I think the last time I was really regular about keeping a blog was Scotland. Before that it was the long stint I spent while on crutches (and being Daclaren’s blog buddy, though she far outclasses me!). Now, I’m so sorry I have to sneak everyone in.
My “tweets” should be appearing on my blog — so if you are ever curious, don’t feel bound by the dates I post, I’m pretty good about getting some kind of 140 character message in, even if it’s to tell Brent Spiner I find his posts amusing, or to try and pimp the Gorn Cannon idea to mythbusters. I know, according to all the world I’m lame for microblogging, and that’s really just fine with me.
Work has been going nuts, which in my field of work is rather expected. Duane’s advice to me rings in my head — “You’ll never get a job because things are running smooth.” And that’s fine.
On the home front, the dogs are doing well. Darren got my clarinet restored completely, and I got him a banjo. I’ve decided to follow in Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman’s footsteps, and to learn swing. To that end, I am ditching the Pomarico Crystal Emerald mouthpiece for a vintage mouthpiece that is ACTUALLY made by the master who also, you got it, helped Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw with such issues. Of course, the mouthpiece will get here before the reeds, but HEY. It’s something.
Along those musical lines are two other purchases: A Didgeridoo, and an Autoharp. Maybe we can play the Autoclub on the Autoharp!
Interestingly enough ,swing was music that was discouraged by three main people in my life — My clarinet teacher (“You’re so talented at your Mozart”), my band teacher (“Clarinets have no place in jazz band!”), and my grandmother (“go play your Mozart!”).
So, now I’m going to play my instrument my way! YAY!
So, some good things to note:
Manny runs a great music shop here in LA to restore instruments:
1507 N Gardner St
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 876-9662
JunkDude is an AWESOME place to buy COOL music instrument accoutrement, and their customer service is unbeatable. I can’t wait to play my mouthpiece!
I thought of the idea of Zombie News yesterday morning, and I figured I would try my hand at it today, given that my body has forced some downtime on me. The idea is, some stories are more fun when you insert zombies. And, sadly, others make more sense when you insert zombies.
This was the first story I thought of, given it would be really amusing if the zombies were the ones who called the whole thing to begin with.
LONDON, England (CNN) — Thousands of dancers jammed a major London train station in a Facebook-driven “flashmob” mimicking an advertisement for a phone company. After the event, hundreds of participants were found to missing.
Yet the event last Friday evening was so successful that another is planned for next Friday in Trafalgar Square in central London. Plus, a group has been set up to organize another one at Liverpool Street Station a week later.
Videos posted on the social-networking site showed Liverpool Street Station completely filled with people, counting down the seconds until the clock showed 7 p.m., then dancing to music on their mp3 players as the hour struck. The event was meant to be a spoof of a TMobil advertisement
The sheer scale of the event came as a complete surprise to the organizer, a 22-year-old Facebook user who identified himself only as ZombiEve.
“I was watching TV and the T-Mobile advertisement came up and I thought, hm, let’s get my friends down to Liverpool Street and do a little dance,” he told CNN. “We also thought it might be fun to get some fresh blood in there, if you know what I mean.” The clever zombie then posted the event on Facebook and invited his friends, who invited their friends, he said, and so on until thousands of people had been told of the plan.
“At a quarter to seven people just flocked into the station like someone opened a plughole and the water went out,” he said. “They just kept coming in like sheep. As it grew and grew, I just thought, ‘This is going to be huge. And, you know, ‘brains.’”
Original Image courtesy of CNN
His main memory of the event is “the volume of people — you couldn’t see the brains, I mean floor,” added.
He left after 15 minutes — the scheduled ending time — for fear of the police, he said, adding that he had deleted his name from the event Web site and refused to identify himself to CNN for the same reason.
“The entire main concourse was packed full of people dancing, cheering and screaming,” said CNN’s Simon Hooper, who was passing through the station on his way home.
“There were a lot of bemused zomb. . . I mean, commuters wandering around the edges, trying to get to their trains but nobody seemed to mind too much,” he said. “I think a lot of people who pass through Liverpool Street regularly are getting used to this sort of thing.”
British Transport Police also described it as “mainly a good humored event,” adding “No arrests were made and no crimes were reported, but there have been several missing persons cases opened”
Police did not have an immediate estimate of the crowd size, but more than 14,000 people joined the Facebook group “Liverpool Street Station Silent Dance.”
“Yeah I agree, there wasn’t any bad feelings there. Everybody just had a good time, apart from my friend being gnawed by some guy, but you’ll always get one,” another wrote.
The success of the event has prompted ZombiEve to call for another silent dance at Trafalgar Square in central London on February 13.
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This is all courtesy of a little movie called “Return of the Living Dead,” where the zombies use a radio and request “Send more cops. . .”
I wanted to try and find a place for this video in the main body, but unfortunately there just wasn’t room. It’s still funny, though:
