Guidonianhand- Darmstadt Overview August 6, 2010
- The Brazen Drum
- The Brazen Drum - Episode 4In this episode, I talk to Dave... February 2, 2010
- Music of the Fourth World
- Hawaii May 8, 2010
- MSU Music Composition
- Steal my music. September 1, 2010
Guidonianhand The Brazen Drum Music of the Fourth World MSU Music Composition
recent media
I’ve recently become obsessed with the San Francisco based duo Pomplamoose. I was perhaps a bit disheartened that someone was already doing something very much like that which I propose to do with my dissertation – and they do it so well. While the group makes money by selling original music online, the real gems are their “video songs.” Their real ascent up the Youtube hall of fame came when Ashton Kutcher tweeted about their cover of Single Ladies. They’ve hit it big again with Beat It. In the interest of shameless self-promotion, I’ve posted film_1 as video response to Single Ladies. It hasn’t shown up yet. Either they were under whelmed or they haven’t checked responses in a while. I’ll assume the later. You should certainly check out their Youtube channel for all of their video songs.
- I’m currently reading Music Grooves, a collaborative work by Charles Keil and Steven Feld. I’m not far enough along to have any strong opinions, but I have high hopes. I took a class from Steven Feld during my master’s at the University of New Mexico and enjoyed it very much.
- I recently finished reading Remix by Lawrence Lessig. Anyone interested in creativity and a vibrant engaged culture should read this book (and based on my experiences so far Free Culture and all of his other books as well). Lessig is behind the Creative Commons project that you may have heard of. As much as possible, the material created for this project will be licensed through CC and offered for free remix and reuse.
- In July of 09, I finished Shopclass as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford. I’ve found during my life, whether changing the clutch on a 1978 CJ 5 by necessity, fixing clarinets as a job or building a sculpture for artistic enrichment, I have a proclivity for manual engagement. According to my father-in-law, this is unsurprising considering my proud Huguenot heritage. I’ve always had faith in the value of working with my hands. Crawford’s fine book gave a voice to that faith.
- While preparing for the launch of my dissertation project, I knew that I wanted to engage with social media as a means to engage people with the project. This lead me to the research of Nicole Ellison, a faculty member here at MSU in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media. Her research on Facebook was very informative and helped solidify my understanding of the idea of social capital.
- Footnoted in my dissertation proposal is “On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening.” I find it helpful to go back and re-read Adorno if you can stand it. My understanding and appreciation of his work is starting become more balanced between respect for his intellect and a nagging suspicion that the time of high art is past.
- This last May, I finished Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan. I’ve been warned that McLuhan is seen as somewhat of an academic pariah. I’m still digesting the richness of his dense analysis, so I’ll have to get back to you on that. For now however, I find McLuhan a genius.
- It’s been four years since I first watched the film Listen. However, it’s worth mentioning since this film, with its unification of content and form, convinced me that my dissertation must be a film project. I suggest this film to anyone interested in music and sound and how we attend to (or ignore) both in constructing meaning in our lives.