Last night i watched a very touching documantary i thought some of you would like. It was called West of Memphis and is about the West Memphis 3.

Some of you may know of the case from the 90's but i had no idea of it until i saw this documantary last night. If you don't know the story, 2 kids between the age of 16 and 18 were sentenced to life without parol and 1 was sentenced to death by lethal unjection for the crime which was sold to the public as a Satanic Cult killing, Because they looked a little different to the average Joe. They were poor kids and one was borderline mentaly disabled, easy targets for the system to charge for a crime.

The documantary follows the new defense team who takes on the appeal and shows the support of some musicians and actors to try and get these kids another trial hearing, but the justice system is so screwed up that the state wants nothing to do with it.

After watching that i have really changed my stance on the whole debate regarding the death penalty.

Give this video a watch, it may tug on your heart strings a bit though.

I had a power tube failure on Tuesday evening. .... there was a deterioration of sound and volume oscillation, a flashing tube in the rear followed by the amp shutting down(blue and red flames in tubes=bad). ... the fuse blew. Just got replacement valves and a couple of fuses and its working fine now.

If you guys have not seen Walk Hard, then do yourselves a favour and watch it this weekend, the movie is awesome and probably my fave movie of all time, I did my 9th watching on monday evening..... the music on there is awesome and really well written. i even got myself the soundtrack.

Another good one is actually a series called Flight of the conchords..... although its a couple of years old it also really good.

Of coarse Sound City was good Documantary as is:

Last Days Here(Andy Lieblieng Story) which is pretty hectic.

Saxon's Heavy metal thunder

someone please correct me if i'm wrong ..... it should be fine as long as the 2 speakers have a combined power rating equal to 120w. So if they are 2x 60w speakers it would be cool......

I had a similar situation the a month ago, i found that my cpu fan stopped working thus causing strain & excess heating on the cpu and causing glitchy issues with some software on my now ex system.

ActionArnie wrote:

Sean wrote: I basically stopped watching TV after Seinfeld, seriously ? I've not heard of 90% of the stuff you guys are on about ???

Best sitcom of all time.

I regularly watch the old episodes, the characters are fantastic.

If you guys liked Seinfeld then you'll probably like Curb your Enthusiasm, it follows the life of seinfelds producer "Larry David" after the show stopped, the guy has a very unique personaility and he always gets himself into stick & troublesome situations because of it, its very funny.

atomheart wrote: I'm finding it weird that no one has mentioned my big favorites:

Twin Peaks (perhaps a bit too soapy, but still okay)
X-Files
Millenium (Not as good as X-Files, too much religion, but still has that feel of "weirdness" I liked in X-Files)
Lost (Just WOW! ???)
Flashforward (Why the hell was it cancelled??!?! >)

The above all have lots of mystery and drama, they have a very deep atmosphere that really comes through. To understand what I mean, check out the opening titles of Twin Peaks! You'll either feel it or won't.

I've been looking for other similar series, haven't found one yet. Fringe? The characters are trying to be funny all the time which ruins it for me...

Other series I checked but didn't like: Sons of Anarchy (breaking the law is *not* cool, not even if you're riding a chopper, and unlike in Twin Peaks, there's nothing that would counteract its soapiness IMO), Breaking Bad (found the young junky to be VERY annoying, does lots of stupid mistakes, and his style? "What the f*ck, maaan?!?" >), Alias (No comment, probably it was meant to be "easy fun", with girly fight scenes, uncomplicated plot with silly things that need to be stolen).

As for comedy:
Robot Chicken
Family Guy ?
The IT Crowd

I'm going to look into The Office next...

I got the Twin Peaks series cause a friend told me about it, maybe it was better back in the day. I tried watching it, can't get passed the 3rd episode....... Episode 1 is just ppl crying..... if you fast forward through the episode, 80% of the time you will land on someone crying..... the score is VERY dramatic and it sort of bugged me a bit how it suddenly enters the scenes on full volume...... episode 2 was also very sad, i fell asleep during the third one when i think they introduce the trucker dude......

Its sort of like a thundercats thing, let it remain good in your memory, and dont spoil that memory by revisiting the series ?

Svengali wrote:

lindsmuse wrote: OK so it's 'Breaking Bad' at the moment. Any others? I don't think you can top this.

+1

Can't wait to see series five.

All and all I must have watched the first four series around six times through from beginning to end.

VERY thought provoking.

I have season 5, or the first half of it, its the best one thus far, they broke it into 2 parts like they did with The Walking Dead S2, it goes to ep8, so now we must wait for the rest, but the second part is gonna be hectic......

Love em, watch em every evening, i have loads of stuff in my archive but watching the new ones as they released, Showtimes series are aired on sundays so we get em on monday morning, but here's some of the rad ones i like that are airing now.

Dexter s7
Homeland s2
boardwalk empire s3
Modern family s4
Boss s2
Hell on wheels s2
Once upon a time s2
The inbetweeners (U.S)

Others that are worth watching IMO which are airing in a few weeks time are

American horror story
The walking dead

There are loads more but these are the ones which come to mind.....

Touch
Awake
veep
californication
Gigilos (something completley different)

a couple of months ago i saw an Epiphone at CC trying to sell for 10K, was a Wylde bullseye, but still, 10K seemed way off the worth. I dont know who their sources are to inform them of resale value but whoever it is they should find a different line of work.

psyx wrote: Ive always wondered why the frets are "hollowed out" on his guitars...
Can anyone shed some light on this?

There is zero resistance when doing bends from the fret board onto your finger tips, so bends are super easy to do and can be very quick if required. Vibrato is way easier and most importantly the notes are easier to play, less pressure is needed to push down on the string to allow for the note to ring, so your forearms have less fatigue when playing.

Hey man, Yeah SAMRO takes a while to get back to ya once, this is the poor man's copyright, record your your music to disc, get yourself a really good envelope and post the your disc to yourself, it will get a post stamp date and will serve as evidence if ever a case should ever arrive, just as long as the letter is never opened or tampered with you will have proof and date of track recording. Got that tip from a friend who is in the music business. Music laws work on date ot was recorded, so if someone copies your music and you cannot prove that you recorded it before then you will have no case.

happened to a a friend of mine who wrote a song for an ad, some lady called him and said he stole her song, so he asked her to please mail the proof that she wrote the song before it was recorded by him so that they could rectify this situation, they lived in totally different provinces from each other, anyway, she replied that she had not recorded anything but she wrote that song and had that idea in her head and that he must pay her or she'll take the matter further...:roflmao:.... needless to say, it never went any further........

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: So basically they bumped Naked Sushi, Down On The First and Sixgun Gospel in favour of Tripjas, Silent Side and Thank you Johnny?

You don't mention who the organisers are or link.

What were the rules on how they would judge? Based on popularity only or did the judges have a say too?

That's exactly what happened there, I did not mention any organisers as I did not know if it was allowed but seeing as this seems to be ok, its on the afrikaans alternative fm facebook page, I unfortunately am away for the weekend on an anniversary getaway so I am unable to supply a link as I only have my phone.

The original rules were that it would go on merit and on the points awarded, it could not be fair to reveiw all the scores as I doubt they would be capable of remembering enough detail of bands who played months ago and compare them with band who played more recently, that is why the point system was in place, then somehow, sometime they changed it without prior notification, we have asked them what system they have used to determine the top 12 but they don't reply to any of the question, I do beleieve they think if they just leave it unresolved it will just dissapear and no further questions will be asked. I just feel that I need an explanation for this.

Ok so we uncovered some corruption in a music contest which was blatantly apparent when the Top 12 of the competition to go through to the semi's were in fact not actually the top 12 according to the judging panel this week. I don't believe they were expecting anyone to keep a score card, but alas there were actually people who did, which is pretty rad.

Now let me explain to you what happened here, the night before the actual announcement of the top 12, apparently they announced on radio and facebook that sms's would now be used to choose the top 12 bands, without a prior notification to any of the bands to inform their fans to get cracking and to send as many sms's as they can to the number supplied. now before the top 12 were announced it looked a little something like this:

Hotel Iris - 8.46
Ballistic blues: 8.39
Tobacco vampire: 8.35
2 Minute Puzzle 8.29
Cherry vinyl: 8.28
Snare van die Suburbs 8.25
Scarlequin 8.25
Sixgun Gospel 8.17
Inside Job - 8.14
Crimson House 8.1
Naked Sushi 7.86
Down On The First 7.78
Silent side: 7.78
Thank You Johnny - 7.75
Parlor Vinyls 7.6
Tripjas 7.53
Wikus de lange: 7.5
Dutch Phobia 7.5
De Wallen 7.46
Beautifull Loosers 7.39
Very Ape 7.32
Suiderbees 7.25
Series of Events 7.25
Young folks: 7.17
With Dawn 7.17
In The Deep End 7.14
Johnny Feel Good 7
Beeldenstorm 7
Fax Police - 6.67
Soldier 6.67

When it was announced it looked something like this:

1 Hotel Iris
2 Ballistic Blues
3 Tobacco Vampire
4 Two Minute Puzzle
5 Cherry Vinyl
6 Scarlequin
7 Snare van die Suburbs
8 The inside Job
9 Crimson House Blues
10 Tripjas
11 Silent Side
12 Thank you Johnny

Not the same, so i posted and said why the change?? and then saw an anouncement on facebook saying sms's would now be used to sort out the top 12, this was posted after 19:00 in the evening. now you would think that a simple email would be sent to the bands to inform them of this change would be an apropriate procedure, not a facebook post. after the announcement of the top 12 bands were made it was clear that something was up as we can all see the two list do not match up. I called one of the judges as we had his number saved from a previouse disussion with him regarding the contest, and asked him to explain. He said to me that they changed the stretegy from the scores to sms's..... i asked why and he explained the scores were to tight to determine the top 12 and they were under pressure to release the names from the new venue which would hold the semi's, i also asked why non of the bands were informed of this change with which he replied thatthere was no time and it was a decision from four of them, in which i replied it would take them 5 min to type an email informingus all of the rule change, i also happened to ask him if it was a fair decision which they made, in which he replied "no, but it was a group decision".
Now this is the funny part, a few hours later they post on their facebook wall that the SMS system was not used as it would have been unfair to the contestants and they just happened to have announced it for interest sakes. huh???????
So now what the hell is going on here then, i post some comments and some questions regarding this matter which they are now refusing to answer, some simple questions like "why they announced the sms vote change if it would not be implemented?" another question raised was "if it was not implemented how did they come up with this top 12 result which differs from the actual results?"

Am i the only one who is seeing wrong here?
i am still awaiting some answers, its been a couple of days now cause i am stumped, i can only imagine that there may be some deep seeded issues at work here, afterall R100 000 worth or prizes is alot, isnt it?

The whole thing is still documented on their facebook page, if you don't believe me.

its fairly easy to explain, when it spins clockwise you are flat so you need to sharpen the note, anti clockwise spin is sharp and you need to flatten, when the strobe is steady its tuned in. I took me a couple of minutes to get the hang of the revolving screen. Its VERY sensitive, i pluck the note and tune up on the hang, once it stops spinning, i'm in. A second pluck with the finger confirms tuning & the techinique works. it all goes very quickly.

i manage to get the strobe pretty damn steady when tuning with the gibson green tuning pegs, but there is quite a difference in accuracy between them and the schaller locking on my fender which are more precise and hit it pretty much dead on.

I jammed with the band last night, usually i never used to notice dropping in tuning between songs with the other tuners, now i do. I thought my guitars stayed in tune pretty well until now. Here comes the OCD ?

Great for intonation setting. I had to reset mine as it was a bit off.

you buy straight from the manufacturer on their website, https://www.turbo-tuner.com

it was $129.99, they are pretty pro, sent confirmation of payment and shipped a couple of hours later. I also took the speedy del option for a couple of rand extra, think its a 4 day delivery.

Hooray for the courier service and Sonic Research. I placed the order for one of these babies on thursday and it arrived at my door via courier this morning. :applause:

















Plugged it in and all i can say is man this thing is awesome, its like chalk & cheese, so its time to retire my TU-2. I read on some forums about this pedal afetr looking into a possible Polytune buy, mailed some guys and they said id be silly to buy one of them over something of this caliber. then i checked out the Youtube clip in the comparison. It smoked the polytune with tracking speed, which is what i was initially looking for, something that tracks quick and accurate for on stage. This thing tracks well while playing scales, its freaking amazing, also has some custom tuning storage space for open tunings which i will load on later. One downside some ppl complain about is the strobe effect but i'm ok with tuning to the strobe.

0.02 cent accuracy, did a comparison with the TU-2 and i noticed a slight difference in the pitch but its not that big. thing i did not like about the boss was the tracking speed and like all other tuner as well, the innacuracy of the "sweet" spot, they drop accuracy when in the green, if i tuned and landed in the green zone, then came back a little later id always be a little sharp, which sucked.

Anyways, Turbo tuner for the win, the even loaded it with a battery & they have not pre stuck the under rubber on, so i can paste my velcro directly on for my board. Now i gotta get to that manual to figure out how to set in the custom tunings and all the extra stuff.

Check out the videos on youtube on this thing, not many but very informative and nice comparisons to the competition.

Its a shame, actually liked him as an actor, i was following "The Finder" as it came out and thought it was pretty rad. The green mile was such an EPIC movie....... Here's To ya M C Duncan. :goodtimes:

Verry nice, what was the complete cost of the build, if i may ask?

We've actually been asked to play a funeral on the weekend, so i have the good ol Louis Pops Armstrong playing on my system to learn some new stuff.

Hey man, taking the plunge into the les paul pool is no easy task, i did it a couple of months back. For some strange reason it took me ages to start liking the guitar, not to mention some improvement mods.

Cleric wrote: Thanks Squank. I think I'll pass though as every spare cent will be going into getting the best Gibson I can get I reckon. Buying that would no doubt make the wife think my Les Paul quest is over, and I just can't have that.

If this is the case then i'd say save up some more and go get yourself a standard or equivelent...... If you are anything like me i'd kick myself after having a studio for a couple of months cause if i saved up a couple of K's more i'd have the real thing, and id be out there scoping all the standards and "proper" les paul's out on ebay and on the interweb & then i'd be back at square 1, wanting a "proper" les paul.

Patience is the key here mate, the right deal will come, you just gotta throw some of that belief out there & it will happen.