Autarch's Blog

Check out my friend Carter's blog. He is a web developer and a friend of mine who writes up and makes some pretty neat things.

I wanted to take a minute to ask all my friends to check out Marzi. Many of you know him already but if you don't: Marzi is a singer/songwriter/guitarist who lives and plays in and around Houston. I've known him for about 20 years and in that time he has never ceased doing what he loves most and that is: playing. And you can tell.

Back when I met him he was already a virtuoso. He did stuff on the guitar that no one had even thought of, much less had any hope of copying. Nothing's changed. Except maybe his style. These days he's the front man for Heavy as Texas , a brutal southern metal trio which, to me, sounds like Pantera meets COC.

But you would also need to check out his other side where you will hear the kind of stuff I know him best for. Beautiful instrumental pieces that are perfectly written and performed such as Aliah and Spanish Thang. Just listen to those two songs if nothing else. You'll hear what an amazing musician this guy is.

I took lessons from him for a brief time back in the day and I still look up to him for his creativity, his passion for his craft and his awesome fingers. So, say hi to Marzi on myspace if you like his music or stop by and see him live in Houston. He's playing this Saturday December 12, 2009 at Crazy Frogs Saloon.

Yay thePivot has new hosting and is almost fully moved in. Had to ditch a couple of things that don't run on linux but you won't miss much. Coming soon are:

• a Debris section dedicated to artwork and rules for the board game Rick and I created over 10 years ago.
• a Huckleberry player so you can stream the whole CD (and maybe some bonus material)

I put up a new page with some old music. Check it out, there's tons of songs you can listen to while you work and a little bit of history on each one. There are more coming soon.

Today is just the same as any other day to me.

Walking wall to wall to pass the time, I picture what it's

like on the other side.

Because I'm here on the inside of blue, without you.



Day in day out on and on ... I'm missing you.



Some days it feels, just like falling down.

Some days it's easy, just like falling down.



Some days it's real, just like falling down.

Some days it's easy, just like falling down.



Day in day out on and on ... I'm missing you.

Last night I stopped at the store on the way to pick up my son. I picked up a 2007 Queensryche CD that I never even knew about. When I got in the car, I popped it in before driving off. The first song was a cover of Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine from Wish You Were Here. I couldn't believe it! I knew what it was before he sang the first word.

It is as good as the original? No. But it's still pretty good. I listened to it like six times in a row. I was calling my friends and telling them, " you have to hear this!" I thought it was just the coolest fucking thing EVER to kick off your latest album with Welcome to the Machine.

Well, as it turns out, it's an entire CD of covers. Heh. Hence the name: Take Cover. I'm stupid: I didn't even LOOK at it in the store.

So, I start thinking, "oh great, the rest of the CD is going to either suck or be songs I've never even heard of." Not true. They pull out Neon Nights from Heaven and Hell by Black Sabbath and they do a great job on this one. In fact it's eerily close to the original in a lot of places.

But I got the most excited about track 6. For half a minute I just kept going, "NO WAY, NO WAY, NO WAY!" Innuendo by Queen. If you wanted to pick the most difficult Queen song ever, this is arguably it. Again, not as good as the original version but still an amazing effort. It gave me chills. For the first time in recent memory I didn't want to get out of the car when I arrived!

I didn't realize when I grabbed it but it's just kind of a novelty. Not something that I will really listen to for years to come but it made my evening.

Made this and wanted to share it. Pee-Wee Herman on his bike yelling, "I'm Not sorry!!" Which is actually from Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams but so what?