Tuesday, September 23, 2008

And Now We Turn to the Comics page..


Here's a little something I worked up a couple years ago. I guess you can see who I really think benefits from all these copyright battles (My apologies for it being so hard to read. I will post a better quality version later this evening).

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Against Me - "Up The Cuts"

I checked out this album from the library, and I'm really digging this track right now. here's some second hand smoke I remember catching from the blogosphere (all of which is completely arbitrary and without citation). Against Me! has a very loyal following. Some people think they have sold out with this record, or they've moved to a major label, and it's that same ol' same ol' cry from the people that were there first.

Personally this is all new to me, so thankfully I can hear this album for what it is, and that's a pretty straight forward rock record with really strong vocals and lyrics. I'm liking it.

Hobo! - The Musical

Harry Partch (1901 - 1974) is probably a lesser known legend in the world of "classical" music. I put the term "classical" in quotes because it, unfortunately - like the term "modern", usually tends to refer to a composer or type of music that uses orchestration. In reality the Classical period is the time in art from 1750 - 1820 [1]. But I digress...

Partch was the type of American genius that could only come out of the cultural mix that is America.

"In 1930 Partch broke with Western European tradition and forged a new music based on a more primal, corporeal integration of the elements of speech with music, using principles of natural acoustic resonance (just intonation) and expanded melodic and harmonic possibilities. "[2]

Along with that Harry Partch is also famous for inventing the 43-Tone Scale.

Partch may be best known for U.S. Highball, A Musical Account of Slim's Transcontinental Hobo Trip. A piece he based off his own travels from Caramel, California to Chicago, Illinois in 1941. Here's a clip below with a brief explanation.





Here's a clip from a 1968 documentary on Partch, with footage of Harry playing some of his invented instruments:



And here are clips to a 6 part BBC documentary on Youtube:
part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6: