Because I Know You Care

My pancreas is full of pancreatic fluid, but its okay. It’s meant to be that way.

Second Ain't Bad, Folks

HUZZAH! HUZZAH!
Ron Paul got second place in the Pennsylvania Primary!


Okay, so there were only two Republican candidates but still... he managed to grab 16% of the vote which is mighty impressive! Imagine what he could have done if the media had actually acknowledged his candidacy.

CNN (ACK) DETAILS HERE

Nautical Theme

The accordion made it in, the pizzicato strings did not. I'm not sure why my sudden interest with all things aquatic but a new version of a "classic" Fluid Imbibers song from 1990 now has a fork in it... unless Big Doofus is able to visit Fort Wayne to record new lead vocal and acoustic guitar parts. My lovely wife asked why I always sing in silly voices... one listen to this song and you'll know why. Altogether, though, my intent was to create a more organic and uncluttered song and to do so in record time instead of obessing over details. I'm happy with the results.

Friends With A Tuna 2008

Next up is a theme song for the almost-annual horror-movie fest where two friends and I watch cheesy or classic 80s splatter films and enjoy a beer or two. The last outing was summer 2007 so my deadline is set. I'm thinking of The Munsters.

Graham Maby : Bassist Galore

Good afternoon, bass fans! A dozen or so years ago when They Might Be Giants changed from a duo to a band I attribute a large part of their success to incorporating a bass player named Graham Maby into the mix. This Maby guy was someone I had never heard of and though I had yet to recognize my bass-inclination this guys bass parts were so distinctive that they demanded your attention. Just like the music of They Might Be Giants it was playful yet intelligent and always inventive (much like the bass inventions of Tim Chandler, but that's another post). After too few albums he was replaced by an inferior bassist and I unfortunately didn't spend much time trying to track him down.

However I recently found he is the long-time bassist for Joe Jackson, the guy responsible for a silly video I remember from the early 80s of a guy stuffing his maw with baked beans on an MTV so young it did nothing but play videos. Run on! And the bean-guy looked suspiciously like the adult version of schoolmate Chad Hanefeld, who may or may not currently be a lawyer. Coincidence? I think not.

So the point is there is no point except that I've tracked down Graham Maby. The album at the library, Night And Day has the bass mixed so low it's nearly indiscernable, but such was the recording practices of the day. Hats off to Graham Maby!


Not that video which may be a figment of my imagination...

Tax Day Celebration

From the great Ronald Reagan:

"High taxes and excess spending growth created our present economic mess. More of the same will not cure the hardship, anxiety and discouragement it has imposed on the American people."

Let Us Spoon Feed You

A few weekends ago I watched a NOVA show on neutrinos and the arguments within the scientific community surrounding them. It seems that about 100 years ago someone postulated that there must be some sub-atomic particle smaller than electrons to explain some unusual activity that was being observed. However since this itsy bitsy particle has no charge it cannot be directly detected.

Enter two fellows. One is an astrophysicist (try saying that with a mouth full of Cheez-Its) who formulated a giant calculation of how many of these neutrinos are put out by the sun each second. It turns out it's a gi-normous number... something like billions pass through our thumbnail each second. Yeah, you heard me... they are so small that they pass right through our atoms, which are mostly space anyway, and we never know it.

Enter the other guy (let's call him Worsterchire, though that isn't his real name) who devised a way to detect the effect of these neutrinos. They set up a huge underground tank full of tens of thousands of gallons of some special secret chlorine liquid (see photo) and in a month the neutrinos will have collided with about ten atoms. So all he has to do is detect ten atoms out of however many zillions of atoms are in the tank. But he's a smart guy and he does it. However he only detects a third of the atoms predicted by the calculation. It was called a "socially unacceptable result" by other scientists.

So now the scientific community gets to get riled up. For over thirty years no one can find a fault with the calculation. No one can find a fault with the experiment. Instead of being objective scientists and attempt to figure out the difference via scientific methods these pompous boneheads took up sides and started taking potshots, saying one or the other just HAD to be wrong but couldn't prove where they were wrong or scientifically state why they held the position they did. Remember, science is about objectively verifying facts through being able to repeat experiments and get the exact same results.

After thirty years there was another project that touched on the neutrino issue, though the intent was not to solve the above problem. The results of this other experiment revealed that both the experiment and the calculation were indeed correct but that the Standard Model was to blame. The Standard Model is a general scientific presumption that is held to be fact. This Standard Model was never questioned, it was THE TRUTH, the premise for much of their theories and yet they had a part of it wrong (that part being that objects moving at the speed of light have no time).

I couldn't help but to think about these scientists taking up positions when confronted with scientifically reached conclusions that didn't meet their "socially acceptable" theories to be amazingly similar to the creationism argument or global warming. By forcing scientific findings into a presumed model and refusing to even consider another theory they are making fools of themselves.

And it just so happens that Ben Stein has a new film coming out close to Earth Day about this very thing. Wire-haired minds think alike!

Nostalgic Reading

Around Christmas I bought a handful of early 80s Fangoria magazines off eBay. Since then I've thoroughly enjoyed slowly reading my way through this magazine that was obviously a labor of love for a small group of writers. Most of the magazine is on gray paper and there are few color photos. Instead they focus on content, managing to interview and pay homage to directors and effects people on forgotten films of the fifties before they went to their graves. These are from a time when the VCR was just getting off the ground and the only content on the internet was academic, if you were fortunate to be able to be at a university with a connection. So the only place to hear about these old and new gems was Fangoria!

The most recent issue that I'm reading (#40) has a little blurb about a great new short film from Disney called "Frankenweenie." They don't mention that it was created by Tim Burton because in 1983/1984 no one knew who he was. There's also discussion on a movie called "The Terminator" by some guy named James Cameron whose only other work had been as a director on "Piranha Part Two." And then there's Wes Craven talking about being excited about his new movie that blurs the lines between the dream world and reality, something about Nightmares and Elm trees. One of the actors is this musician named Johnny Depp who is trying his hand at acting and he gets sucked into a bed... he's having a blast. Oh, there's also a teaser about an upcoming TV series called "Tales From the Darkside" that they are hoping is a big hit.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

It's spring break in our city and it struck me while driving in to work (insert car crash joke here) how comparably empty the streets are. It's like in summer and about 1/3 of the cars and buses are missing from the street.

Which makes me come to this conclusion: forced busing and public schools in general are contributing to global warming. Yeah, all three are liberal ideas and two of them are easily dismissed with a bit of research, but if you wake the liberal/progressive line of thinking there is no doubt... PUBLIC SCHOOLS CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING.

And... 15546 words and less than 23 hours of unlistened music. I know all two of my readers were wondering.

Another One In The Tank

I finished up a new song over the weekend - it's short and silly and based on true events, although the names have been changed. It is also the first song to feature the voices of everyone in the house, except for Tessa 'cause she isn't into air at the moment. And no, this isn't the song where accordions were pulled and added back in... that's still percolating.

Dead Frog and other hits.