Friday, August 28, 2009

Michael Hedges Tribute "You Were Always There" by Don Record


Michael Hedges has appeared on the cover of every major guitar magazine, winning Guitar Player’s readers’ poll award for “best acoustic guitarist” five years running—and was subsequently named by the magazine as one of the “25 Guitarists Who Shook the World”. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hedges

Ron Record on the Internets

Here's a partial list of how I am splattered
all over the Internets:
Using posterous.com (this posting was an email to
post@posterous.com) I can automatically post the
same message/pic/video/whatever to youtube,
facebook, twitter, friendfeed, plunk, jaiku, tumblr,
delicious, livejournal, blogger, wordpress, posterous,
and xanga. Woo-Hoo!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

"Intro / Updated" - Deth Specula


Deth Specula (http://www.deth.com) parodies The Ramones classic with an IT twist. Clip includes the bizarre intro to the compilation video with what appears to be backward masked messages!

"Surfbowl" - Deth Specula

Deth Specula (http://www.deth.com) parodies R.E.M. in this, one of the finest bowling rock videos of all time. Includes a behind the scene interview with Kozmo and Yam!

Posted via web from ronrecord's posterous

"Anarchy At SCO" - Deth Specula

Deth Specula (http://www.deth.com) provides us with a treatment of the Sex Pistols' classic only with an SCO twist. Includes an introductory mockumentary. The third part of the compilation video.

Posted via web from ronrecord's posterous

"Santa Claus Is Coming (To Town)" - Deth Specula

Deth Specula (http://www.deth.com) delivers a Christmas classic in their own inimitable fashion. This clip includes an introduction and the closing credits for the compilation video.

Posted via web from ronrecord's posterous

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Deth Specula Unplugged Pt 3 of 3

An unplugged Deth Specula performance at one of Tim's graduation parties at my house. Steve Bordwell sits in on bongos in Robert's absence. I replaced the very poor Treo 650 audio with selections from Weasels & Cream.

Posted via web from ronrecord's posterous

Deth Specula Unplugged Pt 2 of 3

An unplugged Deth Specula performance at one of Tim's graduation parties at my house. Steve Bordwell sits in on bongos in Robert's absence. I replaced the very poor Treo 650 audio with selections from Weasels & Cream.

Posted via web from ronrecord's posterous

Deth Specula Unplugged Pt 1 of 3

An unplugged Deth Specula performance at one of Tim's graduation parties at my house. Steve Bordwell sits in on bongos in Robert's absence. I replaced the very poor Treo 650 audio with selections from Weasels & Cream.

Posted via web from ronrecord's posterous

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Fireworks, Anarchy, Freedom, & Flames

John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on the 3rd of July in 1776:

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more."

We celebrate Independence Day on July 4, the anniversary of the date the signing was announced to the public. As Adams suggests, we celebrate with pomp, parade, sports, but especially with fireworks. Here in Santa Cruz, California the sale, distribution, possession, and use of fireworks is strictly forbidden by law. But, on Independence Day year after year the beaches in and around Santa Cruz are transformed into a war zone with what may be the largest illegal fireworks display in the world. It's awesome, magnificent, opulent, beautiful, scary, thrilling, and also may qualify as the largest annual act of civil disobedience in America.

Each year as local law enforcement ramps up its efforts to quell the celebration that John Adams encouraged, Independence Day celebrants double their efforts to skirt the law. In fact, all the police have been able to accomplish is establishing a traffic line keeping cars a few blocks back from the beach and forcing people to park and walk. Those with really huge collections of fireworks come down days earlier and bury their stash. Others just bring the fireworks down in coolers and picnic baskets. The ineffectiveness of the legal ban on fireworks in Santa Cruz is rivaled only by the laws criminalizing the possession of marijuana.

However, this year saw a dramatic increase in the use of high-end fireworks in the westside residential neighborhoods far above the relative safety of the beaches. It appears the ban on fireworks in Santa Cruz and patrolling of the beaches by the police has accomplished something. Some celebrants are now exploding fireworks over the shingled shake roofs of families. Pets and children must be shuttered at an early hour that day and kept indoors the entire night. Part of the allure of the anarchy of the beach displays was the fear of accidentally getting hit by one of the streaming rockets. Now that fear is no longer a choice but has been brought to the quiet neighborhoods of this sleepy fishing village.

The criminalization of weed created a seedy and dangerous black market supplying not only pot but all kinds of extremely dangerous and addictive drugs. The prohibition on alcohol fueled the rise of organized crime in this country. It can even be argued that the laws prohibiting consumption of alcohol by persons under 21 have contributed to the rise of teen alcoholism and binge drinking deaths among the youth of America. Now the totally ineffective prohibitions on the use of fireworks on Independence Day in Santa Cruz has created a dangerous threat to the safety of our children, pets, and property.

The beaches are about the safest place in Santa Cruz to set off fireworks. Most of them are backed by high cliffs protecting the houses above. The bay provides not only a natural means of extinguishing fireworks but a beautiful reflective surface. Why not declare certain beaches as designated celebration zones and permit the use of fireworks there? Focus law enforcement and emergency services on prohibiting fireworks in residential neighborhoods and combating fires and accidental injury.

Ironic that this police crackdown on our freedom of fireworks occurs on Independence Day. Also somewhat ironic is this blog posting calling for a curtailing of the anarchic celebration that's grown to astounding proportions here in Santa Cruz. Ironic because this call for limits on the anarchy is at the same time a call for the repeal of laws limiting our rights on that day. As the Freaky Executives used to sing - "We reserve the right, to party each and every night" - the pursuit of happiness is in fact one of the natural rights declared as protected by that signing we celebrate. It seems to me the wiser path would be to encourage that pursuit rather than ineffectually attempt to deny it.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Bonny Doon Fire over Westlake Pond


IMG_1099b, originally uploaded by Doctor Free.
This is a test of the Flickr to Blogger posting facility. While I'm here I'll just add that this photo was taken at Westlake Pond on the upper westside of Santa Cruz, California during the Bonny Doon fire on 11-Jun-2008. I then digitally modified the photograph using the Gimp open source image manipulation tools. This photo can be viewed at higher resolution at my Flickr account at http://tinyurl.com/kl4xs5

To see more of my Flickr photo stream visit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorfree/

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

UNIX Uber Alles!

Apparently only Unix understands a proper newline.
Fer instance - http://doctorfree.livejournal.com/
Jeez.
-rr-

My initial impression of posterous.com (awesome)

Today I setup a free acount with posterous.com. I then connected it to my Flickr, Facebook,
Blogger, LiveJournal, Wordpress, Tumblr, and Twitter accounts. Sending an email from any
of my authorized Posterous email addresses to post@posterous.com then posts the email to
all of these sites as well as my Posterous blog. The full body of the email gets posted to my blogs,
the subject of the email is a tweet from my Twitter account (any URL in the body is shortened and
added to my tweet), photos are automatically posted to Flickr. Holy autopost!

Posterous also has a bookmarklet that I easily added to my Firefox bookmark bar so I can now
just click "Share on Posterous" and automatically post a photo, video, or text to all of these sites.

I realize I probably have many more sites than the average person but it's not unusual for a person
to have a Flickr account, Twitter account, Facebook account, and maybe a blog. Posterous is an
awesomely supercool way to manage all these and post to them all easily and quickly.

Anyway, check out these sites to see if this actually worked:

http://doctorfree.wordpress.com
http://doctorfree.livejournal.com
http://ronrecord.blogspot.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorfree
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=658358050
http://twitter.com/ronrecord
http://ronrecord.tumblr.com

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The Devil's Strip - The City Owns It, You Maintain It

I can't really water my tree lawn anymore what with the recently imposed water rationing. However, my berm is on the verge of becoming a nature strip. My parkway is being used as a planting strip while my boulevard is useful as my utility strip. My devil's strip is used more for midnight triple witching hour burnt offerings than as a sidewalk buffer.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Ten Twitter Tweets For The Tweetless

Ever feel like tweeting on twitter but don't have anything to say or don't want to be one of the inane idiots who post things like "Off to the grocery store!" or "Waiting for the bus!" ? Well, wait no longer - you can use one of the following ten tweets any time!

Top Ten Tweets for the Tweetless:

1. Be Awesome and/or funny:

I can sleep and breathe. At the same time!

2. Throw out an obscure pop reference only the hip will get:

You know my name, look up my number! #beatles

3. Show off your brobdignagian reflexive vocabulary:

Eschew obfuscation!

4. Make sure everyone knows you mean business:

Meet my bitches! @sugarwilla @spoonsie @ColleenCoplick @zoeyjane @MouthyGirl We are all awesome. Follow them. Because I said so!

5. Associate yourself with others greater/smarter/funnier than you:

Follow @ronrecord He is either funny or informative and often both.

6. Amuse and inform:

"A man that ain't willin' to cheat for a poke don't want it bad enough" - Augustus McRae in "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry

7. Be a hip media guide:

Check out this super cool way early flash animation at http://ronrecord.com/fight.swf

8. Rally the troops when necessary:

Support Joss: Save Dollhouse. Fans get their voices heard @BuddyTV http://tinyurl.com/SaveDoll... Please ReTweet and join the cause.

9. Remember, YOU are the party!:

Just bought a round of Ginger Thai's here at the Redroom. Get down here quick or they'll all be gone!

10. Ok, sometimes you can just let people know what you're doing:

Heading home for the night. See you guys in the future or, if not, in the pasture.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

My saytweet test twitter canvas

Here's my attempt to use saytweet.com. I'm a little disappointed the tinyurl's in the tweets are not linked. But, a cute idea and it is still in Beta.



Chris (in the swing) is saying the latest tweet from @juliaroy while I am speaking my own last tweet. The pic is dynamic and updated with the latest tweet from whoever you tagged it with. If it would improve to be more readable and clickable it might actually be a nice way to view multiple twitter feeds embedded in a photo.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Kudos to UPS

One of the many modern day annoyances is the automated phone tree that customers have to navigate to get to a human. Many times it's just simply impossible to call and speak to another person. If you do finally get through I've found it to be universally the case that whatever information you've provided to the computer voice on your way here you then have to provide all over again to the human. Stuff like your account number or social security number or product you're calling about. Why isn't that information passed along to the customer service representative ?

Well, today I called UPS with a tracking number for a package I'm waiting for and - for the first time in my experience - all the information I provided the fairly smart computer voice was correctly passed to the service rep.

Kudos UPS! And it's only 2009. Think what will be possible by 2025!