Musically Speaking

Last night I was listening to a little music before drifting off to sleep and decided to hit up a little bit of “The Essential Simon and Garfunkel”.  I’ve listened to my fair share of this legendary duo, although I not a superfan by any stretch of the imagination. But last night as I was listening in the solitude of my headphones, where you can really hear the music, when I noticed how incredibly tight those two were vocally. The harmonies are amazing, but what blew me away was how seamlessly they would swap harmony parts.

When you aren’t listening closely you just hear the high and low harmony, however when you listen closely you will notice that they will swap parts in mid-word phrases and never miss a beat. Everything just blends so perfectly together.

I’m sure that there will be those fans of this duo that will be reading this going, “no kidding genius”, but it was the first time that I was really able to truly hear and appreciate the genius of this duo.

For the record, my favorite song from the pair is actually one that is based on an old poem. I don’t remember who wrote the poem, but the name of the song is “Richard Cory”.

I was listening to a little Rush and I have been struck by this section of lyrics from the “2112″ album. It is from the title song, act IV if you will, which is called “Discovery”.

They lyrics talk about how one of the characters in the song has discovered an old guitar, he doesn’t know what it is but he learns that he can use it to make music, his own music, which is such a big deal because in this futuristic age all music is controlled by the “Priests of the Temple of Syrinx”. They decide what music get’s heard and the general population is not allowed to learn to create their own music. I thought it was a very cool explanation of how someone would react and think about discovering this instrument, never having heard of it before.

Here are the lyrics:

“What can this strange device be?
When I touch it, it gives forth a sound
It’s got wires that vibrate and give music
What can this thing be that I found?

See how it sings like a sad heart
And joyously screams out its pain
Sounds that build high like a mountain
Or notes that fall gently like rain

I can’t wait to share this new wonder
The people will all see its light
Let them all make their own music
The Priests praise my name on this night”

Simply a great viewpoint on a very common instrument that we all have had some exposure with.

I wanted to share one good experience from the past weekend.

Again I ask, do you have your tickets yet?

That’s right, do you have your tickets to the gun show!

Sorry for the bad joke there, I just couldn’t resist.

On a bit lighter note, one of the bright spots this weekend was that I spent a few hours last Saturday with my Dad and we went to a Gun Show in a nearby town. Ironically, the Gun Show was held in the same community center where my wife and I got married which also happens to be the same building in which the area Sheriffs have a headquarters.

Anyhow, the show was a good time and I wish I would have brought my camera because I have never seen so many fat men wearing full bib coveralls proudly. There was some pretty cool guns to see and it still amazes me that the most popular guns, the guns that draw the crowds, are the biggest waste of time there is. They are the guns that are absolutely useless, things like military weapons, AK-47’s and things like that.

I did manage to snap a few shots with my cell and I will try to get them up as soon as possible. They aren’t the greatest quality, but I think you will enjoy.

All in all things went pretty much as expected. I saw a few guns I would have liked to be able to buy, but as usual with a gun show most of the guns were poorly maintained and extremely overpriced, so we left empty handed.

That was ok with me though as it was just a good time to spend an afternoon with Dad where we could enjoy one of our many shared interests. I am very lucky to have the parents that I have, simply put, they rock.

I guess the soundtrack to this experience would have to be some sort of twangy country music, given the general make-up of the crowds there! hehe

We’ve all heard he question before, “How do you feel about that?” or “How does that make you feel?”.

Sometimes we even ask ourselves questions like “What I am thinking?” or “Why am I not satisfied where I am at?”.

That is where I am at right now. I have to say that I have a pretty good job, which is paying fairly well especially when I stack it up against what I was making before. But I find myself asking myself almost daily why I want to stay doing what I am doing now. Because I am thinking those thoughts I start feeling frustrated because I have only been there for about 6 months, with the first 9 weeks being out of town for training. It has been a brutal month. A month filled with tons of overtime, massive sales pressure and a dramatic shift in the balance between work and home life. I find that each day is becoming more and more about work and hardly no time for my personal life and most importantly, for my wife and family. That is leaving me feeling extremely burned out and even though I hate to admit it, it makes me feel like I want to start looking for a new job.

There it is, I have said it. It makes me want to start looking for a new job after just a short 6 months on the job. I have to clarify and say that for the most part I enjoy the people I work with and the immediate local management, but the part that leaves me feeling frustrated is that no matter what we accomplish in a day in sales, there is never a genuine “way to go” or “wow, great job”, instead we get told something along the lines of well even though you sold that much today, you still are very far behind or something to the effect of no matter how much you sell today it will never be enough.

Bottom line is that right now I am frustrated with my job, I feel like I am letting my wife down because work is starting to overtake too much of my life and that leaves me feeling a mix of upset, angry and maybe even a touch depressed. I have been trying to keep my Christian faith in the forefront of my mind and turn to the scripture and more importantly turn things over to God and let him help me through this somewhat difficult time.

So to help keep the musical side of things tied in here, here is my musical mood currently.

Think heavy metal aggressive, things like the older Metallica, Megadeth or even a bit of Korn, mixed with a touch of some sort of sad music, maybe from a movie soundtrack.

Makes no sense, I know, but I can’t think of a type of music that would be considered to be frustrated angst. Maybe a little Nirvana would be in order.

I need a vacation….maybe 5 months would be good! hehe

Most days you can turn on the television or the radio and hear any number of predictions. Who will win the presidential race? What will happen with the economy? What is the weather going to be for the day?

Predictions are everywhere. But while listening to Minnesota Public Radio the other night I heard the best method of prediction yet. It dealt with the weather. As we know, most weathermen will study charts and radar images to determine what our local forecast will be. Yet I heard an interview with a gentleman who predicts the coming weather in a most unique way.

You see, his family has passed down the skill of predicting the weather by using a…..ready for it??……a pig spleen. Apparently he is pretty accurate and he makes his predictions for an amazing 6 months in advance. Basically by taking a pig spleen and cutting it into 6 different parts he can tell when we will have snow, temperature ranges and more. His Grandfather was accomplished enough in this skill that he would predict snow on specific days up to 6 months away. Not just to say that, I think it will snow in the last 2 weeks of January, but saying that on January 19th we will get between 2-6 inches starting after 10am.

It was a very interesting interview and entertaining to listen to. The only drawback of pig spleen weather prediction is that you need the spleen from a pig that has been raised in the area that you want to predict the weather for and it only has an effective radius of around 130 miles.

All in all though, that is still pretty impressive. Now if we can just get a method like that to predict when I will win the mega-bajillions lottery so I won’t have to work ever again….maybe the secret is in a whitetail deer spleen?

Minutes ago I just finished my second book by drummer extraordinaire, Neil Peart, titled “Roadshow: Landscape with Drums~A concert tour by Motorcycle”. 

In it he basically chronicles his life on the road, worldwide, on a major tour. In fact this book tells his experience’s on his band’s big 30th anniversary tour, dubbed the R30 tour.

What can I say other than that it is a great read for just about any musician, especially if you are a drummer and want to see what life as a professional drummer on the road is really like. It also gives a very much appreciated insight to the mind of what I consider to be a “master drummer” and an amazing band.

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

Even though the band is not what I would call a Christian band by any means, Rush’s new album contains some songs with messages that kind of made me think of how religion works today. Particularly when you think of those that take their religion to extremes and rather than just believing and following they spend more time accusing others of being non-believers, losing site of the religion and focusing only on forcing their point of view on the world around them. We see this all too often today, be it from the Catholics, Christians, Muslims, Hinduists or whatever other religion you want to look at.

Here is a good lyrical example from the song “Armor and Sword” from their most recent studio album “Snakes and Arrows”, released in 2007. I highly recommend the album but here are the lyrics.

“Sometimes the damage is too great
Or the will is too weak
What should have been our armor
Becomes a sharp and burning sword”

For tonight though, it will be “Test for Echo” on the Zune for the pre-sleep musical wind-down.

Thursday, May 22nd is the big day.

I just found out last night that one of my favorite bands, let alone one of my favorite drummers, will be in our fine state of Minnesota.

That’s right, on that May evening as spring is in full swing, the Canadian Rock Band Rush will be at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. I have never seen them live, but I am very excited about being able to possibly see this show. I am not sure when the tickets will go on sale, but you can bet that I will be watching like a hawk so that I can get the tickets for my wife and I.

It isn’t often you get a chance to see a fantastic band and amazing drummer so this is a very big deal for me!

Wish me luck on good tickets!

You know how sometimes you are just having some rough times and you are trying not to let it show to the world. But at the same time you kind of wish someone would just let you vent or lean on them a bit?

The next time you find yourself in that situation remind yourself of the opening lyrics to the song “The Best of What’s Around” by the Dave Matthews Band.

“Hey my friend
  It seems your eyes are troubled
  Care to share
  And get it off your mind”

I know I just talked about this song yesterday, but while I was laying in bed listening to it last night it really stuck in my mind and I wanted to share that great, simple set of lyrics with all of you.

That was all I could think of this afternoon after being a part of my first 2 car accident.

Basically a college kid slid through an intersection and blasted the front of my car, leaving me with that sinking feeling and a little bit of anger as I watched my brand new Impala suffer about $2200 in damage in a mere 2 seconds or less.

I have been trying to think of a song or songs that would match my feelings right now but I can’t really decide if it would be something edgy and aggressive like maybe “Fuel” by Metallica or something that would be more introspective and down…Something with a bit of sarcasm, low key and maybe a touch depressing…I guess I can’t really think of a specific song.

I am angry about it, but more so because my insurance will go up and I don’t feel it was something I could have changed at all. The kid slid for about 1/3 of a block after all, which tells me he was just cruising along at a speed that was much to fast for these uncontrolled streets around here.

The song would have the feel of something like “Blue on Black” by Kenny Wayne Shepard, but maybe something a little more down lyrically than that is….

Oh well…I am going to spend a little time with the Zune and lick my wounds for the day, so that I can start off the day tomorrow on a hopefully better note.

I think it will be a bit of Dave Matthews Band tonight. Enjoy your evening…..or what’s left of it and let’s all hope for “The best of what’s around”.