Bookmarks for August 13th through August 22nd
These are my links for August 13th through August 22nd: Open Music App Collaboration | Google Groups – Hungary’s choices one year on: in the land of ‘Revolutionary Voting Booths’ | openDemocracy – a horrifying look at what can happen when the far right takes control of political institutions by legal means What frustrates me [...]
Bookmarks for June 21st through July 24th
These are my links for June 21st through July 24th: TALK- Kenneth Goldsmith – Tank Magazine- “NR: Who contributes to Ubu, and how is it curated?KG: Ubu doesn’t generate any of its own content. Instead, films and sounds are taken from very exclusive file-sharing groups and released to the public. The decision as to what [...]
Bookmarks for May 29th through June 6th
These are my links for May 29th through June 6th: Circles and Euclidian Rhythms: Off the Grid, a Few Music Makers That Go Round and Round – Music Notation, What is it Good For? How About Humans? – Make: Online | Walled Gardens vs. Makers – “Making, in short, is not about making. Making is [...]
Bookmarks for May 23rd through May 29th
These are my links for May 23rd through May 29th: Last Night: Top 10 Quotes from KCRW’s Global Street Food Panel – “Some [trucks] are good, some are dreadful. I don’t think it’s accidental that most of the time when they have those competitions, the traditional loncheras win. Lux loncheras are catering to people who [...]
Bookmarks for May 6th through May 10th
These are my links for May 6th through May 10th: The first sign that humans are on the verge of evolving into another species [Evolution] – “What Carlson’s work suggests is that species whose brains are evolving fairly rapidly – hello, Homo sapiens – are likely candidates for speciation under the right circumstances. The key [...]
Bookmarks from July 22nd through July 25th
“Among the consequences of financialisation is the creation of what an analysis by the investment bank Citigroup calls “plutonomy”. The bank’s analysts describe a world that is dividing into two blocs: the plutonomy and the rest. The US, UK and Canada are the key plutonomies: economies in which growth is powered by – and largely [...]
In Remembrance of the Great Recession
while i was sitting in traffic yesterday i started to think how about how much this financial disaster has changed the lives of my friends and family over the last two years. it’s one thing to get caught of the larger debate (and the spectacle of it all), but maybe the best way we can decide whether we are going in the right direction is a personal assessment of our own community. so on this memorial day weekend i’m taking a personal inventory of my community (colleagues, friends, family and neighbors) to remember how bad things have become during our “Great Recession”
In Remembrance of the Great Recession of 2008-2010
i also have realized that we also have to take some personal responsibility here and maybe we created much of these problems because our inability to live within our means and are now collectively paying the piper.
from what i see many of us are helping each other out, but where has our government been? this is biggest crisis to happen in my life and it seems that we are expected to get through this storm on our own.
where are the WPA type jobs programs? where did the stimulus money go? has the promise of an education for all disappeared for good? (at least in california)
my fear is that a few years from now we are going to look back and realize that the middle class dream of being able to work a decent job for decent pay died in the summer of 2010 and was traded for that old libertarian mantra “it’s every man for himself”
The Subtext of Class
it’s been fascinating to watch the british electoral system slide ever closer to toward a hung parliament and after reading this analysis of their recent debates gives an interesting insight into how the subtext of class still plays into politics in britain.
“David Cameron did better in yesterday’s debate compared to last week. But he still can’t break through. What’s the poor chap doing wrong?
First, the obvious point. He’s involved in a Big Lie: covering up what the nasty wing of his party would do to Britain should the Tories to win power.
To Cameron’s credit, he’s not very good at it. Talk to any trial lawyer and they’ll tell you lying’s hard. You can usually spot a liar in the witness stand at twenty paces.
Lairs must be clever, fast on their feet, have a brass neck, and a good memory. Why a good memory? Because liars must remember the lies they’ve told and not contradict themselves later on. Truth-tellers – most normal people – don’t have that problem. They just do their best to tell the truth. Liars, conversely, must constantly look over their shoulders. They need to be tough and clever to carry it off.
Cameron’s not in that league (Peter Mandelson probably is). Cameron has an okay brain - silver spoon, good breeding stock, excellent schooling – but he’s no genius. He’d make a fine marketing man or top-end Chelsea estate agent. But he’s no Einstein. Ergo he looks uncomfortable when telling lies. People pick up on it, especially now with politicians hated so fiercely.”
links for 2010-04-09
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“what will happen now? If past is prologue, the answer is “nothing.” The dead miners families will get a little insurance money, a few months will go by and only the people of Montcoal will remember the tragedy. Until, the inevitable next one. The coal industry owns West Virginia, every graceful mountaintop, every steep hollar, every politician of both parties in the state house and in Washington. The next time a governor wants something like, say, an annual football game between the two state universities, Marshall and West Virginia, he will go to his friends in the coal industry who will cough up some money for the “Friends of Coal Bowl.” I use that as an example because Joe Manchin already did that. The only West Virginia governor who actually tried to stand up to the coal industry–a guy named William C. Marland–fell off the face of the earth after his term in office and was rediscovered 30 years later driving a cab in Chicago.”
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“Going into the study, the researchers thought the optimal strategy would be some kind of mixture of copying and innovating, Laland says, both of which have drawbacks. An unknown berry might turn out to be a great food source for the person who first discovers it, or the berry might be poisonous. On the other hand, copying others might be safer, but not if the information is outdated or wrong. To the researchers’ surprise, the best method relied almost exclusively on copying.”
Bookmarks for October 2nd through October 8th [del.icio.us]
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Bookmarks from October 2nd through October 8th:[del.icio.us]
- (Glen) Beck Tries to Kill Parody Website : Dispatches from the Culture Wars -
“I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the Did Glenn Beck Rape and Murder a Young Girl in 1990 website, but it’s fairly amusing. It’s a political satire of the style of argument Glenn Beck likes to engage in, which involves requiring that someone prove a negative (“prove you didn’t do X”) and making claims in the form of an interrogative (“Hey, I’m just asking questions here. I’m not saying he did this. What’s wrong with asking questions?”). Well now Beck is trying to kill the site by making a formal complaint (PDF) to an international internet governing body, the World Intellectual Property Organization. He wants the domain name taken away from the person who registered it…”
- Manifesto (this one’s for you, Lindemann) « Là ci darem la mano -
I, Maura, aka mlaffs on twitter, “so white I glow,” do hearby declare my intent: Firstly, that classical music is awesome. In fact, it’s so great that we should all take Alex Ross’ suggestion and start calling it “Awesome Music.” After all, “classical” is an arbitrary label, has negative connotations, and isn’t very sexy. Second, that my friends are the best. I was shocked and flattered by the overwhelmingly positive response when I suggested that I might want to start a blog. I can’t believe that people actually want to hear what I have to say! I’m just a mousy little second-year employee at a regional orchestra that likes to whine. Third, that strawberries are the best snack ever. I am going to start buying them more frequently. Actually, I’m going to start eating more fruits & veggies in general. I am so much more focused and energetic this afternoon than usual. Love it. …”
- David Cross: An Open Letter to Larry the Cable Guy -
“…Okay, here’s what I said in the RS interview: “He’s good at what he does. It’s a lot of anti-gay, racist humor – - which people like in America – all couched in ‘I’m telling it like it is.’ He’s in the right place at the right time for that gee-shucks, proud-to-be-a-redneck, I’m-just-a-straight-shooter-multimillionaire-in-cutoff-flannel, selling-ring tones-act. That’s where we are as a nation now. We’re in a state of vague American values and anti-intellectual pride.”
- Will California become America’s first failed state? | World news | The Observer
“Few places embody the collapse of California as graphically as the city of Riverside. Dubbed “The Inland Empire”, it is an area in the southern part of the state where the desert has been conquered by mile upon mile of housing developments, strip malls and four-lane freeways. The tidal wave of foreclosures and repossessions that burst the state’s vastly inflated property bubble first washed ashore here. “We’ve been hit hard by foreclosures. You can see it everywhere,” says political scientist Shaun Bowler, who has lived in California for 20 years after moving here from his native England. The impact of the crisis ranges from boarded-up homes to abandoned swimming pools that have become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Bowler’s sister, visiting from England, was recently taken to hospital suffering from an infected insect bite from such a pool. “You could say she was a victim of the foreclosure crisis, too,” he jokes.”
- Dudamel’s press briefing – The Arts Blog – OCRegister.com -
“Dudamel was charming throughout, and genuine. I’m not cynical. The hype surrounding him may be hard to take at times, but he’s good, and appears to have his head on straight. His music directorship is going to be marked by his efforts to take classical music to the people, to the regular guy, but I don’t sense that he equates that with cheapening the product in any way. Just making it available to more folks. The phrase “creative use of digital platforms” was uttered, though not by him… …Underneath the hubbub, there are plenty of naysayers, atheists if you will. They give looks to each other, roll their eyes, just to show they’re not chumps. It doesn’t matter. It’ll all come out in the wash. The music’s the thing and we’re about to get to that”
Bookmarks for September 28th through October 1st [del.icio.us]
![Bookmarks for September 28th through October 1st [del.icio.us]](http://www.paulbailey.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/value1-150x150.jpg)
/a>Bookmarks from September 28th through October 1st:[del.icio.us]
- Taruskin, vol.5, page 220 « The Rambler
“I’ve just recently, and belatedly, started leafing through Richard Taruskin’s monumental History of Western Music, one of the musicological banner publications of 2005. Now, I’ve been an occasional fan of Taruskin’s work – his Grove article on Nationalism is flawed, but significant, and Defining Russia Musically was an inspirational book for me… There’s far too much to go into here about what winds me up about this book (how about the laughable Europhobia, in which European music after 1950 is merely a Cold War sideshow, and after 1960 non-existent), much of which will have been said elsewhere, but I just wanted to get my reaction to one page in particular off my chest. This is page 220 of volume 5, on which Taruskin is discussing (speculating on) the Cold War implications of Penderecki’s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima. I fear, as an example of the lazy thought and downright falsehoods of this book, it may not be unique.”
- Music Apps Blur the Gap Between You and Clapton – NYTimes.com -
“And this is where it gets back to being like a video game. Many musical apps offer the ability to record a track, then add layers on top of it. Doing this between disparate apps is impossible without external recording software, but a multi-instrumental app like Moocow’s Band gives novices the opportunity to record and edit tracks with drums, bass and guitar, and make sure it all sounds pretty good (even if one doesn’t know how to play a lick of music). It’s as much a game as Guitar Hero, only instead of trying to keep up with prerecorded music, the goal is to make music of one’s own.”
Bookmarks for September 6th through September 20th [del.icio.us]
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Bookmarks from September 6th through September 20th:[del.icio.us]
Bookmarks for August 9th through August 17th [del.icio.us]
Bookmarks from August 9th through August 17th:[del.icio.us]
- TRIUMPH OF HIS WILL: GQ Feature on Quentin Tarantino – “You can lie about a lot of things,” he says, “but your filmography doesn’t lie. It’s right there. And it doesn’t give a shit about why you did it.”
- Clare Graham’s Wonderama – LA Times Magazine -”As for the question of art versus craft, Graham comes down definitively on one side. “I don’t like the terms outsider art, or naive art. What I do is craft,” he insists. “Fine art has a need to communicate something. My work is about simple processes done to the nth degree until the accumulation is significant.”
- Lefsetz Letter » Amanda Palmer email; the new art of twitter and blogging – “BUT this is, hands fucking down, also why people listen, why they search, why they want art. connection = primary. music/art = secondary.”
- Ready for the devil we don’t know -LA Times endorses a constitutional convention to fix CA budget mess -”A single initiative to end the current rule requiring a two-thirds supermajority of the Legislature to adopt a budget may be doomed at the ballot box. But opponents are more likely to accept the change if they can keep the supermajority to increase taxes and are assured that future taxes will no longer be disguised as “fees.”
- Fieldnotes from a Rock Band Bar Night | – “Much to my surprise, the scene reminded me of the participatory tradition that was the focus of my first major research project: Sacred Harp singing, an American vernacular hymnody tradition that is open to anyone, regardless of perceived musical expertise, and that revolves around drop-in community “singings” rather than rehearsed performances for an audience. “
- Views on Music and Life from an outpost.: Making the case for the musical amateur. -”think to say that people simply need more exposure to jazz, to classical music, etc- is only half-right. I think that people need to be directly involved. Make people an active part of any activity, and they are much more likely to stay engaged.”
- This Blog Will Change the World: No neon arrows – “What we need here is a third option, one which avoids asserting the absolute superiority of any one musical style without sliding into relativism.”
- YouTube – GAMEBOY FOOT CONTROLLER DEMO + 8BIT GUITAR -
joey mariano [animal-style] demonstrates his GBC Gameboy Foot Controller
- How American Health Care Killed My Father – The Atlantic (September 2009) -”Indeed, I suspect that our collective search for villains—for someone to blame—has distracted us and our political leaders from addressing the fundamental causes of our nation’s health-care crisis.”
- A music lesson for LACMA’s film program | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times – “It is not without a twang of envy that I watch the film community react to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s announcement that the 40-year-old film program would go the way of the even older Monday Evening Concerts, which was thrown out on the cold street three years ago.”
- Cal State Fullerton abruptly begins canceling classes – College Life OC – OCRegister.com -”Cal State Fullerton officials say the university has begun canceling classes, including those that were already underway, because its being required to make tens of millions of dollars in cuts to help the state balance its budget.”
- WATTS ENSEMBLE: IF WE ALL GOT MOHAWKS -”What would I call the next punkest classical record? Fuck. I could tell you probably the Andy Kaufman of classical music, which is probably Terry Riley’s ‘In C.’ Don’t get me wrong—I love the piece but it almost feels like it’s daring you to like it. ‘In C’ is typically 45 minutes to an hour long and it’s everyone playing the phrases at the same tempo—but they play it staggered so it creates all these different patterns. It’s an amazing piece. But I’ve shown it to people before and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, this is driving me insane—I can’t deal with it.’ It’s kind of the same thing with Andy Kaufman. Some people were like, ‘Wow, this is fucking amazing’ and other people were like, ‘I can’t stand this guy.’”
- The Fun Music Company Ultimate Flashcard Set -”In the Ultimate Instant Print Flashcard Set you get a comprehensive selection of printable flash cards that you print yourself, right from your computer.”
- Create Digital Music » Hexagonal iPhone Sequencer-Rhythm Machine from Jordan Rudess -”Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess and noise.io developer Amidio have made a crazy-looking hexagonal sequencer for the iPhone. It comes with plenty of samples and factory sessions if you just want to play around…”
- Terry Teachout Asks, Can Jazz Be Saved? – WSJ.com -”No, I don’t know how to get young people to start listening to jazz again. But I do know this: Any symphony orchestra that thinks it can appeal to under-30 listeners by suggesting that they should like Schubert and Stravinsky has already lost the battle. If you’re marketing Schubert and Stravinsky to those listeners, you have no choice but to start from scratch and make the case for the beauty of their music to otherwise intelligent people who simply don’t take it for granted. By the same token, jazz musicians who want to keep their own equally beautiful music alive and well have got to start thinking hard about how to pitch it to young listeners—not next month, not next week, but right now.”
Bookmarks for July 3rd through July 5th [del.icio.us]
![Bookmarks for July 3rd through July 5th [del.icio.us]](http://www.paulbailey.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/2106782847_a21a40ae92_o1-150x150.jpg)
Bookmarks from July 3rd through July 5th:[del.icio.us]
- Daily Kos: Scientists Visit the Creation Museum – “Tamaki Sato was confused by the dinosaur exhibit. The placards described the various dinosaurs as originating from different geological periods — the stegosaurus from the Upper Jurassic, the heterodontosaurus from the Lower Jurassic, the velociraptor from the Upper Cretaceous — yet in each case, the date of demise was the same: around 2348 B.C. “I was just curious why,” said Dr. Sato, a professor of geology from Tokyo Gakugei University in Japan” Poor Dr. Sato. Has he never read the Bible? Doesn’t he know that 2348 BC was the year of the Great Flood?
- Wonkette : Insane Sarah Palin, Late At Night On July 4, Threatens To Sue Entire Internet, Via Twitter – he he she said snowbilly grifter. “Sarah Palin, a snowbilly grifter who spent her entire adult life desperately trying to become a Public Figure, apparently wants her attorneys to stupidly and pointlessly threaten American practitioners of free speech regarding our public figures and elected officials.”
- musoc.org home: music, society, music society -interesting un-authored site that tries to push an unique “art music” worldview. right now the general consensus is that its a parody (at NNM)
- 1. define all music in only two categories; pop and art (really no folk music?)
- 2. has a hall of shame for the “individuals and institutions who debase art music” (why not in good fun?)
- 3. have a set of criteria for all art music (there definition of art music is ambitious but fatally flawed, they trip themselves up in the complexity argument, also by giving any music/idea a fixed criteria pretty much makes it dead on the spot to be dissected in a vacuum sealed bell jar and not a living breathing ‘art’ form)
- 4. have a list of ‘approved’ art music (not a bad idea, but looking at their list makes me confident i wouldn’t ever want to be a member of their ‘club’)
- 5. have a list of neglected classics (see #4)
- 6. have a mailing list (why not… it would be interesting to see what they think)
- ‘Freebird’ ultimately unforgettable — chicagotribune.com -Lynyrd Skynyrd released the song 35 years ago. Since then, it has been an anthem, a demand, an ode to personal independence and the lamest heckle in the history of rock.
- Feed Us A Live Insect: I will always love you Mr. T’s-Bowl – great post (by eli of the monolators) on the ups and downs on my favorite venue to play in Los Angeles.
- This Is Why You’re Fat and other great single-topic blogs. – By Farhad Manjoo – Slate Magazine -
The allure of crowd-sourced, single-topic blogs.
- The BRAD BLOG : EXCLUSIVE: PALIN RESIGNATION ‘DAMAGE CONTROL’ FOR COMING ‘ICEBERG SCANDAL’ … MORE: EMBEZZLEMENT INDICTMENTS COMING? -since i posted this the FBI has come out to say that there is no truth to the online rumors. after seeing the press conference i still think she was out of her mind scared and quit for a pretty good reason. only time will tell.
- YouTube – Music plays with the listener -interesting youtube video on music cognition (via @laputean)
- Poisson Rouge’s sense of musical adventure | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times -Marc Swed checks out the poisson rouge in NYC. “The place isn’t merely cool, as the New York Times has dubbed it, the venue is a downright musical marvel. I wasn’t miserable on Monday, which I might have been with this program. Instead, I found the evening such a pleasure that I hope there is room on the crowded Poisson Rouge bandwagon for yet another critic.”
phyrric victory
most of my friends are talking about how we are going to get through the next four years. i hope it is that simple. i’m really concerned about how easily people have been manipulated by the empty ‘family values’ rhetoric. i’m getting the idea its a new spin on an old game. i have been [...]
Bookmarks for July 16th through July 19th [del.icio.us]
Bookmarks from July 16th through July 19th:[del.icio.us]
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Jul 20, 2009 | Categories:bookmarks | Tags: acting, america, anne midgette, anorexia, art music, blog/musings, comedy, commentary, consumerism, cool, critic, cronkite, culture, design, diet, environment, firefox, funny, guy debord, gwbush, hillary clinton, hollywood bowl, humor, jenny bitner, journalism, koyaanisqatsi, lacma, latimes, los angeles, map, media, musoc.org, news, philip glass, photography, politics, popmusic, propaganda, recovery, retrace our steps, reviews/press, salon.com, state department, war, wnyc | 1 Comment »