Graham English

Archive for June, 2006

Really Bad Lyrics

You knew it had to happen sooner or later. For every up, there is a down; for every light, there is a shadow; ying has its yang, Jesus has his Satan, Reagan had his Gorbachev, the Red Sox have their Yankees, Spider-Man has his Dr. Octopus, Bill Russell had his Wilt Chamberlain, and great lyricists [...]

Senator Kerry Blogs On Net Neutrality

I voted against this lousy bill for two reasons: because net neutrality and internet build-out are crucial to building a more modern and fair Information Society, and both were pushed aside by the Republicans.
Link: Stopping the Big Giveaway

Which Superhero Are You?

I am The Flash
Fast, athletic and flirtatious.
Interesting outcome. Check the shirt:

My results:
The Flash: 95%
Superman: 75%
Green Lantern: 75%
Iron Man: 70%
Hulk: 65%
Supergirl: 62%
Wonder Woman: 62%
Spider-Man: 60%
Catwoman: 55%
Robin: 52%
Batman: 45%
But what’s with the Superheroine results?! Is it because I revealed that I like to wear tights?
Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

“Neurogenesis Is An Optimistic Idea.”

The mind is like a muscle: it swells with exercise. Gould’s and Kozorovitskiy’s work reminds us not only how easy it is to hurt a brain, but how little it takes for that brain to heal. Give a primate just a few extra playthings, and its neurons are capable of escaping the downward cycle of [...]

Dave, Way To Do Your Part

Dave Matthews Band “offsetting” its tour pollution:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – American rockers the Dave Matthews Band and its fans have been bad for the environment since 1991, and now the group is making amends.

Net Neutrality Moves To The Senate

The amendment failed by a tie vote of 11-11. All ten Democratic committee members voted in favor with Senator Snowe. The eleven remaining Republican members voted against the amendment.
More…

Triple Your Ability To Rock

Two Canadian mathematicians from the University of Moncton in New Brunswick, have created an entirely new kind of string instrument that exploits a kind of mathematics owing more to Pythagoras’s theorem for triangles than to anything he ever thought about music.
Math is integral to music and its instruments. read more.

Musicians Seek Tips On YouTube.com

Amateur Musicians, Athletes Seek Tips With Videos On YouTube.com…:
When Eric Nguyen, a 20-year-old student in College Station, Texas, needed some help with a Chopin etude he was learning, he didn’t turn to his piano teacher. Instead, he went on YouTube.com, the amateur-video sharing site, and posted a video of himself playing.
Within 10 minutes, three people [...]

Naked Pitch

This is what happened to me today. I was listening to a piece of music and the first chord was the same as another song I’ve listened to many times. The voicing, the instrument, everything was the same. I had never made that connection before. To be sure I was remembering the other song correctly, [...]

Al Gore Got It Right, AP Reports

The AP is reporting that Al Gore got the science of climate change correct in his ‘Inconvenient Truth’. Included are quotations from a number of apparently prominent climate change scientists. This is an interesting counter point to the story we saw on this a couple weeks ago.
From Treehugger:
Fox News host David Asman asked his guests [...]

Music for 06-27-06b

Intermezzo in A major by Johannes Brahms, Op. 118, No. 2. I’m still reading the whole way through. I would like to memorize it and just play it.

Music for 06-27-06a

Baby I’m a Star by Prince. I took my new Blue Snowball out to the garage today to try it out. I scratched up some vocal tracks for about an hour. It’s all first and second take stuff. It turned out pretty good but I need more time to get a feel for it. That’s part of the reason I’m covering this song. To get time on the mic. 140bpm in the key of D.

How Do I Know What’s Real Anymore?

Charlie Chaplin Optical Illusion

Turkish-born record producer Arif Mardin dies

Turkish-born record producer Arif Mardin, who helped shape hit recordings by the Bee Gees, Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson and Bette Midler among many others, has died at age 74, associates said.

Ear Training Software and Freeware for Mac and PC

Ear Training Freeware For Mac
Aquallegro
Eartraining X – 2.7.1
Pitch Coach
Follow Me
Ear Training Freeware For Windows
Herken
Cross Platform and Opensource
Tete Ear Trainer
EarToner
InPitch
RPitch
hEar
Montessori Bells
Ear Trainer v2.0
My favorite: Practica Musica ($100-125 and cross platform)
BTW, I found these just like I normally do, by doing a search over at VersionTracker and SourceForge.net.
If you have found any of these to be useful, [...]

Colorado Senators’ Position On Net Neutrality

From Senate: Where They Stand Now (List Updated 9-15):
Talking Points Memo is keeping a tally of where Senators stand as we close in on the vote. (The latest update occurred June 15.)
Find your Senators’ names. See where they stand. If they support Net Neutrality, tell them to keep it up. If they oppose it [...]

Rocketboom On Net Neutrality

Amanda Congdon and Rocketboom want to save the internet. Contact congress and spread the word.

Music from a long time ago

Warning: Explicit lyrics. I wrote this years ago. Probably between 1998 and 2000. I could nail it down but I don’t really care that much. It’s a smooth laid back rap by me with a guitar solo from David Gelfand. But what really gets me is Brian Sach’s drums. Brian and I were riding the same waveform.

Music for 06-24-06

Baby I’m a Star by Prince. I f’ed up the form on the yesterday’s version. Now I’ve got it right. I’ll put the vocals and more synth down tomorrow. 140bpm in the key of D.

Music for 06-23-06c

Baby I’m a Star by Prince. So far I’ve got the loops, acoustic bass, piano, clav, and hammond. I’ve got most of the form together except for the ending and maybe the last couple shout choruses. 140bpm in the key of D.