Random Thoughts About Thoughts Random

Post by **brian** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 4:05 pm

govmentchedda wrote:Agreed, Paul Rudd and Michael Keaton are acting deities. Canadians don't know humour!

Given how much I loathe Trailer Park Boys, that's probably true.

P.D.X. · Post by **P.D.X.** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:16 pm

Just went outside, tripped, lost my shoe and stepped in a puddle.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:50 pm

I would honestly pay $30 for that video.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:19 pm

mister d wrote:I would honestly pay $30 for that video.

Way funnier than Will Ferrell. He can be so funny at times, but I think he is just overexposed. Plus, too much of the same character with the dufus act and the screaming.

Paul Rudd is fantastic. That is all.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:20 pm

Will Farrell is funnier the quieter he is. Might be a perfectly direct relationship.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:43 pm

mister d wrote:Will Farrell is funnier the quieter he is. Might be a perfectly direct relationship.

The exception is when he is smashing a cowbell. Though Walken makes that sketch for me. Hearing Jimmy Fallon talk about Will Farrell on the WTF podcast made me appreciate Ferrell more. A lot of his over the top schtick was thrown in live for the sole purpose of fucking with the cast as they weren't expecting it, and he hoped to make them break character. Laughing aside, it has to be damn hard to act across from him when he kept it low key until the live performance and you don't see it coming.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:59 am

Back when he was on SNL, Jimmy Fallon seemed to break character to laugh, way too often.

Post by **brian** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 9:46 am

sancarlos wrote:Back when he was on SNL, Jimmy Fallon seemed to break character to laugh, way too often.

They even referenced that in the 40th anniversary special with Sandler/Samberg's song.

wlu_lax6 · Post by **wlu_lax6** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 4:04 pm

Maggie Mae
Bohemian Rhapsody
All Along the Watchtower
Thunder Road
Rapture
Space Oddity
Sounds of Silence

All have no Chorus (different than a refrain)

ht: to Slate's the Gist

Post by **brian** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 4:09 pm

Is that really that rare? I listen to some bands who have never written a chorus in any song.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 4:56 pm

Please explain the difference between a refrain and a chorus.

howard · Post by **howard** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 5:02 pm

The refrain is the chorus in songs that don't have a chorus.

(huh?)

naw, they are the same thing.

ETA: oops. Refrain can refer to lyrics or melody; hence a repeated lyric can be considered a refrain, even if it appears in the verse of a song. ie "how many … can a man … …" in the verse of Blowin' in the Wind. Whereas the chorus is another refrain, this time both lyrically and melodically: "The answer my friends, is blowin' in the wind."

DC47 · Post by **DC47** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 8:57 pm

I always thought the chorus was the part of a song that wasn't the intro, the verse, the bridge, or a solo, and which had a lot of repetitive words. Though in rock music that last criteria was hard to determine, even if you could understand most of the words. That's kind of a technical definition, I know, but it worked for me.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:17 pm

Mr. D is doing some freelance work.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 4:50 am

Rush2112 wrote:Mr. D is doing some freelance work.

The greatest dream in life is to be able to make a living doing something that you love.

Penis graffiti as protest: http://observers.france24.com/content/2 ... -art-voina

Johnny Carwash · Post by **Johnny Carwash** » Thu Mar 19, 2015 7:39 pm

Does anyone else concur that any non-operating system software application that requires you to restart your computer after an install can go fuck itself?

Mr. C · Post by **Mr. C** » Fri Mar 20, 2015 8:13 am

Johnny Carwash wrote:Does anyone else concur that any non-operating system software application that requires you to restart your computer after an install can go fuck itself?

I concur.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Fri Mar 20, 2015 5:07 pm

My insurance is weird. Just picked up these scripts...

Prednisone - 71 cents
Diazepam - 71 cents
Albuterol Inhaler - 40 dollars

howard · Post by **howard** » Fri Mar 20, 2015 5:28 pm

Albuterol inhalers have increased in price five-fold in the last ten years. They can retail for as much as $100.

The pharma companies pulled a fast one, with a ton of lobbying money. The ban on CFC aerosol sprays (because of damage to the ozone layer) initially did not include these inhalers. But they pushed the FDA to ban them about five years ago, decades after they were phased out from other consumer products.. So, the pharma company patented non-CFC delivery systems, making it too expensive for generic competition. So, only one company makes the albuterol inhaler, and they charge what they want.

You can take albuterol through a nebulizer device (costs about $40, will last years.) at a fraction of the cost, with much greater efficacy. But it is not portable, it doesn't fit in your pocket.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Fri Mar 20, 2015 9:33 pm

Yeah, the nebulizer is fantastic. I did a treatment of that today and felt like 58 times better immediately. I actually think I may have one from when one of the kids had the croup when they were younger. I'll have to look for it.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Fri Mar 20, 2015 11:13 pm

For some reason, I have bought a guitar. I've never played a guitar in my live.

How hard can it be, right?

howard · Post by **howard** » Fri Mar 20, 2015 11:27 pm

Harder than a bass.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:25 am

DaveInSeattle wrote:For some reason, I have bought a guitar. I've never played a guitar in my live.

How hard can it be, right?

Patience. Practice Then some more patience. practice some more. Then after that, patience.

If you're trying to teach yourself, I wouldn't. I'd recommend getting a few lessons at first.

What kind did you get?

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:45 am

AB_skin_test wrote:
DaveInSeattle wrote:For some reason, I have bought a guitar. I've never played a guitar in my live.

How hard can it be, right?

Patience. Practice Then some more patience. practice some more. Then after that, patience.

If you're trying to teach yourself, I wouldn't. I'd recommend getting a few lessons at first.

What kind did you get?

I got a Fender Squier acoustic bundle from Amazon. Pretty nice deal...with picks, tuner, extra strings, case. Seems like a decent beginner guitar.

I bought a book for learning some basic things, and I'm going to take some lessons with a guy I know (friend of a friend of a friend) who's going to give me a good rate.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 2:28 pm

Excellent. Great starter guitar for sure.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 2:34 pm

I picked up my acoustic again for the umpteenth time last weekend. I've stalled out at being able to play the bass line to "Come as You Are", the riff to "Today" by Smashing Pumpkins, and "Free Fallin'". I'd love to be proficient enough to play for other people - think around a campfire. I took lessons as a kid, but never stuck with it. Lessons sounds like your recommendation, huh?

MaxWebster · Post by **MaxWebster** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 5:04 pm

as always, YMMV.

but my experience:

1) how "good" the guitar is will make or break you. "good" doesn't necessarily have anything to do with price at all - my first electric was something called a Gilbert Skylark, bought at Airport Music in Buffalo NY in the late 80s for about $100 and had super-low action (how high the strings are above the fretboard - the lower action the easier it is to play at least from my rock POV). If the guitar is hard to fret; i.e. if it's a pain in the ass to barre that first fret to play an F chord, you might bail on it forever.

I got a Les Paul about 10 years later and it sucked (again, YMMV). goddamn G string out of tune all.the.time, it was just not fun to work with (except plug it in through a Marshall head and 4-12 Ampeg cabinet, turn it up, and slam an A chord and it sounded epic. that was it, though)....

(having said that, i scrapped that a year later for a PRS ($) and have had that ever since. Terrible for the back, however. heavy.)

i guess my point is that if it's "hard" to play, don't give up before trying at least 1 or 2 other guitars.

2) books and lessons are all well and good (i hate that phrase and apologize for using it) but for my money, teach yourself. at least in part - develop your ear - put on your favourite mp3/cd/tape/album and learn a song - anything - could be Wish You Were Here or Birthday or Tom Sawyer or yeah, Come As You Are - literally matters not but just that you keep at it.

I've never been great for learning from books alone, you have to do it (n.b. can obviously apply to anything!) yourself over and over and it will stick.

At least supplement yourself with that. Teach yourself - and not (necessarily) theory - just learn songs. if it sticks, everything else will follow.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:39 pm

Re: lessons (and max is an acual guitar player) its helpful to have someone show you the basic chords and how to use your fingers. But for sure you will do most of your learning on your own in terms of getting comfortable with he fingering. And learning that f chord is crucial. It was amazing how much more i could play ince your learn how to play rhe f. Other chords seem easy after that.

I play an acoustic pretty exvlusivey and dont mind playing for people in a casual setting. Sat in on a set with a hood friend at a bar once and while it was awesome fun it was also nervewracking. It just takes time. I dont do any kind of lead playin and just like to follow along with people if i dont know he song. It is good practice and playing eith others is he way to get comfortable.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:39 pm

Call Sarah Maclachlan?

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:41 pm

Can't hurt.

DC47 · Post by **DC47** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:23 pm

Lessons can provide structure and motivate you to practice. That's important for many. For some they're inconvenient.

The internet has great instructional videos. I watch them sometimes when I just want to figure out a part that I have long admired, even if I don't have a guitar in my hand. Some of these things that sound so great are actually even cooler when you see the fretwork slowed down. I would have been dangerously addicted to these videos if they were available when I was a lad.

Absent the internet, and too poor for lessons, I learned most of what I ever got from people I played with. If you get some long stretches where you around people who know stuff you want to learn, and they have a bit of patience, it is golden. Sometimes they need you to learn a part so what they're playing with you can sound better. So you don't need to just find a saint willing to drop everything to show you how to make that mysterious chord change.

My favorite instructor was a tremendous banjo player in a bluegrass band. When we were tired of playing bluegrass, and perhaps had smoked a bit of the local product, I'd hand him my guitar and he'd show me some licks. This was nice stuff, and not just okay-for-a-banjo-player nice.

Turns out that when Motown's brilliant bass player James Jamerson re-located to LA along with the company, he was often on hard times. His habits could get the best of him, so he wasn't always booked up with the touring and studio work that his talents deserved. Sometimes he fell to giving guitar lessons to young folks for the quick cash. One was my banjo-playing friend.

So to my amazement, a few years later way back in the northern California redwoods, sitting by the wood stove playing bluegrass, I was privileged to be instructed on how James Jamerson played guitar, second hand. If you know bass playing, you can imagine that this was pretty cool stuff. Musical genius is not completely restricted by the number of strings on the instrument.

"So, how did Jamerson play 'Grapevine' on the guitar?"

"Like this."

Oh yeah. Now that's something you can't find on YouTube.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:38 pm

Yeah. There is really no subsitute from just playing along eith others. Its more fun and if they are decent people they wont bitch at you for deadening a string or srrumming incorrectly.

And a lot of people start out and dont realize rhat your strumming hand is probably more important than your frtting hand. The feetting will come but if you cant strum you are in for a lot of struggle.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:42 pm

UK played at 230. Forgive my typing.

DC47 · Post by **DC47** » Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:55 pm

Max makes good points above on the guitar making a difference. I imagine he'd agree that this is really about the fit between the specific player and the specific guitar.

He didn't like his Les Paul. I loved mine. I loaned money to a wanna-be musician/drug addict against his cherry sunburst Les Paul, probably mid-60s version, that a good player (not the present owner) had modified to his refined taste. Suddenly I was a much better player. it was set up low, so I got a lot faster on the fretboard. Somehow, the sound was still great. The pick-ups (DiMarzio? Hey, this was almost 40 years ago) were said to be special. It stayed in tune. Mine might have been a different year than Max's, modified in a different way, and set up differently. I was almost certainly a different (not in a good way) guitar player.

That guitar passed through my hands all too quickly. I was confident that the guy I got it from didn't have it together enough to replay his loan. But he was close with my girlfriend, so I foolishly employed him to salvage down a barn. Instead of responsibly using the cash to fix his perenially failing VW or to step up to dealing rather than just using, he paid me back and reclaimed the guitar. Idiot.

Parenthetical note, relevant to discussion above: even from this loser I learned how to play the majestic Theme from an Imaginary Western. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNOzw8ufhxE

When he next went broke, I guess I wasn't around. I should have written my number on the back of the Les Paul. "Call now if you can't pay for the next gram."

I've played some guitars since -- including Les Pauls -- always looking for the feel I remember. But no. Could be I'm delusional about the one that got away.

If I was buying one today, even as a non-expert guitarist, I'd play 40 to 80 guitars before I made an offer. Good shops are okay with this, provided you don't test each one for 10 minutes. You don't need to be a guitar expert. Just a 'how do I feel playing right now' expert. If you can't tell that you love a guitar in about 30 seconds, move on. If you love it, play it a bit longer and then move on to see if you can fall in love again.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:00 pm

Lots of good stuff here. Thanks, gents. The F chord has been a problem. D, G, E, Em, A, I can handle. My issues have often been the switching between chords, and I'm sure my right (strum) hand needs a ton of work.

I've got an acoustic Yamaha that my HS girlfriend's ex-junkie uncle got for me over 20 years ago. It is unbelievable how well it has stayed in tune. However, I could probably use something a little easier to play.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:39 pm

From a random commenter over at io9, on the new Mission Impossible trailer/commercial thing that just played during the tournament:

Mindblowing fact of the day: Tom Cruise, now, is older than Wilford Brimley when Wilford Brimley made Cocoon. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:53 pm

Diabetus

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 5:41 pm

I play a fender dg-7 acoustic. Epitome of Fender starter guitars. It's been with me longer than the wife. Love the way it sounds and the way it feels. That's all that matters.

DC47 · Post by **DC47** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 6:48 pm

Glad to hear that. I agree with you about what really matters. But a word of advice: perhaps you should not refer to your wife as 'it.' At least not within her hearing.

DC47 · Post by **DC47** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 6:54 pm

rass wrote:From a random commenter over at io9, on the new Mission Impossible trailer/commercial thing that just played during the tournament:

Mindblowing fact of the day: Tom Cruise, now, is older than Wilford Brimley when Wilford Brimley made Cocoon. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

I must have missed all the good Tom Cruise movies, because the one's I've seen plus the public version of the details of his private life leave me cringing at the sound of his name. However, I've got to say that I enjoyed his alien invasion/Groundhogs Day move Edge of Tomorrow. Great workout movie. Some inexplicable plot points (e.g., how did Cage (Cruise) know secret private information of people around him just because days were 'replayed'?). But it was an interesting sci fi premise, adequate acting, and nicely executed. Les over-the-top than I feared. I rarely detect good acting (just bad), but there were times when I thought that Cruise was actually doing something nice when he could have been hamming it up as I've seen in the past. The playing against type in the first half was fun. So too the directing. Much better than expected. And Emily Blunt -- whoa.

It's not nearly Inception. That's a recent movie that's great even to someone with my hostile-to-modernity attitude. Or Groundhogs Day, which it calls out to at times. But it's pretty darn good.

I'm curious what others thought of this movie.