My speech class continues to trundle along merrily into the third assignment of the semester. This time the class has to do an oral interpretation of prose, poetry, a speech, a play, or a movie. At first I was thinking of doing Lewis Carroll's , but unfortunately it was too short. I don't want a repetition of what happened last week on my informative speech.
My second choice was a section out of (the book, not the website) by Douglas Adams. I may still do a selection from this very funny book, though I foresee a problem finding a part that the audience would understand. Those of you familiar with the book will know what I'm talking about.
Upon additional internet searches for possible material, I got the inspiration to search for speeches by Douglas Adams and came across from in 1998. Like HHGttG, this speech discusses Life, the Universe, and Everything but in a more serious tone and in more depth. It's good enough to deserve . Go check it out. I hope to be able to take a section and cut it to fit the 6-8 minute time constraint.
I think it might be about time for an update on the charity CD. Last week we (meaning Brandon and Ryan, thanks to them both) finally began selling the finished product throughout the school. I personally never expected them to sell very well, but I'm glad to have been proven wrong by the sales from the last week and a half. It looks like I'll have to fulfill my promise that if sales went well I would burn 50 more copies.
Now that we're nearing the end of our Charity CD Odyssey, I would like to impart some experiences of what I would do differently if I had the chance:
Change the recording arrangement to where I wouldn't have to record every single song on shoddy, slow, finicky, and borrowed equipment. I would have had bands record their own tracks or strike a deal with someone's basement hobby studio.
Get a larger variety of artists. If from nothing other than the liner notes, this CD looks like a compilation between about six people. There must be about 20 bands in my school alone; get a song from each and there's your CD.
Get someone who knows what they're doing to make the cover. Ryan, you can play guitar like no one's business, but keep away from the graphic design.
Finally, HAVE SALES OFFSET OVERHEAD!!! I don't know what Brandon was thinking when he decided to pay for blank CDs out of his own pocket (and the pockets of others).
Don't let the previous rants fool you, I had a great time putting this CD together and I'm very glad that our classmates are enjoying music from their own. I just hope that if this becomes a tradition, the future classes can learn from our experience.
Oddly enough, having a cold gives one a unique dedication to moving as little as possible for hours on end. With that, I give you two interesting links I found while moving as little as possible away from my internet connection. is a nifty personal website with some awesome homemade machinery. This guy has a bunch of stuff from a wooden to a , among other things. is a site from a professor at the who does some very cool experimental photography including his own . Check these sites out and get ready for some interesting reading.
Last night's concert was a mixture of good and bad points. The primary bad point would definitely be the lack of an audience. Whether it was because the dance studio was hard to find or because everyone happened to be busy, only two people showed up at the planned start time (thanks Rachel and Charlie). Thankfully a handful of others trickled in as the concert progressed, but it was nowhere near the packed house we were expecting.
Aside from the audience problem, the concert went off pretty well. I opened with my electronic stuff, Erol filled the middle with his awesome rock, and Big Sur headlined with their highly energized blues. At the very end we all had a big jam over Hendrix's Purple Haze. It was a cool show.
More than anything, the concert showed me what I wanted to know, namely how my set fit together (good), how my setup worked (surprisingly well), what I need to change for next time (overall variety and defined solos), how everyone liked my music (I got some great compliments), and how I played in front of people (decently). The show was good enough where I will definitely do it again but bad enough where I will change a few things.
I'd like to thank everyone who came last night. Feel free to drop me line with your impressions.
Whoa... WHAT an evening. Big Sur played tonight at an old warehouse-turned-concert venue called Festavilla. This place was as cool as it gets. It had two stages, one in either corner so that while one band was playing the next could set up; a gigantic sound system from floor to ceiling; a quiet(er) area in the back with free video games; and a lanky, goofy-looking butler type proprietor named Smedley.
I spent all my time right at the front listening to Big Sur's set, then four or five other bands after Big Sur left for Charlie's concert 45 minutes away. They sure missed it. The acts after them were absolutely mind blowing— and not in just a volume sort of way. The band two slots after BS (ha!) stands out in my mind especially well because they used some synth stuff which really added to the music. After that came a band suspiciously like , in turn followed by a death-metal-kill-everything-that-moves band. All around awesome music. I'm definitely going back there soon. Wow.
Why now! Just as the weekend of the concert approaches, I get a head-throbbing, throat-itching, hyphen-inducing cold. C'mon little antibodies! I'm counting on you!
It seems I overcompensated timewise on my guitar speech. Instead of going over the six minutes as I had expected I would, I went under the required four minutes. Unfortunately that's an automatic letter grade deduction. Two things really burn me about that. First, I did everything else rather well— at least well enough to where I would expect an A had I met the time requirement. Second, I could have added (even ad-libbed) just one more section about my personal guitar playing and I would have finished in just over the four minutes. Hindsight, as always, is 20/20.
I have some good news on the music front relating to my announcement from a few days ago. Somehow my stepmom was able to borrow a fast laptop from her job that I'll be able to use at Saturday's show. Words can't describe how happy I am that I won't have to move, pack, set up, and tear down my heavy desktop. The only downside to this incredibly lucky break that the laptop is more or less on loan, meaning I can only have it for one show and I can't do too much to it software- or setup-wise.
Not that anyone really cares, but I added a print style sheet for this main page. This means that if you ever get the urge to have a paper copy of my website, that paper copy will look good. Go ahead, click "File" and "Print Preview" to see what I'm talking about. If I feel like it I may add the style sheet to the rest of the pages, but it's a pain to go through them all by hand. Maybe in the next redesign...
While I'm on the subject of birthdays, Jeremy's birthday lunch today was great fun. As usual, I was the only one there on time, but eventually almost everyone made it.
I haven't mentioned it yet, but next week on the 23rd, Big Sur, Erol Ozsever, and myself will be putting on a concert at the dance studio where Brandon and I recorded the charity CD. I'm really looking forward to performing because 1) it will be the first real show I've played, 2) I've told almost everyone I know about it, and 3) I may get a little extra spending money.
Today in preparation I got new strings on one of my guitars, a replacement strap because I seem to have lost my old one, and a small spotlight to counteract the terrible lighting at the dance studio. Thankfully, Erol is letting me use his ridiculously powerful PA system for my supporting MIDI parts, so I didn't have to buy one of those, too (not that I would have anyway).
In addition to all this, I had hoped to load my MIDI software and the synthesizer drivers onto a really old laptop my dad had stashed away. My plan was to have the tiny little laptop play my background music instead of my gigantic desktop. It would be easier to move, easier to set up, and it would look better on stage. Unfortunately it was simply too slow to handle the load. Every song I tested had stutters or pauses that wouldn't do for a live show. Oh well. It looks like I'll be lugging my desktop around next weekend.
Last night my ISP switched us to a new, dynamic IP number that will totally screw up my domain redirection. It really burns me. Hopefully the new number will stay static for long enough where I won't have to change my redirect settings too often. For now, I would recommend changing any bookmarks that use the old IP number (i.e. archive links), while I look into alternate hosting options with a server whose IP number doesn't change.
