Recently in Music Category
I am drowning in work. As I slog through one thing after another I find myself tuning out the world. In my haste I miss the most of the news and use music as white noise to help avoid distraction. This afternoon my focus was broken abruptly with an important thought about the tragic wars taking place around this world of ours.
These are the lyrics to Donovan's 1965 song Universal Soldier.
He is five foot two,
and he's six feet four,
he fights with missiles and with spears,
he is all of thirty-one,
and he's only seventeen,
he's been a soldier for a thousand years.
He's a Catholic, a Hindu,
an atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist, and a Baptist and a Jew,
and he knows he shouldn't kill,
and he knows he always will,
kill for me, my friend, and me for you.
And he's fighting for Canada,
he's fighting for France,
he's fighting for the USA
and he's fighting for the Russians,
and he's fighting for Japan,
and he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.
And he's fighting for democracy,
he's fighting for the Reds,
he says it's for the peace of all,
he's the one who must decide,
who's to live and who's to die,
and he never sees the writing on the wall.
But without him, how would Hitler
have condemned him at Labau,
without him Caesar would have stood alone,
he's the one, who gives his body
as a weapon of the war,
and without him all this killing can't go on.
He's the universal soldier,
and he really is to blame,
his orders came from far away, no more,
they come from here and there,
and from you and me,
this is not the way we put the end to war.
That could easily be me in that tragic position. It is important not to forget the power of circumstance in shaping my life. I deeply empathize with the position of young men and women on the battlefield. I also wrestle with the real question of how responsible they and we are for their actions.
I have had an amazingly productive day. I had two meetings, schedule a few more for tomorrow, cranked through my e-mail, converted a Photoshop comp into a working CSS and HTML template in our CMS, tested said template in IE 6 and 7, met someone who shared my name, and did a little research all while listening to Philip Glass.
This isn't the first time I've noticed a correlation between listening to Glass and getting things done. I'm not asserting some Mozart-effect like phenomenon. Instead, there's something about his music, something in all that repetition, those patterns, that building intensity, that allows my mind to focus and crank through tasks. Perhaps it occupies that part of my consciousness that is constantly eager for distraction.
Hell, even catching up on the unread headlines in my news-reader felt efficient today.
Whatever it is, placebo effect or no, I love his music and the effect is produces in me.
If you don't own any of his stuff I recommend Einstein on the Beach, Koyaanisqatsi, and The Fog of War. Glassworks, The Hours, Music in Twelve Parts, Kundun, and Powaqqatsi fill out my collection but those first three are far and away my favorites.
It's incredibly embarrasing to admit but I've now lived in Los Angeles for five months and hadn't gone out to see live music until last Thursday! Appalling, I know.
Fortunately the tide seems to be turning. Our first experience was at the Largo with my new SXSW pal Lauren who prodded us out of our musicless cave. Then again a few days later we ventured forth again to our first experience with the venerable Echo in Silver Lake (not in Echo Park for some reason).
I hear his voice and look up and recognize the face but can't place him. I rewind a few seconds on my Tivo and watch again. Who is this guy!
I do this five or six times before Julie looks at me like I'm nuts and I realize that I've been watching an Outback Steakhouse commercial over and over again mesmerized by its "star."
I love live music! In the last few weeks I have seen an opera at the Kennedy Center, Rilo Kiley, Spoon, and Ozomatli live and loved each show more than the last.
This is coming from a guy whose younger brother took him to his first concert in a venue when he was already in college. I admit that OK Go and They Might Be Giants on the same bill is not a bad start but one must admit that I got a late start in all of this.
Regardless of my history with this live music thing, I love it!
I am delighted to report that Sandy selected me for a baton handoff in the glorious music meme of 2005. "Oh my arm, it hurts. Stop twisting it.... OK I give in."
Before going to college the bulk of my musical listening consisted of my zadie's classical record collection, my mom's box of 45's that should took with her when she went to Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1964, my dad's bluegrass collection, and a hearty helping of jazz.
Although I didn't do as well as I could have, I managed to see The Kills, The Bravery, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Blanche, Doves, Hawthorne Heights, John Butler Trio, The Dears, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, The Go! Team, Bloc Party, Dogs Die In Hot Cars, The Ravonettes, Titan Go King's, i-dep, Laura Cantrell, Stephen Malkmus, and more that I didn't think to write down.
Not too shabby for a guy who doesn't like crowds.
Yes SXSW is known, above all else, for music. Yes I have access to the performances. No I have not been doing as well as I should about attending. In my defense, I am here to geek out and have been learning an incredible amount and having very productive meetings, yaddah yaddah yaddah.
Check out this great review of Eminem's new music video.
Items required for this experiment:
Greatest Hits by Cat Stevens
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips
some free time
Step 1) Play Father & Son by Cat Stevens and then halfway through switch to Flight Test by the Flaming Lips (skip about a minute in).
Step 2) Do it again.
Step 3) Now tell me these aren't the same song.
I am not accusing the Flaming Lips of some kind of disingenuous copying, instead I am wondering if there is a) some obvious connection between the two songs that I am missing or b) there is a more subtle connection that I am picking up on but cannot explain.
Discuss.
Who is this guy?
