Author: Ben

Hello folks! I’ve been absent for the last few months, working a “real job”, and now I’m back for my last year of law school.

Things are good – the wife and child are doing well. One of the best pieces of news is that I’ve accepted an offer from the firm I worked for over the summer to come back and work for them after I graduate (assuming I pass the bar and all that). This really takes the weight off.

Writing more songs, performing when I can, and joining the Baltimore Songwriters Alliance. All in all, now complaints.

How is everyone? (I recognize this is more of a group email than a blog entry, but I have nothing interesting to talk about that can be illustrated with hyperlinks.)

Following in the steps of other reuniting 70s bands, The Police have announced that they will in fact tour this summer, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of “Roxanne”.

Music fans are already speculating whether 2009 will bring a 20th anniversary reunion tour of Wayward Sun.

A very clever take on reinterpreting Star Wars IV-VI in light of what we learned in I-III.

Did you know that the first field agent of the Rebellion was… R2-D2?

http://www.morningstar.nildram.co.uk/A_New_Sith.html

Sorry Matt – we’re picking on your state today.

Only in Utah could they conceive of a way to make a 13-year-old girl a sex offender AND victim for the same act!

Under Utah’s statutory rape laws, consensual sex between a 13-year-old girl and her 12-year-old boyfriend means that she both raped him and was raped by him, statutorily speaking. I’ll be the first to say that 13 and 12 is too young to have sex. However, it’s ridiculous to criminalize this sort of thing.

Reminds me of the story of the 15-year-old girl arrested on child pornography charges because she had nude pictures OF HERSELF on her computer.

Thoughts?

I don’t need to say that it’s a good day to be a Democrat.

As it stands currently, the Democrats gained 28 seats in the House of Representatives, giving them a majority in the House for the first time since 1994.

The Senate, which most Democrats considered a big long shot, is neck-and-neck at 49 seats apiece, and Democrats stand to take that over too, as they hold on to slim leads in Virginia and Montana.

But even if Democrats don’t take control of the Senate, this is a big victory for the Democrats, and a slap in the face to President Bush and the Republicans.

Some interesting facts about the results:

• Nancy Pelosi stands to be the first female Speaker of the House.
• Jim Webb, if elected in Virginia, would be the only member of the Senate with a child currently serving in the military in Iraq.
• Minnesota has elected the first Muslim member of Congress, Keith Ellison. (Way to go, Sammy G!)

Now you can play ROBOTRON 2084 online!

Plus other excellent arcade games like Joust, Spyhunter, and Rampage!

After a long and busy summer, I have returned to say hello.

On reflection, I actually have nothing more interesting to say than that. Hello!

So, just to prove me wrong, the multitrack recorder decided to work today. So, while I had a chance, I threw a bunch of tracks onto the laptop.

Of course, it didn’t work all at once. After the discussion about “Megan” yesterday, I decided to take it out this morning and see if I could get it to work. As in the past, I got this horrible buzz/crackle in the left channel whenever I used the stereo out or monitor out. After messing with it for a half hour or so, the only outputs I could get to work were the tape outputs from the individual tracks. So then I opened up Adobe Audition and recorded each individual track into the laptop. (How the hell did “Megan” get to be 7 minutes long? Just recording the 6 tracks took me almost 45 minutes!) So, since I had the tracks separated in the laptop, I was able to go back and do a little remastering, add some effects, etc. So it sounds kinda nice. The music doesn’t exactly synch up, but that’s not my fault – it was like that in the original.

Then, just on a whim, I checked the stereo out again, and lo and behold, no crackle! It’s trying to confuse me to death, clearly. Anyway, I was able to mix down a fair amount of vintage Wayward Sun. Enjoy!

Wayward Sun Rarities

Megan, music by Ben, lyrics by Weed! Back to Reality, music by Matt Crying In My Dreams, music and lyrics by Matt & Sam? Just As I See You, music and lyrics by Sam Nightmare, music by Ben, lyrics (and lead vocals) by Katy Nikki, music by Sam, lyrics by Ken Lennox Now or Never, music and lyrics by Sam and Ben, as well as the lamest instrumental break ever (my fault) Sad Anger, music and lyrics by Sam Shadows on the Wall, music and lyrics by Ben Wayward Sun, in a recording we made after Together Again For The First Time, featuring a drum solo by Kevin You and Me, music and lyrics by Matt, featuring Matt and some chick on lead vocals You’ll See The Sun Rise, music and lyrics by Matt(?), featuring Ben & Katy on vocals

Live at Chica’s 18th Birthday Party, June 1991

As We Go (DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince) – listen to a 17-year-old Sam rap Compulsive Fire – probably the first time we played it live For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield) – I can still remember the looks of shock on Sam’s and my faces when Matt first hit that wah-wah pedal Silent Lucidity (Queensryche) – included purely for its comedic value Madness – an excellent live version of this On My Way – hey Matt, what’s a headrun?

And, since I had the FTP site open, here are a few recent goodies: Let It Go is my latest song, written in October, recorded in December and then revised a few weeks ago. And this is a totally new recording of an old Wayward Sun classic.

Enjoy!

Matt, it looks like you made the right choice by leaving the Mormon Church.

A new BYU study finds that Mormons in the state of Utah weigh an average of 4.6 pounds more than non-Mormon Utahans.

It’s the God-Shaped Hole Weight Loss System!

I came to a sad realization this morning in the car. I no longer trust my government. At all.

NPR this morning ran a story regarding the propaganda machine of the various Iraqi insurgent groups. It was an interesting story, and the point was that the insurgents are much more savvy from a multimedia and public image standpoint than most people would expect. But I had a very different reaction to the story.

The press releases put out by these insurgent groups deny much of the information being put out by the US. The US has said that there is infighting among the various insurgent groups; the press releases say this is not true, that the insurgents are more united than ever. The US says that some of those insurgent groups are negotiating compromises with the US; the press releases say this is a lie. And I realized, with a shock, that I am naturally inclined to believe the Iraqi insurgents over my own government.

This may seem obvious, considering that I’m a latte-drinking Northeastern liberal who dislikes Bush with a passion approaching hatred. (I don’t actually drink lattes.) But it came as a shock to me. Despite my ideological differences with the Republicans in the past, I’ve always at least had an inherent trust in the system, a subconscious belief that we’re still somehow more honorable than them.

But I suppose that things like Valerie Plame, NSA wiretaps, and “Mission Accomplished” have finally pushed me over the edge to where I’m more likely to believe the propaganda of Iraqi insurgent groups than the propaganda of my own government. And I feel really bad about that.

I want to believe in my government. I want to believe that we’re doing the right thing. I want to believe that I can trust the people in power, regardless of whether I agree with their politics. And I don’t.