The Lonely Island

I'm an occasional SNL watcher, and I like all the SNL Digital Shorts, like this one:

I did some looking around, and the guys that do the Digital Shorts are the guys from The Lonely Island.

They have an album out called Incredibad, and it is amazing. It's one of those albums that you and like-minded-individuals can quote all the time. My wife can't stand it!

They have made videos of some of their songs from the album, and a few of these have made their way onto SNL, and while Andy Samberg is on SNL, the other two dudes (Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone) work behind the scenes as writers.

Technorati Tags: Incredibad,The Lonely Island,Saturday Night Live,SNL Digital Shorts

Pandora and the Music Genome Project

I know what your thinking, and no, that's not the name of my latest story.

I've heard about the web music app Pandora for a long time, but never checked it out. Recently I remembered it and pulled it up. Going to the website presents a front end that lets you specify an artist (or a song) that you like, and Pandora starts playing something by that artist.

 

Pandora builds a queue of music based off of your initial selection and the Music Genome Project. Basically, it analyzes your selection and assigns the song certain attributes that it matches against songs in its database. Subsequent songs are automatically queued up and played.

I've started with various musicians I like and also tried some obscure ones. The vast majority of times I've enjoyed what I've heard, with some obvious matching selections but also some bands that are new to me. It's great for parties or just hanging around if you are tired of your current media selection or don't want to create a custom playlist (or are too lazy to hit Shuffle).

There is also a Pandora app for mobile devices, but I'm not sure how great this is due to it always being on and streaming data/music. I could see your battery draining due to the Pandora app, but as I don't have a phone with that kind of capability I'm basically talking out of my Napster. I'm sure it works - why offer it otherwise.

Technorati Tags: Pandora,Music Genome Project,MP3,streaming music

Softimage Party

Since we went to the Autodesk Users Group Monday night, we thought we could see what Softimage, the biggest competitor to Maya and 3D Studio MAX, had to say. Softimage has something new called ICE - Interactive Creative Environment.

We were expecting to get some info about the software, production houses talking about using it, demo reels, etc. Nope! Just a party at Club 740 in downtown LA. We met a Softimage reseller on the way to the party, and we thought we were close to getting VIP passes, but no such luck. They gave out one free drink coupon to everyone, but I didn't know what it was (I thought it was a raffle ticket), so I didn't use it for the first two drinks. Uh oh!

We weren't sure what to expect at a party with a company delivering a new product called ICE, but we soon found out.

Vanilla Ice! I'm not kidding. He came out along with Clint Eastwood on drums and DJ Dirty Chopstick on, uh, DJ. I'm still not kidding. It was actually a pretty good show! He started with some new music, downloadable for fee at his website, and then hit some of the classics.

 

The DJ brought out two cases of bottled water and put them at the front of the stage. I thought that someone is going to be performing for a loooooong time, but it seems like Vanilla's gimmick is to spray the crowd periodically with water, drink water and spit it out on the crowd, drop kick water bottles and douse the girls that jump up on the stage.

Oh yeah. I'm not sure how they got the signal, but all of a sudden Vanilla held his hand out and started pulling girls up on stage. Of course, they start dancing, and then start dancing with each other. Finally one of the girls decided that she really wasn't in to the other girl and was trying to keep it like regular dancing, but the other girl wouldn't hear of it. Hilarity ensues, and the girl jumps back down into the crowd just to be replaced by someone else.

Here is Softimage's coverage of the event. We're famous! Look for us in the pictures - David's wearing a green shirt and I'm wearing a yellow shirt, and we're in the first three rows. I got dissed, hard, for a fist bump. Twice.

Oh yeah. Ron Jeremy was there. The connection with Softimage? Unknown.

He's up there on the walkway. They never put a spotlight on him, but sharp-eyed viewers should be able to pick him out.

I thought that the Autodesk party had a lot more information about the applications, the business, etc. This was fun, but I was hoping to hear how Softimage is positioning itself in the industry and against its competitors.

Technorati Tags: Club 740,Softimage,Vanilla Ice,Ron Jeremy,SIGGRAPH

Weezer: Pork and Beans

So Weezer, one of my favorite bands, is coming out with a new album next month, and you may have heard the first single, "Pork and Beans."

They've released a video chock-full of internet memes.



Here is one of many websites that start cataloging the memes.

No Rick-Rolling, though!

Edit: I almost forgot to give credit where credit is due - thanks for the heads-up Cobra!

World War Z

I recently finished an audiobook as well - World War Z by Max Brooks.



It's by the same author that wrote the Zombie Survival Guide, which I've seen and flipped through, but never read.

World War Z was my first audiobook, and I listened to it on my ~20 minute commute. It was very well...written? Read? Both. I'm not sure how the dead tree version is, but this was made up of interviews from survivors of various nationalities and professions. I immediately recognized Henry Rollins and James Woods, but there are a few more that I new but couldn't place a face with the voice. I found the multiple actors a definite plus to the experience, but I wonder if that is due to the interview style of the book. I don't have any prior audiobook knowledge to compare.

If I didn't have 40 minutes per day alone, I probably wouldn't have even tried it.

I got it from emusic.com, for which I had a coupon for some free music and an audiobook.

My newest, cheapest guitar

So I was in our local Goodw*ll the other day and saw a guitar in their auction pile. Hold on a second - it wasn't just a guitar. It was a child-scale classical guitar, with case, and the best part? Two Mariachi, uh, hats.

Unfortunately, the hats were child-scale too.

 

The auctions are held on Saturdays at high noon, and I had a few reminders to make sure I was going to be there. Throughout the week the items are in silent auction mode, with binders out with pages for each of the items. On Saturday, in an bid (ha!) to get more money, the items transition to traditional auction mode, with one of the employees doing the auctioneering. The bidding started out at $16 and there was some back and forth between me and someone else behind me. I wanted to play fair, so I didn't turn around and psych him out. I just kept my cool and kept bidding. I stepped up to $21 - a level he dared not follow, and I won the auction!

 

The smaller scale doesn't bother me, but it is very resonant at the bottom end, so most of my work on it sounds bass-heavy.

 

You don't get to touch some of the items beforehand, as they are in lockdown in a metal cage. Once I got it home and started playing with it I noticed that there is some fret buzz on the high E string. It looks like I'll have to build up the nut and file down a string slot (thanks for the baking soda/super glue tip, Louis!) or replace the nut.

All in all, it's a sweet deal, as the guitar is solidly made, and you can't beat the price. We've used one of the Mariachi hats for a White Elephant gift (along with playing La Cucaracha when it was opened), and I'll have to bring the other hat up to work for the serious times

Darth Vader Harmonica Bayou

Really, I never knew he was so talented!



Thanks Louis!

The Poor Man's Guitar Hero

I tried out a new program this morning - Frets on Fire. It's basically Guitar Hero with a keyboard instead of the guitar controller.

It's pretty fun, and I got a few more people interested in it today. It comes with three songs, but it can also import Guitar Hero tracks from the game DVD. Very nice!

Messing around with this definitely makes me want to get the real Guitar Hero (and Guitar Hero 2) for the controller and extra features (encore, crowd, meters, etc), and dismantle a keyboard to make my own guitar controller.

Frets on Fire is definitely fun, and a great way to show off your hot licks at the office.

Pickin' and Grinnin'

I've wanted to learn how to play guitar for a long time. I come from a fairly musical family, more art-oriented but music played a pretty good part (plus marrying the most beautiful violin player in the world helps). I took piano lessons from our church choir director for a few weeks...nothing came out of that but a few songs, which is no fault of hers.

I finally bit the bullet and bought some guitars. Now that the boys are old enough to appreciate my delicate strumming and/or shredding, I figured this would be a good time to ease them into music.

Now, I'm no pro, but feel free to check out Powderburn, Thomas Brady or Havilah Tower if you want to see people who know what they are doing.

Here is my electric. I bought a Squier starter pack from Guitar Center and got a screaming deal on it. Please ignore my mouth in the first picture - I got snapped while humming some notes.


Observant readers may notice some other instruments behind me. A guitar from Russia (20,000 rubles!! Wait, that was only $20...) that is unplayable without some neck work and my grandfather's National Triolian dobro from the 30's are up on the dresser, and just peeking over the bed is my new acoustic, but more on that later.

Here I am shredding to Ode to Joy. The Fender book that came with the electric is pretty good. I've learned a few chords and three notes each on the first two strings. The book teaches you how to read music, not just bang out some chords.


Below is my acoustic from Rondo Music. A friend and I found a good deal, and just wait for our golden country sounds to follow.


You may notice some silver stuff on the body of my guitar. Yes! We took our youngest to a Biscuit Brothers concert at Dougherty and I had Buford and Dusty sign it. If you have kids who are in to music, or learning about music, or if you are a local musician (they have locals on their show) please check out their Emmy nominated PBS show.

Busted! And a retraction.

So it turns out that I've heard of Spoon before.... My amazing wife used to work for Dr. Barnett, the orthodontist where I'm currently having some work done. The lead singer of Spoon was a patient of theirs when she worked there.

Oh, snap!

More music

So I'm a big Smashing Pumpkins fan, and my claim to fame is driving down from College Station to see their Houston show where someone threw a shoe at Billy Corgan and hit him in the mouth. That turned out to be the last Pumpkins show in Houston for about five years.

The former drummer of Smashing Pumpkins has formed the Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, which I'm listening to as I type this entry. Good drumming, good chilling out music, good stuff. Check it out, and thanks to Joe for the tip.

Spoon!

This time, it's not about The Tick.

Check out Spoon, a good Texas band that I've been listening to frequently while doing the dishes and driving to work. Check them out, and thanks to Stephen for the hookup.

My first guitar

In college I went to Russia for the Study Abroad program, and among other things, I ended up bringing back a guitar. Basic dreadnought, and for 20,000 rubles (USD$20) it was mine!


I never really played it that much, but kept carting it around with me. Today I bring it in to work to have some of the rockers with which I work take a look at it and hopefully tune this bad boy so I can start learning git-tar. It turns out that the neck is at such an angle that playing notes toward the body will pull it out of tune.


My boys like to play with this guitar, and I've been preventing them from really cutting loose on it just in case I need to start learning on it, but I think it has officially become their guitar. I'm in the process of checking American Musical Supply, Guitar Center and Musician's Friend for both acoustic and electric packages, as well as banjos and mandolins - two instruments I've always wanted to play.