Just my personal preference, but graduating from a Fender Squier to an Ibanez RG-170 (that I picked up in a garage sale for $80!) was the best thing I ever did for myself as a guitarist. The action is smooth to the point where you can play slide barehanded, and the expanded neck makes a huge difference in your range. If nothing else, give one a play while you're in the shop - effing beautiful guitars.
arotrios
joined 1 year ago
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/485321
In the early nineties (it might have been 1992, but it’s hard to remember when you’re having a good time) I joined a rock-and-roll band composed mostly of writers. The Rock Bottom Remainders were the brainchild of Kathi Kamen Goldmark, a book publicist and musician from San Francisco. The group included Dave Barry on lead guitar, Ridley Pearson on bass, Barbara Kingsolver on keyboards, Robert Fulghum on mandolin, and me on rhythm guitar. There was also a trio of “chick singers,” à la the Dixie Cups, made up (usually) of Kathi, Tad Bartimus, and Amy Tan.
The group was intended as a one-shot deal—we would play two shows at the American Booksellers Convention, get a few laughs, recapture our misspent youth for three or four hours, then go our separate ways.
It didn’t happen that way, because the group never quite broke up. We found that we liked playing together too much to quit, and with a couple of “ringer” musicians on sax and drums (plus, in the early days, our musical guru, Al Kooper, at the heart of the group), we sounded pretty good. You’d pay to hear us. Not a lot, not U2 or E Street Band prices, but maybe what the oldtimers call “roadhouse money.” We took the group on tour, wrote a book about it (my wife took the photos and danced whenever the spirit took her, which was quite often), and continue to play now and then, sometimes as The Remainders, sometimes as Raymond Burr’s Legs. The personnel comes and goes—columnist Mitch Albom has replaced Barbara on keyboards, and Al doesn’t play with the group anymore ‘cause he and Kathi don’t get along—but the core has remained Kathi, Amy, Ridley, Dave, Mitch Albom, and me . . . . plus Josh Kelly on drums and Erasmo Paolo on sax.
We do it for the music, but we also do it for the companionship. We like each other, and we like having a chance to talk sometimes about the real job, the day job people are always telling us not to quit. We are writers, and we never ask one another where we get our ideas; we know we don’t know.
One night while we were eating Chinese before a gig in Miami Beach, I asked Amy if there was any one question she was never asked during the Q-and-A that follows almost every writer’s talk—that question you never get to answer when you’re standing in front of a group of author-struck fans and pretending you don’t put your pants on one leg at a time like everyone else.
Amy paused, thinking it over very carefully, and then said: “No one ever asks about the language.”
I owe an immense debt of gratitude to her for saying that. I had been playing with the idea of writing a little book about writing for a year or more at that time, but had held back because I didn’t trust my own motivations— why did I want to write about writing? What made me think I had anything worth saying?
The easy answer is that someone who has sold as many books of fiction as I have must have something worthwhile to say about writing it, but the easy answer isn’t always the truth. Colonel Sanders sold a hell of a lot of fried chicken, but I’m not sure anyone wants to know how he made it. If I was going to be presumptuous enough to tell people how to write, I felt there had to be a better reason than my popular success. Put another way, I didn’t want to write a book, even a short one like this, that would leave me feeling like either a literary gasbag or a transcendental asshole. There are enough of those books—and those writers —on the market already, thanks.
But Amy was right: nobody ever asks about the language. They ask the DeLillos and the Updikes and the Styrons, but they don’t ask popular novelists.
Yet many of us proles also care about the language, in our humble way, and care passionately about the art and craft of telling stories on paper. What follows is an attempt to put down, briefly and simply, how I came to the craft, what I know about it now, and how it’s done. It’s about the day job; it’s about the language.
This book is dedicated to Amy Tan, who told me in a very simple and direct way that it was okay to write it.
Posted free to Simon & Schusters mailing list a long time ago, provided here as a service to those unable to afford their own copy.
Stephen King's website is here if you'd like to check out his new releases.
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/478961
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black. He strode in a swarm of fireflies. He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/478679
With insight, humor, and practicality, Natalie Goldberg inspires writers and would-be writers to take the leap into writing skillfully and creatively. She offers suggestions, encouragement, and solid advice on many aspects of the writer’s craft: on writing from “first thoughts” (keep your hand moving, don’t cross out, just get it on paper), on listening (writing is ninety percent listening; the deeper you listen, the better you write), on using verbs (verbs provide the energy of the sentence), on overcoming doubts (doubt is torture; don’t listen to it)—even on choosing a restaurant in which to write. Goldberg sees writing as a practice that helps writers comprehend the value of their lives.
This book has been a staple of creative writing course for nearly 30 years. The free copy linked above is readily available online from multiple sources and has been in circulation online for over 2 decades, so I feel it's justified to provide the link in the interests of helping writers and students unable to afford a copy a tool to improve their craft.
However, in the interests of supporting the author, here's a link to get your own physical copy from her website:
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/429137
Shadow libraries, sometimes called pirate libraries, consist of texts aggregated outside the legal framework of copyright.
Today's pirate libraries have their roots in the work of Russian academics to digitize texts in the 1990s. Scholars in that part of the world had long had a thriving practice of passing literature and scientific information underground, in opposition to government censorship—part of the samizdat culture, in which banned documents were copied and passed hand to hand through illicit channels. Those first digital collections were passed freely around, but when their creators started running into problems with copyright, their collections “retreated from the public view," writes Balázs Bodó, a piracy researcher based at the University of Amsterdam. "The text collections were far too valuable to simply delete," he writes, and instead migrated to "closed, membership-only FTP servers."
More recently, though, those collections have moved online, where they are available to anyone who knows where to look.
The purpose of this site, then, is to have all these libraries at our fingertips when in need of a certain text or book.
As Aaron Swartz put it:
"Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves."
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.
With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?
Read the full text of the Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/429137
Shadow libraries, sometimes called pirate libraries, consist of texts aggregated outside the legal framework of copyright.
Today's pirate libraries have their roots in the work of Russian academics to digitize texts in the 1990s. Scholars in that part of the world had long had a thriving practice of passing literature and scientific information underground, in opposition to government censorship—part of the samizdat culture, in which banned documents were copied and passed hand to hand through illicit channels. Those first digital collections were passed freely around, but when their creators started running into problems with copyright, their collections “retreated from the public view," writes Balázs Bodó, a piracy researcher based at the University of Amsterdam. "The text collections were far too valuable to simply delete," he writes, and instead migrated to "closed, membership-only FTP servers."
More recently, though, those collections have moved online, where they are available to anyone who knows where to look.
The purpose of this site, then, is to have all these libraries at our fingertips when in need of a certain text or book.
As Aaron Swartz put it:
"Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves."
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.
With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?
Read the full text of the Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/476755
Don't panic, and bring a towel.
For seasoned galactic travelers, if you're looking for the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which includes:
- Hitchhiker's Guide
- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
- Life, the Universe, and Everything
- So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
- Young Zaphod Plays It Safe
- Mostly Harmless
... this wormhole should get you there.
Also, upon conferring with both Space and Ice Pirates, I've been persuaded to also provide their contribution here in honor of the late, great Douglas Adams.
Now could you guys please untie my cats and get them off the plank?
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/473973
The Way that can be articulately described is not the Unchanging Way. The name that can be said out loud is not the Unchanging Name. With your mouth unopened, and things left undefined, you stand at the beginning of the universe. Make definitions, and you are the measure of all creation.
The Tao Te Ching (UK: /ˌtaʊ tiː ˈtʃɪŋ/,[1] US: /ˌdaʊ dɛ ˈdʒɪŋ/; simplified Chinese: 道德经; traditional Chinese: 道德經; pinyin: Dàodé Jīng [tâʊ tɤ̌ tɕíŋ] i) is a Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism written around 400 BC and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion dates back to the late 4th century BC, but modern scholarship dates other parts of the text as having been written—or at least compiled—later than the earliest portions of the Zhuangzi.
The Tao Te Ching, along with the Zhuangzi, is a fundamental text for both philosophical and religious Taoism. It also strongly influenced other schools of Chinese philosophy and religion, including Legalism, Confucianism, and Chinese Buddhism, which was largely interpreted through the use of Taoist words and concepts when it was originally introduced to China. Many artists, including poets, painters, calligraphers, and gardeners, have used the Tao Te Ching as a source of inspiration. Its influence has spread widely within the globe's artistic and academic spheres. It is one of the most translated texts in world literature.
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/473436
Long ago, so the Storyteller claimed, the evil God Torak sought dominion and drove men and Gods to war. But Belgarath the Sorcerer led men to reclaim the Orb that protected men of the West. So long as it lay at Riva, the prophecy went, men would be safe...
This series remains some of the best fantasy I've ever read, and it's often very hard to find, as it's been out of print for a while now in most places.
Content Warning: David Eddings has a checkered past regarding the abuse of his adopted son, which he served a year in jail for in 1970. There are likewise dark themes in these novels that some readers may find disturbing. That being said, I believe the work stands on its own as a masterpiece of world-crafting. Please note I present it on those grounds, not as any endorsement of Eddings himself.
194
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/317329
The Blues Brothers is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by John Landis. It stars John Belushi as "Joliet" Jake Blues and Dan Aykroyd as his brother Elwood, characters developed from the recurring musical sketch "The Blues Brothers" on NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. The script is set in and around Chicago, Illinois, where it was filmed, and the screenplay was written by Aykroyd and Landis. It features musical numbers by rhythm and blues (R&B), soul, and blues singers James Brown, Cab Calloway (in his final feature film role), Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Chaka Khan, and John Lee Hooker. It features non-musical supporting performances by Carrie Fisher, Henry Gibson, Charles Napier, Kathleen Freeman and John Candy.
22
Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) - 1959 - starring Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello, directed by Marcel Camus
(lemmy.world)
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/13thFloor/t/468313
Black Orpheus (Portuguese: Orfeu Negro [ɔɾˈfew ˈneɣɾu]) is a 1959 romantic tragedy film directed by French filmmaker Marcel Camus, and starring Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello. It is based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes, which set the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice in a contemporary favela in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. The film was an international co-production among companies in Brazil, France and Italy.
The film is particularly noted for its soundtrack by two Brazilian composers: Antônio Carlos Jobim, whose song "A felicidade" opens the film; and Luiz Bonfá, whose "Manhã de Carnaval" and "Samba de Orfeu" have become classics of bossa nova. The songs performed by Orfeu were dubbed by singer Agostinho dos Santos.[6] Lengthy passages of filming took place in the Morro da Babilônia, a favela in the Leme neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro.
Black Orpheus won the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the 1960 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film and was nominated for the 1961 BAFTA Award for Best Film.
Important to note, there's some controversy over the film in Brazil:
While the 1959 adaptation has been celebrated internationally, it has been criticized by Brazilians and scholars for exoticizing Brazil for an international audience and reinforcing harmful stereotypes.
and...
The Palme d'Or and Oscar-winning film was celebrated internationally and criticized in Brazil; Vinicius de Moraes, author of the play Orfeu da Conceição upon which the film was based, was outraged by the film and left the theater in the middle of the screening. Critics of the adaptation by Marcel Camus argued that it reinforced various stereotypes about Brazilian culture and society and about Afro-Brazilians specifically, portraying the characters as "simple-minded, overtly sexual, and interested only in singing and dancing." Setting out to make itself more "appealing" to foreign audiences, the film resorts to a "cheap and problematic exoticism" of Brazil.
This movie is an explosion of cinematic joy de vivre, unique in the energy it brings to a classic tragedy, and a unique picture of Brazil in the late 50s, I've decided to let the audience decide where their opinions sit in the controversy above.
Captions in English available in settings -> captions on the player for those that don't speak Portuguese.
Shhhhh.... the corpodrones will hear you. They haven't relinquished the copyright - they've been hunting Space Ghost to extinction everywhere on the internet.
Seriously though, licensing and an aggressive anti-piracy campaign have pretty much wiped Space Ghost from most places online, and the daft motherfucker is a cultural icon. So it sure sure is great that the Internet Archive, knowing it's days were numbered, absolutely doesn't have a full download link for all the episodes in the lower right hand panel so you glorious bastards can do what you do best and make sure it doesn't get locked away behind a corporate paywall or vault for the next 30 years... because that would be illegal and wrong and cost a couple of pennies to the assholes who have every writer in Hollywood out on the street striking.
In fact, I'd say recent developments towards the centralization, sterilization and capitalization of our culture have become so extreme that subversive action is not just justified, but inevitable at this point.
In other words, surf's up, mateys! Time to ride the waves and sail the high seas again... Space Ghost needs our help!