Paved Road Access

Manipulator

Mr. E — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:48:25 +0000

Manipulator

Tune from way back in 1995 or so. The band was Third Wave – me, Rebecca, Stefan Brabec, Joseph Knorr, and Jake Jacob. Weird time in music – lots of grungy angry music ala Hole. Fun to play. Can’t really crank out the angst nowadays. Well, I suppose we could, but then I’m not really feeling the angst. Just want to relax lately!

Angels Playing Hell

Mr. E — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:58:18 +0000

Angels Playing Hell

Wrote and recorded this today. Used for the most part still as a way to get the hang of Logic. Love the clean sound and real-world mixer-like audio mixing. Don’t love the way I have to jump through hoops to save in different formats. And how in the world do you convert to a wma with a Mac?

Lyrics

Angels Playing Hell

Sorry I’m late it’s the very first date of the fall
You’ve sprung the latch and I’m trying to catch it is all
Put down your arrows and pick up your guns and you know that the rapture is coming undone all around
I told a friend of the state he was in and he saw

Angels playing hell with his soul
Angels sticking pins in his soul

If you were a snake you would swallow your tail and pretend
That you were the first to make it alive to the end
Everything’s busted your silver is rusted your friends can be trusted your head needs adjusted my friend
If I were your mother I’d tell you that you need back in

Angels playing hell with your soul
Angels sticking pins in your soul
Angels slipping in through every door

Once you were twice the third to be trapped under ice
Playing with rainbows in winter near water’s not nice
Gasping and clawing and ripping and gnawing and slipping and falling and turning and calling to them
Who tickle their teeth with your bones and your meat and your sins

Angels dancing high with your soul
Angels dancing low with your soul
Sometimes you just got no where to go

Link Wray Tribute

Mr. E — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:33:19 +0000

Yesterday, November 5th, was the 4 year anniversary on Link Wray’s death. Without Link, rock and roll guitara would have never sounded so big. There would have been no Who bombast, no Neil Young electric power-chord trance music. I suspect he was the first guitar player to inspire someone to stand before a mirror and swing there arms in a pinwheel and play air guitar. How could you not? The angry corpulent chords of Rumble just wash over you.

Here is Link playing Rumble in 1978.

And here’s my version of the thing I did this afternoon Brave New Rumble

A little more Logic

Mr. E — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:58:05 +0000

Getting a little deeper into Logic 9 now. Dug into the loops a little, working on learning the programs approach to automation. It’s cool watching the virtual channel strips moving up and down like Flying Faders! Here’s my little demo I made while working on the bed with nothing but my acoustic Little Demo.

Recording on Macbook with Logic

Mr. E — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:49:05 +0000

Just above this line is a file of me trying out recording directly on the Macbook using the built in Mic and Logic 9. I am a longtime VEGAS user and I am just now trying the waters with Logic, as I have discovered that I am more comfortable with Macintosh than PC, and VEGAS isn’t available on Mac. Anyway, it’s a steep learning curve and transition, but I dig it. Macbook is a 2.13 GHZ Intel Core Duo with 4 GB RAM running Snow Leopard. Recordings with the built in mic always seem to have a strange hiss/buzz going on…

Blogging and High School

Mr. E — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:30:20 +0000

Over the summer I read quite a few professional development books, and one of the most interesting I found is Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, 2nd Edition. I started a new job teaching at a small Missouri high school, and I am excited at the prospect of integrating writing for the web into my English curriculum. I have already created a Classroom Wiki page that is ready to go live as soon as I get the go-ahead from my administration. I have a very supportive administration that seems happy to see me grab this bull by the horns. The Wiki site I created is set to private viewing so that only my kiddos can see it. It seems that Missouri (or maybe just the district I am in) is VERY Privacy/Security conscious, and doesn’t want any personal info/details floating around the wild, wild net. I really want to get my kids writing and critiquing in a way that is relevant to them, and blogging seems like a good outlet for this. I did some informal polling of my students (9th graders for the most part), and I don’t think they have really been exposed to the web in a structured way, nor are they familiar with blogging or Wikis. I find that exciting, being able to expose them to it. Perhaps I’ll let my administration get used to the private Wiki site, and if that takes off like I think it will, then gradually introduce them to the idea of letting the kids publish their writing for the world to review. Anyone familiar enough with Missouri school privacy laws to let me know how school blogging can coexist with these concerns?