Do you have a favorite number? It may seem like a weird question to ask, but think about it a minute. Is it any stranger than asking if you have a favorite color? Or favorite food? It may, at first, and I suspect that's because most of us don't live in a culture that attributes the same amount of pleasure to numbers as that which one derives from, say, a big slice of New York-style pepperoni pizza.
Image is (C) Adam Cole/NPR
Recently, at his blog "Krulwich Wonders" Robert Krulwich (who co-hosts Radiolab, one of my favorite public radio shows) wrote about a "unique experiment" thought up by Alex Bellos. Bellos, who Krulwich describes as, "a writer, math enthusiast, and nut," came up with a deceptively simple idea: to ask the public to tell him their favorite number, and list the reasons why. Krulwich's article explains the experiment and talks about some of the responses Bellos has received so far. You can take a look (and if you haven't listened to Radiolab, grab a podcast while you're at it) but my reason for writing here is to talk about my favorite number, 808.
808 is my favorite number, because it's a big, round-y, friendly-looking number. Seriously, take a look at 808. Doesn't it look like a guy giving you a double-thumbs-up? 808 thinks you're doing fine! So positive!
In "1337-speak" 808 would translate to "BOB" which is about as friendly a name as I can think of. Remember the funny little robot in Disney's "The Black Hole?" Guess what his name was? It sure wasn't 37.
Also, there's the Roland TR-808 drum machine, which is super-great and still very popular with musicians. Invite 808 to your next party and get ready to get funky!
I posted a copy of my response on my Google+ page and my friend Brian quickly replied that he too was a fan of 808, citing his own reasons:
Might I add that 808 is also my favorite number! Adding to your reasons, which I agree with, here is another reason you might have forgotten: 808 is the area code of Hawaii. 808 State was also an electronic band that loved that number.
He's right, of course, and there are a host of other reasons we love that number. I'd be interested to know if any other readers out there (hi Mom!) have a favorite number of their own. If not, go out and get one! Think of it as doing your share to make maths a more vital part of our culture.
I'm calling bullshit on this one, just like I did on Day 1 (Your Favorite Song). Just like I don't have a favorite song, I don't have a favorite band. There are bands I'm really into at the moment (e.g Raconteurs & The Mountain Goats), there are bands I haven't listened to in a long time but would leave on if they came up on shuffle (The Welcome Wagon, Violent Femmes) and there are bands I listened to obsessively for a long time, but then stopped for some reason (Pink Floyd, The Velvet Underground).
So, what constitutes my favorite band? I have no idea, so I'm gonna bend the rules and do a song from all three categories. Take that!
11a - A Song From a Band You're Really Into Right Now: The Crystal Method, "I Know It's You," from Legion of Boom.
I first started listening to The Crystal Method in 1998, during a month-long stay in Greenville, SC. (That's a story for some other time.) Vegas was in heavy rotation, for a year, especially in the car as it makes excellent driving music. But they fell off my playlist for a few years. A friend recently turned me on to Legion of Boom recently though, and it gets played a good bit on my computer at work. "I Know It's You" is one of my favorite tracks, very much reminiscent of their work on Vegas, and Milla Jovovich's spooky vocals work perfectly with their distorted bassline and drums. I am amazed that track hasn't yet been appropriated for an action-movie chase sequence or television commercial, like pretty much every track on Vegas was.
11b - A Song From A Band I Haven't Listened To In A Long Time But Would Leave On If They Came Up On Shuffle: The Cure, "Pictures of You," from Disintegration.
I guess The Cure might also fall into the category of "bands I listened to obsessively." It's hard to tell, really, because I listened to them a lot mostly because people I was around listened to them a lot. I really do like their music, at least everything up to Disintegration, but they haven't made it onto a playlist in a long time.
"Pictures of You," is probably one of my favorite songs; it has great instrumentation and clean, if mopey, vocals from Robert Smith. The video is only so-so, sadly, but stands out as yet another example of the director doing everything he can to make the band miserable. (This was sort of a theme in their videos. For another example, check out the video for "Close To Me.")
11c - A Song From A Band I Listened To Obsessively For A Long Time, But Then Stopped For Some Reason: The Velvet Underground and Nico, "Femme Fatale," from The Velvet Underground and Nico (aka: "the banana album," "peel slowly and see")
My friend AJ introduced me to the Velvet Underground in my Junior year of high school. He loaned me his vinyl copy of The Velvet Underground and Nico and by the time I handed it back a week later I'd already made two cassette copies. (I needed one for home and one to live in the Chevette, you see.) From then until 1995 or so I pretty much listened to anything by The Velvets or Lou Reed that I could get my hands on.
And then, I sort of, stopped. I don't know what happened. I know I started getting back into techno around that time, so that might have had something to do with it. Or maybe it was Lou's later albums that put me off. Whatever the reason, I haven't listened to anything by the Velvets in a long time; the closest I've come, in fact, was a brief stint listening to a cover of that first album by Beck's Record Club - something I blogged about here a while ago.
So, there we are. Another "day" finished in this interminable challenge. Look forward to my next entry, when I'll most likely call bullshit on the topic again and then spend entirely too long writing about it. Excelsior!
I was out driving with the dog the other night, when a story on Public Radio International's excellent program "The World" caught my attention.
Hatsune Miku, a popular Japanese pop music singer, performed in front of a sold-out crowd last weekend at the the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. The LA show was billed as the first stop on her "Mikunopolis" tour (although I'm having difficulty finding any listings for other concert dates). Last weekend's concert was part of the 2011 Anime Expo, and Expo head Marc Perez had a hand in organizing the show.
Here's the part of the story that caught my cyberpunk's attention: Hatsune Miku is not actually a person; she's a computer program. To be more accurate, she's a voice library application developed by Crypton Future Media for Vocaloid, a voice synthesizer program made by Yamaha.
She's sort of like the different voices you can select for your GPS's turn-by-turn directions mode - except younger, perkier, and with an implausible amount of turquoise hair. Yet the fact that Miku's not an actual flesh-and-blood person doesn't seem to faze her fans, some of whom drove for hours just to see a 3D hologram of her performing "live" on stage.
Dang, man. Every time I forget just how frighteningly prescient William Gibson's novels can be something like this happens. The last time was in the early 2000's, when augmented reality, which he first wrote about in his 1994 novel Virtual Light became the hot new thing.
Now it seems that Rei Toei, the holographic pop star from Gibson's 1996 novel Idoruhas come to life in the person of Hatsune Miku. (Idoru is the follow-up novel to Virtual Light, and the second book of his so-called "Bridge Trilogy.") I can only hope that, like Rei, Miku will go on to build a legion of tween girl followers, marry someone who sort of reminds us of Bono, and have all sorts of crazy adventures.
I am convinced that Facebook's Mark Zuckerburg gets up every morning, swims a few laps in his giant pile of gold coins, eats a hearty breakfast of caviar and hundred-dollar bills, and then starts brainstorming new ways to piss off his users.
Pissing me off today is the arbitrary 420-character limit to status updates. This is not a new thing; some quick research online tells me the limit was imposed sometime in early 2010. I may not have noticed it until now because, like many Facebook users, my status updates are often just short messages to my friends or comments about what goes on in my daily life.
Lately, though, I've been creating longer posts about the music I'm listening to, books & comics I've read, and news articles I find interesting. Creating a thoughtful message about these things, even using all the concise-writing skills I've developed over at Twitter, yields updates that are typically in the 600- to 800-character range, and I'm presented with this stern reminder:
Status updates must be less than 420 characters. You have entered [xxx] characters here. Notes can be much longer. Would you like to edit and post your update as a Note instead?
No, Facebook, I would not like to edit and post my update as a Note. If I wanted to create a note, I would have clicked on my profile link, and then clicked the "notes" link, and then clicked the "write a note" button. You see? If I wanted to write a Note, I would have taken all of those other needless and awkward steps to do just that.
Obviously, Facebook doesn't want its users treating their status updates as in-site blogs. Fair enough. It is, after all, Mark's sandbox; we just gave up most of our privacy to targeted-advertising companies for the privilege of playing in it. But if I'm going to have to take extra steps to create the sort of posts I want, I'll just move that content over here where I can also easily add links, tags, images, and embedded video.
So hello again, old blog, it looks like we'll be spending a lot more time together now.
Back in September 2010, I got to meet one of my all-time favorite webcomics artists: Jeffrey Rowland. If you don't know Jeff, stop looking at this horrible picture and go RIGHT NOW to www.wigucomics.com. You've got a few years worth of strips to catch up on. You're welcome.
Anyway, I was super-nervous about meeting Jeff. I wanted to say how much I'd enjoyed reading his comics over the years and how nice he'd been the few times we'd communicated and how much that meant to me. I wanted to say all those things, but I also didn't want to seem, you know, creepy. As a result, I didn't really say much of anything.
I started drawing this comic on the train home from SPX, but it got shuffled to the back of my notebook, as things do; and then onto the bookshelf when I started a new notebook; but I never really forgot about it.
Lately, I've been pushing myself to draw more, and to upload what I draw on a regular basis. When I don't have any ideas, I draw things from podcasts I've listened to, or fan art for comics I like. I think that's what jogged my memory about this unfinished comic. So I dug out my notebook from SPX, re-drew the panels (because the whole point of all this is to practice drawing more), scanned everything in, and finished it all off in the Gimp.
About this strip: Panel 1 is more or less a verbatim transcript of what Jeff later told me via Twitter our exchange might have been. Panel 2 is also pretty much a verbatim transcript. I really did ask them what Andrew W.K. was like, and they really did seem, well, resigned about the fact that he is, always, a party. (Tallahassee also stated that he was "the best at Twitter," and so he is. You can find out for yourself if you follow him.) Panel 3 is actually how I expect most of my interactions with people to go. And I really was afraid I'd try to walk away without paying for the books I bought.
I'm really glad I finally finished this comic and posted it. Not only for the practice it gave me at drawing and editing on the computer, but also because it reminds me that things are usually never as bad as you fear, and sometimes they might have been even better than you'd hoped.
If you're reading this, Jeffrey, I hope you got a smile from the comic. I promise to try to tell you who I am if we meet up again somewhere.
In lieu of an actual blog update, I've posted the sketches I got at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda on Sept. 11 along with lots and lots of notes about the artists and links to their comics. Check it out on my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tumbersault/sets/72157624890538281/.
Just a quickie before I fall over. I've been working on the lighting for the Maryland Ensemble Theatre's steampunk(ish) production of The Canterbury Tales for the past two weeks. It's a pretty funny show, and I'm really happy with how the set, costumes, sound and, yes, lights, brought a steampunk influence to the production without going completely overboard. A very funny script (adapted from Chaucer's work by the MET's own Reiner Prochaska) and a great cast, directed by Tad Janes, make for what I think is going to be a really successful show.
For what it's worth, I'd give the show a hard-R rating I have to admit that I haven't read the original text. Did Chaucer really have that much humping in the original? Regardless, this production does, so if you're averse to live on-stage humping this may not be the show for you.
The show runs March 26 through April 24, 2010 at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre, 31 W. Patrick Street in Frederick.
So the Owl City song "Umbrella Beach" (which isn't an anime theme, but should be) got me thinking about some of the great music in the opening or closing credits to anime series. Here's a quick run-down of my favorites:
I just saw the commercial for Yoostar(tm), which is basically a home green-screen video set-up with software that puts you into a movie or television scene.
It looks like a great concept, but right now there's only a limited catalog of scenes available. You only get 14 scenes when you purchase the system; the rest are available to download for a few bucks each. It's also pretty constraining; you can only upload your scenes to the Yoostar site or view them using on your computer using the proprietary Yoostar application. If you were hoping to YouTube your best Elwood Blues impression or burn Gramma's role as Blacula to DVD, you're out of luck.
Still, I'm excited to see yet another tool of video professionals being made affordable enough ($169.99 at Best Buy) for amateurs, and I can't wait to see what the hackers do with it. In the meantime, enjoy this clip, with Snoop Dogg whoring himself out at Tommy Chong, Marlon Brando & others.
A Facebook friend recently asked me for advice about fog machines. Actually, he only mentioned - in a general status update - that he needed a fog machine. Nevertheless, that was reason enough for me to go on a rant about all the various ways of achieving fog effects. After more than a decade in the theatrical supply business, I like to think I know what I'm talking about.
It wasn't enough, though, for me to force my advice onto just one online friend. No, I feel that this information is important enough to force onto all of my readers. (Hi Mom!) So here, without further ado, are my recommendations for all sorts of fog effects.
If you only need a fogger to last for a day or two, I recommend hitting your local -Mart of choice. About $30 will get you a cheapie with a bottle of fluid. Some even shoot the fog out of creepy skull faces with light-up eyes! Just please don't be disappointed if your party fogger craps out on you before the party's over.
If you want a decent fogger that you can use again next year, check out my friends at Theatre Effects. You can find their entry-lever foggers here: http://tinyurl.com/ydt7gug. [Full disclosure: I worked for Theatre Effects when they were based in Hagerstown. I left the company when they relocated to Cincinnati. I still know the owner, though, and can vouch for him as "good people." If you're a theatre person, or like to pretend to be one at Halloween, I can't recommend the folks at Theatre Effects highly enough.]
If you want a professional (i.e. theatre & film) fogger, well Theatre Effects has you covered there, too. A whole page of high-quality, high-output machines can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/y88usen. My personal favorite is the 9,000W (!!) Orka stadium fogger. For reference, one of the "high-output" theatrical foggers on that same page is 1,500W. In other words, it draws about 11 amps when in use. You could run two of them on one household electrical circuit. The Orka requires its own 50 amp service! All in all, a kick-ass way to blow $5,000.
Bear in mind that none of the above machines create spooky, low-hanging fog. They create a thick cloud of fog (or "smoke") that will rise into the air and disperse. The only visible difference among these types of foggers is the amount of fog produced.
If you want spooky, low-hanging fog, you'll need either a dry-ice fogger or a fog chiller. Dry-ice foggers work by heating a vat of water into which a basket of dry ice is then lowered. Fog chillers take the output of a standard fog machine and lower its temperature so that it's less inclined to rise into the air before dispersing. You can get either from, well, you should know by now: http://tinyurl.com/ycp7je2
If you decide to go the dry-ice route, bear in mind that it takes about 20lbs of dry-ice for 10 minutes of continuous fog. Dry ice can cost between $.25 - $1.00 a pound and doesn't store well, so plan accordingly. Call a local oxygen, beverage, scuba, or welding supply company for more info.
Liquid nitrogen works well for low fog, too, if money is no object. Check out the craziness the guys at Interesting Products in Chicago get up to: http://www.interesting-products.com/ Fun Fact! Liquid nitrogen fog is a popular effect in nightclubs because it can drop the temperature on the dance floor several degrees very quickly.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that you can get most of these devices, and more, from my current employer, Parlights, in Frederick, MD.
For the past few weeks I've been having a mostly internal debate on the possibility of someone being a Christian (or Jew, Muslim, etc) and, at the same time, being a rational, caring, and tolerant person. This debate stems mainly from the fact that I do consider myself both a Christian and a rational, caring, tolerant person.
In doing some reading on the subject, I recently came across an article that addresses something that people will quickly point to as evidence that people of faith are a bunch of superstitious nuts. I'm referring to the insistence of some believers in the "literal interpretation" of religious texts. Of course, many of those who insist that their holy text be read "literally," really only want the literal reading to apply to the parts of the text that reinforce beliefs they already hold.
The article, posted this January in the "On Faith" section of washingtonpost.com, stems from a tragic death in Wisconsin, where an 11-year-old girl died because her parents were part of a Christian sect that does not believe in seeking medical treatment for illness or disease, relying instead upon the power of prayer and God's intervention
Brad Hirschfield, author of the article and himself an orthodox Jew, explores the ramifications of Biblical literalism, and how often it "quickly devolves into ugly and dangerous behavior." He also makes some good points regarding the difference between people of faith, even fundamentalists, and hypocrites "hiding behind a claim of reading the Bible literally, which nobody does anyway."
It's well worth reading for anyone interested in the differences between faith and fanaticism.
Somebody actually took the time to make a video for one of my favorite mashups ever. And it's pretty well edited, too! (If you don't like mashups at least hang in there for the vintage Beatles cartoon.)
Alright, so I'm about a month late jumping on this particular bandwagon but, as a fan of both Beck and The Velvet Underground, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention the Record Club project. Briefly, here's how it works: Beck and a bunch of his friends get together, they choose an album, and then they cover it, song by song, laying down the whole LP in one day. Their first pick was one of my favorite albums ever: The Velvet Underground and Nico.
When I first heard about the Record Club, I really liked the idea - I still do, really - but after listening to their covers of the Velvets' songs I've found I'm not so thrilled with the results when the idea is put into practice. I'm sure this is in no small part due to the fact that I've pretty much memorized every song, every off-key note, every junk-soaked phrase of the source material. I know this album like I know few other things in my life. If they'd started by covering Digital Underground's Sex Packets, as Beck claims they almost did, I probably wouldn't be judging the results so harshly.
But still. These tracks - most of them, at least - sound like exactly what they are: rough, unrehearsed experiments. On the Record Club website, Beck himself writes, "some of the songs are rough renditions, often first takes documenting what happened over the course of a day. There is no intention to 'add to' the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens." This is the sort of stuff I'd expect to hear from a favorite local band, at the end of their last set of the night, when they're just goofing around on songs that they feel like playing.
But listen up, Beck, this album is important to me. I don't want to hear you and your friends goofing around with it, and I really don't want to hear you goofing around with "Heroin," or "Venus in Furs," two of my favorite songs on the album. The cover of "Heroin," in particular, is just awful. Out of kindness, I'm not even going to link to it. It's that bad. I'm talking about the musical equivalent of a goatse prank. All I could do was stare unbelieving at the screen for almost a minute before frantically clicking away.
I have to admit, though, that this experiment also yielded some pretty decent tracks. For example, I really enjoyed the cover of "Sunday Morning," probably because Beck had a chance to rehearse it on stage during his 2002 tour with The Flaming Lips. He does a good job capturing Lou Reed's relaxed, slightly sleepy delivery; although I'd guess "slightly sleepy" isn't too much of a stretch for the guy who pioneered slack-rock. He also provides the vocals for "I'll Be Your Mirror," and he does Nico proud.
The best of the bunch, though is the cover of "All Tomorrow's Parties." This track is absolutely brilliant, with Icelandic singer Thorunn Magnusdottir giving a slightly softer, sweeter rendition of Nico's vocals while Beck's long-time drummer Joey Waronker plays drums with one hand and keyboard with the other. Check it out:
I still think that the Record Club is a great idea, and I'm looking forward to future releases. I just hope that, from here out, they pick albums that I'm not quite so emotionally invested in. Take note, Beck, you just stay away from The Wall and Nothing's Shocking and we'll be all good.
FaceBook friends, please ignore. This post should have gone here instead of my notes page. It's one of those days, again. As an act of contrition, I've added a picture and lightly edited the post for content, running time, and to fit your screen format.
For anyone interested (and since I'm likely on a DEA watch list by now anyway) here are the stats I used for my recent CokeMoney posts:
In FY 2008, the US Bureau of Engraving & Printing delivered 7.7 billion notes (stats from the BEP Web Site). This number includes all denominations. 95% of those bills were to replace bills already in, or taken out of circulation. I confess that I slacked on the math a bit here, sorry! Please submit any complaints, comments, or corrections to our customer service website - http://www.gopoundsand.com.
Of those 7.7 billion notes approximately 80% have, by now, come in contact with powder cocaine - usually by way of an ATM or counting machine. (Stats from this Snopes.com article: http://www.snopes.com/business/money/cocaine.asp)
80% of 7.7 billion notes is 6.16 billion notes - still a lot of cash! (Fun facts: That's about 13 million pounds worth, or a stack of bills about 418 miles high!)
Also according to the Snopes article, the estimated average amount of cocaine per contaminated note is 16 micrograms per note. (1 microgram = 1 millionth of a gram for all you drama majors out there.)
Based on those figures, we get 98,560,000,000 micrograms total, or 98.56 kilograms of cocaine. This is the answer to William Gibson's original question, "If you soaked all the money in America in a BIG vat, then removed the money and evaporated the water, how much cocaine would you have?"
Curious, I took things a step further. The "street price" of any narcotic varies widely across the country, so I hit up a few sites (mostly law enforcement, but a few "amateur enthusiasts" as well) and compared the results. In the end, I decided to use a value of $20,000 / KG for cocaine, because it's a nice round number and it's at the lower end of the scale.
ERGO: 98.56KG of coke * $20,000.00 / KG = $1,971,200.00 worth of cocaine floating around on our dollar bills.
So I finally finished that "Himalayan Mix Tape," I was going on about. I started with over 50 songs (including a lot of your suggestions, dear readers) and pared it down to a one-hour, compilation CD that I think will shout CARNIVAL! at you louder than a midway barker. Here's the run-down: 1) Rock You Like a Hurricane - Scorpions 2) Back in Black - AC/DC 3) Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin 4) Paradise City - Guns 'N' Roses 5) Tom Sawyer - Rush 6) Don't Bring Me Down - E.L.O. 7) Centerfold - J. Geils Band 8) Everybody Wants You - Billy Squier 9) Take a Chance on Me - ABBA 10) Mirror of Illusion - Hawkwind 11) Dirty White Boy - Foreigner 12) Fox on the Ron - Sweet 13) Godzilla - Blue Öyster Cult
I'm going to give it a listen tomorrow on my way to work, but I think we have a winner. If you'd like your own copy just shoot me your snail-mail and I'll send one out as soon as I get around to it. (Sorry, hard copies only, I'm just not up for fighting with my FTP client this week.)
Thanks again to everyone who suggested songs. It's gratifying to know that there's a couple of people actually reading this stuff.
It is tech week. Tech week is the mind-killer. Tech week is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face tech week. I will stay up all night; I will work through weekends with completely irrational people. And when tech week is over, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where tech week has gone there will be only closing night. Only strike will remain.
Double Dork Points(tm) to me for combining Dune and tech theatre into a blog post.
Minus several million for ripping off Jon Rosenberg.
Actually, now that most folks I know have survived tech week, his strip is more appropriate:
I listen to a LOT of internet radio. At work, I listen to a "Steve Roach" (ambient/drone) station on Pandora, in a feeble attempt to keep my stress levels down. At home, I listen to the "Drone Zone" on Soma FM while paying bills (for the same reason). And Robyn and I have recently started listening to the live stream from AM 1710 out of Antioch Illinois (old timey radio drama) at night as we go to sleep.
For several years now, there's been a struggle between internet radio stations and record labels. The point of contention has been what constitutes reasonable per-song royalty rates that the labels could require for sites providing streaming music. For a while, it looked as if the rates would be so high as to force stations like Pandora and Soma out of business.
According to a recent article in New York Times, though, the record labels and online music services have reached an agreement that will allow sites like Pandora and Some to stay in business, while providing the copyright holders with some compensation for their music.
There seems to be some question as to whether or not this agreement will remain in place; but if it does I think it will turn out to be a good thing for the labels. More and more, streaming music services are replacing commercial radio stations as the place for listeners to discover new music.
Because the only thing Blogger needs more than angst-ridden poetry and LOL cats is people rambling on about their dreams. That being said...
A friend of mine and I have both been having persistent dreams about being lost/trapped in buildings. For me, it's a shopping mall/hotel complex with a weird princess-themed restaurant, in which I have tried, unsuccessfully, to pick up waitresses in hoop skirts and tiaras. Comparatively, his is a much more normal, multi-story maze of rooms. In my dream, I'm usually just wandering around, lost, while he has a very definite need to escape the building.
My thoughts so far:
Okay, so Zolar's Dictionary (Amazon link here: http://tinyurl.com/ly9p9r) says a dream of a very tall building indicates you "will have much success." Faces of strangers means you will have a "change of residence," while being stuck in a maze could mean you either, "are surrounded by unhappiness," or should, "beware of domination by insincere friends."
But that's all just a bunch of new age mumbo-jumbo.
The wife (who's had more psych classes than I) says that a building in a dream is a symbol for one's own mind. So if I were to play shrink, I'd say that the "unknown but important reason" for you to get out of the maze is that your mind is trying to work it's way through some problem.
If that's true, then the "lost in a building" dream is probably a pretty common one, much like the "showing up for a test completely unprepared" dream that most of us have had at least once. The particulars of these dreams, of course, vary from person to person, and focusing on those particulars may give some insight into what our mind is trying to tell us.
For me, the dreams always center around retail environments. That makes sense, considering that I spend most of my offline time trying to sell things. The sense of being lost is, I think, a projection of my desire to, once and for all, figure out how to be really good at selling. To extend the metaphor, the failed attempt with the waitress could be my fear of failing with a customer.
Why she's wearing a hoop skirt and tiara (and waving a little fairy-wand, now that I think about it) is anybody's guess.
Stand Back - More of a parachute ride song, if you ask me, but I'm willing to give it a go.
Sweet Child O' Mine - This, or Paradise City; I'm still deciding.
Rock of Ages - Yes!
Also, I seem to recall hearing "Heart of Glass," on at least one ride.
This is going to be a little tougher than I thought. The songs need to be upbeat & high energy, a la Rock of Ages, but not too angry. Welcome to the Jungle, for example, would be just a hair over the line.
