Every once in a while I re-visit things to re-assess my take on them, especially if I haven't listened to them in a long while. Most recently, this was Television's Marquee Moon and Big Star's #1 Record. I still find them dull. Nothing grabs me at all. These are critical darlings and supposed to be "great" rock records, but the songs don't grab me and the vibe is un-rocking- they lack energy.

i think marquee moon is one of those records that makes way more sense in the context of history than anything else. it's art punk sensibilities were as weird at the time as something like the talking heads first record--- that KIND of music..it just didn't exist, and it was a time when new york was the creative capital of the universe.. so it got attributed mystical properties. but emotively? just an alien species, really, and i think that was kinda it's aim.

i love marquee moon-- but it's not one of those records that makes me think 'MAN.. that's what i'm going for'. ever. it's just too postured and.. well.. new york. cerebral weirdness. can there be 'later-recognized-as-establishment antiestablishment art punk'? cause if there can.. television are it. doesn't diminish the great playing or interesting musical ideas at all-- but it's got an attitude that seems a very self aware type of sophomoric art-school snotty to me. i'd love a copy without the vocals...

big star.. eh.. i kinda feel the same way. it's pretty rock music.. but it really doesn't speak to me either.

Haha, i love the shit out of both of those ones.

Granted, #1 Record is my least favorite Big Star disc. I much prefer Radio City to it. And probably 3rd/Sister Lovers is my favorite, but mostly for its general vibe unhinged-ness. Big Star to me, is about regular old solid pop songs that come in two fairly different flavors between Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, but neither of which really fit too well in the time or place they popped out of(Memphis, and a little late even if it had been somewhere else, 1971-74). I like their mismatch-ness in that angle. September Gurls is a godamned fantastic pop song song. So is Kizza Me, and a bunch of other ones of theirs as well, IMO.

I actually like a lot a lot of the vocal things that go on on most of their songs. I like the generally simple and direct classic recording sounds as well. Heavily compressed single overheads, overdubbed tom parts to keep things simple in the room, nice jangley un-fucked-with guitar sounds(sound pretty voxy to me most of the time, but i actually don't know what they used). I personally feel like they are a fantastic pop band that recorded well. And Alex Chilton liked to break and subvert the pop-ness quite a bit, which especially later on is a big part(aside from distribution woes) of why they were never that big in the end. And i do like some broken and subverted pop-ness.

Really, i like them for about the same reason that i like the Byrds, or indeed why i like the Soft Boys, they were a good pop band with some odd choices for some things, and what i find to be some interesting vocal harmony things to go with some heavily compressed voxy jangle guitars.

I like Marquee Moon for the busy guitars and what i find to be interesting drum choices. I really enjoy the interlocking guitar parts, rarely playing the same thing as each other, always playing something interesting and, in contrast to the generally slightly-too-laidback vocal, always bouncing all over the place. I have liked most of the things that had a combination of Richard Llloyd, Tom Verlaine, and/or Robert Quine playing guitar on them, so Television kind of fits right in(though admittedly i like it less well than the guitar work Llyod/Quine did on those first two matthew sweet records). Actually, as i am listening to this record right now to refresh my memory, i like just about every bit of this thing, aside from maybe the recording itself, which has always struck me as an awkward combination of thinness, dryness, and oddly located reverbs.

I love most of what emerged from NYC at the time that Television was doing Marqueee Moon. I like the attitude put on so much of it of "no seriously, we actually BELIEVE ourselves to be far cooler than any of you slobs" that runs through it. I find it more fun than pretentious. Like Stiv Bators playing CBGBs with balogna safety-pinned to his shirt. I love the Voidoids stuff too, and i find it to be very similar to the sound of Marquee Moon really, though with a different angle on the vocal.

But i can totally see someone not liking either of the records you mention. I think both are just sort of they do something for you or they don't. Maybe that has something to do with when/how you first hear it, i dunno. I actually didn't like Television at first because i was expecting something more like the Dead Boys or something, and then it was all busy guitars and coolguy art vocals and kind of not really at all what i thought was punk at the time. I don't know actually, exactly how/when it worked its way into my "like" column really. But i eventually i did just start liking it for what it sounded like, instead of disliking it for what i thought it was going to sound like.

Banana and peanut butter is a godly sandwich filling when you're hung over and want something sweet went out in Brighton last night after seeing Protest The Hero (who were insanely good live from what I remember) and got absolutely hammered. The vodka I had on the train down probably didn't help though

I SEE KNOPE! KNOPE HOW ARE YOU!

And then he was gone. :sad:

I just spilled beer all over my good mouse and now i have to use my ancient one. How the fuck do people get by using mice that operate at less than 1800 DPI? This shit is ridiculous.

I game with the cheapest logitech wireless mouse available, and perform fairly well in FPS like TF2 and CS:GO. About the only thing that suffers is sniping. I really need to get a good mouse and get my laptop back up and running. I wonder how much better I would be with marginally-competitive gear.

I think that some of those Logi mice are actually pretty decent, speed-wise. If it is recent it is possibly 800+ dpi. The one i have here though is from probably about the USB 1.0 launch, 1996, and good for IIRC about 400dpi, and that, at a verrry slow polling rate. It will never stop working. Just, it is really really lo-fi and slower than shit.

I got the cheapo Razer 1800dpi (Salmosa i think) back in the day, mostly because it makes drawing in photoshop much easier for me. It is super-jumpy in normal windows usage, but you get used to it pretty quick(and if you don't, it has a switch on the bottom to go to 800dpi). It was only like twenty bucks, maybe twenty-five. It is now about ready to be replaced after about maybe five years, maybe a little more. Aside from the beer i put in it yesterday, it works fine still, but the rubbery coating has worn thin in a bunch of places.

I cannot go back to this slow one for anything longer than temporary bandaid use though now. I should fire up some games and see how fucked up it is after being used to the other one. I would guess that the sensitivity setting would be wayyyy off. I seem to recall running all games with the sensitivity maxxed out back in the day.

http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/app ... a_id/26380

Looks like it maxes out at 1000 dpi. Honestly I'm surprised, but this mouse is a fucking tank. I drop it on hardwood floors at least once a day, and it refuses to fucking break. It's jittery as all fuck for arting and such, and like I said I can't snipe with it at all, so I guess it probably doesn't hit that 1000dpi max very often. I really want a better mouse and a mechanical keyboard, but I really need to get a better computer first.

It is possibly also more the polling rate(i.e. how often the mouse tells the computer where it is) that makes it feel jittery.

In general, i find wireless stuff to be a little wonky for that sort of thing anyhow. I think it might be one too many steps of translation for the mouse to send a signal, then for the IR/Bluetoof/whatever receiver to get the information from the mouse, and then for it to relay it to the cpu. My wireless keyboard is continually fucking up, especially in modern games where the CPU is already hella busy, the keyboard input seems to get lost in the shuffle somewhat often. On the other hand, the wired mouse doesn't have ANY problems even though i leave it at its highest dpi and polling settings. A wired keyboard is in my future i think.

My new mouse, if it ever gets here, should be nicer than the old one even. We will see. Ordering shit from china always seems like a decent enough idea for the cost, until it becomes time to wait for the shit to ship/arrive.

I have started a new band with my house mates. So far its definitely a throw back to early 80's punk which is far removed from my usual playing style. It's a great opportunity to break out the strat and play with bright, low to medium gain tones which is presenting a whole new tonal challenge.

So I found a clarinet in my closet.

I've never played clarinet before in my life.

Then it behooves you to start.

Yeah. I definitely need to buy a new mouthpiece at the very least, though, because germophobia. I bought it off a friend several years ago for $20 to help her fill her gas tank (She was too proud to just take the money), and knowing her and her family's hoarding tendencies, it's entirely possible she wasn't even the first owner of it. Hell, I don't even know if the damn thing will work.

I'd be replacing the reed, at the least. The mouthpiece itself, plain old alcohol I think would suffice? Re: it functioning, as long as the keywork isn't fucked up/rusted and not moving, I'd think you're good? It's not a horribly complex piece of technology, but all the moving bits are on the outside and thus exposed to potential damage, so...

Yeah, the keys all seem to be intact. There isn't a reed in it to begin with, so I have to buy one or a couple, obviously. I know alcohol would technically do the trick on the mouthpiece, but there's just something a bit unsettling about your instrument having been inside the mouth of a person you don't know...

Scratch that. One key needs a new pad. That shouldn't be too big of an issue, though.

Moved into my new house Got the important shit installed first. And of course I had to test it out a couple of times

And now I'm back! Swamped at school, but overall doing fine.

No soundcloud at the university, I can't catchup with all the noises I have missed

Oh the joys of home renovation I seem to have lost all the skin from my knuckles from slipped bolts and general incompetence, and called just about every inanimate object in the house a fucking cunt

It is good to see you, and really, it is good to be too busy from time to time.

As for streaming audio, what can you use? Does the school clamp down on youtube, soundclick, dropbox, etc? Geoff has done some youtoobs of late, and Snaxo has IIRC been putting his sounds out via dropbox means. Cam Heck's recoardings are i think indeed all soundcloud tho. As are mine, though you aren't missing anything with mine.