Yes, I am biased: I worship The Muse, not mindless ditties.

Post #271,798 by Ashton 11/1/06 6:22:04 PM Reply	Yes, I am biased: I worship The Muse, not mindless ditties. Yes of Course - such matters have no One True 'answer'. But didactic is a most popular form of assertion here, I believe. ;-) (And, as to the catholicism of my musical tastes - you missed the obvious: Philip Glass, and even PDQ Bach, Switched-on Bach et al. Still, within these 'on medium Only' works: no human is required to [or indeed can..] (re-)produce a 'concert'.) Who could argue against the usefulness of a synthesizer, capable of simulating all the orchestral voices - to a composer? (Aside from the practical $matter of the inaccessibility of an orchestra to try things out -- its educational value to any composer is self evident.) Now then.. once this material is saved to whatever medium - where occurs the human performance? - thus, where is the 'art' in that performance. I submit that virtuosity in composition, rendered to machine language and replayed: eliminates the virtuosity of the performer on an 'instrument' in real. time. We trivialize that Difference only at the peril of long-term emotional health Note that this caveat does not ignore the techno of the pipe organ, or the 'mechanical engineering' which has improved most instruments (except strings.. since the 18th century Italians?). Even voice training has profited from new bio knowledge, techno to (even) inspect vocal chords and suggest.. techniques for overcoming problems. And BTW - I too have used Music Minus One records, as supply a recorded accompaniment to a work / you supply the solo part. Now the fuzziness of this whole unresolvable matter arises: If I play the record on-stage and play the solo part.. isn't that still a performance by a human? I too can enjoy 'synthesized sound'. But I maintain that the difficulty of mastering a physical instrument (or one's voice) - creates, over a long time, infinitely more than a facility in playing scales, then actual works: it alters the emotional center of the performer, all along -- and it makes every performance a unique event. {I assert: it also humanizes, as do few pursuits left to us as commodity worker-bees.} If techno eventually diminishes both the fact of such performances of Music by virtuosos, as well as any-much audience for the Performing Arts -- we'll then be All-Repo, All the Time. IMhO. And that - is a fate we are already previewing, here in the Land of the (mostly) Crass. Today's 'music INDUSTRY' [think also: medical INDUSTRY?] has vastly more to do with slightly morphing previous (thus safe) shallow ditties into new Sales of the 300th variation on a tired riff: than with all historical ideas of what music is about, and Why humans needed to make such sounds, Themselves. Music earned and required Attention! 24/7 Muzak, by whatever gadget attached to ears - like Tee Vee - renders music down to triviality; to a purely passive experience. Muzak lowers consciousness. I call that, too: child abuse. 'Virtuosity' ... an ocean of meanings. Or, in the words of Barry Goldwater ~~ Extremism in the pursuit of The Muse is no vice! Carrion, you dastardly Mechano-set macerating Muse-mauler er, \ufffd
Post #271,801 by boxley 11/1/06 6:58:21 PM Reply	hard to do an improv ax rip with a computer keyboard some of the best tunes and worst will be live, improvisation at its best, look woods and ritchards can rip on each others riffs and never play the tune the same way twice. Cant do that with a keyboard. As for your other statement, if I could do that I would never leave the house. thanx, bill Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
Post #271,819 by imqwerky 11/1/06 10:33:16 PM Reply	ICLRPD ...if I could do that I would never leave the house. Smile, Amy [link\|http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?Amy%20Rathman\|Pics of the Family]
Post #271,827 by admin 11/1/06 11:10:55 PM Reply	And again: Don't tell me my appreciation of music is flawed because it's different than yours. Yes, the Canadian Brass or Perlman in concert are great. So is Tool or , for the same and different reasons. "Mindless ditty" just tells me that you don't know what the hell you're talking about, and can't be bothered to learn. The Muse that you "worship" takes a lot more forms than your narrow mind can appreciate. There's a lot more to today's music than the music industry. Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #271,838 by rcareaga 11/2/06 1:55:41 AM Reply	Tastes differ: hence "tastes," not "absolutes" admin fumes to Ashton: "Don't tell me my appreciation of music is flawed because it's different than yours." I looked in vain for a statement in post 271760 that your appreciation of music was "flawed." Preferences differ. You're welcome to your tropisms, as Ashton is welcome to his. Takes all kinds, et cetera. Simple duration has a way of sorting these things out. I suspect that at the end of your son's life (may clean living, advances in geriatric medicine and the failure of civilization to crash messily this century all contribute to making that day far distant!) Tool will be largely forgotten and Scarlatti, say, will not be. cordially, Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
Post #271,882 by admin 11/2/06 1:19:40 PM Reply	Re: Tastes differ: hence "tastes," not "absolutes" "I worship The Muse, not mindless ditties". Read between the lines for the disdain, Rand. The music I enjoy to listen to and create isn't music, it's all just "mindless ditties". Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #271,989 by Ashton 11/3/06 5:27:56 AM Reply	You can read between the lines or - just insert ^s to imagineer your own paranoid suppositions - of what I might imagine You listen to. I don't recall assigning playlists to anyone, near or far. I aver that there are mindless ditties Out There. That they perfuse every soap opera, elevator, advertainment and pharm-chem ad + too-much-to-list. Repetitive pieces of these can also be found in some songs I have heard, described by others as, 'popular'. That means: not within all songs written in the last n-years, lest 'some' be misoverestimated. (Unclear if Louie Louie qualifies; I didn't listen long enough.) If You listen mainly to those, then.. I do not apologize for the inference. Surely not for any inferences not made. Just as.. I don't listen exlusively to orchestral music or opera arias (and you don't know What my playlist is like) ... ditto I re. Yours. {sheesh}
Post #272,005 by CRConrad 11/3/06 9:18:05 AM Reply	So WTF are you gibbering about, then? Because your jumping to "mindless ditties" as opposed to "Teh Muse", when the guys were talking about digitronic instruments as opposed to banging on pots or scratching the guts of dead sheep, that had to come from somewhere, didn't it? If you really hadn't meant to impugn the tastes of those who Dared Oppose You On Matters Of Culture, then why the fuck bring up any "mindless ditties" at all, in the frigging first place?!? It would behoove even you, Ash(, IMnshO), to once in a blue moon just fucking apologize when you've insulted people. In stead, I mean, of this pseudo-backing-down -- without ever admitting any fault, of course! -- that isn't even a real retraction, if one takes the trouble to parse your gibberish carefully. But what do I know; I'm just a Nekulturnyj prole, right...? [link\|mailto:MyUserId@MyISP.CountryCode\|Christian R. Conrad] (I live in Finland, and my e-mail in-box is at the Saunalahti company.) Ah, the Germans: Masters of Convoluted Simplification. — [link\|http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=1603\|Jehovah]
Post #272,106 by Ashton 11/3/06 5:47:47 PM Reply	Hey.. welcome back to Normal, CRC and.. Pshaw How you can imagine that I believe that the known and esteemed survivors of the venue of-the-LRPD -- would LISTEN to the mindless pap I've referenced! - can only come from the tetched, a bout of palsy? or perhaps .. this local election's proximity to the end of the Western world. But you don't live here. Still, you're closer to the ME. Would I, for example, suppose.. that those carefully assembled 5-50K playlists would contain a single copy of ... Tiny Tim? the Monkees? Levi Lullaby? Why would You supose that I would suppose JUNK? Why would you suppose that I DON'T suppose that - many contain the complete discography of Zappa, for one.. and maybe even a cylinder with some Glenn Gould. My rant was about the omission from todays' yout consciousness of [what I said] and what I think is being lost, for that fact. Did I need to list the cream of the crop, pop that has survived from the '60s to now == the Test of 'longevity', lest someone's taste-buds feel I have stomped heavily upon >Them<? Would that counter the assertion of there being a lot of mindless ditties Out There? I say again: there's a lot of repetitive mindless pap out there. You'll have to do a better job with the Posting Rulez, then, o arbiter of nasty suppositions. Because even if I despised 98% of all the stuff on all the local playlists -??- So. What. Would I force a single armed partisan to sit through a side of Sergei Nakariakov? Why do I have to accommodate 'tastes' - everyone's a Critic. Find where I've invaded a thread and said: this cut you like? it's really Stupid, and I know you'd want to know that, so you could become Better. I'm insulted that y'all don't have a. single. copy. of NO LIMIT So then, my music must be CRAP, eh? Don't bother to apologize.. When do I get to be pissed and fix Your collections?
Post #272,108 by CRConrad 11/3/06 5:56:12 PM Reply	What collections? Yes, now you know TWO of that very rare kind of people. [link\|mailto:MyUserId@MyISP.CountryCode\|Christian R. Conrad] (I live in Finland, and my e-mail in-box is at the Saunalahti company.) Ah, the Germans: Masters of Convoluted Simplification. — [link\|http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=1603\|Jehovah]
Post #272,113 by Ashton 11/3/06 6:18:26 PM Reply	Well... I'm not ackshully averse to that handiness... just lazy. If I stumble into a copacetic format with more dynamic range, less distortion than mp3 .. I've a few hundred pounds of LPs, tapes, CDs I'd love to cram into a 2.5" HD. Except I'd procrastinate at the record-washing, the VU-meter scanning.. you know: the Work. I'd still listen via speakers, home or car. But what If I found the convenience IS addictive, gets to 12/7: hypocrisy? or smash-with-hammer, I guess.
Post #272,115 by CRConrad 11/3/06 6:26:29 PM Reply	Whose collection are we talking about now, and since... ...when, and why? And you can't even SEE how you tend to twist and turn whole threads of discussion, by answering something else that what you were asked? [link\|mailto:MyUserId@MyISP.CountryCode\|Christian R. Conrad] (I live in Finland, and my e-mail in-box is at the Saunalahti company.) Ah, the Germans: Masters of Convoluted Simplification. — [link\|http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=1603\|Jehovah]
Post #272,138 by Ashton 11/3/06 9:58:40 PM Reply	collections? - 'playlists'. Dast I not use a synonym? So I presumed you meant something like: I don't Have a collection / playlist. Much or nothing might be read into the entire triviality, I guess. And no, no twisting motion was involved.
Post #272,122 by bepatient 11/3/06 7:14:51 PM Reply	Is that Dylan you are asking for? Love minus Zero / No Limit??? Monkees? Tiny Tim? Check. Levi Lullaby, sadly, no. I don't think I need much fixin. I also have the complete discography of Jean-Michel Jarre. I would love for my kids to learn to appreciate it. Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry._{Adrian Belew}
Post #272,141 by Ashton 11/3/06 10:10:17 PM Reply	Umm, actually - [link\|http://www.nakariakov.com/\| here]. Then 'recordings'. Guess I shoulda surmised that it's such a neat title - it must have had lots of takers. Anyway, when you've received your copy - let me know, so I can adjust the stops for the Playlist Marauders, those fun-loving two-wheeled folks who drive around, checking that playlists are sufficiently catholic. Or need correcting. (Dey works fer Da Muse, y'know..) :-\ufffd
Post #272,144 by boxley 11/3/06 10:44:42 PM Reply	thats cheating exposing these poor fools who enjoy scat like "the police" to real music. feh, I always remember how that cd took my son away from the dire world into a place of beauty, and myself enjoying same. thanx, bill Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
Post #272,148 by Ashton 11/3/06 11:19:16 PM Reply	(Gracias) Had no idea 'how' he'd respond to that jewel.. but I hoped that the er Muse would handle all of that. Quite satisfying to hear that both of you enjoyed that, pretty-far-from a combo sound. It seems bitchin for any horn player, of whatever aims. For that matter, had I magically heard That CD, via the grace of Cthulhu + Twilight Zone, at age 15ish? - I really do not know if I would have hung it up? or re-doubled [??] 'Awesome' - another murdered word. We still Had it! then. I was never much interested in the pop songs of yout, but noticed that many of my cohorts would try to emulate those sounds. I didn't - OK maybe Bunny Berrigan.. and can't get into the heads of those who thought they were .. [enough?] But was lucky enough to have a few cohorts; one to play duets with. That suggested I was maybe not all That odd. (Not that I would have been any less stubborn, if solo ;-) Thanks for the fine words, A. "A - you're adorable.. B - you're so beautiful.." cha..cha.. cha..
Post #272,176 by drewk 11/4/06 11:42:38 AM Reply	On the pop songs of your yout "A - you're adorable.. B - you're so beautiful.." cha..cha.. cha.. I don't remember where I heard this, but ... 95% of all pop songs are about one of these five themes: I wish I was fucking you. Hey, you wanna fuck? I'm so glad I'm fucking you. I wish I was still fucking you. Fuck you. === Kip Hawley is still an idiot. === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #272,251 by lincoln 11/5/06 4:41:25 PM Reply	IreadLRPD (new thread) Created as new thread #272250 titled [link\|/forums/render/content/show?contentid=272250\|IreadLRPD] lincoln "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow Never apply a Star Trek solution to a Babylon 5 problem. I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a *Citizen* of the United States. [link\|mailto:golf_lover44@yahoo.com\|contact me]
Post #272,351 by Ashton 11/6/06 5:23:07 AM Reply	{Ssshhh!} - wanna destroy an entire cha cha line I remember a wise old wag (or was it a hag?) reminding, I like you! == I am Like You. And much follows, (even without the complications of not knowing self or other - nearly as well as it seemed.) I think the whole jelloware imagination thing is made plain by those lugubrious lyrics to that ancient chestnut, On Top of Old Smoky. Hearing that at camp, as a tyke - and not knowing words like lugubrious or petulant to help, but acquainted with the blame-game - I distinctly remember wondering how this star-double-crossed pair thing came about. (And why were people singing songs! about this Mess?) But today, being older and wiser as well as humble and all, I've at last figured out that the problem is -
Post #272,201 by tuberculosis 11/4/06 3:50:50 PM 8/21/07 6:29:16 AM Reply	I like the police Actually, I mostly like early police - don't much care for the easy listening hits like every breath you suck or tea in the sahara. Do like synchronicity II, walking in your footsteps, most of ghosts, nearly everything before. And I don't care for solo Sting at all. [link\|http://www.blackbagops.net\|Black Bag Operations Log] [link\|http://www.objectiveclips.com\|Artificial Intelligence] [link\|http://www.badpage.info/seaside/html\|Scrutinizer] Edited by tuberculosis Aug. 21, 2007, 06:29:16 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #272,202 by Another Scott 11/4/06 4:10:30 PM Reply	Dunno. Some of his later stuff is pretty good in small doses. There's some song of his about Bali (that I can not find anywhere I've looked) that I thought was very poinient especially after the 2002 bombing there. Cheers, Scott. (Who agrees that the early/middle Police stuff was probably his best.)
Post #272,149 by bepatient 11/3/06 11:28:18 PM Reply	Interesting Trumpet was my first instrument. Until braces did us part. Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry._{Adrian Belew}
Post #272,353 by Ashton 11/6/06 5:35:57 AM Reply	Holy Herbert L. Clarke, Beep - Umm yeah, braces are what I should have had, too; aside from astronomical cost for a single parent way-back, as ever - prospect of that loss was more compelling (at least to me.) An early lesson in irony of the usual sort - in retrospect: if bite could have been corrected, I'd likely have been a better player. That facility might have led to - - See, everything Does follow from that single butterfly in Tasmania. And we're constantly lectured to .. to plan Ahead?!?
Post #272,368 by bepatient 11/6/06 9:58:17 AM Reply	Actually, my then musical interest was Herb Alpert. Whipped Cream and other Favorites. Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry._{Adrian Belew}
Post #272,377 by Another Scott 11/6/06 10:46:27 AM Reply	Yummy album cover.
Post #272,401 by bepatient 11/6/06 12:59:21 PM Reply	Oh yes. That was part of the attraction. Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry._{Adrian Belew}
Post #272,403 by bepatient 11/6/06 12:59:27 PM 11/6/06 12:59:50 PM Reply	Dupe Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry._{Adrian Belew} Edited by bepatient Nov. 6, 2006, 12:59:50 PM EST Expand All History
Post #271,839 by Ashton 11/2/06 3:59:04 AM Reply	Hey, I stay the course to coin a phrase. It doesn't matter what my prefs are; this is about the declining interest, encouragement early-on -- for kids to learn how to play a musical instrument which needs no electricity, and which thus continues a thread to prehistory. And readies their tiny nascent minds for the ephemeral -- not just a whole lotta LOUD. As to contemporary critics of 'the New', in this case a tad back in time: Early '70s I witnessed, at the Fillmore - some bands du jour, vamping for an appearance of the Mothers. They/Zappa were so pissed at the general demeanor / screams for Louie, Louie - and at the crappy quality of the warm-up bands that night, that Z. said to the crowd only (IIRC) ~"... so ... you like Louie, Louie, eh?" They then proceeded to an accelerated lampoon of LL, across several transpositions and variations. An expected ~ hour show ended at ~ 22 min. They essentially walked out, IIRC without a word. Hey, if Zappa doesn't know junk music when he abides it? ... never mind my poor powers to add or detract. But it still doesn't matter what genres I prefer. Or you. (Some Celtic does it for me + ____ ... in small doses.)
Post #271,883 by admin 11/2/06 1:22:55 PM Reply	Tarring with a broad brush. Duncan plays piano and keyboard, and composes on a computer. And your disdain for things electrical is unsupported. An electric guitar is no less a vehicle for the sublime than a grand piano. It's just different. So I get the feeling that for you it really is just about tastes, because your narrow-minded view of what is "Music" isn't supported by what I see of what can be done with electrical and electronic instruments. Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."

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