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.

Takei as in Gay

5.14.2007

No Plugs today.
But I am working on a ton of stuff for this week. Unless you consider this a plug.

Heroes.
Man, did they not find the perfect part for Georger Takei? And man, they even got him acting. Awesome show, you don't know what your are missing 24 idiots.

You are Listening too . . .
We begin our journey into the album simple entitled The Beatles (Aka The White Album). Now, before I give some background, this is Malach's favorite Beatles album and what I consider the best album of all time. Again that can be argued. What I like about this album is the influence it has had on modern music, and music of the 70's, 80's, and 90's. The Beatles, moved back toward guitar based rock, and this is perhaps there most experimental album. The Beatles heavily influence 70's rock from the Eagles, Led Zepplin, and the Sex Pistols; was a huge influence on the 80's new wave, Sonic Youth, U2, REM, and Fugazi; and influence on Guns and Roses, Public Enemy, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and most of the music of the late 80's early 90's. Even today, it has an influence on musicians as diverse as Beck, Jay-Z, The OutKast, Jimmy Eat World, and many other musicians. After the Beatles broke all the rules with previous albums, they kind of restructured them for everyone who came after to follow with The Beatles.

This is the best selling Beatles album of all time and the ninth best selling album overall in US history. This album took almost a year to make, and turned into a double album. It also marked abandoning of the Hippie psychedelic style, and a move toward the drug infused rock of the 70's. This Beatles also began to show the very diverse and almost divergent songwriting styles of the three main songwriting members. Lennon's hard edges lyrics, McCartney's piano based ballads, and Harrison's guitar driven ballads. In addition, while time passed for creation of this album, each member began writing solo stuff. Lennon's Jealous Guy, McCartney's Junk, and Harrison's Not Guilty were all written in this time period and later appeared on their solo albums.

Tension and factions began to grow within the group during this time (several things influenced this, I will expand on it more in tomorrow's blog): Epstein's death, their first real artistic and financial failure with the Magical Mystery Tour movie, and a disillusioned Lennon returning from their trip to India. Also, in fighting over who should be the group's new manager, new business ventures with Apple, and Yoko Ono become Lennon's girlfriend and artistic partner added to some of the tension. Ono was constantly with Lennon, and for the first time, girlfriends, wives, and significant others were allowed into the recording studio (many of the songs have backing vocals from Ono, Linda Eastman, Patty Harrison, and others). McCartney and Lennon would at times record in seperate studios, and George Martin's studio authority over the band waned. Additionally, Starr walked out on the band for a period of two weeks. The rest of the band pleaded with him to return, but still recorded Back In the USSR and Dear Prudence with McCartney on drums.

Many of the songs turned out to be very personal songs. Dear Prudence is one of them. The song is about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence. Prudence was on the trip to India with The Beatles to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Prudence spent the entire time in her room focusing on meditation. Lennon was worried she was depressed and wrote this song for her.

As stated, the song was recorded with McCartney on drums as Ringo had walked out. Lennon also stated this is probably his favorite Beatles song (it is also his son Julian's favorite). The song is very simply written and has a beautiful music behind it. It also shows how the Beatles were moving back to a standard guitar based music.

Those in my age bracket might recall that this song was a huge hit for Siouxsie & the Banshees in the early 80's.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Dice K, complete game win vs. the second best team in the AL, the Tigers. 8.5 up on the Yanks, who are in second. If they win 3 of 4, this could get isane around here. Mood: Unbelieving.

Ahh Eric Rudolph.
I am sure Jesus is proud of you.

The Kinder and Gentler Dubya.
Uh, I guess he back, but what's the catch? I think he has been chumming with Al Gore.

So Chrysler has been sold.
Interestingly to a company that has no experience in automotive. So what's the death pool odds on this one?

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and yeah Goldie's pretty hot.

Let take you down, cause I'm going too . .

5.02.2007

Plugs.
Sunshine 34 is up starring SKELETOR! 8 1/2 by Eleven has also updated with strip 527. I am also, almost finally done with the Wraith.

Also some stuff to check out at the WoW. First you got to check out today's Hump Day Jokes, more specifically joke number 2. Tainted~Love posts Hump Day Jokes every Wednesday. This one is great, Malach loves to poke fun at the Irish. Also an incident happened today at work where I thought another one of my clients had died. That got me thinking to the 6 that have died over my career in human services, and decided to post a bit of a tribute to them. Read it, comment if you like.

You are listening too . . .
One of The Beatles best songs of all time, by consesus, Strawberry Fields Forever. And if this song don't make you feel trippy, I don't know what will. A double A side with Penny Lane, as stated in previous post, the two songs are a very interesting juxtapostion. Strawberry Fields is perhaps the defining song of psychedelic rock.

Both Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane are actual locations in Liverpool. Both songs address childhood memories, and landmarks of the city. Penny Lane, mostly written by McCartney is a happier version, while Strawberry Fields written by Lennon is much more morose. Both songs were recorded for Sgt. Pepper, but left off to make singles, which George Martin still regrets to this day (how much more amazing would Sgt. Pepper be with these two songs added).

Again the song express an nostalgic view of childhood, but with surrealistic tones. Strawberry Field is an orphanage down the block from where Lennon grew up with his aunt. Lennon used to play behind the building in the woods with his childhood friends. Strawberry Field had a garden party every summer which the neighborhood was invited too, and Lennon loved.

This song was written during a period of change for Lennon. The bigger than Jesus controversy, his failing marriage to Cynthia Lennon, the disastorous last year of touring. Lennon became more introspective, and some of the pain of his childhood resurfaced (his mother died when he was young and you will see his future albums explore these feelings). Lennon was getting heavy into drugs, especially LSD. The song itself has no drug references, but is highly influenced by those mind altering experiences.

One of the nice parts of this recording is the myriad of demos, and outakes saved from the recording of the song. You can see the creation of the lyrics, and the sound through that. The song, over most of the songs of that period (sans perhaps Tomorrow Never Knows, and a Day in the Life), is a masterwork of sound engineering and recording. There is extensive overdubbing, looping, reverse recording, and compression through the song. The arrangement includes a piano, a Mellotron (played by McCartney), trumpets, cellos, and an Indian swarmandel.

One of the most amazing parts of the song and something many people notice, is that the song is two different version melded together. The were two distinct versions of the song, a acid rock style in the vein of Jefferson Airplane, and a more complex orchestral musical arrangement.

Lennon decide he liked parts of both, so he told George Martin to mix them. Problem. Each version is played in both a different key, and a different tempo. Luckily, the faster version was in a higher key this allowed them to slow down faster version and speed up the slower one and match the tempo. Lennon was amazed, and pitch and slight speed differences in the song, give it that otherworldly sound. Lennon always described it as a "swimming quality".

The flute like sound at the beginning is a Mellotron, which Lennon had purchased, but McCartney soon discovered it's potential. Strawberry Fields is the first rock song to use it, and it was quickly picked up by a number of other bands.

Strawberry Fields also had a very groundbreaking conceptual music video. Both (Penny Lane video) were originally broadcast in 1968 on The Hollywood Palace.

Brian Wilson claims Strawberry Fields ruined the anticipated Beach Boys concept album SMiLE. He says The Beatles achieved the sound he was going for and then he shelved the album. Of course Brian Wilson went a even a bit more nuts after that.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well Papelbon proved he was human, or at least Mariano Rivera. It is currently 5 - 3 Sox in the eighth. Mood: Disbelief.

KFC.
Uh, Doc, don't eat there. Have you even seen their disgusting Flavor Bowls?

Some more good news.
"Global Warming is all in your head".

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day.

I am Malach and you gotta love YouTube.