2006-08-26
SpaceDisco
I thought it was just me... This summer in Lisbon I had a blast raiding my brother's old SpaceDisco vinyl collection. Space, Moroder, Vangelis and such. It turns out, SpaceDisco is the new rare groove, courtesy of headfonehaus. May the force be with you!
2006-08-21
Scale
These are odd times. The scales are twisted. I have not written much to this blog, just because I have had too much to say. Too much stuff is happening; I can't write about any one thing. I keep collecting pieces of articles I find interesting, here and there, but when I find the time to write, a new mess has come up somewhere else... On my flight from Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago (just a few days before the security threat in the UK), I lost an interesting article from someone in the Independent or the Guardian or something; wish I remembered the name... He or she wrote about how even though we knew we were in for a bad ride in November 2000 and again in 2004, our optimism or denial refused to foresee something this bad. Looks as though Bowie was right in 99: the pretty things are going to hell.
Still, I am impressed, very impressed, with artists who can make amazingly beautiful art in the midst of this downer zeitgeist. Thom Yorke with his Eraser is certainly one. But I am even more impressed with Herbert. His new Scale with all its chopped beats and hyper-detailed loops comes around as a glorious piece of, dare I say, gloomy symphonic disco.
I am so tired of those who invert the scales of reason and morality. I suddenly think of Tom Freedman (a certified Jackass), who in a recent piece ("War on Daddy's Dime"), mocks the Iranian taxpayer as a sucker paying for Hezbollah's war and reconstruction expenses. Fair enough. But what about the American taxpayer (myself included as a resident)? Aren't we the suckers paying for Israel's war machine---on top of the Iraq and Afghanistan price and hate tag? Can he really be oblivious to the scales involved in the Israel war machine and that of its neighbors? It is precisely the blatant asymmetry that had Israel loose the PR war in Lebanon and the same for the US in Iraq. So, if the scales are in our favor, how come we are loosing the war? I'd say false premises, but that's another story.
In the meantime, Herbert hits us with all the right premises, and delivers us a perfectly sweet, perfectly schizophrenic electronica/dance album where the mind is gloomy and the body is grooving. One of the best this year. For more amazing Herbert stuff, check out his phenomenal hour long mix for AOL or his video for Moving like a Train at AOL. See also the videos on the making of Scale on Herbert's Scale web site.
Still, I am impressed, very impressed, with artists who can make amazingly beautiful art in the midst of this downer zeitgeist. Thom Yorke with his Eraser is certainly one. But I am even more impressed with Herbert. His new Scale with all its chopped beats and hyper-detailed loops comes around as a glorious piece of, dare I say, gloomy symphonic disco.
I am so tired of those who invert the scales of reason and morality. I suddenly think of Tom Freedman (a certified Jackass), who in a recent piece ("War on Daddy's Dime"), mocks the Iranian taxpayer as a sucker paying for Hezbollah's war and reconstruction expenses. Fair enough. But what about the American taxpayer (myself included as a resident)? Aren't we the suckers paying for Israel's war machine---on top of the Iraq and Afghanistan price and hate tag? Can he really be oblivious to the scales involved in the Israel war machine and that of its neighbors? It is precisely the blatant asymmetry that had Israel loose the PR war in Lebanon and the same for the US in Iraq. So, if the scales are in our favor, how come we are loosing the war? I'd say false premises, but that's another story.
In the meantime, Herbert hits us with all the right premises, and delivers us a perfectly sweet, perfectly schizophrenic electronica/dance album where the mind is gloomy and the body is grooving. One of the best this year. For more amazing Herbert stuff, check out his phenomenal hour long mix for AOL or his video for Moving like a Train at AOL. See also the videos on the making of Scale on Herbert's Scale web site.
The almighty lawn
Everytime I return to Bloomington I realize how much I detest lawns! It was fun to be in London this summer for a while. All of their glorious parks were brown because that's where the summer lead them to---very eco-friendly!
Meantime, our lawn, from being away all summer is now a wonderful weed garden (I like the various shades of green), which has granted us almost universal hatred in our neighborhood, where lawn paranoia is an art form.
I am thinking of various alternatives:
1) Sell the house and buy a condo in town.
2) Make a Santa Fe style rock garden.
3) Go for an edible garden
Watch out for how this story unfolds.l In the meantime, watch this wonderful video from the Edible Estates site.
Meantime, our lawn, from being away all summer is now a wonderful weed garden (I like the various shades of green), which has granted us almost universal hatred in our neighborhood, where lawn paranoia is an art form.
I am thinking of various alternatives:
1) Sell the house and buy a condo in town.
2) Make a Santa Fe style rock garden.
3) Go for an edible garden
Watch out for how this story unfolds.l In the meantime, watch this wonderful video from the Edible Estates site.
