September 21, 2002
Random 2 (The Anti-Calendar)
Let's try this again...
Wandering, there was a moment of realization. I was just a miniscule point floating in the sea of people, automobiles, pavement, buildings. So it was down to the trite "ship on the sea" metaphor... but in so many ways it works. Plotting a course, setting sails, but ultimately subject to randomness... currents, storms, doldrums. "Set the course, but realize you can never follow it. Savor the enjoyable sidetracks and remember the only certain thing is your destination."
Septembers are warm days, cool evenings, and quiet sunsets. The weather was so perfect that I stayed outside only because I couldn't bear to leave it. ("This is how a 'heaven' should be" she said, "except that a heaven without contrast would be extremely boring and you'd forget the perfection of perfection.")
Spending time with my sister's kids today, I remembered being a child and being baffled and disgusted at adults and how terribly boring and lifeless they were. The perspective is entirely different when you're a 'boring and lifeless' adult, isn't it?
A certain friend who shall remain nameless records hours of TV news and 'catches up' on the weekend. Watching Larry King interview James Dobson was frustrating and depressing. When you've been stuck in a tree before, you realize how unlikely it is for others to make their way down from the branches they're sitting on. (I'm still surprised I didn't fall on my way down - or perhaps I did?) Too often I throw up my hands and continue passing time under my big rock. Too often. Hey, at least I'm consistent. (Byrne's song Back In The Box has always been a favorite because it fits me so well at times).
The personal computer geeks are doing cool things with calendars. (Check out Apple's iCal or Mozilla Calendar, which both use the same open format, unlike Microsoft and Netscape products). The physicists at CERN are always doing cool things. This time they're creating antimatter. (Or matter for those on the other end of things.) Hmmm... maybe we should team the calendar people with the anti-matter people to work on the anti-calendar. I know a wise man who says his ultimate goal for success in life is to live comfortably without ever having to know what year it is.
21 Sep 12:00 | Link | Category: Misc. Tidbits
September 20, 2002
Random (MOO)
My hands smell like gasoline. Two-stroke engines, poorly designed gasoline containers and all. The alarm went off and I hit snooze every 15 minutes for two hours. Time and sleep and all.
Politicians display such conviction. I don't have enough information or knowledge to use words like 'temerity' and 'warmongering' although it seems as if misdirected / unsound / 'don't think, just know' "conviction" sometimes gets us into many messes in the first place. As much as I am actually undecided, I cannot understand George W's 'Moral Clarity,' his simplistic 'Good vs. Bad' choirboy black/white views of a complicated, colorful world. If indeed that's reality and not just the public presentation.
A local IT Microserf waxes poetic about OpenOffice, I wax poetic about Mozilla, and we share a moment of bliss in the quixotic open-source dream. An uninformed columnist (who makes a hell of a lot more money than I) has many silly notions, including the idea that people should still use floppy diskettes in 2002 (I thought it was ludicrous in 1995).
I was in front of the television with my dad when the Dell dude came on, trying to sell us computers. Luring us with the "BMW A Day" giveway. My dad chuckled at that and mentioned how, judging by advertising and a variety of other indicators, it's easy to get the impression that American intelligence is in steep decline. I offered that perhaps it's been at the same level for a while - something's just more annoying now. But I also mentioned the cattle-faced stare I see everywhere. We're turning into cattle. Mmmooo!
Cool sample I heard in a song today: "He just wanted us to call him Captain Da. He said you can call me Da-da, whatever that meant." (Apparently from the film Roger and Me though I could be mistaken??)
It may be autumn, but this room is unbearably hot. There's a full moon! I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight. (Oh, and MOO!)
20 Sep 12:00 | Link | Category: Misc. Tidbits
September 18, 2002
Hello Cleveland!
I was telling an e-mail friend about one of the best tracks (the best, as far as I'm concerned) from Mono's Formica Blues - a piece entitled "Hello Cleveland!" - which utilizes samples from various pieces of classical music, several Erik Satie -esque melodies, etc. In trying to pin down the exact works sampled, I did a Google search and stumbled upon an article by Sarah Nicholson, a doctoral candidate in musicology. Entitled Keep Going!: The Use of Classical Music Samples in Mono's "Hello Cleveland!", it's an exhaustive analysis and dissection of the piece. It's quite fascinating (though intensely academic and pedantic). I find it nice to see this type of music garnering attention from the 'serious' studiers of music.
Articles like these also expose the disconnect - the distance - between, say, doctoral candidates and the artists / listeners of this style of music... the space between the 'ivory tower' and the 'unwashed masses,' if you will. (I suggest most of that distance is artificial, but we'll get back to that some other time.)
Finally, I find it... well... galling that Nicholson fails to mention the significance of the title "Hello Cleveland!" which is almost certainly a reference to the film This is Spinal Tap. Surely she could have worked this into the article, perhaps into the portion where she discusses Virgo and his 'confrontation' between high and low art. Undoubtedly, there was significance behind the choosing of this particular title. (Is Virgo poking fun of himself for taking popular music so seriously? Or does it have some other significance?) I can't help wondering if, in all her years of music training and pedagogy, she somehow missed this fine film. If so, it is truly truly sad.
In any case... I've decided this is as good a reason as any to watch it again.