Recent listening: Infected Mushroom, Foreigner, Primus, Greg Kihn, Massive Attack, Thievery Corp., Weird Al (new album!), Radiohead, Motown, Portishead, Canned Heat, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Recent viewing: Leverage (season 3 & 4), Frontline, The Planets, Pulp Fiction, Stan Lee’s Superhumans, The Story of the Blues, Super 8
Recently accomplished: Both children advanced to next grade level, camping/biking in Idaho, acquired fireworks of questionable legality, paid bills, Roundup for weedy areas, weed and feed for lawn, mowing
Imperative To Do: Light fireworks, back to work, clean garage, clean gutters, new shelves for stereo, bark dust, doctor appointments
After a few hints from the family, I have concluded that is time to end my blues exploration – at least for the time being. I had a revelation while eating dinner with the family the other night: The Summer Playlist. I’ll describe it in detail below but first a little context about the music listening situation in our house.
During the work day I spend most of my time in my office, the kitchen or the bathroom (in that order). On the left side of my desk my MacBook Pro (MBP) runs iTunes all the time. The MBP is connected to my awesome PMIX-100 personal audio mixer (seen on the right of the photo). The mixer is connected to my Cambridge Soundworks desktop speakers which are located 18 inches in front of my head in the classic stereo position. This is where I do almost all of my listening these days. Continue reading →
Sure enough I had the version by Freddie as well as another by Jeff Beck I immediately queued them to play next: Freddie followed by Beck. In the meantime, I pulled up the Wikipedia article to find out more about this rollicking electric guitar solo + what is the wah wah effect. There’s not much there but the article does have a list of artists that have covered it. My eyes immediately found Gary Moore who was more or less a disciple of Peter Green, Mayall’s guitar player on his version of “The Stumble”. Having just downloaded a chunk of Moore’s work the night before, I anxiously scanned the files for his version of “The Stumble”. I dropped it into iTunes just as Beck’s version faded out.
As Moore’s version blasted my ears, I went to YouTube for further insight. I wasn’t able to find the Freddie King version but I did find Green, Beck and Moore as well as a couple of interesting versions. Continue reading →
Aches & pains: right ankle Current reading:Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish Recent listening: B.B. King, Albert King, Freddie King, John Anderson, Eric Clapton, Booker T. and the MG’s, Bukka White, Electric Flag, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield Blue Band, Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Fleetwood Mac, George Harrison, Harlem Slim, Jimi Hendrix, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Jimmy Reed, The Band, Reverend Gary Davis, Dock Boggs, John Hartford, Pet Seeger Recent viewing: The Middle, Community, The Civil War, Frontline, 60 Minutes, Kickass, Surface, Lord of the Flies (1963), Strange Days, Suck, Twilight Zone, Network, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Black Swan, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Dark City Recent playing: DropZap, Words with Friends Recently accomplished: Teacher meetings (Thomas), Troop 820 treasurer’s report, bank trip, Tivo hard drive replacement Imperative To Do: Clean garage, clean gutters, new shelves for stereo, bark dust, doctor appointments
Aches & pains: sciatica Current reading:Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish Recent listening: The Velvet Underground, Alabama, Boz Scaggs, Steve Miller Band, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett, The Who, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Funkadelic/Parliament, The Kinks, Sleep, The Small Faces, Traffic, Warren Zevon Recent viewing: CSI, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Modern Family, Friday Night Lights, Big Love, Stripes, A Clockwork Orange, Fringe, No Ordinary Family, Six Million Dollar Man, The Simpsons Recent playing: DropZap, Words with Friends, WSOP Hold ‘Em Legend HD Recently accomplished: Began Tivo repair (need new power cable), changed furnace filters Imperative To Do: Troop 820 transactions, clean garage, clean gutters
A few years ago I used to ride with Portland Critical Mass every month. Eventually, the numbers became so small that it seemed pointless to continue. Still, I’ve long felt a kinship with Critical Mass rides everywhere. Thus, seeing the following video taken Friday night in Brazil almost made me cry. One minute into the video, the joy and serenity is replaced with insane violence:
Saturday I drove down to Happy Valley to pick up Graham following an overnight at his friend’s house. On the way there I saw a monstrous building and noted it was a church. On the way back home, we stopped so I could get a picture. I posted the first picture to Instagram (warning: link opens iTunes). In that picture, I included the sign as a point of reference but it somewhat eclipsed the gigantic church so I moved a few steps east and snapped another:
