 |
|
archives push me to post webmail :: xenii mail the hive :: for trading and raiding polymorph :: a cosmographia universalis chrisnelson.ca :: chiefwagonburner has a blog fortune cookie distro :: x's distro
 I See a Darkness I was listening to a cd jeffron sent me last year or so, and this came on, and I realized I hadn't even really acknowleged his death.
jimmy Oh that. That's why I hate those Crossfire type shows. That's also why people watch them.
jimmy Read the transcript and imagine it as a show. The entire thing is bait and switch. Guest: fact 1. Host/rightwing guest: thats a lie! Guest: Backs up fact 1, adds fact 2. Host/rightwing guest: Switch to another topic. Its the chewbacca defense - not supposed to make sense, its just used to derail. "COULTER: No. Liberals don't want to fight terrorism. You want there to be lots of 9/11's." This is the most popular news network in the US, and that is very sad.
chiefwagonburner I don't get it Chief. What's with the news there?
jimmy Sorry, wha? Faux News (we distort, you comply). How can anyone read this transcript and not be disgusted?
chiefwagonburner Just got out of the shower. I'm lucky to be alive, no thanks to the Doobie Brothers.
jimmy Didn't Gay Rights advocates have a response to his marriage protection thingy? Like an awareness as well? Chief, you're starting to depress me now. Bush Resume. Now in the hive as a PDF! I'd been searching for something like this.
jimmy "It's not my language" I guess I missed Marriage Protection Week. Nothing to see here, move on. My god is better than your god. For those of you that are interested in 3d stuff, the new version of Maya is free for non commercial use.
chiefwagonburner When trying to hunt down the source of the more exotic error fauna here at work, Chief, ever the handy-man, introduced me to the fabulous world of Keyboard Remapping. If you want your '+' key to bring up your mp3 player or spell "Welcome to the third mall from the sun", you can do it with a handy Key remapper (I think). I've uploaded a freeware version along with its license information to the hive. If you're interested, find it here or head to the hive yourself: Key Remapper.
jimmy the accidental tourist 2.97 mb girl i know: is that song based on the book? alien_proxy: there is a book? alien_proxy: Fuck. alien_proxy: FUCK!!! girl i know: wha -was home sick and decided to do a song. Chief, regarding Arnold's meeting with ENRON, wow...This came way before his announcement to run for Governor, didn't it? At that time, the recall wasn't even an issue, was it? If there is one thing I have to give the Republican's, they certainly have a wicked talent for getting their people into office. As for the Bush leaks article, I am still trying to figure out whether it's a joke or not. Like an Onion article. It's on a serious site, so I guess the author was having a bit of fun with it and it's actually true. High-larious.
jimmy More arnie fun. Funny. Thanks Dick!
chiefwagonburner I have read The Gulag Archipelago, and although I thought that it was powerful and disturbing and important, I wouldn't say it was among my top 5 most beautiful books, but everyone has a different definition of beauty so that's not an insult to the book or to you, jaime. I'm glad I read it though. Man. It still haunts me. oh the horror....
Miss Speck and the Giant Librarians Thanks, Chief. I found that recording while searching for flight attendant speeches (and spiels) and could not stomach taking them from a movie. It was made by a company which provides "personlized messages" for their clients' patients. When I heard that recording, I remember thinking, ok, ok, "how the hell is it going to automate the dear Andrew part of the song? Oh please oh please oh please let it be that mechanical email reader voice!" When they actually altered the song to keep repeating "to you", I was thoroughly disgusted enough to use it. Crazy. If you've never read The Gulag Archipelago, I am sad to say that it ranks in the top 5 of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I could be heavily criticized for saying that, given its subject matter. It's not supposed to be beautiful. It's not literature. It's an indictment against the Stalinist regime for its horrific crimes against humanity. The author though, captures elements of humanity you and I are lucky we will never have to see, and acts of love and courage we are remiss for not ever experiencing. Americans don't often think about Stalin. We weren't trained to hate him as we were Hitler, because at the time, Russia was a friend of ours. We knew what was going on, but just like so many people (especially men) out there turn their heads when their friends perpetrate acts of domestic abuse on their family, America did the same with Russia.
jimmy I like all 3 Jimbo. Hah, where is the birthday sound bite from? Good ole Pat Robertson. Diebold voting and and the Georgia upset. This stuff is quite frightening. Kurzweil pushing the AI envelope.
chiefwagonburner the great cliché 3.02 mb nervous mice .5 mb 5,999,999,999 to go 1.57 mb Hope you enjoy. (Can't remember if I'd already posted that last one.)
jimmy Awwa...good luck with that. I had originally responded to only half your post because that's all my browser displayed from home. When I got to work I noticed the whole thing. My comp has been wacky ever since I tried installing some Douglas Adam's game called "Starship Titanic". I guess you shouldn't try to install software you find in thrift stores.
jimmy Never fear, Chief! Remember, Bush gave a major tax break to people who drive SUVs. Go get yourself a Hummer! Mmmm, mmmm.
jimmy Awwa, very cool, congrats. Hope it works out. Just a thought - has art slowed down in the last 20 years? I wonder if so many luxury items and personal debt are taking a toll. "My credit card is maxed and I want to buy the new hummer!"
chiefwagonburner I have a piece that is 42"x43", the printing and framing of which costed $400. The printing alone was $135. Now this photographer probably has his own printefr or at least a sweet deal with someone whereby it'd be cheaper, or at least under his control than what is available to me. But I could see it costing him in the hundreds per photo print just to produce, (not to mention location costs, licenses, fees, equipment, staff(?), or other overhead in acheiving the shot). It really gets exspensive fast! Anna has the experience though, to talk about the galleries and their whole racket. I've had a couple of pieces in shows, and they did each ask for about 33%. I'm sure part of the mark-up is their overhead. But then perhaps the last statements that Anna and Jimmy made are the most indicative of why it's priced so high, Ahhhrt is not for the masses/working class. Ahhhrt is for the very rich who want to throw money at it, who can buy self-importance through that association with something that is unique and rare, who can afford to outbid the competition. Check-out the movie "The Moderns." Some interesting ideas along those lines. Heck, a Madonna CD doesn't cost $17 to produce, but it is priced by what the market will bare, and she is selling to the masses. When does intellectual property deserve/demand that kind of markup? Is pirating a good thing, despite loss of revenue? And what is a free society, if its culture and arts are not also free and available to everyone? In a gallery my computer pieces could be displayed on monitors, making the essence of them available for viewing. They can be displayed online with ease, but otherwise, in order to see them they have to be printed. But since the art that I am currently producing are computer files, have no tangible existence except after printing, it becomes an issue of what do you sell. Do you sell the print? Do you sell the file? Do you sell rights use the file? What are the methods that can be used to copy protect that kind of art? How do you sign it? How could someone discern your files from someone else's? Okay style is a large part of even this kind of art. But then it is so immediate (it only takes a few minutes of fiddling to produce some of these), and the palette and canvas are so nearly infinite; that it becomes easy to produce works of many styles and influences. My stuff is distinctive in the influences that I persue. I like psychedelic, surrealist, op art, minimalists and other, some more provintial influences. But I have litterally thousands of these, I don't even know if I could identify some of them as mine, especially if asked a month or more later, after making another thousand or so. Now if I could make $3000 a pop, Heh, then I could be talking about it as though it were Ahhhrt! But I do want people to see them! I've thought about creating a catalog, whereby there'd be a hundred or so to see. Then if someone really liked one, I could have it produced with no upfront costs until it was being sold. But I've also thought about how special that catalog/book might become. So selling them as a book is also an option. As it is, I have sold a few pieces that I've had printed. A few have been accepted in art shows. But perhaps the biggest news is that I've been approached by a texture manufacturer, who is offering $600 a pop for any of my files that he sells to a client. His business is creating huge rollers, imprinted with specific designs, used to emboss materials used in manufacturing. They create rollers which emboss paper towels, napkins, tisues, other paper products, leather, pleather, plastics, rubber products, wood, metal, other materials which go into handbags, computers, vynal (sp?) siding, deck surfaces, floor surfaces, car interiors and bumpers, etc. Textures are everywhere, and where ever they were manufactured, they may have used a business such as Standex (that's the name of his company), to create the embossing equipment that created that material. It was so syncronistic, I met him at Main Street Beer Company. He was new in town, I showed him some of my art, he became excited ("I can sell this! This is what we do!") so he made me an offer. $600 for each one he sells, after selling 5, he will give me a $3000 plop/bonus, all renegotiable if circumstances change at any time. I signed-up! So far he's asked for 4 files, which he is currently tooling protos to show the clients. I've given him 30 or 40, 8&1/2" by 11" prints to show clients. Of these he asked if I'd provide him with 3 copies each, 2 additional salesmen and himself to show around. For this service he is paying me $10 for each set of three. I got a check yesterday for $160 for the first 16 under this new aspect of our agreement, my first payday so far. But what has been the most exciting about it of all of this is that I didn't have to sell it at all! As soon as he saw some of the pieces, he was the one pushing to do this. He told me that they thousands of pre-existing designs. But over and over again what the clients ask for is "something new." And he said that they have staff artists who work on some original designs. But my stuff, well he said he'd never seen anything like it. No big money yet, but it would be nice to make this into a paying concern. To give you an idea of how excited he got, he told me he took a few of the initial pieces to a 40 person pitch with GM. They started off saying, "Show us something new." He told them that he could take any design they had, and put it on a roller for them. He can do it cheaply, and quickly through advanced technology using lasers, which he personally helped develop. But what he didn't have were many ideas for new designs. Then he dropped my batch of designs on the table. They leafed through them until one said, "That's it! That's the one we want!" That file (one of the four) is currently being created as a prototype roller to show the client for final approvals. This time next year, you might be able to sit in a car wrapped in my texture. But I digress. So the costs come down to several factors. 1> Production costs/money actually spent creating the art, the art's overhead 2> What were the education, training, experience costs associated with getting the artist to that moment of creation, the artist's overhead 3> Agent, gallery, museum, exhibition (especially if it travels), web or anyway that it is shown overhead 4> Competitive pricing, what the market will bare, how unique/available/in demand is the art 5> How important is the art, is it larger than life, one of a kind, important in content, something particularly precious 6> How important is the artist, deserving, popular Certainly availability is a big factor (4). An artist can reserve that aspect in order to make the pieces more precious (5) by limiting the availability. Making the artist more seen, more noticed, more important is another way to inflate pricing. Keeping production costs down, also is a factor. All of these (and more) affect what a piece can cost. Oh I blather on so! I am intensely interested in this subject! It directly affects what I am doing, (not to mention much of what I've ever done). Thanks to anyone who read this far! I'm through singing now! Peace! Awwa \A/
Aw Ah ok, thanks Anna. I figured they took a decent chunk - most could not stay in business otherwise. I am sure the time and money invested in taking that one picture is huge. Here is to hoping for a cheaper reproduction in the future for all the po' people.
chiefwagonburner Most galleries take up to 60% of the selling price. I would say that he's asking for a fair price, but these prices are also influenced by the market. If he's in demand, 3k is reasonable. Sucks for any working class person who might want to purchase something, though.
Anna Depressing. I saw this photo at 'Border Crossings', a showing at TNT on Oct 2nd. Not as impressive at that size, but the one showing was aprox 40x30. I thought it was beautiful and sad. I loved it. I emailed the artist about prints and surprisingly (he is quite famous) he replied back from an internet café in Italy and directed me to several galleries. One of the galleries was a block away from work, so I just walked down there to ask about prints. I expected it to be expensive (they need to make a living), but I was told that a print would probably be around 3k. Ouch. Even if I had that money, I could never be able to justify it. Sigh. Anna Goss and I were talking about this on the way back. Since it is a picture, it is not that expensive to reproduce. One would assume that he could make as much money selling 10 at 1/10th the price (maybe even more so when you consider the subject of the essay). Is that assumption ignorant? I guessed that the price was mostly a result of the gallery circuit - they deal in low volumes and high prices (so they can make decent commission I would assume). If one decides to offer at greater volumes, is it a risk for diluting your work, or just a risk to the gallery business relations?
chiefwagonburner And for anyone interested, Wendy Carlos's work is in the hive. For those of you who don't know how to use the hive yet, and haven't seen any of its goodies, feel free to email me. You can also make requests that something be put in the hive, too (keeping in mind that you'll never get my Polaroids). Anyone is free to make any alterations to the hive they wish. jimmy@xenius.org
jimmy I didn't see Michael Moore's statement on that but I did read several reports on the event. The Bush family has ancient ties and obligations to such families. As for your suggestion that 9/11 was a U.S. orchestration, I can understand the sentiment. One of the most alarming items I read in a PNAC document was that a war in the middle east was needed, and in order to gain public support for such a war, an even comparable to Pearl Harbor would be necessary. They certainly got what was needed for their war. I will find the direct quote and add it to this post. Document located in the hive here. Note copied from Smoking Gun: The actual quote is as follows: Page 51 (the 63rd page of the PDF file available here), of "Rebuilding America's Defenses" says, "Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor. Domestic politics and industrial policy will shape the pace and content of transformation as much as the requirements of current missions." - The purpose of the comment was to explain that the shape of America's military is driven by policy decisions which, in turn, are driven by the perceptions of the American public. The public, "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor," would not support a dramatically different policy regarding the capabilities of the armed forces. (This information was pointed out by a reader. TVNL appreciates this observation.) Keeping in mind that PNAC members are currently part of our administration, it's easy to see that they were granted their wish. It makes it so much easier to explain Bush flying around in private ENRON jets during his campaign, and the CIA putting the snooze on the firebell when the events of 9/11 were spelled out to them. Do you Californians remember your $300 electric bills? *sigh*
jimmy This just gets stranger and stranger! That propaganda letter is another example of the deviousness of this administration! How much longer until Americans wake-up? Or are we already awake, just not being told so? If we had the election right now, would Bush be resoundingly defeated, but still win, because they just didn't tell us? Even in the last election, we don't know. How close was it? Are the figures they report accurate or just what they want us to believe? As I was sitting at a bar last night (Capital Taphouse, a different venue than my usual), I realized part of what's wrong. These people are the "They" that everyone refers to. It's not just that they want to run everything "their" way. These they really do think of themselves as different than, above, more priviledged, and deservingly so; than the rest of us. These they are sociopaths who've found a way to make their diabolical mania work for them. This really comes down to "Us or Them!" Did anyone else see Micahel Moore make the statement (I believe on the Conan show), that the only plane(s) that were allowed to fly the morning of the 911 attacks, were flying Osama Bin Laden's family members out of the US? I've maintained all along that GW somehow orchestrated the whole event. It's been too convenient for his regime! It's allowed him to set up this terror driven state of marshall law, over what was once thought of as the land of the free! Maybe we never were free. What is freedom anyway? Whatever a person believes about freedom, it should be plain that we certainly aren't now. Here's the hard part. They say (different they), "Power is never given, it must be taken." Are "We the People..." able, ready and willing to do that? It could get bloody! I fear we may see some hardtimes from all of this, regardless of the willingness of Americans to revolt. But if this regime is not dethroned in a big, obvious way, we'll likely exchange the old boss, for a "...new boss, same as the old boss." What's to keep them from setting it all up again? End of morning rant. I hope all are well! Awwa \A/
Aw http://www.obeythesuit.co.uk/obey2.swf Yes. They sell suits. Probably by generating contraversy. Sad though...they have an almost uncanny understanding of their demographic. Chief, you might like this one: Cleanse, Fold, and Manipulate.
jimmy Just finished the movie and I can't believe it. Wendy Carlos has been writing music that's haunted me since I was a kid. I have collected lots of her work from when she was known as Walter Carlos, but I never looked into Wendy's work. Though I still have to check all the dates...this dvd is obviously new, and I'm not sure when she appropriated her new name and I have a feeling that they altered the credits for her. Check the Hive for Carlos' work on Monday. The movie was incredible. But the music...the music was fantastic. I don't know much about her life, but obviously she's extremely interesting, yes? She was a physicist and codeveloper of the Moog synthesizer (Robert Moog by the way, still hangs out with folks like ourselves in bars in New York. I tried buying one of his theremin kits the other day, but it was a bit too expensive. I happen to be connected to him on friendster.com, too-along with millions of other users. The guy is extremely popular.) When I was a kid, living in Illinois outside a craft factory which had a bubbling green mote and filled the air with an awful stink, I would play videogames constantly. Their music would fritter about in my head constantly. We lived in an apartment complex surrounded by a tall fence. The neighborhood outside the fence was a ghetto. I had my first fight there (I won, but only because I decided to hit the boy first while he "prepared" by dancing around shaking his fists.) I also fell in love with a girl across the fence. We would meet at the fence every day. We never touched but once or twice. Always through the fence. It even went so far as for her brothers having to accept me. Silly. I was also ripped off there for the first time. My grandmother had given me this coin for christmas. I dunno, it was supposed to be worth money. It was American, perhaps some special edition coin. I told these boys through the fence that I 'd gotten the gift and it was worth good coin. "Nu-uh" they said, show us. I ran home excitedly, got the coin and handed it to them through the fence, happy I could share it. They ran away. I saw them later...yes...playing videogames. They were everything. It wasn't until Keflavik, Iceland that I would play the first videogame ever that would spark my imagination like nothing else. TRON. So anyhow, I spent a lot of coin on the game, and its blipping electronic score would dance in my head while I slept. I didn't know anything about the movie (until tonight) except what I garnered from the game, because I had fallen asleep during the movie. I even "adapted" a simple version of the theme song on the piano. I think it was the first song I had ever figured out on the piano. I'm just really excited it was Wendy Carlos. HOORAY! Hold on! Still babbling. My girlfriend and I recently purchased season 3 of the Family Guy series. In one of the episodes there is a spoof on the light cycle scenes from Tron. The arena that the cycles are battling in is surrounded by a low wall, and the wall is full of pseudo-electronic circuitboard type patterns, except I noticed something while I watched it yesterday...they were actually letters. Of course, this is the spoof version, and I had yet to see the real version. In Family Guy, the letters are upside down, and you have to struggle to interpret them. They say: "Is your tv upside down?" Then tonight while watching the real scene for the second time, I noticed again that the walls had a kind of barely interpretable pattern on them...only I couldn't make anything out. They were definitely letters in some outlandish font, but I just couldn't figure out if they said anything. Does anyone know if they do and if so what they say?
jimmy Hah, good ole tron. I r not smrt when it comes to music (though I have a bit of familiarity with the tech based roots), so this whole conversation is rather interesting.
chiefwagonburner Holy fucking shit! Guess who did the soundtrack for Tron? Yes. Wendy Fucking Carlos.
jimmy Yeah Jeffron! That was it! First hint of defection indeed! *sigh* Memories. I'm about to sit and watch Tron. I don't remember a thing from my childhood. Is it a ride or what? I just remember playing a videogame. I hope it's as good as they say it isn't.
jimmy Wendy Carlos, formerly Walter Carlos, created most of the soundtrack to "A Clockwork Orange" as well as "Well Tempered Bach" both interesting early Moog synthesiser recreations of classical, otherwise symphonic works. Eno now, there's a weird cat! As I recall he was involved with the textured man himself, Bowie! And also some experiments with Fripp of King Crimson, another interesting musican. One of the last items that I read about Eno was that he was conducting a nationwide experiment inviting guest artist/musicians to contribute to a huge, city to city concert mobile, conglomerate piece. I never heard what became of it. There was a whole phase of '70's Prog Rock, later leading to more ambient Kraut Rock, which I was truly influenced by. During my High School, into college years, there was Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer (formerly The Nice, with Greg Lake, formerly of King Crimson), King Crimson, Genesis (Peter Grabriel's original big group, later fronted by what's his name?), Jethro Tull, Rennaisance, Pink Floyd, Bowie, Mike Oldfield, Gentle Giant, Vangelis, Blue Oyster Cult, Hawkwind, Mahavishnu Orchestra (featuring John McGlauphlin (sp?)), Kansas, others, and some might include Rush, Boston, Super Tramp, Alan Parson's Project, Todd Rutgren, Queen, Stix, Uriah Heap, Black Sabbath, Electric Light Orchestra, others, though they are somewhat out of the movement/moment. Oddly enough Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Klaus Schultz, Popul Vue, Amon Duul, etc of the Kraut Rock genre, were the more natural offshoots of Pink Floyd into ambient. However I am not sure if any of these Kraut Rockers were the least bit influenced by John Cage or the more "Artistic" experimental music genre. The "Electronic Music" guys, who created cacophonies of discordant noise, were perhaps the "noise" side that Jimmy speaks of. I am only slightly familiar with works from these later experimentations (though electronic music goes back to early Moog days). They are perhaps less easy to listen to or to understand or to know why they are difficult to be heard. But perhaps it's related to why I found Rap so difficult to understand. As a young black man explained it to me, "You [me as white guy] aren't supposed to like it." Then, wow, the door just opened up! Now I can tolerate, but still don't like much of Rap. But there are some moments which are truly inspired/inspiring! A side note to Kraut Rock and, or ambient Pink Floydesque music; a close personal friend of mine plays bass with Carl Percoda (formerly of the Dream Syndicate), in a band called "The Last Days of May." Their current, revision of this and similar music might make an interesting side stuy to your paper Anna. Here's a link: LDOM I'm out of my league to discuss much of this stuff, not a scholared muscian myself. But I did grow-up listening to the bands that beget some of that stuff, Heh! And don't even ask me about Trance! I really don't understand nor were a part of the whole Rave scene, perhaps to my loss! Bass and Drum is the worst unless that's what I'm supposed to think, Har! Oh and Congrats Coop! Charlotte Jordan Cooper, a beautiful name! Wow and she is sooooo cute! Buddha like, definitely! And all that dark hair! I was born with a shock of dark hair. They call that something... (?) But I had no fingernails, eyebrows or toenails. My mom freaked! But the doctor assured her that they'd grow-in, which indeed they did. But growing-up, some sort of residual memory, caused me to have the habit of putting my fingers through buttonholes, this to recreate that cutting feeling of freashly forged fingernails, somehow a feeling of security. Conspiracy Theory or the Truth? At a time when the world has become united in communication and transportation, a time when all of the dispersed cultures and isolated groupings of humanity have been discovered, at a time when most of the world’s nations have opened discourse into the idea of governing the world; an Austrian born candidate wins the governorship of the largest state of the world’s strongest nation; and immediately is heard the murmurs of rewriting the USA Constitution in order to allow foreign born persons to run for president of the United States. Can you say, "Bavarian Illuminati?" Recall that both Bush Sr and G W have bantered around "Thousand Points of Light", "New World Order", the pyramid with an eye logo of the Department of Total Information Awareness, and other phrases and symbols associated with the Bavarian Illuminati. The creative being more open to, but needing to filter more out in order to remain sane, strill sounds like, uh, Doh, like okay, now what? Are creative geniuses still in danger of being classified as insane? Especially in this day of TIA? I want to go back to the days of T & A! Okay that was politically incorrect! But that's just how my male brain works! Don't try to change me ladies, Har! Hey to all! I've been Isabel lagged, and then the Blog didn't work for me for a few days, and then I had to take a couple of days to catch-up reading. Wellness to you all. I'll try to respond to other issues as I have the time. For now I must go off to conquer the "Dungeon Seige" realm (a new PC game I'm obcessed with). Peae to All! Awwa \A/
Aw This is interesting to me though, since I hadn't even considered ambient music after Eno. This is the drawback of my particular (limited) musical perspective. I don't even know who Wendy Carlos is! I know what you mean about Satie. I have a lot of his stuff, but I find that if I listen to it for more than a few minutes I begin to get irritated. I've been reading some Eno interviews so that I can get a good understanding of his particular motivations. Looking forward to more of your thoughts. It doesn't matter if it relates perfectly to the scholarly texts we're depending on, because it helps get my mind out of the rigid framework school imposes on it. I drew an Oblique Strategy to begin my paper with: abandon the usual instruments
Anna I think I'll think about that question for the rest of the evening and try to answer you tonight (heading off to play music at Rachel and Eric’s). In general, my attitude toward ambient music is an extremely hostile one. Many people use such hyperbolic expressions as "it makes me sick", but when I say the music makes me sick, I mean it literally. When I hear bad music, I actually have a physical reaction to it (especially my own). My stomach will twist and my throat will become constricted. This usually happens when I’m angry in a situation in which I have to remain calm (such as with my boss). Ambient music has almost never been a good experience for me, and mostly I just tolerate it if someone puts it on. My experience with Eno, Cage, Cale and Satie has been quite different, so I'll be thinking about why this evening...something about their approach is different. (Actually, most of Satie's work makes me very aggravated, but like most people who enjoy Satie, I am mesmerized by the Gymnopedies and Gnossienes). I do know what part of my distaste for certain types of music, though. It stems from the structure of the instrument, the human hand, and expectations of the genre. The first and second points are related. With say, the guitar, many chord positions are easier to assume with the hand, and as a result they are played more often. 95% of guitar licks in standard folk and blues music are predictable to trained musicians if the guitar is kept in a standard tuning. [A good example of this is actually in the song Salsbury Hill, by Peter Gabriel. While not a folk song, note the constant guitar rhythm. It is based entirely on the beginner’s version of the D-chord, and ANY, I say ANY folk musician would be able to play the song immediately if you merely tell them it’s “in D”. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the song by the way. It’s beautiful to me.] This then, eventually plays its part in mapping out the genre. Since there are "folk chords" and "blues chords", the explorations of the genre become a sort of emergent property and very few musicians will be able to enter uncharted territory in either of these genres. The key point about “folk” music though, is that it is undoubtedly for “the people”. It is not just the often politically driven lyrics which describe this quality, but the actual position of the hand when the music is made! 99% of folk music is created using beginner guitar chords. This means that anyone can pick up a guitar and reproduce a Bob Dylan song, or a Woody Guthrie song. This is why it’s such the perfect engine for political discourse within the music. You don’t actually have to be an accomplished musician to be effective. If you change the tuning of the guitar, new possibilities open up, and this helps us define clear differences between the "flavor" of Delta juxtaposed against other blues genres. Delta blues, played with the same human hand, is often played in different tunings, and what emerges is a different set of possibilities altogether. At this point, it is only called blues because of the identity of the musicians themselves, the region from which they hail, and the content of their lyrics. If this were not the case, it would be difficult to tell the difference between Irish folk music, country, then Blues. All three of these genres are deeply intertwined, as unlikely as that may seem. In much the same way, a lot of ambient music is enclosed by the rules of its genre and the instruments associated with the genre, such that ambient music has scarcely changed since Wendy Carlos. Fucking annoying! The Moog remains heavily sought after, and digital copies are heavily rejected for being inaccurate, while highly advanced emulators are given praise for sounding exactly like this technologically ancient analog instrument. Why? Clearly though, music has never progressed at the same rate as the technology which drives it. Symphonic music continues to be played on classical instruments (thank goodness for that), and (non blues) rock music continues to require at least one guitar (a point which Radiohead toys with incessantly). Since I'm not an academic musician, I think I would be crushed for making these points. I would like to see that actually, I could certainly stand to learn something useful. When I get back tonight I should actually have organized my thoughts on ambient music, though I don’t think I’ll have much to offer. Mostly, ambient music makes me ill because it is extremely predictable. Interestingly, even the noise genre can be disturbingly predictable. This is one of the most accepting genre’s that is, even more so than rock, since it is the anti-genre. Take a folk song, throw the sounds of collapsing buildings, record scratching, movie samples, etc.., and you have a noise song. The basis for the music is important, but only insofar as it supports the noise, and not the obverse. I guess it pays to ask why “the greats” became the greats. What were they trying to do? Why is This Heat definitive? Velvet Underground? Bach? Glenn Gould? Rolling Stones? Wagner? Everyone who came after them is accused of being influenced by them. Sad really. I think it pays to invent your own genre (or have it invented for you and then revamp it). For me, ambient music is far too old to make any breakthroughs. I know this isn't exactly what you wanted to hear...but I'll work on it! Ha.
jimmy Please do tell me what you think of Noise. Since I'm not a musician, it's really hard for me to project myself into it. I guess I just want to know what you think about ambient music, and why it was different than, say, music by Satie. And what distinguishes ambient recordings from Muzak? I have some ideas of my own, but I'd like to hear what you think. Does that help? :) Attali has been criticized a LOT for the book, which maybe is also a good reason for reading it. He clearly has a socialist agenda, and is his use of music to push that agenda any better than the way music gets sucked into the machine capitalism? ...rhetorical question.
Anna Geez, Anna! I have to admit everything you just said is completely beyond me. While I am familiar with every reference (except Attali), I have no idea what to make of it and my curiousity has been thoroughly piqued. I'm especially interested in the "12 tones subjected to a series of permutations" thingy... I have some solid opinions in that area, but I'm not sure what's being asked. Thanks to you though, I am definitely ordering Noise. I read the following quote and was hooked: "Noise should be read by musicians, who are largely unaware of their historic role. it will serve as an inspiration, as a philosophical foundation for politically conscious artists, and as an encouragement to develop counterinstitutions in the world of music. . . . Others should read Noise because we are all affected by music: we are all its listeners, its consumers. We all hum its tunes, mouth its lyrics. We all suppress the composer within us, and Attali describes how this keeps us caught in repetition, keeps us jailed." —Telos
jimmy 
|
