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Yeah, it's been a week since I updated here. Been busy with other things, including bashing out a few posts over at Clicks & Notes.
On a completely unrelated topic...
Am I the only one who glanced at this pic of Renee Zellweger at the Oscars and thought "Rosanne Barr"?
I didn't intend to be mean -- that honestly was the first thing that popped into my head.
Poor Renee. I'm sure you'll wow the crowd next year.
A change of pace from my 80s New Wave binge-a-thon of late....
Fans of 20th Century (should be 21st, now, surely) Minimalist Classical music will want to visit The Zombizi Mishap, who is featuring the work "Shaker Loops" by composer John Adams:
As John Adams writes about the piece:
"Shaker Loops" began as a string quartet with the title "Wavemaker". At the time, like many a young composer, I was essentially unaware of the nature of those musical materials I had chosen for my tools. Having experienced a few of the seminal pieces of American Minimalism during the early 1970's, I thought their combination of stripped-down harmonic and rhythmic discourse might be just the ticket for my own unformed yearnings. I gradually developed a scheme for composing that was partly indebted to the repetitive procedures of Minimalism and partly an outgrowth of my interest in waveforms...
...I held on to the idea of the oscillating patterns and made an overall structure that could embrace much more variety and emotional range. Most importantly the quartet became a septet, thereby adding a sonic mass and the potential for more acoustical power. The "loops" idea was a technique from the era of tape music where small lengths of prerecorded tape attached end to end could repeat melodic or rhythmic figures ad infinitum. (Steve Reich's "It's Gonna Rain" is the paradigm of this technique.) The Shakers got into the act partly as a pun on the musical term "to shake", meaning either to make a tremolo with the bow across the string or else to trill rapidly from one note to another.
This particular recording of the piece is performed by the London Chamber Orchestra, taken from a collection of pieces simply titled Minimalist -- a great addition to your collection if you can find it (I have it -- haha!); there's more information about the disc here.
Should that whet your appetite for more minimalism, here's a great discussion thread on 20th Century Avant Garde Composers that provides several more listening suggestions.
Another weekend is drawing to a close. Do you have that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? Do you? Do you? Well, you're not alone.
Sunday-Night Depression Afflicts Even Happy Employees
People who suffer from the Sunday-night doldrums don't necessarily dislike work, but they sure don't like the thought of it. For many of the afflicted, the pre-Monday funk is yet another workplace echo of grade school. The only difference between this one and fire drills, cafeteria trays, bullies, teams and report cards (a.k.a. performance reviews) is that it happens every week, and yelling "Force field!" won't protect you.
Maybe you can try screaming along with these people (embedded Quicktime) to vent your dread and frustration.
(If you like the screaming video, there's an extended version of it, plus some other visuals, to be found here.)
Over at Clicks & Notes, I have a bunch of links on managing your email.
I confess that I have been very, very bad at dealing with/responding to email (as some of you may know). This is something that I hope to improve in the future.
Eighties nostalgia overload alert...
I came across this mixed MP3 'dex courtesy of Totally Fuzzy, who mentioned a track from Siouxsie and The Banshees that was available there. So I clicked through and had a look.
My jaw just about dropped when I saw what else was there -- several tunes by Prefab Sprout, a few from Swingout Sister, Basia (former singer with Matt Bianco), The Blow Monkeys, Alison Moyet, The Korgis, The Motors, Plastic Bertrand, PiL... plus many, many 80s Retro "standards" that you may or may not have already in your collection.
Go grab 'em...
Addendum 18 February 2005: OMG, I've had this track (MP3; 3,892 kb) on repeat since yesterday -- it's Swing Out Sister covering the old Dusty Springfield tune "Am I the Same Girl". You will recognize the horn riff, and you will love it.
Ba-da Ba-Da-daa Ba Da Daa Ba-da Ba-Da-daa...
Addendum 21 February 2005: Oops. Further research indicates that "Am I the Same Girl" was originally sung by Chicago soul artist Barbara Acklin. There was also an instrumental version of the tune, released under the title "Soulful Strut".
Recent MP3 goodies of note:
The sad state of affairs 'round here of late has been that when I find myself stressing over whether to update this blog or the other blog, I end up doing neither...
Fortunately, there are always plenty of other bloggers busily tappity-tapping away at their keyboards. Fer'intstance:
"One independent producer was told that Captive, her documentary for Vision TV on Esther Wheelwright -- the Ursuline nun who buried General Montcalm after the 1759 Plains of Abraham battle -- did not qualify because 'this is about history before there was a Canada.'"
Q: Who has the right of way when four cars approach a four-way stop at the same time?
A: The pick up truck with the gun rack and the bumper sticker saying, "Guns don't kill people. I do."
Manchester...
Chromewaves posts about various Mancunian bands coming to play in Toronto, and points to some Stone Roses related goodies, in particular this interview in filter magazine and some rare early demos from the band.
Teaching the Indie Kids to Dance Again posts a couple tracks by post-post-punk-pre-Madchester group The House of Love.
Last, but not least, Scenestars previews two tunes from New Order's forthcoming new release.
"...there are no words to describe the way I feel..."
Addendum 10 February 2005: As Torr points out in the comments (thanks!), he has a different New Order track available for download.
Addendum #2: TIKDA has posted more from The House of Love.
I don't eat a lot of Filipino food, but one of my favourite dishes is chicken adobo. Especially my mom's. Mmm, mmm.
So imagine my surprise to find, over at Adventures in Downtown Toronto, that Maria prepares a nice Mexican dinner that happens to include chicken adobo.
Mexican chicken adobo? Made with prepackaged "Adobo" sauce and served with refried beans and red rice? Indeed.
(We probably have some sort of Spanish colonial legacy to thank for the appearance of adobo in both Mexican and Filipino cuisine...)
Not to knock Maria's dish (obviously I haven't tried it), but here be a recipe for Filipino chicken adobo. Perhaps a wee adobo showdown is in order :)
Maria also runs another blog called Garlicster, which has plenty of recipes and links for any garlic fan. Mmm, garlic...
I know it runs counter to whole principle of the Hipster PDA, but people can't help but want to accessorize the things. Me included.
Here's a case I've found that's particularly suited to the Hipster Mini:
It's made by Capsul, a company based in Quebec. It's a very sleek little design, and the minute I spotted them in The Outer Layer (located in the Annex here in Toronto), I just had to get one. Way cool.
(If you want a Capsul case of your own, you can find a list of retailers here.)
Here's another very nice case, as spotted by Jesse James Garrett:
Also very elegant, and you've got to like that little pen that comes with it. It apparently is available through dynagifts.com.
Work on blog?
Work on other blog?
Do laundry?
Nap?
Mmm. Naaaap...
Meanwhile, you folks can go visit Sonic Sunset for some neat DJ mixes.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
(I posted these links on the other blog already, but thought they might be of interest to the viewing audience here.)
Today’s password authentication schemes are little more than security placebos. They perversely inspire abuse, misuse, and criminal mischief by deliberately making users the weakest link in the security chain. Greater teleprocessing power has made stealing or cracking password sequences ever faster, better, and cheaper.(via Tomalak's Realm)
Take a phrase or saying, or perhaps a line from a song that you can remember readily, then type the first letter of each word as you say it to yourself... You can make it even more secure by throwing in a few number / character substitutions - zeros for the letter 'o', for example.
The general idea is to pick a two-word combination you can easily remember (and) interleave the words... In cases where your two words have different lengths, you can always tack on numbers.(via Cutting Through)
Some goodies from two of my favourite MP3 blogs....
Music Forest has a 75-minute-long mix from Derrick May, Richie Hawtin, and Aphex Twin (which I'm listening to right now), and well as a single track from Aphex Twin himself.
Meanwhile, from a few days ago, Scenestars previews two tracks from the upcoming Thievery Corporation CD, and features one from Amon Tobin's new release.
Now that the other blog is up and running, I should eventually get my shit together and do some maintenance work around here, namely:
Meanwhile, to see the del.icio.us links (a.k.a. the "Drive-By Linking"), you'll still have to either scroll down the page to see them after the "regular" blog posts, or use the Click here to jump to "Drive-By Linking" link that appears above the regular blog posts (i.e. just after the blog title and tagline). Yep, that one, right there.
So much web surfing. So little time. sigh
Addendum: Just realized that the main page sidebar now needs updating as well. Sheesh.
