I’m not a great singer, but I like to sing. I sing harmonies in many songs with my band The Drop Daddies, but I only really sing the lead vocal when I’m rockin round the campfire. I can sing in tune, and have good relative pitch. But my range is limited, and my head voice is weak, so I’m not the most versatile or confident singer. That said, there are times when I feel great about my voice. What gives?!
I’ve been so busy with work and my band that I’ve neglected this blog for a loooong time. I’ve posted gig updates and not much else. However, I have accumulated tons of draft posts and notes over the last 3 years that I never published, just for lack of time and focus to get em done. The longer I waited and further behind I got, the harder it became to commit to doing the work to catch up. More
It’s been a very busy year. I haven’t had much time for making videos and posting blog updates. Here’s why:
About a year ago, I started up a band – the Drop Daddies – with some of the other Dad’s at our kids’ elementary school. Originally, the idea was just to get together on weekends to play some music and have fun. Almost immediately however, a friend invited us to play at her 2012 end-of-the-world party. That humble little gig by the Christmas tree kicked off a very busy year for the band. So far, we’ve learned 60+ songs and played at least a dozen gigs- bars, an auction, carnivals, and parties large and small.
A few observations – each of which should be its own blog post, but I’ll collect them here for now and maybe expand on them later:
You wouldn’t believe how often I get asked this, in the comment-responses to my electronics videos. (I’ve just added this to my FAQ)
In the US, solder is pronounced “saw-der” (ˈsɑːdər) without the L. My family is Australian- I grew up doing electronics projects with my Dad, pronouncing it with the L as “sole-der” (ˈsɒldər). I have to really make an effort to say it the American way.More
It seems not that long ago, I was celebrating 100,000 views. Now, I don’t regularly check and obsess over my YouTube channel view-count. But this week, while trying to catch up on my replies to an ever-increasing backlog on my YouTube inbox, I noticed that my view count was in the high nines. Well, this morning, this is what I saw:
This is truly a mind-bender.
I recorded a quick video to say thanks to everyone, and to solicit some feedback for my future projects. I also talk a bit at the end about Jerry Seinfeld’s motivational technique for tricking yourself into getting things done. Don’t Break The Chain!
Play on!
Writing last week’s article Here Comes The Solo really got me thinking about that old Fame remix and the Beatnik Editor again.
In a fit of uncontrollable nostalgia, I went through some old files, and found a likely candidate amidst a pile of other detritus: fame.rmf.
Now, all I needed was something to play it in. The Beatnik Player Plugin, circa 2001, looks like it’ll work great in Netscape Communicator from the same epoch, but unlikely to work in Chrome 2012 (!!!)
So, I managed to scrounge up a barely-working copy of the Beatnik Editor, loaded it up, and was surprised to see that the file played and I could solo the various tracks. It’s very low quality- the entire RMF is only 325Kb- but it’s all about the magnificent vibe! I recorded a bit of the fun:
It’s an interesting philosophical/psychological question whether it’s even possible for the human brain to be objective about anything. There is a disconnect between perception and reality—our brain is an imperfect interface to the world around us, doing its best to interpret the signals it receives, and occasionally totally falling down on the job.
I’m sure you’ve seen these great mind-bending optical illusions, like the spinning dancer above (which way is she really spinning? I see her spinning counter-clockwise, but my wife and kids see her spinning clockwise), or the Ebbinghaus Illusion at left (yes, the orange balls are actually the same size).
But have you heard any good auditory illusions lately? Try these: