Walter Kitundu

I pretty much like everything about this guy.

Daphne Oram: mother of experimenal music

                               

Daphne Oram was born in 1925 in England.  She was very interested in both songwriting and electronics.  in 1946, while many males were fighting a war abroad, Oram took a job at the BBC as a "junior balancing engineer".  A balancing engineer is similar to a mixing engineer except in that time it was too expensive to record shows so everything was done live.

That all changed in the 50s when the tape machine was implemented at BBC.  Oram was one of the first people to experiment with tape not as a means to record but as a medium for a new kind of music and I would argue art.

Once everybody at her work would leave for the night, she would experiment with the the sounds recorded on the tape.  Speeding the up, slowing them down, splicing tape together, and playing the sounds backwards.  Later on she even developed a interchangeable set of wheels that could change the sounds pitch by changing the speed of the play heads.  This effectively turned the tape machine into the first synthesizer.

It is pretty easy to imagine that the BBC was not very interested in the work that Oram was doing.  It took years for them to even set up a department that dealt with electronic sounds and when they finally did they didn't let her be a part of it.  Also to avoid any problems with musicians unions anything that was made through her system was not allowed to be called music.

Daphne Oram eventually went on to be the first women to make her own recording studio in 1959.  She received a substantial grant initially, but eventually had to take some commercial work such as helping make some sounds for a ballet version of Beauty and the Beast.

Oram experimented with sounds and electronics the rest of her life, but she also wrote compositions.  Most of them have remained unperformed to this day, but she did record a song called "four aspects" which uses all tape machines as the instruments in 1960.  It sounds very sci-fi.  If I knew how to upload music I would put it on this post.

Anyhoot, for how important she was to music both technically and artistically, I can't believe I hadn't heard of her until last week.  She's one special lady.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_Oram

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/01/daphne.oram.remembered

http://web.archive.org/web/20060210194050/http://www.sonicartsnetwork.org/Oram/oram.html

                                         

ELEVATING THE ART

R.I.P. Yma Sumac

Yma Sumac with no doubt is one of the most remarkable voices of our time, with a vocal range which is rarely found once in a century. Her use of voice is also completely her own style, which she developed in a rather autodidactic or at least very individual way. For most of the time she tried to promote legends and folk songs from Peruvian origin, but she also sang mambo amongst other things. Because she stayed in America most of the time, apart from a short while in Russia, in the fifties they preferred to present her music with a big orchestra, where she was presented to the world as an exotica queen, or as a diva with a remarkable voice.- Psychedelic V/H Folk

Yma Suma website
Miracles: The album Yma fans can't stand

2008, new technology, same old shit

FROM savetheinternet.com :

Verizon Blocks Pro-Choice Text Messaging

September 26th, 2007 by tkarr

We’ve just been handed another view of Verizon’s gatekeeper tendencies with a report Wednesday night that the company’s wireless arm is blocking pro-choice text messages.

According to the New York Times, Verizon Wireless has rejected Naral Pro-Choice America efforts to use Verizon’s mobile text-message program to communicate to its membership.

What free speech looks like Take Action Now to Stop the Gatekeepers (Photo courtesy of gizmodo)

Such text messaging is an important new tool for advocacy organizations seeking to educate and alert their members. Verizon decision to block this new form of political speech interferes with its users’ right to get information that they choose to receive.

The move gives off a familiar scent — and puts Verizon in the same league with its cohorts at AT&T, who in August censored the live Webcast of a Pearl Jam performance that included criticism of President George Bush.

The truth is that whenever given the choice, phone companies will opt to discriminate against content they don’t like. Such efforts to stem the free flow of information should be a wake up call for anyone concerned about phone company plans to begin filtering Internet content.

Verizon and AT&T routinely rail against Net Neutrality as a “solution in search of a problem.” They swarm Washington with lobbyists offering promises never to interfere with the free flow of online content. And then they lobby for new laws that will allow them to do just that.

AT&T and Verizon share a history of breaking trust with the public, including handing over customer phone records to the government — and then seeking immunity from prosecution for doing so; promising to deliver services to underserved communities and then skipping town; pledging never to interfere with the free flow of information while hatching plans with the likes of Cisco and Viacom to build and deploy technology that will spy on online traffic.

Earlier this month, Verizon filed suit against the FCC for trying to pry open the Wireless market to more consumer choice and competition. In Verizon’s myopic view, consumers should never benefit from the free market — and especially not those who are locked into their draconian wireless contracts.

The bottom line is never trust Verizon or AT&T at their word. Phone companies act in bad faith toward the public and will do whatever they can get away with — including sacrificing their users’ freedom to choose — to advance their financial interests.

The Verizon network crowd that famously shadows users wherever they go has now taken on an Orwellian cast. No, Verizon, we don’t want your mob to surround us. We simply want you to get out of our way.

Wow. Longest dreadlocks-World Record

From the World Records Academy:

Mandela's dreadlocks, which she started growing 20 years ago, are longer than she is tall. She cradles her locks in her arms like a baby. She wraps it around her neck like a scarf. She lets it hang down her back and trail behind her like a bridal veil.

Asha Mandela, who is originally from Trinidad, said she first cut all of her hair off and began growing the 20-year dreads while she was living in New York.



Can someone post some other great dreadlock youtube clips in the comments? I know they're out there!

R.I.P. Rudy Ray Moore, aka Dolemite

"Rudy Ray Moore, whose standup comedy, records and movies related earthy rhyming tales of a vivid gaggle of characters as they lurched from sexual escapade to sexual escapade in a boisterous tradition, that helped shape today's hip-hop, died Sunday in Akron, Ohio. He was 81." - Chicago Tribune

Some things to brag about (from the wonderful world of entertainment)

** Clay Aiken found the courage to come out. He's really set the movement forward by coming out while he still actually had one evangelical fan and her 57 cats in rural Iowa believing he was straight and would one day arrive at their doorstep with a diamond ring and 57 cans of tuna. ( not hatin': do your thang Clay!)














**Best Buy has snagged the exclusive rights to the long anticipated, Guns n Roses album, tentatively titled "Chinese Democracy". YESSSSSSSSSSSS! What better place to campout waiting for it to go on sale? Plenty of eye candy to help pass the time. ( Nothing makes me wanna go back to a man's mom's basement quite like a blue polo and khakis!)




** The daytime emmy foundation should be very proud that they just awarded this woman:


Thanks a lot emmys for encouraging Tyra to do countless more pieces of mind-riveting journalism and tributes to her own greatness.

R.I.P. Paul Newman

"There is a point where feelings go beyond words. I have lost a real friend. My life — and this country — is better for his being in it." — Robert Redford.

Your kids will hate you for this

With the mega-success of games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, it was only a matter of time until there was a Christian knock-off.   Enter Guitar Praise: Solid Rock.  I was sceptical of its quality until I saw DC Talk on the artist list.  

Hopefully it will be more successful than their attempt at making a Christian Dance Dance Revolution.

I wouldn't bet against this very game making an appearance at my parents house for Christmas '08.  I better practice up on my Newsboys riffs.

R.I.P. Norman Whitfield

Norman Whitfield (May 12, 1940 – September 16, 2008) - American songwriter and producer, best known for his work with Motown during the 1960s.

Banksy in N'Orleans

Banksy, one of my favorite artists ever, just did some new stuff in New Orleans to "highlight the clean-up operation".  I love the way he incorporates the background into the piece itself.  

                                

You can see the rest of the pictures here:

www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/horizontal_1.htm

While your on the site make sure to check out the manifesto section.

R.I.P. David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace at Harpers.

"lipstick on a pig"

I hate to drag down the MB Blog with politics, but since this is the third day in a row I am still reading articles about Obama's infamous "lipstick on a pig" comment I feel it is my patriotic duty to set the record straight.  

I know that not everyone has obsessive compulsive disorder with hitting refresh to google news, so I will summarize the controversy.  In a recent speech Obama said that McCain's plans for the future were just repackaged versions of Bush's.  He then said "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig"

Sounds pretty sexist against Sarah Palin right?  Right?!  That's what the appointed head of the "Palin Truth Squad" (not making this up) has been saying.  It has been so successful that there are now attack ads running in battleground states accusing Obama of sexism.

The supreme irony of this is that McCain himself had used the exact same phrase against Hillary Clinton's Healthcare plan multiple times, and it is also the title of a memoir by Ronald Reagan's press secretary.

Obama summed it up best in his rebuttal today.  "The McCain campaign will seize on an innocent remark, take it out of context, throw up an outrageous ad because they know it is catnip for the news media."

The media has obviously taken the bait, but hopefully the American people will know a little better.  

R.I.P. Jerry Reed

Sovereign

--autonomous, independent, self-governing--

That is one definition of the word, and in my opinion it's one of the greatest names for a female rapper.

So I just read a review of Lady Sovereign on AskMen.com, a site that ranks women (models, actresses, celebrities) in 2 categories: Sexiness and Success.


I find it, uh, amusing I guess, or do I mean ironic? No, no I'm thinking, what's the word?, hmm....oh yeah Ridiculous (Re-dick-u-less???)

And if you like feminist fun, you might enjoy the Idiots gallery on 3rdwwwave.com: The site is also good reading for clear articulations about feminism and 3rd wave. Read up because you wanna sound (and actually be) informed next time you end up debating gender issues at the bar, with a kinda smart asshole, whose dad is really rich, has nicely mussed hair, some college, and a subtle snide way of sweetly, cleverly espousing good ole boy philosophy. Let's call the straight up redneck a lost cause and drink whiskey. But this future developer who spins triphop and drives a hybrid , he (or she)'s the one that people might listen to because he's confident and maybe pretty intelligent, so some people think that means they should agree with that person's ideas, especially if YOU sound like a dumb drunk bitch slurring shit like"wimen can do ever we want cuz we're aloowed". You never know whose listening, so ladies and gents, brush up, each one teach one, everyone put your hand in, goooooooooooooooooo feminists!

Sticks and Stones and Weed and Bones

I had real problems with the film Knocked Up. On many levels, but mainly because I just never bought that idea that a girl as bright and attractive as Katherine Heigl's character would put up with someone as immature and stubborn and all-around average as Seth Rogen's character. I got bored with being expected to wait patiently as he never grew up. (I think the "last straw" scene was towards the end of the movie when he saved his bong instead of his pregnant girlfriend during a earthquake.)

I was asked if I felt the same way about Pineapple Express, and the answer is no.

Seth Rogen's character is dating the super hawt Amber Heard, who plays an 18 year old high school student, but the difference is 1. the whole movie isn't about their relationship, 2. he seems to actually really like her and is trying to make things work, 3. there's an acknowledgment of how backwards their relationship is.

Basically, I don't think Apatow knows how to deal with female characters, and luckily in Pineapple Express, he doesn't try (I really liked the movie a lot - maybe not as much as Stepbrothers though).

That said, I feel like Dana Stewart expressed my thoughts and annoyances pretty well in her review of Pineapple Express for Venus Zine entitled:

The best part of Pineapple Express? The M.I.A. song in the preview (lol):

"...I simply cannot stop thinking about the fact that if Rogen were a woman, he’d never be starring in his own movie. I can’t stop thinking about all the cool, talented, hilarious ladies who are the female equivalent of Rogen, similarly do not fit the mainstream ideal of “acceptable body type,” and who got left in Judd Apatow & Co.’s collective dust.

Ever since Freaks & Geeks, the Apatow Doctrine has allowed for an expansion of what a male on TV (eventually in movies) can look like. This was never extended to females. From Linda Cardinelli on Freaks & Geeks, both Jules and Becca in Superbad, and now Rogen’s girlfriend, the ridiculously beautiful Amber Heard as Angie in Pineapple Express, the women in Rogen/Apatow films are conventionally, infuriatingly, beautiful. There’s no way that’s a coincidence."

I should state: I think Seth Rogen is adorable. Lots of girls think he's totally f-able. It's just, he's not a typical stud, and the ladies in these movies are typical beauties. So don't get me wrong, K?

dad-isms: the johhny hogg edition

We all know what they are. Phrases and words only a dad would use. Some are universal things all dads say, like things about maintenence, things about work. But each Dad also has his own special dad-isms so now without further ado I bring a glossary of my Dad, Johnny Hogg (yeah h-o- double gee)

made-up by him:

lesdykian = butch lesbian, i think he wanted a word than was more than lesbian and less than dyke, and thus lesdykian was born, he's pretty sparing with it and yet to offend anyone so far, i think mainly becasue it's said with love

nice looking young lady= hot woman, used to be jody watley and sade, now also applies to the likes of faith hill and shania twain

teddy-jack-eddie= when i was a kid there was sort of gang of hillbilly youngmen that all hung out at this one house in my neighborhood. they were beer-drinking 20- somethings, good old boys that like to party, had mullets, drove 4X4 trucks up on GIANT tires,i mean giant need-a--ladder-to-get-in tires. My dad called these types of guys "teddy-jack-eddies" because they always have three first names

from the military (i think)

affirmative= self-explanotory, but used by my dad WAY more than average
negatory= see above
rise and shine its a beautiful day = regardless of weather, in fact the worse the weather, the more likely it is to be uttered


I'm sure there are many more, eluding me right now, so perhaps there will be subsequent posts on this.

In the meantime, co-bloggers and readers alike, share your dad-isms. Publish those posts! Leave those comments!


And P.S. my dad has answered the door in his tighty-whities, more than once!

R.I.P. Don Helms

R.I.P. Isaac Hayes

R.I.P. Bernie Mac