The Beauty of Lies: February 2008

29 February 2008

Hillary Clinton on stage

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(Far away)

On stage

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Ha, seriously, strange day

Henry Cisneros on stage

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Hillary rally, SATX

2 miles to Schulenburg

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Flyby

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Where am (was) I?

28 February 2008

Wikipedia Coffee Break 28 Feb 2008: Alfred Wainwright

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Start. "Today's Featured Article:" M62 Motorway

M62 Motorway. The M62 motorway is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull.

Pennines. Britain's first long distance footpath, the Pennine Way, runs the full length of the Pennine chain and is 429 kilometres (268 mi) long.

Pennine Way. A popular guide was authored and illustrated by the writer Alfred Wainwright, whose offer to buy a pint of beer for anyone who finished the Pennine Way is estimated to have cost him up to £15,000 until his death in 1991.

Alfred Wainwright. Alfred ("A.") Wainwright MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991) was a British hillwalker, guidebook author and illustrator.

Back to work...

27 February 2008

Finite Element, WEFT Sessions - (2) The Patterns of Her Eyes

Today's selection from WEFT Sessions, 1 December 2003. Download it here: "(02) The Patterns of Her Eyes."

I should really get Sunil to guest-write some of this stuff; as it turns out, I'm forgetting some of the stories behind the songs. My likely flawed recollection is that Sunil read about a guy that was in an asylum (or maybe jail) who was obsessed with eyes -- understanding them, drawing them, etc. Something like that. That story inspired this song.

In this version of the song, we're moving much faster than in the studio version; nerves, I guess. Also, Mike the studio engineer reinstates Sunil's guitar volume. This causes the solo to be a bit loud in the middle. Sunil had already compensated for the low volume by adjusting his guitar, but the solo setting on his pedal plus the increased volume on the studio side blows everything up. (OK: not literally.)

For all songs from WEFT Sessions, 1 Dec 2003, see the posts with the label: WEFT Sessions 1 December 2003

26 February 2008

Finite Element, WEFT Sessions - (1) Turning Into Energy

While searching through my archival boxes -- allocating junk from one box to another, too irresolute to part with much of it -- I found some artifacts from a bygone era: music. Oh ho, not just any music, but music that I had a part in making. I'd say it was more junk, but some of the songs that Sunil wrote were pretty good; it's not his fault I play the bass guitar like a busted robot.

Finite Element (go ahead and snicker now, nerds) consisted of three of us who were in the same aerospace engineering senior design course together at the University of Illinois. We also played together for a while in grad school, when we recorded our one EP in 2004: The Beauty of Lies (Now you know the namesake of this blog.)

So, in the interest of (1) sharing something of mine with you and (2) assuaging my paranoia by ensuring that not all of this music gets wasted if I die or my apartment complex burns down, I introduce you to the recorded catalog of Finite Element music. I'll post a new song periodically. I have a few things on .mp3:

WEFT Sessions -- recorded live on 90.1FM, WEFT, Champaign, IL on 1 December 2003

Various demos from spring and summer 2003

The Beauty of Lies (actually... I need to acquire these mp3s from Sunil or Kevin, I just have the CD... so I lied about this one, but... look at the title, chaval...)

We'll start with WEFT Sessions.

Today's selection: the first song of our set, Turning Into Energy.

This song is notable because, well, the studio engineer -- who was quite awesome, he did lots of great work when I later volunteered as an "airshifter" at WEFT -- must have hit the slider for the guitar volume between sound check and the beginning of our set. That is: you can't hear the guitar. Ah, opportunity: you should be cranking up the bass anyway, kids, 'cos that's me. (Don't fret: the studio guy realizes the mistake in song 2, leading to just a touch of overcompensation, but we'll get to that tomorrow...)

For all songs from WEFT Sessions, 1 Dec 2003, see the posts with the label: WEFT Sessions 1 December 2003

25 February 2008

Wikipedia Coffee Break 25 Feb 2008: Mukurthi National Park

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If I'm going to take a break for five minutes at work, I figure I might as well learn something. I suppose I'd have a cigarette if I was a smoker, but I'm not, so I don't. A five minute Wikipedia cruise is more interesting to me.

Start, Wikipedia Main Page: "Did you know..." ...that the railcar that ran on the Shimoga-Talaguppa railway in India had to be reversed on a turntable, so that it could start its return journey?
Shimoga-Talaguppa railway: British Indian authorities started laying the metre gauge line in the year 1938 from Shimoga to Talaguppa to provide access to Jog Falls.
Jog Falls: created by the Sharavathi River falling from a height of 253 meters (829 ft) is the highest plunge waterfall in India and the 7th deepest in the world. From the "Western Ghats" navigational box at the bottom of the page: Sispara Peak.
Sispara Peak: Sispara Peak is in the core area of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Location is 11°12'N, 76°28'E at the northeast end of Silent Valley National Park and the southwest end of Mukurthi National Park.
Mukurthi National Park. See especially: link to photos on Flickr tagged as Mukurthi.
Back to work.