The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Unlike most middle managers, when Muhammad Saad Al-Beshi says “heads are gonna roll”, he means it literally. He’s the leading executioner in Saudi Arabia.

When asked if the job had social drawbacks for him, Al-Beshi said that “There are no drawbacks for my social life.” As the lead executioner in a country where justice is meted out Klingon-style, he probably gets treated exceptionally well wherever he goes. I’ll bet he doesn’t get the crappy retail treatment when he goes into stores.

[Link via MetaFilter]

My schedule for the next week looks like this:

8:00 a.m.: Wake up. Breakfast.

8:30 a.m.: Shower.

9:00 a.m.: Start programming.

2:00 a.m.: Stop programming.

I still try and squeeze in twenty minutes of accordion practice somewhere in there, and I’m currently working on Electric Six’s lovely rocker, Gay Bar. If you haven’t heard the song, you can hear it at Joel Veitch’s rather good rathergood.com, where he’s turned the song into a video with flying puppies and viking kittens.

Here’s some accordion justice, just in time for National Accordion Awareness Month. I’m still quite busy, so I’ll just quote the AFP story…

BORDEAUX (AFP) – A French lawyer and accordeon player who was suspended from the bar association for busking in the streets of southwestern France has successfully appealed against the decision.

Valerie Faure, from the town of Bergerac in the southwestern Dordogne region, was suspended in November after two colleagues spotted her playing accordeon to a street audience, with her case laid open on the floor for tips.

But the appeal court in southwestern Bordeaux overturned the decision on Tuesday, on the grounds that Faure was not wearing lawyer’s robes at the time and could not therefore have undermined the dignity of her profession.

“I am happy that outside the courtroom a lawyer is allowed to have an artistic life,” Faure told AFP after the appeal hearing.

“I was simply following my passion,” said the lawyer, who performs accompanied by her husband on the violin, adding: “It’s not the money that counts but the pleasure of performing.”

Faure, who had ignored a first warning about her musical pursuits in 1999, said the verdict was a step in the right direction.

In 1826, a French lawyer was disbarred for performing in the theatre, while another was booted out in 1841 for taking part in a workers’ meeting.

[A big shout-out to Dylan Adams for bringing my attention to this story. Thanks!]

And, looking out my entirely-glass south wall just to the right of where I make the software magic happen (that would be my bedroom office), it would appear that I’m also buried in rain.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present the Polini 910 Carena: a motorbike small enough to put on your mantelpiece, but real enough to ride!

From the article at Motorcycle.com:

Basically, pocket bikes, also known as minimotos, are not mini-bikes in the traditional sense. They are miniature GP racing motorcycles, accurate in proportion to GP bikes and include many of the same component materials such as disc brakes, alloy and billet aluminum cast perimeter frame and swingarm. They are so small they many be perfect as a decoration piece. However, pocket bikes are manufactured to be ridden.

Our test bike, the 910 Carena, represented the middle ground of the Polini pocket bike line-up. The air-cooled, single-cylinder, two-stroke motor only produces a little over six horsepower, but there is a lot of potential in this pocket bike. Bear with us as we try to explain to you what its like to ride this Italian micro-bike less than a foot off the ground at speeds up to 40 miles-per-hour.

They called it a two-stroke motor?! It’s a two-stroke engine, people. There’s a difference.

All I can say is that you’d better be the toughest (or hottest) biker of the gang if you want to ride one of these in Quebec.

[Thanks to John “lemonodor” Wiseman for pointing out this link!]

According to this story, 1.2% of the gun dealers in the United States sell weapons that account for 57% of all firearms used in crimes.

Recommended Reading

Just in case you didn’t know (and hence didn’t get the joke title), here’s an explanation of what the Pareto Principle is.

We’re only a couple of days into National Accordion Awareness Month, and nobody can accuse me of not pulling my weight. Here are my contributions…

“If I’ve told them once, I’ve told them a thousand times, it’s AccordionGuy first, then Rush Limbaugh.”

Thanks to a recommendation from Scott “Hello, My Name Is Scott” Ginsberg — he’s the guy who wears a name tag, which gets accordion-like results and doesn’t weigh thirty freaking pounds — I’m going to be interviewed on the Keith Larson Show on WBT News/Talk Radio (1110 on your AM dial in Charlotte, NC) this Friday at 11:35 a.m. Eastern. They haevn’t given me any particular “script” to stick to; as far as I can tell, it’ll be me nattering for twenty-five minutes in my radio-friendly schmoove voice, after which Rush Limbaugh takes over. I hear he’s going to eat a tree on his Friday show.

A big thank you to Scott for the recommendation! You’re the man!

ChickTV

Next week, I’ll be taping a segment for an episode of an upcoming W Network / WTN show called Living Romance. This particular episode concerns itself with serenading and will feature a mariachi band, a violinist who plays for his girlfriend in the morning to wake her up and at night to lull her to sleep (oh yeah, that’ll be happening once the honeymoon’s over), and me. As with the radio show, this will be largely unscripted, although I think there’s going to be a busking segment where I attempt to woo women on the street. Which sounds like an average weekend for me.

Ooh! I get a movie credit!

On Monday, June 16th, the Canadian Film Centre will premiere five new short films, including one called Squeezebox, on which I served as technical consultant, extra, accordion foley artist and soundtrack musician. That, and I also gave two of the young teen stars help with their music and math homework. The preview screening will take place at the Uptown Theatre on Monday, June 16th at 7:00 p.m., followed by an after party at The Phoenix at 8:30.

I’ll be there, and if you live in Accordion City and want to come along, drop me a line and let me know!