tom moody

Comment left on the Mutant Sounds blog a while back:

Yes, it struck me when I heard it today (after a long hiatus) how close it is to the Byrne/Eno Bush of Ghosts sound--the heavy funk grooves with ethereal electronics and atmospherics hovering over and around.

They are dopes to repudiate it. In retrospect it was clear that they were paving the ground for the "'80s sound"--whereas the early ones that all the purists love hark back to the '60s and "roots jams."

My personal favorite is Landed, which straddles the earlier and later periods and is unique in some ways. It has excellent lyrics ("Half Past One," "Red Hot Indians"), some of their best musique concrete-y stuff ("Unfinished") and I love the heavily filtering on many of the songs. (I also like Karoli's vocals, it's how you know this is a German band and not just more eccentric Pink Floyd or Grateful Dead.)

But the later work needs its cult and I'm happy to join you in singling out Out of Reach as a candidate for major reinterpretation. Irmin, Hildegard, are you listening? (I also like Rosko Gee's singing and think the "Pauper's Daughter" is a great song.)

"Stablimation" [4.2 MB .mp3]

808 loop with FX, Vermona drum samples effected, piano rolled "stabs"=underbaked 21st c compo

Typical new media artist: "Galleries just create artificial scarcity, cater to the rich, and perpetuate a materialistic culture, unlike me with my readily available, open source internet art, so why won't they pay attention to me?"

Reasons for art galleries 106: Some files are too big for the !!*#! internet and must be viewed on equipment that can display them. An example can be found in Kevin Bewersdorf's show at V&A gallery in Manhattan, which opened today. A mandala of about 1000 gif files downloaded from the internerd, with an image of the artist in the center in the lotus position with laptop on his lap, surfing. Within this cyber medieval Rose Window intricate arrangements of flipped, flopped, and symmetrically cloned eyeballs, Homer Simpsons, directional arrows, flames, firework explosions, and dancing babies jiggle and gyrate in an intricate mathematical ballet. And all of it as crisp as an image on a new laptop. One either has to go to the gallery to see this or read writers' descriptions. No internet-connected computer will do it justice.

Update: And with all of the above qualifications, here is a low res version of the piece. Guessing this will be much-delished and become the "definitive" version and only old cranks will talk about the "superior, gallery" model.

Update 2: Broken ink to Bewersdorf GIF fixed.

The image on the TV is a DVD version of the GIF below. The TV itself showed up on the sidewalk outside my apartment bldg. with a note that said "Please take--it works." I did and it does.

Comments on the Republican National Convention and Sarah Palin's speech.

Joe Klein, Time blog:

Palin's was an authentic, sarcastic, white working-class voice--absent the economic pain at large in the country, the fact that median families have lost $2000 in disposable income during the Bush presidency. The Democrats are betting that the pain will trump the sarcasm this year; the media reaction you're seeing, including my own, comes from the knowledge that sarcasm has trumped pain so often in recent history.

Matt Stoller, Open Left:

I'm watching the Republican line-up, just getting done with Giuliani, and what strikes me is the utter sense of hatred and contempt for ordinary people emanating from this Christian white group.

Steve Clemons says that Palin added some sizzle to the convention, and I'm sure that's right. When I left, this was a deadened and frustrated group. But now I see on TV an air chopping Giuliani dripping with hatred in a symbiotic relationship with a lustful and excited crowd. This hatred, this anger, this rage is what they love. This is who they are.

This party is aroused by a raw primal screeching bitterness. I don't know if independents see Rudy's prime time speech like I see it, but what I see is a vicious white mob who laugh and sneer at people losing their homes in the name of small town American values and who hate community organizers [such as ACORN] standing up for those people.

tremayne, Open Left:

For this campaign, [McCain campaign manager Rick] Davis says the McCain strategy is to avoid the issues because:

"This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

What comprises that composite view? Part of it must be babies. Yes, this year they will be wrapping themselves not only in flags but in babies. This is an astute political move I suppose: who opposes cute little babies? And so we got shot after shot tonight of the Palin's newest addition being held by, I think, every family member at one point or another. I think the strategy is something like: I dare you NOT to vote for this baby.

Besides the baby there was also an appeal to Bubba. Not Bill in particular but any and all voters who consider themselves "regular" and "hard working" and from either a small town or a narrow perspective. In this Palin certainly succeeded in firing up the base. And so the McCain campaign has shifted from one targeting the maverick middle to a Rove-style approach of motivating the right and demonizing your opponent.

One could have a wide perspective and be from a small town but Palin's appeal is to those bitter people Stoller talks about who don't understand their problems are a consequence of modernity (including corporate outsourcing and streamlining) and therefore find a scapegoat in "liberal elites" who look funny and use them big words.

"Sidbeats 3" [4 MB .mp3]

Minimal techno piece (with 8-bit timbres); 3/4 time; 140 bpm.

Did this in '04. Still prefer this punk version to its net-worshipping predecessors and the current hippie version.

"Cosmic Anomic Dancehall" [3.7 MB .mp3]

This is a remix--the crazed, distorted lead instrument is a performance by Travis Hallenbeck (mp3 no. 2) from his tracks page. Apologies and thanks, Travis.