Graham Glass, etc.

Faith in Humanity

Sometimes I lose a little faith in humanity.
But then I see things like this space ballet and it is restored.

Home Recording: September Rain

Here's part 3 of my home recording series; part 2 is here.

I wrote this song when I was in a bit of a funk, so it starts off downbeat but ends on a happy note. I picked the month of September because that's when I was born. A vocoder was used for the electronic voice effect. The thunder was recorded from my apartment in Dallas during a particularly large storm.

My favorite line in the song is the last, which says "remember and forget". In other words, don't dwell on the past.

Click on the following link to play the song:
Download SeptemberRain.mp3

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September Rain
copyright 1990, Graham Glass

Remember.
Remember.
Remember.
Remembering the rain...

I remember walking in the rain,
On a cold and dark September.
Brown autumn leaves were falling softly to the ground,
(Fall to the ground)
Just like the dreams of a life as they slip away.

How many people do you know,
Who spend their lives just walking under storm clouds?
In September rain, oh in that September rain.

I remember standing in the rain,
On a cold and dark September.
Dancing shadows all around me filled my mind,
(They fill my mind)
I felt the fear take control of my destiny.

How many feelings do you hide,
And spend your life just walking under storm clouds?
In September rain, oh in that September rain.

Thunder and lightning,
Fill the sky and make it seem
There's nothing worth fighting for.
The answer is in your hands,
Love yourself again,
(Yourself again)
Say goodbye to the rain.

Remember love in the rain.
Goodbye.
Remember the rain...

I remember crying in the rain,
On a cold and dark September.
And as my teardrops hit the ground I lost the pain.
(I lost the pain)
Tears of joy, love of life, filled my heart again.

The storm clouds passed me by.
I opened up my eyes and saw a rainbow.
In September rain, oh in that September rain.

Thunder and lightning,
Fill the sky and make it seem
There's nothing worth fighting for.
The answer is in your hands,
Love yourself again,
(Yourself again)
Say goodbye to the rain.

Remember love in the rain.
Goodbye.
Remember the rain...

I remember dying in the rain,
And being born in summer.

Remember.
Remember.
Remember and forget...

Home Recording: Floating in Blue

Here's part 2 of my home recording series; part 1 is here.

I composed it just after my grandparents died. I was wondering what it would be like to be on my deathbed, with life gradually slipping away. It's a poignant song, with a tinge of regret.

Click on the following link to play the song:
Download FloatingInBlue.mp3

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Floating in Blue
copyright 1990, Graham Glass

Looking through the past at the life I led,
It makes me sad.
And now I'm very old,
I cannot change the time I had.
(I threw it all away)
My only life.
(The chance I had has gone forever)

Living in the twilight years of my fading mind,
(The clock stops)
Search through the dark for memories,
They're hard to find.
(Thinking of what might have been)
It's over now.
(I'd rather live in my fantasy)

Wish I was floating in blue across the sky,
My imagination is strong,
And I often visit the days,
When everything seemed so clear.
Now I wonder what I'm doing here at all.

Lying in my bed as they feed me, clothe me, hold my hand.
I wonder what the future holds for me in the other land?
(Where am I going to?)
I can't recall my name.
(I don't remember who I am)

Wish I was floating in blue across the sky,
My imagination is strong,
And I often visit the days,
When everything seemed so clear.
Now I wonder what I'm doing here at all.

One day I'll leave this place for somewhere better.
(We're talking 'bout a heaven)
One day I'll fly and carry on without the pain.
(And I'll soar)
I'll be free from this life.
Oh yes believe me, I will fly.
I will fly, fly away to the sky.
(I'm floating in the blue)

Gathered all around are the younger people I'll leave behind.
I hope that you awake before you go to sleep forever.
(Where are you going to?)
I'm dying here.
(I feel my life just fade away).

And now I'm floating in blue across the sky,
No imagination, I use my eyes,
When I visit the places,
Everything seems so clear.
And I wonder what you're doing there at all.

And yes, I'm floating in blue across the sky,
No imagination, I use my eyes,
When I visit the places,
Everything seems so clear.
And I wonder what you're doing there at all.

Stealth: Review

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was looking forward to seeing the movie Stealth, and saw it this evening. The reviews were awful, so I wasn't expecting much. But I have to say, I thought it was a great movie and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then again, I'm a guy and this is definitely a "guy" movie.

The trailers only give you a glimpse of the plot, which is about a super-duper artificially intelligent fighter plane that goes haywire after being hit by lightning. The movie is beefed up with a love story, an unexpected death, a twist to the AI angle, and several other subplots

The aerial combat scenes are great, and the futuristic aircraft are drool-worthy. The movie ends with what is one of the most romantic lines I've heard in a long time ;-)

See it, you won't be disappointed.

Night Owl

I have been a night owl for many years, but tonight I officially broke my record for night owl-ish-ness! I intended to digitize just one of my songs, but ended up digitizing about twenty. Needless to say, this took quite a long time, so now I'm going to bed at 8:45 am. Thank goodness I don't have a regular job to go to.

Home Recording: Song of Solomon

I've always enjoyed music, and started learning the piano when I was 6 years old. However, around the age of 14 I started to prefer making up my own music to learning other people's stuff, and got bitten by the home recording bug.

A few days ago, I stumbled across a collection of recordings that I made a while ago, and thought it would be fun to pop them up on my blog for those who want to listen to them.

The music was recorded on fairly old equipment; a tape-based 4-track studio, a Roland D7 synthesizer, a drum machine, and a Shure microphone. I had to bounce the tracks in order to fit the 7 tracks of actual music into just 4 tracks of tape, hence the degradation.

I now have much better music equipment, and hope to start composing and recording some new stuff over the next few months.

The first song in this series is called "Song of Solomon". It's a love song based on the biblical story, an analysis of which appears here. The "veil" in the lyrics below refers to a wedding veil.

Originally, the instrumental solo was performed on electric guitar, but it proved so hard to play that I replaced it with a synthesizer version. And incidentally, no sequencers were used; all the keyboard parts were played "real time".

Click on the following link to play the song:
Download SongOfSolomon.mp3

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Song of Solomon
copyright 1987, Graham Glass

How beautiful you are my love,
Your lips are scarlet threads that hide behind the veil,
My heart beats faster from the single glance you give.

To you I give my soul,
With you I share the spirit of our dreams.

Ooooh, Armena.

How beautiful you are my love I'll never tell,
Your eyes are gentle doves that flutter behind the veil,
My heart beats faster from the fragrance that you wear.

To you I give my soul,
With you I share the spirit,
For you and only you,
Can turn this world of mine into a heaven.

Ooooh, Armena.

We stand together,
One life forever.

[instrumental]

How beautiful it is, this dance beneath the veil,
We have no secrets now, our life shall be as one,
My heart beats faster now from this union of our love.

To you I give my soul,
With you I share the spirit,
For you and only you,
Turn this world into a heaven,
To you I give my soul,
To you I give my soul.

Changing Room Voyeurism

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to see someone dance around in their underwear while changing into some new clothes from the Gap, then click here.

I'm not really sure what the point of this ad is; maybe it's in the same vein as the Wendy's Subservient Chicken campaign? It's fun, but doesn't really convey much about Gap products.

Tablet PC Screen Protector

I received my Fujitsu Tablet PC today, and so far it's been enjoyable to use. I will blog more about my experiences after I've had some time to get to know it better. In the meantime, let me at least share one useful fact just in case you get a tablet of your own.

A tablet screen is more prone to getting scratched than a regular laptop screen because you write on it with a stylus. The product included a couple of screen protectors, so I peeled the adhesive backing off one and stuck it over the display. The trouble at this point is that the protector was a pale blue, making the contents of the screen quite hard to read. I could not understand why the protector was not clear, but figured that maybe it helped the display to be read in daylight. I was tempted to just remove it, but decided to leave it on because a tablet display is not cheap.

Later on the same day, I searched the Internet to see if I could purchase a clear screen protector instead of a blue one, and stumbled across this site. Apparently, what the computer instructions failed to point out is the screen protector itself has a secondary blue covering which should be peeled off once the protector is stuck to the display. Now that I've peeled off the blue layer, everything looks great.

Someone at Fujistu really needs to clarify this in the user manual!

Learning Russian, Part 2

I've been learning Russian using the RosettaStone product for about 4 days now, and am happy to report reasonable progress.

The product uses a straightforward and intuitive technique to teach a language. Each lesson is broken into about 10 sections, and each section teaches you a small number of new phrases. By default, each section displays four pictures. When the section starts, it says a phrase in Russian and displays its cyrillic spelling. Phrases are initially just one word, and get progressively longer with each section. When you hear a phrase, you click on the picture it's associated with. If you pick the right picture, you see a green tick mark, otherwise you see a red cross. This process repeats until you have correctly associated all four phrases with their associated picture. When the section is complete, you have the option of going to the next section or repeating the current section.

Sections get progressively harder. For example, the first section mostly associates a single word with a single picture. The second section starts stringing words together, such as the russian for "red car" and "black cat". Sometimes new words are introduced before they have been associated with a simple picture; in these cases, you can usually deduce the correct picture based on the other words in the phrase.

For example, let's say you know the russian for "cat" but not the russian for "black". Assume also that each of the pictures shows an animal of a different color. If only one of the four pictures contains a cat and you hear the russian for "black cat", you can pick the correct picture as well as deduce that the first word in the phrase must be russian for "black".

This approach makes it a fun game, because you're always trying to figure out what each phrase means based on the theme of the pictures combined with your existing vocabulary. Many parents naturally teach kids this way, pointing at an object or performing an action and then saying its name.

I spend about an hour every evening learning a new section and half an hour every morning recapping the previous night's section. I find that even though I don't recall the words very well before I go to sleep, I can remember them fairly well the next morning.

So far, I've learnt about 50 words in 4 days, which is a little over 10 words a day. According to this article, a child learns about 1000 words per year, and an adult knows about 20,000 words. The good news is that a vocabulary of just 1000 words covers around 70% of most written or spoken text, which is good enough for many situations. This means that if I sustain my current pace of 10 words a day, I will gain a usable vocabulary in about 3 months, and if my pace slows to 5 words a day, it would still take less than a year.

I will keep this blog updated with my progress. I'm particularly interested to see how RosettaStone teaches complex phrases, tenses, and verb variations.

Part 1.

Upcoming Changes to my Blogging

In my last job I had to be careful not to blog about topics that might affect business, such as religion, dating, sex, and politics.

For example, I spent a couple of hours writing an entry about stem cell research, only to discard it because some employees or customers might be offended by my beliefs and conclusions.

Now that I'm working on a new startup, I've decided to be a bit more liberal in my blogging and will start writing about topics that I previously avoided. I'm looking forward to it!