Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
New Song: Summertime is Here

Written for the Skeptic Wire Summer Song Challenge. Hosted on Soundcloud.

http://soundcloud.com/skepticwire/summer-time-is-here-garys-1

or

http://soundcloud.com/oscarlaun/summer-time-is-here-garys

New song!: Death and Taxes

Death and Taxes 01May2012

‘Tis a silly song about, well, Death and Taxes. Written for The Skeptic Wire monthlyish song challenge of the same name. Yeah it’s a little late for Tax Day, but I do what I can. And in this case I recorded the whole thing in about 4 hours. You can tell, can’t you?

BTW you can get songs on my Soundcloud as well.

Death and Taxes

There are two things we all expect
Just take a minute to reflect
It won’t take a giant intellect
To maintain a society
In which our freedom isn’t free
They are our patriotic duty
Death and Taxes
To fight the wars and build the roads
To clean the streets when it has snowed
To keep the rivers safely flowed
Because our bodies do not last
Because we will repeat the past
Because some hate the iconoclast
Death and Taxes
We pay the price (Certified Accountancy)
We pay the price (Just for being born)
We pay the price (unless you can afford a PO box in the Cayman Islands)
We pay the price

 

It seems like I am always editing.

Not always always, just mostly always. The great majority of the time recently I am less creating than fixing. of course the end result is a creation, but it is a less “active”firm of creation. I suppose I want more to swing the hammer than work the blueprints.
but right now, that isn’t the task, so onward and metaphorically speaking upward!
Skeptic Wire Podcast

New songs! Valentines Day and My Baby Is A Scientist

Valentine’s Day written for a songwriting challenge on The Skeptic Wire podcast (http://skepticwire.blogspot.com)

And
My Baby Is A Scientist written for my girlfriend on her birthday

Part of a song on WOAI with Cleto Rodriguez

Oh, yeah: up at 4am to prepare, then a just-before-6:30am 45 second segment. The life of rock’n’roll!

<iframe frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” src=”http://eplayer.clipsyndicate.com/cs_api/iframe?pl_id=25056&wpid=9898&page_count=5&windows=1&va_id=2889384&show_title=0&auto_next=1&auto_start=0″ width=”425″ height=”330″></iframe>

 

If the embedding doesn’t work (which sometimes happens, curse it all) it’s the 29 Sept 2011 clip here:

http://www.woai.com/content/blogs/cleto/default.aspx

Oooh broadband back in business

I’m giving the next step up broadband a shot. And I just uploaded a new “Injudicious Ramblings” Episode 013 to the site. Wow. It’s a 2 hour podcast this time- mainly due to laziness of editing on my part, but hopefully some interesting discussioning. But the 40.6MB file only took 5 minutes to upload, as opposed to the nearly 45 minutes it was taking. I’m wondering how much of that was the broadband upgrade and how much was the new cable modem for which I exchanged, today? I know it’s a good part of the extra bandwidth, but as the old modem was on it’s final shaky…um…legs, I think a little can be attributed to the new modem.

My podcasts

…or at least podcasts I am doing. Don’t go to them if you are easily offended by poking fun at religion, ideology, politics, or cursing.

1) Skeptic Wire : skepticwire.blogspot.com and iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-skeptic-wire/id434251897

 

2) Injudicious Ramblings : injudiciousramblings.blogspot.com and iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/injudicious-ramblings/id435520148

 

Yeah. I’m rude and a nasty person. But I shower everyday (mostly) and treat my pets (companion animals, if you must) well.

Tim Minchin’s “Storm-The Movie”

Available at last!

 

SONAR X1b, Power!, and the Nook

Cakewalk released the update to X1 yesterday. So I duly downloaded and installed. There were a few bugs I wanted fixed, and it appears they fixed them. Yay! As my reward, I ordered Scott Garrigus‘ book Sonar X1: Power! I figured I’d go over to Barnes & Nobles, first, and see if they had it for the Nook. They did! Yay! For $40. Boo, considering the print edition is only $28. Meh. So I did what any right-thinking person would do: I wrote them a letter and tweeted of my disappointment.  We shall see how that turns out if at all. I should be receiving my book this week , however, but sadly not a Nook copy. It appears the publishers  really do not want to embrace this new-fangled techmolology.

So I didn’t get too much testing of X1b as I was doing some actual work which didn’t require much of the new features. They did appear to fix some of the small bugs, like tracks and their associated waves and MIDI date not matching up when going back and forth between Track and Console views. They also appeared to have fixed a problem with the screensets losing their settings when going back and forth between them, which was extremely annoying.

So good  on ya, Cakewalk!

Last, I am finally getting some more songy ideas and at least semi-humorous lyrics. And while I am not really disappointed, the latest one really sounds just a wee bit too much like Roy Zimmerman. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s so….obvious. You should really check out his youtubes. That sounds way more lascivious than it is.

On another good note: the sun revealed itself through the cloud cover, so ’tis a good day.

Televangelists, meet music

I wrote a song with lyrical assistance from a friend who currently wishes to be unnamed, so we’ll call her A. A had the idea for condemning Prosperity Preachers, and their effect on people who choose to follow. Hey, it’s a great message, based on the so-called “Law” of Attraction, which basically states that your thoughts attract good and bad to you. So the rich are rich because they think rich thoughts, but conversely children are kidnapped and worse because they think bad thoughts. See how that works? Not a very nice philosophy when you get down to it. It also appears that only the prosperity preachers actually attract any prosperity. I wonder if it has anything to do with people sending them “seed money”? Nah: I’m sure they put that money to good use propagating their god’s plan…which has everything to do with making the preacher wealthy. Hmmm.

So here is the Proof of Concept, version 2. Enjoy.

POC Prosperity Preacher, V2

Prosperity Preacher
Dear Mr Preacher won’t you tell me
I can’t take the shiz you sell me
Ten percent plus special favors won’t you help me
Hey Mr preacher how’s your pompadour
It’s gotten so big that you can’t get through the door
I had to sell my hair to charity
Just So I could pay for ramen and some tea
CH:
When will this all work for me
I’ve been sowing so many money seeds
I see you ave more than you will ever need
So please, please share that prosperity with me
I’m selling plasma, donatin’ blood
Get paid for trials of experimental drugs
I see you rollin’ in the new Mercedes Benz
I though perhaps you could share some of those endz
I sell my sperm to make a buck
My girl left me ’cause I’m too tired to function
All your bling and your custom tailored suits
Contrast nicely with my mix-matched goodwill boots
CH
Now Mr Preacher where’re your taxes at
My bank roll’s thinnin’ while yours is getting fat, fat, fat
I bought that house on a three year V.A.R.
Now I’m living in a 30 year old car
Hey Buddy, can you spare anything
Perhaps some cash while prosperity is pending
I wrote a letter and what you said to do was keep on praying…and paying
CH