nevermind the bricolage

Book Club

We had our first book club meeting in a while last night. Over a lovely dinner of lamb shank and couscous, we discussed Ayn Rand's colossal work, Atlas Shrugged. Opinions ran high and contention filled the air--it always does. The great thing is that we have been getting together so long, none of us take the volatile discussions over the various books personally, and believe me it gets personal!! Atlas Shrugged is one of those books, it just begs controversy and division. The over-riding view amongst us was surprisingly positive. Our conversation ranged from laissez-faire capitalism to atheism/religion, the re-building of New Orleans, what makes for a 'good' society--we could have gone on all night. We used to meet every month, we had been on a long hiatus until last night, will we read again? It's up for grabs but judging by our passionate engagement I have a feeling something will be lined up soon.

London Smile

Stuart Semple's 'happy' project.

Skulllamp

Fernando Akasaka

My Girls

Animal Collective "My Girls" from Chad von Nau on Vimeo. Only Animal Collective!

Stamp Skull

Conchords

I am really enjoy the second season of Flight of the Conchords. Michel Gondry directed an episode a few weeks back and really raised the bar as far as the flight of fantasy music interludes go. It's a quirky, qurky show and seems to illicit love/hate responses as far as viewers go, but I am hooked on the two kiwis trying to make it in NY. This image came from Michael Muller. 

Thought this was quite funny. Came from here.

Ash

From dust we came, to dust we return.

Mop Tops

The always fabulous Kid Robot shop on Melrose Avenue.

Blend/Collide

A R Rahman cleaned up the music awards at this years Oscars and I couldn't be happier. I thought the score and the original songs in Slumdog Millionaire were by far the most creative responses to the narrative and images of the film when compared to the other nominations. That is not to say that the other composer scores weren't lovely, but there was a unique thread in Rahman's. I don't think it was simply the 'novelty' of a Bollywood-type score either--Rahman offers something unique when it comes to film score composition, particularly in increasingly global pop culture contexts. An example of what I mean might be understood in terms of another score, James Newton Howard's lovely work for Defiance. It features violin soloist Joshua Bell, whose instrument is dedicated to the Jewish resistance fighters in the film--the instrument tells their story through the music and it is blended into the score in a very beautiful but traditional way. Or perhaps I should compare the original songs--Peter Gabriel (whom I love), a world music pioneer, with Rahman's two nominated songs, either way the results are the same in my view. Rahman doesn't try and blend anything--he lets things collide, and this is his gift. Rather than trying to control, sublimate, blend or mesh oppositional sounds and textures, he lets them slam together and then revels in the chaos. For me, this makes him a composer for a new emerging world, the one that comes after Western ascendancy. That world sought to rub the edges off things and make them fit seamlessly together, but doesn't hold sway as it used to and is gradually being replaced by a new way of approaching difference and opposition which celebrates and emphasizing difference rather than by pretending it is not there. This is film music 'post-shuffle.' The shuffle offers up not carefully crafted thematics but the joy of randomness--the listener 'makes it fit.'