New Episodes of Our Man Bendzick, Music Podcasts

by Joe on June 23rd, 2008

It’s summer time, which means I’ve begun working on my podcasts once again.  I have produced two more brand-new Our Man Bendzick episodes, which both feature a slideshow that you can watch while the podcast plays.  Be sure to make sure that the Artwork is visible in iTunes (lower left corner) and click on the artwork to make it bigger, and enjoy the show.

Click here to subscribe to the OMB podcast via iTunes. 

In addition to the OMB podcast, my Music podcast has seen its share of updates as well, which you should check out if you are at all curious.  Visit here to check out the details of my music podcast, and click here to subscribe to it via iTunes.

Thanks for listening, and keep your ears open for new episodes in the future.

A Rediculously Huge Update

by Joe on July 28th, 2007

If you’ve been paying close attention, you may have noticed a few additions, subtractions, and multiplications and maybe even perhaps a division or two within joegall.com over the past few weeks. And well, if you haven’t noticed anything new…well, that’s probably the healthier of the two situations you could find yourself in.

I have a new header – the Joe Gall silhouette of old, with short hair and more rounded look, is gone, replaced by a much updated version of my head. Judge as you will.

The last.fm section has been deleted, to my dismay, really, but I was trying to get the last.fm widgets into my sidebar, but that didn’t work, and then I tried putting them onto their own page, but that did not work either, so instead of investigating the matter further, I just trashed the idea completely.

What else…some new files are in the US History AP section for you sophomores and juniors who may come across this site to use.

Ah right, the photos section of my site…well, I’ve updated that a bit. You can browse my Facebook photos right from my site, and I have linked to my Gallery, my flickr photos, and my Facebook photos. So check that out when you can.

My iTunes Library is now updated as of late July, so be sure to browse through that and see if I have anything you might be looking for but have had a tough time finding.

I also now have a tumblr blog. My tumblr is just a site where I can post YouTube videos, pictures, quotes, or links that I find on the internet, and think other people would get a kick out of seeing too. There’s some funny stuff on that, so be sure to check that out as well. Tumblr is free, so I recommend anyone to give it a try too.

And, oh, of course! My podcast! Or podcasts, as I should be saying now. Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First things first – I have TWO new episodes of the Our Man Bendzick podcast up and running for your listening – and viewing - enjoyment. (That’s right, folks – another video edition!). The first new episode is Part 1 in a series consisting of an interview with the one and only Mr. Bendzick. The second new episode is available in two flavors – iPod video format or Full Resolution format. Both will play on an iPod, but the Full Resolution version is about 5 times the size of the iPod video one. Download both, though, since you’ll want a higher quality version to watch on your computer. And, if I may add – I think this episode (Episode 10) is the best OMB episode since Episode 1. I think you’ll enjoy it very much and am really happy I was able to produce it.

Visit the podcast section of my site for more details, and a link to subscribe to the Our Man Bendzick podcast.

And, in addition to the OMB podcast, I also have begun producing a brand-new music podcast, called “Joe Gall’s Music Podcast.” I know, the name is lacking, but whatever. Subscribe to it and listen to my mullings and masterworks that I’ve created using GarageBand.

And, once again, visit the podcast section of my site for more details and a link to subscribe to my music podcast.

And I think that about wraps it up for Site Updates.

Now…life…well…I’m working for Apple now. Well, sort of. TCNJ Apple Campus Rep. I’m supposed to be getting a MacBook at some point, and an iPod too, so I can show them off to people on campus, which will in turn convince them to buy Macs and iPods. Which is good for me. I’ve made a site using iWeb, so check that out too if you are ever so curious.

I want to go back to the beach at some point…I spent a week down on Long Beach Island, which was nice, but I’d like to go back for like a day or something. And go back to Seaside for some pizza…mmm. But alas! Summer is slowly withering away. It’s almost August. Which is a bad sign of something looming overhead…

I’ve gotten used to summer, and the summer schedule, and I like it. It’s a different summer break than before though…more driving around, more going out to eat, more bowling, more spending money, more reading…which, overall, sounds pretty good. I’m not complaining. I’m doing a lot of things that school’s going to prevent me from doing, and that’s what summer is all about (not studying in the library…you know who you are).

And well, yeah. My leg hurts from intense bowling tonight. Six games. And I kinda sucked. But oh well, I’m slowly improving and becoming more consistent with those scores. Straight 60s, woo! Well, okay, no. I’m a bit better than that.

I’m going to Louisville, Kentucky for a few days with my dad for the National Street Rod Association National Car Show. Should be exciting and colorful. And possibly extremely hot. Which matters a lot when you are outside walking around in a gigantic parking lot full of street rods for 12 hours every day.

I wish this weekend’s forecast wasn’t so threatening. I’m looking down at my web browser, which has a weather report bar thing on the bottom bar, and all the icons are these terrible gray clouds with strikes of yellow lightening on them. Oh well.

Talking about the weather is the best indication that one has run out of things to say, so I am going to stop now.

One last thing, I’ve made some new iTunes Signatures that I want to share, so here they are for your listening pleasure…

One of the best ones I’ve made:

And another:

I still have a blog? Yes! I do!

by Joe on May 23rd, 2007

I thought this old site would be dead and gone by now…much to my surprise and dismay (and undoubtedly yours as well) it still exists on the Internet. And oh, have things changed since my last update, way back in December, when it was…warmer than it was today*.

I bought a viola (why not?) and played the Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 and some Ives stuff with that orchestra at TCNJ. I also played in a quartet with some nice people and got paid for it sometimes.

Things have been, well, awesome, to be perfectly honest. School ended for a weekend, and now I’m back, taking Math 101 until June 1 to fulfill a Liberal Learning requirement. Most surprising is that it’s not a bad class at all – in fact, the teacher I have is amazing. And Dutch. Of course, it’s the course that only has 14 meetings in total in which I have a really great teacher to enjoy learning from. Oh well. Despite that, I’m glad there’s only 4 more days of it. Then I can finally establish what I like to call my “summer routine”**.

So far this summer, besides school, I’ve managed to install – and uninstall Windows Vista Ultimate on my PC. It just didn’t cut it…especially when I had Mac OS X sitting right next to it, all happy and functional. I was really disappointed with Vista, but at the same time am rest assured that Apple has nothing to worry about when it comes to the OS wars – if Tiger beats Vista out of the water, I can’t imagine what Leopard will do in October.

And look, there it is – my obligatory (yet completely voluntary) mention of the wonders of Apple, Inc.

Speaking of which, I’m applying for the Apple Campus Rep position at TCNJ…I can’t believe how much paperwork there is to fill out for this job, it’s crazy. And then i have to FedEx it all to Apple HQ in Cupertino, and hope that I get the job…if I did, it would be awesome, since I’d just get paid for basically what I do now (talk about Apple products with people, etc etc). And it’s an on-campus job, which you really can’t beat either. Fingers crossed on that one…

This summer I’ve decided to establish goals for myself. Amazing, I know. My first goal is to finish Harry Potter 5 and 6 before HP 7 comes out. By the looks of it, this goal will definitely be accomplished. I also want to read at least 2 more Kurt Vonnegut novels and up through the late Romantic period in Lives of the Great Composers, in preparation for my music history courses next year. (Do I sound nerdy yet?).

My goals do not end there! I want to practice violin/viola/guitar/piano a lot…and become super awesome at all 4 before school starts. Main issues with the guitar though is that I am missing an E string, and I think my amp is broken. Or maybe the guitar, I dunno. I gotta open it up and see what’s wrong. Issues with the piano is that, I don’t really play piano. I need to learn at some point, even if it’s just basic stuff. Right now the thought of playing a keyboard with both hands simultaneously intimidates me…I don’t know how piano players do it.

I also want to write music this summer…which is more of an undertaking than it sounds. My big goal would be to compose a nice little string quartet, since 4-part writing is what I think I’m capable at this point. I do think this one’s possible if I really commit, and read a lot of theory…it would be pretty boring if all I used were the same chords over and over…blah. I’ll work on it. It’ll be fun. And embarrassing at the same time, taking into consideration what so many composers already accomplished by age 19…

I also would like to go to Six Flags at least twice this summer. And see some sort of show, I guess. I don’t just want to be sedentary (not sedimentary, as Michael Scott would say). By the way, what a great season finale for The Office, I have to say. That is one great show. You can watch the episodes over and over and over and they just get funnier and funnier – I love shows like that, where they are written so well that you pick up on new stuff every time you watch an episode. It’s great.

You know what else is great? The iTunes Signature Maker! This neat little website will analyze the songs you have in iTunes, and create a 1-2 minute mixed sample of your songs based on conditions you set, such as telling it to select songs based on your rating, number of times played, or playlist. It provides the best answer possible to the question, “What type of music do you listen to?” It is also useful for creating “What’s that song?” games. I’m sure you’ll be able to pick out some songs from the signatures I have created, which are listed below. The first one I made around last August, and the second one I just made. I’ve made quite a few which I’ll put up along the way. Those of you viewing this from Facebook may need to go to the main site to listen to the profiles.

This one I made a while ago:

And this one, a few minutes ago:

*74 degrees and sunny

** staying up until 5 AM watching movies and/or TV shows on my computer and sleeping until 1 or 2 in the afternoon

Death and Other Less Morbid Things

by Joe on December 5th, 2006

This is the third update in recent times…why do I all of a sudden have so much to say? Who knows…maybe it’s the fact that it’s the end of the semester and I am becoming lazy, and have little desire to study…that has to change soon. Despite all this, things are looking up. Christmas is coming. I’ve discovered Fred Neil. Life isn’t all that bad really, I have to say.

Report From the Front

by Joe on November 21st, 2006

Today I became a music education major at TCNJ, finally. My single goal for the first semester has been fulfilled.
School itself has eased itself somewhat into place. Semester is surprisingly almost over…it went by a lot quicker than I had anticipated.

Jeez, now that I go and write a xanga entry, and I really have nothing to say. It’s not like nothing has happened in the past two months – a lot certainly has. Some things have changed. Except my diet. Which is probably not a good thing, because everyone is telling me how I’m whithering away. But such is life.

I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving…I haven’t seen my relatives in a while and all, so that should be nice. And then begins the Christmas season, once again…it was a quick year. I don’t even know if I’m even ready for Christmas yet really. Maybe because of the whole change of scenery, and it’s not like it used to be. That’s not a complaint, I’m just stating the cold hard facts. That’s just the way it is. Maybe the Christmas carols will change all that.
But maybe not.

Come on, come on…you think you drive me crazy…
well come on, come on….you and whose army?

Random lyrics of a song I was listening to that have no subliminal meaning at all, but I couldn’t resist typing them while listening to the song. So there you go.

until next time. which will definitely be a lot sooner since I’ve forgotten…or lost the will to write about all the stuff that has happened between now and my preceding post. look at this, lack of capitalization madness. i don’t care anymore.

Hello…hello, hello, hello….

by Joe on September 13th, 2006

It’s been well over a month since I’ve updated…that has to be some sort of record. Actually probably not, but it’s fun to think so. In the time between then and now (all of August, in fact, which consisted of nothing that I can remember in the least) I started college. Not without making a few sacrifices, though — quitting Kumon was a tear-jerker (okay fine, maybe not, but I think I got a little upset about leaving, knowing that I was being replaced). And uh…I guess that was the only real sacrifice I had to make. Oh, and not bringing the PC to college — my dual-monitor-esque days are over until I decide to screw the valuable, limited living space I have in my dorm room and lug in the huge PC + monitor. Maybe I’ll bring it for the winter, so as to warm up the room a bit. Too far ahead to even think about now though.

I just got finished listening to a Moody Blues album that reminded me of being in 5th grade — actually to really pinpoint it, the album (Days of Future Passed for the two of you that are interested) REALLY sends me to Patrick McCoy’s sleep over party in 5th grade, during which everyone thought Larry ran away when he was actually just hiding under the table, and only I knew, and Larry didn’t want me to tell anyone, for reasons I don’t even know to this day. I eventually told everyone where Larry was hiding. We also played Crazy Bones like no tomorrow, and watched Lethal Weapon 4, Austin Powers, and Merlin. Sense memory that’s crazyyy.

Oh, so, right, school. I love the whole idea of not doing homework at night and worrying about having every single class every day. I feel so comfortable just going to the library and sitting in one of those comfy chairs (on the 4th floor, of course) and studying for hours. That’s what I plan on doing tomorrow, anyway.

I’m trying the music major thing for now. I guess it was a good idea to pick up the viola last year, even if it was as a joke — it’s the only way I got into the orchestra, I think. The TCNJ orchestra has, now, including me, 3 viola players. So, they were pretty desperate. As long as I’m there…it doesn’t matter I guess. I have to play for the violin|viola private teacher sometime this week (which I’m not looking forward to at all) because I’ve apparently been placed into a quintet (playing the Schumann quintet), since I am one of three in the orchestra who play the freaking viola. I just hope I can keep up with all the hardcore practice-for-16-hours-a-day people. I certainly shall see.

All other classes are going fairly well, I am happy to report. Psychology is a once a week thing, lots of reading, but it’s all really interesting stuff. My Latin teacher is relatively sane (for a Latin teacher), as far as I can tell, anyway, so I may actually end up learning some Latin this semester. I’m excited! What else…oh, Music Theory, of course…ugh well the only class I could get into was the 8 AM slot on MONDAYS and Thursdays….waking up at 7 is less-than fun, but oh well…I have a test on Thursday that I really want to do well on (well, obviously) so I have to study like crazy for that tomorrow.

Oh, yes, my FSP class on….DEATH. It’s all rooted in philosophy which is really really interesting and the class makes you think so much, about things you otherwise wouldn’t think about — we discuss whether or not a person can be harmed after they die, whether death is a harm to the one who dies, fatalism vs. determinism (which we also discussed in psychology interestingly enough), and whether a person is harmed or not if they are not aware of someone doing something that thwarts their interests, i.e. their well being etc. It’s not very uplifting but it’s interesting nonetheless. I have to write the second exegetical paper for death tomorrow…and it has to be better than last week’s travesty…

I swear, I think all Monday nights I’m going to be speaking with some variant of a British accent – I have DEATH with James Stacy Taylor who has the really thick accent, and he talks for most of the two hours of the seminar so I’m so inclined to pick it up then…and then I have orchestra for 3 hours with Dr. Tate, who also has such a thick British accent and he also talks a lot throughout rehearsal…talk about a British Invasion. And, little known fact, I actually began first talking with a British accent because I watched Shining Time Station all the time, which had Ringo Starr as the conductor guy who narrated all the Thomas the Tank Engine stories. So, it’s fair for me to say that Ringo Starr taught me how to speak. Then Sesame Street came in and taught me how to count to ten in Spanish. I picked up American English somewhere along the way.

That’s about it for the beginning-of-college round up. So far, so good.

The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band Concert (with some Kumon and Badminton Racquet Shopping Thrown In)

by Joe on July 30th, 2006

Another video of ASMZ performing in Berlin can be seen on YouTube by clicking here.

(see more pictures and video in the gallery).

What a busy day…

Today (well, technically yesterday) began when I had to wake up early (eg 10:00) for work. Got dressed for the occasion (white polo shirt w/ name tag – it’s coming back!), and arrived at work. Once again it was pretty slow, not a lot of kids like simplifying fractions on a summer Saturday afternoon…after work we all went to Mrs. Chows for a very cheap lunch. After lunch, Larry and I went to Sports Authority to buy our brand new badminton racquets. A few dollars later, we had our new racquets. It was getting to the time when I had to leave to pick up Paul to go to New York, so I bid larry adieu and got ready to go to New York for the Silver Mt. Zion concert.
I picked up Paul and we made our merry way to Princeton Junction, and I thought I was somehow being deceived by a) the many parking spaces available at the station, and b) the fact that I didn’t have to pay for parking. Too good to be true – but it was. So we bought our tickets and waited for the 5:23 train to arrive.
Once we got into the city we wanted to go see the Apple Store again, so we took the subway up to it. We spent some time in there but it was nearing 8 o’clock and we had to get a move on if we wanted to see the show. So we reluctantly left the Apple Store and tried to find a subway that would take us Downtown. We eventually did, I guess, but on coming out of that subway we didn’t know where to go. The directions told us to go east – where’s east???? Needless to say, we were walking all over the place with no luck, so we called down a taxi (with the perfect wrist movement, by the way) and told the cab driver, who looked like a sultan or some rich arabian guy with a long mustache, to take us to Delancy Street. The directions we had were wrong; we had to go up a few blocks before we would hit the street we were looking for earlier. Oh well. Cab fare wasn’t that much anyway, and it was my first time ever riding in a taxi cab. Wild stuff.
So, we walked around and then, there it was, the Bowery Ballroom. The first club I’ve ever been in, complete with the roped entryway and a bouncer, who checked our IDs before we climbed down into the lounge area, which we waited in for a bit until they opened the hall. I guess the doors opened at 9 – the concert didn’t actually start until a little bit after 10. So, we got a pretty good standing location, closest I’ve ever been to the stage at a concert.
The first group was Black Ox Orkestar, which played old Jewish folk songs which was pretty cool. Most of the members of this group were members of the featured band A Silver Mt. Zion.
The main event, ASMZ, came onto stage (see the intro video up above) and Efrim Menuck introduced the band, and came raging out with the first song “God Bless Our Dead Marines.” The second song they played was one of my favorites, so I was pretty stoked with that. One of the new songs they played was really good and I can’t wait to hear a studio version if they ever surface that song to an album or ep. All in all the concert was awesome, it was really cool seeing these people whom you’ve listened to and read about for a while up on stage, not 20 feet away. Fun stuff.
After an encore song, the band left the stage and the lights went up – Paul says, “Hey Joe, it’s kinda late.” I look at my watch – 12:50! WHOA! I thought for sure the concert would have ended before midnight – I thought we would have caught the 12:42 train. Guess not. So I said, “Paul, we gotta go!” and we busted out of the Bowery Ballroom and raced around like mad rats in a maze (literally) trying to find a subway that would take us Uptown to Penn Station.
I didn’t know when the last train ran to Trenton, but I knew that there were no trains after 2 AM. So we had to hustle. At a lot of points my worries were twofold: we would possibly not catch the last train out of New York, and that my car was towed since I was so doubtful about the free parking. We caught a subway and ran down towards Penn Station, and saw the time schedule – next (and last) train to trenton would be arriving at 1:41. It was 1:29 when we got to Penn Station, so we had enough time to get drinks (we hadn’t had ANYTHING the whole time we were there, sooo hungry….). Wow. We made the train. That was exciting.
I don’t know if any of you drive around at 3 in the morning, but there is NO ONE on the roads. It’s amazing. Princeton was a Desolate Railyard (Silver Mt. Zion song reference, yea!).
Oh and it turns out my car wasn’t towed after all.

The birds are starting to sing, that’s my cue to go to sleep.

My New Favorite Show

by Joe on July 28th, 2006