Navigation:
aka: I do I get around
this crazy place?!

About me:
Bill Batty, Jr.

29 years old.


Father of
Julia Valentine
,
husband of  Susan

Musician.

One who writes the occasional poem, though not a poet.

Reading:
Now:
?????

Just Finished:
The Maltese Falcon
Dashell Hammett

Listening:
Now:
Tea for the Tillerman

Cat Stevens

MOFI Japanese Vinyl

Just Finished:
Altered Beast

Matthew Sweet
150 Gm Vinyl

Watching:
Now:
Enemy at the Gates
DVD (Rented)
Dolby Digital


Just Finished:
Se7en
Platinum Series
Dolby Digital

Places I go...

sometimes!

Random Abstract

The Wop!

eBay, eBill

No punches pulled here...

You'll be scorned!

The Quiet Storm

The Bagman

Textism

Biz Stone, Genius

A Grave is Full of Deadman's Bones,
or TRAA Archive
 

Link to me!
Steal this button!

1/31/2001

Well, after the staff meeting today, I worked on formating a compter. Art gave me some help, as I'm no computer guru. After the hard drive had 98se on it, I downloaded sound card and video drivers off the net, installed them, went home to a corned beef and swiss on rye, and spent a feverish 10 minutes trying to find Cookin' by Miles Davis. I found it, but then it was too late for me to get a listen. This afternoon, we're re-arranging the office, and my desk is totally disabled. So I took a customers computer upstairs to do some work. The only problem--no phone line upstairs for the modem. So I after I clean out of here, Mrs. Rhythm and I head down to Portland for the "B.B.King concert. We'll get supper too--as long as it's less than $6.00. (That's all we have for cash. We ended up a little short this week.)
posted by Billy Rhythm Wednesday, January 31, 2001

1/30/2001

Almost forgot... B.B. King tomorow night. Mrs. Rhythm is going with me. She likes B.B. too. I may burn a CD from Napster. It's ok, I own his greatest hits on tape, but I don't have a tape player in the car.
posted by Billy Rhythm Tuesday, January 30, 2001

Played some more drums this evening. I'm actually rather tired, but I have to check the 8:30 voicemail for work. After that, I'm off to bed.

At least blogger let me in tonight. Last night it wouldn't. But, I guess I can't complain too much about a free service. As you can see, I've hacked the page some more. I'm just trying to get to the point where I'm really happy with it, and then I'll leave it alone. Until I get to that point...
posted by Billy Rhythm Tuesday, January 30, 2001

So, I used to be a partner in the team blog over at The Quiet Storm. I just gave them my resignation. You see, I've got two friends, Moe and Dake. Dake doesn't hide the fact he thinks Moe's girlfriend, Rosalita, is a hottie. He doesn't hide it in front of Moe and Rosalita. (Dake actually described it this way: Over at the mall we tried to convince Rosalita to try on some sexy stuff for us. Ok maybe I tried a bit harder than Moe. Then I get into the car and look in my rear view and she has her shirt off! She is changing her clothes in the back seat of the bimmer. I knew I shouldn't have delayed the install of that back seat cam one week! I would have given a weeks salary for a wide angle rear view mirror.)
So I wrote this little blurb about how strange I thought that was, and a little more (jokingly) about Dake's voracity with the ladies. This has hurt Dake's feelings.

How do other team blogs do it? I used to post on the TU Boy's Page over at Totally-Useless. The same thing happened: somebody posted something (again, jokingly) that offended someone else, and the walls came crumbling down. How do other blogs survive? I'm not sure, but I won't be posting at The Storm anymore. I don't post at TU Boys anymore. (Well, those pages are gone, so no one posts there.) Instead, I'll turn my attention over here to TRAA. I can post what I like, and don't have to worry that others won't like what I say. Why won't I worry? 'Cause it's my space, written for me, really. If others like it, great, but I won't be selling ad space due to my hit counter going through the roof, if you know what I mean.

posted by Billy Rhythm Tuesday, January 30, 2001

1/27/2001

More hacking. A better look than yesterday.
posted by Billy Rhythm Saturday, January 27, 2001

1/26/2001

Well, I am hacking away on this page. Ron over at TU is my usual HTML guru, but he is out sick today. I think I'll but some border in, and work on the alignment, but at least I'm getting there.
posted by Billy Rhythm Friday, January 26, 2001

1/24/2001

So I did something yesterday I haven't done in a long time: practiced my drums. With all the gigs that I play (about every weekend), 6-8 hours of playing a week seems like enough. But that's a repetitive playing, the same 30 or so songs every week. Of course we play them differently every time, but basically, you don't really stretch out, fo fear of losing your place, or losing the band. But yesterday, I sat down with The Tamas and did some playing with Diana Krall. Let me tell you, the sound of myStarclassics is all over the sound of my Pacific E series kit. Now, I paid $339 for the Pacifics, and $1850 for the Tamas, so they should sound better. But they sound way better.

I also have an old NAD 7030 receiver. I was trying to sell it to Moe over at The Quiet Storm. One sold on eBay for $120. I was askin $100 from Moe. He took it home and tried it, and found the left speaker out on the "A" set of speakers was a little scratchy, but the "B" set worked fine. So, I told him I'd take $75, but he wouldn't bite. So now I get to rip her apart and see what there is to see, try and fix it, and ebay it. (Now I have made ebay a verb!)

Also, I've had another person respond to the "I Read Time Requires an Argument" poll.
posted by Billy Rhythm Wednesday, January 24, 2001

1/16/2001

The Nitty Gritty is here! Ron over at Totally-Useless says he hopes it doesn't use fuse lamps!

Also, one great reader has responded to the "Do you read Time Requires an Argument" poll.

Have you ever heard about the "Famous Alto Break." I've heard about it, but never heard it. The story goes, when Charlie Parker first recorded "A Night In Tunisia," he took such a hella break from the bridge to the solo section, he completely lost the band. They couldn't get back in, and the track lasted like 45 seconds. The next time around, they made Miles Davis stand in the corner, plug his ears, and count the band back in! Imagine blowing a polyrhythm so extreme that you make Miles losse his place! I want to hear this track. Somebody find it for me!
posted by Billy Rhythm Tuesday, January 16, 2001

1/12/2001

Well, I was right. With The Quiet Storm up and running, my posting here has really died out. That and the fact I don't think I have any readership. So, if you're enjoying this blog, let me know! I'll let you know how many responses I get.

I also have this auction running on eBay for a local music store. They wanted to get $300, plus my commission. Well, they're going to make some money on the deal. If you want in on a left handed Butterscotch Telecaster, get in fast!

I went to Boston to see the Tito Puente Orchestra on Sunday. I had tickets to see Tito twice, both times he was alive, both times cancelled. Now that he's dead, I finally get to see him. Or whatever. It was a good show, although I would have liked the timbalero to take at least one solo! No one in the percussion section (a timbalero, a congero, and bongo player) took a solo. A couple of breaks, but nothing more than a measure or two. While I was there, I did pick up some good vinyl, and I eagerly await my Nitty Gritty Record Cleaning machine.
posted by Billy Rhythm Friday, January 12, 2001

1/11/2001

Props go out to Totally Useless. He is the one that got me started in this whole thing, when I used to blog over on his space. Of course, Thompson and Spoffard soon petered out with their posting, leaving pretty much only me. And, the only thing we did, really, was rant about hifi. Now, Ron has got a home theater rig. In fact, out of all of us, he has the best tv (A Sony Wega), but he can only stand so much argument on the merits of the 4th order crossover.

Also, me and some of the other guys (Adam, Jim, and The Greay Wop Genova) bought a domain name: thequietstorm.org. Soon, we'll have a team blog going on over there as well.
posted by Billy Rhythm Thursday, January 11, 2001

Been doing some hardware stuff here at the office, with not much success. I tried some cheap scanner, and WIndows 2000 drivers aren't available. In fact, no drivers are available. So, since my work box is dual boot, I shut down, changed by boot sequence in the bios, fired up Windows 98, and dicovered the scanner is broken anyway!
Next, I try my hand at some cheap egg-shapped web cam that JP had kicking around. Guess what? No 2000 drivers. So, i ripped some drivers down from Crative Labs, even though it's not their cam. (I found some reference on the web to them using the same chip as the crappy "Vision" brand, which, I should have said, was the make of this cam.) Anyway, Adam has it now. You can check it out here.
And, to top it all off, I found a Nitty Gritty record cleaner at Audio Advisor on sale for $149.00. Yeah, I grabbed that in a hurry, let me tell you. (In fact, when i went back to get the link in the clearance section, about 10 miutes later, all references to it were gone. I guess they didn't have too many!)
posted by Billy Rhythm Thursday, January 11, 2001

So Jim was just telling me that he learned where the phrase "heebie jeebies" came from. I guess Satchmo had some song about it, and it caught it on. Incidently, Louie is one of those singers that always makes me smile. Something in his voice. I also like him (and other band leaders) because he yells directions at the band while he sings. "Blah blah blah, take the break here fellas, blah blah!" Also, I like the way he uses the word "chops" instead of mouth or lips. "Take chops, I'll never use them." (Line from "All of Me.")

Anyway, that got me thinking about the line "things that go bump in the night." Everyone uses it. Lots of Goth websites seem big on it. It came from an old poem. I looked for it, and here it is.

"From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!"

Actually and old Scottish prayer.
posted by Billy Rhythm Thursday, January 11, 2001

I'm showing my buddy Jim how this blog thing works. He want's a buch of us here in the office to buy a domain, and do a group thing. Maybe not such a bad idea.
posted by Billy Rhythm Thursday, January 11, 2001

1/10/2001

It seems to be working now. Anyway, thanks to Ron of tu for helping me get set up. I am sure this place will be lame, but perhaps I will stick with it. I certainly haven't with my other pages. (Bad. Very bad pages.)
posted by Billy Rhythm Wednesday, January 10, 2001

I'm still trying to make this thing work. Ron needed to add blogger into the allowed ftp hosts file. We'll see...
posted by Billy Rhythm Wednesday, January 10, 2001

This is my first post. Is it cool?
posted by Billy Rhythm Wednesday, January 10, 2001

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