https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NzKs9nnFpk

Today was a heavy day. It's been a heavy week. On Monday, Minneapolis, my hometown, experienced another Black man's death by the hands of (or should I say knee of) the police. George Floyd. Rest In Peace. Ever since Tuesday, the community has come together in strength, sadness, anger, and love to protest. These protests have erupted, and have called for nationwide attention. I want so badly to be there in Minneapolis right now. My neighborhood is burning, the people are hurting.

Kev told me to sign up for this streak club nearly a week ago, and unfortunately, it's taken me until now to do so. I said I'd sign up the next day. I was getting ready to say, "alright, tomorrow will be my day," when on my drive home tonight from picking up my HopDoddy to-go order this song came on the radio. It immediately made me feel like smiling and grooving. So I did. And it felt so good! The song was playing on KAZI 88.7FM The Voice and Soul of Austin -- Austin's Black community radio station. It felt right. It felt hopeful. It was calming, soft, and beautiful.

Justice will come. Change will come.

#BLM #MPLS #FemaleVocals #ImASuckerForFemaleVocals

P.S.: I feel like I'm in, like, a confession box at a church rn because I also want to say that I am watching Selling Sunset on Netflix to decompress. It's my current guilty pleasure, but it just totally awful and feels so wrong right now. Basically a bunch of rich white women selling mansions in the Hills and getting catty w/ each other.

8/10 (as far as soundtracks go)

I can't remember the last TV show where I actually looked forward to the musical numbers --- the "Even Stevens" musical special? --- but Steven Universe does it so right.

1. Gives inner life -- The songs rarely feel gimmicky, and are (properly) used as vehicles to explore the inner lives of the characters and their relationships. The Office has the mocumentary interviews to let the characters to give their take on what is happening; Steven Universe has its songs. Granted, any musical is going to explore emotion through songs, but I -- feel like these characters actually have emotions worth exploring, and the songs deliver on the complexity granted them.

2. They advance the action / are integrated in the show -- I tried watching 'Bighead' with a friend. I did not like the show in general, but the musical parts in particular were so annoying that we would just fast forward past them. I could not imagine doing the same thing with Steven Universe! Some of the shows biggest revelations are delivered in song.

3. They sort of make sense in the context of the show / the characters? -- The ability for anyone to make music is established in the show. Steven and Connie jam, Steven always asks his dad to bring out his guitar when he tells a story, Paradot's humanization is delivered through Steven teaching her do-re-mi, a la Sound of Music. So, when these characters break out into song it actually, sort of, makes sense. I think of Infinite Jest, where people who first look at the book will think that the diction is pretentious and showboaty. But, in the context of that fictional universe, with the militant grammariansof massachusets and Hal's schooling / family, the diction was actually fitting and world-building. Music in SU functions the same, and each character even has their own sort of musical style. Pearl is very broadway, because she IS such a broadway type of character. Steven's dad is pretty cheesy classic / butt rock, because, well, he's a dad that used to be in a band. Steven is ukelele. twee, because he is twee. It isn't like these characters are out of nowhere breaking out into a song that they would have no ability to play or sing -- they are still their character.

4. There is no irony! It's sincere! -- musicals are the height of cheese, there is no getting around that. So, TV shows that have musical numbers will typically use musical numbers as a comedy vehicle -- all this glitz, all this cheese of this other medium, isn't it silly now that we're wearing top hats and carrying canes that we're spinning, in a line dance? What I have found so refreshing, through all of Steven Universe, is that the show isn't afraid of being sincere. The songs are no different -- they take themselves, and the viewers, seriously. There is no In joke in the songs. The songs are part of the show. It lets the viewers actually become emotionally connected with the songs, instead of depending on the stupidity of that connection as the butt of a joke.

5. The songs are good!

I tried to pick a top 5 or rank them, but I think that is not fair. Ones that, re-listening to tonight, I was particularly excited to listen to:
Strong in the real way
What's the use of feeling blue?
It's over isn't it
Haven't you noticed (i'm a star)
Do it for her
Let me ska my way into your heart
Stronger than you
Peace and love on the planet earth

The versoin of 'we are the crystal gems' that is on the soundtrack is really good -- has solos for each gem, i think it is the full intro version? I wish that they had included in the show, it has a very --- the gang is all hear heading into a final RPG battle -- type vibe.

.... I could keep listing, that list is long. There are a lot of winners. I could do without most of Greg's songs, except 'what can i do for you'. And some of steven's are meh, but he has so many,, so that's expected.

This show was a treat.

6/10

https://soundcloud.com/honeysoundsystem/hnypot-366-physical-therapys-car-culture-remissions

Of his Car Culture persona, Physical Therapy says:

"Car Culture is, like, ambient—in quotes. It’s chillout, Balearic, not reliant on drums. It’s not drum-driven"

(saw this in article posted to HNY Soundsystem Twitter in response to the mix posted -
https://twitter.com/NicholasBoyd/status/1258067953251160065 -
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0hgak1bt5asnhhd/MXU-Z52%20Love%20Injection%20Nov19.pdf?dl=0 - )

[So I Google 'Balearic']

Balearic beat records vary between house or Italo house and deep house influenced sounds and a slower R&B-influenced (under 119bpm) beat consisting of bass drum, snare, and hi-hats (often produced with a Roland TR-909 drum machine) programmed in certain laid-back, swing-beat patterns; plus soul, Latin, African, funk, and dub affectations; and production techniques borrowed from other styles of dance music that were popular at the time. Vocals were sometimes present, but much of the music was instrumental. The sounds of acoustic instruments such as guitar and piano were sometimes incorporated into Balearic beat. Having been primarily associated with a particular percussion pattern that eventually fell out of vogue, the style eventually faded from prominence, and its repertoire was subsumed by the more general "chill out" and "downtempo" genres.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balearic_beat

[Wiki reference list has article by Bill Brewster:
https://web.archive.org/web/20111205211104/http://djhistory.com/features/in-search-of-balearic ]

"These days you can’t move for clubs advertising themselves as Balearic. It’s almost as ubiquitous as minimal house. So what does it mean now? Is it a genre of music and does it have anything to do with Alfredo?....In the 1980s, before the arrival of house music, almost all club DJs played an eclectic range of music that might incorporate disco, funk, soul, rare groove, go-go, electro, hip hop and even the occasional comedy record (and some would argue that comedy records are the epitome of Balearic). Nobody billed these DJs as Balearic; a) because the term did not yet exist and; b) because everybody played in this style.,,,What house created was both a template – a hegemony – but also because of its all-consuming power, it created a small but vocal opposition. The reason many DJs used [Baleriac] as a shorthand term to describe their style was a simple way of differentiating them from everyone else. It was a way of saying, ‘We don’t only play house’"

"The ‘theory’ behind Balearic is that any record could be made to work on a dancefloor provided it had the right feel...So the new Balearic – or The New Balearic, should I say – is both a myth and a reality. It’s a myth in as much as there is no specific genre of Balearic as there is for, say, house or happy hardcore or even hardbag. But it’s also a reality, an alternative reality, admittedly, in which records from any genre can be Balearic if someone has the chutzpah – or the stupidity – to claim so."

OR

"...that time and place has long passed and for most of them the style they championed was not necessarily an ethos or lifestyle, but simple expediency. 'We have to play Talk Talk, we have to play Belgian beat, we have to play rock, we have to play reggae, because we have to fill the space of so many hours.'

“My personal view on Balearic is that it was a moment in time namely a few Ibizan clubs from 1986-88 and Alfredo’s personal taste. In 1988 all the records spun at Future and Shoom were direct steals from his sets. It was when the UK DJs tried playing their own pop records on drugs that it went wrong (I stand at the front of the guilty queue myself) although it was fun at the time.”
~~

Getting back to physical therapy, the Balearic ethos that "any record could be made to work on a dancefloor provided it had the right feel" is what draws me so much to him, how he can meld it all together w/ technical chops, but has that chutzpah, to the point of having personas. this was my first Car Culture persona listen. It was a fine .... playlist. The soundclips were cute -- the soundclip of the boy ranting about Madonna got a chuckle -- has it always been so Vogue to trash madonna? Would that clip be in there if not for 'madonna free zone'? Is the juvenile trashing the joke? Hm! ---- The part with Happiness Runs did feel good but it did not feel earned. The whole mix felt good, because it was made of good parts. But, it seems like what the idea of Balearic gets at is that it takes any anything goes approach (no need for 4 on the floor or w/e, or limiting to a genre) but makes it seem natural or greater than the sum of parts., without relying on beat / drums to underly. (???) well, that's going to be the definition that I stick with, because it seems like the word means what you want it to mean.

Anyway, I learned a new word today, and listened to a relaxing but kinda forgettable mix.

6/10

this sounds like a very, very hard song to play. the sheet music is scary - but following along makes the music sound better, because there is so much happening, and it demystifies the technical complexity / mastery a bit. this is a youtube with the sheet music in it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d47dqPYMbGI

i don't really like this piece. I can appreciate the technical skill, but it is too modern for me - I feel like it keeps motioning toward grandeur but makes these turns away, that is hard to have anything that is happening (and there is a lot of it) sink in. i think the complexity of the work is such that it would benefit from multiple listens -- it has been a few tonight and nothing is really sticking. i read the wikipedia page for Scarbo and there's a quote from Ravel saying "I wanted to make a caricature of romanticism. Perhaps it got the better of me." --and, thinking of this as a caricature or romanticism, maybe the fact that nothing sticks, that there is no grand theme / scheme (and instead flares of grandeur strung together in a sort of jarring way) is part of the appeal. Scarbo take the freedom of emotional experimentation / reflection of Grand Linearly-Swelling Human Emotion from romanticism to extents that don't feel human, and don't feel like they are rooted in any personal emotional expression. It's a grasping at grandeur that feels almost jarring, and a lot of work to keep up, but (oh, get ready, this is deep) maybe this is a much better portrait of the Human Experience, and why the piece isn't very accessible. There is not a clear central theme to which the piece can return -- an attempt at romanticism to portray multiple climaxes, fits of grandeur and tumult, and highlight the meandering path to try to string flares together. Maybe that is reading too much into it, but it at least gives an opening to appreciate the piece on another level, even if i don't know nearly enough about music history to be able to fully appreciate what being a 'caricature of romanticism' means

Anyway, this is based on a contemporary poem (which is nice to think about, that interplay between popular contemporary media. think of an artist now being like - this is a piece based on the Carmella Soprano). poem here (originally French):

Oh! how often have I heard and seen him, Scarbo, when at midnight the moon glitters in the sky like a silver shield on an azure banner strewn with golden bees.

How often have I heard his laughter buzz in the shadow of my alcove, and his fingernail grate on the silk of the curtains of my bed!

How often have I seen him alight on the floor, pirouette on a foot and roll through the room like the spindle fallen from the wand of a sorceress!

Do I think him vanished then? the dwarf grows between the moon and me like the belfry of a gothic cathedral, a golden bell shakes on his pointed cap!

But soon his body becomes blue, translucent like the wax of a candle, his face pales like the wax of a candle end – and suddenly he is extinguished.

Oh! how often have I heard and seen him, Scarbo, when at midnight the moon glitters in the sky like a silver shield on an azure banner strewn with golden bees.

How often have I heard his laughter buzz in the shadow of my alcove, and his fingernail grate on the silk of the curtains of my bed!

How often have I seen him alight on the floor, pirouette on a foot and roll through the room like the spindle fallen from the wand of a sorceress!

Do I think him vanished then? the dwarf grows between the moon and me like the belfry of a gothic cathedral, a golden bell shakes on his pointed cap!

But soon his body becomes blue, translucent like the wax of a candle, his face pales like the wax of a candle end – and suddenly he is extinguished.

5/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOex0rqgkBU

Coworker posted in work chat music channel "happy weeb friday everyone i am back with ya boy takayan aka some very nice indie jtrap "

I think it's a fun song, and I've listened to it enough times tonight that it's stuck in my head, which is a pretty good indication that it's doing its function. Not my jam, but definitely a jam.

As far as the lyrics, they are pretty ////edgy////. Ex:
"Take care of other’s happiness
True self? Ohh... Where is it??
Sick of those abusive comments
It’s fine, soon or later, you’ll find your place to be"

I -- think that the audience for this is not me? Although, I have also watched Spinel's 'Drift Away' video on YY more times than I can count, and it hits the same sort of -- baseline tragedy of unacceptance and putting more than you get in. I think Spinel is the worst character in S.U., but I can understand why young kids would identify so much more with her than, say, Pearl (who has the more ///adult// problem of inheriting responsibility after a loved one is lost with 'It's Over, Isn't It?'

Spinel has been on my mind a lot (bc she is all over the S.U. subreddit) and the first thought I had when reading these lyrics on the YouTube subtitle ticker were "these lyrics appeal to what makes young people identify with spinel." BUT I'm missing a piece there, which is (concept that coworker explained) of Menhara:

"yeaaa takayan is an edgy lad. he indulges in menhera culture/aesthetic which is kind of like trying to make cute aspects of working through mental health as part of like normalizing/reclaiming it as part of your art. its a whole movement in japan similar to deco-kei, visual-kei, but somewhat newer as young people are attempting to embrace mental health in their own ways in a culture that historically doesnt believe in mental wellness/mental health until recently !"

Deeper definition:
Menhera (メンヘラ)* is a japanese slang term derived from “Mental Healther*”. It became the spark of a sickly cute aesthetic that takes the abiguous usage of the word “sick”, like as an insult for something nonconformist, literally as reflection of the social stigma which still hides behind the surface of “Kawaii Culture”. ( https://fymenhera.tumblr.com/info )

"It’s not the illness that is made cute - it’s showing that cute people aren’t immune to suffering as illness can hit everyone and that denying someone’s suffering, only because they don’t “look” like it, is dangerous and harmful."

His Instagram definitely confirms this edginess. First reaction to screenshotted IG post ( https://www.instagram.com/p/CFE3RrgjCTp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link ) was ' this guy making cutting a cute thing huh?" -- but found the song and its lyrics from that post, and it's also very self lovey.

Anyway, I've listened to this song so many times today.

6/10??????
if i didn't know who this song / remix were by i would probably have passed pretty quickly, but because i am a branding simp (did i use that right??) i listened and enjoyed, but i think that giving more than 6 would be to go against that initial impulse, and that feels impure, but it all feels impure. read on for variations on that nonsense theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS7GstfXPwg

IDK

I kept seeing this photo of Four Tet n Caribou on my news feed. We get it, yes, we are collectively bought in and far far farbeitfromme to say otherwise: yes four tet is an Authentic Genre Expanding/Defining/Transcending Musician / Genius. Fine, yes, we know -- but MAN this picture really does hit you over the head with it -- when is this from? Poor Caribou, manspreading with glee as he looks so so longlingly and simp-like (did i use THAT right?) at kieran's computer, while kieran just looks...simultaneously inconvenienced and indifferent to the beholder, his eyes deadpan, with just a smidgiest of smidges of a smirky smile gathering in the corner of his mouth. This is a completely normal photo, and they do truly seem to be adorable, cute friends. But it still feels so much like branding. Four Tet is commanding, Four Tet arresting. THat, and this is from the Four Tet's' early days (cannot be Truer Self than in Early Days). This is a person with supreme integrity, and this image will be on this news article to remind you of this. <<< side note, I looked up the photographer listed on that P4K article, to see if maybe his agent had dug up an old photo to provide feed the image of Authentic Genius, and it came back as someone who does "Artist Management" for Maverick Management -- but then I also see that Kieran's last name is Hebden, so maybe they are related, and this actually is a Real Photo, and not one that was dug up by an agent to send to a P4K article.>>>Anyway, this photo says: It's Caribou's song but Kieran's remix is what makes it genius, because he's the genius here. (((all indications say that this is true re: kieran ---- I just want to harp on what is essentially a brand image of (earned) genius and (earned) authenticity that makes me, causal listener, casual fan, consume anything put out or touched by four tet with a different lens. I like caribou as well, don't get me wrong -- but I would not take the same lens to his music. If Four Tet makes something mediocre (I haven't fully listened to 16 oceans but what i have so far, i can't really get into it), it is me missing his artistic vision, or just being out of line with what he is putting out. If caribou puts out "Never Come Back," which is -- really, really, mediocre, at first listen, I can pretty easily dismiss it without a second listen. It just feels extremely done to a formula. It didn't create any sort of landscape for me that has happened with some previous caribou songs (the forward motion momentum of bees, the underwater whippet of can't do without, etc) -- and I feel fine saying "no this is not for me" or just bucket it into the dismissive Coachellacore heap of mundane e d m (pop? i don't even know where the lines blur, with pop essentially being... this). But if Four Tet had put out that same song (even without any remix) I would give it more listens, more chances, and feel like there is something that I am missing if I wanted to dismiss the song. Because Four Tet is a genius. It doesn't make the song any better, really, but Four tet just really highlights, for me, how much the persona and reputation of the artist (+the location of the artist in the cultural milieu) impacts the experience and enjoyment of their music. This is nothing profound or new to point out. But it doesn't feel good. I would like to get better at approaching music for what it is -- but there is just so much known and unknown baggage in building preference that this seems impossible. It's such a game of branding -- as with all good branding, it drives preference and identity / tying the (cultural) product to identity. And it's so strong in four tet, in this goddam photo, that when i think of what kind of person exists today who could be this sort of thing, this Impure approach to music, the second person who comes to mind is Kieran.

Anyway, the remix is fine -- it's strange to listen to in isolation, because the long break with the modulation is clearly a club mix to allow some more experimentation in the context of a dance floor, and belongs in a set, and this is just a youtube video in a world without clubs. It works better in four tet's boiler room set - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXQi77eOdEY (33:00ish) ------- The :and ya never come back: still feels tacky, but the mixing gives it more of a physicality and depth that does an OK job pulling the vocal overlay into more of an emotional depth with it. But who even knows!

10/10

All of my stuff from SF arrived today. Abel is moved out of the tiny room which is, as of a few hours ago, my Office. I have a dinky monitor set up, but a monitor nonetheless. I have a shabby desk that we found 3 years ago on the side of the street, but it's a big solid surface and Meyers Clean Day (tm) makes good as new.. And then I have my fancy pants chair and keyboard from work mmmmhmmm. I don't have that little cushion pad for the keyboard, but I need it, because my wrists do not rest well without it. Also I think the floor is slanted because my chair sort of rolls. But this is all such an upgrade. Even at Albion, I was at that desk that I made too tall and then too small on that little lad wooden chair. I have been working at a macbook without any keyboard or mouse for 6 months and one week. I am very excited to have my battle station back.

Also excited to keep the clutter of coffee mugs and spoon-streaked yogurt bowls somewhere that's not my bedroom. work / life, baby

As an aside, and also frustrating because I can't buy new light bulbs for this very harsh light, is that both my debit card and my credit card are cancelled. I have my CC with me, but there were charges to gas stations and a Best Buy and Boost Mobiles in SF. I tried to get a bagel this morning from Rockstar and they only accept cards bc of COVID so I got another migas taco.

My mom today told me that I should probably get a physical because I'm getting old (but also still would probably not think to get a physical if my mom had not recommended it, which -- uh --- whoops), and I think it is good timing, because those papa joe's migas tacos are definitely some heart attack tacos.

CLAKCKCLACKLACKALCKALCKALACK
AND the 'office' is on the other end of the house from the bedrooms so I can clack away AND be courteous about it AND I can have Private Phone Calls too.

6/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgoRphXPa7A

I'm getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow, so I looked on Spotify for 'wisdom teeth' and this song came up. Julie Byrne is not related to David Byrne. I don't listen to very much indie folk lately at all, but this type of thing has a small place in my heart, carved by those late night high school drives with colby when some Indie Folk was on every mix CD, to getting very into Quilt in college -- but this is so much more pared down than all that, and it's nicer because of it. it's so meditative in its simplicity -- strumming, reverb, smokey speaking-volume crooning. guitars do in fact rock.

i'm going to keep tabs on this person / see what else she has. this is good music for summer evenings chopping vegetables when you're not the only one in the kitchen but you also don't want to talk very much but still want social communion with the rest of the people in the room

6.5/10

I planned to review grae by Moses Sumney tonight -- but after listening to part 1 of that album, I think it need more time than I can give it tonight to give a proper review up (and so far it's deserving of a proper review).

So, instead, I went to the trusty youtube-generated playlist based on Andrew Weatherall's mix of MBV's 'Soon' ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOBn50HHbRs ) -- and scrolled down to find song that said ft. kate bush, and it had to be the choice for the night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixMWhpg0iXU

this song is pretty wacky. it starts out with a front 242-sounding repetition (or -- wait, no, Skate! Or Die! repetition) of 'UTAH SAINTS! U - U - UTAH SAINTS!' - and some guitar that could be featured in the mortal soundtrack theme, and turns toward the feminine with a vocal sample from Kate Bush's 'Cloudbusting' and a flambouyant house bassline, with some arpeggios thrown in -- and then back to the UTAH SAINTS!

The flourishes that build the hodgepodge all feel pretty 90s, but the piano bassline is squarely house, and I could see this working as a bit of a cheeky curveball in a set, because it balances those elements enough to pass, but not enough to get by without a wry grin. And a lot of people, now, would gush to hear kate bush on the dancefloor i think.

On the darkside, however, I did come across a very terrible video for the 2008 re-release / re-master of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m97WlpsuU74&t
Very 2000s fist pumping remaster. That said, any time I see aged nostalgia bait like this 2008 music video & re-release--- its just gets me in a cringe spot. There is a lot more to write about that. The overlapping windows of what period gets to "come back" for a nostalgic nod like this, and what happens when the window during which that "come back" is happening goes on too long, or come up multiple times. It's like -- I am watching a video that is 12 years old, that is celebrating another 15 years prior. But I am not celebrating what is 12 years old; I am still celebrating what is in total 27 years old. And, that can be uncomfortable, because it implies some sort of arrested cultural development. And, it is strange to see how even the approach to nostalgia feels very 2000s vs 2020s - example, the fake interview, and 'MC Hammer" coming in to make this guy sign away the rights to The Running Man dance is p cringe, because it feels dated, but not in the way that the video is trying to get at; it's dated based on its actual time period. And that weirds me out! This is very much like the Drab Majesty cover of No Rain, except Drab Majesty song came out now. If I were listening to it in 15 years, and the 80s nostalgia boner is still happening, then that is where this discomfort might come into play.

[[[Then again - the same optimism i have listening to the track is for the excitement i had hearing Mouthfeel play the andrew weatherall cover of MBV out (the same month of weatherall's death); or hearing "Owner of a Lonely Heart" close out Excursions Detroit in ...2018? It feels nice to have something that is so familiar in a new context.

Maybe it's the case that - It is exciting when a track or a a set can successfully integrate a nod tom a disparate but also loved genres / artist. But, when the integration goes into something that actually feels more dated than what is sampled, it feels slimey. Kate Bush holds up much better than the style of music that she was brought into for this 2008 re-release, just like the 1993 version of this song will definitely hold up better than this 2008 re-release Further, thinkig of the origial combination:.utah saints and kate bush were.roughly of the same time, they are speaking the same language, so this isn't driven by the desire to repackage the past, really. It's more adjacent. [EDIT: It looks like the video was from 2008, but was just posted on YouTube in April 2020? Many comments about how they had been looking for this video. So, then I would post: is the fact that the video for the 93 version was in my andrew weatherall / MBV algo playlist due to the fact that this 2008's video 2020 release led to a resurgence in popularity for the 93 video? Which way is up??]

I am not at all accurately or clearly representing what bothers me about .. dated nods to timeless eras or artists.

6.5/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6XfRWVZvms

Flipped through "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" by Bill Brewster, and see that there is a chapter devoted to Balearic. Some of it was the same as it was in the article that I read for the Physical Therapy post, but it expands in a bit, and brings other genres under the umbrella.

Another quote that I like, that I think captures a certain feeling:
"Played badly, Balearic can sound like a kitsch wedding DJ; done well, it can make you listen to songs with fresh ears. 'Afredo [recall, Ibiza, posterguy for Balearic attitude] used to play a couple of U2 tunes...and to hear those when it's seven o'clock in the morning, the sun's coming up and you're in an open-air club absolutely off your tits - whoah! - they just sound so fabulous. I'm sure people could stick 'em on now and say "well it's just a U2 record," but I can listen to them and still get a shiver" --- similar feeling to owner of a lonely heart. I think that moment in Detroit solidied that song, and that approach, in a way that I would like to build on. the trouble is that, unless balanced with a solid groove from which to break into something like that at 7AM, you need some solid technical chops, or else you would come off like a wedding DJ.

Going back to the song that was chosen - Belgium New Beat is one of the genres that is also under the Balearic umbrella. "New beat is a reaction to disco, New beat is completely soulless -- it's sterile music created to dance to and nothing else...a music burglary that left only rhythm and a cast, churning dance throb." It sort of feels strange to lump in with Balearic, which seems airy and free and light in its anything goes approach, but I read this as Balearic in a different direction -- "with suhc a balletic, decerated dancefloors, DJs would often pitch records right down, lending a druggy weightless feel to the music." Going back to an early definition that Brewster gives of Balearic: "Balearic is an attitude to music more than a specific style or location. Or, as dance music writer Frank Tope quipped: It's pop music that sounds good on pills."

And going back to Balearic, the idea is that you take anything to make the mood, without getting too bogged down in if the genre labels fit together. In the case of this song, Brewster writes:
The record is a steely piece of machine aggression and ominous minor-key synths that clocks in at 135bpm. However, press 33 instead of 45 (with the pitch control at +8) and it turns into a 105bpm heroin groove, with the four-on-the-floor kick drums hitting every second swinging beat. There are drawn out rhythms and crashing subsonic explosions where before there was only speed." As this 'trick's popularity spread, "DJs plundered their collections with a finger on the speed button, finding all sorts of weird surprises" Also funny: "But new beat ensures house received a arm welcome in Belgium (most Belgian clubbers thought house was just fast new beat). More importantly, it laid the groundwork for the looming hardcore techno revolution. Even as it championed new beat, Boccaccio was becoming the foundry room from which European techno would be hammered out).

That was a lot of re-typing. I am glad to have a name to give to this type of music -- I would previously just refer to this as something sounding like Front 242 (which I think I even mentioned in last night's post) -- or maybe group the slow BPM and throbbing mechanical base under gothic or industrial -- but the idea that you are taking music that has so many layers and slowing it down to see what lies between is something, or letting each mono-note of the sequencer be felt more in isolation is really what makes this so interesting. I'm surprised that Bill Brewster didn't talk about how the very fact that technological developments in electronic music -- that there could be so many fast notes that could be slowed and observed in isolation -- made it so that changing to 33 RPM would actually become something new. If these weren't made from a sequencer, then there would be a pitch change within each of the notes, and this would sound like just a slowed down song, because each note would clearly lead to another. It is so 1 and 0 / stripped down.

Songs which I have heard before, so I can't choose for a post, but which I am glad to reframe under this sort of umbrella:

Front 242 - Don't Crash is very high up there for me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bB8aGUB6LQ (oddly, I heard that 'hey poor' song in a bougie grocery store, gus', which was strange?)

Severed Heads- Lamborghini- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaOAEstv0R4 -- I don't know that this would fit in with Belgium New Beat, but I got a collection of versions of this single at RS94109, and I always thought playing the record at 33 instead of 45 sounded better. Revisited the record tonight, with balearic approach in mind.

Enola Gay is another one that I like to play slow, and I think I actually tried out in the only Dj performance I did last year for Evan's birthday! --- Brewster writes "...while slowing others, like OMD's 'EMOLA Gay' down to 33, turning electronic pop into heavy-legged drug funk.'

As mentioned in the YouTube comment, this approach to slowing down I think now is something we see a lot with vapor wave, to give these funky crooning pop songs a sinister ghost-like reframing. I think that the impact of doing the slowing down for New Beat is different - stripping down to core elements to make simple and emphasize a "new beat' beneath the existing beat, which is meant to be danced to. Vapor is more slow to the point of unease and haunting, a glitching sludge. I dont think you could call the sequencer-driven songs sludge. Again, too 1 and 0.

ALSO: now, I am not sure where, if at all, there is a line between Electronic Body Music (EBM) and New Beat would be. Seems like these youtube comments have an idea. I think I would use interchangeably. Nice to have something besides 'goth' and 'industrial' -- which both carry so many different meanings.

6/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tanoNZsIh40

Hey
MmHm
Yyyyeeeaahhh!
Yyyyeeeaahhh!
Peter pan and his band
Oh man!
Peter pan and his band

The Italo-disco phenomenon is so goofy. I remember the first time hearing italo-disco, at faust-house, and sweaty hairy shirtless nick running around back and forth in that basement. I think that was the first time i saw what exuberance / flambouyance / excitement you could get with dance music. And, still, there are regular italo nights that happe, back in austin (gino scaramuzza, how i miss him), and in SF ( i think one of the first nights i went to see Primo was because it was advertised as an italo night). It's just a reliable mood that you can get if you wanna flap around a little bit.

As far as italo-house goes, it isn't a term that you hear as much used to showcase a night, and i'm unclear if it carries the same cheesy / ripoff / B-movie connotation that italo disco has. Examples of two track that both seem to be referred to as 'italian/italo house):

49ers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tanoNZsIh40 (Comment: Original 1989 video. DVD RIP. Italo House)
and
Sueno Latino: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXhqDeTSEl4 (Comment: "A masterpiece of italian house)

These songs are very different. Sueno Latino is much more cosmic. Then again, sueno is described as 'italian,' so maybe the italo/ian is the differentiator here, and the 49rs track definitely serves the cheese.

In any case, the 49ers track, subject of this, is pretty funny -- music video as well. The sampled screaming sounds a lot like the singer from 'ride on time' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0quXl_od3g -- and, turns out that they were both done by Gianbranco Bortolotti's production house, Media --- so maybe it is the same sample? The lip syncing in the video is so much. It looks like a tim and eric skit. Turns out that the woman singing it in the video, Dawn Mitchell, was the front woman, and her vocals got mixed and dubbed over by an aretha franklin sample (or possible a sample from another song called touch me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7qQR1xqDJQ )-- the youtube comments rabbit hole could go deep.

Dawn Mitchell has a Facebook page here, and it sounds like she is still singing some really good jazz - https://www.facebook.com/DawnMitchellTheArtist/ - she posted an album called The Nineties, and a photo of her tagged in Austin -- in the 90s? I wonder where they played.

8/10 (for the song)
6/10 (for the birds)

Last night I listened to Sueno Latino, as an example of 'italian house' which is not 'italo house' (as a point of comparison for 'touch me' that had more an afro-cosmic root, which songs like touch me overshadowed in defining house-from-italy (??), so says bill brewster). The first thing that came to mind was those birds from the start of the song: -- where have i heard those birds before?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXhqDeTSEl4

I knew they were from somewhere, but last night I thought they might be the same birds from something in franklie goes to hollywood. Tonight i revisited that thought, and they do not sound like the birds in 'welcome to the pleasuredome' which must have been what I was thinking :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVDC6kPCkWA

Earlier today, I thought maybe i was just confusing it with bird songs in rich king's honcho set (which starts out with a lot of bird songs) and -- late at night i was just had mistakenly assume it was, in particular, sampled somewhere: https://soundcloud.com/honchopgh/honcho-campout-series-rich-king?in=honchopgh/sets/honcho-summer-campout-series-1

But I listened to Sueno Latino again tonight, and realized it's the same birds from 808 State's Pacific State. Neat. I thought maybe I had uncovered some nice little trivia here, but -- then i just googled 'the birds in sueno latino and 808 state' and this is nothing new. Which, fair, if you listen to those songs, it's p obvious. P4K tells me that this is a "Sample That Keeps Coming Back" that it was also in Anaconda (which, also, has a 'Dayum' sample that I know is from somewhere, and it is too satisfying to uncover these to google this trivia -- too many rabbit holes)

Article that is the first google result:
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/474-anaconda-pacific-state-sueno-latino-and-the-story-of-a-sample-that-keeps-coming-back/
Article references a thread about the loon on DJ history, but it is no longer up. Wayback machine returned this, where someone asks the same question (what is that sample in 808 state and sueno latino):
https://web.archive.org/web/20170123170924/http://www.djhistory.com/forum/looking-for-tunes-that-use-the-loon-bird-sound

(aside: that thread was posted by someone who has a blog (in their signature) about documenting the weeds / flora in London, which is still up and still seems kindof active:
http://wildcornerz.blogspot.com/ - which is neat)

(other aside - DJhistory.com seems to be no longer up at all. I'm pretty sure that bill brewster managed that. (yup, confirmed, it is too EZ on the internet to be sure of everything: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJhistory.com -- no reference to it being down though)

7/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQv3dCkY2Tk

It's DEMF weekend during COVID. Detroit techno for the weekend.

I haven't listened to much associated with UR (at least not intentionally alone at my computer). They came up a good amount (for good reason) in Dan Sicko's techno rebels, with an emphasis on their rad / militant politcis -- but when I tried listening to tracks that sicko talked about, I remember them being a little Hard-techno for me. I feel silly now, because I am really enjoying Jupiter Jazz tonight, and other songs I've clicked around tonight have been perfect for 2:30AM alone on a laptop as well. Fitting that "Jupiter Jazz' is also the name of an episode of cowboy bebop (i think with the ... trans? piano player? could be wrong) and this track gives the same feeling of celestial beauty twinged by existential regret (??) as that show gives. Also, no, that is not the right term. How about:
Umwelt Weltraumstaub
(or would it be Weltraumstaub Umwelt?)
(maybe neither, google translate gave me space dust, and it translates to space dust environment?)
"The experience of being space dust" -- the feeling of never being to explore the cosmos actually / feeling of missing out on the future, but all twinged by a sort of future / cosmopolitan chic sadness? There must be a better name for this feeling, it is a "universal" feeling, after all ; )

Anyway - this live footage is more what I had associated UR with -- more hard techno:
https://mixmag.net/read/this-vintage-footage-of-underground-resistance-will-make-your-day-news

Anyway #2: Nice quote from Bill Brewster (who is quoting "Matthew Collin in 1991):
"If Belgian techno gives us the riffs, German techno the noice, British techno the breakbeats, then Detroit techno supplies the sheer cerebral depth...Europe may have the scene and the energy, but it's America which supplies the ideological direction"

7/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys0HyevZpQg

Very neat

6/10

Briyan played this today in his Twitch / ZOOM COVID replacement for DEMF. It was a very good set, in spite of it being his first time playing for an audience. I am very much ready for sleep, so I am not reviewing or digging for this. Here is the track, goodnight!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7DlMlnWtEE

6/10

EP on Spotify

Nice timing that Paras sent this over on memorial day: this is very much an EP for summer's dog days, and today was the first step toward that heaven-as-purgatory. This all sort of blends together to get you to sway at max 22 back and forths per minute, slathering you up with golden summer honey, and not bothering with much else to interrupt (or stand out from) that pleasant sweetness. Which is a positive way of saying that it's "boring" -- but that seems like it's the point and the pleasure. From interview (regarding a different album - https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/kzw4ym/meet-the-psychedelic-london-band-ulrika-spacek-ahead-of-their-visions-set ):
"A lot of the songs have been made out of loops. That's not to say there isn't 'songwriting' in there but there are certainly large sections where the mind gets to wonder."
From that article, it sounds like their show relies on a lot on visuals:
"We just feel at our most comfortable when the lights are off and the visuals can play tricks on the eye. Think we actually play better when you can barely see what you are doing. For us it removes that notion of 'we are on a stage, performing for you' that feels a bit weird to us."
Both give the idea that this is music as a supplement/layer rather than object. Or, I guess, let's take form the EP's title: the music is suggestive (for me, of driving back from barton springs all sun-dazed on a summer sunday, or idly inspecting vegetable garden in barefeet holding a pepino gatorade and knowing you gotta water them because it's so hot so you set down the gatorade and spray the hose and you get some mulch stuck on your feet as you get to the back of the bed so your rinse of the mulch and go back inside, and this EP is what plays inside the gatorade bottle as it's forgotten and left to bake in the grass). It's "chill" music 2 chill to and focus on something else, which means most of it is ultimately forgettable; there are many, many, many other options out there that are interchangeable in what they are 'suggestive' of -- but who remembers or differentiates between august days? Who cares?

(aside; I watched a music video of a woman chopping vegetables called 'full of men' and that was a bad music video. I was hoping that the visual / art emphasis that they talk about in the article would mean that there is some interesting aesthetic. Nope. Very lazy -- trying to imply some depth or profundity that is just not there. tacky)

(double aside: I looked up some of their lyrics on Genius, and they are surprisingly concrete and personal for the style, which I feel like normally goes the way of being generic and abstracted nothings that try to present some image of insight-- but, that said, lyrics are mostly a riff on some manifestation of ennui. surprise!)

ALSO Attaching this image 4 paras, who said that he had tried Pavement, but it sounds like everything else that sounds like pavement, so nothing really has stuck- screenshot from 'Lord Luck' video.

8/10

3.5 hours of bliss ------ with way too many ad breaks thrown in to throw it off ;__;

Andrew Weatherall died of a pulmonary embolism at 56 (NYT obit: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/arts/music/andrew-weatherall-dead.html ) - in hindsight, with what we know about COVID and blood-clotting, it could have been related? He died just a week or two before the mexico city trip for backdoor XL (which was also right when people were starting to talk about COVID more + came in just a few weeks ahead of the west shutting down), and Mouthfeel served him right with the 'Soon' cover to close out his set; since that trip, I've been just gushing over everything I've listened to that he was involved with. Learning more about him definitely reframes how I think about Primal Scream / Screamadelica (a very good album that sounds like if the rolling stones made a concept album about heroin has turned into a very good album that bridges dance and rock in a way that ushered in a sound that came to define the 90s).

This mix is a birthday party for primal scream, in 2011 (so, guessing a 20th anniversary of Screamadelica -- wow, the fact that Screamadelica is going to be 30 this year is strange? Not that it makes me feel old -- I didn't listen to that album until a few years ago -- but I just feel like. The 90s always feel the same amount of time away; The 2000s and 2010s took 8 years, max) ------ It's a great mix for an after party. The Orb "little fluffy clouds" remix that it starts out with is a nice way to set the stage in the early 90s and call to mind primal scream without being too on the nose, while also bringing it more to the present with a more contemporary sounding cover. The mix does dip a bit into heroin den territory in the middle, but never too much, and made working tonight very pleasant. Just seems perfect for an after party setting.

All this aside, wow, there were so many ads on this YouTube video. Even now, I'm trying to go back and revisit parts that I liked, and I'm getting hit with a 15 sec Geico ad each time. Most of the ads are COVID-related (Wells Fargo: On Demand is so special, especially now! And you can do On Demand with banking, too! || VRBO: Find the house that makes the vacation, etc.). Given that he ...seems? to have died from COVID, it seems like a slap in the face trying to listen to this mix and celebrate him, and then have to watch and click through an ad related to COVID for what seemed like every 10 minutes of the set (but what was likelier every 20-30 mins) >;1

Not going to sign up for youtube premium -- but would also be devasted if youtube started taking down its music librarty. there is so much on there, and the comments section has been such a treat during this streak club.

unreviewed

https://soundcloud.com/jamiedmusic/the-hardiker-tape

I think the sound quality on the google DRIVE file is not great - soundcloud is above instead. either way, I very passively listened to this while working. Not reviewing tonight, want to close screen earlier than later so I'm not sleepy again tomorrow.

note to relisten to this

here's a cartoon that seems appropriate for the past few days

6/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6v7HxN19W8

I am in the process of tearing out a house of cards that is three years' worth of legacy logic in zendesk. I am feeling like Neo seeing the Matrix -- everything is making sense in a way that it hasn't the past few times I have tried to do this. This normally feels like any change to the stack -- with all its competing logic and strange ordering and new set of signals for what-means-what that each person who touched this tried to move to --, but it seems so simple tonight. Ripping it all out. baby.

So, I googled best techno songs to HACK to because that is how I am feeling, OK?

Came back with a 1hour mix (screenshot) so i picked a track this track from the tracklist. I guess, yes, this is dubstep and not techno, but this is still fine to work through. I also realize that, while I know what dubstep sounds like, I don't really know what would define a track as dubstep (besides sounding like dub, and having a heavy bass). This is very different from EDM dubstep, or the cheesy drops and such, and is more atmospheric, which is a good return for my google search.

I watched a quick youtube video in incognito mode 'googled: what is dubstep, anyway?'). Characteristics from that vid & how this song matches up:
Tempo: 135 - 150 (check! this song is around 140)
Kick on 1; Snare on 3 (check!)
Prominent Sub bass (check.- but not overwhelming, which is probably what makes this song more up my alley than what I normally associated with diubstep)

6.5/10
claire de lune is higher up for me - the songs flanking it in this suite add a new layer of appreciating it, but are otherwise not anything too great on their own. "filler" (heh)

This is the one that has Claire De Lune in it. Prior to tonight, I had only listened to Claire De Lune from the suite -- and beside that and Arabesque, do I know any other Debussy songs? I do now --

On Wikipedia it says he wrote the suite when he was 28 (!!) but that it wasn't released until 15 years later, with revisions (phew):

"The composer was initially loath to these relatively early piano compositions because they were not in his mature style, but in 1905 accepted the offer from a publisher who thought they would be successful given the fame Debussy had gained in the intervening fifteen years.While it is not known how much of the Suite was written in 1890 and how much was written in 1905, it is clear that Debussy changed the names of at least two of the pieces."

The title, Bergamasque, is from a poem "Claire de Lune" (Moonlight):

"Your soul is a chosen landscape
Where charming masquerades and dancers are promenading,
[Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques - I guess the mask pun doesn't translate]
Playing the lute and dancing, and almost
Sad beneath their fantastic disguises.

While singing in a minor key
Of victorious love, and the pleasant life
They seem not to believe in their own happiness
And their song blends with the moonlight,

With the sad and beautiful moonlight,
Which sets the birds in the trees dreaming,
And makes the fountains sob with ecstasy,
The slender water streams among the marble statues."

^^ That is a good poem. Made better from a Wiki click through to Bergamasque: "The dance is associated with clowns or buffoonery, as is the area of Bergamo, it having lent its dialect to the Italian buffoons."

So, a clown dance among marble statues, singing of good things, but in a minor key, not believing in their own happiness. :<

Regarding clowns - There are definitely some flambuoyant or capricious parts, but nothing that indicates clown to me. But -- why would my reference for clown music be the same as Debussy's? -- so, okay, we'll take the I II and IV as clown songs. What then to make of III - claire de lune -- something that I read as pretty self-serious flanked by clown songs?

Mmm - well, I guess the poem's line "And their song blends with the moonlight" is a fitting description for what happens in the emotional climax of Claire de Lune (song) -- almost like the clown dance music has stopped, for a bit, and maybe these idiot italians are reflecting on some moonlit beach, beginning to lament the sorrow of the realizing the mask -- only to be comforted, enveloped, blended-in by the moonlight? The same moonlight filling them / the fountains with ecstasy, bringing the water / them on the level of marble statues. Hm - maybe the line about marble statues wasn't to show relative insignificance (of the clown) but rather to elevate the clown/clown dance, under the moonlight. This poem is maybe less bleak than I thought at first.

And then returning to IV -- it is clown like (in the same way that I and II are, at least) - but it does seem more triumphant, and there is some tender mischief in the piano beneath it. It's probably a stretch and ridiculous to say at this point that these clowns have taken a bit of the moonlight into the day, but it has already been typed.

On another note, claire de lune is in 9/8 time. So..... 9 beats, with each eighth note as a beat? I am looking along with the music ( https://www.mutopiaproject.org/ftp/DebussyC/L75/debussy_Ste_Bergamesq_Clair/debussy_Ste_Bergamesq_Clair-let.pdf ) as the song plays, and that just does not add up to me.

I learned a nice new poem and reflected on the sadness and beauty in humanity -- and now have another layer to take with me when talking about claire de lune as i grab some water crackers from the imagined spread.

8.5/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Eah_EGiDc

I think I could listen to this endlessly. I likely will. This was sampled in Physical Therapy's Honcho set (where else would I find anything?) -- I went to that mix because I checked out El's submission, and knew that 'how it feels' song sounded familiar. 'Tell Me (How It Feels)' closed out that absurdly optimistic set, following a remix of Fergie's Glamorous and a remix, "Flawless," by was The Ones. Listening to the whole set, closed out by these samples, that optimism feels so familiar, but weirdly distant, now. No night is being closed down, in that sense -- summer as we knew it isn't happening this year. Summer is going to be a different kind of break from reality this year; just about everything that could be going wrong in America seems to be, and this summer, I feel some sort of heat around, is going to be different. A bleak break, where something new, finally, will take form. A good new. Washing away of the sins, Or, at least the beach waves coming in. Is that ignorant optimism? It really feels like the hope of community is the only hope that there is right now -- institutions be damned (and yes, institutions are damned). Bernie getting ousted, Coronavirus rising, Amazon surging, and George Floyd being the latest example of completely unchecked racist-fueled human cruelty -- we are either going to be singing about the Baby's Eyes that, innocent upon birth, became part of a harrowed sociopathic man. or Eyes which grew into something, please, something new, some sort of change, out of all of this. The rage has to mean something, this time. Rodney King was almost 30 years ago. That is absurd. the rage has to mean something, this time. Coupled with all the other fires right now -- there has to be something from these flames, and I am feeling more urgency to be a part of making that so than I ever have.

It's fairly late. This hook will not leave my head tonight, not a chance. This is a bad entry. Barely wrote about the song, sorta just blah blah'd. The song is good too. I keep watching the news, I googled "Jacob Frey" shirtless. Some of the speeches that are being made by protesters are so natural and powerful and necessary and insightful and inspiring and enraging. I gotta shut my lappy.

skip today; very tired, was falling asleep on couch

protest today - two factions of protest, out-microphoning the other (violence vs non-violence)
home, made frog-shaped load of bread
fish goodbye dinner with housemates
the fish was not good
cocktails
while watching livestream of what the day's protest turned into
avatar
too tired for music listening n writing tonight

8.5/10

https://soundcloud.com/honchopgh/campoutseries-midland

The set begins with an interview Larry Kramer, about early activism organizing for Act Up! It's a beautiful start -- and hit in a particular place today, drawing the lineage of a society hopping struggle, to struggle, to struggle. It also hits because, thinking of late 80s-90s in queer organizing, thinking of SF, I think of The Stud, which has just closed its SOMA location. They had a farewell Twitch stream tonight, but too much else happening -- including the fact that I was working tonight -- to pay attention. But, further connection, I saw Midland in September 2018 (I had to check my phone for that one -- old text messages; James from Honcho sent me the link -- why was I in San Francisco in September 2018??? I think I went to this show with a coworker at Facebook -- was I in town for work?) -- in any case, it was a night that made me really appreciate what San Francisco has to offer. The Stud is something special (and I remember it being a great, sweaty, shirtless dreamland of a show -- and I remember thinking it was strange to take your shirt off at a bar, even it was a gay bar. Man how that has changed. Shit, am i circuit??)

Brief notes about protest today;
There was a strong critical mass, a strong energy when in the street, destination, chanting, a sense of purpose to it. There were community mics at stops, and, while I couldn't hear most of what was being said (the mics were not nearly loud enough fro the situation), I was still grateful to see (black) voices preaching to the crowd, and not just (a lotta white pp) walking, chanting, walking, a different chant, 'playing' protest (i count myself in that group, for what it's worth). It ended at city hall, where the same two factions from yesterday - the peaceful group who was plugging their instagrams outside of the burrito shop yesterday, and the aggressive group who was challenging the peaceful group to not stand outside of the burrito shop and instead get in the cops' faces at the police station (which, to be fair, was across the street). I appreciate the efforts of the peaceful faction, but their calls for peaceful protest were fairly dismissive (you are wasting your energy; this is not about the police) -- they had the platform they had the stage, but there was not a strong message. I think the strongest message to the crowd was emphasizing the importance of voting in November, as if this is all about Trump vs Biden ("When black people don't vote, we turn red") or something similar. it essentially became a rally for Joe Biden. Again, in favor of peaceful protest, but this -- sort of missed the point. An optimistic, and seemingly productive part, was the crowd kneeling, and chanting for the cops outside the doors of city hall to do the same. They (unsurprisingly) did not.

I came home and watched more on a very tense Twitch, with this Midland set playing in the background. The combination was good. The streams were stressful. A protester / leader in Portland handed a mic to the sergeant over a fence, so they could have a dialog, and get him to agree to demands -- in this way, it was a peaceful protest (like SF faction was trying to maintain) but was still challenging in good ways. Austin stream looked like it had mostly died down.

There is more to write about both this set and the Midland set. I can't place the song that closes out the midland set, and it is frustrating --I know I had it on one of those piles of burned mix CDs. No. What is this song? (Caribou! Niobe! - okay, i can sleep Ok)

2/10

Animation and story are pretty good, soundtrack isn't that good

But tbf i'm only a few episodes in, maybe the soundtrack gets better -- but it seems like mostly an afterthought. Will update if it gets better.

2/10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7FRNpb5Tfc

If you made a web site that I'm typing on, then you know that I can simply never get enough of Donna Lewis' "I Love You Always Forever" lately ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqdWTeXWvOg ) -- that is a 10! But, what else does she have even? I checked her Spotify, trying to find a diamond in the rough of some of her lesser known songs. Nothing stands out form her original stuff but, lo and behold, she has a cover of another song that I can simply never get enough of and is also a 10! Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill"!

Unfortunately, this cover was clearly made by a machine that listened to all the songs that happen when a Main Character dies on Grey's Anatomy, and then someone fed it 'running up that hill' and it was a little low on battery so it just spat this out so it could go back to trying to predict the likelihood that Meredith's little sis would make it past season 6 -- the swelling strings, the enveloped production, the whisper, the silence, the swell -- oh man you could back so many teary faces into this. Unfortunately, the tempo of the song doesn't match up perfectly to a heartbeat monitor, as it did with with "Breathe" in what is, without a doubt, one of my favorite television moments of all time. [[[**Speaking of which - if you are reading this, please, please, please watch this clip all the way through. Do not skip around, or hover the mouse for thumbnails. Please just watch this clip. You will not regret it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCZU8EAn-sI ** }}} - Um --

Yeah this is a bad song, a bad cover. Would work in a series finale of a medical drama though. It's ok donna, I wasn't expecting anything more, and i will still love you always forever