Life Comes at you Fast!

So this week (or month) has been quite interesting for me in a variety of ways, but namely because its already over. It seems pretty common, that when people give advice, it goes something like:

"Well enjoy it while its happening, because it goes by quicker than you know."

As if there was a way that you could consciously enjoy things more, because you know they will soon be over. If any of you have discovered this technique, please post some instructions in the comment section. Otherwise, I assume things will continue to fly by and I will continue to wonder if there was any possible way I could have soaked up more of those events as they passed.

What does this have to do with the last week (really the last month)? Well I suppose I should just relate the events which have passed this month as recorded by my google calender.
    
     April 28th-29th: Fraternity Formal (Great weekend but very stressfull)
     May 1st: 5page Paper due
     (just classes and such until...)
     May 4th: Senior Barcrawl with fraternity brothers (We got T-shirts but don't go to hard because...)
     May 5th: Interview for position with local publishing company 1Oam; Perfrom Concert 8pm; Cinco de Mayo party hosted by yours truly
     May 6th: Relax if you possibly can
     May 7th: interview again; become paralyzingly sick. Challenge*: stay conscious for no more than two hours at any given point
    May 8th: Still sick; Abstract for a class due
    May 9th: Still sick; 12 page paper due
    May 10th: Kind of sick; 12 page paper actually due (extension for the win!)
    May 11th: Give Percussion recital; Have lunch; Go see Avengers; SLEEP!
    May 12th: Chili Cook Off; listen to a buch of good music all day; return home 11pm.
    May 13th: Mothers Day; spend all day with mom!
    May 14th: Library Lock in; Paper Writing Season; all day
    May 15th: 10 Page paper due; 8 page paper due; 3 page paper due+2 hour final
    May 16th: 6 page paper due+ 5 minute presentation+ try to squeeze one more post in; 2 hour final.

That pretty much brings me up to this exact moment. It went by so quickly I'm not even sure it all happened. And I'm certainly not sure I want to go back and re-live any portion of it. Going back and re-living any portion would mean I would have to re-live the rest of it all anyway. No regrets.

Anyway, I suppose where all of this is leading is to is in general my senioritus raging violently against the amount of things I must accomplish....and seeing as blogs seem to be partially about venting frustration I figured it would be good to do so.

As far as music is concerned, this is part of what I performed. I messed up a few times here but the performance on friday was pretty solid. Enjoy! (and sorry I don't know how to make that annoying rattle go away without recording again, and I didn't get a chance to do that.)

 Awolnation put on a great show at the Chili cook off. If you don't know them....you should. Also Cake played well! Incubus played well but did a kind of boring set. Finally, Neon Trees? They played a great show as well and while I wasn't familiar with any of there music, they are certainly on the radar now. Anywho, go forth and listen to music! Any comments or concerns are greatly apprectiated. Until next time.......Good night Detroit!
   

Easter 2: The Sequel

Ok. So this is an amalgamation of several different conversations I had this weekend, via text message or phone call:

Caller/Friend/whoever: "Hey dude, whatchya doin this weekend?"
Me: "I'm home this weekend. Easter!
Caller/Friend/whoever: "Ya, like last week was Easter bro. Besides, aren't you Jewish?"
Me: "What? No. I'm not Jewish. Where did that even come from? Anyway, it's Russian Orthodox Easter!"
Caller/Friend/whoever: "So...."
Me: "So I can't go out this weekend."
Caller/Friend/whoever: "Lame!"
Me: "Bye"

Russian Orthodox Easter? What's that? Why isn't your Easter just the same time as everyone else? Well, there are a bunch of different answers to these questions, and I will try to answer them quickly and to the best of my knowledge, so we can get to the good part: The SINGING. Essentially, around the 11th century A.D, there was a split between the Roman Catholic Church, and what was then called the Orthodox Catholic Church, which we know today as the simply, the Orthodox Church. I suppose there are many, many differences between the modern day Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, but what seems important to me, and what differentiates me from being Catholic are three things:

1) Our cross looks like this:

Courtesy of stvlads.com

2) We have Icons which look like this:

Courtesy of Russian-Victories.ru

 3) We don't celebrate Easter the same time as everyone else!

I have been told that this last difference, has to do with some ancient calendar and some qualifications which need to be met be met before we can celebrate Easter, namely that Easter cannot fall before or during Passover.

So what is the big deal? Why is holiday SO EXCITING!!!! Well, in my mind, this holiday is pretty much a celebration of the entirety of Christianity, and at least in the Orthodox faith, it seems to be celebrated as such. One of my favorite traditions is the Easter basket which we have blessed by the priest after the paschal (Easter) service. This was ours this year:

Courtesy of Lynsay Weber

This first picture shows some the traditional contents of an Orthodox Easter basket. Butter with the sign of the cross, eggs which are usually died red, but we took a little bit of a liberty with these and died them spring colors! Also, as you can see in the next picture down, the basket usually has bread, and an assortment of different types of meat. Our basket has ham, as well as kielbasa (definitely a Russian influence), which is delicious. Some of the other baskets had various different items such as wine, candy, or really just whatever else you can come up with.

Just like the Roman Catholics, we Orthodox have been fasting for the past 40 days (lent). Traditionally, we don't eat meet or cheese for the 40 days and then after the paschal service we 'break the fast' with these blessed baskets. Just like other Christians who celebrate Lent, a lot of Orthodox 'give up' things for lent. It would seem, judging by the contents of some of the other baskets, a lot of people were giving up food. I know when I gave up soda one year, there was definitely a can of coke in our basket that year.

Courtesy of Lynsay Weber

Another cool tradition which helps to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, is the 'egg game' of which I have no better name for it than that. Part of the tradition is to die eggs, which represent the rebirth of Christ. We dye them red to signify the blood he shed for us. This year my eggs were 0-2 (I had two eggs and both cracked). Perhaps the coolest part of this whole ordeal, is the Paschal service itself. During the service, the priest, congregation, and choir all participate in a type of call an response type ritual as part of the celebration. Here is a link to a Paschal service in Russian, somewhere in Moscow. You can hear the choir and what is in my opinion some of the most beautiful church music ever written. This is some other Orthodox Church music, however it has been translated into English. If any of you use Spotify, search for Orthodox Church music and there are plenty of playlists which have like a billion hours of church music. It really is quite nice to listen to, or study to if that is more your style. Anywho, get the word out. The Eastern Orthodox Religion is one the 2nd largest religions in the world, however nobody in America seems to know what it is. Anyway, Bye for now!

What? Bruce Springsteen? Sure!

Yesterday ended up being a surprisingly eventful day. As far as Sundays are concerned, it wasn't supposed to be anything too special. My plans were to sleep in (accomplished), do some homework (unaccomplished), and then at nine o'clock, watch Mad Men (also unaccomplished). So what the hell happened? Well, Bruce Springsteen happened! About half-way through the day, I get a phone call from Mom saying "Your father can't come to the concert with me tonight, would you like to go instead?"

"Uh, Sure"

"Ok, be ready. I'll be in College Park at 4pm, we can take the Metro in."

Let the FREAKING OUT COMMENSE! Of course, I was super excited. It's been a really long time since I have gone to a Rock concert and I was super jacked to see Bruce Springsteen. It didn't really matter that I can tell you only three songs that he's written. It also didn't matter that the tour was an effort to promote his new album Wrecking Ball, which I had never listened to in my life. I was just super excited to go jump around like an idiot.

And I did......Well sort of. It seems to me Bruce has done a good deal of slowing down. We saw him at the Verizon Center, and we were two rows from the top. Needless to say, I was not jumping around for fear that I would fall down the bleachers knocking over countless bystanders before meeting my eventual demise somewhere close to the stage (insert Wrecking Ball pun here!). But, I needn't to have worried as most of the songs he did were not at a sufficient tempo to cause a head banging accident.

This is not to say that the concert wasn't awesome. It seems this new album is supposed to be more sentimental. A portion of the show was committed to introducing new band members, and remembering old ones (RIP Clarence). Of course a lot of Springsteen's signature moves were in effect. He crowd surfed, he slid across the stage on his knees while playing what I must admit, was a pretty righteous guitar solo. And of course, that signature voice, accompanied with quite poetic and meaningful lyrics, which I had to google to understand. At some point during the concert, Bruce decided to pull one of the audience members on stage and let them sing the lyrics. The kid was so nervous at first I thought he might cry, but after a little coaching from Bruce, the kid belted out the rest of the tune with no problem. During what was probably the 4th or 5th encore, the band did a really cool rap/gospel cross over which I really enjoyed. I was quite surprised how much gospel influence the album had in general.

Anyway, the concert was a lot of fun. If you haven't had a chance to see him, go and get your tickets now (although I'm not sure where he will be playing next). Oh and I got this awesome T-shirt. Tah Tah for now!

Day Glow, Four-loco, Spring Break's a Mess!

And We're Back! Over the past week, I've been living up Spring Break in Panama City Beach Florida and.......Well it's been awesome! Now, I usually enjoy attempting to provide some sort of standard of content in my blog posts if not a standard of tone, which I'll admit sounds less and less professional as I write more and more. Anywho, seeing as the content of this post consists of subject matter which occurred while on break from academia, it seems necessary to evaluate any anecdotes which may proceed this paragraph as contents unrelated to that noble pursuit! (In essence, don't judge me for what I'm about to tell you hahah.)

OK. Keep calm. Here we go. So the premise of this entire post was supposed to be about the influence of classical music on a genre known as Dubstep (If your completely unfamiliar with dubstep search Skrillex. About 30 seconds is when you can really hear what dubstep is all about.) I was very, very excited because over the spring break, I was scheduled to attend Day Glow!, a ridiculous dance party involving paint, dubstep, other types of dance music/electronica, more paint, and hopefully some classical music influences. A friend of mine sent me a trailer for the event, and low and behold.....Carmina Burana (again don't judge me). Seems, classical music was at the very least, playing the role it often plays in modern culture, that of a soundtrack. It's used here to heighten the general AWESOMENESS!!! of the event (note, that is the scientific term).

At this point, it seems necessary to express the following events in a rhetorical form which has been permeating DirectTV adds for the past several months:

"When your a last semester senior and feel overworked, your fraternity brothers convince you to go on spring break. When you go on spring break, you get excited for Dayglow. When you get excited for Dayglow, you celebrate by drinking four-loco on the beach. When you drink four-loco on the beach, you leave Dayglow early before any of the music plays.

Don't leave Dayglow early before any of the music Plays"

And as such, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any classical music influences at Dayglow or within the dubstep genre of music. Womp. womp. But, had I been there, and had I heard the music, I would assume it was a perfect blend of classical composition and the sounds your computer made in the 90's while connecting to AOL, I hope it would have sounded something like this. Oh and with paint :) 

Musings: High and Low Culture?

So, here we go. This week, I was challenged in my English class to essentially give a 'shout out' to another blogger in the class. I decided to 'shout' at 'Ezra' from the blog Ezra Won't Shut Up. She commented here on Bloggcerto! (Hopefully I can get that CSPAC thing up and running), and I thought it would be nice to engage the conversation. So I checked it out. The post entitled, Thank You for Your Magic Sex struck me. She analyzes some lyrics by artists like Adele and Selena Gomez and comments on the nature of relationships and this essential misconception that once we enter one, our significant other is going to help us resolve all our problems and we will live happily ever after.
In the anecdote leading up to this final 'thesis', Ezra describes her listening of pop music as such: "...just enjoy the beats, dance, let the lyrics sink subtly into your brain like a good little ideological consumer, or whatever. It's not Opera; it doesn't have to challenge your intellect." She continues on to say that she does contemplate the lyrics 'intellectually', but sort of implies that there is a sort of divide between 'intellectual' music like opera and 'pop'. And that pop music could not or perhaps should not, inspire this type of intellectual thought.

I didn't know how to respond to this. I listen to Opera on occasion. I also listen to pop music and probably everything in between. I have excerpts of The Magic Flute on my ipod and listen to it quite often. I could not tell you a single lyric or what any of the Italian means but I know when I listen to it, I cannot begin to express the magnitude of emotion I feel. But I suppose 'intellectually', the piece does not stimulate me at all. How could it? I fundamentally don't understand a single portion of it. But I like it.

Likewise, there are songs like Ke$ha's 'We R Who We R' which has at the very least given us a challenge to our grammar laws if not feeding us an intellectual conundrum of individuality vs group stereo types. I feel as if she simultaneously promotes individuality and defines the iconography of the main stream culture by her participation in it (she's taking back the mainstream and making it cool again. I know that may not seem to make sense but I feel it is still what is happening.) I have just now attempted to perform a similar 'intellectual' discourse about this seemingly 'un-intellectual' song.

So, I guess what all of this has been leading up to is the proposition that music's inherent intellectual value cannot be judged by genre, or style, or whether it is top 40 or was made hundreds of years ago. It must instead be judged by its own merits, and how it makes us feel. If we question lyrics in a pop song it may mean that song is reaching us in a way that maybe Opera cannot. And yes, I believe that for modern listeners, Opera is more difficult to enjoy, I feel it is simply so because of its age. There certainly is a disconnect between now and whenever The Magic Flute was written (I only pick that because like I said its on my Ipod)

So Ezra I suppose what I mean to say is, do not be afraid to perform critical thought on something that seems to be 'un-intellectual' or like 'low-culture'. I feel the more I learn about things, the more I realize that there is no such thing as 'high' or 'low' culture. The original Opera was considered a 'low' by the standards of the day. Jazz is considered one of America's truest art forms and it was considered base and primitive by critics.

PS. I've been listening to The Who's 'Tommy' the entire time I was writing this. First 'Rock Opera'? I don't know. But I suppose these things come down to taste.

Bah Bah Bah Baaaaahhhhh!!!!!

Well hello! Welcome to the first 'Song of the Week' post of Bloggcerto! Each week I will attempt to say something about a piece of music. This week's song is Beethoven's Fifth symphony. I looked it up and apparently, this song is a big deal! According to wikipedia, the piece was first performed in 1808 and since then has continued to persist within the culture ever since. On a cultural level, this is the type of piece which you can't remember hearing for the first time because it would seem you were born with the memory of its main theme (bah bah bah baaahhhh!!!).

That first motif, only four notes long, seems to connote a general sense of forboding and ill will. It has been described as the sound of FATE knocking on your door. There is no doubting the epic scope, and sound of this symphony but it always interesting to me that a song should inspire the same emotion almost universally between.....well everyone.

So, I found some examples of the theme which, essentially, inspire something else. Hopefully you will find these two examples humorous, but also realize that while this piece is hundreds of years old, it still finds ways into everyday culture which are meaningful.

The first example I would like to present is Walter Murphy's A Fifth of Beethoven. This disco-esque rendition of Beethoven's Fifth combines a clever title with some equally clever musicality. While the piece states the original theme, it then proceeds to combine that theme with a conventional dance groove popular to disco, creating a pretty hilarious contrast between how it is "intended" and how it is actually used.

We have Lil Jon to thank for our next example. The motif enters on the piano, with spoken vocals over the top, then finally gets into the heart of the song. Here's lil jon's Read a Book.

Hope you enjoy
Bye for now
JD