of whom should i be afraid

>>>

my light and my salvation,
my darkness and tribulation,
all free fall in adulation
of whom should i be afraid?

emptied of pennies or
absent my body in full-
working motion
whom shall i fear?

I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.

>>>

Total Anatomy of Sampling: Case Study RJD2 "Ghostwriter"

>>>

I am obsessed with instrumental hip-hop music for two reasons:

1. Listening to instrumental hip-hop throughout the day makes it easier to buttress the grand illusion that my life is a movie scored by incredible beat-makers.
2. More importantly, instrumental hip-hop allows anyone, not just me, to unconsciously survey the history of pop music as a result of IHH's fucking awesome use of samples.

To demonstrate, I have selected a song that everyone likes, RJD2's "Ghostwriter."

First, listen to the original:

Incredible, right? But where did it come from? See if Paul Desmond's "A Taste of Honey" (1964) sounds familiar:



How about those angelic voices? Would you believe they're from Elliot Smith's "I Didn't Understand?" (1998)



And the generally awe-inspiring horn section, which someday I hope to listen to while robbing a bank or something, is taken from Betty's Wright's "Secretary" (1970-something)



And there you have it. I'd recommend Derrida's essay "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" if you are interested in understanding the sort of meaning and method of such musical bricolage.

Lena meets Alice.

No one knew that Lena was violent.

Those naturally inclined to sex are also naturally inclined to violence; I am not sure why the dichotomy exists but it does.

Now Lena had spent her whole life naturally drawn to sex and consequentially gained much attention for her behavior. However, Lena had willfully sacrificed nearly all of this behavior because of this single man from the deep deep south. Her ample emotional energy, therefore, was redirected from the sexual part of her mind to the violent one. In fact these were the only two sides of Lena's mind.

Lena's natural violent tendencies had always been pacified by a consistent stream of lovers. Now her hands held kitchen knives a little tighter and her shoes were all spiked with pointed heels.

At first the change startled her.

She went swimming one night with a group of Canadians she had met at a birthday party. Lena felt there was something different about her interactions with these men but she wasn't sure what had changed.

"We have a surprise for you," one of them said. "Alice."

"Who is Alice" she asked.

"You are going to love her."

"You will get along great."

Lena hated meeting other women. But the night was hot and she had been promised booze and cool water.

When the group arrived at the pool, they told Lena to undress and wait for them by the water while they fetched Alice. Lena had no bathing suit so she wore only a bra and panties. She removed the outer layers of her clothes and wrapped a towel around herself. She waited for the Canadians to return. She closed her eyes and reclined on a beach chair.

"Lena" they said after a few minutes. "We present to you Alice."

Lena opened her eyes. The Canadians were in the pool and a wet sensation overcame Lena's toes.

Lena stood up and the towel around her body slid to the ground. She bent down and picked up the tiny puppy nibbling at her feet.

"Hello Alice" she said.

Lena walked the length of the pool with the puppy in her arms. She felt the eyes of every Canadian following the two bodies.

Lena did not feel sexy.

Lena felt terrifying.

It was at that moment, almost naked by the pool with a puppy in her arms, that Lena realized the men had given her the thing in order to look at her without being frightened. She had been tempered with soft black fuzz and pitiful whimpers. She dropped the puppy on the ground and stared back at the men.

When Lena arrived home that night she scrawled something in ink above her bed.

Lena smiled. The grip on her pen loosened.

New Pop Standard Tracking

In this post I share the most rewarding feeling one can experience as an avid music listener - pattern recognition. A near-waltz for chronic insomniacs. The category includes me. The following videos (alternatively in the last example: audio track with stationary picture attached) all utilize the Santo and Johnny steel guitar classic.

1959 - Santo&Johnny "Sleep Walk"



1963 - TheBeachBoys "In My Room"



1965 - TheRighteousBrothers "Unchained Melody"



1999 - ModestMouse "Sleepwalkin'"



2005 - TheRaveonettes "Seductress of Bums"



2006 - TheFieryFurnaces "Waiting to Know You"




                                                              monumental importance.

for Rene Descartes

I feel so disconnected

old friends are far
new friends are new

I feel so disconnect

I'm nobody
and who are you

I feel so discon

give me that
watch me do

I feel so dis

what luck
damn blue

I feel so

alert:
untrue

I feel

through

I

grew

I feel

a third
debut

I feel so

what I
now knew

I feel so dis

traced myself
how you drew

I feel so discon

faultless in pain
greenvelvet hue

I feel so disconnect

ready to test
paradigm view

I feel so disconnected.

Kraftwerk vs. Coldplay

Last in a series with potential for indefinite continuation.

Kraftwerk vs. Jay-z & Foxy Brown

the second in a series
(yes, this is leading to something)

Kraftwerk vs. LCD Soundsystem

The first in a series

Sylvia...

get your head out of the oven.

The 400 Prose. Draft and Product.

Substitutions abundant where ever
a string of three - him, the word, me -
threatens intellectual comradery, intensifies the promises
of flowers, relegates petals into childhood truism.

Never an idealogue, he's clever, I am saturated
by the windowside of my bed, by every drop of caramel sweat,
by layers of shine of canvas; they are equally as wet.

A billion daggers.
A billion dollars.
What differences are these.
When wishes are experiments.
and devotion is disease.