hello. dj empirical here; montana has the day off. ;)

yeah. yesterday i became one of the most-hated of all djs: the wedding dj. well, to be fair, it wasn't a typical wedding, and i'm definitely not your typical wedding dj.

the wedding was that of greg (drummer for the defrost star) and jess, who apparently share my dislike of typical wedding music. in fact, their "no-play" list was quite similar to mine: no "chicken dance", no "hokey-pokey", no kool & the gang "celebration", no "YMCA". this was a good sign.

the wedding itself was held at the southgate house, in the ballroom. having done quite a few shows there, i was excited: their sound is great, with deep deep bass possibilities (though naturally i wouldn't be abusing it).

i won't go into many details, but i will say that the ceremony itself was refreshingly short. i had a few spots where i was to play key songs, which the bride had provided. those were no problems, though one of them was that iron & wine cover of the postal service that i can't seem to escape lately.

after the ceremony, i went to town. i kept it reserved, so i wasn't playing *anything* i liked, but i definitely liked everything i played. it was basically a version of the dance party that will be following the bands at my birthday show (09/17 be there).

good times.

i tore down and rushed to the northside tavern, where my good friends Infinite Number of Sounds were about to start their last song. this was their cincinnati cd release party, and they had invited me to play, but i'd had to decline due to the wedding. no matter, though, as i'd played their cleveland cd-release party on the 12th instead. plus, they're playing my birthday show (09/17 be there) as well.

more good times.

tomorrow marks the resurrection of the "sundays of debauchery", wherein we go to bar louie, drink overpriced drinks, and go see a film. this particular sunday's film: The Brothers Grimm.

matt damon.

permalink / 2 comment(s)

yes!

bobby vomit confirmed for the birthday blowout. i've updated the flyer.



color's better now, too.

permalink / 1 comment(s)

so, i needed to put something on to watch while i ate just now, but i didnt want to put something on that i would be way into, as i wanted to get some blogging done as well, afterward. i flipped through the many many dvds the Toast got in china, and settled on jurassic park.

i chose it because i'd made a comment to Toast that i hadnt seen anything with Laura Dern in it, and he was quick to point out jurassic park. now, the last time i saw it was probably 94-ish, and at that time, it was a movie to me, not a film. as such, i didnt really know actors, unless they were in one of my favorite movies at the time.

now, as it's on here, there's not only the aforementioned Laura Dern, plus Jeff Goldblum (who i did remember), but there's also Sam Jackson, that jackhole Newman from Seinfeld, and even BD Wong, whom i now know from Oz, and who apparently is in one of the thirty-odd CSI's or whatever.

overall, though, i'm realizing that yes, this is one of those big blockbuster spielberg things. big, sweeping (and boring) music swells, obvious character and plot development points.

oh, and i just looked up who did the music: John Williams. bleh. at least it wasnt michael kamen.

p.s., i cant get the damn weird al song out of my head now either.

permalink / 0 comment(s)

I knew he was sick, and i didn't figure he'd last the year, but it still makes me sad that one of my heroes has passed away:

Dr. Robert Moog, known for the synthesizer that beared his name, died at his home in Asheville, North Carolina on Sunday. He was 71. The inventor of the Moog synthesizer — whose variants have been used by everyone from Pink Floyd to Kraftwerk, Duran Duran, the Black Eyed Peas and the Neptunes — was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in April and had received radiation therapy and chemotherapy to combat the disease, according to a post on his official Web site.

Born on May 23, 1934 in New York, Moog began tinkering with early versions of electronic instruments as a teenager. After writing an article about them in 1954, he opened a business building and selling theremins, machines in which pitch and volume could be controlled by the wave of a musicians' hand. Moog earned degrees in physics, electrical engineering and engineering physics before staring out on a path that would turn him into an icon for generations of modern musicians.

There's more info in the article.

You'll be missed, Bob. Say hi to Frank for me.

permalink / 0 comment(s)

in advance celebration (but mainly just curiosoity) i thought i'd look and see some people born on my birthday:



born 09/26



of course that's not a comprehensive list. it's not even a comprehensive list of celebrities -- i know, for example, that Shamu and i share a birthday. plus Yogafrog (a dj, friends with Q-Bert) was born the same exact day i was, to the year.

permalink / 0 comment(s)

forget the Wayback machine, Mr. Peabody, set the SlightlyForward machine to september 17th -- that's when it's all happening. yes. just look:



awesome. cordon off your night, because we are going after hours here people.

permalink / 0 comment(s)

i found this new code to create an image based on your audioscrobbler listens.

check it out:



obviously, i'd limit it somewhat, like maybe to three tracks, so it'd be less offensive in forums. like this, maybe:



only thing is, the forums i use on any regular basis either don't allow images, or don't allow these dynamic ones.

oh well.

permalink / 3 comment(s)

dude, check this out:



Praying Mantis Eats Hummingbird



crazy. here's a pic:







i had no idea.

permalink / 2 comment(s)

Here's a neat site: Gnoosic takes your initial three band choices and lists other bands you might like, one-by-one, constantly adjusting the next choice based on whether you like/don't like the current choice.

permalink / 0 comment(s)

here are a couple things i've found/remembered on the internets lately:

• Hot People by Zip Code: ineveitable, i suppose, that someone would cross the Hot or Not page with the Google Maps page. To quote the football player from Bill & Ted's Excellect Adventure, "...it's computers."
• Don't forget that Giorgio Moroder deserves a pyramid.
• Audioscrobbler is launching a new version of their site. Awesome.
• Freezepop have covered a song by Sparks, one of my favorite bands. You can hear it / download it from their profile on myspace. [Note: we here at the QEG also heavily endorse Freezepop; DJ Empirical opened for them a couple years ago, and it was great fun.]
  

permalink / 0 comment(s)

[now playing: enduser: comparing paths]

the weekend is almost over, and i haven't even caught up on the week. bleh.

mcdeviltoast and i have nearly finished our debut song, "Punishment Horse". i've played guitar more in the last couple weekends than i have in the last few months combined. crazy. i like the song, it's real dumb. we still need to go in and add vocals, plus i need to redo the temporary bass guitar track and add a new drums track to replace the generic beat we're using as a glorified click track. our futue songs should go much faster, as far as recording goes.

oh! i almost forgot to mention that schädel got a request from a couple internet friends to "remix" a goofy answering machine message, so he did. check it out here:

schädel "708 Masterpiece (feat. DSad)"

good times.

in other news, baby kitty finally made it into NYC proper, with an apartment and everything. good luck to her! maybe she'll blog some, while she's there.

ummm... what else?

oh, i went over to roesing's place to have a "Mr. T Party", which is a goofy way to say that he ripped my sealed (until that moment) VHS copy of Be Somebody or Be Somebody's Fool, a straight-to-video Mr T vehicle serving ostensibly as a kids' motivational/inspirational tape, but more often simply reflecting the worst of early 80s fashion. I'd give you a blow-by-blow of the video, but there's already one out there that's much better than i could do.

I also had him dump the audio for me; it'll appear in some QEG track or another.

So yeah, that's about it, i guess. check back later or something.

permalink / 0 comment(s)

check it: my third column for CityBeat came out today. It's an interview/profile piece on Robert Inhuman of Realicide: "A Much-Needed Dose of Realicide"

Please note that:

• I'm aware of (and not responsible for) the title typo in the online version.
• Any lack of style is due to editing.
• I'm only half joking about the previous point.
• My favorite paragraph was removed.
  

The image was taken by me, as well. It's not the best photo in the world, but i like it, and i think it suits Robert's personality.

permalink / 1 comment(s)