DJ Dual Core's Old Mix Tapes

New Track: Brevity is the Essence Of Wit

2020-12-05T17:32:00.003-06:00

https://soundcloud.com/dj-dual-core/brevity-is-the-essence-of-wit

New Track: I Went To Prison For Stealing $50 From The Post Office (Featuring Rita "Bo" Brown)

2018-11-16T20:14:00.002-06:00

Depression and Relationships - Alienation and What We Share

2017-12-31T15:23:00.000-06:00

In January of 2016 I wrote What Non-Depressed People Should Know AboutDepression. I want to dig deeper into depression and relationships, especially, but not exclusively, for the benefit of people who have never experienced clinical depression but need to live and work with those of us who have.

If you suffer from depression or are sufficiently close to someone who does, you already know; depression impacts relationships. Some of the ways are obvious. At the simplest level, our abundant negativity and scarce enthusiasm can make us a drag to be around. Likewise depression saps energy a person would otherwise put into keeping a relationship healthy. But it is also alienating and divisive in other ways.

Differences That Cause Alienation

I think a lot about what divides and alienates people. This can be broad social and cultural forces like race, language, religion and politics, but it can also be more individual. Depression, in this regard, is less like belonging to a minority religion than being a conjoined twin.

To me conjoined twins are an extreme and instructive example of people who’s lives others simply can’t understand or identify with. To me, this is much more interesting than their bodies or the science behind this particular type of twinning. The impact on their relationships must be immeasurable.

I imagine one of the most alienating things about being a conjoined twin, ironically, is the isolation. Being a conjoined adult is so rare an experience that nobody you know (except your twin) can possibly understand[1]. I am sure the twin’s empathy is priceless, but that’s one person. What about everybody else in your life? It seems to me that the best you could hope for is that those close to you take you at your word for what it is like and cut you some slack when they don't understand your feelings about it or how you choose to cope.

Likewise, when I think about people who believe they have been abducted by aliens [2] or believe themselves to be psychic [3], I am much less interested in whether or not they are right than what it does to their relationships.

I hope these comparisons don’t insult anyone. My only point is that these are alienating experiences. Depression is common, relative to my other examples, but I believe the alienation and other effects on relationships are analogous.

The Truth We Keep In Our Heads And The Necessary Lies We Speak

If you believe yourself to be an alien abductee you probably have learned not to share that fact with any but the most select people. You probably share the details of your abduction memories with an even smaller group, if anyone. If you are depressed the people around you may or may not be sympathetic, but even if they are most don’t need to know the doubts, fears or horrors going on in your head. In the case of horror, if the same images and scenarios came to you in a dream you could tell people and they would either console you or laugh it off with “wow, what a horrible nightmare.” However, we human beings tend to hold both ourselves and others responsible for our waking thoughts [4]. We tend to believe they say more profound things about us than our dreams. We may believe dreams mean something, but but we put brackets or quotes around anything they might say about us as people, about who we are. After all, it is “just a dream.”

There are lots of things anybody (depressed or not) might think or feel that are inappropriate to share. Depressive thoughts are different from an isolated, passing thought of an unspoken insult or speculation about how someone looks naked—other things best not shared. It is the nature of depression to interfere with, interrupt and replace productive, pleasant and welcome thoughts with their opposites (from trivial worries to unspeakable horrors) and do so on an ongoing basis. During a serious depressive episode this can so overshadow everything else going on in a depressed person's mind that it characterizes his or her thoughts, perhaps for an extended time. During such an episode, if someone were to ask what you were thinking about, the honest response would be to detail the unwelcome thoughts. However, I think many depressed people, especially those with chronic major depression, learn to carefully consider their audience and give a response that is more appropriate and less honest. That is, if one is thinking clearly enough to give the response that much consideration [5].

Depressive thoughts of different types can have different effects both internally and relationally. A depressed person’s frequent thoughts of failure, whether at work or in a relationship, may be good to share with someone who can help contextualize them. They may be able to reassure you and help sort out any rational ones that need your attention.

The Suicidal Ideation Minefield

Persistent suicidal thoughts are different. This is a difficult subject and writing about it makes me nervous, but I think it is too important to skip over and I happen to have a lot of experience with it. Before I get to what I want to say about suicidal thoughts and relationships, I need to say a few things about suicidal thoughts themselves.

If you have suicidal thoughts you need to be in touch (and honest) with at least one mental health professional. If you are not, please stop reading now and reach out to a doctor, a suicide prevention line (https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/), crisis center or someone who can help you find such a resource. It is also good to have someone close to you who knows you are struggling with suicidal thoughts and can help keep you safe. However, friends and family can not do certain things trained, licensed professionals can do. Friends and family can be extremely valuable supports but are not a substitute for the resources that come with professional help.

The idea of suicide is so emotionally treacherous that outside of a doctor or therapist’s office (where you need to bare all so they can help you) one must speak about it with care. This is always true whether speaking generally or saying something completely specific and personal. For the depressed person who has suicidal thoughts, this is complicated by the issue of their own safety. Not all suicidal thoughts are equal yet the differences are not always clear, especially to someone who is upset by the fact that you even said the word “suicide.” In many cases, and for good reason, people will immediately start trying to assess how likely you are to attempt suicide in the immediate future.

If suicidal thoughts are new to you (or you have started planning a suicide) and that is why you are in a professional’s office telling them all about it, this kind of assessment is exactly what you want. They are trained. It is their job to keep you safe and there is every likelihood they will read the situation correctly and respond helpfully. If you are like me and you have been living with daily, very low level, suicidal ideation for many, many years, there isn’t much to talk about unless it changes. As I will show below, this is very different from keeping a potentially deadly mental health problem to myself. I do not ignore my suicidal thoughts, hide my depression, or pretend that everything is OK and I don’t suggest that anyone else does.

When the suicidal thoughts change or get worse action needs to be taken. Some years ago my suicidal thoughts changed dramatically. I caught myself making a gravely detailed and serious plan and checked myself into the hospital. One of my medications had quit working and I was in fucking trouble. I am certain not keeping those suicidal thoughts to myself was absolutely the right thing to do.

The daily, low level suicidal thoughts I live with, on the other hand, need to stay in my head. They, sadly, have become mundane and routine and only get the attention necessary for me to dismiss them (with varying success, depending on how depressed I am). They are as familiar, constant and reliable as the furniture in my office but receive even less comment.

I do not need to comment on these thoughts to the people around me. Moreover, I generally need to not comment on them to the people around me. If I did some people would be unnecessarily concerned or have other negative or unhelpful reactions. Because these thoughts are so common for me, I would also be crying wolf. I have, literally[6], had many thousands of suicidal thoughts over the last fifteen years, but have made no attempts on my own life. Yes, it is a very big problem that I have suffered from depression my whole adult life and that between fifteen and twenty years ago frequent suicidal thoughts became a regular part of that. However, the empirical evidence says these thoughts do not lead to suicide attempts. Having one such thought, or even several, doesn’t mean anyone around me needs to be concerned for my safely. Them knowing I had the thought would not be useful to them or me. There is nothing for them to do.

Different Kinds Of Relationships

Many of the people around me know I suffer from depression. Many of them know this includes suicidal thoughts. This general knowledge is good for a lot of reasons but beyond a very general outline of the problem more details would not be helpful or useful to most of them. Those closest to me know enough to monitor me a little and comment or ask questions if they notice concerning changes, for example. Depressed or not, relatively few people know anyone's moods that well.

The People Who Do Not Get It

There are also plenty of people who so completely “don’t get it” when it comes to depression and other mental illness that they couldn’t be helpful to a depressed person, no matter what was shared with them. I once had someone tell me he “never had time to be depressed.” He’s a nice enough guy in most ways, but even if he is more clued in now than (twenty years ago) when he said that to me there is no way I’m calling him for help. Being undermined by people like him (dismissive by simple ignorance) or their toxic counterparts, the dismissive and hostile [7], is a stressor depressed people don’t need. Identify and avoid. If total avoidance isn’t practical one can avoid talking about mental health: yours specifically, and the topic in general.

More Importantly: The People Who Do

These are not the relationships I am most interested in. I am interested in relationships where a person with depression doesn’t need to worry about being dismissed, undermined or preached to no matter what they share. I am talking about people who can be counted on to listen sympathetically if a depressed person shares or even overshares[8] with them.

In some cases the caring listener would feel burdened with the information. Others might overreact. There is always a balance to be struck. At least some people need to know something about what’s going on with you and surely people closer to you need to know more. Unfortunately their good attitudes, sympathy and good intentions don’t make sharing information they can’t use automatically constructive. And remember, I am only talking about people who can be counted on to respond positively. In this case I am counting “Oh my God! I had no idea it was that bad! I must help you find a better psychiatrist! Let me call Aunt Lucy right now!” as a positive reaction, even if you just told the listener your psychiatrist is great and there is no possible way poor, senile Aunt Lucy could possibly help.

Let’s call all such responses, from the burdened feelings to overreaction, as “positive but unhelpful.” Let us also agree that although they beat the hell out of being undermined the person fighting depression has good reasons to avoid them. Unfortunately this is done by withholding information.

Even more unfortunately, withholding information comes with its own costs.

The Irony Of Pushing Away

Depressive thoughts, no matter how brief, minor or familiar, come with a negative emotional payload. They can also be entirely disconnected from present circumstances. This means the depressed person you are with may be experiencing negative emotions that have no connection to what you are doing together, how they feel about you or anything else pertinent to the situation. You may see it on their face or hear it in their voice, but it may be best for both of you if they do not overtly acknowledge or explain it. This division in the depressed person’s thoughts and attention takes energy, something that can be in short supply to a depressed person. Managing this mental division, especially if it is not done particularly well, can be alienating to the people you interact with because your emotions seem inappropriate, you seem distant, distracted, grumpy, inattentive or withdrawn. Actually, you may truly be any or all of those things and it could have nothing to do with the person you are with or anything else outside your own head.

When someone with depression “keeps it in their head” rather than sharing they are making a choice to distance those thoughts from the people around them. This is often the right thing to do and it should not be mistaken for denial or withholding themselves from anyone. After all, the person with depression is not their thoughts. The depressive thoughts are an important part of the depressed person’s experience, not who they are. This distancing, along with the struggle to manage the thoughts themselves, is easily mistaken for disinterest or defensiveness, two behaviors sure to alienate others in short order.

We are not pushing you away from us. We are pushing a part of our experience away from you.

Trust Us, Should We Choose to be Quiet

Please trust the depressed persons in your life to know what to share. You may want to know how I feel about the meal we are sharing. You don’t want to know which suicidal image just popped in and out of my mind, or how long it stayed. You might think you do, because you care about me. Trust me, you don’t. There is nothing helpful for you to do with that information.

Another threat to relationships is the inherent irrationality of some depressive thoughts. Combined with all people’s variable impulse control and the potentially slow process of learning to manage one’s depression, it isn’t just the horrors of depression that can pop out of our mouths. It can also be stuff that is just embarrassing.

A moderately depressed person with sufficient self-awareness may do a pretty good job of sorting the rational and irrational (depression induced) thoughts in their head. Such a person may do a pretty good job of only saying the rational ones out loud. Someone deeply depressed, or not skilled at managing their depressive thoughts, may be at risk for saying things out loud that they regret later and/or sound totally batshit crazy to the non-depressed people around them.

Compromised Reasoning and Perception

Should a person who suffers from depression be more quiet than usual it could be for any reason, but it it may be that we aren’t sure which thoughts should or should not be exposed to the light of day at that moment. It does not mean we don’t care about the conversation or do not have an opinion. Quite the opposite; we may be reticent because we know we will be able to give a more rational, valuable and helpful response later.

For example, if I witness someone being rude at work when particularly depressed I am more likely to believe it characterizes that person than I will at another time. When asked about what I observed I may choose to give a minimal or delayed response if I know I’m depressed. This isn’t because I don’t care about the rude behavior and its consequences. Rather, it is because I want to respond as appropriately and constructively as possible. This may be better than a hopelessly depression-skewed response: “They have both always been assholes and always will be. I should quit.”

A depressed person could also be so distracted by depressive thoughts that they miss the rudeness. I sometimes experience this as an effective dulling of my senses [9]. For people like me who have lived with it for a long time and have become aware of so many ways it effects us something subjective like our own perception of a raised voice may be suspect to us. An appropriate response may truly require later thought, preferably later thought less filtered through the fog of depression.

Conclusion

This is all not to say that people with depression don’t do things that harm our relationships or push people away that we should not, that do not have good reasons behind them, or that shouldn’t piss off the people around us. Of course we do. Some of them have to do with depression. Some do not.

What I would have anyone take away from what I have written here is that some of what depressed people do that may seem negative is, in fact, positive given our circumstances and experiences. I would have non-depressed people cut people with depression some slack when we pull back a bit or don’t share something.

I would have my fellow people who suffer from depression think about what they do. Maybe they feel guilty doing some of these things but don’t need to. Maybe they do too much of them. Maybe not enough. Maybe nothing I have written works for them. It is mostly based in my own experience and that of persons close to me.

In any case, I hope it promotes some kind of understanding.

[1] The details and circumstances of adult conjoined twins also vary greatly. Even if you knew another pair of conjoined twins your lives would experiences would probably be significantly different.

[2] I have spent a lot of time looking for a specific, and it seems quite unique, documentary I saw a few years ago about alien abduction, or rather, belief in alien abduction. It was about two different people who came to believe they were alien abductees, took no position on whether their claims were real and was nearly devoid of hype. One subject was a single woman who believed she was the mother of alien-human hybrid children whom were kept from her and for whom she grieved. She also remembered an alien encounter from her childhood involving a young boy she believes she meets again as an adult. The other subject was a man who’s belief in his abduction caused incredible strain on his marriage. When I try to search for this film any trace of it is buried in results for sensational documentaries either providing evidence of the alien abduction phenomenon or debunking it.

[3] Add this to the list of things I believe but can not prove. I am quite sure most people who claim to be psychic are lying but I strongly suspect there are others who really believe they are blessed/cursed with psi. One down side of this for them is that most people probably treat them with the same contempt as the con artists.

[4] I have come to embrace that idea that we are not our thoughts. However, I think it is widely held that we are our little more than our thoughts, feelings and decisions. Personally, I think that is dangerous and bad for us collectively and individually. However, I have an existence well beyond that thought. :-)

[5] There is also such as thing as being so depressed that one struggles to respond to conversational questions at all. The only up-side to this condition is that you are probably also too immobilized to hurt yourself.

[6] I do not throw the word “literally” around. I mean what I am saying here.

[7] These fall into a few categories. 1. People who think all mental health issues are over-diagnosed for the benefit of the big drug companies therefore you can’t be part of the correctly diagnosed minority. 2. People who think depression is a product of the American culture of complaint; If you were not complaining about your depression you would be making up some other injustice. 3. The depressed are all just being precious and sensitive; Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

[8] Oversharing is subjective, or at least highly contextual. The point is that people who really care about each other will be tolerant of someone heavily unloading on them, especially in a crisis of some sort.

[9] I describe this in What Non-Depressed People Should Know AboutDepression.

Remix of Three Desolations piano piece by Dave Phillips

2017-02-21T20:30:00.000-06:00

New Track: For The Mystic Pioneers (Evelyn Underhill 1875-1941)

2016-12-04T12:47:00.001-06:00

Features samples of a LibreVox recording of "Mysticism" by Evelyn Underhill, originally published in 1911. Mysticism, generically, is thought of as peaceful and solitary, but in reality mystic practice can involve the full range of emotions and can be intimately involved in human relationships. I preserved Underhill's words and sentiments, and surrounded them with sounds that provoke, in me anyway, excitement and questions, rather than placid thoughts and feelings. Although successful and more or less happy, Underfull's life was peppered with tension, doubt and disapproval from those closest to her when in came to her spiritual interests. I like to think she would approve of this work.

185bpm. Entirely done with editing in Ardour on Linux; no drum machines or synths were used. Similar results could be achieved by mapping and triggering sounds with a sampler, but the edit/copy/paste/edit process allows me to easily modify individual instances of a sound, even if it is used repeatedly. Non-vocal samples are from collections by Peace Love Productions and DJ Chaos.

Supporting References For Friday's Dinner Conversation

2016-09-25T20:30:00.000-05:00

A few musical and related topics discussed over dinner with a delightful group of people this past Friday.

Robert Johnson

Melt Banana

A Tribe Called Red
Wikipedia Article
Official Website -- Be sure to check the videos page!

Steely Dan
Not jazz fusion, in my opinion, but you could make that case. In some ways, it is prog-rock and pop songwriting taken to a weird, highly produced extreme that happens to include some jazz elements.

Jazz Fusion

How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll by Elijah Wald
Move from swing and dancing to solo performance in jazz, among other things I wrote about the book in my blog, http://oldmixtapes.blogspot.com/2013/02/i-just-finished-how-beatles-destroyed.html
The book at BN http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-the-beatles-destroyed-rock-n-roll-elijah-wald/1111444539?ean=9780199756971

Miles Davis

BeBop
One of many types of jazz played by Miles Davis.

Blues
See also, Robert Johnson, among many others.

Kanye West

"Weird Al" Yankovic
The most successful musical parodist in the English language, probably of all time, he is also an extremely talented musician, songwriter and bandleader in his own right. He is also smarter, funnier, and more principled than you might expect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Weird_Al%22_Yankovic

Tanya Tagaq

Country Rock Forged in the 1960's, if you are my age you probably associate it with records from the 1970's and 1980's by The Eagles and Alabama. In the 21st Century a lot of the rock elements that made those records notable are simply accepted as "country."

Country Rap So far as I'm concerned, the country music world needs to do a lot more than make a few novelty records with hip-hop elements if they want to prove they aren't part of the problem when in comes to racism.

ZEITGEIST MUSIC FESTIVAL at Des Moines Social Club Sunday, August 7 2016

2016-08-05T14:22:00.000-05:00

The sixth annual Zeitgeist Music Festival, "Iowa's Epic Noise & Experimental Music Fest/Jam," is Sunday, August 7 2016 in the Kum & Go Theater of the Des Moines Social Club, starting at 1:00 PM. According to the Facebook event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/1817002471860865/) I (as Beautiful Radiant Things) go on at 2:50.

http://desmoinessocialclub.org/
http://desmoinessocialclub.org/events/zeitgeist-music-festival-3/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1817002471860865/

We Need a Better Name For "Noise Music"

2016-07-10T17:11:00.000-05:00

Musicians struggle endlessly with musical genres and their names. We need them as a shorthand for describing our music and the associated scenes and subcultures. The other side of the coin is that we endlessly chafe under their limitations. Whenever an artist changes his or her style a little bit questions arise about whether or not last year's genre labels still fit, as do protestations that this does not, or should not, matter.

Every time I upload a track to Soundcloud I need to decide what genre label to put on it and I am never happy with my choice. In recent years the word "noise" is almost always in there among the tags somewhere. The eternal conversation about the definitions of "noise" and "music" are interesting, in their own way, but I'm increasingly convinced that using "noise" to define genres of music benefits nobody and confuses everybody.

I recently had an interesting conversation with a friend about whether or not what I've recently been doing with spoken word recordings is "music." While she agreed that it was of value as art, and very much worth doing, it did not do what she expected of music. To her, I was producing conceptual sound art, or something of the sort--not music, but also not noise. That my music stretched my friend's definition of music is not what it is interesting here. The interesting thing is that although she did not think it was music, she was quite certain it was not noise.

For the rest of this essay when I say "music," I define it broadly. I accept the "organized sound" definition, but also think human intention is important to distinguish music from non-musical language and other sound. We present music [1][2] in a different way than writing or speaking a human language like English or Hindi, even when it is not played on an instrument or performed.

Although I like the oppositional, transgressive and rebellious connotations of "noise," when applied to music, including my music, I think it often does not fit because of the literal meaning of the word, "noise," unwanted sound. Likewise for a lot of the music I listen to that gets the label, "noise," or some other genre descriptor including the word ("noise rock," "noise pop," "power noise," "noisecore," "harsh noise," "noise metal"). The problem with describing any music with the word "noise" is that it invariably misses what might be interesting about it.

Clearly, if a sound exists as any part of a "noise music" recording or performance, someone wanted it enough to create and or present it. Thus, the conventional, generic definition of noise does not fit. Yet, we, and I include myself in "we," say it over and over.

When describing music, we say "noise" to make one of two points about an artist or genre. It could be that the music significantly contains sounds not commonly thought of as musical. It could also be that the music is extreme or experimental enough that it challenges common definitions of music. In either case, it takes the form of both a warning and something like a political dog whistle. To lovers of relatively conventional music it is a warning that it is not for them; something about it is inherently unmusical in mainstream terms. To lovers of other music tarred with the epithet, "noise," it is a dog whistle. It lets us know it may very well be for us, but only because it is probably unpalatable to others.

This is contrary and exclusive, but the larger problem is that the word "noise" does not describe what anyone might actually like about any musical work. It isn't like a regular genre descriptor like "heavy metal" or "techno." Although there is no shortage of debate about whether or not this or that recording fits, there is a general agreement about what heavy metal and techno are. Noise, on the other hand, really just means "normal people don't like it."

Not very informative.

Heavy metal is loud, aggressive rock music featuring distorted guitars and powerful, steady drums. Techno is mid-tempo (by EDM standards) dance music featuring simple arrangements of exclusively electronic sounds and effects. Noise music is... Ummm.... Ya. There are definitions, but they are not very good or specific. How about something more specific, like "power noise?" Wikipedia helps, but aside from examples the definition boils down to "noise music with a beat." If you look at the web site for Ant-Zen, a record label oft mentioned in the same breath as "power noise," you will find very few instances of the term. Why? Because it doesn't tell the reader much. "Power noise" isn't descriptive. It is limited by all the problems of using the word "noise" to describe and differentiate music.

I mentioned techno and heavy metal before to help make the point that I'm not just talking about the problems of describing and discussing music. Nor am I just talking about unusual, culturally unfamiliar or obscure music. Techno really isn't that popular. The term gets incorrectly applied to other electronic music quite a lot, but it has a real definition. If you correct someone, pointing out why The Prodigy isn't a techno act (too dense and busy, too many vocals, breakbeats, live rock instruments), they will get it quite quickly. Applied to music genres, "noise" provides no such clarity, either by itself nor in conjunction with other words.

So, that's the problem. We rely on a term that doesn't tell us, or anyone else, much about the music we are trying to discuss. The only solution I have is to find better words for whatever specific music we are talking about.

Sorry. As of today, that's all I have.

Two New Live Recordings from Beautiful Radiant Things

2016-06-07T20:17:00.000-05:00

Charles "Centipede Farmer" Hoffman has posted all of the live sets from the March 20 2016 Freemont show on Soundcloud.

I have also posted a bunch of excerpts from my recent practices. Enjoy.

Final Prep For Tonight's Gig at The Freemont

2016-03-20T10:04:00.000-05:00

I'm playing a noise/experimental event at The Freemont in Des Moines tonight. I've spent a lot of time practising this week and tweaked my setup and how I am approaching the set.

The problems of making electronic music performances sufficiently live are well known. My set tonight won't be perfect, but it will be live, improvisational, unique and in the spirit of Beautiful Radiant Things' recordings.

Here is what has changed in the last couple of weeks. If you are not an electronic musician you still might find this interesting as I think it says something about how people relate to technology.

Setup 1: Computer playing spoken word recordings parallel to effects fed by Korg Korg Monotron DELAY

That looked like this. I blogged about it a few weeks ago.

I thought this would work out well with our without a drummer. When having a drummer join me fell through I became very worried that this was not going to be dynamic or "live" enough. In my desire to compensate and make the whole thing much more rock-n-roll I decided to add guitar.

Setup 2: Computer playing spoken word recordings parallel to

effects fed by guitar parallel to

guitar (played through separate amp--signal split to feed "noise" effects going into DJ mixer)

This had a lot of advantages. I own a great sounding closed-back guitar amp and I am a competent rock guitarist. It would have added a significant live and visually interesting (compared to watching me stroke my chin and tweak knobs) element to the performance.

It also gave me a lot more to worry about. If you think of the effects and computer as two different instruments the addition of the guitar brings me up to three. I don't like the one-person-band thing. It divides my attention way too much. Three instruments, three effects chains--it doesn't sound like a lot, but a jazz musician improvizes on one instrument while everyone else in the band is taking care of everything else...one instrument per person. I think that's the optimal musical arrangement.

Playing conventional electric guitar also gets away from my electronic MO of manipulating sounds (often pre-existing sounds) until they turn into something new and musically interesting. Although I fully accept that the way I produce Beautiful Radiant Things recordings can't, unaltered, become live performance, live electric guitar was a BIG conceptual and spiritual departure. That's OK. I'm not saying it's a bad idea to combine them or that I won't do it in the future. But was it what I wanted and worth the extra complexity?

As I spent more and more time getting comfortable with manipulating my effects in real time I started to wonder if I could create the dynamics and movement I wanted with a single sound source--no guitar, no monosynth--just the spoken words. I plugged my computer directly into my effects and found that I could. I don't even need to split the output of my laptop to be able to play an understandable version of the recordings to the audience. The blend controls on the effects make this easy.

Setup 3: Computer playing spoken word recordings in-line with effects

There are more physical pieces here than in the first picture but the experience of playing it is actually easier. In addition to my increased familiarity with the effects this is a function of reduced parallelism[1]. The UC33 MIDI controller runs the software mixer in MIXXX (DJ software) on my laptop, where the spoken word recordings live. The two outputs from the Digitech DL-8 delay pedal go into the right channel of one input and the left channel of the other input of the DJ mixer.

In the picture my laptop is sitting on a Sony Minidisk recorder (MDS-JE510) connected to the tape output on the DJ mixer. Maybe I can reuse some of these sounds later.

I think the best thing about the learning experience of developing this set has been realizing that I can take my love of turning one sound into another into the live performance realm. I love playing guitar but I don't love the idea of adding guitar to my electronic music to compensate for some deficiency. Tonight I am going to turn recordings of a 911 call from Madison Wisconsin into beats[2] in front of a live audience.

[1] I'm somewhat to reluctant to say that as I am actually a fan of parallel processing. I would like to try doing something like this with a mixing board with lots of busses. The granularity in how I could manipulate and mix the effects would approximate making a recording and potentially be really fun.

[2] Another thing I would like to try is tempo-syncing a similar collection of effects. If I could add some sort of step sequencer, master clock and/or tempo-synced gates to a set-up like this I might be able to go farther with the rhythmic possibilities. Currently I do some tempo-syncing of the delays and tremolo by ear, but if two or more effects were automatically synced it would free me up to listen for other things and make rhythmic changes quicker and cleaner.

Good and Bad Things for 2-21-2016

2016-02-21T12:11:00.000-06:00

Base metal
Watch cases > 42mm
The violence inherent in the system
The Electoral College
The permanent, cumulative and irreversible nature of noise-induced hearing loss
Slush
Half of my fellow Americans
Gender-specific marketing
Law enforcement demanding to make everyone more vulnerable in the name of safety and security

Good

Direct democracy
Bass metal
Watch cases between 30mm and 40mm
Stainless steel
Tire width > 3 inches
Half of my fellow Americans
Local businesses
Dogs
Eggs
Watches that look awesome on men and women
Evil corporations occasionally doing the right thing
Pandas

Apple vs FBI: I Never Thought I Would Defend Apple Again

2016-02-21T10:16:00.000-06:00

Apple Inc. is a despicable company that is absolutely in the right in its current battle with the FBI. The short version of the story is that the FBI wants Apple to bypass and weaken encryption on its iOS devices to make it easier for law enforcement to access data stored on them. Apple is refusing. Apple is right.

I'm going to keep this brief because the reasons Apple is right are very simple and the details of the current FBI case don't matter[1]. Encryption is good for everyone. Privacy is good for everyone. The only things better than encryption and privacy are better encryption and privacy. When it becomes easier[2] for the FBI to get past Apple's encryption it becomes easier for everyone to get past everyone's encryption. That makes all of us more vulnerable, not just to embarrassing revelations about our personal lives but to crime.

Although I certainly believe someone within the FBI would eventually abuse[3] the ability to crack an iPhone that speculative argument it not needed for Apple to be right and the FBI to be wrong[4]. We are not, in the long run, safer if law enforcement and governments gain the ability to more easily access our personal information. Doing it in the name of solving a recent, horrible crime does not change that.

[1] This is not to say the crime in question was trivial. It was not. People died.
[2] I also believe the FBI can, eventually, get what they want without Apple's help. There is no such thing as unbreakable encryption. Circumstances often make it extremely difficult or impractical to break, but that is exactly what we want. Let the FBI do it themselves, if they must. Apple will be complicit in all the damage that follows if they cooperate.
[3] For any authority a coercive or legitimate power not worth abusing is not worth having.
[4] It is worth noting that while Apple does not have a perfect record on privacy they have gotten a lot better. Observe the difference in their 2013 and 2015 Who Has Your Back scores from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

How Spoiled Are Your Animal Companions?

2016-02-20T10:37:00.000-06:00

How Spoiled Are Your Animal Companions?

Lower answers score higher. Be Honest! Your cat is reading over your shoulder.

Do you have nice furniture?

Yes, quite nice, in fact.
I have some nice furniture.
I used to have nice furniture.
Mitzie has nice furniture. She sometimes lets me sit on it.

Do you ever buy "people food" specifically for non-humans?

Duh! That's why they sell "cat food?"
Only on Felix's birthday.
As treats or for health reasons.
It's all "food," isn't it?
I saw the looks on their faces the first time I gave them raw Kobe beef and I knew I was doing the right thing.

Have you ever denied yourself to provide for a companion animal?

No. I'm the human.
Yes, I run a pit bull rescue.
Yes, to pay for lifesaving medical treatment.
Yes, for special treats.
Yes.
I no longer have an independent existence identifiable as "self." In fact, I'm not really comfortable saying "I."

Do your friends think you are nuts for any animal-related reasons?

No.
They chuckle occasionally.
Only when I start telling stories about Buster and his squirrels, or they see the leather ottoman I bought for Squishypie.
Yes, all of them, all the time.
Human friends? Who cares?

When an animal I live with destroys or damages something I…

Dispassionately investigate and implement a reasonable and humane way to modify the animal's behavior or otherwise prevent such things from happening in the future.
Grit my teeth, make plans as described in (a) but follow through poorly.
Sigh, say to myself "Well, I did choose a predator as a pet," move my more valuable books to higher shelves.
Chuckle and make half-hearted plans as described in (a).
Say "awwww….." with a dumb smile on my face. Do nothing else.
Reward them.

I feed my animals...

Reasonably priced dry or canned foods available at grocery and pet stores.
The "best" dry or canned foods available at grocery and pet stores.
Individualized diets based on their age, health, breed and consultation with a reputable veterinarian who sees them regularly.
A diet developed by 5th century breeders of fighting dogs in Poloma, even though I have only chinchillas and guinea pigs.
Whatever they demand in that horrible recurring dream, set in a courtroom.

Are your personal food choices influenced by sharing food with your companion animals?

No.
Rarely, as a treat.
Yes, in that I sometimes make more of what I was going to have anyway, provided it's healthy for them.
Often. They beg if I don't.
Ya. I know. I'm a pushover.
We all eat a diet developed by 5th century breeders of fighting dogs in Poloma.

Probable Kit for March 20th Show at The Freemont

2016-02-14T22:14:00.000-06:00

I spent quite a bit of time today deciding how I would improve on my previous live electronic performances. Here is what I ended up with.

With DJ software, a DJ mixer and a bunch of guitar pedals you might be forgiven for thinking I might be DJing and or playing guitar. The current plan for the 3-20-2019 Beautiful Radiant Things set at The Freemont in Des Moines includes neither. It may, however, include a live drummer.

The details:

Stanton 2 input DJ mixer
Input 2: Laptop running Mixxx DJ software
Input 1: Delay chains
Korg Monotron DELAY (hand-held ribon synth)
Electro-Harmonix Micro Metal Muff
Electro-Harmonix Bass Big Muff Pi
Electro-Harmonix Switchblade
(One output goes to each of the two following delays)
Digitech Hardwire DL-8 Delay/Looper
Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Boy
ModTone StutterKill
Kill switch and Memory Boy feed right and left of Input 1
Boss tuner acts as power supply for other pedals.

To hear what actually happens, come to the show on March 20.

New Track: Domestication (Feat John Zerzan)

2016-02-02T16:18:00.000-06:00

Domestication (Feat John Zerzan)
Beautiful Radiant Things
170BPM (and multiples thereof) 4/4
2-2-2016

Features samples of an interview with John Zerzan conducted by by Adam Ford, 7-18-2014 (available archive.org/details/JohnZerzanD…anshumanismAdamFord). All Linux production, mostly Ardour and Audacity, plug-ins include those by Calf, Invada, Guitarix and Steve Harris. Whether you choose to use a technology or not, healthy skepticism and distrust are a good idea. Everything is political. Don't kid yourself.

What Non-Depressed People Should Know About Depression

2016-01-24T21:24:00.000-06:00

In recent decades the acceptance of depression as a treatable disease (rather than a character flaw or purely spiritual problem) has spread, along with the use of antidepressant drugs. Everybody knows someone personally and can name celebrities or artists who take or have taken antidepressants. This should not be mistaken for understanding depression or how one can successfully live with it.

Like pregnancy, those who cannot experience clinical depression[1] cannot fully understand it. That's OK. Partial understanding, enough to be supportive and sympathetic, is usually enough. Here are a few things non-depressed people can and should know about depression, in the spirit of understanding and support.

1. Depression is more than one thing

2. Depression comes and goes like weather

3. Depression is managed like diabetes, not cured like a bacterial infection

I have lived with depression since I was a child and it runs in my family. On my mother's side it probably goes back to her maternal grandmother[2], maybe farther. I have no formal mental health training but between myself, my family and my friends I have a lot of first and second-hand knowledge of depression.

More Than One Thing

Clinicians diagnose different types of depression, but beyond that, each individual experiences depression differently, even within a given diagnosis. For some of us the mental and emotional "weather" is triggered by the seasons, circumstances, social interactions, literal weather or physical sensations[6]. Others are jerked up and down by simple periodic cycles, unattached to anything but time.

We also experience different symptoms[2.3]. Many of us have a diminished capacity to experience pleasure or excitement. Others have compulsions connected to our moods that range from watching too much TV or binge eating to truly disturbing and dangerous [2.5] risk taking and self-harm. Some of us can't sleep; some of us don't want to do anything else. Some of us shuttle back and forth between these things.

I have experienced a symptom I have not heard anyone else describe[3]. When very depressed my vision and hearing sometimes dull. The visual effect is a little like the "tunnel vision" eye-strain associated with driving for long periods. I lose my peripheral vision and can only focus on what is right in front of me. Similarly, I have trouble hearing, as if my ears were ringing or plugged.

It is a spot-on metaphor for one aspect of a depressed person's thinking, but that's no comfort while it's happening. My guess is that some other people experience this dulling of the senses, but I'm not surprised I have not heard about it. It took me many years to get around to mentioning this phenomenon to my therapist. Conversational topics like reducing my suicidal thoughts were more pressing.

Whether some other people with depression experience dulled senses or not, it's a safe bet that many, if not most, do not[3.5]. From the outside it is easy to assume the wrong thing when presented with such differences. If you know one person with depression who has massive trouble sleeping and another person with depression tells you they have none, that doesn't mean either of them is a hypochondriac, misdiagnosed, lying, or anything else. It just means they are different.

The Weather

People with bipolar disorder[4] are not the only ones whose moods shift radically and problematically. Someone whose depression is well managed and causing little trouble can suddenly plunge, becoming belligerent, withdrawn or suicidal. Others may struggle horribly during the winter holidays and feel relatively good most of the rest of the year. I struggle a little more in the run-up to Presidential elections[5].

Bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder are by far the most famous examples of how depression can change, but the factors of depression's variability are truly infinite. Some people feel better and then worse cyclically, no matter what[5.5]. My depression is very sensitive to my changing circumstances but I also struggle more in the winter. Depression comes and goes in part because it is affected by millions of different things, from how much our parents hugged us us to what we had for lunch.

The main lesson for the non-depressed is this: if someone tells you something makes their depression better or worse, or simply that it is better or worse today, just believe them. If someone says that clouds get them down, but both sunshine and rain lift their spirits, don't try to figure out how the rain cancels out the clouds. Just take their word for it.

Management Not Cure

It is true that most depression is episodic and that it sometimes even goes away without treatment. The bad news is that once it has visited you there is a better than 50% chance it will come back, possibly with a vengeance. After a recurrence or relapse, the chance of a third episode is over 80%[6]. You can probably guess where the graph goes from there.

For someone like me who has had repeated depressive episodes for decades a "cure" isn't in the cards. For us depression is like type 1 diabetes or alcoholism[7]. We may go for long periods of time where depression causes us no major problems (up to true remission) but we are never truly cured.

People with diabetes and recovering alcoholics actively manage their diseases because their lives depend on it. Likewise, chronic major depression must be managed or the consequences can be grave, up to and including death. For me, if I don't actively work at keeping depression from interfering with my relationships, career and will to live I stand to lose them. Antidepressants are my insulin. Talk therapy with a psychologist is my "going to a meeting."

Although my depression is "being treated" with medication and talk therapy I usually think in terms of management, not treatment. Management includes not just what I do with the help of professionals but everything I do to keep depression from further screwing up my life. Exercise helps, as does spending adequate time with other people and eating foods other than refined sugar. There are also less obvious things. I have found that wearing a sport coat or business suit to work (not expected or required in my job) elevates my mood, so I frequently do this[8].

This brings me back to the hypothetical depressed person whose mood is helped by sun and rain but hurt by clouds. Imagine you share an office with this person. You arrive one cloudy morning and he or she is sullen and teary. If he or she believes straightening up their desk for 30 minutes will give them the necessary feeling of control to keep from breaking down sobbing intermittently for the rest of the day, it is very important that they do just that.

It will probably work. Taking action, even something seemingly trivial, to address one's own depression can bring about immediate, if minor and temporary, relief. For those of us who work in offices, it can be the difference between a day of productive meetings and a day of inappropriate yelling or crying. The longer and more thoughtfully this person has been managing their depression, the more refined and effective their management techniques are likely to be. You don't need to understand. You just need to be supportive.

[1] AKA, Major Depressive Disorder (name in the DSM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders ) or unipolar depression, among others.

[2] Why evolution has not de-selected us, I do not know. While a little melancholy can be attractive most people would agree that full-blown depression is NOT sexy. Still, somehow, generation after generation, we manage to meet people, get laid and reproduce.

[2.3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_disorder#Symptoms_and_signs

[2.5] By "dangerous" here I mean acutely dangerous. Overeating is dangerous, but mostly over an extended period of time. Self-harm in the conventional sense involves immediate danger.

[3] My therapist had not heard of it either.

[3.5] I say this for two reasons. First, if it was truly common I might have heard about it. Second, lots of other symptoms are not pervasive, so why would this one be?

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_disorder. Please don't call it "manic-depression." The misuse of the word "manic" has rendered that name more trouble than it's worth.

[5] 100% true. Not a joke.

[5.5] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0010440X9290049V , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9707379

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_disorder#Prognosis , http://canmat.org/cme-depression-relapse-and-recurrence.php , This study looked at people who's depression had been in remission for 6 months or more, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23111147 , http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1586/14737175.6.11.1735 , http://www.jad-journal.com/article/S0165-0327(00)00304-9/abstract, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22883473

[7] ...in the AA sense, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease_theory_of_alcoholism . I'm also assuming the alcoholic in question is in recovery, not actively drinking or merely "dry."

[8] While my relationship with my haberdasher is not part of treating my depression, it is part of its management. :-) He's "a professional," the third generation in his family, but not a mental health professional. Or, as my wife, a licensed Psychologist, would say "He's not that kind of doctor."

New Track: Peafowl Are Native To Asia And Africa

2015-12-29T13:28:00.000-06:00

190 BPM, 4/4. Features samples from a 1950's Sherlock Holmes TV show and Radio Aporee (http://aporee.org/) recordings made at Vojanovy sady in Prague (milos@skolsk), City Hall Park in New York City (Flavien Gillié) and behind the Wollankstraße in Berlin (Fritz Schlüter). "Peacock" refers only to the male bird. The female is a peahen. Collectively they are peafowl. This is an all Linux production centered on Ardour (http://ardour.org/). Plugins included Calf Envelope Filter, Calf 12 Band Equalizer, Sorcer, amsynth, Invada Tube Distortion and Steve Harris's Gate.

New Track: Absolute Music: Now With Realistic Emotions

2015-11-22T17:06:00.002-06:00

Mark Zuckerberg and Virtual Reality's "Slow Ramp"

2015-11-05T10:23:00.000-06:00

Along with his other virtues, it seems Mark Zuckerberg is a master of stating the obvious while also failing to grasp its significance. Check out his cluelessness on both the history and future of virtual reality, propped up with observations about cell phones and gaming.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebooks-zuckerberg-virtual-reality-will-have-slow-ramp/?tag=nl.e539&s_cid=e539&ttag=e539&ftag=TRE17cfd61

"So we've said often that we think that virtual reality and augmented reality could be the next big computing platform. But just to put that in perspective and compare it to the development of previous computing platforms, like phones and computers, I think the first smartphones came out in 2003."

Smartphones are way older than that, but whatever. Zuckerberg also says.

"In terms of the actual content, first, we think gaming is going to be the most obvious market. There are around, I think, more than 200 million, almost 250 million people who have either an X-Box, a PlayStation or a Wii. And we think that that audience is going to the type of people who are going to be very excited about the type of experiences initially that you can have with virtual reality."

Adoption of virtual reality technology isn't "going to be" slow. It's BEEN slow, really slow, for decades. We have had VR headsets for for home gaming for 25 years and other computer based VR much longer. To compare Oculus Rift to the early Blackberries is to fundamentally misunderstand why VR has been actively used in certain types of simulation since the 80's and little more than a novelty elsewhere.

Read the full ZD article for the full effect of Zuckerberg's ignorance of recent technology history.

Don't Put Muslims You Meet In The Position Of Declining Your Handshake

2015-09-27T17:42:00.000-05:00

Depending on where you live and whom you know, you may be familiar with the fact some Muslims (and Orthodox Jews, and others, but it is with Muslims that I have personally experienced this) prefer not to shake hands, either with certain people (unrelated persons across gender) or even many people (non-Muslims). It varies by sect and geography, but it isn't strictly cultural. It is based on at least one hadith, the example of The Prophet Mohomed, teachings of important Imams and profound ideas about oaths, loyalty and what Christians call "the laying on of hands" [1][2][3][4]. After even a very quick study of the issue, it is easy to see why a non-Muslim should not take offense if a Muslim declines to shake his or her hand. I am aware of the gender equality problems that can also be found in this issue, but I think respecting a person's right to refrain from touch is a more immediate problem in this case.

Please read this blog post by Um Ibrahim, a woman who prefers not to shake hands with men, for reasons held by many Muslims, http://muttaqiismail.com/dreaded-handshake/. Notice how she places none of the blame for the awkwardness she feels when declining a handshake on the other person. In her words, "[T]he other person is just showing us a nice gesture. He or she doesn’t understand the rules of Islam simply because they’re not Muslims."

Now that is a gracious attitude! My challenge to my fellow Christians, and everybody else for that matter, is to be just as gracious. When introduced to someone you know to be (or have reason to believe to be, based on name, nationality or dress) Muslim don't put them in the position of declining your handshake. Express your pleasure at meeting them verbally or with a non-touching gesture*. If the other person is comfortable shaking your hand, they will probably offer theirs.

In my workplace (a university) I have found that Muslim women who cover their head with a hijab never offer to shake hands with a man. Women who do not wear the hijab may be comfortable shaking hands with a man. In any case, if in doubt, I don't offer my hand first.

The point is, it isn't all on our Muslim friends and co-workers to diffuse the awkwardness of such situations. We can and should help prevent the awkwardness from ever occurring. Non-Muslims don't NEED to shake hands. We're just in the habit of it. There are other ways to show a new acquaintance respect and welcome, ways that no one feels obligated to decline.

* A Muslim friend suggested to me that I put my hand over my heart while saying my greeting when meeting a Muslim for the first time. It isn't what people expect from a white, Christian, Iowan but nobody's going to be offended.

New Remix of Dave Phillips "Cold Drop At Club Tux"

2015-05-24T14:46:00.000-05:00

When Casio Releases a "Real" Smartwatch It Will Totally Rock

2015-05-09T17:24:00.000-05:00

When people talk about Apple's competition the names that come up are Google, Samsung, Microsoft, Amazon, Dell, Hewlett Packard, maybe Adobe and maybe some other smartphone manufacturers. In the rapidly maturing smartwatch market it might be somebody totally different. According to watch expert Ariel Adams the company that could sell millions of smartwatches, whenever they feel like trying, is Casio.

In an article on A Blog To Watch called What Features Should A Casio Smartwatch Have?, Adams makes a strong case that Casio has the expertise, resources and (as we say in the computer business) "installed base" to sell about as many smartwatches as they want. Interestingly, Adams explains how they can do this without announcing their "entry into the smartwatch market." Rather, they just need to make their current products marginally smarter. Some of their current watches are not exactly stupid and they certainly know how to make shit people want to wear on their wrist.

"Casio may not have a product ecosystem like Apple or a serious operating system like Google, but they have a lot of things that those other companies don't. Casio knows better than pretty much everyone else out there how to create a fantastic looking and high quality watch for a very low price. Casio also knows how to make watches that consumers like to use, and that are comfortable. More so, Casio knows how to create a highly functional digital watch with features people actually use and displays that people understand."

Read the full article for a lot more detail and analysis.

Ariel Adams founded ablogtowatch.com, which covers everything of interest to the watch enthusiast. He also writes about luxury watches for other outlets and hosts the Hourtime Podcast with John Biggs, author of Marie Antoinette’s Watch, among many other things.

Joe Jackson's "Forty Years" 30 Years Later and 70 Years After V-E Day

2015-05-09T14:59:00.001-05:00

It is 70 years since the Nazi military fell under the combined opposition of The Allies[1], bringing the European part of World War II to an end.

Joe Jackson's Big World album came out about 29 years ago, 1986. I'm going to call it 30. It's a great record. One of my favorite songs on Big World is Forty Years, which is about the relationship between the anti-German Allies, 40 years on. Now, it's 70 years.

The premise of Forty Years is that the dominant narrative of the coming global village through easier transportation and communication (a very popular and exciting idea at the time) wasn't the whole story. Four decades into the Cold War the the peoples of the allied nations who's collective sacrifices won WWII neither remembered their shared history nor even particularly liked each other. The whole Big World album is about social and personal aspects of what we now call "globalization." Jackson's position is that the world was cracking as it shrank. In Forty Years those cracks are the broken relationships between the people of the UK, US and Europe, who had so recently laid down their lives for each other.

Forty Years has three verses, each from a different geographical vantage point; Washington DC, Berlin and an unspecified location in England[2]. The three, short choruses are variations of this.

Once allies cried and cheered
But it was forty years ago

The last verse, told from Jackson's native England is as follows.

Where I come from, they don't like Americans much
They think they're so loud, so tasteless and so out of touch
Stiff upper lips are curled into permanent sneers
Self-satisfied, awaiting the next forty years

The other verses are just as dark, in their own way. Jackson lays blame evenly. All parties, Jackson seems to say, are guilty of the same selective memory and self-centeredness. Without actually glorifying the war, Jackson points out that in at least one way, it brought out something good in us that had been lost in a time of relative peace.

Buy the album. You won't regret it. But here is the song on YouTube[3].

I admit that it's the arithmetic that caught my attention: 70-30=(Forty Years).

The interval since V-E Day has almost doubled since this record came out, when Jackson was 31 years old and I was 16. I'll leave it to you to draw conclusions about what else has and has not changed.

1. The Joe Jackson song I'm writing about focuses on just three of the counties involved in the war. It is worth noting that WWII was pretty complicated and a LOT of different countries were involved, especially on the Allies side.

2. Jackson has hived in England, the USA and Germany.

3. If this link goes dead there will surely be others. You can also hear the first part of Forty Years and the other songs on Big World at http://joejackson.com/music?page=music&album_id=36852.

The Clash: Sandinista, Another Interesting Review, Same Author Writes About Pink Floyd

2015-05-03T13:52:00.000-05:00

John McFerrin reviews my favorite Clash album, Sandinista, here (http://www.johnmcferrinmusicreviews.org/clash.htm#sandinista).

This author does not seem to have the intense personal connection to the album that I do, but does seem to come away with a similar understanding of what Sandinista is and why it is so special, musically. He seems to know more about the album's production than I do. Interestingly, he doesn't seem to be a big fan of punk rock, in the traditional Ramones/Sex Pistols/Black Flag/Dead Kenedy's sense. Note that he gives both the US and UK releases[1] of The Clash's self titled album (their "punkest" record) lower ratings than Sandinista or London Calling.

McFerrin also reviews The Final Cut by Pink Floyd, which I wrote about here, comparing and contrasting with About Face by David Gilmour. Again, we come to somewhat similar conclusions. Alas, I can not find anything he has written about Gilmour outside of Pink Floyd, so we don't know what he makes of About Face. If you read the introduction section of his Pink Floyd page you will see he does not hold Gilmour int he same esteem I do.

A note about his rating scale: He rates the records in hex. This allows a one-character rating to represent the album's position on a 16-point scale. WAY more space efficient than a four or five star system! ...until you consider that most people don't know from hex[3], so he has to devote a whole page on his site explaining the damn thing. I still think it's cool. Just keep these things in mind:

It counts up. 9 is better than 5. F is better than D.

All letters are better than all numbers (except 10).

The letters are not letter grades.

If you look at McFerrin's reviews sorted by rating, you see that the most elite rankings are dominated by The Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones. I find it interesting that someone who's priorities are clearly so different from mine[2] would see Sandinista so similarly.

[1] There are significant differences between the two releases, which were actually two years apart. For the USA release four songs were removed, five songs were added and a different recording of "White Riot" was used. That means about 1/3 of the album is different. Although this is their "debut" album it terms of when it was recorded and initially released it was their second full length release in the USA. Prior to 1979 the only (legal) way to get this album in the US was to buy an import of the UK version. Topper Headon, the best known of the Clash's drummers, only appears on the tracks added to the US version. I believe that makes the UK version of the self titled album and Cut The Crap the only Clash albums Headon is not on.

[2] Beatles, Who and Stones are perfect examples of bands I respect but am not interested in. There are several Who songs I really enjoy when I hear them, but they are definitely in that "good but not interesting" category.

[3] Ever wonder where that idiom comes from? http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010/02/dont-know-from-etymology.html

Short Lists of Good and Bad Things

2015-05-01T16:07:00.000-05:00

Bad

Referring to famous people you have never met by their first name, only
Abuse of power
Running out of disk space
The common cold

Good

Live music
Tea
More than one computer monitor
Having a cop briefly withhold judement