Inside joke

This is an inside joke, but the mashup is COOL. Brilliant marketing I thinks:

Sarah Silverman clips

Oh my. If I was Jewish, female and acted on every one of my misanthropic tendencies, I'd like to be just like her:



Wait until the big payoff at the end for this one. Nothing has made me laugh harder since perhaps Bert made friends with Osama Bin Laden.

"Salad"

I love this - click to see closeups:



At first I thought this was a sculpture made out of veggies and was disappointed to find out it's a digital rendering, but given that I thought it was actual veggies speaks to this artist's skills.

via boing boing

Charlie Rose treasure trove

Charlie Rose has made available his entire archive available for viewing online. If I didn't have a new job to find, I'd lose a couple of weeks to this... here's a great interview with Jack and Meg White:

Wilhelm Kempff / Moonlight Sonata

For my admittedly sophomoric ears (in terms of classical music), one of the best pianists I've heard is Wilhelm Kempff. One of my favorite piano compositions is Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14, popularly known as the "Moonlight Sonata."

The first movement is instantly recognizable - terribly easy to "play," but only a great pianist can capture the nuances of the feeling. The second movement is the calm before the storm of the third movement. Quite pretty, though my least favorite of the three movements. The third movement is what gets it for me - it's terribly complicated and terribly technical. Yet, given this, it is utterly beautiful and drenched with passion, anger and other emotions. Only a great pianist can play this (at all), let alone play it with the emotion that's needed to take it from a display of technical brilliance to truly being art. From Wikipedia's article on the sonata:

Of the final movement, Charles Rosen has written "it is the most unbridled in its representation of emotion. Even today, two hundred years later, its ferocity is astonishing."

Wilhelm Kempff performing Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, first movement:



Second movement:



Third movement:

David Bowie "Ashes to Ashes" video

This is the "Ashes to Ashes" video by David Bowie. It's the coolest. From his "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps" album.



Aw hell, this is great, too.

First harvest from the garden

I harvested my first summer herbs and vegetables this evening. Using a Black Prince heirloom tomato, some freshly picked basil, some fresh mozzarella and some lovely balsamic vinegar, I composed a caprese salad (click through pictures for a larger version):


I then cooked some way-too-expensive coho salmon and made salmon with cucumber salad and a basil sauce, recipe taken from cookinglight.com


It's definitely satisfying not to have paid $3.00 for a little packet of basil. The tomato was on the smallish side, but the flavor wasn't.

"Best driver, worst person"

I saw this news story months ago and can't believe that I forgot to post it.

NEW PORT RICHEY - For about eight minutes on Tuesday, through the streets near downtown, police chased a driver who had no arms and one good leg.

He got away.

He is used to this sort of thing.

Authorities say the driver was Michael Francis Wiley, 40, who overcame three amputations, taught himself to drive with stumps and proceeded to become one of Pasco County's most accomplished traffic violators.

As far as I'm concerned, the Touyama / Wiley ticket is the best we can hope for in 2008.

Classic quote: "He is one of the best drivers I've ever seen in my life," said Lee Michie, a longtime acquaintance. "But he's the worst person I've ever met."

Photos from California trip

Here are photos taken from my recent California trip. Standing on top of Sentinel Dome in Yosemite National Park was transcendent. I didn't want to leave.

South Park meets Zen

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have animated audio recordings of the Zen Buddhist teacher, Alan Watts.

This works. I think Watts would have enjoyed these.

(read first on Boing Boing)

Once again...

180 Trillion Leisure Hours Lost To Work In 2004

The Onion delivers.

Guitar Solo Quiz

My friend Mike Moody pointed me to this quiz this morning. Given the "Top 20" guitar solo series, I felt obligated to post it here - it's pretty easy, but still fun.

http://mentalfloss.com/quiz/quiz.php?q=68

Excellent optical illusion

http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool//cool_illusion.html

Tokyo-Chicago Time-Space Continuum Omelet

My boss and I were just discussing anarchists this morning...

David Blaine parody - too funny

Good news

Our band received a bit of good news today. Our audition for the "Taste of Chicago" 2007 was successful. We'll be playing the "Taste" stage on July 5th, 2007. That's a Thursday. I'd love to have some of you there, although distance and/or time and/or the fact it's during the middle of the week might conspire against this. Understood.

Frankly, I am surprised about this, a little nervous (millions attend the festival every year), and am, most of all, curious as to where this might lead.

I actually had quit the band last week with the understanding that if we got this gig, I would continue to practice and play for this. I was fully expecting not to get the gig. I am somewhat ashamed at my lack of faith in the band. My cynicism is still high enough to wonder whether or not Tom's contact pulled some strings for us. I shouldn't think this way and proceed with cautious optimism. That being said, it's only fair to note that how these next couple of months go will determine my future with Unconscious Pilot. I'm rarely optimistic, but the bright side could be that we hone ourselves to a finer edge, improve and we find our inspiration and energy again. I love this band when we're good, but when we're not the commute to band practice twice a week just isn't worth it anymore. Again, though, I'm cautiously optimistic and even if it turns to shite, we'll have went out with a nice, paying gig. What's the best part? All we have to do is show up with our guitars and Tom's cymbals. We don't have to haul our amps and most of the drums. Niiiice.

I'd like to thank Jim for producing, directing, etc., our excellent audition DVD. He persevered through bad weather, a broken Jeep top and unorganized band dudes. Thanks again, Jim.

The Ecstasy of Gold

I found this on the LAist blog, and I'll just wholesale quote from them - sums up my feelings nicely:

Here's a little something to help wash out the taint of Celine Dion's "tribute" to Ennio Morricone at last night's Oscars. Sure, Celine has a great set of pipes. No one will argue that. But her singing? Puke! She might as well have been singing the latest bit of background fodder from American Idol for how much you could tell that it was an Ennio Morricone tune. But that's who Celine Dion is. That's what she does. She slathers a heaping does of blandness and pop schmaltz onto everything she gets her throat on.

Instead of Celine pouting and over-emoting her way through the craptastic "I Knew I Loved You," which was awkwardly set to music from Once Upon A Time In America, we offer you this clip of Morricone himself conducting one of his famous tunes from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, "The Ecstasy of Gold." You might not know the title, but you'll know the song when you hear it. Why? BECAUSE ENNIO MORRICONE IS A GENIUS, AND THIS IS HOW HIS MUSIC WAS MEANT TO SOUND

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #1: Stairway to Heaven - Jimmy Page

I don't think this is nearly Page's best example, but, it is the best I could find:



The studio version is better, but that's splitting hairs - all in all a great song and solo. The original solo was recorded on a '58 Telecaster. Nice.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. As an extra treat...

I don't know how old this kid is, and I've looked carefully for fakery, but I have not found a whiff... fun to watch:

These vids are so popular that embedding has been disabled, so just click here.

then here,

then here

and finally here for the solo.

The kid seems a little sedated, but WOW.

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #2: Eruption - Eddie Van Halen

This is way too long for my tastes, but Eruption is a classic solo and this clip is fun for it shows Eddie in his heyday, showing off (or being a showman, if you prefer)

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #3: Freebird - Collins / Rossington

You've heard it too many times, I've heard it too many times. It's still a great song and solo, though. Even though there's too many crowd shots in this video, they're fun to watch.

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #4: Comfortably Numb - David Gilmour

A beautiful, tasteful solo - melodic and mournful:

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #5: All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix

The video and audio is a little crappy, but the solos on this are, indeed, amazing. From the Atlanta Pop Festival, summer of 1970, apparently - the original poster didn't put it in the title, but the comments on the YouTube post seem to nail down the show - can't be sure.



FWIW, I dedicate every song to the girl with the purple underwear.

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #6: November Rain - Slash

I pretty much hate Axl Rose, I like Slash, and the coda solo at the end is quite good, but this isn't the solo I would have picked for him. Not #6. No way. IMHOYMMV!

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #7: One - Kirk Hammet

6 degrees of Bob Daisley. As B$X aptly pointed out in the comments for #9, Crazy Train, Bob Daisley's bass tracks were removed when they remastered the classic Ozzy Osbourne albums. Who rerecorded these? Rob Trujillo - Judas bassist reprising his role here in Metallica, after they jettisoned Jason Newsted.

Just kidding (about the Judas reference, not the facts, ma'am). He's a great bass player.

Even though I like Metallica, I think this is a lesser example of the Guitar World "fast, flash, but soulless" problem. I don't like the song much, either.

So shoot me.

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #8: Hotel California - Don Felder / Joe Walsh

This is a very melodic, tasteful solo or perhaps it should be a duet? As an aside, I've never understood why someone would kill themselves with a double-neck guitar. Do you really need to play a 12 string guitar and a 6 string in the same song? Especially when there's TWO other guitar players?

Aside from that nitpicking, this is always fun to hear. Great song, too.

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #9: Crazy Train - Randy Rhoads

Forgive the XMen 3 advert at the beginning, but the pickings were slim for this solo:



I love this song, and the solo is fairly tasteful. Now if only the bass player would get a clue. And the cameraman.

Whoops!

I am definitely going to guitar hell for this. I must have been asleep on Thursday - I skipped over Chuck Berry at #12 with Johnny B. Goode!

I know, I know. Unforgiveable. At any rate, click here to see that post.

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #10: Crossorads - Eric Clapton

Good clip of Cream. Being a bassist, I think Bruce's slides, although expertly done, are a little cheesy and used too much. Clapton's playing is clean, although perhaps a little too technical. Eh, what do I know? Listen for yourself:

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #11: Voodoo Chile - Jimi Hendrix

I stand up next to a mountain
chop it down with the edge of my hand...

I mentioned the original source of these videos in the first post for this year, with the #20 pick, City Rag.

Kudos to the concept, which I'm shamelessly copying here, but they get a D for execution. They obviously picked the first video they could find. In their link for today's post, it cuts out halfway through the solo! Other links provided half-assed videos as well, so I've made an attempt to do it right and cull the best videos I can find for each solo.

My 2 readers might appreciate this.

So... Jimi at Woodstock. Full strength at 8:52.




Um, you're not sick of me gushing about SRV are you? His version is, well, great, too.

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #12: Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry

All of Chuck Berry's songs are basically the same, but when then they're this good, who cares? Love the dancers and Chuck's facial expressions:

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #13: Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan

I'm a little jaded to familar blues riffs these days, but SRV manages to put enough intensity and skill into this that it's a joy to listen to, even if it is the same 12 bar blues... holy s<cuckoo!>t, this is fantastic, virtuousity WITH soul:

Best odds making I've seen all week on the big game

From "Deadspin" commentator, "Suss":

Ace Ventura rescues Peyton Manning and Snowflake the Dolphin from a female police lieutenant who used to be Mike Vanderjagt (14:1)

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #14: Layla - Eric Clapton and Duane Allman

Unfortunately, I could not find any clips with Allman playing the great slide part, but this is a pretty good performance with Phil Collins on drums. Nice work.

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #15: Floods - "Dimebag" Darrel

Wow! "Dimebag" Darrel can bend harmonics! Another example of Guitar World's adolescent view of what makes a good guitar solo. It's weird - the good stuff is in here, but they sprinkle this techincal/souless stuff in, IMHO! YMMV!

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #16: Heartbreaker - Jimmy Page

This is more like it:



'Nuff said.

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #17 - Eric Johnson - Cliffs Of Dover

Even though the tone and technique on this is excellent, this being a step ahead of any of the prior solos in ranking (or even the majority on the entire list) is kind of a crime. I think this exemplifies the "Guitar World" mentality at its worst. There is some virtuosity here, certainly; but it just doesn't seem like rock and roll to me...

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #18: Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix

This video pisses me off with it's pot-induced leanings, but it's the best live version I could find. This is from Hendrix's 1968 Royal Albert Hall concert.



Here's a link to a nice Wikipedia article on Jimi.

Since that video is so poor, I can't help but to also post Stevie Ray Vaughan doing an amazing performance of Little Wing. I also like Tommy Shannon's bass lines on this one. SRV throws in a nice Third Stone from the Sun piece at the end, too, though the video cuts it off abruptly. Enjoy.

Top 20 Guitar Solos - #19: Highway Star - Ritchie Blackmore

I don't agree with the exact ranking of this one, but it's fun to watch early Deep Purple. Perhaps I'll post my own top 20 after I get these up.

This clip is filmed in Denmark from the 1972 tour to promote their album Machine Head. From the wikipedia article on Blackmore:

The band included Rod Evans (vocals), Nick Simper (bass), Jon Lord (keyboards), and Ian Paice (drums). The band quickly scored a hit US single with its remake of the Joe South song "Hush". Nonetheless, after only three albums Evans and Simper were replaced by Ian Gillan (vocals) and Roger Glover (bass), both recruited from Episode Six.

Deep Purple's most famous album was Machine Head. The album was recorded by a mobile recording unit, the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in Montreux, Switzerland. The band originally intended to record the album at a casino in Montreux, but the night before recording was to begin the casino hosted a Frank Zappa concert (with members of Deep Purple in attendance) at which an audience member fired a flare gun into the facility's bamboo roof. A tremendous fire ensued and the casino burned down. The entire tragedy is documented in the lyrics of what was to become Deep Purple's historic anthem "Smoke On The Water". The song opens with a simple Blackmore riff that many consider to be one of the most recognizable hard rock riffs ever recorded.

Don't miss Gillan kicking out an unruly audience member on this one...

Blogging for the new year

Wow - no posts since March 2006. I'm a blogger!

Still, for what it's worth, want to share this bit of fun with y'all.

Guitar World has complied a list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos".

Additionally, Boing Boing provided a link to some of the videos. I think an easy, blogger's project would be to repost these for the next 20 days, one video each day, counting down from 20.

So, without further adieu...

20. Bohemian Rhapsody - Brian May