Keep in mind that this man is not a jaded 'netizen who's seen it all.

Here's evidence to support the opinion that Ray Stevens has retired from songwriting.

One Minute Vacations


Below I've placed a link to a page offering an archive of minute-long environmental recordings, called "one minute vacations." It's part of a web site oxymoronically, but all the more appealingly, called Quiet American. Avail yourself of dozens of stereophonic "you are there" recordings of sonically distinctive locations on this planet. This site really has taken me away from my everyday reality more than once, and sometimes that's the most desirable thing of all.

LINK: One Minute Vacations (The site administrator emphatically suggests listening on headphones to the recordings posted there.) The entire enterprise appears to be the vital expression of a soul awestruck and intoxicated with the beauty of sound, one to whom I am increasingly grateful for this offering of love.

One Minute Vacations


Below I've placed a link to a page offering an archive of minute-long environmental recordings, called "one minute vacations." It's part of a web site oxymoronically, but all the more appealingly, called Quiet American. Avail yourself of dozens of stereophonic "you are there" recordings of sonically distinctive locations on this planet. This site really has taken me away from my everyday reality more than once, and sometimes that's the most desirable thing of all.

LINK: One Minute Vacations (The site administrator emphatically suggests listening on headphones to the recordings posted there.) The entire enterprise appears to be the vital expression of a soul awestruck and intoxicated with the beauty of sound, one to whom I am increasingly grateful for this offering of love.

The motion picture that changed before my eyes

DIALOGUE IMAGINED DURING "THE DAY AFTER"

JOBETH WILLIAMS: "That's the first time you've closed your eyes in three days."
JASON ROBARDS: "I just wait until you're not looking."
JW: "You're terrible."
JR: "You sound just like my wife."
JW: "The guy who writes her dialogue wrote mine. What's worse, he thinks you're him."

Lowest valued stock ever to split

After soul searching I have determined that my web log UKEBOX could stand to be a little more specifically about the 'ukulele, my favorite instrument to play, and my other musical interests. I'm happy to start this new log, Reprehensible Tales, as a place where I might freely explore other topics. In so doing I can allow UKEBOX to more specifically serve 'ukulele enthusiasts and other music lovers. In the next few weeks I'll be moving past postings from UKEBOX over here if they seem unlikely to interest 'ukulele fans.

The music I play on 'ukulele has frequently had a similar effect of sending 'ukulele fans away in confusion, wondering why it didn't float their boat (or formulating reasons). I wonder how many people who would have liked the music never got as far as listening because the word 'ukulele put them off. One great man, who shall not herein be named, regularly considers unfamiliar music for distribution on his much admired and culturally venerable record label. I offered him a copy of current rough mixes of my hard-to-finish solo instrumental CD, but he declined to take it. "I don't care for the sound of the instrument." I don't blame him for expecting an album of too-clever song parodies sung weedily over brontosaurian plunking, or expecting a folio of undistinguished original compositions played blindingly in a shredding paradiddle like the crazy drumsticks-on-the-bass-fiddle antics of Big Noise From Winnetka. What if it was just music, great tunes, played with just a little finesse, and no baloney? Maybe he'll listren to it once I get it out.

Steven Strauss - Speevey (From upcoming CD "UKEBOX")

I don't (much) want to toot my own horn, but I was among the people last year who suggested that Animal Planet might want to do a half-time show with kittens. Imagine my delight this morning when I found these clips advertising tomorrow's Puppy Bowl II program. Like a yule log show with a lot more action, and a lot more to make you go "awwww."

You know you want to watch this.

The motion picture that changed my life:
Fast, Cheap, And Out Of Control.

I was looking for a good interview with Errol Morris to link to in my web log, because Errol Morris has made so many non-fiction films that blow my mind with each viewing. No movie has blown my mind more than Morris's late nineties masterpiece, "Fast, Cheap, And Out Of Control," and a widely misunderstood masterpiece it is. Seeing this movie in a small, uncrowded San Francisco theater, toward the very end of its theatrical release, gave me a wholly unfamiliar experience, that of feeling drawn back away from civilization far enough to see it entire, and to reacquaint myself with my tiny place in it, and to love my tiny, hardly significant life without illusion. For any natural born narcissist, this is needed perspective. "Fast, Cheap, And Out Of Control" is like a tender, melodious, premature elegy for humanity itself. The deep resonance of this theme was reflected down a virtual hall of mirrors, as the exacting, eccentric, uncelebrated missions of the four utterly unique and obsessive subjects found an echo in the undercelebrated status of Morris's work in general, and of this film in particular, his central exploration of meaning and purpose in life.

According to Netflix you can put it in your queue. From their blurb you'd expect an interview movie about people with strange jobs. Yeah, let's get THAT one... If you do see the picture, you're likely to conclude that life itself has been similarly misapprehended by most of its participants. Starting with yourself. Here's about as good a review of the film as I've run across.


"Truth is not guaranteed by style or presentation. It's not handed over on a tray like a Happy Meal. It's a quest. It often is as interesting to chronicle people's persistent avoidance of the truth as their pursuit of it. But in any event, whatever truth is, it is a linguistic thing. It's not a visual thing. To talk about a photograph being true or false is utterly meaningless. Words give you a picture of the world and visuals take you into the mystery of what is out there and whether language has captured it or not." -Filmmaker Errol Morris, Interviewed by Nubar Alexanian (October, 2002)

I found that great interview with Errol Morris at transom dot org, a remarkable web site devoted to helping people write better non-fiction radio. An hour later I did not want to stop exploring every available page of transom dot org. There are interviews with people who know what they're doing in this arena, and you may recognize a name or two. A written essay by Nancy Updike, on the subject of writing an effective opening for a radio story, was followed by a bulletin board Q&A to which Updike returned numerous times. Her followup was every bit as interesting as her essay. You could spend your bleary minutes at the screen a lot less rewardingly. I know *I* have.