How do you listen to your music in your life? You get a recording of it and play it when you're ready. Right?
The latest volley in the debate that's raged ever since consumers got access to recording technology seeks to limit your ability to "time-shift" -- that is, play your music when you want to hear it. This time the question is whether it's okay to record satellite radio onto a special MP3 player that lets you listen to it later. Listening Post places this development in context, which might calm you or make you crazy, depending on your view of the unstable state of digital copyright.
While we wait for the litigants to duke it out, I just love the time-shifted music available by podcast at KCRW's Today's Top Tune.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Sweet Dreams for Teens - and the Rest of Us
The other morning, as I tried to defog after a night of too much work and too few dreams, I heard sleep doctor Helene Ensellem worrying on NPR that teenagers aren't getting enough sleep.
"Teenagers?!" I yelled at the cat, my adult responsibilities weighing heavy on my eyelids. Whatever.
I cheered up when I heard Dr. Ensellem give some classic braintuning advice: Set a nightly cut-off time for all electronic devices -- except the ones that play music. "I encourage teens to listen to music at night, and make a playlist that's soothing," Emsellem says. Well done. But the doctor need not limit her wise advice to any particular age range. In a sleep-deprived nation, we should all make relaxing music de rigeur at bedtime.
Some favorites from my sleep playlist:
- Mojave 3, Ask Me Tomorrow
- Sequentia singing Hildegard von Bingen
- Keola Beamer, Mauna Kea White Mountain Journal
- Tune Your Brain with Mozart: Relax
As for form, I part ways with Dr. Ensellem in preferring playback over speakers to a personal MP3 player. That way you can start the music while you get ready for bed, skip the logistics of earbuds, and drift off without worrying about rolling over on your iPod. Buona notte.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Dreamgirls' Dark Underbelly
It's good by me that Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson won Golden Globes for their roles in Dreamgirls. As a music fan and scholar, I'm less thrilled that the critics have gone gaga for the film itself, giving it the Globe for best musical-or-comedy and calling it silly things like "exhilarating entertainment that brings back some of the delicious excitement of the great movie musicals." I could fill this page with links to like hyperbole.
The plot of Dreamgirls is as disturbing as the slice of American music history it came from: While two talented African American musicians on their way up (Murphy and Hudson) get put down in the name of "crossover," the blandest, whitest pop music that could be crafted from the roots of R&B is elevated to exalted #1 status and an excruciating pitch in one "exhilarating" number after another. This includes the title song "Dreamgirls," a misogynist's fondest dream and all too emblematic of how women, especially black women, have been pressed into service by the music industry. After stopping to dabble in the conflicts and personal drama that crossing over engenders, the film ends in a farewell concert featuring an unsettling reprise of "Dreamgirls" that reminds any viewer with ears on that while the commercially successful can walk away, many more wanna-be dreamgirls and black musicians will submit to the machine.
Are the critics missing the message about the troubling twin commodification and erasure of racial identity that this movie represents, or do you have to be a mad ethnomusicologist to see it? Dreamgirls shows rhythm and blues as the dark underbelly of Motown, and its transformation to colorless crossover confection as "delicious excitement." Though R&B goes down fighting in the form of Hudson's and Murphy's characters, down it goes indeed.
It may be telling that Dreamgirls, which paints a thick beauty-school gloss over certain ugly realities of American culture, took the Globe over Little Miss Sunshine, which peels the gloss painfully, hilariously away. Sunshine makes a great antidote to Dreamgirls, as does an hour or so with Big Mama Thornton -- Hound Dog and all.
The plot of Dreamgirls is as disturbing as the slice of American music history it came from: While two talented African American musicians on their way up (Murphy and Hudson) get put down in the name of "crossover," the blandest, whitest pop music that could be crafted from the roots of R&B is elevated to exalted #1 status and an excruciating pitch in one "exhilarating" number after another. This includes the title song "Dreamgirls," a misogynist's fondest dream and all too emblematic of how women, especially black women, have been pressed into service by the music industry. After stopping to dabble in the conflicts and personal drama that crossing over engenders, the film ends in a farewell concert featuring an unsettling reprise of "Dreamgirls" that reminds any viewer with ears on that while the commercially successful can walk away, many more wanna-be dreamgirls and black musicians will submit to the machine.
Are the critics missing the message about the troubling twin commodification and erasure of racial identity that this movie represents, or do you have to be a mad ethnomusicologist to see it? Dreamgirls shows rhythm and blues as the dark underbelly of Motown, and its transformation to colorless crossover confection as "delicious excitement." Though R&B goes down fighting in the form of Hudson's and Murphy's characters, down it goes indeed.
It may be telling that Dreamgirls, which paints a thick beauty-school gloss over certain ugly realities of American culture, took the Globe over Little Miss Sunshine, which peels the gloss painfully, hilariously away. Sunshine makes a great antidote to Dreamgirls, as does an hour or so with Big Mama Thornton -- Hound Dog and all.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Cold Snap
It's cold in California. A billion dollars' worth of oranges are at risk and the homeless shelters are packed with people trying to make it through the night. Canadian birds caught in the Sunshine State on their way to Mexico huddle together in cross-breed group hugs.
I have it easy, with a home and heat. Yesterday I bundled up and hiked in the foothills above Palo Alto among patches of ice, making fast progress on the frozen ground hard underfoot instead of the usual winter mudbowl. Later though, chilled, I sat blank at my computer staring at the screen. No words, no will to move. What to do?
Young Punx to the rescue! I had just enough energy before I succumbed to the numbness to navigate to the web page where this mash-up crew is giving away their mp3s for free, and download Wake Up, Make Up, Bring It Up, Shake Up. I put it on and did all that. If we're lucky, that's how we weather the winter.
I have it easy, with a home and heat. Yesterday I bundled up and hiked in the foothills above Palo Alto among patches of ice, making fast progress on the frozen ground hard underfoot instead of the usual winter mudbowl. Later though, chilled, I sat blank at my computer staring at the screen. No words, no will to move. What to do?
Young Punx to the rescue! I had just enough energy before I succumbed to the numbness to navigate to the web page where this mash-up crew is giving away their mp3s for free, and download Wake Up, Make Up, Bring It Up, Shake Up. I put it on and did all that. If we're lucky, that's how we weather the winter.
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Staying in the Sweet Spot
Have you hit your sweet spot yet this year?
The sweet spot is a yummy brain state defined by the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which states that brain performance tracks an upside-down U with your arousal level. When you're lethargic, activity spreads lazily throughout your brain like hot fudge running down a scoop of ice cream. The result: random, low-level thoughts. Not so good if you're trying to analyze a problem or make a presentation. Under stress, on the other hand, thoughts flee the high-falutin' prefrontal area and cower in the lower, emotional mid-brain, which is fine for fast reaction but hard on your focus and memory. The so-called sweet spot is -- you guessed it -- at the tip of the U halfway between lethargy and stress. This is where you learn, think, remember, and create best.
Psychologist Daniel Goleman worries that the high-pressure testing regime required by the No Child Left Behind Act will hurt kids' learning ability by causing classroom anxiety that frazzles students straight out of the "sweet spot" in their brains.
It's not just kids under the constant threat of life-wrecking tests who need to stay in the sweet spot. Even we who have made it past K-12 get stuck on one low end of the U or the other. Time to make a U-turn: Let music push you up the hill to the sweet spot. When you're on the left/lethargic side of the U, play music that's Energizing, Uplifting, or Focus (IQ-boosting or beta-wave) to perk up your thought control circuits. If instead you feel frazzled and your brain is raging away on the right side of the U, choose Relaxing or Focus (alpha-wave) music to mellow you out. When you hit the sweet spot, continue with something in between.
Some current picks:
Tell your kids about the sweet spot. They might not know that studying to Eminem isn't always the thing.
The sweet spot is a yummy brain state defined by the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which states that brain performance tracks an upside-down U with your arousal level. When you're lethargic, activity spreads lazily throughout your brain like hot fudge running down a scoop of ice cream. The result: random, low-level thoughts. Not so good if you're trying to analyze a problem or make a presentation. Under stress, on the other hand, thoughts flee the high-falutin' prefrontal area and cower in the lower, emotional mid-brain, which is fine for fast reaction but hard on your focus and memory. The so-called sweet spot is -- you guessed it -- at the tip of the U halfway between lethargy and stress. This is where you learn, think, remember, and create best.
Psychologist Daniel Goleman worries that the high-pressure testing regime required by the No Child Left Behind Act will hurt kids' learning ability by causing classroom anxiety that frazzles students straight out of the "sweet spot" in their brains.
It's not just kids under the constant threat of life-wrecking tests who need to stay in the sweet spot. Even we who have made it past K-12 get stuck on one low end of the U or the other. Time to make a U-turn: Let music push you up the hill to the sweet spot. When you're on the left/lethargic side of the U, play music that's Energizing, Uplifting, or Focus (IQ-boosting or beta-wave) to perk up your thought control circuits. If instead you feel frazzled and your brain is raging away on the right side of the U, choose Relaxing or Focus (alpha-wave) music to mellow you out. When you hit the sweet spot, continue with something in between.
Some current picks:
- For moving from left to right, take a quick hit with the late great James Brown and I Feel Good, or settle in for the long haul with, perhaps, some trumpet concertos.
- For moving from right to left, The Charlie Haden Quartet West.
- For staying in the sweet spot, my perennial favorite -- Tune Your Brain with Mozart: Focus, on random play.
Tell your kids about the sweet spot. They might not know that studying to Eminem isn't always the thing.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Give Peace a Chance
On New Year's Eve, just after midnight in the first tender minutes of 2007, my beloved and I searched the Rhapsody music service for John Lennon's chestnut Give Peace a Chance. We needed the song to muster the strength to face the new year.
We didn't find John's record -- his estate is apparently in denial about digital streaming -- but we found enough covers to get us through the night. My favorites by far were the reggae version by The Maytals on From the Roots, and a holy roller rendition by Joe Cocker on Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Check them out when you need an Uplifting hit in times like these.
You can also find Lennon's music working for human rights with Amnesty International's Make Some Noise project (2005), featuring covers of Lennon songs by artists from The Black Eyed Peas to Snow Patrol. Rumor has it that Yoko Ono donated the entire Lennon songbook to Amnesty for this purpose. Now if only we could hear it online though our fully paid, fully legal subscription service.
We didn't find John's record -- his estate is apparently in denial about digital streaming -- but we found enough covers to get us through the night. My favorites by far were the reggae version by The Maytals on From the Roots, and a holy roller rendition by Joe Cocker on Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Check them out when you need an Uplifting hit in times like these.
You can also find Lennon's music working for human rights with Amnesty International's Make Some Noise project (2005), featuring covers of Lennon songs by artists from The Black Eyed Peas to Snow Patrol. Rumor has it that Yoko Ono donated the entire Lennon songbook to Amnesty for this purpose. Now if only we could hear it online though our fully paid, fully legal subscription service.
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