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May 15th, 2007
05:36 am - This day in history:
"On the fifteenth of May,
In the Jungle of Nool,
In the heat of the day,
In the cool of the pool..."
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April 16th, 2007
10:12 pm - Title of the Song
The 2007 winner of the Bookseller/Diagram prize for the oddest title of a published book was announced the other day. The winner was The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification. Other finalists included Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoon Boxes of Daghestan, People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It, and Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Seaweed Symposium.
Now, I've always been a fan of bizarre titles. So, inspired by the Bookseller competition, I started thinking about bizarrely-titled pieces of Classical music. So far, my list includes:
- Banana/Dump Truck by Steve Mackey
- Eating Living Monkeys by David Lang
- Cheap Imitation by John Cage
- Leck mich im Arsch (Lick My Arse) by W.A. Mozart
- Genuine Flabby Preludes by Erik Satie
- Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear by Erik Satie
- Food Gathering in Post-Industrial America by Frank Zappa
- The Tortoise Recalling the Drone of the Holy Numbers as they were Revealed in the Dreams of the Whirlwind and the Obsidian Gong, Illuminated by the Sawmill, the Green Sawtooth Ocelot and the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer by La Monte Young
and, of course, some of my own personal contributions:
- Mechanical Monkeys (Killing the Sun)
- Four Pieces Instead of Alban Berg's
- Psaim Choko 36 +/- 7
- The Second-Viennese Schoolboys Spend the Day at the Beach
Hmm. The list seems grotesquely short, and very avant-garde-heavy. Additions, anyone?
Current Mood:  list-y
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March 31st, 2007
08:54 pm - Bad music! Go to your room!
Every now and then, I stumble across a piece of music so utterly horrible that I simply MUST share it with the world. In the past, I would do so on my ever-popular Bad Music Nights on CHRW. Today, however, I share it with you through the magic of the Interweb.
The CD in question is by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins (who wrote the famous "Diamond Music" used on jewelery commmercials), and is called "Requiem". I took it out of the library because it had beautiful cover art, and it's always interesting to hear someone's take on the age-old Requiem structure. In this case, it turned out to be more hilarious than interesting...
The entire CD is a treasure-trove of mirth and crappiness, but I'll point out a few specific gems:
- the Dies Irae movement appears to be based on a hip-hop beat. Normally, I'm in favour of mixing genres to create something new and unique, but in this case it's a dismal failure. I listened to it at work, and I literally burst out laughing when the choir entered, singing a very serious and insistent "Di-es! Ir-ae! Diesiraediesiraediesiraediesirae!" It would be sad if it wasn't so funny.
- the Rex Tremendae movement begins with the choir shouting "Rex! Rex! Rex!". He seems to really like this sort of staccato exclamatory style.
- the Confutatis movement is extremely special. It's a slow, gentle, almost lullabye-esque choral piece, vaguely rousing and inspiring, yet peaceful and calm. I have to admit that his choral writing is pretty good, even if it's not extremely imaginative. The only problem, though, is that he doesn't seem to have any idea what the text actually means. "Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis" is actually a discussion of how the damned will be consigned to the flames of Hell. Yeesh...
- the Pie Jesu movement is my personal favourite. Have you heard Andrew Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu? Well, so has Karl Jenkins! Much like Andy LW's, Karl's setting begins with a boy soprano solo, followed by a soprano (mezzo, in this case) repeating the same melody, followed by the chorus repeating the same melody, followed by both soloists together. It's such a blatant rip-off that I was again howling with laughter in the middle of my workplace. I finally had to stop listening to the CD because I was distracting my co-workers.
In conclusion, I highly recommend Karl Jenkins' "Requiem" for the sheer comedic value. The musically-naive reviewers on amazon.com rave about how it's the most beautiful and accessible music they've ever heard; the discerning musician or intelligent listener will love the sheer craptacularity of the writing. Go forth and listen to it!
Current Mood:  laughing my arse off
Current Music: Requiem - Karl Jenkins
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February 20th, 2007
10:17 pm - Halifax...Toronto...Ottawa...pretty much all the same
A droll anecdote, but the best part is Mary Walsh's comment. That lady has a way with words...
Click the link!
Current Mood: amused...again
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January 30th, 2007
08:53 pm - Bring on the acid rain and melanoma!
"[The Kyoto Accord] is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations..." Stephen Harper
"[The Accord is based on] tentative and contradictory scientific evidence..." Stephen Harper
"[Greenhouse gases are] essential to life..." Stephen Harper
WHY did anyone vote for this baby-eater?!?!?
Current Mood:  angry
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January 20th, 2007
10:01 pm - This post is intentionally cryptic
Purpose:
It's that little flame that lights a fire under your ass.
Current Mood:  optimistic
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January 9th, 2007
12:03 pm - Upon my pillow, safe in bed, a thousand pictures fill my head
The other night, I dreamt that I was playing Laser Quest with Dr. David Suzuki.
It was AWESOME!
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January 4th, 2007
January 3rd, 2007
12:20 am - Awesomness
I've reached a new level of geekery. Forget about Googling yourself; the ultimate in cool is to J-STOR yourself.
No relevant hits...yet...but it's still uber-nifty.
Current Mood:  gelatinous
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December 21st, 2006
09:01 pm - 'Tis the season...for bad Christmas music
I just heard a recording of the Vienna Boys Choir singing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". It was quite a nice rendition, but their language coach needs to be slapped upside the head...he/she clearly doesn't actually *speak* English. Imagine teaching impressionable, fresh-faced youngsters such a BIZARRE pronunciation! It wasn't that a German accent came through...no, it was a strange, inexplicable shift of vowels indicative only of bad coaching.
Geez, I hope I don't sound as strange as they do when I sing in German. *looks worried*
Current Mood: amused
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