AMAZING!!!

When Alfred and I were little, we had a couple of cassette tapes that we absolutely loved.  Somehow, Mommy seems to now hate the one that was mine yet still enjoy the one that was Alfred’s, but I digress.

One of the fabulous songs from Wendy’s Little Brown Tape, which has made it into quite a few blog posts over the years, was “Mr. Computer Man.”  Mind you, this is on a cassette tape. This song was written, at the latest, sometime in the early 80s, when few people had computers in their homes.  It’s about how super smart computers are.

Alfred being a computer man.

There’s the computer, Mr. Computer Man, who probably would have talked like Stephen Hawking if Stephen Hawking had talked like that back then, and was a robotically clipped, stern male voice.  And then there were all the super impressed children who asked him questions.

“Mr. Computer Man, how much is two plus two?”
”Four.”
“AMAZING!!!” the kids would all yell.

Mr. Computer Man puts up with the kids’ questions for awhile, and then he starts getting smart-aleky.

“Mr. Computer Man, how do you spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?”
“With Letters.”
“AMAZING!!!!”

And of course, in a sort of Mr. Roboto fashion, a machine cannot be truly human and we must distinguish ourselves from the machines.  Human concepts cause overload.

“Hello, Mr. Computer Man, my name is Jenny.  I have a question for you.”
”Wait, Jenny does not compute.  What is your number please?”
”Number? I don’t have a number. I’m a person.”
”A person? A person?! AMAZING!!!!”

It’s difficult to spend more than a couple of days with any combination of me, Mommy, Alfred or Munchkinhead without hearing someone say “AMAZING!!!!”  not to mention answering questions with smart-aleky responses like “a heck of a lot.”

If I ever get one of those smart phones with a personality in it, I’m totally going to say “AMAZING!!!” to it every time it answers me.

A Very Merry Christmas, or Something Like That

It was is if we just were not meant to go.  Each of the four of us had messed things up in some way.  I got the ticket time wrong.  Munchkinhead didn’t communicate Mr. Munchkinhead’s changed plans.   Mr. Munchkinhead came up a day later than originally expected.  And Mommy spent fifteen minutes not parking the car.  It was such a kerfuffle.

But, we did finally get there, only half an hour late, to St. Josephat’s Basilica for Pius XI High School’s Christmas concert.  None of us had been in the Basilica before – as far as we know, though Daddy claims Mommy has been.  It was quite something to be seen.  Large dome, elaborate painting, gold leaf detailing and stained glass.  We sat in the balcony area under a mini dome with four scenes depicting four virtues, only three of which we could decipher from the Latin words below.  The inside of the dome was ringed in large letters spelling out sentences in Polish.

The Pius students performed from the front of the sanctuary and the highest balcony at the back.  The poor Madrigal Choir seemed to have to keep going back and forth between the two.  Choir is definitely the high school’s strong point.  All of the five separate choirs were quite good.  The band, orchestra and dancers performed as well.  We couldn’t really see the dancers where we were sitting.  The music reverberated throughout the sanctuary, filling the dome with sounds of the season.  It was by far the best setting for a choir concert that I’ve ever experienced.

 

Mommy, Munchkinhead, Mr. Munchkinhead and I sat spread out in the middle pews.  Only people in the first two rows of the balcony could see down below, so we had plenty of room to just sit and listen and sing along when th e program directed.  The concert was quite good and I’d like to make a regular thing of going.  However, next year, logistics planning a little more ahead of time might be helpful.

It’s a Bird; It’s a Plane; It’s a Tuning Slide!

High school marching band is the source of many wonderful memories for me.  Some of the best parts of my four years of high school come from band rehearsals, competitions and camps.  I loved marching band, but then, it’s hard not to love something when you’re the best at it. Of all our competitions during those four years, there was one in which we did not take 1st place, State my freshman year, when we took 2nd place by .03 of a point. 

From all those great memories, one that remains an easy favorite is from the Burlington High Chocolate Festival my junior year.  It was our first year at this particular competition.  Our old assistant band director, Mr. Mannisto, had left Cudahy High School to become the main band director at Burlington High.  He invited our band to compete at his new school’s invitational.

The first piece ended with a nice double forte.  We held our instruments high, blasting out our last note.  In unison with the drum major’s arms, we snapped our instruments down to attention, holding perfectly rigid, heads held high, in perfect formation on the field.  One of my section mates, Will, snapped his horn down a little too hard.  Something flew over my head, the glint of light reflecting off the shiny brass catching my eye.  It was his tuning slide!  Plop, it landed in the grass some feet in front of me, just behind another of our section members.

“Don’t move,” I could hear one of the first trombone’s mutter through gritted teeth from behind me.  But the guy in front of me either didn’t hear or didn’t listen.  While we were all standing straight at attention, waiting for the drum major to start our next song, the guy in front of me bent down and picked up the tuning slide.  He stood up, staying nearly at attention, holding the tuning slide over his shoulder as if expecting someone to take it from him. 

When the drum major called, “Band! Horns up!” to begin the next number and no one had relieved the poor guy of the tuning slide he never should have picked up, he dropped it and brought his horn up to play.  His first move was diagonally backwards,  exactly in the direction of the discarded tuning slide.  With the precise movement of a skilled marcher, he took a firm step backwards and marched right onto that tuning slide.

For him, that was the end of the tuning slide incident; the show went on as normal.  But for our two first trombones, it was only the beginning.  Without a tuning slide, it was not only impossible for Will to play, it was difficult for him to even hold up the horn.  Trombone tuning slides also contain a weight that balances out the heavy bell from the front of the horn.  But Will was big and strong even then, and he held the horn up and moved his slide as if he were actually playing.  Our section leader was left to carry the entire first part by himself, covering for the silent Will.  He pulled it off nicely.

At the end of the show, as we stood together at the side of the field, listening to our band director tell us what we did well and what we did wrong, our assistant band director approached the trombone section.  “Did anyone lose a tuning slide?”

My First CDs

My first cd.  The first cd I bought.  Both gotten when I was in 6th grade and both, despite many purges of my cd collection, still in my possession.  Back in the day when music didn’t magically appear at your finger tips, getting your first album was a big deal, a special occasion to remember.

The First CD I Owned

I got my first cd before we even had a cd player.  It came free with a subscription to this newsletter my mom had gotten me and I got to choose “Compact Disc or Cassette.”  Even though we didn’t have a way to play it, I chose the CD.  I knew cassettes were on their way out and figured sooner or later we’d have a cd-player.  I guess I was, in the words of Mr. Trizzle, future-proofing.

The newsletter was called How on Earth, self-abbreviated to HOE.  It was a very Berkeley-esque publication about saving animals, preventing animal cruelty, not wearing fur, not eating or using animal products.  All that environmental stuff that was really in for awhile in the early-90s.  I wasn’t that into most of the stuff in the articles, but I saw the subscription as a nice gesture on the part of my mother to show that she supported me in my newly-declared vegetarianism.  Even if she thought it was just a fad.  That meant a lot to me.

So this CD came with it, Tame Yourself, a crazy collection of anti-fur, pro-animal, pro-vegetarian songs by some of the eras best genderless save-the-world-singers, and some random artists like the B-52s.  It was played a lot when we finally did get a cd player, for awhile being the only disc we owned.  (I still remember how exciting it was the first time we could fill up our 5-disc changer.)

Of course, my sister and I had a favorite song on the album, which we played over and over and over again – a task made so easy by that new “repeat” button!  My poor mother.  Our favorite song was called “Don’t Kill the Animals,”  and it was our favorite pretty much only because it had this really obnoxious part in the chorus that went “ee-ee-eeeee” in a very high pitched squeal.  And I just happened to find a video for it so you can hear it yourself!

The First CD I Bought

As if I were designing my cd collection solely for the purpose of torturing my mother, the first cd I ever bought, and thus the second cd I actually owned myself, was The Village People’s Greatest Hits.  Yeah.   What sixth grader actually buys that as their first album?  One who’s too young to know any better.

You see, what happened was Alfred and I were watching some tv show that was showing old clips of The Muppet Show and there were all these Viking muppets in a ship and they were singing, you guessed it, “In the Navy.”  And we loved it, and we loved the song.  And we made our own ship out of the back of the couch and sang “In the Navy” as we rowed through the family room.  We liked it so much, we put our tape recorder next to the tv speaker to tape it so we could listen to it and sing along.  It was probably the only moment in our life when we liked any vikings.

At some point while steering our giant couch and recruiting pillows, Timmy Bear and Daddy Bunny to join our navy, Mommy walked in and went, “oh, no, disco!?” And nicely informed us that the song that so delighted us was originally by the Village People.  That was all I needed to know.  Pretty soon we were running around the house singing not just “In the Navy” but also “Macho Man,” “Hot Cop” and, of course, “YMCA.”  The dream of every parent that had survived the 70s. ;)

 

It’s kind of funny, those two cds seem to predict my ending up in San Francisco more than anything else in my life.  I wonder if today’s kids will remember their first mp3.

Exciting (Huey Lewis and the) News

The best friends in life are the ones that challenge you to do something new.  Not just for the sake of doing something different, but to join them in something they enjoy that you otherwise might not have tried.  This is one of the reasons Short Fabulous (formerly Short Artichoke) makes such a good friend.  She’s absolutely crazy.  Crazy about Huey Lewis and the News.

Huey, Huey, Huey

Almost since the time I first met her, Short Fabulous has been trying to get me to go see Huey Lewis in concert, listen to Huey Lewis on the radio, watch Huey Lewis on tv.  If it’s Huey, you name it, she’s tried to get me to do it.

Ok, ok, she hasn’t tried to get me to wear Huey Lewis underwear.  I’m sure it’s only a matter of time, though.

Well, she finally succeeded, taking me a few months ago to a Huey Lewis and the News concert out in Saratoga.  It was a good show, but it was nothing compared to what Short Fabulous got me and another of our friends to do last weekend.

Handshakes, Pictures and Friends

It’s 7pm on a Saturday night and were standing around inside a book store stuck staring at the cd rack next to us, the fake jazz section, oh joy.  The line is growing, we can see the tables arranged near the front.  That’s where they’ll be soon, Huey Lewis and some of the News, to sign autographs and take pictures.

It’s me and Meg&Jack, no Short Fabulous in sight.  Where is that girl?!  She asked us to meet her here at 6.  She’s been going on about this event for weeks.  She can’t wait to introduce her friends to the band, all of whom she knows well.  Huey, Johnny and Bill come out, the line cheers.  Still no Short Fabulous.  The line starts to move, slowly winding around the corners.  Still no Short Fabulous.  Then I feel something down by my elbow.  I turn.  It’s her!  Short Fabulous has finally arrived.

We get up to the front of the line and Huey greets Short Fabulous by name.  A wide smile spreads from ear to ear, “I brought some friends,”  she says.  “You have friends?” Huey jests.  She introduces us all around, Johnny Colla, the sax player, Billy Gibson, the singing drummer, and of course Huey, the Huey.  Then it’s time for a picture:

Meg&Jack, Johnny, Short Fabulous, Huey, me, Bill

We hung out until the end, Short Fabulous and a few others chatting it up with the band for awhile.  The entire band, especially Huey, was in a kooky mood, so it was a lot of fun.  We rounded out our adventurous evening with a trip to the local Puerto Rican restaurant, plantains all around.

 

P.S.  That green jacket on Short Fabulous was one of the finds from the 10 hour fashion day.  Cute, isn’t it?

From “Austin” to Nashville

I know it was Amanda.  I don’t remember why or when or even how, but I know it was her.  She has this way of waltzing in and overthrowing everything before you know it.  Born a few decades earlier and the government might have had her on special missions to South America.

Anyway, I know it was Amanda, and I wish I remember why or when or how she got me to sit down and listen to this song called “Austin.”  Staunchly in my Eminem phase (it was college, I remember that much), I listened to two types of music, West Coast influenced hip hop and Metallica.  Well, ok three, there was a heavy dose of 1776 in there.  Yet somehow, this crazy girl got me to listen to country.  That’s right, country.

The door was cracked open.  Granted, it never became wide open, remaining for the next however-many-years ajar, but it was still far more open than I ever expected.  Heck, I never thought that door would even be unlocked.  From “Austin” to Alan Jackson to Toby Keith, new music started to slip into my previously anger-filled cd player.  All because of Amanda and “Austin.”

Blake Shelton was inducted into the Opry this past weekend.  Just happened to be the weekend I was in Nashville.  And we just happened to look into Opry tickets (after discovering that To Kill a Mockingbird at the TPAC was sold out).  As soon as I saw that Blake Shelton was joining the Opry at the show that night, I had to go.

When people join the Opry, they’re invited and then inducted by current members.  In this case, both the invitation and the induction were done by Trace Adkins.  That meant both Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins were performing at the Opry. Woo hoo!  - I started liking Trace’s music while living in Nashville when I heard a song with a theme similar to much hip hop, “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk”.

I didn’t hear “Austin” or “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” at the Opry.  But the performances by both men were great.  And their duet, “Hillbilly Bone” was quite entertaining.  Of course any song with Trace Adkin’s deep voice is going to sound good to my ears.  I’d love to hear him and James Hetfield do a duet.

Wi-Wi-Wicked Clowns

This weekend was so eventful, it may take me all week to cover it! (And to recover from it.) During the past week, I’ve gone out in the City four nights and two other nights out elsewhere. That’s far too much for little old me, but there was so much interesting stuff going on! One of the weekend’s many highlights was Friday night’s Insane Clown Posse concert.

The Insane Clown Posse (ICP) are an acquired taste. I still remember when I acquired it. Way back in the day, my high school boyfriend had a car with a cassette deck, and one cassette: ICP’s The Riddlebox. For the longest time, I absolutely hated it. I did most people who hear ICP casually do, I heard only the swear words and violent lyrics.

But as I listened to the album more and more (mostly against my will), I began to hear what they were actually saying. And I liked it. I liked ICP and I liked them for their social commentary and the message in their music: do good, be good and you’ll be rewarded, be bad, do evil and you will be punished.

The line that converted me from hater to juggalette, from the song “Dead Body Man” where the wicked clowns are talking about eating dead bodies:

You think I’m sick, take a look at yourself; you got dead deer heads up on your shelf; on your keychain is a little baby rabbit’s hand; I’m just a dead body man.

As a vegetarian, I thought they made the point rather well.

I couldn’t find anyone to go to the concert with me out here, so I just went by myself. And I had a blast! ICP always does an amazing show! There were crazy dancers, lots of clowns – in the audience and on stage – wrestling antics and a “tribute” to Michael Jackson after which they performed their song about catching pedophiles. And, of course, plenty of Faygo.

The Faygo came out on the first song. And even though I got a balcony seat to avoid being covered in sticky soda, I still got hit in the arm with a Faygo bottle. Root beer spilled down my arm and over my purse. Oh well. It wasn’t a lot. And considering how many 2Liters were launched into the audience, I’m lucky I only got that little bit on me. The people in the general admission area were completely soaked. (That’s where I was nearly 10 years ago when I went to my first ICP concert. I’m too old for that now. Although, SF juggalos are much milder than Milwaukee ones.)

Since the concert was part of the Bang! Boom! Pow! tour, every other song was off the new album (same name) and the classics were sprinkled in between. There were only one or two songs that I didn’t know well enough to sing along. I especially enjoyed the dance-along before the show when the hidden track off the new album, “Chop Chop Slide” was played over the speakers for the waiting audience.

The most surprising thing about the concert was that it was over by 11:30. ICP came on stage much earlier than I expected. At first I was mad that it was done that early because I could have taken BART instead of driving to the City. However, I was very glad that not only was I not covered in sticky sweet Faygo, but also that I had not painted my face. With the concert getting out so early, I was able to meet up with my roommate at one of the dance clubs. But that’s another story.

P.S. My favorite song off the new album is called “Vera Lee”. I think part of the reason I like it is because the hook has few enough notes that I can sing along in tune. Plus it’s got that deep, moving sound that I like and the story is intense.

[Image from: http://www.juggalonews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1596]

More Fun with Munchkinhead

I forgot to mention some of the exciting things Munchkinhead and I did this past weekend.  Maybe I forgot because they were both near the beginning of the visit.  Maybe it's just cuz I'm old.

Friday and Saturday was Rites of Spring at Vanderbilt.  T.I. was the big headliner.  (One of his last shows before he goes to jail.)  I didn't get tickets because Munchkinhead claims she doesn't like T.I. (put it on the radio and watch how quickly she starts singing along.), and I have seen him live before and didn't think he put on a very good show.  So, instead of going to the concert, we walked up to the beautiful Vandy campus and toured around it with T.I. as our live background music.  It was a beautiful night, and a nice walk.  Munchkinhead spent most of the time on the phone with Boots-With-Spurs guy.  (He's got those funny cut jeans, boots with the spurs; the cowboy was moving his herd; they all got through, next thing you knew, the cows went moo moo moo moo moo.)

Saturday evening, after all our shopping, we went out for a classic Nashville treat: dinner at Swett's.  The restaurant's really really old.  It was founded in 1954!  (Hee hee, just kidding Mommy.)  It is a staple of the city and an important part of the area's history.  The food is also delicious.  (Only the greens and beans are cooked with pork, so I can eat plenty of other veggies.)  It's down-home Southern cooking, meat and three, set-up cafeteria style.  I like picking up the tray and going down the line; it reminds me of going to Ponderosa with my family when I was little.  I finished the last of the leftover cornbread today.

In the Ayer

Palm Sunday.  My second favorite holiday.  I always wear green.  It's the start of the most exciting time of the year.  And it means spring is on the way.  This year it was particularly exciting because it was also my birthday.

I sat in the back of the church alone, watching all the families and couples sharing this wonderful day.  Sad to be alone, but glad to be there with God and hymns and the joy that comes with a man riding into town on a donkey.

The children's choir sang, the real little kids; it was cute.  Then came the youth choir.  Ten and Twelve year olds grouped together in the front of the church, donned in long black choir robes with the short white ruffled mini robe on top.  Several of them began beating drums, which were slung over their shoulders.  "African drums for Palm Sunday, hmmm, neat,"  I thought.  The rhythm sounded sort of familiar.  I couldn't place it, so I decided it must just be a standard rhythm.

Then the boy on the end opened his mouth.  And my head started shaking.  His blond bangs swooped to the side, he looked like one of those choir angel Christmas decorations people put out at the holidays, or maybe a member of the famed Vienna Boys Choir.  But what came out was anything other than angelic.  The young boy opened his mouth and started rapping. (Yup, looked pretty much just like this picture.)

Not just rapping, mind you, but a particularly insane sort of thing.  The choir, or presumably the stout bald headed man directing the choir, had rewritten the lyrics to Flo Rida's In the Ayer!  For church!

I, in fact, did not even realize this until a week later when I happened to be listening to Flo Rida's old album.  The beat started and I was like "where have I heard that recently?"  Then the hook came on: "oh hot dam, this is my jam,  keep me partying until the a.m.  make me throw my hands in the ayer, ay-ayer, ayer, ay-ayer."

You see, the church version had said some stuff about donkeys and such and then the kid said "they threw their palms in the ayer, ay-ayer, ayer, ay-er."  This little choir boy, standing in the front of a massive church, stained glass crucified Jesus rising high behind him, a baptismal font across the aisle from him, wooden pews, stone floors, arches, Bibles, Bibles everywhere for goodness sakes, and this kid is standing up there saying, no rapping "ayer, ay-ayer, ayer, ay-ayer!

By the time the kid got to the ayer part, I had burried my head in my hands.  It's too much for me.  I like hip hop; I like heavy metal.  But rapping and electric guitars do not belong in church.  I want bells and a nice pipe organ, putting joyful church-sounding music into the ayer, ay-ayer, ayer, ay-ayer, thank you very much!

The Most Amazing Day

When I got up this morning, I had a plan.  By 9:30am, that plan had been chucked out the window.  Why?  Well, this was in my inbox as part of the weekly school announcements:

ESLS, TELP, and the International Law Society present Mark Schultz and Alec van Gelder: "International Intellectual Property Development and the World Intellectual Property Organization"
Monday, March 23  |  12:00pm - 1:00pm  |  Moore Room
Mr. Schultz and Mr. van Gelder will be in Nashville for the Leadership Music Digital Summit, and they have kindly agreed to come to Vanderbilt Law to discuss their recently published paper, "Nashville in Africa," which discusses similarities between Nashville's music industry and currently developing creative industries in Africa.  Their talk will focus more generally on international intellectual property development.  Pizza will be served.

 

By noon, I had received several emails, including one from one of my favorite professors, making sure I had heard about the event.   Guess people know me!  Mzzzz Jones even asked if I set up the panel (that they'll be on at the Leadership Music Digital Summit).

Their paper had somehow come to my attention while I was in Nigeria, so it was saved on my computer, though I hadn't yet had a chance to read it.  Perfect time to have Adobe read it to me! (while I scrapbooked.  I am of the multi-tasking generation.)  It was very interesting.  My favorite part: Mondo Music and the large sections of the paper devoted to the Zambian music industry.  Yes, that's right, I said Zambian.  You don't happen to know anyone who knows anything about Zambian music do you?  Yeah, me neither.  ;)

So I walked up to school for the noon event.  I was sitting in the hallway, waiting for the 1Ls to empty out of our meeting room (their class room), when who should walk up, but the speakers themselves!  The student escort left them there, room still occupied by 1Ls.  It didn't take too long, we were soon all talking about about Africa and copyright.  Then my professor walked up, he knew one of the guys already and mentioned to them that he had just emailed me about their event.

Sitting in the hall, talking with the three of them, it was so neat!  I mean to just be able to sit and talk to people about the stuff I care about, wow.  Cuz really now, how many people do you know that will sit down and talk about Zambian music, the Nigerian Copyright Commission and African copyright laws with me?  Sure, sure, you all humor me (and I appreciate it!) but do you really want to talk about it?  Didn't think so.

They're speaking again at that conference tomorrow.  One of my Twitter friends gave me all the info about the conference.  (He goes to Belmont, it's at Belmont.)  I'm heading over tomorrow morning for a nice day of music, tech and IP issues.  The founder of Pandora will be there, too - could be helpful for my paper on Pandora and int'l licensing, if I can miss class.   We'll see.

What a great day!  Now I have to try to go to sleep.

You Know You're Old When There's a Generation Below You

My birthday's not for another month yet, but I'm already starting to feel it.  Between the grey hair, varicose veins and inability to sleep through the night, you'd think I'm about to turn 58, not 28.  Anyway, I saw something today that made me really realize I'm no longer a spring chicken.  I'm not the current generation.  I'm past; I'm old news.  I'm not what the media companies want; I'm not who the advertisers are trying to get.  I'm so last decade.

Jerry Del Colliano writes articles about music, mostly about how terrestrial radio is vampired thanks to the morons who consolidated it.  Today, he had a post that broke down the generations tech/media-wise:

Baby boomers (that's my mommy and daddy)
• Radio (always on)
• Raised on TV (sit down to watch particular programs as scheduled)
• Newspapers (at the breakfast table)
• Cell phones to make calls (if they can figure out how to use them)
• iPod as a fascination (haven't gotten there)
• Social networking just breaking through (Mommy on Twitter)

Gen X (me)
• Radio (but it sucks -- their words) (very much so! But I still use it in the car and often at home)
• TV and MTV (MTV when it played music, will stare at TV if it's on.)
• Get their news online not in print (yup, only read a newspaper if I happen to come across one somewhere)
• iPods, Blackberries (well, I hate iPods and am against the mega-phones, but I do love my Zune.  My phone will have nothing more than #s on the keypad as long as I can help it)
• Social networking -- frequently for marketing purposes and business connection (ah, the beauty of Twitter (and blogging))

Gen Y (Munchkinhead)
• Radio only when there is nothing else (Munchkinhead does like her indie radio in Milw.)
• TV is better on a laptop or computer and even more desirable without commercials (I think she still watches TV on tv, but I don't know)       
• Forget newspapers (they make nice hats)
• iPods are standard equipment for this generation (never see her w/o her iPod)
• Mobile phones are built into their hands (pretty much, or into her pants)
• Text messaging is obsessive ($40 over-text limit bills, right Mommy?)
• Spying on each other over social networks is a right of passage (that girl lives on Facebook!)
• They want to be involved in their media
• Want to stop, start, time delay or delete on demand (yeah, I really have no idea here - Munchkinhead?)

I looked at this break-down and realized, I'm out.  What shook me up even more, my little Munchkinhead and I aren't in the same generation.  Technology has developed so fast, it's sliced a generational gap right down the middle of us.  I was born in the early '80s; she was born in the late '80s.  Somehow, that's a world of difference.  I grew up on Snorks, Rainbow Brite and Fraggle Rock.  I don't know what she watched in the mornings because, by the time she got up to watch morning cartoons, I was into sleeping late.  On weekdays, I was at school before she was up.  Mine and Alfred's after-school shows were Square One and Saved by the Bell.  I don't know what Munchkinhead watched after school; I got home with Mommy since she picked me up from my after-school activities on the way home from work.

It's funny though, despite how differently we use technology, and how I have no clue about many of the staples of her generation, I never felt separated from her.  I never felt like I wasn't around.  We played together all the time, often forcefully dragging Alfred into it.  (Like the time I made her Sir Barnabus and told her to go attack the grizzly bears, and she ran right for poor Alfred, who was trying to fix the computer desk.)  I feel like we share a lot of the same memories, just not necessarily the ones that relate to pop culture and media. 

Our media connections are either from our parents' generation (White Rabbit, the Beatles, etc.) or things that continue producing through multiple generations (Metallica, Sesame Street, etc.)  I can think of a few exceptions, things that Alfred and I sort of forced to stay relevant (the Little Brown Tape, the Little Blue Tape, maybe even the Little Green Tape, though we didn't discover that 'til we were in high school).

Well, I guess I better go eat a bran muffin and take a nap.  That's what old people do, right?

Guest Speaker: Jeff Price

That's the information we had before class about our Digital Copyright class yesterday.  I headed to school half afraid it was going to be one of my ex-Uncle Jeffs.  (Yes, I have more than one ex-Uncle Jeff.)  After all, this guy was coming to speak about his role in the music industry, and my ex-uncle works(ed?) in the music industry.

It wasn't him.  Whew.

[The Jeff Price that did come is the CEO of a company called TuneCore.  Pretty cool company, any musician types out there, suggest you check it out!]

A Doctor, an Engineer and a Vampire Walk into a Metallica Concert...

It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it was a great night!
(And by "vampire" I mean Munchkinhead, not me!  I'm still just a law student.)

The History

Orgfish and I have been going to Metallica concerts together since we were sophomores in high school.  It seems each time we go, we add someone new.  So we assembled our usual group: Orgfish, me, Alfred, Munchkinhead and Dr. Beaker and added in The Great Ecclestone (and Foo Foo).  6 people, from 6 states, 1 city, 1 amazing band.

Metallica is probably the only show all three of us, my sisters and I, would agree to go see, except maybe for Sesame Street Live.  It's not that we don't have some other musical tastes in common, but those bands don't really tour anymore.  Metallica also has the unique characteristic of being highly loved by each of us.

The Show

The show opened with Call of Ktulu, which is actually one of my favs, and a lot of  special lighting effects.  I was quite relieved when the lazer light show ended and some spot lights came up on stage.  The lazer lights sort of pissed me off, especially when they brought them back at the beginning of Fight Fire with Fire.  The special effects were taking away from Kirk's guitar solo.  A band as good as Metallica does not need fancy light shows and pyrotechnics.

When the helicopter intro to One started in fairly early on in the set, Orgfish and I looked at each other in amazement.  At every concert we have attended, One has always been in the encore.  "What on earth were they going to play for the encore?"  Well, when the encore started, it was an even bigger surprise.  I had just turned to Munchkinhead and said, "they'll never play my favorite song (Loverman) at a concert," because it's off of Garage, Inc.  And right as I'm saying this, the band busts out with Die, Die My Darling!  And then they follow it up with Stone Cold Crazy!  I had always figured they'd never do cover songs at a concert.  Welp, I was wrong!  (For those of you that don't know, those songs are also off of Garage, Inc.   They are covers of The Misfits and Queen, respectively.)

The concert was part of the World Magnetic tour, the title coming from their newest release, Death Magnetic.  As appropriate, they played a lot of songs off the new album.  It was clear the audience wasn't really familiar with these new tracks yet, but it was also clear that we were all willing to get to know them.  This was a lot different than the last concert our big group went to together, where the new album was St. Anger.  I don't recall them playing too many songs off that album at the Summer Sanitarium show, but I do remember Orgfish and I both agreed the songs sounded much better live than on the album.  (For that concert Dr. Beaker, Alfred, a very young Munchkinhead and I loaded into the teen mobile and drove to Ohio where we met Orgfish and her friends Happy, PH and Not-Death (I don't remember his name, but I know it wasn't Death.  My favorite part of the trip was Munchkinhead walking around going "plan-e-tarium" to try to get us to go to the planetarium.)

The Snow

It started snowing during the show, and for some reason the parking garage was closed unless you had a special pass so everyone was parked in lots outside.  Our big group quickly set to work with ice scraper, drivers license, gloves and whatever else we could find to clean off Mommy's mini-van.  It didn't take long, but it take long to get out of the lot.  (Longer than it took to drive home.)  We were about to go lend our ice scraping assistance to another driver who was scraping his car with what Alfred thought was a Twister box.  (It turned out to be a pizza box; a little more reasonable to have in your back seat.)  But, someone with an ice scraper appeared out of nowhere.  Alfred did help clear off the windshield of the guys next to us, since there were only two of them and so many of us.

(I just had to include this pic even though Alfred's not in it.  You can see FooFoo's shirt, and there's something particularly eerie about Orgfish's eye peering over my shoulder, not to mention The Great Ecclestone's theatrical smile.)

It was a wonderful night with wonderful people and wonderful music.   The performance was great, the frozen custard delicious (you know we went to Leon's first!) and the company great fun.  I can't wait for the next tour!

SPECIAL! SPECIAL!

Announced today, Metallica will be inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame!  The day before my birthday! [(Anybody want to get me a really nice birthday present? ;)  ]
Photo credits: Dr. Beaker

'Tis the Season to be Jolly

I saw my first Christmas lights of the season this past week at work.  There are several banks located inside the Federal Secretariat, and one of them had hung garland and lights outside its door and window.  It nearly made me cry.  It really is Christmas time!  Another bank had put a Christmas tree in front of its door, complete with ornaments and lights.  It was very pretty.

I really do love Christmas time, even though Christmas is only my fifth favorite holiday.  There are so many Christmas things to do at home that I can hardly wait to get there.  I have to attempt to hide the sandwich cookies that Mommy better make, so that no one else can eat them.  I said attempt, because it will not work.  Mommy will catch me and make me put them back.  But, I have to try, all the same.

Katrina and I are already conspiring about where to hide the plastic Abominable Snowman, and Wendy's already trying to guess where it'll be so she can get it and put it back where it belongs.  (Where does it belong?)

The plastic canvas snowman and snowlady have to take the plastic canvas choo choo from their plastic canvas gingerbread house to the stable to see baby Jesus.

A few various Santa Clauses, elves, and little musicians need to form a train behind the three wise-men, on their way to visit baby Jesus.

We have to turn on all of Mommy's sound and motion activated fiber optic toys, dancing reindeer and singing what-nots at the same time and then wait for Daddy to enter the room.

I'll hang my pretty silver ballerina ornament on the tree by a blue light.  (Or move it, if Mommy already has the tree decorated before I get home.)

Katrina and I must whine about how the Christmas tree is fake and it's no fun that the tree doesn't rain.  Hopefully Mommy will have that Christmas-tree scented room spray again, so it'll at least smell like Christmas.

Wendy, Katrina and Nathan and I have to build a snowman, if there's snow.  It won't have to look like Wendy this year, because she'll be home!  We also need to go to the Museum and see the Streets of Old Milwaukee and the European Village all decorated for Christmas.  I love the upside-down Christmas tree in the Polish house!

I have to drink off-white egg nog and eat red cake.  And make my Christmas dress!  (Unless I decide to wear my new natives; they're green.)

We have to spend the whole day, every day, listening to wonderful Christmas music!  "And a beer... in a tree."  Mommy has to watch White Christmas with us.

Daddy Bunny will help me open my presents on Christmas morning.

But most important of all, we get to spend time together, the whole family.  The big, big group on Christmas Eve, and the little group on Christmas Day (and the surrounding weekends).  I love Christmas; I love spending time with my family.

Now Who Will Replace Newton?

"Vampire!!! Stephen Hawking is retiring!!!"  That what my friend's status message said.  Well, I edited it to be mommy-friendly.  His word was a bit shorter and had more rhyming potential.  I might use language that's a little less emphatic, but my sentiment's the same.

This was the first I'd heard of this, but a quick google search tells me the news is about a month old.  It's still sad though; he's been an important part of our dinner conversations for a long time. 

Here's to Stephen Hawking; Congratulations on a long, successful and impressive career! 

Hawking.org

Stephen Hawking's Universe

A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Rhyme

My Desktop

Another techie post, sorry folks, no crazy-vampire Nigerian stories today.  Why?  Because I'm excited about my desktop and want to share my excitement!  :-P

There's some little shortcut goodies and fun gadgets buried in here, fyi. ;)

You know how Windows allows you to have up to 5 different user accounts on one computer?  Well, for me, that's just perfect.  I have my own, with the cute little yellow rubber duckie.  Then, I have an account for each of my four imaginary alligators, Jack, Sally, Lee and Bob.

I don't like having lots of icons on my desktop, or lots of little buttons in my system tray, but I do like having the things I need to use most easily accessible.  I noticed that the things I want accessible at work and the things I want accessible at home are (usually) different.  Since I don't want all the icons for both home and work all over my desktop, I decided to convert one of my alligators' accounts to a "work system." 

Introducing the Lee (Remi) account

Remi is my Yoruba name, so I thought it would be a good one to use for work.  I couldn't just take away Lee's account though; that wouldn't be very nice, so we're sharing.  I think I chose to share with Lee because I like the little rubber froggie second best, after the duckie.  I added a password, changed the account type to administrator and went to work designing my work account.  (The other accounts are not password protected and can thus be used by guests, if they ask the alligators nicely to share.)

You can see here what my desktop looks like with everything closed. 

System Tray

In the system tray, there's Media Monkey for my music, AVG, my kick-vampire free anti-virus, and my drop box is usually up there too, backing up all my hard work to the cloud (and Mr. Trizzle's computer, hee hee).

Icons

Then I have shortcuts on the desktop for only the things I use the most: Word, OneNote, SyncToy (one of the greatest inventions ever!), my Work Files folder, Chrome and one other folder of IP documents I might need often.  As you can see, unlike some people, I have no qualms about mixing proprietary software with open source, or using both Microsoft and Google applications.  I use what works best for me, and that's generally Microsoft on the computer and Google in the cloud.

Background

I had chosen the blue mountain background because it was simple and not distracting, exactly what I need for work.  But one day I got bored with it and changed it.  Now, I have the same problem as munchkinhead, "I need to find a new background that I wont stare at for hours."  Oh well, at least I can't see it when I'm actually working... I'm just really tempted to hit Windows Logo Key+D a lot.

This is what my screen looks like when I'm working - everything right there in front of me, exactly where I need it:

  Word

If you look carefully, you'll notice that my Word program is split into 3 frames.  Two of them are attached.  In the red circle, I have easy access to my styles.  This allows me to quickly format my text without  having to switch back to the Home Tab.  The green circle is my main document, and in the blue circle, my comments.  I use comments (Ctrl+Alt+M) to easily mark areas of my document that I want to edit later.  Having the reviewing pane open on the bottom instead of having the comments in balloons on the document allows me to easily find the areas I want to edit without wasting a lot of screen space.

One Note

I had tried using One Note last semester for taking notes in class  and decided it sucks for that purpose - for me.  I'm better off with a pen and a notebook.  But I've discovered One Note is amazing for compiling research.  The program makes organization easy, and more important, makes it extremely simple to search for things.  In this screen shot, I was working on a paper for work.  Behind my Word document of the paper is my One Note research info.  I can flip through the notebook to find the information I need, and then continue to look at it while typing in my Word doc.

I also have a Side Note Window open (Ctrl+Shift+M).  It's like a sticky tab on my screen, and it's set to always stay on top.  It has my outline for my paper so that I can organize my paper well without cluttering up my Word Doc, and I can always see where I'm headed next in the paper.

 

 

My Music

Sometimes, I like to listen to music while working.  And being me, I want to mark my music.  Media Monkey has this nifty feature called Mini Player.  It puts a little translucent playlist on the screen.  The playlist shows me the past five songs and the upcoming six or so.  It also allows me to see all the information about the songs and gives me access to the volume, properties, and play controls.  Like the Side Note, it stays on top of the other windows.  Since it's translucent (like Wendy!), I can still see any important information that might be on the Word doc behind the media player.  I can adjust the size of the playlist box to whatever suits my fancy, too.

Internet

Usually I don't keep my taskbar on top, but in the picture it's on top because I hit the Windows Logo Key to take the screen shot. (Windows Logo Key+S).  However, I do have my windows arranged so that they only partly cover the task bar.  That's so I can easily see if I have new messages in my email - when there's internet.  New mail is just a click or Alt+Tab away!  I know it's more productive to not check the email every time a new message comes, but I don't get that many, and they usually perk me up a bit.  I get excited.  In fact, I get so excited, I actually tired opening the window in the picture to check that one message!  And I know there's no internet on right now!

So that's my work desktop.  It's spiffy!

So Long, Mama Africa

"I will sing until the last day of my life." 

And she did.

Sultry songstress, activist, wife of a revolutionary, the world lost a legend yesterday.

But her music will live on...

 

My favorite song.

 

 

Photo: Courtesy Heads Up International

D'banj!

Thank you Mr. Embassy-man for introducing me to the House Member who invited me to the meeting so I could meet D'banj!

Yup, that's right, I got to meet D'banj.  Got to talk to him.  He even shook my hand!!  And... look!

D'banj has several albums released now, but I only have the one that's available on Amazon.com.  I'm still trying to find out where to buy non-pirated cds here.  According to the newspapers, D'banj contracted with the fast food chain Mr. Biggs to sell legitimate copies of his albums, but I haven't been to a Mr. Biggs yet.

He's really nice, and a bit shorter than he looks on tv.  (Everyone's always shorter than I expect.)  His breakthrough hit was Tongolo.  Although, personally, I prefer the remix.  It's good music!  If you like American hip hop, check it out.  In fact, check it out even if you don't like American hip hop. ;) 

That's the second celebrity I've met.  The first was Angela Nyirenda.  She's my absolute favorite Zambian singer, probably because she does some songs in Tonga and no one else does.  I had a picture with her, but it was either on a cd in the box that never arrived, or on the cd that got destroyed on the flight home.  She was also really nice.  That was one thing I really loved about Zambia.  The celebrities are so approachable.  The country's population is fairly small, and the cities where the artists tour are often small.  The most incredible Zambian concert line-up imaginable still had such a small crowd (by American standards) that we were able to sit close to stage.  Some audience members even could go dance on the stage.

So yeah, I'm super excited, and will probably be jumping around for a couple weeks! :)

Run For Cover(s)!

[note on the links - all song titles are to videos of that song.  "cover" is to videos of the covers.  my internet connection is slow so i couldn't preview the videos; sorry if they're not great]
 

Last night I purchased a new cover album, brought to my notice by my adorable, punk-loving little sister. The album is called Punk Goes Crunk and has, if I'm generous, 3 crunk songs on it's 11 track list. I guess "Punk Goes Hip Hop and R&B" doesn't sound as nice since it doesn't rhyme, and "Crackers Go Blacker" isn't really politically correct.

I'm a sucker for cover songs, especially really bizarre ones. For example, Pat Boone's In a Metal Mood, great album! And the Paul Anka version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", fabulous. Part of the reason I like random cover versions is that it helps me learn the real words. The punk hip-hop covers especially do that. These skinny white kids speak slower and enunciate, they say the wh-o-le wo-rd, li-ike thi-is.  Same goes for Pat Boone turning heavy metal hits into lounge songs.
The Album
But there is one thing about covering hip hop songs that doesn't work so well. Hip hop artists tend to give a lot of shout outs in their songs, to themselves, their labels, other people on their songs, etc. When it's a cover, this doesn't really work so well. Different groups on the Punk Goes Crunk album have taken different approaches to this problem.
Say Anything, in their cover of ODB's "Got Your Money" changes all references to ODB to references to Bemis. Lines like "God made Beem and Beem...." doesn't really work the same as "God made Dirt and Dirt..." since that's the beginning of an actual common phrase.  Then there's the opposite approach, leaving things alone. This way we get Scary Kids, Scaring Kids singing "It's Bone and Biggie Biggie, it's Bone and Biggie Biggie" for their cover of The Notorious B.I.G. and Bone Thugs song "Notorious Thugs."  And it's just weird when The Maine calls out "Konvict Music and you know we in charge" at the beginning of their cover of Akon's "I Wanna Love You."

The same type of problem can exist for some of the lyrics. Apparently in an attempt to make the song more "them," Set Your Goals changed the hoods called out at the beginning of Lil' Jon's "Put Your Hood Up" to things like Pleasant Hill, Crescent Drive, Creekside, and Obi Wan's light saber. Somehow, this is like reppin' Timid Deer Lane. [The replacement of the N-word with a recorded voice saying "African-American people" may have been necessary. But the phrase, "I need all my real African-American people to go around the mother-f*ing club" is nothing short of hilariously stupid.) Again, there's the opposite approach: leave the lyrics alone. This results in New Found Glory singing "Although I am black and proud" and "climb the trees my forefathers hung from," as they cover Arrested Development's "Tennessee" (even if you don't know hip hop, you know this song, "take me to another place…").
How/Why I Got the Album
My getting this album was actually a bit of a misunderstanding. It takes all night to download an album, and there were two I was contemplating. This one and Bun B's II Trill. So, I asked one of my friends for advice (or an arbitrary decision). I thought the conversation went something like this:

me (23:24:38):  now, i just have to decide do i get "punk goes crunk" or "ii trill" tonight?

The L e g e n ol (23:24:58): knowing nothing about either

The L e g e n ol (23:25:04): i would suggest punk goes crunk

me (23:26:01): (thinking) well that seems like an odd choice from him, but maybe he doesn't like Bun B. Sure, why not; Katrina said some of it was pretty amusing.

The thing is, I discovered later that I missed something in our little exchange. My revelation (edited for relevance and language):

me (23:44:32): pretty soon i'll be able to listen to a punk cover of lil jon's put yo hood up

The L e g e n ol (23:45:05): luckily for you, you won't have to

me (23:45:13): won't have to what?

The L e g e n ol (23:45:29): listen to that

me (23:46:16): but i just bought it!

me (23:46:18): you told me to

me (23:46:25): so i'm going to listen to it now

The L e g e n ol (23:46:38): no i didn't!

The L e g e n ol (23:46:43): i specifically advised against it!

me (23:46:48): you did, you said "get punk goes crunk"

The L e g e n ol (23:47:27): The L e g e n ol (3:25:11 PM): knowing nothing about either

The L e g e n ol (3:25:17 PM): i would suggest against punk goes crunk

me (23:47:31): i missed the word against

me (23:47:32): vampire

The L e g e n ol (23:47:45): lol

The L e g e n ol (23:47:50): that was an important one

me (23:47:55): vampire it and i was thinking bun b wld be better

me (23:48:01): cuz it would remind me of my friend

me (23:48:04): vampire it

me (23:48:12): well at least i'm laughing so hard i can barely type

The L e g e n ol (23:48:29): lol

The L e g e n ol (23:48:31): that's good

me (23:48:42): now, let's see if this lil jon cover

me (23:48:44): is

me (23:49:24): ummmm.... it's ummm.....

me (23:49:38): they're throwing up white-people suburbs

me (23:49:45): like "pleasant hill"

The L e g e n ol (23:50:05): ...

The L e g e n ol (23:50:09): rough

me (23:51:03): darn it, why didn't you bold "against" or something

The L e g e n ol (23:52:50): i did bold against

me (23:53:00): you bolded everything

The L e g e n ol (23:53:04): i just happen to also bold everything else i write

me (23:53:07): it in no way was distinguished

me (23:54:10): oh good, it's over

The L e g e n ol (23:54:25): lol

Over all though, I like the album. It amuses me greatly! Thanks munchkinhead for the heads-up, and The Legend for bolding all your words. ;0

Strange Things Happen When I Leave the Country

Mel and I haven't actually talked in awhile, you know how that whole other-side-of-the-world thing can be a bit of an impediment.  Our 'conversation' has instead been through blogger posts and comments.  However, if we were to have spoken in person, I think the conversation might have gone something like this:

Mel: I am sooooooo excited!  jumping up and down and clapping I'm going to a New Kids on the Block concert!!! Actually, two of them!!!!

Me: skeptical What?  The New Kids are touring again?  Is this like the Spice Girls reunion tour?  Aren't those guys like 50 by now?

Mel: No.  It is way better!  It's the New Kids!  It's going to be stupendous!  And they're only in their mid 30s.

After the concert

Me: Hi Mel.  How was your New Kids concert?

Mel: Fabulous!  There were all these pregnant women and they were buying cute little "Step by Step" onesies.  The guys had so much energy and put on a spectacular show.  They did almost all my favorite old hits and did a bunch of new songs, too.

Me: That's cool.  Wait?  Did you say "new songs"?  What new songs?

Mel: Check out "The Block."

And so, that's what I did.  I googled "The Block" and got a bunch of entries that said "New Kids on the Block."  As well as some random websites about an Australian tv show and knitting.  Not very helpful, so I clicked the Wikipedia entry for New Kids on the Block, and there it was - released Sept. 2, 2008 The Block, the newest New Kids album.  WTV?  (that's 'what the vampire')

I don't know what shocked me more, that this album debuted at #2 (go Young Jeezy!) or that they got Ne-Yo, Akon and the Pussycat Dolls to be on it!  Any of those 3 artists right there could sell an album of cats howling if they guest-ed on it.  There's even a track produced by Timbaland!

Incidentally, the first two singles, one of them featuring Ne-Yo, were released before I left the country, and I didn't hear either of them.  But, I'm aware that I was in the Yay, and radio stations in the Yay don't exactly play the same music as the rest of the country.  Guess I'll just have to check it out when I get back.

Me: Mel, can I listen to your copy instead of buying my own?