Feb 26
This week, The Sound are being featured. The Sound are an early to mid Eighties band that get lumped into the same pool as Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division. I’ve never really heard them, so that should all change this week.
To listen, go to http://www.imsmarterthanyou.com and click the link in the upper right.
Feb 26
This week, The Sound are being featured. The Sound are an early to mid Eighties band that get lumped into the same pool as Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division. I’ve never really heard them, so that should all change this week.
To listen, go to http://www.imsmarterthanyou.com and click the link in the upper right.
Feb 22
This week, Siouxsie and the Banshees are being featured. I never really listened to their albums so putting several of them into the mix will get me more aware of what they were doing back in the day.
To listen, go to http://www.imsmarterthanyou.com and click the link in the upper right.
Feb 14
Please stop with the automatic downloading of a file I’m getting from your website. It doesn’t work due to this message:
Just give me a big fat button called “Click here” and I will do so.
Thank you.
Feb 14
…was way more influential to music in the ’70’s (and by association, today) than I ever gave him credit for.
Meanwhile, tiny little Kraftwerk continues to show up in more and more places as an influence. David Bowie admits that he was influenced by them on his Low album which influenced countless bands (Joy Division, to name one).
This makes me think that Kraftwerk may have been the most influential band in the history of the world not named The Beatles.
Jan 23
This has been around a while, but I only ever found out about it a few months ago. There aren’t a ton of obvious articles about it on the Internet so I’m writing this mostly to have something for my own personal reference.
In short, do a “show access list XXX” to print out the access list you want to edit.
Next, go into config mode and type in:
ip access-list ext <XXX>
You now get a new prompt in your config mode (config-ext-nacl). From here, type in the sequence number you want to assign to the new ACL line. A sequence number is basically a line number and this number tells the router where in the access list you want to place this new line. Remember the first step where we showed the access list? The numbers to the left of the access list are the current sequence numbers. So if you want to add a new line between lines 20 and 30 you would enter the following:
25 permit ip any any eq telnet
Type exit twice (or ctrl-Z) and type “Show access-l XXX” and you should now see a sequence number 25 which has been added to the active ACL.
To delete a line from an ACL, you basically do the same thing as above. Once you get to the (config-ext-nacl) prompt, just type no XXX where XXX is the sequence line number you want to delete. So if we want to delete the sequence number 25 that we added above, we would type in:
no 25
That’s about it. If it doesn’t work for you, make sure you’re running a fairly recent release of IOS.
Jan 23
This has been around a while, but I only ever found out about it a few months ago. There aren’t a ton of obvious articles about it on the Internet so I’m writing this mostly to have something for my own personal reference.
In short, do a “show access list XXX” to print out the access list you want to edit.
Next, go into config mode and type in:
ip access-list ext <XXX>
You now get a new prompt in your config mode (config-ext-nacl). From here, type in the sequence number you want to assign to the new ACL line. A sequence number is basically a line number and this number tells the router where in the access list you want to place this new line. Remember the first step where we showed the access list? The numbers to the left of the access list are the current sequence numbers. So if you want to add a new line between lines 20 and 30 you would enter the following:
25 permit ip any any eq telnet
Type exit twice (or ctrl-Z) and type “Show access-l XXX” and you should now see a sequence number 25 which has been added to the active ACL.
To delete a line from an ACL, you basically do the same thing as above. Once you get to the (config-ext-nacl) prompt, just type no XXX where XXX is the sequence line number you want to delete. So if we want to delete the sequence number 25 that we added above, we would type in:
no 25
That’s about it. If it doesn’t work for you, make sure you’re running a fairly recent release of IOS.
Jan 23
I like the website www.mratings.com. The guy does stistical analysis of all sorts of sports, and his college football stats are used as part of the BCS.
Anyway, here is his strength assesment for the NFL:
http://www.mratings.com/rate.php?lg=nfl
Indianapolis: #2 schedule in the NFL.
Chicago: 30th. (THIRTIETH!) – the second EASIEST schedule in the NFL, and this ranking includes their playoff games!
Hey, the Bears beat the teams on their schedule, so I’m not hatin’ on the Bears here. They didn’t put the schedule together. But the Colts played the exact polar opposite schedule and only had one more loss all season (and due to the playoff bye week, the Colts have the same number of wins as the Bears – Colts are 15-4, Bears 15-3).
Before I knew this, I thought the Colts wouold roll the Bears. Now I’m pretty certain that the Colts could have the game wrapped up by halftime.
Jan 17
10 Questions with Brian Ritchie of the Violent Femmes.
The indianapolismusic.net community was asked to submit questions to
Violent Femmes Bassist/multi-instrumentalist Brian Ritchie. The questions are
italicized and his answers are in bold.
I can remember when I heard my first Violent Femmes album. It’s rare that I can remember exactly where I was the first time I heard an album, and the older I get, the less and less likely it is for me to remember where I was when I first heard an album. I go through so many albums anymore, many while sitting at work, that it’s rare that an album can grab my full attention and have my brain bookmark the occasion. For the Vioelent Femmes, my first listen was in the summer of 1987 and I was driving back on I-70 from the American Association of Students of German convention in St. Louis. I was cruising along the highway in my 1984 maroon Mercury Lynx transporting a few kids from Martinsville back to their homes. One of them popped the Violent Femme’s
eponymously titled cassette into the tape deck and I was immediately hooked.
That first album is a landmark album in music history. Here was essentially a punk rock rebellion record but without the slashing guitars and raging vocals. There was no drummer pushing the whole mess forward until everything teeters on the brink of total anarchy. Rather, this was a raw album of acoustic guitars and simple percussion. The vocals were restrained yet carried more passion than most bands I had heard by that time. The songs were catchy yet charged with rebellion and frustration. It was a perfect soundtrack for a 16 year old.
What bands inspired/influenced the early Femmes records?Brian Ritchie: Our biggest influences are the Velvet Underground, Sun Ra,
Johnny Cash, Devo, John Coltrane, Hank Williams Sr., Marcel Duchamp and Fernando Pessoa.
Do those bands still influence your newer works? Are there other bands that influence you or inspire you more nowadays?
Brian Ritchie: After a certain point music making becomes so natural that you don’t really need to find influences. I would guess at this time we inspire more people than those who inspire us.
In 1988 I finally got to see the Violent Femmes when they played the Student Union at Indiana University. It was the first concert my older sister and I had gone to together since we saw the Thompson Twins and O.M.D. at the Convention Center in Indianapolis in 1984. It was cool to be standing among the older college kids watching this band perform (once they got over a 10 minute delay whose details I have forgotten). And the live show was phenomenal. If I wasn’t a fan of the Femmes before I saw them live, I most assuredly was now. I mean, they played a freaking alphorn during the show. How awesome is that?
What are your favorite songs to play live?Brian Ritchie: My favorite song is “Never Tell” because it has many different levels of meaning. Other than that I like “Black Girls”, “Confessions”, “Add It Up” and the other ones we improvise on, because improv keeps us on our toes and fresh. Then I like “Gone Daddy Gone” because it’s just so preposterous and snotty to play a xylophone solo in a rock band.
What songs would you like to play live but don’t?
Brian Ritchie: We don’t use a set list. I call the songs out on stage.
Therefore we play exactly the songs I like. If we could figure out a way to do a punk version of Cesar Franck’s “Symphony in D Minor” I would also like that, but I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon. Actually I would like to play any new material that’s first class. Over the years, I’ve taken almost every opportunity to see the Violent
Femmes. I saw them once again with my sister at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago in 1998. By this time, they had released several more albums. Their brilliant yet dark second release Hallowed Ground showed that they had way more depth than just a bunch of peckish punk-rock wannabees. This album includes the fantastic song “Black Girls” whose rhythms are undeniable but whose lyrics I’m at a loss to explain. Their next release was the hit-or-miss The Blind Leading the Naked, an album that alternates between classic Violent Femmes songs such as “I Held Her In My Arms” and “Special” while forcing the listener to endure less spectacular songs like “Love & Me Make Three”. I remember buying the album 3 on vinyl while I was at IU. I really, really wanted to like it but in the end I find it to be one of the more forgettable Violent Femmes albums. They rarely play more than one or two songs off of this album during
their shows.
Following the release of 3 I had more or less given up on the Femmes. I found the music they released after Hallowed Ground to be more trite than I was looking for. I hesitantly bought their fifth album Why Do Birds Sing and found it to be one of my favorite albums of theirs, right up there with their first two releases. These songs were much more mature and coherent than most anything they had ever released. It is the most well-produced album and has perhaps a bit too much shine and gloss on it, but overall it was a welcome comeback for a band that two years earlier I had written off. After that album, I decided that I would never write them off again. It’s not that Why
Do Birds Sing? is such a phenomenal, gernre-defying album because it’s not. Rather, it’s more like a friend with whom you had lost contact with sent you a letter two years later and the letter said something along the lines of”Sorry for being out of touch for so long. I was in a weird place. Let’s get back in touch”.
It was hard at times to stay in touch. New Times, their follow-up to Why Do Birds Sing?, was a real hit or miss record (akin to The Blind Leading the Naked). Their 1998 release “Rock!!!” was originally released only in Australia until someone decided to release it in the US five years later. Their last proper release was in 2000 with Freak Magnet an album that was consistently good throughout.
All of their albums since their first have some extremely great songs on them, but for understandable reason, people want the Femmes to play the songs off their first album which was released almost 23 years ago. I’ve seen the Violent Femmes five or six times now, and each show is better than the last. They mix their hits with their more obscure album tracks so well that people who don’t know those buried songs still dance and clap as if those buried gems were their favorites. The Violent Femmes excel on stage. The live experience is truly the best place to experience their music.
Are you tired of playing the old stuff? Brian Ritchie: No because the audience is always fresh. Yul Brynner did “The King and I” for 40 years. If you are a professional you summon the inspiration or quit. In recent times, the Violent Femmes have been a bit less active. They haven’t released a new album in 6 years, though they have released their first DVD which captures a performance of them in 1991. Of late, lead singer Gordon Gano has released a solo album (pairing himself up with performs such as Lou Reed, PJ Harvey, and Frank Black) while Brian Ritchie has devoted his talents to mastering the shakuhachi, which is a traditional Japanese bamboo flute.
How is the shakuhachi playing coming along?Brian Ritchie: Thanks for asking about that. I am continuing to play the
shakuhachi internationally. I have a concert in Oslo in a few weeks. I will be teaching at the European Shakuhachi Festival in London in July. And I recorded a new shakuhachi CD which is the history of Japanese music from 7th to 21st Centuries. That will be out later this year. I think I will put it out on my own label. The older I get, the more I am into being self-sufficient and DIY. I don’t know why. Probably should be the other way around.
The Femmes have also explored modern media, having released a b-sides and outtakes album in 2001 via the emusic.com music service. Something’s Wrong features tracks not released on the live compilation Viva Wisconsin as well as various demos recorded in 1995 and 1996.
You were an early adopter of releasing music digitally. How has that
worked out? What are your feelings regarding digital music distribution?Brian Ritchie: Digital distribution is the answer to so many problems
including reducing packaging and ease of distribution. But if people are
stealing music that hurts us and other musicians. We don’t sell as many units as we used to. Actually it’s good for the fans because it forces us to stay out on the road to make a living. On the other hand with little prospect of selling records there is also little incentive to record. I record solo albums to keep my creativity flowing, but a Femmes album is a big project.
The Violent Femmes have also shown up on various Soundtracks and TV shows including an appearance on the completely forgettable “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”.
What made you do the episode of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” that you appeared on?
Melissa was told the plot involved meeting up with a rock band. Her first
concert was VF at the Beacon Theater in NYC and had some sort of emotional significance. We did it because we tend to do anything we are invited to do, especially if it’s new, weird or a challenge. Also it’s a good way of reaching out to people who would never come to a rock concert. There is a long tradition of rockers making cameos in lightweight sitcoms.The Femmes also have a very active fan forum at www.vfemmes.com. One of the recent posts said A French fashion magazine called “Violent Femmes D’Aujourdhui”
has successfully won a lawsuit against the Violent Femmes. One of the unfortunate results of this judgement is that the Femmes have to change their band name or face massive fines and penalties. The posting seemed dubious as various Google searches turned up no imformation about either the magazine or the lawsuit. So it was time to get a straight answer directly from the band.
Do you really have to change your band name, as is mentioned on the
vfemmes.com forum?
That was a hacker who hacked into our website and posted some bogus messages. We haven’t figured out how to delete it. We are computer illiterate.
The Violent Femmes are a band who have stood the test of time. They have released a truly seminal album and several others extremely listenable and enjoyable album. The band counterpoints their quirky sense of humor with songs that are deadly serious. When the songs take an obvious Christian angle, it seems more good natured and fun than someone beating you over the head with the Gospel. The Violent Femmes are masters of their trade having stood the test of time. They still pack a punch on stage and are a “not to be missed” concert any time they come to town.
Why?
Because Sun Ra died and The Byrds split up.太
楽
2006/03/07
Jan 17
So I got poked in the eye with a sharp stick this morning. I can’t say I highly recommend it, but I can say that it’s not as bad as people lead you to believe.
I got diagnosed (again) with histoplasmosis. My first bout was in 1997. At that time, the best medical science had to offer was to blast the infested part of the eye with a “hot laser”. The good thing about the hot laser approach was that it worked. The bad part was that the laser was also going to burn your retina and leave you with a small blind spot in your eye.
My blind spot isn’t so bad, but it’s exceptionally noticeable when looking at bright things like a snow covered lawn in Winter. There were some other really bad parts to the Hot Laser approach to addressing Histo. For one, they have to freeze your eyeball so it doesn’t move while they blast it with the laser. How do you keep an eye from moving? Freeze the muscles that control the eye. How do you freeze the muscles that control the eye? By taking a cold needle, sticking it right below the eye through the bottom eyelid, pushing the needle back to where the eye muscles are, and injecting some cold juice into your head. Repeat twice.
After the three needle shots, you then get a giant contact lens jammed into your eye so you can’t blink. In a very “A Clockwork Orange” type of scene, a nurse puts eye drops into your eyes to keep them wet while the Doctor tells you not to move while a red light is pointed at your eye. It was not a very comfortable experience but I survived and the Histo was blown away along with part of my retina.
Four years later, I had another round of Histo, this time in my left eye. Medical science had come a long way in four years. I was one of the first in the city to go for a “cold laser” treatment. This treatment was so new that the FDA had not yet fully approved its use for addressing Histo, so the $2,500 charge came out of my pocket. I gladly paid because this method promised to leave no long lasting blind spots.
It worked really well. The cold laser approach was a much more elegant approach. You get an injection in your arm of some type of fancy goo. After your body has circulated the goo to your eyes, you then lean forward and the doctor blasts a low powered laser into your eye. The laser heats up the goo, and the goo knocks out the Histoplasmosis. It worked on the first try and, four months later, I got a check from the insurance company reimbursing my expenses. Cool.
So I got another bought of Histo. I went to the same doctor as the last two times. Five years later, medical science has, in theory, advanced again but in practicality… To use the Doctor’s words, the new approach is more “barbaric” but he swears it’s safer and extremely effective. The new approach to addressing Histo is by using a drug called Avistan. This is a drug originally designed to combat colon cancer, but some crazy doctor in Miami decided to see how well it works to treat eye problems and, lo and behold, it’s proven to be extremely effective for ddressing a wide range of optical issues, Histo included. The downside to this wonder drug is that it has to be injected – right in your freaking eye! Yes, the miracle of modern science has advanced to injecting colon cancer drugs right into your eyeball.
You are supposed to go to the pharmacist and get some drops that you put in your eye 4 times a day the day before, of, and after the injection. The drops are supposed to help prevent infection. I forgot to get the prescription filled until yesterday at 5 PM, so I took my 4 drops at 5:00 PM, 8:00P, 11:00P, and at 2AM this morning. I took another drop this morning at 8AM. At the eye doctor’s, they numbed my eye, rubbed some goop on my eyelids to remove any germs, and inserted a thing to keep me from blinking (once again, think of the most classic of scenes in “A Clockwork Orange”). I then had to look up and to the left. And then there was the pricking sensation. And then I saw a blob of liquid in my eye. Then I went blind in my right eye. I was told it would be temporary and indeed my eyesight has returned in my right eye. The vision remained foggy for quite some time in the right eye. It’s now about 5 hours later and the fogginess is definitely clearing up.
I haven’t noticed the Histo spot in my eye getting any smaller yet. I was told that it will take about a week for it to become noticeably smaller. In the worst case, I have to have one or two more shots over the next few weeks.
There is still a dull pain in my right eye from the shot, but it’s mostly gone away by now.
Being poked in the eye with a sharp stick isn’t as bad as people might think, but you’re good if you go your whole life without experiencing this.
2006/07/03
I suppose I should update this. I ended up having several Avastin shots. It’s been almost 2 years now so my memory has faded. I think I had three shots. The second shot sucked badly. I don’t think the numbing drop took properly so I felt pretty much the full power of a needle in the eye. It took all I had not to punch the doctor and pull the needle out of my eye.The third shot in the eye, like the first described above, was generally uneventful.
I still have a blind spot in my eye. We decided that after the Avastin didn’t give us the results we were looking for to give the wet laser a shot. It helped a little I think but not nearly as much as the first time I had wet laser treatment (Is it wet laser or cold laser? Regardless, it most certainly isn’t the hot laser treatment).
In retrospect, I wish I had declined the Avastin option and gone for the wet laser option. The laser left my eye with no noticable blind spots; the Avastin left me with a noticable blind spot.
2008/03/31
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