In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
This poem is about the red poppies that grew in No Man’s Land during WWI. Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day in the US but it is also Armistice Day in the British Commonwealth. Today the poppy is a symbol of that war long ago so that we all remember the sacrifices made by those who went before us.
Thank you to all veterans who did what others could not, and to those who never came back, we miss you and love you.
1. Purchase beer
2. Chill beer
3. Open beer
4. Drink beer
5. Don’t be a douche about it
6. Drink more beer
What makes a beer nerd truly good? We've been giving this some thought lately and came up with the graphic you see above. It's the Ten Commandments of Craft beer, a set of guidelines that we think would lead to a better world if all beer fans followed. Of course, just like the real Ten Commandments, you may disagree. Is there anything here … Read More
Sculptor Jaime Margary has some impressive artworks based on classic video games feature on Newgrounds and Deviant Art. He has indeed created a piranha plant sculpture and a “wild” Pacman. His Metroid is impressive and he also made a Goomba!
Somehow, this post has garnered 85 hits since it was posted on May 22nd. It continually gets about 1 hit a day. I don’t know how or why people are that interested in the Macho Man’s nuptials, but hey you know what? Thank you, Macho Man.
We’ve covered several kinds of guitars and guitarlike instruments here on Lobo, from the Stick to Megatars, but oft overlooked is a guitar which, indirectly, has affected and been heard on many modern rock recordings over the last 20 years. Sadly it’s still an underrated instrument. I’m talking about the baritone guitar.
For you neophytes, a typical 6-string guitar is tuned E A D G B E, otherwise called “standard” tuning. A baritone takes the scale of a regular guitar and lowers it to either a perfect fifth (A D G C E A) or perfect fourth (B E A D F# B) and sometimes other tunings as well. You can play it like a normal guitar, such as strumming chords or fretting arpeggios, but the sound is much lower; not quite bass, but in the baritone scale.
Baritone guitars became popular in the recording studio in the 50s, 60s and 70s, providing twangy, gutsy tones to surf music and spaghetti westerns. This example shows a Danelectro Jerry Jones Baritone dishing out some honky tonk licks that would’ve been found on classic rock and roll records.
Much later on in the 90s, rock bands started experimenting with alternate tunings in new ways, specifically by lowering the scale on their standard guitars to baritone scales. Often they wouldn’t go get a baritone guitar, although it would have been more appropriate for the music they were playing. The technique was called downtuning. Innovators of downtuning include punk/alt rockers Sonic Youth, Soundgarden and Mudhoney to metal bands like Crowbar, Prong and Meshuggah. It’s become normal for metal bands to employ downtuning, even extending to melodic metal bands like Dream Evil, and mainstream bands like Staind. The next clip is a review of Staind guitarist Mike Mushok’s signature baritone guitar. He is one of few hard rock/metal guitarists who employ a true baritone. It’s much more common to see seven string guitars, which add a low B to a standard electric guitar, or for a normal guitar to be downtuned. Meshuggah has actually branched out to 8 string guitars that are in the baritone scale.
Additionally here’s a guy, user name JohnnyFriendly on Youtube, rocking away on his Danelectro baritone. It’s more of the bluesy, garage rock vibe.
And finally this is user deathgrind1, who is using a baritone BC Rich Bich and chugging out some heavy metal riffs.
The coolest thing about baritone guitars is their power. Whether played clean or slightly overdriven, as seen in the rockabilly/bluesy clips, or fully distorted, like in the metal examples, there’s no denying a gut-wrenching depth to the baritone not packed by your standard electric. It provides a tonal color not possible from neither bass nor standard guitars, and is easily just as versatile as though you were playing something more normal. So it’s sad really that baritone guitars are not more prolific. Most guitar manufacturers do very limited production on them, and typically one has to drudge Ebay or buy custom parts to get a baritone that matches the sound, quality and aesthetics a guitarist wants. So pay attention the next time you watch a Clint Eastwood western or the latest hard rock band pops up on your radio. Chances are your hearing the meaty, moody tones of a baritone – even if it isnt a true baritone guitar.
I hadn’t listened to Kate Bush before, but I happened to catch a video of hers off Youtube today, and that lead me to this selection. Bush got Donald Sutherland to play her dad, an inventor who creates a rainmaking machine, for the “Cloudbusting,” video. The production is decent for a mid-80s music video, Sutherland nails it as the inventor and the rain machine is a cool bit of steampunk sculpture. This is a great mesh of science fiction and Bush’s difficult-to-define progressive pop.
By John McCrae
