One Million Voices Against NAZIs - May 1 - Germany

German hippies rooted out the NAZIs still embedded in the government.  While American hippies were fighting the Establishment to end the Vietnam War, German hippies were fighting their Establishment to get the NAZIs out of it.  The street fights with cops were the same but the results in both cases were also the same:  the hippies won the day.

Note:  the NAZIs remaining in government were leftover functionaries from the war.  These were usually not top-end people but still they remained and the hippies got them out.


On May 1 in Germany, people will gather to join hands and voices against Nazism and this is a beacon to the rest of the world.  Angela Merkel knows what an oppressive regime is like as she grew up in East Germany.

When the Berlin Wall came down the situation was fertile for creating NAZIs as economic disenfranchisment works toward that every time, all throughout history.  That situation has improved substantially since that time but still NAZIs exist and the blazing irony is they protest Muslim refugees despite the neo-genesis of Nazism being that East Germans were essentially refugees in their own country.  And now they attack other refugees.

But one million people will stand up and use One Million Voices to say No.

Half a million people have already said via Facebook they will attend.  You can join the movement that way with this link to the Facebook page.

A world without NAZIs.  Imagine.

The Rescue of Yevette

With a title like that, Dali should paint it but the reality isn't quite so dramatic.  It was still a good rescue as she has been blind for months out there and this got her twittering again.  She likes Twitter as you don't have to be all buddy buddy with people just to talk about things.

She can see the blog now and she said she would check out the podcast as this is the first chance in months for her ears to be assaulted by Silas jams.

Note:  she does NOT have email due to a password problem


One novel aspect is that I'm in two places at once.  The iPad is registered to me so it looks like me coming online when Yevette connects to WiFi.  I don't know if it automatically connects to Skype but it may make it look like I'm online anyway.


So, good job on that, mateys.

Bono May Not Play Again Due to Injuries - Updated

The bicycle accident in New York resulted in Bono breaking his arm in six places, as well as his left eye socket and more.  He now has a titanium elbow and he is on massive pain killers.  (BBC: Bono bike accident: 'I may never play guitar again')

At this stage I did not think I would play again either and the injuries are not so different even though mine were from a motorcycle.  I have a titanium shoulder as a result and it actually works better than it did after they tried to fix the busted one.  The titanium does not make it good as new but I can play. There is pain but there is no loss of function in play.  The arm doesn't work so well for other things but for guitar it does alright.

The probability is low that Bono would ever see this but you never know.  I do know almost exactly how it goes for him right now and he has my deep, deep sympathies.  The crash didn't make me cry but rather that came weeks after as the feeling grew that this will never ever get any better and I will never play again.  Neither of those things turned out to be true.

My best possible wishes as it takes a long time and it really hurts but it does come.  You'll work like you never did to get it back but you will.

Silas at Dorena's World at 12pm SLT on Saturday - Modified Signicantly

The first visit to Dorena's World was not painful.  When talk of alternate grids and hypergrids starts, I get visions of endless forms, hassles, and robots falling out of the ceiling.  That did not happen.

The signon was easy as all Dorena wants is my name, email, and a password.  It didn't bag me endlessly about that's a slutty password, you need a better one.  That's a shiftless password, make it more difficult to remember.  Blah, blah.  So, very easy to set up an account and no credit card required.

Dorena's World is in German but even without any knowledge of the language, it's not hard to figure it out.  Enter the fields on the left as required and then click anmelden to login.  When that completes,  your account is successfully established.


Update:

The next step is to start Singularity or Firestorm and you will need to enable access to the Dorena's World grid first.  Click Grid Manager to display a list of grids and then click Create to make a new one.  The key information needed is the URI:  http://dorenas-world.de:8002

Once the grid is defined, you can select it from the standard login panel for Singularity and then log directly into Dorena's World just as you would Second Life.  It's close to identical functionally.


For many Germans, their knowledge of English is much greater than your knowledge of German so communicating is not difficult.

It's an honor to play for Zaphod even if it's a bit of a hassle to get to his stage.  He's very selective in the performers he asks to play so, more than ever, don't suck!

Igor Morski - Artist

Stunning.  (Image deliberately defaced with the signature to prevent copying)

Should I tell you what I see or tear off this face and tell you what that one sees.

You can visit Igor Morski and his Portfolio and you will find brilliantly imaginative work.  Only his paintings can tell it and the one presented here gives you an idea of the incredible and the fantastic you will find throughout his work.  I was surprised to find there is no Wiki about him and all I really know so far is that he is a Polish artist.

Note:  incredible and fantastic are often used synonymously with 'very good' but they mean much more as in 'beyond belief' which is not to describe a lie but rather, say, the Higgs Boson is incredible. Exceptionally bright people talk about it and describe it but how should I integrate such a thing into my own life, it's incredible, it's fantastic.  I have no idea if it's good but it's definitely those things.

You Can't Even Insult this Guy

There must have been some disappointment at Sunshine Daydream last night as there was confusion in trying to determine if anyone could hear me but there wasn't any melodrama and I don't think anything here counts as melodrama either.  I suppose the reaction now is, dayum, you can't even insult this guy.

Well, quite obviously you can insult me.  The trick is not minding the insult.

(Ed:  you stole that from "Lawrence of Arabia")

Right you are, laddie.  Let's go ride some camels.


I listened again just now to "The Silas TechnoHypnoGroove Christmas Song" and it's not falling down on me.  I could have gone easier on the reverb on the vocal but I won't be stabbing myself over that.

Some call this type of thing 'ambient' but that word, to me, is synonymous with pointless.  For me what I do is the oldest form of Jelly Pudding rock before all the creampuffs came along to formalize things, make processes out of things, and create endless cookie molds to make music look like an elephant or a chipmunk.  Music is now very good at looking like elephants and chipmunks but it's forgotten about "Spoonful" and that's exactly the thing I want.  I'm no Clapton and the drum kit is sure as hell no Ginger Baker but it's conceptually the same.  If it's not an exploration, why even go.  What comes from going anywhere you've been before.

Historical note:  Cream did a version of "Spoonful" that went out maybe twenty minutes.  People talk about free-form and then there's doing it.  This one was doing it and the whole song was based on an elementally simple riff.

So that's how it goes.  My music will never be perfect and there will always be mistakes as there is no chart for what I'm playing and there never will be.  I don't want one.

(Ed:  you still don't know what to call it, do you?)

Nope.

The Atheist Rebellion

There was quite a reaction to What Kind of Atheist Are You as the basic premise was that atheism requires faith also, it's just a different kind.  Toward the end of the article it said physicists will invariably try to bluff you with immense knowledge of the field to demonstrate their knowledge of the relationship between physics and metaphysics but all we get from that is proof the speaker never went to graduate school as there is no relationship between physics and metaphysics except in ghost shows on television.

The reason for referring again to the article is the comments.  There's a long stream of pandered physics commentaries which serve handily to demonstrate the point and you may find that amusing.

For many physics has become the "American Idol" of the almost intellectual set as it's the foundation of the idea the individual is paramount.  There isn't so much an attempt with physics to learn the field and participate in the research but rather to use the principles to demonstrate the lack of predestination and thus increase the appearance of free will in the individual.

We can see what emphasis on the individual does through the effects of what came from "American Idol" in which nothing matters but the singing 'star' and the band that supports her is made up of anonymous musicians who play what they're told to play and then leave.  The consequence of this is album sales have dropped sixty percent in the last ten years on top of previous drops in the years before that and the biggest selling album last year was from (cough) Taylor Swift.

Note:  I got a ruling last night and Taylor Swift is not precisely in the category of schlager musik but there must be some category when she sounds exactly the same as all of the other vapid pop stars of the day.


That extends through to Second Life where the individual performer is important above all things and the geniuses in there copy what's happening in the meat world, apparently not noticing the music business is disintegrating as a result of the endless imitation.  They give that no consideration as they get a little bit of money and the individual, at least a simple one, is always happy behind that.

The positive side of all this is that eventually it may collapse altogether and that may sound bad but anything that breaks the power structures that govern music in the US and Europe will necessarily set music free to become what it has been throughout all of man's history.  One aspect of the ridiculous controls on music is that you can try to watch a video uploaded in Germany and legal in the U.S. but you may still get blocked for copyright restrictions.

(Ed:  so atheists will end up bringing down the music establishment?)

Generally speaking, it looks that way.  Look at the bright side:  One Direction was the lead band for the New Year's Eve show in New York City.  Music doesn't have far to go before it's on the bottom and can start over again.  When a boy band is the lead act, it's already over.  Maybe they could play the Super Bowl too.  That would be good, wouldn't it.

Usually there's a new instrument or process that results in a big change in music and a looper is resoundingly cool but it further pushes the idea of individual stars who do everything so in many ways the effect of a looper is even worse than "American Idol" as now you don't even have a band.  I'm not selling out my own trip but I recognize it for what it is and what it isn't.  It definitely is a solution for me, it definitely is not a solution for music in general.

Music will be back ... as soon as real bands bring it back.

"The Silas TechnoHypnoGroove Christmas Song" (audio)

The version of "The Silas TechnoHypnoGroove Christmas Song" is sounding groovulous to me.  I've listened a few times and it doesn't make me cringe.  The lead is twisted and does some cool things so I'm glad I uploaded it.  There is no final version of this tune but this is a good shot of it.

The gig itself was the weirdness of all possible weirdness, the bar none strangest I ever did in SL.  I was going to ask why they did that but they then I figured, screw it, what difference does it make.  The recordings are captured and with those I can do as I like.

The main thing was to get the tunes out here for the anniversary as there's nothing I can give to Cat that means more to me.  At the time I was playing it I wasn't sure if she was there as she couldn't get there at the start but she was trying.  Really she likes clean guitar playing the best but I like giving her radical plus nothing has ever touched me as deeply as the sounds an electric guitar is capable of making.

There's a Cult of the Purple Thin Pick developing as I'm getting it in my head there's more good juju in the purple picks than the traditional ones.  This is utter rubbish but it's good rubbish and I like that.  I would like to get to the point at which I see I have a traditional pick and think, noooo, I need to find a purple one.  Then I'm officially crazy with it and I'll be pleased.

As to whether it's really Christmas, in my twisted Universe it is.  Everything about it is for giving away and that really doesn't separate it particularly from any music but the object was to bring some of the sounds of Christmas together with complete madness and find a place where it's all at least somewhat cool.  The beat is a bit more primal than the one when I first started but it all evolves as it will.  It's not a tune for elves and munchkins but I'm satisfied it did what it set out to do and anything can always be better but it's a good shot of it and it felt pretty good, if radically weird, doing it.

Headroom - Get Some for your Music

My definition of 'headroom' is how much more you can increase the level on any given input until it clips (i.e. distorts).  A sound engineer can bring up levels but there's no way clipping can be fixed.

Usually the audio level on any output will be some kind of idiot lights or a meter.  Either way, many times the approach is to bring your level to the point at which it's near the red line but doesn't go over.  This is also why a lot of people get clipping in their music as there is zero headroom.  If there are any unexpected peaks in the audio level, they are guaranteed to clip.


To get your music louder, turn it down.  Don't run the levels so close to the redline and give yourself more headroom in your mix.  You can bring the overall audio level up and down on the final output from your mixer but everything has to be immaculate up to that point as a clipped sound is a speaker smasher, it definitely will destroy them and I have blown up many.

There are two options for the level for any given source as you can increase the level and you can increase the gain.  If you raise the gain while lowering the level, the effective volume level will stay the same but the sound will get more crunchy and the converse approach will make it cleaner.  That kind of crunch won't break speakers and may give you more of a bluesy sound, etc.


The main thing is clipping.  With many people using multiple devices, generally the solution is to run them through an intermediate mixer into a looper.  It's imperative there be as much headroom as possible on these inputs.  Do not push them too hard.  The loop will be an aggregate of all the sounds you throw at it.  If all of them are overdriven, what good thing would you expect to come from the aggregate loop.


None of this has anything to do with your play as you may nail a perfect set but if there's any clipping then people will remember that and not the play that went with it.

Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Pink Floyd Sessions

Finally it came to me what bugs me about Neil deGrasse Tyson is that he's so fookin' jolly.  It seems every time I see him he's laughing or has comical Twitter posts or so.

But ... when they're corrupting the science in textbooks for children, that's not so funny.

He has a grave responsibility and only secondarily as a black guy as he's the King Astrophysicist just now and that carries heavy juju.  Steven Hawking has been King forever but he looks like he's in it for the fun of it now as he turns up on Pink Floyd albums and The Simpsons.  He has become kind of the background God King and Tyson is the front man.

The King Astrophysicist has something of a straightjacket when he mustn't lose his TV audience and that's the same situation Carl Sagan had.  They become something between an entertainer and a scientist and, despite formidable qualifications as scientists, they look medium ridiculous on TV.

Given a remarkably small NASA budget and constant threats to cut it further, the King Astrophysicist needs to be something of an activist even though such activism may alienate some percentage of his viewing audience.  So, yah, less comedy and more activism.  That's the ticket.

Note:  as a percentage of the full US budget, NASA is nothing more than a chicken scratch.  When Congress shuts them down it's only for public spectacle as they have almost no effect on the budget.  As to redirecting space dollars to Earth, it would make no difference as they don't spend enough.

What Do You Know ... New Tunes on the Podcast

Today makes it two years for Cat and I and that is one peach of a reason to upload some tunes and promising them for quite a long time may have a bit to do with that as well.

These are in sequence from the show last night:

The Silas TechnoHypnoGroove Christmas Song

Unless they like tom toms, this might not be the best pick for Santa and the missus.


Two-Dollar Whore

That was after I realized I was playing for NYPD cops and no-one was listening so I figured for a two-dollar tip that makes me a two-dollar whore ... but ... I'm one damn fine two-dollar whore.  Ha!


I Love Rats

Loudness and speed for the sake of, well, loudness and speed.


Bombs Away

Despite the way it's announced, it remains an anti-war bit as she killed a ton of Romans but they regrouped and killed her back.


Or go directly to the Ride the Dragon podcast.

The Strangest Gig of All-Time

The show happened tonight and I screwed up the timing so I was late.  Fortunately I was online so I could go over there and start up relatively quickly.

There was almost no reaction on getting there and I thought, hmm, this is unusual.  It was also very hard to get a confirmation that anyone could hear the stream.  As far as I could tell hardly anyone was listening to it.

The reason for going there was Grateful asked me to play but even he didn't say anything.  I figured, ok, he must be in Voice with BuffaloMike talking about football or something.

"The Silas TechnoHypnoGroove Christmas Song" went up first and that seemed ok.  It might be cool for the podcast.  What was strange was that I ended it and nothing happened as in complete zero.  I sent a message to BuffaloMike to ask if I'm crashed as you can appear to be logged in even when you're not.  He said yes but if he got the message then obviously I'm not.  He suggested restarting.  I didn't say anything but thought, well, thanks for that inspiration.

BuffaloMike's squeeze (currency unknown) is the one who organized the SL music in Dallas when my stuff got stolen.  It didn't surprise me that he was as unhelpful as possible, it would have surprised me if he were anything else.

After a while someone indicates in chat they really could hear it so maybe three or four out of that crowd were actually listening.  Grateful is the one who asked me so I continue on but have in my head why did he ask me to play.  It doesn't break me as I roll it off to life being a practical joke as that's the best explanation I've found anyway.

No-one said much when I stopped either so this one definitely goes down to five-star weird as I might as well have been in a refrigerator.  It's all the more reason to keep it to the Circus.  People actually listen to the music.

Even though the trip was weird, the music was as good as I could make it.  Some of it was kind of smart ass as I said, "That one was I Love Rats ... and, what's more, rats love me."

I really will review the audio as The Silas TechnoHypnoGroove Christmas Song might have enough coolness to upload.  There's no video this time.