Some idiot put Chromosome 11 in the "pornography" category of StumbleUpon. Why would anyone do that? The only offensive thing I can see on the main page is the "Shit I Wrote" blog description. I'd hardly call that "pornography". Hell, in this day and age the word "shit" is barely offensive. No doubt the classification will drive traffic to the blog, I'm not looking to piss off a bunch of horny bastards looking for something that just ain't there. I don't know how (or if) it will affect my general StumbleUpon topic status. Oh, well. I don't know why I bother to worry about it. It's not as if it's overrun with traffic anyway.
8.31.2009
8.30.2009
8.29.2009
Feeling pretty cruddy today. My left ankle hurts and I don't even know why. My vision is all screwy like it sometimes gets. I don't what causes that, either, but I've given up on optometrists and ophthalmologists. I'm thinking the problem may well stem from the daily Ambien I take, but as awful as things may get, I will NOT be giving that up. Oh, no, buddy.
And to top it all off I've been really beat up by a spell of depression that's kicked in over the last few days. Or perhaps I should say it's kicked up a few notches from it's usual level. Having a hard time enjoying the things I know I love. Feeling a little paranoia and wanting to engage in as little social activity as possible. Tired. I snapped a potential Facebook profile photo a couple of days ago and was just blown away by how run down and haggard I looked. Like I hadn't slept in a week. Lot of muscle tension in my eyebrows and lower forehead. Some really bad headaches in the mornings at least every 3 or 4 days. Dry mouth while I'm sleeping...at least I may know the reason for that: a side effect of the lithium I'm on (and probably of the other two as well). My wrist is a bit sore from mowing the lawn yesterday, as well.
I know, I know...I sound like a hypocondriac. Trust me, it's all there and it's all real. And I didn't come here to complain, though I guess that's what it sounds like I'm doing. Only wanted to get a post in while I was in the mood.
And to top it all off I've been really beat up by a spell of depression that's kicked in over the last few days. Or perhaps I should say it's kicked up a few notches from it's usual level. Having a hard time enjoying the things I know I love. Feeling a little paranoia and wanting to engage in as little social activity as possible. Tired. I snapped a potential Facebook profile photo a couple of days ago and was just blown away by how run down and haggard I looked. Like I hadn't slept in a week. Lot of muscle tension in my eyebrows and lower forehead. Some really bad headaches in the mornings at least every 3 or 4 days. Dry mouth while I'm sleeping...at least I may know the reason for that: a side effect of the lithium I'm on (and probably of the other two as well). My wrist is a bit sore from mowing the lawn yesterday, as well.
I know, I know...I sound like a hypocondriac. Trust me, it's all there and it's all real. And I didn't come here to complain, though I guess that's what it sounds like I'm doing. Only wanted to get a post in while I was in the mood.
8.26.2009
8.25.2009
Snatches of Pink
This is an autographed 8x10 glossy promotional photo of Snatches of Pink (click on image to enlarge). SOP were (are?) a criminally overlooked three piece band that rose from the ashes of the Athens/Chapel Hill scene that sort of dried up when REM left. Their drummer, Sara Romweber, was originally a member of Let's Active, a side project of producer Mitch Easter's. SOP was a real change-up from that group, with it's cowboy punk leanings. Their first album, "Send in the Clowns" was a shotgun blast from start to finish, with the notable exception of the whiskey drunk ballad "Time Done Gone", which sounded like a Stones song recorded in the wee early hours of the morning when Keith and Mick were wasted to the point of barely keeping their eyes open. Snatches second album, "Dead Men", was in many ways even better than the debut. "Look Away" confirms vocalist Michael Rank's uncanny knack of channeling Keef. Lousy promotion and weak record sales are partly to blame for why I haven't heard anything more from the band, even though they did release two or three other records since "Dead Men". I don't think Sara hung around for too long after that one, and, since she was one of the main reasons I liked the band, I didn't bother with them. I've heard samples since then of the post-Romweber records and to be honest I wasn't all that impressed. You take away one member of ANY BAND and the dynamic is lost. Sara currently plays shows with her brother Dexter, who got his start with another lost Chapel Hill act,Flat Duo Jets. I don't know what ever happened to the other guys, but I hope they are successful, because they were awesome talents in their own right.
8.24.2009
"Lord of the Flies"
Another moldy oldie.
"Lord of the Flies"
(Inspired by a huge fly that was bothering me in the cellar when I first wrote the song)
Lord of the flies
Lord of the night
Lord of darkness
Lord of light
Lord of light
Lord I believe you
Are the Lord of the flies
But I have not received you
I have not offered up my life
To the Lord of the flies
How still the ground beneath you holds
The secrets of the age
But will they still believe in you
When you lay them in their graves?
You hold the darkness like a mirror to your face
To show the Way
Lord of the flies
Are you coming tonight?
Lord of darkness
Will you leave me behind?
Leave me behind
Will you leave me behind
You're the Lord of the flies
"Lord of the Flies"
(Inspired by a huge fly that was bothering me in the cellar when I first wrote the song)
Lord of the flies
Lord of the night
Lord of darkness
Lord of light
Lord of light
Lord I believe you
Are the Lord of the flies
But I have not received you
I have not offered up my life
To the Lord of the flies
How still the ground beneath you holds
The secrets of the age
But will they still believe in you
When you lay them in their graves?
You hold the darkness like a mirror to your face
To show the Way
Lord of the flies
Are you coming tonight?
Lord of darkness
Will you leave me behind?
Leave me behind
Will you leave me behind
You're the Lord of the flies
"Runaway"
I just spent the last 3 hours working on a new song. It's called "Runaway"... I call it "new"...actually the words have been around since 1997 and the music is just something I've had laying around for a few years that I never got around to writing lyrics for. They merge together nicely, words making up for any deficiancy in guitar playing and vice versa. Yes, that's right. This is not one of my typically absurdist Bambo Syndicate projects. Just yours truly playing a very rudimentary guitar mixed in with a slew of vocal tracks. I've done some preliminary mixing and it's shaping up to really sound good, if I may say so myself.
Though I'm not sure how well the lyrics will hold up without the music, I am nevertheless still going to post them here. On "Chromosome 11", too.
"Runaway"
Throughout my life
A few things I have found
There are some who'll lift you up
There are some who'll drag you down
There are some who'll make you wonder
What you're still doing in this town
And they're never satisfied
Until they see you in the ground
And they're never satisfied with anything they see in the mirror
And they always wonder why they have to sleep alone
And they're never pacified, no matter what you give 'em
Just like runaways that are never going home
It's easy to sleep and hide
Hide under sheets all night
In Dreams you forget
What you've been shown in the Light
Crosses burning to the left
Hanging tree to the right
They're selling their souls
To the darkness
To the darkness of the white
And they're never satisfied with anything they see in the mirror
And they always wonder why they have to sleep alone
And they're never pacified, no matter what you give 'em
Just like runaways that are never going home
Though I'm not sure how well the lyrics will hold up without the music, I am nevertheless still going to post them here. On "Chromosome 11", too.
"Runaway"
Throughout my life
A few things I have found
There are some who'll lift you up
There are some who'll drag you down
There are some who'll make you wonder
What you're still doing in this town
And they're never satisfied
Until they see you in the ground
And they're never satisfied with anything they see in the mirror
And they always wonder why they have to sleep alone
And they're never pacified, no matter what you give 'em
Just like runaways that are never going home
It's easy to sleep and hide
Hide under sheets all night
In Dreams you forget
What you've been shown in the Light
Crosses burning to the left
Hanging tree to the right
They're selling their souls
To the darkness
To the darkness of the white
And they're never satisfied with anything they see in the mirror
And they always wonder why they have to sleep alone
And they're never pacified, no matter what you give 'em
Just like runaways that are never going home
What's going on around me? Not a whole lot. Here's what I see...
Directly in front of me, of course, is my laptop computer, a Sony Vaio that was pre-loaded with the Vista operating system. People from all over complain about Vista. They must be needing something from their computer that I don't need, because I like it just fine. A lot more so than Windows XP. My Vaio is a decent model...not their highest end product, but surely no bargain basement bare bones computer, either. It's done me well in the year since I first bought it...unless you count the DVD capabilities. It stopped reading DVD discs a few months ago. I don't know what's up...friends say maybe need a new driver, but I'm clueless as to which particular one I should install. And it won't read the Acid Music program disc...thankfully I don't need it to use the studio, but the loops on there were good and I certainly had not exhausted that library. I'm up a creek if something happens to the program that's on my hard drive. If I don't have the problem taken care of by then, I guarantee you it will go straight to the shop if my Acid program bites the dust.
In the near distance over the top of this computer screen I can see out television, which is a 40-something inch screen LCD HD model that I bought at the same time I purchased this computer. Other than cars it represents the biggest chunk of money I've ever spent on a single item...I think I paid about $1300 for it, tax included. Took a little time to get used to the larger screen. When I first hooked it up I was disappointed that the HD channels weren't as crystal clear as what you see in the stores. I've since come to realize that store models are calibrated extremely proficiently to look as good as they do...I could probably achieve the same effect but it require hours of work and study on my part and/or a significant investment paid to a "professional" who would come in and twiddle it's knobs. Things ain't like they were in the old days, playas. So I just got used to the look, which, it must be noted, is definitely better than regular television sets (a dying breed, to be sure). It's got a feature called "Intelligent Sensor" that's supposed to automatically adjust the set when there are changes in the room lighting. I guess it works okay. I can barely tell the difference.
Beneath that, on a nice marbled glass stand, is my Samsung home theater system. This component has given me much grief. Though it sounds pretty good playing a DTS 5.1 DVD, I KNOW it could sound better, and as for playing CDs through it...no way. All those Dolby HQ effects and shit they've added for CD and iPod playback are just wasted as far as I'm concerned...although I must confess that I don't have an iPod and I haven't tried using my mp3 player with it...could well make all the difference in the world...but I kind of doubt it. About a month ago it stopped reading discs so I had to box it up and send it back to the manufacturer for repairs...I was very lucky because the warranty expired just a day or two after they recieved the product. Now it's working just about as good as it ever has. My wife likes the home theater well enough, but she hates how I've just let the front and rear speaker wires hang down the walls on their respective corners. I told her I'd do something to hide them, maybe get some of that goopy "tacky" stuff and affix them to the walls. That was probably my only real plan, but alas, it was made a year ago and I still have not bothered with it. I guess the wires don't bother me all that much and the wife has given up on my remedying the situation.
Also on the stand, beneath the bottom left corner of the tv, is a DVD box set collection of "Gilligan's Island"'s 3rd season. I have all three of 'em. I used to watch that show all the time...every day when I came home from school I would turn on the tv, watch "Gilligan" and fix up a couple of "bread sandwiches" (nothing but bread and that ain't no lie). The DVDs are pretty cool, but I must confess that the "dumbness" quotient is much higher than I remember it being.
On the bottom shelf of the tv stand (which, incidentally, only has three levels) is a small photo frame that holds four pictures. Three of them are of my son, taken when he was probably 6 years old. In the fourth window is a piece of light brown paper with the initials B.J.C. embossed across the front. This frame belonged to my aunt Imogene and was given to us after she died (not all that long ago, actually). She had no children of her own and always loved my boy. In fact, when she passed away she left him a really nice, big chunk of money for his college education.
On top pof the coffee table in front of me...3 remote controls, a candle stand, a plastic sandwich bag, a small pipe, a purple Bic lighter, a 34 ounce cup from Jack Griffith's convenience store (just under half full of Dr. Pepper and slowly melting ice), a copy of "The Beatles Anthology" (the perfect coffee table book, IMO) and finally the most recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine. The Beatles are on the cover of that one, too, with a story called "Why the Beatles Broke Up". I haven't read it yet, though I'm sure I will in the coming days. I've already read a couple of the other stories in this one, and they were both great. They reminded me of why I subscribe to the magazine even when they offend me so often by putting talentless pop music phenomenoms on the cover so often. Not much to complain about this time.
On the wall to my right hangs a photo of my dad, who passed away 10 years ago. It's a very good picture of him, all decked out in a black suit jacket and cowboy hat. He did like to wear a cowboy hat, that's for sure. He's got that good natured smile on his face that won him a lot of friends at the coffee shop. This is one of the only portraits we have hanging on our walls, but it seemed fitting to include this one, since so much of what made this house so special was a result of his work.
Alright...that's enough of this for now. I'm gonna fiddle around with the Acid and try to make some simple demos of three or four new songs I'm working on...not Bambo Syndicates songs, but more traditional singer/songwriter fare.
Directly in front of me, of course, is my laptop computer, a Sony Vaio that was pre-loaded with the Vista operating system. People from all over complain about Vista. They must be needing something from their computer that I don't need, because I like it just fine. A lot more so than Windows XP. My Vaio is a decent model...not their highest end product, but surely no bargain basement bare bones computer, either. It's done me well in the year since I first bought it...unless you count the DVD capabilities. It stopped reading DVD discs a few months ago. I don't know what's up...friends say maybe need a new driver, but I'm clueless as to which particular one I should install. And it won't read the Acid Music program disc...thankfully I don't need it to use the studio, but the loops on there were good and I certainly had not exhausted that library. I'm up a creek if something happens to the program that's on my hard drive. If I don't have the problem taken care of by then, I guarantee you it will go straight to the shop if my Acid program bites the dust.
In the near distance over the top of this computer screen I can see out television, which is a 40-something inch screen LCD HD model that I bought at the same time I purchased this computer. Other than cars it represents the biggest chunk of money I've ever spent on a single item...I think I paid about $1300 for it, tax included. Took a little time to get used to the larger screen. When I first hooked it up I was disappointed that the HD channels weren't as crystal clear as what you see in the stores. I've since come to realize that store models are calibrated extremely proficiently to look as good as they do...I could probably achieve the same effect but it require hours of work and study on my part and/or a significant investment paid to a "professional" who would come in and twiddle it's knobs. Things ain't like they were in the old days, playas. So I just got used to the look, which, it must be noted, is definitely better than regular television sets (a dying breed, to be sure). It's got a feature called "Intelligent Sensor" that's supposed to automatically adjust the set when there are changes in the room lighting. I guess it works okay. I can barely tell the difference.
Beneath that, on a nice marbled glass stand, is my Samsung home theater system. This component has given me much grief. Though it sounds pretty good playing a DTS 5.1 DVD, I KNOW it could sound better, and as for playing CDs through it...no way. All those Dolby HQ effects and shit they've added for CD and iPod playback are just wasted as far as I'm concerned...although I must confess that I don't have an iPod and I haven't tried using my mp3 player with it...could well make all the difference in the world...but I kind of doubt it. About a month ago it stopped reading discs so I had to box it up and send it back to the manufacturer for repairs...I was very lucky because the warranty expired just a day or two after they recieved the product. Now it's working just about as good as it ever has. My wife likes the home theater well enough, but she hates how I've just let the front and rear speaker wires hang down the walls on their respective corners. I told her I'd do something to hide them, maybe get some of that goopy "tacky" stuff and affix them to the walls. That was probably my only real plan, but alas, it was made a year ago and I still have not bothered with it. I guess the wires don't bother me all that much and the wife has given up on my remedying the situation.
Also on the stand, beneath the bottom left corner of the tv, is a DVD box set collection of "Gilligan's Island"'s 3rd season. I have all three of 'em. I used to watch that show all the time...every day when I came home from school I would turn on the tv, watch "Gilligan" and fix up a couple of "bread sandwiches" (nothing but bread and that ain't no lie). The DVDs are pretty cool, but I must confess that the "dumbness" quotient is much higher than I remember it being.
On the bottom shelf of the tv stand (which, incidentally, only has three levels) is a small photo frame that holds four pictures. Three of them are of my son, taken when he was probably 6 years old. In the fourth window is a piece of light brown paper with the initials B.J.C. embossed across the front. This frame belonged to my aunt Imogene and was given to us after she died (not all that long ago, actually). She had no children of her own and always loved my boy. In fact, when she passed away she left him a really nice, big chunk of money for his college education.
On top pof the coffee table in front of me...3 remote controls, a candle stand, a plastic sandwich bag, a small pipe, a purple Bic lighter, a 34 ounce cup from Jack Griffith's convenience store (just under half full of Dr. Pepper and slowly melting ice), a copy of "The Beatles Anthology" (the perfect coffee table book, IMO) and finally the most recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine. The Beatles are on the cover of that one, too, with a story called "Why the Beatles Broke Up". I haven't read it yet, though I'm sure I will in the coming days. I've already read a couple of the other stories in this one, and they were both great. They reminded me of why I subscribe to the magazine even when they offend me so often by putting talentless pop music phenomenoms on the cover so often. Not much to complain about this time.
On the wall to my right hangs a photo of my dad, who passed away 10 years ago. It's a very good picture of him, all decked out in a black suit jacket and cowboy hat. He did like to wear a cowboy hat, that's for sure. He's got that good natured smile on his face that won him a lot of friends at the coffee shop. This is one of the only portraits we have hanging on our walls, but it seemed fitting to include this one, since so much of what made this house so special was a result of his work.
Alright...that's enough of this for now. I'm gonna fiddle around with the Acid and try to make some simple demos of three or four new songs I'm working on...not Bambo Syndicates songs, but more traditional singer/songwriter fare.
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