Ride of the Valkyries

Wagner was a massive anti-semite.  that's a third of what i think of every time i hear that song.  here's the song:



here's what my immediate reaction is, every time i hear it:
1.  kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit
2.  i shouldn't like this song, Wagner really hated jews
3.  i love that scene from Apocalypse Now

it's a beautiful piece.  the intro is thrilling, tense, engaging, and it leads into that triumphant horn part that everyone with a pulse has heard at least once in his or her life.  it's inspiring music, really, it makes perfect sense that the Nazis would want to use it in their propaganda.  it makes you want to go out and conquer something.

it's a question of art versus motive, i suppose.  it's a classic piece of art, one of the most recognizable pieces of music ever made.  but if it's made so Hitler and his buddies can pump up their swastika-sporting brethren, should we still listen to it?  i'm not a very good philosopher, so i'm going going to even try to answer that question.  it's been in my thoughts for a couple of days now, since i saw a car commercial with Ride of the Valkyries hawking a Nissan something or other.  i doubt they worried as much about it as i've thought about it.

i'm not going to vote on tuesday.  i feel bad about it.  forgot to get my absentee ballot.  the last time i voted was in the presidential election in 2008.  i voted for McCain, believe it or not.  that may inspire a lot of gut reactions in you, but i did a lot of research before i voted.  realistically, he was the most liberal republican presidential candidate i've ever seen.  i actually preferred Obama when it came to the issues, but doubted he would have the influence within politics that McCain had, and would fall far short of his grand promises.  McCain sure as hell wasn't going to commit genocide on gay people or whatever people were scared of:  politicians these days are too scared to drastically polarize themselves on hot button issues, they'll get crucified when the other party starts gaining influence again.  hence "don't ask don't tell" and that sort of thing.  but once Obama won, i was fully behind him, i believe that's the way the populace should act unless something happens to compromise the ability of the president to lead (i.e. Watergate-style paranoia).  now, supporting the president does not mean everyone should agree with everything he says; the beauty of a democracy is the ability for people to change their own circumstances as dictated by the government.  but the general Obama-bashing is not helpful at all for the country, i believe that the vocal hatred of Obama by a rightist minority has led republican congressmen to entrench themselves and stop legislation that republicans would normally agree to.  which in turn has led to liberals pointing their fingers at the gop to disguise their own shortcomings, the conservatives pointing back, and a whole lot more squabbling.  i think Obama has done as well as we could expect any president to act in his situation.  i don't believe he is an outstanding president, but he is far from incompetent, an above-average president trying his best.

shit, how did i get started on politics?  this has been a thoroughly un-humorous post, and probably alienating on several levels.  realistically, i doubt i will ever see a candidate with the same mixture of conservative and liberal stances that i have.  i verge on radical on some liberal issues, but still have a conservative side of me when it comes to other issues (typically financial issues).

i have no clue why this ended up in a blog post.  i guess i don't really discuss politics that often.  this was a healthy thing to put in black and white, i suppose.

friday i came into work and realized the Eventric office dressed up for halloween.  not everyone was wearing costumes, but there was some joshing at my blue and white thermal's expense.  we also watched a couple of horror flicks.  i watched Nightmare on Elm Street for the first time.  it was a pretty neat movie, fun viewing.  went to North Avenue Guitars to look for a footswitch, talked to a guitar tech for a half hour, went home, watched Mad Men, and slept.  also wrote a bridge for one of my songs, played guitar for a while.  my electric guitar (a telecaster) is really starting to show some signs of wear from my picking arm and my recklessly un-technical strumming, but it's looking pretty cool so far.  seeing lots of wood through the finish.

saturday, lazed around the apt all day.  watched the rest of Mad Men season 4, then Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter, which was a movie revolving around the Stones playing Altamont in 1969.  that free Altamont show is generally pointed to as the end of the 60s counterculture, with the Hell's Angels killing a guy who pulled a gun in the crowd, and three other people dying from various other causes.  they actually have footage of a guy pulling a gun, and a Hell's Angel stabbing him two or three times.  go to about 4:00 to see the slow-motion video of it, from the film Gimme Shelter.



well, now that i've been thoroughly depressing and un-funny in this blog post, i think i'll just leave it.

quick rundown of the past fortnight

i said i was going to be better about this.  methodically writing my thoughts on each day as it happened.  this has proven to be a gross misstatement on my part.  i have not written one of these for two weeks.  so with my trusty calendar in hand, it's time to catch up.  mind you, you may not find this very interesting, but since when did anyone write a blog for anyone else's benefit?

wed, oct 6
not much happened

thu, oct 7
not much happened

fri, oct 8
finished the first draft of a new promotional teaser for eventric.  drove to columbus, listening to the replacements (albums:  let it be [my personal favorite of theirs {although tim would probably be my favorite if it was produced better}] and tim) and the twin tones, as well as daydream nation by sonic youth and probably some neil young too.  i tried to make it to ex-bassist danny's birthday party, but he failed to stay awake past 1 am.  also, i made a mental note to make use of the chain rule in sentence form.  (check)

sat, oct 9
watched the game with pops.  we then went out to the garage to drill holes in my tube screamer enclosure, as my welder friend stephen's "car broke down" and he "couldn't drive without his engine melting" and somehow thought this was a "reasonable excuse for not driving back to columbus".  wuss.  anyway, there was some excitement with drilling the enclosure, culminating with the enclosure spinning out of my dad's hand, hitting his arm, flying off the drill bit, striking some old paint cans, and coming to rest in a fishing net beneath an earth-tone painting from circa 1974.  on the plus side, i got my tube screamer completely put together, selecting this image to put on the pedal instead of painting it:

for those of you who have not read several scores of star wars books, this is the DL44, han solo's blaster.  note that the scope that has been mounted off-center on the gun, allowing for a quicker draw.  some books say that he cut off this scope altogether in order to have as fast a draw as possible.  anyway,  i thought it was appropriate for an overdrive pedal.  then joey and i went to news of your departure's cd release, which featured several more hecklers than i was expecting.

sun, oct 10

full band alien orders practice.  got through several more songs, it's sounding promising.  then i drove back to chicago.

mon, oct 11

belle and sebastian!  now, to put this in context, i have been listening to this band since i was in junior high.  which means, i have been bopping along in rapture of this wonderful group for nearly a decade.  needless to say, i was excited to see them.  but i'll say it anyway.  i was excited to see them.  concerts pal linnea came up from columbus since it was b&s's only midwest tour date, and we watched as they breezed through a set including i'm a cuckoo, step into my office baby, and a stupefyingly good version of me and the major.  here's the full setlist:

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/belle-and-sebastian/2010/chicago-theatre-chicago-il-bd51d6e.html

beautiful concert.  i left wanting to lock myself in my room with a sparkling clean guitar tone so i could try to write like stuart murdoch.  ALSO.  stuart murdoch is possibly the most charming frontman you'll ever encounter, bouncing around the stage and making disarmingly witty banter between songs.  there were some fans who were idiots, but the unpleasantness caused by this was counteracted by stuart doing things like throwing nerf footballs to all the children he could see in the audience.  it was great.  also, linnea and i ate burritos at la amistad on the way over.  my second time there, and definitely not my last.  it's not exactly picante (my old burrito haunt in ukrainian village), but it's close enough to make me hopeful about other items on the menu.

tue, oct 12

fm supreme cd release party.  fm supreme is one of our new artist development projects at jma, and she dropped an ep on tuesday.  it was a cool show, several outstanding acts.  supreme herself really might have a future in hip hop, if she keeps working at it.

wed, oct 13

not much happened, then i left for columbus.  listened to the velvet underground and nico, the clash (s/t), and london calling.  tried to memorize every word on london calling.  i'm getting there, slowly but surely...

thu, oct 14

iron and wine.  helped out from noon to 12:30am.  drove daniel martin moore to and from his hotel, shook hands and chatted with sam beam a couple of times, worked with backline, merch, hospitality, security, and others.  actually didn't eat this entire time, which i didn't notice until about the time iron and wine took the stage, when my stomach seemed to attack my other vital organs in an attempt to find food, roaring with bloodlust for a legion of falafel sandwiches.  this attack proved futile for my stomach, and it was not satiated until several hours later.  however, i thoroughly enjoyed both daniel martin moore and iron and wine, sitting on the ballroom floor with 2000 of my closest friends during a fair amount of the iron and wine set.

fri, oct 15

mco showcase.  i started the day with what has become a near-daily call to guitar center.  "we still have not repaired your cabinet, sir, and we're sorry that we're about as quick and helpful as rust, or some other slow corrosive process."  at least they finally offered me equipment to loan.  i now have a 2x12 marshall speaker cabinet to go with my music man amp.  i got a haircut before i picked it up.  a bald lady cut my hair.  we talked about small towns.  then off to band practice, where the three piece version of alien orders played our set through once so we could remember all our songs before our show friday night.  then the musician's collective showcase started.  a few solo acts played, then we played.  we were much louder than everyone else, and joey and i had to back off so zack's drumming could be heard.  i used my tube screamer for the first time, and we played our set with no setlist, and with as few breaks as possible. our set went something like this:

city life                     (joey guitar, pat guitar, zack drums)

smitten in space

day terrors

american girl

orange crush

x ray glare                (joey guitar, pat bass, zack drums)

south/north

garden salsa sunchips

i will dare

cliffs notes

then joey and i booked it so we could see the misfits at alrosa villa (famous for being the deathplace of dimebag darrell).  which was the best decision we could have made that night.  a ska band, a street punk band, then the misfits played.  a curtain dropped to reveal two five foot tall skulls with light-up eyes, a drumset with misfits skulls on the two bass drums, a skeleton arm mic stand, and a skull mic stand.  jerry only, dez cadena, and robo took the stage, and played through a really fun set that included teenagers from mars, we are 138, attitude, six pack (a black flag song [!]), and rise above (another black flag song [!]).  so entertaining.

sat, oct 16

i started off the day by misreading an email from bassist zack, then picking up ex-bassist danny on the way to being almost late to a youth songwriting workshop.  under the guidance of music loves ohio, we helped about 20 underserved youth write and perform their own songs, in just the span of an afternoon.  it was a great time, i highly recommend it.  afterwards, zack and i went to see matt groening at mershon auditorium, which turned out to be a fairly enlightening lecture.  several stories about conan o'brien licking various objects in the simpsons' office for money were told.  then faiella and i went over to ouab friend mindy's house for a beer and some terminator 2.

sun, oct 17

obama.  had lunch with the parents at cheesecake factory in easton, then showed joey all the fun tricks my new tube screamer can do, then went with joey to see obama.  we ran into danny and others there, and waited about an hour in an extraordinarily long line to get in.  the line stretched from the oval down the long walk, by the rpac, around ohio stadium, back to the other side of the rpac.  about 35000 people were estimated to have attended, and we saw obama after about 2 1/2 hours of other democrats.  he is a powerful speaker, but he is also a politician.  and i cannot listen to a politician without becoming incensed at something he/she has said.  the parts that got me most riled up were him telling us america had to be first in everything (why does there have to be a contest between nations as to which is the most successful?  from pee wee sports on, we teach our kids that it's not about winning, it's about the love of the game, but when it comes to our nation we can't settle for second?) and his references to republican fear-mongering (which i believe is true), quickly followed by his claims that democrats do no such thing ("but if you vote for republicans, we'll go back to the way things are and slump into a depression!  be afraid!"[p.s. this is not an actual quote, but is the general gist of what he said]).  that said, he is a powerful speaker, and one who knows how to pull an audience into his palm.  afterwards, joey and i got chinese takeout at joy's village, and ate it at his apartment while watching a rush documentary.  i started driving back to chicago at 10:10pm est.  bad decision, but i stuck by it, driving through the night while listening to london calling and a mix cd or two.

mon, oct 18

called in sick to work, for good reason.  absolutely exhausted, downright evil sinus headache, possibility of much worse illness if i did anything but sleep.  so i slept a ton.  watched some simpsons, and american history x.  that is a great film, i highly recommend it.  i also took a bath, my first bath in probably several months.  i always take showers, because they're quicker, but the bath did me good.

tue, oct 19

my boss's mother died today.  90 years old, from what i hear.  hope he's ok.  

i also scheduled for my penultimate quarter of classes.  scary.  here's what i'm taking, for those of you at osu... (who am i kidding? no one reads this blog)

marketing 755:  promotional strategy

food science 201:  the science of food

music 250:  music cultures of the world

music 677:  multimedia for musicians

marketing 783h:  honors independent research