Stephen Lopez
(by Steelopus)
Sometimes I take photos.
Another from December 2009. That was a weekend filled with good friends and rock and roll.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Track:
The Longest Winter
Artist:
Pedro The Lion
Album:
It's Hard To Find A Friend
40 plays
Pedro The Lion - The Longest Winter
4:11 for April 11th
In time memories fade, senses numb.
One forgets how it feels to have loved completely.
Why I go to church on Easter morning.
- Out of a deep respect for my mother, who might very well be next in line to be pope after this dude dies.
- It’s a genuinely awesome story. Whether or not we choose to believe it, none of us should deny that it’s pretty awesome, and perhaps even more impressive if it’s all invented (The Greatest Story Ever Told?). All religion is pretty interesting when you really dig into it.
- I usually go alone which means I don’t really have to talk to anyone and I can stand in the back or on the side and just observe the proceedings. Yes, I’m judging most of the people there, like the parents with their flamingly gay son wearing a bright purple shirt under a white jacket, and the old people who themselves sit there judging everyone else for not wearing a suit or a dress or not following along with the traditions (even though their religion tells them not to judge others), and the parents who let their teenage daughters wear too much makeup and too short skirts in a so-called holy place of worship.
- To see (watch) people I knew in high school. Maybe they were friends, usually they weren’t, but I like to see how they turned out.
- It’s usually true when they say the “hot girls” get “uglier” and the “ugly girls” get “hotter.” I don’t feel guilty for thinking about that kind of stuff in a church.
- Oh, she appears to be single… nice. If you need me I’ll be available on Facebook chat while I see what she’s been up to for the past 10 years and then close the page without making any attempt at communication with her because I’m anti-social to a fault.
- Stop judging me!
- I like when the priest walks by and sprinkles holy water on everyone. It’s like we’re the fans at a sweltering rock concert and he’s in the band spraying us with his water bottle.
- What? It’s not like that at all? Yes it is. Shut up.
- The body of Christ is the most delicious little cracker in this world. I wish I could buy those wafers and put cheese and pepperoni on them to make little tiny Jesus Pizzas.
- I’d probably put Nutella on the wafers too. I bet that’d be delicious. Nutella Jesuses.
- What was I talking about?
- Now I’m gonna go listen to Jesus Christ Superstar for the millionth time.
- Maybe Ian Gillian is actually the second coming of Jesus and his gift to the world is Smoke On The Water, Highway Star, and the rest of his excellent work with Deep Purple. And maybe the day of reckoning will come at the hand of his servant Richie Blackmore’s blistering riffs.
- Oh look! I found some jelly beans!
(Originally posted 20090412.)
“Every time I look at you I don’t understand / why you let the things you did get so out of hand!” (Taken with Instagram at Jerusalem)
Practice Rooms at the Eastman School of Music (by Steelopus)
Sometimes I take photos.
April, 2009.
Judas, must you betray me with a kiss? (Taken with Instagram at Gethsemane)
I decided the best tribute I could offer Jim Marshall would be to go down to the basement in my rock and roll sweater and my poorly fitting rock and roll pants and my SUPER ROCK AND ROLL SLIPPERS and plug my Les Paul straight into my Marshall half-stack and play some rock and fucking roll.
So here’s me playing Go! from FMGreen’s 3-2-1 Go! EP.
Volume at 5… turned up to 11 at the end just to make sure the residents of the neighboring county could hear me clearly.
(Side note… the mic on the iPhone is impressively resilient. The SPL meter in front of me was registering 120+dB the entire time.)
“Why don’t you just make ‘10’ louder?…’
“… … ……. … These go to eleven.”
Jim Marshall, creator of the Marshall amp, dies aged 88
Aside from Leo Fender and Les Paul, no man had a larger impact on the sound of music over the past 50+ years.
He’s a true rock and roll icon. It’s not an accident that I ended up as a Marshall player after watching literally every single one of my all-time favorite musicians playing through his amps.
Museum of Play (by Steelopus)
Sometimes I take photos.
This was December 2009.
I love the structural design of the interior of the Strong National Museum of Play. I don’t know if the architects intentionally made it look like a giant version of the steel-tube jungle gyms on which I grew up dislocating knuckles and spreading germs, but that’s what it reminds me of.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Track:
The Last Supper / Gethsemane
Artist:
Jesus Christ Superstar (steelopus)
Album:
Jesus Christ Superstar
Download 35 plays
Jesus Christ Superstar - The Last Supper & Gethsemane (I Only Want To Say)
Go big or go home?
I originally planned on doing only The Last Supper, but it felt completely empty without Gethsemane, so I did them both. Doing both those songs would’ve been tough enough with my original plans - in which I thought I’d be able to spend a full 7 days working on them. Then my family came to visit for 5 days and so I actually only had 2 days to complete all of this. So much for seeing how much better I could do at a leisurely pace!
Skipping all the piano and orchestra parts meant both songs ended up a bit more “rock and roll” than their various original versions, as I replaced that stuff with some crunchy guitars. I would never pretend to have even 10% as much vocal talent as the great Ian Gillian, or Ted Neeley, or Murray Head, or Carl Anderson. Their performances are legendary and I tried not to imitate them wherever possible, though some of the crazy-high melodies are essential to the production, so I did the best I could do. Go big or go home. With these two, more than any of the previous 40, I surely can’t be accused of not putting myself out there.
So, after two solid days of recording and mixing, I thought I was done. I exported a version and while listening I heard a few things that I wanted to tweak, so I reopened the session and as I got to the end of Gethsemane I noticed that the drums, bass, and guitar tracks had vanished. I have no idea what happened. It may well have been my mistake, though it feels like a technical error. Regardless, the session is mostly lost and we’re left with this original export. It has everything in there and it’s good enough to get my point across - though it’s mixed a little rougher than I’m happy with, but as it’s nearly 3:30am, I’m going to chalk it up as a loss. Jesus might have resurrected, but these lost tracks certainly won’t.
This is the end. Thanks to all of you for joining me on this insane journey. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Happy Easter.
Originally recorded: April 21-23, 2011
1 year later and I’m still happy with how this turned out, warts and all.
Ways… about things.
(via recordarchive)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Track:
I Still Want A Little More
Artist:
The Milk Carton Kids
Album:
Prologue
30 plays
The Milk Carton Kids - I Still Want A Little More
Monday afternoon I heard these guys on World Cafe. This style of music isn’t particularly up my alley, but sometimes a song just hits you right where it counts and you can’t help but stop whatever it is you’re doing at the time and surrender yourself to its undeniable beauty.
I mean… these guys aren’t exactly breaking new musical ground here, but seriously, how great is this? So great.
They give their albums away for free. Go get ‘em.
GPOYW
Wide-eyed tonight, as the finalized budget is presented to the Board of Education. Job status: TBD.
The Space Shuttle Discovery on its Mobile Launcher Platform slowly moves through the high bay doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building en route to Launch Pad 39A, where Discovery is scheduled to lift off on the STS-82 mission on Feb. 11. A seven-member crew will perform the second servicing of the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during the 10-day STS-82 mission.
Holy cow this is a truly gorgeous photo. Every time I see a new photo of the space shuttle I’m reminded that there was basically no angle from which it wasn’t beautiful.
(via itsfullofstars)
