124 Main Street Centerbrook, CT 06409
We’ve moved up to the country baby… gonna paint our mailbox blue…
Map: 124 Main Street Centerbrook, CT 06409
Group Survival
Holidays often bring us together with people who share vastly different opinion and philosophy from us.
One can argue, or find common ground.
One thing I know is the survival of groups – be it from a scientific and evolutionary perspective, social or religious perspective; Groups only survive when their members learn how to take care of and look out for each other.
Who’s got your back today?
Time Travel
I’ve heard men say time travel isn’t possible. This past weekend I discovered it is real.
I went to an outdoor music festival with my son. I saw myself at 18, standing there among the crowds. I heard myself at 18 singing along to the music. I felt my awkwardness at 18 trying to meet a pretty girl dancing beside me.
Like one of Dickens’ ghosts I watched it all before me, my life at 18.
I think I might have even caught my own eye, looking and wondering what that grey haired man was doing there.
Taking Bin Laden’s Side
Nick Kristoff, award winning jounalist from the New York Times has writtn a brilliant article on the proposed “Near Ground Zero Mosque”. The article an be found here – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/opinion/22kristof.html?_r=1#
Alicia Keys in Africa – Bringing AIDS Antiretroviral Drugs To Those In Need
I Am the Captain of My Soul
My Mother used to quote this poem to me when I was a child. I hadn’t heard it since, until recently, spoken by actor Morgan Freeman in the trailer to the film Invictus, while I’ve yet to see.
Invictus
by William Ernest HenleyOut of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soulIn the fell clutch of circumstances
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of change
My head is bloody, but unbowed.Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the year
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Jitterbug Waltz
I adore Fats Waller’s Jitterbug Waltz. As I continue on my journey to become a “real” pianist, it is one of the tunes I really enjoy playing.
Here’s my latest version – http://www.socci.com/jitterbug06.mp3
And for a recording of the master Fats Waller, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1R0vWC9PzM
Bipolar Caravan
This is an aural experiment I did one day, playing alto and tenor and recording to my laptop with a CAD E100 microphone and Mackie preamp.
The effects were created in Audacity.
Trip and enjoy.
My Piano
I’m not a professional pianist. While the saxophone is my main axe, and the one I used to earn a living with, lately I’m more at home on the piano. When I return to the saxophone, the things I’ve worked out on the piano are there for me. My chops get a little rusty – but conceptually the things I’m learning and hearing seem to get worked out far more efficiently at the keyboard. I also feel a frreedom at the keyboard because I don’t hold my self to any particular standard, past or present.
I bought a full size Yamaha upright piano a few summers ago and I’ve been wanting to record it – just for fun, and also to analyze what I’m playing so I can get better. My wife Kristin bought me a pair of CAD GXL-1200 mics for my birthday.
Its a great sounding piano, at least I think so. I have it tuned every season, but its really tough this time of year. Even with the humidifier, the temp and humidity are all over the place and it doesn’t stay in tune for long. But it isn’t bad.
The mics were about $100 for the pair! Including cables!
If I were mic-ing the piano for real, I’d take the case apart and expose the strings. But I can’t leave my piano like that with two dogs and a cat… and I wanted to mic inside the case so I could just sit down and record it when I feel like it.
So I ended up mounting the mics inside the kick panel on two pieces of styrofoam about a foot in from each edge and halfway up from the the bottom, with the mics pointed in toward the strings and soundboard at about a 45 degree angle. It actually sounds ok – the levels were a few db’s too hot – so there is a bit of distortion on some of the peaks. listen to my new CAD gxl1200 Mics and Yamaha 52\" upright piano… Kind of unbelievable what $100 can buy in terms of audio quality today…
Our Nuclear Arsenal
Ben from Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream for TrueMajority.org