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Last night’s open mic
Not so good. I couldn’t hear my guitar in the monitors, and my playing was a bit off because of it. It was a noisy, but nice crowd. The previous act was having problems too. Evidently the problems were only noticeable to me. I did the usual material.
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Science Tuesday
In further effort to drive the biking in darkness post farther down the page I bring you Popular Mechanics interesting article comparing alternative fuels, as well as their article on souping up the human body.
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Quotes of the moment
The Duke of Wellington
For a great power there are no small wars
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed – they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love and five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.
The fault was not decadence but the desire for holiness, the belief in sacrifice, and a willingness to serve as the butchered victim acceptable to God.
From the guide to Christianity for the secular
Christians are not easy to understand. To begin with, there are roughly 2,000 years of history to grasp, and certainly more denominations and subdivisions than that to take on board. For people who were raised secular, I imagine it’s like trying to understand an opera after coming in halfway before the end: the stage is crowded with people, two of them seem to be dead, a woman is wearing a hat with horns, and everyone is making a terrible racket.
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The last man on earth
Having biked the past three days in a row, I had planned to take today off, but late this afternoon I felt full of energy and decided to go. Being a true American, I decided to push myself into breaking a personal record. I went to the end of Conyers and back and then to the other side of Avondale and back, which is a bit over 54 miles; a new record for me.I rode the last hour in total darkness due to my late start . Happily that part was mostly on the bike path, with very little on the open road, so it was relatively safe.
As I was riding in the deserted darkness, the air cooled (down to sixty degrees), the number of cars declined and the wind blowing over the helmet created a dull roar. The perceptible environment gradually faded away. Coolness numbed the skin, wind dulled hearing, and the darkness removed much of the visual realm. I developed an overwhelming of isolation. There were no people out, very few cars, and no active signs of the human hand. All I could think of was that I was the last man on earth.
It was a gripping and powerful feeling I’ve never felt before.
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Mother’s Day 2006
I went to the cemetery for the first time in a couple years today. It was a busy day for that sort of thing (as one would think). Everything is pretty much the same; it’s still a tranquil place. To think, it’s been almost seven years, it’s staggering really. -
Friday rapid fire
- Reno 911 is popular in Iraq of all places. It seems they think it’s real.
- A nice collection of flatpicking tablature, all in Tabledit format.
- Hounddog Radio seems cool.
- View System Uptime.
- A nice article on using curves and levels in Photoshop.
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Recording attempts
Last night I attempted to record four flatpick tunes, and eventually to create a Steve French, Musician site on MySpace. I was unable to get the recording levels right on three of them (I blame the Samson digital pre-amp) and I can’t seem to get the musician page set up right on MySpace.
In any case, one of them did turn out okay; the volume level is very low (just like me!) but it’s not terrible.
I played Cooley’s Reel, which is an old Irish fiddle tune in E-Minor. I do it a bit faster than it’s normally done, but I think it turned out okay. I originally heard this song done by Steve Kaufman, but the actual music I got from BluegrassGuitar.com. I do both lead and rhythm on the song.
You can download it here (right click and choose “Save As” (Command-Click on the Mac)).
Thoughts?
UPDATE: Eric remixed it for me, which helped the volume levels a lot. The file is updated.
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Funny sight of the week
Sadly, I don’t have photos, but on my ride yesterday I saw the Avondale PD pull over a group of bikers who turned right on red where it was not allowed. He used the lights and the loudspeaker and everything.
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Another open mic night done
Due to the small number of entrants, I wound up doing six songs. They were “Walkin’ Cane”, It’s Raining Here This Morning”, “Red Clay Halo”, “Ruby Ridge”, “Blackjack County Chain” and “Tin Foil and Stone”. Tin Foil and Stone was the new song for the week. I think I’m going to work in a Guy Clark song for next week.
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What’s wrong with German people?
You would think that this article German cannibal jailed for life for ‘ultimate kick’ couldn’t get any stranger after the opening paragraphs of
A self-confessed German cannibal has been jailed for life after a court here found him guilty of murder for killing and partly eating an allegedly willing victim he had met on the Internet.
ADVERTISEMENTThe court in the western German city of Frankfurt found that Armin Meiwes, known as the “cannibal of Rotenburg,” killed his victim to satisfy his sexual urges.
Meiwes, 44, immediately said that he would appeal the sentence, signaling another round in a long legal process that has laid bare a hitherto secret market in cannibalism.
but it really does get stranger from there.