It’s a fun song. It represents a time in our history where people were up in arms about a war but still could find the time to be happy. Can you imagine something like this now? It would be like an emo band covering… well, “Feeling Groovy” and meaning it. People are depressed, angry, scared, and not able to see what’s good around them for fear of losing it all. This song reminds me that even if things are going bad, there’s always something beautiful, or nice, or good, or positive going on and I should find it. You can feel groovy without shirking your responisibilities, no matter how burdensome they are. Watch a sunset, play with your child or niece or nephew, get your buddies over for conversation and coffee.

Excuse me, the cobblestones are calling, I’ll worry later.

Some of you might have asked, “how did he build that swanky terrain in Miniature Rules”. Well, the tiles were bought. Sorry. But fighting on a vast plain gets boring after the third time Ace brings his “All LRM-Gauss-ER PPC” units, so we needed hills to allow my Starslayers to POUNCE!

First was getting a slab of easy to cut styrofoam from Michaels. It’s $8 a pop, but who can’t find a Mike’s 40% coupon to score this for $4.75?

All you need to cut this styrofoam is a serrated knife, a mid-sized tooth one seemed to work better than the steak knife:

I then hack the sheet up into several different sizes. I can usually get 1 big hill, 2 narrow but wide hills and 2 small caps out of each slab.

Then it’s just round off the edges to provide some definition. This should be done at a slight angle to provide a slope so it looks more “terrainy”. No matter what the overall shape is, they look funny without a little slope.

Next, hit ‘em with the grey primer. With this styrofoam, it kinda pools and ebbs, so the sides of the sheet look a little textured. Enough for me, and I’m lazy. More ambitious people can use a wet blend of black or light grey to provide more contrast as they like.

Finally, use good ol’ standby Kelly Green (not Michael’s Kelly Green, get the original flava.) to coat the top of each one. Kelly over the grey on the styrofoam will darken as it dries, leaving it looking a lot more natural than any other green or blending technique I’ve tried. The last picture below is a Lt. Leaf with Michael Kelly, as I bought the wrong bottle and was trying to see if it would work.

Really, that’s all there is to it. I know there are fancier and more elaborate schemes, but frankly, they ofttimes get in the way of gaming. I’m a little tired of going “Ok, just put your Rifleman down there and we’ll set a pin up in this rock formation you want to be in, don’t forget to measure from there…” This is a good blend between looks and playability.

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I was raised by a pair of native Californians, and moms went to Hawthorne High in the mid 60s… you know, with Brian Wilson and Mike Love… so it was kinda mandatory that they were into the music scene. I grew up on just about every kind of music that appeared in LA (that is to say all of it) in the mid 60s, and one of the styles that has stayed with me is this.

Oh crap. Baroque pop.

Yeah, that made me popular in high school, along with Brussel Sprout day and a 1-9 football season. But frankly, I didn’t care. Most of the kids at school sporting their G’N'R or Pantera shirts couldn’t talk about their music with their parents without an attempted exorcism. I think, to this day, that mom and pops gets a kick when I pull up to home and I’m playing this, and I’ve followed it with The Sundays (which my mom’s gotten into in a big way). It provides a framework for a long family tradition of music, and frankly I’m proud to be part of it. Listen, baroque pop’s not going to kill you. I’m reminded about the conversation between Quark and Garak about the Federation…

It’s like root beer, it’s insidious…

This is one of those songs I didn’t understand until I got older. I kinda got the gist of it, and it kinda made me uncomfortable what with the knocks on East Coast Suburban Life, but I was totally lacking in the context being a kid in the Westies. The CD re-release of “Songs In The Attic” had the full album liner notes in it, and Billy commented at least a little on every song. On this one he notes that he wrote the song for all of his friends who fell into chemical dependancies and couldn’t get out of them, giving me the background I’d been missing before (as I’m a pretty straight arrow). I now listen to it and can see a darker counterpart to “Running On Empty” by Jackson Browne. In “Running” the point is that you’ve come close, but you’re still ahead of the game. In “Captain Jack”, you’ve given up, and dropped out of the race. It’s a sad song, but melancholy has always been a strong point of mine.

I’m no Guns and Roses fan by far, but I’m a dead sucker for Power Ballads. And it would take the least metal band in history that tried to claim to be metal… and I’m including Nelson… to make the Poweriest Balladiest song ever. This son-of-a-bitch is longer than American Pie, albiet that Don sings all the way through his song for the additional degree of difficulty from the East German judge. This drops in a good deal of Slash on guitar and a end coda that even made Layla go, “and you tacked that on… you go, girl!”.

Be that as it may, for some reason when I hear this song I see… and this will win me like mad fat geek props… Captain John Sheridan and Delenn’s romance during the Shadow War. This genre of music has always ridden the close edge between awesome and being exposed as the D&D/Star Wars geekfest the lyrics actually resemble ever since Led Zepplin and Van Art. The song wasn’t written in this vein, but damnit, I can’t help seeing Shadow vessels cutting loose with their cannon, screaming by to Slashes’ guitar. It’s certainly more interesting than the video above.

“A long, long time ago…”

What a great start to what is, in my own humble opinion, the greatest song ever written. I’m sure there are those who’d disagree, but on this subject… I’m simply not listening. It is one of the most ambitious songs ever recorded, a retelling of the history of Rock and Roll from Buddy Holly to the aftermath of the disaster at Altamont. It’s style is even influenced by the events it retells, as his country/folk influenced composition was part of the rise in the wake of the backlash against Altamont. The song becomes progressivly more complex in the studio cut, mirroring the changes to the music as it aged. The metaphors, similies, whatevers make it a delight to sit around and go “Oh! I know what he’s talking about!” When asked what American Pie means, Don McLean said “It means I never have to work again.” But we do, and I appreciate a song that’s both a delight to listen to and a wonderful excersize form my noggin. Eight minutes and thirty-three seconds of musical bliss, and always on the playlist.

I just like Lorenna McKinnett and the neo-Celtic sound. But as good as the sound is, it’s not as “real” as, say, “Giant” by Stan Rogers. It’s a little glossy for me to go out and buy massive ammounts of her stuff, but I’ve bought four or five tracks from the ‘net just to have something to feed the need when it arrives. Looking at the above video, though, it looks like an awesome night for a live show. I’ll have to keep that in mind.