A Mammal's Notebook

No.7

2009-08-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

Ashamed that I haven't blogged in so long. No one, excpet a handful of close friends, reads this so HAY, GIMME AH BRAKE.

I've been in kind of a musical slump. I don't think that I've really explored an album since middle/early high school. The iPod has been the culprit, methinks, and I'm affixed to follow some rules to once again enjoy an album for all it's worth. Here's the plan:

I will be choosing one lone disc to listen to either on the mp3 device or computer, and ignore the rest of my music library, outside of the required listenings I am responsible to listen to for class. I'll move onto another album once I feel that I have understood the current album and what makes it significant.

I remember during the middle/early high shool years, when I was listening to one album at a time, where I was during the listening of certain songs, where I was in life and how I could relate to the tracks on the disc. I want to experience that again. With the advent of the iPod, I listen to what I want when i want- I'm not forced to explore what I don't want to explore and it usually turns out that I apprectiate particular tracks and not why the album from which it comes is good becuase (blank.)

Doubtless, this will be unnerving at first, being aware of the thousands of other songs that might better fit my temperment and voluntarily blocking access to them.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S A TWIST-

I'll also pair the album of choice with a book. This will provide a different narrative to the album OR book. Quelque chose puissant.

Consider all of the combinations!

A (sad) soundtrack for a (happy) book. A (happy) book for a (sad) soundtrack.

I might discover some tricks, like choosing a short story/novel and pairing it with a lengthy album, creating more to explore the album and realate it to the text and my world.

So far, I have the album choosen, but not the book. Here's what I have decided to listen to:

I might pair it with this:

We'll see. And I'll update. HAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAOOOLOLLOLOLOL.

No.6

2009-01-16T12:41:00.001-08:00

I feel like I haven't been blogging about anything worthwhile lately. So here goes. It's not much, but it's meatier than the last one.

I've never liked to travel. I really do appreciate other cultures and their histories, but I don't even like leaving my home to go to Kroeger..

I'm almost positive that those who like to travel have been raised with an appreciation for it or claim they appreciate the past-time because it involves a beach and some sun. That's not really traveling.

No thanks. Not for me.

Do you know this man?

Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) (pron shnit-kah). Here's a recording of the Rondo Agitato movement from Concerto Grosso no.1

SKIP TO 00:50

Listening: Alfred Schnittke
Converge, "Bare My Teeth"

No. 5

2009-01-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

So fortunately, odd numbered years are better.

Listening: Iron and Wine

Scraibin Sonata No.1, f-minor

Drinking: Pepsi Max. So good.

Watching: Aqua Teen Hinger Force Season 6

X-Files

Reading: Allen Ginsberg

John Adams Hallelujah Junction

No. 4, Installment I

2008-12-13T18:46:00.003-08:00

I was considering writing an essay similar to this for an undergrad symposium calling for papers analyzing or interpreting a literary work, film, or culture, but the deadline has approached too soon so I have decided to flesh out my ideas here.

I guess if I were to have an introduction and informal thesis for this formal blog entry, it would read something like this: different music is consumed and interpreted differently by different people -- that is, of course, why music is so "universal."-- But is it fair to assume how one specific genre is interpreted by one specific group of people? Say, college students ages 18-25? I argue that it is. Further, if the aforementioned assumption is accurate, can the observer then compose other assumptions and compare them based on common ethics, deducing which genre of music is morally and intellectually better than others? I also argue that this can be done.

QUASI ABSTRACT

There are two contrasting geneses of music: popular and serious. Just as popular and serious music sound different, they are consumed equally different. That is, the music is aurally experienced and is then mentally processed. In this mental process, the listener attempts to relate the music's content, with or without text, to one's own experiences. Both kinds of music attempt to entertain and fulfill its listeners' sense of musical curiosity, taste, and whatever subsequent actions or ends it may produce. Those ends, grounded by common ethical principal, can be considered unsound in one case and intellectual in the other.

The engaging of popular music is frequently and ethically shallow and material while the consuming of serious music allows its listener to entertain thoughts not grounded by trend-driven fashion. So, in more than one sense, this serious music is challenging and equally rewarding to listen to.

What I'm really interested in here is figuring out why popular music has been accepted to the degree that we have witnessed and what goes through the college student's mind when it is listened to. I don't mean that flippantly, but really, what is going through their minds?

And like any other sort of formal essay, the material discussed in the thesis and body of the work is likely to change.

Before you read any further, a small word on this large entry. All of the assumptions mentioned above are all, of course, grounded by my taste. This is not an expository piece of work; rather a largely opinionated piece discussing how people consume music differently and how some genres of Western music can be branded "better" than others. I will, for lack of a better term, "prove" these conclusions to be true through widely-accepted cultural fact and historical pattern.

Another quick word: the content in "No. 4" may possibly be misconstrued by underlying thoughts of elitism and ignorance. None of that here. I believe these opinions to be well-informed by years of observation and CSI-grade brain picking. If "No. 4" is considered to be an elite mini-case study by anyone, I argue that the supposed superior thoughts and opinions presented here are well researched and defended, accounting for more than enough evidence to support the following conclusions.

On the PRT one morning, I inescapably listened to another student's iPod. It was a popular "rap" single. Why was he listening to it? Yes, he enjoyed it. But which part of the music did he enjoy? The harmony, melody, maybe the percussion? Or did his satisfaction with the music stem from a product of the former elements paired with lyrical content? I argue that he was mentally conditioning himself for the day. Through the music, he was allowing it to say to him, "This is the behavior you are to realize. This is the language you are to use. This is the way you are to treat women. Consider money this way. Consider fame this way. Consider yourself this way."

In a larger sense, why does he wish to answer those questions with a response that would uniformly match what he sees in his peers? A response his peers also attempt to realize. A response that conforms to the popular image conveyed through television and other means of media.

No. 4, Installment II

2008-12-13T18:46:00.001-08:00

Why Schoenberg is to be Respected more than P!nk!

I have not chosen to discuss these particular figures because one has done especially much for music and the other has done especially little; rather, I have chosen them because of their respective places in their own discourses; both of them are widely considered accomplished musicians. If this is doubted, or read as a sort of gender related issue, I invite the reader to conduct the same sort of analysis on female composer Ellen Taafe Zwilich and male hip-hop giant 'Lil Wayne.

*This blog entry is not really about why Schoenberg is to be respected more than Pink; the two figures are merely two icons representing the divided worlds of "high art" and "low brow music."

** Like others, I believe popular terminology to be a bit of a misnomer. "Solo artist," for an example, usually implies an artist's independent work in which the artist governs his own work and makes executive decisions. We all know this isn't really true –and I am aware of this generalization.--When I am forced to use phrases like this, I will use quotes.

If you would rather not read about Schoenberg or Pink, I forgive you. You can skip the next three paragraphs.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was an accomplished composer, theorist, painter, essayist, and poet celebrated for his innovative compositional techniques and successful disciples of those techniques. There are, of course, volumes upon volumes written about Schoenberg's effect on music, the way he thought about music, and various biographical accounts, so any background I provide here is by no means exhaustive.

Schoenberg's early works were largely Romantic. With those works, he pushed the boundaries of "traditional" harmonic means and Romantic ideals with monumental works like Gurre-Lieder. Soon, the composer felt this style of music could go no further and eventually began composing in an atonal harmonic language. That is, music with no harmonic center. To a degree, this style relieved Schoenberg of creative limitation, but lacked formal structure. After a short period of experimentation, Schoenberg developed the twelve tone technique in which all twelve notes of the Western music system are presented in a certain order before the composition is written and during the course of the piece is mutated and developed. For years, this method of composition and other theories created by Schoenberg eclipsed his mastery of composition. Since his death, however, Schoenberg's compositions have proven to be popular, successful works themselves.

Alecia Beth Moore, known as P!nk! (Pink) in "the biz," began her career as a rhythm & blues and hip hop performer in the all-girl group Choice. After a short stint with the group, Pink separated with Choice in an effort to develop a career as a "solo" artist. The product of her solo material was released as Can't Take Me Home (2001), an album in which "Get the Party Started" was featured. For many, the track was Pink's first exposure as no nonsense, fun loving singer. This image was soon shed as a result of M!ssundastood (2002), a release in which Pink attempted to rid the cookie cutter image she gained from her previous effort. Her next album Try This (2005) was a success in Europe in Australia but failed to enter the top forty stream in the U.S. After a short break, Pink returned to U.S. fame in 2007 with I'm not Dead Yet. The album was Pink's lowest seller until the release of "U +Ur Hand." Pink has promoted the album by opening for Justin Timberlake's on the American leg of his FutureSex/LoveShow tour in 2007.

No. 3

2008-10-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

My space bar is sticky from the Pepsi.

Listening:
Radiohead, Hail to the Thief
Górecki, Symphony No. 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Hercules and Love Affair
Thursday, Tomorrow I'll be You

No. 2

2008-09-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

I've figured out posts don't have to be lengthy to be worth posting.

I'm in the Blue Moose Café now writing a quote sheet. As I wonder into the boy's room to use the facilities, I see some things written on the wall. They read:

"What if God is just chemical fiction?"

to which someone replies

"I thought you wrote' clerical fiction' and it still made sense."

someone else said

"What if the material and the spiritual and one and the same? What if fiction is how we understand what it is true?"

two others wrote

"What if you're an ass?" and " What if shut up?"

Listening:

Explosions in the Sky

The Microphones

No. 1

2008-06-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Rather than waiting until I've decided what the 'theme' of this blog will be, I'll use this first post as a vehicle for ventilation and a brainstorm of ideas for those who come across it and still decide it worth investing the time to read it.
I've been kicking around the thought of using this blog as an online compositional diary, or for professional social networking, maybe an online journal, or designing it as an exclusive means for those whom I know personally to read what I'm not willing to say in the flesh.
I dunno. But I do know a few things.

I think out of all the spiritual gifts, all nine of them, I am blessed with 'distinguishing between spirits' (the message). I must say that although I am not blessed as one with an innate soft spot for sharing emotion or feeling, or sparking conversation, I do know that there are people whom our creator made that are, in fact, duplicates of others. I think it is both in the physical and the emotional that this is evident. I like to think I have the ability to recognize the templates used to create them. More on this later.

If I had to chose an individual, alive or passed on, whom I could relate to who has truly represented what my existence has been so far, I would chose composer Erik Satie . Satie was a man with an instinctive intuition, a man comfortable with telling jokes that no one could relate to, a man comfortable in anger, a man in love with contradiction, humor, and having the last laugh at those who had a go at him, even if they were unable to hear it.

I can relate to some of those traits, and to the ones in which I cannot, I strive for. For the most part.

Listening:

The Black Dahlia Murder, Nocturnal
Phillip Glass, Einstein on the Beach
Drinking: Red eye
Watching: Curb Your Enthusiasm