Category Archives: music

drumcorps 4 Comments

Drum Corps Withdrawal

Some years, I just don’t get “into” corps. I always go to the Toledo show in June — usually the first show of the season for most corps involved — but sometimes, I can’t really get excited about making two-hour drives to see other shows during the summer. This was one of those years.

Tonight, on ESPN2, I watched highlights from the DCI World Championship Finals. I recorded it on the PVR program on Aaron’s computer, and am currently burning it to DVD. In a few more minutes, I will have a DVD of the two-hour program I just watched, complete with chapter stops to skip the commercials. Tomorrow, this DVD may even have a fancy label printed right on the disc, if I get around to designing one.

Some years, I get “into” corps right about the time the highlights are broadcast on ESPN2 or PBS or whatever medium they’re in. I’m not sure if this is one of those years or not.

We’ll see tomorrow, after I listen to the On The 50 podcast that’s been sitting neglected on my iPod for weeks. If I bring my old DCI tapes downstairs and start digitizing them and burning them to DVD, that’s a sign.

drumcorps

Twilight Sheen

I ended up taking a brisk walk around the neighborhood this evening, just before dusk. I’d strapped on my iPod, and the first podcast I queued up was On The 50 (a weekly podcast of drum corps opinion), and I’m sure that affected my mood on some level.

As I finished my first lap around the neighborhood, I’d also finished the podcast. The sky was that particular shade of blue that means the sun has set, and that it’s going to be very dark in about five minutes. The stars had begun to come out, and a light breeze was cooling the sheen of sweat I’d managed to accumulate. Circles of light pooled under the streetlamps, spilling over curbs onto the street.

I queued up another podcast as I started my second lap, but my brain was still focused on a memory. Drum corps in the mid 90’s.
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music

Chiropractor, Conclusion

This morning at ten o’clock was my last visit (hopefully) with Dr. Sue. I’m feeling much better now, and very close to normal again.

Last time, she had mentioned that her younger son — Drew, was it? — plays piano and trumpet and xylophone / marimba / bells. She also has a picture of the local chapter of the Sweet Adelines up on her wall. So, I decided to wear my Dick Does Drum Corps shirt to my visit, as a conversation-starter. And did it ever work!

We got talking about music, and how her son has braces, so he had a real problem with the trumpet for a while. (I was thinking that he needs to work on his mouthpiece pressure, then, and use that weird wax that Amber used to use when she played mello with braces. I kept that to myself, though.) Then I talked about being a music ed major for a while, and how I only started playing clarinet in high school, and how I was a choir person before that.

Cue segue into Sweet Adelines discussion.

Turns out that my chiropractor is a baritone in the Pride of Toledo, and that they rehearse not very far from my house on Tuesday evenings. I may go check out a rehearsal, but even with their completely reasonable dues of $30 a month (and their super-close rehearsal location), there’s no way I’m devoting that much time to a musical group again. Not yet. Maybe I’ll see if I can still sight-read for the hell of it, though. 😉

Back to the actual chiropractor visit.

After she was done with my adjustments, and after I was decent, she asked me again about my insurance. I told her that they pay 80%, I pay 20%, and reminded her that I hadn’t paid her for the last visit. So she opted to have me pay $30 for both visits, and she’d see what my insurance would cover. I wonder if I’ll get a refund if the insurance actually pays for what it’s supposed to, or if she’ll just keep the change.

Either way, I’m still curious about Dr. Smith. I mean, Dr. Sue is very cool and gentle and easy to talk to, but Dr. Smith has The Thumper™. With any luck, though, I won’t have to schedule another series of chiropractic visits for some time.

drumcorps 5 Comments

Making Things Difficult

So, I finally decided it’s time to get off my ass and work on the LSM page again. Figured I’d start with installing phpBB, the standard generic PHP-based forum. Simple to configure, free… can’t go wrong. Right?

Well, I came across a problem. LSM’s hosting only allows one SQL database. That spot is currently being used by my home-grown content management system, which is kind of important. So… now I get to figure out how to write a forum FROM SCRATCH. Or at least steal appropriate someone’s code.

I’d just gotten myself all excited over figuring out how I might make an alumni database work. Now this… this is a little more daunting. I don’t doubt that it’s possible, but I also don’t doubt that it’ll be buggy as hell. I just hate to disappoint. Shout-out to all web geeks: any help here? Where can I find my holy grail of forum code?

I guess the bright side is that my users a.) will be able to access the forum with their site login, and b.) will *have* to sign up if they want access to the member forums!

Update, 6/9/06: Thanks to Sheryl’s and Dan’s patient explanations, I now have a brand-spankin’ new forum installed on the LSM site! Now all I have to do is write a post about how to sign up, how to play nice, etc; add a forum link to the main site; and email the board of directors so they can be my guinea pigs to test the thing. 🙂

music

My Musical Tastes

So, this handy tool will probably make its way into my About page as soon as I get around to it: my top ten artists, as calculated by Last.fm. Fun!

Keep in mind, though, that this only counts the music I listen to at my computer at home. It can’t count my iPod plays (yet), which would totally change the dynamic of artists and tracks. (Much more J-Pop, and Death Cab For Cutie would definitely be higher up in the Top 10.)

As it stands, Depeche Mode is #1 due only to the fact that they provided the correct mood for writing last month’s vampire story. And most of the music in my Top 10 is basically just good music for websurfing — or for web designing, in the case of the Moby and the Oakenfold. I like to design to trance, don’t ask me why.

But, yeah. Fun. If you decide to join up on Last.fm, be sure to friend me! I need some friendage, yo.