Jazz Class: She figured out what an augmented chord was and played it sucessfully in class and then she quit coming. Hope she didn't read this blog, ha! Were it not for rule #1 of internet mechanics (if you write something bad about someone, no matter how random that person is they will end up reading it), then I would feel pretty in the clear.
Music of Indonesia: Whoa this guy is blowing my mind on a regular basis. It turns out he is German. Very German. He was demonstrating a pattern and said something to the effect of "and this other part plays the same thing an octave higher so its..." and then he had to stop and laugh hysterically for a while before going "do do do do do do" in a really high voice. Wow! Constantly refers to an analogy from the first class involving Gamalan music being like a cake.
Music of the African Diaspora: I should have known after my History of the Civil Rights class that the students attracted to this course would be somewhat "problematic" (aka annoying). The teacher is a white male, which would also be annoying if he weren't such a sweetheart and openly but understatedly gay. One problem though, he defers to the students, and we have one in particular who wont shut his goddamn trap and never has anything important to say. He doesn't raise his hand, either.
Jazz Improv: Whoa, this is my favorite class, because its just "go home and learn this, and youd better learn it, you stupid kids!" and you have to learn it and then you come back and if you haven't you get one of two treatments, treatment one for the jazz majors being getting yelled at for not practicing in front of everyone, and treatment two for the non-jazz being raised eyebrows, and shook head and an "okaaaaay." I should post some of my notes from this class, I promised this one kid I would email it to him, cause he missed class. They're funny, just shit the prof says that I know makes sense, but wouldn't unless you already knew what he was talking about. Things like "you've got to get the dominant reality in your mind! That's just what's there! What's there's what's there, and that's all there is!" Gems like that
Jazz History: Colorful stories about colorful characters. We're just now at Louis Armstrong (total badass), and so far 80% of jazz musicians have tried to take credit for "inventing" jazz. Pretty interesting. Would be a better course ("richer learning experience") if i was doing the reading.
School Related Extra-Curricular: I'm learning Clair De Lune. David Salines told me in the architecture library yesterday (which I was at totally randomly) that that one is going to kill some ladies for me. That's not why I'm learning it, but when I think about it, it would make a better reason than most. It's just one my granddad played and I'm pretty much on a mission to learn his repertoire, or at least the ones he would play most often and are easy enough for me to play. My ultimate goal on the piano is to be able to play Rhapsody in Blue. Anyways, M-F I am playing alot, like a couple hours a day and making quick progress on it. Also, I'm trying to learn what I'm learning on guitar for jazz improv on the piano, so when I zone out, I have something else to play.
so yeah!!!!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
School Update
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
PRESS THE F25 KEY
also, i started another blog to clog the log that is becoming your brain. blah.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Casualties of a Dice Game
Big L - Casualties of a Dice Game
http://www.zshare.net/audio/6860169e6177d4/
(open this track in a new window and read along below)
Me and my man was cruisin through the streets and everything was flowin nice
The corner's crowded, niggaz must be rollin dice
I parked the ride so my nigga Iroc can crash the lye spot
and I'ma gamble until he come back - why not?
Click-clack, cock the gat back, gotta be strapped
The game was mad packed, mad cats pockets was fat
They playin cee-lo, my dick get hard when I see dough
I bets nothin less than a G yo, you know my steelo
First I was losin then I started throwin headcrack
after headcrack, got my bread back, jumped in my red Ac'
I'm waitin for my nigga to come out of the spot
I see niggaz startin to plot, and I'm far from my block
Finally he walked out, told him, "Hop the fuck in"
On my face he saw the grin and said, "How much did you win?"
I estimated about, 45 maybe 50 G's
My man was hungry so I dropped him off at Mickey D's
Now I'm alone, headin home to rest my dome
Spotted some niggaz trailin so I picked up the phone
Called Bones, I said, "Yo son, I'm on the run
Need your help before I get done
Meet me downstairs, bring your big gun"
I don't believe this, this nigga said he can't make it
cause some bitch is in his house butt-naked
and then he hung up
And this supposed to be my man and he don't give a fuck
That duck sold me out just to get a nut, what?
I'm cruisin fast and they still behind me
The same nigga who I won the money from, and his grimy crimey
It's about to get, real hasty
Grabbed the steel, took it off safety
cause I refuse to let these niggaz waste me
I started to cruise fast, then stopped short and made 'em crash
And now them fags is all bloody from the shattered glass
And one of them had passed, when his face smashed the dash
I was injured too, leakin with a deep gash
I ain't panicked, I was quite calm
Couldn't use the right arm, so I grabbed the gat with the left
Walked up to the car the creep was stuck in the seat
Looked at him, shook my head then started buckin my heat
It's over now, cause both of these motherfuckers asleep
I think I'm dyin, I'm feelin weak out on my feet
but before I got some medical help, I had to catch a cab first
to one-forty-first and Bradhurst
That's where Bones live, walked in the buildin, staggerin
Lookin tore down, shot his door down and beat his whore down
From the look in my eye, he knew he would die
Started to cry, stuck the gat to his head and said, "Why?"
Then he offered me, all of his cheese
then dropped to his knees and begged me please not to squeeze
Then his brains got blast out, he's ass-out, then I dashed out
into the streets covered with blood, about to pass out
The hospital's up, a couple of blocks, I'm on my way but
damn, here comes a couple of cops; I pulled out
and started blowin they started blowin back I'm goin all out
I ain't holdin back, I been to jail once and I ain't goin back
I kept shootin, one shot caught a cop dead in his top
The other pig ducked behind a big truck
I was bleedin real bad, and couldn't stop it
but still had the fifty thou' profit in my pockets
The coast was clear, so I jetted to a park that was near
Seen kids playin everywhere then threw the cash in the air
I watched all of them, run for they share
and all I can do was stare
I got weak and fell on my rear
Now I can hear the sirens, that means here comes the Jakes
but it's too late, I'm knockin on the pearly gates
Yeah, casualties of a dice game
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Relive the Magic...of Low Red Center
check out what I just found on the internet! didn't know this existed...
Low Red Center, live @ RanchO RelaxO 09/19/07
and even more super old-school, Low Red Center live @ (my former residence) the 21st street coop 12/04/04. Also on the bill was the disaster known as "Violets on Wire" which would morph into what we now call "Reverse X-Rays"
Monday, January 21, 2008
Accentuate the Positive--a show review from the trenches
Without erasing it, Im going to apologize for the below post. Not because I no longer believe it or anything, but just because if you read it, that was a waste of your time, so, sorry. I'll try not to do that in the future. I've been busier than is probably healthy lately and this weather (aka winter...apparently its January) is making me grumpy. But I saw something cool tonight at Hole in the Wall that is worth mentioning.
There name was The Pillow Queens. I thought they were very interesting. They had sort of a 90s sound/vibe to them and they really rocked it. I like bands that rock it that style. One thing that made me particularly like this band was that I could listen to any one instrument and be like "oh, wow, thats a cool drum part" or "oh wow, cool bass line." And I liked the singing.
The other band that I saw tonight was a very new band called Canopy (sp? I think its special...). The place was really packed in for those guys. Shane says they remind him of Danielson sort of, which I kind of see. I'm definitely going to make a point to check them out again in a few months on a night when I feel more energetic. I think they have potential to be very good if they keep writing new songs and pushing themselves to try new stuff on that front, so should be an interesting local band to follow a bit.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Whiny Babies in Jazz Class (meanest post of the year)
So ok, check this. I am a college graduate, but still in school, because I have free hrs of tuition because my parents had the foresight to prepay that shit right before they deregulated tuition and prices went up like 50%. Some people know that about me already. What does this mean practically? I get to take whatever the fuck classes I want, and this is what I came up with.
Music of Indonesia
Music of the African Diaspora
History of Jazz (the hardcore one for jazz majors, not Jazz Appreciation)
and
Intermediate Jazz Improvisation
.
Now here's a story that should make all you musicians out there go WTF. Im in Intermediate Jazz Improv class this morning and sweating bullets cause I haven't practiced the assignment as much as I should have (play 2 octaves of major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads on your instrument.) So i go second (out of 7 students) and the first kid is a classical pianist who fucking rails through that shit, and I kinda struggle through it, and then the next guy plays it pretty well and then this girl goes. Ok, now she must not have practiced. That has to be a given. She said she practiced for an hour and a half, but let's be honest here, she didn't pick up her goddamn instrument for longer than 10 minutes. or did she?
Ok, wait hold the phone. You're probably wondering why I'm railing on this poor girl right? What if she did do it and she just did a bad job? what if she was nervous? everyone was a little nervous. Who the fuck am I anyways? Some kind of asshole, thats who, I guess.
Well she gets to the augmented triad and just falls apart. She can't play it. She's playing all this other stuff (btw she wasn't the only one this happened to, another kid...A JAZZ MAJOR NO LESS...fell apart a little bit, too), but this girl was like "its a major third on top of a major third right?" and then just couldn't play it. She made all these excuses like, she had never heard what it sounded like before etc etc and just went on and on and acted like the prof was sooo mean and singling her out (everyone has to play the HW assignment for the rest of class, so everyone gets singled out).
OK so here is the kicker. SHE IS A GRAD STUDENT WITH A MUSIC EDUCATION DEGREE FROM SOME ACCREDITED UNIVERSITY WHO HAS BEEN TEACHING IN A CLASSROOM WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT A FUCKING AUGMENTED CHORD IS.
You know, I just don't get it man. I mildly fucked up to and as I was doing so I imagined the Profs thought pattern as being "well, this kids either gonna sink or swim, jury is still out on him" and I was sweating bullets man trying not to fuck up. But you know it makes me wonder...what are these other kids doing in this class? True, I have the retarded advantage of just being in school to learn, but I can't imagine you find yourself in an Intermediate Jazz Improv class (I assume all the others took beginning improv) without wanting to be there, or having some interest in jazz, or whatever, SOMETHING.
So yeah, I come from a family of educators and I cant help but feel there is some failing in the system that MY tax dollars (ha, like mommy and daddy don't still pay my taxes....but what will be my tax dollars real soon) are getting spent paying music teachers who can't figure out how to play an augmented triad. :X :X :X :X :X :X :X
Yeah, really I just hadn't blogged anything in a while and wanted to....
Notating Ambience
I was outside smoking a cigarette on my back porch when I remembered something that Brian Eno wrote about appreciating ambient sounds. I don't remember where I read it, it might have been online or on the back of a record or in this book I have that compiles a year's worth of his journal entries. Wherever I heard it, he suggested this exercise:
While you're outside or in any environment with a combination of patterned and non-patterned noises, listen to the collection of sounds in total and attempt to formulate a notation system for what you're hearing. Imagine each sound individually and attempt to mentally, or physically with a pen and pad if you're really into the idea, notated the rhythm, pitches, and other interesting sonic features of the sounds.
Once you've got a feeling for what the different sounds are and how they work, just sit and interpret how the different sonic features co-exist. Cover up one ear and see which how that changes things. Move around. Pay attention to all the elements you would in music and then pay attention to how you can add to the collage of sounds.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Burial on Sam Cooke
I really liked this quote from the unedited interview with producer Burial, the abridged version recently published in the wire:
I don’t know anything about this kind of music, but I love Sam Cooke. I don’t know what it was about his songs, but he’d have some songs, and things on the surface were normal or happy, he’d be singing about having a party, there’s cokes in the iceboxes or whatever, and everything’s glowy, but underneath, it’s like he’s talking about something else, the last party on earth. Something in his voice. I’d rather do something like that than some icy cold electronic music, to try and get a bit of that in it. Because when something’s glowing, if something’s nice, it doesn’t mean that it’s not surrounded by cold things, bad things.
The album 'Untrue' really deserves a listen.
original link to the unedited wire interview: http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/347/
Read More......
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Mark Ronson
Check out the 3 minute mark for the best version of D.A.N.C.E. this year. If I were forced to make a list of badasses, Mark Ronson would be pretty near the top.
Mom
March 22, 2007
An Evening of Electronic Music at Casa Vista
Mom
(I wish it wasn't so dark in the basement)
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
All Through The Night
To continue on with the Muppet theme, this is a fan made music video for the song All Through The Night by Escort. They're kind of my favorite band and will probably put out the best album of 2008.
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