11 Temmuz 2012 Çarşamba
10 Temmuz 2012 Salı
9 Temmuz 2012 Pazartesi
Killer Robots Can Love, Too
To contact us Click HERE
As any reader of this blog knows, I like robots. In fact, they're one of my favorite inspirations when I write music. And no, I don't really know why. Regardless, my lastest FAWM song is a country ballad sung by a poor lovelorn horrible killer robot.
Enjoy!
Loved By You
or
My Visual Input Sensors Start Leaking Coolant When My Memory Banks Retrieve Playback Of You
Lyrics:
(Amanda helped me edit these lyrics to make them better.)
I was made in a laboratory
I guess by now you prob'ly know the story
Made of wires, and metal fittings
Built for revenge, yeah I was born to kill things
My instruction set is "maim, kill, destroy"
I ain't got the moves like all them human boys
But I know this much is true: I just wanna be loved by you
My first mission was quite successful
I remember the headlines so well
"Killer Robot On Murd'rous Rampagel"
They put my picture all across the front page
But afterwards I just felt empty inside
I took no joy from all the thousands who died
I look back on that with rue...but I just wanna be loved by you
[bridge]
I got a saw where my hand should be
I got a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth
I got infrared to see all through the night
But without you, girl, something just ain't right
[solo]
Now that I've got you, wrapped up in my arms
Don't you worry, cause I'll never do you harm
I'll squeeze you so hard so that you can feel
My love for you dear human is so real
Oh no, looks like I'm squeezing you too tight
Your tongue is hanging out, your eyes are losing light
And even though you're turning blue...I just wanna be loved by you
 |
| This robot just needs to be loved |
Enjoy!
Loved By You
or
My Visual Input Sensors Start Leaking Coolant When My Memory Banks Retrieve Playback Of You
Lyrics:
(Amanda helped me edit these lyrics to make them better.)
I was made in a laboratory
I guess by now you prob'ly know the story
Made of wires, and metal fittings
Built for revenge, yeah I was born to kill things
My instruction set is "maim, kill, destroy"
I ain't got the moves like all them human boys
But I know this much is true: I just wanna be loved by you
My first mission was quite successful
I remember the headlines so well
"Killer Robot On Murd'rous Rampagel"
They put my picture all across the front page
But afterwards I just felt empty inside
I took no joy from all the thousands who died
I look back on that with rue...but I just wanna be loved by you
[bridge]
I got a saw where my hand should be
I got a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth
I got infrared to see all through the night
But without you, girl, something just ain't right
[solo]
Now that I've got you, wrapped up in my arms
Don't you worry, cause I'll never do you harm
I'll squeeze you so hard so that you can feel
My love for you dear human is so real
Oh no, looks like I'm squeezing you too tight
Your tongue is hanging out, your eyes are losing light
And even though you're turning blue...I just wanna be loved by you
What I've Learned at SXSW So Far
To contact us Click HERE
The first thing I learned was that when people remind you all day to set your clocks ahead an hour on Sunday night, you should probably do that. Instead, I woke up the next morning thinking I had plenty of time to make it to Paul Lamere's panel "Finding Music With Pictures: Data Visualization for Discovery" only to discover that it was, in fact, happening at that very moment, thanks to the ridiculous scam that is Daylight Savings Time. Fortunately, Paul has posted his slides over at Music Machinery (linked from his name, above) and so when I have some more time I am going to try to piece together what he talked about based on a smattering of pictures and text.
I also learned that the SXSW Animated Shorts are not as good as the ones at Sundance that I was lucky enough to see a few years back, and in retrospect I should have skipped them entirely to attend the "Bloggers Fight Back: Legal Workshop for Music Bloggers" panel. But since I didn't, don't be surprised when I start writing this blog from jail.
When I finally got into some panels, I learned even more. Mainly, I learned that metadata is the magic word of the day. First up was the "Love, Music & APIs" panel featuring speakers from Echo Nest and SoundCloud. Their main point was that APIs are the new currency in music apps, and if you don't have one, you're not really playing in the same game as everyone else. They had a slide listing all sorts of cool music companies with APIs - interestingly enough, Pandora wasn't listed. I wondered why not, as they seemed to be in the heart of the music recommendation space, and my friend Lori quickly realized "they must not have an API." I felt so sad for them. The panelists talked a lot about Music Hack Days, finally answering the question of what actually happens at those things. The answer: a lot of smart people make a lot of really interesting and cool music apps in a very short amount of time, nearly all of them based around APIs. And what do those APIs revolve around? Metadata. That was also the topic of the second music-related panel I attended that day, "Music & Metadata: Do Songs Remain The Same?" The panelists here used a pretty broad definition of "metadata," using it to cover everything from the spelling of a song's title (apparently when users submit their own titles to most metadata repositories like MusicBrainz or the old CDDB, you can end up with 176 spellings of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door") to things like a song's cultural impact or a singer's unique and recognizable turns of phrase. The main takeaway is that metadata may start out in the hands of the artist, but quickly becomes "owned" by listeners, users, remixers, etc. Metadata is cultural currency in much the same way that APIs are technical currency. Combined, they are helping make this a fascinating and wonderful time to be a music nerd.
The last thing I learned is that the line to see Surfer Blood was too long last night, so I will be trying again tonight. Of course, there are about 50 bands (and a movie) that I want to see all playing at the same time tonight, so I have no idea what I'll end up seeing, but I'll tell you all about it here!
Web Developer's Lament
To contact us Click HERE
This one's for all the web developers out there...
I'm on a "working vacation" for a couple weeks up in Belfast, ME, staying in a house on the bay. Somehow working from here doesn't feel quite as much like work as it does when I work from my usual office location. However, events have conspired to make it feel as much like work as it possibly could - namely, a client has been doing their best to make sure that no piece of code I write this week is ever actually done, due to the specifications changing daily, not unlike clouds shifting in a summer breeze.
So I wrote this song to explain how I feel. [This isn't all about this particular project, but that was a good starting point.]
This is a live recording made down by the water.
Lyrics:
They changed the specs again
Just when I was nearly finished
Said the client changed their mind
I don't know if I can take this
They changed the specs again
I've already written so much code
And the thought of starting over
Makes my sanity erode
Chorus:
Why won't they just let me finish?
Why can't I just be done?
Why won't they just let me finish?
Is this their idea of fun?
They changed the specs again
Pushed the launch up by 2 weeks
They've added a shopping cart
God, my knees are feeling weak
They changed the specs again
To match the new designs
They want it to just "work like Google"
Lord, I'm losing my mind
[Chorus]
I give up, I give up.
I give up, I give up.
Let's add some features, I give up.
Let's build a CMS from scratch, I give up.
Let's refactor every function, I give up.
Let's start calling ourselves agile, I give up.
Let's have a status meeting, I give up.
Let's adopt a framework, I give up.
Let's add members' only area, I give up.
Let's change databases, I give up.
Let's review my timesheet, I give up.
Let's never document anything, I give up.
Let's outsource to India
Still More Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck
To contact us Click HERE
"Christmas music." "Holiday tunes." "Mind-numbing winter-themed muzak pabulum." Call it what you will, our ears are subjected to a lot of crap every winter. Well, Wired For Music is here to help, with yet another edition of our patented "Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck" playlist.
This year's playlist has some songs that a lot of you will probably already know, but I've had enough people ask me about them in the past that I finally decided to put them on. Hopefully there'll be some surprises on here too for more "advanced" listeners, whatever that means. And it even features one song I swore I would never, ever include (it grew on me).
Enjoy, and be sure to check out the playlists from previous years!
Hungry for more? Check out some of these awesome holiday playlists:
 |
| SK Holiday Open House by flickr user vastateparksstaff |
This year's playlist has some songs that a lot of you will probably already know, but I've had enough people ask me about them in the past that I finally decided to put them on. Hopefully there'll be some surprises on here too for more "advanced" listeners, whatever that means. And it even features one song I swore I would never, ever include (it grew on me).
Enjoy, and be sure to check out the playlists from previous years!
- Dean Martin - A Marshmallow World
"The King of Cool" gives us his take on this sugary classic. Dean's version was never as popular as Bing Crosby's, but it does feature some of his trademark near-drunken slurring, particularly on the last verse's "take a walk-with-yourfav-or-itegirl." This song makes me wish it was snowing right now. - Gruff Rhys - Slashed Wrists This Christmas
This is the first track of the Super Furry Animals' frontman's brilliantly titled "Atheist Xmas EP." It's a bit repetitive, but then, so this this whole season, isn't it? - The Futureheads - Christmas Was Better In The 80s
Not entirely sure why these guys are so nostalgic given that I think they're younger than I am, but it's still a great song. Apparently it's a big deal in the UK to release a single at Christmas time, which explains the existence of a few tracks on this playlist. Some of them work out great, and others...don't make it to this playlist. - The Gasoline Brothers - Hungover Boxing Day
This Dutch band really nails that feeling of waking up on Boxing Day and realizing - wait, what the hell is Boxing Day? Europe is weird. - Badly Drawn Boy - Donna and Blitzen
This song definitely sounds like it was written a few days before the deadline for getting on the Xmas single charts or something like that. The lyrics read like he was doing a holiday-themed Mad Libs and just plugged in words like "sleigh ride" and "reindeer" here and there. But the music saves it, especially those massive timpanis. - Marvin Gaye - Purple Snowflakes
Nothing says Christmas like (a presumably high) Marvin Gaye singing about "purple snowflakes" while his backup singers sprinkle phrases like "chestnuts roasting" and "tootsies toasting" all over the place. This song is ridiculously good, and his voice is just angelic. - Okkervil River - Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas
I can't decide if this is more depressing than Tom Waits's "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis" (featured on 2008's playlist), but it's damn depressing regardless. Seriously, go read the lyrics, I'll wait. Can you imagine if Jeff Tweedy still wrote songs like this? Wow, that would be awesome. - Morphine - Sexy Christmas Baby Mine
Still not depressed? Listen to a dead man croon "Merry for you. Not too merry for me./I want you here with me. Misery loves company." You're welcome. - The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
I resisted this song for the past 5 years - in fact, I really hated it until late last year when it suddenly just clicked for me. I don't know if it's living in New York or what, but one of my most-hated Christmas songs ever has finally wormed its way into my heart. This one's a classic that I'm sure you've heard a million times, but it still belongs on this playlist. - Barenaked Ladies - I Saw Three Ships
Just a pretty little palate cleanser. They really should have let Steven sing first, but that's being nitpicky. - Lord Nelson - A Party For Santa Claus
Feeling chilly? Let the hot island rhythms of Tobago (by way of Brooklyn) of this little ditty warm you up (or go drink some cocoa, I don't care). I like the message of this song - how come no one ever gets presents for Santa? - The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick
Of course The Beach Boys would write a song about Santa's sled. This song is stupid, but I love it. And it features the brilliant line: "Christmas comes this time each year." Deep. - Aimee Mann - I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas
A happy little song about getting off the ol' drugs for Christmastime. Isn't that sweet? - Ella Fitzgerald - Good Morning Blues
Leave it to Ella to have a bad time at Christmas. "Don't send me nothing for Christmas but my baby back to me" - it's a great time of the year to be alone, isn't it? - dj BC - Waltz Of The Flowers (reflower)
An interesting mix of a classic, from dj BC's "A Very Re:Composition Christmas." Lots of interesting stuff on that album, it's really worth checking out if you like classical music, remixes, or both. - The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight)
A message of love and peace for the holidays from Joey Ramone. [Presumably he and the person to whom he was singing were allowed to resume fighting on Boxing Day.] - Kanye West ft. CyHi Da Prynce & Teyana Taylor - Christmas In Harlem
Despite famously being from Chicago, which does not include Harlem, Kanye does a serviceable job with this sequel to Louis Armstrong's "Christmas Night in Harlem" (featured in 2008's playlist). I think the best verse here belongs to CyHi Da Prynce, who raps in character as Santa Claus. This song gets extra credit for the part at the end when Teyana Taylor starts singing the melody of "Strawberry Letter 23." - Milly & Silly - Getting Down For Xmas
Looking at Santa's outfit, I'd say that playing funk music at this time of year is pretty much a no-brainer. - Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop
These guys really do a great job with the whole "suicidal but catchy" thing. Sample lyric: "Oh it's Christmas so we'll stop/'Cause the wine on our breath puts the love in our tongues/So forget the names/I called you on Christmas Eve/In fact forget the entire year/Don't reflect just pretend and you won't feel scared." Yikes. - David Bowie & Bing Crosby - Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy
For a song that was conceived of, written, rehearsed, and performed in a little over an hour, this is pretty amazing. If you haven't heard this before, you're probably going to like it. I think it's all the more incredible considering the backstory (see link above). - Lovebyte - Auld Lang Syne
I actually cut another electronic instrumental song off this list, but I just had to give a nod to the robot inside me with this overly upbeat, bizarre version of the New Year's classic. - Sarah McLachlan - Song For A Winter's Night
Sarah McLachlan's take on Gordon Lightfoot's beautiful little song is spare and beautiful, and I find it really evokes the feeling of a cold winter's night effectively. Great harmonies, too.
Hungry for more? Check out some of these awesome holiday playlists:
- Annals of Spacetime
- Fuel/Friends
- ilovethis
- Wired For Music
Friday Playlist: Baby's First Playlist
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My wife and I recently had a baby girl (Alison, pictured above sporting a stylish baby towel). Parenting, of course, has its challenges, but it also has its joys - and a big one for me these days has been sharing music with my daughter. Music is a primary way that I communicate with the world (hence this blog), and my communications with her have been no exception. When I'm not singing her improvised lyrics to lullabies (or making up new songs entirely), I've been playing her different songs from my library and noting her reaction to various things. For example, Metallica seemed to make her gassy. She liked Aimee Mann, but only the early stuff. And she absolutely loves Spiritualized.
So I've compiled her very first playlist, comprising some of her favorites for chillout time, dance time, and sleepytime. I hope you enjoy it as much as she does.
PS A friend of mine gave me the gift of 3 albums from Rockabye Baby, namely lullaby versions of songs by Queen, Radiohead, and Led Zeppelin. Those are all awesome, and have the added bonus of lulling me to sleep, but I prefer to save those as secret weapons when I'm trying to conk her out, as opposed to just putting on music for her to chill to or dance with me to, etc.
 |
| My ridiculously cute daughter |
So I've compiled her very first playlist, comprising some of her favorites for chillout time, dance time, and sleepytime. I hope you enjoy it as much as she does.
PS A friend of mine gave me the gift of 3 albums from Rockabye Baby, namely lullaby versions of songs by Queen, Radiohead, and Led Zeppelin. Those are all awesome, and have the added bonus of lulling me to sleep, but I prefer to save those as secret weapons when I'm trying to conk her out, as opposed to just putting on music for her to chill to or dance with me to, etc.
- Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (Original Version)
I first played this for Alison when she was only a few days old. She had just finished eating and was in what baby experts call the "quiet alert state." So I figured it would be a perfect time to play her some tunes. I asked my wife what she thought a baby would like, and she said "Spiritualized?" I said yes. This is the original version of this song which includes lyrics from Elvis's "Can't Help Falling In Love" (the Presley estate made the band remove that portion of the song from this album's original release). The lyrics to the whole thing are pretty perfect to sing to a new baby. This is probably Alison's favorite song thus far (and one of my favorites, too). - Thievery Corporation - From Creation
She wasn't too taken with other Thievery Corporation songs, but she really seemed to click with this one. By "click," I mean she got quiet and stopped fussing and seemed to chill out a bit. I assume she likes these guys because, like her parents, they're from DC. - K'naan - Fatima
This song is actually kind of a downer, lyrically (it's about a young girl who was murdered, I think), but Alison really seemed to enjoy the rhythm, particularly in the chorus. [Editor's note: I'm saying things like "seemed to," "appeared to," etc. a lot because when I asked her what she thought of all these songs, she gave me no answer, so I'm having to go on educated guesses here.] - Cat Power - Living Proof
This is my favorite Cat Power song. Alison definitely seemed to enjoy it, but I don't know if it was genuine or if she was just trying to please me because she knows it's my favorite. Either way, she enjoyed being gently swayed in my arms to this song. Who wouldn't? Babies are supposed to like simple, repetitive melodies, and this one definitely fits the bill. - Yellow Ostrich - Mary
She seemed pretty relaxed during this song, which seems to be about the singer's friend who's on drugs. Alison overlooked the content and just focused on the soothing background, which definitely chilled her out. - The Snake The Cross The Crown - Cakewalk
Alison definitely identified with this song's ethos of "I just want to do the things that I feel like doing, and I want to be rewarded for same." Basically a baby's mantra. - The Beatles - Flying
I've been told that when I was a wee tot, almost nothing would soothe my jangled nerves as much as when my parents would put the big headphones on me and throw on either a Beatles record or something classical. Alison has a lot more Beatles to go (and classical, for that matter) but she seemed to take to this track - not a bad start. - Phish - Horn
I first played her "Bouncing Around The Room" which I thought she'd love, but I guess it was a little too simplistic, even for her. But she loved "Horn," especially the intro/chorus. She says she's psyched to hear Trey's solos on some live versions when she's a little older. - Self - Uno Song
I don't know a lot of Self songs after Subliminal Plastic Motives, but this one came up on shuffle the other week and she really dug dancing along to it. And by "dancing" I mean "me waving her around in my arms." Tapping out the beat on her back also seemed to help her burp, so hey - bonus. - Her Space Holiday - Sleepy California
Despite this song being about the slow death of the singer's estrangement from his mother and the painful death of his grandmother, Alison really seemed to enjoy it. She can be kind of dark that way. Or she was sleepy, it's hard to tell sometimes. - The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
Another song that appeals to Alison because of her DC heritage. Also because it's slow and soft and beautiful and has a cool beat. And she likes when I sing along to it. - Jane's Addiction - Stop!
The first time I played this for her, I bounced her up and down vigorously along with the music - taking her up really high on the downbeats, particularly during the intro and chorus. My wife thought I was going to scramble Alison's brains, but Alison seemed genuinely happy. And it's hard to tell if a baby's brains are scrambled anyway, they don't do all that much higher-level thinking at this phase. - U2 - Trip Through Your Wires
U2 was another Amanda suggestion, and so far Alison has enjoyed most of what she heard. This song seemed to be her favorite, meaning she fell asleep during it. Right now her TTS (time to sleep) is a pretty indicator of how pleased she is with life overall. Alison also seems to love "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" but I'm not a huge fan of that song, so it didn't make the list. - Grateful Dead - Box of Rain
I think Amanda suggested this album, too, and Alison seemed to love every track, so I picked this one because it's awesome. And she just fell asleep to it while I was writing this, so that's one in the "plus" column. - Radiohead - 4 Minute Warning
I mentioned above the lullaby version of Radiohead CD a friend gave us - it got me thinking about Radiohead songs in general, and I had an inkling that this song might be lullaby-esque enough in its current state to work on a baby. And I was right. I ended up playing this about 10 times in a row one night as she gently drifted off to sleep in my arms. [Editor's note: the fact that she woke up crying 10 minutes later has nothing to do with this song, that's apparently just how babies are sometimes.]
8 Temmuz 2012 Pazar
The Echo Nest Is Listening
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I'm looking forward to seeing Paul's SXSW panel this year (plug time: I'll be there leading my own panel, about how the lessons of improv can help you live a better life). If you're interested in music and technology, Echo Nest is definitely a company to watch.
I've written before in this space about Paul Lamere, a deep thinker about music and technology and the director of the application developer community for The Echo Nest, a "music intelligence company" that is pushing the boundaries of what technology can tell us about the music we listen to. They recently got some love from Fast Company in a piece that highlights some things they've been up to recently, including the following snippet:
The Echo Nest crawls the web in search of music and writing about music; it also partners with major labels like Universal and aggregators like 7Digital. It then devours data about the music, on both the "acoustic side"--tempo, key, etc. (Echo Nest's system crunches that sort of data in about 10 seconds for a song)--and the "cultural side"--what reviewers are saying about the music for instance. It crawls the web, Google-style, ravenous for new musical information. If you tweet about the band you saw last night, "we have that in our databases within the hour," says Whitman.Not only are they listening to everything we're saying about music, and listening to the music itself, but currently the Echo Nest has information about 30 million songs in its database. 30 million! I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between the 30 million songs that you can query about using their API vs. the 1 million in the "Million Song Dataset" they just announced, but either way, this is really, really cool. [Editor's note: I think the API gives you access to song information only, while the Million Song Dataset actually gives you access to 30-second samples for each song, so developers and researchers can actually perform automated musical analysis on those samples.]
I'm looking forward to seeing Paul's SXSW panel this year (plug time: I'll be there leading my own panel, about how the lessons of improv can help you live a better life). If you're interested in music and technology, Echo Nest is definitely a company to watch.
What I've Learned at SXSW So Far
To contact us Click HERE
The first thing I learned was that when people remind you all day to set your clocks ahead an hour on Sunday night, you should probably do that. Instead, I woke up the next morning thinking I had plenty of time to make it to Paul Lamere's panel "Finding Music With Pictures: Data Visualization for Discovery" only to discover that it was, in fact, happening at that very moment, thanks to the ridiculous scam that is Daylight Savings Time. Fortunately, Paul has posted his slides over at Music Machinery (linked from his name, above) and so when I have some more time I am going to try to piece together what he talked about based on a smattering of pictures and text.
I also learned that the SXSW Animated Shorts are not as good as the ones at Sundance that I was lucky enough to see a few years back, and in retrospect I should have skipped them entirely to attend the "Bloggers Fight Back: Legal Workshop for Music Bloggers" panel. But since I didn't, don't be surprised when I start writing this blog from jail.
When I finally got into some panels, I learned even more. Mainly, I learned that metadata is the magic word of the day. First up was the "Love, Music & APIs" panel featuring speakers from Echo Nest and SoundCloud. Their main point was that APIs are the new currency in music apps, and if you don't have one, you're not really playing in the same game as everyone else. They had a slide listing all sorts of cool music companies with APIs - interestingly enough, Pandora wasn't listed. I wondered why not, as they seemed to be in the heart of the music recommendation space, and my friend Lori quickly realized "they must not have an API." I felt so sad for them. The panelists talked a lot about Music Hack Days, finally answering the question of what actually happens at those things. The answer: a lot of smart people make a lot of really interesting and cool music apps in a very short amount of time, nearly all of them based around APIs. And what do those APIs revolve around? Metadata. That was also the topic of the second music-related panel I attended that day, "Music & Metadata: Do Songs Remain The Same?" The panelists here used a pretty broad definition of "metadata," using it to cover everything from the spelling of a song's title (apparently when users submit their own titles to most metadata repositories like MusicBrainz or the old CDDB, you can end up with 176 spellings of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door") to things like a song's cultural impact or a singer's unique and recognizable turns of phrase. The main takeaway is that metadata may start out in the hands of the artist, but quickly becomes "owned" by listeners, users, remixers, etc. Metadata is cultural currency in much the same way that APIs are technical currency. Combined, they are helping make this a fascinating and wonderful time to be a music nerd.
The last thing I learned is that the line to see Surfer Blood was too long last night, so I will be trying again tonight. Of course, there are about 50 bands (and a movie) that I want to see all playing at the same time tonight, so I have no idea what I'll end up seeing, but I'll tell you all about it here!
Web Developer's Lament
To contact us Click HERE
This one's for all the web developers out there...
I'm on a "working vacation" for a couple weeks up in Belfast, ME, staying in a house on the bay. Somehow working from here doesn't feel quite as much like work as it does when I work from my usual office location. However, events have conspired to make it feel as much like work as it possibly could - namely, a client has been doing their best to make sure that no piece of code I write this week is ever actually done, due to the specifications changing daily, not unlike clouds shifting in a summer breeze.
So I wrote this song to explain how I feel. [This isn't all about this particular project, but that was a good starting point.]
This is a live recording made down by the water.
Lyrics:
They changed the specs again
Just when I was nearly finished
Said the client changed their mind
I don't know if I can take this
They changed the specs again
I've already written so much code
And the thought of starting over
Makes my sanity erode
Chorus:
Why won't they just let me finish?
Why can't I just be done?
Why won't they just let me finish?
Is this their idea of fun?
They changed the specs again
Pushed the launch up by 2 weeks
They've added a shopping cart
God, my knees are feeling weak
They changed the specs again
To match the new designs
They want it to just "work like Google"
Lord, I'm losing my mind
[Chorus]
I give up, I give up.
I give up, I give up.
Let's add some features, I give up.
Let's build a CMS from scratch, I give up.
Let's refactor every function, I give up.
Let's start calling ourselves agile, I give up.
Let's have a status meeting, I give up.
Let's adopt a framework, I give up.
Let's add members' only area, I give up.
Let's change databases, I give up.
Let's review my timesheet, I give up.
Let's never document anything, I give up.
Let's outsource to India
Still More Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck
To contact us Click HERE
"Christmas music." "Holiday tunes." "Mind-numbing winter-themed muzak pabulum." Call it what you will, our ears are subjected to a lot of crap every winter. Well, Wired For Music is here to help, with yet another edition of our patented "Holiday Music That Doesn't Suck" playlist.
This year's playlist has some songs that a lot of you will probably already know, but I've had enough people ask me about them in the past that I finally decided to put them on. Hopefully there'll be some surprises on here too for more "advanced" listeners, whatever that means. And it even features one song I swore I would never, ever include (it grew on me).
Enjoy, and be sure to check out the playlists from previous years!
Hungry for more? Check out some of these awesome holiday playlists:
|
| SK Holiday Open House by flickr user vastateparksstaff |
This year's playlist has some songs that a lot of you will probably already know, but I've had enough people ask me about them in the past that I finally decided to put them on. Hopefully there'll be some surprises on here too for more "advanced" listeners, whatever that means. And it even features one song I swore I would never, ever include (it grew on me).
Enjoy, and be sure to check out the playlists from previous years!
- Dean Martin - A Marshmallow World
"The King of Cool" gives us his take on this sugary classic. Dean's version was never as popular as Bing Crosby's, but it does feature some of his trademark near-drunken slurring, particularly on the last verse's "take a walk-with-yourfav-or-itegirl." This song makes me wish it was snowing right now. - Gruff Rhys - Slashed Wrists This Christmas
This is the first track of the Super Furry Animals' frontman's brilliantly titled "Atheist Xmas EP." It's a bit repetitive, but then, so this this whole season, isn't it? - The Futureheads - Christmas Was Better In The 80s
Not entirely sure why these guys are so nostalgic given that I think they're younger than I am, but it's still a great song. Apparently it's a big deal in the UK to release a single at Christmas time, which explains the existence of a few tracks on this playlist. Some of them work out great, and others...don't make it to this playlist. - The Gasoline Brothers - Hungover Boxing Day
This Dutch band really nails that feeling of waking up on Boxing Day and realizing - wait, what the hell is Boxing Day? Europe is weird. - Badly Drawn Boy - Donna and Blitzen
This song definitely sounds like it was written a few days before the deadline for getting on the Xmas single charts or something like that. The lyrics read like he was doing a holiday-themed Mad Libs and just plugged in words like "sleigh ride" and "reindeer" here and there. But the music saves it, especially those massive timpanis. - Marvin Gaye - Purple Snowflakes
Nothing says Christmas like (a presumably high) Marvin Gaye singing about "purple snowflakes" while his backup singers sprinkle phrases like "chestnuts roasting" and "tootsies toasting" all over the place. This song is ridiculously good, and his voice is just angelic. - Okkervil River - Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas
I can't decide if this is more depressing than Tom Waits's "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis" (featured on 2008's playlist), but it's damn depressing regardless. Seriously, go read the lyrics, I'll wait. Can you imagine if Jeff Tweedy still wrote songs like this? Wow, that would be awesome. - Morphine - Sexy Christmas Baby Mine
Still not depressed? Listen to a dead man croon "Merry for you. Not too merry for me./I want you here with me. Misery loves company." You're welcome. - The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
I resisted this song for the past 5 years - in fact, I really hated it until late last year when it suddenly just clicked for me. I don't know if it's living in New York or what, but one of my most-hated Christmas songs ever has finally wormed its way into my heart. This one's a classic that I'm sure you've heard a million times, but it still belongs on this playlist. - Barenaked Ladies - I Saw Three Ships
Just a pretty little palate cleanser. They really should have let Steven sing first, but that's being nitpicky. - Lord Nelson - A Party For Santa Claus
Feeling chilly? Let the hot island rhythms of Tobago (by way of Brooklyn) of this little ditty warm you up (or go drink some cocoa, I don't care). I like the message of this song - how come no one ever gets presents for Santa? - The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick
Of course The Beach Boys would write a song about Santa's sled. This song is stupid, but I love it. And it features the brilliant line: "Christmas comes this time each year." Deep. - Aimee Mann - I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up For Christmas
A happy little song about getting off the ol' drugs for Christmastime. Isn't that sweet? - Ella Fitzgerald - Good Morning Blues
Leave it to Ella to have a bad time at Christmas. "Don't send me nothing for Christmas but my baby back to me" - it's a great time of the year to be alone, isn't it? - dj BC - Waltz Of The Flowers (reflower)
An interesting mix of a classic, from dj BC's "A Very Re:Composition Christmas." Lots of interesting stuff on that album, it's really worth checking out if you like classical music, remixes, or both. - The Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight)
A message of love and peace for the holidays from Joey Ramone. [Presumably he and the person to whom he was singing were allowed to resume fighting on Boxing Day.] - Kanye West ft. CyHi Da Prynce & Teyana Taylor - Christmas In Harlem
Despite famously being from Chicago, which does not include Harlem, Kanye does a serviceable job with this sequel to Louis Armstrong's "Christmas Night in Harlem" (featured in 2008's playlist). I think the best verse here belongs to CyHi Da Prynce, who raps in character as Santa Claus. This song gets extra credit for the part at the end when Teyana Taylor starts singing the melody of "Strawberry Letter 23." - Milly & Silly - Getting Down For Xmas
Looking at Santa's outfit, I'd say that playing funk music at this time of year is pretty much a no-brainer. - Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop
These guys really do a great job with the whole "suicidal but catchy" thing. Sample lyric: "Oh it's Christmas so we'll stop/'Cause the wine on our breath puts the love in our tongues/So forget the names/I called you on Christmas Eve/In fact forget the entire year/Don't reflect just pretend and you won't feel scared." Yikes. - David Bowie & Bing Crosby - Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy
For a song that was conceived of, written, rehearsed, and performed in a little over an hour, this is pretty amazing. If you haven't heard this before, you're probably going to like it. I think it's all the more incredible considering the backstory (see link above). - Lovebyte - Auld Lang Syne
I actually cut another electronic instrumental song off this list, but I just had to give a nod to the robot inside me with this overly upbeat, bizarre version of the New Year's classic. - Sarah McLachlan - Song For A Winter's Night
Sarah McLachlan's take on Gordon Lightfoot's beautiful little song is spare and beautiful, and I find it really evokes the feeling of a cold winter's night effectively. Great harmonies, too.
Hungry for more? Check out some of these awesome holiday playlists:
- Annals of Spacetime
- Fuel/Friends
- ilovethis
- Wired For Music
Friday Playlist: Baby's First Playlist
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My wife and I recently had a baby girl (Alison, pictured above sporting a stylish baby towel). Parenting, of course, has its challenges, but it also has its joys - and a big one for me these days has been sharing music with my daughter. Music is a primary way that I communicate with the world (hence this blog), and my communications with her have been no exception. When I'm not singing her improvised lyrics to lullabies (or making up new songs entirely), I've been playing her different songs from my library and noting her reaction to various things. For example, Metallica seemed to make her gassy. She liked Aimee Mann, but only the early stuff. And she absolutely loves Spiritualized.
So I've compiled her very first playlist, comprising some of her favorites for chillout time, dance time, and sleepytime. I hope you enjoy it as much as she does.
PS A friend of mine gave me the gift of 3 albums from Rockabye Baby, namely lullaby versions of songs by Queen, Radiohead, and Led Zeppelin. Those are all awesome, and have the added bonus of lulling me to sleep, but I prefer to save those as secret weapons when I'm trying to conk her out, as opposed to just putting on music for her to chill to or dance with me to, etc.
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| My ridiculously cute daughter |
So I've compiled her very first playlist, comprising some of her favorites for chillout time, dance time, and sleepytime. I hope you enjoy it as much as she does.
PS A friend of mine gave me the gift of 3 albums from Rockabye Baby, namely lullaby versions of songs by Queen, Radiohead, and Led Zeppelin. Those are all awesome, and have the added bonus of lulling me to sleep, but I prefer to save those as secret weapons when I'm trying to conk her out, as opposed to just putting on music for her to chill to or dance with me to, etc.
- Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (Original Version)
I first played this for Alison when she was only a few days old. She had just finished eating and was in what baby experts call the "quiet alert state." So I figured it would be a perfect time to play her some tunes. I asked my wife what she thought a baby would like, and she said "Spiritualized?" I said yes. This is the original version of this song which includes lyrics from Elvis's "Can't Help Falling In Love" (the Presley estate made the band remove that portion of the song from this album's original release). The lyrics to the whole thing are pretty perfect to sing to a new baby. This is probably Alison's favorite song thus far (and one of my favorites, too). - Thievery Corporation - From Creation
She wasn't too taken with other Thievery Corporation songs, but she really seemed to click with this one. By "click," I mean she got quiet and stopped fussing and seemed to chill out a bit. I assume she likes these guys because, like her parents, they're from DC. - K'naan - Fatima
This song is actually kind of a downer, lyrically (it's about a young girl who was murdered, I think), but Alison really seemed to enjoy the rhythm, particularly in the chorus. [Editor's note: I'm saying things like "seemed to," "appeared to," etc. a lot because when I asked her what she thought of all these songs, she gave me no answer, so I'm having to go on educated guesses here.] - Cat Power - Living Proof
This is my favorite Cat Power song. Alison definitely seemed to enjoy it, but I don't know if it was genuine or if she was just trying to please me because she knows it's my favorite. Either way, she enjoyed being gently swayed in my arms to this song. Who wouldn't? Babies are supposed to like simple, repetitive melodies, and this one definitely fits the bill. - Yellow Ostrich - Mary
She seemed pretty relaxed during this song, which seems to be about the singer's friend who's on drugs. Alison overlooked the content and just focused on the soothing background, which definitely chilled her out. - The Snake The Cross The Crown - Cakewalk
Alison definitely identified with this song's ethos of "I just want to do the things that I feel like doing, and I want to be rewarded for same." Basically a baby's mantra. - The Beatles - Flying
I've been told that when I was a wee tot, almost nothing would soothe my jangled nerves as much as when my parents would put the big headphones on me and throw on either a Beatles record or something classical. Alison has a lot more Beatles to go (and classical, for that matter) but she seemed to take to this track - not a bad start. - Phish - Horn
I first played her "Bouncing Around The Room" which I thought she'd love, but I guess it was a little too simplistic, even for her. But she loved "Horn," especially the intro/chorus. She says she's psyched to hear Trey's solos on some live versions when she's a little older. - Self - Uno Song
I don't know a lot of Self songs after Subliminal Plastic Motives, but this one came up on shuffle the other week and she really dug dancing along to it. And by "dancing" I mean "me waving her around in my arms." Tapping out the beat on her back also seemed to help her burp, so hey - bonus. - Her Space Holiday - Sleepy California
Despite this song being about the slow death of the singer's estrangement from his mother and the painful death of his grandmother, Alison really seemed to enjoy it. She can be kind of dark that way. Or she was sleepy, it's hard to tell sometimes. - The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
Another song that appeals to Alison because of her DC heritage. Also because it's slow and soft and beautiful and has a cool beat. And she likes when I sing along to it. - Jane's Addiction - Stop!
The first time I played this for her, I bounced her up and down vigorously along with the music - taking her up really high on the downbeats, particularly during the intro and chorus. My wife thought I was going to scramble Alison's brains, but Alison seemed genuinely happy. And it's hard to tell if a baby's brains are scrambled anyway, they don't do all that much higher-level thinking at this phase. - U2 - Trip Through Your Wires
U2 was another Amanda suggestion, and so far Alison has enjoyed most of what she heard. This song seemed to be her favorite, meaning she fell asleep during it. Right now her TTS (time to sleep) is a pretty indicator of how pleased she is with life overall. Alison also seems to love "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" but I'm not a huge fan of that song, so it didn't make the list. - Grateful Dead - Box of Rain
I think Amanda suggested this album, too, and Alison seemed to love every track, so I picked this one because it's awesome. And she just fell asleep to it while I was writing this, so that's one in the "plus" column. - Radiohead - 4 Minute Warning
I mentioned above the lullaby version of Radiohead CD a friend gave us - it got me thinking about Radiohead songs in general, and I had an inkling that this song might be lullaby-esque enough in its current state to work on a baby. And I was right. I ended up playing this about 10 times in a row one night as she gently drifted off to sleep in my arms. [Editor's note: the fact that she woke up crying 10 minutes later has nothing to do with this song, that's apparently just how babies are sometimes.]
7 Temmuz 2012 Cumartesi
Sigur Ros: Starálfur
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MB: I remember hearing Sigur Ros' Starálfur for the first time near the end of Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" and it encapsulated the quirky romanticism of this crazy crew of misfits struggling to make sense of their world (and generally failing horribly... in the true tradition of the absurd) -- this song never fails to move me -- a bonus for those trapped in the unending dry heat this homemade video is of winter.
Tariq Ali (Historian/Journalist/Filmmaker/Activist)
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Wikipedia: Tariq Ali
Ali's personal website
Achcar, Gilbert, Tariq Ali, Kevin Onden and Ahmed Shawki. "End the Siege of Gaza." We Are Many (June 17, 2010)
Ali, Tariq. "A new beginning: As social revolutions sweep through the Arab world, how will they affect the role of the US in the region?" (February 28, 2011)
---. "The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad." Democracy Now (September 21, 2010)
Ali, Tariq and Noam Chomsky. "Global Politics." The World Tomorrow (June 26, 2012)
Ali, Tariq and Oliver Stone. "Academy Award-Winning Filmmaker Oliver Stone Tackles Latin America’s Political Upheaval in "South of the Border", US Financial Crisis in Sequel to Iconic "Wall Street." Democracy Now (June 21, 2010)
Ali's personal website
Achcar, Gilbert, Tariq Ali, Kevin Onden and Ahmed Shawki. "End the Siege of Gaza." We Are Many (June 17, 2010)
Ali, Tariq. "A new beginning: As social revolutions sweep through the Arab world, how will they affect the role of the US in the region?" (February 28, 2011)
---. "The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad." Democracy Now (September 21, 2010)
Ali, Tariq and Noam Chomsky. "Global Politics." The World Tomorrow (June 26, 2012)
Ali, Tariq and Oliver Stone. "Academy Award-Winning Filmmaker Oliver Stone Tackles Latin America’s Political Upheaval in "South of the Border", US Financial Crisis in Sequel to Iconic "Wall Street." Democracy Now (June 21, 2010)
John Bredin: 2 or 3 Ways Godard Taught Us How to Speak and Live
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2 or 3 Ways Godard Taught Us How to Speak and Live
by John Bredin
Acidemic
I highly recommend Jean Luc Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her to shy people. To those poor souls who, like my former self, have had their speaking agency crippled, reducing them to verbal mice. Such radical withdrawals from the speaking world are often the result of being smothered by a patriarchal, authoritative and oppressive family, school system, or society. In my case, it was all of the above.
Mindful of the healing and transformative power of art, for the reticent of speech I bring a message of radiant hope: a nugget of cinematic wisdom distilled from what critic J. Hoberman calls Godard's greatest masterpiece. (As founder of the French New Wave movement in modern cinema, Godard is, arguably, one of, if not the most important, avante garde filmmaker of all time.) Deciphering lessons from Two or Three Things which, in a burst of validation from the zeitgeist for its continuing relevance, Film Forum in New York City screened both last fall and this spring you might be inspired, like I was, with the epiphany that it's not too late for you to achieve the exalted state of verbal freedom; the intoxicating, liberating, yet simple pleasure of being able to share (in a calm, thoughtful and nuanced manner) the cognitive and affective music of your soul with others.
In Two or Three Things Godard offers humanity nothing less than a filmic template for bold and authentic communication in the world: an aesthetically rich and pedagogically fertile piece of language curriculum that bears repeated visits. Without exaggeration, I'd call it a Linguistic Declaration of Independence. Notice, if you will, how the film celebrates the miraculous potential of spoken language, while at the same time interrogating it in what linguists refer to as a meta-talk, or talk about talk fashion often through the power of amazingly simple, wonder-provoking phrases.
For example, whenever Juliette the bored housewife who moonlights as a prostitute addresses a person, the camera, or thin air with a random thought that just popped into her head (I know how to talk; Let's talk together; Together is a word I like.) or when Robert, Juliette's husband, engages in that remarkable see-saw dialogue with a strange woman in the café (Say words; Do you know what talking is? Talk about something interesting.); or the pretty girl at the bar, whose deer-in-the-headlights narration of the simple details of her life startles us with its unassuming transcendence (I like to take walks, ride my bike for fun, go to the cinema two or three times a month. I like books); or when Godard himself, intoning with his whispery, philosophical voiceover, decides to interject a thought or two because he's the auteur (filmmaker as author) and can talk whenever he damn well pleases we're treated to a model of the magical possibilities of human speech.
Shy people, take notice.
Sometimes we become shy (and I myself still feel shy at times, depending, naturally, on who I'm with, or the situation), better still, let me phrase it a different way: we say that we're shy, or inarticulate, or afraid to talk, when in reality we're simply numbed by over-exposure to the prepackaged speech of movies and television shows: talk that's fakely fluid in the Hollywood sense. After watching actors speak brilliantly, dashing off hilarious applause lines as if they were talking naturally when, in reality, they spent days or weeks memorizing a pre-written script by comparison, our own conversational offerings might appear flat and boring to us. Certainly too, in a media-saturated age such as ours, because of our overexposure to glib, slick, oily-tongued, sonorous anchor people and celebrities, one could easily see how a person might get the false, even monstrous impression that this is how real people should talk. Unable to achieve such a bizarre standard of faux eloquence in our own speech, we clam up.
Philosopher Maxine Greene, critiquing such indurations in the mundane, talks about the need to resist passivity, to, partly through reflective art encounters she says, escape submergence in the everyday, the routine, the banal. Such submergence ought to include our current mass drowning, if you will, in a sea of pop cultural and media kitsch: a filling up of our heads, like the white cream inside a Twinkie, with a combination of advertisements, pop cultural fluff, and the grave pronouncements of the talking heads. Might such an inexorable assault on our cognitive and aesthetic apparatus tamp down our capacity to generate our own unique and creative thoughts, disabling our ability to write (and speak) our own essays to the world?
Godard offers us a cure to such a paralysis of language in Two or Three Things: an extraordinary pastiche of verbal and visual images, philosophy, and politics, that many critics have likened to an essay on film. As essays go, of course, it's worth noting that the traditional, written kind from the celebrated classics of Montaigne (Of Experience) and Emerson (Self Reliance) right up through today's brilliant NY Times pieces by Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, and occasionally I'll grant, David Brooks offers one of the most powerful and flexible vehicles to tell our stories and richly express the complexity of our thoughts, questions, wonderings, and theories on any given topic.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
by John Bredin
Acidemic
I highly recommend Jean Luc Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her to shy people. To those poor souls who, like my former self, have had their speaking agency crippled, reducing them to verbal mice. Such radical withdrawals from the speaking world are often the result of being smothered by a patriarchal, authoritative and oppressive family, school system, or society. In my case, it was all of the above.
Mindful of the healing and transformative power of art, for the reticent of speech I bring a message of radiant hope: a nugget of cinematic wisdom distilled from what critic J. Hoberman calls Godard's greatest masterpiece. (As founder of the French New Wave movement in modern cinema, Godard is, arguably, one of, if not the most important, avante garde filmmaker of all time.) Deciphering lessons from Two or Three Things which, in a burst of validation from the zeitgeist for its continuing relevance, Film Forum in New York City screened both last fall and this spring you might be inspired, like I was, with the epiphany that it's not too late for you to achieve the exalted state of verbal freedom; the intoxicating, liberating, yet simple pleasure of being able to share (in a calm, thoughtful and nuanced manner) the cognitive and affective music of your soul with others.
In Two or Three Things Godard offers humanity nothing less than a filmic template for bold and authentic communication in the world: an aesthetically rich and pedagogically fertile piece of language curriculum that bears repeated visits. Without exaggeration, I'd call it a Linguistic Declaration of Independence. Notice, if you will, how the film celebrates the miraculous potential of spoken language, while at the same time interrogating it in what linguists refer to as a meta-talk, or talk about talk fashion often through the power of amazingly simple, wonder-provoking phrases.
For example, whenever Juliette the bored housewife who moonlights as a prostitute addresses a person, the camera, or thin air with a random thought that just popped into her head (I know how to talk; Let's talk together; Together is a word I like.) or when Robert, Juliette's husband, engages in that remarkable see-saw dialogue with a strange woman in the café (Say words; Do you know what talking is? Talk about something interesting.); or the pretty girl at the bar, whose deer-in-the-headlights narration of the simple details of her life startles us with its unassuming transcendence (I like to take walks, ride my bike for fun, go to the cinema two or three times a month. I like books); or when Godard himself, intoning with his whispery, philosophical voiceover, decides to interject a thought or two because he's the auteur (filmmaker as author) and can talk whenever he damn well pleases we're treated to a model of the magical possibilities of human speech.
Shy people, take notice.
Sometimes we become shy (and I myself still feel shy at times, depending, naturally, on who I'm with, or the situation), better still, let me phrase it a different way: we say that we're shy, or inarticulate, or afraid to talk, when in reality we're simply numbed by over-exposure to the prepackaged speech of movies and television shows: talk that's fakely fluid in the Hollywood sense. After watching actors speak brilliantly, dashing off hilarious applause lines as if they were talking naturally when, in reality, they spent days or weeks memorizing a pre-written script by comparison, our own conversational offerings might appear flat and boring to us. Certainly too, in a media-saturated age such as ours, because of our overexposure to glib, slick, oily-tongued, sonorous anchor people and celebrities, one could easily see how a person might get the false, even monstrous impression that this is how real people should talk. Unable to achieve such a bizarre standard of faux eloquence in our own speech, we clam up.
Philosopher Maxine Greene, critiquing such indurations in the mundane, talks about the need to resist passivity, to, partly through reflective art encounters she says, escape submergence in the everyday, the routine, the banal. Such submergence ought to include our current mass drowning, if you will, in a sea of pop cultural and media kitsch: a filling up of our heads, like the white cream inside a Twinkie, with a combination of advertisements, pop cultural fluff, and the grave pronouncements of the talking heads. Might such an inexorable assault on our cognitive and aesthetic apparatus tamp down our capacity to generate our own unique and creative thoughts, disabling our ability to write (and speak) our own essays to the world?
Godard offers us a cure to such a paralysis of language in Two or Three Things: an extraordinary pastiche of verbal and visual images, philosophy, and politics, that many critics have likened to an essay on film. As essays go, of course, it's worth noting that the traditional, written kind from the celebrated classics of Montaigne (Of Experience) and Emerson (Self Reliance) right up through today's brilliant NY Times pieces by Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, and occasionally I'll grant, David Brooks offers one of the most powerful and flexible vehicles to tell our stories and richly express the complexity of our thoughts, questions, wonderings, and theories on any given topic.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
Ruth Levitas: The Disruption and Transgression of the Normative and Conceptual Frameworks of Everyday Experience
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The disruption and transgression of the normative and conceptual frameworks of everyday experience, and the provision of a space within which it is possible to imagine not just the satisfaction of familiar wants unmet by existing society, but to envisage wanting something other than the satisfactions which that society endorses and simultaneously denies: above all, to desire in a different way. -- Ruth Levitas, "For Utopia: The (Limits of the) Utopian Function in Late Capitalist Society" (2001: 38-39)
Questions for poems from a language theorist in 1968
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Maybe David Bowie could be lured out of retirement to make the soundtrack?
One of my summer projects this year is to, well, I guess “reboot” is the closest word for it. I’m going back to the books that are way back in my reading history, those—for me—foundational texts. I’m wondering what I think of them now.
The one I’m currently reading is titled The Labyrinth of Language, written by Max Black. It was published in 1968 in the Britannica Perspective series. It’s an overview of language theory at the time.
Here’s something about poetry I find rather interesting:
“. . . to try to explain how a poet manages to display or exhibit a ‘meaning’ without making a literal truth-claim about that meaning—how [the poet] manages to ‘bracket’ the truth-claim in the interest of some more subtle, less explicit, ‘statement.’ This is perhaps the hardest unsolved problem in poetics.
Further complications would be introduced by the necessity of distinguishing within each dimension, . . . between the explicit and the implicit. And running athwart this already sufficiently complex scheme of analysis there is the distinction, constantly to be borne in mind, between what the words mean (conventionally express, conventionally evoke) and what the speaker means (expresses, evokes) by means of those words. . . .”
And now, a half quote, half paraphrase:
Questions for poems:
1.What does the explicit utterance “say” and in what modes of “saying”?
2.What does the same utterance “express”?
3.What kind of influence does it bring to bear upon the reader?
4.How much of all this is explicit, and how much, and in what ways, are these effects to be counted as merely suggested or implied?
5.How much is intended, how much merely revealed, without the speaker’s consent?
6.How far does all this come about as a matter of standard linguistic convention?
7.How much results from the distinctive contributions made by the speaker in the given context and setting?
What does the explicit utterance say, and in what modes of saying. I like the construction of that question. I think I’m going to try that one out next time I’m wanting to do that sort of thing with a poem. What does the same utterance express. Indeed.
So I’m almost done with this book. I wonder what’s next.
Maybe David Bowie could be lured out of retirement to make the soundtrack?One of my summer projects this year is to, well, I guess “reboot” is the closest word for it. I’m going back to the books that are way back in my reading history, those—for me—foundational texts. I’m wondering what I think of them now.
The one I’m currently reading is titled The Labyrinth of Language, written by Max Black. It was published in 1968 in the Britannica Perspective series. It’s an overview of language theory at the time.
Here’s something about poetry I find rather interesting:
“. . . to try to explain how a poet manages to display or exhibit a ‘meaning’ without making a literal truth-claim about that meaning—how [the poet] manages to ‘bracket’ the truth-claim in the interest of some more subtle, less explicit, ‘statement.’ This is perhaps the hardest unsolved problem in poetics.
Further complications would be introduced by the necessity of distinguishing within each dimension, . . . between the explicit and the implicit. And running athwart this already sufficiently complex scheme of analysis there is the distinction, constantly to be borne in mind, between what the words mean (conventionally express, conventionally evoke) and what the speaker means (expresses, evokes) by means of those words. . . .”
And now, a half quote, half paraphrase:
Questions for poems:
1.What does the explicit utterance “say” and in what modes of “saying”?
2.What does the same utterance “express”?
3.What kind of influence does it bring to bear upon the reader?
4.How much of all this is explicit, and how much, and in what ways, are these effects to be counted as merely suggested or implied?
5.How much is intended, how much merely revealed, without the speaker’s consent?
6.How far does all this come about as a matter of standard linguistic convention?
7.How much results from the distinctive contributions made by the speaker in the given context and setting?
What does the explicit utterance say, and in what modes of saying. I like the construction of that question. I think I’m going to try that one out next time I’m wanting to do that sort of thing with a poem. What does the same utterance express. Indeed.
So I’m almost done with this book. I wonder what’s next.
5 Temmuz 2012 Perşembe
Erich Kuersten: Sex is a Hen Decapitated -- Bluebeard and the Eroticism of Catherine Breillat
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Sex is a Hen Decapitated: Bluebeard and the Eroticism of Catherine Breillat
by Erich Kuersten
Acidemic
The ancient tale of Bluebeard is rife with archetypal resonance for the budding feminine psyche: it's a rite of passage myth, a map of patriarchal oppression's mine field, an initiation into sexual maturity, where the fear of pain is enough to make actual pain a relief in contrast; a color-symbolic dream where the blood of menstruation anxiety (the redness of the clitoral "riding" hood) and the swollen purples of honeymoon savagery (the black and blueness of the groom's bristly beard) mix and match. Like many fairy tales centered on a young girl, it encodes the onset of menstruation into a Pandora's Box moment of discovery, from which innocence can never return, leading inexorably into the scary rites of the marital bed, the agonies of childbirth, and so forth. Do we not, in associating white for virginity and purity, forget that red means the alchemical opening up of that purity into the raw violence of procreation? So what does that third color of the French flag--blue--represent? Naturally, the cooling rescue of death--or rather as symbolized in the 'bloody chamber' where all the previous brides are stored, a suspended animation, a sleeping beauty status wherein the enslaving agonies of childbirth and old age are forever kept at bay, in short, the blue represents frozen death and timeless decadence, pleasure and a disruption of the natural enslavement process of patriarchy. Bluebeard postpones sexual relations in order to keep romance forever young.
The coming of age girl myth tends to focus on the moment of the first dripping eradicable red stain, one that no amount of Clorox will undo. Such a moment--loss and gain coagulated into one crimson blotch --seems to obsess French director Catherine Breillat, a female auteur as detached and horrified in her existential search for meaning as her fellow Frenchmen Gasper Noe, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Claire Denis [note from Michael Benton: Denis is a French woman]. But as Breillat is a woman, her take on femininity is free to delve much much deeper into waters too cold and dangerous to ever be known to men. Eagerly complicit with the grotesque truths of feminine sexuality, Breillat's eyes are not blurred by the glamor and beauty that hypnotize most male directors. Rather than 'fall' for the genetic con job of desire, she focuses on her gender's fascination with the gross otherness of the male body, and vice versa - she wants to explore her own body--stripped of its veils and glamor-- through male eyes. Men after all aren't as obligated to be beautiful. They're position as desirable or beautiful is seldom considered in a marriage. If a woman can't learn to love ugliness, she never gets a prince and stays forever turned off; the beast stays a beast.
For his part, when Bluebeard spots the telltale blood stain on the key to the forbidden chamber, he is sad and disappointed, once again his bride has been unable to remain 'unopened' and so must be literally opened, as in decapitated. But Breillat's crafty beauty knows to stall, to feign compliance with her impending death on certain conditions, and to seek help from the passing musketeer/woodsman(the woodsman gets all the girls because he's already 'slain' his own wolf). If she merely screams and cringes, she's devoured. This is a valuable honeymoon lesson considering the absurdly young marriage ages of our forebears, one surely told by moms of old: do not resist or cringe when your new husband advance; instead, flatter, and stall him. If he will but relent today he shall get double tomorrow, and so on until a nice woodsman can rescue her, or she can develop enough that her deflowering is less of a painful, traumatizing violation.
The patriarchal readings of these tales runs counter to this approach, flipping the beast into a prince with a magic (phallic) wand and happily ever aftering the story before the children reading can learn that the magic wand's spell fades in a matter of hours. Soon enough the hair begins to creep back on their prince and his fangs grow long with the full moon. He seems to get uglier and more ill-tempered as the marriage marches on; that's the part Disney rolls its credits over. Only Breillat dares see not just the beast, but the frog, the vile toad still dwelling behind the sparkly eyes of the prince, and only Breillat nonetheless finds a way to love the thing, proverbial warts and all.
In her fearless approach towards this taboo subject, Breillat seems to possess an ambivalent--if not outright hostile--attitude towards sex. Her liberated female characters are often accused of being masochist subjects. But we have to dig deeper for her real reaction, perhaps a way would be to see her as the French female version of Lars Von Trier. But where Lars uses the D.W. Griffith / Sirkian soap opera woman's story in his savage deconstruction of innocence, purity, deflowering and sex, Breillat eschews any direct relation with 'woman's picture' trappings, to shoot for pure myth, looking past Griffith all the way back to the dawn of the printing press. Her cinema is--in Bluebeard literally--like the pages of a storybook that shows everything the normal books do not.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
by Erich Kuersten
Acidemic
The ancient tale of Bluebeard is rife with archetypal resonance for the budding feminine psyche: it's a rite of passage myth, a map of patriarchal oppression's mine field, an initiation into sexual maturity, where the fear of pain is enough to make actual pain a relief in contrast; a color-symbolic dream where the blood of menstruation anxiety (the redness of the clitoral "riding" hood) and the swollen purples of honeymoon savagery (the black and blueness of the groom's bristly beard) mix and match. Like many fairy tales centered on a young girl, it encodes the onset of menstruation into a Pandora's Box moment of discovery, from which innocence can never return, leading inexorably into the scary rites of the marital bed, the agonies of childbirth, and so forth. Do we not, in associating white for virginity and purity, forget that red means the alchemical opening up of that purity into the raw violence of procreation? So what does that third color of the French flag--blue--represent? Naturally, the cooling rescue of death--or rather as symbolized in the 'bloody chamber' where all the previous brides are stored, a suspended animation, a sleeping beauty status wherein the enslaving agonies of childbirth and old age are forever kept at bay, in short, the blue represents frozen death and timeless decadence, pleasure and a disruption of the natural enslavement process of patriarchy. Bluebeard postpones sexual relations in order to keep romance forever young.
The coming of age girl myth tends to focus on the moment of the first dripping eradicable red stain, one that no amount of Clorox will undo. Such a moment--loss and gain coagulated into one crimson blotch --seems to obsess French director Catherine Breillat, a female auteur as detached and horrified in her existential search for meaning as her fellow Frenchmen Gasper Noe, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Claire Denis [note from Michael Benton: Denis is a French woman]. But as Breillat is a woman, her take on femininity is free to delve much much deeper into waters too cold and dangerous to ever be known to men. Eagerly complicit with the grotesque truths of feminine sexuality, Breillat's eyes are not blurred by the glamor and beauty that hypnotize most male directors. Rather than 'fall' for the genetic con job of desire, she focuses on her gender's fascination with the gross otherness of the male body, and vice versa - she wants to explore her own body--stripped of its veils and glamor-- through male eyes. Men after all aren't as obligated to be beautiful. They're position as desirable or beautiful is seldom considered in a marriage. If a woman can't learn to love ugliness, she never gets a prince and stays forever turned off; the beast stays a beast.
For his part, when Bluebeard spots the telltale blood stain on the key to the forbidden chamber, he is sad and disappointed, once again his bride has been unable to remain 'unopened' and so must be literally opened, as in decapitated. But Breillat's crafty beauty knows to stall, to feign compliance with her impending death on certain conditions, and to seek help from the passing musketeer/woodsman(the woodsman gets all the girls because he's already 'slain' his own wolf). If she merely screams and cringes, she's devoured. This is a valuable honeymoon lesson considering the absurdly young marriage ages of our forebears, one surely told by moms of old: do not resist or cringe when your new husband advance; instead, flatter, and stall him. If he will but relent today he shall get double tomorrow, and so on until a nice woodsman can rescue her, or she can develop enough that her deflowering is less of a painful, traumatizing violation.
The patriarchal readings of these tales runs counter to this approach, flipping the beast into a prince with a magic (phallic) wand and happily ever aftering the story before the children reading can learn that the magic wand's spell fades in a matter of hours. Soon enough the hair begins to creep back on their prince and his fangs grow long with the full moon. He seems to get uglier and more ill-tempered as the marriage marches on; that's the part Disney rolls its credits over. Only Breillat dares see not just the beast, but the frog, the vile toad still dwelling behind the sparkly eyes of the prince, and only Breillat nonetheless finds a way to love the thing, proverbial warts and all.
In her fearless approach towards this taboo subject, Breillat seems to possess an ambivalent--if not outright hostile--attitude towards sex. Her liberated female characters are often accused of being masochist subjects. But we have to dig deeper for her real reaction, perhaps a way would be to see her as the French female version of Lars Von Trier. But where Lars uses the D.W. Griffith / Sirkian soap opera woman's story in his savage deconstruction of innocence, purity, deflowering and sex, Breillat eschews any direct relation with 'woman's picture' trappings, to shoot for pure myth, looking past Griffith all the way back to the dawn of the printing press. Her cinema is--in Bluebeard literally--like the pages of a storybook that shows everything the normal books do not.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
Democracy Now: Supreme Court Upholds Healthcare Overhaul, Individual Mandate
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Supreme Court Upholds Healthcare Overhaul, Individual Mandate
Democracy Now
A one-hour Democracy Now! special broadcast hosted by Amy Goodman, covering the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Chief Justice John Roberts was the swing vote in upholding the Act, joining Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer. From outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D..C, to New York and around the country we get reaction from: filmmaker Michael Moore; health insurance industry whistleblower Wendell Potter; Georgetown University law professor David Cole; Elisabeth Benjamin of the Community Service Society of New York; Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN); Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program; Hilary Shelton of the NAACP; Russell Mokhiber of SinglePayerAction.org; and Karen Higgins of National Nurses United.
To Watch the Special Report
Democracy Now
A one-hour Democracy Now! special broadcast hosted by Amy Goodman, covering the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Chief Justice John Roberts was the swing vote in upholding the Act, joining Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer. From outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D..C, to New York and around the country we get reaction from: filmmaker Michael Moore; health insurance industry whistleblower Wendell Potter; Georgetown University law professor David Cole; Elisabeth Benjamin of the Community Service Society of New York; Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN); Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program; Hilary Shelton of the NAACP; Russell Mokhiber of SinglePayerAction.org; and Karen Higgins of National Nurses United.
To Watch the Special Report
History for the Future: Bob McChesney on the Crisis in Journalism and Democracy
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Bob McChesney on the Crisis in Journalism and Democracy
History for the Future (WCRT: Pittsburgh)
... Bob McChesney on the serious crisis facing journalism in the United States and what to do about it. McChesney is professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has written widely on issues related to the media, journalism, and society. Most recently he is the author, with John Nichols, of The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again. We spend the whole half-hour discussing this brand new, and critically important book that details how the decline in the production of journalism (particularly at the local level) is a potent threat to our democracy. McChesney is also a co-founder of Free Press, the media reform organization. If you like the interview be sure to check out their website to get involved!
To Listen to the Interview
History for the Future (WCRT: Pittsburgh)
... Bob McChesney on the serious crisis facing journalism in the United States and what to do about it. McChesney is professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has written widely on issues related to the media, journalism, and society. Most recently he is the author, with John Nichols, of The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again. We spend the whole half-hour discussing this brand new, and critically important book that details how the decline in the production of journalism (particularly at the local level) is a potent threat to our democracy. McChesney is also a co-founder of Free Press, the media reform organization. If you like the interview be sure to check out their website to get involved!
To Listen to the Interview
History for the Future: Maurice Isserman on Michael Harrington, “The Other American”
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Maurice Isserman on Michael Harrington, “The Other American”
History for the Future
HFTF celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Other America: Poverty in the United States, by Michael Harrington, with an interview with Harrington’s biographer, Maurice Isserman. After publishing The Other America and before his untimely death in 1989, Michael Harrington was the U.S.’s leading democratic socialist and served as a political and social conscience to the country during the turbulent years of the 1970s and 1980s. Isserman is a professor of American history at Hamilton College and author of The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington. On the show he discusses Michael Harrington’s “discovery” of poverty in the early 1960s, the legacy of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, and the enduring significance of The Other America. He concludes by answering the question, “What would Michael Harrington say if he were alive today?”
Be sure to check out Isserman’s recent article in Dissent magazine, titled “50 Years later: Poverty and The Other America.” Also, Maurice recently participated in a great conference at the College of the Holy Cross (which Michael Harrington attended) on the “The Other America, Then and Now.” Many of the lectures, including Maurice’s and one by William Julius Wilson, can be streamed on the conference’s website.
To Listen to the Interview and Access More Resources
History for the Future
HFTF celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Other America: Poverty in the United States, by Michael Harrington, with an interview with Harrington’s biographer, Maurice Isserman. After publishing The Other America and before his untimely death in 1989, Michael Harrington was the U.S.’s leading democratic socialist and served as a political and social conscience to the country during the turbulent years of the 1970s and 1980s. Isserman is a professor of American history at Hamilton College and author of The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington. On the show he discusses Michael Harrington’s “discovery” of poverty in the early 1960s, the legacy of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, and the enduring significance of The Other America. He concludes by answering the question, “What would Michael Harrington say if he were alive today?”
Be sure to check out Isserman’s recent article in Dissent magazine, titled “50 Years later: Poverty and The Other America.” Also, Maurice recently participated in a great conference at the College of the Holy Cross (which Michael Harrington attended) on the “The Other America, Then and Now.” Many of the lectures, including Maurice’s and one by William Julius Wilson, can be streamed on the conference’s website.
To Listen to the Interview and Access More Resources
We Are Many: Trayvon Martin & The Fight Against The New Jim Crow
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Trayvon Martin & The Fight Against The New Jim Crow
We Are Many
Thousands of people across the United States have taken to the streets to demand justice for Trayvon Martin. These protests have revived a desperately overdue discussion about the persistence of racism and discrimination in American society.
We will continue to demand justice in this case, but we also know this case highlights the continuing war against Black America. From police brutality and corruption to mass incarceration- from the school to prison pipeline, to disproportionately high unemployment and home foreclosures; racism is alive and well in the United States.
This is a discussion of how we can continue to build a fight against the New Jim Crow.
Co-Sponsored by Rainbow PUSH Coalition, The International Socialist Organization & The Campaign to End the Death Penalty
A panel discussion featuring the following speakers...
A message of Solidarity from Dr. John Carlos, the 1968 Olympian who raised his fist on the podium to protest racism and inequality in America.
Simeon Wright- cousin of Emmett Till and author of Simeon's Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till
Martinez Sutton- brother of Rekia Boyd, young woman killed by an off-duty Chicago police officer on March 21, 2012
Bishop Tavis L. Grant- National Field Director of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Rev. Jeanette Wilson- Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Steven Watts- father of Stephon Watts, 15 year old killed by Calumet City Police on February 1, 2012
Wayne Watts- uncle of Stephon Watts
Allisah Love, of the Free Howard Morgan Campaign, Howard Morgan was shot 28 times by four white Chicago cops and was recently sentenced to 40 years in prison for the attempted murder of those four cops.
and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor- International Socialist Organization & columnist for SocialistWorker.org
To Watch the Presenters
We Are Many
Thousands of people across the United States have taken to the streets to demand justice for Trayvon Martin. These protests have revived a desperately overdue discussion about the persistence of racism and discrimination in American society.
We will continue to demand justice in this case, but we also know this case highlights the continuing war against Black America. From police brutality and corruption to mass incarceration- from the school to prison pipeline, to disproportionately high unemployment and home foreclosures; racism is alive and well in the United States.
This is a discussion of how we can continue to build a fight against the New Jim Crow.
Co-Sponsored by Rainbow PUSH Coalition, The International Socialist Organization & The Campaign to End the Death Penalty
A panel discussion featuring the following speakers...
A message of Solidarity from Dr. John Carlos, the 1968 Olympian who raised his fist on the podium to protest racism and inequality in America.
Simeon Wright- cousin of Emmett Till and author of Simeon's Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till
Martinez Sutton- brother of Rekia Boyd, young woman killed by an off-duty Chicago police officer on March 21, 2012
Bishop Tavis L. Grant- National Field Director of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Rev. Jeanette Wilson- Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Steven Watts- father of Stephon Watts, 15 year old killed by Calumet City Police on February 1, 2012
Wayne Watts- uncle of Stephon Watts
Allisah Love, of the Free Howard Morgan Campaign, Howard Morgan was shot 28 times by four white Chicago cops and was recently sentenced to 40 years in prison for the attempted murder of those four cops.
and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor- International Socialist Organization & columnist for SocialistWorker.org
To Watch the Presenters
4 Temmuz 2012 Çarşamba
Friday Playlist: Baby's First Playlist
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My wife and I recently had a baby girl (Alison, pictured above sporting a stylish baby towel). Parenting, of course, has its challenges, but it also has its joys - and a big one for me these days has been sharing music with my daughter. Music is a primary way that I communicate with the world (hence this blog), and my communications with her have been no exception. When I'm not singing her improvised lyrics to lullabies (or making up new songs entirely), I've been playing her different songs from my library and noting her reaction to various things. For example, Metallica seemed to make her gassy. She liked Aimee Mann, but only the early stuff. And she absolutely loves Spiritualized.
So I've compiled her very first playlist, comprising some of her favorites for chillout time, dance time, and sleepytime. I hope you enjoy it as much as she does.
PS A friend of mine gave me the gift of 3 albums from Rockabye Baby, namely lullaby versions of songs by Queen, Radiohead, and Led Zeppelin. Those are all awesome, and have the added bonus of lulling me to sleep, but I prefer to save those as secret weapons when I'm trying to conk her out, as opposed to just putting on music for her to chill to or dance with me to, etc.
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| My ridiculously cute daughter |
So I've compiled her very first playlist, comprising some of her favorites for chillout time, dance time, and sleepytime. I hope you enjoy it as much as she does.
PS A friend of mine gave me the gift of 3 albums from Rockabye Baby, namely lullaby versions of songs by Queen, Radiohead, and Led Zeppelin. Those are all awesome, and have the added bonus of lulling me to sleep, but I prefer to save those as secret weapons when I'm trying to conk her out, as opposed to just putting on music for her to chill to or dance with me to, etc.
- Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (Original Version)
I first played this for Alison when she was only a few days old. She had just finished eating and was in what baby experts call the "quiet alert state." So I figured it would be a perfect time to play her some tunes. I asked my wife what she thought a baby would like, and she said "Spiritualized?" I said yes. This is the original version of this song which includes lyrics from Elvis's "Can't Help Falling In Love" (the Presley estate made the band remove that portion of the song from this album's original release). The lyrics to the whole thing are pretty perfect to sing to a new baby. This is probably Alison's favorite song thus far (and one of my favorites, too). - Thievery Corporation - From Creation
She wasn't too taken with other Thievery Corporation songs, but she really seemed to click with this one. By "click," I mean she got quiet and stopped fussing and seemed to chill out a bit. I assume she likes these guys because, like her parents, they're from DC. - K'naan - Fatima
This song is actually kind of a downer, lyrically (it's about a young girl who was murdered, I think), but Alison really seemed to enjoy the rhythm, particularly in the chorus. [Editor's note: I'm saying things like "seemed to," "appeared to," etc. a lot because when I asked her what she thought of all these songs, she gave me no answer, so I'm having to go on educated guesses here.] - Cat Power - Living Proof
This is my favorite Cat Power song. Alison definitely seemed to enjoy it, but I don't know if it was genuine or if she was just trying to please me because she knows it's my favorite. Either way, she enjoyed being gently swayed in my arms to this song. Who wouldn't? Babies are supposed to like simple, repetitive melodies, and this one definitely fits the bill. - Yellow Ostrich - Mary
She seemed pretty relaxed during this song, which seems to be about the singer's friend who's on drugs. Alison overlooked the content and just focused on the soothing background, which definitely chilled her out. - The Snake The Cross The Crown - Cakewalk
Alison definitely identified with this song's ethos of "I just want to do the things that I feel like doing, and I want to be rewarded for same." Basically a baby's mantra. - The Beatles - Flying
I've been told that when I was a wee tot, almost nothing would soothe my jangled nerves as much as when my parents would put the big headphones on me and throw on either a Beatles record or something classical. Alison has a lot more Beatles to go (and classical, for that matter) but she seemed to take to this track - not a bad start. - Phish - Horn
I first played her "Bouncing Around The Room" which I thought she'd love, but I guess it was a little too simplistic, even for her. But she loved "Horn," especially the intro/chorus. She says she's psyched to hear Trey's solos on some live versions when she's a little older. - Self - Uno Song
I don't know a lot of Self songs after Subliminal Plastic Motives, but this one came up on shuffle the other week and she really dug dancing along to it. And by "dancing" I mean "me waving her around in my arms." Tapping out the beat on her back also seemed to help her burp, so hey - bonus. - Her Space Holiday - Sleepy California
Despite this song being about the slow death of the singer's estrangement from his mother and the painful death of his grandmother, Alison really seemed to enjoy it. She can be kind of dark that way. Or she was sleepy, it's hard to tell sometimes. - The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
Another song that appeals to Alison because of her DC heritage. Also because it's slow and soft and beautiful and has a cool beat. And she likes when I sing along to it. - Jane's Addiction - Stop!
The first time I played this for her, I bounced her up and down vigorously along with the music - taking her up really high on the downbeats, particularly during the intro and chorus. My wife thought I was going to scramble Alison's brains, but Alison seemed genuinely happy. And it's hard to tell if a baby's brains are scrambled anyway, they don't do all that much higher-level thinking at this phase. - U2 - Trip Through Your Wires
U2 was another Amanda suggestion, and so far Alison has enjoyed most of what she heard. This song seemed to be her favorite, meaning she fell asleep during it. Right now her TTS (time to sleep) is a pretty indicator of how pleased she is with life overall. Alison also seems to love "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" but I'm not a huge fan of that song, so it didn't make the list. - Grateful Dead - Box of Rain
I think Amanda suggested this album, too, and Alison seemed to love every track, so I picked this one because it's awesome. And she just fell asleep to it while I was writing this, so that's one in the "plus" column. - Radiohead - 4 Minute Warning
I mentioned above the lullaby version of Radiohead CD a friend gave us - it got me thinking about Radiohead songs in general, and I had an inkling that this song might be lullaby-esque enough in its current state to work on a baby. And I was right. I ended up playing this about 10 times in a row one night as she gently drifted off to sleep in my arms. [Editor's note: the fact that she woke up crying 10 minutes later has nothing to do with this song, that's apparently just how babies are sometimes.]
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