Thursday, July 08, 2004
Misplaced busses and other anecdotes
On my way to work this morning, the bus I take almost went missing. I say 'almost', but it didn't really go missing, but was simply quite late, and that took all the fun speculation out of my commute. It would have been much more interesting if the bus had simply not been there. Where would it have gone? I would hardly think that OC Transpo would simply radio over to the driver of the 179 and say, "Hey, you've worked hard the past few weeks, don't bother driving this morning. Go get a coffee and sit this one out." On the other hand, if the bus did go spontaneously missing, how would that affect the other routes? Would they simply run as usual and pretend that everything was fine, except for the missing bus, driver and some passengers? The papers would love to get the story about how a transportation agency managed to lose a bus and some people, as though they just vanished. It almost sounds like it could make for a novel or something - the ramifications and consequences of a missing bus. Media blackouts, conspiracies, global panic, that kind of thing. I think it would be interesting.
Speaking of interesting, the latest on the casting of the Fantastic Four movie.
Spider-man can do whatever a spider can. Can spiders do musicals?
This is just plain bizarre. Seriously... Internet-wired tombstones? What kind of people are we becoming?
I am listening to a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes album at work, yes yes I know it's punk covers from a not-quite-joke band don't throw any rocks please! Ahem. It occurred to me that aside from a couple of bands, the standard complement for rock bands nowadays are guitars, bass and drums. Sometimes there's a keyboard. I think this is just plain stagnant and should be changed. To that end, I propose that a rock band be formed with a completely unorthodox instrument complement. Instead of a lead guitar, someone should build an electric fiddle. Yes, you read that right - a solid-body fiddle with pickups that can have distortions and filters and foot pedals and all that snazzitude. I don't know if it's been tried, but I've gone through the permutations in my head and there's no way that it wouldn't rawk. Providing the beats, we would have drums, but they would be bongo drums - no drumsticks. Since the 'pooka-pooka-pooka' of the bongo doesn't quite have the same ROCK that the snare drum has, we would need a set of about four bongos, with at least one of them having metal widgets attached to the underside of the membrane to make that snare sound. Another would need to be fairly squat and bassy to provide the necessary punch the bass drum provides. The cowbell would have to be rigged with a foot pedal, since we definitely need more cowbell. Keyboards, although much more mainstream, would be necessary to get the organ solos going, so I will allow them in, but to provide contrast, we will add a harmonica* to complement the lead vocals. So we gots electric fiddle, keyboards, harmonica and bongo drums (and cowbell). This is just a starting lineup, though, so if you want to be like a certain metal band and add a few guitars, some bass and like nine percussionists, go right ahead. Still, I think a band comprised of the above instruments would be able to make some very interesting music indeed. It all depends on the musicians that helm them.
* Open challenge to the Internet: play Thunderstruck by AC/DC on a harmonica. Tongue the intro. I dare you.
¶ 1:56 p.m.
On my way to work this morning, the bus I take almost went missing. I say 'almost', but it didn't really go missing, but was simply quite late, and that took all the fun speculation out of my commute. It would have been much more interesting if the bus had simply not been there. Where would it have gone? I would hardly think that OC Transpo would simply radio over to the driver of the 179 and say, "Hey, you've worked hard the past few weeks, don't bother driving this morning. Go get a coffee and sit this one out." On the other hand, if the bus did go spontaneously missing, how would that affect the other routes? Would they simply run as usual and pretend that everything was fine, except for the missing bus, driver and some passengers? The papers would love to get the story about how a transportation agency managed to lose a bus and some people, as though they just vanished. It almost sounds like it could make for a novel or something - the ramifications and consequences of a missing bus. Media blackouts, conspiracies, global panic, that kind of thing. I think it would be interesting.
Speaking of interesting, the latest on the casting of the Fantastic Four movie.
Spider-man can do whatever a spider can. Can spiders do musicals?
This is just plain bizarre. Seriously... Internet-wired tombstones? What kind of people are we becoming?
I am listening to a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes album at work, yes yes I know it's punk covers from a not-quite-joke band don't throw any rocks please! Ahem. It occurred to me that aside from a couple of bands, the standard complement for rock bands nowadays are guitars, bass and drums. Sometimes there's a keyboard. I think this is just plain stagnant and should be changed. To that end, I propose that a rock band be formed with a completely unorthodox instrument complement. Instead of a lead guitar, someone should build an electric fiddle. Yes, you read that right - a solid-body fiddle with pickups that can have distortions and filters and foot pedals and all that snazzitude. I don't know if it's been tried, but I've gone through the permutations in my head and there's no way that it wouldn't rawk. Providing the beats, we would have drums, but they would be bongo drums - no drumsticks. Since the 'pooka-pooka-pooka' of the bongo doesn't quite have the same ROCK that the snare drum has, we would need a set of about four bongos, with at least one of them having metal widgets attached to the underside of the membrane to make that snare sound. Another would need to be fairly squat and bassy to provide the necessary punch the bass drum provides. The cowbell would have to be rigged with a foot pedal, since we definitely need more cowbell. Keyboards, although much more mainstream, would be necessary to get the organ solos going, so I will allow them in, but to provide contrast, we will add a harmonica* to complement the lead vocals. So we gots electric fiddle, keyboards, harmonica and bongo drums (and cowbell). This is just a starting lineup, though, so if you want to be like a certain metal band and add a few guitars, some bass and like nine percussionists, go right ahead. Still, I think a band comprised of the above instruments would be able to make some very interesting music indeed. It all depends on the musicians that helm them.
* Open challenge to the Internet: play Thunderstruck by AC/DC on a harmonica. Tongue the intro. I dare you.
¶ 1:56 p.m.
