Blackmoor Vituperative

The drinker’s version of “Let It Go”. I’d like to hear a mashup of this and “Let It Go”, actually. 🙂

Early every year, seeds are growing
Unseen, unheard, they lie beneath the ground
Would you know before the leaves are showing
That with weeds all your garden will abound?

If you close your eyes, stop your ears
Hold your mouth, how can you know?
The seeds you cannot see may not be there
The seeds you cannot hear may never grow

In January you’ve still got the choice
You can cut the weeds before they start to bud
If you leave them to grow higher, they’ll silence your voice
And in December you may pay with your blood

Close your eyes, stop your ears
Close your mouth and take it slow
Let others take the lead and you bring up the rear
And later you can say you didn’t know

Everyday another vulture takes flight
There’s another danger born every morning
In the darkness of your blindness the beast will learn to bite
How can you fight if you can’t recognize a warning?

Close your eyes, stop your ears
Close your mouth and then you know
Let others take the lead and you bring up the rear
And later you can say you didn’t know

Today you may earn a living wage
Tomorrow you may be on the dole
Though there’s millions going hungry, you needn’t disengage
For it’s them, not you, that’s fallen in the hole

It’s alright for you if you run with the pack
It’s alright if you agree with all they do
If the fascist’s party slowly climbing back
It’s not here yet, so what’s it got to do with you?

The weeds are all around us and they’re growing
It will soon be too late for the knife
If you leave them on the wind that around the world is blowing
You may pay for your silence with your life

Close your eyes, stop your ears
Close your mouth, they’re never there
And if it happens here, they’ll never come for you
Because they’ll know you really didn’t care

— Solas, “Song Of Choice” (1998)

Here is how I play music (MP3 files) into a Google Hangout.

Hardware

• Windows 10 desktop
• Wireless headset with over-the-ear type headphones

Software

• Google Chrome
• Virtual Audio Cable
• VLC Media Player

Setup

1. Install Virtual Audio Cable. Don’t mess with the settings. Just install it.
2. Run “Audio repeater (MME)”, which was installed by Virtual Audio Cable.
   1. Set “Wave in” to your headset microphone.
   2. Set “Wave out” to Line 1 (Virtual Audio cable).
   3. Set “Total buffer (ms)” to 100.
   4. Click “Start”.
3. In the task icon area of the taskbar, right-click the speaker, and select “Recording Devices”.
   1. Right-click the headset microphone, and select “Set as Default Device”.
   2. Double-click Line 1. On the Listen tab, select “Listen to this device”.
   3. Also on the Listen tab, set “Playback through this device” to the headset.
4. Run Chrome.
5. In Chrome, go to Google Hangouts, and click “Video Call”.
6. When the Hangouts window opens, click the gear icon in the upper right corner. On the General tab…
   1. Select the webcam for the “Video”.
   2. Select Line 1 for the “Microphone”.
   3. Select the headset for the “Speakers”.
7. Open VLC Media Player.
   1. Add songs to the playlist.
   2. In the Audio menu, select Audio >> Audio Device >> Line 1 (Virtual Audio Cable).
8. Invite people to join the hangout.
9. Play songs in VLC. Other people in the Hangout will hear them. To avoid drowning myself out, I set the VLC output level to about 90%.

Recording

Here are the settings I used to record in Flashback Express.

1. In the Tools >> Options menu, look in the Sound section.
2. Under Sound Source, select “PC Speakers (what you hear)”.
3. In the drop-down under “PC Speakers (what you hear)”, select the headset.
4. Now, when recording in Flashback Express, check “Record Sound”.
5. Still in Flashback Express, in the sound section, check “Record Sound”, and for the source select “Speakers (Logitech G930 Headset)”.

When done with the hangout

1. Close the Hangout window.
2. Click “Stop” in Audio Repeater, and close it.
3. In the Windows “Sound” dialog, select “Recording Devices”.
   1. Double-click Line 1. On the Listen tab, un-select “Listen to this device”.
   2. Click “Okay”.
4. Close VLC Media Player.

How many of you remember with fondness the 1973 “Dr. Phibes’ Abominable Christmas Special”?

“Twelve signs of the zodiac. Twelve apostles. Twelve times, twelve! The human body has twelve cranial nerves, Doctor. … I will now play the Twelve Days Of Christmas. Ho. Ho. Ho.”
(from “Dr. Phibes’ Abominable Christmas Special”, 1973)

Dr. Phibes’ Abominable Christmas Special was a Christmas-themed television special starring Vincent Price broadcast December 23, 1973 on ABC. It featured guest star Joseph Cotten in a reprisal of his role as Dr. Vesalius from The Abominable Dr. Phibes. Also guest starring were Virginia North as Vulnavia, Billie Hayes as Witchiepoo from “H.R. Pufnstuf”, Tim Conway, Roz Kelly, Florence Henderson, rock band Pink Floyd, Billy Barty, Betty White and, in an unbilled surprise appearance, Sonny and Cher (whose own Christmas episode of the hit show “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” had been broadcast on CBS four days earlier, on December 19, 1973).

This evening’s Cult Movie Night was Phantom of the Paradise and Suck.

Phantom of the Paradise is unusual among our Cult Movie Night offerings in that I had never seen it before this evening. It was… interesting. I’m glad we saw it, but it’s not the sort of movie I will go out of my way to see again. Or maybe I will. Who knows.

Suck, on the other hand, is simply brilliant. From the numerous cameos and supporting parts played by rock icons like Henry Rollins, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, and Alex Lifeson, to the surprisingly good music, to the various homages to classic rock album covers, to the hilarious subversion of — and yet total respect for — the vampire movie genre, there is so much about this movie that we love. It’s just 96 minutes of pure awesome. If you haven’t seen this yet, you need to see it. You need to buy it. And you need to see it again.

I love this Todd Rundgren song. It reminds me a bit of early Rick Springfield.

What do you mean, who is Rick Springfield? He played a vampire in the movie Nick Knight, which was later retooled as the series Forever Knight, with Geraint Wyn Davies playing the vampire detective, but Rich Springfield played the part first. He was also on a soap opera, the name of which escapes me, and yes, he was also a pop star for a while.

P.S. Here’s another great Todd Rundgren song.

I have been suffering through various TV talent show contests such as The Voice and The X Factor and so on. Here is a list of things that I would be happy to never see or hear again:

• Excessive head-swinging and upper body swaying (almost always female singers)
• Waving hands around: punching the sky, making wave motions, reaching out, and so on — especially the wave motions
• Hunching up shoulders and holding elbows in close to the body (almost always male singers)
• Repeating “uh-huh, yeah” between each verse (almost always male singers)
• Warbling vibrato-ee-ooo-eee-ooo-eee-ooo
• Bizarre spasms of the head and/or lower jaw while holding notes (often accompanied with warbling vibrato-ee-ooo-ee-ooo-ee-ooo)
• Weird twitchy arm movements like the singer is going through drug withdrawal (often accompanied by hunching up shoulders and holding elbows in close to the body)

If you do any of these things, please do the world a favor and stay away from cameras and microphones.

Here are some Christmas songs from the Monarch and his merry band.

And from 2004, here is a Very Venture Christmas, a special presentation from Astrobase Go!.

The.Venture.Brothers.S01Exx.A.Very.Venture.Christmas from Hepatitis Q on Vimeo.

Went to the dentist today and found out two interesting things. First, my left lower wisdom tooth is chipped. I have a rather less pleasant dentist visit scheduled for next week.

Second, I learned that one’s fillings can act as anodes and electrodes, and generate an electric current using one’s saliva as the electrolyte. The hygienist poked my gums up near one of my back teeth, using her pointy tool of dental stabbityness, and it shocked me. Then she did it again! The dentist explained that what I was experiencing was an unusual but not unknown phenomenon caused by the difference in electrical potential between the stainless steel dental pick and my silver filling.

Science!

“Well, once again, my friend, we find that science is a two-headed beast. One head is nice, it gives us aspirin and other modern conveniences… But the other head of science is bad. Oh, beware the other head of science, Arthur! It bites!”
— The Tick

Today’s “My favourite song” is “Ich Bin Ein Auslander” by Pop Will Eat Itself.

(Warning: both the video itself and the embedded graphic below are NSFW. It’s subtle, but it’s there. So … there you go.)

Nothing too serious to write about today. Bad people are still bad. Good people are still good. I still think the good outnumber the bad, and I hope it stays that way. I love Susan and my kitten.

Today’s “My favourite song” is Golden Earring’s “The Twilight Zone”. Fun fact: “Twilight Zone” was written by Golden Earring’s lead guitarist George Kooymans. He was inspired not by the famous TV series of the same name, but by the Robert Ludlum novel “The Bourne Identity”.

Golden Earring – Twilight Zone (X) by popefucker