Very quick entry today, since I'm crazy busy on stuff that I don't really want to be doing but have to get done anyway (a.k.a real life).

Over at John Scalzi's blog he has a thoughtful piece up about the words in Joan Osbourne's 1995/6 pop hit One of Us. I am complete agreement with his main point and, somewhat unexpectedly, have found myself thinking about it a bit more in idle moments today.

The comments are worth a read as well. More than one person doesn't really like the song, although when they explain themselves, it seems they don't like the rendition (are they fans of the Prince version?). Ignore the comments about word counts and deadlines if you aren't a regular Whatever reader: the guy is meant to be on a deadline and promised "not much blogging" for a few weeks. Barely one week in and out pops a 1000-word piece (maybe he didn't have time to make it shorter).

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the video Scalzi linked to, like a few of the comment writers. However, I like the tune for this song and I think it would make a good instrumental. I don't dislike the words, either. The original recording is a bit harsh in the sound for my taste and the video does nothing for me. I prefer the smoother instrumentals in the re-recorded version (also with vocals by Joan Osbourne) that was used as the title song in Joan of Arcadia — a series, by the way, that takes the point Scalzi was trying to make and runs with it to a much greater extent.

Oh (bonus feature!), if you're not in the mood for contemplative writing but have ever parented a child, known somebody who has a child, or have seen a picture of a child on television, this Scalzi piece from last week is fairly amusing.

Topics: music, writing

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Mindlessly following browser links earlier today, I stumbled across this YouTube clip, showing Tommy Emmanuel fooling around with his guitar at a concert. I love this sort of stuff. It's like watching Tiger Woods do golfball tricks, or Michael Jordan play H.O.R.S.E, or Chuck Jones draw crazy doodles. A professional having fun with his skill is great to watch.

Turns out there is quite a collection of clips of Tommy on YouTube, of varying sound and video quality. For somebody who hasn't heard him before, recommended are

• Angeline, a song he wrote for his youngest daughter (the sound is a bit poor on this clip, but it's a nice sampler),
• Day Tripper/Lady Madonna medley, just to hear what he sounds like doing "classical" stuff, and
• Countrywide, one of the many pieces he wrote and played that tries to capture the Australian country and outback environment in music.
• Update At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, there's even a recording of Mombasa! Probably a must-see if you've never seen a guitar used as a drum set. The video/sound sync is a bit dodgy, so the initial percussion doesn't look as impressively hard as it should and the audio recording is a bit fuzzy in parts, but this is a nice piece.

I have a fairly large collection of Tommy Emmanuel's albums. Not all of them, but most of them. They are great background music for relaxing or doing stuff that doesn't require intense concentration. He's also a fantastic live performer and I've shelled out for tickets three times to go and watch him. Particularly in smalller venues (pub settings), he's great. His wikipedia page doesn't really do justice to his history. This page is probably a better musical history.

Topics: music

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For a few months now, I have been thinking about getting a decent electronic keyboard. Five years ago, I used to play the piano a lot. These days, I no longer have a piano and I am grossly out of practice. Plus, there are some things I want to play around with where a musical background would be nice.

Last month turned out to be a bit better than expected, financially, for work, so I decided that I would use some of the extra to buy a reward. I've been doing the rounds of some local music shops and looking at manuals and reviews on the web. Just had never gotten around to walking into a shop, putting down the credit card and saying "fill her up, please". This morning, I gave in to temptation and bought a nice little Casio PX-310. It seemed to be at the right point when balancing functionality (lots of sounds and a full size keyboard, primarily; all the rhythms and recording space isn't really necessary for me) and price.

88 keys, "fully weighted", says the manual, but I'm not sure that is completely correct: it feels a little light, but much better than a non-weighted keyboard. I'm a happy camper.

Since I had the camera out and was in the room I use as my office, here's the uglier side of the story: the mess that is my computer area. Putting it here might shame me into actually doing something about this. There are disadvantages to living alone. One being that things like this slip from very tidy (my preference), to a little messy to blow-torch territory without anybody smacking me around the head about it.

Topics: home, music

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