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Update

Halfway though the Generals Gathered hiatus. You can expect a few things come April. Generals Gathered reformed as a 4 piece with Dave on Guitar. 5 new songs written, and I think we even know how to play them! The Beatles will go into full swing as a four piece. This bandd is strange. We start as a cover of a classic rap song, and transition to some sort of improv, often old school grindcore. Chuck Finale LIVE! will simultaneously get more good, more noisy, and more retarded. Keep an eye out for my boys in Vagina Wizard as well. Also, watch out for Mike Kennedy's project, Jazz'd in my Pants. This is a combo of modal jazz with wild proggy fusion. We pick a mode and just go at. Jay Caron - trombone Tjernobyl - drums Chck Finale - keys Michael Kennedy - sax Dave Ramsay - trumpet We do not have a permanent guitarist or bassist. If you can play do re me fa sol la ti do, and like improvising, give any of us a shout.

Last updated: 2010-01-06 01:08:39 by GeneralsGathered

on humans

Nothing like a bout of insomnia for some good old introspection. I was feeling kinda shitty, some girl problem or something equally emo. I couldn't tell if I was feelings failure or uncertainty (probably a combination of both). I fail to identify with very many people. I thought I got S. and (s)he got me as well. Clearly not the case. Going to a shitty university to be something you don't wanna be can increase the onset of apathy. I think J. and I have some sort of meaningful understanding. We argue like a fucking married couple. Different people but complimentary. I don't identify with N. much, I used to with C. but not at all any more. That leaves E2. A newcomer to my roster, but we're getting closer all the time. Next year even more so. I guess I identify with James Randi, Penn Gillette and Henry Rollins more than any "real" people. TheAmazingAtheist is someone I'm beginning to "get". He kinda really opens up for a big fat angry dude. I really envy that; even though I drip confidence, I can't won't talk feelings (my own) with anyone. E1 is kinda weird in this respect. I can talk to him/her about absolutely everything under the sun. When we get into religion and rationality (s)he tends to take it personally, kinda get hurt. That's a bummer, but I gotta learn to lighten up. I've been told that sometimes I come off as an intimidating "expert" on certain fields. I'm good at arguing, convincing, logic and all that. Maybe I'll soften the blows when they hit friends; save the mean shit for the internet. I really like the Butthole Surfers.

Last updated: 2009-04-17 06:02:44 by GeneralsGathered

On Debunking.

Debunking is hard. A lunatic can throw 100 off the cuff theories of nonsense at you, and if you debunk 99, the lunatic feels like the victor and you are a loser and a closed-minded, no-fun-having asshole. If you could make a list of everything you beleive or know and beside it a list of reasons why you believe it you would draw some interesting conclusions. Many would account to "observable repeatable fact" or for bigger questions "faith in the scientific peer review method". Some of the shadier ones would be in the realm of morality. There is plenty of grey area; perhaps you are slightly utopian or utilitarian. Sometimes the answer is both yes and no, conclusively. What about politics? Maybe you like socialism or anarchy. Your level of certainty goes down. We can't try the same school of politics ceteris paribus over and over. Same with economics, we can just make educated conjectures. Now there are some beliefs that are harder to justify. Think hard. Are some of them Aruements from Authority? Special Pleading? Arguement from silence? Comfort? Naturalism? AD POPULUM? Fuck that. These beleifs should be called into question. How did you hear about these and when were you finally convinced; can you remember? History is a funny area. There is evidence, but hypotheses aren't very testable. You should be more sceptical about an accepted historical claim than a scientific one. That being said, scepticism doesn't mean you buy into conspiracy theories. You are only as sceptical as the evidence allows. Some things cannot be disbelieved. We went to the moon. Planes (not bombs) brought down the World Trade Center. Sorry. I'd love it to be untrue. I also trust the US government as far as I can throw them. Remember that the scientific method is the reason why you have the time available to come up with these stupid theories and watch alarmist bullshit easily-rebutted documentaries like Loose Change instead of chasing down your food in the forest or praying that the demons causing your diseases get cast out. You better read the debunk of every claim you decided to make if you want to be regarded as an intellectual, even a lightweight one at that. If you have a personal experience, you meet Jesus etc, you are entirely justified in your belief. Unless you can come up with a reasoned conherent argument for your stance, avoiding this personal experience, just say this: "I only beleive X because I have had a personal experience. I will bow out of the discussion because I cannot adequately display why you should belive X".

Last updated: 2009-04-08 21:46:02 by GeneralsGathered

Chuck Finale Feb 5

Hey folks. I had to reformat my hard-drive and I'm still recovering. Anyways. Jazz. Some people are very close-minded about jazz. It started out as roots music, shoeshine "raps", blues and traditional african stuff. It grew into a early form called ragtime. This is taking white piano and "jazz"-ing it up with heavy syncopation. This grew into Dixie, a highly improviational type of music. Everyone knew the tune and just went at it. Dixie moved from New Orleans to Chicago where it cleaned up a bit. Became less chaotic and more melodic. Slowly swing developed. This is a large genre where they would focus on one person improving at a time, and the whole band comping. Or they would all be playing the tune. Somewhere between NODixie and Swing it became close to musician music vs dance music. Some people started playing more complicated stuff, and focusing on chords rather than melody during solos. This stuff is called Bebop. Its very virtuosic and for sure not dance music. That's all til later.

Last updated: 2009-02-06 01:49:59 by GeneralsGathered

How is it going?

Is it just me or is it super annoying when you see someone and you say "hows it going?" and they proceed to run up your ass and out about how they "just had a fight with their _____" or how much they hate their job and the like. *P* There is nothing worse than someone who just assumes you give a shit about their life, or that somehow you asking them how it's going (just to be polite) is an open invitation to cry about how shitty they think their life has ended up because of decisions they made,as if I am in some unique godly position to fuckin abort the bastard child she conceived at a fuckin barn dance at the age of 14. Here's an idea, there is a good chance that most people don't care and you will just have to play the cards you've been dealt.


Last updated: 2009-02-04 21:04:40 by Goat666

There should really be more hours in the day

So it's almost 3am, I've got a coaching session in the morning, and I'm still wide awake. Such is the life of a student with an unforgiving Circadian rhythm. I've been thinking about John Lennon a lot these past few days. The man had quite a head on his shoulders, to say the least. It's tragic to think a celebrity with real values and a meaningful message to the world would get murdered, and the celebrities of today live in gold-plated houses and rehab centres, polluting the minds of the young and keeping the proles entertained atop their mountains of cash. Where's the John Lennon of our generation? Perhaps it won't be long before the world is set for another time period like the sixties. The world is pretty fucked up these days. Maybe not Cold War fucked, but it's hard to be positive sometimes. Greed, Politics, and Religion are everywhere, and they barely ever seem to do any good even when they try... just another lie or scam. It all comes back to Lennon. Imagine there's no heaven, indeed.

Last updated: 2009-02-03 03:11:22 by Jay

Purity Control VS. Spasmod

Purity Control's debut performance will be Saturday Feb. 28th at the Definitely Superior Art Gallery for Electronika 2. I'll be doing several songs as an intro to the new Spasmod set which now features Adam Hemmings and Mike Carr on guitar. This isn't techno. It's raw, aggressive digital-distortion, so leave your club shoes at home and strap on some fucking boots.

Last updated: 2009-02-02 00:37:07 by kaeth

Friday -> Pizza, Root Beer, Country Music

Fridays are the day that I get up early to drop Kat off at school and make it into work before anyone else which means it's nice and quiet, and I have a chance to get some to-do stuff done before people start asking me computer questions and I start doing miscellaneous on-demand tasks. I'm eating leftover homemade pizza and drinking a large root beer. I wish I had something to smoke.

Musically, I've become to start admiring some forms of country music. I don't particularly like much of the nasally singing, but the instrumentation can really rule. I sat down and learned a few of Hank 3's songs, and I'm really inspired by how they are able to take a couple of common chords and turn them into something really cool.

Last updated: 2009-01-30 12:39:39 by Destruction

Contemptorary Music

I played a piece that my friend composed today. It was a trombone quartet that employed mostly conventional harmonies and little contemporary ideas. Sadly for him, this was played in my New Music Ensemble, which places emphasis on contemporary techniques. His piece was criticized for having little contemporary influence, and these were mainly elements that he claimed he was encouraged to include from the professor, a contemporary music composer. The piece as he envisioned it was purely tonal and conventional. The question I ask is; how far has Classical music and perhaps music innovation in general really come since the Second Viennese School? I implore you to listen to some contemporary music. While some of it is quite interesting and listenable, I would not be ashamed to say that lots of it I have heard is just nonsense. http://newmusicnorth.org/home.html Take a quick listen to audio sample 1 and 9 to see what I mean. 1 is fairly acceptable (it was composed by the aforementioned professor) but there's really not much interesting going on in 9 (I know that composer too). So much emphasis in contemporary composition is put on atonality and abandonment of form and structure, but what really does that add to the music? Stripped of melody, rhythm, and harmony, we are left with the expression of a thought or idea. As far as I know, almost every Contemporary composer just wants to express confusion and perhaps schziophrenia. What is the worth of music if it rebels against most of it's expected components and often fails to succeed in what it has left? What's wrong with composing works of conventionality, structure, and beauty? It's as if most of today's contemporary composers are afraid to expand on what has already written; a whole generation of Brahms, fearing to write a Symphony simply because a dead fellow had already done it well enough already. The composers of today seem to want to grasp at the roots of originality, looking for their claim on music history. Most people can make something that no one has ever heard before if thats exactly what they want to do; grab a pencil, some manuscript, and either great musical genius or a blindfold, and voila, you have something either breathtaking if you're a genius, or some jumbled arrangement of notes that only the snootiest concert goers will pretend to understand. Ah, but I believe there is just as much value in complete originality than there is in making something truly interesting by building on what is already established, and really taking it somewhere. I'd rather have put the eraser on the end of the pencil than invent a way of writing no one will use, myself.

Last updated: 2009-01-30 03:50:21 by Jay

Death and Destruction!

You've probably heard that myself and Webster Death have a new band called Death and Destruction. Webster plays drums for the band at light speed and I play the guitar. Jimmy Laukka plays bass and Jason Caron sings. We have yet to play an official show (although we did play an instrumental set at Disgraceland with a really crappy guitar and guitar amp).

Our first real show is going to be at the Skatepark Fundraiser II at Kilroys on February 14th and we are also scheduled to open the Hallo-ween Show at the Rockhouse on March 5 2009, so make sure and check these shows out. We'll be playing with a bunch of other kickass bands like Quitting Life, Rocktruck and much more. Sure to be great music so make sure and come out!

Last updated: 2009-01-29 13:13:03 by Destruction

Baycore to-do list part 2 (revised list)

Some stuff I need to do to finish this project:

1. Include more text notes throughout and general help page (applications are easier to use when they are properly explained.)
2. Check permissions on picture max size limit ... echo this onto the screen so the user knows what is allowed. Also need an update function so the user doesn't have to delete existing picture before adding a new one.
3. Create picture gallery. Damn I forgot all about this idea until just now!
4. Done
5. Increase user options and privacy settings.
6. Add musician's section. I can't believe I haven't done this yet. It's so easy and fun.
7. Add video section. See #6 above.
8. Mainpage link to Baycorians section and All Blogs. Same with on forum. Speaking of that, the forum menu really needs to be cleaned up. And some of the big boxes on the left menu of the main screen could be categorized to take up less space. It is really big and unwieldy right now.

Last updated: 2009-01-28 15:03:33 by ForumAdmin

To do list -> Baycore user menu

Hey, all! This is my very first blog on Baycore's new user menu system. Some stuff I need to do to finish this project:

1. Include more text notes throughout and general help page (applications are easier to use when they are properly explained.)
2. Check permissions on picture uploads (extensions) and double-check max size limit ... echo this onto the screen so the user knows what is allowed. Also need an update function so the user doesn't have to delete existing picture before adding a new one.
3. Create picture gallery. Damn I forgot all about this idea until just now!
4. Rename news_edit and rework add_band, add_links, and add_mp3 sections. This should get done sooner than later, why put off the painful?
5. Increase user options and privacy settings.
6. Add musician's section. I can't believe I haven't done this yet. It's so easy and fun.
7. Add video section. See #6 above.
8. Mainpage link to Baycorians section and All Blogs. Same with on forum. Speaking of that, the forum menu really needs to be cleaned up. And some of the big boxes on the left menu of the main screen could be categorized to take up less space. It is really big and unwieldy right now.

Last updated: 2009-01-28 00:14:53 by ForumAdmin