November 2005 – Page 13 – The Designer Monologues

November 11, 2005April 19, 2010

Friday Music

Wow– that week just FLEW by.

Not a whole lot of stuff this week. I’ve been really busy

Here we go again:

Saw a nifty documentary the other night about Suicide Girls (the website and the burlesque tour), and there was some great music used. I had to hunt down one of the tracks immediately: Ima Robot – “STD Dance.”

This is one of the best uses of a vocoder that I’ve heard. Too often, vocoders are used to cover the fact that the singer can’t quite hit the tune, or for a cheesy effect (“Believe” by Cher, I’m looking in your direction), but this is…well, beautiful, actually. Imogen Heap – “Hide and Seek.”

One of my clearest memories of this song is dancing to it with at an industry party thrown by White Wolf at GenCon in 95 or 96. It starts out slow, but when the drums kick in…woof. Dead Can Dance – “Cantara.”

Speaking of , here’s another track for her, since she has said that she enjoys French hip-hop. This is from the French group 113, and, as usual, hip hop uses the music of the ghetto as its base…and in France, that means the music of the Middle-East and North Africa. 113 – “Tonton du bled.”

I recently discovered this group, which performs a mix of electro-pop-goth-stuff which I like. It’s pretty much “Hot Topic- the in-store playlist”, but an nice bit of work nonetheless: The Birthday Massacre – “Horror Show.”

One of my favorite tracks from Timo Maas’ album Loud, which I’ve posted from before. This time, he’s paired with UK-based female MC Chickaboo. I love her voice. This used to be one of my “commuting soundtracks” when I was working in NYC. Timo Maas (feat. MC Chickaboo) – “Shifter.” (EDIT: right-click, copy and paste the link instead of direct-clicking it)

One last link, which isn’t a music file…but will help you find new music. Pandora- a part of the Music Genome Project — I first heard about this on NPR. They’ve amassed a huge database, breaking music down into tempo, note progressions, tonal qualities, etc. Pandora asks you to enter a musical artist or song you like, and then will make suggestions of other stuff you might like…and tell you why. Very cool.

November 10, 2005

“Cast Party” Award Nominations

So, apparently they ARE taking nominations for the psuedo-cast-party awards, rather than making it obvious Entertainment Staff fiat.

Some odd things….Apparently the Jolly Rogers *aren’t* a music group, they’re a stage show. And there is no “best lane act”, so I guess they get lumped in with Street Characters? Most Improved Character– does that mean a character that is better (maybe now that somebody else is doing it), or a performer who has improved?

Bard’s Bouts has no chance in hell, of course, since “best new stage show” is specified to include music groups as well, despite the fact that those are split into separate categories for the “non-new” award.

Pretty much a given that the Limeybirds will walk away with that one.

….made all the more amusing by the fact that they won’t be there, because they’re a circuit group, and the goddamned cast party wasn’t held during the run while they were here.

*Sigh*

Still haven’t made up my mind on whether or not to bother to go.

November 10, 2005

Another bit of joy…..

I posted about this in the comments of my Frist post, but I think it deserves its own:

A while back, six high-ranking members of the U.S. House of Representatives requested that the GAO launch a year-long investigation into the electronic voting machines and software now being deployed across the country…machines and software from companies which are, in most cases, run by high-dollar Republican contributors.

The Representatives were: Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) and Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), Judiciary Committee Chair F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), and Science Committee Chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and Ranking Member Bart Gordon (D-TN). A completely bi-partisan panel.

Well, three weeks ago, the GAO released their findings in a 107-page report (PDF). You will not have heard about this, because none of the networks mentioned it….and no news of it was carried by even one wire service or one major American Newspaper. Not one.

The report’s findings?

That electronic voting machines are not secure, not accountable, not recountable, not transparent, not accurate and not adequately monitored or certified by anybody.

To quote from the report:

“..concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes.”

We need our own Orange Revolution. It’s pathetic that a former Soviet Republic did more to defend Democracy than we’re doing.

But ask yourself. If the results are wonky again in 2006 or 2008, will you take to the streets?