Greg Mein
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Posts posted by Greg Mein
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If one could genetically engineer a cross between kudzu, blackberry and bamboo our entire country would be underneath it.
Doom for all, lots of doom!!!!!!!
It would also be a great place for all those feral attack boars to hide out!
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I was late to the Mac game, perhaps 10.3 or 10.4 was out before I bought a PowerBook to use for live performance stuff. I picked up one of the original MOTU Midi Timepiece units around the same time and discovered it had some really fascinating and deep features, however, I needed an older OS9 computer to run that software. So, I bought an old Lombard (I believe it was) laptop and had to find some retro interface serial cables and such. I was really into it but it quickly became apparent that most of the features the MTP unit provided for had never really been used by most people and the software itself had a fair amount of annoying bugs with obviously no updates ever to come. Eventually I realized it was a losing battle and went about updating and modernizing my systems.
These days I wouldn't be able to justify the time it would take to attempt reviving any old tech nor do I feel any current need to. I'm still clinging on to some dated devices that should continue to work as long as the computer they're attached to doesn't get any further updating.
The other day I discovered that the right speaker on my main MBP from 2013 is shot and I'm now trying to come to terms with the fact that I should dedicate it to our performance duo and go ahead and buy myself a new one for home.
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It's not going to erupt for a while, don't worry about it. But, it will at some point.
You're probably right, I went to look it up and apparently minor quakes are quite common in the area. I also didn't know or had forgotten there is also a super volcano in New Mexico and another in California.
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There was a "What Next" type topic on FB the other day and I posted that "my vote was in for Yellowstone erupting". Almost immediately someone else posted that it was 23K years overdue and then pretty quickly someone else posted that there were recently several earthquake in a 24hr period in that area. I got back on and posted that perhaps I should be walking my comment back!
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It tends to annoy me every time I see people bending over backwards to prove they're not racist, as if you can. Growing up in North Hollywood there appeared to be every type of person imaginable except green people and just because I didn't see any doesn't mean they weren't there. As certainly as everyone here I have friends, family and co-workers of different races whom all get along just fine. Whether it's popular or not my belief is that a lot of the problems of this nature that we see lead directly back to the family, or lack thereof.
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It's almost like living in parallel worlds here lately.
It's not like living in parallel worlds, it is living in parallel worlds.
Sometimes they intersect, but in many cases, you can choose the world in which you want to live.It's basically about playing the odds. If you go to a bar that's packed with 25-year-olds and don't have underlying conditions, the odds are you won't have any problems at all. On the other hand, I think Sweetwater was smart to cancel GearFest, because the virus likes large groups of people, with a widely varying demographic, packed in close quarters. Chuck decided the odds weren't as good as he would have liked. He decided to live in "caution world," which I think was justified. You've decided to live in "the-odds-are-way-in-my-favor world," which I think is equally justified. We play the odds all the time. You're more likely to get hit by a truck on the way to the restaurant than dying because you went to the restaurant.
As this thing goes on, I think more and more decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis. There have been many (fallacious) comparisons to the flu - "The flu can kill 40-60K people a year!" But all this death has happened in basically 90 days. It's (seemingly) starting to fade, and when the coronavirus becomes like any other flu, it will be treated like any other flu.
We all gather information and assess threats in our own way, my approach was/is obviously a lot different than many and a lot of people have been in disagreement with it but I won't go into that anymore. There are also many other aspects to consider, for example, at home it's just my wife and I 90% of the time, her parents live out of town and mine are dead so minimal risk there. It would be a different story I'm sure if I was responsible for 100s or 1000's of people. Hopefully though everyone can agree the threat continues to diminish daily and there are a myriad of other issues and threats facing us all going forward. At my house we've had nothing resembling a cold or flu since the first week of January. Now it's allergy season in these parts.
Weather permitting, we'll do our first "real" gig since Valentines Day tomorrow evening at a popular and rather historic place a few miles outside of town. We expect a good turnout but it's also "Rib Night" which I'm told is a good draw. I was able to do a lot of work on backing tracks (I've finished about half of what we'll need) and I'm looking forward to trying that setup out.
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It's almost like living in parallel worlds here lately. On the one hand we've been attending performances, going to bars and out to dinner in some places where even staff is not wearing masks while on the other hand my work place is still requiring face coverings, most people at the polling place yesterday had masks on and it was the same at the Walgreens where we stopped to get some birthday cards and allergy pills. Weird times!
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So the music business is going to pause business as usual on Tuesday, June 2 to reflect on...well, as far as I can tell, to reflect on how they can look like they're reflecting on something.
Can someone explain to me how this is anything more than an exercise in self-promotion, that will accomplish nothing of significance?
Support domestic terrorism and anarchy, how can they actually be serious?
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One thing somewhat related which has blossomed in the coronavirus era is live home shows on YouTube or Facebook Live by musicians who want to keep their chops, their audience, and maybe make a few bucks in tips. Usually it's one or two people often using nothing but a phone, and no "engineer" to help with the few things that can be controlled. Some, particularly those from really good players, can be at least tolerable. Some are, audio-wise, absolutely dreadful.
We did that from our porch in the cul-de-sac a month ago. We already had the idea to try it but were further encouraged by the neighbors, a couple of whom were having birthdays. We set up on our front porch and my wife put her MBP on a folding table out toward the front of us and went live on FB. The audio quality was horrific when we listened back later but we were flying by the seat of our pants, I'd never attempted that before and didn't bother to check levels or anything on her computer. In any case the neighbors really enjoyed it, sounded a lot better to the folks in attendance of course and turned out to be a "paying" gig when later they gave up some gift certificates to one of our favorite restaurants.
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Funny, because of the security requirements of my tax business I'm all about internet security but Goggle doesn't bother me at all. My definition of the term "personal information" is things like my social security number, birthdate, bank info, address, employers, things that are serious identity theft risks. Google has nothing to with that stuff it's anonymous data mining and nobody knows your name unless you click on one of those popup ads and buy something. Browsing history? Who cares?
Bob
Here where I work Chrome is the main browser and gmail is for the masses (albeit by some arrangement we have corporate name for the domain) while the firewall is certainly very tight. Levels vary of course, in some labs around here you need top secret security clearance.
At home I typically prefer using Firefox although I can't cite any particular reason other than I've become accustomed to it. I guess I've softened some and now see humor in things I've recently browsed/shopped popup on FB and at the top of gmail.
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What I really need to know is whether I should be drinking Coke or Pepsi. I don't want anybody in public to think I'm racist or uneducated, or irresponsible because I'm drinking the wrong soft drink. I want to make sure I drink the socially acceptable soft drink but I haven't been told which one to drink yet. Can somebody please help me? Maybe there's a Facebook group I could join.
You need to get wise to the ways of the street, you mix the Coke with the Jack Daniels. It's the rock star breakfast of champions dating back decades!
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I recently came across an article on the Receptor, a product which I, too, thought was a terrific idea when it came out . . . except for the price. But then, compared to today's prices in the field, both hardware and software, everything was more expensive back then. They were indeed hampered by the implementation of copy protection, which limited the number of software products that it could support. As Craig suggests, that, plus the base price, eventually led to the Receptor's demise.
That's basically what I figured, it's difficult enough to develop a piece of hardware but then you throw multiple third parties in the mix and things can get weird. Around the time this came out I was using rack mount synths at gigs and I thought how cool it would be if I could use some of my favorite VI's within a unit that secured into my rack.
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The way I understand it isthis -- those masks are not so much to protect the person wearing it, but to protect others.
So the way I see it is this, I wear the mask as a courtesy to others.
I just believe potentially protecting others is the civilized thing to do.
Insights and incites by Notes
Just to be clear, I understand that the focus is mainly on the covid thing and my message is not meant to insinuate that you shouldn't wear a mask. I'm simply trying to make people aware of a different perspective that could be important and may not have been considered by some. It may be as simple as losing the surgical mask and wearing a bandanna to look a little more badass! That may appear to be flippant but it's important to remember that covid is not the only threat out there and the tables are already gradually turning away from it.
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It's a big world out there and people approach it from a lot of different angles. For myself, and many like me, we have heightened awareness and defense mechanisms that can be easily triggered by seeing people wearing masks, I'm actually a fairly pedestrian dude compared to some I know but seeing people in masks is really messing with my defense instincts.
There have always been a lot of desperate people out there running around but that number is likely to increase, perhaps exponentially, as this situation continues to evolve. The more criminal element of society will undoubtedly tend to view people running around with surgical masks on as weak and possible prey. We're already beginning to see some chaos erupt out there.
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I remember when this product came out and it looked like it had potential to be an absolutely fabulous product but the price held me back, the software I have and/or need to buy ads a lot to the already expensive cost of the box.
As tempting and versatile as it looked I just couldn't justify the price. I was wondering about it recently since it seemed to vanish from the radar screen. I found their webpage and now it appears they are just marketing their technology whatever that amounts to.
Did anyone have or use one of these devices, what do you suppose happened that they apparently went out of production?
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That's a very thoughtful and insightful response, thanks for sharing that!
Does anyone foresee any culpability placed on China? For example, I'd seen indications that our debt with them had already reached an unsustainable level long before this. Would we attempt to reduce or even cancel that debt as a punishment and could it lead to war?
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But to be fair, no one had ever dealt with this before.
Yes and I feel extremely fortunate that, in the grand scheme of things, the impact on me has been minimal so far, I haven't had a haircut in two months, need some dental work and I couldn't go to my favorite restaurants for a while, boohoo. Meanwhile people have died from something that didn't exist before last year while life savings, dreams, hopes and businesses have been decimated. I never foresaw living in such times as we're experiencing; it's fascinating, horrifying, confusing, maddening and emotionally draining all at the same time.
Is it to late to take a poll? I'd be curious to know how folks here might have handled things differently.
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I ordered the army green long sleeve. That's mostly out of season now but I just don't want to add any more T-Shirts right now.
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why has what should be a scientific and social matter ended up being a political matter
I believe that happened just about the time governors and other elected officials began imposing strict, and often seemingly incoherent or baffling, rules and regulations many may have felt were not in their best interest or even the best interest of the public at large.
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Good grief, here I was thinking all the smart, young, liberal and wealthy West LA residents had it together, they knew what was going on unlike all the yahoos in the middle of the country (not my thinking, just paraphrasing what I've seen and heard during all this).
Bob
Hey, I resemble that remark but to be quite certain, am quite amused by it. Certainly by circumstances and my own choices I've interacted with people and society to the greatest extent possible all this time, however, it's not entirely just because I'm a wild and crazy guy. At this point, if anyone out there has a strong immune system, I sure do! So, in what's a pretty rare occurrence of issuing words of caution, some folks should certainly re-enter society a bit more gradually. Not only do they run the risk of C19 but their immune systems may also be compromised to some of the more common forms of viruses and bacteria.
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I recently watched the Bob Dylan documentary, No Direction Home, I believe it was called but I can't remember if it was Netflix, Amazon Prime or one of the other things we have now. It was very interesting and much longer than a normal movie. I was particularly amused by the press interview clips with the thought of media discussion that's been happening in other threads here.
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Mine certainly has changed over the years. Although I was trained from early years to play piano I really wanted to play guitar. The massive guitar noodle fests that were occurring in the 70's and 80's made me want to be a part of that to a large degree and I studied for it. Whenever I was able to overdub record myself I'd create rhythm tracks and then lay down pentatonic licks and patterns as fast as I could make my fingers move over the top of it.
I dated a Korean girl for a while in '80/'81, while living in Texas who told me my guitar playing "sounds like killing people".
Eventually I decided I needed to learn to sing and although I don't have great range I was able to pick up and learn from many existing pop/rock songs. When I actually began to create things that resembled coherent and complete songs they were generally guitar based hard rock type things (although I liked to include keys) with fun, life struggles or "stick it to the man" type lyrics.
Since that time I've veered off from time to time to dabble with more of a country/rockabilly flavor but also became enamored with synths and arpeggiators to some extent. I always tried to avoid cliche three chord type songs but it's also difficult to try and create chord progressions that don't already exist elsewhere. I take comfort in the fact that rhythm, percussions and the different instrument sounds that can be created provide for endless possibilities. I like, and am proud, of some of my lyrical content but still wish story telling was easier for me.
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I don't think he did it on purpose, I'm sure it was just an accident.
I see they got to you already, and are forcing you to retract what you said. So sad. How much did they pay you to recant?
Accident...or conspiracy? You decide!
I cannot reveal my confidential and anonymous yet reliable sources.
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Trump ran over my dog
Greg, I'm so sorry to hear that. I know you really cared about that little friend of yours. And after all these years, too...well, at least Fido is in a better place now.
No, I have not - obviously, it's another media coverup. It's outrageous that someone can just run over a dog with impunity, and get away with it.
HEY! I'm learning to take things out of context!! Maybe I have a fabulous new career opportunity waiting for me!
I don't think he did it on purpose, I'm sure it was just an accident. I tried to train that dog not to chase cars but that dog wouldn't pay any more attention to me than I do to the media!
Sometimes they intersect, but in many cases, you can choose the world in which you want to live.
OK, the Corona Virus Isn't Going Away. Now What?
in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage
Posted
The weather turned out to be great last night for our first gig since Valentines Day. It was outdoors of course and we had a great crowd of appreciative folks there. We set up on the patio where they'd built an outdoor "grain bin" bar last year. Lots of people hung out around the bar all night, there are a few tables out in the yard and lots of other people brought their own lawn chairs. It was a lot like a concert in the park type of thing. It was great to see people enjoying life, we got numerous compliments on our performance and ran out of business cards that people were requesting.
I tried out the "new" backing track system I've been working on, still a lot of work to do with that but the system ran smoothly for the songs I had prepared. I had to adjust a little when I realized I'd forgotten the transmitter for my guitar wireless unit but no biggie. Now I need to get back to figuring out how to boost our PA capability, something I'd been working on before we fell into the abyss. For us here the only way is up!