A New RareForm Recording!
It’s our version of Los Lobos’ “Will The Wolf Survive“. Like “Inspire Me” the music parts were recorded in 1994 (ish) in rythym guitarist Mike Elliots recording studio “The Spare-Room”. OK. It wasn’t a recording studio per se, it was literally a spare room in Mike’s house. Unlike “Inspire Me”, we never got around to recording the vocals. Well, it just so happens that I foolishly went out and bought a vocal mic, the Marshall MXL-770. I have been wanting to lay down the vocals on this song for the longest time (14 years) and tried to do so a couple of weeks ago, but the only mic I had on hand was a Superlux ECO-88. It’s been my workhorse mic for live shows and sounds very good in that environment. But it’s not designed for studio recording. The recorded vocals were OK, but not that great. Here is the first version. The difference in the sound quality is stunning! There are a few differences in efects between one track and the other, but the differences are minor. Now I actually sound like I can half sing.My next task is recording one of my own songs, which means I have to learn those three chords on the guitar I promised Cliff. I am also going to do some research on home studio setup to get the best dynamics possible.
PS. For those who don’t know, RareForm is my San Diego band. Yes I live in Fresno, which is 348 miles away. I joined in 1992 when I moved back down to SD. I have lived in Fresno for eleven years… and I’m still in the band. Don’t ask me how it works, but I think the guys are just to lazy to find a bass player that lives closer.
Superconductor power transmission lines on Long Island! (get it? “Soo Cool”). They are in the preliminary stages of implementing this technology. Ever since the East Coast blackout of 2003, I have been harping that our national power grid, designed in the 1920’s, is becoming woefully outdated, and we are stretching its capacity to the limits. California has been able to avoid more blackouts since the Enron induced power failures of 1999 through 2001, but the “Flex Alert” strategy will only get us so far. It’s nice to finally see some investment to modernize the system. It would take years, maybe decades, to replace the old infrastructure, and the technology is pricey, but the CEO of American Superconductor, Greg Yurek, states:
… in the long run, the cost of superconductor transmission cables will be below that of adding new aboveground copper power lines. A single superconductor running underground can take the place of a nest of conventional copper lines strung overhead. The cables at the Long Island site enter the ground through a right of way not much wider than 1 meter.
Of course, California governance is so dyfunctional, we’ll probably never see this tech implimented here. And the enviros would certainly find some reason to block it.
PS. I was born on Long Island, so I feel I have some connection to this story.
Hat Tip: Slashdot.
Tony Snow has lost his long battle to cancer. One of the comments from this blog asks: “One wonders if Tony will get as much coverage as did Tim Russert. I’d bet not, since Tony wasn’t a lefty.” While I’m not a fan of the whole “lefty / righty” thing, I do think the question is is interesting. But the answer is obvious. Of coarse he won’t. He worked for Fox News, which does not have the percieve prestige that NBC News has (had).
My blog isn’t rendering right – a bunch of stuff is missing. My Blog Is Broken!!!
UPDATE:Â Fixed. Some spammer managed to punch into my last post. I deleted it and now all is well. I don’t know how they did it, but just to be safe, I changed my password.
Global Warming Hysteria | Sonicfrog July 3, 2008 | 
Comments Off on First They Came For Your Light Bulbs…. And I Said Nothing. Then They Came For Your SUV's… And I Said Nothing…
With sadness, I report that actor Don S. Davis, known to Sci Fi fans as Stagate SG-1’s Gen. George Hammond, has passed away. 🙁
When he left the series in 2003, he concentrated on his artwork, featured here. It’s pretty darned good.
  
 
Would you consider Wesley Clark to be a Maverick? Consider this from a Newsweek article about Clark and his relief of NATO command in 1999:
Since his days at West Point, Clark has been something of a loner…. Clark gloried in being the lone warrior, the take-no-prisoners intellectual. “It’s very difficult to stop this ambitious man,” said one of his European peers during the war. His colleagues might admire and envy Clark, but few actually liked him.
and this:
Clark’s fights with other NATO commanders were legendary. Early in the conflict, he ordered up a task force of Apache tank-busting helicopter gunships, after going to the White House over the protests of the U.S. Army chief of staff, Gen. Dennis Reimer. The Army dragged its feet and took nearly a month just to reach the theater–and never did fire a missile in anger. At the end of the war, Clark was so anxious to stop the Russians from stealing a march to Pristina airport that he ordered an airborne assault to take the field before them. But Gen. Mike Jackson, the British commander on the ground in Kosovo, wouldn’t carry out Clark’s orders. Subsequently, a frustrated Clark asked Adm. James Ellis Jr., the American officer in charge of NATO’s Southern Command, to order helicopters to land on the runways so big Russian Ilyushin transports couldn’t use them. Ellis balked, saying Jackson wouldn’t like it. “I’m not going to start World War III for you,” Jackson later told Clark. Both Jackson and Clark appealed to their political leadership back home for support. Jackson got all the help he needed; Clark didn’t. Effectively, his orders as Supreme Commander were overruled.
Sounds pretty Maverickey to me.
You know how “Conventional Wisdom” says that people who are a lot alike often don’t get along. Concerning failed presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark’s recent statements about McCain; I wonder if there might be just a little bit of jealousy of the fellow Maverick’s political success??? Is the unlikeable maverick jealous of the likeable one???
PS. Thanks to Derek for leading me to the article that inspired the post.
