I haven’t blogged in while and think I’d like to start again.  I found this old post in my queue.  The time frame is a few months old but the conversation still relevant.

Part of an email from my friend:

Not to make you any more jealous than you already are, but when/if you have the opportunity to see the Flaming Lips, I highly recommend it. It was one of the strangest concerts I’ve ever been to, really not so much a concert as a show, or an experience. I’m not sure if it’s as awe-inspiring as a lot of people seem to think, but it is really unique, and something worth checking out. I’ve been a fan of their music for a while (“The Soft Bulletin” is probably in my top 10), but it wasn’t really about the music at all, but about the event that was the show. Like I said, really unique.

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Below is an email reply to Chris Massa, the aforementioned writer, as well as good friend and string arranger.  We’re trying to figure out our schedules to get together and arrange more string parts.  Apropos, we also started discussing the Flaming Lips show in Pittsburgh the other night which he attended and I did not (but wanted to).  Thus starts my rambling:

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…I appreciate your take on the Flaming Lips show.  I would like to see them as I hear the performances are pretty amazing, but that is interesting to hear how much the music has taken a backseat to the show.  It’s kind of like Britney Spears for hipsters…or is that Lady Gaga now?  I read many of my friends’ Facebook posts that rendered it a euphoric experience.  Good for them, I guess.  You and I seem to measure our experiences with a bit more logic and pragmatism.

Still, I think Wayne and the gang are on to something.  I think more and more bands are going to have to move more in this direction (if they haven’t, already).  Our generation is hooked on lights and visual, movement and sensation.  I have to think to keep people’s attention these days, strutting around the stage in tight pants isn’t enough.

With that said, I think I’ve pictured the project we’re working on as having a strong visual element as well, albeit based on WWII.  But staging, lighting, movement,  etc. would play a big part in the performance.  I guess that makes sense, since I’m part of this generation too.

I think I might put this stream-of-consciousness on my blog.  Thanks for the inspiration.

Where are you traveling to?  I’m not sure you mentioned the destination before.

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End of email.

It is interesting to listen to most people describe a concert experience they had.   It’s mostly visual description and sometimes ‘they sounded EXACTLY like they did on the album, I loved it’.

After putting my sheets through the wash, I feel like I’ve already exerted enough effort for the day and don’t want to go through the hassle of putting them on my bed that night.  Instead, I either sleep in the comforter or pull out a sleeping bag and put it on the bed.  Sometimes this goes on for a few days.

I have somehow lined up the secret friend combination that allows Facebook to give me an endless supply of friend suggestions of girls who wear too much self-tanner and have names like Jen, Ashley, and Brittany.  An orange glow now constantly eminates from the right side of my Facebook news feed page.

I ran out of clean socks and t-shirts, so instead of going to the laundromat I just bought some more socks and t-shirts. Bachelor win.

Sitting at desk at work and what comes on the radio but amazing 80’s hits:

Kiss On My List (Listen, everyone loves Hall & Oates, whether sincerely or ironically, don’t pretend you don’t fit into one of those two categories. You do.)

-THEN-

Enjoy the Silence (which I cover from time to time)

This makes me want to be working on my cover album of 80’s hits with strings replacing the synthesizers.  I have two songs arranged so for.  Shooting for 5 or 6.

Suggestions?

My good friend, Dan, a letigimate iPhone user (I’d put him in the 8%, see my previous post) sent me the above video.

Hilarious.

You get the point though. 

I don’t have a problem with Apple, just the veneration of it and Steve Jobs as head “genius”/priest/dictator.  It’s only fitting that he and his company had the police raid the house of a journalist who got their hands on an iPhone 4 before they were supposed to.  Chairman Mao would have done the same thing if he were head of Apple today.  However, if that was all a complex surreptitious marketing ploy by Apple, then I would have to call Steve Jobs a genius.

To Apple’s credit, they did do something about the situation by offering to give away phone cases to those who had faulty handsets, which corrects the problem.  But let’s be honest, that’s a bait and switch.  The proper thing to do would be to fix the issue and replace those who faulty handsets with new ones.  ESPECIALLY, since Steve Jobs claimed it was a very low number of handsets that had the problem.  Giving people free cases is the equivalent to you buying a new car with a faulty radio antenna and the car company sending you a coat-hanger in the mail as the fix.

Stevie tricked ‘em again.  Ok, maybe he is a genius.

They just don’t sing like this anymore.

Nat King Cole is high on my list of greatest vocalists of all time.  Matchless.

Probably the most genius marketing gimmick ever. Apple, who is already in hot water about how they ‘had no idea’ that a software glitch caused the phone to show a stronger signal strength than it actually had now has a fix found for their mysterious ‘death grip’ issue. Basically, the issue is that if you hold the new iPhone 4 a certain way (which, unfortunately, is also the most natural and comfortable way) it completely loses its signal. Way to go Apple quality control.

Now if you know me well enough, you know that I think most iPhone owners are fools. They grossly overpay for a phone that they’ll never even understand the full functionality of. I do have a few friends who I think understand and use the iPhone to its fullest potential but they are probably 8% of those people. Steve Jobs is laughing all the way to the bank.

Anyway, I digress. So now apparently a miraculous new solution has been found to solve the aforementioned ‘death grip’ issue—buy an accessory. That’s right, if you buy an iPhone cover from a licensed 3rd party accessory maker (which is every Apple accessory maker and it means they have to give a cut to Steve Jobs) it will magically solve all your dropped signal issues. Amazing. What a genius marketing plan.

iPhools

I sometimes am slow at picking up simple meanings behind song lyrics, despite the fact that I’m a song-writer myself.  For instance, I always thought Frank Sinatra was simply singing the city name “New York” twice in his famous song when he probably was singing New York, New York—like the city, state postal designation.  This actually makes the song dumber to me, as I’d rather him repeat the city name twice.  On second thought, who cares, it’s a dumb song to begin with.

It’s almost as insufferable as “My Way.”  Almost.

I tend to absorb the sites and sounds of the city when walking from my part-time job to the bus stop downtown.

One of these sights and sounds is the someone arguing loudly into their cell phone.  Apparently, all these years, I’ve neglected one of my cell phone’s key features: the ability to transmit loud arguments over radio-cellular communication. 

As I figure most Americans do, I use my cell phone to make calls, send and receive text messages and the occasional sext.  However, I have been missing one key spoke in my cell phone wheel: loud arguments.

The people I’ve seen who utilize this cell phone feature are of every gender, race, creed, etc. though I do tend to see slightly overweight women with questionable fashion sense utilizing this feature the most.  Somebody always f’n did something and they’re going to f’n do something back, and don’t you f’n tell them any different, etc. etc. etc.  Those are the usual cell phone arguments.

As I was nearing my bus stop I saw a slightly overweight younger guy (with questionable fashion sense) arguing red-faced into his phone.  I only got to overhear just a snippet of this argument and it was a thing of beauty.  One line of beauty that floated into my ears, registered in my temporal lobe  and will forever live on as a wrinkle in my brain devoted is this:

“You’re making me tear my f—-ing hair out of my head, MOM”

And then it was gone.

The rumble of the city once again filled my ears and I thought to myself: “Well, at least the guy and his mom have open and honest communication.”