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Neaky Freat

My Many Personalities!

We’re on a mighty trip!
We never get it right!
But God grades on a curve
You get what you deserve! A song!

By popular demand (not my cat!) I’ll do a Turkey Day share.
This is still in process, and represents my latest project.

It’s called “Neaky Freat.”
It’s about dancing.
I play all the instruments, designed the drums and wrote the tune.
Working on this in iMovie as I migrate to a better interface (DaVinci).
Also getting to know Apple Motion a little better, which is fun!
At this point, I haven’t added the bass guy, some FX and finishing. Continue reading “Neaky Freat”

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The Most Depressing Movie Ever Made ~ Highlights of Two Years of Stupidity

The Mystery of Joe Biden
The Presidency That Keeps On Failing

I do a lot of research.

I spend a lot of time with my dad, who doesn’t tolerate if I don’t know what’s going on. He’s tough. I’ve got to deal with it.

Don’t get me wrong, I like to know what’s going on, and I don’t mind if my dad insists I do. He’s been in politics, business and law and is a great sounding board and place to learn. But I have to know what’s going on! It’s on one hand a game we play, the two of us … but on the other hand it’s life or death.

This is a game I’m more than willing to discuss with someone who thinks, someone who cares. But it’s odd, and can be insulting for me to run into a random person who claims to “care,” but they obviously don’t know what’s going on. You don’t want to get into it with me, or my dad. Some of my “friends” on Facebook; where do you live, in a hole?

I can’t spoon feed the information Continue reading “The Most Depressing Movie Ever Made ~ Highlights of Two Years of Stupidity”

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Clairo; Has it Been Ten Years?

The ten-year success story of a Massachusetts girl who recorded a song for YouTube one morning without even getting out of bed says everything about what the entertainment industry worldwide has become. It’s much different than it used to be, when you needed a record label and a contract to get any real attention. Riding the YouTube magic carpet, artists like Claire Cottrill, known professionally as “Clairo,” have made enormous strides!

Clairo at The Roxy

About four years ago Clairo showed up out of nowhere on my Facebook feed. I remember! Curiously I clicked. My inner artist-critic self-started. Sometimes I know, and it’s not that hard. I can see through piles of clutter being sloppily laid out as art. I can see talent. Here some was! And I don’t remember who posted that original link for me, but I wasn’t the only one who clicked on it. The innocent, cute image of this girl propped up in her bed caught the attention of millions! Clairo says she recorded the track “using the resources around me which were pretty shitty. I used a little keyboard that I had and I was really into ’80s pop music – Continue reading “Clairo; Has it Been Ten Years?”

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Mark Urso Live, and Monday Night’s Sandwich

The Perks of Fine Dining

Many things have happened since we last talked. I’m seriously considering trying the Italian Sausage Panini with Roasted Red Peppers, Arugula and housemade Peperoncini Aioli next week at Perks and Corks, an award-winning coffee bar downtown (Westerly, RI). That’s because they have a great photo of it, and I was just there but I didn’t eat anything. I just had a chai. At nine o’clock at night. Hey, don’t judge.

photo of sammich

That chai was just right. And when I snag a masterpiece panini next Monday, the Monday night open mic will take place again, and I can work with that! I’ll bring some of my originals! Perks has awards all over the walls; best drinks, best menu, best food, you name it! It’s truly a first class joint, just the kind of place where you WANT to be seen! I was sure to thank host Keith Cowley for having the event and making everyone feel welcome!

Here’s yours truly performing one of four tunes. Continue reading “Mark Urso Live, and Monday Night’s Sandwich”

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Live Free or Die

When I hear a conversation these days about politics, I sometimes hear the phrase “This too shall pass.” The phrase is said to come from the bible (Corinthians 4: 17-18).

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [7] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.“

Sounds about right.

But it’s not the phrase of the day. That award goes to “Live Free or Die.” After all, we’re not going to save anyone by waiting for violence to pass. For the uninspired idiot who eats Joy Behar bullshit cereal for breakfast, death will come in a way that seems quite normal. Like by a heart attack while being crushed at a festival where all the promoters are devil worshipers.

Satanic T-shirt, Houston, 8 Confirmed Dead

What we DO know is rapper Travis Scott, who organized the festival in Texas this past week where the deaths occurred, said he was “absolutely devastated by what took place.” We know from seeing videos Scott did not stop the show, but instead continued singing with strange music in the background Continue reading “Live Free or Die”

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Our Town

A Musical Journey

From Iris DeMent’s “Infamous Angel” (1992)

The background is worth the price of admission!

“Iris Luella DeMent (born Jan. 5, 1961), an American two-time Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter, was born in Paragould, Arkansas, the 14th and youngest child of Pat DeMent (1910–1992) and wife Flora Mae (1918–2011). Iris’s mother harbored dreams of going to Nashville and starting a singing career. Although she put those plans on hold to get married, her singing voice was an inspiration and influence for her youngest daughter Iris.

DeMent was inspired to write her first song ‘Our Town’ by a drive through a boarded-up Midwest town, at the age of 25. The lyrics came to her “exactly as it is now”, without need for re-writing, and she realized then songwriting was her calling in life. ‘Our Town’ was played during the closing scene for the final episode (July 26, 1995) of CBS’s television series Northern Exposure.”

She was fourteenth and youngest! Way to go Flora Mae! Continue reading “Our Town”

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Just Let Time Go Slow

free poem

Just Let Time Go Slow

You look into my soul
Right in to my eyes
Like a gun you hold
Nothing left to be told

Sometimes I don’t eat
Worry like a lost sheep
Feel so vulnerable
Then you do what you do

I’m in poverty
And you’re peeling away
And I wish you would do it
Do it all day

I’m surrendering now
You know I know how
The connection is easy
Just let time go slow

And the invisible beat
It’s at all of our feet
You look into my heart
While I’m watching the show

It’s a dance party
That goes on for years Continue reading “Just Let Time Go Slow”

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I’d Write a Better Story, But I’m Still Eating

COVID, Masks and the Law

Today I’d like to take a moment to look at the law.

Sometimes it’s a great idea to follow the law, of course, but sometimes it’s a great idea to find what we call a loophole. The loophole is a classic method of sidestepping laws that seem unreasonable, or maybe shouldn’t apply to us. It’s a great way to think for yourself!

For example, if you’re driving 120 MPH and get pulled over, you’re caught. But if you’re flying at 500 MPH and you’re in the passenger seat, you can have an alcoholic beverage and let your imagination go wild. You can play on your phone, turn up the radio, even roast a lamb on a spit, Continue reading “I’d Write a Better Story, But I’m Still Eating”

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Why Don’t Musicians Use Expensive Studio Microphones When Playing Live?

just words

Studio and Stage

Re-posting one of my articles from Quora. The question: “Why don’t musicians use expensive studio microphones when playing live?”

My Answer

Because a typical studio microphone would feed back.

Many studio mics have a pickup pattern that is very generous; a circular area around the microphone, as if viewed from above the mic, showing the primary area of pickup … almost like a radio station coverage area …

ALL stage microphones have a significantly different pattern. They’re designed NOT to pick up sound from behind Continue reading “Why Don’t Musicians Use Expensive Studio Microphones When Playing Live?”

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Vaccine Worries and Real Heroes

just words

The Ill Truth

I sure hope (and I really do) vaccines are safe. I don’t usually venture into speculation about professionals in healthcare, but the politics surrounding COVID should have everyone concerned! Pfizer stock will keep going up, while we look to our personal doctors for best advice.

Hospitals are, oddly, allowing a political scare tactic to coerce them into firing thousands of nurses; a plight that’s not unique to healthcare, and which has taken shape as a protest against mandates in the airline industry. COVID numbers are oddly difficult to find (sometimes, not always) and are always skewed when reported to the public by the public’s favorite media.

It’s the same politicians making decisions around these things who’ve left a southern US border open for over a million illegals to freely enter, with no vaccination plans for them, nor requirements for them to either get vaccinated or become citizens. So many young immigrants have been rounded up, we’ve seen images of camps where they eat and sleep. These are the same politicians who are lying in your face about indoctrinating young children (all of them who attend public schools), to wear masks all the time and obey vaccination orders. It’s easy to imagine the new kids in the sleep camps are also being taught the new ways, at the whim of not parents, not responsible adults, but activists.

At the heart of the matter are nurses and health pros, who have been called heroes, and for good reasons. Watch it morph into “domestic terrorist” when those same nurses choose not to take a jab.

Why? How? What???

Same Sandbox, Different Umbrella

On the front lines is Ramona Bessinger, of Jamestown, RI, who’s uncovering the nebulous truth about what teachers are doing in classrooms Continue reading “Vaccine Worries and Real Heroes”

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Tennessee Whiskey and Its Effect on the iPhone 6 Video Performance, Featuring Malaena and Duke Robillard!

DJI Osmo Pocket Gimbal
vs
DJI OM-5 with iPhone 6

Here we have a fine local group in Connecticut that goes by the name “Malaena.” It’s a six-piece act and you’ll see they have a team of strong vocalists, including a bass player who sounds just like Van Morrison!

This was a casual outing, where I tested a DJI OM-5 gimbal arm that holds an iPhone. As a result, I was shooting this video in 1080p with my iPhone 6, which is actually software upgraded to an iPhone 7.

But that didn’t help!

The video performance of the older iPhones is poor in comparison to the DJI Osmo camera, and the Osmo will go to 4k and do even better. The iPhone footage is grainy, with no color depth Continue reading “Tennessee Whiskey and Its Effect on the iPhone 6 Video Performance, Featuring Malaena and Duke Robillard!”