| Margot Burgess to me |
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| 12:57pm 09/09/2008 |
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Hi Greg,
We would love to have you volunteer--no experience necessary! Our volunteers make the campaign possible. We are having our nomination meeting Thursday evening at the Tolpuddle co-operative common room at 7:30. That's at 380 Adelaide Street North. Let me know if you need more detailed directions. If you can come to the meeting that would be a great time to meet most of the executive and our candidate. We are in the process of getting our campaign office organized so we need to wait for Bell to get a phone number yet. If you can't make it let me know and we can figure out making contact. Thanks very much for your interest.
Margot Burgess
London North Centre NDP Federal CFO |
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| My Attitudes About Music: An Auto-Biography in Three Parts |
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| 02:57pm 31/07/2008 |
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MUSIC
I can be a bit pretentious about music. I mean, I listen to and enjoy all sorts of music, from "lowbrow" party music - music about having fun - to "highbrow" artistic statements, music intended to be taken seriously. For me, though, the most important criteria in my selections is that the persona of the artist reflects and is reflected in the music. This to me is what genuine music is about - expressing what you really feel. So, for instance, I enjoyed the first Linkin Park album. The singer had been homeless right up until they started making money from it, so the over-the-top angst and screaming felt genuine to me. Their second album, however, while arguably more sophisticated musically, just felt like an artificial grab at the emotions expressed in the first.
Now, it would be a bit silly for me to apply this standard to the music I listen to and not also apply it to myself, as I consider myself a novice musician. This is difficult for me. As a person I develop in fits and starts, whenever pivotal events happen in my life. I imagine this is how most people work. The problem is that during the in-between times of relative stability, I feel like a blank canvas. As a result I oscillate between not being able to write anything at all (because I don't feel any interesting emotions) and writing songs that have very little stylistic connection with other songs I've written. When I do feel interesting, it not only affects the lyrics and feel of the song I write, but it also affects the musical style, instrumentation, and production style. I haven't hit upon a production style that I feel comfortable with no matter what's going on personally. As I change my aesthetic changes.
Whenever people ask me what I'm about musically, I have no answer for them. I can't release an EP like I've wanted to because every song has a different production style and when I play a few tracks back to back they don't sound unified at all.
PRODUCTION
I've decided to have a go at that problem by focusing on producing the music of others. I can be a lot less critical in this situation and just concentrate on getting the sound right. I've just finished buying up a set of microphones, Pro Tools, and an M-Audio interface with enough preamps to record a drum kit. I've also signed on to a few projects to record and produce my friends' bands.
All I've really figured out so far is that I like reverb. Not cheesy 80's gated reverb, but still 'too much' compared to modern pop and rock. I like creating as much space as possible between the instruments in the recording and then filling that space with a swirling soupy mix of reverb coming from almost every instrument. I find that with the right combinations of frequencies mixed together, the overall 'chord' present in the reverb soup seems to contain extra supporting notes that none of the instruments are actually playing. This makes sense mathematically, but because I've stumbled upon this fairly accidentally I can't recreate it every time. I'm getting there, though.
This style doesn't work all the time - if there's a lot of chord changes the song will just sound messy, unless I gate the reverb (no). Luckily for me I enjoy music with very few chord changes and lots of droning notes and all of that good stuff, from rock to dance to singer-songwriter. The band I'm working with right now, sort of a dance-alt-metal act, tends to focus their harmonic structure around single notes, so my production style is working out well with them so far.
I find that as I've gotten better at using microphones and layering instruments together, I've been able to pull back the reverb fader a bit and allow the timbral qualities of the instruments to shine through a bit better. This has changed the standard reaction of my friends from "this is trippy" to "this is really good & interesting" which is definitely an improvement in my books. Nonetheless I'd like to continue working on this 'reverb soup' style, keeping it in the mix even if it's at a lower level, and hopefully it will eventually develop into a professional style that's at least sort-of unique.
BUSINESS
To be perfectly frank, the music business feels to me like a bunch of clever people who have figured out how to take money from artists. I can see the argument for it - that the artists wouldn't be making that money if it weren't for the businessmen - but the problem is that the more people you split the pie with, the more people you're beholden to. Bringing this back to sincerity, I don't think the major label music business allows an artist's work to change as much as the artist may personally want it to. Eventually either the artist becomes disaffected and loses their passion, or they rationalize it and try to make themselves feel better about the 1% change that they're allowed to make, until they've repeated it to themselves often enough that they believe it. Yes, these are gross generalizations, but I've seen it happen to enough bands that I enjoy that I've grown very cynical about the whole affair.
To me the only bright points in the music business are the increasing number of musicians giving away their music and making money playing shows, and the 'music like water' idea you've taught us about. To me this brings music closer to being a public service and away from corporate interests and focus-group-tested styles. I compare it to the world of visual art - You can experience visual art for free, merely look up a piece on Google Images and you can find a digital copy, freely displayed by the artist, of that piece. To experience it better you may pay a fee to go to an art gallery or showing - bonus points if the artist is in attendance. To fully know it you can buy a physical copy of the piece. Why should music not operate the same way? It's not as if this would cut the more commercially-minded artists out of the business - like visual art, there will always be a huge demand in the world of advertising for interesting and easily digestible art. It doesn't all have to be avant-garde; I'd just like to see more room in the public consciousness for music that pushes the boundaries. |
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| The effect of the Youth turnout |
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| 12:23pm 17/06/2008 |
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This is the election result from 2004, Bush v. Kerry:
This was a narrow loss, 268 to 272 electoral votes.
If the McCain-Obama vote was held today, here's what current polling shows the map would look like (white states are toss-ups):
This is a solid win for Obama.
If we extrapolate trends in the slow switchover to Obama by Clinton supporters, as well as the mammoth voter registration drives the Obama team is conducting in the South, here's what the map will look like in November:
This is an absolute landslide. |
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| check this out |
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| 09:57am 17/06/2008 |
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There's a book out there called Generations which I've been reading. Its central thesis is that there are four types of generations that repeat throughout western history in a distinct cycle, driven to evolve in a certain way based on the historical events around them, which are usually shaped by the previous two generations.
These are the Historical Stages, which repeat in a cycle:
Awakening:
Idealists promote a new and radical worldview which alters the cultural landscape.
e.g. Cultural Revolution of the 60's, Protestant Reformation.
Unraveling:
Transition period between Awakening and Crisis; decline or shifting of Idealistic values.
e.g. Reagan/Bush I/Clinton corporate culture and Mass Market consumerism, 1980-2004, years just before Great Depression
Crisis:
A new civic order dramatically displaces an old one.
e.g. American Revolution, WW2, American Civil War. According to this theory we're just about to hit the beginning of the Crisis stage, if we aren't already in it.
High:
Transitionary period between Crisis and Awakening.
e.g. "Leave it to Beaver" 50's America
Now, here are the generations which shape and are shaped by these Stages:
Idealist:
Born in a High, comes of age in an Awakening, spends midlife in Unraveling, and old age in Crisis. Historically this generation accomplishes much in their early years but ends up deadlocking the political process with their uncompromising attitudes once they get older.
e.g. Reformationists, Puritans, Baby Boomers (b. 1943-1960)
Reactive:
Born in Awakening, comes of age in Unraveling, spends midlife in Crisis, and old age in a new High. Reactives live in the shadow of Idealists and often feel left out of the decision making process. They tend to be detached and cynical, realistic and pragmatic, as a result of this.
e.g. Generation X, people born from 1961-1981.
Civic:
Born in Unraveling, comes of age in Crisis, spends midlife in High, and old age in Awakening. This is us. Civics spend their most formative years in Crisis and as a result become vigorous institution-builders and consensus-makers, who remain busy and competent in old age. In midlife the Crisis generation agressively advocates progress, prosperity, and social reform, though the Awakening they live through in old age tends to scare them.
e.g. the Milennials (born 1982-2003), the Greatest Generation (the generation that fought WW2 and shaped progress through the 50's)
Adaptive:
Born in Crisis, comes of age in High, spends midlife in Awakening, and old age in Unravelling. This group tends to strongly agree with their Civic forbears, flourishing in the environment they created. This generation is also known as the Artist generation because the High they come of age allows them time for creative pursuits.
e.g. The Silent Generation (the group born during the Great Depression and WW2, the only generation to never elect a president from its ranks), the new Post-Millenial Generation (children born since 2003)
Here's what the full cycle looks like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generations_%28book%29#List_of_Generations
Our generation's children will be Adaptives. This means that on average we're going to get along with our kids fairly well.
Our group is already starting to have a huge impact as we hit voting age. As a bloc, we're already the most progressive generation in modern history, favouring left-leaning parties and humanitarian causes at a rate of 2:1. (By contrast, the Boom generation is evenly split, and Generation X favours conservative causes at a rate of 3:2).
It's because of the youth turnout that states like Montana, Virginia, North Dakota, North Carolina, Indiana, and maybe even Alaska will be in play in the 2008 election. These states are supposed to be solidly safe Red states. They're all polling within 5% now, and Virginia just flipped. About 1/5th of all Republicans are choosing to resign this year rather than compete in the upcoming election. They know their time is up.
And this is with less than half of us at voting age.
Let's do this shit! |
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| My Term Project |
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| 11:10pm 09/04/2008 |
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was to completely recreate any song of my choosing, from start to finish. Play, record, edit, mix, master. The final product has to be as close to the orignal as possible, both in terms of the music and the overall sound.
I chose "Rebellion" by Arcade Fire, in my opinion one of the best pop songs ever written. Listen with me as I attempt to do it some justice:
On this track I play:
-4 guitars
-bass
-synth violins, hopefully well enough disguised
-piano
-vocals
and I brought Ilanna in to help me with the backup vocals. My classmate Jason played drums for me. All in all I used all 24 tracks on the mixer - I'm one of the only people in the program to do so.
I hope you guys like it, let me know if this sounds 'professional' - that's how we're being graded on this. |
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| fuck the boomers |
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| 05:22am 14/03/2008 |
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"When I was young we really knew something about music not like this boomchaboomchaboomcha you have now, exams were harder but we managed to party more anyway, yeah back then I used to have loads of hair and LSD you're going to go bald by the way i think maybe you are already, we used to be so radical why aren't you kids political nowadays, what do you mean I voted for Thatcher...pfft i think you don't understand because the schools don't teach you politics properly maybe you should be made to pledge your loyalty to the queen that sounds like it might straighten you wasters out, why are the e-mails down can you fix this for me, people are always saying that we could be sisters isn't that right dear, even though I'm actually her mother! I know! you'd never guess, I bought this new car that burns hummingbirds and polar bear cubs as fuel why don't you youngsters stop me from doing this you'd think you'd care it's you who are going to have to use the planet after you know, you should have seen us when we were wearing flares and the men were making the women blow them at the washington monument against vietnam it was so beautiful, no i think you'll find that is what feminism means actually what would you know you're wearing a skirt that a whore would wear, no that isn't misogynistic I don't know what you're talking about, Hillary Clinton has been through a lot you know you should respect your elders, it is because they are better than you, maybe you are like a gang rapist, I'm going to lust after your generation y school friends now and offer them money to be my sexual playthings and then take out my self hatred on you, and another thing is that computer games are so violent you just stay in all day and don't speak to anyone you know I read an opinion column in the newspaper that said it is probably actually giving you literal brain damage as an entire generation and that you are submitting college essays that use your 'txt spk', well perhaps the writer was over the age of fifty what difference should that make, I believe in crystal healing and magnets now it alters your energy field and then it cleans your DNA, yes that is how DNA works why would you know more about genetics now than what I learned in college when I was top of my class and you father was top of his class too and was an anthropologist which is an actual science you know it's a social science and he put this roof over your head you are so closed minded the eastern religions actually have things we can learn from you know, this has aloe and jojoba extract anyway it will make me young again, the problem is we live in a culture that fascistically privileges the young as beautiful when actually who would be attracted to the spotty grubby little waste of space teenagers give me a real man or woman over a child anyway that the fashion industry uses as models what do you mean all the high ups in that industry are baby boomers what do you mean its that way in every industry, i think you have a lot of misplaced anger, woody allen movies are funny, isn't susan sarandon beautiful? don't you agree, oh i see I suppose you are attracted to paris hilton then, what do you mean you are gay you can't be gay this is because I let your mother talk me into letting you go to art school isn't it, everyone was 'gay' in the sixties but we didn't make a big deal about it like you do now like we should pity you for having 'AIDS', we learned that free love was irresponsible and told you but you wouldn't listen, it was fantastic though, this is actually why I voted for Reagan, you won't ever properly understand London or New York or San Fran or Paris all of the truly interesting areas have been gentrified now I wonder who by, I remember there was an amazing poetry slam happening that I went to when I was in college and I read this poem about how I would never have children, you know, because they would make me feel old, I should have listened now I have to get botox four times a year thats the fault of you kids too, I'm going out now the university is holding a charity auction to raise money to promote reading in schools god knows we need more of that, don't wait up playing your internets since your father and I might be going to a swingers night afterwards at the winterson's *wink* there's still life in the old dogs yet eh? oh my goodness you are such prudes don't look so disgusted, dear you should see the way the kids just reacted aren't they so silly, yes I know hahahahahahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA." |
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| 01:31pm 09/03/2008 |
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Firewall
Broken chords can sing a bit but
Na na na na na na na na
They don't speak when nothing's left to say
Love songs, party songs, summer songs, songs like
Na na na na na na na na
This should be the meaning that's conveyed
Don't dare say that you're uninspired
Firewall's up, we can see the signs
Your pretentious standard leaves us tired
Firewalls burn with a heatless fire
Lines and shading can build a treasure
Pour your soul into every measure
Try to keep it to something simple
Four four beat it and build the rhythm
Find your art inside your hurt like
Na na na na na na na na
Hold it with you keeping you sincere
Rockets strapped to roller skates like
Na na na na na na na na
Shoot me past where you were meant to hear
Don't dare tell us you're uninspired
Firewall's up, we can see the signs
Pretentious standards leave us tired
Firewalls burn with a heatless fire
Try to keep it to something simple
Four four beat it and build the rhythm
I tried to keep it to something simple
I tried my best, but it's not that simple for me
******************
So I played my first show with my band on Friday night. There was a guy doing lights for us and we are getting paid and everything :) |
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| 04:04pm 29/01/2008 |
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| 06:57am 23/01/2008 |
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R.I.P. Heath Ledger
Normally I couldn't care less about celebrity news but in my opinion he was one of the best actors of his generation.
:( |
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