TOP STORY: Th-Th-Th-Th-THUGficial
Good news, the sun has set on the old, student-run CHS page, a heartless, un -feeling Coldfusion page has been put in its place. Never fear, tho, a mere two days before its destruction, I finished work on the THUGficial. Yesterday, I completed its first update (The LMAT page). Now I can update at will, instead of waiting for clearence from THE MAN. I'm going to do some major retooling of both pages over the break.NEXT TO THE TOP STORY: SDOAP Pages & Mariner
As part of an innovative new program, there will be a web page for each SDOAP. That's right, each SDOAP will have their own regularly updated page. Director's alert, you can put whatever you want on it. Give it to me, and I will post. Also, if any of you directors or cast members are budding webmasters, I will post what you create. Also, if you have ideas about your site's format, tell me, and I'll do it, eh? Plus, since we are starting Mariner in Theatre Prod/Tech I&II, I'm going to approach the page in a work-in-progress form. E.G. whenever a major develop -ment is made, it's going up on the page. Thus we have a sort of making-of as it is being made. Expect to see set blueprints, etc. within the next coupla days.Guest Editorial: RANCID - Life Won't Wait
Pro-fingerpicking, Anti-Propagandhi Album Review by Brian Gonynor
Let's get one thing straight, I am not a punk. Usually, when I turn on a punk record, it hits my ear like a stale brick and I have to listen to Cream for hours (My suggested listening for you "punks") to cleanse my ears of its scourge. That said, punk's general unworthiness makes this album that much better. That's be -cause LWW isn't a general punk album. It's hardly a punk album at all! A Hammond B3 is played on 7 of the tracks! Several tracks' background vocals consist of Beatles-esque "oooo"s and "aaah"s. (Punk? Beatles-esque?) It's chock full of ska, reggae, and even rockabilly. Also, these boys know what they're doing. The bass parts especially deserve merit. While Maxwell Murder may have an excellent bass solo, The songs on THIS album - Crane Fist, Life Won't Wait, 1998, and New Dress in particular - have awesome punk bass LINES. There's a lot of Jamaican influence on this album (it was partly recorded in Kingston)That said, here's my Top 10 LWW Songs. Every punk, rock 'n roller, and stoner should own this album. (Fits theater like a glove, don't it?). Here's the top 10 cuts on this exquisite work. 10. Hoover Street - awesome chorus, but the first verse is too long. 9. The Wolf - Rolling power chord riff + sing-along chorus = punk enjoyment. 8. Lady Liberty - Almost no distortion. Rockabilly punk makes our nation great. 7. Wrongful Suspicion - anti-establishment but not thoughtless or preachy. Rare fare in teenage wasteland. 6. Crane Fist - The bassline is the first instrument to appear and it deserves to be - its awesome. The piano work sounds like its from a cheesy Halloween cartoon. Awesome. 5. Leicester Square - This albums' punk anthem a la "Roots Radicals" Another awesomely catchy chorus. (What weezer used to be able to do) 4. New Dress - Lots of emotion, bitchin intro, about Yugosalvia, what more do you need? 3. Life Won't Wait - The lesser of two awesome reggae songs on this list. Bitchin lyrics, more Jamaicans than you ca shake a stick at. 2. 1998 - This song is so punk it knocks me down every time I hear it. A retrospec -tive about a youn lad in the Lower east Side of Manhattan. A crappy solo's the only thing that holds it from number 1, but the solo is on top of a top-notch bass solo. 1. Coppers - Insanely Good. Steel drums, Dr. Israel providing a quasi-rap intro and verse with heart. Reggae roots, guys actually trying to sing, lyrics that think, not shout. A pacifist appeal for equality, not a Propagandhi masculine grunt for violence. This is revolutionary music that redeems Rancid's "skull and crossbones" album single -handedly.I Want More
I origionally planned to have a series of guest editorials in the webMASTER newsletter. However, only one person met their deadlin. Dejected, I retracted the policy. After murmurings about Goynor's article, other people have been wanting to send in their own articles. Please do. I want these articles. It's hard as hell to fill up this newsletter, week after week with something creative, E-Mail articles or ideas here.Album Review: "The Art of Julian Bream" by Julian Bream
Classical guitar is one of my great passions, and there are few modern compo -sers who have done more for it than Bream. However, classical guitar is an art of maturation. Any fingerpicking style develops over a long period of time, getting better with age and experience (See some of Chet's 70's and 80's albums to prove that pickers do get better with age). When it saw it on sale for a piddly two dollars, I snatched up this mint copy of Julian Bream's first album. As I put the needle to this pristine record, I was amazed by the clarity. Compared to Segovia, Bream is a thousand steps ahead in the modernism department. Segovia's unwillingess to play with a direct Mic has always hampered the sound quality of his performances and recording (Check out some of his 40's stuff for proof of that). Bream's choice to use silk and steel strings (Largely necause he worked throgh college as a pop guitarist) give a unique sound (With, ironically, with some of the lighest, airiest bass string playing I have ever heard). His technique is amazing, percise, heavy-handed, superbly innotated, Segovia could learn a lot from him. If you are a fan of classical musicians as machines, he is a perfect robot. That sort of technique can be effective (Though it is, in my mind, inferior to more emotive players like Parkening), however, the song choice is key. I have often insulted John Williams and other classical guitar -ists because of their poor song choices. Bream made a youthful mistake and chose to pick harpsicord songs to show off his skills. In the early 60's harp -sicord recording were quite popular in the classical community (Until YES featured a electric harpsicord prominently and screwed it up for all of us, just kidding Billy Squier & Guy with South American 12-string). His robotic masterey was perfect for these recordings (Many of which are Segovia arrangements that are far more accurate than the master's origional). First, he made a critical mistake, make sure it's entertaining. Some of the arrangements are good, but they sound too much like a harpsicord. Sure we're impressed when Robby Kreiger has a guitar solo that sounds like a sax, but it's gimmicky if that's all the album is. Second, and most fatal, his strength as a composer and arranger is over -shadowed by his foolishness. He chose to take on the world's greatest guitarist (Segovia) using a lot of his arrangements. It's brash, and his tone, while percise, is not moving enough to grab you like Segovia. More importantly, he plays his own arrangement of Scarlatti's Sonatta in E Minor then plays Segovia's famous arrangement of that particular song (Considdered to be one of the greatest guitar adaptations of a harpsicord work, simply because it truly captures the spirit of the song in a distinct guitar tone). Unfortunately, he plays Segovia's better. His arrangement is slow, plodding, boring, while Segovia's is almost Punk in comparision, fast abbreviated, filled with powerful staccato sounds that forces one's ears to perk up and be moved. He called Segovia out and lost bad where it mattered most. For the rest of the time, he has to make up for this fatal error. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad record. I'm giving it 3 penguins because of Bream's amazing technical masterey (And the fact that this 40 -year-old record plays like new. There is a minority of players and list -eners who like this stuff. I don't. Bream's later material is so much better (And his arrangements and compositions a lot more interesting), and I find this interesting in a historical perspective (Like Lynard Skynard: The First Album or Charles "Baron" Mingus, the Early Recordings). It's amazing playing, I just don't have to like it. Thus I score it, a somewhat shaky: SCORE:
of 5 penguins.
Haiku For the Taco Bell Chicken Quesedia
Feat of Strength #11
Until Next Week... Have fun and give it up to the Dutch.
