The catch is this. You decide how much to pay for it, really! You can pay less than a dollar or a thousand dollars if you wish. You can also pre-order the discbox edition, which will ship later this year. It has all kinds of stuff. Extra songs, vinyl records, artwork, sweet. I’m listening to the album for the first time as I type this, and I must say, it’s blasted good.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe\images\title.wma

That’s it! I copied it from there and converted the file to an mp3. Now I’ll have it forever and ever! GREAT SUCCESS!

I made it up to Layton and met up with Bill Sr. We went to Marie Calendar’s for lunch, that was some tasty food! Before our food arrived, I called up Pete, our hang glide instructor. He had just landed from a tandem flight, during which the wind was a little uncooperative, which led to getting crossed up on the landing and ultimately breaking part of his glider. Nothing serious, but to fly he needed to repair the wing, and he had no spare parts on hand. So we couldn’t fly, blast!

After a little moping, we decided that the copper mine might be fun to go ogle. After finding directions online, we headed out. It took almost an hour to get there from Layton, but it was only $5 to get in. We went way up the hill, then down into the pit, where the visitor’s center is nestled. We watched the little intro video, got blown away by the massiveness of the numbers and stats, then went out and just stared at the whole thing for over an hour. We didn’t even realize how long we’d been there, the place is mind blowing. The most impressive thing to me was that the trucks can carry a load of just over a half million pounds! And each truck is a little bigger than the condo I live in.

Now it was time to meet up with my kid sister, go eat dinner, and go rock. We went to Lonestar Steakhouse, and it was wonderful. I had the sweet bourbon salmon with a sweet potato, it was delectable. Off to The Depot to see Les. The Two Gallants were the opening show. Just two scronny white kids that could rock with a very original style. The guitar player/lead singer played a Les Paul guitar and played it well. It sounded like there was a bass guitar hidden on stage somewhere. They started off with at least 5 minutes of jamming that sounded kind of distant, which reminded me of other music I’ve heard, and my sister nailed it on the head. She mentioned that they kind of sounded like Explosions in the Sky. Then the guitar player started belting out vocals and totally surprised me at how he sounded. His voice kind of made me think of a higher, raspier John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival. The drummer had about as much energy as a hyperactive 3 year old with ADD who had just topped off a box of sugar cubes and washed it down with a cappuccino. They were quite entertaining.

Then Les Claypool came out with his bass guitar, Gabby La La (who I’d seen with him on his Bucket of Bernie Brains tour) on the sitar, the drummer of Cake in the back, and 2 guys I was unfamiliar with, one on baritone sax, and a utility guy in the back on xylophones and other various percussion instruments. It was an awesome show that I’d describe as power funk/jazz. No traditional lead guitar was ever on stage during that part of the show. Just a bass guitar and sitar were the closest, although the sax player had some awesome riffs that rivaled many a guitar riff.

The only downside to the show was “the lovers.” A grimy couple had apparently gotten all hopped up on ecstasy (however it’s spelled, the drug) and couldn’t get off of each other. Somehow they ended up migrating over to where we were comfortably watching the show, and stayed there for probably an hour. I’m tall enough to just look right over their heads and block them from my view, but my Dad and Sister had to witness their every move. We could have moved, but the place was crowded and we figured we couldn’t get a better view.

All in all it was a great weekend. Here are a couple pics from the mine:

A shot of the main hole of the mine. It’s the largest excavation site in the world. You can see it from space!

Here’s a great perspective shot. This shows the size of the load trucks, a water truck, a normal pickup, and a bus. Click on either of these pics for more of the mine.

Certain bands have great songs to get people going in the pits. The best bands I’ve seen live for the pits that come to mind are Disturbed, Stone Temple Pilots (yeah, surprised me too), Godsmack, Nine Inch Nails, and Saliva (not so much a fan, but saw them at a festival). I’ve also been to some concerts that are more punk type of music, which is good sometimes, but no good for mosh pits. I think it’s mostly due to the fans that those concerts attract. The hard rock and metal has bigger, more physical fans. Typically punk music has more scronny fans, so their pits end up being those circles of weaklings jumping up and down; no good.

The whole reason I’m posting this is because I found a kind of funny page. It’s all about how to mosh in a mosh pit. The author of the article did a great job actually, I was impressed. If you’ve ever wondered what mosh pits are like, give it a read. Then find your nearest metal show, buy tickets, and go tear it up! I had thought of going to a Static-X concert in Vegas tonight, but I kind of lost interest.

How to Mosh in a Mosh Pit

Roofs are a great spot to go to for this. Tonight I went out back of my condo and just sat on my deck that overlooks St. George. Once I’m in the right spot, I carefully pick an album to match my mood (shuffle is just no good in this type of situation) and listen to it straight through. Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is my most frequently chosen album for these nights. Tonight’s was Trust by Low.

I recommend doing this from time to time. It’s a great way to clear your mind. Try out some different spots and see what works for you.

Here’s how I see it. I’m a music person. I dig music. I dig good music. I have my ideas as to what good music sounds like and what makes bad music. I’ve made the appropriate changes in my life to try and avoid bad music, indulge in good music, and try to find more good music constantly. I feel I’ve done fine, my ears are satisfied. If you are curious as to my taste in music, here’s a sample.

Is the music I like the only good music and that which I dislike factually bad? Nope. There are music lovers who have completely different tastes than me, and that’s great, I respect that. They are also music people. I’d even recognize some of that as good music, just not the kind I prefer.

The non-music person is, sadly, what seems to be the majority of people. First off I will say that I know many great people who are non-music people. I say sadly just because music is such a big part of my life, I feel they are missing out. The non-music person is happy to listen to the radio and find new music through sources like the Grammys. Personally, I can’t stand either of those sources, but that makes them happy, and I guess that’s fine.

It seems kind of like eating nothing but fast food, not knowing that you can put a little effort into a meal and create a feast in your own kitchen. The fast food being attractive because it’s easy, it’s there, and that’s what most people you see eating are eating – especially the people on the TV. The home cuisine would be more like exploring different music options, trying different ones out, and going with the ones that make a great sound in your ears.

Now I’m not saying that I don’t listen to songs that play on the radio, or music that wins Grammy awards. I’ve noticed some music I listen to plays on the same Dish Network station they play at work that plays junk spewed forth as a result of a particular reality show that produces lots of money for marketers. I’m fine with that, the person who put the program together lucked out and got a good song, sweet. I am saying that putting an effort into finding out what music is out there can lead to a much better listening experience for the rest of anyone’s life. (more on that show here)

The moral of this rant: If you haven’t already, try exploring different kinds of music. Turn off your radio, see what your ears want to hear. Don’t be content with what you are fed by marketers. The End.

Anyway, check out the site, the music is awesome. I can’t get enough of it.
Link again.

Update: I can’t stop watching these videos. I just now realized in the second one that there is cleverness to his attire in each half of the video. They are backwards from the norm (pianist is dressed like a drummer, and vice versa)! How absolutely clever…and not clever of me to realize it just now.

Tonight I hopped on to the site of one of my favorite bands: Eels. They had posted a recent video from an appearance on the Carson Daly show. I watched one of the two videos, it was the song “I Like Birds.” As the camera is jumping back and forth (somewhat annoying, but it made this story possible), I noticed something.

Now for some quick background. I’ve seen Eels perform live four times I believe; three of those have been in Hollywood, CA. Two of those trips I noticed the same guy (if you’ve been to many concerts in the same general area, this is known to happen, seeing the same memorable person multiple times). Anyway, he’s one of the only people I’ve thought actually pulled off the face-pierced look. So naturally, that stuck out in my mind, and I recognized him the next time I saw him.

Back to the story. In the audience on the video I spot that same dude! He’s rocking out singing along with E. It’s a small quicktime file, so I can’t be 100% sure, but I’m pretty blasted sure it’s the dude.

This is the first time that I can remember recognizing some random person that I remember seeing in person while watching a video online. Pretty unique thing that was to stumble upon late this good eve.

This was about 6:30 pm. I stopped the song and played that melody over and over in my head, but couldn’t figure out the song. Game two of the NBA Finals was starting, so I tried focusing on that, but that blasted melody kept repeating in my head. I figured that months would pass til one day I’d hear the mystery song and go “That’s it!” I lucked out.

I recalled the voice was a woman’s voice, and later, that it was probably Stevie Nicks. So I searched my computer for any of her songs, I only had a few Fleetwood Mac songs. I then went to Amazon and Last.fm to try to figure out what the song was by listening to 30 second previews.

After a half hour or so of this, I looked up Stevie Nicks in the Wikipedia and looked at her hit songs. She had way more than I realized, good job Stevie. I found Leather and Lace, and it sounded like that may have been the one I was looking for, but the song ended, leaving me hanging.

I finally went back to Amazon and played through some previews from Fleetwood Mac albums while I watched the game. I was into the game pretty good, then I actually got like a hot flash or something when I heard that melody again! That was weird, I think it was my body releasing tension knowing that it would now be able to sleep tonight. I went on to obtain the song somehow (yay INTARNET) and compared the two, sure enough, it is somewhat similar.

The two songs are these:

Sufjan Stevens: All The Trees Of The Fields Will Clap Their Hands
and
Fleetwood Mac: Landslide

The melody I’m referring to is 1:05 into the Sufjan song and 1:11 into the Fleetwood Mac song. Ah, thank you INTERNET!