Yet another great link from BoingBoing, public domain movie torrents…including some promising 70′s kung fu flicks. Legal torrents? Whodathunkit?
I’m watching Heroes of Shaolin Pt. 1 as we speak.
[via Boing Boing]
I spent a couple of hours this morning working on the intro to “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns’N'Roses. Once I got to the point where my fingers needed a rest, I decided to search for the chords and stumbled on to a ukulele version of the song, which is definitely worth taking a peek at. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone doing bends on an electric uke. The site in question is actually for a manhattan public access show…I’m going to have to check it out.
I never did get the chords. 
I’m home on vacation with a shiny new guitar, which is pretty much as good as it gets here in pickabar land.
I’ve been working on improving my drum programming skills, and so far I’ve learned that programming beats is really hard. I’ve also learned that even the simplest sounding drum beat has a lot more going on than is apparent if you’re not really listening.
In the interest of finally getting to work on something else, I threw together a mix of my latest song. It’s my attempt to imitate the classic philthy (well, classic to thems that know him) drum beat:
The mix is actually pretty crappy…way too bassy. You should probably turn down the volume before you listen to it. I was going to adjust it, but unfortunately, I screwed up and lost most of my plugin settings…and I’m way too lazy to start over from scratch. Oh well, enjoy anyway as best you can.
Lyrics after the fold!
Tiny Bites (Filthy)
I clicked my heels
I went back home
But I’m still miserable
I’m still alone
I had hoped For
so many things
Hoped I was a late blooming changeling
Self pity served In Tiny Bites
waiting for your call most every night
Self pity served In Tiny Bites
Hoping some day you’ll apologize
I’m the author of these sorrows right from the start
So I won’t bother whining That you broke me apart
I’m the one who asked you
your eyes told me no
I never should have asked
I didn’t want to know
Self pity served In Tiny Bites
But this is my last serving tonight,
My last call,
My last tears,
My last heartbreak,
tonight.
I walked eyes closed
All the way home
It didn’t stop the tears
I’m still alone
I had hoped
time could make some change
I prayed most nights
what we had could be saved
Self pity served In Tiny Bites
Hoping you’d come knocking every night
Self pity served In Tiny Bites
Hoping some day you’ll apologize
(Sick) of waiting for tomorrow
Time ripping me apart
So I give up on expecting
A chance for a new start
I’m the one who asked
you your eyes told me no
I never should have asked
I didn’t want to know
Self pity served In Tiny Bites
But this is my last serving tonight,
My last call,
My last rights,
Our last chance,
Tonight.
Curveball, the Iraqi defector who was the source for much of the pre-war intelligence on WMDs has turned out to be a liar and possibly mentally unstable. Some of his assertions, repeated by our President and others in his administration, were proven wrong BEFORE they were used to justify the war.
I’ve been avoiding posting about the Iraq fiasco due to mental and emotional fatigue (I still can’t believe the administration has gotten away with this), but this was too important not to highlight.
How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of ‘Curveball’:
Powell said he was never warned, during three days of intense briefings at CIA headquarters before his U.N. speech, that he was using material that both the DIA and CIA had determined was false. “As you can imagine, I was not pleased,” Powell said. “What really made me not pleased was they had put out a burn notice on this guy, and people who were even present at my briefings knew it.”
[via Boing Boing]
An Epiphone Dot, the financially conservative man’s Gibson 335 style guitar. Mmmm sunbursty goodness.
I’ve been going in and out of guitar stores thinking about making this purchase for a few months now, but I’ve never pulled the trigger. Then, yesterday, I walked into Rudy’s Music, plunked the strings a few times, and threw my credit card down on the counter. I guess I was just tired of hemming and hawing.
I felt a tiny twinge of buyer’s remorse waiting outside in the cold for Sarah to meet me (the freezing, bitter, cold ). Luckily that went away as soon as I got home, plugged it in, and started enjoying the creamy tone, larger fretboard radius and head turning looks. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to remember how to turn down the flash on my camera…trust me, the pic (see full entry) doesn’t do it justice.
Ok, enough typing, more guitar playing!
Ah, only one more day until vacation, five days without a smoke, a new toy at home to play with, and now a new BWB post the NBA Dress Code. An embarrassment of riches! Pics of the new toy later.
…to the sounds of a marching band. You see we live about 9 blocks up from the official start of the parade. Evidently, the bands start massing on 86th street, right across the street from our apartment.
I would have been annoyed…but it was the parade! We snapped a few pics, and then I headed back to bed. Sarah went off to preview the parade and grab some groceries.
Sarah caught the band we saw across the street during the TV broadcast, but I was still in dreamland. Later in the day, Sarah made an unbelievable dinner and we went to sleep well fed and happy.