Jump to content

deepseacatfish

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    4,127

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by deepseacatfish

    Health Care and/or Insurance

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    i think the industry should be better regulated to start with. make health care providers more consumer friendly in cost and coverage. there's too many "suits" with their hands in the cookie jar and nobody is paying attention.

    :yes That and the constant need to please stockholders are definitely holding back any sort of equitable form of health care.

     

    Here's a couple numbers to push around:

    In 2004 (the latest year data are available), total national health expenditures rose 7.9 percent -- over three times the rate of inflation. Total spending was $1.9 TRILLION in 2004, or $6,280 per person. Total health care spending represented 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

     

    U.S. health care spending is expected to increase at similar levels for the next decade reaching $4 TRILLION in 2015, or 20 percent of GDP.

     

    Health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense.

     

    Although nearly 47 million Americans are uninsured, the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens.

     

    Health care spending accounted for 10.9 percent of the GDP in Switzerland, 10.7 percent in Germany, 9.7 percent in Canada and 9.5 percent in France, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

     

    Since 2000, employment-based health insurance premiums have increased 87 percent, compared to cumulative inflation of 18 percent and cumulative wage growth of 20 percent during the same period.

     

    http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml

    Now Playing for January 2007

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    one of my all-time favorite albums

    Surprisingly I just discovered this last year. My parents never had it in their vinyl collection (pretty much they just had Dylan/Beatles/Classical music) so I didn't hear about the band at all until I started getting into music seriously, and then I finally picked it up and boy am I glad I did.

    Enhanced EP Kamera - sounds at start

    in Solid State Technology

    Posted

    Anyone know what pedal is used at the start of the song Kamera off the enhanced EP?

    You mean the wierd noise stuff, or when the instruments actually kick in?

     

    Cause the wierd noise sounds like some reversed instruments to me (maybe some keys/synth stuff), after that it's just fuzzy as hell distortion. Who knows what the actual pedal is...but it could be approximated with a lot of overdrives.

    A pt Update!

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    Have you listened to Jim O'Rourke's "Halfway to a Threeway" EP? I'd say that would be a good starting point for this. Iron and Wine's "Woman King" EP would also be excellent material to listen to.

     

    I took a listen to "When the Redbirds Sing" and I like it, definitely think it has an interesting chord progression (sounded similar to some Loose Fur stuff), and the finger picking gives it a nice motion (vs some sort of strummed pattern). It's obviously a rough version (as you mentioned), but I'd just make sure to get the rhythm/timing even throughout the whole piece, that would definitely help.

     

    As for added instrumentation, I think with any sort of folk songs it definitely gives them a lot more character, even if its just little accents. I think there's a lot of merit in the (to steal a IATTBYH movie quote) idea of "sonic weight," though of course straight presentations of folkish songs can be great too.

     

    Adding some elements like little piano accents, light percussion throughout...or even for part of a piece, or a second harmonizing guitar element could really give the song a little extra weight and character. A little slide or lapsteel accent might be brilliant. A lot of it just has to do with production values, depending on how much of a lush/sparse feel you want the song to have. Adding just a touch of something like reverb/delay can give a sparse thing a little more of a full quality too, but don't go over the top with that.

    Does Wilco turn your kids gay ?

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    I want to know why "gay" bands out number "safe" bands 76-13? Are these poor, insecure, religious zealots lead to believe gays out number straight's 6-1 in pop culture?

    It's kind of like liberal media bias man...the gays obviously control the arts :rolleyes

     

    However, based on that list I'm pretty sure that in order to be "safe" a band has to be pretty clearly pro-Christian, can't have any sexual ambiguity in its songs, can't support liberal causes, and can't play hard rock or rap. Go figure.

    Albums for my kid

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    I remember I always use to listen to Beatles records as a kid. When I was really young I think my parents had me listen to a little Pete Seeger, Peter Paul and Mary, Raffi, and Rosenschantz. That about covered it. I'd suggest anything with vibraphones though...pretty sure that's the most calming instrument to my ears...but maybe kids find the voice more calming :music

×
×
  • Create New...