i dig rock and roll music (but don't care much for funk and disco)
02.13.03 @ 1:01 p.m.
Ugh. I went to sleep after rock and roll today and didn't wake up until a half an hour ago. The simple fact of me typing this now means I'm skipping two classes today. Normally I'm certain I can't afford to skip Italian because part of our grade is attendence based, but it's fucking week 6 already, I think I can afford to miss one day.
I'd like to start with a quote from Soul Music by Terry Pratchett. It's about rock music.
"This was music that had not only escaped but had robbed a bank on the way out. It was music with its sleeves rolled up and its top button undone, raising its hat and grinning and stealing the silver. It was music that went down to the feet by way of the pelvis without paying a call on Mr. Brain."
While some aspects of Discworld novels are a bit punnish, even if you don't like fantasy, I highly recommend Terry Pratchett's novels as social parody. Hell, I don't even much care for fantasy, but, well, the Discworld books are hilarious. Soul Music contains some interesting ideas about Rock and Roll.
We ploughed through Funk and Disco today like... a humvee through a class of kindergarteners. Really. There were no survivors. Not even Gloria Gaynor. (Ah, that sounds funny, but we didn't listen to Gloria Gaynor at all.) So here's something I learned today: I can't differentiate between funk and disco. Also, Bootsy Collins is the master of bow-chicka-bow-bow bass lines. Good for him.
Art Rock was also rushed. Hell, the whole class was disturbingly frenetic today. Normally he plays music while we filter in, but they're not normally part of the lesson... related, but not usually one of the songs we're supposed to be analyzing. It was Nights in White Satin, which I think I've heard before but I can't remember it. The 40 year old lady sitting next to me kept muttering about how pretentious the orchestral ending was. My prof called it end-credits music. At one point he held up a hand like he was sketching out where the words should be and said "Mr. Affleck's stand in...." There was a dutiful titter in throughout the room.
Nothing we have listened to in this class has been as awful as Donna Summer's Love to Love You. It's really horrible. Really, really horrible. 17 minutes of lascivious moaning. 40 year old woman leans over to me and whispers "This was the theme to my high school's prom. I didn't go, though." I smiled polietly. She is a very outgoing stranger.
Whistles should not be allowed in music.
The only other thing worth mentioning in our study of Funk and Disco was this exchange between the prof and the woman next to me:
"I think Sly [of Sly and the Family Stone] burned himself out pretty well."
[incredulous] "Is he still alive?"
"Yeah. And still paranoid."
In the end, though, we moved into David Bowie and I was quite interested to learn a bit about him, after that dream and all. We watched a bit of video talking about the creation of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. I don't know what it is, but I'm starting to be intrigued by glam. It must be that time E* made me watch Velvet Goldmine with her, hah.
I could insert a rant here about how she totally misunderstands movies and makes huge events out of them. She bought things to commemorate first watching that movie. What the hell is that? I like movies, there are even a few I love passionately, but I don't make a holiday out of them. *ahem* But I'm not going to rant. I'm not. Not right in the middle of my talking about Bowie. (At a later date, I might also express my amazement that E* actually admires Mao and thinks Communism is a lovely idea. *shakes head* Her friend and I tried to make some arguements about the corruption that's been inherent in existing communist societies... Oh, I just do not understand that girl.)
Anyway. Bowie. We listened to Space Oddity today, possibly the first Bowie song I've consciously listened to. I really like it. I wonder if they have any CDs at the public library...?
I would just download it, but I cannot for the life of me find a decent, non-expensive downloading utility for Macintosh. Maybe I'm ignorant. I don't know. But I get all my music from CDs or from other people. Except in the case of The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins, which was just sitting out. (If you have a decent connection and a interest in tacky/kitschy stuff, I reccommend the music video)
I was also being semianalytical of the album version of A Quick One While He's Away on my way back from class. Mainly, I was noticing the almost sexual way the music speeds up between the two verses of Ivor the Engine Driver. Also, the horn solo in Pictures of Lily seemed a bit sexual in it's rising tempo. But maybe I have a dirty mind. But probably not, since one is a song about infidelity and the other is a happy little ode to masturbation.
My plans for today include laundry and going to work out again. Yesterday I went to the mall (and never wrote about it, though I meant to) and tomorrow I intend to go back and buy this pair of pinstripe pants. I don't know why, but I absolutely love them. They remind me a little of the scene in Igby Goes Down where Igby wears his dad's pinstripe suit to go meet with his mother. Somehow, I think the pants will look neat with t-shirts. And they'll be dress pants, which I do not have. I'm acting like I still need to talk myself into this purchase. I'm already convinced I'm going to buy them.
Previously
fuck it @ 08.01.05
fanciful imaginary sea voyages to come @ 07.20.05
*dies* @ 07.19.05
more ootp @ 07.17.05
harry potter: driving our children into devil worship @ 07.17.05
