Mixtape

In place of the occasional top 10 songs I’ve been listening to, some students showed me a site that lets you upload mp3’s to share as a kind of mix tape. Check it!

Happy New Year!

What did you do for New Year’s Eve? I spent the final hours of 2007 and the first of 2008 playing with Charlie D. and the Things at the Cypress Cove Nudist Resort, our third New Year’s out there playing their big event. The place was packed with well-dressed and, well, not-so-dressed couples, and the vast majority were fantastic.

There was one exception, an unfortunate patron who hadn’t yet got his dinner somewhat late in the evening. While his plight was quite valid, his response to it was pretty horrible. His first attempt to bring light to the situation was to go up to the stage and use one of the band’s mics to yell “We want our food!” This was in-between sets, and when we finally got back, our new friend was back asking our band leader to make the announcement for him and his table.

While we’re certainly sympathetic to the hungry and frustrated, you really can’t expect the band to make proclamations or somehow intervene with the management. Just saying for those of you tempted in the future. Charlie politely referred him to the management, but instead, this guy kept coming up. He even passed us a note stating their request, as if to somehow improve the likelihood of it happening. More on note passing in a second. As a very appropriate response to this situation, Charlie decided to honor this man’s situation through musical request. Our first song of that set was Jimmy Buffett’s Cheeseburger in Paradise. Tasty!

For those of you dying to know how it all ended, the patron and his table did soon afterwards receive their food, though I believe the man himself actually didn’t stay to eat it (which was ashame, because the menu looked amazing).

A short while after all this, another note was brought up on stage from a different patron. The note said simply “please play something for normal people.” At the time this note was likely generated and delivered, we were in the middle of a classic rock medley. You know, Taking Care of Business, Old Time Rock & Roll, etc. Nothing spectacular or remotely fun to play, but certainly a staple of party bands for the last several decades. In short, crowd pleasers sure to fill up the dance floor…and it was!

Essentially, this lady was saying that they wanted something else to dance to, possibly slower, possibly less classic rockish, though we’ll never know for sure. In fact, at the time the note was passed around the band, we were already in the middle of a slow dance medley. At least she probably felt a bit more empowered after this, unlike the starving guy. Bands usually don’t mind taking requests, but its always better to ask for specific songs or, at least, specific genres. And try not to insult them by saying their music isn’t really conducive to “normal” people.

So yeah, Happy New Year and all! 2007 was pretty good, overall, and a vast improvement over 2006 for us. Here’s to hoping that 2008 will be even better. May you love, learn, and learn to love more than you did before!

Top Ten Songs (for the moment)

As I have done before, I would like to share below the top ten songs that I’ve had floating around my iPod over the last few weeks. Post your own top ten on your blog and send me a link to it by posting a comment. Spread the meme, save the world!

Come Here Boy - Imogen Heap
Welcome To the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Sleeping Lessons - The Shins
Preparing for War (from Battlestar Galactica Season 2 OST) - Bear McCreary
Doomsday (from Doctor Who Series 1&2 OST) - Murray Gold
Let It Will Be (from Confessions Tour) - Madonna
Knights of Cydonia - Muse
James K Polk - They Might Be Giants
All That Makes Us Human Continues - BT
Life on Mars - David Bowie

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Blonder

My apologies for not posting much recently, but I was spending entirely too much time “conquering the blank page”, “leveraging prior work”, and uh, writing a bunch of bullshit for work (pardon my French).� As such, the last thing I wanted to do was chat on GTalk, much less pull random thoughts and anecdotes from my nethers.� Enough said about that.

Things are better now.� I’ve spent the last few days relaxing, catching up on yard work, Keith Olbermann, and trying to bring my blood pressure back down out of the red zone.� Watching the Daily Show doesn’t help, unfortunately.� There’s too much craziness going on in the world (eg., Israel v. Hizbollah, America v. Terror, Kim Jong Ill v. Sanity) and too many nutters excited about it (eg., rapture-obsessed Christians, Mahdi-obsessed Muslims, South Park-obsessed Scientologists).� Jane!� Stop this crazy thing!

On a happier note, it now appears I’ll be back teaching at UCF this fall.� First, though, some history.� For three years, I taught electronic music technology for the UCF Music Department.� Then, less than a month before the semester started and as part of the ramp-up to accreditation, I was let go because my graduate work wasn’t in music (though it was in technology).� I almost returned to UCF to teach Digital Media this past spring semester, but unfortunately that fell through because of the split in UCF’s College of Arts & Sciences (the adjunct money for the department got slashed).

Well, that same class that I almost taught in the spring has now been offered to me for this fall.� The course is named “Internet and Interaction”, so as an excercise for the reader, I’d like your thoughts on exactly what that should mean.� As a hint, the two technologies that are expected to be taught include Flash and some kind of web programming language (eg., PHP, Perl, Ruby, etc.).� My goal is to carve up a course that includes the above, works in some web services, and really tries to capture the student’s interest.� Oh yeah, and maybe some Marshall McLuhan for good measure.

On top of that, I’ll also be teaching a survey of computer concepts course at Seminole Community College in the fall.� I’m really looking forward to this course because of its broad, shallow scope and non-technical audience.� In addition to the expected computer and Internet basics, I’m going to throw in some basics of programming and Internet cultural items to mix things up.� If I’m really cheeky, I might even find a way to tie in some of my material from the I&I course, my past Web Publishing course, and even my Computer Music course from way back.� Happy Happy, Joy Joy!

Spider asked for a schedule of my band’s performances, so until further notice, here’s the deal.� We’re booked to play the George and Dragon Wednesday nights from 7:30-12:30 until the British tourist season dies down, which typically occurs around October.� After that, we’ll be playing at the Cypress Cove Nudist Resort the Saturday night before Halloween.� Good times!

Finally, here’s a list of do’s and do not’s, from me to you!

Do

• Listen to the new albums by Muse and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke .
• Watch the new season of Cheap Seats on ESPN Classic.
• Check out MST3K’s Mike Nelson and his new project RiffTracks.
• Listen to Drew and Savannah on The Morning After Show on 105.9FM.

Don’t

• Freak out about the end of the world.� Doing the stuff above should help take your mind off the chaos.
• Stop.� Thinking about tomorrow!
• Waste your time watching the new Blade TV series.
• Miss any moment of the Colbert Report or Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

My Saturday, Or How I Learned to Stop Fretting and Get Naked

This past Saturday our band played out at a nudist resort in Kissimmee, a place that we’ve played many times in the last several years, usually to an enthusiastic crowd that really appreciates and interacts with us. Sometimes, there are even certain regulars in attendance who’ve made a point of coming up and talking between sets, being incredibly friendly and welcoming. Well, this past Saturday night was no exception.

Things started out a little slow, though, with only a handful of people eating dinner and sitting through our first set. They were a great crowd, but we started wondering if the regulars had all gone out of town or what. Then, as the second set started, people started pouring into the restaurant. Regulars, people we hadn’t seen before, all started filling up the tables and the dance floor. Things were definitely looking up.

Sometime around then, our lead singer Charles announced that “tonight was a great night to be nude” and that sometime later, the sax player (me) would be getting naked. Now, he’s tried this before, several times in fact, and only once was he even marginally successful. That time, there was this one woman there who shall remain nameless, and she somehow persisted enough to get me down to only my underwear (well, and a leather jacket). On Saturday, she and her persistence returned.

It was the end of the third set when things started to deteriorate. Though she had arrived in the second set, I had managed to avoid her direct looks and taunts somehow. Then, out of nowhere, she found me and demanded that I remove on article of clothing per song in the fourth set. This would have been as successful as the previous time if she allowed socks and shoes to count as inidividual items and not pairs, given that we had a set of about 8 songs. Unfortunately, she was not so generous.

I did manage to put things off by sitting out songs (if I didn’t sing or play, I didn’t take anything off), and things then lined up such that I was down to my t-shirt and underwear with only 3 songs left. Given this situation, I was really hoping that one of those would go long and leave us no time for the, er, finale. Of course, Charles knew otherwise.

I also tried valiantly to shield myself by hanging my jeans over the stand, but my taunter would have none of it. She stole my jeans and only promised them back once I had gone the full Monty. So then, with only one song remaining, the moment came when I had to make a decision. I could either take off my underwear and play a song naked, or let down the now throng of taunters that waited below. The decision was tough, but the alcohol helped.

Let me back up a bit. I don’t want you all thinking I’m a lush or one of these musicians who’s absolutely pissed when they’re up on stage. Still, being that I am an introvert, I do find that a few drinks throughout a show really does help grease the wheels, so to speak. My improv skills and overall confidence definitely improve once I’ve achieved a slight buzz. Liquid courage, indeed.

So yeah, I announced to the crowd that “I just want you all to know that I am truly Charles’ whore”, removed my tighty whiteys, flung them up on to Charles’ keyboard (upon whence he winced), and we played our last song of the night. The crowd went wild both before and after the song, and I promptly got dressed. From what I heard after, not much was seen from the dancefloor with all the equipment between us. Only Charles’ wife Brandy even commented after I turned to go backstage - “nice ass, Bryan!”

Oh, and that guy sitting with a sax on his lap? That’s none other than Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the device which both helped get me naked and yet protected said nakedness. I wonder if he ever suspected such a unique usage for his creation.

Listening

Thanks to Spider and CB for coming out and listening to the band this past Wednesday. Next week will be busy for us as we’re playing as a trio at the British Pub on Wednesday night and as a full band at the Nudist Resort next Saturday night.

My friend Keri just tagged me with a music posting meme, which I have been meaning to do anyway for a few weeks. In turn, I would also like to pass this along to anyone with a blog who reads these words. Its a pretty easy one, just list the 7 songs (with their respective artist) that you’ve been listening to lately. Here we go (with 3 bonus songs)!

Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Move Along - All American Rejects
The View from the Afternoon - Artic Monkeys
Not Ready to Make Nice - Dixie Chicks
Apocalypse Please - Muse
Springtime Can Kill You - Jolie Holland
Common People - William Shatner
Ooh La La - Goldfrapp
Soul Meets Body - Death Cab for Cutie
Strictly Genteel - Frank Zappa

Miscellany

She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has released another book, and thus to help further her sales has said something rather naughty about 9/11 widows. Whether or not her thoughts on how victims can be afforded an unfair amount of protection for their political views is valid, she is definitely using a rather vulgar amount of rhetoric to advance her business interests (ie., sell more books). I think that this profitting off the statements about the 9/11 widows is unarguably more reprehensible than victims of any tragedy speaking out from their unique and unfortunate perspectives. On 9/11, we were not all widows, and we should respect those who were’s opinions for what they are - personal, passionate, and uniquely informing.

In better news, I had a beautiful moment at the airport Saturday night upon returning from DC where upon my mp3 player performed the Mark Isham’s title music from Crash at just the right moment. That track usually makes my hairs dance with delight anyway, but this combination of the right place (airport terminal) and the most sympathetic frame of mind (that post-disembarkment calm) with Isham’s glorious sweeping synths just about blew my mind. Music for Airports 2: Electric Boogaloo?

Speaking of global warming, I had the good fortune to find myself invited to see An Inconvenient Truth while up in Washington D.C.. Just as a warning, I have developed quite a fondness for our planet in the last 29 years of my life, so I might just have some bias when it comes to the issue of protecting it. I also cannot see the serious, long-term harm in being overcautious about the environment. Even if human society doesn’t contribute significantly to the trends seen in global warming (which would be against the vast majority of scientific findings), wouldn’t it just be safer to assume the worst and try to mitigate what we’re doing? I’m not going to go on about this other than to just suggest, whatever your opinion on the matter, to be more informed about the facts, whichever side they support.

Finally, as we all in Florida look incredulously at our weather reports (its only mid-June!!!), let’s talk about God (deities, man). I am reading such an interesting book on the development of God in the world’s major religions. A History of God by Karen Armstrong was my travelling companion last week on the flights to and from DC. I must admit that I’m a rather slow non-fiction reader and am thus only up through the first 100 pages, but even still I am receiving such a great refresher course in theology! I’ve always been fascinated with theology and used to study and argue it with my teachers at ye ol’ Protestant parochial school, but its been far too long since I last seriously tucked into it. Another post, perhaps, I’ll share with you some of what I’ve learned and relearned.

NYC

Fin

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

Older

And now its even sooner

James K Polk

Boss of Me

DrWorm.jpg

They Might Be Giants

Waiting for They Might Be Giants at the Revolution in Ft. Lauderdale

Video Thursday

Here are a few fun video links that I’ve been reminded of recently. First off is this great music video for the
Charlotte Hatherley song “Bastardo”. I first found this back when Shaun of the Dead with Simon Pegg came out (he appears in the video). I was recently reminded of it when I watched the apparent last episode of Little Britain aired (which stars David Walliams, also seen in this video).

Speaking of which, there’s also this video for “I’m with Stupid” (thanks, Andrew), the newest music video from the Pet Shop Boys (also starring both David and Matt Lucas from Little Britain). From what I’ve read, the song is inspired by the relationship between Britain’s Tony Blaire and our very own George W. Bush. The video, however, is pretty much just an odd retelling of several Pet Shop boys music videos.

Finally, we have this brilliant remix of many clips from Fox News called “Big Screen Version”. This, of course, was inspired by the recent announcement of Fox pundit Tony Snow (he’s the one saying “Big Screen Version” in the video) being chosen as the new White House Spinner-In-Chief (aka Press Secretary). I’m trying not to write too much more about politics these days as at least one reader indicated I sound sad and angry when I do so, so I’ll just leave my opinions to your imagination.

Oh ok, one more. Click here for the launch video of the new Nintendo gaming system previously known as “Revolution” and now know simply as “Wii”. As a life-long (well, since 1985) Nintendo fanatic, the name is their latest system’s least relevant attribute to me. However, I certainly can see where they’re going with this, and it really is exciting. Video games should simply not be known their vocal minority (that is, violent shooting games), but rather for their place amongst the other storytelling media and toys. The Nintendo Wii will hopefully help that change along by inspiring more kinds of gameplay and a greater expansion of the types of people who play video games.

Dance Party

This is a pic from our gig last night at the George and Dragon British Pub. The night started off rather slow with only a few tables occupied during our first two sets. Given that the full British tourist invasion hasn’t yet begun, this wasn’t too much of a surprise. We’ve played for fewer patrons, so we were grateful that the people present were enjoying themselves and our music.

During the second set, Patrick and Beth arrived. Things had picked up a little, but there were still a few tables open. Then, during the third set, a whole flock of high school-aged kids showed up from strip nearby. For those of you who haven’t been to International Drive in Orlando, its basically this long strip of shops, restraunts, hotels, and minor attractions that stretches about 6 miles from Sea World to the Belz Outlet mall. If you’ve ever been to Orlando, chances are you’ve stopped somewhere along I-Drive.

So yeah, these kids turned out to be high-school seniors from Michigan (and a few from Tennessee) down in Orlando for their senior trip. They heard our music, saw a largish patio area where they could dance, and just sort-of invaded. To the owner’s credit, instead of kicking them out since they had mostly just asked for water from the patio bartender, he simply asked that they all take care of the band and the bartender. This they did, quite nicely too.

The actual patrons of the pub didn’t seem to mind them much and in fact might have hung out longer because of the instant dance party atmosphere that the kids created. After playing our full four sets, Charlie decided to keep us playing a bit longer to keep the party going. Unfortunately, the kids had to be back to their hotels by midnight, so the extra only lasted a few songs.

Yeah, playing for an audience that’s enjoying themselves and the music is definitely the way to go. Even if its fake, a happy audience makes for great music and good times. Contribute when and where you can. You’ll make some musicians smile.

Chasing the Dragon

Well, its about that time of year again! Charlie D. and His Things will be playing tonight from 7:30-11:30pm at the George and Dragon British Pub on I Drive, returning there after a 6 month hiatus. For those of you who’ve never been, the G&D is a lovely little corner of England tucked behind the Sizzler and next to a mini golf course just down I Drive from Wet & Wild. They have “great” pub food and wide selection of British beers on tap. And as most of the clientèle are British citizens, either residents or just visiting, you know it’s probably as authentic as a British pub in Orlando could be.

Top 10 Songs

What are your 10 most listened to songs at the moment? I got this meme from Moby a while back and did it again here, but by all means try it yourself!

Somebody Told Me - the Killers
The Jesus of Suburbia - Green Day
There Ain’t No Tits on the Radio - Scissor Sisters
March of the Ambergris - Bj�rk
like spinning plates - Christopher O’Riley
Inner Smile - Texas
Se Lest - Sigur Ros
Battlestar Galactica Title - Bear McCreary
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Have You Got It In You - Imogen Heap

Happy Birthday, J.S.

Johann Sebastian Bach is 321 years young today, his preludes, inventions, fugues, and concertos being performed daily (if not hourly) around the world. My most memorable JS Bach moment has to be playing his Komm Susser Todd as arranged as a wind chorale with the UCF Wind Ensemble. Translated, the title means “Come, Sweet Death”, and I could only hope to have this great work played during your my twilight hours in this world.

What’s your favorite Bach moment?

Imogen Heap Concert

We got into the city just before 6 and started walking around South Street. After checking out a few interesting stores (partly to pass time, partly to get warm), we wandered into an Irish bar to have a drink. We didn’t join the crowd waiting outside the TLA until about 7, at which point they began letting us in the venue. Though Justin wanted to grab one of the few seats up top, I elected to stand close to the stage. This was an unfortunate choice on my part, as we then stood in roughly the same spot for the next 3 hours.

At 8, Miss Heap (Immi if you’re nasty) arrived on stage to introduce the opening artist Zoe Keating. Zoe is a cello player who samples, loops, and layers herself many times over in each song. She had a few technical difficulties and was quite obviously nervous, but I really enjoyed her music and appreciated the skills it takes to do that kind of performance.

Imogen came on around 9pm and started out with her own techincal difficulties. First the speakers were rattling, then her earbud monitors were picking up the security chatter, then her wireless mic was cutting out. It was a rough start, but she pushed through it all with patience and grace and quite simply performed her ass off. Though many of the arrangements were reduced down to pre-recorded tracks and piano, she occassionally brought in her “chorus” (harmonizer) and mbira (a kind of non-Western tuned plucked string instrument) to fill out the performance. Zoe also came back to accompany with her unique style of cello for a couple songs.

After doing a couple requisite encore songs, Imogen left the stage around 10:30. While I very much enjoyed the concert, I was quite ready to be out of there and did not stick around for the signing after. Instead, Justin and I went to grab cheese steaks at Jim’s around the corner, then to some local diner where they had cake with a practically all-butter butter-cream icing, and finally to a college sports bar near his house to hang with his friends. Oh yeah, and there was snow. Snow in the air, snow on the cars, snow on the ground. For this Florida-native, it was quite a novel treat to complete an already fantastic evening.