“What would a music experience designed specifically for the modern web look like? This is a question we’ve been playing around with for the last few months. Browsers and web technologies have advanced so rapidly in the last few years that powerful experiences tailored to each unique person in real-time are now a reality. Today we’re excited to launch a musical experience made specifically for the browser. Called “The Wilderness Downtown”, the project was created by writer/director Chris Milk with the band Arcade Fire and Google. Building this project on the web and for the browser allowed us to craft an experience that is not only personalized, but also deeply personal for each viewer. “The Wilderness Downtown” takes you down memory lane through the streets you grew up in. It’s set to Arcade Fire’s new song “We Used to Wait” off their newly released album The Suburbs (which you may be familiar with, especially if you were one of 3.7 million viewers who live-streamed Arcade Fire’s concert on YouTube earlier this month). The project was built with the latest web technologies and includes HTML5, Google Maps, an integrated drawing tool, as well as multiple browser windows that move around the screen.”

link: Official Google Blog: Arcade Fire meets HTML5

Circle of fifths clock. – CafePress

“The Army talks about music in the lingo it wields for battle. A rehearsal is a “training session.” A small ensemble is a “music performance team,” a k a M.P.T. Wind, and string sections are “elements.” Extra reeds and mouthpieces are “redundant supplies.” Bands must be able to support “multiple objectives with targeted musical styles.” In the same spirit, the manual lays out the bands’ missions, which are not to be confused with those of musical ensembles that seek to entertain or enlighten. Army bands are not there to cultivate personal creativity, artistic expression or a love for the Baroque. Their job is to sustain warrior morale, inspire leaders, build good will with the local populace, serve at ceremonies and foster military pride. They also play a crucial role at military funerals.”

link: U.S. Military Bands – Lighter and Faster – NYTimes.com

So… two composers, a hard-core complexist and an equally hard-core experimentalist, happen to meet in the lumber department of a hardware store, waiting in line to get some plywood cut to order. The experimentalist asks the complexist why he’s there. The complexist answers that he’s “working on a very big piece, and I’m using so many oversize charts and graphs and tables and arrays” that he needed a piece of plywood so he could add an extension to his desk in order to accommodate all his paperwork. “Why are you here?” asked the complexist in return. The experimentalist smiled: “I like the sound of plywood going through a really big table saw.”

link: Renewable Music: True Stories (1)

“I found this curious, that in these days in which the erstwhile existence of an Uptown-Downtown split in new music has been forcibly shoved down the memory hole, an organization called The Field is sponsoring a workshop to bring Uptown and Downtown artists together. Their definitions: For the purposes of this program: • An Uptown Artist is an artist who lives and/or focuses their creative activities or aesthetic above 110th Street. • A Downtown Artist is an artist who lives and/or focuses their creative activities or aesthetic south of 14th Street. Thirty years ago, they could have gotten quite a fistfight going. Oh yeah, I’m only imagining that. Sorry. And while I’m on terminology, I notice that the term alt-classical for my kind of music has been gaining traction lately at New Music Box and elsewhere. I suggested “alternative classical” for new music in the late 1980s via the Village Voice, and was sneered at. Eventually I gravitated to Postclassical, and so now everyone else is going to alt. I think everyone in new music watches where I go carefully, to make sure they don’t go there.”

link: Leave No Term Unstoned – PostClassic

“INTERVIEWER: Wasn’t it possible to help them? ONOGI: No, there were too many people. We took care of the people around us by using the clothes of dead people as bandages, especially for those who were terribly wounded. By that time we somehow became insensible all those awful things. After a while, the fire reached the river bank and we decided to leave the river. We crossed over this railway bridge and escaped in the direction along the railway. The houses on both sides of the railroad were burning and railway was the hollow in the fire. I thought I was going to die here. It was such an awful experience. You know for about 10 years after bombing I always felt paralyzed we never saw the sparks made by trains or lightning. Also even at home, I could not sit beside the windows because I had seen so many people badly wounded by pieces of glass. So I always sat with the wall behind me for about 10 years. It was some sort of instinct to self-preservation.”

link: This Is How It Feels to Be Under a Nuclear Attack

“It was the first time in 800 years that Rome had been successfully invaded. The event had reverberations around the Mediterranean. Jerome, an early Christian Church Father, in a letter to a friend from Bethlehem – where he happened to be living – wrote that he burst into tears upon hearing the news. “My voice sticks in my throat, and, as I dictate, sobs choke me. The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken,” he said. Although Alaric was a Christian ransacking a Christian city, there was an ominous feeling that the world structure built by pagan Rome was disintegrating.”

link: BBC News – 24 August 410: the date it all went wrong for Rome?

“Gold said Bayless was a “good” chef who knew his way around Mexican recipes, but he sneered at Bayless’ nerve in coming to Los Angeles and opening a restaurant–Red O–that presumed to introduce Angelinos to “authentic” Mexican cuisine. In particular, Gold zeroed in on Bayless’ inclusion of chilpachole–a glorious seafood soup from Veracruz–as some rarity, when Gold said the soup was easily available in the Southland, along with dozens of other Mexican regional specialties. Very true: I saw Red O’s menu, and you can purchase nearly every meal he offers somewhere in Southern California (and most of them in Orange County, even). Gold also said the decor of Red O made the restaurant seem as “if it survived a nuclear blast,” much to the delight of the crowd, who snacked on Argentine- and Spanish-inspired appetizers offered by the ever-flexible, ever-impressive Marché Moderne team”

link: Jonathan Gold Lectures at Marche Moderne About Mexican Food “Authenticity,” Laughs at Rick Bayless – Orange County Restaurants and Dining – Stick a Fork In It

Like

Unlike

Powered by Twitter Tools

Like

Unlike

Powered by Twitter Tools

Like

Unlike

“Not to mention that the undialectical shelving of alt-classical “between” pop music and classical music misses, as I think its leading lights would agree, the point: One respect in which alt-classical music most definitely is contemporary music is that its creators insist on it. Corey Dargel could very easily bill himself as a songwriter, period, and swim in the indie-pop waters where his music seems at first blush to belong; Matt Marks could have a thriving career composing for mainstream music theatre. But just as Magritte insisted that this is not a pipe, Dargel and Marks insist (whether or not they would admit it in so many words) that they are composers of contemporary music. Far from a trivial semantic quibble, this insistence is an artistic proposition that has to be taken seriously because it calls into question many of the assumptions under which composers like me toil. Now do you see why I was so frightened?”

link: NewMusicbox

The 2010 Social Networking Map / Flowtown (@flowtown)

“From our standpoint, this appears to be a serious problem for the music scene in New Orleans and for the attempts to re-establish North Rampart as a street that permits and honors local traditional music. We’ve discussed this issue many times online and in the pages of OffBeat, and suggest that the property owners on North Rampart and in the historic areas of the city need to be held accountable for their neglect of their properties. It may not be unlawful to let the interior of an historic property fall into ruin—as long as the façade appears to be intact; it may not be unlawful to enter into a lease with a tenant who can’t afford to make structural repairs to a building that produces income and supports the city’s cultural health and economy. But both actions seem to us to be morally reprehensible and, in fact, ultimately damaging to New Orleans’ historic nature and to the city’s culture.”

link: Donna’s Bar & Grill Closes :: offBeat :: Louisiana and New Orleans Online Music Resource

“I should have been posting it here all along. Had I been doing so I’d have something to show for it. A record of my life for the last few years at the very least. But I ignored my blog and ran off with the sexy, shiny microblogs. Well no more. I’m sorry for having neglected you Leoville. From now on when I post a picture of a particularly delicious sandwich I’m posting it here. When I complain that Sookie is back with Bill, you’ll hear it here first. And the show notes for my shows will go here, too. Social media, I gave you the best years of my life, but never again. I know where I am wanted. Screw you Google Buzz. You broke my heart.”

link: Buzz Kill : LOL: The Life of Leo

“Let’s use me as an example. For 14 years, from 1995 – 2008, I taught English at Palisades Charter High School; in those years it was an LAUSD school. This past June I attended PCHS’ graduation where I saw many of my former 10th grade honors English students cross the stage. Those kids, come fall, will be attending Wellesley, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, Kenyon, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin (two on full academic scholarships), USC (a full academic scholarship), Wake Forest, Tufts, UCLA and UC-Berkeley. Trust me, these kids are bright and know how to bubble in the correct answers. I’ve seen them do it. One week earlier I attended graduation at Venice High School where I have been teaching for the past two years. Of the 87 students crammed into my two classes of senior English this past semester, 29 did not graduate because they just quit coming to my class; another nine didn’t graduate because they didn’t do enough work. Of these 87 kids, 38 didn’t graduate, and few of these kids test nearly so well on standardized tests as did my former students. I’m pretty sure at least part of the reason is because some of my students at Venice HS and their parents do not consider regular attendance in school a high priority. But here’s what I need to know from The Times and their education reformer consultants:

Am I a brilliant teacher who inspired and shepherded my students into some of our nation’s most prestigious colleges?

Or am I a lug, deadwood, a card-carrying AARP and UTLA member whose teaching style is so ineffective my students drop out by the busload?”

link: WitnessLA.com » Blog Archive » A Teacher’s View of the LA Times’ Educators Analysis

Like

Unlike

Powered by Twitter Tools

Like

Unlike

“And then it’s time for the Cosmic Flip concept that my long lost friend Heriberto was fond of discussing : maybe the lack of importance makes it super important. I won’t delve into this serious filosophizing, but it was something to that effect. In any case, I think I’ve done my small part in describing my city. But in the end, the bastards with the money still own the bullhorn: they get to blurt out their inanities all over the place. I’ve been keeping watch. So finally, the point of this post. I’m going to show you a sampling of travel books/guide books to LA to see how they deal with our lil’ historic community known as the Eastside. How do you think we will fare?”

link: LA Eastside » Eastside 101: Off The Map!

Then head on over to read Anastasia, who writes about how crassly her administrators tell her how much they like exploiting her to save money. (I’ve commented over there on some of my own experiences with the tactlessness of t-track faculty who discuss money with adjuncts.) As a former adjunct, the lack of advance notice about courseloads, the fluctuating income, and the lack of benefits were hardships, but what made those financial hardships almost unbearable was the absolutely shitty way that administrators, HR, and t-track faculty members treated adjuncts as second-class citizens. One of my adjunct colleagues used to refer to such degrading and tactless treatment as “death by a thousand paper cuts.”

link: Terminal Degree: Adjuncting around the blogosphere

“I prefer the term “art.” I know, I know, all the pretentiousness alarm-bells are going off, but for me, to call something “art” is merely to request that your prospective audience pay careful attention to what you’ve made. Here’s another way of putting it: I’m not interested in competing with commercial culture for your attention. I’m going to assume that I’ve already got your attention, and so my goal is to hold on to it and to reward you for paying attention.”

link: Alt Classical + links « Endless Possibilities

“If we improvise with an instrument, tool, or idea that we know well, we have the solid technique for expressing ourselves. But the technique can get too solid — we can become so used to knowing how it should be done that we become distanced from the freshness of today’s situation. This is the danger that inheres in the very competence that we acquire in practice. Competence that loses a sense of its roots in the playful spirit becomes ensconced in rigid forms of professionalism.”–Stephen Nachmanovitch

link: Jazz: The Music of Unemployment: Death by competence

“Here’s what happens. Academics typically don’t get tenured until the age of 40. This means that from their years as graduate students and then assistant professors, from age 25 through 38 or 39, they have to toe the line. They have to do things in the accepted way that their elders and superiors require. They can’t be controversial and all the rest. So tenure is, in fact, the enemy of spontaneity, the enemy of intellectual freedom. We’ve seen this again and again. And even people who get tenure really don’t change. They keep on following the disciplinary mode they’ve been trained to follow. What bothers us, too, is that over 300,000 professors have it. That’s a tremendous number. What that means is these people never leave. There’s hardly any turnover in the senior ranks—not just at Harvard, Yale, and Stanford but at small colleges in Kentucky, everywhere. You go to a campus and over two thirds of the faculty have been there at least 25 years. They begin to stagnate. In many ways, they become infantilized, embroiled in ideological issues like faculty parking.”

link: What’s Wrong With the American University System – Culture – The Atlantic

Like

Unlike

it was my second time playing with guitarist jeremy keller and not only it was starting to gel musically but we were also able to get beyond our training and technique to create an incredibly visceral electronic/ folk/modular improv performance.

i have always felt it was possible as duo or trio, but finding this hasn’t been easy. while i was talking to jeremy i found out he hasn’t really played much tonal music and although our musical instincts are puling us in opposite directions, i’m finding that the space between the seams very is invigorating and satisfying.

since yesterdays rehearsal the fact that i haven’t been able to stop listening to our rehearsal probably says a lot about what has been absent than anything else. it’s like dreaming your arm was missing and waking up realizing how lucky you are that it still works.

right now the hole in my soul has been temporarily filled

Music for Controllers, Reh 082110
jeremy keller, guitar
paul bailey, korg nanokey, buddha machine, kaossilator, and ableton live

Music for Controllers I, reh 082110 by paul bailey

Like

Unlike

Powered by Twitter Tools

Like

Unlike

Powered by Twitter Tools

Like

Unlike

“Those common elements are even more noticeable — and funny — in this fan-made YouTube trailer for Paprika’s Inception. In this clever mash-up, Paprika’s images are matched with the Inception soundtrack and voice-over narration. The level of synchronicity between the two is pretty amazing. I’ve never heard Nolan talk about Paprika, and there are certainly no shortage of movies out there using shared dreams as plot elements, but it’s still interesting to note some of the things the titles have in common. It seems like the filmmaker must have at least been familiar with Paprika on some level. Perhaps the worst thing about the similarities between the two projects is that it seems likely that people will call Wolfgang Peterson’s live-action version of Paprika an “Inception rip-off,” should it ever move beyond the treatment stage.”

link: ‘Paprika’ Meets ‘Inception’ in This Mash-Up Trailer – Cinematical

“Is there a better area of Downtown to work near (or eat lunch in) than Little Tokyo? It almost makes me want to get a job at City Hall just so I could work near all the great Japanese food that lines the streets between Main St. and Alameda. I’ve already tried the porky bowl of goodness that is Daikokuya’s ramen, and the Little Tokyo Marketplace (on 3rd & Alameda) is on my radar. But when Profiled Lunch’er “Nguyen” (who also happens to own Starry Kitchen in the Downtown Water Court) called Chin Ma Ya’s ramen one of his favorite dishes to eat Downtown, the Weller Court (nr. 2nd and Los Angeles) leaped to the top of my list. Chin Ma Ya isn’t known for their typical Japanese ramen. You can order a shoyu or shio ramen, but their specialty is something called “tan tan men” a Japanese ramen with a Sichuan twist (imagine a bowl of soup with dan dan noodles dumped into it, and that’s the dish.) I love ramen. And I love Sichuan cuisine. So there was pretty much no way this was going to be bad…”

link: Chin Ma Ya’s Tan Tan Men Combines Two of My Favorite Things (Dan Dan Noodles & Ramen) | Midtown Lunch: Los Angeles

“When Cage takes on these outsize B-movie roles, I don’t believe for a moment that he is just nodding wearily to his agent (and his accountant). I think he’s fulfilling a vision, albeit one that looks inscrutable from the outside, of choosing roles in the kind of movies he himself loves. Remember that Cage is a lifelong devotee of comic books—his collection was auctioned off for $1.6 million in 2002—and that he named his second son Kal-El, after the birth name of Superman. Cage may mix lowbrow and high, but with rare exceptions (Matchstick Men, The Weather Man), he doesn’t do straightforward middlebrow dramas. And his high and low choices have a lot in common: Both evince the taste of a man drawn to extremes of experience.”

link: A few thoughts on the mannered weirdness of Nicolas Cage. – By Dana Stevens – Slate Magazine

“But one thing that is clear is “Billboard” has already lost. By clinging to its old model for far too long, cutting overhead instead of reinvesting. What a fascinating world we live in. Where oldsters live on icebergs, holding on for dear life as they float further and further away from the mainland, as global warming decreases their floe, and the rest of us are sitting pretty on terra firma, with endless delicacies in front of us. But this new world has been incomprehensible. Until now. It’s like we’re putting glasses on the music industry, the details are finally coming into focus. And you can’t quantify music. But you can quantify its reach. You can approximate its impact. In the old days, that was via tracking radio and retail sales. Now they’re only part of the picture. It’s time for the music industry to embrace a dose of reality. Yes, finally, music is ready for the nerds.”

link: Lefsetz Letter » Blog Archive » The Death Of Billboard (& SoundScan!)

Like

Unlike