I was hacked!!!!!!!!

LYDIA HACKED ME!!!!!! THE LAST POST WAS NOT ME!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My name is Joe.

My name is Joe. I write songs. I am in a band. I am famous. I like cookies. I have a girlfriend. Her name is Adrianna. I won't tell you her last name because then you might stalk her. I like pie. I like the sky.  I wish Mitchell would die. Toby is a good kid. He'll become good and famous. Pooja is a nice girl. Sarah is awesome. Nick's nice. He likes ice in his martinis. Toby eats mice for breakfast. Expo markers smell beautiful. I love Sarah. She is awesome. I like cats. And dogs. And logs. And blogs. I have a blog. Not funny. Lalalalalalalalalala. Lalalalalalalalala. Nobody cares. Erase-all. Poop. Jack hates me. Everybody hates me. Wah wah wah. Boo hoo. Poo in a shoe. What?! NO!

More Recording news... (sad face)

So the guy we were going to record with died (Justin Woods). Not really. He's still alive. But he went out of business. The times be tough.

Now we have to find someone else to record with. We know I guy who just moved into his own studio and might be willing to record with. But money is definitely an issue. If we record with him it will most likely be just an EP. Either him or Randy Bacon (the father of a fellow scribbler) and again do just an EP.

Then another thought is to just not record. My preferred musical styles have been changing quite a bit
lately, and I've been disagreeing with them more and more in our current style of music. Hopefully, we'll be able to record the songs we have in a new style that I'll be happy with. I'd really like to flesh out all of the songs, adding synths, drums, guitars, piano, harmonies, etc. Otherwise recording would be completely pointless and we might as well just record a live album.

And now a moment of silence...

My first ukulele (technically not mine. My little brothers.) is smashed. Dead. Forever gone. I hope I can reuse the bits and pieces for something... Maybe a diy banjolele? I went through a lot with that thing. *sigh* Well, here's a pic. 

A song?!?!?!?!?! WTF?!?!?!

Guess what? A cover!!!!!! YAY!!! MUSIC!!! You've probably gotten sick of me talking. So yep. A cover of the Magnetic Field's The Book of Love. It's the first Magnetic Fields song I'd ever heard and it got me hooked on the band. So here it is along with the lyrics:


 The book of love is long and     boring 

No one can lift the damn thing 

It's full of charts and facts and figures 
and instructions for dancing 

but I 

I love it when you read to me
and you 

you can read me anything
The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental 

Some of it is just really dumb 

but I 

I love it when you sing to me 

and you
you can sing me anything 

The book of love is long and boring
and written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
and things we're all too young to know 

but I
I love it when you give me things
and you
you ought to give me wedding rings
I
I love it when you give me things 

and you
you ought to give me wedding rings

My thoughts on music after watching The Runaways

       If you haven't already, I would go see the Runaways (for all you springfieldians, it's at the Moxie and should be at Hollywood 14 in May.) It's a great movie. Pretty graphic though. I enjoyed it. And I must say, I feel like I should change as a musician after watching it.
        There was something that really appealed to me about playing crappy loud music in front of people who don't want to hear you and are throwing stuff at you. Now there was quite a lot of drug usage in the film, and that doesn't appeal to me at all. But the actual music.
        The ukulele just doesn't fulfill my needs anymore. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful instrument and it's portable and easy to play. It's great. But there's something about playing loudly with distortion and lots of reverb that is just so appealing. I miss my cover band days... Just playing with a full band with drums and noise and feedback. It's a wonderful feeling. Completely different than what I'm doing with the Scribbles and "solo". I'll have fun either way, it's just that I need something new. And something loud.
        Also on a completely new side of music, I've learned how to use Abelton Live. It's cool to do that sort of techno/electronic thing with midi controllers, cool synths, and all that jazz. But I get sick of the repetitiveness after like 15 min. It's still fun to know how to do though.
        Now back to what I was really talking about. Loud music.
        Not just loud music, noisy, intentionally bad music. Simple lyrics, simple chords, but loud and rebellious. And I would never do it with complete seriousness, I would take the Andrew WK route. You know that whole thing with him and the Steev Mike thing and him not being real. Personally, I think even if it's all fake and he's a group of people who trade out the role of Andrew WK, that it just makes him an even cooler "artist". But that's another blog post.
       Lately, I've just felt the need to make loud music, that you can party to. Not for me to party to. I'm not much of a partier, but for other people who are.
       I'm not sure how I will find the loud music I'm looking for or if I ever will, but I just wanted to let you know what my thoughts are at the moment with music.

Goodbye.

And after much stress, our history project video thing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGP-_SMQ0fQ
 And here is the link.

Formatting my Blog

If you haven't noticed yet, I've been changing the layout and colors on my blog. I got bored once and changed it to an ugly brown color. A.J. and Lydia thought it looked like poop so I decided to change it again. So I changed it to a somewhat cooler grey and baby blue thing. This also upset A.J. and lydia. So I decided to change it completely to a new format. This is what I have now. Is it good A.J. and Lydia? What do you think?

A 30th Post Celebration!

This post commemorates 30 pathetic blog posts some being videos of original songs, a few covers I think, me apologizing for not posting a song at the time I said I would, and then a lot of these sorts of things (me wasting your time.) I remember the days when I actually put songs on here.... Good times. Hopefully more of that will be coming soon.
So this week is spirit week at the Summit Preparatory and todays spirit day is opposite gender day. So all the kids were supposed to wear clothes of the opposite gender. Almost all of the girls participated but sadly I was the only male dressed as a female. They're just not comfortable enough with their manhood to dress as a girl. I'm the cool one. Or at least that's what I tell myself.
Here is a picture of my bow and glasses:

Plans for Show! (finally...)

Normally I've got a show almost every weekend and some weekends two shows, but lately I've been "showless". Despite my lack of giging, I've been able to keep busy with Robeo and Julietech and other school events. But now I've got a real show! YEAH!!!
I guess I shouldn't say real show because I did the same show last year and we had a pretty pathetic audience. Not that it wasn't fun. It was a lot of fun. We just didn't have a constant audience. Hopefully we'll attract more attention this year. 
Maybe I should tell you the date and location and stuff now.... So May 1st we'll be playing at Artsfest located on historic Walnut Street. Try to  come if you can! But you probably won't come... 


The end of the world is coming....

Romeo and Juliet

We started watching Romeo and Juliet today in class (not the newest one, the one from 1968) and I must say, those are some awesome pants. With those pants, why wouldn't you have Juliet all over you? I need to some day get me a pair of those pants. It's funny to see that and notice how much we "stole" and used in our production of "Robeo and Julietech". But we only stole the famous lines, I think Shakespeare would be proud to see his wonderful creation turned into a story about robots. Or maybe he would hate it. Probably.

So I found this setting where I can schedule the post to be posted at a certain time. Which means I'm writing this at around 11:01, and not posting it until 12:03! Isn't that exciting? I think it is.

More of the pediatrist

If you read my last blog, you'd know that I'm in the process of correcting my pigeon toed-ness. I'm going back today to get fitted for an orthopedic insert, then it will be another 5-6 weeks before the lab makes the insert. After that I'll have to go back again to get the insert, and then maybe my feet will slowly start to become less pigeon toed. I've also had to wear shoes running shoes because they have more support. This is possibly the first time in years that I've had to tie my shoes.

So I'll be leaving school soon so that people can measure my feet. Doesn't that sound like great fun? No. It doesn't. But maybe it'll correct my awful walking patterns and prevent hip problems. Or maybe not. And lots of money will be wasted. But hey! Be positive! Yeah! Wøøt Wøøt!


Goodbye.

Back from the pediatrist

If you didn't know already, I have a walking problem. As in I walk in-toed, like a pigeon. After my mother suffered many years of frustration with my walking, I finally got to see a specialist. They told me that I will need to get orthopedic shoes and that I should become more athletic. More athletic as in roller-skating and running. I figure I can use this disability as inspiration for my new music. Concept album? The Pigeon Toed Roller-Skater and His Search for Straight Feet or PTRSHSSF if you want to be cool.
First song: Boy realizes that his feet are messed up.
Second song: Boy goes to pediatrist. Boy realizes he needs to fix his feet. He gets friends to help him do this.
Third song: Boy get shoes. Starts Roller-Skating. He realizes he sucks and get sad. His followers comfort him.
Fourth song: His followers leave him.
Fifth song: Instrumental. Expresses much sadness.
Sixth song: Boy sits in sadness. He tries to roller-skate. He succeeds.
Seventh song: He finds happiness. He sees his followers and they're very not happy. He offers to help them.
Eighth song: His followers come back. They're all happy.
Ninth song: Reprise of song #3
Tenth song: Instrumental version of track 7.

That sounds like a plan. Now I have to write it...

Opening night tomorrow?

I may not have mentioned this but I'm in the Springfield Little Theaters production of Pinocchio. We've been rehearsing every night these past few weeks and it has been tiring but we open tomorrow. I'm a boy who then turns into donkey, though I don't actually get to turn into a donkey on stage. That was a bit of a disappointment. My costume is basically a british school boy's outfit. I've thought about stealing it from the theatre and wearing it to some of my shows. Or maybe just making one like it. 
The play is finally coming together, compared to where we started at with it. Hopefully dress rehearsal is perfect tonight and opening night is great. But every performance I've been in, something goes wrong opening night. That's the beauty of theatre. Hopefully it's nothing too severe... 
So if you live in the area, come to the Landers Theatre either this weekend or next. You can stop by the box office and buy tickets or you can go online to springfieldlittletheatre.org. 

My thoughts on private/independent schooling versus public schools

I wrote this as part of writing class so it sounds a little forced... Oh well. Here it is.
        Students can go to either the public schools paid for and sponsored by the government to provide a bare minimum education, or they can pay to go to a private school owned by local organizations and often affiliated with churches of the area. After seven long years of living through a collection of various public schools, I recently made the switch to a private school (or more specifically an independent school) of the area and my opinion of public schools will forever be changed because of it.

        While in public schools I was unaware of the many opportunities available to me. I was used to not asking questions, working at the speed of others, and going by the curriculum provided by “the man.” In other words, “the man”, was always holding the students back from achieving more. This was all so that they could work with the students that were having difficulties. Everything was dumbed down so that students of all brain capacity would be able to learn fast enough, and to complete every task listed in the curriculum. Learning was a chore and seemed unbearable for me. If I ever felt that I wasn't understanding something, I was ignored. As long as I was passing their class, they didn't care if I was understanding or not. I wasn't aware of the flaw until I had reached middle school age and by then it was too late. 

      When I made the switch this past year to a private school, I was shocked at the flexibility in classes (not to mention the small sizes), shocked by the patience and willingness to work by the teachers. It was the school I had dreamed of during those painful hours of waiting in public schools. We, as students, were treated less like slaves and more like a son/daughter. In the seventh grade there were only 5 students, and in some grades even less. We took all the same classes that public school students normally take but, we were doing work that was normally two years ahead of what they were doing. If we had a problem we were all treated equally and most likely, we all had the same question because we all all thought so similarly.

        With only 20 kids in the upper school (6^th -10^th grade) the classes were able to be held in different locations. We weren't restricted to just 4 walls, pencil, paper, and a prominent figure instructing students similarly to a dictator. There was no strict curriculum for the teachers, and they were able to teach things in ways that the students enjoyed and learned well in. It was my perfect learning environment (and still is) and it was for many others. The options and flexibility made learning enjoyable for students and for the most part teachers too. What all of the public schools lacked, it made this school enjoyable.

        I would recommend and encourage any student/family wanting to switch from public schools to go to a private or independent school. There aren't as many problems socially amongst students, teachers can adjust classes to fit needs of students, there are very few things limiting the school from doing things educationally fit, and the overall learning environment is better. These have been my opinions on private schools from the perspective of a long time member of public schools recently making the switch to private schools.

Robeo and Julietech: The Musical!

During the past few months, our school has been writing the script for our end of the year musical. The story: Romeo and Juliet with robots, set in the future. I've had the honor to help write the music for the production along some of the other students. The middle school and high-school (only 20 students) will be creating every aspect of the musical including performing it on May 27th. It should be pretty impressive to see but most likely not as impressive as this (put link to A Very Potter Musical).
The auditions are going to be March 2nd for all of you Springfielders. They will be held at the Vandivort Theatre from 7-9. You will need a prepared vocal solo if you plan on having the role of Robeo or Julietech. You will also need to know how to dance if you want any role. There are 5 speaking characters if you want to get to act. Email me at joe.flea2b@gmail.com for more info.

Recording...

I'm sure most of you know me as a member of The Scribbles, a band of three 7th graders with ukuleles and glockenspiels. Well after more than a year of playing shows and selling merchandise (right now it sounds like the band is breaking up but it's quite the opposite), we are going to be recording a full length album! Fellow Scribbler, Olivia Bacon, has a photographer father and owns a gallery where producer Justin Woods works. Justin owns Monarch Studios where the Scribbles originally recorded The Robot Song. He was generous to give us a screaming deal to record somewhere from 9-12 songs.

Hopefully we will start recording sometime in April and or May. Right now he is finishing up the New Monsters Collective record. The whole process will be rather exciting to be a part of. I've always been interested in the different aspects of recording. There are so many different things you can do now with all the technologies available.

I'll try to keep you posted on all the details and when we finish it. If possible, I will try to video tape the process and post on this web-log. Check my twitter too for more updates.

A Blog Dedicated to David Bazan...

Thanks to a $10 gift card from Mitchell Johnson, as repayment from all those days I paid for his mudhouse smoothies and muffins, I was able to buy the new Bazan solo album. The album is great but different musically and lyrically when compared to his earlier Pedro the Lion work. He was known as a christian artist and payed in many christian music festivals (though still an alcoholic) but this new album is all about changing and questioning his religious beliefs. The opening track starts with synthy experimentation and a bit of piano. Then it builds into his lyrics describing the story of Adam and Eve and how it's "hard to be a decent human being." The song goes on to question the logic in how this evolved into the culture we have now. Most of the other tracks take concepts of christianity and question his faith in them. He also hints at his alcoholic ways and how different his family has made him. If you have ever loved Pedro or any of Bazans other work, I would highly recommend this album to you.

Upcoming Shows

Feb. 5 7pm @Park Central Library w/ Say Yes! To Michigan! (the artists formerly known as Jubilee Jews) Free

Feb. 6 7pm @Randy Bacon Art Gallery w/ The Scribbles and SSLYBY $7

Feb. 9 6pm @Landers Theater as part of Youthfest (I will be playing bass with some kids who will be singing a song from Wicked). $?

That's my February show list.

I'll post more leading up to the event or if any of the information changes. Hopefully you'll be able to make it out to some of those.