Dear Clusterflock: How does your emotional attachment to music work?
I’ve been pondering this for a while, so I guess the best way to ask is explaining mine.
Music that reminds me of people and incidents past and present: Mostly this does only that, it reminds me of them but I rarely feel emotional when I listen to this music. I’ll be honest there ain’t much of it. I don’t have special tunes that remind me of when I was doing this or that or in a relationship with that person or this. I sometimes feel this is odd, but, I’m 52 and it still doesn’t happen. Even if there is a tune that remindes me of something, I seem to be able to separate the emotion of the incident and not let the song crank it up.
Music that I use to feed my emotions: Oddly, they are not tunes that will make me unhappy or happy, but, I use them to confirm how I feel. I am much more attached to these tunes. Also, I never use these tunes to change my state of mind just to confirm it. So a spiralling pit of depression is always fed with tunes that will send me deeper into it and happy tunes are only used to make me happier. I guess being equally comfy in either state of mind helps.
I have looked at the tunes and they have no relevance other than they are mine and I use them how I need them. The beauty of these tunes is that I can share them easily because they don’t relate to anyone other than me and so don’t feel I am crossing some dodgy line.
Does any of this make any sense?
So, how do you use music dear flockers?
Perhaps you just listen
Saul Leiter: Pioneer of Colour Photography
Though photographic art historians consider that William Eggelston’s legendary colour show at the MOMA in 1979 was ground-breaking for the acceptance of colour photography, Saul Leiter is one of the true pioneers of colour and abstract photography. He started shooting in colour in 1948.
Saul Leiter treated the use of color in his photographs of the street and his surroundings as a painter of his time (1940s) would have done, and he helped lay the foundations for the development of the abstract notions of a photograph in the US.
And of course Blue In Green by the wonderful Miles Davis from the album Kind of Blue.
(via altfotonet)
Scrooge | Lord Buckley
Not to bad-rap the cat’s animation, but if this is new to you, you might want to close your eyes and open your ears to Lord Buckley’s Christmas ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong.
You can get with it if you want to. There’s only one way — straight to the road of love.
A Yuletide message from me to y’all.
Dragon Dictation, speech to text for the iPhone
speech to text
So, I know there is plenty of software that lets you talk and turns that into text. Does anyone know if anyone makes something that lets you transcribe recorded audio to text? Seems much more complicated.
Mauritania – Ken Rubenstein
I was contacted by Ken a while back, who liked my videos and asked if I fancied playing with one of his. We have had, well, we are still having a few technical difficulties, but I have been desperate to share his work with you. So, this is where we are now and if you fancy checking out more of Ken’s work then you can find it here. I think it’s wonderful; I know he’d be happy if you just took the time to listen.
Visions of vienna sausages and baby mice fill my mind
As we learned from the podcast I did for the Large Penis Support Group I am well endowed. I have always heard of there being a race of men who have extremely tiny penii but never really took those stories at face value. Let me tell you something. This may scare you…. It is absolutely true. Horrible and awful and true. Oh, my damned eyes! Why have I clicked the links? Was it curiosity or do I just hate myself that much. Visions of vienna sausages and baby mice fill my mind. Luckily for you I went there so you don’t have to. All you have to do is listen to the nonsense that people at MyTinyDick.Net talk about. I warn you, there will be acronyms you’ve never heard of. Like SPH and SPG. These stand for Small Penis Humiliation & Small Penis Glorification. I think if you went to this site your natural inclination would be towards SPE (Small Penis Eradication.) That may sound harsh but I think we’d all be better off….
Plus podcast.
(thanks, Aaron)
Clusterbook #2: Lolita
So a few months back, a bunch of us got together on skype and talked about Lolita. There were all sorts of network difficulties and the sheer strangeness of a bunch of disembodied voices speaking out into the ether, but we got talking, and we talked a lot. I boiled all that down to about 20 minutes, which you can hear below, largely sound snippets of various opinions about the book, rather than a single argument or theme.
(Quality note: There’s some background noise, mostly around the start of the recording, and a general sense of echo throughout.)
Then a few days ago, Sheila and I had another chat about Lolita, and I think that some things we discussed in that conversation would be useful to include in this edition of Clusterbook, so you can hear an edited 15 minute version of our conversation below.
Feel free to get involved in this discussion. I still feel we have barely scratched the surface. If you’ve read the book, or you have a response to anything we’ve said in either conversation, you are very welcome to contribute your opinion in the comments. I would love to hear more diverse voices.
So without further ado, I hereby declare Clusterbook #2: Lolita to be…. open! The clusterflock book club rides again!
Songs: Ohia – John Henry Split My Heart
I found this groovy footage of a 1951 night rodeo in Gallup, NM. The music seemed to work for me and yet oddly, it wasn’t until after I had put it together that I realised Gallup is on route 66 and he sings about the 66 highway!
Ivor Cutler | The Shapely Balloon (For Renner)
On a Revox A77.
A Life Well Wasted
I almost universally hate podcasts since they mostly suck, but what Robert Ashley does by manipulating voice and sound in contextually appropriate ways does not.
Sun Ra Meets Napoleon
Over the winter of 2004-2005, the Philadelphia-based Slought Foundation sponsored an exhibition titled “Sun Ra Meets Napoleon: Fragments of the Alter-Future”. In conjunction with the exhibition, a 1990 recording of Sun Ra in conversation with jazz critic Francis Davis was released.
Read more
Gillian Welch – Time (The Revelator)
Posted just because I love this tune so much.
Hazards Of Loving Creatures
A beautiful musical contribution by fellow flocker Barry Stone, AKA In Mountains In Stars. The mish-mash of stolen film is by me and uploaded at Barry’s request as he has a wonky Internet at present. Barry sent me the song and I went and stole clips from Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror and the 1955 film The Night of the Hunter.
Just my interpretation of how the song made me feel, but it really is all about the lovely song. If you prefer viewing it on Youtube I have uploaded it there also.
Thank you, Barry for asking me to do it. It was an honour.
Driftless: Stories from Iowa By Danny Wilcox Frazier
Life in Iowa can be punishing. Many Iowans expend their lives sweating over soil and spilling the blood of livestock; they endure the hardships associated with a life inextricably bound to the ups and downs of nature. Today, those challenges and a shift in our nation’s economy have pushed the youth of rural communities to migrate to the metropolises of America. Those left in the wake of this out-migration continue their lives, seemingly unchanged from the generations that preceded them, and entombed in obscurity.
The tension of contemporary rural life plays out here: the struggle of a family farm to continue, disenfranchised youth, the slaughterhouse, migrant labor, and the aged fading from Iowa’s mythical landscape. Through their stories we gain insight to a way of life that is disappearing, a culture that could be lost forever.
As “community” continues to be homogenized in zones of urban sprawl across the globe, we must consider all that we are losing—development should not come at the expense of more fragile communities.
Not my words – for more, click the photo or click here and enjoy. I was lost in Bloody Iowa for a week!
Ferrari ringtones for your iPhone
I’m pretty sure I’m going to do this.
Into My Arms – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
This moved me today. I hope it does you.
I don’t believe in an interventionist God
But I know, darling, that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Not to touch a hair on your head
To leave you as you are
And if He felt He had to direct you
Then direct you into my arms
P J Harvey – Horses In My Dreams
With a little help from Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia. I had to cut the sequence a lot for the tune, so if you are interested in seeing the really quite beautiful scene, you can view it all here.
Dear Clusterflock: Is there a tune you wish you had never owned?
Mine is Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. I adored the tune; it made me intensely sad and yet made me smile and cry at the same time. If it came on the radio, it was the highlight of my day and yet the not knowing had its own wonder. Then one Christmas someone bought me the album that contained the tune. I remember that day vividly. I must have played it a dozen times on the trot and in doing so killed it. Suddenly that magic had evaporated.
I didn’t play it for years. I relied on chance offerings on the radio once more and slowly the magic came back. Now it moves me as much as ever.
I wish I had never owned that tune. What tune do you wish you had never owned?
I remember when we were driving driving in your car
Speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
And I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone
Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy Jr
Currently making me cry and hurt in the most wonderful way.
I’m always in the mood for Tom Waits
If I could only ever eat one food again it would be bread and if I could only ever listen to one artist it would be Tom Waits.
James Joyce reading from Finnegan’s Wake
(Via DesignTicTacs)
Tyrannosaurus Rex – Lofty Skies
The video was originally inspired by Sheila’s photo, my love of the song and the film Buffalo 66. Of course, I also have a thing about Christina Ricci. Oddly, only in this film. I’m not sure if she knows.
Sat ‘neath the eyes of the lofty skies
We were chained by the rain to the pain of our love
We kissed and cried
Held ‘neath the bars of the tangling stars
We were pinned by the might of the warrior night
We kissed and cried
O this time of love moves me
“Lofty Skies” (Bolan) from Tyrannosaurus Rex, A Beard of Stars (1970).
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Careless Love
A few nights ago, Deron went to see Bonnie “Prince” Billy in concert. There was a little exchange of words and Deron revealed that he had taken a few photos. He asked me if I fancied putting them to some of Will Oldham’s music. He left the tune to me. This is the result. Deron has asked if I might explain my somewhat random process – random it is.
Well, I started by listening to stuff by him I like and bore in mind that Deron’s images were dark, so I wanted something that reflected their mood. Having chosen a tune I decided that the images alone kind of left the tune static so I had to go in search of footage that I could integrate between his stills. I started by looking for Will Oldham footage and was lucky enough to stumble across another video of his that had snippets I liked. I snatched that – a few Martini’s and a modicum of jiggery pokery Bob’s your uncle and Fanny’s your aunt!
Not the best description of my work flow, but then there never really was one anyway.
For Sheila and anyone else on hold.
Funkadelic – You Scared the Lovin’ Outta Me
With a little help and inspiration from Russ Meyer and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!