quadruplify (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
quadruplify) wrote2009-07-12 03:07 am
quadruplify) wrote2009-07-12 03:07 am
Iran, the Obameter, male Republican senators touching other men inappropriately, Krautrock, & words
The latest information posts and linkdumps about Iran by akuma_river at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ontd_political are here:
July 12th (most recent)
July 11th
July 10th
Someone on my Facebook posted this link a couple of days ago, and anyone even remotely interested in politics should check it out. It's an easy way to keep track of all the promises Obama made during his campaign and whether or not they're holding up:
The Obameter
Third order of business: WAT.
Next up, because it's late, this week's song, "Mushroom" by Can:
Can were at the forefront of what is now known as Krautrock, psychedelic and progressive rock with a strong experimental edge and containing lots of elements from other genres, such as jazz, world music, and early electronica, which came from Germany in the late 60s and early 70s. Some acts, such as Kraftwerk and Neu!, were more known for their steady "motorik" beat and their great influence to much of the electronica and ambient music that came afterwards, but Can used a broader range of influences and were more willing to experiment and take chances, making some amazing music in the process, and also some very puzzling music as well. This song is off of 1971's Tago Mago, the first album of theirs I listened to and the second one made with singer and former busker Damo Suzuki. It's very intense and almost harrowing (and given its subject matter, would actually be appropriate for Watchmen when you come to think about it), but it's also really catchy and has some of the best drumming I've ever heard. The fact that it even holds up today shows the lasting power of their music, and how they were ahead of their time.
As an introduction to this band, I'd probably start with 1972's Ege Bamyasi, which has some weird moments but nothing too out there, and a lot of catchy stuff. I'd then go with 1969's Monster Movie, their first official album (not counting Delay 1968, which was recorded that year but not released until the 80s because it was "too experimental") and their only one with Malcolm Mooney before his alleged nervous breakdown, and 1973's Future Days; the former is pretty accessible (and part of its cover makes up my default icon), and the latter is more ambient but not all that weird either, but each of those has a song around 20 minutes long, so be careful if you're not used to that. Tago Mago is my personal favorite because it has some of their best songs and flows very nicely, but I wouldn't recommend it for new listeners because it's long (it took up two vinyl discs) and has some very strange moments which may be off-putting (they grow on you eventually, but still). I haven't heard much of their output after Suzuki left after Future Days, but I hear the quality of their music went down after 1974's Soon Over Babaluma, though all I've heard of their music in that era was that album and Flow Motion, which I need to hear again but thought were all right, so I can't judge for myself just yet.
And finally, a meme from the ever-awesomeedge_chan:
Reply to this meme by yelling "words!", and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your journal and explain what they mean to you. Keep in mind that if I don't know you that well, your words might end up kind of esoteric/oblique.
Robot
I guess I've always been fascinated by anything robotic, for some reason, though I don't think I realized it until a couple of years ago -- discovering Evangelion, Transformers, Mobile Suit Gundam, and mecha anime in general. I've never been hugely interested in things like artifical intelligence and ethical and philosophical issues surrounding them a la Bicentennial Man, but I've always held a vague fascination for that sort of thing, and I'm always amazed by anything robotics-related that comes out of Japan, especially things like Keepon. :D
Italy
Went there three years ago, toured the entire country in a week, freaked out during a thunderstorm on Capri, celebrated with the rest of the country when Italy won the World Cup while we were in Florence (though![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
childings says it was fixed -- I don't think I've heard anything about that before), saw and experienced many beautiful things. And I really, really, REALLY want to go back there many more times over the course of my lifetime, it's just that good (and the culture is fascinating too)!
Languages
I love learning them, and I seriously hope to be a polyglot one day -- that is, if I can motivate my lazy butt to teach myself some of them. (Also, I wish American schools had kids learn another language in elementary school, and not just simple cultural immersion "oh look I can say these words in another language!" kind of thing -- our kids would be so much more intelligent that way.)
Photography
Something I haven't done in a while, to be honest. It was never more than some little thing to amuse myself, and I liked (and still like) to take photos of landscapes and buildings instead of people. That's exactly what I did when I got my own digital camera (which sort of belongs to the whole family now, which I don't mind at all), taking pictures of flowers and natural stuff around the house. I did take a photography class freshman year of high school, which was pretty cool because we got to work in the darkroom with 35mm black and white film, but I don't remember much from it, except maybe the rule of thirds. :P
Music
Believe it or not, there was a point in my life -- probably around middle school or so -- where I didn't care much for music at all. I tried learning to play the saxophone in 4th grade because I thought it was a cool instrument, but I quit after that year (I hated practicing and lugging that thing around school and the bus, and there was no way in well I was going to stop sucking at it anyway), and I was in the boring general music classes until high school. I remember listening to a lot of "classic rock" radio because I fell into the "everything-older-is-better" trap, but even though I listened to a lot of radio just to break up the silence, especially WEHM, an "adult album alternative" station out of the Hamptons in Long Island, NY, there was nothing that really interested me. Then I found out about music on the Internet (it started with Radiohead, and that band will always have a special place in my heart because of that), started discovering bands whose music I actually liked, and, well, the rest is history. Now I can't live without music, and I'm actually buying albums as a result of finding all this great stuff; without the Internet, I wouldn't have found that the best music isn't the stuff being played on the radio. Now I have my own radio show at college, I love talking about it (*points up*), and my tolerance for all different types of music has grown exponentially. It's awesome!! XD (I still have somewhat of an "affinity" -- and by that I mean I can hear their songs and not want to plug my ears -- for guys like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp, "post-grunge" acts like Live and Collective Soul, and U2 up until about Zooropa or so, but I hardly listen to them actively now.)
akuma_river at ontd_political are here:July 12th (most recent)
July 11th
July 10th
Someone on my Facebook posted this link a couple of days ago, and anyone even remotely interested in politics should check it out. It's an easy way to keep track of all the promises Obama made during his campaign and whether or not they're holding up:
The Obameter
Third order of business: WAT.
Next up, because it's late, this week's song, "Mushroom" by Can:
Can were at the forefront of what is now known as Krautrock, psychedelic and progressive rock with a strong experimental edge and containing lots of elements from other genres, such as jazz, world music, and early electronica, which came from Germany in the late 60s and early 70s. Some acts, such as Kraftwerk and Neu!, were more known for their steady "motorik" beat and their great influence to much of the electronica and ambient music that came afterwards, but Can used a broader range of influences and were more willing to experiment and take chances, making some amazing music in the process, and also some very puzzling music as well. This song is off of 1971's Tago Mago, the first album of theirs I listened to and the second one made with singer and former busker Damo Suzuki. It's very intense and almost harrowing (and given its subject matter, would actually be appropriate for Watchmen when you come to think about it), but it's also really catchy and has some of the best drumming I've ever heard. The fact that it even holds up today shows the lasting power of their music, and how they were ahead of their time.
As an introduction to this band, I'd probably start with 1972's Ege Bamyasi, which has some weird moments but nothing too out there, and a lot of catchy stuff. I'd then go with 1969's Monster Movie, their first official album (not counting Delay 1968, which was recorded that year but not released until the 80s because it was "too experimental") and their only one with Malcolm Mooney before his alleged nervous breakdown, and 1973's Future Days; the former is pretty accessible (and part of its cover makes up my default icon), and the latter is more ambient but not all that weird either, but each of those has a song around 20 minutes long, so be careful if you're not used to that. Tago Mago is my personal favorite because it has some of their best songs and flows very nicely, but I wouldn't recommend it for new listeners because it's long (it took up two vinyl discs) and has some very strange moments which may be off-putting (they grow on you eventually, but still). I haven't heard much of their output after Suzuki left after Future Days, but I hear the quality of their music went down after 1974's Soon Over Babaluma, though all I've heard of their music in that era was that album and Flow Motion, which I need to hear again but thought were all right, so I can't judge for myself just yet.
And finally, a meme from the ever-awesome
edge_chan:Reply to this meme by yelling "words!", and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your journal and explain what they mean to you. Keep in mind that if I don't know you that well, your words might end up kind of esoteric/oblique.
Robot
I guess I've always been fascinated by anything robotic, for some reason, though I don't think I realized it until a couple of years ago -- discovering Evangelion, Transformers, Mobile Suit Gundam, and mecha anime in general. I've never been hugely interested in things like artifical intelligence and ethical and philosophical issues surrounding them a la Bicentennial Man, but I've always held a vague fascination for that sort of thing, and I'm always amazed by anything robotics-related that comes out of Japan, especially things like Keepon. :D
Italy
Went there three years ago, toured the entire country in a week, freaked out during a thunderstorm on Capri, celebrated with the rest of the country when Italy won the World Cup while we were in Florence (though
childings says it was fixed -- I don't think I've heard anything about that before), saw and experienced many beautiful things. And I really, really, REALLY want to go back there many more times over the course of my lifetime, it's just that good (and the culture is fascinating too)!Languages
I love learning them, and I seriously hope to be a polyglot one day -- that is, if I can motivate my lazy butt to teach myself some of them. (Also, I wish American schools had kids learn another language in elementary school, and not just simple cultural immersion "oh look I can say these words in another language!" kind of thing -- our kids would be so much more intelligent that way.)
Photography
Something I haven't done in a while, to be honest. It was never more than some little thing to amuse myself, and I liked (and still like) to take photos of landscapes and buildings instead of people. That's exactly what I did when I got my own digital camera (which sort of belongs to the whole family now, which I don't mind at all), taking pictures of flowers and natural stuff around the house. I did take a photography class freshman year of high school, which was pretty cool because we got to work in the darkroom with 35mm black and white film, but I don't remember much from it, except maybe the rule of thirds. :P
Music
Believe it or not, there was a point in my life -- probably around middle school or so -- where I didn't care much for music at all. I tried learning to play the saxophone in 4th grade because I thought it was a cool instrument, but I quit after that year (I hated practicing and lugging that thing around school and the bus, and there was no way in well I was going to stop sucking at it anyway), and I was in the boring general music classes until high school. I remember listening to a lot of "classic rock" radio because I fell into the "everything-older-is-better" trap, but even though I listened to a lot of radio just to break up the silence, especially WEHM, an "adult album alternative" station out of the Hamptons in Long Island, NY, there was nothing that really interested me. Then I found out about music on the Internet (it started with Radiohead, and that band will always have a special place in my heart because of that), started discovering bands whose music I actually liked, and, well, the rest is history. Now I can't live without music, and I'm actually buying albums as a result of finding all this great stuff; without the Internet, I wouldn't have found that the best music isn't the stuff being played on the radio. Now I have my own radio show at college, I love talking about it (*points up*), and my tolerance for all different types of music has grown exponentially. It's awesome!! XD (I still have somewhat of an "affinity" -- and by that I mean I can hear their songs and not want to plug my ears -- for guys like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp, "post-grunge" acts like Live and Collective Soul, and U2 up until about Zooropa or so, but I hardly listen to them actively now.)