Disturbing...

A chilling incident in Md. that should scare more of us

I finally just gave up on the Eventide Eclipse and sold it on ebay. So...with that money, I have purchased:

A PODxt:


A Bass PODxt:


I traded in my old acoustic/electric for a Samick OM-6CE, which has a digital tuner built into the side:


Also, I will be buying a Carvin DC-747 (7-string) guitar from a friend this weekend:
(it is the 2nd from the right)


I am especially looking forward to the Carvin. My friend Jerich is most likely bringing a few DiMarzio humbuckers with him also, when he comes down from PA for our Todesbonden show this Saturday night at Jaxx, so that should sound pretty good, judging from the recordings I've heard of him playing it, as well as his performance with it back in September at GothStock in CT.

This is funny as hell, perhaps funnier:

http://www.olsonuf.com/goodshit/no_no1.mp3

Current Mood: amused

Over a year ago I posted that I had a new song "Otho," in the progress of my [still-]upcoming LP "While Rome Burns." Well, today I actually finished what I had originally envisioned the song to be, by adding the guitar solo section in the bridge, which for some reason I wasn't previously able to do to my satisfaction. Today I was able to make it work, however. So I'm happy.

Feel free to check out the new solo below (it happens at about 2:49; the rest of the song is the same as the old version, for those of you who have heard it already). Hope you enjoy it!

"Otho"

For those of you who have the Ol Sonuf CD Vaoresaji, track 10, "The Pain of Understanding," has been revised with a new guitar solo, and is now available for free download on the Ol Sonuf Website. Just follow the Samples link and click on the link for "Vaoresaji."

Or, you can just click HERE.

I hope you enjoy the updated version!

Jason A. Wood
http://www.olsonuf.com
http://www.todesbonden.com

I am thrilled to finally have a functional stereo in my car. 5 years ago, I bought a new aftermarket stereo w/ a cd changer. When I went to install it at my workplace at that time, I had forgotten the Dodge stereo adapters, and being too impatient as well as intent on having a cd player for an upcoming road trip, I clipped off the connectors from the electrical system and hard-wired it in, with my lack of electrical knowledge.

This lack of knowledge on my part led to all sorts of delightful problems, such as no tail lights, or dashboard lights, or really any lights except for brake lights and headlights. I smartened up a little and let someone who knew what they were doing work on fixing the wiring. When I got my truck back, everything seemed fine until about a month later when I noticed that my fog lights no longer worked, but since I was broke, I didn't bother going back, since I considered them a luxury. (Years later I would learn that several States' Inspection stations do NOT consider foglights a luxury, much to my dismay; if you have them, they have to function...)

The cd changer in this aftermarket, hard-wired mess of a stereo stopped working, and the whole system finally died on me almost 2 years ago. Since then, I've had roughly a 10-month period of listening to a boom box, which eventually died, followed by about a year-long period of listening to a portable cd player through crappy PC speakers which project nothing but treble.

Both of the latter configurations have caused me to have to listen to music mostly in my right ear, because the speakers would be on the seat of my truck, next to me.

Thanks greatly to laurieannhaus, who reached the point where she simply could not stand listening to another second of music through those PC speakers, I finally mustered the motivation to go junkyard shopping for those long-lost connectors, and I reconnected my old factory stereo. I am overwhelmed with joy that I can now listen to music like a normal person again.

Seriously, though, this is very helpful to me, because I was lacking a decent system for playing back my recording session mixdowns for years. It helps to be able to see how other people are likely to hear a mix, and since I doubt most people will tolerate the "mega-treble-only" mix for as long as I did, the previous setup just wouldn't do, so I didn't bother using it for that purpose.

Current Mood: ecstatic

(Brian, in particular, if you could maybe spare some time to help me out w/ the Eclipse, I'll gladly hook you up in some way. :-D )

I am trying to configure my setup to make it so that the Eventide Eclipse is bypassed on some patches, and not on others.


My setup is configured as follows:

*Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Footcontroller

*Rocktron Chameleon 2000 (MIDI Channel 1)

*Eventide Eclipse (MIDI Channel 2)


Currently, I have all my sounds coming from the Chameleon. In preparation for using the Eclipse, I have my FCB1010 set up so that any patches where I'd want to use the Eclipse for effects, it triggers a clean, dry preset in the Chameleon. How do I set it up to automatically bypass the Eclipse on patches where it is not needed, and not bypassed on others?

Also, it may be of some relevance to note that each patch on the FCB1010 footcontroller can send a maximum of 2 CC messages, and all the patches are currently using one of those for volume control for the Chameleon. One patch also uses the 2nd one for Wah on the Chameleon. Again, the Chameleon is on MIDI Channel 1, so if I globally set the 2nd CC/Expression Pedal to send to Channel 2, then I'll have to disable the Wah (or else just not have volume control on that patch, and reassign CC1/Exp1 to control Wah instead.

In summary, my question is: How do I set up the Eclipse to auto-bypass when I pick a particular patch on my footcontroller, and to be active on another patch? (that is, not as a toggle on/off, but for example, ON when I pick patch 9, and bypassed on all the others?)

Current Mood: confused

I have, for most of my life, disliked the human species for a number of reasons, especially for its tendency to kill off other species rapidly. In a way, we are like parasites (but then again, all life is parasitic, in a sense).

But despite so many species we've made extinct, I can't help but smile when I read about things like this:

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/tarpan/


It is about one such species, the Tarpan, which became extinct in 1876 when the last one died in a Russian game preserve, and later, in 1933, Heinz and Lutz Heck, two German zoologists, made a genetic recreation of the Tarpan from its descendants.

Now, part of me thinks "let nature run its course - let extinct species just be extinct," considering that in a way, humans killing off other species IS nature. But we also have superior intellect (in some respects, anyway), which enables us to sort of "fix" a couple of things we've fucked up. It's nice to see that at least two people out of the then-2-billion world population cared enough about something (be it genuine concern, or fame, or whatever) to recreate one of the countless species that ours has managed to kill off.

Not to mention...this was 1933. We are a little further advanced technologically now. Maybe someone w/ the know-how and mega pocket change will try to recreate another species that we've caused to vanish.

I just finally acquired a guitar I have been wanting for at least the last 2 1/2 years, namely the Washburn EC36.

I "grew up" playing on a Washburn EC29, which has 29 frets on the highest strings (and the EC36 accordingly has 36 frets), so when I heard there was a version with a full 3 octaves I instantly became intrigued, as the EC29 had already been my favorite guitar due to its range, excellent low action, tone, and its great electronics (the pickups are very sensitive and distortion sounds extra heavy). The Washburn EC29 and EC36 are neck-through with the Stephens Extended Cutaway (hence, "EC"). These guitars (both the EC29 and EC36, as well as the even more rare EC26) were only made from 1988 to 1989, and no more than 1500 units were produced of all 3 models, combined. So I was very happy to be able to obtain one.

Here is the full guitar:


and the extra frets..........................and the Extended Cutaway.

I have been playing this guitar since I got here with it on Friday afternoon. This thing is wonderful.

Here is an mp3 of it:
EC36

The extra high frets are very challenging to hit correctly, due to how tiny they are. I used to think the 29th fret on my EC29 was too small, but everything above that is obviously even harder to get the note you're aiming for. I'll just have to practice.

Current Mood: jubilant

"The president and Mrs. Bush join people all across the
world who are praying for the Holy Father. He's in our
thoughts and prayers," Scott McClellan told reporters.

I had an interesting dream last night...

I dreamed that I was in my truck, singing loudly and without inhibition (as I often do in real life.) I had also just recently gotten a new cellphone, with the walkie-talkie feature like in Nextel's. Then when I got home someone said to me "thanks for the performance" in a sort of joking/teasing way, and told me that I had some kind of global intercom function turned on while I was singing and that pretty much everyone I knew (who incidentally all happened to have these phones as well), as well as every other person w/ this provider, could hear me singing really loudly. I knew I had sing some parts that sounded pretty bad, but also felt that some parts sounded pretty good also.

I just thought that was kind of funny, after thinking back on it. I woke up embarrassed, at first, but now I find it amusing.

I am a bit shy about singing in front of people, though, so I know that's where that came from. Plus, yesterday I was singing pretty loudly at home to test my microphone preamp's tone and levels to prepare it for Laurie to record. Laurie also just got a new cellphone, so that's where the new cellphone came into it. The rest must have been my job and all the people using Nextel's here all the time.

Current Mood: amused

I had one of the more interesting experiences yesterday after yet another night of my regular stomach episode. Since I went to the hospital with reason to believe there was blood in my stomach, they said they needed to check.

SO...........

They told me they were going to stick a tube down my nose and into my stomach to check for blood. I wasn't too phased by this at the time (for some reason). Then finally they came in with the tube. I looked very intently at every part of it, trying to find the "small" part. There was no small part. The whole thing was about a little wider than a ball point pen, and much much longer. I asked if they were going to numb me or anything, they said no.

Now, I have some sinus problems sometimes, so the passages aren't really that wide open. This is something I realized in its entirety when the nurse tried inserting it into my right nostril. It was one of the more excruciating sensations I've felt in a long time, and resulted in probably the longest nosebleed I've ever had. So since the right nostril wasn't happening, it was on to the left. Luckily (????) this side worked out "ok." She gave me a cup of water beforehand and told me that at some point during the insertion she would instruct me to begin gulping, to aid the tube's passage down my esophagus. So it was finally in there. It was interesting that I could still talk. The tube was scratching my throat a bit though, and naturally triggered my gag reflex a few times.

Anyway, the only blood they found was from what the tube did to both nostrils and had dragged down into my stomach with it. That much was a relief (although upon finding that out it seemed like this whole experience was kind of unnecessary). Luckily, pulling the tube out was much less painless. After all that, I was trying to stop the first nostril from bleeding for the next hour and some minutes.

However, I must say that FINALLY, after 10 months of going through this pain, on my third trip to the hospital for it, they finally did tests on me to actually identify the problem. This was Holy Cross Hospital in Wheaton, MD, probably the best hospital staff I've ever dealt with, because they were all polite and seemed like they actually cared about helping the patients. I don't know how the other 2 "hospitals" even still exist, those being Doctor's Community Hospital in Greenbelt, MD (completely rude and inconsiderate pricks) and Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge, VA (just incompetant, telling me it's reflux, without testing me for anything). It was worth the extra distance, even through morning I-495 rush hour traffic, to go Holy Cross Hospital.

In preparation for mastering and pressing my cd "While Rome Burns," I pulled out a loan with enough extra to pay off some debts and to shop for some new gear.

So...........I shopped around for the best prices, and I have bought:



An Eventide Eclipse Harmonizer/Effects Processor



A Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Foot Controller



A Korg DTR1000 Rack Mount Chromatic Guitar/Bass Tuner

...and a new rack case because mine doesn't have covers anymore. I already received the FCB1010 MIDI Foot Controller today, and I ordered it last night. That is why I like shopping for new gear at ZZOUNDS.COM. They always ship anything that is UPS Ground for free, and like the corporate giant Musician's Friend (aka Guitar Center), they also will beat anyone's price, with certain contractual restrictions (but Musician's Friend doesn't ship everything free).

Now I am trying to track down a good tube power amp. I have a solid state 100w power amp right now, and that's just not gonna do. A friend of mine suggested finding a Peavey Classic 60/60, but I have not yet had the luck to find one. They're not a new unit so I will probably have to find a used one, and my second favorite gear supplier, EBAY [ :D ] doesn't have any up for auction at the moment.

So if anyone has any suggestions for power amps or any other tips or hints or whatever let me know. I need something that can be loud.

Current Mood: YAY!!!! WooHoo!!! Gear!

I was inspired by idragosani to start making my own cordial, after laurieannhaus and I received his gift of his own home-made Strawberry Spice cordial (which is GREAT!).

So I am going to make a Kiwi cordial, so that I can have it on my birthday, which is at the end of June. I also bought a lot of cherries to make a second cordial, but after peeling all those kiwi's, I am just not in the mood to get involved with the cherries yet. Maybe later tonight, or more likely, tomorrow evening.

Hopefully, both of these turn out ok. I'll know in 6 months.

Current Mood: excited

Well, finally, after a long wait, the newly designed Ol Sonuf Website is online, designed by Svartr. I am very pleased with the job he did, and he has been extremely helpful and communicative with me about all my quadrillion questions about this site.

I hope you enjoy the new site!
Hail Svartr!

I saw the movie Alexander last night....

I have to say I am rather disappointed. I think that this subject could've yielded a damn good movie, but I don't think this was executed even close to that potential. More than anything, what ruined it for me was the extreme abundance of heart-to-heart moments between Alexander and every lover (in both genders) that he had throughout the movie. Also, Angelina Jolie's purpose in the movie seemed to be solely for eye candy, as she spoke with this "accent" which only consisted of English with rolled R's, and her character was just a lame attempt to portray a fiesty temptress. She looked good though, I'll give her that.

As laurieannhaus pointed out, this film's pre-battle-pep-talk scenes, like those of many others, shamelessly rips off Gladiator, but they do not acheive the quality level of Russell Crowe's performance.

I don't feel that this movie even half-lived up to the level of Troy, and it certainly did not live up to the level of Gladiator.

BUMMER.

Current Mood: disappointed

I made and sent one of these to my mom for her birthday:


http://www.cafepress.com/olsonuf.14100584

Also, I have one of my own, which is in response to frivolous lawsuits such as the famous Stella vs. McDonald's, and any other lawsuit where an someone is able to sue a large corporation for their own stupidity:


http://www.cafepress.com/olsonuf.10751230

I love making this kind of stuff.

In fact, I just created this stein:


http://www.cafepress.com/olsonuf.14310577

What the FUCK is wrong w/ this guy?
(can you believe what he is WEARING?!?!?)
j/k

Someone told me about this picture
in my email today, so I downloaded it
and put in on my site to link it,
just in case it disappears from its
original location.

I was just listening to a few songs from Beyond Twilight's cd "The Devils Hall of Fame" and had to stop and just say :-O wow!!!! that guy's voice is simply amazing.