tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10565963861502891552024-03-13T23:19:20.776-04:00and SID sez...Commentaries by SIDney Howard on matters of the mind, matters of the heart, and matters of music machines.SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-28074880295030362312014-04-05T00:05:00.000-04:002014-04-05T00:14:54.821-04:00Pizza-Shell Game (or What Up, Dough?)<div align="center" class="Body" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">SID</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">3/24/2014</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">At
the time of this writing…</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last
night I watched a DVR'd replay of Aloe Blacc on the American version of NBC's
hit <i>The Voice. </i>Aloe Blacc was serving as an assistant coach for
"head-coach" Usher. As <i>fate</i> would have it, the song that the
battling contestants were to sing for that night’s episode's head-to-head
competition just so happened to be Blacc's "I'm the Man". What are
the odds? More on this later. Providing a story of encouragement on the face of
high criticism, Aloe discussed how he came about <i>writing</i> the hit song.
He said that after Dr. Dre had slammed his songs, he "…went home and <i>wrote</i> 'I'm the
Man.'"—SSKIRRRRRRCHHHH!!!!! [cue tire screech]. WROTE?!? "…I'm the
Man"?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
months I have heard this song playing as bumper music on one of my favorite
television sports shows…ESPN's <i>First Take </i>as it was going to commercial.
For those who're not familiar with the phrase <i>bumper music</i>, it's the 10
to 20 sec bit of music that's used to transition into and out of the
commercials. As such, I would hear just the chorus of the song in question. For
those who haven't heard it, the song sounds exactly like Elton John and Bernie
Taupin's (ironically titled) "Your Song"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">for the first five words <i>And
you can tell everybody </i>ominously/blatantly/again ironically omitting YS's <i>this
is your song</i>. In this era of broadcasted music, where you seldom hear the
performer named by the on-air radio personality (I'm guessing it's because
centralized programming-fronted spokespersons require very little personality),
it is good to at least see text titles such as those shown when First Take
plays to commercial. For the song in question (phrase-pun probably well intended),
there was added the familiar Dre Beats logo. It turns out that Beats has
expanded its impressive over-the-ear headphone empire into the song download
site arena. Aloe Blacc is a Dr. Dre artist. Draw your own conclusions. I even
have my suspicions that this blatant plagiaristic practice follows the meme
that any press is good press, and is in part a publicity stunt of sorts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Last
summer, the big song-controversy as such involved Pharrell Williams and Robin
Thicke's strange borrowing of the late great Marvin Gaye's "Gotta Give It
Up". At first I thought it to be an homage resurrection of a decades old
summer hit. But when the PH/RT camp reportedly denied there were any
similarities to works of persons living or dead, well… We all just have to sit
down together and have a talk. Now the song-elephant in the room is the
usurping of a great Elton John classic. If I'm not to call out the emperor as
being buck naked, may I at least be permitted to refuse him a seat on any of
the cloth upholstered seats in the elephant's room?</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I'm
often accused by my Hip-Hop supportive peers of being too tough on that
culture—especially its music offerings. What must be understood is that Hip Hop
began as a DJ/emcee/rapper medium. Music for them was not something to create,
but to recycle—first to records playing beats in the background, later to the
sound of records being deftly manually manipulated in the background, then as
sampling technology arrived: looping samples of recordings. Fast forward to
2014, the popular music side of the record industry in American is run on the
creativeness of those whose genre encourages them to create by means of
recreation. Instead of sampling these days, the sign of prestige for a rapper
is to have a live band in a broad sense playing samples or four measure
recognizable motifs from which that which may be called a song is cobbled. The
heroes of today's Pop genre are unapologetically former or concurrent heroes of
Hip Hop. Pharrell came on the scene as a genius beatmaker in his group N*E*R*D.
Aloe Blacc, in the aforementioned The Voice segment made reference to his being
an emcee. And the <i>sampling</i> did not originate with Hip Hop; there was
Devo's use of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman" on "Whip It",
Vangelis' Academy award winning use of "Born Free" on his <i>Chariots
of Fire </i>theme, and the ever-popular Ray Parker recycle of Huey Lewis and
the New's "New Drug" for <i>Ghost Busters</i>.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Okay,
here's my food analogy: When pizza first made its mark on the favorite foods
scene, it was a wonderful handmade culinary work of fine craftsmanship. There
is the iconic image of a pizza chef tossing and spinning dough. As I am writing
this, Classical WQXR NY is playing one of a collection of dance suites from
George Frideric Handel's opera <i>Amira</i> with a zesty classical Italiano
orchestral piece as my soundtrack; so I feel as if I am on a mission from the
great I Am…amen. Somewhere down the line, in efforts to usurp the throne of
real pizza, quick shortcuts came in forms frozen, literal half-baked quickie $5
K-Mart pies and grocery store shelve "pizza shells". For many the
convenience factor won out over the fullness of good taste, but true disciples
like me would rather hold out for the real thing. Applying the analogy to
music, computer technology provided the usurpers the means to side-step
craftsmanship to the degree that songs are widely judged as good not on their
goodness but on their overall sales. The rationale must be that if so many like
it, it must be good. There's a paucity of critiques that call into question originality
or musicianship. The hypocrisy of it all on the ubiquitous talent shows is
this: I'll see the judge/coaches (whenever it is that they ever do) give harsh
critiques appended with their <i>this is for your own good/gonna hurt me more
than it's gonna hurt you </i>explanations that their brusque and painfully
honest responses are only meant to help the contestants to be all that they can
be. Then the contestants will take those remarks at heart and during their next
performance do a singer-sound-alike rendition of maybe a more classic Pop
piece, and not only not be called on their plagiarism, but be praised and *<i>overly-qualified
</i>for being *<i>very unique</i> in their delivery. Maybe it's more ignorant
than hypocritical; let the to-be-poison, select their own.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Last
words wordplay.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the violent side of Hip Hop street culture, "Gotta Give It Up" and
"I'm the Man" reflect the threat of force to take something from its
owner or respectively the customary self-exaltations thereafter. True
creativity goes unrewarded when beholders either do not recognize progressive
originality that moves a genre forward, such as experienced in the late 60's
through the pre-Disco seventies. When the arguably higher old ways are
disregarded as irrelevant by those who are blinded by the shiny newness of the
new, it's like someone saying that the shiny new fresh of the lot Ford Focus is
a much better piece of machine design than the dated not-so-shiny 1999 Ferrari
360 parked next to it. Keep up this trend, and pizzas made of catsup and cheese
powder sprinkled over saltines will be all the rage.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Until
my next words…</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">SIDizzzouttt!!! </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-59474060272126949162014-02-04T01:05:00.001-05:002014-02-04T01:05:20.389-05:00"Lettuce Produce" or "Producer or Reducer?"<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Introducing SIDney
Howard the opinionated. Last millennium, in the late part of the last decade of
the last century, my nearly lifelong friends and collaborators (Mark Drummond
and Aljay Boyd) launched an unfortunately now defunct full-interest music website: </span><a href="http://streetjamz.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">streetjamz.com</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. The invited me to pen an editorial corner. The following is
the one that started the ...<i>and SID Se</i>z column that became the <i>eaSS</i> blog.
Indulge and enjoy. </span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Lettuce Produce" or "Producer
or Reducer?"</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">by <b>SID</b>ney Howard<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Welcome to this first
installment of SID Sez. I'm a producer. Show of hands out there…Who's old
enough to remember when that actually meant something?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For those of you who
raised your hands, what did you name your pet Pterodactyl? But seriously
folks… It seems today that everyone today is or will soon be a producer. It has
become as ubiquitous as some plague where if you’re not directly affected, you
have a friend or family member who has been so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="" name="143eafff80ab3263_Continued_from_main_pag"></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Going a bit further with this perhaps
"ill-fated disease" analogy, let us strive to locate and define the
"illness." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What a
"producer" is has changed so drastically over time and technological
evolution that we must start with what a producer<i> was</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Back in the day when a
studio was a hallowed hall of adventure where the wafting fragrance of warm Mylar
spun onto massive two-inch multitrack master reels set the mood of serious
artistic endeavors—as well as the three digit per hour no-mercy rates, time
wasted was serious money flushed away. [run on sentence #1] Then in those days,
anyone without a major label budget would brave these territories with the aid
of a guide who would manage the sessions from an artistic and logistic point of
authority. …not unlike Han Solo on the Millennium Falcon (maybe a little unlike
it).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Anyway, the main thing
this person provided for the artist was guidance and usually objective input
and direction. To do so the brave producer had to know a little of everything
going on: the music, the technical, the business side and record industry side.
Said person didn't need to know it all, just enough to delegate authority to
the proper authorities in the midst.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[<i>Cue harp playing
whole tone arpeggios</i>]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fast forward to
present: A studio today is more likely to be a thing at one's place than the
one place with all the things. A good analogy is the train/automobile
comparison. With the coming of the Transcontinental Railway in the 1800's,
Easterners too timid/too smart to travail the frontier in order to experience
the other side of their own massive country were now able to do so without
worry, muss or fuss. All one needed do was simply board a train, relax in one
of its cars, and in a near-eternity <i>Californie</i>
<i>is the place</i> <i>they'd</i> be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With the coming of
viable automobiles and the interstate highway and byways, the car was something
individuals owned and operated. Each one became his own conductor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">MIDI, modular digital
multitracks, and hard disc recording are the new "highways" by which
each man can become his own island. "Island" records as such, have
become acceptable and have given more and more the right to vote for their own
taste. Now we have Hip Hop and Electronica, Techno and House, New Age and a Sue
age if in any of these idioms idiots sample without clearances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There <i>is</i> still
the old brand of producers. They are what we new guys hope to be one day when
we grow up and blow up. Until such a day comes your way, come and see me so we
can talk production. Stop in again and see what SID Sez.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">SIDizzout!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2014 UPDATE: Fifteen
years after this writing, a studio may well be defined as a smart phone with
the proper app. And unfortunately concepts are as like so compact.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-51896877928805040132014-01-02T15:45:00.000-05:002014-01-02T15:52:37.991-05:00To Halve Undo Whole 'Til Deaf Do Us Part<div class="Body">
<span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Helvetica;">…</span>and
SID Sez 120413<o:p></o:p></div>
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I usually fall asleep listening to
talk radio. After one particularly great sleep, I remained in bed and watched Michael
Jackson's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh9Cp4rd7mI" target="_blank">"Ghost" video</a>. While I wouldn't call it a disappointment, it
wasn't as good as I would have hoped to see coming from the brain-trust of MJJ,
Stephen King, and the great Stan Winston. Maybe (not just maybe) it was too
long.</div>
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Checking my email I saw one of my favorite notices. From
Amazon: $5 albums. Nowadays, $5 per platter is an incredible music buy. When I
was a teenager buying vinyl, that was in the neighborhood of the going <i>price
of nice</i>. …back when a dollar sort of was real money-like. Today, that's
half the price of a new MP3. Today that's what I buy more readily than do I
consume hardcopies. And why is that so? Convenience: the ultimate impulse buy.
I purchased Raul Midon's first album from iTunes immediately after watching him
perform on <i>Late Night with David Letterman</i>. A year or so before, when I
heard of Chaka Khan's <i>Classikhan</i> album of classic song covers, I visited
at least two stores to finally find it and purchase it at the price of $15.99 +
6% MI sales tax + the price of fuel and the wear and tear of aggravation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Nowadays, the allure of vinyl sound and its comparatively
bigger than life package presentation has recaptured the collectors' hearts.
…at steep prices. … comparatively. Thinking about the state of music
consumption today, I can make a three-way division of end uses.<br />
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First: There are the free receivers. For purposes of not
overly extending the scope of conversation, I'll not lump in the
data-ripping/file-sharers. That said, this category is made up of passive
consumers who listen to broadcasted music mostly. There are also those who hear
enough while frequenting clubs and/or parties and ceremonies where the music plays as
free as the wind.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Second: There are those who are mostly/to/strictly into
pay downloads. As I stated earlier, there is a convenience factor. The
downloader is much more interested in controlling their playlist than are they
concerned with amassing a physical music collection.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Third: Group three is more concerned with having a music library
than just a playlist. Those in this group take much pride in having at hand
physical pieces that can be showcased on shelves and in open media stands—or
closed ones for awesome reveals. Part of the process of enjoying their acquisitions
is starting the music then sitting down to listen while perusing liner notes,
inserts, or booklets.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Following along the wedding analogy suggested in the
title, the first group wants a good, enjoyable, and/or interesting time with as
many as frequency and circumstances allow. They're easily bored with a single
subject and hardly even make the effort to learn titles. The second group is
into limited brief commitments. While they may not stay into one for very long,
they reserve the right to revisit when the whim dictates. Group three is the
figurative "polygamist" group. Each "wife" in the
collection is precious to them. In fact, if upon a visit to the library, a
three-er finds that he cannot find a particular album or CD, it is a grievous
state of affairs indeed. This final group wants <i>to have</i> its music <i>to hold </i>forever,
<i>until</i> deafness would <i>do them </i>to <i>part</i> with their precious platters. Group two cares less than half
as much. And those in group one can't even remember what this blogs is about.
It's about where music stands or doesn't stand today.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">SIDizzzouttt!!!</span>SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-48211190739073340272013-09-20T14:41:00.000-04:002013-09-20T14:41:12.401-04:00B-Sides That, What Is There Left to Say?<div class="MsoNormal">
January 6th, 2013</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Welcome to 2013. Half a century ago, a relatively successful
record industry was about to explode with the combined 1-2 punch of the Motown
phenomenon and the British Invasion, led by the Beatles—forces often imitated
but never ever to be replicated. Ten years prior, the one-off singles market
filled jukeboxes<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hyRNh9tuEXg/UjyVN086SuI/AAAAAAAAAG0/bI6nDKdBBz4/s1600/Vintage-Jukebox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hyRNh9tuEXg/UjyVN086SuI/AAAAAAAAAG0/bI6nDKdBBz4/s1600/Vintage-Jukebox.jpg" height="200" width="156" /></a>with one-hit wonders. "-tions" and "the"
doo-wopper's were all satisfied to just hear their songs on the radio. If any
singer songwriter was called an "artist', the hyphenated modifier
"starving-" probably preceded it.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To put things in their truest light, the early Motown and
British Invader acts followed the same formula. But along the way, the
successes of the Beatles (and other Brit art school dropouts, starting with
Beatle-to-be John Lennon to members of Pink Floyd to Freddie Mercury to
"the other Davy Jones"—a.k.a. David Bowie to etc.) became creative
license for high art creative experiments that created cults of album devotees
and the FM deep cut professor dee-jays high priest. Meanwhile still bound to
the proven business model, singles ruled. Most consumers bought their records
to serve as sonic semi-subtle background entertainment. This led to the growth
in sales of the so-named "LP's". Dance party people still preferred
to spin just the hits, so the singles were still flying off shelves.</div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then deep cut discovery jocks began touting their own
B--side discoveries. "For you naturambic natives of Iainthipsville"—to
quote Shrinegelk Gurglefurt, singles most often had the sure-pick song lathed
on the A-side and a throwaway nothing song on its B-side.
…A-list/B-list…A-Grade/B-Grade, etc. As Lennon-McCartney's bubblegum
top-charting achievements bought them their freedom and right to become
"real" composer/producers, the concept album evolved and every track
was in play. Label after label followed suit. There were fewer throwaways on
B-sides of singles; and on some single releases, the B-sides either replaced
the A-side hit or was made an A-side re-release. A notable instance of such was
the Kool & the Gang "Ladies' Night" 45 that had the eventual hit
ballad "Too Hot" as its B-side.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How has the demise of the 45s preeminence changed music?
Well first of all, around the time vinyl was eclipsed by CDs, digital downloads
soon after eclipsed everything via iTunes and the likes of the now infamous
Napster file-swapping site; the music culture changed. No, not just Pop music's
taste consensus, but the value put on music itself. There's a famous story of Motown
founder and then chairman Berry Gordy establishing a quality criteria for their
releases. According to legend, if someone hearing a record had only enough
money to either buy lunch for the day or buy the record, a hit would get the
nod over the meal. Then the relationship dynamic between record maker and
record buyer was a symbiotic one of performer and patron—literally singing for
many suppers. When music is free, there is no such criteria. I educate many of
the young folks who come into my studio (Lake Gennesaret SPS, Inc.) about the
supply/demand aspects concerning today's music market. I tell them that way
back in the 70’s when I was a teenage record collector, someone with as few as
three hundred albums would be thought of as a fanatic or at best a
super-dedicated music collector. The comments I would get about my 300+
collection were those such as: "Wow. Do you listen to all of them."
"You must really love music." [duh] …and "Man…You spend a lot on
records." The last line is the difference. This was the peak of the
pay-to-play era. Back in that time, many recording artists complained that
based upon ostentatious sales successes they weren't getting paid what they'd
earned. The uncaring industry scoffed; the labels were getting theirs. But in
similar sentiment of Pastor Martin Niemöller's (1892–1984) "…they came for
me" quote, technology and its generational progeny grew up understanding
music recordings to be things one downloads for free. One could pay if feeling
charitable, but if you can get it for free without sounding an anti-theft
alarm, it's free, right? Pay if so led, but it is in effect no prerequisite. As
desktop HDDs, iPods, and sundry smart wireless devices grew in memory capacity,
a 300-album collection was just the start of music library. Moreover, the time
that it would once take a teenager to raise the funds to buy 300 $6 records is
considerably more than the time it takes to download 4000 MP3's. Where this is
significant is with the listening-time consideration factor.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By the time a seventies teen has bought 300 LPs he's
listened to friends' collections and listened to his more affordable 45s found
on some of those albums. In the beginning, 45 rpm singles were mostly what I
could afford. I would play the A-side of a single until I was tired of it, then
flip it over to love to learn the song there until I could afford to buy
another 2-sided single. I listened to "I'll Take You There" as long
as I could, then "I'm Just Another Soldier"<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pXkUpw9DoGw/UjyV7hOM2-I/AAAAAAAAAG8/GRDfNukoGZM/s1600/justanother.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pXkUpw9DoGw/UjyV7hOM2-I/AAAAAAAAAG8/GRDfNukoGZM/s1600/justanother.jpeg" height="200" width="195" /></a></div>
was my jam. Recently,
I found myself humming "…Soldier…" just the other day. I find myself
singing "One More Chance" more often than do I its A-side: "I'll
Be There".<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What B-sides all of what I've written thus far makes this
NOT a pointless sentimental rant? The answer is: what has come of all this EZ-take
it music. If suddenly gold could be made from snot, one cold season and it
would no longer be precious. When a three-hundred album collection represents
half a decade of acquisitions, it reflects the specific times it reflects. When
music loving future composer/songwriter-producers have listened to their
money's worth of A-sides, B-sides, and all the deep album cuts, they possibly
grow up to be more inventive and reflective constructors of assimilated
melodies and lyrical styles that build onto tried and true traditions—creating
more timeless works than those without such cultivation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It's 2013. If trends are truly cyclic and if we do things
right, maybe by 2065—giving ourselves two years to rehabilitate popular
music—they'll look back on these times as the millennium's <i>glory years</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
SiDizzzouttt!!! <span lang="en-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: #0400; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: X-NONE; mso-fareast-language: #0400;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-6956729667928411982013-04-01T21:28:00.002-04:002013-04-02T15:18:54.034-04:00J.A.M. Episode 1Oh (313) '13. On March 13th, 2013, Language Universal Recording Society, LLC proudly released the very first SIDney Howard solo album, <a href="http://store.mune-pi.com/Junior-Analogue-Monster-CD_p_67.html" target="_blank">Jr. Analogue Monster</a>, as a digital download. Now available is its accompanying <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8XFdhh2bXOmWXFZeWtESVV3cDA/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">PDF booklet</a> containing the song lyrics, dedications, and credits. The CD will be available soon for distribution next month.SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-58307859585864484512012-08-01T23:05:00.000-04:002012-08-01T23:05:05.043-04:00That Would Never Even Get Made in This Day and Age<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I
was watching Robert Rossen's 1961 classic film "The Hustler" on our
PBS HDTV affiliate on the night of July 13th, 2012—the night that I began this
writing. It was the feature film on Elliot Wilholm's classic movie. He lauded
with great praise the writer/director Rossen, Paul Newman and cast, set
designers and everyone but the accounting firm and limo drivers. And then he
said this one thing, which is as egregious to me as is it seemingly a bitterly
sad statement on our current reality: "A film like this would never get
made today. Executives would never green-light its dark and…" And that's
when everything "went all black". When I awoke figuratively, I was
literally writing the following:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When
a great work of times gone by is lauded in apotheosis with the phrase 'It would
never get made today', is it an indictment of present culture, or resignation
to bow to trends? The obvious follow up would have to be "Why not?"
Those of you who’ve read me or have spoken to me have probably heard me make
this complaint: in this day and age, where technologically we have to tools at
hand to create the greatest artistic works ever, why does mediocrity (and or
mediocrity mistaken for minimalism) excel commercially and so often in the
arena of critical acclaim? Roseanne Roseannadanna might respond, "Mr.
SIDney Howard, you ask a lot of stupid questions."</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The
old saw is that it's 'show BUSINESS'. Of course, without business there is no
show. But for me and many of my ilk, without artistry it's a business of bad
shows and bad showings at the movie box offices and retail record centers. The
fierce quantitative decline of record and ticket sales and relevance of modern
popular culture speaks to that in deafening blasts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Famously,
Mark Twain once said (probably even more than once) "Everyone complains
about the weather, but no one does anything about it." Well what can you
do? This is the follow up sentiment of most of us whiners. The follow up action
to that is usually to fall into the default. Every major election, the
electorate complains that "…they're all the same…nothing ever
changes…might as well do what we've been doing…it's no use; nothing ever
changes." I will make a change at this point by avoiding an extension of
over-using the famous Einstein definition of insanity. With music and movies,
we vote with our money. Look at how 3D offerings have grown exponentially,
while human interest dramas have declined for lost of interest—relegated to
limited releases that only achieve them <i>sometimes</i>
not being released directly to DVD. Meanwhile, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">SIDney</st1:place></st1:city> kIDSey DISney-esque Electro-Pop
insta-hits make the Disco we used to besmirch seem like Bach inventions or
Ellington arrangements. Rap started clever, but now is more a means to end up
men (and/or women) of means. What this means is that so-called artists are
shrewd entrepreneurial mercenaries under their "sheep's clothing"—the
five-figure woolen suits they're wearing when they're not image-enshrouded in
wares from their ghetto-chic clothing lines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In
previous blogs and discussions, I've mentioned my being raised in the
Mississippi Delta, and how my mother grew up in Indianola with B. B. King when
they were both children there. My first music industry mentor was Bluesman Willie
Cobb (he was the "harmonica man" in the Denzil Washington movie
"Mississippi Masala"). The thing I noticed about successful Bluesmen
is that they would invest their relatively meager music monies in more
conventionally sound ventures like barbecue restaurants or "rib
joints", as I like to call them. I've grown to figuratively categorically
characterize the showbiz money-funded enterprises of the in-pan flashing
"done-gooders" as <i>rib joints</i>.
Jesus Christ says that where your treasure is, there shall your heart be also.
…easy as 1-2-3-4 (Luke 12:34). The telling matter about their devotion to the
horse that got them there is whether or not they ride out on him or fricassee
him using the family blue-ribbon secret sauce recipe. Which is to say, an
artist who dabbles will become engaged with that which most interests him. If
"Sucka Brothu, Hate Yo' Mama" goes double-platinum and after that
former DJ "Stuffin' Puff'd" wants hence to be referred to by his
Christian name: Devin Harshnip, III, Rap was a one-niter to which he'll say,
"Look, baby. We was both just lookin' for some fun, I thought. We both
knew this could only go so for, didn't you?" He'll "marry" his
conventional business pursuits, only venturing out on odd occasions to dally
with his wild and loose liaisons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We
keep electing these into their respective offices of senator, representative,
governor, president, author, actor, film, television, and/or music producer,
etc. And the figurative song remains the same. The onus for change lies with
both the artists and the <i>asstistifiedated</i>
consumers/voters. Christians are berated from the pulpits for complaining about
the filth in popular culture. But too often the typical goodly Godly product
has poor technical production values, amateur acting performances, mediocre
writing, and is generally so sub-standard that paying the cost of a ticket
amounts to charity. If the Christian arts & entertainment oriented
enterprises want the support of consumers, who want to and are willing to pay
for a great product, all that need be done is to adopt free enterprise when it
comes to radio playlists and reviews of exception Indy offerings. Biblically
speaking the company "Jesse's" send their "David's" out in
the field, while the "Samuel"-consumers pick from the b-stock.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In
the secular realm, the "…game is double-same."—Gil Scott Heron<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The
box-office figures dictate what gets green in <i>greenlightations</i> dictations. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Michael</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Bay</st1:placename></st1:place>'s
"Hamlet" is just around the corner if the constant success of the
"Transformers" film saga goes unimpeded by their as-constant one-star
ratings by critics and viewers. This one won't have a quiet ending.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm
avoiding the fact that the things I like—those things that drew me to music,
and at one time fueled my desires to be an actor and then a screenwriter—might never
get made again in <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country>.
Sadly make the <b>"Made in <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country>"</b>
motto a sad reminder of when <b>that</b>
was something to be proud of in our culture. I'm not saying that it's no longer
ever the case, but it's even sadder that when those scattered cases of artistic
American exceptionalism arise, they're exceptions and not the rule… or they're
glimpses on a past looking back upon great works that could never be made today—conditions
being as they are in these cultural times. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">SIDizzzouttt!!!… looking for work ;^{/] </span></span>SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-6038337183598048252012-07-29T23:01:00.000-04:002012-07-30T18:33:28.146-04:00Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Has our cordial approach of
"soft" critiquing help lead to the degradation of music? The Bernie
Taupin lyric starts:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>What have I got to do to make you love me?</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>What have I got to do to make you care?</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Then a little later it reads…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>What do I say when it's all over?</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>And sorry seems to be the hardest word?</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While the overall narrative along
with the singer setting suggests that it is indeed a "love" song of
sorts, the words paint a vivid and accurate picture of the awkward place many
of us find ourselves when asked our opinion of a far less talented colleague's
music offering. Here's my most common scenario:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I play a piece that I've finished and
of which I am most proud for someone who has a love for music—like mine. The
song finishes and a grin reflects their awe and full appreciation of my
artistic accomplishment—like
mine, again. Then comes the dreaded response. "Hey. I have something of
mine I'd like to let you hear." I play it, hoping for the best. It's nowhere
close to the best. Now comes the dreaded question: "Well? What do you
think?" What do you say. Fortunately, they haven't asked for my 'honest
opinion'—"Oh…and give me your
honest opinion." I jinxed it. Again, what do you do? When was the last
time you told a friend, family member, or acquaintance that their music,
presented to you for your (maybe not) honest opinion, was honestly just
mediocre at best? Perhaps the music profession needs one of those common "…professional.
Please do not attempt" disclaimer captions. I even saw one used in a
Vitamin Water commercial, at the point where a dancer was doing "the
worm" Hip Hop dance move.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Four-Track, <st1:place w:st="on">MIDI</st1:place>,
and DAW's have made making music <i>painfully</i>
accessible to the masses. Home studios are as ubiquitous as kitchens in homes.
As we don't hear the latter referred to as "home kitchens", so
nowadays we’re
starting <b>not</b> to hear personal
project studios referred to as home studios; like kitchens (and Bond), they're
just studios. With the ubiety of home studios, there is an unfavorable talent to facility ratio. If our words dishearten, it serves to thin the herd.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In many discussions I've begun on
LinkedIn, some will raise the “power
to the people”
argument. Everyone should have the right to artistic expression. Well, what if
the trend spread to other professions? Why stop at music production? How about
Home Architectural Firms? Now instead of paying those high hourly rates for
architects to design your building, by Mark of the Architect's
"Constructer" software, dedicate a few hours to YouTube tutorials and
start working on that IC hospital wing that it's long been your secret passion
to design. This is an <i>apples to
marshmallow-scorpions</i> comparison, some would argue; one can't compare life
and death severity to entertainment. Maybe it is, and then…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The arts shape our respective
philosophies, and those philosophies help guide (or taint) our moral centers.
In music, one dresses for success, so to speak. SNF's Tony Manero strutting to
"Staying Alive," launched a fashion revolution in the seventies. The
aptly named "Chic" launched the "GQ" era among
"Afro-Americans" (the pre-African American post Negro-Black
classification used at that time) [technically: Mankind's origin is in fact
African, so all human citizens of American citizenship are "African
American". But that's another blog for another venue ;^{/]. Their
glamourous runway fashion sensibilities imbued "urban" [code for
Black; don't be fooled] teens and young adults to dress-to-kill. Contrast that
with "Gansta Rap" educing just the <i>kill</i> part in more than a few. But then, what does one do with beats
but beat up, maybe? And dance tracks care little for anything having to do with
assets above the waistline—perhaps
the exception may be made on a certain two points, but certainly the region
above the neck is definitely taboo for the "…has a good beat, and I can dance to
it" sect. When you consider the tremendously successful KC classic
"Shake Your Booty", what else could you sing to that bed track? …well something to
the other two points maybe, but allow me to keep this conversation above the
neck. Excuse me, my brain is up here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My one point is that good music
usually promotes higher concepts. Can you imagine a composer finishing a
splendiferous moving symphony then suddenly being inspired to add a lyric about
shaking one's booty? Don't give me the Walter Murphy argument; that was just
about making booty shaking coin, and Ludwig wasn't given a vote. What I'm
saying is that with the creation of great music comes great and lofty themes…maybe not the ones
that cause a person to <i>pass marble</i>,
but ones that inspire to reach some semblance of virtuous greatness. Heavy
Metal is good for what it wants to convey: chaos, hate, brutality, fear, and…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">…SATAN?!?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There are not found within its rigid
structures the evocative complex jazz chord changes to take the listener to
anything spacier. And when the only musical aspect about certain examples of
Rap is the metronomic machine pulse, horror flick hits and sci-fi synth noodles
that are still infinitely more melodious than the monotonic growls or nasally
growls that have brought certain candy-man masters out past the relative
poverty found south of 8-mile, who can fault their proven business models.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Obviously "sorry" is in the
ear of the beholder. The goto response I use most often addresses their
ultimate goal in mind for the thing they let me hear. If all one wishes to
accomplish is to have something to play for a willing professional ear…something they can
play and receive a sort of kinda roundabout half-honest crooked opinion, then
in most cases I say, "<st1:place w:st="on">Mission</st1:place>
accomplished." But if what they want to do is release it upon an
unsuspecting non-discriminating world of listeners who will think it as good as
the last thing they heard (the herd), then that's where we have a problem. Is
there anyone reading this who doesn't realize that we have a problem? <i>Hrrrmppph! Uh</i><i>…</i><i>is there anyone reading this?</i><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There is a problem with music today.
And maybe it started from the first professional who heard a piece of…er…that is a piece…uh…that was not every
good. But instead of giving the “don't
quit your day job”
response, they played it off‑sending 'em off to Mr. Owl. [You Tube "How
many licks Tootsie RollPop”].
Back to hospital analogies: What if chief surgeons were as cavalier in their
assessments of interns as we music professionals are with neophytes? What if
that’s
really how things are all around? Hmmm…
Y’know, I've been
hearing a lot of bad things about hospitals lately.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">SIDizzzouttt!!!</span><o:p></o:p></div>SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-89476023487495073482012-07-14T12:16:00.001-04:002012-07-17T17:46:31.633-04:00Ana Digs It<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Ana Digs It", if memory serves, was the <i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">pun</i>-ny name given to an analog-to-digital device released sometime in the late 80’s or early 90’s. Nowadays, it would seem that everyone digs Ana–</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">if you know what I mean</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. On second thought, perhaps you don't.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What is it that captures the imagination so—when the topic of digital vs. analog comes up in techie to quasi techie conversations? Is it just imagined, the hind-sighted 20/20 aural visions of a better sound?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Some will tell you that analog is warmer, while–<i>they say</i>–digital is bright and harsh. I can tell you, I have heard too bright and very harsh analog. When Rufus Harris and I (google <b>him</b>) worked together at Motown songwriter Sylvia Moy's (<b>google </b>her. hint: "My Cherie Amor") Masterpiece Studios in Detroit, there was a certain engineer in training there who would record and mix at deafening levels. As the session wore on, the engineer's perception of highs waned and the situation was "remedied" by this person raising the highs to subsidize the dullness. Rufus told me how he walked in mid-morning to take over the room for his upcoming session. "Captain Ultrabrite" was just finishing, and asked Rufus his opinion of the mix. I don't remember him telling me how he answered, but I do remember him telling me how overbearingly bright and unpleasant it sounded.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It seems that many have forgotten how clean and naturally bright sounds—those where cymbals and steel guitar strings sounded live in the room, as opposed to sounding like tape playing back—was the <i>Holy Grail</i> of audio mix finals. From this goal, such figurative alchemical alembics as the Aphex Aural Exciter and Barcus Berry BBE 822's became staples in studios. In conversations lauding tape—like battered spouses dismissing a history of abuse, it is either forgotten or dismissed…the beatings we took from tape hiss; and many chose to grin and bear that rather than "dull" their audio experience with a press of the Dolby NR button on their tape decks. Incidentally, the brightness gained by not noise-suppressing is a matter of the hiss modulating to higher frequencies…making the highs seem brighter. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">To be fair, we have to imagine how things might have gone if 24-bit digital audio had come on the scene before analog. Had digital been first on the audio recording scene (recording having come along long before high potency number-crunchers notwithstanding), the pluses associated with that technology—high headroom, low noise floor, wide bandwidth, etcetera—the legacy recordings would sound more realistic in a "being there" way. Then, probably the complaint might be how unrealistically dull and dark "this new analog deal is", not to mention its spectral and dynamic limitations. Wax pressings might be thought of as unwieldy and too heat sensitive…and don't get me started on the scratches, the low end restriction, etc. The crunch of the nut is that the analog versus digital battle is about personal tastes and "that's how mom cooked it"-familiarity between apples and oranges.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The recording industry’s relationship with its end-users was founded on "infidelity"—some things never change; but seriously, folks… Take Edison selling his groovy cylinder grooves; their band-stingy sound barking out of the megaphone-styled speaker was nothing anyone would mistake for anything like reality. …perhaps some dog hearing a facsimile of his master's vocal tone. But I'd never take anyone's advice on audio equipment who would drink from a toilet. The 50’s, with the changeover from 78 rpm records to 33 1/3 LPs and FM's wider bandwidth, is sited as the beginning of Hi Fi. It was analogous to our recent move from interlaced CRT television to 1080p high def flat screens; the ability to see more lines of resolution created the run to HD cameras and subjects that would display the improvements. Conceptual content has been trumped by brilliance that for my eyes most often is visual noise. The Charlie Rose basic black set backgrounds must seem a waste to set designers who now surround talking heads with digital video screens blaring images that make the news seem as if it's being broadcasted in the midst of a room on fire. Likewise, surround sound systems enhanced with subwoofer pushed LFE signals beg to be utilized for "grander" (if not grandiose) purposes like explosions. The center channel's dialogic calling is not so compelling when words are only there to rest the ears between revving motors, screeching dinosaurs, and boom-n-bangs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This is much the same thing that has happened with digital audio. For those kielbasa enthusiasts out there, the truth to be found at the sausage factory is the best motivation for a vegan lifestyle change. Which is to say, the truest sound is not always the most entertaining. The studio process is a process. With analog, the rules are set by the respective mediums' inherent limitations. With digital, it's more like close the rumpus room door and let the kiddies have at it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The moral of the story is just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to do it.</span>SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-80704426057061132312012-07-10T13:39:00.000-04:002012-07-17T17:47:14.714-04:00Just Get The Job Done<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Just
get the job done." The sentiment is one that one might express in
frustration toward a hire who's presented his still uncompleted work as “done”,
with nothing but rationalizations and excuses for the unsatisfactory job. The
former has been my shared opinion of the state of music today. I have picked on
Smooth Jazz and Hip Hop as the culprits. But maybe…just maybe the Digital Audio
Workstation is more culpable.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If
a child pulls a pot-handle suspended above the edge of a hot stove, or shows up
at school with his father’s pistol, we eventually place the blame on the
guardians. Such dangerous items should be kept out of the reach of children.
Humorist Dick Gregory once said that the way we judge crime is based on money:
If an old woman is killed and all the home invaders get from her is a dollar
and change, it will be said, "That's a shame; they killed that old woman
over a buck-fifty.” If the same woman is keeping her life savings in her
mattress, and the crooks haul in twenty-thousand dollars cash, people will say,
"It's all her fault; she didn't have no business keeping that much money
in her house anyway." So why don't
we blame the manufacturers? …for the same reason you don't sue Chevy for
damages from a drunk driver's accident: the consequences were unforeseeable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When
David Smith and his cohorts developed the <st1:place w:st="on">MIDI</st1:place>
protocol, they couldn't have imagined that would mark the beginning of the end
for commercial studios.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I was one of the first to use <st1:place w:st="on">MIDI</st1:place>
as an alternative to expensive “then” conventional commercial studios. But in
1983, it was all about demos and pre-production. What we offered was a
sequencing service that could create demos that, if the song was good enough to
take to the next level, could be transferred to twenty-four track 2"
multitrack tape where some of the parts might be re-laid by live musicians or
at least processed and pre-mastered by a commercial studio musician. With the
limitation of early eighties analog synths, any production calling for realistic
live instruments had to be played over by real live players. …drums, bass,
horns, for example.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As
digital samplers and sample-playback keyboards/modules became more affordable
and even more realistic, production monies drifted away from commercial studios
and toward music stores. Label-funded studio budgets became equipment funds and
artists' basements, bedrooms, and living rooms became studios, while studios
became painfully open for business until so very many of them closed. When
grandpa <st1:place w:st="on">MIDI</st1:place> passed the keys on to father DAW
in the nineties, it was technologically suggested/expected/insisted that the
job of a producer/artist/songwriter was to be audio engineer and studio owner.
By the time DAW, Jr. matured in the new millennium and Dad DAW handed him the
family business, there were very few studios around even as professional
alternatives. Nowadays in fact, there are too few of the professional-grade
professionals in MOST studios to finish the process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So
what have we done? We've put the job of piloting commercial music in the mostly
incapable hands of the passengers. What's the quick fix? See the emperor's fine
new clothes. What has happened is demos are called masters and consumers have
grown to accept it as masterful, while collections full of masters are
dismissed as old fashioned. When you get past the loops and quick beats, a lot
of Hip Hop and Smooth Jazz (and even some Electro-Pop) has great potential. If
certain DAW production products were given to excellent musicians to play and
talented singers rather than auto-tune warblers, some really good recordings
might possibly be the long awaited result. Think: Roots. The reverse was
exhibited in the production results of Stevie Wonder's "Conversation
Peace" album—an unsatisfactory work from which his career never fully
recovered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The
DAW has its assignment, and in most cases it is not to enable <i>one-man-bandsmanship</i>. Now it's sadly so much just about money.
Money never shares the love. We have the tools at hand to create some the best
music ever heard. If we do, we can rekindle love in the marriage of art and
popular music. The final cut decision has to be wrested from blinding/deafening
egos. Our job as music makers and music consumers is to settle for nothing but
the best (as often as we can). Take your DAW, and let's get the job done.</span>SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-22951907311846067632012-06-20T16:44:00.000-04:002012-06-21T01:12:26.875-04:00How's Your Shadow Puppetry These Days?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">One
famous Sunday evening, gathered around our television sets, many in my
"Boomer" generation were convinced that we’d had revealed to us our
mission in life. When Ed Sullivan famously announced, "And now…here they
are…" and four mop-headed Liverpool lads waved their fretted wands about
and casted their spells on us, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">m</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">usic
stores next day were selling guitars like snow shovels after broadcasted
blizzard warnings. As we passed the showroom window of a <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Denver</st1:place></st1:city> music store, I remember my parents
asking me what instrument I would like to play. I answered, "Drums."
to which mother remarked, "That's not an instrument." No offense to
drummers; I'm quite sure she intended that as drums are not typically melodic instruments,
especially as she'd heard them played through the cacophony of screaming teen
girls on Ed Sullivan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I
remember that before we were treated to the headlining Beatles, we had to
endure spinning plates to the tune of Khachaturian's "Saber Dance".
The farther we traverse away from that time period, the more it seems
incredible that plate-spinners, musical spoon-players, Señor Wences, and the
like could actually get booked on the same venue along with great fab four.
Then one wonders if the Beatles were viewed as <b>just</b> entertainers by booking agents: Rock Band/Plate-spinners…six
for half-a-dozen.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Well,
they weren't all that great at the time. They were figurative "emerging
cicadas" singing along with every other bug emerging from their
subterranean dwellings of obscurity. And at that time they had all replaced
other acts for which interest had dwindled. Somewhere, a talented shadow
puppeteer moaned his silent woes to his faithful shadow dog on the wall next to
him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Today
many of us "real musicians" feel as though the times have passed us
by. The complaints probably echo those of the stable people when it finally
dawned on them that that newfangled horseless carriage thingamabob was here to
stay. Progress happens. And I'm a fine one to complain. It might be said that I
am a plug-in monster. I fondly remark on the subject that I can more easily
page through an expansive music gear catalog and point out what I don't own
than the more arduous prospect of listing what I have and hold in my DAW
environment(s)*—I work with 5 of the most popular of said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Martin
Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">First they
came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Because I
was not a Socialist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Then they
came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Because I
was not a Trade Unionist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Then they
came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Because I
was not a Jew.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Then they
came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I
do not at all mean to marginalize its importance with such a comparatively
frivolous circumstance, but it is in a way like what we MIDIots experienced
when even pre-MIDI, the drum machine came to town. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Hymn
353…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Oh
Dunderbeck, oh Dunderbeck, how could you be so mean<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">To ever
have invented the sausage meat machine?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Now long
tailed rats and pussy cats will never more be seen,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">They`ll all be ground to sausage
meat in Dunderbeck`s machine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Until
Roger "Dunderbeck" Linn unleashed his infernal beatbox on an
unsuspecting music world, the harmonic/melodic musicians and drummers and
percussionists lived in (for lack of a better word) <i>harmony</i>. There was “Drum Drops”, literal needle-drop vinyl lps with
full stereo tracks of live drums. And the old Lowery electric organ type—funkily
made famous by Sly Stone. The early Roland offerings (which were variations on
the fake sounding beatbox themes) never came close enough in realism at that
time to provide a threat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">When
the Linn Drum hit the streets—with its sequencer and manipulatable actual
recorded drum sounds, it had two dramatic effects on the studio eco-structure.
One: the obvious, it offered a viable alternative to session drummers. Two:
because that drum tool was readily adopted by non-drummers, they created a
"new" drum sound and style. For instance, instead of fully dynamic
high-hat rhythms like those generated by Steve's Ferrone, Gadd, and Wonder, we
got clickity-ticking that sounds like the "60 Minutes" clock. That
came with two dynamic flavors: loud and softer. …three, if you count
"off".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Enter
the eighties and the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Minneapolis</st1:place></st1:city>
sound: Prince and "his courtiers" devoured the early eighties music
atmosphere with the Linn Drum sound. Of course Hip-Hop hipster/hoppers played
their part in it, but Pop success makes gold, and he who holds the gold makes
the rules. When imitation becomes idiom, the rules have changed. After
"Red Corvette", good luck with trying to pitch a tune (wordplay
intended) with heartfelt soulful Sonny tapping knowledge to ya on a live kit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Then
the Empire struck back with the infamous Phil Collins gated drum sounds.
"But this is good, right?" It would seem so Watson, but only to the
casual observer. For you see, Watson… While it brought the live drummer back
into the game, it did as well set the (mono)tone for the uni-dynamic banality that
its push-button predecessor established. The sub-cultural infestation continues
to this present time in current music practices. We're in a Kurt Vonnegut
"<st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place> Berge…"-run de-evolved
world where sameness is highly honored and recognized for being contemporary.
Meanwhile, an overly individualized "Indie" market searches out the
most non-conforming Pop music counters. It has become something akin to the
two-party them-o-cracked/repugnant-canned dynamic. Those who are passive
consumers of the goop dished out on their figurative trays will accept whatever
is served to them with a smile. The cultural rebel sees "greatness"
in anything opposite of popular. But don't be fooled by the label
"Indie"; where it used to infer independence, it's now an open idiom
grazed upon by both true independents and their sound-alikes signed to major
labels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Personally,
I have artists—and I'm loathe to utilize that much overused noun lightly–who
pester me about trending more toward styles created by those of lesser talent:
singing, composing, songwriting, playing instruments, etc. I understand. They
see some lightweight singing half-talent suddenly raised to prominence with a
string of chart-near-toppers, and they gather that the off-pitch whiney
over-embellished greasy vocal delivery is what sells. How are they expected to
understand that the success they covet comes as a result of heavy major-league
promotion to make sure that the lesser talents sells? If the game is about
talent, anyone with talent gets to compete. But if the game is based on
campaign coffers, deep pockets will usually win. A royal flush is a great hand;
but if the holder can see when his opponent raises, the pot goes to Daddy
Warbucks over there. From the point that mediocrity became an accepted norm,
when drum machines took over for drummers, presets took over for programmers,
sound-alikes took over for innovators, rappers took over for singers (as
rappers and as Antares Autotune-enabled robotic crooners), and common became a
comfort, the days of a competitive commercial high-culture music industry were
numbered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Is
it tragedy or is it the natural way of things? Maybe tragically it's just the
natural way of things. At one time, like the shadow-puppeteers of times gone
by, the gifted musicians fascinated masses of audiences who would hardly settle
for anything less. And who knows; as trends are cyclic, maybe one day talent
will again rule the charts as a rule. Be warned though; shadow-puppeteers and
plate spinners are ahead of us in that line.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">How's
your shadow puppetry?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">SIDizzouttt!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-62831141427504188502012-06-11T12:16:00.000-04:002012-06-11T12:16:56.028-04:00Hunger Games - *B.A.N.A.S.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">On
the unofficial anti-holiday known as Tax Day, my wife and I anti-celebrated by
taking in the 2012 blockbuster film "Hunger games"—along with one of
my oldest friends and music associates (and his wife). At that time, HG was
about to reach its fourth consecutive weekend at number one. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">At a time pre-dating current </span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">super
widespread international and domestic piracy threat</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">s</span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">, </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">four weeks</span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";"> would</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> equal</span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";"> maybe ten weeks. Just a little
less recently to our movie date, I was quasi reticent to even spend the money
on that particular movie because of the subject matter—namely the ostensibly
hackneyed premise where humans are being hunted by privileged humans for the
sport enjoyed by a ruling sect. There is a popular expression: "I've seen that
movie". Based on its trailer, I felt this way about the much ballyhooed
"HG". The first of this story of the genre I can remember is
"The Most Dangerous Game", bonus-beloved by me for (my interpreting)
its use of "Game" as double entendre. Much later last century, along
came <i>Da pre-governating Tohminator</i>,
along with Hogan's Heroic Feud-meister (the late Richard Dawson); they begat
"Running Man"—that incidentally begat an annoying dance move that
shows up at times on Saturday Night Live when former Nicklodian'ian Keenan
Thompson asks the musical question, "Whazzup with That". This
rendition was great. Contrary to my misgivings and to my pleasant surprise,
what I saw instead was a new work that did use an overused premise but created
something new. Therein is today's object lesson brought to us by Tinseltown.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">It
doesn't always take reinventing the wheel for ones efforts to be genuinely
effectively creative…or deemed as such. Perhaps this fact has been lost or at
least muddled in the muddling trans-terming of musician, singer, and/or
singer/songwriter as so-called "artists". The term educes in the
aforementioned group a self-inflicted onus to be Picasso's as opposed to being
deemed Kinkade's or Keane's. Margaret Keane is famous for her surrealistic
paintings of cute things with hyperbolically large irises—picture those
Puss-in-Boots' sad eyes in the "Shrek" films. Thomas Kinkade—at the
time of his death, ten days prior to this writing—was renowned as the greatest
selling living American painter as the king of kitsch. "…<i>the king of kitsch, there's no one higher,
sucker ar-teest gotta call him sire</i>." …more on this comparison later. <i>When we were kings</i>…of singing God's
praises, entertaining audiences, casting beautiful benign love dreams in
malleable adolescent minds, and generally griot/minstrels at large, our
"art" had more to do with preparation for skillful presentation,
than—as Rez Band's Glenn Kaiser once so aptly phrased it—<i>juggling </i>and spitting nickels. Which is to say the art was the
idiom, the craft was what made the show, and the sacrifices made in preparation
developed and refined the craft. For a craftsman, it's all about building the
best product to please the client. While for (too) many an artist, it is about
building themselves to build their cult following of pleasers pleased to
indiscriminately accept every lauded offering as a work of genius.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">Nowadays,
"The next big thing" and "Flavor of the week" are phrases
that have come to qualify new things as necessarily better things.
Unfortunately, so many credited with new creations have created only
recreations. Lady Gaga is something new if one ignores her predecessors, namely
the likes of Madonna and Bette Midler. In this regard, she seems but a
portmanteau of the two. We often read about rappers who are lauded for their
genius innovative utilization of live instrumental background music as opposed
to the standard sampled loops and drum machines, while live bands get
comparatively little acclaim. Groups who hone traditional band skills are
classified as "Neo-" or "throwback". It's a way to
rationalize the current acts as being cutting edge for their dearth of
traditional skills, while softly marginalizing skilled players and arrangers as
old-fashioned. Sadly, style is so often the root excuse for those who're
predisposed to skip up in line rather than enduring the long journey of
artistic self-discovery. Hopefully, this will be discovered in time…in time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">As
to the Kinkade comparison mentioned early, his works were the type of artwork
that usually hangs (some might say "…dang well should hang.") in
motels and family restaurants—bucolic exterior scenes. Though they're not the
pieces that garner high critical praise, they are what his many consumers
greatly treasure, and for his efforts, or lack thereof to cater to the former,
his became an industry unto himself. I am a graphic artist as well; it was my
first artistic manifestation, shown in mid-single digits. At the suggestion of
my son, my wife and I have begun uploading my works on <u><a href="http://tumblr.com/"><span style="color: windowtext;">tumblr.com</span></a></u>.
On this website, there a many fascinating works displayed by extremely talented
and imaginative artists. I haven't seen anything there like Kinkade's work; and
in fairness, I doubt if any of us will see the phenomenal success seen and
"enjoyed" by Kinkade. According to reports, he was an alcoholic and
(not necessarily because of it) committed suicide. That said, what he will be
best known for is the success he made creating quotidian works that pleased
multitudes. Technically he was an artist. Fundamentally he was a business
success. Many of us are "starving artists" figuratively drawing up
plans for a new wheel. There are enough of us out there chomping at the bit to
roll on something new, and perhaps for this, we will be doubly blessed. But in
most cases, those we see as successful “artists” are those who work from
established templates that garner fame and fortune…at least while they are
alive still to enjoy that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body1">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">This is SIDney Howard reporting
to you from bucolic Obscuritania.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body1">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">SIDizzzouttt!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="Body1">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">*</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">[By American Niggling-Annoyance Standards]<o:p></o:p></span></div>SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-49932665448729641822012-06-04T13:59:00.000-04:002012-06-11T12:22:28.717-04:00Record/Water Sales<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">2011 was a
record-breaking year for water sold in the States. With 9.1 billion gallons of
bottled water sold, bottled water sales broke the previous 2007 record of 8.8
billion gallons sold in the U.S. of A.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://bluelivingideas.com/2012/05/18/u-s-bottled-water-sales-break-record/">[Source: Blue Living Ideas]</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">When I was
in my teens, there are two things in particular that were facts of that time in
life that now are no longer so: few people bought their water in bottles and
most people bought their music in packages. Today, the reverse is true. Music
flows over the Internet as free and freely as once did water. A fact of
commerce is that “If you want something good, you have to pay for
it"…otherwise you're stealing. It's not only the product or service, but
it is the non-replenishable time given to provide tools, materials, and
creativity to provide the former.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">The
bordering lines of intellectual property rights have blurred. Major record
labels (so labelled) decry the robbery of their wares by Internet savvy
generations who grew into a music market where they never learned that music
was something one pays to own. But file sharing has been around since record
cylinders could be borrowed, and music downloading for at least as long as
there have been magnetic tape recorders onto which radio broadcasts can be
preserved. When a group of my friends and I were equipped with tape recorders,
we used to buy different albums and swap around to record those that we didn't
buy for ourselves. However the thing is, this was done to audition music; if
pal Joey had purchased something that I really liked, like Stevie's "If
You Really Love Me", playing it on cassette tape was soon not good enough;
I had to then have the actual record. It was a matter of the vinyl's improved
fidelity, but as much or more so, it was a validation of my record collection
to tactilely have it there. If someone asked "Do you have 'If You Really
Love Me', answering "I have it recorded on cassette," was little more
than tantamount to saying, 'Well, I hear it when it plays on the radio."
Overall, the main reason for owning a record was for the immediate convenience
of it being at the ready. Second to that, with albums and with covered
singles—to a lesser degree, it was the packaging. As a music major in the late
1970’s at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Mississippi</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>, I walked the
campus with pride holding my brand new that day released copy of Stevie
Wonder's"Songs in the Key of Life". Department classmates would ask
to hold it, like admiring prospective mothers reaching out to hold another's
cuddly new newborn infant. When I would strut my stuff (that is Chick's,
Stanley's, Lenny's, and Al's stuff), walking around the schoolyard with Return
to Forever's landmark Jazz-Fusion masterpiece "Romantic Warrior" you
could tell I was that deep, <i>and not to be
messed with</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">The climate
changed; it was a one-two punch. When MTV arrived, coinciding with the
acquisition and mass absorption of the major independent record companies by
major film company corporations, music was no longer a thing to sit and listen
to; it was a thing rather to watch. And if one was not so sedentarily inclined,
one could take one's music show on the road for a jog with the then ubiquitous
Sony Walkman—a portable cassette player that enabled the listener, with the aid
of lightweight mini headphones, to take his music with him. In both cases, the
importance of high fidelity was diminished. I used to sell 5.1 surround sound
audio systems at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Circuit</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place>. I would point out
to my customers that although they were buying a six-channel system, the
loudest would probably be the seventh: the visual one, a.k.a. the television
screen. The psychology of it all is that our ability to concentrate is
concentrated, that's why they call it concentrating. When we we want to fully
grasp what someone is saying to us, we focus on their eyes, not that there's
something there that will reveal any more significance; it's more a blinder
device that keeps our attentions focused. There is rarely anything so
compelling there before us that will leech focus from those things we’re trying
better to understand…except for me in the case of my staring into my wife's so
beautiful eyes; she is a distraction as such. The point is that our best way of
hearing is not seeing. And in the case of the mini headphones, a penknife
brought into a gunfight is a practical concession.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">So music began
to be secondary. When Disco evolved into Techno and R-n-B became Urban,
arrangement became beats. In the metaphorical housing development of musical
neighborhoods, Club Electronica and Hip Hop fill the trailer parks while most
of the old mansions barely stand in disrepair in their zones of amassed
decrepitude. That is not meant as a direct slight against the former, but it is
more a comment on the former and latter's respective purposes for existing
nowadays.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Traditionally,
popular music for ensembles was arranged to be performed expertly by skilled
players and singers so that the performances might be recorded and replicated
to be enjoyed at the time of their releases and collected to be treasured by
generations after. As such the construction had to be such that it could
withstand the rigors of whim and whimsy, style change and groove extinction.
Today's music serves more as vaporous ephemera for tastes that change more
frequently than the weather. For these consumers, their music is not
constructed on expensive arrangement foundations but rather quick constructs
known as "beats" that can actually be punched into something as
comparatively insignificant as a smartphone in a matter of an hour and be ready
for retail in the next two.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">There's no
such thing as a free lunch…you get what you pay for…nothing ventured, nothing
gained. So many wise saws say much the same thing on the subject. If you want
something that will last you, spend the money. If it's just a disposable
quick-fix that you need, do just what it takes to get by. Many complaints about
music today has at least as much to do with the demand as does it the supply.
And speaking of supply and demand, the age-old equation has been horribly
skewed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">With the
onset of project studios being as common a household appliance as microwave
ovens, there's more audio content available than the multiples of lifetimes it
would require to listen to a tenth of them all. It has been said that it is
futile to try selling music to musicians. Imagine trying to sell your music to
hobby-artists boasting their own vanity labels. The price of recordings today
not only do not reflect the aforementioned anemic supply and demand ratio, but
seemingly it even fails to acknowledge the legal streaming websites—where
members can download "all they can eat" for a monthly price that's
less than the retail price of a CD. …not to mention the infamous file-sharers. As
most "Ableton Live"-insta-studio type quick punch-n-play productions
take only seconds, as opposed to hours of code-writing performed by "free
app" developers, perhaps a fair new price point for download albums might
be $1.00. …with no more singles offered. The only problem with that scenario is
that dwindling value of music would bottom out to sheer worthlessness. Maybe
we're just about there already.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">I remember
when the mere idea of paying for drinking water was ludicrous. Well, today
maybe listeners feel the same way about paying for "listening music".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">…just
saying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">SIDizzzouttt!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-75020265708903434132010-07-06T14:26:00.000-04:002010-07-06T14:26:52.388-04:00GIFTED<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><i><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><i><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And the award goes to… </span></span></i><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="Default" style="margin-left: .5in;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">…GOD! <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="Default" style="margin-left: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="margin-left: .5in;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Accepting for God is… <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="Default" style="margin-left: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Since our recent release of </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"The Mμne-Pi Parables"</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">—our latest </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">SIDzCarbonatedMilk </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">project, we have received many accolades, critical acclaim, and much high praise for the music, lyrics, and performances contained and showcased within. As producer, performer, and composer/arranger of "TM-PP", much praise has been lauded me. I immediately share the credit with the rest of the cast—as indeed I must. Although any waning sense of honesty and fairness would impel me to extol them so, I also really believe it serves to encourage us all—especially considering our being an indie operation that is blessedly free of the artificial </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Baby, you're beautiful </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">hype machines that seed and feed to cultivate cold stars. [As such, just monetary reflections in sales commensurate with said praises and acknowledgements have not just yet been as immediate.] Addressing my own laudatory launches, the reactions from my "band-mates" tend mostly to be humble deflective shuns of my praise toward them and immediate reciprocal projections of said praise. They will </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ah-shucks </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the delivery of commendations and express their appreciation for my making them a part of what they will tell me "…is an excellent project." I know them; I know that their reactions do not at all fall under the classification of false modesty. It's just a matter of their being well balanced between manners and candor in a society that frowns upon even the faintest whiff of arrogance.</span></span></div><a name='more'></a> <o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After the announcement of a performing artist receiving an award, at the podium they are heard to say, "I am </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">humbled </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">by this great honor bestowed upon me." There are many legitimate feelings that go with being honored; being brought down to size is one I must admit having much trouble understanding. Is the utterance perhaps purposed as a </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">pride-prophylactic</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">—instituted so as not to incur the Biblical </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">fall </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">promised to </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">cometh </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">after </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">pride</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">?</span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As disciple</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’d </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Christians, we should live by the implied tenants of Deuteronomy 8:17-18 <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">17</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">You may say to yourself, "My strength and power of my hands have produced wealth for me," </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">18</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">but remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The cast of the album and I are truly a most </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">gifted </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">bunch—again, in the truest sense of the modifier </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">gifted</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">moderne </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">lazy-tongued lexicon, among the many contextually colloquialize</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">’d </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">casualties, is the gelded gilded term </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">gifted</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Its utilization in connection with talent and unique expansive acumen </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">should </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">infer that said recipient has been graced with the outstanding ability that identifies, and to a great degree, defines them. What we have to give is but that which was given us. Sans the gifting, there are no gifts for us to give. In effect, we are collectively middlemen in the transaction. Conversely however, the reactions to most anyone referring to themselves as </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">gifted </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">will most likely be very negative. This lures them into a coy dishonesty analogous to a recipient of a brand new Rolls Royce dismissing it as just a car. The benefited belittles the benefactor in devaluing the gift. Imagine acting in a similar fashion if someone was to compliment your spouse as being so very attractive. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Naw…just a spouse</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">True humility—in directing honor and credit toward the benefactor and acknowledging the gift's extremely high worth—would be deemed hubris. Maybe it is misinterpreted by critics as the proud confessor thinking himself a favorite of God, closer to Him than those not so ostensibly gifted by virtue of the gifting. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This then begs the question: </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Why are some so apparently gifted, while others seem sadly pedestrian in their given assignments in life? <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Romans 9:21 </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonor? </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">…or in other words: The owner of the material has the right to use it to create things for special occasions and/or basic everyday use. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="Default" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“It's yo' thang; do whatchawanna do”</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">—Isley Brothers <o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="Default" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There is no rational argument against reasoning that God purposes unique gifts to certain persons in accordance to His perfect will. As the painter of the whole picture, He sees the whole picture. God demands of His servants a righteous return on His investments. [read: </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Parable of the Talents </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">in Mathew 25:14-30] <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">To whom much is given, much is required</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. In the broad scheme of things, He has selected each and everything and everyone for specific purpose within His own mindfully tight tolerances. I spent a very brief stint taking mechanical engineering courses. An automobile engine is among the most beautifully crafted works of practical art one might ever encounter. An exploded view of that engine will reveal thousands of intricate tiny parts and pieces that fit together in accordance with the engineer’s designs to perform so wonderfully its appointed mechanical wonders. There are components that are eye-popping; and there are more humble cogs and sprockets and hulking supports. Without them all being in place and working in order, the engine will not function as designed. And for all the good (or lack thereof) it does, it is then just a hulk of metal gone for nothing but show. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As an music arranger and/or orchestrator, I will certainly assign more ornate melody and countermelody lines to some particular instruments while resigning supporting instruments to seemingly boring passages that singled out seem infinitely outclassed by fanciful filigree of their more prominent counterpart siblings. On "Cancer", I utilized the extraordinary vocal talents of Cindy Young. When she played the recording for friends and family, many remarked that they couldn't hear Cindy. It was purposeful—my mixing the vocals with such tight close harmony that one voice would not be heard so much over its counterparts. But it wasn’t at all because I necessarily wanted to bury Cindy’s performance. And while Cindy's beautifully rich and powerful vocals weren't highlighted as such, the wonderful difference made by adding them to Sarah's, Siloam's, and mine was incredible. The truth is… Any capable arranger hears the musical arrangement as a whole. The perfect arrangement is often times one so delicately balanced that the effect of an </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">unheard </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">or misplayed musical presence compromises the entire piece. An orchestra member missing a note may go unnoticed by an audience but for a few witnessing the consternation on a conductor's face. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><i><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The whole place is His place. And it is our place to stay in our place in His place at His pace, rather than be somewhere else in place of where we're appointed by Him to be</span></span></i><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.—SID <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As servants of our Father, we are to be like obedient waitpersons walking the busy floor of God's restaurant. Our lives are metaphorical serving trays upon which the works of the Master's hands are loaded to be taken out and served to His hungry waiting patrons (so much the reason that </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the trays </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">should always to be kept clean). It is not for the waiter to question why he has been assigned a certain dish to pick up and serve to his table. It would be ludicrous for a waitress to be jealously distressed over her never having an order of filet mignon and lobster tails to serve, rather than her being limited to presenting the mid-priced fare on the menu. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The tag line at the movie’s happy ending is, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"Welcome in, good and faithful servant." </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And the winner is… <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">…God—that He will forever get to enjoy the works of His hand for their righteous utilization of His investment. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="Default" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="Default" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">…His gifted.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="Default" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">SIDizzzouttt!!!</span><o:p></o:p></div>SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-47060698437229448942010-02-11T14:57:00.007-05:002010-03-29T11:05:42.662-04:00The Mµne-Pi Morality Manifesto<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">M</span></span></b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">orality</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">µ</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">= resistance</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">N</span></span></b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">imbly</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">E</span></span></b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ngaging</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">P</span></span></b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ure-hearted</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I</span></span></b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ntellectualism</span></span></i><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We’re through the looking glass, people.</span></span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> But is it because a predatory secular society has re-trained brains to perceive mirror-wise through skewed views? As I groom, primp, perfect, and prepare in my bathroom mirror, I am guided by the image of my movements therein reflected. I have seen myself operating reverse in it for so long that interpreting my inverse movements has become more natural than ever is my negotiating from the vantage of two mirrors that show true directions in real time. Similarly, secular humanism’s reversing effect on moral truth has yielded a bumptious bumper crop of meandering minds guided by moral compasses that always point…wherever.</span></span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Straight Path</span></span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Situational ethics refute the validity of any foundational firmament for which there can be established any moral absolutes. The absence of such is mistakenly deemed independent from the tyranny of structure.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Imagine a minefield spanning two-hundred square yards. Bisecting the field from one corner to its farthest counter is a high elevated paved walkway only one yard in breadth. Annoyed by the constriction of a pathway that allows only a straight walk, a vocal minority is successful in their efforts to have it demolished. After which, everyone becomes </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">free </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">to frolic in the minefield below. There, they’re unencumbered by the walk’s rule. As more and more often members of their licentious society are blown to bits, rather than admit that the walk they worked to destroy was necessary and a safe-way, the new-morality minds choose a detrimental trial and error approach. Further complicating things is their reticence to ever admit that the sidewalk was the best way. …that perhaps a greater mind than theirs conceived it and provided it foreknowing their fallibilities, and that having to inch through the field ever-aware that any misstep most assuredly proves fatal isn’t progress at all when compared with the way they were once free to safely run up and down the bridge.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I became a real Christian in my early twenties—while performing in a college Funk/Rock band [Ebony Specktrum]. It was the seventies [see 1970’s]. Amazingly for me, holiness provided more moral freedom than SID B.C. I was not one comfortable with ever being promiscuous; I have always been a romantic. The </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">red badge</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> of “Christian” gave me courageous license to live morally—free of having to explain myself.</span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> “Man, I hooked us up with some―”</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> “I’m a Christian.”</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> “Oh…yeah, man. That’s cool. …uh…”</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> The irony of opinions purporting that </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Christians are brainwashed zombies</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is that most of the opposing sentiments are but rehashed regurgitated pre-fab opinions and gainsaying that are most often founded on illogical platitudes and prejudices. Obfuscating contextual cushions are so often used by pundits and politicians who prefer to always leave open options when “categorically stating” anything.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In Matthew 5:37, Jesus said, "Let your ‘yes’ mean yes and your ‘no’ mean </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">no</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">; all else comes from the evil one." When I first read that, I thought it perhaps an overstatement—as did I with several other biblical statements that I ultimately also found to be true. Nowadays, the casual listener can so easily be deceived by what they think they hear. The news is so often interpreted. Many times we're shown footage of some English-speaking person, while an English-speaking news correspondent seemingly superfluously voices over an editorialized "interpretation" for the English-speaking viewers. Many will leave the broadcast set in mind that what they've heard voiced-over were the exact words of original speaker. These persons will report in-turn what was essentially </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">talk-over</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> as having been the exact words of the speaker. "I heard him say it myself." It’s interesting that they’re called </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">news programs</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> The programmed will so often allege </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Christians </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">are programed. Many so-called indeed are. By my estimation, there are three groups that will answer to the name “Christian”:</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1.</span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There are those who are </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">denominational generational traditionalists</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. These are those who are raised in traditions of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">faith </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">that were set forth by family or community. And </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">religiously </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">reenact gestures and poses that communicate their perception of devotion (or devotion to perceptions).</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">2.</span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There are the social Christians who utilized the Christian brand as a social uniform in a pseudo-commitment to vague popularized tenants that dilute and reduce the peculiar calling to generalities like </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">God is love, there’re are many ways to love, there’re many ways to God, religion is a private issue to be kept secret, who can say what God says is sin is wrong</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (a.k.a. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Who are we to judge?</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">), and</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> the Bible has been changed over the years and can no longer be considered God’s word.</span></span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">3.</span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And finally, there are Christ’s true disciples. Those who are surrendered to Him—no longer self-owning but bought with the price of His saving sacrifice.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> I have long endeavored to walk a wholly holy spiritually-informed path that falls into the third category. The first two were reasons I strayed away; they simply didn’t make sense to me. For me, it was “Great Pumpkinism”. I needed to believe in a God that would show Himself to be real, and not just be a waste of my precious Sunday mornings. When I accepted Jesus as my Lord and became a disciple in my college senior year, I asked in prayer that He </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">not allow me to be fake</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. From that point on, my faith has had to present credentials daily before entering the gates of my belief. If at anytime my belief in Jesus Christ proves untrue, it will summarily be discarded. That has never happened, and as it proves itself truer as time goes by, I cannot foresee that happening.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> We are in a war. This is a fight to the death for souls.</span></span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Systems of Survival</span></span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> The law of the jungle is survival of the fittest. It is the nature of things natural.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> So many speak on the subject of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">sin nature</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">—that is, the flesh (or human nature) purposed in directions diametrically opposite to the spirit. [Romans 7:23 again] While the spirit desires to please God, the mankind's nature lives to be pleased by self-service. What must be considered and understood is human nature, which is the natural </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">animal </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">design of our bodies (that serves as our vehicles in the natural world—as does a scuba diving suit allow a naturally terrestrial diver to perform as if on land in a aquatic realm) is combined with a true spiritual self-passenger within. In a principle not unlike the infusion of carbon into iron to create the steel alloy, the infusion of the God-imaged spirit into natural body of mankind produces the natural supernatural hybrid human being. The natural bodies of animals are designed for survival personally and corporately by the propagation of their respective species. Sin is derived from the manipulation of the survival drives to excessive degrees. Paul writes: "The love of money is the root of all evil." The love of money begins with the understanding of its power for provision. Evil begins when the understanding of need is distorted into lustful desires to acquire more than the need. That which is designed in us to desire toward the proliferation of our kind, is designed in Godly terms to have us attracted to the opposite gender—designed to accommodate and complete—so that together, two can produce children and thereby extended the species in an optimum natural family setting. As well by proper design, the loving bond that brought the two together is further strengthened to form a dedication to the family unit as structure and security for the children’s benefit. As </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">a little something for our troubles</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, God has included a little bonus...sexual pleasure. The forces of evil, stress that gracious bonus to the point where weakness turns from the selfless family directive to a selfish one that will live to satiate the instable carnal urges. We are designed so that </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">when the tank is full, the pump shuts off automatically</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. The evil cultural pilots override this safety precaution, proverbially resulting in a dangerous overflow. Then, only just a spark is required to start the consuming fires. ...</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">hell on earth</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Based on the latest these days, these are the last days; this is it. History as a forecaster would imply that society as we know it is on a tragic downturn. As a nation, we've grown from our precocious infancy—filled with its foibles—to our current rebellious adolescence. Some are making moves to ban </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">religious </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">[there goes that word again] expression when it is expressly Christian in nature. Otherwise, it falls under the protective cover of "culture diversity".</span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">When in Rome, do as the Romans do.</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Isn't it</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> roman</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">tic, romancing the stoned?</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Romans 7:23</span></span></i><br />
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</span></span> </i></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> We're in a war. ...the army of good embroiled in a figurative (and ultimately literal bloody) conflict against the forces of evil. The theater of battle is in the mind. [Some may contrive between-space meanings in such talk, but what I write reads like an open and forthcoming nutritional guide free of nebulous content.]</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Perception is reality. That which one deems real is one’s reality. If one sees modesty as a virtue, lasciviousness is shameful. If the former reflects a former primitive time of overbearing prudence inflicted upon and against the inherent freedoms of highly evolved food chain toppers to take in topless presentations and satiate salacious urges, then morality is seen as intrusive by its very existence. The desired effect of situational ethics is that everyone be allowed to crash and burn without the burden of any warning element. …to frolic in the pink mists of the minefield.</span></span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"I wish there was no Black or White; I wish there was no God."</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">—Prince</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Celebrated recording artists such as Prince and John Lennon (in "Imagine") have made a practice of lumping in "religion" along with war, racism, and the whole of select world's ills. Though I am not much for that which is colloquially deemed "religious" [see Christian categories section], I feel that blaming the wrongs of some on the entire expanse of a group is a sympathetic psycho-mechanical parallel to all bigotry and tenants of prejudice. When an NFL quarterback is revealed in the news as being involved in something as cruel and despicable as dog-fighting, few would suggest him to represent the whole of all pro quarterbacks—or semi-pro and amateur, for that matter.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> A politician is caught in the wrong; murmurings buzz until they bite. After </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the yeast makes the dough rise</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, it becomes known nabob conversational currency that </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">they all steal, fornicate, are homosexual whoremongers who're all on the special interest dole. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After the incidence of perverse darkness associated with the Roman Catholic priesthood came to light, every man-of-the-cloth became fair game for comedians and sketch shows. Likewise the gospel has been skewed in the public eye by the images of disgraced religious leaders, a history of so-called Christians [see Christian categories 1 & 2] who aren't in anyway at all </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Christ-like</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> The more Hedonistic secular society becomes, all the more often Christian (truly Christ-like) traits like </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">fundamentalism</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, Bible literalist (a.k.a. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bible-thumperismicatationinenolism</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">), and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">evangelical </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">are disdained. In accordance, Jesus—by sticking by His word (that which was with God in the beginning, and was Him) and sharing Himself openly with all who would be saved by His sacrifice—is a great offender. And His disciples are moreover offensive for following in His way.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> If a picture proverbially says a thousand words, a picture purposefully placed out of context will tell many lies—a very dangerous proposition if </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">seeing is believing</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> There are polls that indicate that there're many who rely of satirical "fake" news shows as their windows on the world.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> The arts provide surreal presentations of the real. Surrealism distorts to emphasize, satirize, and sometimes to neutralize. A passenger-side rearview bears the caption suggesting that objects reflected may appear farther than they really are. The distortions allow a more comprehensive view than the 1:1 truth. Hyperbole in a headline draws the reader in to read the full text that will summarily dismiss the distortion as an innocent device needed to facilitate the fact being communicated. And tragically, innuendo and rumor processed from trace amounts of truth are too often adopted as fact.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Jesus exemplifies one who welcomes open debate. To say the least, He was always prepared to defend His position without disallowing countering opinions. Those opposed to religion—believe one's belief something that should be kept private (while many of the ilk celebrate the showing-off of one's privates), work diligently to prohibit and/or corral free expression that conflicts with their own beliefs or disbeliefs.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> The point of it all is that the intellectual mind counsels the soul. The arts feed the soul through this connection. One of my favorite book titles is </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A Mind Awake</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">—a compilation of C. S. Lewis' most profound writings. The phrase says so much about this war. We who would endeavor to enlighten must be awake at our posts. ...always thinking. "</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Nothing comes to sleepers but a dream.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">—Gap Band. The Morality-Resistant movement has, as its' major weapon, complacency and reticence toward confrontation. We are gifted to have three-dimensional sight because left and right eyes differ in their views. If The Mµne-Pi Parables fails to interest and/or entertain, it has failed greatly in its categorical purpose. But art for interests and entertainment sake alone waste the time of the idiom as well as its' consumers.</span></span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"We got a message in our music."</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">—Gamble and Huff</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> What we endeavor in this endeavor is to inspire introspection, true open debate, and invitations accepted to test-drive moral notions condemned these days by popular secular closed-minded culture.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> And for those of you keeping score at home, the sidewalk over the minefield remains intact. Those lost in the minefield below need only look up to see it, then scale the ladder called Christ.</span></span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">M</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - orality-</span></span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">µ</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> = (resistance)</span></span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">N</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - imbly</span></span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">E</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - ngaging</span></span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">P</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - ure-hearted</span></span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> - intellectualism</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> The morality </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">resistance </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">[symbolized by the variable “µ”, or mu (myoo)] stands in faith foundationally against favored-flavors forces of popular deception, to serve the befallen so as not to befall the very loss of our faith—stewards of intellectual property verified in fact and its expedient delivery, in fact. We serve the Truth as we serve the truth.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Please enjoy your Mµne-Pi with a refreshing swig of SIDzCarbonatedMilk. For more on this subject, please read <a href="http://mune-pi.blogspot.com/2010/03/cancer.html">Cancer</a>.</span></span><br />
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</div>SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056596386150289155.post-1708554552389057232010-01-13T00:33:00.004-05:002010-01-24T21:16:36.969-05:00My Brain is a Fat Man!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><em>...full of things, needs the fat bran.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[<span style="font-size: x-small;">from the <a href="http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/products/Sidz_Carbonated_Milk/The_Men_In_Martian_Ice_Anthology/2908/">Men in Martian Ice</a> CD*</span>]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>"What it is?",</em> we used to say, back in the day when we'd wear our hair that way...long and limp...crowned with flowers, 'fro-on-the-go with the pick up and sticking out a defiant Black power salute to the lifting of spirits, lifting up hair, looking like lions' manes...muh <em>main mans</em>--lifting and lifted the spirit of racial pride.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like pride, the family of lions, lies ongoing promoting dogma which ignores the dynamics of perceived reality (as opposed to the static nature of eternal truth). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Born in that time, was the notion that if we all just hung out together painting happy pictures on canvases of cloth and/or nubile immodest bodies...if artists ruled the government...the world would be at peace. ...forgetting that only a few decades before, that experiment was tried by a little artists' collective called the THIRD REICH fronted by evil A. Hitler...lethal to their captive audiences.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>It is what it is.</em> Thought bought by mindless acceptance in parietal parroting that has only the value borrowed in the reflection of the original. It is like having a Polaroid of a hemorrhoid, <em>ain't nothing like the real thing, baby</em>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is, the brain that is, in fact the fat between the ears, coming ever ready to wrinkle. Think, my people (that is all of humanity--my people). Think about what you want. When the genie asks you "What is your pleasure, my master?" refect on what it is that would add to that which is you. A slice of bread, a pat of peanut butter, and another slice of bread is a waste of three wishes on a peanut butter sandwich, and oops! ...you're still one granted wish short of the jelly to make it all right.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>"My Brain Is a Fat Man"</strong> </span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">by SIDney Howard</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brain is a fat man, full of things</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...need the thought-bran</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">get my flow 'til I can't stand</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'Till I know with the Fat Man</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brain tells me good things</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All the goodness the mind brings</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fat Man loves just to sing</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Freedom me...I let ring</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brain is a fat man</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brain is a fat man</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brain is a fat man</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brain is a fat man...fat man...fat man</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pick up things that are not now</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fat Man's got the know how</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Inventions made just to wow</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A fertile mind needs a good plow</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brain is a fat man</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brain is a fat man</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...fat man...fat man...fat man...fat man...</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brain is a fat man</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fat Man likes his plot thick</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fleeting ideas, he makes stick</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...sticking grey matter-of-fact</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A challenged brain is a played ax</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Challenge is like his Cheerios,</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Munchy crunchy, ten bowls of those</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...feed on that which will stimulate</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But his eyes are bigger than his plate</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...than his plate...than his plate...than his </span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">plate...than his plate...than his plate</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My brain is a fat man, full of things</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...need the thought-bran</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">get my flow 'til I can't stand</span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'Till I know with the Fat Man</span><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">*SIDzWreckArtz July 7, 1999 / IBC: SW7999MIMI / copyright 2000 Bebine-SuinSID Publishing BMI</span>SIDney Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03265991126013430480noreply@blogger.com0