*related=http://videosift.com/video/Postmodern-Jukebox-Best-cover-ever
*related=http://videosift.com/video/Gunhild-Carling-Epic-multi-instrument-virtuoso

Well, it is a brilliant instrument when it's not being butchered by a western song

1. My family was considered to be a 'organized crime' family by the police in Tucson, AZ.
2. I've committed 2 crimes in my life. My first was when I was 13, I shoplifted a Gen 1 Transformer from Kmart and was banned from the store until 18. The second was helping a friend load an illegally poached deer into his truck.
3. My first car was a 1974 Dodge Challenger
4. When I was 19, I almost ran away from my future wife to go to Dallas and open one of the first ink cartridge refilling companies with a friend.
5. My mother never married and let my Grandparents raise me.
6. I started smoking at 14, rolling my own from my Grandfather's Bugler tobacco.
7. I smoked for many years, quitting twice. Once when my Grandfather died from Emphysema and then for good when my Grandmother died of lung cancer.
8. I worked for Texas Instruments, Dell, and Apple. Their stock allowed me to retire early.
9. I've had a mental breakdown that lead to me retiring early.
10. I still suffer from depression and anxiety.
11. Online I can interact with people much better than I can in real life. I find it very hard to deal with people in person.
12. My wife embarrasses me in public because she is very outgoing.
13. I hate doing dishes. I mean I really loathe doing them.
14. I have two dogs.
15. I don't like cats very much.
16. I sometimes have weird dreams that my best friend is still alive.
17. I prefer being indoors vs being outdoors.
18. Other than my mother, my family is all dead or estranged.
19. I am a video game enthusiast.
20. I don't want children.
21. I once had a 4-wheeler roll over on top of me and pin me under creek water.
22. I used to use twilight as my online handle until Stephenie Meyer ruined that for me forever.
23. My favorite animated cartoon was the 1990's Batman animated series.
24. I used to be a huge Stephen King fan until he was hit by that vehicle and his writing suddenly started sucking.
25. I have very poor eyesight without my glasses.

i am just going to add to the opinions and perspectives that @MilkmanDan ,@ChaosEngine ,@dannym3141 and especially @newtboy who i agree with so clearly that i swear we are related.

since many dynamics have already been covered, i.e:police culture,racism,incompetence etc etc.

i shall offer a historical perspective in the ways of the power dynamic.

while this is a power vs powerlessness dynamic dealing with agents of the state,it helps to understand just how we got to this point,and it is NOT the first time we have been here.

see:labor movement of the 30's and the labor strikes,and the response from not only the business community but our own government.

see: the civil rights movement and segregation,and how demagouges used political power to divide by way of racism,and then used police to intimidate,beat and imprison.

there are many MANY examples here in america where the police have been used to suppress and oppress a people or community for less than altruistic reasons,and most certainly not aligning with the ideology we were taught in school the function of police.nevermind the syrupy sweet,idealized picture shoved down our throats since an early age.

so we see on our facebooks,our twitters and/or whatever social media you prefer,that black lives matter...and the counter point,that NO..ALL lives matter.

now this would make sense in a world that never took history into account,or a growing cultural norm of violence and oppression that had been slowly seeping into poor communities (mainly black and latino).

oh wait..
that's right.
social media pundits NEVER fucking consider any of those factors,because just like bill o'reilly,those are pesky nuances and context conflict with their own narrow narrative.

but let us consider them and how they may possibly be a major driving factor in americas current climate.

let us take ferguson as an example,that is a good place to start.
and let us go back to 2008,where we can see the boiling begin to take place in this extremely impoverished community which was already struggling.

the population is a black majority,poor to working poor.home ownership is low,food stamp recipients are high and the future is pretty bleak.

in 2008 ferguson received approximately 18% of it's total fiscal revenue from misdemeanor infractions i.e:traffic,parking,moving violations.small time stuff.basic fines for small infractions.in 2008 that number jumped to 66%.

why?
what happened?
what changed?

well the comptroller of ferguson (and greater st louis),along with HUNDREDS of other smaller municipalities across the country,had bought the rotten fish that wall street was selling in the form of bullshit derivatives.

now wall street and the big banks got their tax payer bailout,but towns like ferguson did not.they lost millions,sometimes billions.this meant pensions were either reduced or outright denied,because there was NO money!

but a town still has to pay police.
fire fighters and school teachers,
clerks and judges,
keep the roads paved and the street lights working.

so what is a local government to do?
can't tax the working class who own homes.you already jacked their property tax to the roof.
can't tax the local business,you already squeeze them as well.
how about those non-property owning people in ferguson?
they need to pay up as well,and let's use the police force to relinquish them of the paltry money they don't have.

to the tune of 66% of all of fergusons revenue.
that is insanity.

so what if you live in ferguson?
chances are you are black,and either poor or working poor.

you make,if you are lucky,20 grand a year and by one man's testimony he paid over 2,000 in traffic tickets in one year.the majority of americans dont see those kind of numbers their entire lifetime.

and what if you began to realize that it was not just you.that almost every person you know or talked to had similar stories.

would you begin to feel a tad bit targeted?

what if the city of ferguson started to become very creative with not only their rules but how they enforced those rules?

what if every year the fines went up?
not remained the same,but actually UP? every year.

what if,as a community people began to actually fear the police? to experience anxiety just by the sight of a patrol car,even though they were not engaging in anything illegal? and who knows...maybe there is some new ordinance on the books that you are unaware of?

would you become paranoid and suspicious of law enforcement?

and then..what if....you started losing friends to cops.people you grew up with being shot in the street,and every time the mayor comes out and calls it a "justifiable killing".

would that make you feel any better?
any less paranoid or anxious?

there was ONE police shooting in ten years and then..as if by magic ..(which is how the media seems to always portray this..shocking news..at 11)..you lose 5 friends in a year.all to cops..all "justifiable".

would you begin to think there was a conspiracy?
targeting you and your neighbors?

i BET you would.
i know i would.

now lets look at the cops.

they are just a tool.
an instrument for the state to uphold the law and write citations for infractions.they dont MAKE the laws,nor the infractions,not even the fines.

they just do what they are told.

and they are told to go into these poor and working poor neighborhoods and write tickets,a LOT of tickets.

do you really think they are unaware of the growing hostility towards them? the looks of disgust,fear and apprehension?

but...this is their job,and they do what they are told.

they see.
they know.
they are aware of the growing hatred towards them,and this makes them anxious..and defensive..and in some horrible,tragic cases...trigger happy.

a natural and normal response to heightened stimuli in the face of great uncertainty.

so they react impulsively and out of fear in a way that ten years ago would have been unheard of.

they think themselves good cops.
they do a good job.
they do what they are told.
and the people hate them for it.
so they respond instinctively and with poor judgement.

we..as citizens,respond with disgust and indignation when a cop abuses his/her authority.we see this as a major moral breach in the citizen/cop relationship,because we feel as agents of the law they should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us...and rightly so,but when you put a human being in a tense and dangerous situation,not of their making,they will fail at some point to react correctly and with sound judgement.

they SHOULD be held accountable,but so should the city council members and the mayor and all the local representatives who created this toxic climate in the first place.

the lesson to be learned here is that nothing is a binary situation when people are concerned.

so when black lives matter protestors address people to make them aware of the situation,this is what they are talking about.the police killing are only a last stage manifestation of a situation that began in 2008 on wall street.

and we need to be aware,because right now it is the predominantly black communities,but soon coming to a neighborhood near YOU.

the poor and working poor have become expendable.no longer relevant to the system.which is why police shootings are being handled the way they are.our value is ever increasingly being judged on how well we can feed the system.

until this disparity is addressed there will continue to be police shootings.people will die and there will be no indictments.

because police do what they are told.

it is up to us to make policy makers accountable for their actions,and in doing so address a toxic climate that both the poor,working poor and cops alike have to swim in.

stop forcing cops to write tickets to fund a city that lost it's savings due to fuckhead bankers.

this blood..all of it..is on those bankers hands.

This should be easier to balance in reality because you can feel the rate of fall changing and hear the rotation speed of the blades changing. Doing this with instruments is probably an order of magnitude more difficult.

I watched in Luxor also back pretty close to the same year -- I think a bit earlier, maybe 1998 or so? They had a great bit where they grabbed an audience volunteer and all put on "bib" like things with a spigot sticking out of them, then ate twinkies. As they ate, yellow/orange goo extruded out of the spigots -- really freaked out the audience volunteer!

Then I saw them again in I think 2014. Again in Vegas, but they had changed venues to the Monte Carlo. From a quick web search it looks like they are maybe back at the Luxor now, though.


Musically, it is extremely impressive to me how they can produce really great stuff that is all centered around their custom-built PVC and other percussion instruments. You'd think that a very percussion-heavy music act with blue body paint and "act weird" shtick might get stale, but I really loved both live shows I went to as well as their albums and DVDs like the MegaStar show.

Weird but great!

One thing I liked about that in particular:
She looked like she was having fun, even when she wasn't so good.

I've played bass (electric, never tried an upright) for about 15 years. I only got *really* serious about it after getting Rocksmith 2014 -- went from playing once in a while to almost every day. I'm a LOT better than I was, can play a LOT of songs at least decently (say, 97%+ accuracy in Rocksmith), but still nowhere near as skilled as some.

BUT, it has been FUN every step of the way. Especially after trying Rocksmith, which presents "sheet music" in a visual, tab-like format that I can now effectively sight-read (it takes some getting used to, but works great once you figure it out). A lot of people are reluctant to try learning an instrument because they think it won't be fun, particularly in the early going. They think they will suck.

Well, in my experience that is half right. Yeah, you're going to suck (I certainly did). But it is loads of fun, in spite of that. And you get better fast -- the human brain is a pretty amazing thing. One day, you try a new song and think "damn, that is so hard I'll *never* be able to play it right". Then a month or two later you think "oh yeah, I should give that a second try" and all of a sudden it is very doable. Awesome to have those little moments of revelation when you realize that "hey, I am definitely getting better at this!"

My first instrument was the drums and I would rather listen to my neighbor's dog bark all day then hear most drum solos. She's competent and has done her homework but it's still as formulaic and predictable as most drum solos are.

Now THIS is a drum solo, Dennis Davis was Bowie's drummer for a number of years and I still crank this 8 minute solo 40 years after it was recorded in 1976. I have yet to hear any musician top this solo on any instrument, for my money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPk3_X00ld4

Your video, Orkestra Obsolete play Blue Monday using 1930s instruments, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Proof that dirty, damaged instruments can still produce beautiful music.

This clip from Spinal Tap is apropos, because it's a lampoon of the Monkees video, but they were also lampooning Maiden, Sabbath, Priest, Saxon, Randy Rhoads, Ian Gillan, etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-BYzaDwNoE

This is an interesting interview with Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, because it addresses a rumor that they had walked out of Spinal Tap because they believed the band was making fun of them (which was untrue): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1022475/He-aint-heavy-hes-captain----Iron-Maiden-rocker.html

It's important to note that the members of Spinal Tap were all musicians and played their own music from the get go, whereas the Monkees only recorded their vocals and had other people play the instruments. Of course, in time the Monkees learned to play, even if there was so much wasted recording time they had to bring in other musicians to fill in. They eventually improved enough to play live shows with their own instrument play.

I gotta do my best to defend the Monkees, Iron Maiden, and Spinal Tap, because they ARE all great acts and entertainers. I say ARE because, as of 2016, The Monkees, Iron Maiden, AND Spinal Tap are all touring to this day. Not together, of course. That would be too awesome.

so i checked out that banjo dudes channel.
holy crap that boy is talented.is there an instrument ho doesnt play?
very impressive.

I could be wrong, but the internal panels are usually just sound and heat insulation.

Unless the outer shell had also ruptured (instant pressure drop & instrument warning), this probably posed little to no risk to anyone.

That said, if I was the captain I'd probably land soon as just in case too.

Kind of reminds me of this band I was in a couple years back. We were booked to play this hipster library in L.A. (Yes, these things exist) and our band's singer/leader is stammering his intros and not playing to whatever crowd is actually there, the guitars are out of tune even though we spent hours preparing and tuning, and the drums are drowning out the rest of the instruments.

God, the acoustics in that place, and the look on the face of the person who booked us. Horror. Utter horror. I was wearing an Iron Maiden shirt with hair down to my tits, a look of insanity, me-against-the-world on my face.

Someone in the audience was like, "What the fuck is this shit?"

But I'm not Bill Burr and I' NOT in any mood to admit my faults, I just came back from 2 drinks over my limit at a bar around the corner, and I'm fucking done with hipsters. Suddenly our FOLK band goes into overdrive and becomes a punk band. I start smashing the drums with my sticks faster and faster, letting the rest of the band catch up, "Fuuuuuck you. You want some rock n' roll? Here's some fucking rock n' roll." Our singer is timid at first, but the guitarist is an anarchist and looks at me like, "YEAH! Let's do this!" Adrenaline and alcohol made it so I didn't even need to know what I was doing any more. We just played the same songs except faster and angrier.

People are disgusted by the sound and the entire place empties.

Later on as we're packing up, the guy I told to fuck off comes up to us with his pals and starts harassing us. Turns out, he was the guitarist of the band that was on before us. And everyone loved this guy. I stared at him and just said, "Fuck you." And he immediately replied, "No, fuck you!" I don't remember how many fucks were given but it was quite the juvenile display. We just packed up and left with "fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck" in our wake.

As we're walking to the van our band leader says, "Well, that went okay I think, you know given the circumstances, I think that showed off our energy."

Sorry, I did mean to put up a translation. I'm not 100% sure of this, but it should be close enough to get the idea:

Everybody plays Alphorn on the Mountainside, but at night in the Paul Theater's undercover carpark? The awesome reverberant acoustics simply demanded an encore :-)
Spontaneous session of the backing musician after the performance of "Jumper&Preuss" at Paul-Theater in Straubing (in the south of Germany, in Lower Bavaria). And for all those who can't believe you could top this, there is a second part with an equally unusual wind instrument...
Filmed just as spontaneously, quick and dirty filming, hand-held and without a camera rig - so please excuse any slightly dodgy focusing