Retire Ronald McDonald?

Posted by Andrew
May 18th, 2011

In short – don’t teach our kids to think for themselves. Destroy a source of happiness instead.

Disgusting.

Any 12 year old kid who earns his own money deserves to treat himself to a Happy Meal and all the glorious smiling clowns that come with it.

Otherwise, mom & dad are the clowns to blame.

There is zero middle ground or room for confusion here.

This world is addicted to letting everyone assume tyranny over everyone else for every petty reason.  Ronald’s forthcoming obituary is only one symptom.

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Destroy All Protest Songs – Except One

Posted by Andrew
April 23rd, 2011

It is said that there are two ways of getting ahead: Destroy the people in your path or raise yourself above them.  Protest music generally relies on the ethic of destruction.

I wrote what seems to be the most reviled and disliked review of the Muse album The Uprising.  My argument was almost certainly not infallible, yet no one wished to argue points with logic or reason.  There were a couple of wisecracks which were honestly fairly funny.  Most of the answers were a combination of logical nonsense and angry name calling.

The review and subsequent personal attacks came about because I could not tolerate the hate speech in the album.  Suggesting that people need to die and have their cultures destroyed just for being different is the antithesis of tolerance.  Yet, the crowd who cries tolerance the loudest is willing to see a large portion of humanity destroyed and dead, just to get themselves ahead. Read the rest of this entry »

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Don’t Call Me Sweetie

Posted by Andrew
March 29th, 2011
I am having a problem with women I don’t know calling me “sweetie.”  For reasons entirely my own, I am uncomfortable hearing such an appellation from strangers.

So, I am compiling a list of acceptable times to call me sweetie.

It is okay to call me sweetie if:

  • You are my wife.
That one is kind of important.  I’m married, which means that I am my wife’s “sweetie” alone.  It also means that my wife has gotten to know me and entered into the comfort zone where that is a compliment.
However, my tolerance for that word can be bought under the following rules.
You can buy the privilege if:
  • You took me out for coffee and paid for it.  This only lasts as long as the coffee is still hot.
  • You are presently tattooing my skin.
  • You are performing a necessary medical procedure for which I am awake and in pain.
  • You have just shoved ten or more dollars down my shirt.
  • You are famous.

In all cases, you should be physiologically at least 75% female.  Moobs do not count.

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What a Weekend!

Posted by Andrew
January 31st, 2011

Well, I want a place other than Facebook or Twitter to let this summary go.  Facebook will eventually pull this post into my Notes on their site, but that really doesn’t phase me right now.  I just have to get it off my chest.

What a weekend.

My USB MIDI interface arrived on Friday.  By Saturday night, I had drum patterns going from FLStudio to my electronic drums in real time.  Thus, the $8 cable allowed my existing equipment to turn into a rather nice sounding if slightly dumb drum machine.  So, now I can have drums, Kaossilator, and Monotron all going at the same time to improvise electronic music.

Also, I can still play the drums while the MIDI information is being fed into it.  Awesome.  Just remember that you can’t say “polyphony” without “fun.”

Arts and crafts in the real world!  I stopped by the big-name chain store on Saturday for supplies.  Felt, fabric cloth, and (supposedly) clear blank stickers for my printer.  I printed up four copies of my Riddle symbol.  One for my drums, two for my electronic music toolbox, and one for my laptop.  I also made a copy of that symbol on felt to hang during my video / horror show.

The video show was fun for me to do this week.  I had the compressor working really nicely, but the software lied about just where my volume levels were.  The software said 60%.  The truth was more like 120%.  Damn it all.  But, the story meant a lot to me in a lot of ways, and I took my first step toward bringing conceptual continuity into the project.

Told everyone on Facebook that I was happily re-watching Necromentia.  The director commented to say thanks.  I now suggest you watch both Necromentia and the Gene Generation.

I also started work on finishing the human figure in a current project to draw the Major Arcana in my own sort of interpretation.  There is no overriding theme.  Simply trying to draw them as they might apply to my own life and journeys.

Been chatting with Lords of Acid on Twitter about seeing them in March.  At the same time, a former co-worker texted me about seeing Lords of Acid in March.  I might have to go see Lords of Acid in March.  Now the question is: do I dig my “Our Little Secret” tour shirt out of storage?

Anyway.. wow.  What a weekend.

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Sycophant Saturday!

Posted by Andrew
January 15th, 2011

In the old days of Twitter, Follow Friday was a chance to introduce other members of the small but growing community to Twitter users that you found to be of interest.  Lists were typically limited to five users in one tweet – no more and no less.

Today, Follow Friday has become a chance to promote yourself, groups you belong to, and any friends that promote you in what is effectively a closed daisy chain of cronyism.  On top of Follow Friday I am also seeing Musician Monday and Magician Monday.

To alleviate the growing pressure, I would like to introduce Sycophant Saturday to my Twitter followers.  This will allow Follow Friday to return to its roots as well as to provide a catch-all for all of those other groups.  Sure, Thespians could claim Thursday, but what about Barristas?  Newscasters?  What about a day for groupies who tweet out dozens of Follow Friday lists?  There are no days beginning in B, N or G.

Join me in curing the immense pressure on Twitter to fit all of these lists where they don’t belong.  Let’s make Sycophant Saturday a Twitter Tradition.

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Something Like Musicianship

Posted by Andrew
January 3rd, 2011

iI have decided that it would be possible to tackle two resolutions at the same time by posting my progress publicly.  Become a better drummer (again) and lose weight.

On January 3, I did this.

Thanks to my family up north for the Kaossilator, which is providing drums and a bassline for this video.

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I Do Not Watch the Following Things on Television

Posted by Andrew
December 5th, 2010

Well, I’ll start with a numbered list of all the things I do watch.

  1. Whatever the kids are watching
  2. Sanctuary – It vaguely reminds me of the original Worlds of Darkness games.

Now an easy unordered list of things I don’t watch.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Anyone Can Be a Grouchy Magician!

Posted by Andrew
November 15th, 2010

With only rare exceptions, this does seem to be the trend.

“Oh, I’m not like those other magicians.  I’m snide on the Internet.  Tee.  Hee.”

Not that I can blame some of them.  Some of them have been burned.  Some of them have worked hard just to see the direction of the art go off in a direction that burns their friends.

What really burns me right now is that a lot of people are assembling “what not to do” lists.  I want to appreciate the advice.  I do take what I can into consideration.  Other people just post giant tirades about how any magician not just like them is doing it wrong.

Just about once a week, yet someone else of any varying level of experience also tries to start a new blog which is ultra critical for cheap laughs.  Give up.

I much prefer communicating with magicians face to face.  When you get too many of them online, they act like they invented the Internet Tough Guy act.  Yet one of the best memories I will ever have was the Texas Association of Magicians conference held earlier this year.  The ones you meet face to face are wonderful people.

As for being snide on the Internet?  I was doing Quantum Link when it was new.  Once 2011 hits, the rest of you will be about three decades too late for that to be unique or clever.

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Impromptu Balloon Gig

Posted by Andrew
October 2nd, 2010

The neighbor invited us to a birthday party that he was throwing for… well… I don’t know.  But the kid looked to be younger than 10.

Having no present but wanting to contribute, I brought my bag of sculpting balloons and both of my travel pumps.  They both broke.  I ran back to the house to get my Coleman air-mattress inflating pump.  Hey, whatever works.

At one point there were about two dozen kids in a moonwalk laughing and playing with balloon swords that I made for them.  It felt GREAT.  The neighbors asked if I wanted to be paid for it — no.  I wanted to make the kid’s party better.  I wanted the experience of working in front of a crowd.  I spent about $4 on balloons to do both, and a fun time was had by all.

I also practiced doing magic in the main lobby at the Texas Association of Magicians conference about a month ago.  It’s an ongoing fight against stage fright — and one I think I’m winning very well.

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A New Horror Podcast

Posted by Andrew
August 25th, 2010

This will be my third attempt to get a fun podcast off the ground. You can hear it at

http://arcanasphere.com/darkarcanum/

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