Perfection
Always chasing it
Yet perfection eludes me
How good is enough?
22
Mar
2006
23:40
Author: Heath
22
Mar
2006
23:14
“Tomorrow Never Knows”
With much satisfaction I have completed my latest project. For the longest time, I’ve had this idea in my head to remake “Tomorrow Never Knows” by The Beatles album “Revolver”. The song has always been something special to me for many reasons. The original song was recorded using mostly tape loops taken from various orchestral compositions, sound effects, and any other tape The Beatles could get their razor blades on. Since they only had four track technology then, I’ve read accounts of how George Martin had every available person standing in every available space, such as closets, holding tape loops on the ends of pencils and such, so that he could fade them in and out throughout the song. I always thought that it would be fun to recreate the entire song, including all the strange tape loops, on guitar.
This became an even more interesting idea when I started using the Line 6 Variax digital modeling guitar which can emulate a whole studio full of guitars (including electrics, acoustics, banjo, 12-strings, and more), and the Line 6 Pod XT which digitally models amps, cabinets, effects, etc.
Here is the result of my mad scientist experiment (It’s about 4MB). Aside from the vocal, drums and tambourine, everything you hear was done on guitar. Everything. Including the seagulls. And the bass. Everything. Hell, even the vocals got run through my Pod XT for the last verse. I am quite pleased. As is always the case with me, I feel I could do so much more work on it to make it better, but I was anxious to get it out there, and sometimes you just have to designate a stopping point. I’m sure there will be tweaking, as I’m already nitpicking it all to hell, but for the most part I’m fairly happy with it.
21
Mar
2006
15:48
16
Mar
2006
15:00
16
Mar
2006
13:48
I’ve got a fever…
and the only prescription is more cowbell. Awesome.
If you don’t know what this is all about, then just go to Youtube and search for “more cowbell.” If it has Christopher Walken, Will Ferrell and cowbell, then you’ve found the right clip. An absolute classic.
Sadly, even though Saturday Night Live has had more exposure and free publicity than they’ve had in years from people posting popular and funny bits from the show, they’ve also been extremely aggressive in having unauthorized content removed from the internet due to copyright infringement.
13
Mar
2006
18:50
Enneagram. Whoa.
I don’t usually post all these personality test type of things, but I stumbled upon this one recently (thanks, Beth!) that I thought nailed me pretty good. In only two questions. Crazy, scary accurate (with a dew exceptions as usual). This seems to be the consensus of almost everyone I know who took the test. Yes, I know it could just all be coincidence, standard disclaimer, bogus, blah, blah, blah. So, get to know me! Also see the link in Beth’s comment to a much more in depth description of my results.
Apparently I’m a 9 which means:
10
Mar
2006
13:09
0-100 so fast I got whiplash!
Previously I mentioned how much fun I had being psycho Tom Cruise and meeting this great bunch of people. It looks as if I may have fallen into something pretty cool, and definitely good for me. The skit I filmed was for The Austin Movie Show, which has been around for a while in various incarnations and currently airs on our Public Access station. It’s mostly the two hosts reviewing and talking about movies, but also has a lot more thrown in such as the shorts we’re starting to write and film now and some other segments.
10
Mar
2006
10:53
Purchase my soul for $37.94!
If you want to truly know who I am as a person, check out these albums:
“Hey Album!” and “Ready, Sex, Go” by The Marvelous 3
“Left of Self Centered” and “Letters” by Butch Walker
I’ve decided that Butch Walker’s catalog (including his work with Marvelous 3) is a pretty damn good representation of my soul if it were converted to music and packaged on CD. There is such a great range from rocking, funny, witty songs to intensely passionate and emotional songs which you feel as much as you listen to.
09
Mar
2006
9:35
Don’t be a sexist, broads hate that.
So apparently I missed “Blog Against Sexism” day. I don’t really have anything in particular to say, but wanted to say something. We live in a time when sexism, racism, and all kinds of other isms have insidiously weaved themselves into the very fabric of our culture. So much so that many are completely blind to them.
As a species, we are very arrogant and think that we are the end all be all to life in the universe, when the truth is that we are not nearly as evolved as we would like to think. There is still far too much ignorance and intolerance in the world for us to be so high and mighty. I pretty much leave the crusading to my wife, but I guess I’ll just boil it down to my simplest though here: there may be differences between men and women (not just physical but real differences in our makeup, the way we think, the way our brains are wired, who knows), but that is meaningless. That is true on an individual basis, not just a sex/race/whatever basis. Next time you find yourself about to apply a stereotype to someone, take a moment and think about it. Try to catch yourself forming preconceptions of people. We all do it. If we can catch even just one, and instead get to know someone for who they are and not who we think they are, then I think that’s something good.
I think the irony is that anyone who finds themselves thinking that someone else is inferior because of their sex/race/etc is guaranteed to be the inferior one.
02
Mar
2006
10:48
Cruise control
Yesterday I filmed my stint as Tom Cruise for a short parody to air on the Austin Movie Show. It was incredibly satisfying, and really moved me in a strangely deep and emotional way. Obviously it was great to get “back in the saddle” and just cut loose with some totally over the top acting, but it was the people that really made it for me. Maybe I’m just in some hyper-emotional frame of mind or something, but I just truly loved everyone I met yesterday. They all seemed like wonderful, fun, genuine people who I think I could connect with, and in a way, did. The show is just getting started and they seemed really open to any of us who wanted to be involved with the troupe to pitch ideas, brainstorm, just take some bit parts, or whatever level of involvement individual time and desire allowed.
I left feeling that I did an adequate acting job but that I could have done much better. Everyone seemed to be pleased and entertained though. I also left feeling a bit wistful and not really wanting to go because I wanted to get to know these people better. I guess we’ll see what the future holds, but all in all it was a great experience, even if I am left a bit bewildered by my emotional response to it. I feel more deeply moved and touched than I feel I should from doing casual light little comedy piece with people I only just met. It’s very bizarre. Even if I never see any of them again, I feel my life is richer for having met them.
Maybe this is just a side effect from tossing my inner creative passion monster a tasty morsel after having not fed it in a long, long time. It awoke from it’s hibernation with a bug hunger. I will try to post or link to the skit as soon as I can get a copy.