Vocal Fry

My little sister, who because of age differences and family fragmentation, I have literally never hung out with outside of weddings and funerals, came down to see us this week.

We drank a lot of wine and vodka last night.

And now I want to curl up and die.

Now that the house adventure is starting to draw to an end, and there's a chance I'll regain my normal life, I have something I want to try: short, collaborative, songs.

• Songs must be no more than 30 seconds long. Shorter is fine.
• People are free to add / subtract / modify the tracks any way they want. If you want to add a part, fine; if you want to change levels / add effects / mix / etc. existing tracks, fine; if you want to chop the song up and restructure it, fine.
• We (anyone who wants to participate) could use Audacity, which is simple, free and multi-platform, to handle multitracking/editing.
• I could probably open up the FTP site here, to handle file storage duties. It would be nice to have some kind of cool source control mechanism to handle check-in/check-out/revision, but I'd rather keep it simple.

Any interest?

Well, that was a lot of butter!

I'm reading this interview, entitled "Is Our Retro Obsession Ruining Everything?", in which author Simon Reynolds complains there’s never “been a society so obsessed with the cultural artifacts of its own immediate past” as ours. He's upset at how today's culture keeps looking back to the past for cultural inspiration instead of trying to come up with new ideas.

While reading this, my iPod shuffled-up a song from Doc Watson, "Crawdad Hole". The song is a traditional American folksong, and this performance was recorded in the mid-60's during the great folk revival going on at the time. Watson played many traditional tunes, but also stuff from old country pioneers like Jimmy Rodgers and the Carter Family. In addition to folk, there was a huge revival of all forms of traditional American music: blues, jazz, jug-band, etc.. And it wasn't just America, of course; I grew up listening to traditional Irish folk songs from bands like the Irish Rovers and the Boys Of The Lough; bands like Pentangle reached back hundreds of years for some of their songs. All the big names of the 60s and 70s rock got into it, to varying degrees: Dylan, the Stones, Clapton, The Beatles, Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers, Jethro Tull, The Grateful Dead, The Doors, etc.. They all kept one foot firmly in traditional folk, blues, country, etc., while pushing forward with the other foot. Even Black Sabbath tried to be a straight blues band for a while.

The 80s?
Come on Eileen, who do you love? Come dancing, let's rock this town. Put on the ritz, or whatever.

And all the 70's-style hair on the hair metal bands?

There was a huge 60's/psychedelic/flower-power revival in the 90s. Dee Lite did their day-glo flowers and polka-dots thing, the Black Crows and Telsa did straight covers of 60s songs. I went to countless rockabilly and surf-guitar shows when I was in college. Then there was the big band / swing dance craze of the 00s, the lounge music revival. Etc..

There's nothing different about today's backwards looking. People have always looked backwards for inspiration, for fun, for comfort, and even for novelty. The past is the main ingredient in everything we do today.

If we ask you for a cashier's check, do not send us a check claiming to be drawn from a business in Raleigh, NC when you're FedExing it from a Kroger's pharmacy in Kentucky. Also, do not print it on your inkjet printer. And, make sure you use a decent resizing algorithm when you enlarge that scanned signature. We are not that dumb. Neither was the bank manager I showed the check to.

Falling Falling

Into the distance. Into the past. Into the cold tomb of bankruptcy.

Hostess Brands says it's going out of business after striking workers across the country crippled its ability to make its Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Wonder Bread and other snacks.

The company had warned employees that it would file a motion with U.S. Bankruptcy Court Friday seeking permission to shutter its operations and sell assets if plants didn't resume normal operations by a Thursday evening deadline.

The closing would mean the loss of about 18,500 jobs.

Sad.

Or, maybe it's just union-busting shenanigans.

Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks (via)

A US strip club has managed to sidestep laws banning total nudity in public by offering customers the chance to make drawings depicting its dancers.

The club in Boise, Idaho, charges $15 (£8) for a sketch pad, pencil and dance performance, in what is billed as an "Art Club Night", Reuters agency says.

A city law passed in 2001 forbids complete nudity in public unless the display has "serious artistic merit".