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We are what we think & my blog entries reflect how I think. Have a sip of the poison of my mind.. It's not always lethal.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Musing About Music

Because sitting in the train traveling to work on a Monday morning can be as dreadfully boring as watching wet paint dry..

Right, so there are 12 musical notes in most forms of music (counting the sharps & the flats). That's actually the Western musical system adopted by even most popular Chinese songs. It's amazing how 12 notes can produce a gazillion songs:
♬♫♪ x ∞

I've read somewhere that a numerical combination lock consisting of 6 numbers produces thousands and thousands of combination possibilities. Or probably millions, I don't know, I'm no Math wizard since I can't count past infinity but you get the idea.

Imagine doubling the aforementioned possibilities of numerical combinations with 12 numbers and your mind will probably go Kaboom should you attempt to compute the whole shebang to the very last set of combination.

Translate that to the 12 musical notes and i think one can fathom why just 12 common musical notes could accomplish so much and still counting. I haven't even started on the different variety of forms each note can be produced, like pinch harmonics and natural harmonics besides their usual fretted state of sound on the guitar, for example.

Therein lies the key to musical improvisation and composition as well as the seemingly limitless beauty and breadth of music.

And for that matter, when one dissects a piece of music to figure out its structure, chord progressions and melodies all sung and made out of those notes, one's appreciation for the piece of music intensifies and shoots through the roof, mightily exploding said roof with a deafening sound, probably in the key of E if the explosion sounds like anything from Heavy Metal. Things can even get to the point of being musically orgasmic, darn it.

A, A# (or Bb), B, C, C# (or Db), D, D# (or Eb), E, F, F# (or Gb), G and last but not least, G# (or Ab).

Those 12 notes mentioned in the previous paragraph above are the very things that Rock your world so hard.

Oh yes, good Monday morning. Stay Funky and survive it. Then live to Rock again. You know what they say: No Music, No Life.


- De Lion Speaks

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Updated Group Photo of The Sisterhood



Updated photo of my guitar collection, since the previous one didn't include Little Storm which was added to the pack later.
Nightingale is missing her strings here since I just gave her a bath with lemon oil.

I give names to all my guitars based on their own unique personalities; I can vouch for the fact that these things are very much alive. Understatement.

Those with their names in red are my current main workhorses and for those in blue, I've retired them (honorably discharged & still collecting pension from me).


- De Lion Speaks

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Rocky Mastering While Waiting For The Bus


See the bus stop there just past the table and the chair (the one with the signage "we design we build)? That's the bus stop just outside Delfi Orchard. I've just finished work here in town and was waiting for the bus at the bus stop when it dawned on me (again) that whoever the genius is who is in charge of the deployment of buses here didn't plan for double-decker buses during peak hours. 2 single decks already came and gone and they were all sardine cans.

So yeah, it's an unfortunate thing too that our gatekeepers think we have an infrastructure that can accommodate an infinite influx of people. Double-Whammy. Hear that awful creaking sound? That's the sound of our infrastructure bursting at the seams while our trains are breaking down too often for comfort.

Our grievances, their Kaching$.

GDP growth has become a double-edged sword with the sharp edge pointing at us peasants on the ground. Heh, did I just use the word 'ground'? Might as well, since the other world here is in ivory towers high up in the clouds.

Things were so different and better here during the early 90's and even the 80's, besides the Break-dancing phenomenon. Now? You can hardly breathe through the crowd and personal space is going extinct, or has it already? Promised Swiss standard of living? It's more like Swiss cheese and it's leaving a bad taste in the mouth. I'll resist the urge to spit here. Regardless, there's no way I'm gonna stand inside a crowded moving bus because it's a long ride back to home from here and I'm tired. I just wanna sit down, nap a little while listening to music.

The only good thing that made me happy today was that Lindy the Pharmacist and her staffs at Nishino praised me for my dressing. Again.

Just so happens that there's a Rocky Master cafe just behind the bus stop where I can monitor the estimated arrival timings of the buses from this digital board at the bus stop if I take the corner seat outside (the photo up top is the perspective from said corner seat).

So in the name of rationality, I figured I might as well have a beer at Rocky Master where I can monitor the arrival timings as well as all the incoming buses where I can see them coming from up ahead the road from where I am now seated. Looks like I've just turned a dreary activity sweating it out at the bus stop to a quite enjoyable one, but I know I'll be getting home late though. That's one price to pay for refusing to ride home in a sardine can caused by overpopulation that has done more harm than good.

A mug of beer was the only thing on my mind when I walked into Rocky Master but when the staff manning the counter told me I can only pay with my credit card for purchases with a minimum of 20 bucks, another staff who was mopping the floor recommended me some small bites to go along so that I can hit the required 20 bucks (there's no ATM machine here in this building and I happen to be short of cash with an appetite for some beer to drown my crowded buses sorrow). So I chose this small little pizza and there you go; an order just past 21 bucks.

The pizza turned out to be quite yummy, I'm glad to say. Well, something tells me that I might do this all over again whenever I finish work in this part of town henceforth.

So the next time you find yourself in a dreary situation like mine, look around you for things that can keep you entertained. There's gotta be something, like beer and mobile blogging that discusses about overloaded buses, sociopolitical follies, beer and mobile blogging, for example, unless you happen to be waiting for a bus in Siberia, if they have buses there at all.

Now if you will excuse me, I have a bottle of good old Heineken to finish and a bus to catch. Oh, and in the name of all that's living and breathing and for goodness' sake, can somebody please close the gate that's been opened too damned wide already?