Archive for April, 2008:
Lee Oskar Major Diatonic Harmonica
I love the Harmonica. It’s a great instrument, very handy in that it sounds cool when it is played well yet also cool when played poorly. For example, adds nicely to the texture of the blues of James Cotton (well) as well as complementing the songs of Bob Dylan (awful).
If I ever go to prison, I’d love to have a harmonica. I hope this doesn’t happen, although sometimes the unstructured time seems appealing. But I know I wouldn’t last long in prison for the same reasons I didn’t last long at the Buddhist monastery: I’m not good at keeping quiet.
John Popper, there’s a talented harp player, although it isn’t blues harp in the classical sense. I also like Junior Wells, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Carey Bell, and the aforementioned James Cotton. For jazz, there is Toots Thielemans.
You know what I dig? I like when someone is playing the harmonica, playing musically, fast and with gusto, I like that little grunting noise you hear sometimes for just a fraction of a second between notes. Those little tongue clicks and snores, that’s the music to me.
This is a nice harmonica. You can find cheaper, but the price isn’t bad for this, and it sounds good regardless of whether you blow well or suck hard.
Lost Highway
If you are able to play Region 2 PAL discs (as I am), the German edition of Lost Highway on DVD is the way to go. The English soundtrack is included in Dolby 5.1, and (unlike the Canadian edition) it’s in W-I-D-E-S-C-R-E-E-N. Another review of this disc convinced me to purchase a copy from Amazon.de. Surpisingly, Amazon.de recognized my Amazon.com login! And placing the order was pretty easy, even though my German is almost non-existant.The picture and sound quality are good (though not exquisite), and the disc even has some extras - which, on Lynch DVDs, are usually scarce. The sound track does appear to be slightly out of sync with the picture, but that could be an artifact of converting PAL to NTSC on the fly. What I wouldn’t give for a multi-standard widescreen monitor…
The film itself is a dark psychological study similar in many ways to David Lynch’s more recent Mulholland Drive. It’s about obsession, murder, guilt, secret identities, and the demons that often drive people to desparate, destructive acts. Don’t try to make sense of it the first time through; just go with it. Then, on repeat viewings, look at it as a symbolic map of a man’s mind stressed beyond the breaking point. Apply a little Jungian psychology, and its meaning should, if not exactly come clear, at least brush past you close enough to touch.
Lost Highway is an underrated masterpiece of psychological horror, and not to be missed by fans of David Lynch! C’mon, you can get through the German…
Blue Like Jazz
It says something about a book that makes you want to read it till’ you can’t stay awake any more at night and when it’s the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning (to read more of it). “Blue Like Jazz,” is such a book. I can’t really compare it to any other book b/c I’ve never read anything quite like it. It’s just a compilation of stories and thoughts told through the eyes of a truly honest and heartfelt man.The thing that really hit me while reading the book was that of encouragement. Thank God there is at least several more people out there (Donald and many of his friends which I feel like I know and would love to hang out with) who are like me in their pursuit to be in love with Jesus. These past few months have been a shaping time for me and granted, I have my own stories to tell and maybe someday I can, but for now, I’ve never felt God speaking to me so often as I did while reading this book (besides when I read the Bible I suppose). But this time, the voice was so much more personal, more intimate, more real.
The hardest thing for me to think after reading this book was that not everybody gets it and not all Christians are there yet. Not to say that I am, but still, it’s going to be tough to convey this message of Jesus’ love to a world so enthralled in “economic love” (as Miller points out through a speaker he heard). My heart is stirring and I feel like I am just beginning to get this a little better now (Jesus’ love).
Only one word can describe my experience in reading this book: Intoxicating. (and I’ve never even been drunk before:) Thank you, Don and please thank all your friends personally from me. My name’s Neville. Like you said too, hope we can meet someday.
Nursing School
A high quality nursing assistant that has been certified of course is will become an additional value to everyone. This cna programs are useful not for hospital employee only, but also for every people who want to know how to give their best caring to someone else. Cna training is the only way to get your self certified. Therefore you have to take a study on one of this cna schools. I hope you will have your success through this useful information.
KORG Digital Metronome MA-30
This is chock full of features and hands-down the best budget portable metronome on the market, with only one caveat which’ll be mentioned later. A terrific buy for students.
Battery life is great, getting around 200 hours out of two AAs. The display is clear and easy to read. I’ve dropped it once and it didn’t cause any problems. For a digital metronome, the beep isn’t an irritating chirp as some other metronomes tend to be.
It can generate any tone on the chromatic scale for manual tuning, and even allows you to adjust the pitch slightly away from A440 if you need to (sometimes necessary, especially for wind players playing outdoors in the extreme cold)
It can handle 1 - 7 beats per measure, and can give you triplets, 8ths or 16th notes on top of that.
It has a handy tap feature to determine tempo.
This isn’t perfect, it’s not a Dr. Beat (the best metronome on the market, period). The volume control is very sensitive, and if you have it in your pocket you can easily accidentally blast your ears with headphones on. An LED would be a nice addition.
The caveat mentioned earlier is this: Most people prefer a dial to adjust tempo as opposed to the up and down buttons of this model (The Matrix MR500, MR800 and the Seiko SQ50 have less features and lack a volume control, but do have a dial and LED). Still, for the price and the features, you can’t beat it.
La Vie en Rose
Just like the singer herself, `La Vie en Rose’ is a magical and vivacious entertainment. Edith Piaf (Marion Cotillard) had two things in life that she treasured: love and singing. This Biopic French movie deftly hop-scotches between several time frames, giving us a composite of her life.
Rose had to grow up quickly and early, for custody was an unstable affair where she could be brought up by her mother, a street singer; her father, a circus performer; or her grandmother, Titune, who resided at a brothel. The breaks are few and far between. Later, hitting the street with friend, Simone, they make ends meet in the thirties as street singers getting tips in a wealthy Paris neighborhood. Misfortunes mix with her rise as a singing sensation, but she finds solace with her music and her champagne. As a respite she has a torrid, yet tender affair with Marcel, a Morrocan boxer and pig farmer, who makes her an adulterous interest.
Featuring an expert portrayal by Cotillard, the movie has a stature and fluidity of an epic. Before the film gets too heavy handed with heartache, there are captivating scenes that resonate with the glory and glamour of her art, especially showing the spell she casts on her audience. There’s no question that if this movie was made in America, it would be a Best Film Oscar contender.
Hal Leonard Guitar Method, Complete Edition
I’m a guitar teacher who has been teaching beginning guitar since 1983 to a multitude of young start-ups learning the instrument. This has always been the main book I use for beginners. This book’s target audience is 12 to 19 year olds. Students 8 to 11 have used the book with me but struggled, as the note reading and strumming is a little difficult for them. Students under 12 need a book more dedicated to 3 and 4 string EZ chords played on the high strings (like Alfred’s Kid’s Guitar Course) as opposed to full 6 string chords. This book progresses into lengthly 7 and 8 line melodies pretty early on and children under 12 can’t maintain a high level of concentration for that long without soon becoming frustrated and impatient. (Maybe Hal Leonard will release a “Guitar Primer” as a preliminary to this book someday).
But it’s perfect, like I said, for the 12 to 80+ year olds. This age group has the maturity, finger strength, and the self-discipline to diligently practice the material slowly without giving up too soon. Dedicated practice time is the secret to success using this book or any other method book. The lessons are progressive, meaning each chord sequence you learn uses chords from the previous lessons and the notes you play for melodies contain sharps and flatted notes from previous lessons.
The song selection is nice because there are all styles, time periods, and ethnicities represented. There’s rock songs, folk songs, Christmas songs, traditional African American spirituals, fiddle tunes, classical pieces, and what I really enjoy as a teacher - 2 part duets! Book one covers the rudimentary chords and 1st position note playing. Book 2 gets you into finger picking, Carter Style, and alternating bass notes with open string cowboy chords. Book 3 gets into rock playing and improvisation using pentatonic scales. There are also “jam sessions” in book 3 that give you, the student, the chance to sit in with the band and apply what you’ve learned.
The book is authored by Will Schmid, past president of MENC, a national music organization that sets the national K-12 standards for music education. The book’s overall strength comes from Schmid’s insight into professional guitar education. This is a method book with a curriculum and a design.
This book is a revision. The revisionist being rock star celebrity Greg Koch. Greg Koch, although a little wacky (but in an entertaining way) can cover any genre of music to stylistic perfection. His performances have been professionally recorded with a full band of studio musicians. The tracks have a slow version to practice along with and a up-to-tempo version to hear what it should sound like up-to-speed. The CDs will be very helpful for those without the benefit of a guitar teacher. The audio tracks will help facilitate your learning because you can pop the CD into your boombox and listen to the lesson material as if Greg Koch himself were giving you a private lesson.
Korg GA-40 Guitar Tuner
First let me say right off that I’m a beginning guitar player. Everything I’ve heard and read said that I absolutely needed to learn by playing in tune. So after doing quite a bit of homework (I’m a bit over the top about researching things I buy), I settled on this unit. Now that I’ve been using it for a couple of months, I can say without hesitation that it was a good purchase. To tune the guitar, you simply pick each string (EADGBE - Eddie Ate Dynamite Good-Bye Eddie) and watch the gauge. Tighten or loosen the stings until the needle lines up perfectly and the green “all’s well” light comes on. Very easy to use and small enough to toss in a pocket. Definitely recommended.
Written by Arthur Bradley, author of “Process of Elimination” - a cool erotic thriller that pits a martial artist against a world-class sniper out to shape the next Presidential election.