| One for the fortune file
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td Tue Mar 4 15:58:02 2008
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Unit automatically becomes portable when carried.
| Rock Lotto
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td Fri Dec 14 15:06:05 2007
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Moe Staiano's Rock Lotto is back for the fourth or fifth time.
Moe put the names of 29 volunteers (incl. me) in a hat and picked names to
make up 5 bands. We had a month to put together a 20 minute set of (mostly)
original music. And we're all performing on Sat. Dec. 15 at the Fishtank
(3405 Piedmont Ave, Oakland) starting 8:00 PM.
Details here.
It's a benefit for 21 Grand, which really needs
the money right now as they run the Oakland zoning and permitting gauntlet.
Our band, officially BAND 2, but really the Flesh Eating Beatles includes
- Bob Marsh, vocals
- Ron Lettuce, keyboards and sax
- Micaela Peterson, drums
- Matt Davignon, drum machine
- Errol Stewart, guitar
- Tom Duff, electric bass
Our tunes are half psychedelic, half punk.
Here's the lineups for the other bands:
- BAND 1:
- Steve Dekrone, Drums
- Dave Bartels, Guitar
- Tim Walters, Bass
- Mark Stickman, Voice, flute
- Salane Schultz, Keyboards, Accordion
- Chris Broderick, Reeds
- BAND 3:
- Thomas Scandura, Drums
- Bill Wolter, Guitar
- Jeremy Kearney - Bass
- JoJo Razor, Voice
- Moe! Staiano - Mini Paia keyboard, Roto-toms
- Alicia Byer - Clarinet
- BAND 4:
- Aaron Wagner, Drums
- Groovy Judy, Guitar
- Craig Demel, Guitar
- Wilson King, Bass
- Allen Whittman, Voice
- James Goode, Electric trumpet, etc.
- BAND 5:
- Steve Weems - Drums
- Mark Briggs, Guitar
- Sebastian Krawczuk, Bass
- Dominique Leone, Voice
- Parisa Muller, Flute
| Fungus fair
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td Thu Nov 29 19:40:46 2007
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Saturday Dec. 1, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. and
Sunday, Dec. 2, 12–5 p.m.,
the 38th Annual Bay Area Fungus Fair,
presented by Natural Sciences Department,
of the Oakland Museum of California.
| Advice from Lou Harrison (as told to Virgil Thompson.)
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td Wed Nov 28 21:00:43 2007
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Simply compose one short piece a day. It must be a complete composition each day. It is like 'kindling' - one day along will come a more important idea that will require extensive work - the flame is thus lit & away you go! It is important, he says to keep regular appointments with the muse - if she doesn't arrive then it's not your fault, at least You are there!
| Cargo Cult Banjo
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td Sun May 20 09:01:45 2007
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I went to the Maker Faire yesterday. Google had a booth where they were demoing Sketchup, their free 3D drawing package. They buttonholed me on my way by and asked if they could draw anything for me. I pulled a half-baked musical instrument design out of my notebook & talked them through making a drawing of it. Here's the result.
It's a Banjo adapted for experimental abuse. Experimental musicians are often interested in coaxing instruments to play unusual, unexpected sounds. Given a stringed instrument like a banjo, an experimentalist will eventually get to the point of setting it down on the table to better work on it with both hands. This instrument goes one better and builds the banjo into the table -- Fred Frith built some tabletop guitars like this in the 1970s. Just for hack value, I replaced the banjo head with a small snaredrum (that idea happened because snare drummer Sean Meehan is coming to play in the
Matthew Sperry Festival
in June), put a couple of extra sets of
strings on it, and used
the three-bridge idea to double the number of effective strings. It'd be great if I could get it
built before Sean arrives.
| David Attenborough on Lyrebird song.
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td Mon Jan 1 11:23:33 2007
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In April 2006, to celebrate naturalist David Attenborough's 80th birthday,
the public were asked to vote on their favourite of his television moments.
This clip of the lyrebird was voted number one. A Lyrebird is either of two
species of ground-dwelling Australian birds, most notable for their
extraordinary ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environment. video here.
(Site says it requires Quicktime 6.)
| Palais Idéal
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td Mon Jan 1 11:23:33 2007
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On October 19, I'm performing on the opening concert of Palais Idéal, an experimental music festival in Chico, CA. The concert is at the 1078 Gallery
in Chico, starting at 6:00 PM. Also on the bill are a Palais Idéal documentary,
Faulouah, Chaos Butterfly, 2P1B and Ross Hammond.
Link to the Palais Idéal schedule.
| Older Items
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td Sat Dec 23 19:14:46 2006
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Old News has
items that have fallen off the New list.
|