Postcards from the Bleeding Edge
Saturday, August 13, 2005
The New Fretters were playing at the The White Raven coffeehouse - "Jered on Banjo, Mike on Bass, Jeff on mandolin, Rick on guitar - and Larry on the Blender! - let's hear it folks!"
The sweet wholesome simplicity of bluegrass music, of basic folk - it's such a difference from the techno and rap driven world I've been living in - relaxing - though, as a piano player I can only stand to bounce around from G to G for only so long before I start going bats.
All that aside, I wish I was still playing guitar - or maybe could find solace in a bass. Ah, well, rosegarden and I are getting along better, maybe something will come out of it - but it wasn't so long ago that people gathered around a piano and sang for the hell of it - instead of being submissive to television's whims and scared out of singing by overproduced plastic broads from LA....
Time to kick back and let my toes tap and the worries of the week drain out. ¶ 7:20 PM 1 comments
The sweet wholesome simplicity of bluegrass music, of basic folk - it's such a difference from the techno and rap driven world I've been living in - relaxing - though, as a piano player I can only stand to bounce around from G to G for only so long before I start going bats.
All that aside, I wish I was still playing guitar - or maybe could find solace in a bass. Ah, well, rosegarden and I are getting along better, maybe something will come out of it - but it wasn't so long ago that people gathered around a piano and sang for the hell of it - instead of being submissive to television's whims and scared out of singing by overproduced plastic broads from LA....
Time to kick back and let my toes tap and the worries of the week drain out. ¶ 7:20 PM 1 comments
Thursday, August 11, 2005
I'm 40 today. Steve Wozniac's 55 - and 1 out of 365 other people in the world also have today as a birthday. It's just another day, right?
I've been in training for today for 3 years or so. It should be easy navigating emailed comments like this from an ex-gf - "So you're 40. Bought a walker yet?" Or Henry Rollins saying "You're aged, you're entering 'Eric Clapton Towntowntowntown'"....
I got up at 4AM to see if the Perseids were showering yet (saw two meteors. It's dark enough where I live, but my house faces the wrong way)
I worked on a song called Saturn's rings, with a sample of what they actually sound like. It needed a bridge. I got part of one, and went back to bed.
I dreamed I was in college again, except that this time I knew how to deal with women.
My first call this morning was from a bill collector.
I got out of bed and as far as the front door to find that my favorite ex-gf had sent sunflowers - that cheered me up enormously. I tried to call her. I got voicemail.
I got my first piece of blog spam yesterday - "Real Singles, at 99 cents a minute".
NASA was kind enough to delay the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to this morning (the only candle I wanted to see lit today!), but scrubbed the launch at the last minute. Weighing more than a ton before fueling and more than twice that with its tanks full, MRO is one of the biggest ships ever hurled towards Mars.
The day I was born, in 1965, there were five launches.
I've slowed down a lot, but not as much as NASA.
Second thing I read today - a an asteroid with two moons was just found - one big asteroid "Sylvia": "The density, 1.2 grams per cubic centimeter, is 20 percent higher than the density of water, which suggests it is composed of water, ice and rubble from a primordial asteroid, probably a hydrated carbonaceous chondrite, based on previous spectroscopic studies of the asteroid.
"It could be up to 60 percent empty space," said astronomer Daniel Hestroffer, one of three coauthors from the Institut de Mécanique Céleste et Calculs d'Éphémérides at the Observatoire de Paris."
Tomorrow (friday) the meteor storm should be in full swing and I plan to take my guitar and drums to the beach to urge them on down....
I thought I was just going to shave and go to work in a few moments, as always, my current project is under a heavy deadline, but unexpectedly I have other plans for today. At least I'm shaved...
My boss wrote me: Happy birthday Mike! So you are now both chronologically as well as physically over the hill.
I've been in training for today for 3 years or so. It should be easy navigating emailed comments like this from an ex-gf - "So you're 40. Bought a walker yet?" Or Henry Rollins saying "You're aged, you're entering 'Eric Clapton Towntowntowntown'"....
I got up at 4AM to see if the Perseids were showering yet (saw two meteors. It's dark enough where I live, but my house faces the wrong way)
I worked on a song called Saturn's rings, with a sample of what they actually sound like. It needed a bridge. I got part of one, and went back to bed.
I dreamed I was in college again, except that this time I knew how to deal with women.
My first call this morning was from a bill collector.
I got out of bed and as far as the front door to find that my favorite ex-gf had sent sunflowers - that cheered me up enormously. I tried to call her. I got voicemail.
I got my first piece of blog spam yesterday - "Real Singles, at 99 cents a minute".
NASA was kind enough to delay the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to this morning (the only candle I wanted to see lit today!), but scrubbed the launch at the last minute. Weighing more than a ton before fueling and more than twice that with its tanks full, MRO is one of the biggest ships ever hurled towards Mars.
The day I was born, in 1965, there were five launches.
I've slowed down a lot, but not as much as NASA.
Second thing I read today - a an asteroid with two moons was just found - one big asteroid "Sylvia": "The density, 1.2 grams per cubic centimeter, is 20 percent higher than the density of water, which suggests it is composed of water, ice and rubble from a primordial asteroid, probably a hydrated carbonaceous chondrite, based on previous spectroscopic studies of the asteroid.
"It could be up to 60 percent empty space," said astronomer Daniel Hestroffer, one of three coauthors from the Institut de Mécanique Céleste et Calculs d'Éphémérides at the Observatoire de Paris."
Tomorrow (friday) the meteor storm should be in full swing and I plan to take my guitar and drums to the beach to urge them on down....
I thought I was just going to shave and go to work in a few moments, as always, my current project is under a heavy deadline, but unexpectedly I have other plans for today. At least I'm shaved...
My boss wrote me: Happy birthday Mike! So you are now both chronologically as well as physically over the hill.
Labels: asteroids, mars, nasa, perseids, space, space05
¶ 10:24 AM 2 comments
Monday, August 08, 2005
I had a brief moment where I thought about hopping in a plane and heading down to Edwards tonight... Ah, well.
Space Shuttle Announcement:
Just gotta help will the craft home somehow... ¶ 6:30 PM 1 comments
Space Shuttle Announcement:
- Edwards will not be open to the public if the Space Shuttle is forced to land at Edwards due to bad weather in Florida. People who desire entry will be turned away at the gate. Due to the size of the base and the time of day, there are no recommended locations off base to view the shuttle landing. For more information about STS-114, the current Space Shuttle Discovery mission, please visit NASA's website.
Just gotta help will the craft home somehow... ¶ 6:30 PM 1 comments
