Four and Twenty Blackbirds

2012-01-06T05:12:00.000-08:00

http://erinmerle.tumblr.com/

M,M,&W

2012-01-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

2011-12-26T19:26:00.000-08:00

2011-12-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

Did you ever conceive
That you too can leave
Exactly when you like?

2011-12-08T18:23:00.000-08:00

Two humans that I like a lot at the moment.

2011-12-07T17:27:00.001-08:00

2011-11-28T17:23:00.001-08:00

2011-11-22T17:38:00.001-08:00

Germanophobia: Fear of Germany or Germans.

2011-11-22T16:06:00.001-08:00

“If only we could all escape from this house of incest, where we only love ourselves in the other."

2011-11-21T15:07:00.001-08:00

2011-11-18T18:59:00.000-08:00

Another great song by Wire. 1979

2011-11-08T16:04:00.001-08:00

2011-11-08T14:15:00.001-08:00

2011-11-07T18:13:00.001-08:00

One for "transfer day"

2011-11-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

2011-11-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

oh the Luzerner Zeitung
the Luzerner Zeitung
never sold out
never sold out

See how it blows
a mile up the road
color of moon
it swirls and collects
unfolding and timbling
up this back road
swirling butterflies swirling flecks

2011-10-29T20:46:00.001-07:00

2011-10-26T15:58:00.001-07:00

2011-10-25T12:14:00.001-07:00

2011-10-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

2011-10-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

Elliott Smith..... a pointless, heartbreaking loss. Nov.22, 2003.

2011-10-21T09:03:00.001-07:00

2011-10-19T13:44:00.001-07:00

2011-10-18T18:48:00.001-07:00

2011-10-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

2011-10-13T16:14:00.001-07:00

2011-10-10T18:57:00.000-07:00

Still Obsessed

2011-10-04T17:06:00.000-07:00

I've surely posted this song at least once before. I have a bit of an obsession with it. I admire the seamless mixture of the personal and political, the avoidance of literal lyrics, and the way it evokes multi-sensory impressions of absolute bitterness. It's so bitter in fact that, as in so many Morrissey songs, it rides that edge of being outright laughable. This is an important part of his style, to avoid preaching and make the listener conscious of the human foibles of the writer. If the listener is moping along in empathy with the lyrics they find themselves laughing at their own miserable state. In this way Morrissey's lyrics are actually empowering.

"I thought that if you had an acoustic guitar then it meant that you were a protest singer.

Oh I can smile about it now but at the time it was terrible"

-From 'Shakespeare's Sister' by the Smiths.

Morrissey has confessed an interest in Phil Ochs but I think his writing is in reaction to the political music that came before, the protest folk and punk that he would've been aware of growing up. He's also a fan of Buffy Sainte-Marie (the Smiths also have a song called 'Suffer Little Children') and Joni Mitchell, who he once said was his favourite lyricist. Apparently Mitchell's "The Hissing of Summer Lawns", a bitter and beautiful critique of suburbanization, made a deep impression on him.

Morrissey interviews Joni Mitchell This actually happened! What?!?!

beautiful

2011-10-02T11:52:00.001-07:00

Occupy Everything from socially_awkwrd on Vimeo.

2011-10-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

The plow is red, the well is full

In the dollhouse of her skull

A cheetah coat fills up with steam

She's such a scream

2011-09-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

Sure

2011-09-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

2011-09-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

PAINTING WITH GROUND-UP BODIES: A PART OF OUR HERITAGE

2011-09-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

The Devil's Blue Dye: Indigo and Slavery

2011-09-24T18:05:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Jon Stewart making my fucking day, not only because he's talking about MEEEE but because art history is still mostly about dicks.

2011-09-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

Soap & Skin - Meltdown from gallieni on Vimeo.

2011-09-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

I am so sick of these stupid studies coming out about attractiveness and the lack thereof (as if those were universal concepts). Can we get the big brains working on understanding why most women are damaged in regards to body image, are absolutely estranged from their own bodies? And what about all forms of visual prejudice that have nothing to do with "beauty" and everything to do with what bell hooks terms a white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy?

2011-09-18T08:38:00.001-07:00

2011-09-16T09:12:00.001-07:00

2011-09-07T19:44:00.000-07:00

2011-09-06T21:32:00.001-07:00

2011-08-28T22:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not concerned with the meaning of emotions
I don't attribute much significance to the shifting sun
I've internalized these cycles
down to a science
I do not writhe in night fits
my knee jerk reactions are a nuisance
the constant urge to bolt signifies nothing
between A and B is small talk and shopping
and pain that is not unique
no more augury
everything is explained to me by history

I have chord progressions down to a science
I know why you think something is "sad", or "profound", or "dark"
because a million other songs have told you so
in a shopping mall
in a doctor's office
another captive audience
will hear that one to the minor three
repeat until meaningless
repeat until hypnotized
are you sad yet?
of course you are

Eris,
I mastered the patterns
just to fuck them up
it's where I find my power

By allowing the burning of material we are basically recreating Fukushima all over again".

2011-08-28T12:25:00.001-07:00

2011-08-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

A handsome 18 year old soldier in Afghanistan was making Youtube videos for me from his little cell. He'd play a song and then he'd address me saying that he'd love it if I made more videos. He said he was hoping to get an education after serving in the army. He seemed so young and intelligent and so nice that I was reduced to tears. It didn't seem fair that I was sitting in my living room with my piano and all my books, bettering myself while he was banished to hell.

2011-08-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

And do those feet in modern times
Walk upon the flowers and
Walk upon their brothers while their
Heads are busy lying low
Trying to keep to cover, oh

Something went wrong along the way
Everybody's waiting for judgment day
So they can go "Told you so"
They can go "Told you so"

2011-08-22T22:58:00.001-07:00

2011-08-22T10:02:00.001-07:00

Fukushima Teacher Muzzled on Radiation Risks for School Children

Get Rid of Prime Minister Kan

2011-08-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

"Radiation Found in Nearly Half of Japanese Children Near Stricken Nuclear Plant

A new study by the Japanese government has found that nearly half of the children surveyed in three towns near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have traces of radioactive elements in their thyroid glands. The Japanese government maintains that none of the children showed radiation levels that would be problematic, but the study’s findings have fueled concern over the long-term fallout from the nuclear disaster. Radioactive iodine tends to gather in the thyroid glands of minors, in particular, increasing the risk of developing cancer later in life. In other news from Japan, Prime Minister Naoto Kan has scrapped plans to meet with President Obama in Washington next month. Speculation is growing in Japan that Kan may resign in the coming weeks." -democracynow.org

"Ten summers fade to autumn, ten winters' snows have passed. She's a child of dreams and dances, she's a racer strong and fast. But the headaches come ever more often and the dizziness always returns and the word that she hears is leukemia, and it burns." I used to sing this song, 'Cranes Over Hiroshima' with my mom when I was five or six. The song comes to mind now. We liked to think this sort of thing would never happen again, especially to the Japanese. Apparently their government doesn't give a shit about ripping the futures of children away and condemning them to a painful death.

What Will It Take

2011-08-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

Japan’s Fukushima catastrophe brings big radiation spikes to B.C.

We, the 80s and 90s kids are the first adults of the toxic generation. We were plagued with asthma, obesity, addictions, and allergies...We ate crap food, were mercilessly targeted by marketers and were virtually abandoned by at least one workaholic/divorced parent. We've struggled just to function and we are strong enough to stand up now, if not for ourselves for a future with healthier, happier children. Our governments lied. Infant mortality is up 35% on the NW coast since Fukushima. There is no safe level of radiation exposure. I repeat, there is no safe level of radiation exposure.

2011-08-17T15:25:00.001-07:00

It's true our cities are exhausted
Made by and for the middle aged
Our weakness gave them more than force did
We thought that love could cure a toothache

And in the underground we're drowning
Accelerating through the years
You who think you'll find the truth by frowning
See a friend in tears

2011-08-17T13:47:00.001-07:00

2011-08-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

I always thought that grunge music owed something to yucky corporate rock.

2011-08-12T09:02:00.001-07:00

2011-08-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

2011-08-11T10:31:00.001-07:00

A rush and a push and the land we stand on is ours. It has been before so why can't it be now? And people who are weaker than you and I take what they want from life.

2011-08-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

http://detroiturbex.com/

2011-08-08T17:14:00.001-07:00

2011-08-08T13:09:00.001-07:00

2011-08-04T17:18:00.001-07:00

Years ago I found this album on vinyl and gave it to my parents because they like Joni and I think this is her some of her best work. Later I asked them how they liked it and they said it was "depressing".

Music for Youth Works first ever recital, Spring 2011

2011-08-03T00:34:00.000-07:00

My piano student performs. She aced it! This picture made the cover of Canadian Music Educator where there's a great article about us

http://www.musicforyouthworks.com/

2011-08-02T19:31:00.000-07:00

2011-07-26T01:04:00.000-07:00

I thought I hated folk music. My parents were folkies turned yuppies and I never found Bob Dylan to be political enough to warrant the credit he gets for inspiring a movement. And I can't stand videos where pretty young women sit fawning around some man in a turtleneck....but Phil Ochs is amazing...amazing as in his music shakes you up and grabs you by the heart. Idealism like his is absolutely needed. It is frightening how relevant his songs are today...and very depressing.

Blue blue electric blue

2011-07-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

I have colour music syneasthesia so when I first saw Krzysztof Kieslowski's Bleu I immediately recognized the condition in the main character, Julie. A composer who has survived a serious car crash, it is never made clear whether Julie was born with condition or if she is experiencing the effects of brain trauma. Since the film is focused on her emotional life, the syneathesia part is never made explicit.

Until recently I thought it was normal to visualize music in a fairly consistent way. Some kids I was babysitting last month somehow knew about syneathesia and were talking about it and so I told them I had it and they didn't believe me. The older child ran over to their mom's old yamaha synth (that they keep on the floor as a toy) and hit a sustained note that to me looked like a thin yellow beam. Knowing what yellow means to my brain I said, "C" (I don't have perfect pitch). Apparently I was correct and the kids were in awe of me for about 30 seconds. People tell me I'm really lucky and I guess I am though I have to say that my brain's tendency to layer sensory information makes me pretty sensitive. I get overwhelmed by noises and music specifically is impossible for me to tune out. I take ear plugs with me everywhere I go or else I know I will feel like a zombie in a karaoke bar when I shop for my groceries or try to read in coffee shop.

I'm sure everyone has something different about the way their brain orders their reality and I'm quite interested in all kinds of neurodiversity, including those conditions that are so wrongly labelled "disabilities".

2011-07-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

2011-07-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

"All Our Kin is the chronicle of a young white woman's sojourn into The Flats, an African-American ghetto community, to study the support system family and friends form when coping with poverty. Eschewing the traditional method of entry into the community used by anthropologists -- through authority figures and community leaders -- she approached the families herself by way of an acquaintance from school, becoming one of the first sociologists to explore the black kinship network from the inside. The result was a landmark study that debunked the misconception that poor families were unstable and disorganized. On the contrary, her study showed that families in The Flats adapted to their poverty conditions by forming large, resilient, lifelong support networks based on friendship and family that were very powerful, highly structured and surprisingly complex. Universally considered the best analysis of family and kinship in a ghetto black community ever published, All Our Kin is also an indictment of a social system that reinforces welfare dependency and chronic unemployment. As today's political debate over welfare reform heats up, its message has become more important than ever." -from Amazon.com

John Maus tells it on Pitchfork TV

2011-07-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

"I think there's something really interesting about our music relative to other languages..we've completely cast off certain conventions like thematic development or polyphony or tonality especially...then all of a sudden you come to this moment and it's just four chords repeated over and over..I think perhaps that it may have to do with power, with the state, with what we're subject to."

And along the same lines

2011-07-18T17:10:00.000-07:00

JOHN MAUS - Head For The Country (Official Video) from Upset The Rhythm on Vimeo.

"Somewhere, somewhere there's crime being committed..SO HEAD FOR THE COUNTRY!"

I love this John Maus guy.

I guess it's healthy, I guess the air is clean

2011-07-17T22:26:00.001-07:00

2011-07-15T09:49:00.001-07:00

Oh how I wish I had a twin. The communication in this performance is incredible. Ghost Bees is Sari and Romy Lightman, the talented back up singers in Austra.

2011-07-14T11:07:00.001-07:00

2011-07-13T19:56:00.001-07:00

2011-07-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

AUSTRA "Lose It" by domino

2011-07-11T23:25:00.001-07:00

2011-07-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

I was slightly weirded out to find an old copy of "Lusts of a Moron" (a sort of lyrics as concrete poetry compilation by Momus) at Victoria's creakiest used bookstore, Russell Books. It was squeezed beside some awful looking Jim Morrison and Morrissey biographies. The garish pink cover was punctuated by greasy fingerprints and I like to think it was once owned by Dan Bejar (Destroyer, Swan Lake etc etc). I didn't buy it though because greedy Russell wanted 15 dollars for it. I also thought it was kind of an ugly book, with it's giant pink daisy on the cover and O'Keefe-esque sexy flower photos.

2011-07-10T21:35:00.001-07:00

"So you think that you're a failure, do you? Well, you probably are. What's wrong with that? In the first place, if you've any sense at all you must have learned by now that we pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. Go ahead and fail. But fail with wit, fail with grace, fail with style. A mediocre failure is as insufferable as a mediocre success. Embrace failure! Seek it out. Learn to love it. That may be the only way any of us will ever be free."
— Dr. Robbins (AKA Tom Robbins), from Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. I picked up this book for a dollar at a thrift store, took it to the beach and got a bad sunburn because I couldn't stop reading it.

2011-07-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

2011-07-10T19:26:00.001-07:00

2011-07-10T17:57:00.001-07:00

2011-07-07T18:03:00.001-07:00

The postmodernist musical attitude

2011-07-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

(From Wikipedia)

Jonathan Kramer posits the idea (following Umberto Eco and Jean-François Lyotard) that postmodernism (including musical postmodernism) is less a surface style or historical period (i.e., condition) than an attitude. Kramer enumerates 16 "characteristics of postmodern music, by which I mean music that is understood in a postmodern manner, or that calls forth postmodern listening strategies, or that provides postmodern listening experiences, or that exhibits postmodern compositional practices." According to Kramer (Kramer 2002, 16–17), postmodern music:

1. is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
2. is, on some level and in some way, ironic
3. does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present
4. challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
5. shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
6. questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
7. avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
8. considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
9. includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
10. considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
11. embraces contradictions
12. distrusts binary oppositions
13. includes fragmentations and discontinuities
14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
15. presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers

2011-07-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

"If they too do not wish to become supporters (of minor importance at that) of what exists, the painter and novelist must refuse to lend themselves to such therapeutic uses. They must question the rules of art or painting or of narrative as they have learned and received them from their predecessors. Soon those rules must appear to them as a means to deceive, to seduce and to reassure, which makes it impossible for them to be 'true'.

Under the common name of painting and literature, an unprecedented split is taking place. Those who refuse to re-examine the rules of art pursue successful careers in mass conformism by communicating, by means of the 'correct rules', the endemic desire for reality with objects and situations capable of gratifying it. Pornography is the use of photography and film to such an an end. It is becoming a general model for the visual or narrative arts which have not met the challenge of the mass media.

As for the artists and writers who question the rules of plastic and narrative arts and possibly share their suspicions by circulating their work, they are destined to have little credibility in the eyes of those concerned with 'reality' and 'identity'; they have no guarantee of an audience. Thus it is possible to ascribe the dialectics of the avant-gardes to the challenge posed by the realisms of industry and mass communication to painting and the narrative arts. Duchamp's 'ready made' does nothing but actively and parodistically signify this constant process of dispossession of the craft of painting or even of being an artist..."

-Lyotard, 'Answering the Question: What Is Postmodernism?'

2011-06-29T19:33:00.001-07:00

2011-06-28T13:22:00.001-07:00

New John Maus

2011-06-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

John Maus - Cop Killer from George Tanasie on Vimeo.

The Fruit is Deformed Children

2011-06-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

'Our Glorious Land' could be a direct response to Kate Bush's tragic shot down patriots in songs like 'England my Lionheart' and 'Army Dreamers'. I applaud PJ's bluntness here about the brutal inheritance of our increasingly toxic wars. A brave message to take to mainstream TV.

The children of depleted uranium: http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/gulf_war_syndrome/uranium_infanticide.html

hmmm...

2011-06-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

"If you haven't heard of Sigur Ros please listen to their song Ara Batur, I've just stumbled upon it on YouTube. I think you will appreciate it."

-Not really my style actually but thanks. Too few chords. Too emotionally manipulative. There's a children's choir and a crescendo with cymbal crashes for instance. I feel like I'm supposed to picture religious art or baby angels or something. I like pretty annoying music actually. I'm not a fan of consonance. If you were to compare this song to my music you would notice that I use a lot more chords and specifically chords that fall out of the diatonic harmonic system. I like things that are grating or surprising. The most grating thing about this song is its length.

2011-06-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

Roy Arden, 'Tree Stump, Nanaimo, BC, 1991'. That is Dover Bay Secondary in the Background. North end Nanaimo is a slash and burn vinyl sided atrocity. Its crowning glory is a labyrinthine mall, sarcastically named "Woodgrove". In Nanaimo they name developments after destroyed natural spaces.

2011-06-16T20:23:00.001-07:00

An' they don't even care when the church takes a cut... Ain't it bleak when you got so much nothin'

2011-06-16T12:10:00.001-07:00

Ever since the postal strike started the jesus pedlars have targeted my mailbox. Today: EIGHT PAGES of handwritten creepy old person scrawl and random annotated articles. My response:

2011-06-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

"At the international level sport is frankly mimic warfare. But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators: and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests, and seriously believe — at any rate for short periods — that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue" -Orwell

2011-06-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

2011-06-15T13:18:00.001-07:00

4GPULSAR ( CHOKIJIN ) remix of Artificial Flavours!

2011-06-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

2011-06-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

I was just listening to a CBC program about old order mennonites who still prohibit technology including musical instruments and musical recordings. They claim that singing in 4 part harmony is the best music. I find it bizarre that at 3 years old was I was obsessed with dubbing my voice on tape so I could hear every song in harmony. I still make music like that! Tracking the absent voices so that they will exist outside of my head is a compulsion. How does one inherit such a thing? It's bizarre.

I told my mom about the 4 part harmony thing and she said:

"That's a scream! At Schultz family reunions, where usually at least 75 attended, we automatically broke into 4 part harmony in our before meal musical prayers, and at these same reunions, usually held over a weekend, Uncle Henry Rempel would preach to our Schultz only church service, and there would be a Schultz choir anthem, always highly professional sounding, and very moving.

I remember when I went to the last reunion in 1997, we had a bus tour of all the significant heritage sites ( the little towns they were raised in , the first school Grandpa taught at,etc.), and we stopped at the cemetary and stood around Grandma Schultz's grave. We all stated singing hymns in harmony, and it must have been quite a scene. It was a hot day, but there were trees growing above the grave, giving some shade, and the singing was beautiful, I remember."

Anyways, here's my ongoing tribute to my singing ancestors. The little girl stands in for me and the record player refers to the technologies that stand in for a living culture.

Nyman and Purcell

2011-06-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

I am no classical music buff but I couldn't I help noticing while on a recent Greenaway kick that soundtracks by Micheal Nyman had some theme appropriate references to operatic numbers by 17th Century composer Henry Purcell.

The Cold Song VS Time Lapse

The songs even kick off on the same chords but Nyman's deviates fairly quickly.

Dido's Lament (after the intro) VS The Garden is Becoming a Robe Room

I like Nymans semi-sarcastic appropriation of classical music styles and cliches. He seems to be honouring Purcell here by positioning him as a forefather of minimalism.

2011-06-02T18:42:00.001-07:00

2011-06-02T15:50:00.001-07:00

2011-05-25T15:00:00.001-07:00

2011-05-23T23:46:00.001-07:00

2011-05-22T22:08:00.001-07:00