Category / Music
It’s Hard Being A Liberal
Roy Zimmerman tells us just how hard it is from his album Thanks for the Support.
I’d like to say I can relate to some of this. But at the present moment, I can’t afford to.
Via: Pharyngula
Dr. Horrible Is Stuck In My Head
Joss (Firefly/Serenity) Wheadon’s newest internet brainchild Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is just what I’ve been needing. Not that I’ve particularly been experiencing a hankering for Super-Hero-Musical-Mini-Web-Series but Wheadon’s tiny fantasy has taken me by surprise.
Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) runs a video blog in which he describes his earnest attempts to become a member of the Evil League of Evil (A … wait for it … “evil” organization run by someone called Bad Horse.), get up enough nerve to talk to the cute girl at the laundromat, Penny (Felicia Day) and defeat his arch-nemisis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion).
In true comedic musical genius, songs are formed out of the most unlikely of candidates. From Dr. Horrible’s Freeze Ray (that will ’stop… the world’) to Penny’s Petition Song, they’re all well written and very well performed. There’s a great method of mixing spoken word and singing, like when Penny walks up behind Dr. Horrible during the heist in Act. 1, that pokes a bit of fun at the normal “Musical” style.
All in all I love it. Highly recommended. Go watch Acts 1 and 2 now. Act 3 will be available Sat.
Objects in Space (edit)
While putting the finishing touches on Moments, I’ve been working on some themed generative music that will become my next album. The album is all about astronomy. One of the things I love about astronomy is the humbling notion of being a fragile, non-important object floating around amidst many other inconspicuous objects. I kind of puts you in your place. It shows you that there is nothing incredibly special about your place in the universe and that it’s up to you to make your life special. I’m reminded by something Carl Sagan said in The Pale Blue Dot:
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
I’ve been very influenced by Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings and taking that approach into my music writing. I’m trying to write a lot of music that isn’t necessarily constrained by time. There’s no defined opening bit or middle bit or ending bit. I want to approach the songs as if they’ve always been playing and I’m just now tuning in. The songs never end. You just sort of tune in from time to time and listen to what they’re doing at that particular moment. I’m very interested in that.
This particular piece is a 4 minute edit of the 12 minute album version of a song for my next album Background Music 2 (Music for Stargazing).
Missing Someone
When you really miss someone it feels like their essence is blanketing you. Pounding on you from all sides so thick and heavy that you can almost reach out and touch them. but no matter how far you reach, you’re still right there… missing someone.
Five Albums For The Rest Of Your Life
Imagine you’re stranded for the rest of your life and only had five albums to listen to. (And never-ending batteries, I guess.) Which albums would you want them to be?
- Apollo (Atmospheres & Soundtracks) – Brian Eno
- Lifeforms – The Future Sound of London
- The Pavilion of Dreams – Harold Budd
- Neroli – Brian Eno
- Debussy for Daydreaming – Claude Debussy
The first three are obvious. Pleasant ambient atmospheres, melodic movements and layered grooves. If you question their place in this list you should probably be smacked hard on the cranium.
I had to include Neroli because I would have to have some form of background sonics to keep from going insane. You can leave Neroli on repeat for a week and it’s fine. Elegant, simple melodic tones passing through the air.
The final album was a tough decision. I wanted a classical album and it was between Holst’s The Planets and something by Claude Debussy. I love The Planets but, in the end, Debussy’s themes won. I chose a compilation, Debussy for Daydreaming, because it’s a good mix of Debussy’s thematic work with a good combination of piano and full orchestral arrangements throughout. The arrangement and performance of Clair de lune alone is worth the price of this album.
I’ve picked music without lyrics because I think the same words would get old after a while. I’d much rather have the option to simply listen to the music or create my own lyrics and let them evolve over time into a meaningful statement of my situation.
Pamelia Kurstin’s TED Performance
Could she be any cuter?
All crushing aside… that’s really impressive control over a very difficult instrument. I’ve attempted to play a theremin a couple of times and can tell you she makes it look easier than it is by many orders of magnitude. I couldn’t imagine playing music that emotional and keeping that still at the same time. There’s no way I could do it. I move too much just playing single hand melodies.
Via: TED.
Carl Sagan Saw The Stars
He asked what they were and they said, “They’re lights in the sky, kid.” But that wasn’t what he wanted to know. Carl Sagan saw the stars. He found out what they were and then he showed them to me. And my life was never the same again.
Making a Mux of things
Muxtape is a new site/service that is aiming to replace our old mixtapes with digital muxtapes. The idea is simple… create an account, upload songs and give someone the URL. I’m not sure about the legality of this though there doesn’t seem to be a way to download any songs and they do seem to have a few regulations put in place (such as only one song per artist and only one muxtape per user).
Here is my current muxtape.
Oldie: She Wept Among Women
This is an old song I wrote in early 2000 for the album 367. I wanted to open the album with this song because I thought it really encompassed the idea of the album as a whole; Getting away from everything. Of course, there are always consequences that come with getting what you want.
Trying To Remember Something
I’m getting very close. I can feel it. More importantly, I can hear it. I just can’t remember it.
Nothing Hurts Like…
I have a big soft spot for disappointment. I remember growing up we didn’t have lots of money so we sometimes had to settle for generic products or off-brand versions of the expensive toys and gadgets. The disappointment could be harsh, but it taught me a valuable lesson. When and when not to show that disappointment. I could never express dismay at a newly unwrapped Christmas present right there in front of my parents. So I learned to hold back in order to spare my parents their own form of disappointment: A disappointed child.
My memories are full of realizations of unfairness. My mother exclaiming, “That’s crummy!” in an eager attempt to make me feel better. And now, as an adult, I look at others and wonder what their disappointments might be. What dreams of theirs have not come to pass as so hoped for.
So where’s this all going and why? Well, recently someone disappointed me. Wrote a song about it. Sharing it with you.
Staring Out A Window. Riding In A Car.
When I think back to being a kid, one of the memories that always jumps out at me is resting my head on the window in my parent’s car on a long trip, perhaps on the interstate, and just experiencing everything that passed my eyes and ears.
I wanted to write a song to expressed that experience vividly. Something that made true to the variety of thoughts, events, scenes, sounds and everything else that comes and goes while you gaze out the window of a moving vehicle.
