After a marathon mixing session today the new album is closer than ever to being finished. Of course, I still have drums, cello, and other miscellaneous tracks to record. I'd say overall the album is 80$% done. It's currently 17 tracks, and hopefully that won't change.

Had an interesting night at Barcade in Koreatown last night. They had the original Asteroids game, which was phenomenal. I'm not sure what the graphic output style is called, but the bullets from your ship had an actual luminescence and left a trail as they flew towards their target. It was beautiful in a strange way.

I also played the original Donkey Kong which is damn hard.

I got into a big argument with one of my roommate's friends when I got home because I made the assertion that on a per minute basis, Manu Ginobli is better than Kobe Brayant in terms of helping his team win games. If you disagree with me please read The Wages of Wins.

Yes, three days in a row.

I spent a lot of time (relatively) looking for this and finally found it. A classic.

http://emuse.ebaumsworld.com/watch/18396

Gus Chiggins.

Ok, this is two days in a row. Momentum.

So I recently finished reading Mark Twain's 'The Innocents Abroad'. It's one of his first books and it's about his extended excursion throughout the Mediterranean on a steamboat. I'm way into travelogues now and reading one that was written in 1867 - way before even our most basic modern necessities were invented - was fascinating. And yet his travelling companions were the same types of characters I see around me every day, and Mark Twain's satirical wit is as humorous today as it was then. Take this excerpt, for example:

"I am reminded, now, of one of these complaints of the cookery made by a passenger. The coffee had been steadily growing more and more execrable for the space of three weeks, till at last it had ceased to be coffee altogether and had assumed the nature of mere discolored water--so this person said. He said it was so weak that it was transparent an inch in depth around the edge of the cup. As he approached the table one morning he saw the transparent edge--by means of his extraordinary vision long before he got to his seat. He went back and complained in a high-handed way to Capt. Duncan. He said the coffee was disgraceful. The Captain showed his. It seemed tolerably good. The incipient mutineer was more outraged than ever, then, at what he denounced as the partiality shown the captain's table over the other tables in the ship. He flourished back and got his cup and set it down triumphantly, and said:

"Just try that mixture once, Captain Duncan."

He smelt it--tasted it--smiled benignantly--then said:

"It is inferior--for coffee--but it is pretty fair tea."

The humbled mutineer smelt it, tasted it, and returned to his seat. He had made an egregious ass of himself before the whole ship. He did it no more. After that he took things as they came. That was me."

So much for my feeble attempt at posting daily. I intended to write during the day while at work, but work suddenly became actual work and when I did have some spare time it was immediately swallowed up by two new games: World Elite Soccer and Desktop Tower Defense.

Seriously, WES is the greatest fantasy sports game of all time. Even my buddy at work - who is a fantasy nut but doesn't like soccer - is hooked. It doesn't even require that much time... but it can if you want it to, and I got sucked in. DTD is surprising; it seems like a stupid little flash game at first, but turns out to be an incredibly deep puzzle/strategy game and I just. can't. stop.

Luckily neither of these diversions are keeping me from working on the new album; my parents' recent visit took care of that.

I will post a new version of that 'Return' song sometime soon, I've been spending a lot of time on it and it's getting better.

Desktop Tower Defense - http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/

World Elite Soccer - http://64.30.211.196/soccer/

Three songs I've been listening to a lot recently:

Amy Winehouse - Rehab

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
NMH - Little Birds

A friend of mine had me listen to the Winehouse song on his ipod the other day and when it ended I immediately told him to burn it for me. I haven't reacted that strongly to a song in a long, long time. Just a perfect ode to 60s music stylings with a modern edge. And the hook is genius.

The Queen song needs no explanation.
The NMH song is rare. There's only one version and it's a live track and Magnum tells the audience that it's not even finished yet. But it feels finished, and it's haunting, scary, powerful and sobering all at once. Apparently it's the only known song after In the Aeroplane over the Sea. It's fantastic.

I'm beginning to start thinking about maybe trying to possibly commence writing a blog post every single day. I'm not committing to anything here! I'm just saying. It could happen, once I manage to start considering the possibility. I think it would be hard to come up with something interesting to say every day, especially during the (work) week. On the plus side, I have well over a thousand pictures to use - that's more than three years of posts right there.

The Cleveland Indians home opener was over the weekend, and it got snowed out in the 4th inning. The official AP write up of the non-game includes the following sentence:

"Also, a fan ran onto the field and left a snow angel in right-center before being arrested."

Yep, he's a friend of mine, and currently my sister's roommate. Apparently he doesn't remember much of the incident. That's a great photo though.

Here's a good write up of his heroics:

http://tribune-chronicle.com/sptcolumns/articles.asp?articleID=16642

I have been continuously employed for three years. As with most things, this fact has been both a boon and a bane. I need the money, but would rather have the time. As they say, time is money. But on the other hand, money can buy time.

It's hard to reconcile my dedication to music because it is, after all, merely a leisure pursuit. It is unnecessary for societies existence, and if any true calamity were to strike, 'Musician' would be one of the first job descriptions deleted. Probably right after Dog Groomer.

Then again, throughout all of history music has been an integral spiritual, ceremonial and cultural mainstay. Even the most insignificant and isolated tribes have a musical history, no matter how primitive their civilization may be, from the Aboriginal digiridoo to the 'lilting melody' of the Aztecs written about by the priest of Cortez' company.

I'm trying to rationalize my continued musical endeavors. I should shut up and just post some songs, and then fight my way through another day in the brick and mortar trenches.

I'm watching the Cavs'-Bulls game right now on a 2 hour tivo delay. The Cavs are up by 12 with 3 minutes to go in the second quarter thanks to some inspired play in the past six minutes. Ilgauskas is back in - he's my favorite Cavs' player, and I need him to play well for my fantasy team.

Eric Snow has had three uncharacteristic turnovers so far. Well, he called a timeout to save the last one

40 seconds to go and Z comes up with a huge offensive rebound - and now Gooden gets one as well. It didn't matter in the end, LeBron got called for his second consecutive offensive foul.

...and I am an idiot. The OSU-Georgetown final four game is on RIGHT NOW. Someone told me it was at 5; I don't know why they assumed I knew they meant 5 ET. Oh well, 8 minutes left in the 1st, I didn't miss too much.

Wow, massive block off the glass by Oden.

3:41 - Conley Jr. answers a three with another, then both teams miss threes. Of course, two of the tallest, most talented big men in college are both on the court right now, so this makes sense.

3:43 - good Bud Light commercial with the self-refilling refridgerator. It will probably test well, so they'll run it into the ground over the next month and I'll hate it by Tuesday.

3:47 - where is this game being played? There's a lot of lime green on the court. I wonder what those big Final Four decals they put on the middle of the floor are made out of. Is it a giant plastic sticker? That must be impossible to take off.

Yes, this is my Bill Simmons impersonation.

3:50 - oh, it's in Atlanta.

3:52 - 4 point lead going into the half. Back to the Cavs.

A lot of basketball going on today. Bad start to the start of the 3rd quarter, two missed threes by the Cavs, one made by Ben Gordon and a lucky shot by PJ Brown. This is ugly right now. I predict a 16-4 run by the Bulls. Hey, it's national tv; it never fails with the Cavs.

Another three by Gordon. I think I hate him. But the Cavs are getting Ilgauskas involved.

Shit, yet another lucky three by Gordon. I really don't like him. And now Hinrich just hit a three. Really, I thought I just stopped watching college basketball. So between the 4 (!) quick threes and Brown's shot that's a 14-something run by the Bulls. My prediction might come true.

Ok, Cavs back up by 4. I'm not going to get my hopes up.

Noooo Larry Hughes, stop forcing shots. You're supposed to be the point guard now. Facilitate, facilitate.

Alright, back to the OSU game.

I am intentionally not writing anything. It's a back and forth game.

4:37 - Buckeyes back up by 4 for the eighth time. Hibbert with four fouls.

4:38 - apparently Miller Lite has won four 'best American style light beer' awards at the World Beer Championships. I hate Miller Lite. It's the Ben Gordon of beers. Way, way overrated.

4:42 - after Oden almost rebroke his wrist we get that great Cingular commercial with the guy who gets his phone stolen in Italy. His reaction when the thief gives it back is priceless.

4:49 - this game is electric right now. 2:36 to go and Oden just got his fourth foul, which Hibbert has had for a while now. OSU up by 4, again.

4:54 - a MONSTER basket by Lighty and a foul. That was huge. So huge. OSU is up by 9 now... and Oden grabs a big rebound. Only 1:14 to go. An OSU win will certainly mitigate the inevitable Cavs loss that's still coming to me.

4:57 - things are looking good. 44 seconds left.

5:03 - it's over. 3.7 seconds to go and OSU up by 5. This is great. We could still have the OSU-Florida rematch, and unprecedented event. Seriously, what are the odds of two schools (out of hundreds of D-1 programs) getting to the championship games of the two biggest sports in the same year?

5:06 - and it's official.

Ok, back to the Cavs. I'm going to need a beer.

It's official. I'll be releasing an EP on the Polymorphic Records netlabel sometime next month (if all goes well). It will be a 5 or 6 song preview of the new album, which will follow sometime in May, I'm hoping. So the wheels are in motion.

Something happened, and suddenly I am in Ohio.

So it goes.

Here is that demo of a cover I mentioned on the 22nd.


guess_who_wrote_this_song.mp3