Lisa Lopes, Amaral Bus Company, and various other shiite

5.20.2007

First the plugs.
Sunshine number 38 is up, with some digital manipulation by Malach. It is the perfect little piece to toss up in a MySpace or Forum comment when you win argument, for example here.

Lisa Lopes.
For those of you unsure of who she is, check out the Wikipedia entry. Now Malach is not a fan of TLC, but they are much better than some of the crap on the radio stations that play their type music. Last night, VH1 (Also not a huge fan of VH1), played a documentary called The Last Days of Left Eye. Evidently Lopes filmed much of the last two years of her life for a documentary. She discussed her career, here mental breakdowns, her alcoholism, her 7 year relationship with Andre Rison (who house she burned down), how she was turning her life around in Honduras doing some missionary work, moving away from TLC, her spiritual epiphanies there, the strange coincidences of her journey, her mental breakdowns there, and filiming up to the point of her death . . . they were actually filming inside the vehicle she was driving the moment the accident occured she died in. It was all together fairly powerful and surreal, and worth a watch.

Amaral Bus Company.
Don't EVER use Amaral Bus Company. My wife works with kids with Autism. Today, she and a co-worker took an Amaral bus down to Mystic Aquarium for a trip. About an hours trip. First and foremost, the promised bus did not contain a promised DVD player, and the running water and toilets did not work properly (yeah you take a group of thirty 8 - 12 year old Austic kids for a 2 hour ride in that condition). On the way back from the Aquarium, the bus, overheated and broke down, about 10 miles from the Aquarium. It took Amaral's more than THREE hours to pick up this group in another bus, and bring them home. Whoever took their calls for help on the phone was an ASSHOLE and could really seem to care less. To top it off, the CT. State Police were also rather unhelpful. All this busful of special needs kids wanted was for the police to bring them some antifreeze, so they could limp the bus off the highway to the next exit that had a McDonald's, and for some reason they couldn't even seem to do that.

One of the kids parents drove down there, and he happens to be a deisel mechanic, took one look at the underside and engine of the bus and stated . . "Man, I am surprised this bus made it this far, it looks like it has had no maintenance since it was bought".

So, boycott Amaral Bus. If you need a bus locally, go with Furtado Buslines, or Tremblay Bus.

You are Listening too (BANG, BANG, SHOOT, SHOOT!). . .
Happiness is a Warm Gun off The White Album. Very interesting and underated Beatles song. Primarly written by John Lennon, it has five distinct sections in an under 3 minute song. Lennon himself used it call it the history of rock and roll.

The song begins with a lilting surreal part based on a acid trip, drums, bass, and distorted guitar start up, and then the songs jumps to a ominous sound guitar rift and Lennon emploring "I need a fix" (hence many think the song is about heroin, but Lennon denied this). Then there is a punky steccatto off kilter section. The final section is a doo-wop send up. This songs changing tempos became a huge influence to bands like Radiohead, Mr. Bungle, and more avant garde rock bands.

The biggest and most radical accomplishment is the frequent changes in timing, rythmn, and tempo. Begining in 4/4 time it shifts to 3/4 for the guitar solo and next section, then jumps around to 6/8, 3/4 and then back to 4/4 and 3/4 shifts.

As for what the song in about, the most of it is symbolic and very surreal. At the time, Lennon might have been descending into heroin addiction, but Lennon denied the song was about that even though the lyrics easily fit that. Lennon did state, that the idea for the song came from a Peanuts book entitled Happiness is a Warm Puppy (Bang, Bang, Shoot, Shoot).

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well. 2 out of 3 from the Braves with Kason Gabbards pulled up from AAA Patuckett to start, and lot of starters resting for 3 games in the Bronx nest three days. They are currently 10.5 up on BALTIMORE and 11 on New York and Toronto. Should be some interesting pitching match ups, and they actually favor the pinstripes. Mood: Yankees Sox, AGAIN.

OH MY GOD!
The Brood is coming.

Damn.
I can't even deal with one wife.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day.

I am Malach and happiness is warm ribeye steak.