Operation Rango: Awesome
the notification window has closed and i haven’t been contacted, so it doesn’t look like i’ll be moving forward in the NBC vocal competition. however, here’s why the word of the day today is “awesome”:
i was going to sing “sitting on the dock of the bay” but when i played it in the parking garage before i went to the cattle call it was tragically awful.
after a brief crisis of confidence during which i contemplated just leaving, i decided to play dobro love, my alternate.
there were hundreds of people there, in a line out the door, around the corner, down the street. the line did not move for at least an hour so i parked it in the filth of the Seattle sidewalk and tried to play. too cold. i was contestant #123, and my group of 10 waited for 3+ hours in 39 degree weather.i managed to play some, but quickly put the sticky gloves back on and blew on my hands and tried to keep them warm. cold hands are death to a guitarist. that’s why people get “warmed up” and good takes are “hot”. your hands literally feel like they’re burning when you’re doing it right.we finally went inside for the auditions, and i got to see the 10 before us because i was first in line at the door. some of them sang as a group and that was really fun.at the last minute i tuned my guitar down a half step, dropped D-flat tuning, since dobro love is at the top of my range and i didn’t want any cracking voices in the take (it’s ok sometimes, but you can hear my voice crack in the published rehearsal video inopportunely). last-minute changes are always a bit nerve-wracking, and i was still trying not to tremble from the cold. deep breath.they called us in. since the judge was a casting agent at NBC, i did something nobody else that i saw did (this part is very Matthew Meadows): i ignored the de facto protocol and walked up and personally introduced myself and handed him a portfolio, including an exhaustive resume back to my dancing career, links to all of my various online portfolios, a pile of glossies, photos from Sabrina Pena Young‘s Liberteria, and my modeling contact cards, serious $$ on the table right there.
i was also the only one with a guitar, and he asked me “don’t you want to sing acapella?”. i responded “no, my song is called dobro love (points, kind of mumbling)…this is my dobro”…but it seems he’s already not paying attention. so maybe not a great idea.everybody else went first. we were told we would be given 30 seconds to sing, that he would hold up his hand to tell us to quit.indeed, everybody got that or less, even the folks with the VIP tickets. the staff at the hardrock continued to mull about, tend drinks and tables, after 120+ contestants it was already old news. this was a familiar scene to me. i’d been on the same stage a few months earlier, in the exact same spot, on the Seattle NightOut panel on social marketing of music. i actually found that reassuring as i remembered myself dressed as Rango with the cameras going off, that place was jammin that night and i had fun and garnered some friends.
when it was my turn to sing, i took a deep breath to stay my nerves and “premeditate” the lyrics and pitch in my head since tuning down a half step, which is tonally disorienting if you have good pitch, then said “this is an original song called dobro love. i’m going to give myself two bars intro” and did.
i started to sing, full volume. that room was small enough i’m pretty sure they could hear it outside. the wait staff seemed to pause. no hand, so i closed my eyes and kept going. next measure? still no hand. i kept singing and approached the end of the song, nearly two minutes worth, and he put his hand up.
dramatic pause, pretty much an eternity.
judge: “that was awesome.”
rango: “thank you.”
(background clapping, possibly from outside)
live take from a few months ago at the High Dive, probably similar to what the contestants heard today (but not as awesome):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npUIOMmaako
or
http://fandalism.com/rangothedog/bvGI
here was one of the first times i ever played it, a rehearsal combined with the sounds of skype, facebook, and twitter interrupting as i try to arrange a song on dobro that i’ve only played briefly on piano, hours after it came to me, including an acapella sequence where i both screw up the lyrics and drop an f-bomb out of frustration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFt3ft5ykDw
or
http://fandalism.com/rangothedog/bjTL
..and no studio track yet but here’s the condenser mic take discovered after the video was released:
https://soundcloud.com/matthewmeadowsmusic/dobro-love-condenser-mix-of
or
http://fandalism.com/rangothedog/bDz2
\m/ (-.-) \m/
❤ ❤ ❤ + ~ (triple with a twist)
Operation Rango: Risk
2486 views, let’s make it an even quarter shall we and call it my most successful video on fandalism to date. a few little-known facts about the Risk video:
a) the day it was posted, july 4th 2012, it was 2nd only to God Bless America on Fandalism.
d) “a little dancing never hurt anything” – Plagus, Operation Rango: Check 1,2. there are actually two samples of the same guitar solo here, and the second one comes after the credits and includes more nutty dancing “on the tightrope”. the audio quality here is tragically poor but it’s the better of the two takes. unfortunately Rango blows it at the end, he even screams in case you missed the inappropriate and acoustically offensive shift in key signature (spoiler, sorry).
e) this video is part of Operation Rango: Into the Snow II, which has not been released yet due to actual insanity. the first take is actually one of the “LA Shredders” that shows up at his doorstep off of a helicopter the day Tim Hearn goes into the snow. the second is Rango blowing it while Clone1 reacts to to losing the head cutting duel in favor of LA and tries to deal with the takeover of one of his monitors as Plagus introduces the Apocalypse Conductor to literally start Rango’s visage on fire (see also: fire spell 3 – 10 seconds).
f) shortly after spending two months creating this video i left my job at Predixion Software and started on a precarious path that has brought me Extreme Unemployment(TM) and the verge of homelessness. such is Risk.
<itsgud2berango>
\m/ (-.-) \m/
http://www.fandalism.com/rangothedog/belQ
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5SvBS7iQys
…and the Risk lyrics are posted here (not present in the videos):
love, a taste of pleasure, and sleep :-D
rango as simeon for sabrina random video frame20
in the same way it’s possible to hear things that other people are missing when you’re properly listening, and develop this capacity beyond your intrinsic ability, it’s possible to feel things that other people are missing when you’re properly open to it, and expand this ability by letting go of attachments and preconceptions. i can’t speak of knowledge per se, that’s a thing for skills, like guitars, computers, math and physics. but feelings and music, there’s a deep relationship there between this and that, and i can speak to it, though somewhat cryptically due to the shear complexity of the topic. it’s real, it’s measurable and deterministic at some level but paradoxically as elusive as quantifying love. i have a background in market research, computer programming, and applied statistics, and let me tell you emotions and music are both vexing and ephemeral as well as rational, structured, and based on mathematically tractable predicates and codified grammars. i’m starting to think i should get a college education and study music, but my cash burn rate and impossibly expensive mansion disagree.
-r.dogg
Operation Rango: The Ringmaster Primer
Ringmaster concept art by Kimmberly Miles.
All of the music in Check 1,2 and most of the music in the Into the Snow trailer comes from a demo of my song The Ringmaster. The Ringmaster was originally conceived as the opening from a concept album and stage show, but plans have changed and now it’s the finale on my forthcoming 2012 album Temple of Zither. It features a cast of characters that includes the Ringmaster, Daddy, an acrobat who takes a fatal fall, and his Little Boy. Angel is on the lighting tree, not to be trusted. The clowns Dimitri and Alexander are fighting for the spotlight bumbling around with their kazoos while little Nicolai, a violin virtuoso, times his scales to the arcs of the acrobats overhead and the sway of the purple elephant’s trunks while circling them on his unicycle. This is currently a demo, and producer Stuart Epps (Led Zeppelin / Elton John / Matthew Meadows) is taking over from here. This song is inspired by a real event I witnessed at a circus 25 years ago. Cue the lights, bring up the scrim, and spotlight stage right on the man in the hat.
The Ringmaster by Matthew Meadows
Ringmaster concept art by Kimmberly Miles.
The lights go up
The clowns tumble in
Painted on faces
And blue collar grins
The elephants
Lined up in a row
Won’t somebody stop the show
The ringmaster leads
A hit parade
Lions and tigers
Provincial charade
Angel pulls
the puppet strings
Above the lights,
In the middle ring.
When Daddy was
A little boy
He always hid
his favorite toy
A circus made
Of wood and lace
He kept it in
A special place
He kept it safe
He kept it sound
Swore upon a bible
It would never be found.
Ringmaster concept art by Kimmberly Miles.
I couldn’t believe
I couldn’t unwind
I couldn’t get the ringmaster
Out of my mind
There’s a man on the floor
He can’t take anymore
There’s a man on the floor
He couldn’t take anymore
Won’t somebody stop the show
Turn out the day
But not the light
Don’t leave me here
Alone tonight
I can’t believe
I can’t recall
To a little child
He was ten feet tall
But in my mind
It was the end
Of everything
That I pretend
Was innocent
And pure you see
That ringmaster
He took from me
There’s a man on the floor
He can’t take anymore
There’s a man on the floor
He couldn’t take anymore
Won’t somebody stop the show
Operation Rango: Busking 101 (Addendum)
nothing like a bomb going off in your head to keep the mood changes lively & brisk, and keep you awake at night. in my case it was seeing a music video tonight from my estranged and beloved daughter, Claire. her subject? opens with herself but quickly turns to the buskers down at Pike Place Market most of whom are mentally ill and some of whom are very talented. the music? hip hop, about the Seattle hip hop scene. yes, it’s self-reflective and full of meta, from a 17 year old girl, my daughter. she looks like a feminine version of me.
the video includes, pseudo-randomly, chats with the balloon man and shots of the ferris wheel and the ferries, and the seattle cityscape at night. a long, extended sequence features the bums, the hobos, the unwashed masses at the spot of grass by the hippies. a strong sense of attachment and commiseration with their experience, and shots of the gum wall and 420.
btw, this was me, several months ago, downtown at Pike Place Market, struggling with unemployment and mental illness, including random chats with the balloon man, an extended sequence where i missed the ferris wheel and the ferries but called it out in the captions, and played for 12 minutes straight at the spot of grass by the hippies. have i mentioned the very/very first time i played my guitar in public in seattle it was in the little bar by the gum wall? have i mentioned i’m still unemployed, and about to lose my house?
art/life/love
-rango
http://fandalism.com/rangothedog/bkHf
and
Ticket for Two (Lyrics)
i didn’t have money for christmas
i didn’t have money for fun
i only had money for milk & honey
and chasing that love on the run
i didn’t have time for romance
i didn’t have time for love
but i found enough time to make you mine
and now i’m singing heaven above
all i want is to spend my days with you
all i want is for us to see it through
every night i tell myself it’s true
since nobody else can even hold a candle to you
we’re going to need a ticket for two
something in the way you call me
something in the way you say my name
makes the winter warm and balmy
makes a guy crazy, making me insane
i knew about a dog named rango
he knew a couple cats could play
if they all got together in a stormy weather
we could get married that day
all i want is to spend my days with you
all i want is for us to see it through
every night i tell myself it’s true
since nobody else can even hold a candle to you
we’re going to need a ticket for two
\m/ (-.-) \m/ and ? and 😀
update 12/23/2012, the video’s been released 😀
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gu8QsQ-idI
or (fandalism, way more plays & feedback here since it uses facebok authentication &)
http://www.fandalism.com/rangothedog/bGhl
merry christmas!!!!
Operation Rango: Thanksgiving 2012
<best><thanksgiving><ever>. you might think yours was better, but i had dinner with Tim Hearn who dutifully accepted basting assignments from the lovely Rachel Jaimes Murray-Hearn while i rolled around on the floor and played Legos and toy cars with his four year old grandson. the kid proceeded to charm me stupid and showed uncanny dexterity strumming my guitar as i played Frankin, and he and his mom danced to Smokehouse. dinner was a <spread> and the turkey was perfect (i credit the immaculately timed basting).
Smokehouse Cabin composite based on the photographs of Priscilla Cantrell.
after that Tim and i got to jam for the first time after connecting online through our music almost two years ago. it was pure joy, and a privilege. the only thing missing was an entire weekend to keep on going. which we’re totally going to do next time. highlight of the evening was hearing him play Dobra the Pawnshop dobro and sing this song. after that i played smokehouse and he solo’d on his acoustic and it was like butter on my bread. Rachel proceeded to croon and vocalize like an old-school Appalachian wife and it brought me back to the hills of West Virginian watching uncle Earl play. we concluded the evening with an extended exploration of using chromatics to link Maj7 and dominant chords, somewhat jazzy, and than an impromptu song about pumpkin pie, complete with words, because music is magic. i couldn’t do it right now but at the time it was effortless. we laughed all day, and i left with a bucket of food.
see? mine was the best. definitely had a sweet soundtrack, it’s like a cliche a minute and totally sticky. brilliant 😀
Operation Rango: Veteran’s Day 2012
morning, peeps. grey skies here and tough times for some of you, another day of waking up into a bad dream. it’s a familiar feeling.
but as bad as it is being unemployed and broke and sidelined by bipolar and ending up in this giant house alone, it’s not cancer, it’s not a child with a heart condition, and nobody’s going off to war. those things will truly challenge your faith (even if you don’t call it that). my kids are 15 minutes from here, probably ignoring their mom right now just as they would be ignoring me if they were here. and despite being alone i am never lonely (see: this page, almost famous, hummingbirds, etc). as for work, something’s coming my way, i can feel it.
next up: graphic arts, and the RDogg Media portfolio featuring a gallery of the most amazing indie photographers and graphic artists on the web, and a mechanism to monetize their work and connect them with the musicians, real estate agents, and small business owners to improve their web presence. you people should be talking and $$ should be flowing, and not to the big image houses, right to the dudes with the cameras and the photoshops. but somehow i have a feeling that Mgr99 was right when she said “it just seems like you should be a musician”. it’s going to be something like that.
Rango’s a lucky dude \m/.
so, a little levity. let me try to lighten your spirit and maybe it will lighten mine. let me massacre a proverb instead of the random grocery store cashier who pissed me off yesterday and got a face full of rango in front of the store this week (no regrets, but not one of my finer moments: i have worked as a grocery store cashier).
i’m reminded of the proverb of the monk who falls to his death from a towering cliff. on the way down he snatches a strawberry, and pops it into his mouth. his last thoughts before the lights went out were (massacre here): “amazing strawberry”
today: a little time for remembrance. then to clean my skunky body and my physical space. then i’m going to mix/record all day, and share songs, and listen to your tunes. and delete/delete/delete.
\m/ rango \m/
Operation Rango: Election 2012
sorry to ruin the suspense, but my son already called it. it went like this:
Matthew Meadows
rango: who do you think’s going to win tomorrow?
junior: me, but this kid from pyongyang is pretty good.
rango: that’s impossible, there is no starcraft in pyongyang. they’re living on shoe leather.
junior: the internet doesn’t lie, dad. and thanks for the support. what’s next, who’s your daddy online?
rango: it’s me, i am your father (menacing but fail). dude, it’s like The Hunger Games there, but you’d give up your best friend for a Birkenstock. having said that, rich hippies may fare well there. also emos. you should be good despite your horrendous lack of skills and less-than-amazing cache of mojo.
junior: cool story, bro.
rango: you know there’s an election tomorrow, right?
junior: that’s hilarious…(pew pew pew)
rango: …(knocks on desk next to mouse hand)
junior: (glances at rango’s hand by mouse, acknowledges threat) why bother, you’re already pope. besides, you told me plagus had that in the bag, that it was all just a facade for the sheeple. you even called it the “Facade for the Sheeple(TM)” and had him trademark it.
plagus: “job’s finished.”
junior: damn that’s retro. i liked your song though, dad. cool “Election Theme Song”. i’m sure that will be very popular. how’s your reverb score? let me guess, the same, right? (cracks up)
rango: i suppose you think that’s funny.
junior: it was very chuck mangione (in faux italian)
rango: you don’t say it like that.
junior: ba-ha-ha-ha…cool story, bro. (pew pew pew)
rango: no, srsly.
junior: o, rly?
rango: who’s going to win?
junior: obama.
rango: why?
junior: because he’s asian and asians are cooler than you.
rango: o, rly?
junior: no, srsly.
rango: ok, what if they were super-heroes?
junior: obama.
rango: perhaps i’ve biased you.
junior: obama.
Rango’s gloves heating up from mojo.
rango: (puts finger on computer power button and holds it for 3 seconds, one second short of a hard reboot and total shame for generations against people that kill for Birkenstocks by day whilst selling options on their cousin’s kidney’s through a black-market derivatives exchange by night)
junior: yes, father? (perfect angel, full attention)
rango: if the election were a super-hero battle, who would win? the cool black guy who looks like Rhodey from Iron Man, and who one day will in fact be Iron Man, or the smarmy, arrogant rich white guy who looks like every politician/villain from every science fiction movie ever, who looks like he has a personal beautician and a monthly budget for hair gel that exceeds your entire lifetime income, and who hates you?
junior: obama.
rango: cool story, bro.
junior: (pew pew pew!) [stops, breaks character, Skyping now, ignoring rango] what, what? what’s the problem? you promised, dude. Pedro had it in the bag! all the write-ins. i gave you that code from plagus are you telling me it didn’t work? (stands up, points at headset like a disrespectful smartass, then starts shoving rango out of the room, nodding his head “no”.)…what are you, Ron Paul now? that’s never going to work, his brother is type O-Negative, you didn’t get the message? it was on fans of derivatives facebook, dude, pretty sure it made CNN [slams door]. [muffled]you need a better botnet dude, let me hook you up.
rango: cool story, bro \m/
Operation Rango: Klout 101
-
…i’m on fire…\m/
klout.com
Klout is the standard for influence.
-
You and Karen Woodham like this.
-
-
Matthew Meadows klout does not release their distribution, but casual inquiries have revealed that 90% of the population is below the 50 mark. it narrows towards the top, where you have unobtainables entities like YouTube and Google near 100. so jumping from 65 to 70 is an enormous leap, statistically it’s far more than 5%, it’s that plus the difference inversely proportional to the slope of the tail of their distribution, silly. :-p
Mike Elgan (pro tech columnist): 77
Marilyn Monroe (she is dead who is this): 79
YouTube: (i has kitty) 91 <– stratospheric
god: 100 (i made that one up, but presumably it’s an asymptote and therefore an unobtainable ideal that we should all strive for) -
Matthew Meadows i like how they measured that 😀. you know what they say, measure twice, cut once.
PLAGUS: CUT!
RANGO: hey, not so close to the edge
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Matthew Meadows (tumbleweeds)
Rango's Dog House 