Back on Mars Hill

I've been traveling since, well, 2011 2012. The last few days have found me in Flagstaff, at Lowell Observatory staying in the chalet on Mars Hill. It's really a great place, sort of the Wrigley Field of American astronomy, and it still retains a lot of its late 19th/early 20th century charm. I've been lucky enough to spend two long stints here: a month in 1989 for Astronomy Field Camp, and the summer of 1995 for a graduate student program.

The 1995 graduate program coincided with the yearly undergraduate internships run by several Flagstaff-area astronomy institutions, and there was a group of about 10 of us (graduate and undergraduate, plus a high school intern) who hung out together much of the summer. At one point they heard me play guitar, and humored/cajoled me into playing a "concert" for them one night up on Mars Hill.

Since I'm staying on Mars Hill again, I thought I'd post a few of the songs that they recorded from that night.  They're not great recordings, plus Get Out of My Life is notorious for being a swear-filled monstrosity, but I don't think people listen to any of the songs I'm posting, so I think I'm in the clear. :)

1. Another Margarita
2. The Astronomers Song
3. Get Out of My Life (aka Psychopath) VERY NSFW!!

UPDATE: I should have included a link (or two) to the song I wrote that summer, Crunchy Granola Girl. I didn't perform it since it wasn't written yet, but I did record a 4-track version (one of the first posts on this blog!) when I got back to Tucson and it was the anchor song of Do Not Tip or Rock.



Bonus Anecdote: That summer was also the only time I played an open mic night (at least prior to the AGU one). Get Out of My Life was a crowd-pleaser, though of course the crowd was small. Near the end of the summer, Tim Spahr and I were bowling when a large, drunk-looking biker type aggressively came to our lane. I thought it was to beat us up since we kept having malfunctions, but instead he said "Hey, you're the guy who had that lunatic song!".  

Liara

tl;dr? song link here: Liara (mp3)

I just finished Mass Effect 3 on our Xbox a few days ago. For the uninitiated, it's a sci-fi role playing game with combat elements that involves saving the galaxy from genocidal invaders, putting together a team in the course of the game to do so. The first two games establish the nature of the threat to the galaxy and are where most of the new characters are introduced, while the third one deals with actually fighting off the invasion.  The game trilogy has fans as devoted as any movie or book series, and at least touches on deep moral and ethical questions, even if it doesn't always resolve them. 

As with many games of this type, the relationships between characters develop with time (and with how you treat them). Many of the characters are "romanceable", several to players of either gender. This is true even though relatively few of the romanceable characters are human. Both of these facts were somewhat controversial when the first installment of the game came out, and both centered on an alien character of the asari race named Liara-- the only non-human romanceable character in Mass Effect 1, and the only one romanceable by either gender.   

I've been using the same character (Mordechai Shepard) for all three games, importing him from one game to the next as each installment became available. While the ending was...not what I was quite expecting, I'm thinking I may start again from the beginning in 2013 and play through all of them without having to wait for years in between. The one major change I imagine making in the next playthrough will be romancing Liara. She's not the favorite character of the fanbase (that crown probably belongs to Garrus, though Tali has a strong contingent), but certainly some of the sweetest moments in the series involved her. While other romances and squadmates from the first installments may lose faith in you or get drawn off on their own obligations, Liara never does.

So, even though I'm 43 years old, I wrote a song for a blue alien character in an Xbox game. It's just me and a guitar, basically just a demo.  It may never get more developed or better performed than this, but after spending hundreds of hours with her over the course of 5 years or so, maybe I'll rerecord it at some point. :)

Here it is:  Liara (mp3)

Live at AGU!

Howdy from groovy, rocking San Francisco. I'm here for the American Geophysical Union Fall meeting, one of the major annual gatherings of planetary scientists (along with, in this case. oceanographers, atmospheric scientists, geodesy people, geophysicists, and all the other disciplines that comprise earth science).  It's a giant meeting, with something like 20-30,000 attendees.

This year for the first time, they held an Open Mic Night. We had a great turnout both from performers and the audience perspective.  Naturally, I couldn't resist signing up.  I managed to whip through two songs in my 5 minutes: OBAFGKM and the Planetary Blues (which was a slight reworking of the LPSC Blues, which itself was a reworking of the LPL Blues).

The crowd, who were mostly geologists, didn't get the whole Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me (Right Now Smack) reference, though they were appreciative.  All in all, it was a very fun night, which led into the rest of a fun evening with old friends. I'd particularly like to thank Luke and Barbara for showing up!

They were sporadically videotaping the event. I have no idea if I was recorded for the official video.  I did get a recording of myself using my phone. The sound is heavily dominated by my guitar (the wonderful Washburn Rover), and my voice is a bit buried, but that may be for the best.  And, after all, that's what this blog is for.

So with no further ado, here's my two song set at the AGU Open Mic Night!

(And with only additional ado, here's my link to the blog post on space songs I've done, including OBAFGKM yet again: link) 

The Cheese Stands Alone, now on Bandcamp

As of today, all of the music I've recorded and "released" can be found at the Gedankenband Bandcamp site. The last album to move over, The Cheese Stands Alone, is now available there. As with the others it's "pay what you like", from zero on up.

This blog was originally started as a place to host TCSA back in 2009. I've rerouted all the links to the songs to the relevant Bandcamp ones. However, since the blog has evolved into a place I put recordings of cover songs, demo bits, new rerecordings, and poetry during National Poetry Writing Month, all of which I plan to continue.

Thank you for reading (even whoever is reading the element poetry from Russia), and enjoy!

What's Her Name?

It's been a little while since I picked up the guitar, and I was having so much fun I figured I'd bash something out.  So here's an oldie, dating all the way back to December 1993: "What's Her Name?"  I think it used to be "What's-her-name", which is probably a more accurate portrayal of the attitude in the song.

This was never played by any bands I was in, and it was written in a bit of a period empty of band songs-- the infamous "Taking Matters" came three months later, and the previous band song I'd written was "Whenever She Calls My Name", nearly a year before.  As with some of the other songs written at the time, though, this did make its way onto one of the albums, appearing on 2005's Do Not Tip Or Rock as track 6.

I honestly don't remember who I had in mind, if anyone, when I wrote this.  But I've always liked it a lot.

To reiterate:
New, informal acoustic version
Do Not Tip Or Rock version

I Think I'll Fall In Love With You

I feel like I haven't posted here in a while, though I suppose it's "only" been three weeks. Perhaps part of the perception is because my last several posts have focused on Not for Having But for Tasting and the Men Are From Mars single (both still available at the Gedankenband Bandcamp site of course, as is the previous EP Local Technique and our first three albums!)

Where was I?  Right, new post.  I thought I'd post a demo version of a song that I think is likely to make it onto the next EP: I Think I'll Fall In Love With You.  It was written in the summer of '97, which doesn't feel like 15 years ago, but so it goes. For some reason it slipped through the cracks, never making it as a Science Diet song unlike Bad News (written only two months earlier), or onto a 4-track recording unlike Look At Her Dance (written just a bit earlier than that). Looking at my journal at the time, I was in the middle of a spate of travel and thesis writing, it's as likely as anything that I simply forgot about it.  Until recently. :)

I Think I'll Fall In Love With You

New Release: Not for Having, But for Tasting

As discussed in the last post, I've been working on some music. The EP, named Not for Having, But for Tasting, is now ready and released on the Gedankenband Bandcamp site.  I guess there could be argument as to whether it's actually "ready", but it is definitely released. As with all my previous released (and probably my future ones), it's available for download on a "Name Your Price" basis.

Thank you for your interest, feigned interest, or polite disinterest!





Song list and links to the songs:
1. (Good Luck with the) Woman Of Your Dreams
2. Another Life
3. Amity Hall
4. Put Down Your Guard
5. One Thing To Do

And again, a link to the EP as a whole.