Answers GQ2: The Revenge - Round 5

None of y'all managed to get'em all this round either. Specifically, the songs you were somewhat successful in recognizing were:

• Song 121: KISS - Crazy, Crazy Nights. I'm not even remotely close to being a fan of KISS, but this tune is kinda' kewl. Plus, I've logged some time playing this live, so I'm liking it just fine.
• Song 122: Gary Moore - Empty Rooms. Alas, none of y'all found this song, which is one of Gary Moore's biggest hits, and a perennial favorite on power ballad compilations. Buy some Gary Moore CD's now folks, starting with Wild Frontier.
• Song 123: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication. Ya know; I actually thought this would be a quite difficult one to figure out, since there are approximately five billion songs out there with that chord progression and in that tempo, but for whatever reason every single one of y'all found this song. Color me impressed.
• Song 124: Talk Talk/No Doubt - It's My Life. Another song that y'all found, and despite No Doubt having had a monster hit with a cover of this song, I believe every single one of you included Talk Talk. Most impressive.
• Song 125: Poison - I Won't Forget You. Pigeon; you actually answered Poison on this one, for which you deserve mucho props. You were the only one who got even close on this song though, which is a typical hair metal power ballad we used to include in almost every set we played. Yes; I think Poison is a cool band, and I'm not afraid to admit it.

This means that the Score after Round 5 stands as follows:

1. Anders/Sondre (tied at 6 points)
2. ...
3. Pigeon (5 points)
4. Cathy (4 points)

The Total Score consequently stands as:

1. Sondre (30 points)
2. Cathy/Anders (tied at 28 points)
3. ...
4. Pigeon (21 points)

Congrats to Anders and Sondre and good luck with Round 6!

Cool yet disappointing

Like I mentioned last month, our gym recently rolled out a "No freakin' tank tops or singlets, ya epic invisible suitcase carrying guido/airhead bimbette", for which we are totally appreciative. However; while the male population of card-carrying members of the skinny-guido-in-wifebeater club promptly knew what time it was and grudgingly donned t-shirts, albeit way too tight, they complied. The female population however, has continued unabated with their insistence upon wearing tank tops and singlets, and to my great surprise, the PTs (that's Personal Trainer for y'all not caught up in the business card-bolstering game of inventing kewl-sounding acronyms for what's essentially a job belonging to the paper-hat caste on the corporate totem pole) have walked by these scantily clad illiterate airheads without batting as much as an eyelash - volume boosted by L'Oreal products no doubt. Did this new policy only apply to the male gymgoers?

That sneaking suspicion of a double standard between genders triggered something in me, and as today the vast majority of female gymgoers was dressed in tank tops whilst being totally ignored by the residing PT, I was dead set on confronting the skinny, scarecrow-looking runt who has the audacity to presume any knowledge about weight training despite having all the lean muscle mass of a seven year old girl, and demanding an explanation for this blatant sexism. After finishing the workout.

This, by the way, is coming from a guy who has picketed against Chippendales back in the 90's.

After finishing my workout and getting off the treadmill, the epic 57-kilo clothes hanger masquerading as a PT was nowhere to be seen. Which meant I had to take it up with the girl at the front desk. I started out by complimenting them on their new policy, and then wondering why it only applied to guys. This elicited a surprised reaction, as the new policy most certainly applied to both men and women. Oh yeah - I asked - then how come there is not a single tank-top wearing dude in the gym, but most of the women in there are wearing singlets? Then she got surprised again, and assured me that she was going to take care of it - she was not in the weight room much, but it was very important that nobody were treated differently with regards to this policy, as that just wouldn't be right.

Basically my point exactly, which was way cool, and props to her (assuming something is done about it, of course).

However, in my original plan, I was hoping to confront the douchebag PT who was in charge that day, and maybe even getting a knee-jerk defensive reaction statement from him, which would have led to him either having the choice between admitting to blatant sexism, admitting to sucking at his job or alluding to the population of female gymgoers at this gym being illiterate or mentally retarded within the space of less than three arguments.

DVD review: ZZ Top Live from Texas

So, the moment a large fraction of the people here at blog has been wainting for, is finally here: ZZ Top has finally released a live dvd! Recorded on their home turf in Dalls, this DVD covers nearly 40 years of hits and rock classics.

The disc starts of with Under Pressure, a great show starter. The Eliminator album is represented with nearly all the MTV classic video hits, Gimme All Your Loving, Sharp Dressed Man and Legs, with fury guitars and all. And it's a fine mix of old and new material, including my all-time favorite encore: Tube Snake Boogie, La Grange and Tush! Yeah, they even threw in Sloppy Drunk Blues and Bar-b-q in the La Grange medley! For most of the show, Billy plays a custom white, pin-striped Gretch Jupiter Thunderbird, a gutiar he designed together with Bo Diddley. But I have to admit, that guitar doesn't have the greatest tone of all the guitars in mr. Gibbons arsenal. It got much better when he pulled out a custom shop goldtop Les Paul for the slide fused Just Got Paid and the Bolin, reversed neck Esquire type guitar for the three encore numbers. Talk about tone!

The sound is great, the picture crystal clear, but I think it changes camera angles a bit too often. Would loved to see longer segments by one camera, although this is no biggie.

Bonus material:
The band discussing their history and remembering some moments from their 40 year long carrer, a sermon by rev. Billy G (intro to Cheap Sunglasses), video tape from one of their photo shots and a cover of Hendrix's Foxy Lady, which for some reason wasn't included on the main soundtrack. The Hendrix cover is OK, it's a pretty straight cover without too much added. Hendrix had more suitable vocals then Billy G on this one, though. The rest is intersting for fans, but pretty pointless for the regular audience.

What else?
With the track record ZZ Top has, there's always some great songs left out. For me, I would have loved some of their blues covers, like Stop Breaking Down Blues (though, Sloppy Drunk Blues is even better), their greatest blues tune, A Fool For Your Stockings (Blues Jeans Blues is not a bad replacement) a couple of the old hits like Funky Kings and Nasty Dogs and Just Got Back from Baby's. From the 80's triple hit album, I would have loved to see My Head's In Mississippi, and maybe skip the Rough Boy tune (yeah, I know, it's one of their absolutly greatest hits, but I don't care much for it). Good thing that they included Pincusion from the post-80's periode, but I would also have loved to see She's Just Killing Me there as well. And, the best show opner by ZZ Top ever, is I Thank You, with the Deguello instrumental on track. But all in all, a really great selection of songs in my opinion.

So, two thumbs up, hoping that it's less then 40 years to the next live release.

Track list:
Got Me Under Pressure
Waitin’ For The Bus
Jesus Just Left Chicago
I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide
Pin Cushion
Cheap Sunglasses
Pearl Necklace
Heard It On The X
Just Got Paid
Rough Boy
Blue Jean Blues
Gimmie All Your Lovin’
Sharp Dressed Man
Legs
Tube Snake Boogie
La Grange
Tush

No More Mr. Nice Guy

I just realized this mornin' that I've been thoroughly owned by a weasel of a grad student from another group. Approximately two weeks ago, this grad student came to me with a technical question regarding how to improve certain properties of the materials he was working with. This is not unusual at all, and I spent a little time discussing things with him and making some suggestions for how to make the necessary adjustments. Weaselboi said thanks and was on his way.

Yesterday morning, I noticed that a small congregation was headed into one of the meeting/seminar rooms. Among them were the grad student bastard, his advisor and two prominent people from a hyooge company. I didn't think much about it, as it's quite common for research groups at this department to have close ties to industry.

You're probably way ahead of me here, right?

Yesterday's meeting went on for quite some time, and as I walked into the meeting room this morning, I noticed some schematics on the blackboard. Specifically, I noticed something familiar - an almost exact replica of the modifications I'd been discussing with him. yet somehow, I don't think my name was thrown around alot in the discussions with the industry bigwigs.

In short, I got played like a 25 cent harmonica at a folk music festival. I was absolutely Steve Jobs to the weasel grad student's Bill Gates. I was totally a nonpaid industrial consultant in this situation.



If that skinny runt shows up with more questions, my suggestions are probably gonna involve some anatomic impossibilities. No more Mr. Nice Guy. I'll be sippin' that Haterade from now on.

GQ2: The Revenge - Round 6

...I think this round is gonna be easier than round 5...


Submit your answers to mfactorquiz (at) gmail.com by the end of Friday 071108. Each song holds the potential of two points - one point for artist and one point for the song. Answers will be posted on Saturday 071208.

Song number 126:



Song number 127:



Song number 128:



Song number 129:



Song number 130:

Notes on German Volume Training (GVT)

For more than six months now, I've been trying out the German Volume Training system in order to give my body a break from the straight sets and pyramiding which have constituted the mainstay of my workouts. Originally, I just wanted to try it out for like six weeks after coming off the Milos Sarcev high-intensity schedule, but I liked GVT so much that I've stayed with it.

In the very likely event that you don't have any idea what GVT is, here are the basics (consult the link for more info): GVT is also referred to as the 10x10 system, wherein you pick one main exercise for each bodypart (bodypart splits can be kept up as for a straight set program), and perform ten sets of ten reps with the same weight/resistance. The idea is that you're supposed to reach positive failure on the tenth rep of the last set, and that you're keeping the rest periods between sets short (no more than 90 seconds in an ideal world). As a general guideline, Charles Poliquin recommends starting out with 60% of your one-rep max, which for me turned out to be complete and utter fiction. 40% of my 1RM was closer to what I could get away with for 10x10, but I guess that's gonna vary quite a lot between individuals, due to differences in type I/type II muscle fibers, and blah blah blah. Whatever. As always, the principle of progressive resistance is utilized, so that the weight is increased gradually. This is mixed up with some 8x8 and even 6x6 days for variety. Each bodypart session is rounded off with two or three sets of a complementary exercise.

The knock on GVT is traditionally that you're working with relatively light weights, which apparently is a huge blow to the egos of many gymgoers. Luckily, I don't really care how much I lift as long as I'm lifting progressively heavier weight, so that has not been a problem for me. Moreover, despite the first few sets being easy to complete, the last two or three sets really need some digging down, as you're pushing your endurance. Try 10x10 barbell squats with a minimal rest period for yourself if you think this sounds wussy. A pleasant side-effect of GVT is that I've had little or no injuries since I started with this system. Straight sets were much more taxing on tendons and ligaments in my case.

This is all good and well, but seeing as how money talks and bullshit walks, I wanted to find out if my 1RM had increased much for bench press today. As I worked my way up a triplet, double and single pyramid to get to my new expected 1RM, it became quite obvious that in terms of max poundage, my strength has not increased much from these months of GVT. However, following a failed attempt at a new 1RM personal record, I was able to rep out with 15 reps of a much higher weight than I've been able to get before - even as a first working set. So; to quote the great Benny Urquidez, "the way you train is the way you react", and in my case, that has translated into improved muscular endurance and a shifted type I/type II fiber ratio. Together with some added mass, I'm sure.

Which means that I'm at a crossroad now - either I've got to work to improve my absolute strength, or keep the reps in the medium range in the search for more mass. Decisions, decisions.

Henry Rollins

...does his "Spoken Word" thing, first on dating:



...then on rave and modern rock: