Buddy Rich

Buddy Rich was a leader of a big band, probably most popular in the 50's and 60's, and is often regarded as the greatest drummer ever. I don't know much about drums, but just watching this video has me sold on the guy. Look how damn fast his arms and sticks are moving, he's moving in hyperspeed really. I like the part at 2:55 where he builds up the tempo to an amazing speed, its amazing he has so much control over such minute movements.




There is also a video on YouTube of a Drum Battle of Buddy Rich versus Animal from Sesame Street. Buddy Rich had done drum face-offs before, I guess this was a parody of it. I want to have a drum face-off on Rock Band, someone get a drumset! It'd be intense.

PS I love Rock Band, the perfect melding of music (good music) and video games. 3 new Downloadable songs announced every Monday and released the next day on Tuesday! It's seriously like Christmas every week... Guitar Hero blows (3, specifically). This week, Rock Band released The Monkees - Last Train to Clarksville and its awesome! Guitar and Vocals are so much fun, and I'm sure drums will be a blast.

Live Performances

I was reading a thread for "The Best Guitar Solos" on the Rock Band Forums, and I came across this performance of Bron Yr Aur Stomp by Led Zeppelin at Earl's Court in 1975. Jimmy Page's acoustic playing is pretty sick, Robert Plant looks really menacing, something about the way he's grinning at the beginning, and tossing his hair back, kind of creeps me out but intrigues me at the same time... The best part: after Page's solo, when the rhythm section kicks back in at around 4:49, with John Bonham's booming bass drum and John Paul Jones' lurching bass lines. There's something swampy about it...




The thread also refreshed my memory of this performance of Soul Sacrifice by Santana at Woodstock in 1969. Not only is Santana up to his usual guitar magic, but the drummer Michael Shrieve has an amazing solo, starting at 3:00. And he's only 19, playing in front of close to a million people. But the best part is when the band picks back up just after 5:00; the energy is off the charts.



Why can't modern bands make music like this?

Guitar Hero III

One of my favorite songs of all time on Guitar Hero III. I can't wait to dominate people on it.

It was a dark and stormy night...

And Tom Everhart was at work in his studio creating his beautiful renditions of Charles Schulz' Peanuts characters, one of which is the title picture to my blog about which one of my readers inquired.  I believe I first saw Mr. Everhart's work at an art gallery in Monterey, when I was visiting the aquarium and picking up some calamari steaks.  I've always liked the technique of pointillism, and here it was combined with vibrant colors to recapture some of my favorite cartoon characters of all time.  What's amazing is the size of Everhart's canvasses.  Paintings such as my title picture ("As the Sun Slowly Sets We Bid You A Fine Farewell") stretched over 6 ft x 12 ft.   You can see the rest of his paintings here.

While on the topic of Peanuts, how awesome would it be to have a statue of Snoopy and Charlie Brown in your hometown?  Santa Rosa, I'm jealous...

Mr. Mustache

For all of the great games that are coming out this holiday season, one has kind of fallen off of my radar that really should not have: Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii.  After watching the videos I've included below, I am extremely excited for this game.  It really reminds me of Mario 64, not only in the gameplay, but just in how fresh and exciting it looks.  The visuals look astounding for the Wii, which so far has been pretty disappointing to me.  However, this game should turn things around.  The vibrant colors and all of the interesting characters in the game make it feel as if you were in fantasy land, akin to being in Disneyland.  It all seems so refreshing, like it will be so much more joyful to play than the dark, grim games I have been playing as of late, such as Bioshock, Gears of War, Halo 3.  I love Mario, he's so funny, he makes funny little noises.  I'll just have to add this game to the growing list...  I can't get all of them, but as of now, I think Super Mario Galaxy's place is secured.

• Project Gotham Racing 4, Today
• NBA 2K8, Today
• FIFA 08, Oct 9th
• The Orange Box, Oct 9th
• Guitar Hero III, Oct 28th
• Call of Duty 4, Nov 5th
• Super Mario Galaxy, Nov 12th
• Assassin's Creed, Nov 13th
• Mass Effect, Nov 20th
• Rock Band, Nov 23rd
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Dec 3rd

US Cities

Note: Applications for lead singer have been reviewed and Katherine has been selected as our lead singer!  We will dominate your band!

I am always fascinated with big cities and everything that comes with them.  The tall skyscrapers, upscale shopping districts, public transportation systems, and everything in between.    Fortunately I am lucky enough to live near one of the world's top cities, San Francisco.  The sheer magnitude of large cities used to impress me the most, and I would love looking through the Almanac at the nation's largest cities by population.   And it would always surprise me to find cities like San Jose in the top 10.  What really should be more important than sheer population is population density.  Without a doubt, New York City would still be the top city in the US, but as you can see from this chart I compiled from stats from Wikipedia, San Francisco would be number 2. 

Rank   City,   State                         Population     Density (/sq mi)

1           New York, New York              8,214,426             27,083

2           Los Angeles, California          3,849,378            8,205

3           Chicago, Illinois                     2,873,321             12,470

4           Houston, Texas                      2,144,491              3,701

5           Phoenix, Arizona                    1,512,986             3,077

6           Philadelphia, Pennsylvania   1,448,394             4,201

7           San Antonio, Texas                1,296,682             2,808

8           San Diego, California             1,256,951             3,871

9           Dallas, Texas                          1,232,940             3,544

10         San Jose, California                929,936               5,216

11          Detroit, Michigan                   871,121                6,856

12         Jacksonville, Florida               794,555

13         Indianapolis, Indiana             785,597

14         San Francisco, California       744,041               15,834

15         Columbus, Ohio                      733,203

16         Austin, Texas                          709,893

17         Memphis, Tennessee              670,902

18         Fort Worth, Texas                   653,320

19         Baltimore, Maryland               631,366              7,871

20        Charlotte, North Carolina      630,478

22        Boston, Massachusetts           590,763               12,327

23        Seattle, Washington               582,454               6,901

24        Washington, DC                     581,530               9,015

34        Atlanta, Georgia                     486,411

43        Miami, Florida                       404,048               11,504

The problem I have with rankings by sheer population is that a city like San Jose, with no impressive downtown, no tourist attractions, and an overall dull atmosphere, can lay claim to being the 10th largest city in the nation.  To me, that is an attractive claim, but one which San Jose has no business claiming.  Density, on the other hand, really is more telling of a city and what it has to offer.  High density is more representative of what I view when I think of a real city: tall office and apartment buildings, tight residential areas, and urban parks.  One of the most appealing thing to me about San Francisco is its density, and the fact that you can walk easily between all of the interesting parts of the city, or take a short ride on a comprehensive transit system.  This is what turns me off from places like Los Angeles, which might have interesting areas like Hollywood, or Rodeo Drive, or Santa Monica, or Westwood, or Santa Monica, but getting around between each area is a pain with the clogged transportation arteries and lack of a subway/metro system.  But it's not just that.. San Francisco is so much prettier than Los Angeles.

One of the more interesting articles I've found on Wikipedia focused on a list compiled by the PJ Taylor at the GaWC in 2004, documenting his rankings of world cities [1].  His rankings were based on everything from economic importance, tourist appeal, sports teams, diversity, technological capabilities, transportation, etc.  "Well-rounded Global Cities" included London and New York City, cities with a "Very Large Contribution".  Next were the Global Cities with "Smaller Contribution and Cultural Strengths."  At this level is Los Angeles, Paris, and San Francisco.  This speaks volume about how great a city San Francisco really is, to be on par with Paris (and LA), and just below London and NYC, while above great cities like Chicago and Tokyo.  Also interesting to note, one of my other favorite cities, Boston, is ranked just below on the next rung, as an "Incipient Global City," meaning in the initial stages and showing promise of becoming a true Global City.  Ranked along with Boston are Amsterdam, Chicago, Milan, Madrid, Moscow, and Toronto.  This ranking, if anything, says much about how population alone (Boston: 22nd most populated US city, but 4th most dense, behind NY, SF, Chicago) says nothing about the importance and appeal of a city.

Rock Band

If you haven't heard of Rock Band, you are missing out. Made by the developers of Guitar Hero, this game not only includes guitar play, but also has bass guitar, drums, and vocals so that 4 friends can all play together to form a complete band. Even if its remotely close to being as fun as Guitar Hero, this game is going to be awesome, set to be released November 20th. Online play though XBOX 360 will allow my brother Chris in Chicago to be my bassist, Greg in San Diego to be my drummer, with myself as the Guitar Hero.  Lead singer needed!  Now accepting applications.  Check out the announced song list (so far):

1960s
"Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones

1970s
"Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who
"Mississippi Queen" by Mountain (cover track)
"Suffragette City" by David Bowie
"Paranoid" by Black Sabbath (cover track)
"Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult
"Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones
"Highway Star" by Deep Purple
"Detroit Rock City" by KISS

1980s
"Tom Sawyer" by Rush (cover track)
"Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi
"Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash
"Epic" by Faith No More
"Wave of Mutilation" by The Pixies

1990s
"Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters
"Enter Sandman" by Metallica
"In Bloom" by Nirvana
"Vasoline" by Stone Temple Pilots
"Say It Ain't So" by Weezer
"Cherub Rock" by Smashing Pumpkins
"Creep" by Radiohead
"Sabotage" by Beastie Boys
"Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden
"Celebrity Skin" by Hole
"I Think I'm Paranoid" by Garbage

2000s
"Main Offender" by The Hives
"Go With the Flow" by Queens of the Stone Age
"Reptilia" by The Strokes
"Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet
"Here It Goes Again" by OK Go
"The Hand That Feeds" by Nine Inch Nails
"Dani California" by Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Maps" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Add to those the announcement that the ENTIRE Who's Next album by The Who will be available for download and you've got an amazing set of songs. Who's Next is one of my favorite albums of all time.

Here is a short snippet of Weezer's Say It Aint' So (seems like they've got it on pretty easy difficulty though)..
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