Comments on: Still Alive on Carillon

By: IndigoMonkey

IndigoMonkey — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:02:25 +0000

Well, THAT’S a link I’ll be passing on.

By: Frag

Frag — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:17:15 +0000

umm…. nice!
I really enjoyed Still Alive in Rock Bnad too!

By: Bridget

Bridget — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:35:06 +0000

Having tinkered around on one of these beasties before, I send congratulations, Greg! On both your recital and the awesomeness of your repertoire. I’ve always wanted to hear the SuperMario theme on the carillon, actually…

I played the 10-bell chime at Syracuse for four years (did you know who can play “Hey Jude” on ten bells? True!), and a decade later I found a carillon teacher in my area… but I had to give up lessons for various reasons (not exactly a portable instrument for practice purposes, is it?), and I haven’t been up a tower in a couple years. But the memories of hours spent banging out on the practice keyboard in the cold winter stay with you forever, I think.

This is my ultimate dream: to have my own carillon. All other dreams (where the castle will be, etc.) are necessarily built around that one.

By: Greg Courville

Greg Courville — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 02:05:28 +0000

@Kimani:

The recital was May 18th, 2008. Unfortunately, our advertising resources were pretty limited, and it happened to be the same day as Extravaganza (oops!). Hopefully we’ll be able to gather a more substantial audience next time around…

And, yes, it is imperative that JoCo come and play for us.

By: Kimani

Kimani — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:22:52 +0000

Wait, what? When did this happen? I goto UCSB and was not aware of this epic event :O

This is only the first step. JoCo, you must come and play at UCSB now! ( Not during the summer, though, since I’m not there. )

By: Jo

Jo — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:08:40 +0000

They played the Tetris theme song on it too.

By: Evil Ducks

Evil Ducks — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:54:42 +0000

I always loved when the nerds got their hands on Storke Tower back when I was at UCSB. I use to randomly hear various John Williams movie themes on them when cycling across campus.

I miss that school, it was an amazing place.

By: Lasse Havelund

Lasse Havelund — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:28:44 +0000

This is beyond awesome. Simply… beyond.

By: Roman V.

Roman V. — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:32:20 +0000

I was not aware that there were in fact tower bell “recitals”. Hey at least you have no problem figuring out where to host it.

By: Susie the Southern Geek

Susie the Southern Geek — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:24:48 +0000

I think that wins for coolest cover ever! JoCo, you should post a comment on his YouTube and make all of the viewers totally geek out!

@Greg - that was awesome! Did your judges know where the song was from? Did the school get any comments?

By: Jeremiah Staes

Jeremiah Staes — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:09:26 +0000

There aren’t even words to describe how epic that success is. Awesome.

By: Mystral721

Mystral721 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:52:39 +0000

@ John:
It actually still is available. I’ve run into that bug with embedded YouTube links before. Just double-click the video to bring it up in it’s own page.

Man, this was just awesome!

By: Jo

Jo — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:39:45 +0000

I was watching this being performed! Pretty epic… yay Greg!

By: Greg Courville

Greg Courville — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:37:32 +0000

Whoa! I’m honored. Now I sorta wish I’d had a few more months to practice. Maybe I’ll try for a reprise next year, if I can get access again…

@ Oliver:
There are definitely a few timing slips, not to mention that the arrangement itself is not entirely faithful to the original.
Also, the recording was made through the keyboard microphone on a Thinkpad. In retrospect, not an ideal choice…

@ Vern:
Yup, like a giant piano — but with more flailing about of the arms and legs!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:39:31 +0000

dude, that’s my school - I pass that bell tower twice a day on my bike - how was I not there?

By: rozwarren

rozwarren — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:04:25 +0000

Magical! Thanks.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:13:06 +0000

That was awesome, in all senses of the word. I was grinning like a loon.

A loon with lips, that is. Um. So, not a loon so much. But definitely grinning!

(Come back to Western Mass!)

By: John Coxon

John Coxon — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:42:24 +0000

It’s no longer available…

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:08:05 +0000

Can stardom rise any higher? I don’t think so!
Is it lonely up there Joco?

By: Vern

Vern — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:38:51 +0000

Cool.

Here’s a link to the YouTube page, with some more details about how/where this was made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPPjS-TCCqk

I had no idea what a Carillon was. Apparently it’s like a giant piano that has bells instead of strings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carillon

Here’s a page with some interesting pictures and facts about the Storke Tower carillon (where this was played): http://www.library.ucsb.edu/libwaves/aug99/tower.html

By: Oliver

Oliver — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:15:56 +0000

Some bits were hard to make out and the timing sounded weird, but considering where it came from it’s good stuff ^_^