BrainDrain

One of my favorite drummers of all time is Stewart Copeland of The Police. I've always liked him, but I've been really surprised at how many other drummers also like him, and the influence that he's had on drummers throughout music history. In the annals of Modern Drummer, I'd say that the number one most oft-mentioned rock drummer is (of course) John Bonham. Number two? Stewart Copeland.

I endeavor to play like Stewart when I can, although I doubt I will ever come close to even replicating his most serene chops. One of the main reasons that I got my Tama kit is because Stewart plays a Tama Starclassic and I love the way it sounds. I really wanted to see the Police on their farewell tour in 2007, but the only time that they were coming to Texas was while I was in Brazil on mission, and so I never had the chance. The closest I got was seeing them on Palladia as part of a music festival in the UK. So you can perhaps imagine my delight when I received a very special birthday gift this year - a pair of drum sticks which he had used on the Police reunion tour in 2007!

My friend Beth got the sticks when she was working on the Police's reunion tour as a monitor tech, and has had them all this time (that's her tour badge wrapped around the sticks). When she heard me mention that Stewart Copeland is one of my favorite drummers, she decided to give them to me for my birthday. That...is...AWESOME! Definitely a prized possession for me.

And, apparently, there's a story which goes with the sticks that she wrote down on a card enclosed with the sticks:

"This is a pair of Stewart Copeland's sticks that he used, destroyed, and threw at me on the first leg of their 2007-08 Reunion World Tour.

Oddly enough, I joined the tour on July 19th, 2007 [ed: which is my birthday] in Philadelphia and stayed with The Police till they left for Europe mid-August.

As your probably know - these are NOT the brand of sticks that he typically uses. [ed: Stewart Copeland endorses Vater sticks. Interestingly, these are the brand that *I* use, although these are hickory and I use Japanese oak.] These are from the Virgin Festival in Baltimore (8/4). It was one of those days where everything went wrong. (more story to tell) BUT! The drum tech for the Beastie Boys was kind enough to lend these sticks to get thru "Message In A Bottle" and Stewart's sticks were found.

Long story short.....ENJOY!

I will. Oh, I will! I don't know if you can really see it there in the picture, but the tip of the bottom stick is only half a tip - a big chunk of the stick is missing. That makes it about a billion times more awesome that he did that kind of damage in ONE SONG. Gives me some hope that maybe I'm not as brutal on my equipment as I think I am.

Thanks again, Beth! A (truly) rockin' birthday present!!!

Last night, I finally decided to take control of my exploding remote population for my ever-growing a/v setup by using some of my birthday money (thanks Travis, Sheena, & Courtney!) to purchase a Logitech Harmony One universal remote. I've been hearing about the H1 for a long time now, and I finally got fed up with not only having to turn on 4 or more devices to watch TV but also with having to cycle through all the various settings required to do different activities.

I'm not going to do a whole review of the H1 here - there are plenty of good resources online - but let me just say that the setup was pretty easy and I can now do with one push of a button what used to take me several steps to accomplish. Let me illustrate this convergence with a photographic depiction of the situation and the end result:

In order to control this (note that there are 7 different devices in this photo which need to be controlled):

I had all of these:

Which have now all been replaced by this:

Ain't the inexorable march of progress grand?

This evening's blogging session finds me frustrated. I'm finally willing to admit that I've been duped - whether by Sprint or Palm, I don't know - into choosing another device that had a lot of potential but was stillborn the day I bought it. Even though I love my Pre smarphone, I can't help but count the minutes until it officially falls into obscurity as an also-ran that was merely a catalyst to jump start the Apple and Google war machines. Don't get me wrong: as I just stated, I really love my Pre. I honestly think that WebOS is the best mobile OS out there, and I'm continually discovering new things that the phone can do. But there are some seriously glaring issues in my opinion that I can really no longer ignore...issues that are causing me to think about not only ditching the Pre in favor of an Android device, but also switching cell carriers to boot.

I think it's time to get some of this badness off my chest.

I came across this interesting comment while reading an article about Palm's accusations of why flash is still not available for Palm's WebOS (emphasis added):

"The story was NOT about how Steve Jobs supposedly picks fights with a powerful firm that makes the software without which many Mac users wouldn't be Mac users. You may like to believe that story, but it's not relevant to Palm's announcement today that it's still standing at the altar."

This was thrown in at the end of one astute observer's comments, and it really made me think. For those of you not playing at home, Steve Jobs has been railing against Adobe's premier product, Flash, and won't allow any of his i-devices to run it. A bitter PR battle has ensued which has drawn some pretty interesting digital battle lines. The article from which I saw this comment was Palm's bemoaning the fact that Adobe seems to be dragging its feet when it comes to Flash on WebOS, and making it seem that Adobe is losing heart since Jobs has slammed the door on Flash ever running on an Apple i-device.

But this little gem of a comment puts it all into perspective - back in the day, people used Macs solely because of Adobe tools! Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver...they ran best on Macs, they were designed for Macs, and were pretty much only ported to Windows once its crushing dominance was asserted in the '90s.

Macs were used by media types and Adobe was (is?) king of those kinds of applications. Any serious media person wouldn't be caught dead using Windows. And yet now here's Steve just a few years later, launching a vitriolic campaign against the very company that, arguably, was a major contributor that put him in the position he's now in.

Interesting, no?

There are two kinds of online people in the world: those that use Twitter and those that don't. This isn't a blanket, singularly-defining characterization, but when it comes to Twitter I have yet to meet someone that is just kind of "meh" about the whole thing. And the main reason of the those-that-don't crowd for not using Twitter is that it's just a narcissist's dream of broadcasting their life's mundanity in a desperate attempt for relevance and recognition.

As you would expect, I disagree with that statement, but not just because I fall into the those-that-do category. First, let me get the obvious talking points out of the way: yes, Twitter is just a glorified status update and yes, many people use it to report amazingly boring things that they are doing in their amazingly boring lives. I'm guilty of this, and I accept it as part of the Twitter universe. But for me, that's precisely why I use Twitter - it allows me yet another avenue to experience the lives of the people I follow when I cannot be with them, even if they're the textbook example of the proverbial bump-on-a-log. It's like Facebook status without all the extra baggage, and I'm all for anything that minimizes online drama.

It doesn't make sense in the context of someone that I really don't know; honestly, I don't care what John Hodgman is having for lunch or where he's having it because I can't meet him there nor would he want me to do so. However, if my friend in town tweets something about enjoying the lakeside view at Mozart's, I might be able to join up with them. Even if I don't, it gives me a sense of connection to them because they're allowing me to glimpse what they're thinking or experiencing at the moment they choose to tweet. I usually follow "famous" people only if their tweets are consistently funny, they provide good information, or they blog a lot. Sometimes I use Twitter as a glorified RSS feed - most major sites cross-post their articles and blog posts to their tweet-stream, so if I follow them, I get that information without having to go to another application.

Let's face it: I'm a card-carrying member of the USA Today soundbite generation, and Twitter allows me to post thoughts and minute-by-minute blow-by-blow in burst fashion. I have access to some form of Twitter client everywhere I am, and it's much quicker than logging into my blogging software to post an entry like this. I can post quick links for my friends, snarky real-time observations, or even carry on pseudo conversations that I want more people than just the involved parties to see (and possibly chime in on). Twitter's not a substitute for real-life relationships; it's an augmentation tool that allows me to update (primarily) my friends on my goings-on when we are apart. Twitter can start conversations that are continued once I am physically present with my Tweeps. And, when I'm not feeling particularly wordy or don't have the time to craft a (somewhat) logically coherent blog post, Twitter fits the bill quite nicely by giving me an outlet to say what I want to say in 140 characters or less.

I do think it is sad (and a bit desperate if I'm being honest) to tweet to the general unknown population without specific people in mind with whom you are in real relationship. Sure everyone can read the tweet, but I always hope that the people that I really care about who follow me will read it, or laugh at it, or think about it, or even comment on it. I do get a little bit of a rush when people I don't know comment on my tweets, or something gets caught up in a retweet vortex for a little bit, but I don't live and die by my follower count. I think if more of us treated Twitter this way and less like some digital fulfillment of a deep-seated need for attention, Twitter would be something different, something a little more personal, and would fulfill its mission of being a social communication tool to the fullest.

A lot's been going on in Life On Loan's digital presence this weekend, so in case you've missed it, here's a quick recap of what we've done:

1. NEW TRACKS! - we posted some preview tracks from the forthcoming EP, "Lift", on myspace and facebook. Head over there to take a listen and tell us what you think!
2. NEW CONTACT! - did I say facebook? Yes I did! Life On Loan now has two new ways that you can contact us. You can hit us up on Facebook, you can follow us on Twitter, and you can always catch us at our MySpace page or via http://www.lifeonloanband.com.

There you go - no excuses not to get in touch with us and let us know what you think of the new tracks and also keep up to speed on when and where we'll be playing in the future. So get out there and spread the word about Life On Loan!

The EP is going out to the production house as soon as we get our artwork, but that's a little bit out of our control - so we'll keep you posted as soon as things move to the next step. It won't be long now, so hit up the websites and get a taste of things to come!

While you're patiently waiting with bated breath for the Lift EP to show up on iTunes, Amazon, and CD Baby, here's some other music you should check out to pass the time:

• Metric - Fantasies
• van Canto - Tribe of Force

A word about van Canto - they're five German vocalists and a drummer that do what they call "Hero Metal". Just check it out, trust me. Maybe you'll get a good laugh out of it, maybe you'll appreciate the vocal ability, or maybe you'll find a new album to buy. I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed. At the very least check out their covers of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and "Battery".

Go thou and listen likewise. Your ears will thank you.

Well, the gold masters arrived at my apartment just before I left for my fishing trip (which was pretty awesome because that meant that they weren't sitting in my mailbox in the 90+ degree Texas heat). I talked with the mastering engineer as well to get the skinny on what was what, and also got a chance to take a listen to the reference disc that he burned for us (for all intents an purposes a copy of what the finished product will sound like).

All we have to do now is get the artwork and the legalese finished up and then we can send it all off to production and play the waiting game once again. I'm going to talk with the guys and figure out which couple of preview tracks we want to put on the website so we can get the word out before the disc is released and start booking some live shows as well. We'd like to get a few shows in before we have our CD release party.

Man, this is really exciting! I'm really happy with how the music turned out and as I was listening to the reference disc in my car today, I was really proud of what we have achieved and I can't wait to share it with anyone who will listen.

Here's the body of a post I just wrote for the Life On Loan MySpace page...I'll save you the trouble of going over there (since I know you won't anyway). I'm gonna get all Tank here, but "these are exciting times!" To wit:

The A-Team's Hannibal is famous for saying "I love it when a plan comes together", and now we're saying the same thing - the EP is finally coming together.

We're almost there!

Oh yeah, baby. We're so close, I can taste it!

Have you noticed lately how many TV shows depict people working well into the after-dark hours? Aside from shows where the cast is working the night shift (e.g. CSI: Vegas), I've started to notice it on a lot of the shows that I've been seeing in the last couple of weeks....Lie To Me, CSI:NY, Bones, Law & Order...they all seem to do nothing but work. Granted, all of the shows I just mentioned are related to law enforcement/crime, but still...

I've started to wonder if this is an attempt, either subconscious or intentional, to ingrain the "work is what defines you" attitude into the mindset of your average American worker or whether it's more indicative of just the way things are in the current American job market. I would say that with the exception of jobs in the service sector, teaching, or contracting, most salaried workers in most professions are encouraged to work many hours and become wage slaves for their company. Long gone are the days of the 9-to-5; if you're salaried, you're expected to be at the beck and call of your employer.

I've railed at this before, so I'm not going to do it yet again in this post. I just found it interesting that all of a sudden I started to notice just how "normal" it is (at least as normal as tv can be) to see people working when it's dark outside in jobs that had formerly been known as "day jobs".

I think that's kind of sad, actually.