Jimmator Attacks From the Far Reaches of Space!

This rules. Thank you, mayor of Neatocoolville!

Check it out!

Ahh, the fond memories of baking these as a kid with mom. A nice memory to have of the days before real world woes and the new movie trilogy!

Yay, internet.

Jimmator Presses Lightly For Doom

When I found out about The Chapman Stick it was all I could talk about for at least a week. I've since aquired the recording Parallel Galaxy by the inventor of the instrument, Emmett Chapman, and am looking forward to checking out many more recordings by other stick artists. Check out the two instructional videos by Greg Howard on the site to see what this thing is all about.

I couldn't believe that the existence of this thing eluded my knowledge for so long, especially since it represents a nexus of some of my other interests:

• David Lynch's film adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel "Dune" (it's a vastly better experience than the SciFi Channel miniseries no matter what you say)


• The music of King Crimson


• The music of Leo Kottke


• The music of Porcupine Tree

What this all means is that, like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, you can probably get to any musician though Adrian Belew. For instance, Don Johnson has a Belew number of no greater than 3 (Don performed with Dweezil Zappa on "Heartbeat", Dweezil performed with father Frank on recordings like "Them Or Us", Frank performed with Adrian on "Baby Snakes") Useful information, this.

What is also means is that I was prompted to dive headfirst into an obsession with King Crimson after seeking out Tony Levin's Chapman Stick playing on "Discipline" and the DVD concert video "Neal, Jack and Me". Get them (and many others) here.

Eventually, this led me to epiphany that my massive collection of CDs shall be archived in FLAC format. More on that stuff later. For now, follow some of these links and feel your jaw drop in stupified awe as your appreciation for underappreciated art stretches out into a wider circle.

Gee, that didn't sound pretentious at all, did it?

Jimmator Stomps Into the Arctic!

In the cold, cold, recesses of my childhood past there is a soundtrack made by computers. This site not only allows me to hear the songs rendered gloriously via my desktop PC's FM synthesizer, it also allows me wreak ringtone havoc! (If you actually pay money for ringtones, you might as well pay someone to breathe the open air.)

Be sure to browse by platform. Gradius and Super Mario Brothers NES MIDs are great, and I got a big kick out of the ColecoVision "Venture" tunes. If you remember the game you'll crack up, too.

I'm old.

Jimmator Twiddles the Knobs of Weapon-X!

Many years ago I earmarked "synth showcase" recordings as an obsession to succumb to sometime in the future. Now might be that time.

What's a "synth showcase" recording, you ask? In my opinion, it's one of two things:

1. A shameless marketing attempt to sell a particular piece of gear.


2. A recording that is entirely (or at least mostly) created by using a single synthesizer/keyboard

Despite my tendancy to despise the brainwashing endeavors of most marketing divisions, I have to admit that in this instance I'll let 'em pass Go and collect. (I side with Captain Sarcastic: everyone is a hypocrite.) I like to hear how various people apply the same instrument in their work, especially in cases when you get vastly different results. And I'm a dweeb.

Currently, I own a whole ONE of this form of recording, which happens to be the At Home with the Groovebox compilation on Grand Royal that shows off the Roland Groovebox. But I continue to fill my head up with a list of recordings that I'd like to find.

For instance, there's the CD by Korg that has all sorts of celebrity keyboard players nerding out on their new (in 1991) O1/W:
The Best of the O1/W.

My friend's parents had a cassette tape of Star Wars soundtrack music performed by the Electric Moog Orchestra. I should have snatched that up like free doughnuts. I've seen it for sale on vinyl for $25.00. The EMO also released "Music from Close Encounters of the Third Kind". Anyone ever hear this stuff?

So if you discover any other Synth Showcase recordings, please pass the info along my way... and wow! If there's a Casio CZ series demo recording, I'd do downright disgusting things to acquire it!

Post practically re-written on 2006.06.29 because I'm a complete control freak.

Jimmator Drops a Pumpkin on Tokyo

Do you know Afro Ken like I know Afro Ken? If you did, you'd dream rainbows.

Dream Kitty
AfroKENtric
Links updated 2006.06.29