A long, long time passed since '79 before I was able to enjoy the song "Rainbow Connection." I still do not like the version that Kermit the Frog sings. Every time I hear that voice I feel like I'm catching a dose of some outta space influenza that will kill me in 17 hours.
About 30,000 people kill themselves in the United States each year. I think that they're pretty brave-- I know there's absolutely no way I could do it. Consequently, I am quite the aficionado of suicide notes. It's surprising, though, how many of the notes are just petty and vindictive. As in life so in death, I suppose-- but still...
Here are some examples collected at a California coroner's office, from the book Or Not to Be:
Single female, age 21
My dearest Andrew,
It seems as if I have been spending all my life apologizing to you for things that happened whether they were my fault or not.
I am enclosing your pin because I want you to think of what you took from me every time you see it.
I don't want you to think I would kill myself over you because you're not worth any emotion at all.
It is what you cost me that hurts and nothing can replace it.
Married male, age 45
My darling,
May her guts rot in hell -- I loved her so much.
Married male, age 74
This is no way to live.
Either is it any way to die.
Her grub I can not eat.
At night I can not sleep.
I married the wrong nag-nag-nag and I lost my life.
They're not all like that, some are pretty profound.
Delicious white cake flavored ice cream with confetti shaped candy pieces and a blue frosting ribbon.
I just eat and eat this stuff. It is super! It is like the mashed remains of a child's birthday cake soaking in the melted dregs of ice cream. It's like every birthday cake I ever got to eat at my daughters' birthday parties (hi, Heather and Sierra.) Long ago, back when I could still visit them, I was usually only allowed to come at the very end of the party. By then the cake had been sitting out for a while and was pretty picked-over. The ice cream would be soft. But it was something, at least; some contact. Now that they're in New Zealand with their Mother I never see them. And since their birthdays are in July, right around this time every year I get out some of this great "Birthday Party Ice Cream" and eat and cry and eat some more.
there's someone messaging me on YouTube who could be a potential stalker
Is it obscure that i have a thing for Kristine Sorensen from Pittsburgh Today Live? I only see the show when I go through there. It helps that she's so distant. I'm not going to lie, I'd be embarrassed to have her find that I don't have no Def Lepperd on my iPod. And that --yes-- the headband looks stupid on me.
Stalking isn't funny. I wants to know how this screen name deleted found me.
One more thing about LeBron James, there's been the persistent narrative that he lacks the magical "killer" instinct of a Kobe or Jordan. And more than that, given "where he comes from," he's a good person who might just lack the sociopathic airs that win championships; the simmering whispers that he is soft turned into choral music by Penderecki during these past playoffs.
Well, I think that his decision to go to Miami plays several moves over and ahead of all that. And it puts him in control of the narrative again. Now he has given himself (1) an evil edge and (2) a chance to win a title as a team player rather than struggle on as the one who is supposed to pull everyone else up. I don't underestimate Bosh the way some do.
And this all takes place in the context of Miami rather than the Midwest, quite a different stage. Shrewd, to say the least. Oh, he's such a natural that no one dreamed he would be considering these sorts of things. I haven't heard this angle discussed yet, maybe I missed it.
Finally saw a good bumpersticker the other day: Life IS a dress rehearsal...for DEATH.
Bumperstickers-- I do not like them. If you can reduce your ideology so that it fits on a bumpersticker that truly represents your identity in some significant manner then you're probably pretty fucked up. It's like when you were all excited to tell me that the original of Brel's "Le Moribund" is superior because it included bitter sarcasm and references to his wife's infidelity that were missing from the English-language adaptation known as "Seasons in the Sun." It's not an awesome revelation.
Or, it's like when a guy leaves a city as a free agent to form a super-trio in another city, to create an all-time team, and you have some passionate opinion about it, something that could be expressed on a bumpersticker or even by igniting a burning home jersey and writing in the sky with fire.
I sent the masters for Victory Chimp out to Drag City yesterday, not sure when it will come out. There's still a lot of work to do to get it ready, they usually like a 4 month lead time. I've just been listening to it for the last month-and-a-half but I haven't changed anything in it for a month-- so it is done. And on the other hand, I can't find a perfect excuse to scrap it all and forget it.
I realized, looking back at some of these posts, there's a blank gap (N.B.: that'd be a gap that is actually blank and not filled in with some bullshit, exposition &c.) between talking about planning and doing one specific thing in music to finishing. That is to say, the finished product is the demonstration of the execution of the process. But a second-by-second description of each decision is impossible-- for the same reason I still cannot shoot a jump shot in spite of looking at a thousand examples and how-to books &c. Clank.
Here are some various notes that I made to describe certain things I needed to do on various tracks:
82: to come into my/all the way
Aug Age: time compress original to live version length
Music level halved: "As her lover..." to "Fantomas runs..."
Duophonic: cut hi right channel (standard curve)-- 16 sample delay
First Night: Instruments doubled after final sound effect
Powdered Glass: POV change pitched up 3
insert new readings into last complete master, not individually as tracks
4 octave jump D to D
Vib Low: On, Vib Up: On, V/C Dial: C3, 8888/80838, Perc: On, Vol:Soft, Dly: Fast, Har: 3rd
Hebephrenic, 16 Beats: A-F-/-F#-Bflat-B-D-A-/-G-D#-G-C-D#-B-E
Day Jobs: edit clean original top and end, music at -12 db, retain staccato middle section
4 section stereo spread, (l-r) Baritone, Bass, Ld Tenor, Tenor- 4 part harm, 8 voices per line
1000 Saints: bass +2 db to suppress treb between pts.1 and 2
Dr. Griffen, new voice: "I stole it this morning..."
Pause for venue changes
Process phrase "ski boot ruse" use 12/8/12/9 if after sun goes down otherwise reset figures
Spec Ven: revert to mix from compilation six
To wrap this, I think I'll take a look back at all the pre-recording VC posts and do an exegesis on them. Maybe find a better way to talk about what was done. Or there's always the sheet music, can't argue with that.
