The Bill & Frantz Show Theme Song
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Originally published at billydechand.com. You can comment here or there.

The Bill & Frantz Show wants you. We wrote a little theme song, and want you to record a version. It could be video or just audio. If we like it, we might just use it in one of our shows!
You can look at our song sheet (PDF) and/or hear a version we did ourselves at the beginning of BFS Episode 209.
Don't feel obligated to make it the same as our version. Originality is encouraged. Be yourself.

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The Bill & Frantz Show
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My buddy Frantz and I started a little Online Talk Show. We're doing one pretty often these days, so keep going back. Often there are special guests, and sometimes little short clips.
The Bill & Frantz Show
Please LIKE us on Facebook.

Give the People What They Want
music, rock
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Give the People What They WantI keep coming back to this album. In 1981, Ray was spending ample time with Chrissie Hynde (his wife?). The Kinks do the Pretenders: melodic, well-crafted punk/pop (aka rock).

The hits are "Destroyer" and to some, "Predictable". These follow Davies' long tradition of character songs portraying everyday lives in modern society. The whole album has a hell-in-a-handbasket theme, but it's more interesting than sad, especially since some of it was of its time. (We've replaced our Cold War anxieties with new ones.) And its rockingness also makes it pretty fun. The first two songs are just all out bar-room brawl type songs; in the title track, there's a point where Ray bellows, "Hey mom, there goes a piece of the President's brain!"

"Killer's Eyes" is an imaginary conversation with a serial killer, an attempt to rationally persuade him not to murder. Sort of. "Art Lover" is a portrait of a guy who sits in the park looking at little girls. Creepy for sure, but also darkly funny and even compassionate. One of my favorites is "Yo-yo", where the emotions of lovers and loners rise and fall, wreaking havoc on themselves and others. There are many more great songs.

It finishes on a positive note with "Better Things", which reminds me of the Pretenders' first single, "Kid".

Like the Stones' Tattoo You from the same year, it's their last great album. MTV changed everything.


Post Post Modern Man
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This song/video is a little manifesto. Sort of. It doesn't declare how things should be, just how they are. Or were, if we're lucky. Or smart?
And that, my friends, is a little backwards.
Politically, the spark was Dick Cheney's declaration that conservation is not a legitimate energy policy. We know what his energy policy was, despite the secret meetings. Since his hands are bloodied with oil, Cheney's vision is contrasted with images of more renewable sources. There's a shot of Jimmy Carter -- no, he's not part of the problem.He tried to improve things, but his efforts were undone. In his image that briefly appears, Carter stands in front of a bunch of solar panels. Immediately after, the video shows  Dick Cheney and everyone's buddy, Donald Rumsfeld. (Carter actually installed solar panels on the roof of the White House, which Reagan removed.)
This song was written during the Bush years, reflecting that feeling that even though time is moving forward, our country is moving backward.
So the images often match the lyrics, in an attempt to clarify my message. In other places it's more confusing, but that mish-mash also supports the overall theme. While a political song, it also expresses personal desperation. I am subject to the actions of politicians and their string-holders, the corporate milkman/fathers who dictate policy. And taken us where?


POST-POST MODERN MAN
Words and music by Billy Dechand
© 2006 Bucktooth Music (ASCAP)

I figured it out – up is down                
What once was old is young again now            
I’m a physical man in a spiritual world            
A modern man in a post-modern world             

I’m a post-post modernist man            
In a post-post-post-modernist world            
I’m a post-post-post-modernist man
In a post-post-post-post-modernist world

That is one heck of a gain                    
One whale of an oil stain                    

Here comes that coal train!
Over and over .. and over again

A mechanical man in an electrical world
I’m a space age man in a digital world
A windblown man in a static world
I’m a solar-powered man in a nuclear world

I’m a post-post modernist man            
In a post-post-post-modernist world            
I’m a post-post-post-modernist man
In a post-post-post-post-modernist world


From the album POST, © 2010
available on iTunes, Android Music, etc.


The Smokers
music, rock
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The Smokers was a recording project with Billy Dechand, David DeMallie, Matt Kaden, Matthew Schickele, and Matt Sutton.

We all traded roles: songwriting, guitar, bass, organ, drums, etc.

And we would rehearse, record and mix each song in one session. Gloriously simple, yet innovative and weird. Joyously so.

We made the one album, and stopped there.

It remains one of my favorite projects I’ve ever been a part of. It was a remarkable experience with a remarkable group of talented people.

Listen and enjoy. Feel free to ask about about any tracks. They're my grandchildren, so I'll talk your ear off.

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TAFT 2012
patriot, flag
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I try to only read one book at a time. My general reading policy is to alternate between a heavy book, usually history, and then a fun novel. I'm not a fast reader by any means; I've been slogging through The Discoverers by Daniel Borstin for months. It's about humanity's progress in time-keeping, navigation, astrology to astronomy, anatomy, science in general, and much more. Quite grand, with a dry wit that is hardly noticeable unless you look for it. As a result, it's heavy and slow, but thoroughly interesting.
I've got a large backlog of books in a stack yet to be read. I try to resist the temptation of the library, where there are far too many more books to distract me from from my stack.
Well, yesterday I went anyways -- naughty naughty -- since Kate had to return a few books. (She reads fast.) There I stumbled upon Taft 2012: A Novel, a political satire about President William Taft mysteriously returning to America in the fall of 2011. I've been turning pages non-stop. It starts out a little slow, with some juvenile fat jokes. But once you get twenty pages in, it picks up quite nicely.
This was strategically released for the present election year, and does a great job of turning the issues upside-down. Members of the FOP all clamor for their lost days of old, when common sense ruled, eagerly anticipating his return to politics. Of course the Republican Party of the early 20th Century was the party of progress (They here still the party of Lincoln, opposed to good old boys club, the Southern Democrats. Goldwater fixed that decades later.), so he breaks from their expectations in amusing ways. He speaks of the world with great old-fashioned language, and we feel plenty of pathos too. Taft 2012 is funny, original, and with just enough depth to make it worthy of your attention.

outdoor fun
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Mt. Everest
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This Jon Stewart book, Earth, is funny. It's a textbook -- or tour guide -- meant for aliens who come here after we've destroyed ourselves. Here's a bit:

This is Mt. Everest, located on the border between Nepal and Tibet in the Himalayas. At 29,029 feet above sea level, it is the highest point on Earth. Everest was a metaphor for the outer limits of human achievement. Asked why he sought to conquer it, mountaineer George Mallory famously answered, "Because it is there."
Today, you'll find this symbol of mankind's loftiest aspirations gaily festooned with used oxygen tanks, over 100 tons of garbage, and heaping dollops of human waste. If you visit, we're sorry for the mess. On the plus side, you will find about 120 perfectly preserved frozen copses for your dissecting pleasure. Feel free to take any or all of them. Including George Mallory .... because he is there.


Mt Everest

The Art of Pho
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So I'm just gonna say it:
The Art of Pho is the best e-comic I've ever seen. It mixes the interactivity with stills and animations, full frames with panels, and abundant beauty.
 

Mother Earth Issue #10
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Behold, the last issue of Mother Earth, presented as a Flash comic. Full frame-by-frame reading, and FULL SCREEN MODE!

RECOMMENDED: View in Full Screen Mode

Splat Home


More on Ron
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I got caught up in a nice friendly discussion about Libertarianism again on Facebook. Guess I've got that Christmas spirit! Here's my long-winded rebuttal to a Ron Paul fan, who asked who'd be better:

Well, yes, Obama is the obvious choice, since he’s already there. I’m not saying he’s the best. He’s got brains at least, if not balls. For living leaders, Carter, either Clinton, even Daddy Bush have better sense of responsibility to the country than Paul, even if they are misguided in oh so many ways. Of course the superior list of dead presidents is very long. Washington and Lincoln are obvious, and I'd say the last honorable Republican was Eisenhower. Maybe Ron Paul would be like the oft-quoted Jefferson, who contradicted his previous convictions once he took office. There’s always hope.
Even better might be the leaders who don’t want the job, like Powell, or Jon Stewart. Paul Krugman, or anyone who at least listens to him. They believe, like many others, that it’s in the public interest not to sell everything owned by the people to the highest bidder. Anyone who even values the word “public interest” instead of spitting on it is on my side. It seems to me that there are many people who think “freedom” just means the right to shoot whomever you want, with complete lack of responsibility for the community.
  • It’s my right to do whatever I want.
  • Leave me alone -- don’t ask nothin’ from me.
  • Off my lawn or I shoot!
  • Let the sick guy buy his own damn doctor! Let him die. Yeah!
  • Homeless from a hurricane? You’re on your own.
  • Sharing costs for the greater good? Evil.
  • It’s my right to rip off the little guy. Best not regulate my polluting abilities or business practices with expectations of fairness.
And so on. I don’t want to suffer just because you refused to consider anyone’s well-being but your own. The Libertarian ideal has no room for public roads, schools, hospitals, parks, laws, financial protections or safety nets, etc. Which would you keep?

Light
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"Neither Mr. Edison nor anyone else can override the well-known laws of Nature, and when he is made to say that the same wire which brings you light will also bring you power and heat, there is no difficulty in seeing that more is promised than can possibly be performed. The talk about cooking food by heat derived from electricity is absurd."
-- John T. Sprague, England, c. 1878


Tesla experiment



happy reggae, foot to mouth
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"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is better on the Stereo than on the TV or some other tin ear-suck.
Meaning, the video.
(MTV=/or youtube.)

Enthusiastically, earnestly, in waxing philosophical, grandiose and uplifting, I returned my foot to my mouth, this time employing a cosmic delay pedal. Counting my blessings, I announced that while the subject matter of the class (Adobe Flash) was great, that still I appreciated modern medicine more. I chimed graciously about my cortisone shot, my return from the brink of permanently shitty health, and how I no longer felt constant nagging pain. Oh, my glorious return to standing up. How wonderful just to walk! I attributed their unremarkable hunger for wisdom to the usual, day-to-day  people-are-doing-their-own-thing-you-can't-expect-everyone-to-applaud-you type-self-involvement on both ends of us and them.
So it goes. Some dose, some knows. Alas, time passed. as did the remaining hour of the class pass normally. Later, having just left the room, I descended the stairs. There I realized that two of my less than ten classmates are in wheelchairs.


Two Of Less Than Ten
2x<X
2<10
ii<X



The Police.  An excellent example of The Drummer Makes The Band.


Mirage
music, rock
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Mirage, Fleetwood Mac, 1982
Here is a forgotten album by a supergroup slightly out of step with the times. If nothing else, it confirms two of my oft-repeated truths:

1. The drummer makes the band.
The opening song, "Love In Store" is dead on arrival; I blame Mick, with no help from Mac. That's a snappy little new wick staccato-ism Lindsey's chugging there, and you're leaning back too far. If it was just a little snappier, everything would take off, including Christine's sleepy vocals. Wake up!
Not to say by a long-stretch that it's even close to what the opening song should be -- for the ordering of the whole album seems impervious to instinct -- just that it could be a fun song but instead is just dull.


2. Bland mix kills potential great album. Candidate of master remix.
The most outstanding example of this phenomenon is Pretenders II. They were the baddest band of their day, but the dry mix sucked all their souls out.
Sorry pal, it's just what the standard procedure was for that year in every studio.
Now, however, I can think of many active mixers today who could make that album jump out at you in ways you'd forgotten... rock can. Those are some bad-ass songs, who to this day sound boring to you and me, when we should be uncontrollably grinning.
Improvement of Mirage would also require a re-ordering of the songs. Since the mellow boys in the back row are not yet up to speed, that weak track must not be first. To side two with "Love in Store"!
Or take a coffee break, then redo the rhythm tracks.
The lack of cohesion says a lot about where they were at that point in their careers. Lindsey dominates the studio, Stevie's off being a solo star, and Christine quietly sings vague pretty songs. They try New Wave, while trying to keep their mellow, but The Mac rhythm section just sounds bored. And there's little room for loose beards in our robot future.

Every Morning, 3 a.m. (Two weeks so far)
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Back:    You're not going to sleep until I get better.
Head:    Oh, but I feel so sleepy, I doubt I could stay awake. The rough water on the dark beach still reflects the moon behind the clouds --
Back:    Hey! You're right here, buddy. I'm in pain, and you gotta fix me.
Head:    I just want to sleep.
Back:    If you're so smart, figure out how to get rid of the pain, and then we can both sleep.
Head:    I'd be smarter after I rest.
Back:    Nope. Now.