April 13, 2005 – The Designer Monologues

April 13, 2005April 19, 2010

Music Meme….

Like I wasn’t going to do this one?
Taken from various folks’ journals:

1) Total volume of music files on my computer?

A little bit over 14 gigabytes (somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 songs).

2) The last CD I bought was…

The soundtrack to Constantine, by Brian Tyler and Klaus Bedelt.

3a) The last song I listened to before writing this was…

“Sensation” by Bryan Ferry

3b) Song playing right now:

“Screenwriter’s Blues” by Soul Coughing

4) Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me.

Only Five? Sheesh. OK….

“Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty: first I fell in love with the music, which formed the soundtrack to my summers at the beach in the Hamptons. Then, as I grew older, I found more personal significance in the lyrics.

“I Confess” by the English Beat: (featured in last week’s Friday Music) My favorite song by one of my favorite groups.

“Forever Man” by Eric Clapton: An oddity…not particularly important to me at the time, but for some strange biochemical reason, the combination of this song, the quality of sunshine, and reading the rulebook of GDW’s Twilight 2000 role-playing game absolutely crystalized in my memory. Now, hearing this song brings everything rushing back, and I re-live a Friday afternoon in early 1985.

“Thursday’s Child” by David Bowie: The lead track from his Hours CD, which will forever remind me of riding the subway to work in NYC in 1999. (I played the hell out of that album on my Walkman during my commutes…provided I could grab the CD before .

The theme to “Doctor Who”, composed by Ron Granier and Delia Derbyshire: Not just because I’m a geek fanboy, either. This track, composed and created in 1963, is one of the most influential pieces of electronic music of all time. Delia Derbyshire generated individual electronic tones, and then assembled the entire track by literally splicing together bits of tape BY HAND. Absolutely amazing, and was my introduction to the world of electronic music, which I still love (and compose myself) today.

April 13, 2005

The On-line Equivalent of Selling Band Candy….

My daughter Allie is a member of her school’s “Odyssey of the Mind” Team.

Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for gifted kids from kindergarten through college. Kids apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, State, and World level. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the OM program.

Allie’s team made it to the State competition here in Kansas….and took 2nd, which qualified them for a slot at the World Finals, being held at the end of May in Boulder, CO. Needless to say, I’m as proud as can be.

So, yesterday, the team’s coach had a meeting with the parents and let us know that we’re now in fundraising mode, to pay for their trip. We’re going to be doing the usual school fundraising: neighborhood door-to-door, a bake sale, etc. It occurred to me, though, that since I have a fairly wide readership on this journal, I would make a direct appeal to you guys. Think of it as the on-line equivalent of selling Band candy…but without the candy.

If you’d like to contribute to the West Junior High School Odyssey of the Mind Team trip to the World Finals, please use the Paypal button below. Any donations will be gladly accepted…and you don’t have to be a Paypal member, either. Visa and Mastercard are accepted via that link.

Be sure to include your name and address, so that the kids can send you notes.

…and Thanks from a very proud Dad.