neuroncollision

Again, why I always keep my cellphone charged, so I can take pictures like this.

Experiment failed. I get home too late to play that hard for that long and not upset neighbors.

First up, we have Manu Delago playing the recently engineered Hang Drum.

The seemingly extraterrestrial instrument you see featured here is the Hang Drum. It was first engineered in Switzerland in 2000.

Earlier this week I was listening to Beck’s Guero, specifically, the track named Rental Car. About one-minute from the end, there is a female vocalist singing the roughly dubbed “Penguin Dance Song“. This woman’s name is Petra Haden, she’s a classically trained vocalist and violinist. She recorded Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” in an entirely vocal arrangement, save for drums. The video is as surreal as the music itself is:

Didn’t play, instead ate dinner and watched TV.

(We had red beans and rice… om nom nom)

I always have my cellphone on my person for a bit of impromptu photography when I see something that is unintentionally hilarious.

For example, this past weekend I was in Wal-Mart (God, forgive me), and immediately inside the front door I was greeted by this image.

Ninjas: They’re everywhere.

I was able to get an entire hour in yesterday.

Notes:

• Maps is one helluva workout on Expert.
• I threw “Orange Crush” in for good measure, and immediately regretted it. Too much thinking and not enough physical activity involved.
• Wear something loose while playing. Tight Jeans restrict motion and cause extraneous pain. I suggest pajama bottoms.
• If you decide to play with your shirt off, and you have massive man-boobs, don’t let people watch you.. they will laugh, and you will beat them with drum sticks.
• Perhaps I should stretch before doing this. I get a cramp in my left hip area from it being stationary the entire time, and a cramp in my right hip area from constant motion.
• Headphones really get you into the music more than normal speakers.

That is all for today.

Let me set a few things straight here. I’m a guy, 26 years old, 5′6″, ~300 lbs. I’m a software engineer, and as such, I’m sedentary most of the day. I drink too much soda, I smoke too many cigarettes, and I eat too much food. Overall, a healthy lifestyle.

I hate working out. I don’t feel like I’m accomplishing anything more than turning a pedal on a bike, or propelling myself forward while staying in the same place on a treadmill. That is, working out seems to be a fruitless endeavour.

I’ve also noticed that, being the guy I am, I work up a healthy sweat while playing drums on Rock Band for any extended length of time. With the advent of this realization, I’ve decided to create a “workout” for Rock Band drums.

I weighed myself this morning. 301.4 lbs.

The idea is to play the drums for a constant span of time no less than thirty minutes a day, resting only to load the next song. I’d really like to play for an hour, however, I live in an apartment and my wife and I are a bit concerned about disturbing our neighbors, so I might have to cut it down to 30 minutes, depending on extenuating circumstances.

Aside from this, I don’t particularly plan to change my diet. We’re heading on vacation in two weeks, and purchased inexpensive food for consumption until we leave.

I have one real constraint working against me: Time
Best case scenario I have an hour a day to play. I need to maximize play time and minimize load/wait time, as these A) take away from play time and B) cause me to rest, thus lowering my heart. Under this guise, the objective of today’s post is to determine a good playlist toi play to.

The criteria:

• Decent Length
• Decent Difficulty
• Ability to perform the song and not fail.
• Overall Fun

As such, I’ve come up with the following songs for consideration (in no particular order):

• Simple Man (Expert)
• Wanted Dead or Alive (Expert)
• Ballroom Blitz (Hard)
• Blackhole Sun (Expert)
• Dani California (Hard)
• Gimme Shelter (Expert)
• Train Kept A Rollin’ (Hard)
• Won’t Get Fooled Again (Hard)
• Mississippi Queen (Expert)
• Enter Sandman (Hard)

10, decently long songs, on relatively difficult settings should keep me moving. I don’t know the song lengths of them, but I think this is at least 45 minutes, if not, I’ll have to add more.

I do plan on starting with Simple Man as a warm-up and finishing with Wanted: Dead or Alive as it’s the most fun I’ve had playing the drums yet.

So, I’ll post back tomorrow with results, thoughts, and tweaks.

Edit:

Additions to playlist:

• Maps (Expert)
• Green Grass High Tides (Hard)

It’s a widely accepted fact that listening to music spurs creativity and mental prowess. As a developer, I sit and write code all day long, and as such, I need a constant influx of caffiene and creativity so that I don’t hit a brick wall. Being that as it is, I am constantly on the lookout for new and refreshing musical voyages.

Recently, I watched, for the umpteenth time, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which features Staralfur, by Sigur Ros. Not much time passed, before I found my self in the possession of Agaetis Byrjun, the album that put the Icelandic Post-Rock group on the map in 1999.

The album is marked by melodic classical and minimalist sounds and lead singer, Jonsi’s, falsetto voice. It has a very “OK Computer” feel to it, but with far less “noise” and more melodic overtones. Unless you are fluent in Icelandic (is that even a language?), the lyrics will not distract you from your task at hand. As such, these points make this album a fantastic “ignore-the-world” musical selection.

I listen to my music at work with a pair of Sennheiser HD-280 Pro’s, they are over the ear cups, that, when mixed with music, completely block out the distractions of the office and allow me to focus. Sigur Ros’ Agaetis Byrjun, coupled with my headphones, isolate me in a way that most music can’t.

If you get the chance to check it out, I highly recommend this album for the purposes of coding, writing, drawing, or… as bizarre as it may seem, napping.