Jump to content

Today's Dose of Culture


DonRocks

Recommended Posts

Whoa....Danko Jones? Well done, my friend. Well done.

I was debating buying the latest album from them - I was listening to them on the FiOS music channel.

When I saw your line, I bought it, and I dig the heck out of it. Good tunes! Two thumbs up to xcanuck for the recommendation!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought about posting this when Rocks first started this thread; then, this week Kirstie Alley danced (?) to

on "Dancing with the Stars." This is the best version I have found and will happily bow to anyone who posts something better:
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Black Square by Kazimir Malevich (pronounced ka-ZEE-meer mal-YAY-vitch)

You may want to go to plain old Wikipedia first. I know a ridiculous amount about art for an untrained amateur, and Malevich is on my ballot as Greatest 20th Century Artist. I'm not saying he'd win, but I'm saying he'd be on the ballot. And I'm willing to bet many of you have never heard of him. Take five minutes and have a look - it's well worth it, and there's zero downside.

Malevich's art was banned (or curtailed - I can't remember which) in the USSR after the Bolshevik Revolution. His avant-garde works were necessarily forced backward into realism. Hence, this self-portrait from 1933 which smacks of the Italian Renaissance. (But take a close look at his defiant signature in the lower-right of the painting - it will make you smile).

If you take away nothing else from this post, take away the term "Suprematism."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I usually climb the barricades on the side of "culture" vs pop "whatever", but it is very fun when this distinction blurs. Case in point: Henry Fonda moving like a Praying Mantis, Charles Bronson's craggy face in the Spanish sun, all set to a dance of death by Ennio Morricone and directed by the Visconti of the Western, Sergio Leone. I just ordered this on Blu Ray and am veritably moist at the prospect. SPOILER ALERT: If you have never seen this movie and think you want to, then don't click here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The mention of Tebaldi got me going, so I couldn't resist sharing THIS. The outburst at 6:31, where the regal stoicism of Desdemona fractures for a moment as she bids a final farewell to her servant, never fails to move me to tears.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Amazing!

Not as difficult as you might think - many entry-level pros and top amateurs can hit that same shot. In fact, I was a victim of it (a mis-hit lob over my head) on match point in a tournament about ten years ago, executed by a relative nobody - it was infuriating.

I love Nadal just as much as I love Federer, but this is the best version of that shot ever executed (it was the penultimate point in a Grand Slam tournament, so it was huge, and absolutely cleanly struck).

And the greatest shot I've ever seen? Andy Roddick hits an overhead winner and starts to walk away ...

Hell, as long as we're at it ... Jan-Ove-Waldner has been called "the Mozart of table tennis." Here's one example of why ... you can Google the guy and see other things nearly as amazing.

Tying this back into high culture and high art, even if you don't like sports ... click here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For a bit of non-musical culture, I bring you Rafael Nadal*.

*yeah, I know he lost the match, but that does not deminish this in the least.

That is EXACTLY the soundtrack that I will have playing the next time I have the old Jack Kramer Pro Staff out and the neighbors come up to complain.

Dare I remind them how lucky they are that I didn't bring out the T-2000?

Not as difficult as you might think - many entry-level pros and top amateurs can hit that same shot. In fact, I was a victim of it (a mis-hit lob over my head) on match point in a tournament about ten years ago, executed by a relative nobody - it was infuriating.

If you couldn't hit it off of wood, you can't call it tennis. Maybe Jeu d'Paume.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Library of Congress and Sony launched a new Web site (www.loc.gov/jukebox/) Tuesday that allows listeners to stream a vast archive of more than 10,000 pre-1925 recordings of music, speeches, poetry and comedy. Much of it hasn’t been widely available since World War I. Call it America’s iTunes.

Full article This is pretty amazing and so accessible! This post even has some cool samples.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bukowski's

Cut While Shaving

It's never quite right, he said, the way people look,

the way the music sounds, the way the words are

written.

It's never quite right, he said, all the things we are

taught, all the loves we chase, all the deaths we

die, all the lives we live,

they are never quite right,

they are hardly close to right,

these lives we live

one after the other,

piled there as history,

the waste of the species,

the crushing of the light and the way,

it's not quite right,

it's hardly right at all

he said.

don't I know it? I

answered.

I walked away from the mirror.

it was morning, it was afternoon, it was

night

nothing changed

it was locked in place.

something flashed, something broke, something

remained.

I walked down the stairway and

into it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our Recorded Sound and Web Services folks are justifiably very proud of this launch; the interactive Book of Opera is especially impressive. Yay, team. smile.gif

It's pretty darn cool. Been listening to for a few days now. Do you know if they will be expanding the recordings into the 1920-40s?

I watched the online video for the restoration process and have to applaud the hard work of the entire team. That's a lot of painstaking intensive work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's pretty darn cool. Been listening to for a few days now. Do you know if they will be expanding the recordings into the 1920-40s?

I watched the online video for the restoration process and have to applaud the hard work of the entire team. That's a lot of painstaking intensive work.

There's definitely more on the way - including lots more from the 1920s, although I haven't heard specifics on what they're planning to include beyond that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our Recorded Sound and Web Services folks are justifiably very proud of this launch; the interactive Book of Opera is especially impressive. Yay, team. smile.gif

This is a wonderful, I do wish that some of the songs were available fully remastered (along with the original), I know I am asking for way too much, but a perfect example of this is the difference between an unremastered version of Jelly Roll Morton's "The Crave" and a remastered version.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a wonderful, I do wish that some of the songs were available fully remastered (along with the original), I know I am asking for way too much, but a perfect example of this is the difference between an unremastered version of Jelly Roll Morton's "The Crave" and a remastered version.

For a lot of these records that aren't in perfect condition, they're having to make a choice between preserving as much of the original audio as possible when they're digitizing, and "remastering," which does technically involve choosing to remove some of that original audio. I asked the same question when I was out at NAVCC a while back, and they said that they're always going to choose to preserve more of the original audio, even if the finished product ends up with additional artifact as a result.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For a lot of these records that aren't in perfect condition, they're having to make a choice between preserving as much of the original audio as possible when they're digitizing, and "remastering," which does technically involve choosing to remove some of that original audio. I asked the same question when I was out at NAVCC a while back, and they said that they're always going to choose to preserve more of the original audio, even if the finished product ends up with additional artifact as a result.

In my experience of listening to music taken from 78's or 1920-40s, it sounds great, in the beginning, to hear remastered files that remove pops, clicks, etc...but over time the sound wave manipulations tire my ears. Now I prefer the scratchy versions.

Do you know if there are any plans to add music from other countries such as South America or Europe from the era?

If you work at the Library, again many thanks. Great work. Loved the last Stradivari Concert!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love this thread. There is so much intelligence and knowledge on this website.

I never knew, before today, that the artist's full name was:

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso.

My goodness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Save this read for when you have 10 good minutes to spend on it. It's a fascinating piece about the first-ever electronic musical instrument, the Theremin (demonstrated for УльяновLenin (sorry, bit of pedantry there) in 1921 by its titular inventor). Apparently, people still play it - I'd never heard of it before now - and yet, it's that spacey-sounding thing in The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations."

They say you learn something new every day, and damned if I didn't pull it off with only 30 minutes remaining on this lovely Monday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Save this read for when you have 10 good minutes to spend on it. It's a fascinating piece about the first-ever electronic musical instrument, the Theremin (demonstrated for УльяновLenin (sorry, bit of pedantry there) in 1921 by its titular inventor). Apparently, people still play it - I'd never heard of it before now - and yet, it's that spacey-sounding thing in The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations."

People often build their own, as vintage Theremins have become rather collectible.

While you're at it Don, look up the Raymond Scott Quintette. Scott was another electronic music pioneer, and in the 1930s he tried to create a jazzy futuristic music style. You'll probably recognize some of it as the incidental music from countless Warner Bros cartoons, especially "Powerhouse".

Ob geek trivia: Hewlett-Packard's very first product was a commission from the Walt Disney Co for several electronic oscillators, to be used in creating the soundtrack for Fantasia.

Finally, a tip of the hat to underappreciated electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire, snubbed by the BBC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another geek trivia...

My theremin-jammin' pal, a DC native who currently lives in Scotland, just said the following:

"As I still haven't created an account on DR after all these years, would you mention (if you feel like it) that the theremin is not actually on Good Vibrations? A popular misconception, but it's actually a Tannerin (they found the Theremin too hard to play.)"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I'll take Impossibly Obscure Trivia for $200, Alex."

"And the answer is:"

"A product whose name is an epithet for Harald Gormsson, a Danish king from the 900s, and whose logo is a bind rune of Hagall and Berkanan."

"What is [mouse over the answer here --->] Bluetooth?"

And if anyone actually knew this, then they should seriously consider getting a hobby of some sort. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So-called creative behaviors always accompany the issue of 'authentic' and 'original'. It may be the most important core question, whether a work is original or authentic. And this issue may well be the main point for contemporary art. People are looking for something new. But what on earth is something new? And what is the method of making something new? Can it be fake and at the same time authentic? --Ai Weiwei

"According to What?" , the current exhibition featuring both the subversive and reverent work of Ai Weiwei runs through February 24 at The Hirshhorn. This means you have only one more week plus an additional weekend left to see it if you haven't already. Pedantic proselytizing forthcoming, but for now let me just say that given the artist's training in New York and the provocateur-political nature of much on display, this proves an incredibly accessible show for Western viewers. Extraordinary sense of history, craftsmanship based on a love of materials, passion, intellect, sensuality, and profound engagement in the contemporary world: all there amidst the lingering scent of tea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"According to What?" , the current exhibition featuring both the subversive and reverent work of Ai Weiwei runs through February 24 at The Hirshhorn. This means you have only one more week plus an additional weekend left to see it if you haven't already. Pedantic proselytizing forthcoming, but for now let me just say that given the artist's training in New York and the provocateur-political nature of much on display, this proves an incredibly accessible show for Western viewers. Extraordinary sense of history, craftsmanship based on a love of materials, passion, intellect, sensuality, and profound engagement in the contemporary world: all there amidst the lingering scent of tea.

Great exhibit, except the photos of his time in NYC which seemed primarily to be "me and my friends sitting around in apartments."

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...