Goodbye.

Well friends, that's all she wrote. It's been nice knowing you, but I'm moving on.
- posted by Mason @ 6:23 AM (0) comments

We need that crunch.



Having done hours of research today, it looks like I want a low cost, rackmount 12bit sampler, most likely an Akai s900. Something late 80s/early 90s, but that doesn't use some insane and obsolete storage format (like QuikDisk - ha!). S950s are better, but have scsi outs and are more upgradeable = too expensive.



The other (even cheaper, and in some ways cooler) option is a Roland S550. It's the rack version of the S-50. They're extra cool, because you can hook them up to a monitor or TV and program and edit with a mouse. They're super cheap (this one is $100, shipped!). Since I don't need to take sounds from the computer and dump them to a sampler, and I don't need to make hip-hop music with an MPC style interface, I don't need to spend $1000 on a digital production unit. Basically either one of these is just a super advanced Casio SK-1. I don't really need one, but having spent several hours looking at them, I might as well buy one.

My real plan is to take a look at what sampler software I have in storage from 10 years ago and just buy one of those.
- posted by Mason @ 6:53 PM (0) comments

Now I am unstoppable.



The Ft. Worth Guitar Show once again delivers! Our friend Rod told me about this blue Mystic he had at the Dallas show back in May, so he brought it with him. It's not in quite as good shape as my red-orange Mystic, but it was only $150. I now need to purchase white, silver and metallic red Mystics for my collection to be complete. I've also got a line on a white Peavey Mantis. Then I need a Razer and then it's on to one of every American Peavey manufactured before 1986. Let me know if you've got something you want to sell me.


- posted by Mason @ 8:24 PM (0) comments

The Future is Fucked and so are we.



I've been reading quite a bit lately (hence the not posting). I just finished the fantastic Lathe of Heaven (1971) by Ursula K. LeGuin. Fuck - it was amazing. I've been meaning to watch the 80's newwavevideoart PBS adaptation of it for a while, but now I'm glad that I waited.

Short Description: There's a guy. He has dreams. He live in Portland in 2002. The planet is all fucked up. When he dreams a certain way, everyone's reality except for his changes. Then a guy from the government hooks his brain up to a thing that can control the dreams. Then some bad stuff happens and we learn that utopia isn't worth it's price.

Clearly, it's much more interesting than that. Here's a better review. Also, listen to what God has to say about it:

"One of the best novels, and most important to understanding of the nature of our world, is Ursula Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven, in which the dream universe is articulated in such a striking and compelling way that I hesitate to add any further explanation to it; it requires none."
—Philip K. Dick

- posted by Mason @ 9:30 PM (0) comments

Potty Putter.


This is NOT a joke. I mean... it's not a joke in the sense that it's a real product, and it's really for sale. Clearly the purveyors of this nonsense are taking a mildly sardonic tone in their advertising, but that doesn't make it any less insane or horrible. There are people all over this country calling in to buy it as a joke gift for dad. "He'll think it HILARIOUS!!!!!!!" I am slack jawed. This is how low we've sunk. I'm thinking of buying it as a gift, possibly for Megan's dad...
- posted by Mason @ 6:19 PM (0) comments

Saftey Scans



I bought a packet full of amazing paper junk (what I believe bitchy hipster girls refer to as ephemera) at a crazy estate sale last Saturday. I've scanned all of it, but the processing will take some time, owing less to any degree of difficulty and more to my unabashed laziness. It's almost a shame that this art is so prefect. It's almost a parody of itself, given the putrid ripoff pop advertising pulled on it's own grandfather in the 90's. Sadly our generation has come to associate this style of early post war advertising with frat boy posters on the subject of toxic levels of alcohol consumption and cheap Old Navy t-shirts.




- posted by Mason @ 4:05 PM (0) comments

Happy Birthday Nanny!


i accidentally wasn't smiling in this one, but all of the others have too much glare

I drove up to OKC for my grandmother's birthday. On the way up I listened to some stories from the new Stephen King short story collection. I enjoyed it thoroughly. King's work, especially his short fiction, is perfect for car trips. When I was working at the call center and driving 60 mile round trips a day I listened to a number of books on tape (remember, the green blazer had a cassette deck), some of which were his. I've digressed.

There was much merriment at the cookout - I grilled big port mushroom caps and ate them on sprouted wheat buns. There were also beef burgers and white buns... mmm... colon cancer...


mom's lebanese potato salad, my mushroom burger,
coleslaw (behind the potatoes), some squash I grilled.


two homemade cobblers (with vegan crusts!) i asked for a little of each [blueberry and peach]
and I got two full plates... well, of course i fucking at them, what do you think?
- posted by Mason @ 10:10 PM (0) comments

1,000th Post!



Three years of blog and 1000 posts. That's a lot of posts. Thanks for indulging me. I realize how incredibly self absorbed and meglomaniacal the whole construct of having a blog has become. "Don't you want to know what I think????" If I wasn't so smug and self-important it might make me feel bad.

Anyhow, pleased be to enjoy this picture I took of me and my parent's dog Scruffy. FART!
- posted by Mason @ 10:09 PM (4) comments

DogFight.



I thought I'd give it a few days before I started posting snippy things about pop culture again. So in the mean time, watch this video of Riker and Digby [The Littlest Biggest Dog in the World] fighting.

I'm in awe of the completely weird sounds Digby makes when he gets excited. Maybe I'll sample them, slice them and build the hook for a rap song out of them.
- posted by Mason @ 3:14 PM (0) comments

Not that this is breaking news in any way...



I'd be remiss if I chose not comment on the death of the most famous person in the world. Artists should be commemorated for their body of work, not lampooned for their deeply complicated personal lives. Lots of people are fucking assholes or selfish pricks or cruel and manipulative megalomaniacs, and while Jackson was a profoundly odd and damaged person, he never seemed to act out of malice in any way.

As an inhabitant of planet earth born between 1950 and 1999, I can't help but have been influenced by Jackson's music, and I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who's ever been within 100 feet of a radio after 1965 who couldn't say the same.

I'm sure that there are tons of forchan loving gamer assholes who will get their "lolz" this week by poking fun at Michael via the internet. I'm not saying that I haven't made my share of jokes at Jackson's expense over the last decade, but I've never been a detractor and have always vociferously defended his work. So fuck off xbox playing high school kids, Michael was 1000% more genius than you could ever hope to be.
- posted by Mason @ 6:35 PM (0) comments