Monthly Archives: September 2008

The 50th anniversary of the integrated circuit: a love song to the computer

In search of computer love.

“In 1959, Texas Instruments’ Jack Kilby files the first patent for an integrated circuit. (Texas racists later run him out of town, crying “segregation forever!”)”

Today, 2008 September 2, is the 50th anniversary of the integrated circuit, and invention that lead to electronic music, Japanese music machines, personal computers, the internet, bitpop and YouTube, to name but a disparate yet connected few.

Much of what we now call the origins of postmodernity coincides with the “microchip revolution or digital revolution,” aptly described by techno-utopian writer Alvin Toffler in Future Shock (1970) and The Third Wave (1980) .

With “Computer Love” (1981), Kraftwerk became the first German musical ensemble to hit No. 1 on the U.K. music charts and the first band to reach an audience with a love song to the computer.

Zapp and Roger also professed their love for man’s best friend in “Computer Love”[3] (1985).

Computer love can lead to computer addiction. By the mid eighties most traditional orchestration was replaced by “Japanese music machines” in Western music. Marvin Gaye’s single “Sexual Healing” lead the way.

An outright celebration of the electronic aesthetic came with electronic disco (“I Feel Love,” “Do You Wanna Funk”), electro funk (“Planet Rock”), techno (“Techno City”) and house music(“Your Love”); while previously non-electronic genres such as reggae also took up the aesthetic (Sleng Teng), but nowhere was this man/machine love affair so strong as in acid house (“I Got a Big Dick”).

Several of these compositions are WMCs.

See also: The Electronic Revolution.

I wasn’t going to write about this

A moment of silence…

Posted by
John M. at
1:49 AM 2 comments

I wasn’t going to write about this, but then John from Uncertain Times posted the picture shown to the left, possibly the most haunting photo since this one. It is so easy to get caught up in the rhetorics of the Situationist spectacle when discussing 9/11, that one tends to forget these “little” tragedies, such as the man jumping on the photo, whose last two seconds of life are worth a novel in itself. 9/11, that titanical and hyperreal event, has shaped us all and I really feel sorry for all concerned. But we will never be forgiven if – at the same time – we do not think about thousands dying every day of famine.

See also:

9/11: The Falling Man

Cult fiction item #10; unabashed male opinions

DSC01048

My edition of Cocaine (in a 1982 translation by Frédérique Van Der Velde for the Dutch-language imprint Goossens, which also published translations of Thérèse philosophe, Villon, and Aretino)

“Not since Of Human Bondage have I read a more poignant rendition of the human condition,” and “after The End Of The World Filmed By An Angel possibly the second surrealist novel” wrote American literary critic Sholem Stein in a rare review of Cocaina in 1922.

Cocaina is a 1921 Italian novel written by Pitigrilli, a pseudonym of Italian journalist and author Dino Segre.

The novel, set in Paris and dedicated to cocaine use, was banned when it was published due to its liberal use of explicit sex and drugs.

The protagonist is Tito Arnaudi, a young Dostoevskian nihilist who travels from his home town Turin to Paris after a failed love story. There he discovers the joys of cocaine, takes a job as a journalist and meets two women: the exotic and orgiastic Kalantan Ter-Gregorianz and the tawdry cocotte Maud Fabrège. Maud, who later in the story is renamed to Cocaina (she is the personification of the effects of cocaine, at first lively and spirited, later jaded and blunt) is his femme fatale. Tito falls in love with her despite her apparent infidelity and despite of her sterilization which he knows is bound to make her ugly and less feminine.

The novel is full of unabashed male opinions on women and love and ends with an original “Russian roulette” twist.

I read in three days, and never felt the urge to quit reading. I laughed out loud at least three times. An underrated masterpiece. See also drugs in literature and cocaine in literature.

More covers:

Cocaine (1921) – Pitigrilli [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Hector Zazou (1948 – 2008)


[Amazon.com]
[FR] [DE] [UK]

Uncertain Times reports the death of Hector Zazou (1948 – 2008).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y-40ENc9n4

Strong Currents by Hector Zazou was released in 2003 and featured an all-female vocal cast which included Laurie Anderson, Melanie Gabriel, Lori Carson, Lisa Germano, Irene Grandi, Jane Birkin, and Caroline Lavelle. Musicians included Ryuichi Sakamoto, Dennis Rea, Bill Rieflin and Archaea Strings. The album took six years to complete.

In 2003 DJ Martian recommended “M’Pasi Ya M’Pamba”, “a weird afro-electro Fela Kuti meets Kraftwerk track produced by Hector Zazou.”–DJ Martian[1]

Introducing “Bright Stupid Confetti”

Introducing Bright Stupid Confetti[1]

Its latest post[2] gives us the following YouTube goodies:

Etymologically, the blog can be traced to bright, stupid and confetti.

“Kontakte” is WMC #80.

Bra burning: the event was not televised, as it did not happen

I’ve praised the non-event before[1].

Bra burning by you.

Welcome to Miss America cattle auction.

Today’s non-event is of a different nature. It’s been exactly 40 years since the New York Radical Women did not burn their bras[2] at the 1968 Miss America contest in Atlantic City. A non-event (Someone suggested lighting a fire, but a permit could not be obtained, and so there was no burning, nor did anyone take off her bra) which went into history as a milestone of female protest against male oppression. I can’t help but wonder if the protesters had been male, would they have stopped their plan to burn the contents of their “Freedom Trash Can” for lack of a permit?

Also, in general, male oppressors would have been glad if beautiful women had stopped wearing bras; most women on the other hand thought and still think that not wearing bras is impractical.

The event was not televised, as it did not happen.

Bras bring memories.

Bras – short for brassieres – remind us of John Currin‘s 1997 painting The Bra Shop[3] and Cymande‘s song “Bra,”[4] from their 1973 debut album.

Cymande’s “Bra” (WMC#77) is not their signature song, they are better-known for tracks such as “Brother on the Slide“[5], which is WMC #78; and the “The Message“[6], WMC #79.

John Currin‘s 1997 painting The Bra Shop is IoEA #34.

Some eye candy for the weekend

All covers from Midi Minuit Fantastique
–
MMF1MMF2MMF4MMF3MMF6
1- 05/1962    2- 08/1962    3- 10/1962    4-5- 01/1963    6- 06/1963
MMF7MMF8MMF9MMF10MMF12
7- 09/1963    8- 01/1964    9- 07/1964    10-11- 12/1964    12- 05/1965

MMF13MMF14MMF15MMF17MMF18
13- 11/1965    14- 06/1966    15-16- 12/1966    17- 06/1967    18-19- 12/1967
MMF20MMF21MMF22MMF23MMF24
20- 10/1968    21- 04/1970    22- 07/1970    23- 10/1970    24- 12/1970
Check the  the wiki for image IDs

Sylvester and set theory

Do Ya Wanna Funk (1982) Sylvester [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Gay icon Sylvester James would have turned 60 today if he had not died from AIDS 20 years ago.

“Over and Over[1],” released in 1977 on Fantasy Records is WMC#75.

From a set-theoretical point of view, the Venn diagram of “Over and Over“intersects via whatlinkshere with the following compilations:

  1. François Kevorkian‘s Choice: A Collection of Classics
  2. Dave Lee‘s Jumpin’ series
  3. Brian Chin‘s Club Classics & House Foundations series
  4. Norman Jay‘s Good Times series

—Sholem Stein, musicologist, dance music connoisseur and genre theorist

What S. Stein means in the above quote is that “Over and Over” is featured on the mentioned albums.

Sylvester was firmly planted in the American disco scene but was popular too in Europe at the time and the rest of the jet set world.

His best-known songs are the Hi-NRG classics “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)“[2] (a previous WMC) and “Do You Wanna Funk,” songs of simultaneously gay liberation in the United States and Saint-Tropez chic in Europe.

“Do You Wanna Funk“[3] is World Music Classic #76.