Author: Timpane

Okay, this is bizarre..

Look how many celebrities have volunteered to be Jedi Master Chefs!! JEDI MASTER CHEFS

Yup, my little film Nocturne has gotten a little press… READ THE ARTICLE
This is from a premiere I attended last weekend! Woot woot!
Oh, and for more stuff from the film.. check this out! Click here for lots of Nocturne VIDEOS!

Manoman.. I have lurked here for the last few months.. only occasionally posting.. mostly because I find my time is more and more just slammed.

So, here’s the sitch.. Doing “Comedy of Errors” in Manassas at the end of the month, shot a training video (cool), shooting a commercial this week, turned the big twenty-ten last weekend, have almost no time to finish the “Dead hunt” score before we premiere.. did the Nocturne premiere in Lynchburg, buying baby stuff for the big day in august (see neato pics at www.timpane.com and click the peanut icon) – so between rehearsals and premieres and shoots and writing music and shopping and planning and trying to have a life – yeah, its been a bit hard to take the time to state my thoughts!

So, yeah.. here’s all the stuff I would have posted about..

1. V for Vendetta is awesome, go see it.
2. Rewatching Buffy and Angel on DVD with my buddy daniel, fun!
3. Shakespeare again.. whew.. what a trip
4. Why its hard to hang out with the Crew-cible
5. Rowan and Billy Joel – together at last!! Awesome concert
6. Why you NEVER want to mention your ex girlfriend by name on a blog.
7. Psychokiller – redux (http://www.timpane.com/mp3psychokiller.mp3)
8. No, thank YOU for smoking
9. I cannot be thirty.. its impossible
10. 3d Sonograms – a must!!

Okay, I’ll be back by as a regular soon enough… but meantime.. I still check the recent posts daily.. so I’ll be watching!! JT

Hey, I’ve got 4 tix to the sold out Billy Joel concert this thursday (in 44 hours) and only 3 are spoken for.

MCI center.. 100 bucks.. Rowan, Kelly, and I are going, but there’s room for a fourth. I’ve sent out an email to folks, but I thought I’d post it up here too. I got one left.. any takers?

Hey, anyone remember me in High School? I was the one with the “Stop Abortion” button on my lapel and my “Save the Baby Humans” bumper sticker. Hey, former member of “Operation Rescue” here.. So, why did I stay out of the recent Abortion conflagration on Barnson?

Because I’ve argued this point to death, and I’ve made some discoveries that might make us better understand each other.

Much of the abortion argument ends up asking a single question.. is Abortion Murder? I mean, its not a matter of a potential human.. in that case, birth control would be wrong.. because to have eggs and sperm that close and not let them conceive is destroying a potential human. Its not a matter of “personal responsibility” because you can be WAY irresponsible and still take the pill or pop on a condom – that just means you were bolder in your search for birth control and perhaps better educated. And if it were just that, well who are we to punish?

No, the question comes down to this.. is Abortion killing a baby? Or, why is it legal to abort a viable fetus and a potential capital offense to dump a newborn in a dumpster?

Well, its that question.. is Abortion Murder?

PRO-LIFERS: Yes, and that’s why the right to live supercedes a “woman’s right to choose”. They believe that a woman should have a right to choose, but it is less important than a baby’s right to live – and it clearly is a baby.. just a smaller one. And I understand it.. I’ve seen the sonograms of my kid so far.. and it looks really really human. It moves in a really human way.. and this was at 14 weeks. Now at 19 weeks, it has fingerprints and ears and sleeps and swallows and sucks its thumb. So I can see the point of view. Other than its stage of development (which is just about as fast as out of the womb) whats the difference between it and a newborn? Not much.. and a good number of Babies aborted could be potentially viable with hospitalization.

PRO-CHOICERS: No, its justifiable killing of a not-yet human. There are rights that women should have. The right to do what you want with your own body and not be forced against your will to undergo a huge body change and then a dangerous medical procedure should be fundamental. And yes, it is unfortunate a fetus has to die, but a lot of them do on their own, and they’re developmentally less advanced than like a small animal – the size of a hamster, with less personality.. and to keep this alive, despite its potential, should not supercede an American Citizen’s right to keep herself as she would see fit to do. And again.. I see the tumultuous nature of pregnancy firsthand.. (or secondhand, as its my wife, not me). If there was nothing being looked forward to, this would be like a horrible disease.. discomfort, eating restrictions, nausea, scarring, pain, and finally labor. All to save something with less brain than a ferret.

So, its easy to see how these two sides can’t agree. Weed is right that a baby has a right to live and should not be killed, especially after a certain point. Ben is also right that a fourteen year old who made a mistake (and knowing teenage girls, this happens half the time under pressure or duress) should not have her life completely screwed up. Adoption is always an important choice.. but then there’s the question of the Mother’s pre-natal behavior.. and again, it doesn’t negate the trauma of pregnancy. Then again, a baby shouldn’t die.

They’re both right. And really, neither one is really wrong.. they are both looking out for what is (for them) a hypothetical – both looking out for different victims. So we can agree that a really unwanted pregnancy is going to victimize someone.

If we can’t agree.. and we never can, because we’re both right… then what do we do? Legislation of compromise. The Pro-Choicers want choice protected, the pro-lifers want fewer abortions.. Perhaps there is a way (free birth control, morning after pills, illegalizeing third trimester abortions, and legalizing first trimester abortions with second trimester abortions yet to be discussed) – nothing will be compltetely acceptable to everyone, but we all get a little more of what we want.

Meanwhile.. the discussion is important.. because these sides need to keep pulling in opposite directions – its the only way to make sure both victims have some protection.

So, of late, the musicmakers on BARNSON have posted about their music, so I thought it might be fun (Matt, Ben, Sam, Rowan, others..) to name your best 2 (or more) songs (with links to mp3s if you got em) and what they’re about – or at least why you wrote them.

Additionally, if you like someone else’s songs on the site, ask em what they were thinking (for instance, I loved the explanation of headrun).

So, I’ll start… There are about 10 sonngs I would put on a Greatest Hits CD (based on what others have said, and somewhat my own opinion), and of the 10, the two I think are probably the best are “Starbucks Nation” and “Long Way Home”

Starbucks Nation (http://www.timpane.com/starbucks.mp3)is a snapshot of society today with an emphasis on the ills of corporate mind control of the general population through media. Specifically, it pokes fun not at the corporations but at the public’s willingness to be controlled through a variety of means ranging from groupthink to medication to peer pressure. I wrote the song based on the 1st rhyme “Capitalism has Replaced Catholicism”, and just kind of let it go from there. (Oh, and the Rap in the middle is based somewhat on my brother Kyle, who loves Tupac Shakur, but is also a “honky goin golfin”). Favorite line: “Justin and Kelly on TV (ref: American idol) but We’re (Reference me and my wife Kelly) what’s missing here.

Long Way Home (http://www.timpane.com/long.mp3)is based specifically on a random drive by my old house in Bethesda when my mother had vacated it. I saw the new people living there.. and it was right after my mom and Stepfather divorced. I was newly married, and driving by there was a harsh reminder that “Home” didn’t exist anymore. Fave line: “Look through Kaleidoscopes back at the years, at the fragmented pictures of a life that just seems such a long way home”

Okay.. and my questions: Matt: Explain Leave it All behind (not your best, but I want to know), and also, if you could, I’m Still me

Ben: What inspired “House of Dreams” and the song that starts “God’s Easel”

Sam: Breathless, please.. and Who is responsible for Mad Mad World

and Rowan: You should tell the folks about your writing stuff (The one from the thing where they walk down the street and its snowing.. – make a link)

:jawdrop: Ever listen to Barenaked Ladies Song “Box Set”? Well, its done.. the biggest project I’ve ever attempted that absolutely no one will know or care about.

Polishing the turd – (pawlisheeng th(schwaa) terd) – V. The act of endeavoring to make something that isn’t that good to begin with appear better than it is, usually futile.

I have recorded 193 tracks of music since I started in 1990 at the age of 13. And most of them suck. Yup, most of them are so unlistenable that we would have to be quite close before I would ever let you hear them. And yet, I have spent close to 100 hours in the last year or so cataloguing and remastering all 193 tracks.

I got the idea when, on a whim, I spent some time remastering the first Wayward Sun album (the results of which are on the music section of Barnson). It was cool to have the old tape on CD and on my computer to play whenever I wanted. I thought.. well, it would be cool to do that with all my old stuff…

So I searched through tapes, recorded them into the computer, took out the hiss, remastered the songs, divided them into their original “albums”, and put the albums in Chronological order. Then I did the same stuff for all my digital work, all the CDs up through the newest one (which you can download at http://www.timpane.com/mp3 ) and now I have it.

Some stats: 15 Albums 193 Different Tracks of Original Music 110 Original Songs plus Four Original Scores 27 Remakes Of Earlier Songs 16 Collaborations with Other people 3 Writing Collaborations with Matt Barnson 1 Song Lost Forever 1 Song Retired Forever 2 Songs Written entirely by Someone Else 4 Different Recordings of Holdin Hearts holdin Hands 4 Different Recordings of Kelly’s Song

The funny thing is – no one will care right now. My brother laughs at me because it seems like such a self-centered waste of time. And to be honest, I’m trying not to agree with him.

Here’s why: 1) Posterity. I didn’t know many of my Grandparents that well, and one not at all… and I know nothing about other ancestors. Heck, I only really know my Dad as my Dad, and have no real idea of what he may have been like when he was younger. With a kid on the way, I want this to be around for my brothers and sister and my kids and Grandkids.. i want this put in some family Vault – and hopefully one day it will be unearthed like the letters my one living Grandparent finds when she does Geneaology – its really my heart and soul put into music, its my diary, even if a lot of it sucks.

2) Reflection. I like listening to my old stuff.. its like therapy. I listen to what I used to write vs. what I write now and I try to gauge how I’m doing as a person. Its like rereading an old diary, and I think that has value.

3) Novelty. I can think of about 10 people who will actually want this, and about half of them will probably listen to it a lot – people I grew up with who listened to these songs when they were new.. and a couple who have really been requesting this.

I think it was time well spent, and its good that I’ve finished and can finally put one more thing behind me on my list of “things I want to do before the baby is born”. Now.. about that next album… :jawdrop:

So I finally broke down and created a Myspace page.

Myspace is a website that you make a personal page on, and so do a lot of others, and then, supposedly people find each other and keep in touch there. I did it because I heard its a good way to network.

Anyhow, It was a fun experiment.. I made two, a Personal one and a music one.. http://www.myspace.com/justintimpane http://www.myspace.com/timpanemusic

What was interesting was that I did indeed find quite a few people I know there. You can search by school and by year – its pretty cool and should provide hours of pointless distraction while I should be preparing for the baby.

Anyone here have a page on Myspace?

Well, its funny how quick you get old.

Today is my ninth wedding anniversary, and I’ve been doing some reflecting on the past and the future. Its weird being almost 30, married for just under a decade and having a baby on the way.

Despite the differences, I still feel like the 16 year old playing piano in a dark practice room. I still look close enough to me that people would still recognize me. I still feel like me..

But the me has changed. We’re cashing out some stock like we did a year ago, but instead of buying a vacation, we’re creating a college fund for the baby. Instead of going out for pizza, its a “nice” italian place, instead of drama, its peace. Some of the changes are good, but its all – well – older.

I think of what the 10th anniversary will be like. We’ll wake up, change the baby, try to get someone to watch the baby for a couple of hours.. but it will neve rbe just an “us” day. And thats fine. I cant wait to meet my kid, but I have just evolved into the last generation when I was so used to being the next.

That being said, its cool to have been married so happily for Nine years.. its cool to have a wife who is as ultra-rad as mine is, and despite my soul searching, I never forget how lucky I am.

Question one.. who do we boycott?

It was reported today that come september, UPN and WB will be no more. In their place will be a single network, CW (Short for CBS/Warner) – and the surviving shows will return for future seasons there.

Why do I care?

Well, my two fave franchises, Star Trek and Buffy had their homes at UPN and WB respectively (with Buffy ending on UPN after leaving WB). And I, like legins of fans, clamor for their return. In addition, there ar emany who have deserted UPN after the uncerimonious cancellation of ENTERPRISE, and the same holds true for the WBafter the unfair cancellation of ANGEL.

To be honest, I discovered the Buffyverse on DVD, but I am still kind of mad the WB got rid of it when it was getting so so good. On the other hand, I was watching the launch of UPN when VOYAGER debuted in 1995. Its weird to think these two networks will be gone.

The real question is what will the identity of the new network be? WB has been youth. UPN started scifi and is now geared toward black women. Of course.. where does Smackdown fit in there?

Could this be a good thing? It could make CW long for past glories.. and maybe use Telefilms of Buffy or Trek to gather former viewers. Hey… it worked for TNN – now SPIKE.