Are you a Fox viewer? I’m not. Bill Nye was the star of a children’s TV show during the 90s. But when interviewed by Fox, he has been instructed to speak slowly because their adult viewers have difficulty following him. Remember the “War of the Worlds” panic? Nye once said “the world is getting smaller” (meaning communications are better) and next thing Fox was flooded with calls from their mentally defective clientele. Is it any wonder the world considers us ignorant savages? I gather this blog, known for its occasionally creative metaphors, must have few Fox patrons. Nye studied under Carl Sagan and his mother was a WWII codebreaker. Bill, you can speak as fast as you please around here.
Then how about that ruckus over the sports games tickets. Seems the stadium did not sell out on a big game. I know nothing of sports, but I know I don’t pay $150 for a ticket to a ball game where they sell beer for $12 per bottle. Only the brain-damaged fall for that when they could be watching Fox news for free. Then again, if they can’t follow Bill Nye, they probably can’t read the captioning fast enough either. The culprit? High definition TV with instant replay. I did not know the baseball stadiums also charge to park your car. Some outfits deserve to go bankrupt.
Besides, sports has become so trite it is nauseating to non-fans. One headline declared “Derek Jeter & Minka Kelly Call It Quits”. Who are these people? Does it matter who some jock is boning? Is that really sports news? In consolation, Derek, don’t sweat it. Actress my eye. She was a mousy-looking thing at best. Same goes for you, Derek.
Despite rain, I made it to band rehearsal all afternoon. The piano player, JJ, is gradually learning my tunes, which is a good idea since we go on stage this Friday. He still thinks it is a plan to write the music out for several hundred tunes, which I refer to as “playing with one’s nose in the book”. He has valid reasons for his viewpoint when we recall that he comes from a era where every band could easily find nomadic musicians who could comp to chart music.
[Author’s note: That explains why music from that era all sounds alike to me. It is. When independent groups outside the music establishment began producing their own music, it follows that tunes would begin to sound unique. A big band sound required a big band, which in itself is restrictive since with any more than three musicians in a room, channelization sets in. Maybe small bands also explain why guitar music became dominant during the rock years. With the right foot pedals, even a semi-talented dope addict could create a distinctive album. Ask Eric Clapton.]
JJ also dislikes “garage band” music where I point out that who has been producing the major hits for the past quarter century. We’ve reached a compromise whereby he turns down the auto-chord a bit and adds the right hand chord riffs along the lines of what I’ve been showing him. The sound is still unique and if I’m reading the ropes, he himself is seeing the overall effect as quite superior to the “two soloists in unison” approach of every other local duo I’ve seen.
Robotics is on hold for a couple of weeks while everybody recuperates from this exhausting learning process. When I measured out the time, it was akin to two full semesters without a break. If history repeats, we’ll launch back into it much better than trying to over-study. If we were rich kids, we’d break by spending the summer back-packing around Europe. Then we’d come back with empty heads and strange ideas about Dutch neighborhoods.
I watched a DVD video called “Centurion”, yet another in that endless string about Romans in England having a rough go of it. Same tired old plot, marching orders from Rome the day before their enlistments were up, type of thing. It was recorded through a blue filter and the brightest color was the hair of the blonde witch. Now, there was a babe like you don’t find much in London any more. Plenty of gory battle scenes. What can I say? Wait for the book to come out?
