A Metric Collins

A Collins is a linear unit of measure.

It describes the minimum distance that one may cast offshore in a rowboat and sing along (boombox optional) to "I Wish It Would Rain Down" at full voice during a deluvial downpour without the neighbors calling the cops.

Michael Jackson: This Is It

Saw the Michael Jackson concert documentary This Is It a couple of days ago. Very interesting. Turns out it consists of him coming out on stage and singing the opening theme song of "One Day At a Time" over and over again for an hour and a half until somebody in the audience pulled out a gun and shot him, and that's how he died. Very revealing.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon QUADROPHONIC Mix

 

My Favorite Thing This Year (so far):

There is a QUADROPHONIC mix of Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (done by producer Alan Parsons in 1973 at the same time he did the the regular -- stereo -- mix).

If you want to download it via torrent search on google for "dark side of the moon 5.1 torrent" (it's 3.5GB).

 

(or click here) 

Just finished listening to it.  I didn't know my ears could do that.  It's like listening to the album for the first time (after maybe 1,000 times the stereo one over the last 20+ years).  Just make sure you sit in the center of the room, with no distractions.  (Don't bother if you don't have a surroundsound setup -- it would be like watching a 3D movie without the glasses).

Pink Floyd Wins Legal Battle to Only Sell Full Albums Online

I like this this entry on Gizmodo, written by furniture-fucker Adam Frucci, which points to a British High Court decision that that Pink Floyd's contract with EMI prohibits individual songs from their albums being sold individually.

I'm not usually one to cheer limitations on online (sold or otherwise) media, but I do cheer anytime people will choose to PAY for Pink Floyd music and are actually forced to, you know, listen to the whole album, as people were expected to in the 70s.  Get with the program -- you don't just watch the Star Gate sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey and get to call yourself a Kubrick fan (or know what the hell you're talking about in any context).

From the BBC News article (linked to from the Gizmodo entry):

In court, Chancellor Sir Andrew Morritt said the contract contained a clause to "preserve the artistic integrity of the albums". 

I have no sympathy for people who are as a matter of course willing to pay the iTunes- / record company- tax just so they so they can get "Another Brick in the Wall" or "Comfortably Numb" tracks without having (getting to) listen to the entirety of "The Wall" album.  Fuck 'em. I say: "Let them crash."

On the other hand, those that care about the quality of the overall piece will get it (for free) as a full-album torrent anyway, so I'm not sure what they're worried about.  (GASP..! could it be money?)

The 80s Are Alive And Well

(well, as well as it ever was).

Remember when all it took to make a crappy repetitive song a #1 chart hit was a mindblowingly inventive, game-changing video to go on deep-dish rotation on MTV?  You know, just before Reagan got re-elected?

LA ROUX 'BULLETPROOF' from soyo on Vimeo.

A set (real, and virtual) one pines for the talent to create, married to a song in true period piece form (with the synths, beat box etc)... Tetris.. Tron.. Rubik's (everything), checkerboard shoes.. plastic jacket... Annie Lennox over-gelled hair.. "3d Demo" show-off graphics.... And, for those whose minds tend to such things, the Pointer Sisters'1984 LA Olympics-inspired "Jump" video, with its tiled-background set.

But, whatever you do, don't miss the La Roux spelled out in the real wood scenery at the 0:35 mark.  Watch full-screen (click on the little "X" next to the Vimeo logo then hit Play) and enjoy.

And, just to make you feel old, the singer was born in 1988.... about four years after the specific time this video is based on...

That's My Roger

[...]The pig, which was led above the crowd from lines held on the ground, displayed the words "Don't be led to the slaughter" and a cartoon of Uncle Sam wielding two bloody cleavers. The other side read "Fear builds walls."

The underside of the pig simply read "Obama" with a checked ballot box alongside.

...From Broyhill!

(sorry, i've been watching a lot of The Price is Right lately -- it's in high def now you know)

So I was strolling the other day (ok, today) through Guitar World or whatever it's called and I saw this used keyboard...

...for $160 (image links to description -- "slim and stylish... from Casio!" whispers Rod Ruddy).

If there is one thing I know about keyboards (and by god there really is only one thing I know about keyboards), regardless of any dearth of features, is that you can't get anything with a full 88 keys, decent or otherwise, for less than $300. So I figured this was my chance to implement my plan to buy a piano and finally, after decades of succeeding to not even try, to learn to play more than the two 30-second twinkly-tink songs I got out of two+ years of Suzuki lessons as a child.

The "plan", in this case, has a built-in escape hatch where if I fail to teach myself (I really don't think this is going to involve other people; just a hunch) then I'm only out $160... a far cry from the $800 I considered for a different model just a couple of months ago at another location.

I've had excellent luck buying marked down, slightly used goods (apparently this model goes for about $500) so I didn't think twice about it. The question now is (which is why I'm bothering to put this out here, there, and everywhere).... what autodidactic method to use? Do you know (first or Nth hand), of an adult who, from scratch, taught itself to play piano? What path(s) did they follow?

Air Was Something In There Tonight (the)

I went to see my favorite electronic music perform live at the Madison Square Garden last night. Air is a French duo (sorry, freedom combo) who specialize in repetitive (I mean, hypnotic....) electronic and computer-generated music.



Why bother to go see computer-generated music live? Because their computer likes it when they play along with their guitar and so do I.

Here are three of their songs, recorded in Worble-Sound(tm) with my digital camera.

Kelly Watched the Stars
Sexy Boy
La Femme d'Argent

(will be posted shortly)

searching for no. 5

no 5 with a knife to the heart

How Curious...

While there is nothing sadder that somebody trying to sing bubblegum dance pop with a thick, uncooperative Castillian tongue, it is however worthy of note that this is probably the first instance of an unabashedly sexual, 100%-equal-time bisexual music video. I know this because a friend of mine told me the chick has "awesome, perfect tits" and I believe her.

Feel free to provide links in order to correct me on the "firstness" of this all day long if that's what it takes. (Link & image go to full video & screencaps).