Category Archives: Music

Pain kept me away too

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Great to hear an acupuncture treatment helped Susie get back to her guitar.

Arthritis in the hands is scary. Part of me is thankful my pain stems only from the back.

Past few weeks I’ve been getting to my garage and plugging in here and there. Becoming re-acquainted with an old friend.

Speaking of that, I’ve been spending the past day transferring old recordings of myself jamming with friends and bands from long ago from cassette to my computer. Around 20 or so cassettes, so its a big job, probably will take a week or more. And I’m doing this, one side of a cassette == one .wav file (for expediency’s sake). Breaking down to individual songs will take a bit.

Some interesting music and children links for today

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Boston Globe: Can’t get it out of my head: A father’s yearlong quest to grasp the infant musical mind

NPR: Bringing Up Baby, As Music Lovers Might

Muppet Wiki: Joe Raposo

Thankfully, Emma’s tastes are all over the map, like her Daddy. For example, just this morning she kept replaying The Mother of All Funk Chords – which I could listen to on repeat myself.

Question to ponder: Is the Rock Star Dead?

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comcast.net Music: JT Ramsay: Is the Rock Star Dead?:

The days of major labels turning ordinary people into rock stars is over. There will be pop hits here and there, but chances are you’ll never see someone reach the heights of (sustainable) fame in the manner that artists as disparate as Guns ‘N Roses and Britney Spears enjoyed again. You could blame Britney and Miley, but we’ve always had pop stars. We could just as soon blame Frankie Avalon!

But that’s not just because of the major label’s money woes. It’s that major music media just keeps disappearing, whether it’s in print or on television. It seems much tougher for stars to create myths about themselves at a time when we know even the most minute details about them, whether it’s through outlets like TMZ.com, or from the star’s themselves (or their ghost-tweeters) via Twitter.

Songwriting and music by Dan Gillmor

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During Dan Gillmor’s stint as guest blogger at boing boing he posted some fine pieces on his subject matter of focus – journalism and its future – but one post should have reached a wider audience “When It All Falls Apart”. It’s a song. A song of the apocalypse. With some good lyrics and melody. Turns out Dan used to play in a band a long time ago. It’s a strangely timely song. Check out the discussion thread which was just terrific to follow.

Here are some random songs about the end of the world, any that you know come immediately to mind?

“End of the World as We Know It”, R.E.M.
“1999”, Prince
“The Four Horsemen” , Metallica
“Blackened”, Metallica
“The End”, The Doors
“War Pigs”, Black Sabbath
“Children of the Grave”, Black Sabbath