10/21/08

when life gets in the way

From friday-sunday i worked a grand total of 32 hours, not including drive time, which would make the grand total 41 hours. i needed a weekend to finish this aria "Ev'ry Year", the final act of "Cake." I was home friday night at 8pm, however, since i had only slept 3 hours before working 7 and driving 4, i pretty much died. Saturday, worked 14 hours with 4 of driving. Sunday, worked 11 with only an hour of drive time...Got home at 8:30pm sunday, and pretty much died. Today was my day off. I hopped into work for 2 seconds to get a quote for a job i'm doin' in NY, then came home...and worked...

Worked my face off. like mad crazy. then, emily came home and worked ceased, cause, well, she's more fun. heheh. I picked work back up at around 11pm...been workin' ever since till now. How much is done?

13 measures...

how long is it? easily 3-4 times that.

This is not getting done before tomorrow noon...when i'll be in brooklyn. Even workin' on the bus, which i WILL do, period. I'm gonna be that ass with my stuff in the seat to make sure i have room for compy.

I'm going to have to pass out soon. its 2am and i can barely see the screen. However...

I'm nearly proud of what has been written. The closest i've been to proud on any work on "Cake." Almost got the combination of punk, metal, and post-tonal berg~esque opera for which i was going. Nearly. For being just piano its doin' alright. I decided that i needed a nice way to prove a form, so, i'm doing pedal tones throughout and roughly following a set form. I don't want to say what it is, rather have some theorist check it out after i'm dead and have him be like "wtf mate?" yeah, cause only a stereotypical Australian will like this piece. HA!

Anyway, i've got to pass out now. i'm dyin'. just hope i finish...I really...But this is what happens when life gets in the way. If i had any spare time this weekend when i wasn't so entirely exhausted, i could have either worked on the piece of worked on all the other things that needed to get done today. With so much to do, four days of work all piled up, i couldn't get it all done. not even the surface. Slowly, i'm running behind on life. Damnit, that's what i hate about juggling 2 jobs and being a full time student, all the while attempting to somehow write music...

Oh, not to mention i have a performance exam tomorrow evening over exercises i haven't even looked at. AND a writing assignment that i haven't begun. and i lead a discussion on wednesday. *sigh* full-time students that don't work always wonder why us workers complain about school work. Now they know...

10/11/08

This is a copy of my myspace post. dunno why i did it there

the voodoo witch doctor steve saved me So, i'm almost healthy, and, for the first time in quite a while, i'm reading a shit load. in the last 3 days i've already covered nearly 200 pages of readings regarding the politics and philosophy of South Park. its been quite illuminating. Not just from the standpoint of South Park, but politics and philosophy in general.

I've never been overly interested in politics. As Matt an Trey so artfully put "It's always a choice between a douche and a turd." damn straight. So when i stepped into a "American Music and Politics of the 20th (and 21st) Century" i knew i was going to be a bit over my head as far as what i needed to know in the broad sense of political philosophy. I've taken my knowledge during the semester, which coincided, of course, with the current choice of douche vs. turd (which, in this case, i'm more likely to say its the choice between a brand-new shiny douche and a super stinky baby that just ate Indian food diarrhea turd.) and tried to become literate concerning a lot more areas than the current 4 or 5 current popular philosophies. I've kinda decided that the popular ones are the "South Park Conservatives" (stupid ass term), who are Republicans with Libertarian leanings and slightly liberal social views; hardcore Righties, those so incredibly conservative in everything their heads are up their asses (the current libertarian party, and those far right wing conservative christian political groups); moderate pussies, the people who sit in the middle and say "let's be friends" but don't really do a damn thing about it; the annoying yuppies with a social conscious, those liberal spouting celebrities that say all sorts of left wing political gobbledygook and believe in government control of the poor unfortunate middle class! (assholes); and the far lefties, the american green party that can't seem to get its head far enough out of its ass to possibly do a damn thing in american politics. yes the rain-forests are important, but, goddamnit, so are a few other things in life...like, um, having enough money to eat today?!?

So, the original paper idea for was the liberal leanings. I saw Stone and Parker as being slightly left of center. Closer to the center, realist type. However, as i read page after page of interesting analysis, from Toni Johnson-Woods "Blame Canada" which takes a large view of the politics and simply says they're true libertarian, to Brian C. Anderson, who says in his book "South Park Conservatives: The Revolt against Liberal Media Bias" that stone and parker are conservatives; just look at the large amount of liberal bashing they do! all the while, excluding all bases on the republican extremism. Then there was Richard Hanley's book "South Park and Philosophy; Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating" that shows stone and parker's affinity to be anti-extremism with libertarian leanings against government intervention.

So, obviously, my hypothesis moved 5 degrees to the right. The majority agree that South Park is libertarian in the truest sense of the word; anti-large government, anti-government interference, anti-extremism. hm, this is all well and good. and looking back through my memory of all the episodes i've watched, it seems true. But wait, i'm looking at a specific section of the literature. "South Park; Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" hasn't been touched as often as a handful of other episodes (it seems there are only a few that people have seen? no, they're just easy examples). And if i read the final soliloquy (which i spelled write on the first try. booyah) from "Team America" one more time i'm going to vomit. Yes, i get it, there are dicks, pussy's and assholes. pussy's need dicks, dicks need pussy's and assholes need to get fucked and only dicks with balls can do that. right right, i get it. but what about "Blame Canada"? what is that song saying? and what is it saying BEYOND the lyrics. the allusions to Les Miserables and Oklahoma! aren't as obvious in "Blame Canada". i haven't had nearly the time to sit down and watch those two musicals and South Park all in a row. man, only had 2 weeks to do this paper! c'mon!

Well, there's definitely anti-extremism, takes a stab at both the liberal media AND conservative morality, which, for some effed up reason, go together in the my head. think about it, the idea of being PC is a liberal idea. But then again, it espoused by many conservatives, especially in the religious right, as long as its in the context of "being PC towards me and my beliefs." Anyway, i digress. the lyrics and their satire are easy to discern. And i think i have the backing of enough other academics to do that without trouble...

But what about the music? its kitschy, tin-pan alley drivel that's for sure. simple, basic. Is it a second tier music on the communist music manifesto ideas from the 30's-60's with the likes of Seeger and Crawford-Seeger (yes the parents of Pete, if you didn't know that), Copland, et al. The use of a popular form (kitschy tin-pan alley musical forms) to espouse somewhat (in this particular case) libertarian AND leftist views (a don't interfere with me attitude along with an extremist run straight to the gun to shoot it out). Also, since the whole musical is in some form a satire against musicals (especially those Tim Rice/Elton John/Phil Collins/Andrew Lloyd Webber monstrosities) where does this song fit into the satire against the elevations of the musical to a second tier musical form, between "popular" and "art" music on the table i first read in an a chapter of a book by Guthrie P. Ramsey (which i felt his argument was ill-formed though correct.)

So, yeah...how is this only going to be 7-10 pages? hm...damn good question. Now that i've got the fodder, time to throw some on the bonfire and see how big i can get it before the fire department shows up. And, man, i'm hungry!

and its interesting, my blog meant normally for personal vents became an interesting musical/political discourse, so, i threw it here too. enjoy

10/9/08

how's this for an idea

Taken from a free rant on my myspace blog...

the opera, well...I'm thinking of going a strange direction lately. Kinda Bang on a Can/Dragonforce/Bullet for My Valentine/Puccini/Verdi/Nyman/Elliot Carter/Reich~ish. does that make any sense? so, let me say it this way...Simple layered forms, highly rhythmic almost frantic accompaniment, virtuoso performance practice, metric and tempo ambiguities, repetitive and organically grown, romantic vocals with a large touch of my standard whimsy and disinterest. now, how the hell do i write that?!? beats the shit outta me. hence, why there are no notes on the page. I listen to Dragonforce and get all pumped up, and realize, as i start writing that, damnit, i'm just transcribing! not that its a problem, but i gotta take the idea and meld it into my own vision. some sort of Three headed dragon flying over Valhalla in an endless loop while breathing fire down on innocents. yeah, that's good imagery i think. damnit, i hope that this isn't settling in my chest. i'll never be rid of the phlegm then...

so, none of my previous ideas are gone, they're just forming into a new gelatinous cube of musical doom. maybe i'll even write some MUSIC sometime instead of just talking bout it. n'ah, i doubt that. I really like the image of the dragon. I think i should make it a poster. now, if i only had any skill at all with drawing...oh well