Saw a powerful and thought-provoking film today on NetFlix called 180° SOUTH by Jeff Johnson which is a film record of his journey to Patagonia in the footsteps of his heros Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia, Inc. the outdoor clothing company) and Doug Tompkins (founder of The North Face and co-founder of ESPRIT). Environmentally-aware, these guys are self-described “dirt bags” who would spend most of their time in the sixties hiking, surfing, camping, and mountain climbing in the great wilderness areas of the west and eventually built businesses around what they loved to do. Their successes eventually allowed them the resources to help create and preserve huge tracks of land in South America even as the countries there were building dams and paper pulp mills and power plants to fuel their fledgling economies. Jeff’s trip (by boat) gets delayed when they shipwreck and are forced to detour to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) to re-mast. The lesson of the deforestation of Easter Island by islanders driven in competition to build ever larger status Moai is not lost on the film-maker (there is still disagreement about this in the scientific community). The film’s name comes from a comment that if progress up a mountain brings you to a cliff does it make sense to march into the chasm when you could instead turn 180 degrees around and take a step forward? Beautiful scenery, interesting characters, important social issues, awesome soundtrack largely by Ugly Casanova (Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse) and James Mercer, though the haunting melody sung by Mahoke, a girl Jeff meets on Easter Island and decides to take the journey with him may rank as my favorite song in the film.

So this is still a bit of a mystery, but its obvious that somehow someone has managed to get hold of the login account for the RUSH (the band) Facebook page. I first noticed strangeness yesterday, but it reared its head again today so I took a couple snapshots. I’m pretty sure we’re dealing with the official Facebook page for the band because it’s linked off the official RUSH website, but it’s possible of course that the official page has been hacked and they replaced the link with one they control. The defacement thats been done is pretty lame – if I stolen the account I’m sure I’d be able to come up with something a tad funnier like a post about Geddy getting his vocal chords surgically shortened so he could sing all the good tunes again.
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I’ve never been an avid reader of poetry, though I have read some and I’m even friends with some published poets. I see poetry as the very heart and soul of any good song. I like songs that tell a story, and while I find I really enjoy prose stories, the craft of condensing a tale into a few short verses (with meter and rhyming to boot!) is certainly one I can admire. I took a quick look into the work of some Irish poets on lunch today and very soon found an example of a poem I liked. This one is by Thomas Moore who lived from 1779-1852 and is probably better known for another poem of his – The Minstrel Boy. I’m also a big fan of instrumental music (no words), of course.

Night closed around the conqueror’s way,
And lightnings show’d the distant hill,
Where those who lost that dreadful day
Stood few and faint, but fearless still.
The soldier’s hope, the patriot’s zeal,
For ever dimm’d, for ever crost –
Oh! who shall say what heroes feel,
When all but life and honour’s lost?

The last sad hour of freedom’s dream,
And valour’s task, moved slowly by,
While mute they watch’d, till morning’s beam
Should rise and give them light to die.
There’s yet a world, where souls are free,
Where tyrants taint not nature’s bliss; –
If death that world’s bright opening be,
Oh! who would live a slave in this?

Last year I posted here about why its not really possible to get a guitar in tune. I heard from a friend today about tru-temperment fret boards which may actually make it possible! Some anecdotal posts in guitar forums indicate that you can play barre chords all the way up the neck with one of these and remain perfectly in tune.

In (somewhat related) readings during lunch today I also found this site and I remembered another conversation with some friends recently about the difference between a 440Hz A and 442Hz A. Can you hear the difference between 440Hz and 442Hz?
http://www.tedrounds.com/mp3_files/A440.mp3
http://www.tedrounds.com/mp3_files/A442.mp3

Even if you can’t discriminate the difference between them when playing them one after another, if you play them simultaneously you’ll notice the interference pattern (listen for a waa waa waa sound). This is another way I was taught to tune an electric guitar – while playing a harmonic note on the 12th fret of the lower string, play a harmonic on the 5th fret of the higher string and listen for the interference pattern and tune until the waa waa slows down and disappears. (I’m not at a guitar right now and while my fingers would remember the right frets, my mind doesn’t so if thats not right please correct).