Chuggnutt!

Category: Music

  • The Fox

    What does he say?

    What does he say?

  • Cartoon theme music…

    Does anyone remember the music in the ’80s Transformers and GI Joe cartoons that I can only best describe at “battle music”? It was only really played when the good guys were staging some sort of comeback, and the best example I can think of (supreme nerd alert here) is in the GI Joe “Serpentor” mini-series which introduced Sargent Slaughter, where Sgt. Slaughter led the charge against the BAT battalion in the first few minutes and then later in the third episode or something, fighting Dr. Mindbender at Sun Tzu’s tomb.

    (Yeah I told you it was supreme nerd alert!)

    It was reused a number of times in both series, and while I can find the clips on YouTube, I can not find any other references yet on the web—much less an MP3 of said music. Other than most of that music for those cartoons was composed by Robert Walsh, I think.

    Does anyone else know what I’m talking about? Or am I just crazy?

  • Pandora

    The last several weeks I’ve been checking out Pandora, the “Internet Radio” site that lets you build custom stations of music based on your personal preferences (and provides a live stream of said music). You can give it artists or genres to choose from, and from there—and based on what you tell it you like and dislike in real time, as the music plays—it figures out other music to play for you.

    So far it’s remarkably good. It’s like magic.

    (Yes, I am well aware that by writing about Pandora now, in 2011, I’ve missed out on something like four or five years of its existence. One might say I missed the boat, and am now late to the show. I’m all right with that.)

    Now, I’m not a big music guy—most of the time I listen to whatever’s on the radio in the car while driving to or from work, and I’ll play the occasional CD (I do own a few). I like music, it’s just more of a background to my life, and I don’t invest a lot of time into it. But with Pandora, it tweaks just the right buttons—I’m as interested in the algorithm behind what it will pick for me next as in the music itself. So I’ve been letting it play in the background at work and generally marveling at it.

    I’ve only created one station thus far, but since it lets you create different stations I’m fascinated by the potential for creating other, vastly different ones based on mood (for instance).

    It’s kind of cliché to say, but this is one of those internet technologies that just works, works well, and makes me feel like I’m living in the future.

  • The Portland/Bon Jovi writeup

    It was a whirlwind tour of Portland, but we managed to make the most of it. We did some quick shopping in Gresham on the way in, stopped to visit with our friends for a bit (had to take over some of my pumpkin ale for a missed birthday), and then went out to lunch at the Horse Brass.

    The Horse Brass rules. Seriously. It’s an English pub, with a ton of beers on tap, real darts, English food, the works. We had a tasty lunch (never had a Scotch egg before—it was good), tasty beer, and when we were finished, we stopped in to Belmont Station and picked up some harder-to-find beers.

    Afterwards, I was able to go to Powells for a little bit (“a little bit” is relative, because my ideal visit to Powells would quite easily be half a day), but didn’t find anything I wanted to spend that much money on.

    We checked in to the hotel, relaxed for a few minutes, met with our friends who were also going to the concert, and then went to BJ’s Brewhouse for dinner. It was good, although slow, and the service was ditzy at best. I have to say, though, they’re seven taster deal is amazing: seven five-ounce(!) tasters of beer for only $7.25.

    And, finally, the concert. We walked to the Rose Garden, entered without fanfare, found our seats. A local Portland band was playing the opening gig (they won a contest), I didn’t catch their name but I wasn’t paying close attention anyway. We had to move around seats a bit because when the tickets were purchased, the available seats remaining were single seats two rows apart (of course!), and after playing musical chairs trying to figure out the best place to see (and—damn it—missing a good portion of one of the classical Bon Jovi songs that everyone is actually there to see), the usher got permission to seat my wife and me in the announcer box seats at the top of the section—otherwise roped off to everyone else. That was pretty cool, because the view was much better and we weren’t surrounded by screaming fans.

    As far as the concert itself, it was decent. Two songs they performed that they didn’t do last time were “Runaway” (eh) and “Blaze of Glory” (cool!). And, Jon had a lot more audience interaction—the first song was from amidst the crowd in the back rows of the floor seats, and “Blaze of Glory” was amidst the crowd at our level one section over from us. The most amazing part? He wasn’t mauled by the crowd. :)

    Okay, this is getting long. I’ll leave you with this writeup of the concert—with pictures.

  • Going to Portland to see Bon Jovi

    On Sunday we’ll be heading up to Portland to see Bon Jovi in concert at the Rose Garden. Yes, we’ve done this before (warning: I sound like a drooling fanboy in that post).

    Anyway, we’re casting about for something to do Sunday after we get to Portland… we’ll be seeing some friends, probably, and of course my wife would love to do some shopping. Myself, I don’t really have any real plan; I like going to Powells and I wouldn’t mind hitting a brewpub or two, but I’m pretty open.

    Would any Portland bloggers want to meet up? I’m not promising anything, but you never know. ;)

    For that matter, any bloggers/readers going to see Bon Jovi too?

  • Geekiest. Music. Ever.

    Okay, this will permanently brand me as the geekiest dork ever (I fully expect a “geek” comment from Shannon), but perusing WinAmp’s SHOUTcast Radio list today, I found the ultimate station:

    …wait for it…

    Commodore 64 remixes. From SLAY Radio.

    Yes, you read that correctly. Commodore 64 remixes.

    I’ve been letting it play in the background. It totally kicks ass.

    This strikes me as being a real Long Tail kind of thing.

  • 30,000

    And he said “God, make it a dream!”
    as he rode his last ride down.
    And he said “God, make it a dream!”
    as he rode his last ride down.
    And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars,
    clipped off thirteen telephone poles,
    hit two houses, bruised eight trees,
    and Blue-Crossed seven people.
    It was then he lost his head,
    not to mention an arm or two before he stopped.
    And he slid for four hundred yards
    along the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania.

    Ten points if you recognize. C’mon, I made it easy.

  • Poor choice in words

    On the radio today I heard a commercial for the Obsidian Opera, with possibly the dumbest choice of words for promoting opera that I’ve ever heard. They said, “opera is like going to a topless bar for your eyes and ears.” Aside from the crude juxtapositioning of opera and topless bars, wouldn’t something that’s like a topless bar for your eyes and ears be… a topless bar?

  • The Beach Boys

    It pays to know the right people, I’m realizing.

    Today we (my wife and I) got invited to The Beach Boys concert at the Les Schwab Amphitheater on August 17. But not just to the general admission—that would be too easy. No, we got invited to join some friends in one of the private VIP tents.

    Let me just emphasize the words private and VIP here.

    Plus, it’s catered by Outback Steakhouse.

    Plus, it’s already paid for.

    Pardon me while I gloat a bit. I don’t get to do this very often.

  • Bend Venue

    Having grown up and spent a significant part of my life here in Bend, I still tend to thing of it as a small town, even though it’s growing by leaps and bounds. A such, I’m always amused at people’s reactions (my own included) when big-name music comes to town—it’s hard to imagine why bands would go out of their way to play our little logging town. Then I realize, not so little anymore.

    Here’s a list of some of the groups that have played here recently or will be soon:

    • Smash Mouth
    • Willie Nelson
    • Bob Dylan
    • Trisha Yearwood
    • Sixpence None the Richer
    • Jimmy Cliff
    • Coldplay
    • Charlie Daniels
    • Lyle Lovett
    • The Beach Boys

    You get the idea. They may not be the biggest names in the industry, but they’re sure a hell of a lot bigger than John Grant and the Rednecks.

    (Yes, that’s a real band. Or it used to be. I grew up next door to that guy.)