Friday, June 27, 2008

Interns On Grammar

Recently we had one of our interns look into the grammar issues that keep cropping up in some of our songs. Apparently, we has a problem with this.

Our intern , Brae Whether, analyzed the song What We Need Is Some Interns In Here.
I have no definitive answers, but after some extensive research I have some decent arguments about the sentence: "What we need is some interns in here."

"We" seems to be the subject, but I think that's the case only because it's a poorly constructed sentence.

I think an argument can be made that the real subject of the sentence is "interns." The sentence should be something like, "More interns are needed in here."

There's a grammar rule called the proximity principle which states that the verb should agree with the closest noun. Look at the examples below:

- What he needs are loving parents and a stable home.
- What he needs is a stable home and loving parents.

I think this song is more of an example of 1 than 2.

Finally, if your sentence is singular, then if follows that it can be turned plural. But I can't seem to make it turn plural. However, I can easily make is singular: "What we need is an intern."

Or, change the subject, make it plural, and change the word "interns" to something singular: "What the companies need are a scanner." See how that doesn’t make sense? If the subject of that sentence were "companies" then that sentence should read correctly. More evidence that "we" is not the subject of the original sentence.

Late for class. More tomorrow if you would like to continue.

Thanks Brae for that thoughtful analysis. We is going to write better lyrics in the future.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Sham Rock (and more)!

Just a quick note today - we've been hard at work getting our newest music released for sale. Recently, our rockin' album, Sham Rock was made available for sale at CD Baby and at The iTunes. Here are the links:

Buy CDs and MP3s at CD Baby

Buy tracks or the entire album at The iTunes

Also coming soon! A very large release of albums from Beatnik Turtle. I'll give you a hint - we will be releasing 365 fully remastered tracks on 12 albums. I wonder where we might have found 365 tracks in our back catalog? hmm...

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Open Mic Night!

For the next three weeks on Wednesday nights (starting tonight), I will be guest hosting the best open mic on the planet, Scott Besaw's open mic at Bad Dog Tavern.

Tonight, Randy and Ryan will be joining me to help kick off the night with a couple of Beatnik Turtle songs. Hint: the first song is about not wearing underwear and the second is about drinking coffee while programming... Any guesses?

We're scheduled to start at 8:30pm!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Walkway Update

On the way to get some chicken pad thai for lunch today, I crossed the infamous walkway (ignoring my instincts to stay the hell off it). It was closed a few weeks ago for "repairs" but it appears the repairs amounted to nothing more than placing traffic cones next to the deteriorating concrete. That makes me SO much more comfortable walking across.

The Walkway June 2008

Notice the odd angle at which the walkway sits - you can tell that water pools along one side:

The Walkway June 2008

I think I'll take the long way next time...

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Report From The Road (Part 10) - Home At Last

I'm finally back home again. Over the course of the past couple of weeks, I was pretty fortunate to have really great weather - even in Vancouver and Seattle. Many who know me know that I don't like rain (even if it sometimes inspires songs). It seems I brought some good weather home with me - it's a beautiful day in Chicago and I'm about to stop typing and get outside for a bit - before I need to start recording some of the music I wrote while I was away...

Home At Last