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A challenge no serious songwriter could resist:
Each Master is tasked with writing a song in the style of their opponent. The Masters will be judged on how accurately they write a song in their opponent’s style without it becoming a simple parody. When listening to their entries, you must genuinely believe that they were written by the original Master. Got that?
So hop on over an listen to the MASTER’s Level Round #2 entries, decide which of the two songs you like, then vote for Paul and Storm. Just because.
An amateur archaeologist, Roberto Velazquez, has discovered the sound of Aztec musical instruments used in ancient sacrificial rites. Until recently, the archaeological community had dismissed these pottery pieces as children’s toys, but according to Velazquez, they seem to have played a very important role in the ritual life of the Aztec peoples. Some of the whistle-like instruments sound like a banshee, others like frogs and jaguars. Still others have specific pitches and can play melodies.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/06/30/pre-columbiansounds.ap/index.html#cnnSTCOther1
**if the link gives you an error, try hitting “refresh” **
The “death whistle” sounds to me a lot like the flute section on the first day of beginning band class.
My former student Patrick Hobbie’s band For The Birds will be in the studio in 2 weeks and I”m excited. I plan to take some video footage for sychronicity live and perhaps even do a little music video for them. Patrick and his friend Bobby Hill are a great songwriting team and I enjoy their creativity and love for innovation. If you do the myspace thing, you should check ‘em out and tell ‘em I sent you.
http://www.myspace.com/enjoyforthebirds
Their engineer is the incredibly multi-talented Charles Davis, the best in our region. Uncle Charles has been very busy producing, playing (a MONSTA guitar player and drummer!) and composing in a new studio I’ve been helping facilitate. He recently recorded, mixed and produced his father’s latest gospel album and it’s unbelievably good (I heard some tracks in the studio). When I can get my hands on a copy, I will share a snippet. Charles is also a “Beatmaster” (’cause it pays) and you can check out some of his rap songs at:
http://www.myspace.com/unkcharlez
This is a poor screenshot of the background. You can see it more clearly if you visit the site.
I think some former Disney animators must be doing graphic design for Bonnaroo.
Does anyone else see something wrong with this background?
Well, I seem to have recurring blog problems due to a software upgrade at Edublogs. Will be on the beach this weekend and next week, but will try to post if Edublogs ever lets me log in again.
Hey guys, – I will be back…don’t give up on me!
Sorry for the lack of posts; –I’m in the middle of moving my parents to a new home that’s 3 doors down from mine. It’s a bit crazy this week, but hopefully this will decrease the time spent driving to their house twice a day to give them their medicine and check on supplies, housekeeping, etc… If I get a chance, I’ll post pics of their new home. A big thanks goes out to my students, Bill, Tom, and Nathan, for all their help in fence building, painting, and moving furniture.
I never thought I would ever forget my father’s birthday. We’ve really become very close since Mom’s stroke and Alzheimer’s onset. And I was wondering just last week what I needed to get him. I didn’t expect my memory to fail me. Especially not on his 94th birthday. You see, I visit twice a day to give Mom her medicines and he mentioned this evening all the wonderful phone calls relatives made.
It’s clear how all the job-related hassles, deadlines and responsibilities mean so very little in the long run. Birthday’s are important. Very important. Happy Birthday, Dad. Belated celebratory plans are being made as I write…
UPDATE! Dad received cake and ice cream at 5 PM CST along with a generous stash of cookies and some hanging baskets I found at the gardening center. Mom subsequently forgot that she had forgotten his birthday yesterday too, but neglected to remember what she’d gotten him (or thought she had gotten him).
My wife and I stumbled on this injured dog at my parents home. My father said this dog had been hanging around for a couple of weeks. His tags had been removed and it appeared he had been hit by a car. So we loaded him up and carried him to the veternarian and got him checked out and treated for his wound. The vet estimates his age at 9 months. No one we asked other than my dad had seen this dog before, so I called the local radio station and placed a “found dog” ad. He’s certainly making himself at home.
Anyone lose a dog out there?
Sorry about the lack of posting; I took on a gig as asst. music director for the university’s production of Urinetown and I’ve been spending long hours in rehearsals. What is Urinetown? I know you’re dying to know…
It’s a comedy-musical inspired by a pennyless traveling student who encountered a pay-toilet during a visit to Europe. Obviously it made a lasting impression on him! He developed this vision of a futuristic society where water is scarce and everyone has to pay to pee. He teamed up with a writer and Urinetown was born.
Hey! I didn’t pick it…I’m just the piano player (and a temporary one at that).
Sample friend twitter names to shizzle:
paulandstorm
jonathancoulton
Here’s a vid of a band member from Switchfoot passing out from the flu while onstage. I know this feeling very well; Since this flu grabbed me Friday, I’ve passed out twice during my Sunday organist gig and then once during the afternoon rehearsal for the university’s musical. Last night I passed out while Tessa was waiting at Taco Bell for her fast food order. It’s really creepy not being in control of one’s own body…kinda like an out-of-body experience. One minute I was playing, the next minute I’m surrounded by people asking me if I’m OK. Anybody got any really good cures for this crud?
First of all, he’ll have to pick a rap name, but Bill Cosby is reportedly working on a new rap album dealing with issues such as crime, parenting, drug abuse and teen pregnancy. (AllHipHop.com) . Judging from the comments on this rumor, the hiphop community is not taking it very seriously. Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch Blog says:
Cosby’s drawn a healthy amount of criticism for what some call overly broad, reactionary attacks on a younger generation’s culture. What could he possibly do with a mic, other than embarrass himself?
I’m actually hoping it will be great. You go, Bill!
In yesterday’s post, I referenced this speech but had only seen bits posted on blogs. This is good stuff and I saw a great post on the Womb boards where they are comparing ISP enforcement to the same responsibility we see enforced by the postal mail.
Find the Full Text here: (womb boards)
Are your coworkers cool enough to help you make a video? Check out this! Thanks Listenerd & Pop Candy. I predict this will become the next big fad!
How many ways can you play a guitar? (Thanks, GuitarFlame).
Find a strange music video you like from a band you’ve never heard of. (Thanks Killed by the Video Star).
It’s Friday. I’m in a frustrated mood due to Digidesign test administration issues. Here’s a guitar.
Thanks to Listenerd for making my day!
What am I supposed to make of this? If I were David Bowie, I’d be upset. Trent Reznor sent me this email about a new project that circumvents the record labels in a Radiohead-like move. You can give your email and download the album at high-quality file rates next week or give your email and download it for free in lower quality file rates. In either case, there is no middleman (something they’re obviously very proud of) and the track I heard on his myspace page sounds very NIN (I’ll leave it for you to decide if you like it…).
From the RIAA website:
In the ninth wave of this initiative, the RIAA this week sent letters in the following quantities to 19 schools including: Drexel University (17 pre-litigation settlement letters), Indiana University (23), Northern Illinois University (25), Occidental College (19), State University of New York at Morrisville (18), Texas Christian University (20), Tufts University (15), University of Alabama (14), University of California, Berkeley (19), University of Delaware (18), University of Georgia (13), University of Iowa (18), University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (20), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (13), University of New Hampshire (30), University of New Mexico (17), University of South Florida (43), University of Southern California (37) and Vanderbilt University (32).
I spent a few moments on the phone recently with John Wanzung of Mytracks.com; their site partners with musicians to allow unlimited listens to new and emerging artists with social networking features customized for each university campus. This means students have access to free and legal music; -and unlimited streaming. Mytracks charges for downloads, but it’s a monthly or annual fee and unlimited downloads. All perfectly legal!
Schools need to educate students that you can’t take other people’s songs without paying for them.
To Be A Teacher
If you want to be a teacher, you first have to learn how to play hopscotch, learn other children games, learn how to watch a snail crawl, read “Yertle the Turtle”, and watch “Bullwinkle”. If you want to be a teacher, you have to blow “she loves me, she loves me nots” with a dandilion or pull the indiviudal petals of a daisy, wiggle your toes in the mud and let it ooze through them, stomp in rain puddles, and be humbled by the majesty of a mountain. If you want to be a teacher, you have to fall in love each day. If you want to be a teacher, you have to paddle a canoe, take a hike, or just get out. If you want to be a teacher, you have to fly a kite or throw a frisbee, make sandcastles, love people, and listen intently to the rustle of the leaves or the murmur of the brook or the whisper of the breeze. If you want to be a teacher, you have to dream dreams, play games, talk to the flowers, catch fire flies, admire a weed, walk barefoot in the rain, hold a worm, and see what is yet to be. If you want to be a teacher, you have to think silly thoughts, have a watergun fight, have a pillow fight, swirl a tootsie pop in your mouth, burn sparklers at night, and see in a tree more than a mass of atoms or so many board feet of lumber or something that’s in the way. If you want to be a teacher, you have to skip as you walk, laugh at yourself, smile at others, hang loose, always have an eraser handy, concoct an original recipe, and inspire. If you want to be a teacher, you have to fix a bird’s broken wing, tweek the neck of a deflating baloon, to zany things, play with a yo-yo, and lose yourself in the quiet scenery to find yourself. If you want to be a teacher, you have to feed the pigeons or squirrels, sing in the shower or tub, smell the flowers, watch a spider spin it’s web, play with finger paints, and do a belly flob in a pool. If you want to be a teacher, you have to bring joy into everything, watch in awe a sunset or sunrise, ride on a swing, slide down a slide, bump on a seesaw, and respect even a cockroach as a miracle of life. If you want to be a teacher, you have to ride a bicycle or roller skate or ice skate, and live today. If you want to be a teacher, make all those marvelous feelings and images an intimate part of you and bring them into the classroom with you and share them. If you want to be a teacher, as you have to put aside your formal theories and intellectual constructs and axioms and statistics and charts when you reach out to touch that miracle called the individual human being.
Copyright 1994, Louis Schmier
I’ve spent 5 minutes trying to find something good on Hypemachine.
I’m beginning to think the thing is broken….
or that nobody recognizes quality anymore…
or that trained engineers have left the building…
If any of my students are out there reading this, I’ll add 10 points to a major test grade if you can shoot me an email that critiques 3 of the tracks of lesser-known bands heard on Hypemachine. Please include a link to the mp3 file so I can follow up on your critique. Put “10 Extra Credit Points” in your subject line.
j
It seems that today is the day all bloggers take a moment to reflect on our fragile world ecology. I’m using my moment to honor the most musical tree in the world; the stately Mpingo tree. A lack of concern in Tanzania has brought this important species to near extinction. For more information and to learn how you can help, visit the African Blackwood Conservation Program website.
I’ve been a party to some ghost hunts in the past and count myself pretty much a skeptic. These past 2 days I took the wife and kids to Mobile to take advantage of the fall break and to try to do a little shopping. We spent the night at a hotel that was built in 1852 (and I heard rapping all night) and the next day rode down to Dauphin Island to show the girls Ft. Gaines. I’d not been there since my childhood. After an hour of climbing around and picture taking we headed home and I unloaded my pics from my camera. Out of several dozen normal digital snapshots, here’s the one unknown glare on the bottom r.h. corner of the sign. It’s to the left of the doorway. No flash was being used. More pics are on my wife’s site…
Folks, if you’ve never tried to remix something, please don’t start here! When I heard the original track…I thought “you’ve got to be kidding!” It’s solid proof that French music and jazz destroys brain cells.
http://www.acidplanet.com/testshotstarfish
It’s truly a joy to see natural musical talent with quality material connecting the past with the future…
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