Brody Vercher » General

Notes of Interest: Texas Music and Active Verbs

Brody — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:19:39 +0000

Bob Livingston provided an all-around fantastic read and first-hand insight to the creation of an iconic Texas album. If you have any interest at all in Texas Music, you should read it.

So, we played it a second time and the audience knew what was coming. You think “Redneck Mother” had a great crowd reaction? Well, when we got to the last choruses of “London Homesick Blues” that night, we just kept singing over and over “I want to go home with the Armadillos …” Everyone, singing along, over and over. Maybe 15 choruses, I don’t remember. The crowd wouldn’t let us stop. When “London Homesick” ended, the roar and urgency from the crowd was otherworldly and I wanted everyone, including whoever might be listening to the record later, to know that my friend, Gary Nunn, had sung it. So I screamed, “That was Gary P. Nunn!”
If you have any interest at all in writing, you should read William Zinnser’s talk on the subject and follow his four principles of writing good English: Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity, and Humanity.

Remember: how you write is how you define yourself to people who meet you only through your writing. If your writing is pretentious, that’s how you’ll be perceived. The reader has no choice.

“Siri, remind me to start the crockpot at 9:30.” M…

Brody — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:13:21 +0000

“Siri, remind me to start the crockpot at 9:30.” Marital harmony must be maintained.

“Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail,…

Brody — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:14:30 +0000

“Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.”

- From music theorist John Cage’s list of ten rules and one hint.

Notes of Interest: Volume 002

Brody — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:39:35 +0000

My kind of photography. Majestic seems appropriate.
Gridmaster Mark Boulton tweets on the limitations of mobile: “Columnar grids are used to create *horizontal* connections between content. On 300-odd pixels, there isn’t enough horizontal.”
I was happy to see a number of friends from The 9513, and writers from other blogs in general, included in Nashville Scene‘s 12th Annual Country Music Critics’ Poll.
Top five regrets of the dying.
Having read On Writing Well, I’m aware of William Zinsser, but it somehow escaped me that he’d been writing a Friday column for the past two years. Now that it’s caught my attention, he’s signed off. Don’t let anyone tell you life is fair.

Earlier this fall, if asked my age, I could say that I was just as old as the number of keys on a piano [88]. Then, on October 7, I wasn’t. I had outlived the standard Western keyboard and the largest piano. But then I was told that Bösendorfer, the Austrian manufacturer of sumptuous concert grands, makes a 9-foot, 6-inch model that has nine extra keys at the low end of the scale. I was saved! I had entered the Bösendorfer years.

I did Instapaper each of his past columns, so expect to see more citations from those.

“I’ve never eaten Mexican food in Chicago. And, no…

Brody — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:28:17 +0000

“I’ve never eaten Mexican food in Chicago. And, no disrespect, but it can’t be that good if a guy named Bayless is cooking it.”

- Lyle Lovett waxes philosophical in the February/March 2012 issue of Garden & Gun

Framing Battlefield Texas

Brody — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:35:37 +0000

Speaking of iPhone, I used mine to snap a few process photos of a frame I built over the past couple of weekends. I already had the wood cut, assembled, and sanded before I thought about capturing any pictures, so these are mostly the complete frame laying around to dry. Most of my time is spent assembling pixels on a screen, so it’s nice to build something more tactile every now and then.

The framed poster is a print of artist Christopher Alan Smith’s “Battlefield Texas: Republic of Texas Map” (buy your own here).

Materials:
Wood: Reclaimed longleaf pine
Stain: Early American

Step aside 3D, the world was meant to be seen in @…

Brody — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:33:20 +0000

Step aside 3D, the world was meant to be seen @2x. — That’s code for “I got an iPhone 4S”

How Doctors Die

Brody — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:44:02 +0000

If I had my druthers I’d go out like Clint Eastwood at the end of Gran Torino, but I’d say doctors have things pretty well figured out, too.

[...] they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.

This Is Me Getting Action

Brody — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:18:36 +0000

I’d like to get in the practice of writing again. Consider this your notice. And that TR quote in the previous entry, that’s my guide, a drill sergeant of sorts, to help accomplish the goals below in the new year.

“Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action.”

- Theodore Roosevelt

Move Away from Client-Based Work
It’s not all bad. Some of it I enjoy, but then there’s the other kind; the kind that keeps a person on his ass in front of a computer screen, away from all these other things.

Be Healthier
Eating, running, lifting — whatever it takes. I joined a flag football team last fall and never felt so rickety. I’m 29.

Spend More Time with Family / Outdoors
Fishing. Hunting. Camping. Hiking. Even throwing a football. Movies. Live music. It don’t matter what it is, I just want more of it.

Learn Guitar
Playing the same three chords over and over and over and over for the past four years has gone stale.

Write a Song
It doesn’t have to be good, just good enough.

Take a Stab At Knife Making
After reading a lot about the process online, I pulled the metaphorical trigger and ordered a couple of books to get started.

Read At Least One Book a Month
I’d aim higher, but the rest of this list won’t do itself.

Annihilate Debt
Okay, too high. Let’s make this one a two to three year goal.

“Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter…

Brody — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:52:26 +0000

“Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action.”

- Theodore Roosevelt