Soundtrack of my life, pt. 7: My Symphony (albeit a really, really short one)

Back when I was in college studying Music Composition at Oberlin, in my final year I had the chance to submit an orchestral piece for an all student program by the Clevelend Chamber Symphony. I picked a short, unassuming keyboard piece, orchestrated it, and submitted it. For those who are uninitiated into the realm of composing for orchestra, back then it was done all by hand in pencil first on a grand staff (for all I know, it still is, but nowadays, it's probably done by computer). Writing music out this way takes several dozen hours, just for a couple minutes of music. Once the piece is written for all instruments, it must then be transcribed on single sheets for each player, again by hand in pencil. This labor intestive task takes up a considerable amount of time. After spending the better part of a semester on this project, they picked mine to be one of about 10 on the program that day. I was afforded about 5 minutes of rehearsal with the full orchestra, though I was not permitted to conduct. They ran through it twice prior to performing it, and there were many mistakes due to the short rehearsal time. Hearing my music performed by an orchestra brought tears to my eyes. It was the most incredible musical experience I've ever had. I'd love to have the chance again, but I doubt I could ever muster the time needed to write anything out for orchestra. The performance was recorded, and I dug the cassette out of my archives, cleaned it up a bit on my computer with ProTools, mastered it, converted it to an mp3 file, and uploaded it to my GarageBand site. You can listen to it by clicking here. Give it a try -- it's less than two minutes long, and I think you'll like it. There is a definite 80s soundtrack influence there, with a relatively transparent tribute to St. Elmo's Fire.

Spanish Star Spangled Banner

Apparently, according to this news article, a British dude has produced a version of the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish. And, hoo-boy, are the conservative bloggers pissed off. So are the kitchen table bloggers, apparently. As to the allegation that "they're taking that, too," all I can say is last time I checked, the Star Spangled Banner was in the public domain, which means it belongs to everyone. Anyone may do with it what they please, including changing it for their own purposes in any way they wish. Which doesn't really constitute "taking" now, does it? Oh, well, whiners will be whiners. If you read the links, I think it's kind of funny that people would whine about how the re-mix version includes people whining, no? I also think the concept of doing a version in French is particularly funny. Is it me, or is the outrage provoked by this new Spanish version akin to the outrage provoked by those anti-Islamic cartoons? I say lighten up, if you don't like it, don't listen to it. Though I can't remember that far back, as I was just two, it's intersting how the controversial Hendrix version has become a classic, played as a truly American anthem by young guitarists all over the country (including myself when I was a young lad), as well as making it on U2's ode to American music: Rattle and Hum. And they're Irish. I'll leave you with a link to Star Mangled Banner, which provides some commentary of the less successful interpretations of our national anthem.

Save the Internet

Pretty dramatic, eh? Well, in case you didn't know, Congress is considering whether to keep the Internet neutral. Net Neutrality means that everybody, everywhere has equal access to all sites on the Internet. This notion of neutrality is what has made the Internet the powerful international force it is today. If we don't maintain Net Neutrality, large telecoms and internet providers like AT&T and AOL could begin implementing non-neutral policies whereby surfers could be steered toward some sites and away from others without even knowing that it's happening to them. For example, without Net Neutrality, a large multi-national telecom could purchase a blogging service. As its owner, it might then ration high speed access over its Internet connections to permit high speed access its blogs while relegating other blogs and blog services to slower connections. Or, for example, if you had Internet service by one telecom company, it could provide speedier access to its partners, thereby steering you toward products it benefits from while making it more difficult to surf its competitors. AOL is already providing a service to spammers whereby they can pay a premium and guarantee that certain spammers can bypass AOL's spam filters. These types of profiteering from abandoning Net Neutrality will continue on a more frequent basis unless something is done to preserve this fundamental concept upon which the Internet was founded and built. Check out more info on this subject at Save the Internet. Please go to MoveOn.org and sign their petition. Put a badge on your blog to show support for Net Neutrality. I firmly believe that if we don't act now, we won't have much right to bellyache later if Net Neutrality is abandoned as a fundamental concept governing the Internet.

Meet David Bates at my house this Sunday and other political activities

David Bates is running for the Ypsilanti School Board. I'm having a picnic at my house (305 Maple Street) this Sunday from 1 to 4 in the back yard, and David will be there to hang out and answer questions. We'll be drinking soft drinks and beers, grilling hot dogs and hanging out. You can ask him about his vision for our schools and learn more about his candidacy. It's free, and it's not really a fundraiser, so there isn't any really good reason to stay away, now, is there? Please come join us if you can. On a similar note, Kathy Angerer, a State Representative for a district adjacent to mine is having fundraiser on Thursday, May 4, 2006 from 5:30 to 7:30 P.M. at Joe's Restaurant y Cantina in Downtown Dundee. The cost is $1,115.83 Pesos ($100 per person). RSVP by April 28 to (734) 812-4656. Kathy's last election was a close one, so she has been targeted by the Michigan Republican Party as a vulnerable Democrat. She has been an outstanding representative for her district and for all of Michigan, so I urge you to support her, and if you live in her district, to vote for her. We can't afford to lose this important Democratic seat representing Washtenaw County. Even if you can't attend her fundraiser, please consider donating to her campaign.

'Nother pet peeve

So I'm really pressed for time last week, and I really need some envelopes (and a coffee grinder per a previous post), so I commit what probably amounts to the 8th deadly sin - I stop at Wal-Mart 'cause I'm passing by and think I can save some time. I get the envelopes and a coffee grinder, and then I wait in line to pay. And I pay. Then I start walking out of the store. I've really saved a good deal of time. Until I see the line to get out, yes you read that right, OUT of the store. You see, there's this woman checking everybody's receipt and going through their bags to ensure that everyone who shops there isn't a thief. So I walk past her and go out the other door. And she starts yelling, "Sir, sir, I need to check your receipt." To which I politely reply, "No, you don't." To which she replies, "Yes, I do." To which I reply, "Thank you, but I just bought and paid for this stuff. It's mine now, and I'm leaving with it now." "But I have to check to make sure it matches with your receipt," she says. "I'm pretty sure that Michigan law requires a reasonable suspicion that I've taken something before you search me as I'm leaving your store, which obviously isn't the situation, because you're simply searching everybody as they leave, and we both know not everybody is a thief," I state with a smile on my face. "That's not reasonable." "But everybody's receipt has to be checked to make sure it matches," she states. "Thank you for offering to check mine, but I have to go, and since this stuff belongs to me and not you, you can't go through my stuff anyway," I say. And I leave wondering how likely it is that I'll be arrested in the parking lot for failing to have my stuff gone through as I left the store. Of course, the people in line hear this conversation and begin moving through the doors themselves, as if the little cartoon bubble appeared over their heads, saying, "He's got a pretty good point there." And the girls, well, as soon as we get into the car, they make fun of me for being a grouch. I'm NEVER, EVER going back, that's for sure. Hopefully after they open the new one farther away, they'll close this one. UPDATE: I'm apparently not the only one thinking about this issue. Read more here.

Huck's back in business

As I was returning from Easter Brunch today, I noticed Huckleberry's has re-opened. If I get the story on the closing last week, I'll post it here. Happy Easter, everybody!

Question for other Ypsi locals

I stopped by at Huckleberry's on Washtenaw, my favorite beer store, last evening to return some bottles and get a sixer of something I can't see through. However, when I arrived, Huck's was closed. I don't mean closed for the evening, I mean CLOSED. Like, with large signs that said "Seized by the Michigan Department of Treasury" closed. Anybody know the story behind that?

Our Political Parties Are Letting Us Down

I've been disillusioned by the faux debate over the Single Business Tax. I've been saddened by the underfunding of Michigan's public schools. I've been surprised by what everybody agrees is a structural deficit now built into Michigan's property tax/revenue generation structure, and particularly with the lack of political action toward addressing it. We all know that many of our cities are struggling to retain basic city services like police, fire and trash pickup. Detroit recently stopped all bulk item trash pickup because it can't afford to provide the service. We know that the school districts in many communities are struggling to balance their budgets, considering layoffs, increases in class sizes, and closing schools, despite their best efforts to hold off cuts. In a short ten years, the State of Michigan has gone from being a strong, wealthy state to one in which key economic indicators in almost every category are showing us to be in the low 40s of the 50 states in the nation. So, one might ask, what actions have our political parties planned to help solve these problems? Nothing. There has been no action. Nothing at all is planned, except of course for an election year barrage of posturing, finger-pointing and attempts to negatively portray political opponents. If you think I'm being cynical, go see for yourself. Take a look at the websites of the two ruling parties, and you'll see what our political parties want us to think are their priorities: endless criticism of one another. Click your way on over to the website for the Michigan Republican Party. It's pretty much the same as the website for the Michigan Democratic Party. The two are pretty much a mirror image of each other, only the personalities and issues are on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Why are Democrats Jennifer Granholm and Debbie Stabenow the only pictures on the Republican's website? Is this how Republicans define themselves? I can see the new Republican slogan now: "Vote Republican: Because We're Not Democrats." Check out the talking points on "Why I'm a Republican . . ." Is there anything there that is unique to being a Republican? For the most part, they've simply stated universal American values that anyone would be hard-pressed to disagree with, whether Republican, Democrat, Green, Libertarian, whatever. Do they really think that's what makes someone a Republican? How 'bout this slogan, then: "Vote Republican: We're good at stating the obvious." Why is Dick DeVos' (the GOP's gubernatorial candidate) picture the only one on the Democrats home page? Is this how the Dems define themselves? Why not simply use the slogan: "Vote Democrat: Because We Don't Like Dick DeVos." I couldn't even find the platform or any talking points on the Dems' website. Maybe that's because there aren't any? If anyone comes up with the platform or some talking points, please let me know where they are hiding. I, frankly, am embarrassed that there isn't any attempt to identify the common issues that face all Michiganders. I find it embarrassing that both parties seem to fancy stating their opinions as if they are facts, which is intellectually dishonest and disingenuous. I'm embarrassed that both parties seek to re-define their opponents rather than define themselves. I think it's embarrassing that there aren't any plans to do anything, just words expressing universal views that both parties could probably agree on. Where are the platforms? Where are the solutions to the problems that face us? Where are the ideas, the vision? What do these parties stand for? Anything? They seem to think they are entitled to your support merely because they aren't who they oppose. Pardon me, but I'm looking for slightly more sophistication than that from the parties that my elected officials serve.

My beautiful little fairies

Per the request of those who know I went but have been patiently waiting for a picture: On Saturday evening, I took the girls to Barbie's Fairytopia at the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit. They dressed up as fairies and had a really wonderful time. The show was great for kids, and it was very family-friendly, from the ushers, the intermission all the way to the relatively inexpensive souveniers and stuff like popcorn to eat. My girls love to dress up, and this was a perfect opportunity ! :)

Simply outraged

On Saturday, I discovered that last time I went to the grocery store, I accidentally bought whole bean coffee instead of ground coffee. And since my ex-wife took the grinder with her when she moved out, I was in a bind. So, I thunk to myself, "Self, why not hop over to Bombadill's, the finest coffee shop in Ypsilanti, for a quick java to go?" Well, it pretty much ruined my day. You see, a bunch of selfish, jackass, tasteless, self-righteous anti-abortion protesters were strung through the downtown area with enormous pictures of dead fetuses and babies. Now, I respect people's right to free speech, but pictures of aborted fetuses on my weekend jaunt to get coffee is in such poor taste that it's difficult to know how to respond, other than to simply get pissed off. There were people yelling at them, honking their horns, and flipping them the bird. I heard that others actually threw things like bottles at them. Again, I respect people's right to free speech and their right to be free from violence, but frankly, common sense tells me that if I want to be attacked, one way to quickly and efficiently make it happen would be to display signs of dead fetuses in the middle of downtown. Few things are likely to piss people off and provoke an extreme emotional reaction than that. Seems to me that it's akin to using ethnic slurs during an immigration debate to make a rhetorical point. Or, perhaps, wearing a white hood. One may have a right to do so, but one pretty much exercises the right at one's peril. Well, aside from the crassness of it, I'm sorry to say that this "protest" (if that's what you can call it) will pretty much drive people out of downtown and further impair Ypsilanti's economy. I certainly have no intention of taking my children anywhere near there, as I don't think it's fair to expose them to those images at their ages. Nothing like ruining the day of thousands just to make one's own point, eh? Selfish bastards, if you ask me. They have a lot of nerve acting as if they are doing it for the benefit of others. If they really want to help others, they should be out spending their time helping educate and provide alternatives. Obviously, as evidenced on Saturday, they have no true interest in actually solving the problem. They want to merely whine selfishly about it and offend as many people in the process as possible. It's a perfect example of how NOT to persuade people to agree with you. Isn't there an ultimate irony that you can't swear on TV, but people can display images of dead babies anywhere they like in this country? Which is more obscene, the teenage orgy scene on Without a Trace that was calculated to show the terrible consequences of teenage sexual activity, or the images downtown on Saturday? I can't turn off the images flashed at me while I'm driving down the road. I can turn off the TV if I don't like what I see. You can read about another person's experience here. Hopefully he won't be charged.

Soundtrack of my life, pt. 6: Imogen Heap

I downloaded Imogen Heap's new record, Speak for Yourself from iTunes. It is electronic, but it's not dance music. It is difficult to categorize, but there are definitely flavors of early Jane Siberry, more recent Kate Bush, with a touch of Sarah McLachlan. The lyrics are very poetic, and the electronic feel is more akin to listening to plucked instruments and bells than to analog synthesizer tones. One song in particular really moved me: Hide and Seek. My musical roots are not merely in the pop/folk/rock stuff that I write now. My undergraduate degree was in music composition from Oberlin College which is closely linked to Oberlin Conservatory of Music. In addition to the orchestral and ensemble composing I did back then, the Conservatory was a pioneering institution in the area of electronic music. The TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts) program saw us using computers to generate and control music, composing for synthesizers that did not have keyboards, and exploring many other creative and (at that time) ground-breaking means of making new music. Well, Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap is precisely the type of music I wanted to compose back then but never had the creativity to think of. Her song is really quite traditional in that it is sung a capella with almost no added production. But instead of leaving it that way, she injects an electronic element into the song by modulating the voice with a vocoder. A vocoder is a relatively simple device that takes two signals (in this case a voice track and a synthesizer) and modulates (or controls the frequency of) one with the other. You may be familiar with the classic disco "robot voice" which is what vocoders are usually used for. In Hide and Seek, however, the vocoder isn't a mere gimmick or simply ear candy. The inherent musicality of the vocal is truly enhanced and taken to a new level by the vocoder's modulation, creating an exquisitely beautiful piece of music. You can give it a listen right now on her website. Simply go to the 'Album Player' (under her name under the radio-like icon) on the website and click on Hide and Seek. You won't be disappointed. While there, you can check out the rest of the record to decide if you want to buy a copy. The rest of the record is very electronic, but as I mentioned, more ethereal and organic than synth music or dance music. Even if it is not your cup of tea, do check out Hide and Seek. I've posted the lyrics here: Where are we? what the hell is going on? the dust has only just begun to fall Crop circles in the carpet Sinking feeling Spin me round again and rub my eyes this can't be happening when busy streets a mess with people would stop to hold their heads heavy Hide and seek Trains and sewing machines All those years They were here first oily marks appear on walls where pleasure moments hung before the takeover the sweeping insensitivity of this still life Hide and seek trains and sewing machines Blood and tears They were here first mm what d'ya say? that you only meant well, well of course you did this it's all for the best, of course it is that it's just what we need, you decided this? what did you say? Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth Mid sweet talk newspaper word cut outs Speak no feeling no I don't believe you you don't care a bit

Happy Guitarist

Call it the big mileage check I'm getting this week for all the driving I did first quarter, call it tax refund time, call it what you will. But, I just bought myself one of these: It's a Zoom G7.1ut. I'm going to call it a "just because" present for myself. Though it does fantastic and realistic digital modeling of a number of vintage and modern amplifiers and a number of stompboxes, it also has great digital effects and an expression pedal that can work as a crybaby or wah pedal or control any other programmable parameter anywhere on the device. It also has a separate jack for a volume pedal. But what makes the unit totally spectacular is that it uses a real vacuum tube in the pre-amp stage. Now, I first thought that putting a tube in an otherwise digital device was a cheesy gimmick, but I must confess, it really takes the sound and the modeling to an all new level. The clean highs from Carvin Strat imitation (that I built from a kit) have that glassy sheen that only a tube can provide. The "breakup" overdrive while using my 1974 Gibson Les Paul is very sensitive to dynamics and full of character, an attribute that other modelers come close to but can't really peg. The more extreme distortion using my Music Man Axis (ala Van Halen) is simply bouncy and creamy as can be. I noodled around with it last evening, and it the models sound more organic and usable than my POD, V-Amp, AdrenaLinn and Digitech modeler. The programmability is awesome as well, offering modeling options as detailed as the microphone on the amp (condenser vs. dynamic). That's pretty amazing at this price point. The effects are much better than on the average modeler, with only the V-Amp coming close in it's versatility. Not to mention, of course, an all new price point. Because I found a "New B Stock" at Music123, it was 15% off the already very reasonably low price, and shipping was free. B Stock means there's something cosmetically flawed, justifying the lower price. I must admit, if there's anything wrong with the unit I received, I can't find it. It looks brand new, and the only thing I noticed was that it had been opened before, which isn't a defect for me. I'm a very happy guitarist right about now.

Soundtrack of my life, pt. 5

When I was 19 (19 years ago), I used to listen to a lot of Peter Gabriel and Tears for Fears. I really loved the music they made (still do), and I found them inspirational. Unfortunately, I also tried to emulate them. I think if such a thing can be quantified, Peter Gabriel has more talent in his little finger than I have in my entire body and soul. Don't believe me? Well, give this a listen, then. Written and recorded at the tender age of 19. Don't say I didn't warn you ;)

Happy Anniversary !

Today is the first anniversary of my blog ! A lot has happened this year. Oh, and by the way, I moved to my own url, www.trustygetto.com, which will hopefully provide better reliability, as Blogger has been a little funky and slow as of late. If you link to me or have me bookmarked, please take this opportunity to make the change. Thank you ! Hey, instead of boring you with a self-absorbed retrospective, why don't you keep an eye on my counter, as it looks like sometime between today and Monday, it will hit 10,000? That's 10,000 visits since 10/21/05. Who will it be? Will it be you?