Twitter screenshot via Salon article, "ABC producer earns Internet's hate for tweeting at Newtown relatives."
Day: December 15, 2012
Usually kind to smaller man
I waded deep into popup- and malware-land and retrieved these lyrics:
Particle man, particle man
Doing the things a particle can
What's he like? It's not important
Particle man
Is he a dot, or is he a speck?
When he's underwater does he get wet?
Or does the water get him instead?
Nobody knows, Particle man
Triangle man, Triangle man
Triangle man hates particle man
They have a fight, Triangle wins
Triangle man
Universe man, Universe man
Size of the entire universe man
Usually kind to smaller man
Universe man
He's got a watch with a minute hand,
Millenium hand and an eon hand
When they meet it's a happy land
Powerful man, universe man
Person man, person man
Hit on the head with a frying pan
Lives his life in a garbage can
Person man
Is he depressed or is he a mess?
Does he feel totally worthless?
Who came up with person man?
Degraded man, person man
Triangle man, triangle man
Triangle man hates person man
They have a fight, triangle wins
Triangle man
rhesus sphere
Modification of a GIF modified by stephen.
Someone asked what was the deal with the monkey. I said: Found separated from its owners in an IKEA parking lot wearing "its favorite coat" -- its entry to the world stage was assured!
A place where real men make records: Good riddance
While Simon Reynolds and his blog circle celebrate great moments in organic, human, philosophically pure drum solos by watching them on YouTube, back on planet Earth we are reading Marc Weidenbaum's thoughts on "rockism" and an as-yet-unreleased movie about the dying out of the traditional analogue recording studio.
The fascinating thing about the trailer [for Dave Grohl's upcoming film Sound City] is that while its talking heads speak about the importance of the human element, they are at the same time surrounded by and praising technology. Just 45 seconds into the trailer, the narrative shifts from the initial survey of Sound City's remarkable discography to a single, still, geeky image of celebrated British engineer Rupert Neve. The voiceover praises the "next generation consoles" that Neve designed. Trent Reznor then lauds "the Neve sound." (A voice is heard later—it appears to be Grohl's—noting the expectation that a particular console, the Neve 8028, at Studio City would "just go straight to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame." Grohl himself bought the 8028 from Sound City Studios last year.) The studio's origins as "tape-based" are touted. As if to make up for too much gadget talk, a remark resets the narrative: "It's a place where real men went to make records."
Weidenbaum makes the point that tech permeates everything and its really just a matter of picking what works for you, citing Wired's Kevin Kelly with this terrific quote:
When I asked my friends about their own technological choices, I found one friend who e-mailed but did not fax; another who faxed but did not have a phone; a friend who had a phone but no TV; someone with TV who rejected microwave ovens; another with microwaves but no clothes dryer; one with a clothes dryer who had rejected air-conditioning; one who loves his AC but refuses to get a car; a car fanatic with no CD player (only vinyl records); a guy with CDs who refuses GPS navigation; someone who embraces GPS but not credit cards; and so on. To outsiders, these abstinences are idiosyncratic and, arguably, hypocritical, but they serve the same purpose as the choices made by the Amish, which is to sculpt the cornucopia of technology to suit our personal intentions.
That explains well how one could say, be on Twitter but not Facebook, or enjoy records with old-school drumming but not YouTube collections of great drum solos. As for the death of the studio, it never seemed fair that if you slept with the right people, you'd have access to banks of compressors that guaranteed you a hit record. All music should be made on the level playing field of what you can do on a single PC now, production-wise. (See discussion with Paul B Davis five years ago about timbre in hit songs.)