Thursday, October 12, 2006

The Fundamental Flaw of LOST...

Of course I love this show, it is very well written and it keeps me glued to my seat during each episode, and most of all, it keeps me looking forward to the next installment. But despite all this, there is one huge flaw that recently struck me while watching the beginning of Season 3.

Lets say, for instance, you are on Oceanic Flight 815 out of Sydney, Australia with a bunch of strangers, and the next thing you know you are a survivor of a horrible plane crash on what appears to be a deserted island. Within the first day, you can come to a safe conclusion that there is some sort of giant monster on this island, and it often scares the shit out of everyone when its heard late at night. To top things off, it slowly becomes more and more apparent that no one is looking for your plane anymore, and even if they were, they wouldnt know where to look.

Its about this time that everyone makes like Lord of the Flies meets Swiss Family Robinson, and the thought of getting rescued is replaced with the thought of settling in on your new beach community eating fish caught by the asian guy, and vegetables grown by his wife (its a good thing they were on the plane). Of course things look up for you when all of a sudden food starts falling from the sky in the form of Macaroni and Cheese and other non-perishable goodness.

Then things start to get weird, as you start to find out that there are other people on this island of yours. Not only that but they are smart, and it would appear they have been there for a long time. Sure they apparently like to steal children, but who knows what for, maybe they are Republican.

Then one day, you get tricked into being a kidnapping victim before you even know what hits you. You wake up in an underwater aquarium, or a polar bear's former cage. And you think to yourself, how can this get any worse?

But why? Why can't these people ever think about the up-side of things. Lets look at this whole situation from Kate's point of view. You spend your life running from the law, and avoiding being yourself...then one day you get dropped on an island paradise. No more running. But yeah I'd get sick of eating dried fish and cold cereal everyday too...until one day I get 'kidnapped' and someone is offering me a delicious eggs and bacon breakfast on the beach outside of their island villa. So if I was Kate, I'd obviousy get more mad right? Wrong. Who wouldnt throw down their arms at this point and immediately embrace 'Fake Henry Gale' as your new best friend.

Oh thats right, you cant betray your old 'friends'. You know, the ones you met about 2 months before. You know all those people who you have not been honest with at all, and neither have they been to you. Just because you want some hot man love from Sawyer and Jack, doesnt make you a bad person for wanting to join Gilligan's Island society.

Sure someday you might end up like Julliette and cry listening to 'Downtown', but I say its worth it for the bacon and eggs.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Nothing's Changed All Over Again

What to say, what to say?

Its been a pretty monumental week. Ok, so maybe monumental wouldn't be the way you would describe your week, but it has been an important one for all of us.

First of all, 'Lost' season 3 started two days ago. And let me tell you it was well worth the wait. I can't go into details, as there are readers of this blog who are still catching up, but I can atleast say that within the first 2 minutes of the episode I was shitting myself as a reminder of how great this show truly is. If you haven't seen it, it is well worth the purchase of Season 1 and Season 2 to get caught up.

And speaking of TV shows, 'South Park' opened up with a bang. That show gets better and better, and I know its been a long time since they started stepping away from using mostly shock humor, but I am just beginning to realize it and have been watching a lot of 'South Park' to get caught up. They have a lot of clever episodes that I haven't seen, and I feel all the better for catching a few here and there.

And of course there is 'the Office', which is proving to be the funniest show on the air once again, especially now that 'Arrested Development' was cancelled and that 'Scrubs' hasnt started yet. Oh wait, I forgot 'Family Guy'...Oh wait, that is the second worse show ever made (the first being 'American Dad').

Seth Macfarlane is less funny then my onstage banter.

Speaking of me being on stage, I just got back from playing my first show in San Francisco at a place called the Red Victorian. It was a lot of fun, despite the late notice, my unpreparedness, and the small crowd. I am still working on the nerves when playing alone. I got so used to playing with Mike this last year, I feel a lot more naked up there by myself, and there is no one to cover my ass when I screw up. But I have a lot of shows coming up, so that will hopefully change, cause most of them will be just me. Despite all that, I love playing more then ever, and get really antsy to play if I have to wait even a week to play again. Which is good motivation and will force me to stop talking about it and start hitting up open mics this winter and whatnot.

Even the little bit I have put myself out there has turned out to be a blast, and I've already met a lot of cool musicians, and people in general. I look forward to what this city has to offer.

What does it say about my own self-confidence that I posted about TV before my first ever show in San Francisco? I love TV.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

I.E. My Last Post...

Here I go again, rambling on and on about Jeff Tweedy...or moreso the effect he has had on me.

Tweedy is really the first songwriter I have studied extensively. Researching the type of chord progressions he uses, examining his wordplay, song structure, and other tricks he uses. He was also a major reason I started using alternate bass-notes in my own playing. Of course its a standard practice for pretty much any and all guitar players (especially in folk), but I first started to look at it under the microscope thanks to Tweedy (and my good pal Mike).

Everyone knows I got into music about 6 years ago and picked up my first guitar thanks to Trey Anastasio the former frontman of Phish, and now the current frontman of many crappy bands. But I never really studied him for the sake of learning techniques and getting insite into creating music/songs. Sure I learned a lot of Phish covers, especially the easy ones, but that was more for the sake of learning songs for the thrill of being able to play a song or two.

And of course, those who know me and when I started writing songs almost a year ago, know that Jeff Tweedy was (and is) my favorite songwriter and it only makes sense that it would lead to me studying him. Obviously I have branched out and listened to a buttload of music since then, and studied almost every technique I found interesting to the ears. Some have worked, some have not, some I'm still studying, some I haven't even discovered yet, and some I've even happened upon by accident.

So blah blah blah, I am just rambling.

"If you feel like singin a song
And you want other people to sing along
Just sing what you feel
Dont let anyone say its wrong" - Jeff Tweedy (What Light)