Such as it is.
Several weeks ago contracted a short-lived but vigorous cold. After much sneezing, coughing and nose-blowing, I managed to pull a muscle in my lower back. I took anti-inflammatories, restricted my exercise routines to walking and waited. Eventually I decided to see my doctor, and of course began to feel better shortly before my appointment. He said I'd done all the right things, and turned me loose.
That Saturday morning, I was reaching up for something in a kitchen cabinet and had a short, sharp electrical shock at the base of my back. I was left holding onto the counter, breathing shallowly and unable to support my own weight. After awhile, it settled down to a nagging stab, and I was able to struggle through the day. By Monday I was feeling mobile enough to go to work. I eased myself out of my chair frequently (usually quite a production) and walked about. Walking felt better than sitting. By the time I got home, I thought the kinks were more or less worked out.
That evening, I was reaching down, and had a revisitation of the electric shock. I crawled upstairs and lay down. I knew I wasn't going anywhere, and the following morning I managed to shuffle to the phone long enough to call in sick. Days passed without much improvement, and I'm not even sure anymore who scheduled my next doctor visit, but I think it was that Tuesday night that I had such a spasm that I was yelling out loud for a couple of minutes trying to shift into a position that wasn't torturing me.
Jean called the all-night line, braved the night to pick up some muscle relaxants for me, and I took them and slept fitfully. When we saw Dr. Selby, he said I was too knotted up to work on, so they shot me full of Demerol and sent me home with a bunch of prescriptions: muscle relaxants, pain pills, anti-inflammatories; and instructions to rest for two days. That Friday I went in, able to walk without the aid of a cane, but still uncomfortable. Dr. Selby, an osteopath, did an adjustment on me, and told me to spend the weekend resting.
This past week, I've been going to work, with some pain, but most of my mobility back. I saw him again on Thursday for another adjustment, and now I am mostly mobile again. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't have one of those electric shocks again. That really sucked.
The positive part of the story is that I got caught up on my Battlestar Galactica backlog on Hulu using my laptop, and I bought two Amazon eBooks and used them with their new Kindle for iPod software. It works great. So, silver lining and all that...
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
New Musical Entries
I've added two new Amon Tobin albums to my collection:
I grabbed a new Balkan Beat Box album (the only other one they have), Nu Med.
I've also rounded out my allotment from eMusic this period with a handful of piano pieces from Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack: The Legendary Sessions Volume 1. I plan to get the whole album, but couldn't bring myself to wait until I had the entire lump of credits. I'll pick the rest up when my next bundle of 50 credits comes around.
- Bricolage
- Out From Out Where
I grabbed a new Balkan Beat Box album (the only other one they have), Nu Med.
I've also rounded out my allotment from eMusic this period with a handful of piano pieces from Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack: The Legendary Sessions Volume 1. I plan to get the whole album, but couldn't bring myself to wait until I had the entire lump of credits. I'll pick the rest up when my next bundle of 50 credits comes around.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Amon Tobin
Today involved lots of emails, lots of document reviews with careful annotation and lather, rinse, repeat. In cases like these, I want some background music that I can occasionally surface from my concentration to enjoy, but which otherwise forms an unobtrusive background tapestry. What Brian Eno dubbed ambient music. An album like Music for Airports is a classic example of this, but I'm willing to stray into more traditional fare such as Waltz for Debby, if it is not too 'excitable'.
So anyway, today I decided that the particular genre-unto-himself that is Amon Tobin would make a great background for the day, and just started the playlist of multiple albums that I have in my default list-of-playlists on my iPod. If you go to my Last.FM tracks page for today, you'll see the result. Cujo is just one of his early aliases...
Amon Tobin got me to thinking about my semi-random approach to music discovery. Some of my favorite albums of all time were nearly-random purchases. Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny and Patti Smith's Radio Ethiopia were both bought in a record store in Houghton, Michigan while I was working at a radio station there. I'd put an LP on the turntable, lock up the studio, and walk down to the record store. Browsing covers, I'd say, "That's a cool cover, I wonder what the band sounds like?" Many times, the result was a dud, but sometimes, as with Judas Priest and Patti Smith, they became albums that have followed me my entire life.
A funny side-effect of this approach to buying music is that I sometimes fall in love with an album or albums by an artist, when it is generally agreed by their main followers that that album is one of their weakest or most atypical efforts. Amon Düül II is a good example of this effect, where I have Vive La Trance and Hijack, both of which came about during a flirtation with more commercial music by the band which upset it's core followers.
Another example would be Guided By Voices, a band renowned as a seminal force in the low-fi music movement. I picked up Do the Collapse, enjoyed it quite a lot, and only later discovered that it was Robert Pollard's "sell-out moment", taking the band into the studio for a polished production at the hands of Ric Ocasek.
Of course, sometimes the effect is reversed, and I pick an album only seemingly at random, which I've somehow heard about via the Zeitgeist. My exposure to Amon Tobin was of this nature. Some years ago, browsing the Internet, I came across a mention of a shot-by-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark, done by a bunch of teenage friends. The article included a link to a short video clip showing the teenage actor portraying Indy, fleeing the giant boulder trap from the beginning of the film. Instead of copping John Williams' soundtrack, they overlaid some electronic music I'd never heard, but which I found intriguing. I had to hunt for awhile before I found the claim that it was in fact Four Ton Mantis by Amon Tobin. A little bit more hunting uncovered Supermodified as the album on which it could be found. I had to hunt a few record stores, but I got it and it remains my favorite Amon Tobin album. Guess what I'll be listening to tomorrow?
So anyway, today I decided that the particular genre-unto-himself that is Amon Tobin would make a great background for the day, and just started the playlist of multiple albums that I have in my default list-of-playlists on my iPod. If you go to my Last.FM tracks page for today, you'll see the result. Cujo is just one of his early aliases...
Amon Tobin got me to thinking about my semi-random approach to music discovery. Some of my favorite albums of all time were nearly-random purchases. Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny and Patti Smith's Radio Ethiopia were both bought in a record store in Houghton, Michigan while I was working at a radio station there. I'd put an LP on the turntable, lock up the studio, and walk down to the record store. Browsing covers, I'd say, "That's a cool cover, I wonder what the band sounds like?" Many times, the result was a dud, but sometimes, as with Judas Priest and Patti Smith, they became albums that have followed me my entire life.
A funny side-effect of this approach to buying music is that I sometimes fall in love with an album or albums by an artist, when it is generally agreed by their main followers that that album is one of their weakest or most atypical efforts. Amon Düül II is a good example of this effect, where I have Vive La Trance and Hijack, both of which came about during a flirtation with more commercial music by the band which upset it's core followers.
Another example would be Guided By Voices, a band renowned as a seminal force in the low-fi music movement. I picked up Do the Collapse, enjoyed it quite a lot, and only later discovered that it was Robert Pollard's "sell-out moment", taking the band into the studio for a polished production at the hands of Ric Ocasek.
Of course, sometimes the effect is reversed, and I pick an album only seemingly at random, which I've somehow heard about via the Zeitgeist. My exposure to Amon Tobin was of this nature. Some years ago, browsing the Internet, I came across a mention of a shot-by-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark, done by a bunch of teenage friends. The article included a link to a short video clip showing the teenage actor portraying Indy, fleeing the giant boulder trap from the beginning of the film. Instead of copping John Williams' soundtrack, they overlaid some electronic music I'd never heard, but which I found intriguing. I had to hunt for awhile before I found the claim that it was in fact Four Ton Mantis by Amon Tobin. A little bit more hunting uncovered Supermodified as the album on which it could be found. I had to hunt a few record stores, but I got it and it remains my favorite Amon Tobin album. Guess what I'll be listening to tomorrow?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Take Twelve
Okay, only I could get giggly over acquiring a new Lee Morgan album. I know I just used up my monthly allotment of credits from eMusic, but they don't roll over on the calendar month, so I've got a new bundle to play with.
And so I went to the eMusic home page, and up there under Music You'll Love, the very first item was Take Twelve. I listened to the samples, and decided I had to have it. So now I have the classic The Sidewinder, the uneven but still fun Expoobident, and this new one. Can't wait to play it while coding!
And so I went to the eMusic home page, and up there under Music You'll Love, the very first item was Take Twelve. I listened to the samples, and decided I had to have it. So now I have the classic The Sidewinder, the uneven but still fun Expoobident, and this new one. Can't wait to play it while coding!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Rounding out the Month
Two final acquisitions. I already heard Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven by Godspeed You! Black Emperor thanks to a loaner from Brent, and eMusic carries it, so into the iTunes library it goes.
Second, a bit of an experiment:
Godfather - Tamil Movie Soundrack by A. R. Rahman.
Second, a bit of an experiment:
Godfather - Tamil Movie Soundrack by A. R. Rahman.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Surfing on Sine Waves
I'm taking the entire weekend off this time around to try to nurse a cold into submission. I have a history of really embracing a cold, so I doubt it will be easy. Anyway, I decided to grab some music off of eMusic, and this is what I'm listening to now:
Polygon Window is another name for Richard D. James, best known as Aphex Twin. Lots of rhythmic electronic noise, sort of a 20th century canon. It's good for zoning out, or to play in the background when coding.
- Surfing on Sine Waves - Polygon Window
Polygon Window is another name for Richard D. James, best known as Aphex Twin. Lots of rhythmic electronic noise, sort of a 20th century canon. It's good for zoning out, or to play in the background when coding.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Breaking News
This movie has been sitting in my pile unwatched since the very last Anime Expo I attended (2005?). Anyway, I decided I wanted to watch a HK movie while exercising, and had one of the Twins movies all ready to go (thanks for the loaner, Lisa!) when I discovered that it was not Region 0 or 1, and so would not play on the deck downstairs. So I grabbed Breaking News off the stack as a consolation prize.
And a consolation prize is what it is. It's an acceptable action movie, with a bit of cat-and-mouse, but nothing really special, and not exhilarating in the way a silly Twins movie can be. Basic HK police action movie.
And a consolation prize is what it is. It's an acceptable action movie, with a bit of cat-and-mouse, but nothing really special, and not exhilarating in the way a silly Twins movie can be. Basic HK police action movie.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)