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Browsing tag archives: Observation(s)

The Amen Break

This video contains an expose by Nate Harrisson about the “Amen Break”. I did not know about the “Amen Break” as a concept and this video is an eyeopener. A good piece of music history and theory that, when you are only remotely interested in the history of modern music, you should listen to.

Nate Wilson uses the history of the Amen Break to make an elloquentargument about “innovation” in arts and culture being stiffled by tostrict copyright rules.

Well worth 18 minutes of your time. One remark: this YouTube content is radio, not video.

For those who do not know what the Amen Break is here follows the first paragraph of the Wikipedia lemma:

(usually pronounced //ɑ:’mmɛn/) was a drum-solo performed by Gregory Sylvester “G.C.” Coleman. The “Amen Break”, “Amen” or imitations thereof, are frequently used as sampled drum loops in hip hop, jungle and drum and bassmusic. It is 5.20 seconds long and consists of 4 bars of the drum-solosampled from the song “Amen, Brother” as performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons. The song is an up-tempo instrumental rendition of an older gospel music classic. The Winstons’ version was released as a B-side of the 45 RPM 7-inch vinyl single “Color Him Father” in 1969 on Metromedia (MMS-117), and is currently available on several compilations and on a 12-inch vinyl re-release together with other songs by The Winstons.

Sopranos ….

 

I am a big fan of the Sopranos. However, Dutch television fails to broadcast the show on prime time so it never made it really popular in the NL. That leaves me nothing but SOBT (Stealing over BitTorrent) or waiting for the DVD series to come and pay 60 Euro.

Anyway, I am watching series 6 and the first episode started with a long scene, with a William S. Burroughs track accompagnying the images, that introduced in what state of life the family and their friends are. The William S. Burroughs track I didn't know but it sounded remarkably like the work he did with the "The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy" (Michael Franti's old band). A plesant goosebump experience.

I try to understand why I like the Sopranos so much, one of the reasons is that the show is pure commedy. For instance, I couldn't stop laughing when one therapist, Eliot, was talking to the other, Melfi, and said, without a trace of cynicism: "This Omerta concept comes from a pre-therapeutic culture".

I fail to understand why the broadcast of the last episode made the Dutch news. They had to first explain that the Sopranos is a popular series in the US and then broadcasted the plot spoiler! 

Its been a while

Its been a while since I last wrote here. I started a new job with NLnet Labs and it just took all my energy. Besides plog and Safari do not really work together and Ecto does not allow picture uploads so at times its just to much hassle.

Anyway things are settling a bit. I’ve finished my DNSSEC deployment project at the NCC, its in its final stages and it won’t be long before secure delegations will be offered. As for deployment taking up on a more global scale; I am not willing to take bets.

While writing this I am watching Top Gear. They are presenting the new Citroen C6 Oh-la-la…. I can’t wait until that machine hits the road and we get to see it life. Although I am not a car person but I do wonder what cars can get the ‘classic’ status of the Citroen DS, 2CV and the Volkwagen Beatle. I guess we have to wait about 20 years to have the authoritative answer.

During the IETF in Paris I did some shopping and heard some classic New Wave and Punk songs in a Bossa Nova setting. I asked the guy behind the counter. It was Nouvelle Vague. So off to FNAC I was. (FNAC is this really cool music, movie and media chain). In FNAC “Nouvelle Vague” was sitting next to a set of headphones which played “Sufjan Stevens”;

Sufjan Stevens’s Illinoise is one of the best musical purchases I made this year. Its an incredible mix of styles. His website is pretty cool too. If I’d take a bet on Sufjan’s record collection I would say it contains Stever Reich, Frank Zappa, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and a nice bluegrass collection.

I did listen to another but that was not as catching nor accessible as Illinoise. I’m sure I’ll buy more of this fellow.

[Post publish edit Oct 6: corrected sufjan.com link]

Today 60 Years Ago

Quotes from the poem:

AH POOK THE DESTROYER …
William S. Burroughs (Feb 5, 1914-Aug 2, 1997)

(…)

Hiroshima, 1945, August 6th, 16 minutes past 8 AM
Who really gave that order?
Answer – Control. The ugly American. The instrument of Control.

(…)

Bryon Gysin has the all purpose nuclear bedtime story.
The all purpose bedtime story, in fact.
Some trillions of years ago a sloppy, dirty giant flicked grease from his fingernails.
One of those gobs of grease is our universe on its way to the floor.
Splat

Math Student Project.

Hi Math student. Happy you googled this way on your quest for a topic to write your statistics paper on.

Here is the problem, its a real life problem, one that hurts about 10 million owners of an iPod.

Random is not perceived to be random.

Many of us consumadrin loaded individuals bought an iPod to enjoy a different song every day. But my iPod has a preference for Johny Cash and Dennis Leary. In a Newsweek artcicle Steven Levy wrote that his iPod favoured Steely Dan. He also tried to do a little research on the randomness of the iPod and actually interviewed Temple University prof John Allen Paulos who claimed:

"It’s entirely possible that nothing at all is amiss with the shufflefunction. It’s quite common for random processes (like coin tosses) toget unlikely results here and there, like runs of six heads in a row.Over a very long time, it evens out, but it’s hard for us to envisionthat. "We often interpret and impose patterns on random processes,"

I do not buy that.

I want statistical evidence that the birthday paradox is at work here… I want evidence that I can or can not use my iPod as a casino device. I promise access to my iPod backup to the first student who provides me the paper that proves that the iPod is not random…

And now I’ll delete Leary and Cash. I’m sick of them.

Cock


3 Songs that start with the cry of a cock.

  • The Beatles, Good Morning Good Morning from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
  • Tom Waits, I’ll Be Gone from Frank’s Wild Years.
  • William S. Burroughs (and the Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy), Words of Advice for Young People from Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales

Are there more?