Lee Barry's Blog, page 31

Speaking In Tongues

Above: One of the many interesting Ghanaian Movie Posters"God help us--help us lose our minds--these slippery people..."--David Byrne (From the Talking Heads album Speaking In Tongues)The recent sermon by Paula White went viral and inspired many mashups--which is understandable given the prosody of her firebrand style, and consistent with Pentecostal sermons in general.Here's my remix of one

2006@14

2/3/2006Big irony of the time: Everyone has an iPod (the iPhone hadn't yet been released), but they seem to care less about music, or at least devalue its power and importance in everyday life. (One would think it would inspire more people to be musicians, but it hasn’t.) In the post-Napster world, a song became relegated to more of a “free download”.Popular word for 2006: “Snarky”2/20/2006More

We Did It Joe

 I have been very interested in the "music of language" ("speech melody") since hearing Steve Reich's Different Trains, which used audio of interviews given about the events pre and post World War II.When I first saw the clip of Kamala Harris' phone call to Joe Biden congratulating him on their win, I thought it had a musical quality, and here it is transcribed:It is almost perfectly in the key

Overtooling

Column test for Johson Wax Building--Frank Lloyd WrightHave the idea first, then do the engineering."Watch what's going on and capture the accident." --Josef AlbersIn order for something to be truly innovative, there has to be faith in the idea as truly novel. It can't sound like everything else or derive something new from something that already exists and produced so it sounds exactly like it.

2002@12

 10/26/2002Went to peace rally in Federal Plaza at noon. Took lots of pics. Could be historic.11/5/2002Mid-term elections. There was a Russian guy on the radio that said he would be watching the election results closely. He was rooting for the Dems. The perception in foreign countries is that a democratic government is more world-friendly. (Perhaps it’s an illusion)11/6/2002Republicans win in

Your Presidents

 Who would be your fifth face on Mount Rushmore, if it was even possible?Or, "I will turn your face to alabaster..."--StingPresidents form the highs and lows of your life as backstory; Your world is colored by the president that was in office when you first enter real adulthood, got your first good job, your own house or apartment, began raising a family, and voted in elections. But your

2008@12

 8/28/2008Obama is nominated at Dem convention and gives a historic speech in Denver. His “Big Night” 4 years in the making, and 45 years after King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I liked what congressman James Clyburn said about the impact of this moment--that 4-5 year-olds will see it as a paradigm shift, similar to the effect Kennedy had.9/18/2008Stock market tanks 500 points. Media fomenting the

2000@20

More entries re: presidential election seasons. In 2000 the internet was still a baby.4/18/2000Reading Data Smog by David Shank. It's not so much that there is a glut of information, it's how it's filtered and intelligently selected.4/20/2000Five-year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Grandiose memorial designed for the occasion. At one level this is impressive and well done, but so

2004@16

We tend to make commemorations based on decades; Don't forget the 16-year political cycles. (In 4 presidential cycles, someone is born and starts driving).2004 was the year that I started keeping blogs, including this one (The First Post). Obviously, they existed before then, but they became popular in the summer and fall of 2004. Most blogs were for political purposes.***Here are some excerpts

On Routine

I have long been a Porcupine Tree fan, but I recently discovered this Steven Wilson track titled Routine. (This band is always "discovered" because it has always been obscure for mysterious reasons).On its face, it is about a woman that is bereft, but the real underlying meaning is the malaise of ("Anesthetized") routines and constant busyness preventing the full experience of the quotidian, or