Happy Halloween!

I hope you spent the night in an oak grove, celebrating Samhain.

Catalina Island (Preview)

Pics of the Catalina Island shindig coming soon!

Mash-Up Madness

Mash-Ups (sometimes one word : "Mashups") are a new musical art-form phenomenon. In a nutshell, the artist takes tracks from two separate bands and re-mixes two songs (one from each album) together, thus "mashing them up". If you go to Amazon.com and search for "Mashup" you'll find they carry 2 or 3 CD's in this genre. However, the most-famous mash-up is a combination of The Beatles' Sgt. Peppers and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. An aspiring musician / techno-geek named Clayton Counts re-mixed the songs from these two albums, and distributed a few copies among his friends. He even got a couple radio interviews and one or two mentions in music magazines, due to this new art-form. The tracks are interesting, but unimpressive. By Clay's own admission, he did the whole job in about an hour. This isn't serious music; it's something you'll listen to for about 5 minutes when totally drunk (or otherwise) and say, "Weird. Now can we listen to actual songs?" However, that's not the way the goons at EMI Music (Capitol Records) saw it. They have brought suit against Clayton, wanting not only mega-$$$ for "lost revenue", but also demanding the identities and IP addresses of everyone to whom Clay sent a copy. Clay, being an aspiring musician, isn't worried about the money. EMI can take every cent he has, and it still wouldn't make it out of small-claims court. But he is refusing to turn over the names & IP addresses to the jerks at EMI. Support Clay and his fight against the EMI bastards! Boycott EMI and Capitol Records! You can google "Beachles" and/or "Clayton Counts" to read the full story and see what else you can do in this matter. The claim of "lost revenue" is bogus. This is "art" at best; "techno-geekery" at worst and the actions by EMI are nothing more than malicious bullying for no reason.

This Week I Converted...

Russell Sherman is a concert pianist of minor renown. He's famous enough to show up when you Google his name; but he's not big enough to be found in Wikipedia (yet). This LP was in somewhat bad shape. Lots of scratches had to be removed, many of them major. To boot, one Intermezzo on Side B had to be scrapped because it constantly skipped forward. Not much can be done about that. The old "penny on the tone-arm didn't work this time. That being said, we'll give this album ***** **½ (out of 10*). I like him better than Paderewski and Rubinstein. For the record (pun intended), Paganini wrote the original music; Brahms wrote variations of Paganini's themes; and Russell Sherman gives you his interpretations of Brahms' variations. Confused? Me too. Still, I haven't found this disc in CD form anywhere, so it was neat to bring this music back to life.

Jury Duty - US District Court

Yes, the Federal court wants Yours Truly to do his civic duty this month. Everyone should serve once on a jury, in order to build one's confidence in the judicial system. Ah, but I did this about 8 years ago. A monumentally boring 3-week (!!) 'breach of contract' civil case. So this time I was determined to do my best NOT to be picked. My (first) date to appear was this past Wednesday. The case might have proved interesting - (attempted) distribution of the sacred weed. And I was #10 on the jury list, which meant I'd be on the jury unless I did something to make them not want to take a chance on me. Which I did. This time, I used the "autistic psycho" posture. I simply stared at the wall across the room from me, refused to laugh when everyone else did (there were lots of opportunities for this), and answered the qualifying questions like I was giving a deposition. Flat monotone, with a minimum of details. (But no lies). It worked like a charm. They passed over me in favor of a bunch of schoolteacher types. Everyone was happy. The only catch is, I'm still 'on call' for the rest of the month, and have to call in every weekend to see if I have to report a second time. FWIW, the last time (the breach of contract case), I adopted a "know-it-all" posture, figuring one side or the other wouldn't want me and my (supposed) knowledge on the jury. Wrong strategy. The lady beside me took a "total idiot" posture and wasn't picked. I lost three work weeks.

A TerPoem

This is for all my friends and colleagues who bought the Repuglicans "Contract With America" bullcrap. Holy Foley was a perv, Holy Foley had some nerve, Holy Foley wasn't wholly holy.

This Week I'm Listening To...

Kate Wolf : Weaver of Visions (Anthology) ***** ***½ (out of 10*) A fabulously-talented folksinger and songwriter who died before her time in 1986 of leukemia. KW is in the same genre as, and influenced Nanci Griffith and Emmylou Harris. In fact, you'll find a KW song, "Across The Great Divide" on Nanci's "Other Voices" album. Unfortunately, she never had a commercial hit, which makes finding used LP's and/or new CD's by her very difficult. But Amazon has a decent selection, and her family has a website at www.katewolf.com Anthology is a double-CD, with a nice cross-section of (early) acoustic stuff, live tracks, and (later) bluegrass-picking songs. The music is honest and straightforward; but it's the lyrics that will stay with you. And if you're from Arizona, listen to the words of "Old Jerome", and you'll find that its about the ghost-town up by Cottonwood.

This Week I'm Listening To...

IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI (VOL. 5) (***** **)

Yeah, the image above is "Volume 1". But actually I'm converting "Volume 5" from LP to CD for a friend, and there's no image available of this out-of-print album. This is classical piano. Paderewski playing Chopin, Debussy, Brahms, etc. Originally recorded in 1930, and then issued on an LP in 1981. The LP is in bad shape, and there's a noticeable "hiss" throughout the tracks. But I've figured out a way to remove the hiss, which makes my homemade CD of better quality than the LP. Paderewski is a fascinating person. In addition to being perhaps the most successful pianist ever, he was a leader in Poland's post-WW1 independence movement, and was her first Premier. Google him for more details. We'll give the album ***** ** (out of 10*), mostly because of the poor quality of the recording. If classical music from a lone piano isn't your schtick, then you won't like this. And although Paderewski misses a note here and there, it is a historical treat to hear the music of a long-dead (he passed away in 1941) genius.

NCAA Football - Week 1 (Monster Cupcakes)

Week 1 NCAA football means one thing - big-name schools bringing in "cupcakes" to get kicked around in exchange for a lucrative payday. Most of the cupcakes rolled over and played dead (excuse the mixed metaphor) , but there were a few that forgot the script.

MONTANA STATE 19 - COLORADO 10

The winner of this year's "Monster Cupcake" award. A Big Sky school goes into Colorado and whomps the Buffalos. The "Honorable Mentions" include...

NORTHERN ARIZONA 14 - ARIZONA STATE 35

As mentioned below, it was 14-14 after three quarters. Don't look for the Sun Devils to make this a year-after-year rivalry.

UAB 17 - OKLAHOMA 24

Oklahoma narrowly avoids an opening-week upset for the 2nd straight year. Not a good sign for Sooner fans.

ARKANSAS STATE 14 - ARMY 6

Yeah I know, Army sucks again. But they should at least be able to beat Arkansas State.

ALBANY 17 - LEHIGH 16

Lehigh is a traditional doormat football team, but they have been good (relatively) the past couple seasons. Alas, this year it looks like its "back to tradition".

ASU 35 - NAU 14

NCAA football has started! #24 Arizona State won by a convincing score of 35-14 over Division II-A Northern Arizona. So why are we worried? Well first of all, NAU was only 3-8 last year. Hardly a powerhouse even in their own conference. Second of all, the problem areas for ASU last year - scoring defense, the defensice secondary, and the rushing game (particularly the short-yardage rushing) all looked bad in this game. After three quarters, it was 14-14. Hardly a statement-game by ASU. Most bizarre play was by NAU. On 4th-and-27, from their own 2-yard line, they elected to run a fake punt. It gained two yards. ASU then took over, first and goal, at the 4 yard line. And after 4 rushes, they still hadn't scored. Against NAU. What's going to happen whern we play USC?

ACLU comes thru for you !!

Sadly, this pretty much sums up Dubya's attitude towards your Constitutional rights as an American citizen. The #1 watchdog defender of you and your rights is the ACLU. Join today and get involved!

This Weekend We Saw...

Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 Rating : ***** **½ (out of 10*) If you liked POTC1, you'll like this sequel. Same humor, same action, same characters. Plus a couple new ones - Davey Jones, Will's father, a voodoo queen, etc. There's a couple of new protagonists - the English commander chasing Jack Sparrow is more evil, and less humorous. There's too much sailing back and forth, but that was true of POTC1 as well. So what's not to like? Well, essentially there's no plot and no conclusion. This movie exists to force you to go see POTC3, presumably next year. There is absolutely nothing resolved here. Still, you get your money's worth, both in entertainment, and sheer length of the film. And the popcorn was good, too.

Back From Portland!

5 lovely days of gray clouds and cool temperatures. And a great guide and navigator (hi Donna!) to show us the sights. Plus one killer waterfalls. More pics to follow.

The (Revised) World Cup Winner Will Be...

Well my longshot, The Netherlands, tanked. We can whine about 16 yellows and four reds, but the bottom line is - the Dutch never played with any energy and emotion. So now its France vs. Italy. And we'll go with - FRANCE 1, ITALY 0. In the first overtime. Hey, anyone who can beat Brazil (and outplay them too) gets my vote.

Ludwig Family Pix

All vintage Ludwig family pictures have been moved to their own blogsite at www.ludfampix.blogspot.com New ones will be added as I get them scanned. Generally, they'll be there for about 30 days. Any information on them, especially of the "who - what - where - when - why" variety, is appreciated.

The World Cup Winner will be...

The World Cup starts tomorrow!! That's "football" for everyone outside of the USA and "soccer" for us Yanks. Who will win it all? Well, the best team in the world is Brazil, and the host country always does well, which is Germany. So we'll go with those two to make it to the Semifinals along with Italy and the Netherlands. The USA (over-rated) won't make it out of the first round. And France is too old, so they might make it to the 2nd round, but not to the semi's. And the winner will be... The Netherlands! What the heck, they're a fun team to watch. No thought of defense; just attack, attack, attack. Kinda like the Phoenix Suns. And no, I haven't looked at the detailed pairing, so if this foursome isn't mathematically possible, don't give me any grief. Others with a good chance to be there at the end : England (only if Wayne Rooney recovers miraculously quickly from his injury), and Argentina. But South American teams don't win World Cups in Europe (not even Pelé's teams), so Holland it is.

This Weekend I Watched...

Eye Of The Beholder Rating : *½ (out of 10*) There is a reason this was going for $5 in the bargain bin. It's a stinker. We'll give it 1* for Ashley Judd showing a little T&A; and a half-star for a promising beginning that sucked me into watching the whole movie. It was all downhill after that. Those who liked this flic say if you watch it 3 or 4 times, then it gets very good. Yeah yeah. They said that about Pulp Fiction, which is what this movie reminds me of. Folks, if you have to watch a movie 3 or 4 times to get something out of it, IT'S A PIECE OF CRAP! The plot stagnates, the ending royally blows, and none of the loose ends are tied up. Watch this at your own folly; but don't blame me if you come away feeling like you were cheated out of two quality hours of your life.

The debut of Darkness Dear Boy!!

The DDB coming-out gig. Playing to a packed house at Hollywood Alley. UPDATE : Additional pics now available at a sister blog. Access it by clicking on "View My Complete Profile" (at the upper left of this blog, then scrolling to the bottom of the profile) or this link : www.ter-ddb.blogspot.com

Darkness Dear Boy - Friday Night !!

Pigeon has evolved into Darkness Dear Boy. Their first gig is this coming Friday, 26 May, at Hollywood Alley, 2610 West Baseline Road, Mesa Arizona. That's one block east of the 101. They start at 8:30 PM. Be there or be sqaure.

Terlist : 5 New Things I Learned When 'Almost' Going To A Wolfmother Concert

Wolfmother was in town the other night. At a small dive called "The Clubhouse Venue" in Tempe. On a weeknight, but at a reasonable hour. For $12. I thought I'd go down, hear a few songs, snap a few jpegs, and be home and in bed by the 10 o'clock news. Wrong-o.

Terlist : 5NTILWAGTOWC

01. There is no such thing as a "seat" at a small-time rock concert in a small-time venue. Except at the bar, and those obviously aren't reserved seats. You can stand. You can pogo. You can mosh. You can do the twist. You can whatever. Except sit. 02. Just because no other band is listed, doesn't mean there is no other band. "(Something-or-other) Parchment" opened for WM. Normally, that's okay. But it was Tuesday night, 7:00 PM, and I didn't particularly want to stay up half the night. So a surprise warm-up band was bad news. 03. Just because the promo says the concert will start at 7:00 PM, doesn't mean the concert will start at 7:00 PM. In fact, the doors weren't even open at 7:00 PM. In fact, the doors weren't even open at 7:30 PM. So you stood in an unmoving line outside. In 100°F weather. But it's a DRY heat. 04. Just because it's a small-time band trying to become famous, doesn't mean you can take pictures. Indeed, around 7:30, a goon walked outside and in a loud voice announced, "THERE VILL BE NO PHOTOS ALLOWED! VE VILL CONFISCATE ANY AND ALL CAMERAS THAT VE FIND!" Folks, the invention of the cell-phone camera makes this stupid policy outdated. What are they gonna do, confiscate all cell-phones too?! Dear WolfMother, you can use all the publicity you can get. Even amateurish photos on a blog. 05. Stick to "oldie" concerts, such as Don Williams @ The Celebrity Theater. We saw him last fall. Photos were allowed; they simply asked that you not use flash. And of course, at the Celebrity, you all have seats, and they're all GOOD SEATS. So at 7:30 PM, realizing that WolfMother wasn't even gonna start playing until 9:00 PM at the earliest, I gave the goon the finger, said 'screw this concert', and went home. Ah well, at least I hadn't shelled out my $12 yet.

This Week I'm Listening To...

Barclay James Harvest : "Everyone Is Everybody Else" (1974) ***** **** (out of 10*). Actually I've been listening to all sorts of BJH albums. From the mid 70's thru the mid-80's. They went thru some significant changes. Mid-70's BJH is good prog rock. Great guitar licks, superb anti-war lyrics, coupled with some very nice instrumental arrangements. EIEE and their live album from the same year are perfect examples of this. In the late 70's they morphed into a "Poor Man's Moody Blues". Less progressive, less rock, but still passably okay. The lyrics-writing remained outstanding. In the early 80's they morphed again, this time to a "Steely Dan" wannabee band. Yuck!! Steely Dan is one of my five most overrated bands of all time. A wannabee SD band is even worse. The downward spiral continues into the mid-80's when albums like Victims Of Circumstance make them sound like a lounge band. Somebody fire their manager, please! BJH is still around today. But like the Strawbs, trying to find any of their recent albums is next to impossible. Stick with their 1970's releases. They're fantastic!

This Week I'm Listening To...

Blackmore's Night - Village Lanterne (2006) ***** ***** (out of 10*) The trouble with most Renaissance-style music is that it gets quite samey after about 10 minutes. Not so here. Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night have mixed in some pop, some folk, some blues, and some old 'Deep Purple' and 'Rainbow' guitar. But the core of this CD is Medieval music. In this age when any amateur can become the next "Idol", it is refreshing to hear an accomplished singer and a guitar virtuoso strut their stuff. Oh, and the lyrics and arrangements are also awesome. Every track is a masterpiece.

Phoenix Pride Parade

Went to see this last weekend. Very fun, very bizarre. Got a whole bunch of great pics, which I'll post on a separate blog, so check back in a couple days. 04/08/06 UPDATE : The Pride Parade blog is up and running! You can click on this link : www.ter-azpride.blogspot.com or else get to it thru the "View My Complete Profile" link at the upper-left of this blog and then scroll down to the bottom of the profile. No, this is not a 'coming out' thing by me. Nor by Liz. Yes, I am a strong proponent of gay rights.

This Weekend I Saw...

V for Vendetta. Rating : ***** ***** (out of 10*). If you like books/movies such as Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World and 1984, you're going to love this movie. It's set in London, but has major relevance to the USA as well. No reason to give away anything about the plot, except to say there's one scene where you get to see my favorite painting - 'The Betrothal of the Arnolfini'. If you aren't familiar with this masterpiece, see my final Photoshop project (below). I really can't think of anything wrong with this movie. And you can be pretty certain that Tony Bliar and Dubnutz don't want you to see this one. Oh yeah, 'Pirates of the Caribbean 2' is coming out this summer. It'll probably be the next movie I go see in a theater.

This Week I'm Listening To...

Massive Attack : "Mezzanine". (1998) Rating : ***** *½ (out of 10*) The group (and album) that spawned a new music genre : "Trip Hop". Nice, moody, carefully-arranged tracks. The third cut, "Teardrop", was deservedly featured on a recent Cold Case episode. However, the mixing leaves a bit to be desired. Sometimes the music volume is just too low. So you crank it up, only to be blasted when the music switches into a louder mode. The vocals are similarly up-&-down. Still, this is definitely an album worth listening to. To quote Jason, "Good from beginning to end".

This Week I'm Listening To...

EPICA : THE PHANTOM AGONY. Rating : ***** *** (out of 10*) Another fine European Goth Metal band, this time out of Holland. Yeah, there's the standard female lead singer, and the grunting male vocalist. But what makes this band worth listening to is their excellent operatic arrangements. If you like Within Temptation, Nightwish, and Ashtar (and Ashtar and Epica played at least one venue together last year); you'll love Epica. Tell your folks that you're finally getting into Opera.

Final ART-177 project : CD Cover 

Original : Jan van Eyck's "Betrothal of the Arnolfini" 

ART-177 Final Project : CD Cover

Final project above. Also shown is the original painting by Jan van Eyck, titled "The Betrothal of the Arnolfinis", done in 1434. Assignment was to design a CD cover using Photoshop. You could choose any musician, singer, or group; but it had to be a real group, since you had to also submit a jpeg or photocopy of the group's previous CD covers as reference. I chose John Prine and Bonnie Raitt, who have never done a joint CD or album, but who have toured together several times. The title of the ersatz CD was not of our choice. It had to be "Change Is The Only Constant", and the CD image had to in some way convey this title. So let's see. I used layer masks like crazy in this image. John's head; Bonnie's head; the acoustic guitar; and the stratocaster guitar. All had to be re-sized and rotated. I had to drop Mr. Arnolfini's hand to the level of the guitar. I had to manipulate the fingers on that hand so that some were on top of the stratocaster and some were behind, in order to make it look like he was holding the guitar. Both John's and Bonnie's heads needed to be tinted different from the original photos in order to make them look more convincing in the picture. John's face also needed a lot of shading since he's wearing that big hat. I finally figured out how to do this - by using the "burn" tool with the setting on "shadows". Well, I didn't figure it out, my prof did. Mrs. Arnolfini's left hand had to be brought out over the acoustic guitar. The acoustic guitar in turn had to be positioned and sized just right in order to hide the lovey-dovey hand-holding of the Arnolfinis, and to appear to be resting on Bonnie's shoulder. The stratocaster had to be positioned in front of Mr. Arnolfini's boots, but behind the butt of the dog. I found a good font for the names, and colored it close to Mrs. Arnolfini's dress. It's nice that Bonnie and John both have short last names, otherwise the left-panel positioning would not have worked. Finding the right C0lor, Font, and Placement of the "Change Is The Only Constant" title was a lot more difficult. Font-style had to contrast the one used for the names. The placement seemed correct artistically, but that meant it runs thru a wide range of colors. I'm still not fully satisfied with the color and font, but both were chosen after trying many other combinations. Final Grade for the project was 290 out of 300. Most of the classmates' critique centered on whether the image conveyed the "Change is the only Constant" theme. Van Eyck's painting is more famous than I had anticipated, and a lot of my classmates wanted to know if I was implying that John and Bonnie were in love and/or getting married. Alas, nothing as spicy as that. I chose van Eyck's painting simply because I thought it had great potential to be manipulated in Photoshop. Lots more could be said about van Eyck's painting itself (which is fantastic!), but that'll have to wait for another entry. All in all, I'm quite happy with the project, and with the ART-177 class itself. Comments on the project are invited, and if you want to see some really professional image-manipulation, go to www.worth1000.com .