Home

Advertisement

Customize
About this Journal
Links:
Stranger Things Talk Bass
Current Month
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031
Jul. 10th, 2009 @ 12:23 pm Writer's Block: Duos
Current Location: Work

Sam and Diane, Ross and Rachel, Chuck and Blair—who is your favorite TV couple?


View other answers



John Sheridan and Delenn from Babylon 5.

They were my first 'ship before I even knew what shipping was. It was was I'd want ouf of a real relationship, too. The characters were authentic, including flaws, and they were strong individually. It made their greatness as a couple that much more formidable.

At the end of the series when John is saying goodbye to her in "Sleeping in the Light" I tear up, particularly at this set of dialogue

John Sheridan: Goodnight, my love... the brightest star in my sky.
Delenn: Goodnight, you, who were my sky, and my sun, and my moon.

It might not be much to read, but the actors made it work like nothing else. Also near that scene and equally as strong once Delenn is alone is Ivanova's voice over. I quote parts:

Susan Ivanova: An expedition to Coriana space found Sheridan's ship a few days later, but they never found him. All the airlocks were sealed, but there was no trace of him inside. Some of the Minbari believe he will come back some day, but I never saw him again in my lifetime...

As for Delenn, every morning for as long as she lived, Delenn got up before dawn and watched the sun come up.
About this Entry
Malcolm Reynolds
Jul. 8th, 2009 @ 02:05 pm Writer's Block: Fashion Forward
Current Location: Work

What do you think we'll be wearing twenty years from now?

Presented by Intel, Sponsors of Tomorrow.


View other answers



Oh, come on! I have a hard enough time deciding what I'll wear when I get up in the morning much less figuring it out for 20 years from now!

Oh, wait. There was a "we" in that question.

Um...

Probably something that uses more recycled or otherwise earth-friendly fabrics. I hope so.
About this Entry
Mark Hart
Jul. 5th, 2009 @ 11:00 pm Celestial LOLcats (Because it's PRETTY)
Current Location: Home
Current Music: Rain outside
Tags: ,
funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

funny pictures
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
About this Entry
Neil Finn
Jun. 30th, 2009 @ 11:08 am Tastes change
Current Location: Work
So last night I decided to listen to this CD by a musician I once thought was the best thing since sliced bread. I've liked many solo instrumentalists, such as Steve Vai or Joe Satriani on guitar, or more recently people like Trip Wamsley and Matthew Moss on bass. So it's not unusual for me to like solo instrumentalists, particularly given my experience in classical music.

The thing about it all was that I just didn't like it any more, and that surprised me. Yes, I've had times where I didn't want to listen to something because it just wasn't right for the mood I had in that moment, but I could still recognize that it was good music. This time was different. I was thinking that the stuff just wasn't very interesting from a compositional point of view.

I would never have expected disliking something I used to think was awesome. This is me with a high tolerance for lame and nostalgia. Huh.
About this Entry
Mark Hart
Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 11:29 pm Writer's Block: Childhood Firsts
Current Location: Home

What was your first word?


View other answers



I'm the youngest child in the family. No one knows because by the time I came along, they stopped keeping track of milestones such as that. We're not even a big family like the Duggars from Arkansas. There's only 4 of us. But no, no one knows.

I can tell you the first sight word I learned how to read was "sick." My grandmother was teaching me sight words as a child, and she had the word "sick" on a piece of paper. She said that was a bad word and snatched it away from view. So of course, that's the word I remember as the first one I knew how to read.
About this Entry
Neil Finn
Jun. 25th, 2009 @ 05:52 pm Writer's Block: All-Nighter

When was the last time you stayed up all night? What were you doing?


View other answers



It was December, between Christmas and New Years, and I had a tooth ache. I could not sleep because of the extreme pain I was in. So with my non-sleeping self I organized my closet, played on the internet and random stuff like that.
About this Entry
Neil Finn
Jun. 8th, 2009 @ 10:38 am Random lovey stuff
Current Location: Work
Current Music: Paul McCartney, "Things We Said Today (live)"
I got a call at work today from a salesman, and I am not much interested in him or his company. when he first came to sell me something, he totally rubbed me the wrong way. I explained it to a coworker (who also used to do my job in a paraprofessional capacity before I took it over) that the feeling was like being on a bad date. Doesn't make me want to entertain them again at all.

My rant about my job is that I'm the Queen, so to speak. As a buyer, I can get whatever I want from multiple vendors. It might not be the same thing, but it will be close enough. So it irritated me to no end when this sales person came in doing the high pressure sale and acting like he was god's gift to the library world. No, I don't think so. Plus, when the stuff came in, the processing wasn't very good, either. Yes, we can work the company to make it better, but even from other quarters in my library system the feeling is one of "meh."

My brother and sister-in-law's 3 year anniversary is tomorrow. They got married in the Bahamas. (As an aside: I'd sure like to go there sometime.) While they were getting married, I was off in Australia having an adventure. I wrote about it at the time, but I'm still one of those to reminisce. Or as one friend accurately accused of me, I'm a counter.

As far as counting other things, I've been in bass lessons with my teacher for a year now as of the 3rd. I know I'm better than I was, but at times I wonder if I'm actually any good. This is "lovey" because I have so many music frustrations, and I compared dealing with them to being in love. If I had these same types of difficulties and frustrations on something I didn't like doing, I would have given up long ago. There are still times when I wonder to myself, "Now why do I do this?"

I play music in church, and I lead songs. I do work on what I do, but it's a frustrating endeavor. I have to often play something for the first time with no previous rehearsals other than the time I do it. Sure it sounds like what studio musicians do, but all the musicians are professionals. They don't usually have to deal with singers who are unsure of key and have wandering tempi. It's part of the challenge of making the music I do, and I was telling a friend that I try to console myself that it would be difficult for anyone to do including my gifted teacher, not that I am somehow massively deficient in the bass area.

There is another difficulty for me in that there's a fine line when a person is doing tempo deviations. I wonder if I should reinforce the beat to reign the person in or if I should reset myself to what the person is doing (even if it's wrong) because there is another ethic that above all things an accompanying musician should make the soloist look good (...even if the soloist shouldn't be up there in the first place...).

A further related rant about church music is that we like to say we're making "a joyful noise unto the Lord". Well, the Lord may appreciate it, but that doesn't mean I do. It's that old music teacher in me wanting to correct things that are wrong and not being sure of the most diplomatic way to address the situation, or even if I should at all.
About this Entry
Neil Finn
Jun. 6th, 2009 @ 07:24 pm "With an iron-clad fist, I wake up and French kiss the morning..."
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: Bon Jovi, "Bed of Roses"
That's one of my favorite lyrical moments ever. I'm not sure how I got to this song this afternoon, but I started somewhere around the Beatles, went to Paul McCartney solo, back to his duet on "Say, Say, Say" with Michael Jackson and somehow ended up on Bon Jovi's "Bed of Roses."

Now this song... here's the nostalgia, folks.

I remember in the early 90s before the album this was on was even released that Bon Jovi played an acoustic set on MTV. Jon himself got on piano to play this, instead of David Bryan, and I was instantly knocked over with the power of this song. It's been one of my favorites ever since.

Later when the song came out on individual sheet music, I bought it. I found it and have it sitting on my desk as I type this entry. While I am no great pianist, I have basic skills, and I would tinker on this song on the choir room piano at my university.

When my advanced aural skills and sight singing class started having meetings in that same room--for some reason we left the room where we had been having classes most of the year, I rather shocked my professor after he played a Perfect 4th interval by asking him if the notes were specifically F and B-flat. They were.

The reason I knew what the notes were was not that I'd gained perfect pitch but that because of hacking my way though that song on that instrument so much, I just started to know what it sounded like. Still, the moment of his shock was an entertainment to me then as it is now.
About this Entry
Neil Finn
Jun. 5th, 2009 @ 11:32 pm Happy Birthday!
Current Location: Home
Tags:
Shout out to my girl, [info]flyingpigs_live
About this Entry
Bill Weasley
May. 31st, 2009 @ 09:57 pm Writer's Block: My Biggest Environmental Pet Peeve

Littering, long showers, not recycling... What's your biggest pet peeve about the way some people (mis)treat our planet?

Sponsored by One Million Acts of Green brought to you by Cisco.


View other answers



The first one that came to mind was the silly stuff like letting the water run while brushing teeth. Just turn it off! It's not much effort, and the water will be there when you need it again unless your plumbing sucks. Then that's a different issue entirely.
About this Entry
Neil Finn
May. 18th, 2009 @ 07:15 pm More cuteness
funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
About this Entry
Mark Hart
May. 18th, 2009 @ 07:13 pm Writer's Block: Same Name
Current Location: Home

Have you ever met or known someone who has the same name as you (first and last) but is not a relative?


View other answers



No, and I don't expect I would. My surname isn't very common. I did take a quiz once that told me that there are statistically a total of 6 people with my name in the USA. I've only met myself.
About this Entry
Neil Finn
May. 8th, 2009 @ 07:47 pm Cute birds
Current Location: Home
Current Music: Speed Racer TV theme
Tags: , ,
funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
About this Entry
Bill Weasley
May. 4th, 2009 @ 01:08 pm Birthday Shout
Current Location: Home
Happy birthday to [info]ashestothestars!

Enjoy your day. :)



Unrelated: Having misery over in Aika-land. I had an ear infection last week, and while I don't know that it's still infected, things are not back to "normal."
About this Entry
Neil Finn
Mar. 26th, 2009 @ 03:36 pm I *heart* my President.
Current Location: Work
barack obama
see more Political Pictures
About this Entry
Neil Finn
Mar. 16th, 2009 @ 12:19 pm Back from Baton Rouge
Current Location: Work
Went to BR last week for work and to participate in the Louisiana Library Association conference. It wasn't as good for me personally as previous years because most of the sessons were focusing on school libraries instead of publics (where I work) or academic and special libraries.

While I was there during my downtime, I saw Watchmen, and Race to Witch Mountain as well as eating at 2 restaurants where I'd never eaten before--Ruby Tuesday and Melting Pot.

I enjoyed both movies.
-Some reviewers criticised Watchmen that it was too close to the source material and that the flashback sequences were confusing. I didn't find it that way at all, and that coming from someone who hadn't read the graphic novel.

-I was a fan of the Witch Mountain movies from my childhood, and I am sure that is majorly from my grandmother who told me that my family descended from space aliens who colonized the planet. (Hey, some kids have Santa Clause. I had, "We're actually from another planet.") In any case, when I found out there would be a sequel/revamp, I was excited to see it. I love Dwayne Johnson as a great entertainer no matter what he does. In preparation of seeing the new movie, I watched the old ones again. I hate to say it, but they did not live up to the childhood nostalgia. Call it blasphemous if you will, but I liked the new one now as an adult better than I liked the originals.
About this Entry
Number Six
Mar. 5th, 2009 @ 05:37 pm Signs I'm a bass player
Yesterday I was at the dentist getting 3 fillings, and the music being played was 80s hits. At one point, the dentist has the tools out and is about to do something with a miniature saw or buffer or something, and I start to hear this song. I remember thinking, "Wow, that has a good bass line." I think it was one of Whitney Houston's hits that I've known for ages but hadn't heard in a while.

So the whole bass player thing doesn't turn off and rears its head in the strangest moments. I tried to put my mental concentration on the song being played in the background instead of on what the dentist was doing.
About this Entry
Duck Dunn
Mar. 1st, 2009 @ 10:10 pm Happy new month
Current Location: Home
It's March. Here's a post.

Let's see. I had a date on Thursday, and it was a nice date. I had a really good time, and now my mother (whose birthday is tomorrow) has visions of a future son-in-law. He's a really nice guy, and we'll see where it goes. One thing for sure is that it seemed this was one person I was supposed to know because no matter what becomes of things we had too many coincidences between us for our meeting to be only an accident.

I'm not rushing into anything, and neither is he. If my hoping for a son-in-law mom tries to push me, I'll drag my feet so much that I'll make a stubborn braying donkey look sweet in comparison.

In music but not technically "news", I love my fretless bass, oh yes I do. My teacher was geeking on my instrument last weekend and looked completely adorkable doing it. Then in the week between lessons, I played it more. I didn't actually like some of the sounds it made, and I was concerned that it might end up being a case of "That's just what fretless sounds like." Thankfully, it wasn't. He corrected the action, and now I am well pleased with my instrument. It would have been horrible to realize I didn't actually like fretless when that's what I've been wanting to play so long.

After my mom met my teacher yesterday she commented on his pretty eyes. Yes, he does bring the pretty. I will swear up and down that he's a great musician and teacher, and I do believe that whole-heartedly. You can rest assured, though, that the pretty isn't going unnoticed or unappreciated. It's added value for the lesson, or as someone else said to me, "Visual aids don't hurt."

If only I could mix the pretty with the date. Okay, so I'm shallow, or at least honest enough to admit my shallowness. Friends have been giving me the "You'll grow to love the person on the inside" speech. I know that story. In fact, I WROTE that story. See past romantic history for examples. But still, could I just have everything? (As in both intelligence and beauty) Is that truly too much to ask? Probably.

There's other stuff. Important stuff, like my namesake grandmother being in the hospital. She might not come out of it. I'll have to contact my dad to see if he needs anything. As the oldest living male child in the family, it's up to him to take care of things. It doesn't matter that his younger brothers are actually in Minnesota where all this is taking place.
About this Entry
Neil Finn
Feb. 17th, 2009 @ 01:24 pm "Hey, I should update this sometime..."
Current Location: Work
Current Music: Peter Murphy, "Cuts You Up"
It's been nearly a month. I've been meaning to come back and post thoughts, yet I haven't done it yet. What was my final urging that made me come to post? Only, that I really wanted to share this picture.



The beautiful and talented... and beautiful... Peter Murphy, ladies and gentlemen.

I was listening to his song "Cuts You Up" last night, a song that I have loved for almost 20 years (it came out in 1990), and I thought "I can play that on the bass."

I'm getting that way with a lot of bass stuff. After my January frustrations, I'm discovering that I can play lots of music by ear. It's exciting, like learning how to read and realizing my limits are only bound by what I choose to do. It's been a long time coming, so I am enjoying this personal renaissance, though sometimes when I make mistakes I joke in the same reading vein that I had a momentary case of dyslexia.

Once I have a whole CD's worth of songs, I may post a play list and zip file of songs I can play on bass. I think it could be fun!

Last week, for example, I rocked out on:
"Walking in London" by Concrete Blonde (Sexy, sexy, sexy)
"Hey Baby" by Stephen Marley featuring Mos Def (Ditto)
"Don't You Evah" by Spoon

For my next lesson I plan on bringing to my teacher
"Sweet Sixteen" by Billy Idol
"Doomsday" by Murray Gold and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (yes... Doctor Who TV music)
and... "Cuts You Up" by Peter Murphy.

I'm definitely having fun with this, and anyone interested in me sharing later, let me know. I hope to have different songs, not all the same tempos or styles. It's just whatever my ears seem to latch on to from week to week.

Oh, and I get to play fretless now in my lessons. The embargo is over. YESSS!!!


By the way, I'm going to see Flight of the Conchords in Houston on May 6th, the day after my birthday. I'm looking forward to that, though my family are irritating me right this minute. Excuse me, but if you don't want to go... and you have plenty of warning... let me know so I can sell my tickets to someone who'd actually want to see them. I went into my coworker's office ranting about this earlier. I was severely ticked off.
About this Entry
Number Six
Jan. 18th, 2009 @ 03:28 pm Ah, music. The thing I love which vexes me so.
Current Location: Home
A moment ago I was taping together copies of my score pages from orchestra. Yes, orchestra is back in session for me, and we had our first rehearsal on Tuesday the 13th. Here are some highlights of that rehearsal.

I like the music. It consists of several Beethoven pieces and a lot of show tunes. It was all music that was immediately accessible to the musicians, and most likely by our future audience.

We have a new percussion section leader who showed up late (bad). He's a good musician, though, and seems to get on well with everyone. In fact, that's what surprised me because it looked like he already knew everyone. I wondered where he'd been hiding. I think he's a guy I can enjoy working with, and it will be easy to take his leadership.

During the first Beethoven read before the new guy came, I was sight-reading on snare drum. The truth is that I suck at sight-reading snare and I'm a timid player. That's why I've been forcing myself to do it. I want to grow as a player, and the only way to do it is to take that risk out of my comfort zone.

During this time, one of the other musicians, who in the two seasons past has played the part of my personal nemesis, came over to me to instruct me on how to play the part. She is a junior high band director, but I didn't appreciate her help. She was talking down to me as if I was one of her students. Okay, maybe that's the only way she knows how to talk to someone when giving instruction. Even so, it wasn't appropriate. She had her own part to play, which she was neglecting by coming to me, and I'm not her responsibility to fix, even if she is the assistant conductor of record.

The woman didn't take kindly to me telling her to go play her own part. She ranted at me that she won't be disrespected in her own band hall. I replied firmly that it's not her ensemble.

The new guy came later, and she didn't bother me again, likely because he was there. I got to play a variety of keyboard stuff, and read that well, much to my surprise. Plus, I'll be doing some tympani stuff this season, which I've wanted to do for a while. I always loved playing those.

After the rehearsal was over, the woman called to me across the room asking if I'd come speak to her in her office. I laughed incredulously and said, "No!" Again, she was talking to me as if I was one of her wayward students, instead of the music degree-holding adult that I am. That really made her angry, so she ranted at me in front of everyone, as if being on the receiving end of such a rant would actually bother me. She said several things, such as her being willing to let bygones be bygones and that I was rude to her, and she repeated that she won't be disrespected in her band hall.

Well... internally, I was thinking about the bygones thing, "What did I do to you? Show up breathing?" Really, I don't engage this woman or seek her out in any way. It was her coming to me with her misguided "help," something that she didn't offer to any other musician in the group that night. That alone lets me believe she was waiting for whatever my first mistake would be. Something else is that someone who has truly let bygones be bygones doesn't actually talk about it. That's like burying the hatchet but leaving the handle sticking out so you can grab it whenever you need it.

As to her last, I didn't argue. I only told her that it is her band hall. I think that surprised her as she expected argument and so forth. Then I repeated like a broken record that it is not her ensemble. The woman was so furious she threatened me that if I can't show her respect, I shouldn't come back to rehearsal.

You know, I'm not going to bend like that. If I caved at the first sign of adversity, what kind of person would I be? We were sight reading. Mistakes are to be expected. As mentioned above, I already know this is a weakness of mine, but I won't get better without challenging myself. I told a coworker that it's kind of like bad drivers: they need time on the road, too, or they won't become good drivers.

Something else about this situation that my friend Joe told me is that there are rules in any organizations bylaws about the admission and dismissal of members. So if it doesn't fit the bylaws she can rant until she's blue in the face. I'll still have the right to be there.


Skip to yesterday. I had a bass lesson with my teacher, who rocks both figuratively and literally. I feel lucky to have found him because I am making progress toward becoming a better bassist. He's helping me take music knowledge I already have and apply it to new situations. My assignment from yesterday was to figure out the exact basslines to 4 songs he put on a CD for me at the end of the lesson. I think this will be a challenge. Not impossible, but just difficult enough to make it interesting. My aural skills aren't where I'd want them to be, either, so it's another chance to grow.

The first song on the CD was "Crosscut Saw" by Albert King. We worked that out briefly at the end of the lesson, and I can do it. In theory. It's a little fast for me right now to do it well. It's not necessarily a fast song, but I just wasn't graceful doing it. Yet. Even so, now I can say that I can do the exact part of one song all the way through. Thank you for little things.
About this Entry
Mark Hart