Ender's Game and Hell House
September 23, 2006
I just finished reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Great science-fiction book about a child who is chosen to save mankind from the invading "buggers". Written 30 years ago, but taking place 100 years in the future, the book offers an interesting vision of the Earth's future and inter-galactic wars. I was astounded by Card's concept of "the nets", which essentially describe the internet. How did he know about that concept, fifteen years before the internet actually existed? It is used by Ender's siblings to gain power under assumed identities and suggests that the world can be changed simply by sharing ideas with a worldwide audience on the nets. I believe it.
Are you ready for Hell House? My New York acting debut begins in a week, with a small role in a production of Hell House. This is a Christian Evangelical Haunted House staged by Les Freres Corbusier at St. Ann's Warehouse in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Hell Houses happen all around the country, generally performed by Churches hoping to scare the Jesus into you, by taking the classic religious argument to the extreme, i.e. if you take drugs, you will be raped; if you are gay, you will get AIDS; if you have an abortion, it is murder, and the punishment for any of these crimes against God is eternal suffering in Hell. Full disclosure: I think the ideas in this play are complete crap, which is to say that we are milking this for all its irony. I recorded a song which might give you the general feel of a tour in the Hell House...
Get more info and buy tickets here
Tortoise
September 17, 2006
Great music tonight at Bowery Ballroom from one of my all-time favorite live bands, Tortoise. These five guys have a very unique instrumental sound and are absolutely some of the finest touring musicians anywhere. Their dueling drum kits, facing each other at the front of the stage, are such a force and are played by virtually everyone in the band. Every song sees a personnel shift in instrumentation and they are all complete bad-asses on any noise making apparatus on stage, from drums and xylophone; to guitar and bass; to synthesizers and computers. Their music is so dynamic and composed, their rhythms seem impossible, and their sounds are incredibly diverse. I've seen this band three or four times now and am always completely blown away by their shows. Also, I consider their album "TNT" to be one of the BEST EVER. It is an absolute masterpiece.
Get your tickets now: Beirut (see September 12) is playing Bowery Ballroom on November 21 and 22. I will be there on Tuesday night the 21st and I'll bet you would enjoy it as well.
Five Years Later and A New Economy
September 17, 2006
Today marks my fifth anniversary of living in New York. I actually moved here six days after 9/11, which was a very interesting time in The City, to say the least. People were Scared. And Nice. We were all just waiting for the next attack. Everybody incorporated it into their lives in some way, by not riding subways or not going inside tall buildings or just imagining the horrific and infinite possibilities for attack here. It seemed inevitable. But five years later, we're still waiting. The hysteria has eased and New York seems to have settled back into the routine that made it THE GREATEST CITY ON THE PLANET. I absolutely love living here. It is a mecca of culture and a pinnacle of human achievement. The diversity of people here gives it a flavor like no other place on earth and the artistic envelope is basically defined within the five boroughs. I am inspired every day by the things I see and the people I meet and feel driven by the palpable energy in this engine of humanity, racing towards our civilization's destiny.
New Concept: Free Music is Priceless. If you think about it in terms of basic economics, free music has infinite supply with no marginal (i.e. per unit) price increase. Every recording costs money. It doesn't matter if that means throwing down 10 million dollars of a label's money or 10 dollars of your own. That's your starting cost. If you can distribute music FREE via the internet, then your starting cost is your only cost. If one person hears it, The your cost per listener is whatever you spent. If two people hear it, that ratio gets cut in half. As more and more people hear it, the cost (price) per listener gets smaller and smaller until it approaches zero. Granted, it will never actually be zero and if the music is distributed at no cost then you will never directly recoup any money you spent on making it, but there is certainly unquantifiable profit potential, both financial and social, in having a free and unlimited audience. Computers, similar in that they have a substantial initial cost but no increasing marginal cost with additional usage, i.e. they work for free, are the foundation for a New Economy.
Three Records
September 12, 2006
As promised, I got all three albums mentioned in the last entry.
Ratatat: Classics. A great sophmore CD from these Brooklyn boys. It's classical music (thus the title?) for the 21st century. It's a gorgeous record that really blows my mind with its composition and shakes my ass with its beats. It is absolutely Classic.
Junior Boys: So This Is Goodbye. Great electro-pop. Smooth 80's vibe a la Pet Shop Boys (thus the title?) and very funky. Really nice and just a little bit sexy.
Beirut: Gulag Orkestar. Gypsy music made by a 19-year-old. Very unique sound that could have been recored at any time in human history. But it was recorded "summer through winter 2005 in Albuquerque, New Mexico". And it is beautiful.
Well done aforementioned recording artists! This is a great time for music. The internet has made music free. This important cultural information can be disseminated to the masses and they will decide what is good. The best music will be heard by everyone who cares to hear it. Is technology AMAZING? Remember ten years ago: How did you get your music? Radio? MTV? Phish? Not a computer? Could you even imagine how a computer would eventually become your music source?
And now here I am, writing a blog.
I hope you enjoy these records as well as any of the others I've mentioned on this site. If you happen to notice that all my reviews are very positive, then you understand that if there were something that I didn't appreciate I wouldn't write about it and that I like pretty much everything.
September Already?
September 6, 2006
Unbelievably, the summer has come to a close. I know because I felt it. Every year I get some end-of-the-summer blues that tell me we are beginning the cycle again. Play time ending, work time beginning. Ever since I can remember this has been a restart point and this year is no exception. I have had a great month off from work (see August blog) and now prepare to find my working rhythm. It's not that I dread going to work; to be honest, I really love teaching early childhood music and can't wait to see how some of these kids have grown over the past few months (like half their lifetime), but the rhythm of my life changes so dramatically that it can be hard to adjust.
Time to get to work, boy!
RATATAT: yeah! I saw these dudes play last night at the Bowery Ballroom and it was phenomenal. I have been looking forward to seeing them live ever since Pete Wohlsen said "You gotta check this out!" a year ago. Two guys making beats and ripping guitar and bass over them. Simple concept, beautiful music. Really gorgeous melodies over monstrous beats. Their new album just came out a few weeks ago and I had not heard it, but I will definitely make the purchase soon after last night's show.
Two more records that will find their way to my collection soon: Beirut and Junior Boys. I have downloaded some tracks from both of them (yes, for free) and love what I'm hearing, so I want the whole package. Watch for reviews soon, but I recommend that you just go get them yourself. If you have access to a shared file network, you have nothing to lose. Free Music!
Speaking of Free Music: Here's the latest Supergood Track entitled "Your War". Hope you don't mind a little political flavor in your ear...