I suggest attending...

OPTICAL POPSICLE performed by Know No Stranger,

I attended the performance this Friday, and it was visually, emotionally and artistically moving. literally.

I plan on writing a review of the performance soon and incorporating my sister's photographs from the show, but here's a little clip:

GREAT GREAT GREAT

Love Heather

Bo Diddley Beat

Bo Diddley never received a royalty check. Weird, huh?

He also had custom-made Gretsch guitars with fur bodies and rocket tails connected to his 25-watt Magnatone, he electrified his guitar with a radio and a phonograph and he made the whoompwhoompwhoomp with an old windup clock.

I went to see him when he played at Emen's a couple of years ago. It was me, Jake, Chris and a lot of old apple sauce eaters that knew how to dance. I wish I could remember some of his quotes because that man had a way of talking. i.e. "Dirty Mother Fuyer." 

Soo, The Bo Diddley Beat was derived from the hambone (juba dance) and church beats. 

(Hambone is also a term for four consecutive strikes in bowling). I think at the next dance party at I'll break out some of the juba dance steps including, yaller cat, the jubal jew, blow that candle out and the long dog scratch. Now can you hambone baby boomp, ba boomp, ba bomp, bomp-bomp. Some interesting hambone, here, the uploader refers to hambone as the granddaddy of beat-boxing. hah. 

I want to be exactly like Norma Jean Wofford, the Duchess, She's darling.

Embarrassingly enough, I just realized today that George Michael's song "Faith" is the Bo Diddley beat.

Nap time.

ATTN

Bats write love songs. Like, real live bats.

Matt Soniak writes about in the m e n t a l_floss article, "Bats Follow Musical Rules When Writing Love Songs."

According to the article, chirps are complex phrases composed of "A" and "B" syllables, trills are composed of short downward FM syllables that can be connected or separated by short silent intervals and buzzes are composed of short downward FM syllables that are never connected.

Here's a sample, that I need to sample:

bat love songs, 

very neat.

Raisins, The Pendeltons

best White Rabbit find du jour: 1988 Applause California Raisins 6" Poseable Girl for $2

She will be now sit alongside my "The California Raisins: Sing the hits" vinyl and cassette tape insert. 

This lucky find made me wonder what California Raisin information is available online and alas, they have a website  (with a very good song list, I might add, including Little Richard and Booker T & the MG's), but more importantly there is a California Raisin Advisory Board Web site, advocates for our little withered grape friends.. Futhermore, the California Raisin film, Meet the California Raisins is available here, in three parts.

 Ray Charles and Michael Jackson were both California Raisins. Will Vinton, the creator of The California Raisins, patented the Claymation process and worked on Michael Jackson's film, Moonwalker (really worth a watch as well, obviously there's some really great Claymation, including a Pee Wee Herman Claymation character). Vinton is currently responsible for the m&m's commercials.

A man named Webster Colcord currently owns the original California Raisins sculptures, I can't find his telephone number.

I can't really talk about The California Raisins without mentioning James Furness's (Gill) epic entrance as a California Raisin during Melanie's halloween party a few years ago. (I was Velma Dinkley from Scooby-Doo, but most people didn't notice a difference)

Also at the White Rabbit, I found Official NASA pictures of the moon, Hush..Hush Sweet Charlotte VHS (Bette Davis), The Day of the Triffids VHS, Roy Roger's DVD and a tiny R2-D2 figurine. 

After my findings, I had some veggie pizza with Sam, JJ and Nolan.

Lastly, Today I found out (and this fact has been debated) that The Beach Boys used an electro-theremin  on "Good Vibrations," "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," "Inspiration," and "Wild Honey." The electro-theremin was originally developed for Paul Tanner by Bob Whitsell in 1958. Tanner gained popularity during a stint with Glenn Miller as a session trombonist. The modern version of the electro-theremin is called a Tannerin (after Paul  Tanner). Brian Wilson currently uses a Polk Tannerin, furthermore, during earlier live performances of  "Good Vibrations" The Beach Boys used a Moog ribbon controller.

P.S. The Beach Boys former name was The Pendeltons, but was changed to The Beach Boys by their label without first consulting The Beach Boys/The Pendeltons.

 

UFO's

I am ridiculously fascinated with Falcon Heene, "balloon boy." His parents think they are direct descendants of aliens. Mr. Heene had a dream that he met an alien that said he was his father, which sounds like the best star trek/star wars mash-up ever.
I bought a book at White Rabbit about a year ago entitled, "Letters to the Air Force on UFO's." I've skimmed it a little bit, but never got around reading it in it's entirety, but this Falcon Heene saga has renewed my interest in it, I'll blog about any interesting findings.
My grandpa claims he saw aliens during his formative years as a colonel in the air force. He won't talk about it though. About a week ago he and I had an hour long conversation about retro electronics (I recently found a spy sound amplifier, the Orbitor OR310X, for $10 at Goodwill, the headphone jack broke once I got it home, so now I need to take it apart and fix it). I want to be exactly like my grandpa when I'm old.
I digress. My apartment is in dire need of a clean-up and revamp. I planned on cleaning it last night, but got side-tracked by alcohol.
On my walk home today a bunch of lady bags kept flying into my face, like little UFO's. I think this is the "lady bug baby boom" season.
ball bearings magazine (lowercase) has been sent to the printer, and will be published and available soon. I have two articles in this issue, a story on DEATHMARCH, and another article about sex offenders titled,"Close Encounters." The film Close Encounters of the Third Kind is suppose to take place in Delaware County, and Richard Dreyfuss is seen wearing a 'Ball U' t-shirt. I need the Close Encounters soundtrack, pretty bad.
I'm pretty gung-ho about learning to play the theremin.
And then I'll make a video like this: Theremin, Girl. Blue Lights

Insincerely, Heather