My Life as a Musical: Pantless
so i dressed like an idiot all day. fell asleep in my rango gear very late last night, woke up late and immediately, broke yet another mirror trying to catch the bloop at my workstation in the dark and then couldn’t find my pants. so, right, barefoot in the dark with the broken mirror, my last one, and no pants…any port in a storm, right?
i grab the first pair of jeans i can find and put them on, which was not easy. the LKG pair (Last Known Good) was and is <still> in the wash (i’ll get right on that). the others are scattered about upstairs, or in the garage. (sadly, i never unpacked into my own house). fortunately i bought some extra jeans at goodwill for the modeling shoot and they were still in the bag so i put them on and split.
i was running late but before i got out of the driveway i realized they were the pair that was “too short, but good for wearing inside your boots if you don’t want them all baggy in the leg”. remember, they were bought for a photo shoot, not to be practical. meanwhile i’ve got my dancing shoes on and no socks, canvas shoes with no sole in the arch, and of course it’s pouring rain out…
…at the Microsoft campus, where folk tend not to dress like idiots.
^^^ those jeans. wanted: ark, woman, sampling of species
so, yes, looking like a complete tool <all><day>, pretty much Skippy the Twerp, including right now. but i’ve come full circle, i’m home again (TRAFFIC!!!) and i’m getting out of this chair and gonna ditch these pants and do some dancing and practice Friday’s set for my neighbors. just as soon as i find my shorts :-D.
l8r,
r.dogg
Red Flags and the Hummingbird Express
via hummingbird express and my dear friend Dianne Murray, a random article about Red Flags: How to Identify a Psychopathic Bond. topics include:
Rage
Frightening Temper
Killing your Self Confidence
Cutting Off your Support
The Mean and Sweet Cycle
Breakup Panic
Paranoid Control
Friends and Family Dislike Him
The Waitress Test
Walking on Eggshells
Discounted Feelings / Opinions
They Make you Crazy
vaguely familiar? read the article. consider printing it out and bringing it to your therapist, lawyer, and friends and see if they agree. then prepare your support network, contact the people that love you most, and get out before your risk escalates into something truly dangerous like what happened to some of the women referenced in this article. these behaviors span all socioeconomic and religious strata. don’t wait for the hammer to fall twice.
“Truth is not a convenient fiction. Similarly, love is not a power game for anyone capable of this emotion. It’s the deepest and most significant bond human beings form with one another and the foundation of our lives. If you encounter a man who gives any signs that he regards love as a game and you as a “prize” to be won, fold your cards and quickly leave the table. Or, better yet, refuse to engage with him at all. Any intimate relationship with a psychopath is a gamble where you risk losing everything and from which you have nothing to gain.
http://psychopathyawareness.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/red-flags-how-to-identify-a-psychopathic-bond/
Target Financials
consider this conversation, which i’m paraphrasing but using the actual vendor names because it’s simply my experience.
rango: “ok, i’m telling you again. do you have the summary of our last conversation in front of you? just copy and paste it for this week and please have your machines stop calling me”.
eff the man
Target Financials calls me repeatedly morning, noon and night with their stupid robots that take 30 seconds to pick up and their stupid agents that screw my name up every single time. And then ask me the same questions. Every other vendor, they get the message. They offered to put me on a plan. They still call, but you can refer them to your case and they’ll stop for a week or so. Target, no way, those guys are predators.
…
…
target: ring ring. ring ring. ring ring.
My Life as a Musical: Denouement
de·noue·ment [dey-noo-mahn] noun
the final resolution of the intricacies of a plot, as of a drama or novel.
^^^ in music the denouement is used by composers in a very explicit way: by using dissonance to introduce tension, and then final
this is part of my signature sound, and that of my favorite composers. listen for the resolution at the end of The Mistress. you have to wait for it, it’s most effective if there’s a long suspenseful build up like this solo that splits into two guitars unexpectedly to exaggerate the denouement, a fracture of the mind. at the end it should give you the feeling that despite everything you’ve seen, heard, and felt before it, the turn of events have taken their proper turn and destiny has run its course.
teasing it out is an art, and knowing when to end the tension is a matter of taste and very much related to what’s come before. it can be applied to a one measure burst (guitarists play with this all the time) or an entire movement at the end of a symphony. this was the flagship song on my first album, Etherati, and still one of my most popular today, with signature denouement.
http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/11103838
in another example i’d like to present The Ringmaster, a case of Extreme Denouement(TM). (ed: fire that punk; mgr: i already did). here we present the man in the hat, stage right, presumably the MC or perhaps the ringmaster himself as his theme crosses from Hungary to Russia to the trains that lead to the circus.
the denouement starts from the opening passages as the melody winds its way across measures unexpectedly, seeming to deny the tonic but then resolving it moments later. it suggests the story has already been told. by the time it’s run its course the denouement returns to affirm what you already knew in your gut, the lines of fate had been drawn and pulled taught like a circus tent without any regard for the little clown on the unicycle playing his violin. he was just a distraction. and sure enough the denouement presents itself, so foretold it’s almost a cliche but then the narrative breaks apart the meta shows itself. ringy’s here again, bit of a spectre that guy. it breaks key signature at the very last second. it’s all wrong. tragic mistake or a crack in the matrix? the illustrator’s hand on the canvas? (ed: wtf? mgr: sorry dude, plagus registered the trademark 380ms after rango typed it). Extreme Denouement(TM), with artwork by Seattle photographer and graphic artist Kimmberly Miles, this is The Ringmaster, an operetta for 5 guitars and 3 vocalists since i could not find a drummer and haven’t given Stuart Epps the final mix yet.
http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/9098008
My Life as a Musical: #6 Seattle Metal (with a Bullet)
One of you just became friend number 2,500. I believe it wasTizzy Shearer. Also, I’m #6 Seattle Metal with a bullet:
http://www.reverbnation.com/matthewmeadows
Chasing the #5 slot with Michael Wilton of Queensryche | Seattle, WA who is currently #265 in the US Metal. Pretty sure that’s one dude that doesn’t need to pay for Facebook promotions. I’m way out at #308 but went up 5 spots yesterday alone. I’m not paying for promotions, either.
Rango getting risky dancing on the wire. From Into the Snow II: This is Not Empire.
What’s the change? I’ve started cross-posting over at Matthew Meadows Music <as> Matthew Meadows Music. Normally I share to there from my personal profile page, and it does not end up visible to people in their streams or when they first go to the band page. Posting there directly as M3 also let’s me see how many people view each post, typically in the neighborhood of dozens but sometimes hundreds. Note this is per post on the music page, which only has 1/5 the eyeballs of my personal page (2,000 OF YOU, NO LOVE FOR THE BAND PAGE??), so multiply it sometimes dozens of times a day and yes I’m reaching you with thousands of impressions each day…potentially more than a million eyeballs…and my Klout and similar metrics prove this out.
And if you’ve noticed I’ve been posting copiously, you’re right. Apologies if you have a small number of friends on your feed. Try not to puke, change the channel, and don’t hesitate to unfriend if you’re just getting sick of it. I’m hitting different demographics with different campaigns in different markets and different time zones over the course of the day, 24/7, and signalling to people all over the world. The folks that like Sling Baby are not necessarily the folks that like Texas Dub / The Pope. Mix in the fact that the Aussies and Indonesia are coming home from work a few hours from now, then the UK wakes up…
(etc)
Time for dinner, and then a late shift at the most interesting social network experience in the world, Microsoft FUSE Labs Socl.
<itzgud2berango>
50th Post: Etherati
etherati – people of the ether. from my interview with Aaron Joy:
AJ: Etherati [/eth er ati/], if I’m even pronouncing it correctly, what does it mean?
MATTHEW: Sure. It’s another word that I made up. I’ve been pronouncing it /ee ther ati/.
AJ: Okay.
MATTHEW: But, I’ve heard a lot of people say /eth er ati/.
Matthew Meadows – Etherati Blue
AJ: Well, I’m a bit dyslexic, so, excuse me.
MATTHEW: I’m just happy to hear people say it! It’s surreal to me. But, here is the meaning of the word. The etherati are those figments of memory that you have. The people that are represented by those memories after they’ve died, those are your etherati. So, in my life, I’ve had a handful of people that were very close to me, that I loved deeply, that I’ve lost & I find myself having these haunting conversations with them when I’m all by myself that I can remember in absolute vivid detail. So I came up with this term to kind of describe these kind of ephemeral spirited memories that are … they’re something more than ordinary memories, but there’s not a word in our language that would describe them. Because, when your mind is left to wander you can almost have conversations with these people. So, they are my etherati.
My Life As a Musical: Seattle Wave Radio’s 2012 Jam Competition
So, thanks to the participation of a few close fans I’ve managed to get a spot on stage at the The High Dive on Oct. 19th. This was how the crew at Seattle Wave Radio announced it:
Well listeners: we have a winner! *da da da da da* and the winner is; MATTHEW MEADOWS! Congratulations, Matthew! So all of you out there ~ get ready to have your faces melted at The High Dive on Oct. 19th ’cause that show is gonna ROCK Fremont!!
Thank you to PAULY, Cool Water and Down North for participating. Hope all of you have had a great time listening to some amazing Seattle music!
Agreed, I really enjoyed the show. The play by play was all on Facebook and revealed the joy in the experience of the music. It was all great stuff and my only wish is that more people could have heard it.
With regards to the song I’m playing, Smokehouse, I had the following to say before the broadcast:
http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/14735259
here’s Smokehouse, the song in question, from producer Stuart Epps with support from musician John Marter.
http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/11525528
here’s Smokehouse, the original acoustic demo presented to Stuart. this is somewhat akin to how i’ll play it on the 19th.
http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/11525528
there are extensive Smokehouse Variations present here, a long extend jam captured live busking in downtown Seattle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7hPE3a5Ir
here’s some serious, heart-felt Smokehouse variations, practice with a fussy dobro and excessive Skype & Facebook interruptions, originally written on a piano:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFt3ft5ykDw
this entire video is laced with imagery and themes from Smokehouse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu61aW2de0s
this video, from Into the Snow II: This is not Empire, features the Smokehouse riff from the infamous Tammie mix (not presented here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDn51_Ltycw
(etc, and so forth)
\m/ (-.-) \m/
full story here:
https://rangothedog.com/2012/06/12/how-a-dog-named-rango-jammed-with-stuart-epps-at-the-smokehouse/
and finally, please
Seattle Music’s 2012 Jam Competition
…i tend to avoid political & religious discussions, i rarely vote, and i don’t have a tv…but i was listening to NPR on the way home and the debates came on. after I got over the shock that Mitt Romney was actually the Republican candidate for president and not just the opening act i heard the following:
Matthew Meadows
“i like coal” – mitt romney
“i also like big bird…” – mitt romney (slams spending on PBS, which he easily could have done without naming a beloved character that 1/2 the listening audience grew up with)
“you spent like 50 years worth of investment on solar & wind in one year” – mitt romney, to obama
“uh-huh” – obama (did he nod & do this \m/? it was radio, dunno)
“if you take out 5 trillion dollars and don’t increase the revenue, you have to take it out of education and (etc)” – obama, as he proceeds to take apart mitt romney’s plan <again>.
…and then there was this:
(nothing)
…mitt romney just let obama make up stuff about gutting education without suggestion there might be other places to come up with the money. it’s as if he wasn’t even listening to the answers.
(palm slap, returns to Rangosphere & straps on Fiona Fender. it’s better not to know)
Now that i’ve got your attention, DON’T FORGET TO LISTEN TO Seattle Music’s broadcast starting at 7:55 — JUST MINUTES FROM NOW — and VOTE FOR YOUR POLITICALLY DISENFRANCHISED BUDDY RANGO as his song Smokehouse goes up for a chance to play live on stage. You have to listen, and they’ll give out a secret word that I cannot repeat here, and then vote.
Operation Rango: October Dawn
Really hard to believe it’s October. It was this time last year as I struggled with the dissolution of my engagement and started to finally live My Life as a Musical that I had a creative supernova.
After months of manic obsession on the guitar that wedged itself between my life and my family, I finally committed to takes of Smokehouse and Tides and came up with lyrics for both. It’s when I started talking about Operation Rango and the Temple of Zither. Today I’ve got 20 videos and more 1,700 pictures in 64 photo albums, and dozens of blog posts – and that’s just what I’ve released. There’s more to come folks, so get your sticky gloves and hold on tight:
iPhone Maps: Epic Fail
Really not surprise at the failure of the IPhone team to deliver a solid mapping application. Why? Mapping is hardcore computer science at its best, and delivering accurate applications that convey everything from your geospatial coordinates as conveyed by satelite imagery to construction information to what’s on the menu nearbye is such an onerous task only a few companies in the world have tried and even come close. On of them is Microsoft, and as a former member of the Bing Maps team I’m pleased to say other device vendors have had the insight to recoginze this difficulty and chosen to go with an embedded solution. Apple should give up being a maps vendor just like they gave up on developing an operating system and just skin somebody else’s solution. They do that better than any company in the world. They gave up on the Mac OS and went with BSD and the world is better for it. They should consider the same type of solution for their mapping application / epic fail. They should consider what Kindle and Nokia already know. They should consider Bing Maps.
Rango-Headshot2
Rango's Dog House 