Wednesday, August 30, 2006

the REAL deltasleep.net

Just a quick note to those of you who may only pay attention to my RSS feed that I have officially launched a real webpage on deltasleep.net Its still a work in progress, but the progress left is just fine tuning the size of the graphics to work with a wider variety of screen resolutions, and typing up a more in depth bio since that seems to be a popular request from a few college stations that have expressed interest.
The CD should be done within a month, pending the availability of some student loans. I hate student loans, but I think I can make my money back selling the record, so it won't be quite so painful paying that portion back as it will the other portions. I'll also be investing in some stickers to spam my campus with.

Monday, August 14, 2006

More Music!

Heres another set of strange, rare, and out of print music in mp3.
Latin mix
Here's stuff to read while you listen to it:

This time focusing on music of latin origin and/or treatment. The moog record gems in here are both from a Command Records two-fer "Electronic Ececlections with Richard Hayward and Walter Sear." The record is easily my favorite moog record of all time(its nuts and hayward's drumming makes it work), and if pressured, I might divulge the entire thing since I can't even find so much as a line on the internet about the record. Esquivel makes an appearance as well, in a rare recording of "Malageuna" from the 1968 "Genius of Esquivel" that gives me chills every time. Recording quality on this particular Esquivel disc is not as noteworthy as his earlier recordings, but that spark is still there. Esquivel sounds a lot more subdued and seems to enjoy contrasting a small group with electric piano against his characteristically bombastic brass. The results are a more mature, less silly Esquivel who gives things time to play out a bit, enjoying the seduction of the listen with a soft piano passage, and then tossing the drama about on the piano. You'll have to pardon the click on Besame Mucho recording, it gives it character. Esquivel's arranging is truly some of the most brilliantly playful ever recorded, and "Genius of Esquivel" shows about as close to a dark side as Esquivel had.
Pete Terrace, "King of the Boogaloo" makes a characteristically cheesy apperance. If Mongo Santamaria and Pete Terrace got in a latin stereotype contest, who would win? I'm gonna have to say Pete Terrace, because anybody who puts obviously looped crowd noise in their record and calls it live should lose whatever contest they are in.
Howard Roberts also comes into play with a brilliantly talented and slightly cheesey arrangement of "O Barquinho." "Instrumentally speaking, he's got the newest, freshest, most exciting bossa nova sounds to swing with todays tunes since guitars hit the big time. He's wild, he's funky, he's got everybody out there listening...he's that appealing! Whats more, H. R. told this reporter, 'I'm Sincere.'" Man, jazz lost it all when it started taking itself too seriously. Go out and get yourself a copy of "Howard Roberts Guilty" and see what I mean.
Process 35 Percussion rounds out the set with the stupidly titled "Mambo Ravioli." Somehow, everything on "SPINORAMA" records comes across stupid one way or the other. At least this is a great song, fun arrangement, and a great recording with a stupid title. Typically, they get that backwards. This one feels like being chased by a marching band that is in love with you through a department store in 1965. As a bonus I threw in the track immediately following it on the record, so you could hear just how genuinely stupid this record really is. When you look at music from this era, you have to look past a lot of goofy marketting and you'll find a staggering level of musicianship.
Oh and I'd also like to add what a pleasure it is for me to hear these recordings in stereo for the first time thanks to my wonderful Torx implant!
Enjoy!

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Chelsea Place Apartments of Murfreesboro

Everybody I know has apartment horror stories, so I guess mine is just one more on the pile. Let me just start out by saying: Do not ever, EVER, involve yourself with these people. Here's how my horror story goes:
Things were fine when I moved in, the complex was owned by AIMCO, the largest apartment owner in the US. I moved out of my first apartment and into a much larger one, and recieved my security deposit back at 100% with no hassles. Then at 3AM on the day after Christmas, I awoke in a panic, and looked out my window at an enormous, glowing, billowing cloud of smoke coming from the top of my building. I drag my wife out of bed, get enough clothes on to get out the door, and nearly run into a fireman who was about to axe my door in.
We set outside for a few hours while we watched the building burn out the top story while we froze. Then we were able to go back into our smoky apartments and attempt to sleep before work the next morning.
Almost immediately after the cause of the fire, I began pressing the apartment owners(which were now a newer, smaller group) to tell me what the cause of the fire was. After about a month of my hassling them, they told me that their heating unit had caused it. They couldn't tell me anything they had done to prevent another fire- no inspection, no repairs, nothing. I immediately requested release from my lease so I could move somewhere where I wasn't nervous all the time. They took 2 months to answer that request with a letter simply stating "denied." This was obnoxious, but it wasn't too unexpected for the kind of heartless car sales rejects that usually end up running apartment complexes.
The real trouble happened when I moved out. I cleaned my apartment from top to bottom, all appliances, etc. And never heard from them about my security deposit. Then suddenly I started to get obnoxious phone calls from a collections agent attempting to collect $138 for Chelsea Place!
Aparently, they billed me for $137 in addition to my security deposit, for "cleaning." After I got a lawyer and talked it out, the only real option was to pay it. I am hoping I can follow up this blog with a string of "letters to the editor", and make sure that nobody I care about ever deals with them.
But yeah, theres the venting blog that was bound to happen. I hope it gets number one in the search engines so people find out ASAP.