DailyGenesis.com

Why do people say “no pun intended” when, clearly, they do intend to make a pun. This happens a lot, but here’s a specific example I came across while reading a Seth Godin book:

“What about a Polaroid camera? Was your first exposure (no pun intended!) in a TV ad, or did you discover it when a friend showed you how cool the idea of an instant photograph was?”

– Seth Godin, Unleashing the Ideavirus

So, are we supposed to believe that Seth Godin was just typing along one day and happened to spit out that clever pun unintentionally, realized the crazy irony in what he just typed and therefore wanted to let us know that he didn’t really intend to make that pun, it just slipped out? Not likely.

It seems to me that the reason to say “no pun intended” is if you really didn’t intend to make a pun. This would seem to happen a lot more in speaking than in writing. If you are just talking in conversation and you happen to say something that you think back on and realize it was a pun, then that’s when you say “no pun intended.” You don’t say “no pun intended” when you did intend to make a pun.

Ok, enough said.

The capo often gets some flack amongst higher-end musicians and I think it’s about time someone came to its defense. The anti-capo argument often goes a little something like this:

“Why do you need a capo? Why not just learn to play in all of the keys?”

Makes sense, right? Well, only if you believe the capo’s sole job is transposition. What many who make this argument fail to appreciate, I think, is that use of the capo is often just as much about voicing and tone as it is about changing keys.

I am not a very good acoustic guitar player, but I can play in all of the keys. That’s because I know how to play bar chords which make it pretty simple to hammer out major and minor triads on pretty much any pitch. So, why use a capo? Because I am compelled by voicing.

Ask a piano player to play a G chord and you might get any number of results. Maybe a triad. Maybe four notes in each hand. Maybe adding the “2″ and leaving out the “3″. Pianists can make a G chord sound many different ways by the way they voice the chord.

Guitarists also like to have these voicing options, but the configuration of fingers on frets is a bit limiting. Like playing twister with your fingers, there are only so many different ways you can approach the neck without hurting yourself. So, what’s a guitarist to do? Well, some venture out into alternate tunings to provide some voicing variety. Others use capos. Some even use multiple capos in various configurations. In all cases, a guitarist is not simply cheating his way into a difficult key, but rather creating new ways to sound the chords.

One specific example revolves around open voicing chords. An open voicing chord is one in which at least one string on the guitar is left “open” and not fretted. Naturally you can see how an open voicing can only work on a single pitch since trying to move up and down the fretboard while leaving one or more strings open doesn’t work too well. That is, unless you use a capo. So, if you like the sound of the open voicing G but you want to play the song in B flat, then put a capo on fret three and listen to it ring.

I believe the capo is an absolutely essential accessory for the acoustic guitar. Just like a mute provides a brass player with a whole new world of tone possibilities, the capo does the same for the guitarist. And hey, sometimes brass players might just use the mute because they are not good enough to play soft without it. In the same way, acoustic players (including me) might sometimes use a capo to cheat into a difficult key.  Even so, mutes are still viable tools for brass instruments and capos are equally significant for the guitar.

Please note: this article has been republished on EatAroundOKC.com. Please follow this link to see the article:

“Oklahoma City goes ultra-hip with Red Prime Steak“

This year, through my job at Element Fusion, I’ve proposed two panels for the South by Southwest interactive conference in 2008. SXSW is a major conference in Austin focusing on Music, Film and Interactive.

The proposals are posted, along with all of the other submissions, on the SXSW panel picker, which allows anyone to register and vote on which panels they would like to see.

So, if you are so inclined, why not head on over there and give us a vote? Just click the panel picker link above and then search for “element fusion” in the search box and our two proposals should come up.

To read my post about this on the Element Fusion blog, click here.

How long has it been since you’ve watched a live launch of the space shuttle? For me, I’m not sure if I ever actually watched one live. I know that sounds crazy, but as I think back on it, I can’t remember sitting and watching a live launch.

But this week, I was at the gym on a treadmill at 5:24pm central time on Wednesday, August 8th. I looked up at one of the five TVs in front of me and saw in the lower right hand corner a little bug that said “Launch at 6:36pm eastern.” That was just 12 minutes away. I only had 6 minutes of my regular treadmill program left, but I decided I’d stay on a little longer and catch the live launch.

I’m really glad I did. I mean, I got really excited about it. It was awesome, and I couldn’t even hear the sound so I was just reading the captioning. I watched the launch and the whole ascension all the way until the tank separated. I really got a good treadmill workout that day.

I don’t know, but there’s something pretty special about the space shuttle. There’s only three more years until they retire it. Try and catch a live launch sometime.

Just thought I’d give a little follow up on my last post. SunRocket bit the dust so I went looking for a new VOIP service and landed on voip.com. So far, so good.

For a while there, I was really upset at voip.com because I thought I wasn’t getting any email communication from them. I signed up, asked a few support questions … etc., and nothing. No feedback. I was beginning to get worried.

Well, a couple weeks later I checked my spam folder (which I need to start checking more often) and there were all of my communications from voip. Nice, friendly letters every step of the way letting me know that everything was moving along. So, sorry voip.com that I doubted you. All is well now. We’re still friends, right?

Took a little extra time to get the conversion equipment, but that’s understandable considering the fact that they’re dealing with 200,000 SunRocket subscribers who are now without service. Even with that, I was up and running in under two weeks with my old number transferred and everything.

Quality is great and, as always, the price is right. And they do have a responsive support ticket system and even a support phone number. Let’s just hope they stay in business.