Friday, February 28, 2014

One Hit Wonders: The Rockers

This will probably be my last post about music for a while. Below are some of my favorite rock songs by bands that really only had one song I liked. I know that several of the bands featured below had longer careers and put out plenty of other music, but these are certainly their biggest hits. And they are the only songs by these bands that I listen to. I'm actually rather sheepish about "My Sharona," and yet I do like it. It's certainly the closest thing to pop music I've included on my lists. 

Head East: Never Been Any Reason: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7jW8_2Us5c

Red Rider: Lunatic Fringe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqUa_G1h3pw

Living Colour:  Cult of Personality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xxgRUyzgs0


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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Metal versus Rock 5: Southern Rock

When I started putting together my list of top ten favorite hard rock songs I ran into a problem. I had a lot more than ten. However, I found a couple of ways to 'expand' my list creatively. For one, I took out all the songs from my original list that could also be categorized as "Southern Rock," and put them on a separate list. So, here we have my top five favorite Southern Rock songs, all of which also fit generally within the Hard Rock genre.


Lynyrd Skynyrd: Saturday Night Special: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwGC24e87uo

Texas Hippie Coalition: Hands Up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rPY8Z10OjE

Molley Hatchet: Dreams I’ll Never See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtC7i4KMRgo



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Sunday, February 23, 2014

Metal versus Hard Rock 4

Picking numbers 6 through 10 of my favorite hard rock songs proved very difficult. So, I ended up making a further division of favorites. Below is my next set of Hard Rock songs, and later I will put up two other lists: My five favorite Southern Rock songs and my favorite "One Rock Wonders" bands. 


6. U2: Bullet the Blue Sky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JjDDgK8KXc

7. Black Label Society: Funeral Bell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTKvkWlK6J4

8. Rage Against the Machine: Guerilla Radio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0kJLW2EwMg

9. Monster Magnet: Space Lord: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dscfeQOMuGw

10. White Zombie: Black Sunshine:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqPClltS5k8
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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Metal versus Hard Rock 3:

Here are the first five songs from my favorite Hard Rock list. Certainly there are many other good songs that might fall into my top five under the right circumstances, but at this moment, these are my picks. Please note that I've realized I need a separate list for "southern rock." That will be upcoming after the Hard Rock top ten.

1. Van Halen: Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuyvT8nFMLY

2. Motley Crue: Knock ‘Em Dead Kid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGUKtC5-WBo

3. Ted Nugent: Stranglehold: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c3d7QgZr7g

4. AC/DC: Highway to Hell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_jCu_u28Ig

5. Guns N Roses: Welcome to the Jungle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr8-E8may2Y


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Monday, February 17, 2014

Heavy Metal Versus Hard Rock: Part 2:

Here are metal songs 6 through 10 for me. Ty pointed out that his list would change with his mood and that is true of me as well. This is my current  list. It might not be the same next year. And there are certainly plenty of songs at 11 on that might move up given the right circumstances. However, these ten songs sure do show up for me a lot when I click on you tube to listen to something I like. Next up will be Hard Rock songs, which was a harder list for me to make.

6. Slayer: South of Heaven:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtLvlaGJJEU

7. Hallow’s Eve: Lethal Tendencies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9fHYdyOb1A

8. Judas Priest: Love Bites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRp5z2B6Zl4

9. Scorpions: China White: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FloeC2HnNYo


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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Heavy Metal Versus Hard Rock, Part 1:

I have  discussions on occasion with folks about what constitutes the difference between Heavy Metal and Hard Rock. I love both genres, but if forced to choose only one to take with me on a desert island, it would be metal. I find that it’s really impossible to describe the differences. It’s a ‘hearing’ thing. So, I’m going to do a series of posts, probably four of them, that illustrate the differences to me. First up, we have my top 5 favorite metal songs of all time. They are listed as band, song title, and the link is to the You Tube Video of the song. I’ve put these in an order, but that order could change depending on my mood. My next post will be the metal songs between 6 and 10 on my list. Following that, I’ll give you my top ten favorite Hard Rock songs.

1.  Megadeth: Sympathy For Destruction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyWJCd1GYhw

2.  Metallica: Leper Messiah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm71Khu5-Lk

3.  Black Sabbath: Snowblind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHal84S_XkI

4. Celtic Frost: Procreation of the Wicked: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GhgwKmjzr0

5. Motorhead: Death Forever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0rgmNPWYxs

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Saturday, February 08, 2014

Charles Gramlich Versus Charles Allen Gramlich: Grudge Match

           I just realized that Amazon has a Charles Allen Gramlich Author Page, and a Charles Gramlich Author page. The Charles Allen Gramlich (CAG) page has 21 listings for books, the Charles Gramlich (CG) page has 19. They have slightly different addresses, and different numbers of “likes.” The CG page has 3 likes and the CAG has 7. The CG page has a picture of me, though, so that probably explains why it has fewer likes. I guess I can understand that. Pretty, I’m not.
     
      The CG page has the link to my blog posts and is generally more comprehensive. It actually includes all my books, while the CAG page has multiple listings for some books based on either ebook or print format. I guess I must have updated both of these in the past without realizing they were different. Has anyone else seen this kind of thing for a writer? Two different author pages with slight differences?
     
      Anyway, I’m going to put up the links to both pages below, and will have to see if the number of “likes” change. Will Charles Gramlich or his alter ego Charles Allen Gramlich win?  Is the picture on the Charles Gramlich page the turn-off it appears to be? Inquiring minds want to know.




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Thursday, February 06, 2014

Gods of Talera

The fifth book in the Talera series, Gods of Talera, is now underway. This is a direct sequel to Wraith of Talera, which I wrote last year and which should be published some time in 2014. I don't know if I'll be able to write "Gods" straight through since it is likely that I'll have other projects intervening on occasion. Still, I want to get as much done on the project as I can before any interruptions occur. Below is a brief snippet from the story. Hope you enjoy.

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The tocsins still roared, louder here in the open. Beyond the roof where we stood stretched a city of white buildings with broad streets and many open courtyards between them. Above that city, curving down through the emerald sky, came huge airships with the golden bulk of the moon, Tisiminna, looming behind them. These were sailed vessels—battleships not unlike my own warship, Khiang, but half again as large. There were six of them, each painted a dark purple, and with flags flying from their masts bearing an image I could not make out at this distance.

Soon the ships began landing between the white buildings, disgorging warriors who wore glittering bronze breastplates and helms. Sunlight flashed from the swords and axes they carried. I could not tell their race but they were big. And there were many of them.

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Monday, February 03, 2014

The Perils of Professing

Oh, the things we teachers sometimes say. Without intent. I was talking about evolutionary concepts in my comparative psychology class the other day and was discussing a type of finch found on the Galapagos Islands called a Vampire Finch. This finch obtains some of its food by pecking at the feet of other, larger birds, and then drinking the blood that runs from the wound. Its favorite prey is a species of bird called a “Blue Footed Booby,” which is much larger with big, somewhat fleshy feet. I’m going along in my discussion when I announce to the class:  “So here we have a creature that makes its living sucking blood from boobies.”

It did not occur to me that what I’d said could be taken another way until I heard a couple of snickers from students in the class. Quite often when I make such a “slip,” I will call attention to it so we can all get a good laugh. We are still very early in the semester, though, with mostly sophomore level students, and this was just creepy enough that I decided to rush on to another topic. I’m quite sure there were some repetitions later outside of class. I also got quite a laugh out of it myself after I got back to the office.


Oh, the imprecision of language!
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