AUDub

Double rainbow from the seawall at sunset. And one with my girls just because. My oldest, Ava on the far left, can't keep a straight face during photos.

Remote...

Which beach are y'all at? Packing up the family for PCB tomorrow.

Sadiebug, who until a few weeks ago was my middle child, and I got to have a daddy daughter day at Six Flags yesterday. She'd never been on big coasters before and handled them like a champ. We got lucky. Everyone avoided the park because of the forecast. We didn't wait over 10 minutes for any ride. We rode Batman 3 times, Mindbender twice, Superman (her favorite) 3 times, Goliath (my favorite) twice. Also the Scorcher, Acrophobia, the Great American Scream Machine, and the Cyclone, which shuts down this week. Just tall enough to ride the really scary ones. Proud of her. Not every 10 year old handles coasters well, and now she absolutely loves them.

All I'm taking lately are baby pictured, so apologies in advance for inundating the thread with them.

Fixed your handle.

So Chester Bennington of Linkin Park has died. Grew out of it, but they hit when I was in high school and went through a phase when I loved their music. RIP, Chester, Thanks for the memories.

Not with the pear thieves, it's not.

The view of the 'ham from the top of Children's in Southside on a hot summer day.

Anyone that works in healthcare is already aware of this, but "organ donor" is literally what we call bike riders. We call bikes "donorcycles."

Volunteer for organ donation

Soul food at its finest. Chicken and Waffles. Hot sauce on the chicken, cover both with syrup and go to town.

Rise and shine

Ah yes. Good memories. Remember getting Evil Empire for my birthday in 7th grade.

Never had the pleasure of seeing Crimson, and it's likely I never will. Only time they've ever been to the 'ham was the 72 concert you mentioned, which my dad attended. I did, however, get to see Robert Fripp performing his Soundscapes in Atlanta a decade ago. That was an experience.

Portnoy is one of the best around today. Too bad he left Dream Theater. He's done some excellent stuff outside of there though. His work with supergroup Transatlantic with Neal Morse, Roin Stolte and Pete Trewavas is some of the best progressive rock you'll ever hear. In standard tuning on a stick, the melody side is tuned for fourths, while the bass side is tuned for fifths. Not really sure how Gunn does it, but NST on a guitar is CGDAEG, which approximates all fifths and already matches the tuning on the bass side. They are typically fretted, though there are fretless models too. More reliant on technique and EQ. As long as they aren't super quiet, you're generally fine with whatever pickups you choose.

The postgrunge era was a dark time. Creed, Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd etc. Banal, derivative crap, obscenely overexposed and simply dominating the airwaves. And, embarrassingly, I didn't really mind it at the time. Like most teens, I was a moron.

LOL no harm. My dad raised me on King Crimson and Warren Zevon. *The nostalgia, it burns.*

You've lived a sheltered life if you've managed to avoid King Crimson this long. Progressive rock would not be what it is today without Robert Fripp and King Crimson. The guy is a gem. Yep. Go look them up. Yep. It's a bit of a niche instrument played by hammering-on, often employed by bassists for speedy licks in prog rock and prog metal bands. Here's Tony Levin, also formerly of King Crimson, playing a speedy jam with Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess, all members of prog metal band Dream Theater at the time and 30 years his junior. Not really meant to be ambient. Fripp encourages active listening. They can be hard to listen to.

Hmm. What would you call that? Progressive folk? It reminds me a lot of the music below. It's a video of one of Robert Fripp's string quintet shows. He's done some interesting things outside of Crimson. He codified New Standard Tuning, and he used to teach a guitar development course called Guitar Craft. The guys in the video below are part of said League of Crafty Guitarists. The three on the acoustic guitars are the California Guitar Trio. The other fellow, Trey Gunn on the Chapman stick, was a member of Crimson. Apologies for the quality. It's a VHS rip. I started on a particular song, but if you go back to the beginning, the first song is Fripp and Gunn playing one of his Soundscapes.

Not surprised you're hearing echoes of progressive rock's pioneers. Math rock most definitely came about from prog rock, particularly bands like King Crimson and Yes. Math rock, much like prog rock, relies on complex time signatures and showcases technical ability, though I would say math rock is a little more self indulgent about it (I often call mathy, prog metal bands like Dream Theater "musical masturbation").

First I heard of this young lady was a guest appearance on a Scale the Summit album (I'm a math rock dweeb) a few days ago. I'm hooked.

New Gorillaz

We were pretty much guaranteed a first time winner in the closing stages. Logano was the only previous winner with a shot, and it was a long one. He hovered around ten after the final restart and never really pushed. I was pulling for Chase Elliot. He had it, but he ran out of gas with 2 to go.