"Beetroot": redundant?

For lunch today, I had a salad sandwich -- what Aussies call a sandwich with lots of veggies. Including juicy beetroot.

This generated Beetroot Drippings.

This would make a good band name. Or a good, low-level curse or exclamation ("Aww... beetroot drippings...!").

Aussies call beets "beetroot." But they don't call other root vegetables, like carrots and turnips, "carrot-root" or "turnip-root."

I don't know why.

"I Don't Know Why" would be a good song title. Why do Aussies drive on the left? Why do the lightswitches go "up" to turn off? Why are their doorknobs up so high? Why do they call beets "beetroot"? I don't know why.

Must remember to write this down.

When GG and I actually write a song about this, I'll post a link. :)

"Good" Friday?

So, the Friday before Easter is Good Friday. Seems like it should be called "Horrible, Wretched Friday," as that's when Jesus died on the cross. Bummer.

Although: Its counterpoint is Easter, so...


Here in Australia, Good Friday is a public holiday. For that matter, Monday's a holiday too, as the day after Easter (since Easter's always on a Sunday, and most folks get Easter off anyhow). As someone from the U.S., it seems strange to get Good Friday off. But, hey -- I'm all for religious holidays being public holidays. I think we should do all the Jewish holidays, too. And Muslim; and Buddhist. Fine by me!

Of course, I'm unemployed, so it doesn't really matter. But I'm all for the principle of the thing.

That what **I** say. ;)

Wooden case for laptop

Gye Greene forwarded this to me; thought I'd share with the rest of you.


Some guy made a (very nice!) case for his laptop computer, out of wood:

http://www.zaverio.net/laptop/legnatile/


As Gye Greene noted, "The intersection of woodworking and geekdom!"

And -- for the pro-Linux folks, a screenshot:

http://www.zaverio.net/laptop/legnatile/tn/13l.jpg.html


Gye Greene says to give credit to the guy from the OldTools mailing list who found the site. Check the "comments" below to see if he makes himself known. ;)

So, you gotta "find yourself"...

Thinking about a friend's impending divorce.


For those of you whose partner calls it quits, saying she "needs to find herself":

Depending on your disposable income and level of cheekiness, as a parting gift, get her a GPS and a card saying "Here ya go!!!"

Not my idea, but: musical pants!!!

Ya gotcha yer iPods; ya gotcha yer bowties and lapel pins that play Christmas carols...


Found this idea in someone else's blog:

http://housepants.blogspot.com/2005/01/fun-with-talking-on-phone.html

Musical pants! The idea is that whenever you walked around, it would play your theme song.

Hey -- you could modify it so it plays an trumpet fanfare (or some-such) when you stand up -- THEN your "walking" theme song.

Not sure what song I'd program mine with. Initially, I thought "Pictures of the Matchstick Man" (orig. by Status Quo, though I prefer the Camper Van Beethoven version). But probably the "Darth Vader Theme." Although a loop of the riff to "Foxy Lady" (Jimi Henrix -- who's technically from Tacoma, NOT Seattle) would be good. I'm visualizing the first "Wayne's World" movie, with Garth...

(For discussion: Was "Wayne's World" just a "Bill & Ted" derivative?)


Back to the musical pants: And for when I stand up, maybe a nice burst of guitar feedback. Or, the opening lead guitar bit to Prince's "When Doves Cry."


Musical pants: Kinda like a ringtone for your bum.

Addendum #2! -- TMBG!!!!!!!!

Just took a better look at those links. The second article I listed (below) says they include They Might Be Giants as one of their favorite bands.

Beauty! These folks **must** be good! :) "Put your hand inside the puppet head -- Quick!"

IMO, TMBG's first two albums -- TMBG, Lincoln -- are their most fun. YMMV.

(For the non-slangy folks: IMO = "In My Opinion"; YMMV = "Your Mileage May Vary")

Addendum: Wellingtons website

Well, some things ya gotta just check out for yourself.

After posting my previous entry (shown below -- reverse chronological order and all that), I thought I'd try my own search.

I agree with Gye Greene's assessment re: the band name. But, searching on their new album ("Keeping Up with the Wellingtons") yielded two very strong hits -- both of which included their band website. So, there ya go.

Although I **still** think the one-word bandnames are problematic, in this Internet age...

The links: Australian Music Online; Reverberations (their record label); and their band website.

#1 rule for new bands

Here's my #1 rule for new bands; or rather, a corollary to my other #1 rule (see below, "Grates/Bell" entry):

#1.b. -- By the Time Thou Doth Release an Album, Thou Shalt Have a Website!!!

A few weeks ago, Gye Greene was reading through the aforementioned Rave Magazine, the [free! weekly!] music magazine. Came across a review of a band from Melbourne called The Wellingtons; their first album, "Keeping Up with the Wellingtons." Ran in to my room, all excited: Potentially, a NEW FAVORITE BAND!!!! Wear Converse hightops -- JUST LIKE HIM!!! Dig Buddy Holly, Weezer, The Lemonheads -- JUST LIKE HIM!!! (and me!) They think "That Thing You Do" (the theme song) is an excellent song! The review says they write catchy tunes -- JUST LIKE US!!! (...we hope!) ;)

So, the next day, he goes to work, tries to Google them. (Made difficult by their violation of rule #1.a. -- a one-word bandname; see earlier post.) Except for a few hits on recent interviews, nuthin'. Tries searching on their album title; nuthin'.

Luckily, the interview mentioned their record label. Googled and found. However, it's ONE WEEK after the album's release date, and it's still not listed through the label's website!!!

Comes home, all annoyed. How can he verify that they should be his New Favorite Band (tm) -- let alone whether it's worth buying their album -- unless they have a website? Or at least, a page within the record label's site. Something w/ a few snapshots, a witty bio, and a few snippets of songs that he can listen to, just to see if they're "his style/not his style."

Referencing an earlier conversation between us, he and I can see why bands wouldn't want to post ENTIRE songs -- might prevent people from buying the album -- but posting a 15 second snippet is just plain good marketing.

So: if they fail, it's probably not 'cause of their tunes -- it's 'cause of their lack of fan-friendliness [better word?].

Kinda like the people who start a small business, then make it hard for people to give them their money. Like antique shops that are closed during the weekends -- or neighborhood "corner stores" that close at 6pm.

That's what **I'm** saying. ;)

Photo of Gye Greene & Tall Guy!!!

Okay! Thx to Captain Linux, who has agreed to host the occasional photo, I now have a photo of me (and Gye Greene) in the "About Me" section (top right of the page). If it's not appearing, you can just click here.

This was one of the rare occassions when Gye Greene **wasn't** wearing green -- we were moving me out of my Everett apartment, prepping to move to Australia -- so I colorized him. Obviously, I'm the taller, non-green fellah.

Tall Guy's room

When I get the whole image-hosting thing sorted out, I'll start posting some photos along with my blog. Meanwhile, here's a description of where I live:

First, the bad ASCII art -- which may or may not get correctly translated, depending on the settings on your browser. (Sorry, had to add the "." to retain the spacing.)

+---+--------+------+
|ba.|.dining.|kitch.|
|.th................|
+---+------- +------+
|TG.|........|.study|
|...................|
|...|.liv....+------+
|...|..rm......bedrm|
|...+-----..-|______|
|..veranda....PORCH
+-----------------+--

This isn't really to scale, but it's close enough.

The house belonged to Gye Greene's wife's grandmother, who died about a year ago. There's an enclosed veranda, with many boxes piled up, due to their moving from a very large two-bedroom apartment in Tacoma, to this small-ish two-bedroom "worker's cottage" from the 1920s[?] that possibly has LESS floor space -- and certainly, fewer cupboards. Plus, GG took all his miscellanea from his parent's attic, figuring if he was going to move to Australia, he may as well take everything at once.

So, as the Aussies say: It's "chokkers!"

I'm at one end of the veranday -- see the "TG"? :) That's where I stay, basically. Because GG's finishing his Dissertation, he's been spending most evenings in the study, typing. Previously, we'd sit around and watch movies in the living room. Eventually, we need to get back into recording music -- we did a small stint of it, prior to GG really digging in to his Dissertation -- but the study's not quite set up for it.

Sometime in the next year or so, they hope to build a house from scratch. Short-term, I'll get promoted to one of the extra bedrooms. Longer-term, GG wants to build an outbuilding to use as a home gym/workshop/recording studio. I'll probably live out in the recording studio.

GG's wife is **very** gracious, to allow me to hang around the house. :)

A disturbance in the Force: Old Roomate

I told Gye Greene I sensed a disturbance in the Force. Indeed: we received a bulk e-mail from Old Roommate, saying that his wife was calling their marriage quits. This completely stinks for three reasons. First, and most relevant, Old Roommate is possibly THE nicest guy you'd want to meet, so it's Just Plain Wrong (tm) that something wretched like this would happen to him. Second, his wife seemed like a good person when we met her (while they were still dating) -- so we were fooled.

And third, we're on separate continents -- so I can't stop in and see how he's doing. (Of course, GG would have to give me a ride...)

GG picked up a copy of "Rave," one of the local (free) music magainzes for me. Had an interview with Jack Johnson (the "bubbly toes" guy), where he mentions that one of the songs off his latest album was written for a friend who was having difficulty finding a girlfriend. Or some-such.

But, this inspired me to start writing a cathartic-yet-inspirational song for Old Roommate -- something incredibly catchy, but with witty lyrics. Jotted down some ideas last night: Star Trek metaphor with many inside jokes, as Old Roommate used to run a [very well-designed] bulletin board (in the old, pre-internet days!) called the U.S.S. Sapphire. GG also called out ideas for lines, as he types on his dissertation through the evening, and I jot 'em down. Between the two of us, we have several good lines, and a few not-so-good ones; some blatant puns, and some subtle wordplays.

No strong ideas for the verse and chorus melodies yet. Sometimes they come bundled with the first few lines of lyrics; sometimes they bubble up from between the scraps of words as they get worked and re-worked. And sometimes they never come -- or at least, haven't come YET! ;)