Safe Trip Home

It's the moment we've all been waiting for: November 19, 2008. Dido's new album, Safe Trip Home, finally hit stores in the United States.

I've been waiting for this CD since, oh, FOREVER, and now it's here. The melancholy, brooding, restraint, taffy-pulled melodic lines are everything I hoped for and more. Expect a full post after I give the album a good listen and analysis.

Before that time, I just watched Les Chansons d'Amour, a beautiful French movie-musical about a young man Ismaël coping with the death of his lover. The movie reminds me so much of Les Parapluies des Cherbourg with Catherine Deneuve. Much of the dialogue is sung, and I'm still wondering if the singing is meant to be thoughts, emotions or dialogue. And, maybe that's the point of the film: love songs manifest themselves as all three.

This is my favorite song from the movie. If you aren't a Francophone, my one sentence English summary is "Things are still the same without you; I wish you were still here."

Autumn Untouched

I love how my taste in music changes with the seasons. Autumn always brings synth-driven and icy music back into heavy rotation on my iPod. A couple of recent overplays to illustrate what I mean by icy are: Kylie's "Sensitized"; "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order; and "Break the Ice". Contemplative and brooding these three songs are not, but the weather is still warm, so I need something banging.

Perfect example of what I mean:


Why is this type of music so fitting for the season for me? I love the versatility: You can listen to it on a sad day, happy day, warm day, cold day, whatever. It just works for autumn. When I start layering clothes, I know it's time to break out the synth pop.

Teen pop and hip hop are high on my summer list, so I've been putting tracks like "One Step at a Time", "Damaged", and "American Boy" on repeat until now. I stumbled across the Veronicas thanks to Pandora, and their first album, The Secret Life of..., really falls into the Avril Lavigne-esque post-punk/teen-pop/girly-rock category. But, what's amazing about the album is that it is genuinely AMAZING. The twin sister duo actually are skilled songwriters, talented interpreters, and have great voices. Veronicas: 1. Avril: 0.

I bought their second album, Hook Me Up, yesterday evening expecting more of the same from the girls: angsty chick rock but pure cotton candy. To be completely honest, I was sheepishly--and fervently--hoping for The Best Damn Thing Part II (Yes, I love the Avril album with all my heart regardless of how much of a poser she is). But, what caught me completely off guard was the first cut off the album. The edgy yet swirling strings, the dance pop production, and the sensual lyrics stunned me. The video adds little extra to the song, but just take a quick peek at "Untouched":



I have had this on repeat for the past half hour; I think it's safe to say I have a new autumn repeat fave!! So fucking good, you guys...

Ketchup and Coping Mechanisms

Some people dislike when an audience gives a movie a round of applause.
Some people dislike when someone writes questions in a letter.
Some people dislike when one fails to update his/her blog on a regular basis.

None of these are my pet peeves, but I engage in all three of the potential annoyances. For our voyeuristic society, and the limited number of people who read my blog, I feel I should attempt to catch everyone up on the happenings in the past month(s) of my life. Let's start with the biggies:

1. I'm back for fall term at NYU, student teaching at an elementary school (preschool through 3rd grade) in the South Bronx.
2. My grandfather passed away a week after my birthday.
3. Summer love turned into heartache.

What an emotional summer it was, and I am really struggling to return to my usual self. I know there are people who are far worse off than I am, I just feel the need to share with how I am coping with loss and my current existential crises.

Student teaching brought me back to the world of children, and it never ceases to amaze me how they put a smile on my face. It is unfortunate that education is not my ideal career path; however, I'm learning how to interact with children and people on a much different level. And what a wonderful learning experience that is. Being there three times a week is tiring, but seeing their smiling faces makes me want to come back the next day. Thank Jesus for weekends, though...

The loss of my grandfather and the severing of my summer fling have been rough. I think I've almost come to terms with the passing of Grandpa, but not so much for the latter. My friend Katie spoke to moving on from my relationship as "withdrawal from addiction." And, honestly, I cannot think of a better way to frame this situation. Now I'm filling my time with new things and old friends, movies, music, and books. Here are some highlights:

Coping Mechanism Number 1: Bare -- Annie Lennox.
I rediscovered Annie Lennox's music this summer thanks to PCiv and friends' recommendations, but I didn't download this particular album until the beginning of this month. It's beautifully tragic, filled with elegant melodic line I'm certainly not used to hearing on the radio anymore.

Coping Mechanism Number 2: The Twilight Saga -- Stephenie Meyer.
Just wow. Entertaining books with extremely likable characters. My free time is now spent obsessing over vampires, and my dreams are now including hott vampires who want to spend their eternal lives with me. How romantic!!

Coping Mechanism Number 3: TV.
Gossip Girl... True Blood (again with the vampires)... the impending new seasons of The Office and Heroes... Need I write more?

Coping Mechanism Number 4: PostSecret.com.
Why is it that reading other people's secrets makes me so happy? I think it's knowing that I'm not alone and so many individuals share the same thoughts and feelings as I do. If you're not familiar with the project, click on my link in the sidebar.

Coping Mechanism Number 5: My Friends.
I know, cliché, but in all honesty, they make my day brighter than I could ever imagine. Shakira has a song lyric that goes, "There's nothing like your smile made of sun," and that's all I need from them to pull me out of my spells of self-loathing.

All five of these things seem superficial, but in the long run, I know they will help me swim in calm waters again. In addition to them, singing has really brought me to a different place in life. I really can't even begin to express what a joy it is to have found my voice and share it. Music isn't something I merely engage in externally, it's internal as well. My instrument is something I came to treasure that lives inside me.

Here's hoping for another update soon. I forgot how much I enjoy writing these blog entries...

Crushed to Pieces

Brooding has always been a favorite, nay, standard past time of mine. Call me a freak, a nerd, or a fairy, I frequently blame my character flaws on the Zodiac. Yes, I guess it's a little immature and naïve, but it's easier than me taking blame for my own faults and vices.

As a Cancer and thusly a water-sign, I'm prone to what one of my coworkers at Central Res calls emotional craziness. My friend Kelly--a Scorpio (another water sign)--and I deal with our excessively emotional natures by getting into what we call our "coffins"--blaring depressing music on our iPods while we lay in bed with all the covers over our heads. I remember searching for answers to our fucked up love lives online and finding out that I was born on the cusp of Cancer and Leo. Being born on the Cancer/Leo cusp apparently translates into an inevitable self-loathing due to the conflict between the sun and moon, water and fire, and all other opposites that govern the two different signs. But enough of my belly-aching about my personal issues and staying in bed until 1pm, sometimes I just have to snap out of it and let the sun in a little...

In my previous post, I mentioned how summer flings are one of my favorite things of the season. Right now, it's not looking that way. Current fling is turning into the greatest duality of me sulking and being on Cloud 9; I don't think I've been this bipolar since high school.

Who and how I am all the time seems like some crazy gay in love: I'm sunny, optimistic, the first to laugh in any situation. When I'm crushing, I have this penchant for focusing too much on the object of my affection, planning our futures together, dreaming of a perfect world where we can be together 24/7/365, rationalizing every reason he might not want to be with me at this moment in time because I'm so not good enough for him with my not-so-perfect-skin, overly-clingy and latching tendencies.

Suddenly, I metamorphose into this sullen, sulky statue covered in gross, green globs of algae and slime. I feel like I just sit and wait at the bottom of this lake where I drown in all of my negative thoughts and emotion. I know it's not worth the time or energy to put all my faith in some man, but all I allow myself to do is hope that he'll rescue me from the abyss and consequently discover I'm actually some merman not this pile of pond scum that's been growing more disgusting with each passing day in the depths.

Connection to my life: I am crushing, and I've got it bad. It's one of those times when I feel like the smallest thing just breaks me apart. For instance, we plan to hang out, it doesn't work out, and I immediately fall into a depression. Other textbook examples of me being crazy while crushing include:

1. Being sullen when crushes don't respond to text messages, notes, phone calls, etc.
   
2. Watching romance movies and bawling at the happy ending
3. Screening my phone calls and wondering why crush hasn't been calling and why everyone else seems to like me except him
4. Wondering at all times if crush is thinking about me all the time because I clearly am thinking about him and almost borderline obsessing over him
5. Dreaming about what's going to happen tomorrow (Yes, I am Patricia Arquette in Medium)
6. Brooding
   
7. Making pointless lists

Like I wrote earlier, sometimes all I have to do is snap out of it, and I don't want to give the impression that I'm only depressed while crushing. Let's compare the previous list with my ebullient nature. Imagine a depressed Kyle while at the same time he's probably the happiest person on the face of the planet along the lines of Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid. Exhibit A: (fast forward to 4:40 and watch for about a minute and a half)



Similar to Julia Roberts's character in My Best Friend's Wedding, I might be better with food. Let's liken my inner conflict at current moment to an optimistic and effervescent chocolate outside with a cold disgusting puke center. I just want to dissolve into my normal chocolate covered Kyle. The Dark Knight plus Kathleen equals amazing diversion right now...

Summer Love

Now that class has finished and I've been at home in Pennsylvania for a few weeks, I feel like summer has really started. I can sit on my porch, drink a paloma cocktail in my favorite glass, and reread Jane Austen books until I fall asleep at 4am. On second thought, I guess I only do that on days when I don't have to be up at 5:30 to go to my job...

Summer lives in an interesting place in my life. It's a wonderful time of year: the warmth, the sun, thunderstorms, my birthday, summer clothes, driving with the music up and the windows down, being home with my dog for an extended period of time, visiting with old friends, making new friends, summer romances... I feel like I have more time to think, reflect on events, and plan out how I'm going to implement ideas for change and growth in the following year. Then again, maybe that's just the nature of having a summer birthday.

But, with all these bonuses come the downs: working in my yard, being around my parents all the time, humidity, mosquitos, weird smells of central Pennsylvania, and family reunions. Maybe it's the balance of all these aspects that make me love this time of year so much.

Artist + Loads of Samples = Album?

Mashup might be a common occurrence at a club or bar in New York on a Friday or Saturday night, but what happens when an album is comprised solely of this genre of music? Remember the Atonement videos I posted here a couple of weeks ago? What if mashup is the musical equivalent of found objects and YouTube art like this?

Okay, so the reason why I'm on this subject is because I just acquired the new Girl Talk album Feed the Animals. It's a mashup experiment headed by a Pittsburgh native, Gregg Gillis. A broad scope of the album would be that it's a NOW compilation with ADHD. Pitchfork says, "The album plays like a rooftop 4th of July party". Each track has between 10 and 25 songs sampled on it. One of my favorite mashups is Ludacris's rap from "Glamorous" over "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire.

Here's "Still Here" off the album. Thanks to YouTube for also having a video mashup with the song =] The mashup contains the the videos of all the songs featured in the piece.



I mean, Gillis has got some balls putting "Damn!" over "Whiter Shade of Pale". Also love that "All That She Wants" is "My Drink 'N' My 2 Step". Genius. Head over to the Girl Talk MySpace page because they're pulling a Radiohead: You can download Feed the Animals at whatever price you want to pay. Want to buy it for free? Just answer why you're choosing to purchase it for free, and it's yours.

Mouth's Cradle: Eclectic Analysis

Introduction:

In this post, I will analyze the song "Mouth's Cradle" by Björk. This song was released in August 2004 on her album Medúlla. The method I will be using for analysis is the eclectic method outlined by Dr. Lawrence Ferrara in Philosophy and the Analysis of Music: Bridges to Musical Sound, Form, and Reference (1991).


Open Listening:



Lyrics:
there is yet another one
that follows me
wherever I go
and supports me
this tooth is warmth-like

and these teeth are a ladder up to his mouth
these teeth are a ladder that i walk
that you can walk too if you want
if you want up to the mouth
the mouth's cradle
up to the mouth's cradle

he always has a hope for me
always sees me when nothing else
and everyone have left
that ghost is brighter than anyone
and fulfills me with hope
those beams assure me

and you can use those teeth as a ladder
up to the mouth's cradle, the mouth's cradle
and you can follow these notes i'm singing
up to the mouth's cradle, the mouth's cradle

the simplicity of the ghost-like beast
the purity of what it wants and where it goes
always love, always loves you, always loves you
infrared love

and you can use these teeth as a ladder
up to the mouth's cradle, the mouth's cradle
and you can use these teeth follow my voice
tooth by tooth
up to the mouth's cradle, the mouth's cradle

i need a shelter to build an altar away
from all osamas and bushes


Historical Background:

Björk Gu∂mundsdóttir, usually referred to by her first name, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, music producer, and Golden Globe-nominated actress. She is best known for her distinctive voice, eclectic music, and distinctive costumes. She has released 6 full-legnth studio albums that range from dance pop to avant-garde.

Medúlla is Björk's fifth album, released in August 2004. The album is almost entirely vocally based with minimal electronic elements. The album was met with generally postive reviews; most critics just praised Björk for her revolutionary vocal-only aesthetic. Personnel involved in the making of the album include throat singer Tagaq, beatboxers Dokaka and Rahzel, and the Icelandic Choir. "Mouth's Cradle" is not entirely human vocals; it incorporates a bass synth and electronic programming.


Syntax:

Musicians involved with the piece include: Björk (lead vocals), Tagaq (throat vocals), the Icelandic Choir (choir parts and backing vocals), Rahzel (beatboxing a four-on-the-floor beat), and Mark Bell (bass synth). Programming and other electronic effects were done by Björk, Valgeir Sigurdsson, and Mark Bell.

"Mouth's Cradle" is in an Eb Dorian mode, and it does not follow a standard pop song chord progression. The tonality is ambiguous throughout the entirety of the piece with exception of the end of the piece which has centricity around Ab. Contrasting with the advanced musical elements, the form of the piece is quite simple and mimics that of a traditional pop song: Intro, Verse, Refrain, Verse, Refrain, Verse, Refrain, Coda. The Refrains are altered slightly with each recurrence.


Phenomenology:

*I really wanted to be able to embed QuickTime clips here, but you can scroll up to the video at the top of the page to access the song*

0:00-0:25
-Splashing and swirling electronic sample
-Ethereal choir entrance: women soaring followed by men giving the women a support

0:25-0:55
-Sighing and other vocal sampling “bloom” and die away
-Lead vocal entrance (continues through piece until noted)
-Human beat box entrance (continues through piece until noted)
-Blooming samples accompany lead vocal
-Men in choir ascend from the beatbox

0:55-1:25
-Similar choral part to the first section: ethereal women, men singing a supporting line
-Vocal bloom sample continues until noted

1:25-1:55
-Similar to 0:25-0:55
-New vocal sampling (guttural, decisive, provocative) only incorporated this section
-Beatbox drops out for a moment highlighting new vocal sample

1:55-2:20 — Almost identical to 0:55-1:25

2:20-2:40
-Beatbox only laying down strong beats in portions giving way to bloom sample
-New vocal fry sampling only through this section

2:40-3:05
-Similar to 0:55-1:25 and 1:55-2:20 but vocal bloom more present than in previous sections
-Return of beatbox’s original material
-Nearing the end of section, the lead vocal yields to prominent choir part

3:05-4:00
-Choir becomes more majestic and strengthens until end
-Vocal bloom becomes more ever-present
-Guttural voices and sighing return
-Lead vocal chants calmly under other parts
-Beatbox and digital sampling “explode"


Musical and Textual Representation:

*Scroll up for lyrics*

The song is so metaphorical which leads the text to have multiple meanings. At first, one could question the meaning of "cradle" to to what it might refer. At first I considered a Michel Gondry-esque image with clouds looking like teeth and one climbing up to the sky that opens like a mouth. However, given that the song is just vocal with a small amount of electronics, it could refer to a beginning and primitivism. With this primitivism comes a more tribal element, and this leads me to question the notion of group musicking. The song does sound like there is more of an interaction between all parts, a get-together to make the song rather than someone singing over a beat.

What's more interesting is that the sighing and throat singing sound sexual to my modern ears. Björk could be asserting that this isn't a sensual song, but more of returning to our human beginnings. The end of the piece also has with religious undertones, "i need a shelter to build an altar away / from all osamas and bushes." Religion was central to the first human civilizations, and maybe to Björk it lost its way with corruption and bureaucracy as time passed.


Virtual Feeling:

Here's the virtual feeling(s) I culled from my presentation in class:
-Broken, fragmented
-Primitive, tribal
-Uneasy, strange, uncomfortable
-Forceful but stumbling
-Mysterious

And mine:
-Eerie
-Ethereal
-Sensual
-Tense
-Stately
-Transcendent


Onto-Historical World:

I know that according to Wimsatt and Beardsley, the artist's intentions are not as important as what the appreciator takes away from a work, I feel I need to mention Björk's thoughts on her song. She mentions in an interview that the Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush references are a tasteless joke, but I think they have far-reaching impacts on the song.

If one does take Björk's comment into consideration, the song could reference spirituality and optimism. On an unabashedly Western religious level, the teeth could then actually be clouds as I mentioned before and one climbling them up to the cradle of heaven characterized by the majestic choir parts. Iceland, Björk's home country, has sometimes been referred to as "Hopeland". Taking this into account, "Mouth's Cradle" could be a plea for optimism in a cynical and rational post-modern society.

Ignoring Björk's comment, "Mouth's Cradle" has a distinctly political message. The song was released in 2004, a time when America was headlong into its War on Terror. American troops had been in Afghanistan since late 2001 and in Iraq since 2003. Since major world events of the 20th Century--and now the beginning of the 21st Century--were wars, the song could be a plea for refuge away from the global unrest of the post-9/11 era. The strange and intimate soundscape could also reflect on a need to be heard. A teacher once told me, "Sometimes the quietest voices are influential because they resonate the longest once they are heard."


Meta-Critique:

As I wrote this analysis, I realized that there was a bleeding of certain sections into others. Although the eclectic method calls for a delimitation of these separate aspects, I think I would be more comfortable with just writing about the piece and then using the eclectic method as a blueprint for my analysis. I also feel that the ambiguity of "Mouth's Cradle" leads to more of the combining of the analytical elements. However, this ambiguity is a strength that leads to more referential meaning and a stronger analysis in that portion of the eclectic method.

Meta-Critique Is a Doing Word

Yesterday in class, TMac made a reference to a type of music sounding like its underwater. As I rode the train home with my iPod on, I realized I was drowning happily on the A Train. I have such an affinity for this type of music, and to some extent, I think an overwhelming majority of my music has this watery quality. To what could I attribute this (almost) cliché of my iTunes library?

1. I'm a Cancer, one of three Water signs in the Zodiac
2. I've lived near/on the water my whole life
3. I enjoy showering

Well, maybe everyone enjoys showering, but I'm getting further away from this meta-critique. I always am fascinated by the scope of this one music website, allmusic.com, and I probably spend countless hours surfing it per week. They have album reviews for pretty much any artist or album you could think of. Getting to the water connection, "Teardrop" by Massive Attack from the album Mezzanine was recommended to me by a friend in high school. I remember listening to it the first time and feeling like I was burning in a rainstorm while underwater. "Teardrop" is reviewed on allmusic by Amy Hanson here. I'll post the music video (directed by Walter Stern) before my critique.



Hanson begins by exploring the historical background of the group Massive Attack highlighting that the group had wanted to work with Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins. She writes that even though Fraser and Massive Attack would collaborate on more interesting tracks on Mezzanine, "Teardrop" was a welcome and sweet commercial success. Hanson then touches on the virtual feeling of the piece--"Melancholy, dreamy"--and syntax mentioning its "unrushed" length of five and a half minutes. After the virtual feeling, Hanson mentions the phenomenology of the piece, and then adds that it's "an interlude to soften the soul" in her own one-sentence referential analysis of the song.

Comparing her critique to one utilizing an eclectic analysis, she does hit a number of the steps necessary to Ferrara's eclectic method. She begins with an historical analysis but then veers off into virtual feeling before addressing syntax and sound-in-time. Her review might be more grounded if she took note of the instrumentation and used her phenomenological reference to "scuttling" with the syntax. What really stands out to me with the scuttling reference is that
Mezzanine's album cover is a Hercules beetle--scuttling is imminent in this album. The lyrics are also integral to "Teardrop" and she didn't mention them other than one can "nearly clearly hear Fraser's lyrics." Reference to the lyrics could strengthen her cause for the song being an "interlude to soften the soul."

Those Tenori-Ons Are Mine, Betch.

So, you're probably thinking, "Is picture of an Etch A Sketch or a Lite-Brite?" Truth is, it's kind of both... One of my favorite artists, Kate Havnevik, posts a vlog through her YouTube account, and through it I found the coolest gadget ever. On a post from Christmastime, a friend of hers brought home a new, digital musical instrument called a Tenori-On. Being a recording artist, she immediately makes a loop on it and then spells her name (KATE) to see what it would sound like.

My chin fell to the floor. Literally. Well, maybe just to the keyboard, but who's keeping track? Anyways, so I went on an internet scavenger hunt to find more videos, compositions, etc., to see how this gadget worked. How do you write a piece of music on a square full of buttons and lights? I just can't believe how awesome this thing is. Watch this clip to see the Tenori-On's creator, Toshio Iwai, make an improvised loop. Look at the back of the Tenori-On; you can see the "picture" the sound is making on behind where Iwai is working.



How badass is this? It's freaking audio/visual; the shapes look like the sounds. Ingenious! A Tenori-On is officially on my wishlist. Click me for more cool videos and info about the instrument. The question remains: Who wants to loan me $1200 so I can buy one? Any takers?

Referential Analysis (& Emergency)

To continue on my journey through analysis, I thought I would do something with more electronic influences. Starting off with Joni Mitchell and moving to Goth rock and shoegazer with the Cocteau Twins worked for me, but now I want to jump to something a little bit different. I chose the song "A&E" by Goldfrapp because of its immediacy: as soon as I heard it, I loved it--even though I had no idea what the song was about.

What is instantly intriguing about this song is its title. According to nhs.uk, A&E (a British colloquialism for Accident & Emergency) is a department in a major hospital sometimes referred to as a 'casualty department'. A&E departments treat and assess those who are in immediate need of treatment due to serious injury or illness. People that visit these facilities are in life-threatening condition. I think this is probably similar to the American "ER".

That said, take a look at the lyrics:

Verse:
It's a blue, bright blue Saturday, hey, hey
And the pain is starting to slip away, hey, hey
I'm in a backless dress on a pastel ward that's shining
Think I want you still but it may be pills at work

Pre-Chorus:
Do you really wanna know how I was dancing on the floor?
I was trying to phone you when I'm crawling out the door
I'm amazed at you, the things you say that you don't do
Why don't you ring?

Chorus:
I was feeling lonely, feeling blue
Feeling like i needed you
Like i've woken up surrounded by me
A&E

Verse:
It's a blue, bright blue Saturday, hey, hey
And the pain is starting to slip away, hey, hey
I'm in a backless dress on a pastel ward that's shining
Think I want you still but it may be pills at work

Bridge:
How did I get to accident emergency?
All I wanted was you to take me out high

Chorus:
I was feeling lonely, feeling blue
Feeling like i needed you
Like I hoped you'd call and hoped you'd see me
A&E


Several readings of the lyrics bring me to question of if Alison Goldfrapp is in fact IN the accident and emergency ward or if she is singing about a metaphorical state. If it is a metaphorical state, the song continues in the trend of confessional pop pioneered in the early 1990s. The ambiguity of the lyrics affords the listener the ability to decide if that notion is true or not; the pills still could be metaphorical like the A&E ward. The only reference that seems to be certain is that Goldfrapp wants to return to her lost relationship. And, her want (and maybe even need) to return to a relationship that has been recently terminated is a feeling one can easily identify regardless of the era of one's existence.

But what if this A&E isn't a hypothetical situation? Given the fact that the song was released in January 2008, situations do exist in our society where admission into the A&E ward is almost commonplace. Medical TV shows take place in hospitals, so the accident and emergency department is becoming more mainstream; the media jokes: Have you taken your once in a lifetime trip to the ER? What this song possibly could be referencing on a more concrete level is a pill overdose due to the end of a relationship. The drug culture has had such a profound effect on modern society that this premise is believable; everyone seems to have their "drug of choice" as Huxley references in Brave New World.

Generally, the song is wistful, luxe, trippy, and bittersweet; the music and lyrics fit quite gracefully. There's a yearning throughout the piece for closeness or intimacy as the lyrics point out, but there also seems to be a "drugged" satisfaction in the music, possibly framed by the lyrics' overt pill reference. When the taken together, music allows the lyrics to feel like a natural thought process or an almost completely organic speech pattern. The repetition and slight changes over the piece's slow build feel like one could extract the lyrics from the song and have an introspective "self-conversation."

Because of the ambiguity of the song, I'm having issues not bridging between phenomenology, historical and referential analysis. As a general thought, this was probably the most difficult analysis for me to do. I just want to keep talking about the piece. There's so many things I want to write about (chordal structure, tonality, etc.), but I do not believe a pure referential analysis affords me the ability to do that. I think my attachment to the piece entices me to continue to delve into Goldfrapp's world. I want to ask more questions and find things to think about in conjunction with "A&E".

Here's the official music video from YouTube. Quite beautiful.

Opening Pandora's Box

A friend introduced me to Pandora.com last fall, so I've had the link to the site on my blog since I started writing it in May. I think I'm falling in love with a website. I've been playing with it for the past hour and a half just to see what happens when I experiment with it.

If you haven't been to the site before, it's a free online radio site where YOU create the radio stations. Each radio station can be based on a favorite artist or song. The site has a database that it will search to create a radio station with similar songs to the artist or song you on which you chose to base the station.

For instance, if you put in "Slide" by The Goo Goo Dolls, a similar song that Pandora might play would be "Collide" by Howie Day or "All My Friends" by Counting Crows. Those are purely guesses on my part, but just try putting "Slide" in and see what happens =] How it finds similar songs is really neat; I think it does it in a phenomenological manner. Some categories are: electronica influences, emphasis on studio production, vocal-centric aesthetic, east coast rap influences, swing influences, etc. Stations become more centered around your tastes because you give songs a "thumbs up" (add this and similar songs) or "thumbs down" (don't play this song).

So I made a batch of stations ages ago, but this morning, I got into refining them. I had created a nice downtempo jazz standard station stemmed from Billie Holiday's "You've Changed", a slick electro-pop station with artists similar to Kate Havnevik, and the one I'm most enjoying is my retro hip-hop station that started with Digable Planets's song "Pacifics". I've discovered a myriad (insert Heathers film reference here) of new artists and songs thanks to this site. I seriously think my music library is about to get 50 times more indie; most of the artists my stations have been playing aren't mainstream. Super cool.

So with the complete knowledge of my sounding like a bad infomercial... Try Pandora. It will change your musical life. No seriously, it will.

ATONEMENT, YouTube Clips & Found Objects

After posting the previous entry I thought of something else: What we also continue to discuss in class is the notion of art relating to iMovie. Is a YouTube clip with a pop song on the same level as an artist naming a found object as a work of art? I promise there's connection to Atonement, and it is this:

I found five YouTube clips in which a fan found a similarity between Cecilia and Robbie to the characters of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) directed by Michel Gondry. Each of the five following clips contains the last moments of Atonement with Jon Brion's score from Eternal Sunshine dubbed over them. They were all created by the same YouTube user, 9075401booze.


Atonement (I)
Music: "Bookstore" by Jon Brion (from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind original score)


Atonement (II)
Music: "Peer Pressure" (ESOTSM score)


Atonement (III)
Music: "Phone Call" (ESOTSM score)


Atonement (IV)
Music: "Row" (ESOTSM score)


Atonement (V)
Music: "Spotless Mind" (ESOTSM score)

I could babble about each of the previous clips and how they each have their own virtual feeling, but I feel like the creater (9075401booze) has come to terms with the individuality of each clip. This could be motivation for keeping all the clips online. Here's an excerpt of the creater's notes under the description of each clip: "Only problem was I couldn't choose between the five songs I initially selected... so I thought what the hell, just post them all ;-)" I really think that's what makes this set of five "found objects" so interesting: the creater couldn't figure out which one was "best" because they each capture a different virtual feeling. Even though 9075401booze didn't intend to create this suite of clips, the fact that there exists a set of five clips of pretty much the same thing--each clip with its own distinct phenomenology and virtual feeling--is what makes this set so intriguing.

Now I'll post the true end of the film to compare with the previous five. This clip was possted by buprup, and the score is by Dario Marianelli. The score continues into the credits in the original film, so the clip utilizes the trailer and other bits of Atonement itself. Buprup writes in the description of the work (spoiler alert if you haven't seen Atonement): From 0:01 to 1:09 is the actual ending of the film. This ending music continues through the credits from 1:10, which I replaced with previous death scenes and the trailer..." Such a beautiful amalgam:

Psychical Distance and Breaking the Fourth Wall in ATONEMENT

In class today, we were discussing the idea of psychical distance and how it relates to breaking the 4th wall in theater. Dawson relates the idea of distance to Peter Pan and the plea for audience participation when Tinkerbell poisons herself to save Peter. At the time of Peter Pan's original conception, interactive theater may have been unheard of. However, the invitation of the audience into the plot of the play seems commonplace nowadays due to our acceptance of what McLuhan references as cold media.

As I was leaving class, the film Atonement, directed by Joe Wright, kept swirling in my brain. The first time I saw the film, I was very emotionally invested. I distinctly remember yelling (in my mind of course) at the screen during shocking parts and also feeling so much pity towards the star-crossed lovers Cecilia (played Keira Knightley) and Robbie (James McAvoy). However, my emotions reached their climax towards the character of Briony.

If you aren't familiar with the work, the film is based on Ian McEwan's novel of the same name, here's a very brief synopsis... It is the story of Cecilia and Robbie who are split apart by Cecilia's sister Briony. Briony witnesses a terrible act and accuses Robbie for the incident. The blame is based on false notions and Briony, a writer, revisits these events later in life; she even writes a beautiful novel about Cecilia and Robbie's romance. However, to the audience's surprise, almost the entire movie is the story Briony writes. And, close to the end, an interviewer interrupts the climax of the film by speaking with a now elderly Briony. This interruption was quite controversial among critics--A. O. Scott panned the movie in his New York Times review.

The question I think I'm attempting to work towards is why choose this interruption? Maybe in the terms of psychical distance, Wright makes a directorial choice for the viewer to have more of a cathartic experience for Briony rather than for the ill-fated romance of Knightley and McAvoy's characters. With this interruption, he briefly distances the viewer from the lovers and creates less distance between the viewer and Briony. What also makes such a poignant end to the film is that the viewer sees into "real story" the author lived (in this case, Briony) and how it affects her semi-autobiographical work.

Notes on Ferrara and Heidegger

Chapter IV of Dr. Lawrence Ferrara's Philosophy and the Analysis of Music presents a look at Heidegger and his conceptualization of hermeneutics and phenomenology. Since Chapter III deals with Husserl, Ferrara discusses Husserl's influence on Heidegger. He writes, "[Heidegger] grounds his hermeneutic phenomenology in a philosophy of life" and articulates that Heidegger concludes that acts of description are ultimately interpretations. According to Ferrara, Heidegger's motivation for developing a method of hermeneutics is to recognize and utilize biases.

Ferrara also touches on a few of Heidegger's forerunners in the field of hermeneutics. First is Illyricus who (in the 16th Century) felt the need to balance a specific passage of the Bible against the entire Bible for a clearer interpretation of the text. Chladenius in the 18th Century introduced a notion of relativism in historical study. He notes that one can put himself/herself in the shoes of any historian and judge the correctness of each interpretation when doing a comparative study on the same subject. In the early 19th Century, Friedrich Ast noted that each piece of art is affected by a spirit (Geist) that provides for all development, becoming and understanding. According to Ast, bridging the contemporary Geist to the past Geist is only possible by creating a hermeneutic system. Schleiermacher then takes this idea and says "to understand a whole, one must understand its parts; to understand the parts, one must understand the whole" which Ferrara then terms as the "hermeneutic circle." Hermeneutics could then, according to Ferrara, be loosely named as the art of understanding (92) or the art of avoiding misunderstanding (94).

Moving to Heidegger, Ferrara discusses Heidegger's connection to Husserl and the idea of Dasein or "being-there". Heidegger's form of hermeneutics are, according to Ferrara, "a form of discourse that is in touch with things in their immediacy." Heidegger's philosophy of phenomenology also speaks to "letting things show themselves without overpowering them with linguistic categorization." Heidegger's notion of "understanding" relates to one's ability to examine the structures of one's own ontological world. Ferrara writes, "'Understanding' is a fundamental disposition in which man can bring his being in-the-world into the 'light' for ontological inspection." This theory has been confused with existentialism, but unlike existentialism, Dasein for someone is in and with the world rather than isolated. (108-110)

Ferrara also writes that Heidegger sought to "develop a hermeneutic method that would reveal human existence in terms of life itself... for Heidegger the reality of the 'natural attitude' cannot be dislocated from transcendental consciousness." Heidegger's philosophies also pushed hermeneutics and phenomenology toward the direction of historical relativism. (112-116)

While I was reading this chapter, I kept thinking of Being There. The film is such an interesting potrayal of someone who embodies Heidegger's ideals. In connection with Dr. Ferrara's observance of the similarities of Dasein and existentialism, I remember thinking through the entire film how Chance might be an existentialist. But, now starting my engagement with Heidegger, I can see how Chance "understands" (in the Heideggerian sense of the word) his world through the television. If Heidegger were alive, I wonder how he would react to Being There and its framing of his philosophy.

"Shine on the Outside Springs from the Gloom"

I am fascinated by the notions of duality and balance. Right now, I'm really living in my head; I'm pondering especially the apparent split between my logical/rational side and my emotional/feeling side. I keep wondering what leads me to consider that they are separate?

And then, I found this video:



There's quite a beautiful moment at the end when the external and internal world merge. Who would have thought Alanis Morissette could have a video as interesting as this? Björk could've totally had a song with a similar video; I'm remembering that she actually did... I think I usually box Alanis into "gritty" or "real" like her video for "Thank U". This is such a cool and welcome addition to her videography!

Loves it.

Cherry-Coloured Analysis

One of my favorite moments during the discussion of Dylan Thomas's "Poem in October" was when we discussed Thomas's deliberate obscurity, his technique of using words more for their connotations and rhythmic/melodic properties than for their 'meanings'. As soon as I heard that, I immediately made a connection to the music of the Cocteau Twins. Let's engage with, for instance, the song "Cherry-Coloured Funk" from their album Heaven or Las Vegas (1990). Here's an excerpt of the lyrics: Still we can find our love down from behind / Down far behind this fabulous, my turn rules. Wait,... What?

"Cherry-Coloured Funk", in terms of traditional Western harmonic analysis, has a tonality that's difficult to pin down. It seems to migrate between three keys directly related to the form of the piece. The song is composed like a traditional rock song: verse / refrain / verse / refrain / bridge / refrain. Each verse is in the same key, but unresolved dissonances and an abundance of dominant 7 chords lead me to believe that the piece doesn't have functional tonality, but more of centricity. The verse then would be centered around D major, chorus around f# minor, and the bridge around A major. Since the keys are closely related, the song flows well from section to section.

The general rhythm of the song is a strict 4/4 meter. Precise subdivisions in the vocals, accompanying instruments, and constant eighth notes from a bass drum emphasize the meter. Strong beats tend to be accented by cymbals, and weak beats are illuminated by tambourine.

These musical concepts certainly speak for certain aspects of "Cherry-Coloured Funk", but I want to explore more. I want to know what happens because of the dominant 7 chords in the verse; I want to know how the strict 4/4 affects the song; I want to attempt to analyze the lyrics. Comparing the formal analysis to my Joni Mitchell historical analysis, I feel like I'm more up the creek than I was before. Historical analysis at least personifies the music to some extent, but this formal analysis just seems like something a musician (with knowledge of this particular framing musical syntax) would go: "Oh,... I see," or would it be, "I hear"?

Joni Mitchell's in My Blood Like Holy Wine

preface:
Joni Mitchell has always appealed to me for one reason alone: my mother cannot stand her music due to a bad roommate experience in college. What better thing could a fourteen-year old beginning his rebellious years do other than buy the album his mother used to hear on repeat when she was attempting to study? Apparently the roommate would 'hook' the arm of the record player over the LP Court and Spark--like this--and it played the record over and over and over. Court and Spark certainly has a fond place in my memory, but all joking aside, I feel a connection to Joni. When Emma Thompson's character in Love Actually says that "Joni Mitchell helped [her] to feel", I teared up. What better artist to choose for an historical analysis?


historical analysis & meta-critique:
Joni Mitchell was born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943. Although most people frame Mitchell as a singer, she views herself as a visual artist, dabbling in photography and painting, then as a musician. She released her first album, Song to a Seagull, in 1968. Her follow up album Clouds (1969) contained much of her early work played on tours. She went on to release around 20 albums until the present day containing new material and some previously released material. She collaborated with many famous musicians including Chaka Khan, Charles Mingus, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Jaco Pastorius. According to allmusic.com, Joni Mitchell may be the most influential female recording artist during the late 20th century because of her willingness to experiment with her artistic identity and challenge what constitutes pop music.

A comparison of two albums highlight Mitchell's eclecticism: Clouds (1969) and Both Sides Now (2000). Although both are very similar in terms of subjects--love, loss, and the notion of modern romance--they differ greatly in terms of presentation. Clouds is at first glance a traditional folk/pop album whereas Both Sides Now producer Larry Klein (also Mitchell's ex-husband) writes in the liner notes of the album: "[It is] a programmatic suite documenting a relationship from initial flirtation through optimistic consummation, metamorphosing into disillusionment, ironic despair, and finally resolving in the philosophical overview of acceptance and the probability of the cycle repeating itself". Tracks are all written by Mitchell on Clouds have sparse accompaniment whereas Both Sides Now features fully orchestrated jazz or pop standards including two of Mitchell's own "A Case of You" and "Both Sides Now", which have even become standards of their own accord.

Unfortunately, Mitchell's career is so expansive it is quite difficult to choose what the engaging parts are of her career. I feel it must be quite similar to how Dr. MacFarlane engages with the Beatles on such a level. There's just so much I love about Joni Mitchell, I get carried away and could go on for days. So many things are worth mentioning and discussing further with Mitchell's career, and a legend such as Joni Mitchell deserves a little more discussion than just a brief historical overview. Maybe what I am articulating is that an historical analysis has its shortcomings in that we only get a limited or skewed version of the work. This especially speaks to Dr. Ferrara's idea that one should implement an electic analysis of a work rather than just using one form of analysis.

references:
imdb.com
wikipedia.org
allmusic.com
rollingstone.com

"Your Walking on the Water Bit / By Far My Favorite One"

In Being There, Peter Sellers plays Chance, a gardener, whose entire existence is through TV. His life is thrown off course when the old man who employs Chance dies. Chance then befriends Eve Rand (played by Shirley MacLaine) after a limousine incident. She misunderstands his name as Chauncey Gardener and introduces him to her husband Ben (Melvyn Douglas), an older, influential businessman. "Chauncey" becomes a sort of advisor to Ben because of his "peculiar brand of optimism." Little to any of the other characters' beliefs, Chauncey merely frames his life through tv and his garden.

At the end of the film, Ben Rand passes away, and political strategists at his funeral discuss Chauncey running for president. Chauncey takes a walk during the funeral around the grounds of the Rand's mansion (which happens to be the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina--gorgeous!). The final shot is of Chance walking on a lake. the reason the viewer knows he walks on water is because he seemingly measures how deep the lake is with his umbrella (see above image).

The shot leaves me with so many questions. Could Chance believe he was walking on water because that's what he saw on TV? Could it be an interpretation of how the elite of Washington view him? As cliché as this sounds, it could be a portrayal of how we might be able to learn something from everyone regardless of their age, status, or how he/she frames what is important in life.

Sloppy Firsts and Webjunk Make Kyle a Dull Boy...

Welcome, summer, and with you come class and this cool new blog. Actually, summer, I'm not sure if you're welcome yet--what's with this crap weather? Let's work on that.

Being the first post, I so want this to be "good" and/or "profound", but it seems like there's so many stigmas that come with firsts. What do I mean by a "first"? You have your first day of your new job, first friend, first time you go to a new vacation spot, first assignment, first grade (well, I guess kindergarten comes before that), first love, first enemy, first whatever... Anyways, with each of these "firsts" I feel like there's an underlying notion of setting a precedent, living up to expectations, anxiousness for what's going to happen, and all that other blah blah blah.

With that taken into consideration, this blog entity lives in a new place for me, a first home, if you will. I hope that it will move away from the "firsts" and the notions surrounding them to a more forward and happy home in my life.

Now for some webjunk because it rocks. Especially after thinking a lot and most especially when it involves Amy Sedaris. Love her =]