If I Could Fly

Keep coming back to this video, cos it is just so awesome. Not really a video, but a live recording of Joe's performance in a radio show, but still live nonetheless. This song really comes alive in this version. Notice the good tone, sustain and harmonics, and also the many improvised parts (tapping parts, natural harmonics)

This is also the song that Joe sued Coldplay for copying the melody in Viva la Vida. No offense to Coldplay fans, but I think this one is definitely the real deal.

You can find the original track in Satriani's album Is There Love in Space.

Enjoy

Weekend Top 10 List

Spent last weekend over in KL attending a good friend's wedding. It was great, I realize nowadays weddings are where you get to meet all (literally 'ALL' of them) your undergraduate friends and have a great time catching up.

As usual, something interesting always happens when everybody gets together, and I'm summing it all up on this top ten list (in case I forget :P) For those who were there, let me know if there are any more worthy ones that should make it to the list.

In descending order

10. 12 o'clock

9. Well done

8. 1 o'clock

7. I don't know you, and you, and you, but I remember you (insert name here) :P

6. RM150

5. I'm horny, but not a bastard

4. What do you think about the oil price?

3. I'm driving my gf home

2. Ask (insert name here)

and the Number one quote for the weekend goes to...... (drumroll)

1. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...
1. I'm sorreyh, I'm so sorreyh...

I have to admit that number 1 quote really deserves to be number 1.

eBay and flanging and 7-legged spiders

I recently won my first auction in ebay, paying about USD60 (which I think is a pretty good deal) with shipping for a used-reissue Ibanez FL-9 Flanger. I've been looking for this for quite some time but could not really find a good deal at a reasonable condition. Most I've been are either affordable but in a very battered/wornout or mint with a very high price. This came without a box, and looks really good from the outside. Cleaned it up some sticky tape residue on the sides and some grime from around the knobs and it looks pretty brand new. There was a small dent near the name plate but thats ok. Most important to note of course is that all Ibanez 9 series pedals including the reissues are still made in Japan. 4 knobs, delay time, width, speed and regen, all the parameters I'll need to tweak the flange sound that I need.

There are some audio processing theory involved in flanging, and I hope to understand how it works as I begin to use the pedal more often. In fact, flanging is almost similar to chorusing.

Tested it out, and it has this really warm sounding flange with the option of getting really metallic with more extreme settings. Set it with a slow speed, strum a chord and listen to the sweep of the pedal, amazing. I've yet to really run this with distortion and to get those aeroplane sounds, hope it does not disappoint. In fact, it sounds much better than a Boss BF-2 that I had sold off previously, which sounded pretty boxy and less transparent. This lemon yellow pedal should be keeper this time and I think it could double up as a chorus pedal too.

Being my first transaction in eBay, I searched eBay up in Wiki and found some really unusual auctions which had taken place since it was founded. I'm suprised that people to auction off items such as an F/A-18, an aircraft carrier, Britney's hair and a 7-legged spider picture. The last one really stumped me, apparently it something originally created by David Thorne to pay his chiropactor. Read up how this came up here.

Monkeys and Mangoes

Overheard between the bear and the cat in a small town, famous for scavenging monkeys that roam at will.

The Bear brings some cut mangoes over to the cat.

Bear : Have some.
Cat : I didn't know my mum had mangoes.
Bear : The monkey passed one to your mum on his way back home.
Cat : O_O
Cat : Really???? I've gotta ask mum about this. Mum, bear said that the monkey passed a mango to you on his way home.
Mum : hahahahahhahahaa.....
Cat : You know bear, I ALMOST believed you.

Bear is really getting good at making these one-off jokes.

I Heart BearBear

Happy Valentine's Day pENguiN~