Space Pirates Ltd.

This track is more of a finished work than a test track, but I was so pleased with its outcome, that I decided it deserved it’s own update.

One night, as I was enjoying a bit of night air on my back porch, I could hear my neighbor strumming three chords over and over again. Simple melodies always get stuck in my head on loop. It happens with commercials, creaking signs and cricket chirps. This time was no different. I went back inside and sat down at my computer. With the little melody in mind, I opened Garageband, plugged in my keyboard and started to play the chord with different voices. I chose electric piano, an instrument I play around with a lot. I recorded a solid loop for the keyboards and started to record the vocals. For whatever reason, the lyrics to this song came very naturally. They were all off the top of my head and to my surprise, work very well.

For a week or two, I played around wih vocal harmonies, hand claps and assorted drum loops. I had done all that I could think of, but the song was missing a soul and a skeleton. I instant messaged Eamonn, and asked him if he would work on the song with me. He did and it is more than I could have hoped for.

The end.

Edd and Dd - The Flower

Hello! Rifty here, hope our five readers are doing well! This little article’s been bouncing around my head for weeks and weeks and weeks, from just after the Linux one actually. But for one reason or another I could never actually manage to articulate everything. Not much of a problem with me usually, so as you can imagine it became quite a sore point for me.

So Dan’s been bugging me to write Something right? Loves content that man does, and frankly I’ve been thinking we’ve dipped into the random and crazy MSPaint pool a bit much. I sat here and thought and thought and thought, trying desperately to come up with a solid piece of writing.

Nothing came up, nothing at all.

What’s a college age writer to do?

Do it all at once late at night while drinking lots of coffee of course! So that’s the plan, everything’s been written in the last eight minutes, and I’ve always had a topic, so I figure I’ll rant away.

I’ve got a reputation as the resident geek, and it’s not exactly a undeserving title. I can talk about Star Wars, The Enterprise (All eight of em!) how warp drives work and I can explain how to play Yu-Gi-Oh in fifteen minutes. But all these pale in comparison to the one thing I love more than Lord of the Rings and the Original Trilogy and Seven of Nine’s magnificent curves.

Doctor Who.

(more…)

Space Pirate Podcast #6: HAM Radio Hotzone

A once in a lifetime glimpse into the exciting world of HAM Radio users. On the INTERNET.

I first became familiar with Gogol Bordello in February, as Steve and I were driving from Pittsburgh to Penn State. He had a few songs of theirs on his iPod mix, and they began to catch my fancy. Gogol Bordello plays a high-energy mix of punk rock and Roma (that is, gypsy) folk.

This week I chose one of their slower songs, “Start Wearing Purple.” To me at least, the lyrics make no sense. In the third verse, the lead singer even lapses into another language (which language exactly, I’m not sure; it sounds Slavic). Despite the slower tempo, the song has a powerful groove augmented by a simplistic yet effective bass line, and an interesting instrumentation. Accordions and fiddles can be heard throughout the song.

Gogol Bordello – Start Wearing Purple

This is Dan scrounging for material.

I remember as a teen and seeing Busta Rhymes on MTV and thinking that he was part of some rapper fad that I would never understand. He was crazy, goofy, colorful and an amazing lyricist. So, I put his memory in the storgae bin in my brain of musical garbage that I’ll most likely never use. Well, the Mom in my brain must have had a yard sale and rummaged through that bin, and then the kid that lives in my brain came home from school and was all like “Mom, what the hell, you’re going to sell this? This is awesome.” Then the kid took it (Busta Rhymes) upstairs and investigated what he had just saved. This is what that kid found:

In Fire It Up, Busta gets abducted by some people who hold him hostage until a dystopian future, where he explores this 1984-ish wasteland (supposedly 2012) with the help of the NightRider theme song.

In Gimme Some Mo, Busta pretends to be in a cartoon where he terrorizes his hot Mom. He becomes a cowboy, a cop, a business man and a muscle man. Busta’s message to viewers:

Even though we getting money you can
Gimme some more
With the cars and the big crib
Gimme some more
Everybody spread love
Gimme some more
If you want it let me hear you say
Gimme some more

Finally, in Put Your hands Where My Eyes Can See, Busta is an affluent mansion owner. He participates in such activites as sparring, neon tribal dancing, running down a hallway with his elephant, and having his teeth brushed for him.

Not too long ago, in a forum not too far away, I made a thread in which members of the Space Pirate community posted some of their favorite Star Wars quotes, and I attempted to translate them into German. Here is the result of that thread. First is the original quote, followed by it’s German translation, then in parentheses are literal translations from German.

That’s no moon…it’s a space station!
Das ist kein Mond…es ist eine Weltraumstation! (That is no moon…it is a space station!)

Hold ‘em off. Angle the deflector shield while I make the calculations for the jump to light speed.
Verteudig gegen ihrem! Angel das Abfälschenschild, obwohl ich kalkuliere für die Lichtgeschwindigkeit gehen! (Defend against them! Angle the deflector shield while I calculate for the lightspeed going!)

It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. (more…)

I was kicking back, watching some infomercials the other day, as I am wont to do, and I was shocked to see none other than former leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, Reverend Ted Haggard, appear on screen. For those of you who are out of the loop, there is a “former” preceding that title because in November of 2006, it was discovered that Mr. Haggard, in addition to saving souls, also enjoyed Crystal Meth and male prostitutes.

I’m sorry; that’s misleading. It was only one male prostitute.
(more…)

A story by me and Davey.

To be continued…

Space Pirate Podcast #5: Good Forum Bad Forum

After a recent bad experience on the internet, Ethan and I decided to make a podcast that reflected the event in he same vein as the Animaniacs “Good Idea, Bad Idea.”

To me, some of the best examples of good musicians are those who are versatile. King Crimson has gone through three so-called styles, starting with a dark progressive rock from the late 60’s to mid-70’s, then moving on to a progressive new wave style in the 80’s, and then dabbling in experimental rock/ progressive metal in the 90’s.

While each King Crimson lineup is composed of stellar musicians, one of their more impressive members is Adrian Belew, who had formerly worked with Frank Zappa and David Bowie. He first worked with King Crimson in 1981 on the album Discipline, in which Belew’s powerful vocals and guitar wizardry stood out on the album.

This week, I chose a live version of the first track from Discipline, “Elephant Talk.” Belew’s amazing vocals and guitar work is complemented by a powerful rhythm section featuring drum-maestro Bill Bruford and Tony Levin, a progenitor of the bass-like instrument called “the stick.”

This is one of the tightest live performances I have ever seen. Enjoy this. I certainly do.

King Crimson - Elephant Talk

This film (not yet rated) hearlded a new era of quality within the movie making industry. Stellar camera work, soul-shaking acting performances and out of this world special effects have cemented this movie in the heart of the human psyche. Many can find influences from Kubrick, Spielberg and Scorsese. This movie gets two thumbs, way up!

See the preiview here.