stanislaw lem is dead at age 84.

before you start bitching about the movie solaris, you should know that lem was a genius, a rare talent, a witty, insightful science fiction writer who hated most other science fiction because he (rightfully) thought most all other science fiction was stupid. he liked philip k. dick, though.

my dad used to read me stories from the cyberiad when i was wee. it's one of my favorite childhood memories. :)

(psst. i'm redesigning my portfolio site. click on the links above for a preview.)

:)

//edit: i couldn't wait. the new site is live!! :D

so, while dave and i hit beej with sticks until he agrees to the name "tom nevers head" for our band, you guys can listen to some rough cuts. we still have to add percussion to the songs, and i'm hoping donny can make my singing sound less whiny and nasal, but technology has its limits.

the full rigged ship
the coasts of barbary
the leaving of liverpool
the pirate's serenade

a few caveats: dave's intentionally picking songs that are just out of my range to make me sound more "raw" or something. also, he sounds really, really drunk on leaving of liverpool, which is odd, because he was only a little drunk when we recorded that. also, we're still a little sloppy, but i think we sound pretty good for how long we've been practicing, which is... what, a month and a half, i think?

dave's making me memorize the irish rover to sing for friday at andrea and todd's party. that's a lot of words. it kinda hurts my head to think about.

anyone who's ever tampered with the idea of starting a band knows that the name is the worst part. how do you get all the band members to agree on a name?

my brother and his roommate and i have been playing music lately, practicing every week, and apparently this coming weekend we're recording a demo so that we can start booking shows. i play accordion, dave plays fiddle, and beej plays the guitar. we were born from the pirate prom, and most of the songs we've been playing are either sea shanties or old celtic jigs, plus a few songs that we've written ourselves that play into the whole seafaring atmosphere. here's a list of the names that have been proposed that have so far been shot down:

twa corbies (three crows, also the name of an old scottish song)
tom nevers head (a town in nantucket)
tignouzic (brezhoneg for petit-teigneux, basically means "nasty little piece of work")
war-vor-atao (brezhoneg for "always at sea")
yeun elez (the breton gates of hell)

there were some scottish names in there too, but i've already forgotten them. actually now that i'm looking at these, while i think "twa corbies" is a little pretentious and kinda weird, "the corbies" would be cute. i think i'll pitch it to the boys.

in the meantime, you guys have any ideas? what should we name our band?


//edit: um, we just got booked to play todd and andrea's st. patty's day party. we're gonna need a name fast.