Jim Alfredson

Thanks to David Jacques for posting this over at the Keyboard forum. What a great band.

Yes indeed!

Woooooo!

"Popular Christian theology, on the other hand, renders this life less meaningful by anchoring all notions of value and purpose to a paradise somewhere in the future, in a place other than where we are right now. Ironically, my Christian upbringing taught me that ultimately this life doesn't matter, which tends to make believers apathetic about suffering and think that things will only get worse before God suddenly solves everything on the last day." http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/08/opinion/bel...

Now THIS is a synthesizer. The TONE!

Is it any wonder that a civilization built upon the violence of patriarchy is systematically killing Mother Earth?

I just heard on the radio of a 90+ pile up on I94 near Kalamazoo. One of the vehicles involved is a semi hauling 40,000 lbs of fireworks. And it's now on fire. You just know there's gonna be some great cell phone footage of that!

So now I know: My Epson NX620 printer can print about 100 sheets of standard 11pt text in black before the black ink cartridge runs out. That's 16 cents per sheet (not counting the cost of paper). That's absolutely absurd. Fuck you, Epson.

Really bummed to hear that Camel Audio is closing its doors. Alchemy is probably the most prevalent synth on THEO after the Moog Voyager and the Alesis Andromeda. I'm pretty sure it's on every single track at least once. I love that soft-synth.

I posted this when it first appeared (Sept 2012) but it is again very expedient given the tragedy in Paris. http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/on-the-freedom-to-offend-an-imaginary-god

Yet another result of the push by the corporate sector to privatize public services. This is the post office I use almost every day and where my PO box is located. The workers are friendly and speedy. This decision makes no sense. I recently had to send two medium sized packages to Europe, each weighing less than 10 lbs. Both UPS and Fedex wanted over $160 each to ship them. The USPS delivered them for $30 each. When the USPS is gone due to our congress being in the pocket of big business,...

The popular use of industrial design in modern restaurants has been a thorn in my side for years. Or should I say a turbine in my ear? They are often so loud as to be uncomfortable and to make matters worse it's a cold, shrill loudness. Here's hoping more restaurants think about acoustics in the design phase. http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2015/01/05/two-east-bay-restaurants-take-unique-approach-to-noise/

Zora tortures me.

Zora on cleaning the kitty litter: "Dad, if Hell exists, this is what it smells like."

Jon Anderson just emailed me the following about this song: "Great track, and production...excellent lyric...have fun making videos...great for dance...I love all the parts , very stage music...be well..Jon" http://youtu.be/BjKod2BqOB0

I'm really worried about my old kitty, Herman. He had a very strange episode about an hour ago where he wouldn't stop shaking his head and he was drooling. I petted him and got him to calm down and then he walked in circles and cried and didn't seem to know where he was or who I was. The poor guy... he's at least 17 years old (probably). I don't think he's going to last much longer.

My wife's website is up featuring her paintings. http://www.alisonartisan.com

6. The look and feel of CDs or computers can’t compete with vinyl, which can sound amazing for what it is. But there is no music lost “between the bits.” High quality digital formats are sonically superior to vinyl in every measurable way. http://numeralnine.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/a-brief-guide-to-audio-for-the-skeptical-consumer/

Here's some food for thought for today: The net worth of the six Walton heirs is $144 billion (that's billion with a "b"). The average pay for a Walmart employee is $8.81 per hour, or $15,500 per year. This is so low that it qualifies the majority of Walmart employees for SNAP (federal food assistance). And many use the program, to the tune of $6.2 billion in benefits every year, including SNAP, Medicaid, and subsidized housing. And get this... $13 billion of the $76 billion yearly SNAP benef...

I took the family to see my paternal grandmother today. She is 95, still smart as a whip, and the last familial connection to my late father. It was a very enjoyable visit and something I must do more often.

If you recall the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that recently passed here in Michigan, you'll notice that Indiana is doing the same thing. These bills are pre-packaged and sold to legislatures by a conservative corporate clearinghouse called ALEC. Most of the politicians pushing these bills have never even read them. It's CongloboCorp (from my album THEO) manifested; Government Made Easy! http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/04/exposing-alec-how-conservative-backed-state-laws...

Playing at Andiamo's in Bloomfield this evening starting at 7:30pm.