thisblogismyblog

Said The Blue Jay To The Cardinal

larzini — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:01:43 -0400

Today I was pondering a lot of different business/work decisions/ideas through my head on the way to my father's house. And when I arrived there was a blue jay on a wall, with a cardinal about 6 feet away on the grill. The jay was foraging, the cardinal...kinda just hangin'. I was fortunate enough to have a camera with me, but just unfortunate enough to have the cardinal fly off before I could start snapping. Although when I switched the camera to movie mode, the cardinal reappeared for a cameo before darting off again, kind of like what Christopher Walken does in some films.

Not long after, a gaggle of finches (don't know what to call it, but it was quite shy of a flock) came storming by like some sort of multiplayer whilring dervish, you know like binary stars, except with more than two. Must have been a courtship ritual with the young bucks trying to impress a dame. (It's really odd calling a finch a young buck, is it as odd to read?)

They departed as quickly as they arrived kind of like a teenage driver at a tangential relative's family function. The blue jay was completely nonplussed. He kind of looked at 'em like they were a bunch of fools, and went about his business. And yeah, it could have been a she, but I don't know enough about blue jays, except that they supposedly can be pretty nasty, but I believe that's when they perceive danger to their young, and I thing most of us would act the same, pecking on skulls and gouging out eyeballs and that sort of thing.

Anyway I thought this strange coupling may have been a sign that I was on to something with what I was thinking when I arrived, although then again maybe it was just a "Thanks for throwing down some new grass seed at the cemetery today, Son." Or maybe it means I should go ahead to that bird preserve I was thinking about with my son this weekend. You know, once you start thinking too much you tend to ruin everything.

And the thinking never ends. The thing with the blue jays and the eyeballs a few lines back got me thinking about that "slicing up eyeballs" line in "Debaser" by The Pixies. So even though my much imagined mp3 blog, hasn't happened...yet. I'm gonna drop some Pixies on you for a limited time, and if Charles or Kim want me to take it down sooner, I invite them to let me know.

Pixies - Debaser

UPDATE: July, 24, 2008: I now know a little more about birds than I did 2 months ago. My so-called finches were actually sparrows, and apparently I don't have the movie file with the blue jay and the cardinal. Oh well.

The Moz Entertains

larzini — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 07:53:39 -0400

The other day "Sebastian", although he may going by original name now that the summer is over, (long story, but anything involving a pseudonym usuallly is) requested I forward him this Morrissey track. It's a cover of "That's Entertainment" by The Jam. Which is the only song I can name from The Jam myself, so this isn't going to be one of those posts that educate about The Jam, or about Morrissey for that matter. But it's a good song that I've also heard covered by Ted Leo (sort of) on WFMU. He went on to suggest maybe I should listen to The Jam, and maybe I should.

This track appeared on the Just Say Anything compilation released in 1991. This CD also introduced me to the song "Another Girl, Another Planet", which I had no idea at the time was a cover, but completely realized what a great song it was. The Only Ones were the original artist by the way, The Mighty Lemon Drops do a nice job with it though. I've heard some live Replacements performances of this track as well.

MP3s:
Morrissey - That's Entertainment
The Mighty Lemon Drops - Another Girl, Another Planet

Where does it Hold the Green M&Ms?

larzini — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 23:34:18 -0500

I can't find a container, caddy, or a cup to contain those candy-coated chocolate morsels. Can you?

Interesting post over at the spraygraphic blog, at least I thought so. Some may have chosen the word obscure over interesting, but I find many obscure things interesting, and this was one. Celebrity patents will never be a Jeopardy category, but why shouldn't celebrities have patents? They might make a great living, but their real dream may be some sort of invention, and who better to be able to combine a little bit of influence and the necessary coin? A good idea would help as well.

Found while perusing t-shirts at spraygraphic. Here's how it went down.

"Oh look, they have a blog. I have a blog, too. Wow! Aren't blogs grand?"

click

"Oh look, they posted about a bizarre Eddie Van Halen-esque doodle. I posted about...something else. Hey, why don't I post about this?"

And here we are.

The Eddie Van Halen sketch sucked me in. Humorous, no? It actually looks like he's playing it like a piano. Was he trying to patent this technique? Because if memory serves me correctly (and this time it does), Jeff Watson (formerly of Night Ranger) had a patented 8-finger technique (at approximately the 2:36 mark), not so unlike what Sketchy Van Halen may be doing in this picture. (Couldn't find a patent of the 8-finger technique, but Watson's own site did not call the technique patented, instead "invented" and "popularized" were used to describe the technique.) I think EVH's technique was different, and he may be using a thumb in the picture, and really who cares. I'm typing this after finishing this post, and by now I'm over it and probably destroying any flow this post once had. I don't care, and I mean that in multiple ways.

I'm going to throw some mp3s here, because I can. I mean I have the ability to do that. Legally, well that's up to a jury of my peers, I suppose. They'll appear soon. I'm kind of on a roll here, and I don't want to stop yet. This was not the post I was looking for tonight. But sometimes any post is a good post, and this is as good as any.

Back to Jeff Watson, I used to read guitar magazines in my youth, and recall reading about his technical skill, and listening to it, too, including his performance on a Tony MacAlpine cassette that was in my collection. But while constructing this post I just discovered I've heard Jeff Watson's work on another album in my collection, Chris Isaak's Forever Blue.

I'm not done. Further digging revealed that Watson also inspired an alternate guitar tuning that Isaak used on arguably his greatest hit, "Wicked Game". (Actually I don't think even Isaak himself would argue otherwise. But I'm not deleting the 'arguably' there. Mainly because I don't feel like arguing with someone who wants to try and reason that "Somebody's Crying" was a bigger hit. (Yes, I know it was on a Party of Five episode. I once watched television semi-regularly.)

I like Wicked Game a lot, so much that I've dropped the quotation marks. As much as I love parentheses, I am not enthralled with quotation marks. They are an (un)Necessary evil, but that's just me.

This is around the time I lose all interest in posting. I found the above somewhat interesting to write, and perhaps even a bit obscure at times. Now I have to go make sure the links appear where I deem necessary, and then proceed to post with all typos, sentence fragments, and other unproofed grammatical error and inconsistencies intact.

~~Chris Isaak - Wicked Game~~

Night Ranger - ~~Don't Tell Me You Love Me~~, ~~(You Can Still) Rock in America~~

~~Tony MacAlpine - The King's Cup~~

The Misfats

larzini — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 08:09:20 -0500

What the world needs now,
is an overweight,
Misfits tribute band,
like I need a post on my blog.*

I see. I chuckle. I link. The Misfats.

Waddle among them.

They fill the void. Literally. The world needed an overweight Misfits tribute band.

* Did this post need a Cracker reference? Not sure, but I started humming the tune as I wrote this. (Scroll down, the link worked at posting time.)

This Monkey's Used GarageBand

larzini — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 21:26:21 -0400

I spent five minutes with GarageBand. I did not try to figure out anything except for how to record something right away using nothing but myself as the sound originator. And out came what I've affectionately dubbed "recording #11". I think it has something to do with a track I overwrote and how when I first dropped it into iTunes it split all the tracks up separately. One of them was "recording #11".

And yes I realize my timing was off. And that some sounds are a bit random. But I like that, the random part, that is.

If there's no room left for improvement, then there's really no room left is there.

Sudden Ensemble. Live in Long Branch.

larzini — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 22:39:49 -0500

The new songs are excellent, and the second album will be available soon. This mercurial duo is playing only their second stateside show, as far as I know. So I recommend getting while the getting's good. Because then it might get going and be gone or something like that. I'm not the PR guy, what do I know?

Thursday night, February 11 at The Brighton Bar in Long Branch, NJ. According to the schedule, tickets are $6.00. I can afford that on a blogger's salary. So consequently, I will be there. So come say high to your favorite blogger, or even me, for that matter. I'm told that Sudden Ensemble should be coming on around 9:15 PM.

New songs are on their MySpace page. Songs from the first album appear at the Sudden Ensemble page at ApacheMatrix11. The first album is available from Angelika Kohlermann (Austria).

And I'm posting Antwerp just because I can. At least I think so, but as far as I'm concerned a C & D letter would mean somebody read this blog. At least one somebody. Besides me.

Sudden Ensemble - Antwerp.

Mp3's will remain available until I remember that they've been up kind of long and should probably take them down so someone goes and buys something. That's my disclaimer.

Shonen Knife

larzini — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 09:03:33 -0500

I'm not sure I'm ready to jump into the fray in the world of mp3 blogs, but I heard about the recentdeath of Shonen Knife and DMBQ drummer Mana "China" Nishiura in a car accident, and was surprised to see no mention in any of the mp3 blogs over at The Hype Machine. (If there were any comments, no mp3s were posted.) "China" was currently touring with the band DMBQ. She apparently was a session and touring drummer that played with a number of other bands (Teem, Rashinban, Droop, Slower Traffic 5), in many styles.

I will not pretend to know a lot about her, and if you are interested in learning more about Mana "China" Nishiura, then I suggest visiting some of the links in this post.

The only CD I own by Shonen Knife is Let's Knife, but my favorite track is on the soundtrack to The Powerpuff Girls: Heroes & Villains movie. The Shonen Knife contribution is "Buttercup (I'm a Super Girl)", and The Ramones influence is way beyond obvious. But that's okay. The song is a lot of fun.

Shonen Knife - Buttercup (I'm a Super Girl)