I figured out how to convert the errant file format. Turns out it was really easy. Anyway, these are the answers to the challenge question: 4 songs whose lyrics start with the words "I lost."
Cardboard on the Dance Floor
Napkin
Fifty Bucks (or Someone Else's Wife)
(In Which I Fight the Devil in the Guise of Trenton Ashburn)
Feel free to vote your favorite. If you pick mine I will appreciate your loyalty, but may question your taste (I am working on a new version with completely different less annoying music). Nevertheless, the buzzer went off. And yes, I suppose I am giving myself the luxury of a caveat because it is my blog. Discuss amongst yourselves the fairness of that. Thank you all participants! Winner chooses the next challenge!
31 August 2008
29 August 2008
NEWSFLASH: Presidential Candidates Have Big Egos and other items
I know, I know, I need to post the songs. A certain someone needs to send me theirs in the right format, also.
Anyway, this post is not going to be about the headline so much, it just kind of bugs me when people talk about how they could never vote for the "other" candidate because he/she has way too much self love, as though their candidate is the model, the paragon, the quintessence, the tumescence of humility. Their candidate who is running for President. Of the United States.
Now then, I watched the Obama acceptance speech last night and I liked it. There were a few honestly inspirational moments. Like when he talked about taking action on consensus:
Or when he basically quoted me about inidividual responsibility and mutual responsibility--that we can't let government solve all of our problems for us; we need to take repsonsibility for our own actions as well. (Once upon a time, when we were feeling fed up with political parties, Ms. Tom and I were going to create a political party founded on the values of reponsibility: personal, mutual, corporate, etc. We decided not to reinvent the wheel after all.)
Anyway, I support the general message of Barack Obama's speech, the idea that our country can do better 1) to give its citizens access to the resources they need, 2)to regain the bit of respect we used to have in the world, 3) to work together, despite our differences.
Then, there were a few things that gave me that not-so-gung-ho feeling.
One in particular that I have heard politicians, most often democrats, give lip service to a lot in the past several years, is the idea that we can somehow stop jobs from going overseas--often manufacturing jobs or even jobs that are on their way to being technologically obsolete, and of course there are always the call centers and help desks. No doubt it sucks to work in a factory for 25 years and suddenly the plant closes down and you have no job. But, we are never going to be able to give businesses the number of tax credits they would need to make it financially smart to keep these jobs here. I just don't see how it is a viable solution in our global economy. Can we do something to promote job growth? Sure, we can encourage new technologies. Can we do something to help train people that lost their jobs to do something else? Yes, why not? I just don't think we can keep these jobs from going away. Maybe I'm missing something.
And yes, like most of the country I doubt that we can afford to do everything Obama has in his plan.
Also, anytime the supporters started chanting something, I will admit I got creeped out.
Nevertheless, I do feel he expresses the needs and hopes of the country, particularly the disenfranchised, better than most, and I feel that the direction he talks about is the right one.
Just some thoughts and my reactions. I was also very interested to see McCain's VP pick. I know nothing about her, but I am kind of stoked that either way we are starting to break away from the two white guys mold.
Anyway, this post is not going to be about the headline so much, it just kind of bugs me when people talk about how they could never vote for the "other" candidate because he/she has way too much self love, as though their candidate is the model, the paragon, the quintessence, the tumescence of humility. Their candidate who is running for President. Of the United States.
Now then, I watched the Obama acceptance speech last night and I liked it. There were a few honestly inspirational moments. Like when he talked about taking action on consensus:
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
Or when he basically quoted me about inidividual responsibility and mutual responsibility--that we can't let government solve all of our problems for us; we need to take repsonsibility for our own actions as well. (Once upon a time, when we were feeling fed up with political parties, Ms. Tom and I were going to create a political party founded on the values of reponsibility: personal, mutual, corporate, etc. We decided not to reinvent the wheel after all.)
Anyway, I support the general message of Barack Obama's speech, the idea that our country can do better 1) to give its citizens access to the resources they need, 2)to regain the bit of respect we used to have in the world, 3) to work together, despite our differences.
Then, there were a few things that gave me that not-so-gung-ho feeling.
One in particular that I have heard politicians, most often democrats, give lip service to a lot in the past several years, is the idea that we can somehow stop jobs from going overseas--often manufacturing jobs or even jobs that are on their way to being technologically obsolete, and of course there are always the call centers and help desks. No doubt it sucks to work in a factory for 25 years and suddenly the plant closes down and you have no job. But, we are never going to be able to give businesses the number of tax credits they would need to make it financially smart to keep these jobs here. I just don't see how it is a viable solution in our global economy. Can we do something to promote job growth? Sure, we can encourage new technologies. Can we do something to help train people that lost their jobs to do something else? Yes, why not? I just don't think we can keep these jobs from going away. Maybe I'm missing something.
And yes, like most of the country I doubt that we can afford to do everything Obama has in his plan.
Also, anytime the supporters started chanting something, I will admit I got creeped out.
Nevertheless, I do feel he expresses the needs and hopes of the country, particularly the disenfranchised, better than most, and I feel that the direction he talks about is the right one.
Just some thoughts and my reactions. I was also very interested to see McCain's VP pick. I know nothing about her, but I am kind of stoked that either way we are starting to break away from the two white guys mold.
19 August 2008
The Quest for Joint Expression
Or QJE.
El Esposo and I spent a couple hours last night trying to write music together. Here's the rub: El Esposo is leaps and bounds ahead of me in skill on the gui-tar. He'll be like "What do you think of this?" and play some multi-layered complexity, "And then we could go into something like this for the chorus," and the multi-layered complexity continues, but with different underlying chords. And then inevitably I'll say something like "OK, so what was that first chord again?" We'll do this sort of thing for a while and in the meantime I'll be searching for some gnarly new chord to START a song with and all you'll hear out of my guitar is an occasional plink.
The problem with a songwriting team, if it truly is going to be a team:
. . . is that you are limited by the ability of the lowest skilled contributor.
So, for a while, when little brother and I lived in the same town, and we were roughly at the same skill level (I was probably slightly better but he was catching up to me fast), this was not much of a handicap for us and we wrote some fun songs. They might not have been utterly brilliant (I still think "Climb Trees, Please" was pretty close at its apex--can't remember how to play it anymore, unfortunately), but they held together nicely and were easy to sing along to.
So then El Esposo says, "How did you write songs with your brother?" And I tell him one person has to play four chords or so over and over and over and over while the other person tries out what to play along with it. So we do this, and it starts to work. Of course El Esposo keeps wanting to break out into something more challenging, but he is pretty patient with me. Then we get to the lyrics and realize here is another barrier. Because we think differently. So what do we do? We make a rough recording of what we have so far and we take a break.
And so, bit by bit, we are closing in on joint expression and a more unified marriage.
******************************************************************************
The current status of the songwriting challenge is that three songs have been written that I know of. I still need to write and record mine by this Saturday. Rumor has it the competition is fierce this time. Have fun.
El Esposo and I spent a couple hours last night trying to write music together. Here's the rub: El Esposo is leaps and bounds ahead of me in skill on the gui-tar. He'll be like "What do you think of this?" and play some multi-layered complexity, "And then we could go into something like this for the chorus," and the multi-layered complexity continues, but with different underlying chords. And then inevitably I'll say something like "OK, so what was that first chord again?" We'll do this sort of thing for a while and in the meantime I'll be searching for some gnarly new chord to START a song with and all you'll hear out of my guitar is an occasional plink.
The problem with a songwriting team, if it truly is going to be a team:
. . . is that you are limited by the ability of the lowest skilled contributor.
So, for a while, when little brother and I lived in the same town, and we were roughly at the same skill level (I was probably slightly better but he was catching up to me fast), this was not much of a handicap for us and we wrote some fun songs. They might not have been utterly brilliant (I still think "Climb Trees, Please" was pretty close at its apex--can't remember how to play it anymore, unfortunately), but they held together nicely and were easy to sing along to.
So then El Esposo says, "How did you write songs with your brother?" And I tell him one person has to play four chords or so over and over and over and over while the other person tries out what to play along with it. So we do this, and it starts to work. Of course El Esposo keeps wanting to break out into something more challenging, but he is pretty patient with me. Then we get to the lyrics and realize here is another barrier. Because we think differently. So what do we do? We make a rough recording of what we have so far and we take a break.
And so, bit by bit, we are closing in on joint expression and a more unified marriage.
******************************************************************************
The current status of the songwriting challenge is that three songs have been written that I know of. I still need to write and record mine by this Saturday. Rumor has it the competition is fierce this time. Have fun.
06 August 2008
Songwriting Challenge # 2: Loss or whatever
It is time to open up the songwriting challenge to all my fellow songwriters. For any first-timers, the rules are simple:
a) Write a song based on the prompt (you are encouraged to put your own spin on it)
b) Practice it a little
c) Record the song in the simplest fashion available to you: one-track-one-take is the general rule, but if you really screw up it's ok to do another take
d) Send it to me by the deadline via rocktastica at gmail dot com
e) I will post links to them for all to hear and vote upon
Note: It's more of a challenge than a contest per se, but if you want to believe there's a lot of competition involved, feel free to indulge yourself. I think of it as just a little exercise to stretch the muscles.
The challenge this time is very simple:
Write a song starting with the lyric "I lost . . ."
The deadline is Saturday, August 23rd.
For Challenge #1 entries, scroll down a bit. The results of the voting for Challenge #1 were not unlike a soccer game for toddlers: a big fat tie. Everyone's a winner.
a) Write a song based on the prompt (you are encouraged to put your own spin on it)
b) Practice it a little
c) Record the song in the simplest fashion available to you: one-track-one-take is the general rule, but if you really screw up it's ok to do another take
d) Send it to me by the deadline via rocktastica at gmail dot com
e) I will post links to them for all to hear and vote upon
Note: It's more of a challenge than a contest per se, but if you want to believe there's a lot of competition involved, feel free to indulge yourself. I think of it as just a little exercise to stretch the muscles.
The challenge this time is very simple:
Write a song starting with the lyric "I lost . . ."
The deadline is Saturday, August 23rd.
For Challenge #1 entries, scroll down a bit. The results of the voting for Challenge #1 were not unlike a soccer game for toddlers: a big fat tie. Everyone's a winner.
04 August 2008
Hush, hush, keep it down now . . .
So it's been a while since I've caught any live music, and it's been even longer since I blogged about live music. But here's the thing: Aimee Mann is so darn unassuming that when we saw her Saturday, she actually played her big hit "Voices Carry," from the 80's, when she had a band called Til Tuesday and a rat tail:
She said she did this in order to balance out all the new songs she had played. Many indie musicians get all uppity about playing their one mega radio hit, perhaps because of the intense cuteness and lack of irony involved, but she was so cool.
Another thing about that show: electric guitar-free. It was so interesting to see and hear all of her tunes played with keyboards, organs and the like (plus her acoustic guitar). She had two guys playing the keys and they were excellent. I think there were a total of maybe eight different kinds of keyboards on stage. It was very fascinating/fun.
She said she did this in order to balance out all the new songs she had played. Many indie musicians get all uppity about playing their one mega radio hit, perhaps because of the intense cuteness and lack of irony involved, but she was so cool.
Another thing about that show: electric guitar-free. It was so interesting to see and hear all of her tunes played with keyboards, organs and the like (plus her acoustic guitar). She had two guys playing the keys and they were excellent. I think there were a total of maybe eight different kinds of keyboards on stage. It was very fascinating/fun.
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