Author Archives: Karl

New MP3 for an old song

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This is an old song me and my brother wrote during a terrible night, in a terrible neighborhood, in Philly.

Here is the MP3, right click and download. Warning. It clocks in at just under five megs.

Here go the lyrics to Kensinton.

Still learning my the ins and outs of my home recorder. It’s a little strange being a one man band. I even have a drum track. Need to work on my mixing skills.

Gotten some good feedback: Drums a little too busy and I need to do some mixing to get a fuller guitar sound. Probably some panning and level adjusting.

Where’s the loyalty?

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For the holiday weekend we traved to the Poconos for a concert at Montage Mountain Ski Resort.

Poison was headlining with Cinderella, Winger, and Faster Pussycat opening.

Wow, what a show. A great crowd and a fun night. Cinderella rocked, it was great seeing them after such a long time. Poison’s been coming around the last few years and they always put on a great show. Winger and Faster Pussycat were impressive as well.

You know what music is missing these days? Bands that inspire loyalty. Or is it marketing? It seems to me that most music I hear these days is disposable. Precious few bands make me want to buy their album, simply because I loved their last one, and then determine how well the band did at living up to my expectations. I now need to sample it first no matter what. Gone is that experience of buying an album the first day it hits shelves, anxiously waiting for what a band has created this time around. Being a fan of a band was kinda like being a programming language geek who swore by his favorite language and has to download the latest releases before the bug fixes come out.

Now I really, really need to be sold before I part with my cash.

Anyway, it was great to finally hear live a song that back then comforted me, House of Pain by Faster Pussycat:

A little past suppertime
I’m still out on the porch step sitting on my behind,
Waiting for you.

Wondering if everything is alright.
Momma said, “Come in boy, don’t waste your time.” I said, “I’ve got time.
Well, he’ll be here soon.”

Five years old and talking to myself.
Where were you? Where’d you go?
Daddy, can’t you tell?

I’m not trying to fake it
And I ain’t the one to blame.
There’s no one home
In my house of pain.
I didn’t write these pages
And my script’s been rearranged.
No, there’s no one home
In my house of pain

Wasn’t I worth the time?
A boy needs a daddy like a dance to mime and all the time
I looked up to you.

I paced my room a million times.
And all I ever got was on big line, the same old lie.
How could you?

Well, I was eighteen and still talking to myself.
Where were you? Where’d you go?
Daddy can’t you tell?

I’m not trying to fake it
And I ain’t the one to blame.
There’s no one home
In my house of pain
I didn’t write these pages
And my script’s been rearranged.
No, there’s no one home
In my house of pain

Three articles to get you thinking…

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Economist.com – Globalization Has Helped Poor, Study Says

Far from creating poverty as critics claim, rapid globalization of the world economy has sliced the proportion of abject poor across the planet, according to a controversial new study released on Monday.

It says that freer commerce, epitomized by the cutting of tariffs and the lifting of trade barriers, has boosted economic growth and lifted the incomes of rich and poor alike.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Jane Eisner | Terrorism’s tenuous link to poverty

…terrorists draw their support and their human ammunition not from the most impoverished, illiterate in their societies, but from the educated and (relatively) well-off. In fact, terrorists are not motivated by a desperate, ill-informed attempt to improve living conditions, but by religious and political fanaticism bred in countries without democratic infrastructures.

Terrorism isn’t an economic crime; it’s a violent form of political engagement.

…Supporting democracy in non-Western cultures is a delicate, risky task. But in this year of terror, on this weekend of independence celebrations, it is one we should embrace with renewed passion.

Happy July4th!

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On a private e-mail list, I’m taking part in a very timely discussion on the Pledge of Allegience.

Fact is that we look at freedom in so many different ways. Many of us were satisfied with the ruling, and others outraged. A debate ensued. Tempers flared.

But at the core of it – man you gotta hand it to the founders of this country. They built a system of *ideals* and generations have come and gone that have re-interpetted and faught for those ideals. Blood, sweat and tears.

Happy July 4th everybody. Celebrate the freedom we’re blessed with today. Celebrate for those that sacrificed to get us here. Celebrate to stick it up the terrorists’ noses.