4.15.2011

Electric Organ From The Infinite Garage Band


My tiger parents had me hitting the ivory keys at age three. We had an upright Yamaha which didn't get as much use as it should have. I played for seven years, long enough to learn Fur Elise, the most widely recognized song in Taiwan. There, you'll hear it in electric greeting cards, music boxes, and as department store Muzak. I learned the piece to please my mother. Only after then did she finally allow me to give up my not-so-great piano career. 

To inspire me even more, my parents purchased this Schafer and Sons Electric Organ. It's been in the garage for over two decades now and I'm stoked that it even works. It has all sorts of instrument sounds like the Hawaiian slack guitar and the banjo, and has canned beats like Bossa Nova, Teen Beat, March, and Dixieland. I'm now equipped to start my low-fi Infinite Garage Band which will only feature instruments from the garage! It's going to be a bitch to go on tour with the organ though.

Here's a demo: 

4.12.2011

Music Monday: The Frog Prince

From my grandfather's record collection, the Frog Prince.



There is something weird happening on this record sleeve. Some fight for attention. The pretty girl sweeping her hair back, interrupted by the small man in the corner signaling "Stop! I have my shirt buttoned all the way down! She is nothing!" 


My aunt said the dude is a singer named Gao Ling Feng. He was short and flamboyant in the 70s. He always travelled with two hot chicks. He called himself the Frog Prince, because even though he had toad-y looks he wanted to ladies to know he was a prince on the inside. During his later years he started wearing low cut jumpsuit like Elvis. Fittingly, he was best known for a song called, "Flaming Phoenix."  

How To Stop Worrying And Start Living

Dale Carnegie gets his point across in almost any language. Which is why my parents had a collection of his books in Chinese.


I love how his book titles promise the secrets to living. They promise the dream. They make personal success sound so simple, with a direct path. How To Enjoy Your Life And Your Job. The Leader In You, The Quick And Easy Way To Effective Public Speaking, and my favorite, How To Stop Worrying And Start Living. Easier said in a book title than done. From the looks of them, the books have never been read.

And where is his most famous tome, How To Win Friends and Influence People? It was probably his only book that my parents left dog-eared and marked up somewhere. 
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