5 May 2006
Submitted by eve on Fri, 05/05/2006 - 10:22pm. Funny
"Is there a xylophonist in Broken Social Scene?"
"Probably. There's three of everything in that band."
"I could play the theremin. Can I be in Broken Social Scene?"
"You probably already are."
--A girl and a guy at Blue Bottle Coffee
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Bah.
Posted by steff on Sat, 05/13/2006 - 7:30am.
(oh. oh, it WAS friday when i first posted this! feh. i don't care, i'm re-posting.)

friday song: "bat country" by avenged sevenfold. i have this thanks to alan at work, who popped a7x in the cd player and didn't even blink when, a few seconds into track 4, i came skittering around the parts machine yelling, "WHO IS THIS? i've been looking for this song for SEX WEEKS!" but just handed me the case. heh. (yes, i'm one of those people who doesn't watch mtv anymore because of the dearth of actual music videos. *shrug*)

that was a couple of fridays ago. but now i'm getting around to it:

Caught here in a fiery blaze, won't lose my will to stay
I tried to drive all through the night,
the heat stroke ridden weather, the barren empty sights
No oasis here to see, the sand is singing deathless words to me

Can't you help me as I'm starting to burn? (all alone)
Too many doses and I'm starting to get an attraction
My confidence is leaving me on my own (all alone)
No one can save me and you know I don't want the attention

As I adjust to my new sights the rarely tired lights
Will take me to new heights
My hand is on the trigger I'm ready to ignite
Tomorrow might not make it, but everything's alright
Mental fiction follows me; show me what it's like to be set free

Can't you help me as I'm starting to burn? (all alone)
Too many doses and I'm starting to get an attraction
My confidence is leaving me on my own (all alone)
No one can save me and you know I don't want the attention

So sorry you're not here I've been sane too long my vision's so unclear
Now take a trip with me but don't suprised when things aren't what they seem

Caught here in a fiery blaze, won't lose my will to stay
These eyes won't see the same, after I flip today

Sometimes I don't know why we'd rather live than die,
we look up towards the sky
For answers to our lives
We may get some solutions but most just pass us by,
don't want your absolution
'Cause I can't make it right
I'll make a beast out of myself, gets rid of all the pain of being a man

Can't you help me as I'm starting to burn? (all alone)
Too many doses and I'm starting to get an attraction
My confidence is leaving me on my own (all alone)
No one can save me and you know I don't want the attention

So sorry you're not here I've been sane too long my vision's so unclear
Now take a trip with me but don't suprised when things aren't what they seem
I've known it from the start all these good ideas will tear your brain apart
Scared but you can follow me I'm too weird to live, but much too rare to die.

the liner notes say something about it being in memory of unca duke. ah. ok, then.
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Posted by Matt on Sat, 05/13/2006 - 10:24am.
steff, how long ago is sex weeks?

Because if it's how long it takes to have sex seven times, that would be a really, really, really long time for me. But for you... I wouldn't guess.
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Posted by steff on Sun, 05/14/2006 - 4:02pm.
*sigh* no, six. SIX weeks, which i just typed "seix" before fixing it. gah. maybe i just have sex on the brain.
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Posted by Matt on Sun, 05/14/2006 - 10:38pm.
Oh, come on. You know good and well that if I didn't call you on that Freudian slip, someone else would have.

And yeah. I'm voting for the "sex on the brain" thing too.
I often type "sex" instead of "sec." As in, "hold on a sec."
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I, uh...
Posted by steff on Sat, 05/13/2006 - 4:28am.
*cough*playedtheflute*cough*

...what?

i did! an actual flute! i quit because i wanted to learn through private lessons (shut up) and a girl at church taught me how at first (shut. up.), but then mom had a brilliant idea and forcibly enrolled me in band. it's the only class all through my jr. high and high school career that i didn't ace, largely because i never showed up.

and now i can't make playing the flute sound not dirty. hee. of course, there are a lot of phrases like that.

i briefly took piano lessons (but had no piano at home to practice on so i quit), the girl's sister taught me how to play "hot cross buns" (again, hee!) on the violin, and i've always sung but i don't think that strictly counts.
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Posted by paul on Sun, 05/14/2006 - 12:14pm.
A good friend of mine plays flute, and he's pretty good at it. Usually he does so with people jamming reggae, unfortunately... but I have watched him perform solo. He has a wooden mask he carved that looks like a mutant monkey with fangs, and he made the mouth wide enough so that he could drink a beer or play flute with it on. He also has extremely curly long hair.

So picture that mask on Yahoo Serious with a flute.

I think I need to get him to run through DC with that mask and his flute, playing as he goes, just to see the chaos he would leave in his wake...
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...
Posted by Somnambulist on Sun, 05/14/2006 - 12:22pm.
I'm envisioning a pied piper scene, with politicians and bureaucrats scampering after him.

Sounds fun.
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May Poll
Posted by Jon on Wed, 05/10/2006 - 12:10pm.
My experience was a mixed bag.
"Greatness" with the violin is usually the province of soloists, but I hated practicing for solo pieces.
[Someday I will relate stories of the crazy Scottish fiddler who taught me for a few years. Or, if not crazy, at least eccentric.]

I liked playing in the orchestra a bit, the listening to keep in tune has always interested me.
What I really loved was chamber music. You get 4 or 5 people together, really listening to each other, making a piece of music where everyone has an important part.

In college, I wasn't as into the orchestra as before, and I was realistic that I was not going to be a Music major. For a while the orchestra would have Opera night, where they'd play an overture and then accompany recitative pieces. [My pardon if that is an unknown term to you.] When they junked Opera night, I quit orchestra.

Haven't played much violin since then. I believe the good violin that I had is still sitting in my parent's house, waiting.

The last few years, it's been more fun for me to sing than play an instrument. I do think about it every once in a while. It sure did teach me to sight read music at an OK level, that's for sure.

- My mind is in the gutter, but it keeps out the bad weather.
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Fiddler on the heath
Posted by Mike on Fri, 05/12/2006 - 4:53pm.
Okay, you can't just allude to a crazy Scottish fiddler mentor and wander off! That's cheating!

Me: violin, 4th grade, no more than 3 months I guess. Stopped largely because-- get this-- one of my older brother's friends made fun of me for being too geeky. Yes, ONE. And HE spent most of his time drawing comic book characters in class. (*sigh*) Maybe it's more of a vague regret thing for me: not that I would've been great, it's just kinda pathetic that I gave up on it for such a petty reason.

At the very least, I could've El-Kabonged the jerk. Damn mouthy eleven-year-old. Bah.
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Cheat while the getting's good
Posted by Jon on Mon, 05/15/2006 - 12:23pm.
Well, as long as I'm here...

I can't really communicate how crazy she seemed, my dad's a better storyteller with this kind of thing. But here goes anyways.

Item: She would leave long messages on the answering machine. Like 5 minutes long, whatever the tape would bear. *Some* of it would relate to whatever of I was practicing, but the rest... rambling discourse.
This happened often (frequently).

Item: While the rest of my violin teachers had pieces of mostly classical bent, she liked to have her students learn "fiddle" music, mostly Scottish reels and such. Thing is, there is a whole different technique to those kinds of music.
I don't have a good analogy for it, but imagine learning classical ballet, then having your teacher focus on square dancing. Completely different mindset and everything.

Item: At her students' recitals, there were "tea-time" snacks.
I had cucumber sandwiches for the first time. There were other, truly traditional British teatime foods, but the cucumber sandwiches really stuck out in my mind.

Still doesn't add up to crazy in my feeble way of description, but believe me, the way she acted was bonkers.

- My mind is in the gutter, but it keeps out the bad weather.
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I've got a recorder somewhere
Posted by hypoxic on Sat, 05/06/2006 - 10:31pm.
Man that thing got spitty. Yuck!
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Must love wool
Posted by Mike on Sat, 05/06/2006 - 1:41pm.
You also seem to need a hat or some sort of scarf according to the photos.

I... have a harmonica buried somewhere in my room. Oh, and I learned how to play the violin ages ago, but that skill's long lost. (*sigh*) I lack instrumentality. :^(

(*resumes the search for a song sample*)
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...and violins
Posted by Jon on Tue, 05/09/2006 - 12:12pm.
I played violin for about 10 years. If I tried playing now I'd be rusty, but a little practice wouldn't hurt.

- My mind is in the gutter, but it keeps out the bad weather.
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Poll
Posted by Matt on Tue, 05/09/2006 - 10:26pm.
Which brings up an interesting point. Of all of us who suffered through music lessons (either because of the overbearing will of our parents, our own misguided attempts at some semblance of naked ambition for greatness (not sure that last bit makes sense), or combination of the two, how many of us have gone on to do something useful or siginificant with our training?

I'll start. 9 months of piano lessons. Hated 95% of it. Glad when it was over. Never looked back.

Who's next?
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Poll
Posted by jcharles on Wed, 05/10/2006 - 7:06am.
The viola lessons were probably my parents' idea. I was too lazy to practice, so they decided to cut them off before they had to invest in an actual viola. The lessons were kind of cool, though.

I also took piano lessons for several years. I haven't played for awhile because of lack of access to a piano, but I'd say the lessons were worthwhile. I know I worked out a lot of emotional angst on the piano during high school. I think most music lessons are more to give kids an appreciation for art, rather than to make them into concert pianists.

What's wrong with the tracker?
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Poll
Posted by Somnambulist on Wed, 05/10/2006 - 5:00am.
A couple of years of piano, a year or so playing around with various other instruments, with or without formal training, and I sang quite a bit before my voice changed, and then I gave it up. I still use my voice as a part of my job, but not for singing...
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...
Posted by Saint on Tue, 05/09/2006 - 11:14pm.
Guitar lessons. 2 months or so in junior high, at my request; had to quit because my parents wanted me to play volleyball and practice overlapped too much. Then 1 semester of class in high school, which I damn near flunked thanks to being out sick for 3 weeks. Finally and absolutely gave up all guitar ambition for good after I shot my hand--I just can't hit the frets right anymore. It's just as well. I never had the ear for it, anyway.

--I am powerless over my addiction to parenthesis.--
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Same site
Posted by jcharles on Mon, 05/08/2006 - 1:17pm.
They've got videos in the media section. Videos with lots of scarves.

I played the viola in elementary school. Don't remember a thing, though.

What's wrong with the tracker?
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...
Posted by daen on Sat, 05/06/2006 - 7:36am.
I've gone for years without hearing of the theremin, but this is now the third reference to it in a week. There was a profile of a theremin player in Psychology Today, the morning host at CBC Radio 2 mentioned a cage match between the theremin and the musical saw, and now this.

I wonder what it means...
If anything.
*g*
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Posted by Matt on Sat, 05/06/2006 - 8:33am.
It means stay far, far away from the Star Trek theme song! It may cause you to reach theremin critical mass and you'll explode!

Or that you need to get out more.
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Well,
Posted by marinerd on Fri, 05/05/2006 - 10:31pm.
I can play the kazoo!

Down with the soulless minions of orthodoxy!
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