Don't forget: Code monkey like you... a lot!

AMV of Code Monkey, by Jonathan Coulton. AMV = Animated Music Video, a YouTube trend where folks take a favorite song and splice together anime to fit it. Awesome.

In case you're wondering where you'll be March 1st

The above is a graphic I did a couple of months ago for the band The Bad Words. I'm dropping it here for two reasons. The first is to remind you that it's your civic duty to go and see them at the Southgate House in Newport, KY (across the river from Cincinnati) on March 1st. They're playing the Prince Fest, proceeds of which support the Drew Campbell Memorial Fund. This is a great cause and one I feel strongly about, so do me a favor and show your support. I know a lot of you guys are up in Columbus or spread out through Northern Kentucky, but it's worth the drive. Check out those links, drop me an email if you need further details, and make sure you flash mob the Southgate House on March 1st. It's a great way to disprove your significant other's frequent assertion that you are incredibly lame.

The other reason I included the graphic is to make first mention of a new project I'm working on: hereisitbrokenhearted.com Don't ask, just stay tuned.

Dear City of Maysville...

I live downtown. I really enjoy living downtown and would like to thank you for all the extra perks you've provided those of us who do live downtown. You've really outdone yourself. This past Christmas season in particular, with all the decorations and lights, made it a wonderful holiday atmosphere, and for that I say thanks.

I was caught charmed one day a few weeks past when I woke to the sound of Christmas music wafting through my windows. Thinking it an odd time for carolers, I rushed to the windows and looked out. It was then that I noticed there were no carolers; Instead there were tiny, but apparently effective loudspeakers perched upon the lamp posts. What a nice touch, I thought, and listened to some old Christmas favorites while I sipped my morning coffee. It warmed my heart to hear the songs of yore and, yes, I was caught in the spirit of Christmas. Job well done. I could imagine holiday shoppers enjoying the sounds of the season as well and thought, what a great time of the year! What other town in the country has Christmas music piped into the streets?

As the weeks rolled on and that good ol' Christmas music played day and night, and day and night, and day and night, I grew accustomed to it. Sure, I heard the exact same song played twenty times daily. Sure I heard it twenty times more as each artist's remake was played right along with the original. It's Christmas and it's festive, so it was no inconvenience at all that I had to turn my television up a few notches to drown it out. Besides, it was a lot better than the usual train whistles at one in the morning, or that crazy guy who feels it is absolutely necessary to honk his horn repeatedly as he drives home from the bar each night. It's all in the spirit of Christmas, and though I heard the same song over and over and over and over again, maybe some kid out there was hearing it for the first time, like I did when I was a kid, and maybe this Christmas season would set the tone for all the seasons to come.

Merry Christmas Maysville and thank you for the six hundred plus hours of carols you provided me to make it that much more festive!

Now that it is 1 a.m. two days after Christmas, I was wondering if you could kindly pull the plug on the artificial street music? At some point several hours ago, while I was tossing uneasily and dreaming of silver bells on every street corner, every-single-street-corner-over-and-over, in the form of tiny but apparently effective loudspeakers, the Christmas music was somehow replaced by one of those soft popular music radio stations where they sing depressing love songs over and over again, and over and over again. Sure they sound somewhat different, and are sung by different artists, but come on, aren't they all just one single song played twenty-four hours straight?

Statistically speaking the holiday season has a higher rate of depression and suicide. Some psychologists believe that this is due to the lack of sunlight during the winter. That may be true, but I now believe that it is in at least some way related to Lionel Richie.

Dear Maysville, please stop playing Lionel Richie over and over through my bedroom window. I really can't take that much more of it. Even my dog seems depressed, and my dog usually needs Prosac to calm down. Honestly, I stopped listening to Lionel Richie years ago when as a kid I realized all of his depressing love songs were all about the same thing, some sort of true love that he appeared to sing about with sincerity. I stopped believing in the sincerity of Lionel Richie when I saw him on MTV singing about everlasting love to a different girl in each video. To my impressionable young mind, "everlasting" came to mean when the "album sales ran out". Ask my old girlfriends, Lionel Richie did some serious psychological damage to me. Please Maysville, I don't want to be electrocuted cutting the wires on a lamp post, but you leave me little choice. I was passing the hair treatment section of Walmart tonight and cringed at images of Jheri Curl mullets.

In the very least, can you put the Christmas carols back on? Mr. Scrooge gives good advice: "I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." I'm with him on that. We should totally start by playing Christmas bells again instead of pop music. Gimme back my Saint Nicholas. I need some St. Nick cause Nicole, as in Richie, is sounding more and more like the spawn of Satan as each hour passes into the night.

Very truly yours,

Devoted Resident

Looking for some good tunes

It's so hard making a good playlist, especially when some of the music you like best is big "I" obscure indie rock that doesn't make it to an online catalog. My theme song, "Code Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton, didn't make it to the Finetune database, sigh. Nevertheless, I'm pressing on. I think I've got a good start on my playlist, though it's a perpetual work in progress. 192 tracks so far, none of which completely suck. Like I said, it doesn't contain the "best" music, but it does have more than a few good modern rock selections and even some haunting favorites of mine from older days, those that I didn't get burnt out on (even I liked Alanis Morissette once). One of the challenges is that Finetune only allows you to pick three songs from a particular artist. That sucks. Of course half my playlist would be Modest Mouse otherwise, so in some ways I guess it's a good challenge. There's some embarrassing guilty pleasures on the list, like this one from Frente!, but it's all in good fun. Still working on my choices for older, older songs, like Bob Dylan and Nina Simone, but I have to include those. Built on giants, and all of that. Right now, while writing this (it took me a few minutes to write), I'm digging "Johnny Appleseed" by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, and "Satisfaction" by Cat Power (awesome remake of the Rolling Stones classic). If you've got some good stuff you want me to check out, send me a link.

Looking for finer things

While this post wasn't inspired by Dunder Mifflin's "Finer Things Club", the recent episode of The Office did remind me that I wanted to post it. You see, I too have an interest in finer things. A particular interest of mine is fine music, which is a bit disappointing because I make a poor musician. I haven't played an instrument since Junior High, wasn't very good at it back then, and never kept with it. I'd like to change that, and I want to challenge the web to help me do it.



Above is a picture of the violin I've had sitting around my place for at least five years now. I don't even know how to tune the damn thing. I thought I might take a class on how to play it, but not surprisingly there's few offered for the violin. Everyone has a guitar (even me) and everyone knows someone who plays guitar (yep, me too), but if you're not in school, or don't live in a town of ultimate diversity (NYC or something), you're pretty much out of luck on finding a violin tutor.

When I want to learn something, I usually don't care about my physical environment or what resources it has to offer. I just fire up my browser, locate a tutorial, and jump right in and get my hands dirty. I once replaced the convertible top on my car -- all on my own -- using a tutorial I found on the web. I use these web-based walkthroughs to learn new technical skills all the time, so I'm wondering if there's anything out there comprehensive enough to teach you how to play a complicated instrument like the violin?

I don't aspire to be a concert violinist. I just thought it'd be cool to hang out on the street corner and play -- a street musician -- and chose the violin because, you know, everyone plays guitar. I'd like to get to the point where I can play the violin part of the song on this bizarre video ("One Million Miles Away" by J. Ralph).

Anyone out there know of a good online class that teaches one how to play the violin? Please spam me. Heck, I'd settle for a tutorial on tuning it : ) It sounds horrible. Oh wait, that's probably just me.

Bowie Fest, go there now

If you're in the Greater Cincinnati Area right now, stop what you are doing and head over to Top Cats, 2820 Vine Street, for the Bowie Fest. Do it like now already. 15 bands playing Bowie covers, David Bowie look-a-like contest and more. Da Muttss, Buckra, Todd Murray, Chick Pimp, Ramsey, Moped Mafia, Chris Lee, The Shitkickers, Okeanas, Jake Leg, The Seedy Seeds, Joe Hedges, Swarthy, The Mud Pies, The Times, Straw Boss and more. The proceeds benefit the Drew Campbell Memorial Fund. Tell Tracy that Jeremy sent you!

www.myspace.com/cincybowiefest

My new theme song, "Code Monkey"

I have a new theme song, being the code monkey that I am:

"Code Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton. Dance by Emily.

The little drummer boy

A number of years ago I took a trip to Savannah, Georgia. The place is incredible. I wouldn't mind moving there actually. I don't believe there's any other place quite like it in the world. In fact, I'd even be willing to say that if the South itself still has charm, Savannah is where it's most apparent.

I have a lot of great memories about that trip. Without diminishing the rest, one that sticks out clearly is that of a little islander boy sitting off to the side of River Street. He was sitting on a paint pucket pounding away on another with splintered drumsticks. Not sure why it impressed me, but here it is years later and I still recall it clearly. Poor kid wasn't even all that good. Not like this guy who reminded me of him:



Who knows, maybe the little drummer boy grew up, got good, and that's him there?

The best music you've never heard

I like all manner of music and listen to whatever's good. That said, let me talk about what I listen to most often.

I usually listen to indie rock but sometimes jump over to trip hop and acid jazz. Mostly it's indie rock. Indie music is hard to speak of in concrete terms because it encompasses a wide range of styles collectively lumped together. There's a few loose definitions of style that tag them to each other. You might think that it's simply independent music, but nah, not really. Some of what I listen to is truly independent, but the better known stuff can't really be called that. I mean, they did sign to a label.

It goes like this: In indie rock there's "i"ndie rock and "I"ndie rock. The little "i" is what's usually called indie rock, and that is what I usually listen to. But like I said, it's not really independent. They sign to a label. They have agents and managers and producers and a whole bunch of people telling them what to do. So it's really hard to call them independent in a true sense. They're also pretty well widespread (which is partly why I listen, see below) and stop just short of pop music. In fact, Sub Pop, the label that became famous for signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other Seattle bands got it spot on with their name — sub-pop.

Big "I" Indie rock is a little different. It's a whole lot more obscure. That's the stuff played in local bars and city scenes and when it does branch out, it still stays pretty well under the radar. There's a lot of great stuff here. Music as a biz, however, is dependent on a great many factors and most of big "I" Indie rock doesn't float to the surface. You know, some bands don't even want to float up and that's fine too. It still rocks.

Now, I dabble in everything. Like I said, I'll listen to bluegrass music if I'm in the mood. I love the sound of Gaelic music. I love jazz. Classical doesn't put me to sleep. I'll even listen to hip hop and country music if they come up with something more interesting than a song about how much money they've got (hip hop) or how little they've got (country). But I mostly listen to little "i" indie rock. I like the experimentation there, the lyrics, the sound, but I still want to be able to say, "Hey, have you heard ___? That rocks!" and I can't do that with most big "I" Indie rock because it's a little too obscure.

So, here's my online stations based on the above:

Indie 103.1 FM, Los Angeles, California - Little "i"



Great playlist. Because they're based in Los Angeles, it's almost like going directly to the source for the more widespread indie rock.

97X WOXY, Cincinnati, Ohio - Big "I"



Hands down one of the best online stations for true Indie rock. I'm not saying that. That's the press they receive, and with good reason. They actually have two stations. One's big "I" Indie music in general, the other only covers the vintage stuff. Extra weird because they're local and I was listening to them long before they went online.