HISTORIA DE UN LETRERO

A short film, winner of a prize at Cannes. You can spend 5 minutes doing lots of different things on the Internet. Most of them are not as moving as this.



Thanks to my cousin Bev for passing this along.

Palm Springs Means Summer Heat

Leslie and I spent a few days in Palm Springs at the end of last month. Here's a picture of the Road to Palm Springs.


It's hot in Palm Springs at the end of July. Really hot. Here's a picture of the sun. Don't look at it.


We were there to attend the wedding of our friends Len (he's the one with the beard) and Kristian (he's the other one with the beard). They were married by a retired judge, an outside ceremony in Palm Springs in July. Did I mention that it was hot?


When the judge said "By the Power Vested In Me By The State of California" there was a welcome bit of extra breeze - probably from the flurry of virtual buttons popping at that moment. We were proud to be there.

Here's a panoramic view from the front door of our hotel. Click on any picture for a much larger view but especially this one. Note the mountains. In the distance there's a second ridge of gray-colored mountains.


While Leslie spent the day with the wedding party, I got high on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Here's the official tramway site. It takes people to Mount San Jacinto State Park a mile above Palm Springs, somewhere up in those gray mountains.

I'm glad I made the trip because earlier this year California's Actor/Governor proposed balancing the state budget by closing Mount San Jacinto State Park (and dozens of others). Click here. I can't find any information on whether this proposal is still part of this year's state budget impasse.

Look closely at the next picture. You'll see a tram car, the cable it's hanging from, two towers supporting the cable and, at the top of the picture, the lower terminal of the tramway.


As you look down you can see various climate zones ending with the heat and haze of Palm Springs.and the Coachella Valley.


Our hotel would actually be visible in the next photo but for the large tree on the left. Click here to see the Google satellite view of that area. In the picture north is to the left; on the map north is to the up.


I hiked around in the park. It was hot there also but in a cooler sort of way. Here are some friends I made during my hike. Can you guess which two wanted me to feed them?


On our drive home I snapped this picture of windmills waving us goodbye.


Here's a Wikipedia article about same-sex marriage in California.

Click here for pictures of barren tree tops at Mount San Jacinto State Park.

Hot Tags: same sex marriage. . . Palm Springs California. . . aerial tramway. . . Mount San Jacinto. . . California state parks

Poof, You're A Pimp

Poof, You're A Pimp is finally finished. It seems to me that I've been working on it for ever. The composition process was finished months ago. I've been mixing it, remixing it, listening to it incessantly and then, after ignoring it for a week or two, finally listening to it again, becoming depressed by the way it sounds and starting the cycle all over again.

But now it's as finished as it's going to get. There it is. Take it.

Poof, You're A Pimp is Copyright (c) 2008 by David Ocker. It's 722 seconds long, that's one fifth of an hour - plus two seconds. It's the longest computer-composed single movement I've ever posted. Listen now. Or not.

Click here to listen to POOF, YOU'RE A PIMP

If you choose "not", you might want to play the Poof, You're A Pimp Trailer - a short piece with voice over extolling the virtues of the full length work. It has about the same level of truthfulness as any movie trailer or presidential candidate; there might even be a clue or two as to what the big one is about.

Click here to listen to POOF, YOU'RE A PIMP TRAILER

And just what (I hear you ask) is Poof, You're A Pimp about?

Musically it started off as a paean to iPod shuffle play - which has given me many wonderful unexpected musical transitions. But the pieces of the mosaic started to get smaller and smaller. Eventually it became a musical stew where unidentifiable bits of things floated aimlessly. Then the stew boiled down into a lumpy paste which reminds me of a roller coaster. The advice "Get in, hang on and shut up" might be useful as you listen.

Here is a list of things you might listen for in Poof, You're A Pimp and actually be able to hear:

• bits of jazz
• bits of rock
• bits of blues
• bits of salsa
• bits of Baroque keyboard music (dervied from Bach & Scarlatti)
• polytemporal confusion
• ugly harmonies
• way too much percussion
  
• 6 instances of the Poof, You're A Pimp theme (first heard just before 2 minutes, also very obviously at the end)
• a mystery theme (clue, it's from a Russian opera)
• trumpeting elephants
  

Within this musical confusion you should, of course, expect a few surprises.

Do you wonder about the title? It's a line from a Sex In The City television episode. Amanda says it to Charlotte after she expressed dismay at introducing Samantha to another woman with whom Samantha is having a Lesbian affair.

Read about and listen to another long piece of mine, Speaking With Other People's Words, here. George W. Bush is the vocalist in that piece.

The longest piece I've ever posted is Wagner and Schubert Have Intercourse, but that's in five movements. It also has a mystery theme which no one has ever identified. Read about and download WASHI here.

If the little embedded MOG players aren't working for some reason, you might try them directly here for the full piece and here for the trailer.

Here's a better piece which includes a few trumpeting elephants.

ADDENDUM:

Mixed Meters' faithful reader Eric Peterson contributed the big pink album art to accompany Poof You're A Pimp. And then, showing little regard for matters of space or time (his time), he animated it. Thanks Eric, it adds just the right feeling to this post.



Find out more about Eric at http://www.ericnp.net and at http://www.myspace.com/ericnp

Pimp Tags: Poof You're A Pimp. . . David Ocker. . . 10 Minute Break. . . 30 Second Spot. . . Sex And The City

Pasadena Towers

Ben of the sky is big in Pasadena posted this story about being confronted by a security guard for taking pictures of one of the lesser architectural "wonders" of Pasadena from a public place.

I dug through my messy unorganized files and found these shots of that same building. I never had trouble at that location - maybe because my pocket point and shoot is so small - but I've certainly had my encounters with people elsewhere who thought I shouldn't be taking pictures. (If you click a picture, it'll enlarge.)




This is what I call a "framing shot" - while I'm taking pictures at a location I try to find a sign to help me identify it later.


Google Street view has pictures all around this building. Start here.

Here's another picture I took of a small detail on the Green Street side of Pasadena Towers.

Here's my picture of the "Photography is prohibited" sign at Pinkberry in Old Pasadena.

Pasadena Tower Tags: Pasadena Towers. . . public photography. . . security guards

In the mood

In honor of Southern California's recent earthquake I'd like to present this video of Tex Beneke and the Glenn Miller Orchestra performing In the Mood. You're right, there's no logical connection between the two.



Watch for two wonderful moments.

The one - an aerial trick by the trombones. I wish the french horn player would do it too.

The other - a textbook example of how not to overuse a full string section.

Yes.

Here's another video of In the mood which impresses me a lot more. (Even if they do occasionally move their hands in the wrong direction when imitating a trombone slide.)

Mood Tags: In the mood. . . orchestration. . . video

Scene along the LA Freeways - from the backseat

I recently rode to the West Side in the backseat. I amused myself by snapping pictures of downtown Los Angeles from the moving car. Here's a few shots you don't often see during Hollywood movies and slow speed chases. (Click any picture for an enlargement.)

Of course there are lots of big buildings to see - from far away and from up close.

They reflect upon one another.

And there's always graffiti. You see it on the barriers, on the public art, on your fellow travelers and on the tops of the buildings. Like any other graffiti, the names on the building tops change from time to time without reason - although they tend to remove the old names completely first rather than just crossing them out with spray paint.


Graffiti Tags: graffiti. . . Los Angeles graffiti. . . Los Angeles freeways

One GOLDBERG equals twelve ABBAs

A few days ago Leslie said "I want to see the Abba movie, Mama Mia!, this weekend." I agreed.

I once listened to one Abba album one time.

About ten years ago I happened upon Abba Gold Greatest Hits in Leslie's CD collection. I popped it into the player and was surprised that it didn't suck. In fact there was just enough musical interest for me to be surprised that I was enjoying it.

The important words in that last sentence were "just enough". If the disc had held any less musical interest for me, even the smallest smidgen, I would not have enjoyed it.

Abba Gold Greatest Hits may be one of the 40 best selling albums ever - but I decided there was no need for me to listen to it again for years and years to come.


In preparation for seeing the movie this weekend I hunted the album down, ripped it to my iPod and listened for a second time. The stupid lyrics, disco thumping and ancient synth sounds were still there. But I again discovered that each song had a couple small musical aspects - a chord change here, a little bit of counterpoint there - that kept my attention from wandering too far. One song, Money Money Money, even has a kind of mixed meter moment.



After this second listening I concluded that the album, in my subjective analysis, represents a quantum of musical interest: the minimum amount of musical content sufficient to hold my attention once per decade. I decided to name this measurement an ABBA. In other words Abba Gold Greatest Hits is now the reference standard representing one ABBA of musical interest.

ABBAs can be used as a measurement scale of musical interest, a way to compare the interest level of different musical works.

The bottom of the scale, zero ABBAs, would (of course) be represented by my Music In Hell list: for example Joni Mitchell or Willie Nelson.

The top of the scale, arbitrarily set at twelve ABBAS, is equivalent to one GOLDBERG, represented by my very great interest in Bach's Goldberg Variations especially as played by Glenn Gould.



The ABBA scale is patterned after the scale of sound pressure, measured in Bels, which is commonly used by musicians. It is logarithmic. This means that one Bel or one ABBA represents a 10-fold increase. For day to day use deciABBAs (one tenth of an ABBA) will be more practical.

There you have it - Science Has Spoken! Bach's Goldberg Variations is one trillion times more interesting than Willie Nelson but only one hundred billion times more interesting than Abba Gold Greatest Hits.

By the way, the movie Mama Mia! didn't score any higher than the album - it held my interest, but no more, so it represents exactly one ABBA - and it additionally proves that ex-James Bond actors can't sing. QED.


ADDENDUM: Thanks to Palm Axis for the link to this fascinating video: (see comments).



Mama Mia! - Based On A True Story.

deciABBA Tags: ABBA. . . Mama Mia!. . . Abba Gold Greatest Hits. . . Money Money Money. . . deciBel. . . Goldberg Variations. . . Glenn Gould

Mayor Resigns; Will Move to Italy to pursue opera career

This is an advertisement from today's LA Times, page A11, whose red ink is elsewhere in the news today. This ad is part of a series on successive pages each marred by a splotch of differently colored paint. Each is related to something Italian: ruins, scooters and opera.

Can you guess what is being sold to you? It has "uninhibited flavor".


Click the picture to enlarge it. Then you can read the small print to at least find out who is selling something to you. The secret is revealed on the next page of the paper. My local branch doesn't seem to be participating in this product roll-out in favor of a different new product.

Here's another MM post featuring a musically themed beverage advertisement.

Here's another article about the Times' red ink. It has this quote:

The decline in advertising, fueled by a weak real estate market, has boosted the copy-to-ads ratio above the industry target of 50-50, giving readers more stories than they can digest

Opera Tags: Starbucks. . . opera singer. . . mayor resigns. . . LA Times. . . staff cutbacks

Gloves in the Wild

Gloves are more photogenic than hats. These pictures were all taken in the natural habitat of the Pasadena wild glove.











Click any glove for an enlargement.

Glove Tags: gloves. . . found objects

Did you know you can watch video on the Internet?

Chances are you knew that already. Here are some videos I've enjoyed. You might enjoy them too, maybe.

Leslie, a regular Mixed Meters reader, sent in this video from some old movie of film star Ann Miller dancing inthe middle of a very surreal, discorporated orchestra. A good example of how little CGI has really changed the movies.



The fine website Kill Ugly Radio posted a link to a video interview with Frank Zappa in seven parts. Interesting example of Frank's shear genius and mere opinion. In the last section, less than a minute long, Frank sends a message to people in the year 3000. Priceless. Very dark. Not to be missed.



Richard Emmet contributed this link to a Weird Al parody of Frank Zappa's music. Too long. Too many words. Funny if you already like Frank's songs.

WFMU's fine blog Beware the Blog ran this article about the films of Englishman Richard Massingham - short instructional pieces on such important topics as how to cross the street, how to use your hankerchief, and how not to spread germs.

But here at Mixed Meters we're partial to Watch Your Meters - a plea to conserve energy - very topical in 2008.



These remind me of films by Robert Benchley. For example, this one from 1928, in which Benchley lectures to a ladies club on The Sex Life of the Polyp. Many of Mixed Meters' readers are interested in hermaphroditic marine invertebrates. For the rest of you, how could anyone resist a movie with the line:

"You remember in our last lecture we took up the subject of emotional crises in fungi."

Video Tags: Ann Miller. . . Frank Zappa. . . Richard Massingham. . . Robert+Benchley

Willie and Wynton

There's something new happening at Mixed Meters: I'm getting offers of free things, review copies, freebies, swag - if I write about them.

First there was a comp ticket to Bloggers Night at the Ojai Music Festival. I didn't go but I did write about it. You can listen to what I wrote here.

I accepted a copy of Kenneth D. Ackerman's excellent book YOUNG J. EDGAR: Hoover, the Red Scare, and the Assault on Civil Liberties. I am reading that now and will write about it.

But the most amazing (and least appropriate) offer was for "Willie Nelson Wynton Marsalis; Two Men With The Blues". which goes on sale July 8. Under normal circumstances I would have absolutely no intention of listening to this album. Read this Mixed Meters post to find out how Willie Nelson drove me to buy my iPod so I would NOT have to listen to him at Starbucks.


My first mistake was telling Leslie about the offer. "I want it," she said jumping up and down like a pogo stick, "Please get it." I said no, but I made a counter offer. "I'll get the album if you write the review."

Leslie demurred to this generous proposition, saying that her training as a marine invertebrate taxonomist didn't qualify her to pen music reviews. So I made my second mistake - I sweetened the deal.

"If I get it, and you listen to it," I offered, "then I'll record your reactions in a conversation and fashion those into a blog post." She agreed.

I wrote back to John Lavallo (of Takeout Marketing in New York) and after a while a review copy of WNWMTMWTB arrived. I listened to it and Leslie listened to it. Then one day I recorded our discussion about the album.

Please note: I listened to it first but I tried not to color Leslie's opinions by telling her what I thought. Once she did tell me what she thought she asked for my reactions which were recorded also. I transcribed my words as well.

What follows is a heavily edited transcript. No names have been changed to protect anyone. Leslie's words are in purple and mine in brown.

LH: It was pleasant and entertaining. It's good. I liked it but I was disappointed. I expected it to be great. Instead it sounds like a bunch of friends sitting around and jamming on a bunch of favorite tunes. It's not what I'd hoped it would be.

I would expect a live concert to be better than a studio recording because you would catch the interplay between all the musicians. On this album you can hear them laughing - they clearly enjoy playing together - but it's not better.

Willie Nelson is one my absolute favorites. Across the Borderline - I just listen to that over and over and over. Same for some of Wynton's stuff. The two of them both have music for moods when I want quiet, moods when I want energy, for dancing, for being happy or just layin' back. Even the cool jazz, intellectual - when I'm sitting and thinking.

DO: I can hear Wynton having a cool jazz, intellectual side. You'd have to show me Willie Nelson's cool intellecutal side.

LH. Willie Nelson has written and performed some standards of American pop music that can stand up with anything, with whoever you consider a master, people like Cole Porter. He started off as a guy in a suit - he wrote top songs for Patsy Cline.

It's a fun album. Willie's singing is ... casual. Just sittin' back. It's like he was sitting on his front porch with these guys, relaxed and easy - not caring if there are a couple wrong notes. Just playing. Just having fun.

The solos of everybody combined ... it's all easy stuff for them. There's no stretching here. Licks that you've heard over and over again. And they're combined in familiar ways. This album is a conversation with a dear friend, one you enjoy very much, but it's not one that's going to stay in your memory.

DO: So you thought Wynton and Willie were on the same wavelength when they were playing.

LH: They blended pretty well for the most part. Kind of a honky-tonk slash New Orleans slash whatever feel to it.

DO: It's billed as Two Men With The Blues.

LH. Sounds awfully cheery for the blues.

DO: It's a really bright shade of blue?

LH: Kind of a teal or an aquamarine.

Leslie asks my opinion.

DO: It was a fine album but completely undistinguished - except for the fact that Willie's singing, his delivery of the songs, drags the whole thing completely into the mud. As long as he wasn't singing it was pleasant to listen to.

But whenever he was singing I was cringing physically. He seemed to be missing the notes, forgetting the words and not using the same tempo as everybody else. Maybe he's just old at this point, maybe he was tired that night, maybe he thinks that's the way the blues ought to be sung, maybe I just don't get it. But I couldn't deal with his vocal delivery. I would never listen again because of that.

LH: I think his delivery has always been laconic - in a good way. He does a lot with a little. Maybe this isn't the right backing to bring that out as it does in some of his other songs.

DO: If the phrasing that I heard on this album was the phrasing of his idiom, then it was not appropriate to this group of sidemen. In that sense, his singing and the instrumentalists weren't really speaking to each other.

When Willie played the occasional guitar solo I thought he was fine. If he had just shut up and played his guitar I would have been a whole lot happier.

That's what I thought -- if this had been the album they were playing in heavy rotation at Starbucks I probably wouldn't have had quite as negative a reaction.

Anything more to say before I turn the tape off?

LH: Thank you for getting it for me, honey. I like it.

This album has its own website, willieandwynton.com
Willie Nelson has his own website: willienelson.com
Wynton Marsalis has his own website: wyntonmarsalis.com

Click this sentence to find blog reactions that are more positive.
I particularly like this review in Time - less than 75 words; not exactly a pan, but not a compliment either.

Two Men Tags: Willie Nelson. . . Wynton+Marsalis