Phantasmablogia Rock Music

Monkeys Play their Fiddles

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:07:53 EST

When I always talk in riddles
it's like monkeys playing fiddles
but there's nothing much in playing
that tells what's in the song

But in singing there is playing
just as stringing there is saying
that there's something you would find
if you listened right along.

It's of mountains and of gold rush
of cacophony in maiden's blush
You're finding but not seeking
and she lies beyond your touch.

You've seen the agonizing sunrise
and then you cursed encroaching lies
again you seek for what it shows you
in brilliance, nothing there.

In light it's easily hidden
It seems to show you all that's bidden
but in darkness is the finding
in darkness is the end.

Busted for Residue

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:50:28 EST

After the freedom of living in Holland, it is pretty fucking grim that the first steps on U.S. soil lead me to some asshole who's making a big deal out of less reefer than it would take to stone a house mouse. I wanted to ask him how all the heroin gets through but I figured the dumb fuck would take my camera apart for that.

No, he's not just doing his job. He chose that job and he chose to be a needle-dick.

It's cool here at Lotho's place except that it's about noon and the sun isn't even up yet. I guess I'll have to call someone as that doesn't seem right.

Whoa, whoa

It's six in the morning. Never mind.

Flying out of the Underwear Bomber's Airport

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:18:35 EST

Last Christmas, the underpants bomber tried to take out an aircraft and almost pulled it off.

Some years earlier, a tennis shoe bomber tried to take out an aircraft.

What these wizards had in common is that both flew out of Amsterdam. The consolation in flying in the same possible traffic patterns as these idiots is that they don't appear to meet the intellectual requirements for cracking an egg.

But everyone was so tired that we didn't care about terrorists. We'd been blowing joints until way late and trippin' on the vibe of the Last Night. That prob'ly didn't leave room for more than three or four hours of sleep which I strongly recommend for a long, boring flight. Just try and stay awake!

Everything was pretty cool until I got to Customs in Detroit. They kept asking me about coffee shops and it was pointless to lie so told 'em, hell yeah, great run in Amsterdam. That might have been the time they pulled the container from my luggage. This would be a container that they use to sell joints. How it got into my luggage I have no idea.

So, kind of an odd souvenir, right. Well, no. This souvenir had some traces of residue in it and they took it off for chemical analysis. About that time they told me I was looking at a $500 fine.

They tested and consulted with each other, making some big deal out of enough reefer that would have been arguably sufficient to stone some creature much smaller than a mouse.

Finally they decided that the tremendous threat to narcotics importation that I obviously posed could only be resolved by taking me to the backroom for a witnessed search.

After they searched me for a while, the Customs guy said he was falling in love with me. I told him I get that a lot.

Skip the wind-down part. No fine and I'm in Nashville. They couldn't have designed a better confirmation to me that I've returned to a police state.

Time to get horizontal.

Much love to you all!

Heading for the Airport

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:42:55 EST

Way, way too early for any civilized purpose but I'm not that accustomed to civilized purpose anyway.

I'll tweet if I can but won't use Facebook or any other similar system. I'm scratching all that stuff. Tweet is marginally useful but Facebook and the others serve no purpose at all.

Flying into Los Angel-ee-ee-eeez

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:09:25 EST

Sister jsmn is right that the flight is much earlier than I thought. When I re-scheduled they moved it earlier in the day.

So ...

Coming into Nashville on Monday at 4:21 p.m. on KLM 7035 from Detroit. I'll be losing seven hours so I'll be even more screwed up time-wise than I am now. Could be amusing to watch.

The Ancient Curse

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:16:51 EST

In case you were wondering if it's going to get metallic again, read on:

He threw fireballs and pitchforks
from his angry outstretched hand.
Burning every living creature
throughout the wailing land.

He raved in screaming anger
I'll avenge the ancient curse
You feel my power now
You'll feel it get much worse.

He ranted in his fury
with spittle on his chin
His eyes were wild with liquor
and it burned him from within.

The future is not coming
You don't want it anyway
You just want tomorrow
to look just like today.

He knew the spell for lightning
and he hurled bolts to his feet
The groundlings ran for cover
but there was nowhere to retreat.

They cried as little children
How could you do this thing
but he gathered up more weapons
so they could feel their sting.

Cry, you little bastards,
It's my joy to snuff your life.
You've given nothing but your torment
enmeshed in endless strife.

He saw the little bubbles
shining colors to the night
but it's all a fairy tale
and they pop at the first light.

The fairies rose in silence
then asked, do you hate us all.
Don't you think the one who did it
wants all of us to fall.

You betrayed me, little demons,
little nightmares on soft wings
You stabbed me as to kill me
and then took everything.

You covered it with silence
to say that you don't know
but even fairies feel the murmur
and I won't let that go.

You talk about your loving
every time the dull wind blows
but much more telling than the story
is where it doesn't go.

Fairy love is made of vapor
As the dust in your sweet wings
You give no reason to believe it
There's not a reason left to sing.

Curse you into darkness
May every fairy fall
You'll see pits of hellish fire
your pain is my enthrall.

Curse you into darkness
May every fairy fall
You'll see pits of hellish fire
your pain is my enthrall.

Lasers and Acts of Meaningless Theatrical Buffoonery

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:25 EST

Won't be long until we're shooting off 100 mW lasers and we've seen Lotho passing through so we know he didn't burn the house down with them. We can try that when I get there.

It's been fascinating in the jams with Sister hexx. Her reggae vibe is minimalist at the same time as she adds multiple layers of different instruments. It's been most intriguing and a huge pleasure to be a part of it. Obviously we differ on minimalism and I can't wait to put the knobs on ten but it's been such a good sojourn and it can't help but affect my music in good and wonderful ways.

We also differ on lyrics as she is very admiring of Zappa's work but I consider his lyrics cynical and arrogant. Maybe they're even amusing if you like but not at all, in my view, worthy of him. Sister hexx liked the lyrics for "All Around the Clocktower" so maybe she'll be taking a different view of lyrics into future jams.

There's much for me to be learned from that as well. It's all very well to write Pink Floyd listen and then kill yourself songs but they're not, in the main, all that entertaining (laughs).

I'm deathly afraid of being trivial but the quest not to be trivial is ... yah, trivial.

I'm setting a standard for the poems that I can't possibly reach, just like I did with the guitar. I'm aware of it and it'll just take a bit to get some objectivity to sort through them a tad.

Miss aurora is charming lady with a high sense of style. You've seen she's beautiful and heard the power in her voice that doesn't come through in Second Life. She knows it doesn't come through and she knows why so that makes her all the more determined to get out of her studio and jam. There is major awesomeness in this for Sister hexx and I as both of us have no doubt she could front any band any time she feels like it.

You may have Miss aurora typecast as singing girly songs and she does that but don't even think that's all she's got. Check her out on the LIVE VIDEO link in the sidebar and you'll hear some of the power that's really in her. I'd like to say she learned about that power from coming over here but she already knew. What she didn't know is where she could let it out and she's onto that. Much awesomeness!

The big video camera was running for the first hour of the jam and hopefully it really did record. It really is damaged in some way as I swapped it out with a DV camera Sister hexx owns and that one was recognized. For some reason, the big one won't connect and every other thing has been swapped out. Not good but hopefully I at least got tape recorded and I'll extract that back in Cincinnati.

I've also got the audio recording that Sister hexx made of the show today. I'll merge that with the video from the camera and it's not too terrible doing a manual sync. What that will give me is an hour of high-quality video plus high-quality audio, suitable for the DVD.

So the movie goes on. Second Life likely will not as the resentment over the thieving in Texas is massive and there's no way I believe it was some random career criminals who just happened to be working that lot. People watch too much television.

It's not so much that it was stolen but rather that they didn't give a fuck. So it goes.

There's also massive resentment over all the political destruction in the U.S. I always knew the Republicans were lying but I never knew how much. I look around at all these Dutch socialists in their suffering and think, man, ain't this a bitch.

They not only pay higher taxes, they're happy with it and what they get. Now that is a bitch!

You can say that again!

Ain't that a bitch!!

The only places with lower tax rates than the U.S. are Iceland and Finland. There's socialized medicine in Finland but it's only for reindeer. (That's true about the tax rates, tho. It's the same with tax on gasoline.)

Yes, sir. That is a bitch.

All that stuff is just the crows flying around and there sure is a murder of them out there but that's alright. I see the crows will always be flying around and my job is to decide if there's any awesomeness in painting them.

Grand Finale Gig Went Great

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:50:54 EST

It was really grand to be jamming with aurora Metaluna. She's got a fabulous voice and performing with others brings the best out of her. It's cool as hell to hear her get behind a song and a lot of people came through to hear her.

She and Sister hexx are planning on getting together for more jams in the future so that's also cool as hell to hear.

Thanks very much to aurora Metaluna and hexx Triskaidekaphobia for the Utrecht jams. It's been huge fun for me and we hope you enjoyed the shows.

Capturing Telephone Audio for Ustream

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:18:46 EST

The object is to capture audio from a telephone land line so it can be mixed into the audio stream going out over Ustream so the person / persons on the phone can be part of the show.

The advantage of using a land line over Skype for telephone audio capture is that there is no bandwidth requirement, no additional computer, and much cleaner audio. The output from the telephone interface goes directly to the mixer / computer audio interface and subsequently to the Ustream software.

The telephone interface is a device that connects between the handset and the telephone using the standard telephone jacks. Some interfaces even have standard XLR plugs that will permit connection to any kind of pro audio gear.

You will almost certainly want to run the the audio from the telephone interface into a black box before going to the mixer so you can 'sweeten' it. This will also give you the opportunity to ensure levels are good and to whack it altogether if the audience makes too much noise in your gig.

('Much cleaner audio' in a telephone context means it sucks less. The spectrum only goes from 180 Hz to 3 kHz. Skype has to go prob'ly near the same frequency but it will throw away a lot more audio data nevertheless.)

The telephone interface goes for something between $200-$300 US. That's a very rough idea based on a very short survey. No doubt something more inexpensive is available.

Before getting all crazy and spending money, it's got to be clear how it works. If the listener is hearing the show through headphones then how is a telephone going to work. If the listener is listening to open speakers then how do you hear it / prevent feedback. I see definite awesomeness in the concept but the practice may prove a bit slippery.

Reference: Telephone Interface Overview (it ain't pretty)

Software (Mac): How to Stream Skype to Ustream (Mac)

Interface: JK Audio Inline Patch

How to Get Audio from Yer Audience in Ustream

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:30:41 EST

The Drop D stuff has been fun. It's a hassle to re-tune for it even with a digital tuner but I still wouldn't have a robo-guitar.

There's a slide-ish kind of thing that's been entertaining and it's not cool enough to do it for you yet but it's got some possibilities. You shouldn't screw with slide unless you're really going to nail it as there's no in-between. You're either good or you suck.

On to the jams later today. Sister hexx got a message from aurora that she needed to get in touch and both of us thought that maybe something had come up but all's well and we're figuring she'll get here at maybe 9:00 a.m. US Eastern and very unlikely as early as 6:00 a.m.

In case you're wondering about alienating people, I'm not sure why I should care about being disenfranchised from polite society. We find, in polite society, bankers (thieves), politicians (liars), and shoe salesmen (Second Life). Take a wild guess at how many of them are likely to come to one of my gigs (laughs).

Which makes you a bunch of nutters as no-one else gets off on what I do. I'm fine with being a nutter but I'm not sure you all are.

(Ed: Don't call them nutters, Silas. They don't like it.)

So we may be doing a bit of flamingo ventriloquism in the gig tomorrow. We practiced up some earlier as every flamingo ventriloquist act needs a straight man.

What I'm considering is leaving a Ustream channel open much of the time when I've got the resources to do it. If anyone stops by, open a Skype session and video on the side. That'll get live video chat going with a relatively-low propagation delay. I don't anticipate big attendance so that might well be practical.

(Ed: Put 'em on TV?)

Yup, I think I can do it. Only one, tops two, but I think it'd be possible on a home system. This would be Skype and not at all suitable for music but could be adequate for voice.

Here's yer angle; Set yer Ustream live video machine going. Set yer audio stuff going with audio into the interface on the Ustream machine. Set yer Skype stuff going and Audio Hijack the audio. Send that to the interface on the Ustream machine. Bingo, you're on the air in the video, darlin'.

Now that won't include video but your voice could be heard. Note a tremendous potential for some really, really bizarre feedback unless everyone is using headsets for all audio.

OK, with me so far?

So we play some Mr Wizard stuff. How to get all of you on there. Well, I'll tell you. Skype has conference call capability. That'd increase the number of you who could talk during a live show at, say, a dozen. Higher than that and Skype gets progressively weaker.

Think about it, kids. This isn't just feasible. It'd be feckin' easy.

How to manage it is you have your fan babe out there. She calls you up and you connect her into your Ustream audio. Other fans call the fan babe and will automatically be connected to your show as she conferences them into her call.

Tell me that won't work, baybeeee!

If yer fans get crazy screaming yer name in adoration while you play, the fan babe can mute 'em. (laughs)

Geez, I get so tired of people lecturing my ass on marketing. How about some ideas, muddafuggas!!!

If anyone has the stuff to try that before me, please do let me know if your computer catches fire. If anyone needs specifics on how to implement what I've suggested, I'll be happy to detail it. As always, Silas don't want no marketing. Silas stuff is free, bitch. (laughs)

Just a wee bit more detail for my own benefit:

Bandwidth. I don't know if Skype bandwidth requirements increase with the number of people on the call. Is the break-up with larger calls due to running out of bandwidth or something else.

Land line. You could use a land line and tap the audio from it for the computer. Same path to the video after that. The advantage is much cleaner audio and unlimited number of callers with no bandwidth requirement. The down is that it's harder to set it up and it doesn't work for international calls.

Number of computers. It's at least two as Ustream only supports one audio input, there's nothing akin to a mixer in it for multiple channels. (Note the potential for use of Audio Hijack at this level but it still may not solve the problem. With regard to bandwidth, it doesn't matter how many computers are used as all will go up the same cable channel and it's unlikely there would be any performance consideration in running Skype and a browser for Ustream on the same computer.)

Therefore, it needs to take its input from an audio interface that in turn connects to the actual multi-channel audio source, whatever it might be. Skype audio can't be mixed with the multi-channel music input as, due to architecture, the audio would span all channels rather than be segregated to a single channel if only one computer is used.

Therefore, a third computer needs to be employed.

This isn't extreme as gamers go way, way beyond that to play Everquest and World of Warcraft. Some of them require graphics cards that let's them stretch a view across two and three monitors.

So, three computers.

I can't try it before Cincinnati but you bet I'm going to do it. If you want to be in on it, I'm Silas.Scarborough on Skype.

Hmm....this really could work. The fan babe moderates who gets into the call so no-one can heckle yer ass ... unless you don't care about that (laughs). If you're doing a comedy bit, you may want it. I know I would.

Yep, it should work and that means someone is prob'ly already doing it (laughs).

Difficult Timing for the Jam on Saturday

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:24:45 EST

We're on Euro time so it'll be difficult to catch the show. We're six hours ahead of the East coast and nine hours ahead of the Pacific coast.

We will be doing it in the afternoon here and 1:00 p.m. Central European Time would be 4:00 a.m. California time / SL time. I'm sorry and I really am. I'd love it if you could be there while we record it but that would likely be very tough for you.

We will broadcast / record the jam for sure. For U.S., that will mostly mean catching the recorded version so I'm in deep, deep trouble if I dork that up. It shouldn't be a problem as we're looking at every possible way to record it. That includes tape, video, computer disk, etc.

No matter what happens, it'll be a massive gas to do it and both of us are huge excited about it. I'm sure aurora is as well but communication is through Sister hexx on email.

Sisters jsmn and hexx are going out later so today is for mostly screwing around, playing some, hanging out (i.e. get wasted).

I also have to mail some socks to someone. Can't forget that (laughs).

The Phone Sex Song

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:45:23 EST

Here's what the virtual worlds are really about (laughs)

Baby, what you wearin'
Tell me slow and make it nice
Talk about your boobies
and please do be concise.

I'll tell you what I'm holding
and it ain't another slice
of the pizza I've been eating
while I told of my device.

I just want to get you naked
and find that inner pearl
within all of the misgivings
of twisted nasty world.

Let's just sit here talking dirty
It's what I really need
Love and a thesaurus
are romance's finest seeds.

I tried dirty texting
but it didn't do a thing.
It was pretty feckin' dirty
but it didn't have that zing.

She typed this rippin' hot stuff
and said it'd never end
but when she tried to tell me
she couldn't find the send.

She said that she would do me
and really was it wrong.
Text me little baby
Text me all night long.

I hear you talking dirty
and you're doing what you can
I'll pretend that I'm a woman
while you pretend that you're a man.

She said that she would do me
and really was it wrong.
Text me little baby
Text me all night long.

White Music the World Didn't Need

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:30:11 EST

That'd be pretty much all of it as most of it don't got no ribbum. Mick Jagger has ribbum for sure. So does Wilson PIckett so then I was thinkin', hmmm, "Midnight Hour" is a tune perfect for jamatronic. You could easily play that tune all the way up to the midnight hour and keep on going all night if you want.

You're saying that Mick Jagger is white? Geez, you really never have been to a rock concert, have you!

Having a beat isn't the same as having ribbum. Coldplay has a beat but is whiter than the Pillsbury doughboy.

The Temptations had that ribbum. They had all kinds of ribbum.

Sister hexx doesn't need to tell you that Bob Marley had loads of island ribbum.

Pretty much all of Motown had that ribbum but you can't be going around stealing other people's music so prob'ly best to do a few with huge respect and leave it at that.

Nurse Judi, I hope you're hearin' what I'm sayin', nursie girl. You do know some Motown stuff, right? (laughs)

You're sayin' Nurse Judi is white?? Geez, you just haven't been paying attention at all, have you!

Sister hexx has been swinging around to the value of lyrics. Previously she had been thinking in kind of a Zappa-ish style that lyrics are useless and, if not to make a joke out of them, don't take them very seriously. So both of us evolve as I'm not disappointed that playing distortion was out. Lotho heard the difference the first time in some blues stuff and I liked the sound a lot. Evolution is always good and that's not a cheap-ass shot at theology. I'll just call it micro-evolution as

I doubt either of us will change our styles in any huge way but both of us will change some for sure. Our paths will diverge and then cross again. That's for sure too.

Ms Bibi, own what you've been doing and be real. I know you're scared but you don't break down walls by putting up new ones and I'm not going to get slammed for rejecting bogus poses of exclusivity. A lot of us are at the last point in our lives for being real. Don't feckin' blow it. Everyone has seen what you've been doing but it's no capital crime. Just be cool.

Dunno about Facebook. It's so aggressively vacuous and yet it offers the illusion of massive virtual stardom by giving access to a bunch of drones who don't do anything. There will be just enough hits at gigs from Facebook that I think maybe I ought to keep it but the view of three hundred and fifty million people bored out of their minds is fairly destructive.

Avatars United is the latest and this has got to be the most malicious effort from Linden Labs yet. It doesn't talk to any social network other than Second Life and that wasn't enough. They had to create a pseudo-Twitter system to add insult to the injury of yet another time-wasting piece of shit social network.

This could have been the calendaring system for concerts. It could have been the newspaper system for information presented in a coherent, searchable way.

Does it do any of that? Fuck no.

Just wait it'll evolve.

Yah, Microsoft said that too.

Twitter seems like it's the closest to useful as you don't have to screw with it all that much. All of these social networks are software crackwhores and you've got to be very careful or you'll spend the rest of your life goin', "Hiya peeps."

It's not at all clear whether Twitter really is useful or just gives the appearance of it. Sister hexx and I talk quite a bit about 'increasing the buzz' with me saying it's too much hassle and doesn't do anything anyway while she's saying it's all part of the jams, that you've got to let people know.

I'm willing to do the time but it's got to be in an effective way. It takes me all day to get a good buzz going and I don't want to piss that away on some soul-sucking social network. I'd like to hang with friends, make some music, maybe create a bit of joy in the world. Social networks, it seems to me, have little or nothing to do with that.

I don't include Second Life in the generic category of social networks as the conversation in the latter is as vacuous as what you'd expect from cows chewing cud in a field. Second Life people don't talk about a whole hell of a lot either but at least they're real in their avatar kinds of ways.

This is so feckin' white. Increase that buzz.

How do you do that.

Play that feckin' guitar.

That's what you do.

This isn't about teen angst. It's about laziness (laughs). I just don't want to feckin' do the advertising and all the sluttery that goes with it.

Sister hexx and I will talk more about increasing dat buzz. I'm still leaning very much toward abandoning pretty much all of the 'new school' mediums as I don't see them doing anything much for anyone. What has worked magnificently for me is to get off my dead ass and come to see Sister hexx. Ninety-nine percent of it is just showing up and that doesn't mean showing up in a social network to talk about showing up. At least I don't think it does. We'll talk some more (laughs).

Jams for the Week-End

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:41:11 EST

Sister hexx and I were playing for a while and thinking about how to get things all kicked-up for jams with aurora Metaluna on Saturday. It went really well and we'll obviously do the Tracy Chapman song as she requested it. We've also got some others and Sister hexx is going to email aurora to let her know.

It shouldn't take long to get started on Saturday and we can easily go half an hour on stuff that's ready to go right now.

There's a bit of wistfulness over leaving soon but mostly we're focused on the jams. There wasn't any luck in using a different cable for the camera so I'll use the laptop camera or a video camera from Sister hexx. I'll still need the main camera to record to tape so both will have to be going at once. A big part of this is getting the video out there so aurora can see herself in front of some jammers and getting it all happening.

There won't be any contact information in the gig other than to refer people to Facebook pages. You can find hexx Triskaidekaphobia and aurora Metaluna on Facebook but Sister hexx prefers Twitter.

The gig could be 6:00 a.m. SL time or earlier as that would correspond to the afternoon over here. Also keep in mind that Zak Claxton will be doing a live video show at 12:00 p.m. SL time on Saturday. You'll be able to pick up the link to Zak's show through the Tunes in SL Gallery Project in the sidebar. You could also do a search when you get to Ustream.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:57:42 EST

Needs no intro: