Polyphonic Ramblings: A New Beginning

So I have this mix that I made up. No one to make it for except for myself. So it's heavy on ambient, drone-based tones. Do not operate heavy machinery while listening to Track 4.

1. Moonchild/The Dream/The Illusion - King Crimson

From their first album; this track would be a prime example for those who argue prog rock is meaningless over-long pieces of music bordering on noise (no structure, etc.) I object to the first two points strenuously.

2. Treefingers - Radiohead

IMO, the same thing as Track 1, re-interpreted 30 years later

3. Sour Times - Portishead

Fitting of the dark mood that has been set.

4. Sonar Blow Job - Portishead & Kraftwerk

Don't quote me on the title or artist; it was taken from Acqusition

5. The Heavenly Music Corporation - Robert Fripp & Brian Eno

Eno coined the term "ambient" for a musical style. Fripp picked up a tape loop machine and created a whole new way of playing the guitar. This is what happened when they met up.

6. The Rip - Portishead

Two things I like in this piece: the (deliberately?) rough guitar fingerstyle picking in the beginning, and the comforting full, round tones of an analogue synth at the end.

There is no doubt, now...

So if you ever had the suspicion that the Bush White House used political orientation as a basis for employment, you can finally point to something that is official:

As the chart indicates, the Screening Committee deselected 80 (80 percent) of the 100 applicants with liberal affiliations, 4 (9 percent) of the 46 applicants with conservative affiliations, and 223 (29 percent) of the 765 candidates with neutral affiliations.

[snip]

The data indicates that the candidates with liberal affiliations were deselected at a much higher rate (15 out of 18) than candidates with conservative affiliations (0 out of 5) or candidates with neutral affiliations (11 out of 48), even though all candidates met the same criteria.

[snip]

We found that all 7 applicants who indicated that they were American Constitution Society members were deselected by the Screening Committee for interviews, while 2 of the 29 applicants who indicated that they were members of the Federalist Society were deselected.

Thanks to emptywheel for posting on this. Check out her site for the best coverage of government scandal this side of Sy Hersch.

Waiting in style

Chilling before the slingshot Dakota show, snagging some wifi in a
business park, life's pretty good about now.

Guitar playing is getting to the point where I can form some
interesting chords/progressions down. Song-ideas starting to form.

Sent from my iPod

Video Time

testing

supposedly, this email I'm writing will turn into a blog post. Let's
see if it's true. Then my fancy new iPod can be a blogging tool as
well. It's been pretty nice to me so far, I've watched plenty of
Starcraft proleague games on it, kept up with reading my blogroll, and
got back into listening to podcasts. Thanks, apple!

Cowardly Neocons

First, they claim that Bush fucked up the war on his own, they had no input on it:

According to Perle, who left the Defense Policy Board in 2004, this unfolding catastrophe has a central cause: devastating dysfunction within the administration of President George W. Bush. Perle says, "The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly.… At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible.… I don't think he realized the extent of the opposition within his own administration, and the disloyalty."

"Huge mistakes were made, and I want to be very clear on this: They were not made by neoconservatives, who had almost no voice in what happened, and certainly almost no voice in what happened after the downfall of the regime in Baghdad. I'm getting damn tired of being described as an architect of the war. I was in favor of bringing down Saddam. Nobody said, 'Go design the campaign to do that.' I had no responsibility for that."

That's Richard Perle, who, in the wake of 9/11, called for an Iraqi invasion:

In a speech on November 14, 2001, as the Taliban were being routed in Afghanistan, Richard Perle, a Pentagon consultant with long-standing ties to Wolfowitz, Feith, and Chalabi, articulated what would become the Bush Administration’s most compelling argument for going to war with Iraq: the possibility that, with enough time, Saddam Hussein would be capable of attacking the United States with a nuclear weapon. Perle cited testimony from Dr. Khidhir Hamza, an Iraqi defector, who declared that Saddam Hussein, in response to the 1981 Israeli bombing of the Osiraq nuclear reactor, near Baghdad, had ordered future nuclear facilities to be dispersed at four hundred sites across the nation. “Every day,” Perle said, these sites “turn out a little bit of nuclear materials.” He told his audience, “Do we wait for Saddam and hope for the best, do we wait and hope he doesn’t do what we know he is capable of . . . or do we take some preemptive action?”

Then, after all this was leaked prior to tomorrow's election, Perle whines to the National Review on how they've been punk'd:

Vanity Fair has rushed to publish a few sound bites from a lengthy discussion with David Rose. Concerned that anything I might say could be used to influence the public debate on Iraq just prior to Tuesday’s election, I had been promised that my remarks would not be published before the election.

I should have known better than to trust the editors at Vanity Fair who lied to me and to others who spoke with Mr. Rose. Moreover, in condensing and characterizing my views for their own partisan political purposes, they have distorted my opinion about the situation in Iraq and what I believe to be in the best interest of our country.

It must have been easy for David Rose to dupe those neocons into revealing the truth before the time was "right". After all, they were also duped by the scumbag criminal (and potential Iranian spy) Ahmed Chalabi.

polyphonic ramblings 3

New month, new mix. It was a great month of live music. Here's a rundown of the stuff I've been listening to lately:

1. Umphrey's McGee - Eat: From moe.down 7, Umphrey's rocked the house. They were the highlight of the show for me. Here's their opening number, an ode to King Crimson.

2. Steve Kimock Band - Ice Cream: A peppy upbeat number from the master of tone. Off of his new studio album. His last touring band featured members from two other guys on this mix tape...

3. Robert Walter's 20th Congress - Cory's Snail and Slug Death: Robert Walter plays his hammond b3 with Steve Kimock. Here's a good piece of new orleans jazz.

4. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey - Slow Breath, Silent Mind: Reed Mathis, the bassist for this trio, also toured with Kimock. In JFJO, Reed can go from the classic foundation of a trio, or he kicks on his octave pedal and wails above the keyboardist. Here's a more traditional number.

5. U-Melt - Schizophrenia: OK, now buckle in for the next 30 minutes or so. The next two bands take their time and stretch tunes beyond 15 minutes. This groove from u-melt is one that stuck in my head at moe.down, and then when we saw them at higher ground last week.

6. Particle - Windjammer: A precursor to u-melt. The drumming is rock solid, laying down a beat to which a driving groove is established.

7. STS9 - GloGLI: A more techno-than-band group, live in Tokyo.

8. JFJO - ??: Here's the wilder side of Jacob Fred. Frippertronics, octave pedal bass, sweet.

9. toubab krewe - djarabi: jam band meets west africa. a pleasant surprise at moe.down

Video Time

Caution: Please put on protective equipment before viewing this campaign ad from Rebulican Vernon Robinson running against incumbent Democrat Mel Watt:





OK, now you can go to the decontamination station to your right.

I posted this for a reason, if you ask why: It's the straight dope from the right wing, unsullied by those who polish its language in the professional media (think of your "sensible conservatives" like those at the National Review and Weekly Standard). This is the root of what the right uses to exploit the fears of the poorer classes. This is what we fight against. Please folks, I hope you get to the polls. There is no higher calling right now than to change the tide of Congress. If the party in power approves this kind of ad, they to have their asses booted.



Link to info on all congressional and senatorial races

Link Dump

A lot of things are flying fast and furious in the news lately. From the revelations that Condi Rice had another pre-9/11 warning to Florida congremen having cybersex with underage boys while in session to yet another school shooting, it's all-out mayhem in our country right now. Some links I found today:

• Billmon (who was supposed to go on hiatus) has a flashback and news items are starting to develop trails.
• It's statistically proven that the NSA warrantless wiretapping program is useless for catching terrorists. This means that there has to be another reason for it, then, doesn't it?
• A handy list of the recent list of Republican/conservative "family values" violators.
• VT congressional candidate Martha Rainville (R) got caught plagarizing off of the web sites of Democrats.
• And finally, The Poor Man reveals the IM logs he had with above-mentioned cybersexer Mark Foley (R-FL). It's all taken out of context, really. Check out this innocent excerpt:

Editorz (7:46:11 PM): yes I have to go do some hand modeling
Editorz (7:46:18 PM): because I am trying to break into the hand modeklling game
Editorz (7:46:22 PM): but it’s hard
Editorz (7:46:27 PM): I have to go audition for the girls who give out the hand model jobs
Maf54 (7:46:33 PM): did any girl give you a haand job this weekend
Editorz (7:46:42 PM): Noo because I was bitten by a radioactive reindeer the other day
Editorz (7:46:55 PM): and so im turning into a deer
Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): are you
Editorz (7:47:11 PM): yes its awkward
Editorz (7:47:11 PM): and my hands are starting to look like hoofs
Editorz (7:47:11 PM): and that’s a disadvantage in the hand modeling biz
Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): good so your getting horny
Editorz (7:47:23 PM): no antlers
Editorz (7:47:24 PM): people think antlers are the same as horns
Editorz (7:47:24 PM): but their totally different

Video Time

A Keith Olberman Special. The man appears to be reaching for the mantle of Edward R. Murrow. So far, he's not doing a bad job of it. Here's Keith flaying the conservatives on the Clinton interview/sneak attack:



And here's Keith's commentary on 9/11:



I look forward to hearing more from him.

Local Paper Covers Local Justice

Following up on my previous post on unqualified Village Justices issuing illegal decisions, the Saranac Lake based Adirondack Daily Enterprise has an example of a judge who doesn't know how the court system works:

After sentencing a Saranac Lake man to jail time over a traffic infraction, a prosecutor and public defender have accused a village justice of overstepping his authority in village court.

...

Herrmann reportedly said he’d start collecting maximum fines in cases such as these as way to defray costs for the village.

Bringing village finances as a consideration in criminal justice cases violates important principles, public defender Virginia Morrow said.

“He wanted to raise money for the village police department,” Morrow said in an interview. “But we have a separation of powers. We don’t have village justices raising money just as we don’t have village trustees writing tickets.”

Also, the judge decided that decorum isn't necessary for the courtroom, and had a temper tantrum:

Ken Pickreign, Amell’s grandfather, who appeared with him several times in village court, corroborated Delehanty and Morrow’s account of Herrmann losing his temper and yelling at attorneys.

“He was out of control by his screaming and hollering and throwing paperwork around and slamming it on the desk,” Pickreign said of Herrmann. “The judge was doing all of the hollering. The lawyers conducted themselves in an orderly way.”

My day-after take on the local justices has softened somewhat. You can't be justifiably angry at the ignorant. But coverage of all breaches of the judicial process should be reported. After all, you don't want a bunch of "activist judges" subverting the law of the land, right? Judges apply the law, they don't make it.

Unqualified Yokels Subvert Judicial Process

Flipping through the NY Times this morning, I saw upstate NY was not-well represented with its front page article "In Tiny Courts of New York, Abuses of Law and Power" (link on the post title). In what appears to be a long-researched report, the Times found some shocking breaches of what we define as common judicial proceedings. Courts closed to the public, courts without transcripts of proceedings, courts whose training is a true-false test easier than the one for being a manicurist. My girlfriend's hometown of Malone has a place in the (presumably unwanted) spotlight:

A woman in Malone, N.Y., was not amused. A mother of four, she went to court in that North Country village seeking an order of protection against her husband, who the police said had choked her, kicked her in the stomach and threatened to kill her. The justice, Donald R. Roberts, a former state trooper with a high school diploma, not only refused, according to state officials, but later told the court clerk, “Every woman needs a good pounding every now and then.”

You think racism is just for George "Macacca" Allen and the rest of the south? Think again:

A black soldier charged in a bar fight near Fort Drum became alarmed when his accuser described him in court as “that colored man.” But the village justice, Charles A. Pennington, a boat hauler and a high school graduate, denied his objections and later convicted him. “You know,” the justice said, “I could understand if he would have called you a Negro, or he had called you a nigger.”

It's not just about breaches of basic human rights (because at this point in our history, we're just about ready to legalize torture anyway, so who cares?) It's also about millions of dollars that aren't accounted for:

The courts also handle money — more than $200 million a year in fines and fees. But the state comptroller’s office, which once conducted scores of justice-court audits every year, now does only a handful. When it looked most recently, auditing a dozen courts in May, it reported serious financial-management problems and estimated that millions of dollars a year might be missing from the justice courts statewide.

Let's hope that this article starts a conversation about revising New York's judicial system.

Polyphonic Ramblings #2

Month 2 of the mix tape project. This time I put together a mix tape with some live music on it, and finished it off with a back-and-forth between classic jazz and loungey-style electronic music. Here we go:

1 - 3. Tea Leaf Green - Garden (I, II and III): A California-based quartet, these guys play a more structured set than other jam bands, but aren't unwilling to let things go and rock out for awhile. The Garden suite starts with a poppy head in part 1, stretches out for a jam in part 2, and comes together to conclude in part 3.

4. moe. - Jazz Wank: From an old 1996 show, my only moe. before Karen and I went to moe.down on Labor Day weekend. moe. will definitely stick with a tune and explore it for 10, 20, 40 minutes at a time. This Jazz Wank is a bit more concise, clocking in at just over 5 minutes.

5. Steve Kimock - Improv #1: Steve is a stellar guitar player with his band. This is from a solo acoustic show, just him exploring. Some nice Zep-esque chords get pounded on in the middle of this piece.

6. Tim Reynolds - Jemez Rolling Waves: Following up on the acoustic guitar thing, here's a solo piece from the guy better known as the side man to Dave Matthews when Dave plays without his band. Personally, I'm a bigger fan of Reynolds than Matthews. But Dave certainly has good taste in friends.

7. Porcupine Tree - Sound of Muzak: Found these folks while reading reviews on amazon. Well structured songwriting.

8. Buckethead - Ghost: The softer side of the KFC bucket, kabuki-mask wearing artist known as Buckethead. His harder stuff is 80's metal style, very articulate, distorted, rocking.

9. Spacetime Continuum - Vertigo: Straying away from guitar-based rock, moving into electronica.

10. Miles Davis - So What: The classic track from the best-selling jazz album of all time. Staying on the mellow mood.

11. Sneaker Pimps - Velvet Divorce: Trying to seamlessly transition from jazz to electronica.

12. Vince Guraldi Trio - Greensleeves: OK, OK, so the track is really titled "What Child is This", off of the Charlie Brown Christmas album. But I prefer to think of this along the lines of Coltrane's interpretation of Greensleeves. Guraldi is amazing.

13. Theivery Corporation - Heaven's Gonna Burn Your Eyes: Going out on a mellow lounge note.

I am Musically Pretentious

As shown through this little feature from the Onion AV Club. Here are some of my favorite rock instruments featured:

2. The Chapman Stick

Art rock—especially '80s-00s King Crimson—wouldn't be complete without the Chapman Stick, a combination guitar and bass that looks like a 2x4 and is played by tapping the strings with both hands. (Or with little drumsticks tied to your fingers, if you're Tony Levin.) Though its clean lines look best next to the stylishly bald and mustached Levin, it's forever connected to serious, ponytailed men like Trey Gunn, who look like they treat "picking" and "strumming" with a sniff of contempt. The Chapman Stick is also worn across the chest with the top resting on the player's shoulder, giving the impression that it's so precious, it needs to be cradled.

5. Bagpipe

Who hasn't had a bad experience with a bagpipe? It's the loudest, most boorish acoustic instrument there is, whether it's outside, ruining a perfectly fine public park, or on a concert stage, where—as one example—the Battlefield Band wheels out its bagpiper with almost circus-like fanfare, like the audience is about to watch someone take a cannonball to the chest. The only safe place to use them is at funerals: That's the only time they don't think they're the guests of honor.

Here's another instrument I never heard of, but think sounds pretty damn cool:

1. The Eaton-Moog Multiple-Touch-Sensitive Keyboard

For years, prog rockers tainted Bob Moog's name by playing his keyboards while wearing in shiny silver capes, or standing in the orchestra pit at Rick Wakeman's King Arthur On Ice tour. But the late, legendary synth-maker wasn't immune to delusions of grandeur: In 1992, Moog and University of Chicago music prof John Eaton debuted a revolutionary new instrument: the Eaton-Moog Multiple-Touch-Sensitive Keyboard, sometimes called "The World's Most Sensitive Musical Instrument." Its 49 keys respond to five kinds of movement—from touch pressure to the way players roll their fingertips and slide them up and down the keys—to adjust the volume, vibrato, and pitch. Reportedly, the prototype sits in Eaton's attic, but the instrument never made it into production. Has anyone pitched it to Keith Emerson?

They frequently mention Bob Moog, creator of the greatest synthesizer ever, the Mini Moog. Perhaps it's my preference for prog rock, as opposed to minimalist indie rock (definitely a staple of the writers of the AV Club).

Anyway, long live the Chapman Stick!

What's in a Name?

On the way back home from work (where I've apparently going to become a non-peon, and start to be able to crack heads), I was listening to the VPR news, in which they said that the Ethan Allen Homestead is going to close.

That's quite a shame. It was the home of uber-Vermonter Ethan Allen, who took Ft. Ticonderoga from the Brits. He retired to Burlington (where else) and lived in the Intervale. At first, I thought of him on this side of the pond, and enjoying his raid on "the other side of the pond" (which is how all Vermonters think of the Adirondacks). My self-identified Adirondackerness chafed at the thought.

Thinking more, though, the inhabitants of the Champlain Basin are much alike, as Bill McKibben noted in his short little book Wandering Home? Is there a common culture in the Basin? I'd say so. St. Albans is nothing more than an extension of the dreary North Country towns of northern NY (drive across Rt. 11 and see what I mean), albeit with a little Vermont flair and a tiny downtown (makes me think of Potsdam, if anywhere in the NC). The accent is the same.

I keep the name of my blog as such to take note of that, and I hope we can get together. That whole Adirondack seccesionist movement was a pretty radical idea, I bet Allen would approve...

Week in Review: moe.down 7

Writing this from textedit since I'm supposed to be net-free for this week of vacation I took. It's been refreshing to not be refreshing my RSS reader every half hour for new blog posts on the sorry state of world affairs.

At any rate, the beginning of the vacation was taken in Turin, NY - the site of moe.down, a three day music festival at the Snow Ridge ski area. The weather was wet enough to get some of that good festival mud generated, but not too much as to ruin the overall event. Our neighbors were a bus full of amateur musicians who set up a pretty extensive camp with stage and kitchen. On a rainy, cool Sunday morning, they started a fire on the front lawn, which was eventually nixed by an eager security dude cruising in on a golf cart.






Here's a pic of a sculpture made with the remnants of the fire:










Our camp was a much simpler affair, but still quite functional:











As for the music, it was a good time to catch onto some new bands, moe. has a good ear for new talent. Cool acts on the second stage were Toubab Krewe, U Melt, and Moonshine Still. On the main stage, pieces of Phish were present; Paige McConnell and Fishman had their own band, and Mike Gordon played with a honky tonk band that has a regular gig at the Radio Bean, a tiny Burlington coffeeshop. The best show, in my opinion was the Umphrey's McGee set on Saturday night. Exercising their musical background, they played Zep's "Fool in the Rain" to pay tribute to the showers that happened throughout the set (with great timing with the music).

moe. themselves played a Friday, 2 Saturday and a Sunday set. I haven't listened much to them since I saw them last, a SUNY Potsdam spring concert event some time ago, where I was probably not in a condition to objectively evaluate them. I tried to do a little crash course in moe. tunes by listening to the one live show I had of theirs. Surprisingly, they hit tunes I knew at least once a set, which always helps a show. They brought out other guests frequently, including Paige, Gordon Stone, Jake Cinniger, and some dumb trumpet player who spent more time jumping up and down like that Bosstone.

Getting out was pretty easy, thanks to the power of my Golf's diesel engine. We booked it on Sunday night, beat the crowd, and had a great night drive through the North Country back to Malone, where we regrouped and headed back out into the rain for a few days of camping in the St. Regis Canoe Area. More on that later. Now, it's time to head out to the Burlington South End Art Hop.

Video Time

I thought this was new, but apparently not. Anyway, the guitar work is masterful, it appears effortless.

Polyphonic Ramblings #1

So a my friend's wife's friend's cousin's ex-roomate's roomate (or something like that) has arranged for a mix tape swap. Excellent idea, as making new mix tapes is something I really enjoy. So, I'm putting up the playlist I made for the first lucky random recipient of my tunes. Here's my thoughts on it.

#1 - 5 Star Mix

Made of a selected bunch of my 5-star rated songs on my laptop (home)

1. Achilles Last Stand - Led Zeppelin

Zep's one and only (I think) foray into the world of prog rock. Epic storyline, long guitar solos, killer drumming by rock's best drummer (or in the top 3, I suppose), John Bonham.

2. Peaches en Regalia - Frank Zappa

An instrumental classic. Zappa is a great composer, it sad that he isn't around, writing music that would do modern classical composers proud. At least this one is a bit more melodic. My version of a pop song.

3. "Outside Kick Ass Violin Solo" - Aphex Twin

Caveat Emptor on this one, as far as identification is concerned. Dredged up off the internets, nice groove.

4. Hurricane Camille - Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

Nice peppy jazz number off of Bela's first album.

5. Koko - Charlie Parker

The penultimate bebop tune by the best damn alto player evar, Bird. The tempo is blinding fast, but the 32nd notes are even faster.

6. Rush - Cowboy Bebop OST

Classic jazz from the Japanese, via the quirky space-cowboy anime series Cowboy Bebop.

7. Welcome Red - Benevento Russo Duo

The next generation of jazz is from folks like this, who wield the drum kit and keys like the old masters, but adding electronica elements.

8. Dogs - Yonder Mountain String Band

Covering the Pink Floyd tune on Animals, bluegrass almost seems more appropriate for this song. Tells the story of the vicious, solitary and sad cutthroat modern capitalist, who thinks he's on his own, but just a pawn in the greater game.

9. Inhale to the Chief - Keller Williams

A quirky guitarist who likes to play loops and layer them on top of one another to make a one-man band (live!), this piece is just him wailing away on his guitar with some great tonalities.

10. Cadence and Cascade - King Crimson

Off of their second album, this mellow acoustic piece riffs off of the opening lines of the prelude movement of Bach's cello suites.

11. Dave's Energy Guide - Phish

A song abandoned by Phish by the 1990's, this piece is reminicent of King Crimson's Discipline. Played at Nectar's, the club that made each other famous.

12. I am Hydrogen - Phish

My favorite ballad by Phish, this tune is usually played as a segway between Mike's Song and Weekapaug Groove. From the same show.

13. Atoms for Peace - Thom Yorke

The lead singer of Radiohead makes his solo debut with "The Eraser" (previously reviewed by myself). This song is a peaceful way to round out the mix.

Hope you enjoy the music.

A Journey on the Raquette River

Just got back from my 3-day weekend with my father. Apart from sore shoulders and a little incident of forgetting keys in a car, it was a great trip. It was hot and sunny the first day, and clouded over for the second. Then it rained for the third. I actually like to paddle in the rain (as long as there's a warm, dry place for me to hole up afterwards). The river gets very quiet, and the sound of mist/rain is all there is. Here are some shots from the trip (the remaining are at my flickr page):








Reflections












The Raquette River, in the rain.

Eating Stuff in the Woods

A new site I've been reading is York Staters, a blog dedicated to upstate NY. A neat article is there on what you can eat in the woods. There are some ones I've eaten, like fiddleheads (baby ferns you pick in the spring when they're still small). Others I've heard of, like sassafrass roots (the base for root beer). Others, though are quite different. Like Wild Carrots, or the roots of Queen Anne's Lace:

Another edible root is the Wild Carrot, also called Queens Anne Lace [2], which is a close cousin to the domesticated carrot; however, it is only for the over-curious or starving as it is like chewing leather. I suggest pulling them before the flowers bloom, cutting them up and boiling them.

OK, so that doesn't sound too tasty. But spruce tree bark and wild leeks do sound pretty good. The comment section is fun for the references to the various hallucinogenic plants found in the area. I'd be a little wary, considering how nausea often accompanies wild hallucinogens, but you can do what you want, I suppose.