Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Musical Evenings

Friday, August 22nd, 2014

Last night was the second anniversary of the Adrift Tiki Bar‘s opening, and the Denver Ukulele Community was invited to perform. It wasn’t a bad evening, but it could have been better. We were out on the back patio, and it was crowded, in large part because it was small. It was also noisy – I’m not sure how well we were heard, particularly during the solos after the group performances.

I did two solos: Three Dog Night’s Joy to the World, and The Vogues’ Five O’Clock World. At least one person heard me, and came up afterward to tell me how much he enjoyed my performance of the Brooks and Dunn song. He must have been thinking of some other group that covered one of the songs (Five O’Clock World has been covered by a number of performers), because Brooks and Dunn haven’t done either of those.

Tonight, we’ll be seeing Manhattan Transfer at the Arvada Center. Should be a good evening if the rain holds off, which is not what the weather forecast is leading me to expect. We weren’t able to get seats in the covered area, so we’ll be on the lawn. Might be a damp (or wet) evening.

Tunesday

Tuesday, August 19th, 2014

Been a while since I’ve done one of these. Figured I’d do one to mark Ginger Baker’s 75th birthday. He’s been in a lot of groups – here are selections from a few of them.

No Capes!

Dueling with himself

Thursday, June 26th, 2014

I ran across this and thought it was pretty fun.

Miscellany 24

Wednesday, March 19th, 2014

Big roundup here of things that have been hanging around (non-political version).

It’s war! The ants are coming for our chocolate. The article is actually much wider-ranging, and quite interesting.

A Faberge egg not seen (and known for what it is) since 1902 was purchased a decade ago at a Midwestern antique fair.

Need a handy reference for musical intervals? This may help.

Planning to record some audio at home? This may help.

How to take excellent notes and be productive with paper. I can always use the help.

This looks like an interesting resource for computer science.

I’ll want to spend some time reminiscing at this site.

Two scary economic charts, billed as documenting the demise of the American Dream.

An interesting list of Google Easter eggs.

I like these thoughts on the Starship Troopers movie. I didn’t much care for it myself; I’ve usually referred to it as “Paul Verhoeven’s rebuttal to Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers.”

Google makes an emulator in Chrome for the Amiga 500. I still have two Amiga 2000s in my basement, although I’ve only got one monitor for them, and the hard drive on one needs to be reformatted. It’s too bad there was never a widely-available Ethernet board for them.

Men’s Health says these are the best over-the-counter medications.

The Smithsonian says these vitamins and supplements are worth taking.

Continuing on the subject of health, how old is your heart?

Here are photos of various famous locations. There are two photos of each location: one showing the normally-presented view, and one showing surroundings that aren’t normally seen unless you’re there. I’ve been to the pyramids of Giza, and it’s startling how close development has come to them.

Wanna learn something? Try here.

You can find over 22,000 comics that are out of copyright here. Via.

Man sublets his apartment, comes home to find a plus-sized orgy going on. Then he loses his apartment, because his lease doesn’t allow him to sublet.

Do incorrect and inappropriate use’s of quotes (like that one) bother you? Best stay away from this site, then.

I’ve seen the movie Head, but it was many years ago. There’s a link to the movie in this article.

It looks like there’s some good information in this gardening thread at Ace of Spades HQ.

They’ve found more Dead Sea scrolls.

Interesting art. I’ve seen similar things, but it’s still cool. Now, imagine the following in a Cockney accent: “That’s not a bird, that’s a bird! Via.

Speaking of birds, but not really

And not speaking of birds, but really! Rogue Chihuahuas overrunning a town?

I like this guy’s obituary. He’d have been fun to know.

What if the Winter Olympics had been held on Hoth?

I’m not surprised that this happened in Japan.

In 1731, King Frederick I of Sweden gave a lion to a taxidermist who had never seen one. Some of the comments are hilarious, also. I particularly like the first reply to this one.

Information you can use: 7 Myths About Storing Beer.

More Information you can use: Picking a lock with a hairpin.

Some people believe that this is the best newspaper correction ever. I’m not so certain of that, but I don’t have any other suggestions handy.

As a European, this is how I imagine Americans have breakfast. Via Protein Wisdom. The comments at both locations are good, too.

Looking for back issues of Starlog magazine?

Why do we do some of the things we do at weddings?

An interesting clock presentation.

These are impressive tattoos. Not that I’d ever get one, but …

Some carbon fiber musical instruments. I’ve played a Blackbird tenor ukulele and liked it, and I have a friend who is trying to set himself up producing carbon fiber soprano ukes.

I knew people drank more in the past, but damn! That’s a lot of booze!

How to make a sling from woven paracord. The site is often NSFW, but this post isn’t (unless your company employs extreme hoplophobes).

On the same website: If you ever feel stupid

Remember the warehouse scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark? It might not have been too unbelievable.

Figure skaters caught in mid-spin. They look much more graceful and elegant when you don’t catch all the details.

When it goes, it all goes at once.

Giant desert art project in Egypt.

Sarah Hoyt is a local science fiction author. I met her at a party at a mutual friend’s place a couple years ago. This post on her history with SFWA is absolutely hilarious.

There may still be time to apply for this job – it’s got to be hard work. Then again, a lot of people like swords.

Ever seen a ship break apart?

Were you aware that France was still conduction executions by guillotine as recently as 1977? Were you aware that the actor Christopher Lee attended the last one?

I wasn’t able to find an update on his recovery, but the fact that he survived going through a wood chipper is amazing. When I was in the Navy, if you were going to work on anything that could be dangerous if it were turned on during the process, you’d attach a red tag to the power switch. I wonder if they’ll implement a system like that for the wood chipper?

Boy, the Aussies don’t hold back with their PSAs, do they?

I have a friend who photographs most of his restaurant meals. I should send him to this site.

I think that’s about enough for now. I may do another one (with older accumulated links) later.

How’s that again?

Saturday, August 3rd, 2013

This post over at Futility Closet reminds me of a similar anecdote. I have a friend who, years ago, ran a CD store. One day, a customer came in wanting a copy of The Sacred Tinsnips. It took a little while before he realized that the customer was actually wanting a copy of Le Sacre du Printemps.

It was 32 years ago today

Thursday, August 1st, 2013

MTV debuted on this date in 1981.

Fat Tunesday

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Song of the day (or two)

Monday, November 5th, 2012

Here’s the full version:

This one is missing a verse, but you can’t beat the classic 60s “look.” Note also that this is apparently before Johnny became “The Man in Black.” I must admit, I love the peasant shirt, but I’m not too keen on the frock vest.

Happy Halloween

Wednesday, October 31st, 2012

And, to start off happy, we’ll begin with music. I was hoping to cover all of the classic monsters with songs I’m familiar with, but I couldn’t find “Mummy Shuffle” or “Truck-Driving Vampire” on YouTube. I don’t intend this to be a comprehensive playlist; it’s only a few songs for the theme.

We’ll start with werewolves, with the song “Silver Bullet Blues,” by Michael Longcor:

Next, we’ll play “Frankenstein,” by the Edgar Winter Group (one of my favorite highway songs):

No vampire or mummy songs, so we’ll move into zombies with the Kingston Trio’s “Zombie Jamboree:”

We’ll follow that with a ghost song – Red Sovine singing about “Big Joe and Phantom 309”:

And, staying with the dead for a moment, we’ll finish with “Dead Man’s Party,” by Oingo Boingo:

Moving on, Eleanor Barkhorn has a problem with the idea of “sexy Halloween costumes,” particularly with respect to younger women and girls. Given my glandular bias, I have little problem with them, although I might make an exception for this one.

This, on the other hand, is one impressive costume.

Metafilter had a number of links to appropriate reading material yesterday. I’m giving the Metafilter links in all cases rather than directly linking to the stories, because at least one of the target websites is trashing the link and going to a generic backup site because of the aftermath of Sandy. Also, the commenters often have interesting additions to the topics.

First, a scientific paper on the feasibility of the events in The Call of Cthulhu.

Next, a pointer to an io9 article on spooky webcomics.

There was apparently a horror and fantasy radio series in the early 1980s.

Another link to io9, this one to the 55 scariest scenes from fantasy, SF, and horror films. I don’t know about “the” as the modifier, because these lists are always subjective, but they’re usually interesting, anyway. Besides, I’m not much of an aficionado of being scared, so I’m not one to make such a list myself.

Here’s one to scary stories selected by writers at The Guardian. When it comes to Crawford, who wrote the first story listed, I’m more inclined to select “The Upper Berth.” Another story from that era that I like is, “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come To You, My Lad,” by M. R. James.

Don’t forget to make all appropriate preparations for the evening.

Finally, I haven’t carved a pumpkin for this year, but I did run across these instructions that I like. The last one I did came out quite well – not only did my daughter like it, she took it to a party and it was stolen. These earlier ones also came out pretty well.

UPDATE: Some interesting anatomical concept art here.

Music Time

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Off to an Aldrine Guerrero concert tonight. Maybe tomorrow or Sunday I’ll be able to clean out some links I’ve been accumulating.