In 1889, 120 years ago tomorrow, the Exposition Universelle world fair opens in Paris.
At the Exposition (see photo), the French composer Claude Debussy first heard Javanese gamelan music, performed by an ensemble from Java. David Toop, a modern musical critic, denotes Debussy’s experience at the fair to mark the start of an ambient music. Toop (see previous post) expounds upon Debussy’s importance in his 1995 exegesis on ambient sound, Ocean of Sound.
image via www.knowledgerush.com
RIP Fritz Muliar, 89, Austrian actor best remembered beyond the boundaries of his native Vienna for playing the title role in the 13-part TV series, Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk.
The Good Soldier Švejk is the abbreviated title of an unfinished satirical novel by Jaroslav Hašek. A number of literary critics consider The Good Soldier Švejk to be one of the first anti-war novels, predating Remarque‘s All Quiet on the Western Front. Furthermore, Joseph Heller said that if he had not read The Good Soldier Švejk, he would never have written his novel Catch-22.
Dom DeLuise is Buddy Bizarre in Blazing Saddles, image via www.filmdope.com
RIP Dom DeLuise, 75, American actor (The Cannonball Run, Blazing Saddles)
David Toop @60
Ocean of Sound (1995) – David Toop [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
The book can be had as cheaply as£2.25,$6.59 orEUR 6,07.
David Toop is celebrating his 60th birthday today. The first of his works I read was Ocean of Sound, it is in my opinion the best book of music writing of the 20th century. Sadly, Toop’s publication of his latest book, Ways of Hearing[1] has been delayed.
His masterpiece, however, is Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds is a music theory book written by British author David Toop and first published in 1995 by Serpent’s Tail. The book discusses topics such as ambient music, synaesthesia, aether and imaginary worlds British music magazine The Wire said upon its release that “its parallels aren’t music books at all, but rather Italo Calvino‘s Invisible Cities, Michel Leiris‘s L’Afrique fantôme, William Gibson‘s Neuromancer … David Toop is our Calvino and our Leiris, our Gibson. Ocean of Sound is as alien as the 20th century, as utterly Now as the 21st. An essential mix.”
Of all the things I admire about Toop’s writing, two things stand out.
First his insistence on treating music in the first place as sound. Secondly his ability to connect topics to far-ranging other topics, his ability to digress meaningfully.
If you are into late 20th century (un)popular music, be sure to check Toop’s abecedaria written for The Wire: “The A to Z of Dub“[2] (1994) and “The A to Z of Electro“[3] (1998).
History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art by Thomas Wright, 1865
This volume is new to me, it has an interesting table of contents, there is a digitized version at Archive.org, but so poorly done it renders it as good as useless.
Fashionable Contrasts (1792) by James Gillray
As well as being blatant in his observations, James Gillray could be incredibly subtle, and puncture vanity with a remarkably deft approach. The outstanding example of this is his print Fashionable Contrasts;—or—The Duchess’s little Shoe yeilding [sic] to the Magnitude of the Duke’s Foot. This was a devastating image aimed at the ridiculous sycophancy directed by the press towards Frederica Charlotte Ulrica, Duchess of York, and the supposed daintiness of her feet. The print showed only the feet and ankles of the Duke and Duchess of York, in an obviously copulatory position, with the Duke’s feet enlarged and the Duchess’s feet drawn very small. This print silenced forever the sycophancy of the press regarding the union of the Duke and Duchess.
The print was originally published by Hannah Humphrey on January 24, 1792.
It is Icon of Erotic Art #44.
Audrey Hepburn (May 4, 1929 – January 20, 1993) was an Anglo-Dutch actress, performer, ballerina, fashion model, gay icon, sex symbol and humanitarian, noted for her performances in films such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and her waiflike appearance.
The waif look was then known as “gamine”.
The “gamine” look of the 1950s, associated with actresses like Audrey Hepburn, Leslie Caron and Jean Seberg, was, to some extent, a precursor of heroin chic.
Last November I introduced At Her Discretion[1], my first exposure to the phenomeneon of micro-blogging. Today I took the Tumblr service for a test drive[2][3] and I was quite pleased with it.
Tumblr is a web 2.0 micro-blogging platform that allows users to post text, images, video, links, quotes, and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog. Users can “follow” other users and see their posts together on their dashboard.
Compared to other web 2.0 social internet services:
Compared to Del.icio.us[4]: Tumbler has no social bookmarking.
Compared to Facebook[5]: Tumblr is public so it lets you reach a ider audience, but its ease of use is worse that that of Facebook.
Compared to Twitter[6]: Tumblr may be a future competitor to Twitter, Twitter does not allow image previews.
Compared to WordPress: Tumblr excells at creating little visual interesting posts fast, WordPress is better for the longer more pensive posts.
So you can expect me to spend less time on FaceBook, Flickr, Del.icio.us to spend more time at my Tumblr.
Pete Seeger @90
Pete Seeger (born May 3, 1919) is an American folk singer, and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival, best-known in my canon for penning “Turn! Turn! Turn!“[1]
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWg3b15ITS8&]
“Turn! Turn! Turn!” (1965) by The Byrds
The most successful recorded version of the song is the #1 hit single by pioneering folk-rock band The Byrds, released in October 1965.
Niccolò Machiavelli @540
Niccolò Machiavelli (Detail of 1500 portrait of Machiavelli by Santi di Tito)
Niccolò Machiavelli (May 3, 1469 – June 21, 1527) was Italian historian, statesman and political author. His best-known work is The Prince, the posthumously published treatise responsible for bringing the authorial descriptive “Machiavellian” into wide usage as a pejorative term to denote power-hungry, megalomanic, unethical or despotic practices or methods.
Machiavellian
