Flickr: moesewco
Other: www.moesewco.etsy.com
Don't worry, Dear Reader!
It's true that we haven't posted for a few days. That's because we are in Minnesota again, and posting is a little difficult. We pledge, though, to post more this week than we did last last time.
This is just to say that we haven't stopped posting. We're just on vacation (again).
(Adam)
I "met" Geoff Davis through a friend of a friend, and I say "met" because I've never actually talked to the guy in person. This friend's friend found out that I do embroidery, and that I'm gaga over the ukulele, and she immediately put me in contact with him. Before I knew it, I was signed on to teach an embroidery class at the Blue Stone Folk School in Noblesville, Indiana.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining the idea behind Blue Stone Folk School. First off, I haven't been there yet, so it's tough to find much to say. Second, this article in Nuvo does a much better job than I ever could.
The funny part about this whole situation is that I actually had heard about Geoff several years ago when he was the teacher / leader of an elementary school ukulele orchestra called Key Strummers. Those kids gigged everywhere, and I had investigated them about five years ago when I was looking into some ukulele festivals on the Web.
As I later found out, Geoff teaches both playing and building ukes, and about two years ago I had seriously considered contacting him and taking a building class. The worlds of embroidery and ukulele move in strange and mysterious ways, my friends. Strange and mysterious ways...
Anyway, consider this post advanced notice that I'll be teaching a class at the Blue Stone Folk School this fall. Check out the school's Web site here, and join the mailing list. And tell Geoff that I sent you, even though he might not realize who you're talking about until we actually meet. (ADAM)
I had some computer problems this week, but it seems that everything is OK now. I guess my machine was suffering from the same problem as my closet and my mind. It was very, very dirty.
Reader: What's your point?
So glad you asked, Reader. It's late, and I don't really feel like doing a full post.
Instead, here's a picture of me doing something stupid. (ADAM)
I suppose it was inevitable, considering how so many Internet users grew up with Nintendo-related thumb cramps, but there is a trend among Web musicians. Apparently, you aren't worth a small stack of pennies as a YouTube performer unless you film yourself playing the Super Mario Brothers theme song. In a way, Mario music seems to have become an internet performance right of passage, and the videos just keep on coming.
It has gotten to the point where it isn't enough to simply play the song. Everyone has seen it performed on piano, guitar, ukulele, and other fairly conventional instruments. People have even tired of the recent full orchestral score for the game. The new trend is to play it using objects that most people wouldn't even consider as musical instruments.
Consider the following three examples.
First, as a tribute to dorks, nerds, and geeks everywhere, I present the musical Tesla coils of Bob Ward and Jeff Larson. In 2007, these guys built a Tesla contraption that essentially uses giant bolts of static electricity to play the song. How? I have no idea. But the fact that they were able to do it proves once and for all that there is nothing people can't do if they put their minds to it and become so obsessed with it that most everyone around them starts to question their sanity.
Next, let's look in on Gerry (Jerry) Phillips, otherwise known as
the Manualist. Not only can this guy make his hands sound like a duck, but he can make them sound like a duck with a regular gig at the Chicago Opera. Frankly, if he could add some tremolo and a bit more dynamic range to his performance, he could play first chair in any woodwind section I've ever seen. Give him a minute to get going, look deep into his eyes, and let the magic of Mario wash over you. This dude can turn your bad feeling into good feelings, no lie.
Finally, proof that you can make just about anything as long as you avoid the distractions of life. Nothing could get in the way of the dream these guys shared, especially girlfriends. Somehow, using glass bottles and a remote controlled car, these guys manage to play the Mario theme. Imagine what they put into this feat of musical engineering. They had to tune the bottles, space them perfectly, learn to drive the toy in a straight line... I can't get my mind around the time they spent setting this up. And that doesn't even take into account all of the drinking and bottle storage.
I wonder if PONG had a theme song... (ADAM)
I'm not sure how if that's the right way of saying it. I'm really good at mixing my metaphors. I wish I could say that it was intentional, unfortunately, it is not. But if I pretend real hard that it is, then maybe it's a little cute part of my personality! (wink!)
So, I've got a burr in my belly. Watch out! Shit goes down when this sort of thing happens.
I'm worried as all get out about Grand Marais and other rural communities in this growing economic crisis. I remember the 80s. It wasn't good.
I believe that I've written before about teaching an Intro to Etsy class. I've got a date booked, so now I really have to do it. July 3, 7-9 , Cook County Community Center, Grand Marais MN.
I really feel like the economics of the small could really help my favorite little town, and other little towns out there. I keep thinking about this quote in an article I read in the Storque by Seth Godin:
Big used to matter. Big meant economies of scale. (You never hear about “economies of tiny,” do you?) People, usually guys, often ex-Marines, wanted to be CEO of a big company. The Fortune 500 is where people went to make… a fortune.
There was a good reason for this. Value
was added in ways that big organizations were good at. Value was added
with efficient manufacturing, widespread distribution and very large
R&D staffs. Value came from hundreds of operators standing by and
from nine-figure TV ad budgets. Value came from a huge sales force.
Of
course, it’s not just big organizations that added value. Big planes
were better than small ones, because they were faster and more
efficient. Big buildings were better than small ones because they
facilitated communications and used downtown land quite efficiently.
Bigger computers could handle more simultaneous users, as well.
Get Big Fast was the motto for startups, because big companies can go public and get more access to capital and use that capital to get even bigger. Big accounting firms were the place to go to get audited if you were a big company, because a big accounting firm could be trusted. Big law firms were the place to find the right lawyer, because big law firms were a one-stop shop.
Small Towns Are Not So Small by T. F. Rice Available on Etsy
And then small happened.
Enron
(big) got audited by Andersen (big) and failed (big.) The World Trade
Center was a target. TV advertising is collapsing so fast you can hear
it. American Airlines (big) is getting creamed by Jet Blue (think
small). BoingBoing (four people) has a readership growing a hundred
times faster than the New Yorker (hundreds of people).
Big
computers are silly. They use lots of power and are not nearly as
efficient as properly networked Dell boxes (at least that’s the way it
works at Yahoo and Google). Big boom boxes are replaced by tiny ipod
shuffles. (Yeah, I know big-screen tvs are the big thing. Can’t be
right all the time.)
I’m writing this on a laptop at a
skateboard park… that added wifi for parents. Because they wanted to.
It took them a few minutes and $50. No big meetings, corporate policies
or feasibility studies. They just did it.
Today, little
companies often make more money than big companies. Little churches
grow faster than worldwide ones. Little jets are way faster (door to
door) than big ones.
Today, Craigslist (18 employees) is the
fourth most visited site according to some measures. They are partly
owned by eBay (more than 4,000 employees) which hopes to stay in the
same league, traffic-wise. They’re certainly not growing nearly as
fast.
Small means the founder makes a far greater percentage
of the customer interactions. Small means the founder is close to the
decisions that matter and can make them, quickly.
Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs.
Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.
Small means that you can answer email from your customers.
Small
means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like
manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you
keep the power because you invent the remarkable and tell stories to
people who want to hear them.
A small law firm or accounting
firm or ad agency is succeeding because they’re good, not because
they’re big. So smart small companies are happy to hire them.
A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.
A
small venture fund doesn’t have to fund big bad ideas in order to get
capital doing work. They can make small investments in tiny companies
with good (big) ideas.
A small church has a minister with the time to visit you in the hospital when you’re sick.
Is it better to be the head of Craigslist or the head of UPS?
Small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big.
Don’t wait. Get small. Think big.
My gut tells me that he's right. That small is better. Wouldn't that principle also extend to geography? Couldn't we make it "better" for small towns too?
I keep thinking that these principles can be combined with the ideas from Muhammed Yunus' Banker to the Poor. So now I'm on yet another quest. I want to convince someone in Grand Marais to start a microlending program. Small loans can make a big difference.
I don't know what I'm doing. I just know that I've always lived by the principle that if I should try to do something about the problems I see. I try every day to change the world a tiny bit through piano teaching.
Now I'm going to try to change a little bit of the world a little bit more. Wish me luck. I feel like I've got my work cut out for me. (Emily)
Em and I have been doing this blog for a while now, and one of our favorite parts about it is checking the daily statistics. While it's nice to track how many readers we have each day, the real reason I like to look is to see where those readers come from. The daily summary of referring Web sites is always interesting.
If someone gets to us via a site Em or I particularly like, then we feel like rock stars. If someone has found us via a foreign site, it's cool to see the different languages pop up.
But best of all, you can look over the searches of people who found you through Google. It is a lot of fun to see what people have searched for, and how far up the list Discriminating Weirdos appears.
This morning, we were found by one of the most interesting and bizarre searches so far. I posted a bit about Lovecraft two days ago, and made a little joke (very little, actually) about a baby being named after one of the Dark Ones. I picked a strange name at random from a list of Lovecraft creations.
I never thought it would lead to a page visit from a Google search, but check this out.
Discriminating Weirdos came up first (and second) out of two in the search for an evil god's photo.
I hope Mr. Lovecraft is proud. I sure am. (ADAM)
My sister-in-law Amy's got a boo-boo.
I've been worried off my head today about her, and basically unable to focus on the blog today. So this one's for Yam.
I also really dig this board. Autism (not something that I think is wrong with Amy) is a problem dear to our hearts. Adam used to teach autistic children, and the stories he tells will break your heart and make you laugh at the same time.
I am hurt board (girl) available from autismlearninggames on Etsy.
Apparently I'm feeling particularly maudlin. I better stop.
In any case, feel better Yam.
(Emily)
I had meant to post this video for Mother's Day, but I forgot. I didn't forget Mother's Day, but I did forget what is probably the most important part of Mother's Day in the Moe family.
As you may have read in previous posts, I am a fan of bad music. Part of my idiotically large collection includes various pieces of trauma-inducing holiday recordings, and I make it my business to play them as part of each holiday celebration. I don't think I've missed spinning "What Can You Get a Wookie For Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)" since I started the tradition some 20 years ago.
Side note: I was utterly surprised I found an MP3 of this horrendous ear-salad on line. I've tried in the past but never found it. I thought for a while that I had the only 45 of this "song" in the world. Fortunately, it appears that the recording is alive and well, and I can take my copy out of the safe.
Some holidays, Christmas and Halloween in particular, are well-represented in horrible music. others, however, are a bit more difficult. Easter, for some reason, doesn't seem to make crazy people burst out in song. Sure, there's always the old joke about leaving crushed Easter baskets next to bits of roadkill, but I don't think there's a song about it.
Father's Day and Mother's Day are really difficult. Sure, there are lots of
smarmy songs for them (see C. W. McCall's Roses for Mama and Red Sovine's Daddy if you don't believe me), but true humorous recordings are hard to come by.
Groucho Marx gave us the great Father's Day song, Father's Day:
Today, father, is father's day,
And we're giving you a tie.
It's not much we know,
It's just our way of showing you
We think you are a regular guy.
You say that it was nice of us to bother.
But it really was a pleasure to fuss,
For according to our mother,
You're our father,
And that's good enough for us.
Yes, that's good enough for us.
And now, thanks to the multi-talented Mr. T, we have a song for Mother. Watch the heart-felt dance and delivery from Sir T. And just where was he keeping that microphone? (ADAM)
Emily claims that the books I've been reading and the movies I've been watching are too dark. She's probably right, although I'm not sure I can agree that it's possible to get too dark. I have read and watched more horror than anyone I know, and I often find myself speaking in great length on subjects like Isolationism and American Horror of the 1970s and The Politics of Horror: How Ronald Reagan is Responsible for Jason, Freddy, and Michael. And I don't just focus on the big stuff. I read and watch the classics and the "should be" classics, and I'm at my happiest when a new English translation of an old Rampo story has been released.
In short, I'm a bit of a freak. I'm the guy who knows which character in a Thai vampire flick is the most evil because I know that the most evil character usually has the biggest eyebrows. I'm the nerd in the chat room who wants to talk about Steph Swainston, Mark Z. Danielewski, Ambrose Bierce, and Chuck Palahniuk when everyone else is yammering about Stephen King. The cult section in the film store seldom has anything I haven't seen, and I find Clive Barker's work a bit too tame.
So when Em told me my recent reading list has been too dark, I started thinking. Why is it that I read 
these things? It didn't take me long to realize that it isn't because of the plots or the violence. I watch and read these things because horror is the only genre that can consistently surprise and challenge me with it's imagery.
Perhaps that's why I like Jane Tam's work so much. Her photo/illustration pieces really caught me by surprise the first time I saw them. I liked them, but I wasn't sure why. But I kept going back to them for another look. Then another.
Finally, I figured it out. These pieces scare me. Those faceless figures are like ghosts, anonymous and 
disconnected from even the simplest things in life -- washing dishes, visiting relatives, holding a dog. They scare me, but not like the boogie man or a serial killer might scare me. I am afraid because those figures seem to be alone in the world without even knowing it. Isn't that the basis of horror?
Visit Jane Tam's Etsy shop here. You can see more of her work at janetam.com. (ADAM)
