• First, write your current impressions of the Revolution.


• Then before you submit your comment, check out the "Nintendo Controller Trailer": The Revolution Is At Hand.


• Then read the preview: You Say You Want a Revolution. (I'm going for all the easy puns today)

UCLA friends, I have a question for you.  A good friend of mine is moving to LA next week to start a curatorial job at the Hammer Museum.  She's an excellent musician with a great voice, and she's looking for a choir in the LA area (closer to UCLA or Santa Monica is better).  Oh yeah, she also has lots of choral experience.  Do you have any recommendations?

There are ways to channel LJ to useful/academic ends, but I always seem to end up posting this sort of stuff:

• There is a group called "Il Divo" -- don't ask how I know that.  Here are the first and last sentences of their official bio:
  "In 2001, an idea was conceived for a mould breaking quartet: 4 exceptional young men with formally trained voices who could take popular songs, old and new, to another level where the historic rift between pop and classical music is finally healed."
  [...]
  "Reflecting the multi-national character of the group, the songs are not all sung in English - but drift between Spanish, English and Italian. However they are worded, all use the emotional Esperanto of love."


• Some poor guy purchased a DVD of Star Wars Episode III: Backstroke of the West. Or at least that's how the title ended up after being dubbed into Chinese, then clawed back into a civilized language once more for the requisite English subtitles. If you've seen the movie, you really should read the entire page. I made myself stop halfway to avoid spoilers... as if I'll ever want to watch it.  Just as the teeniest tip of the iceberg, here are a few shots that show trouble with singular and plural nouns:
  
  
  Well, that's reasonable. Is "Star Wars" really any more logical? It's one big war, right? If only the correct title weren't right there...
  
  
  Remember Mr. T and his "gold chainses"? Prepare to take it to the NEXT LEVEL:
  
  

Sorry, nothing deep here.  When I was getting my laundry ready a few days ago, fugue_maniac's cat Morrolan jumped up on the bed and curled up in a towel.  Inspired by ichbinkelsey's favorite laundry game, (and also by Stuff On My Cat, which seems to be down right now (and also by Oolong the Rabbit and Escape from Eluned)), I started putting stuff on him.  To my surprise, he seemed to like it -- he nestled deeper into the pile as I added more stuff, and was just about to fall asleep when something startled him.  Very cute.

Later, while I was reading on the back porch, one of the neighbors was grilling.  For a minute, I inhaled sunlight.  Do we love Chicago in the summer?

Wake up, because this is exciting:  the fugue_maniac has launched his long-awaited LiveJournal!  This man is a composition grad student at UChicago, movie encyclopedist, standout tennis player, great friend, and Elder Scrolls master.  He is also my roommate, and a ninja of sarcasm.  Oh, and he has memorized at least half a dozen John Williams movie scores, down to details of orchestration.  We can expect great things from him... once he gets some sleep.

The Spring Mix is complete!  I even mixed it for continuity (sort of).  It totals 70 minutes, which is way too big to post directly on line, but if you're on Soulseek, you can download it from user "phetre."  Look in My Music\Phetremix and you'll find two mp3s, each about 35 mins. long.  The individual tracks are available too, but you'll need to get access to the rest of my collection.  Just send me a message.

Side A
1. Jonathan Richman - Springtime in New York
2. Silver Sun - Wonderful
3. Green Day - J.A.R.
4. The Clash - I Fought the Law
5. The Futureheads - First Day
6. The Posies - Grant Hart
7. The Glands - Work It Out
8. Banner Barbados - Since You Caught My Eye
9. Go Home Productions - Girl Wants (To Say Goodbye To) Rock and Roll
10. Magneta Lane - Cheap Linguistics
11. Jon Brion - I Believe She's Lying
12. The Hysterics - Mostly Untitled

Side B
13. The Meat Puppets - Up On the Sun
14. Ride - Black Night Crash
15. Bloc Party - Helicopter (Sheriff Whitey remix)
16. Braces Tower - Can't Explain, OK
17. The Kaiser Chiefs - Everyday I Love You Less and Less
18. The Olympic Hopefuls - Holiday
19. Paul Westerberg - As Far As I Know
20. A.C. Newman - Miracle Drug
21. New Radicals - Flowers
22. Manic Street Preachers - Tsunami (Cornelius remix)
23. The Ramones - Cretin Hop
24. Rancid - Roots Radicals

So about two hours ago I was sitting in the squalid living room, reading Fétis, surrounded by video game controllers and empty beer bottles.  Fugue_Maniac was asleep in his bedroom.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a dark shape moving very quickly.

( Read more... )

From the New York Times:  "[Gertrude] Stein was finding her voice by listening to the syncopated rhythms of African-American speech and (to a lesser degree) the sturdy beats of German immigrant talk."  What?