Blogonomicon

Friday night vintage video: The Smithereens - Behind the Wall of Sleep

2009-12-18T22:00:00.002-06:00

This is one of those videos that has embedding disabled. So...here's the link.

Especially For You by The Smithereens is one of the great forgotten albums* of the 80s. This was their second-biggest hit from it.

An unusually normal-looking bunch of guys for 1986. If you met them walking down the street, you'd never guess they were a rock band. And their lead singer (Jim Babjak) has a great voice.

*I don't mean they were forgotten by their fans. When say "forgotten album" I mean that it's a group or album that is never mentioned on any of those 80s nostalgia music programs.

Welcome to the party, pal!

2009-12-17T18:52:00.002-06:00

I find a sort of perverse joy in seeing others find evidence that modern "journalism" is largely a sham. Anyone who pays attention knows how they continually lie about topics such as guns and liberty (actual liberty, not Redemopublican faux-liberty).

In this case, ABC is working on a report of an alleged "Bigfoot" photo taken by a trailcam in Minnesota. So they call the man who is probably the current most expert person in the United States (possibly the world) for his comments on the subject. He tells them he thinks it's "bogus," and points out reasons why.

So what happens? They don't even mention him, or his comments, in their report.

Also, more shmournalism at the Today Show.

"notorious"

2009-12-17T13:40:00.003-06:00

Hmmm...I have never heard of the word "notorious" being used in such a positive sense, unless the speaker was trying to be ironic. But I doubt that someone who has been sending out emails all month in alternating font colors of red and green is well versed in the concept of irony.

Old-school nerds on the east side

2009-12-16T14:22:00.001-06:00

At Commerce & Cherry.

And here are a couple more shots of the train at Sunset Station, all decked out for Christmas.

Humbug, Mr. Baldrick?

2009-12-12T20:49:00.005-06:00

I know it has been a little slower even than usual around here lately, but that's because I have not been feeling entirely well and I have been medicating myself and hitting the sack earlier than usual most days this week. Also the holiday season coupled with Boy Scout and Girl Scout activities--and my daughter being in the school choir--has made life a little more hectic than I prefer. Sigh...and the choir concert is Monday night, scout meetings again Tuesday night...but then the rest of the week should go back to normal, except for Christmas shopping. Argh.

Tonight was the annual tree lighting at the city park. Although they announced several times to "stay off the snow" until the tree was lit, did they really expect to dump several tons of fake snow around the tree and not have it result in utter chaos?

The scouts raised the flags, led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance, and sang some carols. The high school band played some carols. Some praise band from one of the local churches did a bunch of pop-carols that were completely uninteresting.

And then the misting rain started, which I was expecting and dreading because I'm usually outside in that kind of weather only when I'm getting paid to do it. So we came home and had hot soup for supper, and the tree-lighting ordeal is over with for another year.

Yahoo earns its place in the Takedown Hall of Shame

2009-12-11T20:18:00.003-06:00

EFF:

Here's where the bogosity begins in earnest. Yahoo sent a formal DMCA takedown notice to Cryptome.org, demanding the removal of the compliance manual. In the letter, Yahoo's lawyers allege that posting the manual infringes Yahoo's copyrights (the only proper basis for a DMCA takedown), as well as claiming that it's a trade secret (absurd for a marketing document) and that posting it constitutes "business interference" (huh? informing customers about Yahoo's disclosure practices "interferes" with business?).

A bogus use of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by Yahoo, just in case you think it's a better alternative to Google. It isn't. Yahoo just isn't as big and powerful. If they were, they'd be just as evil. Read the whole thing for the full explanation--and this has an "Only Ones" connection.

Bonus points to EFF for using the word "bogosity."

Thank G-d it wasn't an Elite

2009-12-11T14:38:00.004-06:00

A few nights ago I was awakened in the small hours of the morning by a high-pitched, rapid-fire staccato beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep! As usual, no one else was awakened.

What the?! I thought. I know that sound...what...that is the low battery alert for some kind of Motorola pager. Previous employment experience has made me sort of an expert on these sounds. And then the weariness overcame me once again and I passed out.

The next day in poking around the house I found the culprit. One of these.

I still have a few old pagers laying around, mostly in junk boxes left over from when I worked as a pager repair tech, and some of them would probably work if they had service. My son had found one and put a battery in it so he could play with it.

That was a weird way to be awakened at one o'clock in the morning.

Alice

2009-12-10T20:34:00.003-06:00

Innsmouth Free Press has a good review of the Sci-Fi* "remake" of Alice, as in Alice in Wonderland.

I have not watched the whole thing yet, but I plan on finishing it tonight. The short version of the above review is: meh.

If you have never read the original and you don't have very high expectations, I guess it would be okay. However, if you grew up reading the original then forget about it. This is another screwy hatchet-job of a classic, similar to what they did with Tin Man, except much worse. Also Tin Man was improved by starring the willowy Zooey Deschanel. The star of Alice is so brittle she looks like she could easily be snapped in half.

Alice herself is probably the second least-likable character, the first being her boring and feckless boyfriend. The plot manages to be both predictable and nonsensical.

I like it most for Matt Frewer, whose fake English accent has improved dramatically since 2000, at least to my American ears.

P.S. Okay, I finished it. Yes, I could see the ending coming from a mile away. Meh.

*I refuse to write their newer and much more stupid name.

A Christmas ringtone for you

2009-12-10T20:06:00.000-06:00

click

Cthulhu makes Express-News

2009-12-09T15:45:00.000-06:00

At mySA.com, which is the Express-News' online version, Cult of Cthulhu crowns its icon:

There's a famous line by horror writer H.P. Lovecraft that goes like this: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

OK, untie your tongue from that unholy terror and try it again like this: "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."

Cthulhu (kuh-thool-hoo) is a giant monster that first rose from the depths of Lovecraft's imagination in his 1928 short story The Call of Cthulhu. The tale unfolds as accounts of an enormous, otherworldly being with a bizarre cult that awaits his rise from the submerged city of R'lyeh and worships him to the point of madness.

Mostly it's about how Cthulhu has become a target of satire. Anyhow, it always amuses me to see...er...an "outsider" write about Lovecraft to other "outsiders." Also I find this comment by "Kat" hilarious:

Ummm, I'm a huge reader and I've never heard of this "popular" character. sounds interesting, but I
agree, how is this incredibly obscure character news?

Oh, Kat. Kat, Kat, Kat. If you want news, why are you reading the "Life" section?

Thanks to Albatross who tipped me by email.

Voynich Manuscript dated

2009-12-07T16:06:00.001-06:00

Mysterious Voynich manuscript is genuine, scientists find:

Many historians have so far believed that the so-called Woynich manuscript, which includes illustrations related to natural sciences, is a forgery, and mathematicians and other experts have not able to decode it.

The book is named after Polish-American antiquarian Wilfrid Voynich, who acquired the text in 1912 in Italy.

Researchers at the University of Arizona used the radiocarbon dating method on the 246 pages written in Europe by and found that the parchment was made between 1404 and 1438, said Walter Koehler, an ORF producer who oversaw the TV documentary on the manuscript.

In addition, experts at the McCrone Research Institute in Chicago determined that the ink was not added in a later period. The text was likely written in Northern Italy.

Before these findings, 'there was no serious expert who would have dated it to pre-Columbian times,' said Koehler, but rather to the 16th century, when coded texts were in fashion.

This kind of blows the main theories about who wrote it right out of the water.

Voynich made it up himself - he was born in 1865
Roger Bacon - died 1294
John Dee - born 1527
Jacobus Sinapius (Emporer Rudolf II's personal physician) - born 1575
Jan Marci - born 1595
Raphael Mnishovsky - born 1580
Anthony Ascham - lived during 1500's
Antonio Averlino - born about 1400, died about 1469, a possible!

Music and speech

2009-12-06T14:16:00.001-06:00

Music and speech based on human biology, new evidence shows:

The two new studies found that the musical scales most commonly used over the centuries are those that come closest to mimicking the physics of the human voice, and that we understand emotions expressed through music because the music mimics the way emotions are expressed in speech. Composers have long exploited the perception of minor chord music as sad and major chord music as happy, now the Duke team thinks they know why.

Interesting article that relates speech patterns with musical scales. They probably should do more research into cultures that use non-Western musical scales before they draw any more conclusions.

Toreo Band: Tijuana Christmas - 1968

2009-12-05T20:47:00.002-06:00

When the time is right, I do enjoy listening to Christmas music, but not all "Christmas" music. I avoid like the plague that station that starts the week of Thanksgiving and flogs it to death 24 hours a day until the new year. If you live in S.A., you know which station I'm talking about. If you don't, then chances are there's a station in your area that does the same thing. Yeck.

When it comes to traditional Christmas music, I'd rather hear it performed by highly practiced, highly polished choirs or orchestras. I'm really not interested in Christmas pop/rock/country tunes. They just bore me.

Jazz treatments of Christmas music are another matter. Especially if they are musically valid enough to stand up to listening at any time of the year on their own merit, regardless of the traditional season that our culture has pigeon-holed them into. And although they seem to be less common, there are some "new age" artists who have tackled the Christmas music sub-genre. I'm probably not stating my opinion very well, but it seems that I have no taste at all for tired, rote recordings of such songs by pop/rock/country artists, who expect us to love the music just because suddenly our favorite pop/rock/country artist has recorded it. I want to hear such music either in a purely classical and unchanged fashion, or I want to hear it in a newer, more alternative way that will get me to hear something new in the old songs that I hadn't noticed before.

Tijuana Christmas is not your typical Christmas album. Liner notes:

Christmas is the most joyful festival of the Christian year, when we celebrate at the same time the turning point of the winter and the new hope that was brought to men with the birth of Jesus. Christmas is a time when we make up for the bleakness of the weather outside with the warmth of our spirits, and it is no coincidence that the songs which have come to be particularly associated with Christmas should be carols, which have always been the most cheerful and often the most secular of Christian songs.

On this record you find your favourite carols in an unfamiliar guise–we’ve called the album ‘Tijuana Christmas’, but you will find the mariachi sound taking on a richer and more varied flavour as the Toreo Band bring out the charms of our most beautiful carol tunes in imaginative brand new arrangements. ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ sets the pace with a bright, sparkling beat that even adds to the gaiety of one of our oldest and liveliest carols; ‘Silent Night’ a much more recent and a more devout carol, is given a quite contrasting treatment, slow and tender. ‘Hark, the Herald Angels Sing’ sets off again at a brisk, bouncy pace–and if you feel like dancing, why not? It may come as a surprise to you that our oldest carols used to be dances, and that the word itself described a form of circular dance.

In the preface to the Oxford book of carols you will find carols described as songs with a religious impulse that are simple, joyful, popular and modern. You’ll never have heard them sounding more joyful, popular or modern than they do on this exciting and original L.P.

If you're looking for Christmas music to serve as background sound while you have a Christmas party or to help pass the time while you're at work, this is not your album. If you're looking for something different that will catch your ear and get you tapping your feet and humming along, then this is for you.

I haven't been able to find much information about the band who recorded this album, but it falls into the same flavor of music as Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, if that helps. You can read more about it and download the whole album at Forgotten Albums. Just do it. You don't even have to thank me.

The mp3s at the link above were ripped from vinyl and therefore include a few pops & clicks, but don't let that bother you. It certainly doesn't bother me.

It's only a coincidence

2009-12-05T07:42:00.001-06:00

Baltimore Weather Examiner:

Al Gore's scheduled December 16th speech with the auspicious title "Climate Conclusion" has been canceled amid the scandal of Climategate.

Also totally unrelated:

Houston, Texas had their earliest snowfall on record Friday when 0.8 inches of snow fell making it the earliest date ever. This beats the old record of December 10th set in 1944 and again 2008 (last year) with 1.4 inches. Houston averages one snowfall every four years, and this is the first time ever that snow has fallen two years in a row.

Snow, schmow

2009-12-04T14:15:00.000-06:00

Although it would be technically correct (which is the best kind of correct) to say that I got snowed on today, I am honestly a little embarrassed even to mention it.

So...nevermind.

One of my favorite musicians...

2009-12-03T14:21:00.000-06:00

Eric Woolfson has passed away.

We are sorry to announce that Eric died from cancer in the early hours of the 2nd December 2009, aged 64.

All of my most favorite Alan Parsons Project songs were sung by him.

You gotta be kiddin' me

2009-12-03T14:00:00.003-06:00

Although I have no documentation to prove it, I'm almost certain my ancestors settled in this part of Texas specifically to escape snow. And hurricanes.

A mixed week so far. Monday was just a typical day. Tuesday I got drizzled on all morning and was fairly miserable, and then I saw that big cloud coming out of the northwest and ran the end of my route in hopes that I wouldn't get really rained on. I finished literally seconds before the deluge began.

Yesterday, due to what I believe was an error in judgement, me and one other guy were assigned two days worth of work. We finished about 4:15. I actually read meters non-stop for over 8 hours.

Today was a total breeze, but I think I deserved a break after yesterday. And tomorrow...

I'm not worried about being out in the mid-30-degree temps all day tomorrow. I know how to dress for that, and I know it won't be a problem. But snow...$#@!

Not something I ever expected to see...

2009-11-30T19:33:00.002-06:00

A stanza of one of my poems translated into Hungarian. I hope it sounds better to Hungarian ears than it does to an online translator I found.

I've been looking for a good calendar...

2009-11-30T15:00:00.003-06:00

Available at Amazon.com.

Goats in Trees 2010 Square Wall (Wall Calendar) (Multilingual Edition)

Via Oddee, where you can view 9 other odd calendars.

Cthulhu by Lovecraft

2009-11-28T21:54:00.002-06:00

Found this while browsing the Facebook graphic archives of The Lovecraft News Network. I had seen this once before somewhere, a long time ago but it was nice to run across it again. I believe this is the only visual rendering that The Man Himself ever gave to Great Cthulhu.

The Bands and Ensembles of the US Armed Forces: Veterans Day Honor

2009-11-28T21:25:00.000-06:00

This is a free mp3 album that Amazon.com released this past Veterans Day and which I have only today gotten around to downloading and listening to.

I am not usually given to listening to patriotic music for entertainment, so I doubt if this will go in my main mp3 directory, but it's still a keeper.

Ensembles included are the U.S. Navy Band, U.S. Coast Guard Band, U.S. Marine Band, U.S. Air Force Band of Flight, U.S. Army Strings, U.S. Air Force Airmen of Note, U.S. Army Band, U.S. Navy and Sea Chanters Chorus, and the U.S. Air Force Band & Singing Sergeants.

The only bad points of this album, to me, are tracks number 7 & 10, which are not traditional patriotic pieces but more modern patriotic pop songs which completely fail to stir my soul. But of course ymmv.

Big plus points for introducing me to the stirring and evocative hymn "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," which I have learned is the U.S. Navy Hymn.

I am most impressed by the impeccable tightness and precision achieved by all these bands.

Side note: I looked "Eternal Father" up in the hymnal which we currently use at my home congregation. It has four stanzas, the original two of which (modern stanzas 1 & 4) were written in 1860 by William Whiting. It was set to music the following year by John Bacchus Dykes. In 1937 Robert Nelson Spencer added two more stanzas in between the original two. Although none of the branches of the armed forces are mentioned by name, the pattern of the stanzas is clear: stanza 1 refers to those on the sea, stanza 2 refers to those on the ground, and stanza 3 refers to those in the air. Stanza 4 is all-inclusive to wrap it all up. The hymn as a whole is a prayer song for the armed forces.

Of course I have already begun teaching it to myself but it has some unusual harmony that would probably challenge most amateur congregational singers (among whom I include myself). There is a modulation for a few bars to the 3rd of the scale (from C major to E minor), which is not something that most of us are used to hearing, so it would probably take some practice to get right. Still, I've put it on my learning list.

Just click on Veterans Day Honor to download it.

Hot sauce review: Habañero Heat Wave

2009-11-27T21:48:00.003-06:00

On my last birthday I received a set of hot sauces from the Dat'l Do-It company. I don't eat hot sauces as much as I used to, not because I can't stand to eat them, but because of the...er...shall we say--aftershocks. So far I have opened only one, Habañero Heat Wave.

This is what I would consider a medium-heat sauce, that is, suitable for consumption on food straight out of the bottle. There are other sauces that I would consider suitable only for the novelty or for spiking other sauces that are too mild, such as Vicious Viper or Butt Twister. I use Vicious Viper to spike a relatively mild habañero sauce called El Yucateco that I get at H.E.B., and which I use to make my habañero jerky. A couple of drops of the Viper mixed into a bowl of chili is also a good way to give the chili an extra kick. I have eaten it straight, smeared on a corn chip, but I wouldn't make a habit of it.

So anyway, this post was to comment on Habañero Heat Wave. It has plenty of heat, but when it comes to hot sauces, I am more impressed by flavor than heat. Some people eat hot sauces because they enjoy the heat and seem not to care too much about the flavor, but if a sauce doesn't have good flavor I don't give a toss for the heat.

I must say that the flavor of Habañero Heat Wave does not impress me at all. It's only okay by my standards, but not nearly up to the level of my favorite all-purpose habañero sauce, Sontava XXX.

So if you're a hot sauce lover and you're looking around at new sauces to try, I'd say skip the Habañero Heat Wave. The flavor is simply nothing to recommend.

One last post about CRUdGate

2009-11-27T21:39:00.003-06:00

I don't see much point in my going on about the CRU fiasco here, now that I've mentioned it a couple of times in my own tiny and obscure corner of the internet, but here is one last good article that is recommended reading.

CRUdGate* - Why this can't be swept under the carpet at Devil's Kitchen.

P.S. More fudging turns up in New Zealand.

*Note: I personally would never use the -gate suffix in describing any incident except in an ironic manner. But that's how everyone else refers to it so I want to write so that everyone knows what I'm talking about.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T22:25:00.003-06:00

I almost went two whole days without a post. Unusual. Yesterday my dad's water heater bit the dust, which I don't consider quite a real tragedy since it lived to a ripe old age and is almost as old as I am. Anyhow, I helped him install the new one which was a little more complicated than it should have been because we had to improve on some errors he made when he installed the old one more than 35 years ago.

Spent some time again at my dad's house today for Thanksgiving. I am thankful that he has become just about as politically radical as I have, even though he doesn't often show it. It's nice to have someone at my back when I get set off at some of the larger family gatherings.

I've been feeling a little under the weather again for the last couple of days, but not too bad, so I'm thankful for that. I have a feeling next week is going to be pretty tough, though. Cold weather and rain in store.

And I'm thankful for all you folks who think this blog is worth checking into now and then. Thank you!

Jumpy today...

2009-11-24T20:26:00.003-06:00

I was working in a nice, quiet neighborhood today when a tiny terrier-looking dog ran up behind me and yapped. Like my mother sometimes says, "I nearly came unglued." I mean my hair stood up so straight that I almost lost my hat. I started to swing my hook in a reflex I've developed from being jumped from behind by dogs, and managed to swing it a little too high at the last moment so I wouldn't take off that poor little guy's head.

Afterwards, I got to wondering why I was so jumpy. And then it came to me...

I watched Quarantine last night. Man, if we ever have a zombie apocalypse like that, forget about fighting back. It's over.