"Breadcrumbs are a loaf divided; a piece of toast is?a slice united."
-Torley A. Wong
~~~
When I contemplate about music, I don't usually think about it in the static sense — if music plays, it is dynamic, much like life itself. It is temporal as well as being spatial (why not "spacial"?). You have no doubt heard about music being "labelled" and "pigeonholed" and classified in myriad other ways. I regard these classifications as a "necessary evil" for the purposes of accessibility and convenience.
To use an analogy: one may not be familiar with the proper name of a person, so you must use descriptions, and hopefully without veering into the clinically depressed realm of the politically correct. For example, if someone has an interesting piece of headgear you are intrigued by, you may shout out to them, "Hey, hey you!" and if they do not respond, you may shout louder, or perhaps say something more expansive such as: "Hey, hey you, tall Asian man in the turquoise toque!"
I believe music is much the same. You may not know the name of a song or even its creator, so you address it as "That breakbeat track with the banjos and the monk chanting" or even, "…it goes la-la-da and blah-blah love love something or other" if you are really grasping for words. I know I've been there.?;) If you have a sizeable music collection, then you need to sort it out. There are different ways of sorting, and a common way is by genre or style. Of course, there has been much digital bloodshed in this arena — especially when it comes to techno?music.
I've likened music to a personal pet on occasion. You know how some people are said to be dog people or cat people — or perhaps both?– or to relate closer to music, Elvis or Beatles people? Well, it's the same thing here. There's many types of music for many types of people, and just like how we have different favorite colors or automobiles to drive (if we drive an ad hoc vehicle at all), we've got different tastes in art & culture. Or entertainment, the unculture as some call it. POP CULTURE.
I treat my music like a blob of amorphous goo that sleeps under the keyboard. Think of the classic slimeform from the NES game Dragon Warrior. I stroke it, pet it, teach it to do tricks… grow it from a small audio test tube into the dancefloor monster it will someday become… those sort of things. Technomon. The "care & feeding" of. Chances are, if you don't really adore something and have a passion for it, you won't treat it well. It may even be a she, or a he in some cases. Why let something die in such a sad way? Why not give it someone who will treasure it more? Or if you like it and want to share it with a friend, thankfully digital science is advanced enough?to give us the benefits of MP3-class cloning technology, which I have deployed on multiple occasions.
And thus, when it comes to music, I choose nurture and develop it. Like a patchwork quilt, assembled from pieces into a whole where you can see the seams and separate it if you are discerning enough, yet still enjoy the forest AND the trees. And that's another thing: I tend to be an AND person who selects the proverbial "best of both worlds" over any one solution. I find the best things in life go by many times, as do the worst.
Now, I was watching "The Apprentice 2". Raj's comments to the contrary (I like him because he is eccentric), I think Mosaic is a wonderful name for a company. After all, was it not the name of a historically significant, pioneering bandwagon of the World Wide Web, as well as reflective of the diverse — well, MOSAIC of humankind? What humans do is transferred to their art. Music, specifically electronic music, is a mosaic. It borrows influences?from so many sources and directly samples even more, and this patchwork quilt continues to be knitted like some massive technological undertaking — a braintrust of dancing, really, and a type of neo-shamanism and chanelling of our primal selves through BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Interestingly enough, this is another reason why I have come to embrace contradictions. Isn't it odd how the secrets of our future are woven from our past? We may use words to separate and differentiate and divide, but in the end, it is all part of one?mosaic, one?quilt. A potential?unified field theory created out of the bones and sinew of acerbic TB-303s, of?thundering supersaws, of graceful twinkle-twonkles and swoosh! FX, and even of what were originally acoustic or electric sources — now processed, sliced, trimmed, reversed, inversed, convoluted, granulized, and all manner of technological trickery that Loki would have a Big O over. Big TechnO!!!
I've got s'more thoughts + feelings on this, but they're developing. Like how a woman's belly grows ripe and plump with her impending child. And idea by idea, they shall be born unto this world in the form of… music.*
*with the occasional contribution in another medium
~~~
I had a dream the other night. It was one of my better dreams. I dreamed I got to meet Kraftwerk, which was quite a feat in itself. I even wore my fan t-shirt.
~~~
I'm currently trying out Maxthon, which is like taking a frail-looking Internet Explorer and dressing it in a neon pimp suit, complete with feathered hat, cane, and all the frills-n-trimmings to boot. And giving it manners?and teaching it respect.?Their support forum is quite friendly and helpful. More people need to hear about proggies like this, because quite frankly, what's life without efficiency? It'll take a few moments to set up and increase the enjoyment of your web-browsing experience.
Today, I spent some time with the Noia Warm skin by?Toxi and customizing it to my needs. I like a web browser that has a brown, earthy color to it, to contrast with all the silvers and grays and blues of the interface. Of course, I had to add my own special touch — hot pink highlights. The default bar text was a little too gray so I made it black for better contrast, and I defaulted the icons because I actually prefer the original IE kinkajinks in this regard.
Going to give it a test run over the next extended while. Tabbed browsing is nice, but that's just the icing on an already sugary cake. Check out the rest of the features.?I've not looked into the background of the programmers but apparently there is a lot of Chinese or something on the forum.
~~~
There's a track that needs to be identified in Ishkur's EDM Guide. Please let me know if you know what it is. Thank you graciously in advance.
~~~
I find airports & hotels to be magical places — the pleasant?and clean ones, anyway. It's kind of funny that while they are all different, each one unique in its architectural design and practical layout and parking spaces, that they serve as connection points between the planes of the world. Similar to how websites are docking nodes for hypertext travels. And how all music, no matter how seemingly disparate, is connected in some way.
~~~
"No,?[love] is a word. What matters is the connection the word implies. I see that you are in love. Can you tell me what you would give to hold on to that connection?"
-Rama-Kandra, The Matrix Revolutions