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A Song For A Monday

Tim Finn – Underwater Mountain.

Note that both Finn Bro’s have this thing for mountains. The term appears many times in various Finn songs.

The Big Money!

Holy Crap! Alex is wearing the horrible baby blue tux I wore to my senior prom!!!!

Bass Reflections – Music Theory vs Ear

Before I start, I should mention that, many many years ago, I did know some music theory. The first instrument I learned to play, even before the baritone horn in 4th grade, was the piano. Learning to play both included structured lessons. So yes, I did at one time in my life know some theory. But, as you will see, I threw it away like one would throw away chicken bones after a good meal. (get the analogy… bones… music structure… 🙂 )

I’ve been a bass player for some 25 years, but haven’t been a student of bass since I took up the instrument all those years ago. Back then, I wanted to learn where all the notes are on the bass. I went so far as to hand draw a huge chart showing every note on the fretboard. But early on, slowly but surly, my ear took over. I love having that talent to hear a song just once, and be able to play it at least reasonably well. That works great when you’re in a jam session, and the keyboard player calls out “hey, do you know this song?”, and you can say “Yeah, I can play it!”. even though you have never done so. It’s a tremendous gift for which I’m grateful. That said, I didn’t realize by placing all my eggs in that basket I was choking myself, denying myself the breath of knowledge that would have made me a better player. I stunted my growth as a musician.

Fast forward 20 something years later. For the longest time I swore I would learn to play guitar. Last year I finally started to do just that. I’m making good progress and even played a few rhythm guitar bits on stage. I’m also making the effort not to just learn where the fingers go to make sounds, but I’m learning what those notes are and how they relate to chord structure.

Has it helped?

My band, Acoustic Highway, will often have two or three guitars going at the same time. Late last year during a rehearsal, while trying to figure out a new song we had started to work on during the previous get-together, one of the guitarists asked what key it was in. I blurted out A minor! Now, to many here, that may sound like a basic thing. But, for me, it was connection I never could have accomplished if I hadn’t been working on the guitar.

I still have a very long way to go, and things don’t sink in as quickly as they do when I’m playing by ear…. But, I’m improving. I guess that is all I can ask.

PS. Thanks to Anthony Wellington for inspiring this post.

Caption This Friday!

Though it was certainly a noble idea, Russel’s solution to prevent dogs from getting stepped on met with limited success.

This Deserves A Caption

Just look at the pooch’s pained expression….

Dirty Games People Play

** NOTE: Though there is no inappropriate material within this post, some of the content leads to topics that are not exactly kitchen table discussions.**

Today, one of my very liberal Facebook friends gleefully posted a link to the following story.

A number of years ago, gay activist Dan Savage decided to take on Republican Senator Rick Santorum. Here is how it played out.

In 2003 sex-advice columnist Dan Savage was seeking to mock Santorum for his homophobic statements, such as remarks he made in an interview that year to the effect that legalization of gay sex could lead to recognition of “man on child” and “man on dog” relationships. Savage held a competition asking his readers to come up with a new definition for “Santorum,” and the winning entry referred to…

That quote comes from an article in the gay magazine The Advocate, but I don’t recommend reading it. I’m not going to give the definition that was provided in the article, nor am I going to link to the article or the Google search result, because, trust me on this, it’s not worthy of print on this blog.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t like Santorum at all – He’s an idiot and a blow hard. Remember, in 2005, he was going to give absolute proof of Saddam WMD’s leading up to the invasion, held this HUGE press conference, and then…. Nothing but old already revealed docs from 2001 and 2002.

Lame.

And yes, if you want to point to an example of an anti-gay Republican, he’s as good a choice as any. BUT, personally, as much as I don’t like his views on homosexuality, I think it’s absolutely wrong to smear (Oops, bad wording on my part) his name and link it to something like that. Put the shoe on the other foot. Would you be cheering if someone associated your name with something you considered vile and extremely improper? I don’t think so. The guy is lame on his own. This action by Savage was, in my opinion, vulgar and uncalled for.

PS. My Facebook friend has responded to my dissaproval thusly:

bullshit. santorum deserves much worse than this. a disgusting smug self-righteous religious blowhard like him should never be allowed to achieve any significance in our government and anything done to ‘smear’ his name is acceptable.

And you wonder why I don’t associate myself with the liberal pro-gay anti-Republican establishment that I’m supposed to belong to simply because I’m gay.

Blog Break!

I’m in the middle of a blog break. Even though a lot of things are happening in the world, I simply don’t feel compelled to write about them. Screw you World… I’m retreating into my shell!

On the home front, I am studying to take the Math CSET in May. This is considered to be one of the hardest teacher credentialing tests in the California education system. Seeing that I’m not a natural math-head, passing it will be one of my greatest challenges yet!

I’m also learning to play “Blackbird” on guitar. I think everyone who learns to play guitar learns it, and for once in my life, I’m going to allow myself to be a conformist. Oh… That feels weird…

And A Happy Snake-Free Birthday Wish Goes Out To….

Forget Valentine’s Day… It’s all about the Badgers!!!!  They are 8 today!!!!

Here is the forever-running original.

Here is some Badger based advise on how to make good flash video for your company presentation…  More Mushrooms!!!.

And, for those who want the true Linux experience, this will teach you how to install it on a dead Badger!

PS. When Rathergate happened, I thought for sure someone would come out with a flash version that said:

“Rather Rather Rather Rather Rather Rather Rather Rather Rather, Burkett Burkett, Rather Rather Rather….  Oh, A Fake…. It’s A Fake…”

If I would have known no one would do it, I would have learned flash and done it myself! Hmmmmm….

What Have I Gotten Myself Into????

After much internal debate (it’s fun when you see it) I have decided to tackle perhaps the most difficult California teacher certification there is….. The Math CSET!!!!!

This is one BITCH of a test!

Why am I doing this????  Because:

(A)   I really want to be a teacher.

(B)  I’m really sick of being on the sidelines not having a teaching job. California’s education budget may be hell, but, the one subject they need teachers for is Math…. So, that’s where I’m going!

(C)  I  LOVE ridiculously difficult challenges….  Apparently!!!

OH, and I’m also going to learn to play fretless bass!

Taking Another Break From Blogging…. Just Kidding!

Well, I WAS going to declare that I’m not blogging for the next few days, but, the imminent resignation of Mubarak pretty much guarantees I’ll not be able to sit on my hands and not blog.