Heartstrings

For some reason I've been having strong emotional reactions to overly sentimental pop ballads that are supposed to satirical of their style. It would seem that they're parodying the style a little too well.

Examples:

• "Elenore" by The Turtles (this one was definitely done too well- it was a huge hit.)


• "Goodbye, Eddie, Goodbye" by The Juicy Fruits (Gaahhh, Eddie sacrificed himself for his little sister!! Waaaaahhh!!!)


• "Where's Gary?" and "My Tighty Whiteys" by Spongebob and the Hi-Seas (if only they weren't about a snail and his underwear.)

Does anyone else feel this way or am I just that big a sap?

Oh no, not you too, Disney...

[caption id="attachment_777" align="aligncenter" width="792" caption="You must join the cult of the Firefox."][/caption]

Gee, I dunno, how about coding your page so that it displays correctly in ALL BROWSERS?

My final word on the Twilight franchise

You know, my problem with Twilight is not so much that it throws everything I find cool about vampires- traditions established centuries ago- out the window, or that everything I hear about the story itself makes it sound like a bad fanfiction writer's first attempt at something original. That's bad enough as it is, but...

What I really have a problem with is that if a Twilight fangirl met a real, Dracula-esque vampire... the vampire would win.

What this says about the moral depravity of today's young women is staggering.

6-string and 12-string basses

I don't like modern 6-string basses. Not only do they tend to be ugly, they either have four three-or-more-string courses- which seems pretty pointless to me, since it's application would be extremely limited- or they have six individual strings with the same thickness of a regular four-string, requiring the neck to be like three inches wide and look like a wooden plank with metal rods hovering over it. This makes them extremely unwieldy- your hands would have to be extremely flexible and dexterous to maneuver the fretboard. It just looks plain silly to me.

Now, 6-string basses from the '60s are a different matter altogether. The most famous one is probably the Fender VI, which I came to know about through it's use by John on the Let It Be album whenever Paul was playing piano. Now, the difference between a vintage 6-string and a modern 6-string is that a vintage one has approximately the same neck width of a normal guitar, but it uses a longer scale length, slightly thicker strings, and is of course tuned an octave below a regular guitar. So there's an obvious advantage to this: there's no need to train your fingers in order to play it if you're already familiar with a guitar neck.
Now, when it comes to guitars, my brother prefers wider necks because he learned to play guitar on a nylon string guitar. In contrast, I learned to play a tiny 1960s Silvertone acoustic, so I prefer thinner necks (although I can handle classical guitars and Gretsch guitars just fine). But there's a limit to how much width my brother's hands can take when playing guitar or bass, so a modern 6-string is out the question. None of them are aesthetically appealing to us anyway...
See, the plan is for my brother to eventually learn and compose some very technical basslines, which of course would include making use of bass' entire range. With an old-school 6-string, that range can be expanded even further, even going as far as using guitar techniques- not to mention the potential for using huge and heavy chords.
Thing is- every recording I've heard of a vintage 6-string is nigh indistinguishable from a regular vintage bass, save for the high notes, of course.

The "vintage versus reissue" debate makes me go ARRRRGGGHH

Seriously- how is it that a dinky little synthesizer marketed as a toy have enough indie-cred to spark debates over which version is better?

I'm talking, of course, about the Stylophone. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a small synthesizer that was literally played with a stylus, sold in the late '60s and '70s. It's most famous usage can be heard on David Bowie's "Space Oddity", and apparently it's been recently used by Jack White. I came to learn about it because I read that during the Let It Be sessions, The Beatles played with one for a few minutes.

OMG TEH BEATLES TOUCHED IT

...So anyway, I've been wanting one because I love vintage electronic keyboards, especially ones that the Beatles breathed on- so here I am listening to people play it on YouTube... and apparently there are those who say that the vintage ones are better.
This really, really surprises because you'd think something as cheap and simple as a Stylophone would be easy to recreate, analog or digital. I just wish I could get a new one and have it done with, instead of worrying about whether or not it's tone is accurately recreated. I hope at the very least it's "close enough". I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering it's still essentially sold as a toy for cheap, and it's not particularly iconic, unlike the Mellotron.

UPDATE: Okay, I found some guy on a forum who happened to have both a vintage one and a reissue. Comparing the two, he said that the reissue sounded a bit more complex and not so much raw electronic buzzing. That might actually be an advantage to us, because that would expand its potential uses... it'd be a lot cheaper, anyway.

Toon Music: "Steamboat Bill", "Turkey in the Straw"

This is the very song Mickey whistles in the debut cartoon Disney will never let you forget, 1928's Steamboat Willie. Words by Ren Shields, music by "Leighton Bros." (whoever they are), 1910 or 1911.

If you don't recognize this song, you probably don't exist.



Lyrics: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/twain/songs/bill.html

And of course, everybody knows this tune (it dates back to before recorded sound), but have you ever heard it with lyrics?



I'm not sure what to make of this version.

The same melody was also used for the rather racist tune "Zip Coon"- unfortunately (or perhaps not!) I can't find any version with the lyrics, if there are any.

You say griffin, I say gryphon

I think I finally understand why so many people have switched to spelling it as "gryphon". It's so you don't get any Family Guy in your or anyone else's search results. In that case, I wholeheartedly approve, and I'll be switching to "gryphon" immediately and permanently!