Category: Musician

Issues related to my music compositions, singing, and performing, including my band the Poly Saccharides

The Green Pill Podcast: Finding Your Tribe

TimeHorse April 17, 2024 No Comments

Those who know about me know that I have many, many interests. Indeed, that’s why I have so many different categories on this blog, where I focus on one, particular tribe I feel a close part of.

A couple of those tribes I share with my co-host Cat Smith, one being our shared love of just jamming on our instruments, but also we became acquainted because of Doctor Who fandom. We met at the convention which shall not be named and became good friends over our shared passions.

My regular readers no doubt remember, I’m rewatching the entire series—at the time of this episode’s premier, I’m watching William Hartnell‘s The Ark part 2, The Plague. (Yeah, plague, haven’t we had enough of that—predicting SARS-CoV-13, I think I called it on last watch).

All that said, Cat and I decided to show some of our other passions in this one. Cat is a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a wonderful show about a young warrior learning of his amazing powers, though that certainly doesn’t do this engaging tale justice.

Meanwhile, lacking proper wig tape, I attempted to cosplay Greg Universe, Steven’s dad from Steven Universe. I quite enjoyed this series and was lucky enough some years ago to meet the creator, Rebecca Sugar where I got this cherished selfie at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda. Unfortunately, as you can see in the video, my unsecured wig kept slipping, so I kept having to readjust it.

Please enjoy our latest episode and please tell us about your tribes!

https://youtu.be/XcDiUUtQHeU

The Esher Demos

TimeHorse January 7, 2022 1 Comment

Legend among the diehard Beatles fans, such as myself, is the folklore of the Esher Demos recorded at George Harrison’s house on his Ampex 4-Track Reel-To-Reel. Fans got a taste of some of those tracks on Beatles Anthology 3, but not until the 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe version of the eponymous Beatles’ White Album.

Ampex 4-Track, available at SonicCircus.com, only $3,500!

The problem with this release of the 27 demos from May, 1968, is that they’re not put in the proper order as intended by the Beatles. However, thanks to YouTube Music, this can be remedied!

Behold, the Esher Demos, in their proper order!

The Esher Demo Playlist

Get Back to Where You Once Belong

TimeHorse December 2, 2021 No Comments

Yes, the site is back in business. And while I was away, we got a wonderful edit of the Let it Be sessions from Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, now available on Disney+. With over eight hours of footage from the sixty our corpus from Michael Lindsay-Hogg we got a complete narrative on how the album developed, how the songs included were developed, as well as how some songs which made it onto Abbey Road or some solo works post Beatles came about.

One of the more interesting bits is how Isn’t it a Pity is heard in the credits to the first episode, how the anvil is brought in for Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, how Ringo came up with Octopus’s Garden with George listening intently, how George wrote the bridge to Something before the main song, a take of All Things Must Pass, the original political protest version of Get Back, and how the band worried when George went AWOL. My only nit is the riff from I Want You in the rooftop concert couldn’t be heard because of the interviews below. And I would have liked to have Hear Me Lord included from the sessions. Shame on you, Peter.

Overall, a most joyous eight hours of my life!

Meanwhile, this server is back bit not for long. I plan to move TimeHorse.com to OpalStack in the coming month so stay tuned for that.

Jeffrey’s Jammin Birthday Bash

TimeHorse June 24, 2020 4 Comments

Join me to find out how I like my new job, the exciting plans I have for the upcoming year, and so I can give a personal thanks for your personal friendship!

Please note, the official start time is 20:00 because I want to make sure not to start it before I finish my first full day of work at the new job. If I finish sooner, I will open the room earlier. This is, after all, an exciting time for me. My first new job in 18 years, and the first of four steps on the route to make me a better man, and much, much happier!

This event is opened to everyone who claims to know me! All of my software colleagues, all of my fellow authors, fellow science readers, fellow Doctor Who fans, fellow cosplayers, fellow Electric Car drivers and enthusiasts, all of my Equal Rights Amendment sisters and brothers in arms, all of my National Popular Vote Interstate Compact supporters, all of my avid gaming friends, all of my friends abroad except those in Europe—have your kip, mates—all of my fellow Toastmasters, all of my fellow aviators, all of my fellow musicians, tous mes amis qui parle français oder Deutsch или по-русский o italiano, my acting friends and my friends who eschew meat!

The only thing I ask is you be respectful, kind, and know that I hope you all consider any friend of mine a potential friend of yours!

There is a password to this event. It’s not hard to guess if you know me but if you want to know, and you are reading this on from Twitter, message me, on Tumblr, message me, on LinkedIn, again, message me, or join me via the Facebook event. Or, just comment on this blog, with your email address, and I will mail it to you.

See you all next Wednesday!

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18 Years and thanks for all the Fleets

TimeHorse June 16, 2020 No Comments

Today I tendered my official resignation with the Naval Research Laboratory. I worked at the Laboratory for 18 years, under three Presidents and many Congresses. In that time, I pushed for at work EV Charging in the FAST Act, I started the NRL EV Group (link accessible within NRL), I sang with Polly and the Saccharides (no link available), and I even gave some Toastmasters speeches (NRL Link).

I very much enjoyed my time there and really am sad to go but I have been having so many problems paying for #CO2Fre and its maintenance that I have no choice but to accept a new job in the private sector. My only other solace—besides finally getting to write code again—is that I can finally use a part of my McGill degree that I’ve not been able to exercise beyond writing fiction.

Thus, it’s not so much an end, but a new beginning. And who knows what the future may bring! After all, I would like to return to Federal Service on day and accrue at least two more years to get my FERS to 1.1%. The only thing for sure is I’m a lot less available as a coder now.

Tesla OS 2020.16.2.1

TimeHorse May 20, 2020 No Comments

Finally!

TeslaFi had been spamming me with news about TeslaOS 2020.16 for a while and I’ve been itching to see what, after giving us the amazing stop at a stop sign in the last minor update.

Turns out, not much. I am mostly unimpressed by Tesla with this update, though nonetheless very appreciative. Autoformatting a DashCam drive—I wonder if it supports 2TB yet—and a better layout for Easter Eggs are, after all, improvements, even if the Easter Eggs aren’t really hidden gems anymore.

The coolest new feature, though, is the new SuperCharger filter, allowing the driver to only see Version 3 stations and filter out all the slower ones. I love the fact that I have free, lifetime SuperCharging, and one of these days, I’m gonna cross the continents with that perk.

Overall, I’m not disappointed despite being underwhelmed. And one rumor is that this, or a soon to be released version will add V2G to the Tesla. I can’t wait until that rolls out as the Tesla Battery Pack may make for a new, mobile Powerwall. Mind you, even if #CO2Fre could do V2G, my house isn’t equipped for it anyway. So, even if it doesn’t have V2G, it’s still a cool update!

Tesla OS 2020.16.2.1
Tesla OS 2020.16.2.1 adds a new toy box interface, a SuperCharger filter, and auto-formatting of DashCam media. © 2020, Jeffrey C. Jacobs

Gentle reader, if you have been keeping up with me since 11 February of this year, you know that I have been posting once a day since then. As such, today marks a hundred days of a hundred daily posting. Through that, I’ve shared with you exciting electric car news, updated to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, my struggles to get the Equal Rights Amendment to be our Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, written about my many works of fiction, and the many books of nonfiction I voraciously read to be a better scientist. I’ve shared with you my cosplay adventures, and my love of Doctor Who, my love of games, and a bit of my speaking in tongues as well as delivering speeches and singing to my heart’s content. I’ve talked about international travel and how I love to fly there in my own plane, discussed my acting and my dietary needs. And most of all I’ve told you I’m an excellent coder who is always keen for new work. Thanks for riding with me as we cruise upon the cloud to another one hundred posts!

Tired of Midnight Blue

TimeHorse May 19, 2020 No Comments

The sun went down the sky. Way up high, the clouds told me that they knew.

Harrison, George, “Tired of Midnight Blue”, Extra Texture: Read All About It, 1975 LP.

Today was one of those days that could have gone better, but with so many people asking for interviews, it was hard to focus on my TED Talk for an interview. I had anticipated how difficult it would be to give an extemporaneous speech with so little time to plan it, but so be it. I tried to keep the entire morning free, but one interview moved from Wednesday to Tuesday, squeezing me ever further.

In the end, I failed, and I accept that. I don’t know what turned my interviewers off, but I have other job opportunities I’ve just this evening so I’m just going to move on and forget about all the effort I put into that position. After all, I did just sign two memo to accept a pending offer so it’s not like I have nothing to fall back on. And, who knows, maybe they wouldn’t offer me enough money anyway.

I’m just tired. Tired of sleepless nights, of midnight blue. And as I love that obscure George Harrison song, from the obscure solo album Extra Texture: Read All About It, I could think of no more appropriate way to express my mood. The song is deep and sorrowful, steeped with lament to a almost jazzy-blues beat.

The sun came into view. As I sat with the tears in my eyes.

Harrison, George, “Tired of Midnight Blue”, Extra Texture: Read All About It, 1975 LP.

Tomorrow will be a new day, and who knows what it will bring. Sometimes, I think about the pain the Hypochondriac causes me. The hours I had to spend, insult after insult, belittlement and cruel advice. How I long to be with someone who appreciated me and all I try to do. Because, in the end, I’m Tired of Midnight Blue.

Extra Texture: Read All About It
Extra Texture: Read All About It, the 1975 Solo Album by George Harrison

Thanks for reading and next time won’t you sing along with me?

The Music of Tristram Cary

TimeHorse March 16, 2020 1 Comment

For once, I wish to channel my musical esthetics and talk about one of the absolute most sought-after albums I have ever pined for. Which is to say, when it was released I was just starting a new job and on a tight budget, but by the time I’d established myself, it was already grossly out of print.


To be sure, as a musician, I don’t know if I could ever play any of Tristram Cary‘s music, but like Delia Derbyshire, I find the kind of organic sound they used in the mid 1960s was unique and something I’d love to try. I would love to have high-fidelity digital tape loops of ordinary, everyday sounds.

Cary’s music was itself bombastic and brutal in a fresh, naturally bassal way. I was reminded of this, but didn’t have a chance to cover it, during my discussion of Doctor Who: The Ark. The Ark is filled with the classic themes and tones from Cary’s earlier work on The Daleks. Cary actually contributed music to a number of Doctor Who stories during the Hartnell era of the show, as well as in the early 1970s with the Pertwee story, The Mutants.

The album is so rare, it often goes for, from $80–$130, which is well beyond my price range. Especially considering it originally retailed for about a quarter of that. It’s not that I don’t think it’s worth it, but it’s not the media I care about, it’s the music and surely if it was just a digital copy of the music, it could be re-released as streaming for little to no cost, and thus all profit to the Cary estate.

Tristram Cary died in 2008, so he was around when the album was released. I can only assume he was happy with it. I hope he would want more people to hear it, but I am hesitant to look into the grey recesses of the Internet to procure his music. I want so badly to buy a legal copy. I just wish I could get it for a fair price.

But that music, it’s just, so, good!

Doctor Who: Devils' Planets: The Music of Tristram Cary
This is the long sought after, albeit maybe only by me, album of the amazing Tristram Cary’s music. Cary was one of the major incidental musicians of the Hartnell era, from The Daleks to the Ark and even the Pertwee story, The Mutants. © 2020, BBC Music