Some Group of Business Students 21, False Consciousness 7 (Or, My New Hobby)

We only lost by two touchdowns. Too bad we were playing softball, not football.

Actually Coach Greg figured out that if you leave out the two early innings where we were subject to the mercy rule (the inning’s over when a team scores 7 runs), it was a tie game.

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It was a beautiful, sunny 21 degree day on the extremely lumpy diamond opposite Thomson House when the AHCS Departmental Softball team — the False Consciousness — took the field against a group of Business students. Students who, Mike pointed out, actually voted to increase their student fees. My thought: only in Canada would anyone in business vote to increase their taxes. The business students had uniforms with their names on them; they had beer; and they had a hibachi. We had clothes (1), a few mitts, some Peanut M&Ms (thanks Vera!) and Carrie and I brought a bottle of water to share. I had a hat that said “Sterne’s Automotive” (my brother’s business), so I sort of had my name on something, even if it was in the wrong place. Carrie had an actual baseball jersey from Girlzone, which was a group she worked with in Urbana that taught girls things they normally wouldn’t learn in school, like self-defense and guitar playing. It didn’t matter. We were there to play and win.

Anyway, we knew we were in trouble. Initially, it made some of us more competitive. If we lost, we lost to people in uniforms. If we won, we beat people who had uniforms. Unfortunately, it was pretty clear that we were going to lose to people in uniforms.

I’m told that in the first game (Carrie and I were out of town or something), we got better as the game went on. This was the case last night. The first three innings were ugly. We got pounded for a total of something like 17 runs, and scored something like 2 or 3. Then we settled down and came back, but too little too late. After a stunning over-the-shoulder catch in left field, I called Mike Baker the Willie Mays of cultural studies. Which probably isn’t all that awesome but it was the right thing to say at the time–he made a bunch of great catches in left field. After a heroic catch at shortstop where she went out into the outfield, Mike called Carrie the “a league of our own of cultural studies.” Actually, our infield was pretty decent. And we all learned the fine art of backup. As Heidi (2), our intrepid second basewoman and other allstar fielder put it, once we learned to assume that our teammates would miss, our fielding got a lot better. (After the game we were talking about more aggressive baserunning next time: assume the other team will miss and make them make the play.) Backup was also a real important function for the 4th outfielder (which was usually the other Mike) — watch the ball sail over everybody and run after it. Since there was no coach’s kid (my bane in the St. Louis Park city league), I actually got to play first base, which is my old position. I fielded well enough to stay there all game, apart from one sad Bill Buckner moment.

At the plate, Mike Baker was again the star. I nominate him for MVP. Maybe a couple homers. I think Aaron hit one too (3). But lots of other players had good hits. In fact, I think almost everybody had at least one hit. Even me. I struck out in my first at-bat of any kind since age 15 or 16 — which is especially embarassing since you pitch to your own team. But on the next one I had the most unlikely hit possible–an infield single where I actually beat the throw to first. The bench said it was actually exciting. The throw pulled the first basewoman off the base just enough that I beat it. I did okay in batting practice, though, so I reckon I’ll get my line-drive hitting back sooner or later.

Some of the best fun was to be had in the “dugout”, which in this case turned out to be a space somewhat behind the other team’s space on the first base line (nobody wanted the 3rd base line and they got there first). Vera, who also made some epic runs in right field, was outstanding as cheerleader and team conscience. After a couple of drinks at the bar afterward, she had us convinced we actually won. Andrea will bring her dog next time. Erin told Coach Greg that he looked like a small-town Ontario baseball coach. Which is interesting because I have no idea what that might look like, except for how Greg looked. We got smoked by the hibachi at a suspicious moment, just as we were about to stage our 20-run comeback. But all is fair in love and war. The other team’s first base coach offered me a sip of beer in the bottom of the 6th, which was really quite nice of him.

Next time, maybe someone will keep a proper score, and then I can give you a fuller narrative. In lieu of that, let it be known that everyone contributed something, and a good time was had by all.

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1. Uniform ideas for the next game included pink scarves (Raji) and nipple tassles (Andrea). Both are unlikely.
2. Alums count — she was no ringer!
3. Aaron was also the model of good sportsmanship, calling on us to give the other team three cheers after the game was over and they had officially kicked our asses.

Quote of the Night From An Advice Thread on the Tape Op Messageboard

“I would add, if you are a musician and want to play in a band and just be in a band, please do yourself a favor and dont take any of this too seriously and just sit and focus on writing songs and making cool music. too many people that should be learning how to rock are wasting their time learning how to record and dumping money into home recording, and thats all well annd fine, not necessarily trying to discourage that, but in the mass majority of cases I see that have creative potential as musicians, what you get is a half assed home recording set up operated by someone that doesnt really get it all playing in a band that could be much better. If this describes your current trajectory, by the cheapest shit possible to make demos, save your money and practice with your band and hone your writing skills. With the money you’ll spend on a home system over the years you can in this day and age go to a really really badass studio, hire a decent engineer and since you spent all your time rehearsing instead of learning protools error codes like all your contemporaries in bands, your record will probably slay. Thats just one angle but something to consider.”

Story of the softball game is forthcoming.

Get Ready for a Big IP Fight in the Fall

Canada’s working on its own Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and it suitably panders to the entertainment industry. Not surprisingly, it was introduced by the Liberals, who are busy doing cool things in other areas, like pushing through legislation to insure that people can marry other people of the same sex (one at a time limit, naturally). I guess they giveth and taketh away.

Big day on (what will hereafter be referred to as) The Next Book here. Hoping for lots more of those before the end of the summer.

Holy Moving Faders, Batman

You may recall a post a month or more ago extolling my excitement at acquiring this item:
SAC-2K

Well, I spent some time yesterday actually using it. I don’t mean figuring out how to use it — which I had been doing (and I still have a lot to learn) — but working on an actual mix of an actual song that will be on the new lo-boy album which I am determined to finish this summer. Holy crap do a bunch of knobs and faders make a difference. I mean, I still use the mouse for all sorts of things, but mixing music is so much more dynamic and fun when I can both hands. It’s a completely different relationship with my computer recording setup.

I just needed to share.

As for Batman, the movie turned out to be pretty good even though, as usual, the performer actually playing Batman can’t figure out how to do it. Love what they do with the Metro, though.

More Major Label Stupidity

Okay, so Carrie and I went to Future Shop yesterday and bought some tech and also a few major label CDs we’d been planning to get for awhile. Alongside the Metallica, we bit on the new Coldplay CD because, well, we really liked the last one.

I haven’t listened to the new one yet, but when I took off the plastic, out fell a little square of paper. The square said I could get a free mp3 if I visted the futureshop website. How nice of them. I figured it would be my first legal mp3. I mean, I’ve downloaded lots of free mp3s from band websites, but in those cases the mp3s were being given away. I have always avoided things like the iTunes Store and other online services because I think it is stupid to pay for music that comes with contractual limitations on its use, especially when I can just buy the CD (1). But I thought, hey, if it’s free, why not go for it? Well, here’s the message I got from the website:

Thank you for visiting Bonfire at Futureshop.ca.

Currently our website supports Internet Explorer 5.0 and above on the
Windows operating system (Win 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP / 2003),
and is available to Canadian residents only.

We value our Mac audience, however the Windows Media player for the Mac
platform is not currently compatible with Microsoft protected audio content.
Bonfire is currently working to make our service available to Mac users.

So let me get this straight. You can’t give me my free song because you are afraid once I had it, I might use it in a way that someone doesn’t approve of. Thank god for copy protection. Otherwise people might get songs for free!

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1. I recently bought a used CD online — I forget which one (though it was certainly hipper than Coldplay or Metallica, I can assure you) and it was advertised as new. When I got it, it was new, but is was a special copy protected version. I had no problem ripping it in iTunes, but on the back it says the CD may not work in some car players, etc. I felt like I was ripped off. “Oh, here’s this intentionally crippled product. We call it new. Enjoy!”

Circle of Triceratops

is a phrase uttered by young Eva, who received a dinosaur book from Carrie. It contains a picture of a well, you know. Anyway, I figured it would be a good name for a heavy rock band. If I find my heavy band and they have a sense of humor, well then watch out world.

Good lord, it really has been a week, hasn’t it? we had company through Tuesday, Wednesday was recovery, and then the rest of the week just slipped by without a blog post. And so, to get my chops back, I bring you the following meme.

Total Volume of Music Files on My Computer: 15.55 GB

The Last CD I Bought Was: Metallica, St. Anger

First of all, let me point out that I could have lied but I am telling you the truth. But the fact of the matter is that we saw Some Kind of Monster, which I highly recommend. Not only was the movie funny, but some of the music sounded pretty good. Unfortunately, the album pretty much sucks, as I verified on a careful listed today. The lyrics are embarrassingly bad and mixed high enough that you can’t ignore them. Not only is the songwriting bad, but the mix is, well bizarre and not in a good way. There are a few moments of riffage that I recognize from the movie, but definitely not worth it.

Song Playing Right Now: “The Life and Death of Mr.Badmouth”, PJ Harvey. PJ Harvey has the most rock and roll voice in existence.

Five Songs I Listen To a Lot, Or That Mean a Lot To Me:

Hoo-boy. I’m not a song guy. I’m an album guy. I’m also not a lyrics guy, so this will get weird. But here goes, in no order of significance:

1. Houston, “Sunday in December.” 1:57 of pure unadulterated rock. Amazingly crafted song — pretty, singsongy and intense all at once. Didn’t live up to the hype live, but then we only got to see them once.

2. Bill Lasswell, “Cybotron.” And the message of this song is. . . . “smoke more dope.” Actually, that’s the message of Bill Lasswell’s entire oeuvre, I think. But actually I am particularly fond of this one for its bowel shaking bassline. It occurs to me at this moment that I should do an entry about basslines. That will come under separate cover.

3. Pink Floyd, “Another Brick in the Wall Part I”. I was 13, about to turn 14. Pete Tveten told me to lay down next to the speaker and he put on side 1 of the Wall. I had no idea you could do that with rock music. Later in 9th grade, my knowledge of Pink Floyd temporarily made me cooler with the other kids than I might otherwise have been. Aesthetic pleasure and utility, all wrapped up in one. I find the song a little laborious now, but then, I would, wouldn’t I? Note: this experience also sent me on what now might be regarded as a somewhat unfortunate art-rock craze. But hey, it’s my list and I’m sticking to it.

4. Prefuse 73 “The End of Biters–International”: I dunno, two short songs on here (this one clocks in at 1:17) seems indulgent since most things I listen to are longer, but I really know of no other song that sounds like this one. It stands out from all of his other work and doesn’t sound like anyone else. Really remarkable piece of music.

5. Enon “Biofeedback” annoys the hell out of Carrie and there’s nothing quite as funny as annoying the one you love. Actually, there’s this old Free Range Chicken song, “Ali Baba” that also did the trick, but since I actually like the Enon song quite a bit, there’s an added bonus in playing that one.

Okay, off to a party.