C.I.T.O.K.A.T.E.

Daily Show Resident Expert John Hodgman, (who'll you may recognize as "Hi, I'm a PC" from the Apple commercials) and Traveling Troubador Jonathan Coulton (who I blogged about last night) seem to have some kind of co-promotional partnership, constantly mentioning each other in their blogs, and touring together. They'll appear at the Borders Books And Music on Liberty in downtown Ann Arbor on Wednesday, October 4 at 7PM. However, the only way Coulton will give a concert later that night is if we all go to Eventful and ask for it.

Remember when Harvey Danger gave us "Little By Little"? Here is another nice quality album whose creator has released it for free download on the internet: "I Don't Know What I'm Doing," by Brad Sucks.

I would just like to direct the attention of the entire internet to the chorus of this song (mp3 link).

DJ Particle gave me permission to blog her Dance-Dance-Revolution song Cool Dancer. brendand, you're going to love it!

Do you like Dr. Who? And do you like the music of Green Day? And would you like a speech by George W. Bush mixed with Dahleks? I knew you would. American Edit has given it to you.

Is patronage the new viable business model artists will have to move to in the digital future? Maybe if they can't get paid for copies of their recordings, we could pay them to write the songs in the first place. Songs To Wear Pants To is a guy who writes and records a free one-minute song when someone sends in a request, or he'll write and record a longer song with any description as long as you pay him to do so. Instead of being patronized by the Medici dynasty, artists in the future could get coins tossed in their hat by Ed Gruberman of Milwaukee. The result is like an episode of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" The lyrics to song #0257, "This Girl", are particularly funny if you read the request before you listen.

I intend to get a paid piece of music for a Flash animation I'm planning.

Did I never write about seeing They Might Be Giants live in concert? Gather 'round while I recount it, for like all classical stories, it starts off with the protagonist's world in equilibrium, something happens to break the orderliness, it keeps getting worse and worse, and then order is restored. This story follows the classical comedic structure in that there's a happy ending.( Read more... )

"List five songs that you are currently digging ... it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words or even if they're any good but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artist and the song in your blog along with your five songs."

When it comes to music, I'm not ashamed to be unreservedly sentimental. I even listen to Josh Groban despite the fact that all his lyrics are hormonally-deluded juvenile romanticism-- who cares? I just enjoy it. A nice thing about Livejournal memes is that every so often they might give one an excuse to do what one already wanted to do. While listening to music that grabs my emotions, I often wish my friends could share the experience and know how it feels. It's just too bad you can't actually hear the sounds through this Livejournal post. I'd be happy to share the following songs with you if you leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.

1. "Luminosa," by Libera, from the album Luminosa.
On an early Sunday morning drive a year or two ago, this boy choir arrangement of Claude Debussy's "Claire de Lune" (yes, netmouse and thatguychuck, the one I told you about) came on a Canadian radio program... and I was transfixed. Moonlight rippled across Debussy's liquid harmonies, as austere and unfiltered as if it were exposed directly to outer space, the shimmering voices almost painfully exquisite in the intensity of their precision. After a long pause to catch my breath and wipe away tears, I had to buy it, and did so that evening.

2. "Rakuen," by Eri Sugai, from the album Mai.
Eri Sugai is the Asian equivalent of Enya, producing that kind of layered celestial new age sound, but distinctively traditional Japanese. The CD comes with incense in the spine of the jewel case. This track has a minute of ambient seashore sounds at the beginning before the music, but I think that's because this is a mood that must be approached from a calm state. When I hear this track I picture the most desirable woman in the world trapped on top of a skyscraper so tall that none of the surroundings can be seen through the clouds... only a distant shore. She gazes into the acoustic emptiness as birds of rythm circle overhead. This wordless vocal melody conveys aching isolation and longing.

3. "Adagio," by Samuel Barber, from the soundtrack to Homeworld.
The space strategy game Homeworld for the PC received an award for best music for this choir arrangement of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings.

4. "I Breathe," by Vaccuum, from the album Plutonium Cathedral.
This swedish synthpop band bases their lyrics on science fiction. Very cool, stylish rythms.

5. "Eyes of Mercy," by the October Project, from their self-titled album.
This band (which used to be a vehicle for singer Mary Fahl before she began a solo career) produces highly uneven quality, but this is one of my favorite uplifting songs. I don't get the lyrics, but then with October Project I never do, and that's OK as long as the harmony and rythm builds to emotional satisfaction as well as it does here.

Anders Sandberg made this raytraced image of Death cursing K. Eric Drexler for coming up with nanotechnology. It's based on this filk written by Eliezer Yudkowski titled, "Curse You Eric Drexler" or "It's Hard To Be A Zombie." I love it. In case the page ever disappears from the web, here is Eliezer's text:( Read more... )