Wondering Where the Lions Are - Bruce Cockburn

I remember listening to this song on the radio in junior high after school while doing homework.

Time Travel

I've mentioned this before.  Physicists like to talk about time travel because according to the current standard model, it is theoretically possible.  But I suspect that either this will turn out not to be the case or that like a lot of things, it would be so technologically difficult, even for the most advanced civilization, that it is essentially impossible.  As far as we know (at least according to public knowledge and conventional scientific/historical understanding), no one has time-traveled into our historical timeline from the future or between points within our historical timeline.  Or if they have they've done it without being detected (either directly or in terms of causing anomalies - although it is arguable whether we would be able to detect the latter).
Another possibility is that from any point in time there may be infinite possible pasts (just as there are infinite possible futures), such that the singular historical timeline that we imagine ourselves having is essentially a needle in a haystack that would be very hard to get to.  This could protect us from getting time-travelled-into.  That would certainly be funny if time travel were ever invented.  You might not travel into the past that you wanted.  In fact, you would be very very unlikely to...

Alternate universes

Is it provable that an alternate universe, with physical laws different than the known universe, could exist?

continuing the contrast

two new learns this evening:

Waylon Jennings' Dukes of Hazzard theme

Julian Cope - Charlotte Anne

Too Late For Love - Def Leppard

Sort of grew up listening to this kind of stuff on hard rock radio.  They became a cliche, but their songs are simple and powerful and have good progressions (and because of that, they are really accessible).  Just learned it - pretty easy with a fudged chord or too.  Should be a fun one to play for people (like the Scorpions song).

Changes - Yes

Another great song from 90125.  I used to play the xylophone intro riff in the percussion section in band before practice when we were messing around.

Out of Touch - Hall and Oates

These guys had tons of amazing songs in the 70s and 80s. Hard to grow up listening to pop at that time and not be hugely influenced by them. Vocals, songwriting, rhythm tracks, they could put it all together and evolve with the time and never churn out derivative product. Here's Out of Touch, from 1984, performed at the perspicacious distance of 11 years in 1995.

More Country

Country songs are definitely the easiest to play. The chord progressions are usually 1-4-5 with maybe an extra chord or two. They are also typically short. And pretty fun. I can affect a country-type accent pretty well.
Tonight I learned Charley Pride's classic "Kiss an Angel Good Morning" and Willie Nelson's immortal "On the Road Again". Great stuff.

Our Song - Yes

From 1983's 90125, a really tremendous album. The pop end of proggy (in terms of hookish accessibility; not that top 40 fans ever accessed most of the songs on the album other than "Owner of a Lonely Heart"), but so many musical ideas per song.

How it went

Things went OK today.  It was really early in the Earthstock program, so there were only a handful of people watching.  Which was OK because I made quite a few mistakes.  Forgot an entire stanza of Me and Julio.  There's a video.  I'll take a look at that this weekend and see if I can get some clips posted.  More on this in a later post.  The rest of the day was crazy and Ru-Jun and I need to get to bed.

Difficult to practice

With Ru-Jun very annoyingly interrupting almost every song.  But got through the set.  Will be in the sun tomorrow, with sweaty hands.  Hard to move up and down the neck.  I'll try to have someone video it.  I have the equipment but I don't have anybody to run the camera yet...

Set is ready

Still a couple rough edges here and there but the set of songs I listed on 4-12 is pretty much ready. I'll give it another run through tomorrow night. I only have 30 min, so maybe I'll give people some options of what they want to hear.

Gig confirmed

11-11:30 Friday on the 2nd stage
Opening the show
Weather predicted to be 65 and sunny
As soon as I get the official schedule I'll start letting people know

gig?

Not sure if the Earthstock gig is going to happen.  I have not heard back from the organizers.  Would be disappointing.  But positive things are happening with developing songs and optimizing equipment setup.  I'll have to look for some other opportunities.

Also new

Wireless headset mic. Works well - tested it in the office on Saturday. It was difficult at the house party singing into a mic. With the headset, I'll be able to look down at the fretboard as much as I like.

Just added

Tralfaz as an author, using a new gmail account.  But Tralfaz=Slig in RL.  Old Grimy remains a separate person.  Now far away in Texas.  The days of his fronting Megachild are fondly remembered and missed.

Wow

Just played around with the new clip-on piezo pickup. Have turn up the gain a bit, but it works really well. If I had tried one of these a few months ago, I would not have bought the acoustic-electric (although I really like that instrument and it's good to have for the long term). This will be great for playing. It's almost completely unobtrusive for playing. Right now the acoustic is so much more comfortable to play. The sound is great out of my little Roland Micro Cube bass amp, which has flange, delay, and reverb on board.

After the Gold Rush - Neil Young

This was in a list of environmental songs that I found online. Great song. Slow, which is good for piano (what Neil plays it on). I'll work on it on the uke. Don't know if it will be ready for the gig.

Not many

Environmentally conscious rock songs. Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult is one. Looking for others.

Possible set list

For an 8 song set

Roxanne
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Country Roads
The Gambler
Folson Prison Blues
Ring of Fire
Homeward Bound
Me & Julio

If another set is needed

Smoke on the Water
Unhappy Birthday
Last of the Famous A P
Alsatian Cousin
American Girl
The Zoo
I've Got Spurs that Jingle Jangle Jingle

Also picked up

Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash (written by his wife and first recorded and performed by her sister). Pretty easy song and very well known.

Looks like the gig is going to happen.

possible gig coming up

Earthstock at SBU on 20-April. Megachild has played this event a few times. Tonight I worked on two Paul Simon songs: Me & Julio and Homeward Bound. I'm also going to try Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash. One of my Madison bands played this (I think it was Seed Pod 17, with me, Eric and Matt). So it's pretty familiar. These should be popular songs to do.

Postcards From Paradise - Flesh for Lulu

[click on post title for video link]
A lesser known band in the whole Ramones -> Psychedelic Furs-> Jesus and Mary Chain lineage of postpunk with some really great songs is Flesh For Lulu. This song has apparently been covered by quite a few artists since it came out in 1987, including Paul Westerburg. Which seems about right, the guitar chords sound like the chords in a lot of his songs.

Here Come Cowboys - Psychedelic Furs

[Click on post title for link.]
The Furs are a top 5 all time favorite and influence of mine. This is one of my favorites from their Mirror Moves album, when they were in their prime, in terms of both songwriting and producing their sound. Just learned the song too. Surprisingly simple and very easily transposed down into the comfortable area of the uke neck.

Here Comes the Rain Again - Eurythmics

[click on title for video link]
Eurythmics were among the coolest of the wave of early 80s artists that hit MTV in the early days. They have a lot of great song, but this one has always been my favorite. It has the minor - 5th (of the relative major) - 4th chord progression that always gets me as a hook (cf. just about every Steve Nicks song that is any good). Annie Lennox's vocals are second to none. Dave Stewart is just plain cool.

Peanuts - the Police

[click on title for link] One of the hoppier tunes off their 1978 debut album, Outlandos d'Amour. Live footage of the Police is always informative for players. They get a lot done for a trio.

Apples

I grew up eating an apple a day, probably from age 5 or so to age 15. My grandparents had a couple of small apple orchards and we ended up having apples all winter. The varieties I remember were: macs, romes, northern spies, 20 ounce (a really good tasting cooking variety), greenings (another cooking variety), yellow and red delicious. The varieties in the stores now don't resemble these very much and in many ways are superior. More flavor. Brown a lot slower. I'm particularly impressed by Braeburns and Galas, especially since these are among the least expensive varieties.
This time of year we were reduced to wrinkled up yellow delicious (which were still quite sweet) or maybe some spies (which have a very nice taste) or romes (my least favorite - hard on the outside, grainy and not much flavor in the flesh). The more recent varieties really store excellently.
BTW, the red and yellow delicious that we had back then are nothing like what goes by those names today. I think there is huge variety in that strain (or name appropriation).

New (re)learns

Worked on Substitute (the Who) and Magnet and Steel (Walter Egan) this evening. Both were songs I checked out in the very early uke days last fall, before I was yet doing much with the instrument.

Into The Groove - Madonna

My all time favorite Madonna song. IIRC it was featured in Desperately Seeking Susan, which I like a lot, but more because of Rosanna Arquette than Madonna.

Flesh For Fantasy - Billy Idol

This is one of several songs of his that I've always liked a lot. This live version gives an indication of how important the studio was in the production and impact of the album tracks. He sounds very vulnerable when it's just him and the guitar. The crowd for this MTV gig wasn't exclusively paying attention to the music. Must have been a party for something.