was obviously founded as a response to online censorship, and may therefore be biased, the article does paint a pretty clear picture of Big Government Versus The Web.

In Thailand, using a proxy can land you in prison. The software gets around nonetheless, on USB keys or disks, competing these days with virtual private networks (VPN), encrypted gateways that are used, for example, by multinationals for secure online communication with their foreign branches. The solution is so simple that Edwin, in Wenzhou concludes, “If we really wanted to fight cybercensorship, all we’d have to do is invest a few million dollars in a massive VPN and distribute the links and keywords for free to Internet users. End of story.”

Full article here

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

What's in a name?

The link below isn't that interesting but I put it for one reason : the name of the author...

Shushanna??? wtf?

How to fake your own book prizes



An interesting read about how the publishing industry uses fake awards(including the corresponding websites) to sell you their crap.

Vanity Book Awards

Best of all, as USABN's Web site freely promises, "the National Best Books Awards are the ONLY Awards Program in the nation that offers direct coverage to the book buying public for every entry." Like the Special Olympics, this is a competition that everybody wins. If you enter the 2010 contest by the end of this year, they'll even throw in a "six-month full-color listing on USABookNews.com," which is "valued at $1500.00!" despite the fact that none of the publishers whose books are listed there now seem to have paid for this service or even to be aware that it's been provided.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A damn shame but there is more to life





Just exited a forum I participated in for quite a while. I will not put up the URL because that is completely unimportant. Also : If this blog entry sounds too pathetic it isn't meant to be. It's not like the End Of The World Is Nigh or anything!

That forum had/has become a standard 'leading question/standard abusive reply'-forum in which there was no room for the realization that people change and that therefore the tone of the discussions should basically change too over time. In this case the same people got/get picked out of the memberlist and are then treated like the local online village idiot. In the case of said forum this was even amplified because most members also know each other in real life.

Also, and I must say that you see this on many forums: after a while they(fora) just stop working because of what I would call 'post- and information-saturation'. Or to put in into simpler words : everybody has heard everyone else's opinion about everything so the members start to repeat themselves. And on top of that there is the obvious bias and hypocrisy that creeps into the discussions : I am perfect by definition and by the same 'standards' your are basically flawed. If I would study Sociology or Psychology, I would choose the dynamics of online forums as my subject. Even without any knowledge of said disciplines it is quite fascinating to see how such a forum behaves and evolves.

Anyway : It was fun while it lasted and it's a shame that it ended in a disappointment. Strange how such intelligent people just cannot give each other the virtual space to be. How the internet somehow encourages people to be more abusive towards each other. Is it because the web is seen as more amorphous and anonymous? I don't think that is the case anymore but what do I know? All I know is that I value a certain minimum level of politeness and some sense of social standards everywhere: one can always get into a fierce discussion but when it degrades into character assassination and swearing I draw my personal line in the sand.


Oh well: I'll use my weblog more often then. I can say almost anything here without undue interference. Mwahaa!!

I'll have a beer over all of this tonight and then get on with my online life.

(Note to self : must not forget to unregister tonight.)

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

'The Story Of Ender' or how I got hooked on Orson



  A few days ago I purchased 'Ender in exile' by Orson Scott Card. This is the new book in the Ender-series and it tells the story of Ender Wiggin from the moment the war against the Formics(aka 'The Buggers') is over until the time that starts with the second book 'Speaker for the Dead'. The persona of Ender is still fascinating and I must say that hardly ever have I read Science Fiction this well written.

There have been many SF-writers with brilliant ideas who could not write well. There have been many SF-writers who could write beautifully but got stuck at the same 'old' ideas. And there have been a number of SF-writers who avoided both traps. Examples of the latter category are for instance the legendary Theodore 'Ted' Sturgeon, Eric Frank Russel, Robert Sheckley, the almost forgotten Thomas Disch and most certainly not to be forgotten anytime soon : Larry Niven.

Orson Scott Card definitely belongs among these giants of Science Fiction. The prose is beautiful, the story - actually all the story lines - are compelling, and there does not seem to be an end to his original ideas.

To get an idea of the structure of the novels you can read this. Card is fleshing out the story more and more, and does so without reverting to cheap tactics to keep the sales up. Everyone who knows his work, knows that Card does not compromise much, if at all. Just when we(the readers) had gotten used to the recurring theme/persona of Ender, Card comes up with a parallell storyline about Bean, his number one during the war. And the story of Bean(as told in several books in the series) is at least as moving as the story of Ender, albeit for different reasons.

The first book 'Ender's Game' is about to be turned into a movie. On the one hand I'm quite confident it will be a good movie because Orson Scott Card has singlehandedly written the script and he is an experienced script-/scenario-/play-wright. On the other hand I do hope that the commercial assholes that run around in every movie-company stay away. The book(s) have been bestsellers so one can say that Card is 'commercial' enough all by himself.

Anyway, I've almost finished 'Ender in exile' and I will be truly sorry when I've read it.

I want more Mr. Card! Come on! You can do at least three of four more books! You can do a book or two about Dink Meeker, about Petra Arkanian(!), and not to forget : you never did actually show us what was written in 'The Hive Queen' or 'The Hegemon'.

Even I could come up with the background story. Shame that I cannot write SF at any proper level.

Guess I'll just have to wait for the Grand Old Man himself to come up with the next treat.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Just who you want flying the plane.

Michael Moore has a 'nice; story. I don't know, perhaps I should avoid flying US airlines? On the other hand : perhaps the same goes for all the other ones...

The plane landed and I stepped into the cockpit. "Read this," the first officer said. He handed me a letter from the airline to him. It was headlined "LETTER OF CONCERN." It seems this poor fellow had taken three sick days in the past year. The letter was a warning not to take another one -- or else.
"Great," I said. "Just what I want -- you coming to work sick, flying me up in the air and asking to borrow the barf bag from my seatback pocket."
He then showed me his pay stub. He took home $405 this week. My life was completely and totally in his hands for the past hour and he's paid less than the kid who delivers my pizza.

michael-moore-do-you-want-airline-pil

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

The Rise and Fall of Thinking Machines

I don't usually just dump a link on my weblog but I make an exception for this old story.

ICT in the 90ies. I've seen the obsolete and completely superfluous jogging machines in the cafetaria. Because hey 'if you have money you should spend it'...

Been there, seen it, did not want the t-shirt. Glad those days are over.

Friday, September 25, 2009

ABC (Oh! Those Disco Eighties!)

It's funny to see how so many bands and artists who where once pretty famous and succesful have not only stopped playing, but have also disappeared from the public eye. Even the fans of 'the olden days' never play their records anymore; often the listener's musical taste has changed over the years or the listener has grown up and does not listen to music much at all anymore. It is after all not easy to enjoy music while three kids are screaming in the background. Well, not unless you are listening to noisy old stuff by let's say Magma of Gamma or Einsturzende Neubauten.

Also very often the members of the band have gone on to raise some kids and find 'a real job' and reappear years later as mystery guest on some stupid quiz show, in the cause destroying whatever little credibility they still had. I remember a feeling of shock when I saw Mike Lindup as a mystery guest on 'Never Mind The Bollocks'. This was the main writer and keyboard player of Level 42! How on Earth could he be persuaded to annihilate his artistic stature by becoming one of the many people trying to make a quick buck?
Of course those thoughts only meant that I valued his 'image' more than the man himself. It meant that he was living in the present more than I was. It also meant that I was a complete idiot and that I should readjust before I grew really really old. Yet still, the feeling that such an artist could demean himself and his legacy remained, albeit completely unjustified.

Some band have weathered the times quite well; I heard Depeche Mode the other day and they are still pretty damned good. But most of the band from the 80ies and 90ies have disappeared into the abyss of obscurity.

I came across one of those bands again the other day. They were called ABC and they came from England. These guys specialized in writing and playing songs about love. Actually, most of the time, well... as good as always, this love would be unrequited.
The band played a British disco-kind of music that was very much En Vogue in the 80ies yet they had a twist in the music and the lyrics. One the one hand, the music was produced and directed by a very young Trevor Horn of The Buggles who had just scored an immense hit with 'Video Killed The Radio Stars'. Horne had set up a team of three people(An Dudley, J.J. Jeczalic and Trevor Horn) with whom he would work together through the 80ies and score massive hits. The team was behind acts like Frankie Goes To Hollywood. So the next time you hear 'Relax', 'Two Tribes' or anything from 'Welcome to the Pleasure Dome' listen carefully. The similarities in production technique between ABC's 'Lexicon Of Love' and 'Welcome to the Pleasure Dome' are obvious.

What I personally particularly liked in ABC were their lyrics. Not because they were outstanding, poetic, meaningful or in any other way made for Eternity because they were not. What ABC did on 'The Lexicon Of Love' however, was to write a whole album of lyrics solely about unrequited love, affairs going badly, and people leaving each other in bad ways. I remember the inner sleeve of the record(this was the vinyl-era people!); both sides of the sleeve contained some credits and all the lyrics but these lyrics had a twist. Because the band had basically written a concept-album(without attaching too much significance to it) they were able to throw all the lines from all the song in a hat, rummage around a bit, and by probably pulling pieces of paper(i.e. songlines) out again they created a completely new and very long lyric that covered the whole album. It became somewhat of a puzzle that you could solve while listening to the tracks.

The songs themselves were dominated by the use of loads of keyboards, heavy electronic Simmons drums and a very funky brass section. Oh and Lots and Lots and Lots of samplers... Mr. Horne had recently acquired a Fairlight CMI sampler and anyone who knows that instrument also knows that the possibilities were endless. It was basically a mainframe computer with a piano-keyboard attached. Your mind was the limit to what you could do with it. It also cost over 100.000 euros so there weren't so many around and that made the sound quite uniquely recognizable.

Their first album went by quite unnoticed but their second album 'The Lexicon Of Love' contained the hitsongs '(Shoot That) Poison Arrow' and 'The Look Of Love'. Other songs worth noting were '4Ever 2Gether'(with an extremely sub low bass vocoder) and 'Show Me' :

When I'm shaking a hand
I am clenching a fist
If you gave me a pound
for the moments I missed
And I got dancing lessons
for all the lips I should have kissed
I'd be a millionaire
I'd be Fred Astaire
I saw these guys around the time of this album in 1981 and they were absolutely brilliant at what they did on stage. More so because no one believed(including me) that a 'plastic pop band' like ABC would be able to perform all the complex arrangements live. The band(that basically consisted of only four member and did not even have a fixed bass player!) solved their problems by taking to the road with a 12 persons band, including five ladies on violin, a guy on the cello and two keyboard players! All dressed in Tuxedo they took the phrase 'incorrect' to a new level. While the New Wave bands and the post-punk bands were playing around the corner, here were some people in evening dresses playing sophisticated disco-pop while the stage lights went from baby blue to baby pink halfway through the concert. It was so kitch that it sort of pained the eyes. Which in turn of course made it fun to watch.




New Wave it wasn't...

By the time they recorded their third album 'Beauty Stab' ABC had changed their style somewhat. Much more emphasis was put on the guitar parts which really made the album sound a lot more like rock. Even so, the album was absolutely 'ABC', one could hear the style from a mile away. Perhaps this also had something to do with the fact that the guitarist was also the keyboard player...

Love's just the gimmick
a mime or a mimic
That makes sex seem respectable
Make you feel more than a dream holding me
Holding me, holding me, holding me

Lips that seem so kissable
Unpermissible unzippable Unzip!
Why take pleasure in censorship
Unzip! Unzip! Unzip!

I must admit that I lost track of them(as so many people did) after their fourth and most successful album 'Alphabet City'. It's probably because the albums after that one did not contain any real hits so the airplay went down. Also; this was around about the time that bands like U2 and Nirvana stormed the charts and R&B became really big, so it may have a been musical generations thing. Still, 'Alphabet City' was an extremely succesful album that spun the hits 'When Smokey Sings', 'The Night You Murdered Love' and 'King Without A Crown' :

Welcome to the Great Republic
I guess I should show you 'round
Where once I was a King
but now I am a clown

The love that we once had
made a King of me
But now you're gone
and all I face is poverty

ABC still plays live concerts off and on. I have no need or any urge to go and see them because I know I would be disappointed if I did. Some things should be left alone in the dark. But once upon a time they were a great band.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Found somewhere on The Web...


The problem is something 'bout your clothes, she said to me
The red shirt and the stripeless sleeves yell, "I'm Security!"
And when you get down planet-side with Kirk, you'll get to see
There must be fifty ways to kill an ensign

He takes a landing party down to find what's going on
A couple of the bridge crew, and some extras come along
And then before you know it - the `expendables' are gone
There must be fifty ways to kill an ensign
Fifty ways to kill an ensign

Just step on a rock, Jock
Get thorns from some plants, Lance
A Horta can spray, Ray
Just listen to me
Clouds drink up your blood, Bud
Computers can kill, Bill
You could lose all your salt, Walt
Kirk gets away free...

She said it grieves me so to see you with such nerves
Not ev'ryone who goes with Kirk will suffer from this curse
But then of course, you must recall - they sometimes suffer WORSE
There must be fifty ways...

Just tell him, "I'm not stupid and I'm not expendable
I'm not going!" Tell him that he's a Denebian slime devil
And he's overbearing, swaggering, and dictatorial
He'll find a new way to kill an ensign
Fifty-one ways to kill an ensign

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Railroad Barons of the 19th century

I found this article via via via etcetera. Interesting read re. the 14th Amendment and the way it has been/is being abused. The article is from 2002 but this kind of information does not really expire...

...the railroad barons represented the most powerful corporations in America, and they were incredibly tenacious. They mounted challenge after challenge before the Court, claiming the 14th Amendment should grant them human rights under the Bill of Rights (but not grant such rights to unions, churches, small companies, or governments). Finally, in 1886, the Court's reporter defied his own Chief Justice and improperly wrote a headnote that moved corporations out of the privileges category and gave them rights - an equal status with humans.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Link of the week(so far).

Best Page In The Universe

Alaskan Politics - The Quagmire

People who know me also know that I am very interested in the circus that is American Politics. In this respect, last year was obviously a year in Heaven. Now that the US Elections have come and gone, most people are focusing on the economical crisis, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and of course the new Health Insurance System that Obama wants to set up. It seems to me that - especially outside the US - interest for the major players is limited to Obama, Hillary Clinton and one or two former members of the Bush Administration. And all the while there is the enigma that is called Sarah Palin...

Sarah Palin is dividing the US as few others have done before her. It is not so much 'The Woman Palin' who is the cause of this; it is more a matter of Rightwing Christian America having found a poster-girl for bringing religion into politics. Even America's founding fathers knew that this is a recipe for disaster but apparently those wise insights are now lost on a large part of the american population.

I vividly remember the TV Evangelists of the 80ies with their unspeakably absurd 'church services'(remember Genesis spoofing them in 'Jesus He Knows Me'? "And The Lord Said Get Me Eighteen Millon Dollars By The Weekend!!!"). These people, the Jim Bakers, the Pat Robertsons, the Jimmy Falwells etcetera, used to be limited by laws that forbade the mixing of politics and religion. Any religious entity that was found to be mixing the church with politics would by law be prosecuted and their tax-exempt status would be revoked. Clearly this made the religious far right cautious when engaging in politics nevertheless.

What is happening now is - in my opinion - far worse : after 25 years of influencing politicians behind closed doors, the Religious Right is now working in the open more and more, and hardly anyone is screaming murder; Keith Olberman perhaps is, but he suffers from the stigma of being seen as a far left tv commentator and is therefore put in 'The Liberal Corner' with all the consequences that this has. He basically 'criticized' himself out of a general audience in order to win a pretty much left wing fanbase. The only name on tv that comes to mind is Jon Stewart. At the moment he is seen by the audience as the most trusted news achor on tv in the US. But wait a minute! Jon Stewart is a comedian! So the person most people trust to give them proper information is a tv comedian?


Anyway; just like I followed the idiocy around Michael Jackson for some time some years ago, I am now keeping an eye on the backwaters of American Politics. Not so much the new Obama-plan or an attempted republican filibuster, but more about the people behind the current stage, waiting - no dying - for their moment in the spotlights. And one of those people is most definitely Sarah Palin. I found below article in Vanity Fair, a magazine I am starting to appreciate more and more lately. What were they thinking in the McCain Campaign? Well, they probably weren't...


It Came From Wasilla


May Heaven and Earth help us if she ever gets to the real top of american politics. We'll need all the help we can get.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Creepy Palin and the Christian Suicide Bombers

The more I read about that woman the creepier she gets.

Inside Sarah's Church

Behind the Third Wave’s histrionics lies an aggressive brand of Dominionism focused on purging “demon influence” from entire geographic areas through prayer or more forceful means if necessary. Becky Fischer, a Third Wave youth pastor who gained fame as the anti-hero of the award-winning 2006 documentary Jesus Camp, urged pastors to indoctrinate an army of spiritual suicide bombers to seize control of the country.
“I wanna see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam,” Fischer said in the documentary during an unguarded moment. “I wanna see them as radically laying down their lives for the Gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all those different places.”
and...
The Third Wave arrived in Alaska through a “spiritual warfare network” founded by an Anchorage-based Haida Indian named Mary Glazier, who claimed to have converted 60 members of her family, including her formerly alcohol-abusing parents. Seeking a “battle strategy” against the rising tide of sin that consumed her son, who committed suicide in 1990,
Glazier tried to gain access to the state’s prison system, a pit of desperation. A young female prison chaplain opposed Glazier’s evangelizing intentions. Glazier responded by branding the woman a witch and began to utter imprecatory prayers. “As we continued to pray against the spirit of witchcraft,” Glazier recalled with glee, “her incense altar caught on fire, her car engine blew up, she went blind in her left eye, and she was diagnosed with cancer.”


Really friendly people with lots of compassion and understanding for others. And people ask me why organized religion makes me sick to my stomach...

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

IPhoney?


The IPhone is losing acolytes...

I Hate My IPhone


"Now, after reading that several iPhones have exploded, action-flick style, I at last feel free to say it: The iPhone sucks. It makes life miserable. I loathe the iPhone."

Also good for a laugh : The I Hate My IPhone website

One of the milder responses :

"Slower than shit!
Crappy ass GPS
Horrible battery life
Awfully slow internet
Volume not loud enough
to fucking expensive plan
FUCK THIS THING"




Monday, August 24, 2009

Recommended reading in Science Fiction Land

Although it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to pick my favourite Science Fiction books and stories I'm still going to have a go at it. This is by no means a complete list and I have probably forgotten dozens of brilliant stories. Rest assured though : in my opinion these are all landmark books and novellas.

This list is in random order.
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle - The Mote In God's Eye.







Not to put down Gene 'The Great Bird Of The Galaxy' Roddenberry, but this book is what StarTrek The Original Series would have been if it would have been written by a seasoned science fiction writer. The scope is magnificent, this is absolutely a classic 'Space Opera', written at a time when everybody in SF-land claimed that the time for such books had come and gone. You might think of it in the same way that people tend to think about Albert Einstein and J.S Bach : The Last Of The Great Classics. Of course I'm not a writer but having said that : as an avid SF-reader I would not know how to improve this book.



Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game / Speaker For The Dead.




In a nutshell : Aliens called 'The Buggers'(because they look somewhat like insects) have tried to invade Earth 80 years ago, but were defeated by an absolutely ruthless and brilliant Israeli commander called Mazer Rackham. People and especially the leaders on Earth know however, that the aliens will very likely come back when there is the least distance between the planets again(in about 80 years). They are therefore frantically and desperately searching for a new 'Mazer Rackham' to lead them to victory, or at least to a stalemate. As a result they pick the best and the brightest of their children at an extremely young age, and put them through intensive training to see if the Great Leader will stand up. The book is mostly set on a space station orbiting Earth, that has been designed solely as a training facility. It follows a score of these young and brilliant military minds from the age of five onward.

The catch is : they cannot just pick one and give him orders, as this would destroy the personal initiative of this new military genius and render him or her useless for any great battle.

If you haven't read this book please do: I could tell you what it's about in great further detail but my words would be no match for the book itself. It is by far the best book I have ever read with a young male boy as the leading character. Ender Wiggin is one of those protagonists you immediately start to like and love. Orson Scott Card is well known nowadays for his character development and this was an absolute highlight in his career.

Four books were released in the 'Ender'-series but the first two are the most intense and up-front personal.

Ender's Game is one of those very few books that left me quite emotional. Wich is a true exception in Science Fiction as far as I'm concerned.


The(first) sequel 'Speaker For The Dead' is so ingeniously put together that it basically has hardly any relationship with the first book except for Ender and his sister. The story is set 3.000 year onward and deals with the fear of humanity of ever confronting a new alien race. When Humanity finally encounter an underdeveloped but promising intelligent race that they call 'The Piggies', they are overly cautious and turn the whole planet into a quarantined zone where only a few people are allowed to live and study.

And then something goes wrong...


Kurt Vonnegut - Galapagos



I must by now surely have bored people to tears with my praise for Kurt Vonnegut's work.

Originally a writer of SF('The Players of Titan' comes to mind) Vonnegut quite quickly move out of the SF-field because as he said 'he did not want to get stuck in the ghetto that was SF'. Ironically enough, there is a lot of SF in the books he wrote after that period.

Galapagos is one of his last complete novels and describes the wholly unlikely survival of the human race on the Galapagos Islands. The main characters are all flawed. There is a con man trying to trick a widow out of her inheritance, a captain who really doesn't know how the ship works because he has personnell who do, there are a few native girls who get stranded on the ship(which in the end is itself stranded on one of the remote Galapagos Islands), etcetera etcetara.

Kurt Vonnegut is the only writer I have ever read who could write almost in baby talk and still be completely 'gripping'. The older he got the better I like his work.

The man passed away not too long ago. May he rest in peace. I honestly do miss waiting for the new Vonnegut to come out.


To be continued...

Time Travel Fatigue

An interesting article about what can basically be seen as the erosion of the use of Time Travel in Science Fiction. Indeed : Compared to the way time travel was used to come up with new plotlines and infinite possibilities, it is now becomimg somewhat of a Deus Ex Machina to fix the script every time when the director gets stuck.



Somewhere between watching the first half-hour of the new Star Trek film and, five days later, the season finale of Lost, something happened.

You know how it is when you have that second piece of dessert? It tastes great at the time. The sensory delights linger through the after-dinner drinks and through the evening ... right up to the moment when you step on the scale the next morning.

It can happen with stories, too. There are themes and high concepts you love, then you have one more than the standard adult requirement.

For example, I reached this point with the alien-invasion theme on television four seasons back, when NBC's Surface, ABC's Invasion and CBS's Threshold were all airing at the same time.

It's happening this summer with a pair of Big Rock Hits Earth miniseries. ABC already aired Impact, and NBC is promising Meteor: Path to Destruction. This comes a decade after the dueling Big Rock features Armageddon and Deep Impact, which were two decades after dueling Big Rock novels, Lucifer's Hammer and Shiva Descending.

I was happily watching Star Trek, prepared to love every minute of it—which I did, right up until the time when the Romulan ship appeared from the future.

Let me say this again, possibly saving myself half a dozen comments: I liked this movie. It was a wonderful re-invention of the Star Trek franchise. Long may it wave. Can't wait for the sequel.

But I didn't need the time travel. I didn't need future Spock.

Five days later I was watching "The Incident" on Lost. Jack and Kate and Hurley were trying to work some time-travel-related magic on the Lost island of 30-odd years ago when I realized that two characters—Daniel and Miles—were in the story in different phases of their lives.

I've overdosed on time-travel stories.

Which is painful, because I love them. Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Robert F. Young's charming "When Time Was New." Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps." Lewis Padgett's "Mimsy Were the Borogoves."

Just last month I read Joe Haldeman's The Accidental Time Machine. Not long before that, I revisited Harry Harrison's The Technicolor® Time Machine—which if nothing else possesses one of the best titles in sci-fi history.

I grew up watching Peabody and Sherman and the Wayback Machine. I liked Time Tunnel. I enjoyed all of the Back to the Future movies.

I love the forms a time-travel story can take. You can leap forward and experience the near future, as in Gregory Benford's Timescape or Algis Budry's "Silent Eyes of Time," or, of course, in H.G. Wells' Time Machine.

I love it when characters go back in time, as in Connie Willis' Doomsday Book or, even further back, as in Robert Silverberg's Hawksbill Station or Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder."



Further reading : Time Travel Fatigue

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Note to self

Never(NEVER!) post a blog-entry when you are pissed off.


And that is why this is not a blog-entry...

The Last Word...

Been checking my older entries. I think this one was obvious but also spot-on.

The Great Groinshaker

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Groundbreaking Synthesizer Players

As someone who has been playing synthesizers since 1977 I am of course interested in what other musicians do with that instrument. So recently I started work on a list of my favourite synthesizer-musicians/bands. As I don't want to get into the impossible job of grading keyboard players themselves, this is a list of musicians and bands that actually published records under the same name. So you will not see sole bandmembers in this list, only 'acts'. That is why names such as Rick Wright(Pink Floyd) and Roger Powell(Utopia, Todd Rundgren, etcetera) are not on this list. I think these guys were brilliant, but not so much in their solo efforts.

The musicians/bands are listed in random order, this is not a 'Top-10' list. Also: I have not included any Jazz keyboard players in this list because I plan to write a separate entry about those people, including musicians such as Chick Corea, George Duke, etcetera.


Anyway : here's what I came up with :


Tangerine Dream

A German band of legendary stature. They started out as early as 1967 and are still performing. In it's best days the nucleus of the band consisted of Chris Franke, Chris Froese and Peter Baumann. Tangerine Dream(TD) became famous for it's atmospheric, yes almost ambient music. Most of the albums they released in the 70ies were actually complete live-recordings. The band would jam most of the music(based on a pattern of course) and release the recordings if the jam-results sounded good. I realized years later, that my co-musicians and I used exactly the same method when we had our DrumNBass band a few years ago...

Recommended listening :

Phaedra
Rubycon
Ricochet
Force Majeure
Cyclone


Vangelis

There are millions and millions of people out there who got to know Vangelis after he recorded his best albums. No disrespect to any of his later records such as 'Chariots Of Fire' etcetera, but the 70-ies era was the time that he really shone. Albums like 'Beaubourgh' and especially 'China' are of an unsurpassable beauty. The latter album('China') was one of the first synthesizer albums that incorporated various other instruments, such as the Koto, Violin, Chinese Drums, and so on. This made the album sound distinctly 'chinese', although one can hear the man is Greek if one listens carefully.

Recommended listening :

China
Beaubourg
Heaven and Hell


Brian Eno

Technically speaking Eno only started to use synthesizers later on in his career. He started out as the keyboard player for Roxy Music and used 'traditional' instruments like the Hammond Organ. After his stint with Roxy Music he started to experiment with sound effects, tapes played backwards, etcetera, and came up with the all-time classic 'Music For Films', followed by 'Music For Airports'. To describe these albums is really hard, as the records contain not so much 'music' in the classic way. The records consist of sound-scapes that have been made by producing sound with every object he thought sounded good. These sounds were frequently re-recorded to give them more 'grainy' characteristics.

If this sounds familiar that's understandable. Twenty years later a band called 'Portishead' did exactly the same thing and became world famous for it as well.

Recommended listening :

Music For Films
Music For Airports


Kate Bush

Ri-i-i-ght! you may say. Kate Bush is well known for playing beautiful keyboard arrangements but one might not expect her in this list. So why is Kate in this list? I'll begin with two words : "The Dreaming".

At the start of her career, Kate Bush mainly played traditional keyboards, especially the piano. However: after recording three LPs, she got fed up with the limitations of those instruments. Fortunately for her there was this guy Peter Gabriel who invited her to sing background vocals on one of his records. The rest, one may safely say, is history. Gabriel showed her his new Fairlight CMI synthesizer and the next thing he knew was that Kate had bought on for herself. This may sound like nothing special but that synthesizer cost what would now be over 100.000 euros. She still uses the synth for specific jobs because it has really defined her sound since 1983. Whether you hear 'Suspended in Gaffa'(1984), 'And Dream Of Sheep'(1988), or 'King Of The Mountain(2006), you will always hear some part there that is pure Fairlight CMI.

Recommended listening :

The Dreaming
Hounds Of Love
Aerial

and basically everything else she has released...


Mannfred Mann's Earth Band

No list about synthesizer players/bands would be complete without Mannfred Mann. The man was a pioneer. He almost personally introduced the synthesizer - especially the solo-synthesizer - in rock music. He not only made some great albums with his Earth Band, but also played on the early records by Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, and so on and so on.

Recommended listening :

Nightingales And Bombers
The Roaring Silence
Watch


Tony Banks

Under normal circumstances Tony Banks would not be in this list. He is after all the only keyboard player Genesis ever had, but still: he is a band member. Fortunately for me the man recorded quite a list of solo records. Lately his recordings involve grand orchestral pieces which are recorded with the aid of an actual classical orchestra. That's what you get when you have the money to do whatever you want...

In the 70ies however, after Gabriel had left Genesis and the band wanted to move towards a somewhat lighter musical style, Tony Banks found that he had a lot of material on the shelf that sounded like the old Genesis and therefore would not be recorded by the band. This made him record his first solo-record 'A Curious Feeling'. After this album many more have followed : 'The Wicked Lady', 'Still', etcetara. In my opinion however, none of those albums has had the impact of 'A Curious Feeling'.

Tony achieved fame and fortune with Genesis. Because this band became so huge, Tony's innovative approach to keyboards(albeit with a classical twist) has never been as clear as it could have been. To name an example : he was the first keyboard player to experiment with effect pedals instead of a Lesley cabinet(mainly because he got fed up with carrying around the bloody speakers), and also to be noted : he was one of the very first who combined a drumcomputer(the famous Linn Drum) to a synthesizer in order to get the sequences that we know from 'By You'(from 'The Fugitive') and 'Mama' by Genesis.

Recommended listening :

A Curious Feeling
The Fugutive

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Setlists

Setlist for tonight@home...

1. Utopia - Alone
2. Utopia - I Just Want To Touch You
3. Utopia - Crystal Ball
4. Utopia - Where Does The World Go To Hide
5. Utopia - Silly Boy
6. Utopia - That's Not Right
7. Utopia - Take It Home
8. Utopia - Hoi Poloi
9. The Tubes - Don't Want To Wait Anymore
10. Tangerine Dream - Mojave Plain(Part I)
11. Tangerine Dream - No Man's Land
12. Tangerine Dream - Kiew Mission
13. Tangerine Dream - Cloudburst Flight
14. Tangerine Dream - Force Majeure
15. Tangerine Dream - Rubycon(The Decision)
16. Razorlight - America
17. James Blunt - Same Mistake
18. Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
19. Paul McCartney - Silly Love Songs
20. Paul McCartney - No More Lonely Nights
21. Paul Young - Where ever I Lay My Hat
22. Laurie Anderson - Oh Superman(for Massenet)
23. Prefab Sprout - Desire As
24. The Bangles - Be With You
25. The FixX - Sign Of Fire
26. Radiohead - 15 Steps
27. The Corrs - Old Town

A good name for a band

'Cringeworthy'

Stalkin'

I seem to have an online stalker nowadays. Weird, in some respect it is an honour. If only he wasn't such a grade-A asshole. Oh well, it'll pass eventually. Perhaps someday he'll get a real life instead.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Forgotten Heroes -Klaatu

Listening to 'Routine Day' by Klaatu atm. A proper warning against letting your career get in the way of your life.

Weird; this band never made it really big time. although there is something to say for becoming a cult-band...

I remember being mesmerized by 'Hope', it was like a science fiction story set to music, and I mean a REAL SF-story, not Buck Rogers or whatever.


"It started off a routine day
I got through the morning in the usual way
I caught the bus on time
Good morning, Mr. Driver, drive
As I sat inside my overcoat I clutched my cane
And pressed my nose against the foggy window pane
Ho hum
The life I lead would even make a dead man yawn

Midday comes
I break for lunch
With my sandwich and a beer I go on a hunch
To the park where I hope to find
A little bit of peace of mind
As I sat there on a bench amidst the rodent race
I felt a strange sensation that without a trace appeared
But then as quickly disappeared again

So tell me what's the bloody point of playing the game
With so much to lose yet so little to gain
You sell your life away
Can't you see you're just a cog working like a dog
You trade your future for a dead-end job
That's full of routine days
Routine days

I race the clock to the end of my day
The paycheck in my pocket makes me feel okay
But was it worth the grind
Just to keep from falling behind

I stand here in the queue behind a foul cigar
My face discreetly buried in a book on Mars
Humdrum
And I'm waiting on the pier 'til Charon comes"

The Power of Old Metal - Observation One

Yes, of course, modern metal is usually technically superior, modern metal is made up of exquisite patterns and melodies and blahdieblahdieblah...

But once upon a time there was R.U.S.H. A Canadian band with balls AND feeling. Just listen to Cygnus X-1 part I and part II and be amazed. So long ago yet so brilliant...


"In the constellation of cygnus
There lurks a mysterious, invisible force
The black hole
Of cygnus x-1

Six stars of the northern cross
In mourning for their sisters loss
In a final flash of glory
Nevermore to grace the night...."

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

This space is rather dusty, time I re-activate it.

Let's see: the world is still going to pot, life consists of work and more work, but fortunately some interesting stuff is happening in the music scene. Catching up on newer artists like Razorlight, Lily Allen, etcetera. I also found some great Jools Holland records with acts like Muse an King Creosote on them.