Blog has moved.

I am consolidating all my blogging into the Zen in the Art of Ukulele blog at book.zenuke.com. Please update your bookmarks, etc.

Orange Pushups Song

Occasionally, I'll dream a song (i.e. I'm singing it in the dream) and I wake up with a fragment in my head. That happened last night and I woke up to find this song snippet recorded in my iPhone..

Baby let me buy you an orange push up
It's so satisfying I won't give up
Lick it from the top
Push it from the bottom
You'll be so glad that we went and got 'em
Oh Ooooooh love an orange push up

Okay I have no idea why I was dreaming that, so if you are some amazing dream interpreter feel free to leave a comment. Also if you don't know what an orange push up is read all about 'em here. Of course they are no longer satisfying by themselves they have to have Scooby Doo on the box. Sheesh.

Zen In The Art of Ukulele

I have begun work on yet another project. In my pursuit of becoming a "real" Second Life musician I came across a nest of ukulele players on YouTube. It was love at first sight. I think partly because most of the uke players I initially encountered were not "stinkface" musicians but "smileyface" ones.* People like jaaaaaaa, russbuss415, and evilhamster95 . Serious musicians, especially highbrow ones, will cringe. Fine with me. In fact let's take a break to be entertained by Eric (evilhamster95)....


Wow. I feel better already. So in the process of the light coming on about the uke. I decided to chronicle my attempt to master the instrument. This tome will be called "zen in the art of the ukulele". As I progress (or flounder) you can witness the spectacle or play along at zenuke.com.

These notes will be folded into the piece I'm generating on playing live music in SL, which I have decided to add to the SL Wiki under playing live music.

Peace.

*I have since found plenty of "stinkface" uke players but I suspect most of them are guitarists who have also taken up the uke.

Graduated Seminary Yesterday

Yep. You probably didn't know I was an ordained minister. It's okay until my brother called the other day I had forgotten it myself. A long long time ago I had read a book by Abby Hoffman called "Steal This Book." Ironically, I bought the book. In it were all sorts of tricks to get things for free, essentially by stealing - or taking advantage of loopholes I guess. One of the free things in the book was to become an ordain minister in the Universal Life Church. The process was fairly uncomplicated you sent an S.A.S.E. (self addressed stamped envelope) to them and they mailed you back your Ordination Card. I did that. The Universal Life Church has only one precept "Do only that which is right." It continues.."Every person has the natural right (and the responsibility) to peacefully determine what is right. We are advocates of religious freedom." Okay I can live within those guidelines and actually like the idea of letting everyone determine what their own relationship with their Supreme Beingness is. As long as that belief doesn't encroach my right to be - it's all good.

So when my brother called and said HE had become a minister too. I decided to revive my preacherhood and take back the moniker of the Reverend Catfish String. Not as a way of saying "hey I art more holier" more as a way of saying "hey I am trying to walk a spiritual path too".

But being so free and open the Universal Life Church has NO seminary to speak of. And I felt a little guilty just deciding to paste the title on without any effort to "earn" it. So for my as yet to be named church, I instituted our seminary. I also graduated. Took about two hours.

I watched "Pale Rider" with Clint Eastwood. I'll probably watch it again to pick up the finer points of preachering but I think I got the big ones.

1) You can give hope to the lost and lift their spirits by slamming a sledge hammer into the nards of the bad guy.
2) Turn down 15 year olds wanting to learn about love and stuff.
3) Turn the other cheek? My ass.

So I'm ready to go out into the world and give hope to the hopeless. But no coddling you whiny rich bastards that are ruining everything.

Amen.

In love with my Mac Mini

Okay if it was a girl. It would be the kind of girl that you treat with respect. Like Teal (another story).

The Mac Mini has proved to be one of the smartest things I did. I got the screen calibrated last night so at last it looks as beautiful as it works. I am thrilled with the simplicity of it, the small footprint (ignoring the power brick of course) and the Mac OS. I used Macs many, many years ago. I started on Macs and being a visual person the "Dock" is much smarter to use than the Windows Vista counterpart.

The Mac comes loaded with "lifestyle" software to manage photos, music, and movies. It also comes with email, web editing and calendaring. When you add OpenOffice 3.0 (now native to the mac) or just use Google Docs online - it's a complete info worker workstation. I also added a simple paint program called Scribbles which is a lot of fun (though not entirely useful). The biggest drawback I've found is just one screen. I've gotten kind of spoiled by my two computer, two screen PC command center - but when I think about what it's doing for the juice it's pulling - it's pretty clear I'm being a bad Earth Citizen.

At some point we have to examine ourselves and not just fill our life with being critical of others.

When I did that I saw wild excessive consumption and I think what I do is meager compared to some.

I do like the idea of reducing, and reusing. The Mac Mini will allow me to downsize my entire setup.

I bought the bargain basement Mac Mini (because I was originally only going to use it for GarageBand). You can get one here.

Apple Mac mini MB138LL/A (1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive)

A Message From the Maker (see Note too)

I dreamed this morning that God spoke to me. He said (in red 24pt. Helvetica type)....

"Keep your promises."


Note: I use the traditional form of "God" and "He" out of habit. I don't believe God is a) an entity we can comprehend and b) a guy. I mean look at flowers. A guy did that? I don't think so. And I don't think of God so much as a being as I do a "be". That would take a long time to explain. The main thing is "keep your promises". Which would also imply be careful what you promise. They say we will be "accountable for every word" on Judgment Day (not that I believe in Judgment Day) BUT if there IS a Judgment Day AND you talk less - your trial will be a LOT shorter. The jury will thank you and all the people waiting to go after you will be very glad too. But really "keep your promises." So that means when someone is staring at you with Bambi eyes and saying "Do you promise?". It probably would be a good thing to say "Nope." They will be crestfallen and then you will be tempted to cave and say "okay, okay. I PROMISE." Then they have you. So stick with "nope" or better yet be like a good lawyer and say "maybe".

Blogging From Firefox

Well, well, well. It appears that I can update my blog from my Firefox browser using an add-on called ScribeFire. Pretty interesting.

I got to be me and see Becky.

Yesterday my good friend Becky Rawley invited me to her OpenSIM SIM in the opensource metaverse at osgrid.org. What was very interesting is when creating my account, I could pick my first and LAST name. So naturally I picked my RL name (mainly so some other yahoo wouldn't get it). I have to say it was a different experience to be looking at my avi and it was ME.

Becky had recreated her Stockton Springs SIM and it was beautiful. She is probably one of the most talented builders in SL for creating Americana flavored venues.

You should contact her if you are trying to create a SIM with a distinct flavor of America.

Leading Cause of Death

Technically, according to medical doctors, everybody dies of the same thing....

a broken heart.

But I humbly submit that many many of us die of something else....

a hard head.

I know every major problem I've had in life was the result of chronic hardheadedness.

Don't die of this crippling disease. Listen to the ones that love you today.

MT Streams

Stumbled upon an inworld stream provider here. Not the cheapest I've found - contact Clarissa Pastorelli inworld for the least expensive stream I've found to date. And I have not tested MT Streams for quality. But for $250L you can check them out and see if you like them. At the very least you can add them to your list of possibles.

Welcome to "So You Think You Can Sing" the Home Edition

I got the studio up and working. So now it was time to lay down some tracks. Ran into some problems with using a Microsoft PC style keyboard with a Mac like there not being a Command key (I have to research the mappings, but I'm leaning toward a Mac keyboard). Ran into a much bigger problem.

I can't sing. Yet.

I mean I can sing, I have for a long time. But when it's just my voice on a recording studio track, it's a bit of a splash of cold water to hear it standing out by itself - warts and all. I missed tons of notes. So one more thing added to the todo list, need to do a little research on the right way to sing.

The thing that seemed the worst was trying to do covers because I was trying to "knock off" the original. That seems like a huge mistake because everything that isn't like the original is "wrong". So I made a mental note to work up all the covers Catfish style. Make them my own. Bend them to fit my voice.

I do understand that a lot of it - is working with it until I get it.

After telling so many folks in sLife that I was going to perform this month, I'm thinking now I'll have to take a more realistic assessment. I think a realistic time frame may be April of next year.

Peace.

Studio is GO!

Well after an afternoon of dusting with an old sock and some lemon Endust - the recording and broadcast studio is almost completely set up. GarageBand didn't magically record my first song for me but after setting up a Windows Vista laptop and a Mac Mini, I gotta wonder why we ain't all using Macs. I'll write more later but WOW what a different experience. Zero trial software crap and a clean desktop. Now where did I put that guitar?

Heart of the new recording studio arrives

After pricing out USB audio interfaces for my laptop to record my new album and trying to dicipher the bewildering array of software options the little light came on that for a few (very few actually) dollars more I could get Mac Mini and just use GarageBand 08. I checked with my more
seasoned recording musician pals and they both gave two enthusiastic thumbs up to the idea. So this morning I unboxed my new recording studio. I had a monitor, keyboard, and mouse (the BYO items) laying around. From all I can tell GarageBand can produce a music CD of sufficient quality to distribute electronically. I'll blog more after I actually get it up and running.

Forsythe Whitfield at The Plug

A while back I was talking to a lovely lady about blues musicians in Second Life. She was adamant I check out Forsythe Whitfield. So much so she made me join his group (ahhhh a precious spot given up to someone I've never even heard). Well the universe hiccoughed (or burped) and I happened to be on when I got a notice to go see Forsythe at a place called the Plug. Well I could hear FW before I could see him and he was ripping out a tasty version of Johnny B. Goode - a song that should be so done by now - but he had marinated it in his one man blues band style and it was sounding damn good.

I walked into the Plug and for the first time in a long time, I felt like I had walked into a little live music joint. Layed out smart and loaded with ambience the Plug had a palpable vibe of good times. I mean a cool little venue. Remind me I want to play there when I finally get off my ass and do it.

As for Forsythe, he was definitely worth forcing someone to join a group for. You can check him out anytime at his myspace page. But I recommend signing up for his group which is unambiguously named the "Forsythe Whitfield Fan Club".

FW plays to what can only be custom made backing tracks and it sounds great. He sits behind a drum kit and fingers his resonator. Come on down and ask that lady over there if she wants to dance - you know her partner don't play anymore.

Guitaraoke OK?

I spotted this set of 15 CDs in Walmart for 30 bucks. Now don't get me
wrong Ol' Catfish ain't fond of karaoke but it has it's purpose I
reckon. What's nice about this set is it shows you the chords along
with the lyrics. Essentially it's a box of backing tracks with chordal
tab built in. It only works with Windows Media Player. I picked it up
to force myself to play more complicated songs outside my comfort
zone. Self taught guitar skills are fine if you only plan to be a solo
artist but when you are trying to become a regular musician you need
to introduce a little discipline - which so far has been an Achilles
heel for me.

"Chicken Bill" Martin

My brother got me looking at Martins. He loaned me his Little Martin to try out. It's one the HPL's (high pressure laminate) guitars. It played and sounded great. Very little real wood which was a real turn off for me. At least in my head it was. In practice it turns out that it may be a good even a great thing. Resistant to sweat and the heat of the trunk a HPL guitar starts to make sense. Then I wondered about the life of the instrument. It's basically a formica guitar. I tried to research the life of formica and found only a smattering of info on the net. Then I did a little field research - okay not field research - I went into the kitchen. We have formica covered counter tops there that are at least 20 years old (they came with the house). At one spot part of the formica is bowed out from the curve of the counter. I gave it a whack. Sprung in and back out. Not brittle, just tough as ever. Okay so no worries about a HPL guitar not lasting. I went to the local music store and started playing a Martin DXK2. It's a Koa grained HPL guitar with a stratabond neck made in Mexico. It was setup perfect and it felt great. The neck seemed like the perfect mix of finished and unfinished in feel. The box rings steady and long. It's not incredibly different from a wood guitar, it just seems smoother and longer. It sounds really really good. So after visiting her every day for about a week, I took the plunge.

I have to say I feel the opposite about alternate material guitars than I did before. When I worked at Peavey, I watched the robots cut a neck out of a blank and easily 40% of the wood ended up in shavings on the floor. Tragic really. So I feel good knowing that very few trees or at least a very small portion of them were actually consumed in the making of my instrument.

And the fact that I lose none of the warm analog resonant playing experience like you do when you go from piano to keyboards makes it all good.

So I call it the "Chicken Bill" Martin because as my grandma used to say "It's all chicken but the bill and that's chicken stew." It's every bit a Martin just made out of the scientifically collected shavings and pieces of wood and transformed into a legacy 'tar.

Ear training epiphany

I downloaded an app to my iPhone called Karajan Beginner. It's a free app from the Apple App Store that does ear training in interval, chords, scales, pitch, tempo and key signatures.

I've been doing intervals, and I really, really suck at it. Currently I'm 153 right and 124 WRONG.

At one point during my constant beating over the head with the little red wrong "X" popping up, I realized something.

I've always heard Perfect Pitch referred to as something you had. You know like an innate talent or skill. As I nearly wallowed in the self pity of "not" having it - I realized that the truth is different. It's not an innate skill. It's just what you know.

I noticed as I got more and more repeats of the same note intervals, I got better. Because I had been exposed to them before and knew them. That's how you get Perfect Pitch - you listen critically to a hell of a lot of pitches. Over and over until they are old friends.

No mojo. No magic. No genetics. Just listening and learning. So if your practicing is getting you down because you can't play like Leo Kottke yet - don't get down depressionwise. Get down practicewise. Keep plugging.

It will come to you.

It's not how long you live, it's how you live

Those words uttered by a breast cancer survivor on Oprah, struck me as being critical to where your head is at at any given moment. Quantity without quality is missing the point.

Peace,

Cat'

p.s. Yeah I watch Oprah.

BlindBoink Parham

I caught BlindBoink at the Artic Circle at 7AMSL. And in true blues fashion he started the show by lighting a cigarette, ripping into a Mississippi John Hurt song and breaking a string.

Technical difficulties aside, BlindBoink plays geniune fingerpicking style blues. The real stuff. And it he plays it very well. His singing fits the style too.

You can check out more about BBP at his website. Which includes some lessons on how to play fingerstyle country blues. You can also join his group Boinkers Blues to keep up with when he is going to play inworld.

If you want to see some real blues BlindBoink can deliver the goods.

Listening to Gina Stella

I checked out Gina Stella's show at the Luxor Stage on Wednesday night. Gina is sort of an American Mimi Carpenter who happily giggles through her show drawing you in and making you feel like she is playing for you in her living room. She was sporting a new 'do and looking quite good but what always carries the evening is her warm rich vocals and modest but dependable guitar playing. Chosing to go the naked acoustic route instead of blaring backing tracks and vocal reverb, she just plays an acoustic guitar and sings. By keeping it simple, Gina calls attention to her voice which rolls into your ear like honey on a hot biscuit. You just sit there and listen, getting lost in her unpretentious and sincere delivery of a variety of songs. She's a pro too, keeping the between song chatter to a minimum. A very enjoyable show and worth checking out the next time you see her in the live events search.

Howdy and thanks for all the fish food

My name is Catfish String and I play guitar (badly but with enthusiasm) and sing. I am working hard to get ready to play in Second Life and possibly First Life. I half of a band called the Hamiltones). My Hamiltones partner Big River is a wailing Harmonicat from Mississippi. I am currently in the process of setting up offices in the French Quarter in Second Life. While I get my chops down to play in SL, I also offer support services of all kinds to musicians ready to play in SL. I can help you go from Zero to Guitar Hero inworld showing you where to get everything you need. Keep your eyes peeled for our site livingmusiconline.com under development. You may want to bookmark this post as I'll be posting reviews of performances in SL, notes about where the good stuff is etc.