Posted: October 17th, 2011
In music, the submediant is the sixth scale degree of the diatonic scale, the 'lower mediant' halfway between the tonic and thesubdominant or 'lower dominant'.[3] It is also the third factor of the subdominant (IV) triad.
Posted: July 2nd, 2011
no doubt, there's probably a good number of folks who'll still be heading into the back country in colorado this weekend to get in some final turns before hanging up their skis for the "season". while most of you will be thinking of summer, fireworks, & red, white & blue, here's a link to a blog I wrote, that was just posted on the Patagonia website:
Posted: June 23rd, 2011
if you are a NYS resident: today will probably be the last day of the session in Albany. Please call Sen. Griffo’s office and ask him to at least support the Hydrofracking Moratorium bill S.5592 Carlucci and the bill Classifying Fracking Waste as Hazardous:S.4616 Avella Call - 518-455-3334
Posted: June 21st, 2011
We are excited to inform you that tomorrow, Wednesday June 22, Aung San Suu Kyi will for the first time address an U.S. Congressional hearing on Burma. Congressman Donald Manzullo (R-IL), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific will hold a hearing entitled "Piercing Burma's Veil of Secrecy: The Truth Behind the Sham Election and the Difficult Road Ahead."
Aung San Suu Kyi prerecorded a video address that will be shown at the hearing. In addition, USCB's Executive Director Aung Din and Dr. Chris Beyrer, Director of Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights will also testify. The hearing will be broadcast live via webcast here: http://www.hcfa.house.gov.
Watch online and follow our live twitter feed of the hearing at http://twitter.com/#!/uscb.
The timing of the hearing could not be more urgent, as Burma's regime continues to launch military offensives against ethnic resistance groups in the northern part of Burma in Shan State, and Kachin State, that have driven nearly 20,000 refugees into hiding along the China-Burma border and into China.
EVENT DETAILS:
Location: Rayburn House Office Building, Committee on Foreign Affairs Room 2172
Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Time: 12:30 pm
See detailed schedule at http://www.hcfa.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1312
Posted: June 18th, 2011
from brucespringsteen.net:
It is with overwhelming sadness that we inform our friends and fans that at 7:00 tonight, Saturday, June 18, our beloved friend and bandmate, Clarence Clemons passed away. The cause was complications from his stroke of last Sunday, June 12th.
Bruce Springsteen said of Clarence: Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner, and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band.
Posted: June 17th, 2011
So, recently, @ Summer Camp & Wolftrap & ran into some issues w. my fuzz pedals. In a geeky, remote corner of the guitar world, there is a small segment of users dedicated to vintage fuzz pedals - specifically the ones that rely on germanium transistors. These are the same pedals used by Keith Richards ("Satisfaction"), Hendrix & Page (just about everything), & SRV later in his career ("In Step"). Some of the legendary FX include the Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face & the Vox Tonebender.
The thing about germanium, is that it does not like heat & humidity. As Analogman, Mike Piera put it, "They're a lot like us". Analogman makes a great fuzz pedal, based on the Fuzz Face, called the Sun Face. Chuck & I are both big fans & have used them for years. Until recently, I've always had other overdrives & lead options on my pedalboard, but these days, I rely solely on the Sun Face. Recently, I'd sent my vintage '60s Fuzz Face to Mike to have him voice a Sun Face to sound as close as possible to the original. In the end, they were almost indiscernible (I hope to do a shootout soon).
So, the summer heat - those + 90˚ days, are simply not conducive to germanium fuzz tone. When it's right, it's like butter. You can clean it up by rolling back your volume. You can making it sound like it's exploding by turning up to 10. On hot days, it sounds like an anemic, ratty speaker on its last legs. So Mike offered up a solution - A Peltier Device. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling
So now Analogman is working on a Beta version of an onboard cooling system for vintage fuzz pedals. I should have mine on the road for our tour in July. I'll be posting some pix & updates as we go.
When Stevie Ray got hooked on fuzz pedals, Cesar Diaz, his tech used to keep them on ice. Supposedly, every 15-20 minutes, they'd swap them out for a 'cool' one. I love the lengths guitar players will go to, when chasing tone.
Posted: June 13th, 2011
that was fun. thanks for sticking it out in the rain. all 6,000 of you. holy moly. you rule.
I'll try & keep the ball rolling here. I really need to fix my youtube acct, so I can link to some videos that I have, but meanwhile will post some pix & other random eye candy to make the posts a bit more interesting.
live long & prosper.
Posted: June 11th, 2011
just pulled into balloonfest. had no idea how cool this would be. there's a whole midway set up, along w. vending, rides, etc. pretty cool. looking fwd. to it. a bit overcast, but hopefully the weather will hold out. so much nicer than the 'humid press of days' we just dealt with down south.
richmond was great. loved the national. great venue. look fwd. to returning. also got to see drive by truckers for a little while before our gig. love that band.
xoxo
Posted: June 10th, 2011
hey there.
great show last night @ wolftrap w. the levon helm band. they are a top notch band & a nice group to know too. hard to say what my favorite part of the night was - having jim weider & larry campbell sit in on "shoot 1st", watching vin play drums w. levon on "the weight", as we all sat in on the last tune, or simply getting to hang out with my cousin dave (yes, that cousin dave).
looking fwd. to tonight's show @ the national in richmond. I just realized it's only a few blocks from sound of music - david lowery's studio where we recorded the 1st transams album. also hoping we can go check out drive by truckers before our show. DBT is playing before us, outside. our show starts well after theirs & is less than a mile away, so hope to just walk over & catch their set. their new album is one of my favorites.
xoxo,
al
