Random thoughts that are pointless and too dumb to say anywhere else thread: 2013

[JimH5]

I think I've had my fill of the commercial where the kid fools his dad into taking the family to Golden Corral.

 

But I can't get enough of the Directv one where the tortoise bites the guy's finger.

 

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Original Lead:

 

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[Nottso]

I'm with you, Jim. Possibly because I own a psychotic man-eating turtle.

 

On another note, the Bucks are currently third in their division. If they were removed from said division and inserted into any other division, in either conference, they would be in third.

[bjkrautk]

I'm not going to start a thread about it, but as the guy who has thumbed his nose at the idea of Tom Petty and Paul McCartney singing decades old songs at halftime of the Super Bowl, how good was Beyonce?

[Godspeed]

Paled in comparison to Yo La Tengo playing to an audience of 600 in Milwaukee the night prior.

 

Musical tastes aside, from what I caught of her performance (which was about 10 minutes or so, as I conveniently used the time to put the kids to bed), it was pretty damn good. Not Prince in the rain from 2007 good, but good nonetheless. I don't care for her music whatsoever, but her enthusiasm won me over.

 

Still waiting for the league to go retro and book a marching band. Only then will I be completely satisfied.

[fondybrewfan]

I thought it was a good show; my wife thought it was grotesque and inappropriate. It wasn't any worse than the horrible GoDaddy and Calvin Klein commercials.

 

I thought the Taco Bell old people commercial was awesome; didn't really like anything else

[MJLiverock]

I missed the beginning but my wife thought it was pretty good. I thought the Destiny's Child appearance was a good touch. Definitely better than the McCartney, Tom Petty versions (and I like Tom Petty, just not as a Super Bowl halftime).

 

I can't believe people complain about the Keyes version of the Star Spangled Banner, claiming it needs to be sung the proper way or the right way, etc.

 

And what way is that? It's a poem that was set to drinking tune years after it was written. What in the the world is the "proper way" it is supposed to be sung. Drunk maybe? In beatnik poetry slam style?

 

Commercial wise I was pretty disappointed again. There just weren't really many that stood out and none that I felt the need to rewind to watch again. I probably like the Taco Bell, the Hyundai kids Football, the Oreo Library, the Mercedes deal with the Devil and the GoDaddy model/geek kiss the best. The soldier one could have been up there but I found the insertion of the Jeep logo as often as they did it to be offputting. The Bud horse set to Fleetwood was OK but haven't they basically done this before?

[RightFieldCoder]

I can't believe people complain about the Keyes version of the Star Spangled Banner, claiming it needs to be sung the proper way or the right way, etc.

 

And what way is that? It's a poem that was set to drinking tune years after it was written. What in the the world is the "proper way" it is supposed to be sung. Drunk maybe? In beatnik poetry slam style?

It is not a death march meant to be played a slow as possible. Nor should you add your own note in between all of the real notes. Just play it straight and get it over with. Listen to a good marching band play it. They usually play it correctly.

 

I hate whenever someone from Steetlife is at Miller park...

[hawing]

I can't believe people complain about the Keyes version of the Star Spangled Banner, claiming it needs to be sung the proper way or the right way, etc.

 

And what way is that? It's a poem that was set to drinking tune years after it was written. What in the the world is the "proper way" it is supposed to be sung. Drunk maybe? In beatnik poetry slam style?

It is not a death march meant to be played a slow as possible. Nor should you add your own note in between all of the real notes. Just play it straight and get it over with. Listen to a good marching band play it. They usually play it correctly.

 

I hate whenever someone from Steetlife is at Miller park...

The hawing household has heard the Streetlife singer do the anthem so many times that we could probably sing along with all of her little variations. They usually pick the Streetlife saxophone guy to do the season-finale anthem, and since the season finale always makes me sad, that version does now too.

 

Overly "American Idol-ized" anthems make me tempted to roll my eyes, though I'm sure many are delivered with good intentions. One thing I don't like about the extra notes is that it discourages the audience from singing along.

 

Having said this, I was OK with Alicia Keys' performance on Sunday, although the S.O. hated that it took 2:35. He likes to time national anthem performances.

[1992casey]

Listen to a good marching band play it. They usually play it correctly.

The military bands do it "right." It's brisk and doesn't drag at all.

[hawing]

A couple of seasons ago, some guys from the Mt. Horeb Fire Department did an outstanding job with the anthem, barbershop-quartet style. (It may have been a quartet; I heard it on the radio and so didn't see the singers.) If they don't make a visit to MP every year, they should.

[trwi7]

Listen to a good marching band play it. They usually play it correctly.

The military bands do it "right." It's brisk and doesn't drag at all.

 

Yeah, my dad was in the Navy and Vietnam and whenever we would go to a sporting event when the singer of the anthem kept dragging it on you could see him start to get really frustrated and rolling his eyes and stuff.

 

You don't need to put your own variation on the song. That's why I hate going to concerts and stuff. They always try to add a new twist to their song but it just makes it worse and unbearable to me.

[MJLiverock]

Looking at the posts claiming the marching band or military band play it the correct way just makes me think they play it the way you like. What is a correct way? It is a song and like all songs it is and should be open to the performer's ability, style, or situation. Not every military band plays it the exact same way, nor "good marching band." I've heard military bands throw an extra long drum roll at the end after land of the free but before home of the brave and others that didn't. When is the appropriate time for the wooosh of the jet overhead? What about signing the rest of the verses, the song/poem doesn't end where it is usually cut off. How does one decide which military band played it right if they play it differently? I think it comes down to personal preference and there is no "correct" way.

[pitchleague]

I'm sure some of you have seen this before, but in case you haven't . . . .

[1992casey]

pitchleague, what do the notes look like for the word "free"?

[1992casey]

I looked up the non-sporting-event sheet music. The suggested tempo is "Andante moderato," which is about 70 bars per minute. I count 35 bars in the verse, which lands us at about half a minute.

[JimH5]

To me, when an artist makes modifications to the traditional anthem, they're doing so to bring attention to themselves. The song is to honor the flag and country, and the performers seem more interested in using the platform to show off their vocal range. The meaning of the song is set aside so the artist can hog the spotlight.

 

I think it's a lot like when traditional church hymns are given a modern interpretation. Cherubim and Seraphim and a distorted guitar riff. It's ridiculous.

[jerichoholicninja]

I wish they would just skip it all together. Nothing like wasting 5 minutes before a sporting event on some stupid song.

[logan82]

I wish they would just skip it all together. Nothing like wasting 5 minutes before a sporting event on some stupid song.

Oh boy, here we go.

[Patrick425]

I wish they would just skip it all together. Nothing like wasting 5 minutes before a sporting event on some stupid song.

 

No kidding.."Here we go"

 

I don't know what to say other than I really hope you meant that to be in blue. It's not just what you said but how you said it...wasting 5 minutes??....stupid song?!? Wow...just...wow.

[1992casey]

Let's quit the "stupid song" debate before it inevitably gets out of hand.

 

If you want to talk about ways it's performed, carry on.

[craigharmann]

I think it's a lot like when traditional church hymns are given a modern interpretation. Cherubim and Seraphim and a distorted guitar riff. It's ridiculous.

 

As a church musician, I can kind of understand it. Many churches today don't use the organ. Agreed or not, the guitar is the instrument of choice, acoustic or not. Most hymns were arranged with a chord per note. That's a lot for guitarists. Using more modern chord progressions, slowing the progressions down a bit, sometimes makes it work. But, it's the great part about music. Everyone has their own opinion. One is not better than another.

[RightFieldCoder]

I looked up the non-sporting-event sheet music. The suggested tempo is "Andante moderato," which is about 70 bars per minute. I count 35 bars in the verse, which lands us at about half a minute.

Andante moderato is about 70 beats per minute. If there are 35 bars (I didn't look it up), one would need to account that there are 3 beats per bar. That would mean there are 105 beats. At 70 bpm, it should take a minute and a half.

[1992casey]

When I read about tempo on Wikipedia I initially assumed that BPM meant beats per minute. Then as I posted, I saw this:

 

Measures per Minute (MPM) or bars per minute is another way to measure the speed of music: the number of measures in one minute. It is commonly used in ballroom dance music.

A look back indicates that BPM does indeed mean beats per minute, and yes, the song would then time to a minute and a half.

 

Something needs to be made clearer in that article. I did an in-page search for Andante moderato and scrolled up for the first available explanation, and of course, read the wrong thing.

 

Maybe the sentence I quoted needs to go like this:

 

In addition to beats per minute (BPM), measures per Minute (MPM) or bars per minute is another way…

[JimH5]

 

As a church musician, I can kind of understand it. Many churches today don't use the organ. Agreed or not, the guitar is the instrument of choice, acoustic or not. Most hymns were arranged with a chord per note. That's a lot for guitarists. Using more modern chord progressions, slowing the progressions down a bit, sometimes makes it work. But, it's the great part about music. Everyone has their own opinion. One is not better than another.

 

That seems understandable to me. The instrument is going to require you to make modifications to the way the song is played.

[RightFieldCoder]

Songs have different numbers of beats per measure. The most common (especially among pop songs) is 4/4 with 4 beats per measure. The National Anthem is in 3/4 with 3 beats per measure. There is also 6/8 with 2 or 3 beats per measure. The Firebird Suite (a conductor's standard) goes into 7/4 and 7/2 which have 7 beats in a measure.

 

This is why Beats Per Minute is the standard designation for tempo when reading music. I have never seen MPM before.