Currently streaming the debut album of fun. "Aim and Ignite" over myspace. I never did use myspace when it was super popular, but it seems to have evolved into some kind of music-dissemination+networking tool.
I was really sad to hear that THE FORMAT broke up; I did hours and hours of math homework singing aloud with Nate and Co. (I think his name was Ruess or some such). Nate's found a different Co. (including a full orchestra) and a different sound (which, thanks to the orchestra, is lushly thick and delicious) but he's still singing about love and belting out his clever word games.
The link for listening is here: fun.
So far, "Benson Hedges" and "I Wanna Be the One" are catching my ears. I probably should list all the tracks I've listened to so far; so far this album is golden.
Pick up THE FORMAT's albums "Dog Problems" and "Interventions and Lullabies" for some background information and general awesomeness.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
OAM: Or maybe not.
I will be a DJ for my college (Covenant College, The Scots, liberal arts, Presbyterian of America, atop Lookout Mtn, GA) radio station (streaming, http://wklt.covenant.edu, The Kilt) for my "practical service."
How I lucked out in terms of getting a creative and non-grunt-work (hopefully) job for my final year of PS remains somewhat of a mystery to me.
It helps when you have a sig.other who 1) already does work with the Kilt; 2) encourages the spread of good music and ideas strongly; 3) and can give the insider's perspective on how the organization works.
Sadly, the Kilt doesn't attract many listeners simply because it's the age of ipods, Pandora, and various other forms of audio dissemination. The so-called silver lining of this fact being the relative security it provides a new DJ who doesn't quite know what she's doing to start out.
I've been encouraged to listen to "A Prairie Home Companion" not only to hear the "best voice out there" (Garrison Keillor) but to hear some slam-bang awesome radio.
I confess that I have not listened faithfully to the radio since high school. My parents repossessed my cd player/radio sometime after my senior year. I had shipped out to Covenant (more specifically driven hours and hours to said institution) and its silvery surface was dusty and its speakers unused. Soon it was blasting Dvorak symphonies at strange hours of the day due to its automatic timer that no one appeared to know how to disable.
Before the repossession of a once-Christmas present, I listened to the radio quite faithfully. I listened to cds as well, though I'd listened to cds and tapes almost exclusively before middle school. The reasons for this exclusivity being 1) my radio before the elegant silver Panasonic had been an old black Sony boombox with a 2-tape deck/cd player. The radio had a dial selecter complete with tab to scoot back and forth, but the antenna was broken so radio listening was useless anyway. 2) I lived in Germany when I first started using the player for my own listening -- Adventures in Odyssey tapes and classical music from the parental collection-- and we'd dropped a transformer on the player. It broke cd player's door so that henceforth we had to keep something relatively weighty on the door to keep it shut and the music playing. My parents eventually took pity on our (my sister and I; we shared a room) ingenuity in the face of faulty technology or were at least embarrassed enough by it to buy a new sleek Panasonic (with digital radio, on-top tape deck, motorized cd-tray, programming options, AND remote control). The world of radio, hassle-free cd listening, and (later) taping the radio was now open to me.
I was highly familiar with the Christian and classical radio stations thanks to Mom-as-chauffer-and-music-selector. For a time, my curiosity about the less-holy airwaves was limited. From what information I'd gathered, there was only audible "garbage" being strewn about "out there" and it would infect my young mind. Also, thanks to my antenna-less radio and nigh-unshakable belief that my mother wouldn't change the station in the car (and therefore wasn't worth requesting) there was little opportunity for experimentation.
Middle school duly arrived and as is common with middle school, new experiences and the beginning of the excavation of my musical-tunnel-vision.
My first venture into the secular world of radio had been to a top hits station and was pre-Panasonic, oddly. I had a handheld radio; one of those freebies they give at walk-athons or other such events at private Christian schools. Feeling adventurous and even rebellious, I moved it to a (gasp) non-Christian station and furtively listened to the second half of Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up the Sun." As Sheryl twanged her song that I would later hear many times in the orthodontist's chair, I felt slightly discomfited and simultaneously daring to have moved past the parent-sanctioned airwaves to more popular fare.
It was an experiement.
I had not planned to begin listening to popular "godless" music (meaning that the songs rarely mentioned God and if they did, in a questionable light). I did not set out to learn how to tolerate commercials by creative station-hopping. I did not know I would later avoid morning-talk shows because I preferred music to celebrity gossip or that I'd fall in love 80's music or sing along to 90's singer-songwriters over my algebra homework.
I did not know the next song would insure that all these would come to pass.
The mellow, casading piano chords of Train's "Drops of Jupiter" came small through the unit's earbuds, even a little staticky since cheapie handhelds aren't known for great reception. I shifted, leaning on the bookshelf in my bedroom, and the song came in more clearly. I had been impressed by the rich, full piano intro; I'd been taking lessons since grade two and always admired the skilled. Pat came in with the vocals; I listened closely for evil, negativity, dirty words. Listened for the entirety of the song and found Nothing of the sort.
Nothing but a song about a man singing to the woman he loves who'd been gone "lookin' for [her]self" among the celestial bodies, asking if she missed him while she was "out there."
The way he sings and plays, I daresay she did.
When people ask me about my favorite song, I tell them "Drops of Jupiter." While it is very easy for me to fall in love with a song if it has the right combination of magic elements, DoJ's magic was mindscape-scattering; it taught me there was music "out there" that was okay to love, that it was okay to keep turning on the radio, to keep challenging my perceptions about what made music "good."
That all being said, I am excited to be a DJ this fall and to share "good" music--overtly Christian, closet-Christian (the band-made-up-of-Christians phenomenon versus a Christian band), and secular. I cannot write succinctly in this post what my views are on what makes good music, but hopefully my show (whether it will be called 'Owls on the Answering Machine' or not; still can't decide if that's too out there for Cov) will present a working definition every hour, every week.
How I lucked out in terms of getting a creative and non-grunt-work (hopefully) job for my final year of PS remains somewhat of a mystery to me.
It helps when you have a sig.other who 1) already does work with the Kilt; 2) encourages the spread of good music and ideas strongly; 3) and can give the insider's perspective on how the organization works.
Sadly, the Kilt doesn't attract many listeners simply because it's the age of ipods, Pandora, and various other forms of audio dissemination. The so-called silver lining of this fact being the relative security it provides a new DJ who doesn't quite know what she's doing to start out.
I've been encouraged to listen to "A Prairie Home Companion" not only to hear the "best voice out there" (Garrison Keillor) but to hear some slam-bang awesome radio.
I confess that I have not listened faithfully to the radio since high school. My parents repossessed my cd player/radio sometime after my senior year. I had shipped out to Covenant (more specifically driven hours and hours to said institution) and its silvery surface was dusty and its speakers unused. Soon it was blasting Dvorak symphonies at strange hours of the day due to its automatic timer that no one appeared to know how to disable.
Before the repossession of a once-Christmas present, I listened to the radio quite faithfully. I listened to cds as well, though I'd listened to cds and tapes almost exclusively before middle school. The reasons for this exclusivity being 1) my radio before the elegant silver Panasonic had been an old black Sony boombox with a 2-tape deck/cd player. The radio had a dial selecter complete with tab to scoot back and forth, but the antenna was broken so radio listening was useless anyway. 2) I lived in Germany when I first started using the player for my own listening -- Adventures in Odyssey tapes and classical music from the parental collection-- and we'd dropped a transformer on the player. It broke cd player's door so that henceforth we had to keep something relatively weighty on the door to keep it shut and the music playing. My parents eventually took pity on our (my sister and I; we shared a room) ingenuity in the face of faulty technology or were at least embarrassed enough by it to buy a new sleek Panasonic (with digital radio, on-top tape deck, motorized cd-tray, programming options, AND remote control). The world of radio, hassle-free cd listening, and (later) taping the radio was now open to me.
I was highly familiar with the Christian and classical radio stations thanks to Mom-as-chauffer-and-music-selector. For a time, my curiosity about the less-holy airwaves was limited. From what information I'd gathered, there was only audible "garbage" being strewn about "out there" and it would infect my young mind. Also, thanks to my antenna-less radio and nigh-unshakable belief that my mother wouldn't change the station in the car (and therefore wasn't worth requesting) there was little opportunity for experimentation.
Middle school duly arrived and as is common with middle school, new experiences and the beginning of the excavation of my musical-tunnel-vision.
My first venture into the secular world of radio had been to a top hits station and was pre-Panasonic, oddly. I had a handheld radio; one of those freebies they give at walk-athons or other such events at private Christian schools. Feeling adventurous and even rebellious, I moved it to a (gasp) non-Christian station and furtively listened to the second half of Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up the Sun." As Sheryl twanged her song that I would later hear many times in the orthodontist's chair, I felt slightly discomfited and simultaneously daring to have moved past the parent-sanctioned airwaves to more popular fare.
It was an experiement.
I had not planned to begin listening to popular "godless" music (meaning that the songs rarely mentioned God and if they did, in a questionable light). I did not set out to learn how to tolerate commercials by creative station-hopping. I did not know I would later avoid morning-talk shows because I preferred music to celebrity gossip or that I'd fall in love 80's music or sing along to 90's singer-songwriters over my algebra homework.
I did not know the next song would insure that all these would come to pass.
The mellow, casading piano chords of Train's "Drops of Jupiter" came small through the unit's earbuds, even a little staticky since cheapie handhelds aren't known for great reception. I shifted, leaning on the bookshelf in my bedroom, and the song came in more clearly. I had been impressed by the rich, full piano intro; I'd been taking lessons since grade two and always admired the skilled. Pat came in with the vocals; I listened closely for evil, negativity, dirty words. Listened for the entirety of the song and found Nothing of the sort.
Nothing but a song about a man singing to the woman he loves who'd been gone "lookin' for [her]self" among the celestial bodies, asking if she missed him while she was "out there."
The way he sings and plays, I daresay she did.
When people ask me about my favorite song, I tell them "Drops of Jupiter." While it is very easy for me to fall in love with a song if it has the right combination of magic elements, DoJ's magic was mindscape-scattering; it taught me there was music "out there" that was okay to love, that it was okay to keep turning on the radio, to keep challenging my perceptions about what made music "good."
That all being said, I am excited to be a DJ this fall and to share "good" music--overtly Christian, closet-Christian (the band-made-up-of-Christians phenomenon versus a Christian band), and secular. I cannot write succinctly in this post what my views are on what makes good music, but hopefully my show (whether it will be called 'Owls on the Answering Machine' or not; still can't decide if that's too out there for Cov) will present a working definition every hour, every week.
VD9
Just passed page 700. YES.
I'm now fairly certain I will finish before I return to school.
prima facie: a Latin term meaning “at first sight”; used to describe a fact that is presumed to be true unless disproved by contrary evidence (thank you www.manitobacourts.mb.ca/definitions.html )
Bröckengespenstphänom: "German: Boulder-ghost-phenomenon, as best I can tell; the umlauts are incorrect" (wallacewiki; I remember reading something about this before but can't recall what it was.)
transmural infarction: heart attack (wallacewiki)
plura: a misspelling (likely) of "pleura," which is a thin membrane enclosing the lungs (wallacewiki)
jape: a joke; to jest; to play tricks; to jeer; to mock; to trick (wiki)
anaclitic: denoting a person whose choice of love-interest arises from the dependence of the libido on another instinct (e.g. hunger); pertaining to an acute emotional dependence on another person or persons (wiki)
monilial: apparently related to yeast infections. (amalgamated from google results)
furcated: forked or branched (wiki)
perspicuous: limpid: (of language) transparently clear; easily understandable (Princeton Word Net)
punitive: inflicting punishment (PWN)
vermiform: looking like a worm (wallacewiki)
pule: a plaintive whine (wiki)
pariah: outcast; a person who is rejected (from society or home) (PWN)
deuteragonist: in literature, the second most important character after the protagonist (wiki)
epicene:
hanuman-faced: hanuman - a monkey held sacred in India (wallace wiki); therefore, monkey-faced
cognoscenti: people having superior knowledge (wallacewiki)
novenas: A recitation of prayers and devotions for nine consecutive days, especially one to a saint to ask for their intercession (wiki)
verger: a church officer who takes care of the interior of the building and acts as an attendant (carries the verge) during ceremonies (PWN)
lapsarian: A person who believes in this doctrine; Of or pertaining to the fall of man from innocence, especially to the role of women in that fall (wiki)
CONTRARIA SUNT COMPLETMENTA: "Opposites are complementary" (http://blog.kyleoliver.net/2007/12/bohr-identity.html)
I'm now fairly certain I will finish before I return to school.
prima facie: a Latin term meaning “at first sight”; used to describe a fact that is presumed to be true unless disproved by contrary evidence (thank you www.manitobacourts.mb.ca/definitions.html )
Bröckengespenstphänom: "German: Boulder-ghost-phenomenon, as best I can tell; the umlauts are incorrect" (wallacewiki; I remember reading something about this before but can't recall what it was.)
transmural infarction: heart attack (wallacewiki)
plura: a misspelling (likely) of "pleura," which is a thin membrane enclosing the lungs (wallacewiki)
jape: a joke; to jest; to play tricks; to jeer; to mock; to trick (wiki)
anaclitic: denoting a person whose choice of love-interest arises from the dependence of the libido on another instinct (e.g. hunger); pertaining to an acute emotional dependence on another person or persons (wiki)
monilial: apparently related to yeast infections. (amalgamated from google results)
furcated: forked or branched (wiki)
perspicuous: limpid: (of language) transparently clear; easily understandable (Princeton Word Net)
punitive: inflicting punishment (PWN)
vermiform: looking like a worm (wallacewiki)
pule: a plaintive whine (wiki)
pariah: outcast; a person who is rejected (from society or home) (PWN)
deuteragonist: in literature, the second most important character after the protagonist (wiki)
epicene:
- bisexual: having an ambiguous sexual identity
- hermaphrodite: one having both male and female sexual characteristics and organs; at birth an unambiguous assignment of male or female cannot be made
- effeminate: having unsuitable feminine qualities (PWN)
hanuman-faced: hanuman - a monkey held sacred in India (wallace wiki); therefore, monkey-faced
cognoscenti: people having superior knowledge (wallacewiki)
novenas: A recitation of prayers and devotions for nine consecutive days, especially one to a saint to ask for their intercession (wiki)
verger: a church officer who takes care of the interior of the building and acts as an attendant (carries the verge) during ceremonies (PWN)
lapsarian: A person who believes in this doctrine; Of or pertaining to the fall of man from innocence, especially to the role of women in that fall (wiki)
CONTRARIA SUNT COMPLETMENTA: "Opposites are complementary" (http://blog.kyleoliver.net/2007/12/bohr-identity.html)
Thursday, August 6, 2009
OAM: Show idea
Here's one: a show featuring songs that (artist or title or album name) contain some reference to owls. I have a 100+ minute playlist of songs that I need to cull.
So far, these are the bands/songs that make the list:
Dead Kennedys-- "I Am the Owl"
Breathe Owl Breathe -- "Drop and Roll"
something by Owl City (think Ben Gibbard but pop-fantastic+ecstatic to be alive)
one of the songs by The Owls
AND OF COURSE---> Electric Owl-- "Magic Show" (I am in love with this song. Sometime I should make a list called "Songs I Fell in Love with this Summer").
So far, these are the bands/songs that make the list:
Dead Kennedys-- "I Am the Owl"
Breathe Owl Breathe -- "Drop and Roll"
something by Owl City (think Ben Gibbard but pop-fantastic+ecstatic to be alive)
one of the songs by The Owls
AND OF COURSE---> Electric Owl-- "Magic Show" (I am in love with this song. Sometime I should make a list called "Songs I Fell in Love with this Summer").
VD8
Somewhere solidly in the 600s. Oh yes, with 19 days left until I go back to school.
eubliette: a dungeon with the only entrance or exit being a trap door in the ceiling (Princeton Word Net)
adtorsion: a turning inward of both eyes. (thank you medical-dictionary.com)
ailanthus: any of several deciduous Asian trees of the genus Ailanthus (PWN)
collops: rolls of fat (wallacewiki.com)
nostrums: nostrum - A medicine or remedy in conventional use which has not been proven to have any desirable medical effects (wiki)
coprolaliac: coprolalia- the obsessive use of scatological language. (dictionary.com)
phylogenic: Based on evolutionary development. (thank you www.releasechimps.com-- yes, that's the name of the site)
verdigrised: Coated with a deposit of copper, usually greenish or bluish in color. (wiki)
coruscant: aglitter(p): having brief brilliant points or flashes of light; "bugle beads all aglitter"; "glinting eyes" (PWN; and yes, three/four definitions on the googledefine concerned the glittery planet of Star Wars origin)
carminative: medication that prevents the formation of gas in the alimentary tract or eases its passing (PWN)
buttinski: buttinsky-- one who butts in, interrupts, where he or she is not welcome (wiki)
R.H.I.P: "rank has its privileges"
saltire: St. Andrew's cross: a cross resembling the letter x, with diagonal bars of equal length (PWN)
tektitic: tektite-- Any of numerous generally small, rounded, dark brown to green glassy objects that are composed of silicate glass and are thought to have been formed by the impact of a meteorite with the earth's surface. (dictionary.com)
colposcope: a form of endoscope used to examine the tissues of the vagina and cervix (wiki)
olla: a pot for making stew, or stew itself (wallacewiki)
tsimmes: a fruit and vegetable casserole (wallacewiki)
eubliette: a dungeon with the only entrance or exit being a trap door in the ceiling (Princeton Word Net)
adtorsion: a turning inward of both eyes. (thank you medical-dictionary.com)
ailanthus: any of several deciduous Asian trees of the genus Ailanthus (PWN)
collops: rolls of fat (wallacewiki.com)
nostrums: nostrum - A medicine or remedy in conventional use which has not been proven to have any desirable medical effects (wiki)
coprolaliac: coprolalia- the obsessive use of scatological language. (dictionary.com)
phylogenic: Based on evolutionary development. (thank you www.releasechimps.com-- yes, that's the name of the site)
verdigrised: Coated with a deposit of copper, usually greenish or bluish in color. (wiki)
coruscant: aglitter(p): having brief brilliant points or flashes of light; "bugle beads all aglitter"; "glinting eyes" (PWN; and yes, three/four definitions on the googledefine concerned the glittery planet of Star Wars origin)
carminative: medication that prevents the formation of gas in the alimentary tract or eases its passing (PWN)
buttinski: buttinsky-- one who butts in, interrupts, where he or she is not welcome (wiki)
R.H.I.P: "rank has its privileges"
saltire: St. Andrew's cross: a cross resembling the letter x, with diagonal bars of equal length (PWN)
tektitic: tektite-- Any of numerous generally small, rounded, dark brown to green glassy objects that are composed of silicate glass and are thought to have been formed by the impact of a meteorite with the earth's surface. (dictionary.com)
colposcope: a form of endoscope used to examine the tissues of the vagina and cervix (wiki)
olla: a pot for making stew, or stew itself (wallacewiki)
tsimmes: a fruit and vegetable casserole (wallacewiki)
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
VD7
I feel sorry for whatever person is reading this blog and happens to wade through my vocabdump posts instead of just skipping them.
Currently in the 580's or 9o's of the novel...it remains astounding to me that I'm over halfway through. While reading IJ it really does feel infinite and the idea of it ending seems foolish.
Anyway.
escutcheon:
sinistral:
raison-d'être:
brisance: a measure of the rapidity with which an explosive develops its maximum pressure. (wiki)
reseau:
ambit: The sphere or area of control and influence of something; A circuit, or a boundary around a property; A span of actions, thoughts, or words (wiki)
cathexis: the concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea (PWN)
threnody: dirge: a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person (PWN)
traversion: apparently to Schtitt-- character is traversion.
anomic: class-alienating
Currently in the 580's or 9o's of the novel...it remains astounding to me that I'm over halfway through. While reading IJ it really does feel infinite and the idea of it ending seems foolish.
Anyway.
escutcheon:
- finger plate: a flat protective covering (on a door or wall etc) to prevent soiling by dirty fingers
- (nautical) a plate on a ship's stern on which the name is inscribed
- a shield; especially one displaying a coat of arms (Princeton Word Net)
sinistral:
- of or on the left; "a sinistral gastropod shell with the apex upward has its opening on the left when facing the observer"; "a sinistral flatfish ...
- preferring to use left foot or hand or eye; "sinistral individuals exhibit dominance of the left hand and eye" (PWN)
raison-d'être:
- reason for being
- the purpose that justifies a thing's existence
brisance: a measure of the rapidity with which an explosive develops its maximum pressure. (wiki)
reseau:
- a net or mesh foundation for lace
- a network of fine lines used by astronomers as a reference for measurements on star photographs (PWN)
ambit: The sphere or area of control and influence of something; A circuit, or a boundary around a property; A span of actions, thoughts, or words (wiki)
cathexis: the concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea (PWN)
threnody: dirge: a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person (PWN)
traversion: apparently to Schtitt-- character is traversion.
anomic: class-alienating
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Show and tell
Apologies for the unartistic photography of my carpet+lampstand.
- Pictured L to R, clockwise: Receipt from buying IJ on Amazon.com w/ white space now taken up by the contents of very helpful page 223;
- Copy of IJ (used, excellent condish, two bookmarks);
- Merriam-Webster dictionary that has been used/abused since the fifth grade, first page is now the abbrev. page;
- 2 library slips on which I write words I don't know or don't think will be in the M-WD (the yellow one was the holds slip from the first library copy of IJ I'd started but had to abandon in the move on page 196 and is written on both sides, white one is from the current library and can only be written on one side)
- LOTR/Frodo themed journal I've had kicking around since middle school that was specifically dedicated to recording sporadic thoughts, funny quotations, persevering self-encouragement about IJ
- I think there's also a black Bic pen somewhere between the novel and the journal on the cream carpet.
It might be good to have written out all my theories on how things work in the IJ universe, but it would take too much time away from actually getting through the novel. The folks at I-S recommended to either dig deep or stay near the surface of the novel--I'm doing my fighting best to stay snorkeling since I'm sure I lack the lung capacity for the kind of deep depth to which I'd want to swim.
Now the race is to finish before school starts. Counting today, I have 23 days until school begins. If IJ gets as exciting as they say after page 600 (the rumors whisper like pages of banned books in the library storeroom), it should be no problem.
One of my friends (my boyfriend, actually, in complete disclosure) is trying to catch up to me in pg#'s since I'd leapt ahead in my non-working, non-busy summer. I daresay he'll catch me sometime this week, which I welcome since we'll be able to discuss "current events" rather than my constant fear of committing spoilerage or simply saying "Oh yeah, I remember that."
Here's to you, IJ. May we never never ever give up.
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