March 2006 - Posts

• Tiger Mouth Kenpo

  Last night we learned the Tiger Mouth Kenpo at Karate. Allegedly there are several hundred kenpos and this is the third one we're learning if that gives any indication how far along we are in our studies. This is the first one that requires you to actually topple your attacker. It dawned on me, as I took my partner down for the first time, that we were not yet trained how to fall. One of the newer black belts came over and gave a quick demonstration with the slapping and rolling. It's a lot of timing. It's the only thing in three months that I've done without a problem on my first try. Probably because it's so musical. There are a lot of "musical" things we do in our daily lives that have nothing to do with the creation or taking in of music. The patterns we naturally produce provide us with ample drones and ostinatos against which we run our lives. Whether it's typing on a keyboard (assuming you're not a hunter/pecker) where, without even realizing it, you type "in time" with yourself or simply having a conversation the musical undertones are apparent. Back to karate. So I'm all crumpled up on my knees preparing to do the Slap Fall. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to be honest--I think it's more Put Your Hand In More Pain So You Don't Realize Your Body Is About To Really Hurt. Your Anyway, you're tucked into this ball and you lean backwards (off your feet onto your back). Then you roll. Right as your ass hits the ground you then slap it really hard. It's some precision work. My slaps were good except they really hurt my hands and, unrelated, I'd end up doing a sommersault instead of rocking back and forth. So, long story long, look for small musical things today. Posted Mar 31 2006, 02:27 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• The Greatest Song In The World

  I was IM'ing with my brother last night when he asked me for a list of songs anyone of our rough age group (21-30) should know. After an hour of scouring my playlists, CDs and memory I had only made it through the letter C and had a couple hundred songs. And this was just in the rock vain. So what defines as song as a "must know"? Any song that comes on in a bar that's at least ten years old that drunk sorority girls belt out. Any song written by Led Zeppelin. Any song that was played at high school dances during your tenure plus three years on both sides. Any song that your dad can still sing. Any song that was the hit single from a movie soundtrack where the movie's target audience was either 16 year old girls or 21 year old boys. And that, friends, is just the beginning. Posted Mar 30 2006, 03:20 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• Guilty Pleasure Songs

  Ah, guilty pleasure songs. We all have them. What are mine? I'm glad you asked. 1) Sisqo - The Thong Song 2) Anything by America 3) Kansas' version of Elenor Rigby 4) Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way 5) Britney Spears - I'm A Slave For You (get it get it) 6) Christine Aguilera - Fighter 7) Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone (My #1 Guilty Pleasure Song) 8) Ludacris - Rollout 9) R. Kelly - Ignition (not the remix although the remix could maybe make a top 50 list) 10) Mystikal - Danger Posted Mar 29 2006, 02:54 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• The Worst Thing I Ever Said While Teaching

  One day we were learning (well the students were--I already had a pretty good idea) about the 7th of chords. They always resolve down unless you're talking about pop music where rules have little place when faced with the talented of a U2 or Bush. Anyway, after a month of seeing errors I said, "Listen. You want to date a 7th chord because it will always go down." About 75% of the students "got it" and the other 25% were responsible and knew the material anyway. I never saw another error and all I had to do was use oral sex as a teaching tool. Posted Mar 28 2006, 02:43 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• Redemption Songs

  If you're looking for some starter songs on guitar let me tell you some. Surely you're looking for the following things: 1) No finger picking 2) No bar chords 3) Easy strum patterns "Oh man, don't start in on that Bob Dylan crap again..." Ok, I won't. Here are five songs that are easy to play on guitar but you wouldn't know it. Here we go: 1) Weezer - The Good Life 2) America - Horse With No Name 3) Neil Young - Keep on Rocking (In The Free World) 4) Bob Marley - Redemption Song 5) Violent Femms - Kiss off Posted Mar 27 2006, 02:43 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• How to make a mix tape

  A while back I was thinking about my old college roommate Paul. Now, I never cared for Paul but he was a creative gift-giver. One of his bets gifts was this music box he made out of a metal box, a stapler and a walkman. Well done Paul. Playing in the walkman was a mix tape. Since most people are unmusical and have no idea how to make a mix tape let me tell you. Track 1: A song they know well. Tempo should be slightly fast and definitely upbeat. Track 2: The most sentimental song OR Frank Sinatra Track 3: Also sentimental but not as sappy. Something written more recently Track 4: A song the recipient has never heard before but you think they'll like (even though they probably won't) Track 5: A pop song from their childhood that will make them smile dreamily them him/herself. Track 6: A song they like that you don't--it shows you care. Track 7: Funny song. Not Adam Sandler or stand-up comedy. Listen, it has to be subtely funny like the song that was playing when he/she first farted in your presence. Get it? Track 8: Something jazzy. Track 9: Hair band love song. Trust me. Track 10: *Your* song. Whatever crappy song you two have together. Ta-Da. Now go get it on. Posted Mar 27 2006, 03:59 AM by greysanatomy with no comments

• Random Song From PlayList #1

  I figure that there'll be more days when I have nothing to write about so I might as well come up with a hot gimmick to fill those days. So this is what I'll do. Chris will play a song on his playlist and I'll write about it. Deep. Random Song #1: .38 Special - Hold on Loosely. This song will always hold a special song in my heart. I once told Jamie that the lyrics were "hold on loose leaf" and she totally believed me. I can't remember offhand how much time went by before I told her the real words. Oh man, I'm laughing my ass off as I type this. .38 Special reminds me of U2 since all their songs sound the same. The difference though is that I like the one song with .38 Special and U2's one song totally sucks. Posted Mar 24 2006, 02:55 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• All Better

  SHOW ME THE MONEY! My blog is all fixed and now I am totally the man. The PHP Man. My For Loops walk around kicking all your While Loops asses. I mean this in the nicest way of course but I am the Man. I just need to stop being the Poor Man and start being the Man Man In All Regards Man. So there. Man, I read a great blog entry on here yesterday. It's all about SEO and all the boring crap that goes into it that no one, except three or four people on the planet, care about. We're fortunate at Blogiversity to have one of those four people and her entries are very accessible so I would strongly suggest reading them. But this, friends, is a music blog. And I am here to talk about music. I think I'm going to buy my friend's drumset for $400. Once I get $400. SHOW ME THE MONEY! Posted Mar 23 2006, 02:36 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• Still broke

  I don't know what's wrong with my blog. I promise I'm looking into it. Posted Mar 22 2006, 02:51 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• What's wrong with my blog?

  What's wrong with my blog? Where are all these weird characters coming from? I guess that's my punishment for using the WYSIWYG editor when I should be using HTML. The weird thing is that all of the weirdness isn't just HTML stuff...it's weird alt-characters. I have no idea how to fix it so you'll just have to deal with it until I do. Today's entry is just raw HTML though so maybe that'll help. Since this is a music blog I guess I should write something about music...so let's see. You know what's a great song? Never Surrender by Triumph. The Fonz rode a Triumph motor cycle on Happy Days because Henry Winkler was too short to ride on a Harley. I had a dream last night that the clothing brand Hurley was owned by Harley. I didn't realize how close the two names were in my dream but seeing them typed out now I can see how the connection was made. Some entry, eh? Posted Mar 21 2006, 03:14 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• Drugs

  Thank God for drugs. Not that I use drugs. Or condone drug use. But thank God for drugs. Odds are if there's a song you like it was written on drugs. I'm not just talking about Smells like Teen Spirit but let's go back...way back. Beethoven 5? Drugs. You name it, odds are it was written when someone was high on something. And, friends, it's not just music. It's everything. Great art, of any type requires heavy and constant drug use. You want a good example? Aerosmith. On-Drugs?: Pretty fair. Off-Drugs: Fuggin Horrible. Want to write a good novel? Follow the "teachings" of Oscar Wilde and go nuts on Absynth. I'm not saying YOU should do drugs. I'm just saying that lots of really talented people were baked out of their gourds. Posted Mar 20 2006, 03:49 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• Florida vs. UW-Milwaukee

  With 15:38 still remaining in the 2nd half my beloved Alma Mater is down by ten to much-hated University of Florida. The UF Pep Band totally and completely sucks. Even if I went to wrong school for basketball I still went to the right school(s) for music. UF Sucks! Posted Mar 18 2006, 09:40 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• Family Feud

  I think The Family Feud had the best theme song. Yeah it's a little folksy but who cares? What I like about it is that there's no intro--it just jumps right in. And the violin(s) have all these crazy tritones moving around. I think it's pretty hot personally. Way better than anything now. I can't really decide how I feel about The Price Is Right but I want to like it. It sounds so dated though. The Family Feud song is timeless. Like Brahms. Posted Mar 17 2006, 02:53 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• Bono

  I hate Bono. I hate him. For that matter, I think anyone that likes U2 should be penalized by not being able to listen to music again--ever. Surely these people do not have the ability to recognize utter crap so surely they wouldn't be able to recognize anything beautiful either. My friend T-Chris loves U2. He's writing them into his Ph.D dissertation. I always thought he was a smart guy--undergrad from Loyola, masters from Northwestern...but no, he's dumb. Don't these people realize the form of every U2 is the same? They don't even use different chords! You can sing the chorus to any U2 song over the chorus of any other U2 song. Boo. Posted Mar 16 2006, 03:35 PM by greysanatomy with no comments

• Back in the day

  I realize no one likes woe-is-me posts. Really, I get it. I once read somewhere that when you're down the best thing you can do is try to pick someone else up. But what happens when that person, with their massive amounts of negativity just drags you down further? It seems like just yesterday that everything was going smoothly. I had finished grad school and was teaching; had a lot of friends and an awesome dog. I felt so extraordinary. Not like, "Woo, look at me" but just like I was going down an untraveled path and it felt good. Last night Jamie told me all I talked about was money. Either how I wasn't getting paid enough or wanted to find other jobs to make more money or (the worst) the state of financial affairs for which I'm responsible at work. And she's right (even though I was pissed off at the time). Money is a good score card to see how your skills stack up against someone elses and no one wants to live above their means but what happens once you have all the money? Bill Gates is going to die someday too. Posted Mar 15 2006, 02:28 PM by greysanatomy with no comments