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« Music: February 2006 | Main | Music: April 2006 » MusicAm I going deaf? Don't tell min. By fnord12 | March 28, 2006, 1:34 PM | Music | Comments (3)| Link Link from Mike: a North Double Marathon Drum Kit. Check it out. Very interesting. (I couldn't find a permalink so you may have to hunt for it a little if they make a new post.) By fnord12 | March 14, 2006, 9:00 AM | Music | Link Ever wonder why we think of the musical scale (do - re - mi - fa - so - la - ti - do) as beginning at middle C on a piano? C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C. Those are the notes of the major scale, in C major, which uses all white notes. And all the classical modes are based on iterations of that. From C to C is the major scale (aka the Ionian mode). From D to D is C major's relative Dorian mode. From E to E is the relative Phrygian mode. Etc. All the modes are defined based on their position in the major scale. Dorian is the second mode, Phyrgian the third,etc. But doesn't it make more sense that we would start at A? A - B - C - D - E - F - G - A? From an alphabetical standpoint, it makes the most sense. Why start at C? But from A to A is the minor scale (aka the Aeolian mode), the saddest of all the scales. I haven't done any research on this, and i'm sure that there's an explanation based on the instruments that came before the piano like the harpischord and the pipe organ, but it seems to me that our earliest music theory seems to assume that music is naturally sad. This makes more sense to me. When i think of music based on the major scale, i think of gratingly annoying music like Happy Birthday, advertising jingles, and Country music. Most music that has resonance with people is sad, because people's lives are generally sad, or at least because it is the tragic things that have the most impact on us. I don't know when we started thinking about things in terms of C instead of A, but i bet it was based on a decision by the Roman Catholic church in medieval times, thinking that music should be used to uplift peoples' spirits (although a lot of church music is also sad). Whenever it was done, it almost seems like a sloppy job of brainwashing. I guess it was too late to actually rename the actual notes, but it's a pretty big clue to leave behind. By fnord12 | March 13, 2006, 4:15 PM | Music | Comments (2)| Link The PMRC is why when i was younger i essentially rejected the Democrats and thought i was a Republican libertarian (I was also, and probably always will be, conflicted about abortion). It's why i voted for Nader (or essentially against Tipper Gore, founder of the PMRC) in 96. As far as i was concerned, the Democrats were the party of authoritarian Big Government, trying to tell me how to live my life and what music i could listen to. By 2000 i had internalized most of Nader's criticisms and while i certainly didn't consider myself a Republican, i always figured the Democrats for a bunch of phoneys and no better. I've not really seen anything that's changed my opinion on that subject, but i've come somewhat away from the strategy of supporting a third party and now see benefits in the strategy of supporting primary challenges to longstanding Democrat milksops. The evolution of my opinion in the last 6 years is the result of a couple of things: It's a compromised strategy. My politics are Green, and i disagree with the Democrats on goals and methods for a lot of issues. But at least for now, i'm seeing if it's possible to effect change from within. So now i'm looking at primary challenges, and 'tis the season for the 2006 election, if you are interested. We've already sent money to a number of candidates that are challenging conservative Democrats, including Ned Lamont, who is challenging Joe Lieberman. I dislike Lieberman especially. In addition to the obvious stuff (he's for the war, he's for the Patriot act, he voted for Alito), he's the leader in terms of politicians who criticize video games and especially music. This blog, DownWithTyranny gives a little history of the PMRC and Lieberman that i thought was interesting in that it shows how Lieberman is basically more or less responsible for alienating young people from the Democrats (and in most cases, politics in general): First a little disclosure. DWT is the nom de guerre for Howie Klein, former punk rock dj, former founder and president of alternative rock label 415 Records, former general manager and vice president of Sire Records and former president of Reprise Records. I am now retired from the music business but there is no question that Joe Lieberman's frontal assault on the music business was something that very much disturbed me. In fact, several of his and his allies' prime targets were personal friends as well as business associates. (And one of the albums he fussed and fretted about most obnoxiously, BODY COUNT, was a record I was Executive Producer of.) *Sidenote: Actually, this one is a little tricky. When Bush was first elected, I said to min that because of the Nader challenge, Democrats will be sure to highlight every 'bad thing' that Bush did as an example of why the Greens ruined everything. Early on in the Bush administration, when the Democrats were howling about an executive order about acceptable levels of mercury in water that Clinton signed at the very last minute before leaving office, after having been in office for 8 years, that Bush immediately reversed, i saw it as evidence that i was right. Then al-Qaeda attacked, bestowing Republicans with the political capital to act without restraint. And act they did, enacting policies more awful than i could have imagined when i was agreeing with Nader that there aren't any real differences between Republicans and Democrats. Although it's important to notice that for the most part, Democrats have supported most of Bush's agenda. So Nader was wrong. The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Democrats won't come up with the really bad ideas on their own, but they will still go along with them if someone else suggests them. By fnord12 | March 1, 2006, 4:07 PM | Liberal Outrage & Music | Link |