Backdrifting

This far but no further
I’m hanging off a branch
I’m teetering on the brink
Oh honey sweet
So full of sleep
I’m backsliding

funk carioca

I’ve just been alerted to a sub-genre of funk that I was unaware of, funk carioca. I’m reading through this article on wikipedia, and it is quite interesting. As I have been all about Brazilian music lately, this falls right into my current interests. Perhaps I can find some more influences for my Cobdorgian Gerstrupletriz album?

reading some sound waves~

I just copied a couple albums by “The Books” that I’m pretty thrilled about.
Thought for Food (2002) (CD/LP)

The Lemon of Pink (2003) (CD/LP)

If you’ve heard “The Books” before, a lot of the production and styles are similar to Lost and Safe (2005) (CD/LP). They make good use of staccato notes and crisp, clicky drums. “The Books” wonderfully explore the textures of sustained cellos, chattering vocal samples, and twangy banjo and guitar lines over their dynamic off-beat rhythms.

I found ‘Contempt’ on Thought for Food to be unnervingly creepy, in a bad way. However, ‘Mikey Bass’ instantly became my favorite Books song, above Lost and Safe’s ‘Vogt dig for Kloppervok‘. It is fun to see their careful prose jump off the deep end and plunge into a bassy jam. At the end it tumbles into a hysterical myriad of laughing and joking.

The Lemon of Pink deserves another listen before I speak much about it, but it is exciting to hear some soulful female vocals on the title track. Both of these albums deserve attention by music aficionados and intellectuals alike.

Next week I will post a full review of ‘Chapter One’ by “Arisawkadoria”, as I am writing one for my English class. Don’t wait for the review to get this album, it is definitely one of the best of this decade, perhaps this century.

All television programming is advertisment…

…and that high pitched whine in the signal is absolutely intentional.

Do you hear that teeth grinding, brain melting sound when you watch television? Do you ignore it? Have you in your old age lost your ability to perceive that  frequency range? If you haven’t yet become aware of it, try recording audio from a television signal and adjusting the pitch. You’ll notice it, it isn’t slightly subtle. Why, in our age of modern technology, would this be broadcast on our national video feeds? I can’t think when I hear it. I can’t pay attention to anything else. It is both mind-numbing and commanding of my attention. Is that your experience too?

[ this is a long one, the rest after the jump]

Gettin’ School’d (with ample puncuation)

I sit here in the quiet space between the end of my English essay and the beginning of my large assortment of horrendously mundane Java assignments. After finishing my essay (which I’ll post after the break) I was quite frustrated with school, so I flipped to a random page of the Tao Teh Ching. I thought this passage, the first one I flipped to, was quite apt:

20

Have done with learning,
And you will have no more vexation.
How great is the difference between
“eh” and “o”?
What is the distinction between “good”
and “evil”?
Must I fear what others fear?
What abysmal nonsense this is!
All men are joyous and beaming,
As though feasting upon a sacrificial ox,
As though mounting the Spring Terrace;
I alone am forlorn as one who has no
home to return to.
All men have enough and to spare:
I alone appear to posses nothing.
What a fool I am!

What a muddled mind I have!
All men are bright, bright:
I alone am dim, dim.
All men are sharp, sharp:
I alone am mum, mum!
Bland like the ocean,
Aimless like the wafting gale.
All men settle down in their grooves:
I alone am stubborn and remain outside.
But wherein I am most different from
others is
In knowing to take sustenance from my
Mother!

I don’t entirely know how to interpret that, it is rather depressing. There are a lot of parallels between that and this past weekend. I had another great time listening to a backup of voice mails about all the fun I am missing as I toil with teaching and learning. I hope you don’t think I am rude for not responding. I like hearing from all of you.