Saturday, July 17, 2004
A Closer Listening
As mentioned below, only moments ago, Sean culled some of the best of the Buddy Check Sessions and posted it on his jukebox. I thought I would make some recommendations, so that if you do spend the time to link there and listen, you might warp right to some of the more interesting/less crappy stuff.
That said, I'd suggest that you listen first to "dismissal game part 2" and "dismissal game part 3." The latter is actually a re-recording of some trance Chris and I fell into, due to a fat helping of luck, with tom-tom drums & a set of two small glockenspiels. We first played it into a cheap dictaphone (one already drenched in my college mythology, being the device that recorded Ari's voice for the "Vox Vigoda" play of the Spring 2002 installment of the infamous Colgate Experimental Theatre Company) which dicatphone distorted the vibrating tones. The next day, Sean brought his more sensitive equipment -- a nice microphone and his portable PC machine -- and we played the small dictaphone tape into the mic. An added manipulation: jostling the dictaphone when the tape was playing added a wicked vibratto to the sound coming out. It sounds like shaking a melodious laser. Another added bonus: the fast-forward feature on the d'phone still allows you to hear the music, only at a Chimpmunk-tempo. The stumbly, ramshakle rhythms I thought were horribly off actually sound right-on at double speed. We didn't transfer the entire trance yet onto Sean's computer, so only a sliver of it is on the jukebox, titled "dismissal game part 3."
"Dangerous Move" is also a good choice, and the temptation of "Microphone in my Pants" might pay off if you can manage to decipher the spontaneous lyrics; it's also where we sound the most like indie rock.
As mentioned below, only moments ago, Sean culled some of the best of the Buddy Check Sessions and posted it on his jukebox. I thought I would make some recommendations, so that if you do spend the time to link there and listen, you might warp right to some of the more interesting/less crappy stuff.
That said, I'd suggest that you listen first to "dismissal game part 2" and "dismissal game part 3." The latter is actually a re-recording of some trance Chris and I fell into, due to a fat helping of luck, with tom-tom drums & a set of two small glockenspiels. We first played it into a cheap dictaphone (one already drenched in my college mythology, being the device that recorded Ari's voice for the "Vox Vigoda" play of the Spring 2002 installment of the infamous Colgate Experimental Theatre Company) which dicatphone distorted the vibrating tones. The next day, Sean brought his more sensitive equipment -- a nice microphone and his portable PC machine -- and we played the small dictaphone tape into the mic. An added manipulation: jostling the dictaphone when the tape was playing added a wicked vibratto to the sound coming out. It sounds like shaking a melodious laser. Another added bonus: the fast-forward feature on the d'phone still allows you to hear the music, only at a Chimpmunk-tempo. The stumbly, ramshakle rhythms I thought were horribly off actually sound right-on at double speed. We didn't transfer the entire trance yet onto Sean's computer, so only a sliver of it is on the jukebox, titled "dismissal game part 3."
"Dangerous Move" is also a good choice, and the temptation of "Microphone in my Pants" might pay off if you can manage to decipher the spontaneous lyrics; it's also where we sound the most like indie rock.
Current Media Consumption ()
Music:
R.E.M. Murmer
Talking Heads Fear of Music and Remain in Light
The Smiths Strangeways, Here We Come
Roxy Music For Your Pleasure
Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children
Readings:
Zinn A People's History of the United States
Dosteovsky "Notes from the Underground" and other Stories
Sherman Alexie Ten Little Indians
Film:
still waiting to finish Godard's In Praise of Love
City of God
a retrospective of/introduction to Lynch w/Amanda.
Blow-Up
Music:
R.E.M. Murmer
Talking Heads Fear of Music and Remain in Light
The Smiths Strangeways, Here We Come
Roxy Music For Your Pleasure
Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to Children
Readings:
Zinn A People's History of the United States
Dosteovsky "Notes from the Underground" and other Stories
Sherman Alexie Ten Little Indians
Film:
still waiting to finish Godard's In Praise of Love
City of God
a retrospective of/introduction to Lynch w/Amanda.
Blow-Up
CH-CH-CH-
No, I haven't enrolled in a summer chemistry course at Stony Brook, but there has been loads of stoicheometry in my life and its penumbra recently, of both a more material and a more mental kind.
Having driven it for two weeks, I can officially state that the Focus is not just my new car, but my car fundamentally. It's black, it's roomier, it's loaded with decadence like power windows/locks and keyless entry. I could sleep comfortably in the trunk. Its rear end struts in the air like a haughty skunk. I've yet to actively investigate the re-installation of my now veteran sound system. The MTX Road Thunder amp and matching 8 1/2 " truck-box speakers, once implanted, will be resting and emitting loud music at my command in their third car in nearly seven years. I liken this to a power pitcher like Roger Clemmens dominating for so many seasons as a Red Sock (my old Subaru Legacy wagon, sniff...), then finding real glory and success as a Yankee (my once and beautiful Hyundai; sorry Ted, Peter, and Soon Ho), and emerging from near retirement to finish his career in his hometown of Houston (the Focus, my first domestic/"home" automobile). It's already a bit dirty. I bought dark chocolate from Trader Joe's that melted during a day of humid sun and dripped a bit on the back cushion. And it needs to be vacuumed. But I've promised myself: no ATM reciepts crushed down inside the driver's side door liner, no accumulation of beverage containers beneath the front seats, no more careless spilling or wiping of foods on the upholstery. It gets worse gas mileage than the Hyundai, and I don't earn as much of a right to hiss vitriole at all the Hummers on the Island, but it's still a pretty basic car, the Focus SE. And hey, it's not like I jog or ride a bike places; who am I kidding? (Although I do rarely drive when School is in session, slave to the campus that I am).
Bonus: buy a Focus in June, get a free Dell PC!! Dewd, I'm gettin' a Dell. It's already here, actually, and I'm using its sleek black keyboard and viewing each keystroke on the absurdly flat screen. I lose the woofer and richer sound of my previous PC soundsystem, as well as all the accumulated text/mp3 files, but unlike the Hyundai, which needed to be traded in, I now have TWICE the computing capability. I've already launched plans for the coming school year: the old PC in my classroom for student's to write papers, for showing DVDs, for playing music files, for research, for the drafting and storage of my own files. Oh the power. Anyway, my *new* PC has me gripped like a boy from the 80s with a new Transformer. All the resolutions that attended my new car have their correlates with the PC (which I've named Focus): cleaner installation/removal of software, better virus scanning/updating, general organization, and most of all inspiration to create.
Namely, this blog. But recently, thanks to the divine chemistry of friends from the School's summer camp (most noteably Chris and Sean), I've been creating and sharing ideas almost everyday. So, if posts have been infrequent, it is not due to a drought of the mind. Mostly, we make amateur trash music, seeking out new and odd sounds to record, and attempting to channel our subconscious human drives and cultural sprituality into rhythms, shrieks, and occasional -- but fractured -- language. For a sample of our madness, journey to Sean and Cohorts' community's jukebox. It should be already queued up; the heading is The Buddy Check Sessions. Additional musicians include "Tall" Kevin, Amanda with flute, and sundry dictaphones/walkie talkies. Most recently, we have been toying with and recording digital footage of the campers (Sean, technology director at Camp, lends his cameras to his campers and they just capture all day). Plans are mixing for some grand and miraculous "last day of camp" video projection & recorded/live sound concert...
This burst of making things has been part of the good of the summer, along with having and loving Amanda. There is a great and powerful badness that also should be mentioned if only as a vague and ominous impression, like the idea of a shark nearby in a dream about swimming.
No, I haven't enrolled in a summer chemistry course at Stony Brook, but there has been loads of stoicheometry in my life and its penumbra recently, of both a more material and a more mental kind.
Having driven it for two weeks, I can officially state that the Focus is not just my new car, but my car fundamentally. It's black, it's roomier, it's loaded with decadence like power windows/locks and keyless entry. I could sleep comfortably in the trunk. Its rear end struts in the air like a haughty skunk. I've yet to actively investigate the re-installation of my now veteran sound system. The MTX Road Thunder amp and matching 8 1/2 " truck-box speakers, once implanted, will be resting and emitting loud music at my command in their third car in nearly seven years. I liken this to a power pitcher like Roger Clemmens dominating for so many seasons as a Red Sock (my old Subaru Legacy wagon, sniff...), then finding real glory and success as a Yankee (my once and beautiful Hyundai; sorry Ted, Peter, and Soon Ho), and emerging from near retirement to finish his career in his hometown of Houston (the Focus, my first domestic/"home" automobile). It's already a bit dirty. I bought dark chocolate from Trader Joe's that melted during a day of humid sun and dripped a bit on the back cushion. And it needs to be vacuumed. But I've promised myself: no ATM reciepts crushed down inside the driver's side door liner, no accumulation of beverage containers beneath the front seats, no more careless spilling or wiping of foods on the upholstery. It gets worse gas mileage than the Hyundai, and I don't earn as much of a right to hiss vitriole at all the Hummers on the Island, but it's still a pretty basic car, the Focus SE. And hey, it's not like I jog or ride a bike places; who am I kidding? (Although I do rarely drive when School is in session, slave to the campus that I am).
Bonus: buy a Focus in June, get a free Dell PC!! Dewd, I'm gettin' a Dell. It's already here, actually, and I'm using its sleek black keyboard and viewing each keystroke on the absurdly flat screen. I lose the woofer and richer sound of my previous PC soundsystem, as well as all the accumulated text/mp3 files, but unlike the Hyundai, which needed to be traded in, I now have TWICE the computing capability. I've already launched plans for the coming school year: the old PC in my classroom for student's to write papers, for showing DVDs, for playing music files, for research, for the drafting and storage of my own files. Oh the power. Anyway, my *new* PC has me gripped like a boy from the 80s with a new Transformer. All the resolutions that attended my new car have their correlates with the PC (which I've named Focus): cleaner installation/removal of software, better virus scanning/updating, general organization, and most of all inspiration to create.
Namely, this blog. But recently, thanks to the divine chemistry of friends from the School's summer camp (most noteably Chris and Sean), I've been creating and sharing ideas almost everyday. So, if posts have been infrequent, it is not due to a drought of the mind. Mostly, we make amateur trash music, seeking out new and odd sounds to record, and attempting to channel our subconscious human drives and cultural sprituality into rhythms, shrieks, and occasional -- but fractured -- language. For a sample of our madness, journey to Sean and Cohorts' community's jukebox. It should be already queued up; the heading is The Buddy Check Sessions. Additional musicians include "Tall" Kevin, Amanda with flute, and sundry dictaphones/walkie talkies. Most recently, we have been toying with and recording digital footage of the campers (Sean, technology director at Camp, lends his cameras to his campers and they just capture all day). Plans are mixing for some grand and miraculous "last day of camp" video projection & recorded/live sound concert...
This burst of making things has been part of the good of the summer, along with having and loving Amanda. There is a great and powerful badness that also should be mentioned if only as a vague and ominous impression, like the idea of a shark nearby in a dream about swimming.
