Phantasmablogia Rock Music

Everybody Knows, Sort of

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:21:38 EST

The tune is mostly ready to go and I'd upload a draft but the chorus rhythm is dorked-up and I'm sitting on it for now.

I'm wobbling on the lyrics, tho. The first couple of verses go on about the collapse of civilization, definitely a personal favorite theme of mine. The others go to ripping hell out of some bimbo and I can't say I care much about his chick troubles. However, it passes if the chick troubles are symptomatic of the greater disintegration.

Yes, I really do think about this stuff (laughs).

From one side, there's she cuckolded me, the world sucks and I'm fucked.

Well, yeah, I'd have to agree, dude. You're fucked.

From the other side, the world is fucked and here's just more evidence of it in this lame bitch who fucked all my friends.

Neither view is all that palatable to me. I'm not bothered by the darkness but rather with tagging some chick with it. That's how the Catholic church operates, after all. When all else fails, blame it on a woman. They're dirty and impure. Burn the bitch and bring back decency.

I wonder if I'm getting too enamored of this stuff. I've railed against covers all these years and suddenly it's ok to do them so long as they're by Leonard Cohen. In concept, that's not any different from knocking off Beatles songs.

Sister hexx got me thinking and I shouldn't get too carried away with this stuff. I've been spewing song ideas for a year and maybe it'd be a good idea to write some of them. There are lyrics galore of my own and I haven't made songs out of any of 'em or not many.

This may sound despondent. It ain't. I'm just smoking a joint and thinking about things after recording for a while. Now I'm going to do something really heavy like eat a Mounds bar while I watch an action flick. Or maybe a Sasquatch. Dunno yet.

"The Darkness" - Leonard Cohen

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:51:39 EST

Dark as Siberian cold mine on a grinding slow blues beat:

Got to have this one on the list too. I can't make out the lyrics too well but what I heard really hit it. The organ gives a taste of what you can stir up in it.

Thanks to Jeremy Gilchrist from Facebook for the tip.

Getting Yer Flu Shot

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:29:25 EST

If you're high-risk for certain things as is the case with me then you have to get a shot and can't receive the nasal spray. The latter contains live virus which, in layman's terms, is too strong for anyone at high risk. I thought the shots contained live virus as well but I guess not or maybe they're just not as strong. Regardless, you can't get them.

I've tried to get a shot in Fort Worth and two places in Cincinnati with the latter featuring a doctor going to Twitter to see if there had been any news on places receiving H1H1 material. I swear it's true: they're using Twitter as a medical resource. Not surprisingly, it's a useless medical resource as it didn't reveal anyplace to get a shot. (That's no slam of the doctor as he was searching anywhere he could to find one for me.)

If you're looking for the nasal spray, that shouldn't be too tough as there were multiple locations around for that. You've got to be under fifty to get it, tho.

I'm not interested in editorials on whether to get a flu shot. Flu will feckin' kill you. If you want to let that happen, it's yer bizness. There may be more horrible ways to croak but prob'ly not too many. I want that shot.

Cincinnati Bearcats Kick UConn's Ass

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:12:22 EST

A 47-45 win is pretty strange for football but that's just fine so long as the Bearcats had the higher number and they did. Score one up for the Bearcats and one down for the clamsuckers of New England.

I graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1975 and there's never been a time when the football team even made the papers, much less got a national ranking. The biggest football news in all that time wasn't college level but rather it was about Moeller High School and their games drew huge crowds. In fact, Moeller played their games at the University stadium because nowhere else was big enough.

So yesterday as I was driving Scotland Yard and Fluffbear around for the move, we saw all the out-of-towners coming in, the tv crews, etc. University of Cincinnati is happening!

Seeing how cranked the town got yesterday, I can just imagine what will happen next week-end. UC is on TV - woot!

Mechanical Stuff

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:48:25 EST

The fix to the door on the truck is excellent and GEICO handled it all well. Kings Dodge replaced an oxygen sensor and adjusted the hand-brake. The replacement power amps and devices are racked except for one amp that will arrive in a few days.

The truck was pressed into service as soon as I got back as Scotland Yard is moving and, even half full of stuff, there was plenty of room to move his apartment.

Playing Cross-Legged on the Floor

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:17:53 EST

This is the best kind of playing as you can fiddle with the stompbox settings and check out each bit as it goes along. No-one's allowed to hear this stuff as there can't be any interference. Dunno if I'll sleep but I'll get the truck at nine and prob'ly won't be around much after that.

Silas at Red Palms at 10:00 p.m. SL Time

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:24:14 EST

Grateful Stryker will be playing at 9:00 p.m. and I'll follow him. I don't think anyone is scheduled after me so this will likely run long. I'm going to get some sleep and then fiddle with the balances on the instruments before the show.

The stream will be http://thesongster.serverroom.us:9514

I want to catch Grateful's show so I'll prob'ly get into the world by about 9:30 p.m. and I'll hope to see you there.

Cash and Carry Medicine - Updated

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:18:47 EST

Concentra Urgent Care tells me they're about $180 to see a doctor and get a chest x-ray. That's about the same as the doctor in Fort Worth so I'll be on my way over there now. There's no point in trying to dodge it as you've heard the coughing in the gigs. News at eleven.

Update:

It came to $130 to see the doctor plus x-rays. No meds and x-ray is clearly improved over the one from Fort Worth.

I got a call that the bus is ready but that was fifteen minutes before closing. I'll pick it up in the morning and then take it out to the bus hospital to find out about the fuel supply light. I'll pick up the amps on the way back and they'll prob'ly have a few racks on-hand so I'll pick them up as well. That'll get almost all of the gear back up to where it was except for the video camera.

Eden Ballroom Gig Runs Over Three Hours

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:45:45 EST

The object was to go in and play for Sister Jacque on her rez-day, the Second Life equivalent of her birthday. Ms Bibi called me to tell me Jacque would be online but I was feeling like hell. The stomach stuff never got much better but what's really strange is that playing somehow helps that too. By the end of the show, it wasn't hurting anymore. Shut up and play really works!

I don't really know how people were hearing about the gig over there as I didn't say anything and I didn't see anyone else sending out any messages. People just started coming over. I was happy playing for Sister Jacque and Ms Bibi but there was a parade of people, not a big parade but quite a nice one nevertheless!

Telia got there late and that was cool as there hasn't been much opportunity to play for her lately. I was demolished by the end of it and I thought I'd be hurting this morning but it ain't nothin'. My back was complaining but it's not a light guitar and three hours or so gave it a pretty good work-out. Nothin' to it this morning and it was great to have a chance to play for her.

I'm re-balancing everything to remove any type of sound effects from the computer. It's not even close to perfect yet as the drums and bass were too loud, guitar and keys too soft, vocal too whatever. That's ok as I expected to run into that and I'll play with it more today to get it balanced better. What this means is that it'll be very easy to cut over to the mixer when I can find someplace to put it.

I'll be playing tonight at Red Palms at 10:00 p.m. SL Time and there's a substantial chance that will get highly crazy as well. Thanks for big fun last night and hope to see you again tonight!

I'm down to six guitar picks. Whoops, just found three more. I broke five or six last night so there should be enough for the gig tonight. More are on the way but it's not clear when the Pony Express will deliver them. Cross yer fingers!

"Everybody Knows" - Covered by Concrete Blonde

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:10:24 EST

Concrete Blonde has done a highly-interpretive version of "Everybody Knows" and the video is excellent:

This is closest to what you would see if I covered it with Nurse Judi except she'd kill the vocals and I'd hope she'd be pushing the beat a whole lot harder. The guitar would be punched up a lot harder, not with volume but with crunchiness.

The song says to me that everybody knows but there's an implied question of why the fuck don't you do something about it. Frustration is anger is belting power chords.

Everybody knows the ship is sinking
Everybody knows the captain lied.

OK, so get a feckin' bucket already. Right??

My interest in this song isn't that the world is fucked. Obviously it's fucked. What makes me mad is why no-one does anything about it so that's why I want a lot of power in this song. If Nurse Judi wants to get into it then I want to hear her put some punch out there. Think what Grace Slick would do with this song, given the experience of the intervening years.

Yes, I'll do a vocal for it too. There are all kinds of ways to do this song.

Reverend Sasquatch on Bimbos in the News

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:03:54 EST

The good Reverend speaks on what Sarah Palin, Jane Velez-Mitchell, and Carrie Prejean might have in common. It's just a bit of spiritual advice for bimbos in the news:

Replacement Stuff Has Arrived at Guitar Center

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:39:43 EST

The new gear has arrived at Guitar Center but I may not be able to pick it up until I get the truck back, prob'ly on Monday. That won't change the timing on anything but it'll be good to get back to where I was. I also found all the receipts from the original purchase. Let the bastards at the insurance company try to screw with me now.

I'm now using a Digitech multi-effects device for vocals and I'm pleased with it. This is going to blow Nurse Judi away as she has always been at the mercy of whatever was set up for her. This device gives the singer total control of the sound. I only had a few minutes to play with it prior to the gigs last night and you'll hear better what it does as I get more experienced with it.

The gigs sucked but there was some half-way decent stuff when I was playing before the shows so that makes things somewhat better. Focus will come as the damage from the trip gets fixed back up again. I want to go back to Gallatin next week but I need to get the truck straight from the body shop to Kings Dodge to find out why the fuel supply light came back on again. Unclear how that will work out. I also need to get the replacement seats installed and the body shop people said they'd do that but I don't know when the seats will arrive. Details, details...

Silas at 9:00 p.m. SL Time

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:12:10 EST

The gig is right after Grateful Stryker as he'll be doing a set at 8:00 p.m. and I'll follow him. The emphasis in the gigs has been on liveness as I find I'm using back tracks less and less. It's no editorial as it just feels good to be using all the stuff.

This will be on multiple instruments and there's no format. I'm hardly playing anything that I played even six months ago. I've no idea where it's going but I like the evolution. There's still a lot of technology but it's unavoidable. There are ten floor units but they're dedicated in banks to various instruments so no one thing has more than three floor units attached to it. All of them have loopers and that's what gets it all trippy.

I'm pretty sure I'll be using my stream on http://thesongster.serverroom.us:9514 and that can be used in WinAmp, iTunes or anything that can pick up an Internet radio station.

9:00 p.m. SL Time is midnight US Eastern, seven p.m. Hawaii, and way, way late for Amsterdam Time. (It was cool to see sister hexx and sister jsmn at Luxor. Thanks for coming, sweet ladies!)

Silas at Luxor at 4:00 p.m. SL Time on Wednesday - Updated

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:46:17 EST

Every return to Second Life has to start with a gig at Luxor and I don't count the gigs at the Ballroom as those are more like hang out with friends and even play something once in a while.

This will go out on Circe's Circle Radio and I can't advertise the stream as it's not mine to give. I'll check with her today if it's ok to do that and I bet I've said before that I'd ask. This time for sure or maybe Ms Bibi will remember.

I want to call Laughing Gecko but I'm not quite tuned to his time zone yet as he's in Hawaii. After doing SL for a few years, you get tuned to California time and to European time and even a bit to Tokyo / Sydney time (they're the same) but Hawaii is lost in this big feckin' ocean in the middle. I'm guessing six or seven hours behind US Eastern.

Some of you know that Nurse Judi has been dealing with some tough stuff and I can tell you for sure that she's looking good. We talked quite a bit about things that won't come up in this blog but what I can say is that I'm proud of her for what she did. My view of the highest courage is when you're afraid of something and do it anyway. Good for you, girl.

By now I'm guessing you've about had it with different versions of "Everybody Knows" and we've pretty much reached the shut up and play stage. I may burn out on it as this is an anthem of hopelessness that reverses the summer of love. For years, love is the answer and now we find the answer is that we're fucked. Well... Maybe so but what do I do with that. Obviously we're fucked so restating it may not be all that it seems.

Cynicism seems largely a luxury for the young as it's so amusing to take a bleak view but the winter on the beach perspective isn't all that engaging at this age. The perspective on the absurdity of things remains as keen as ever but wallowing in pointlessness seems a self-serving absolutism that really doesn't do much for anyone. Except the song really kicks ass. Hmm....

Update:

The drums are all set up and working and so is the bass. The keyboard is pretty easy to set up and the vocal mike will take a bit of time due to new gear but it'll be ready for 4:00 p.m.

"Everybody Knows" - Video with Leonard Cohen Version

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:12:53 EST

Interpretive video with New York artist using Cohen's "Everybody Knows" as the musical foundation:

Except for the lame-ass frame, the video is quite excellent. It's not clear why s/he put the 'New York' text in as an overlay as it couldn't be more obvious that it's shot in New York City. Unknown.