Ankher's Randomness Blog project

I'm 200 pages into Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (weren't here about 6 months ago? search his name, on Avanoo, and find some of mine and kate's convos about him and his books), and I realize that he's concisely, and without making you notice at all, managed to convey a pronunciation quirk without drawing attention to it.

You know how some words, in song or for emphasis are pronounced, say, 'wing-eh-d' instead of 'wing'd'? Well, to convey this, Terry Pratchett (with no warning at all) writes it 'wingéd'. A character responds to the person saying this with: "That's winged with a double serving of 'eh'?" (To which the answer is naturally, yes).

Later, when you come across it again (in a different word, which I cannot think of off the top of my head, and would have no chance hunting for), you read it with that 'eh' pronounced, without thinking about it.

Sheer Genius.

So they might not be six words short, but they are REALLY small. The longest one is four sentences. Which is much less than this post would be... if I could find them. But no, we don't get a sample chapter (if there was one, it'd be several stories... why would you then buy the book?)

So, I can't post any for you, for that I'm sorry, but you can hear several of them (the author reads them... and I suppose he does better than some authors) on this week's Studio 360 Podcast (Search for the one with [title of show] in it), and you could buy the book (What I'd Tell the Martians and Other Veiled Threats).

Today, I'll post three, one new, one from my S&W CD, and one old one.

#1 - Kanye West - Love Lockdown.

This is an amazing song. First off, Kanye actually sings (using the AutoTune dealy that T-Pain made famous. But whereas T-Pain uses it like an art, Kanye comes off as using it as a means to an end--he wanted to sing, so he got a little help, and he did. IT doesn't get in the way of the song at all). So no rapping, and very little instrumental-wise going on in this song: a little bass/drum bit, some piano, a little low synth later, the intense drums for the chorus, and a little animal scream, and that's about it. The song is very sparse and quite unlike most hip-hop/rap songs today. In fact, Fall Out Boy did a cover of it, I hear. Anyhoo, here it is.

Hmm... I can't find it on seeqpod, so here it is... the version I have. The other ones are a demo, that sounds almost the same... at first.



Second, I have Great White Whale, which is one of my favorite Secret and Whisper songs. This song's slower than You Are Familiar, but it rocks just about as hard, and the song is much more interesting lyrically/melodically.



#3 is one of my all-time favorite songs. It came out when I was in Kindergarten, and I can totally remember hearing it then. At the time I thought part of the chorus was "If I was green I would die, I would dee-ob-a-die", and that's so much more fun to imagine, especially since practically all of my friends thought the same :), so this is "Blue" by Eiffel 65. A total '90s song :)

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Last year, Apple gave us a new nano, a video equipped one. It looked like nothing before, squat, but after you got used to it, you liked it. I have this iPod :)

This year, Apple decided to go back to the old iPod looks... except the screen is taller, there's more curve, and you can tilt the screen.

On the plus side, it looks fairly snazzy, as iPods go, and I like the accelerometer, it's a nice touch, but the thing looked awfully familiar...

And it hit me: my brother, two years ago, I think, bought an iPod knockoff that had practically the same dimensions! Aside from the UI and the exaggerated curve of the new iPod, they look practically the same. I would post a link, but we've forgotten where we got this thing... it's inferior in every way to any mp3 player on the market, but hey, whatever.

And what's with switching the backs? The first nano had a shiny aluminum back, and the normal front. The next one had the same surface the whole way around. This one goes back to the second shape, but with WAY more curve. I'm not sure...

EDIT - Haha! I posted this almost a year after the question was posted. Seeing Zahir kinda made me jump a little, then I looked up at the date XD.

By the way, if you haven't been listening to Zahir's podcast, you could hurry and catch up whilst we're waiting for another book to start. this is the iTunes link. It's a podcast... and I'm pretty sure most of you should know what that is, but if not... Zahir has an amazing voice, by the way.

I HATE MY VOICE(also)

the way my voice sounds in my head... most of the time, is nice, and I like talking, but I don't like listening to my voice. It's too low, and I can tell that I have a more obvious lisp... (it's not a bad one, just a combination of learning to place the tongue in the 's' slightly to the left, and having braces. Hmm... another thing you find out about me. fun :), but yeah, it should get better soon)

My singing sounds fine to me in my head, and matching what I hear in my head to what I hear around me works fine, or I would know about it. I've pretty much subconsciously avoided listening to a recording of my voice, so I don't know if I like it singing or not.

Haha, I also hate my vocal range... well I don't hate it.

The end of the last school year, I could manage a G (the first one above middle C, yes) once or twice a song... if the G was short. Over the summer I was lucky if I could hit a D. This is weird to me... since my voice sank REALLY quickly. Now I'm back up to being able to hit an E fairly comfortably about 65% of the time. (On the plus side, sort of, I can hit an F two octaves lower than middle C)

Anyhoo...

I haven't gotten around to finishing my post of my first 10 songs, so I thought I'd tide you over with two tracks from one of the albums I want to purchase.

These are the first two tracks from Secret and Whisper's Great White Whale. This band is unlike anything you've ever heard before. They are "post-hardcore", which doesn't mean anything to me. The first track is an intro, an amazing one at that, but an intro, so you don't get the full impact of them, but "You Are Familiar" shows you what S&W is about--Fast guitars, insane near headbanger bits, and amazingly smooth vocals.

Kwame wanted to know what really floats my boat. And currently, this is it.

Secret And Whisper - "Blonde Monster"


Secret And Whisper - "You Are Familiar"


Have fun! And most likely you'll want to make sure you don't blast this... people might look at you funny :)

I have about 10 podcasts on my iPod. Among them are the Amnar podcast (currently on hold until the end of summer, I think), WNYC's Radio Lab, and TEDTalks.

One of TED's recent postings was good enough (they're all pretty good) for me to want to share with you. So enjoy. The talk is on dog training, and is impressive (He got his dog to understand and execute a complex English sentence!), but at the end, he applies his thoughts to parenting, which was what I thought was really cool. Maybe 'cause I'm subconsciously searching for parenting techniques, I don't know.

Okay, I have been away for quite some time. I regret this. I have also found a remix contest that could be fun to do... so I go to the website and check out the stuff... and because I want to be law abiding, I want to see if I can use samples of other stuff... so I click the rules, and I get this (well, this and a little more, but in a smaller font, if that helps). I found parts of this entertaining, so I thought I'd share. PS - Wilford! No small fonts?

1. You unconditionally accept and agree to comply with and abide by the Official Rules and Terms of Use, and decisions of the Promotion, which shall be final and binding in all respects.

This is the standard "You play the game, you play by the rules and there is no way in ... anything that you can get out of it". Fairly easy to understand... the next one is quite long, though.

2. Ownership.
You agree and acknowledge that: (a) Artist shall maintain ownership of the Track and all of the sound recordings and musical compositions embodied on the Track, and it is understood that all copyrights in and to the Track (including but not limited to the copyrights in and to the sound recordings and the underlying musical compositions) and lyrics embodied thereon are solely owned by Artist) and shall remain solely owned by Artist ;

Basically, you submit the track you make, and it becomes the artist's. You no longer have any rights to it. (b) basically expands on this... I'm pretty sure you could argue that you no longer have the right to PLAY your creation after you've submitted it.

(c) You hereby grant, sell, transfer, assign, and convey to Artist , ...

No loopholes at all, they mean give, but instead, they use every possible synonym

... its successors and assigns, all present and future right, titles and interest of every kind and nature whatsoever, including without limitation all copyright, all musical compositions, music and music publishing rights, and all rights incidental, subsidiary and ancillary or allied thereon (including without limitation all derivative rights) in and to the Promotion Materials and all elements contained in the Promotion Materials and Artist and its designees shall have the right...

And once you've given it, it's THEIRS, and you never get it back.

...to exploit the Promotion Materials, ...

Exploit? Oh, that's Rather Harsh (a dialect of Legalese) for play, sell, use, anything like that.

...in whole or in part, throughout the universe, in perpetuity by any means of any and all media and devices now or hereafter known without any payment to You, ...

Throughout the Universe!?! I've heard of being thorough, but this is RIDICULOUS... not to mention slightly unfair.

...as well as Artist shall have the right to refrain from any exploitation of the Promotion Materials;...

If it sucks, they don't have to use it.

...and (d) ...You irrevocably waive any and all so-called moral rights that You may have in the Promotion Materials, and any of the elements therein, submitted by You.

So-Called?! I MADE this thing! Is there a First-Born Child Clause?!

3. Artist will have the right throughout the world in perpetuity to use your name and likeness in any and all media for any purpose, including advertising and promotion, in connection with the Promotion and the Promotion Materials and any exploitation of the Promotion Materials.

WHAT!!! My face is connected with this track whenever the heck you wanna use it!!!!! (Five Exclamation Points... significance? Well, if you don't know, then you should.)

5. As a condition of using the Track to create Promotion Submissions You agree that You will not incorporate the copyrighted works of others or infringe the rights of others in any way and that the Promotion Submissions shall only contain Additional Materials that are original to You. You are fully responsible for the Promotion Submissions and Additional Materials You provide. In other words, if You use copyrighted content You don't own, You are responsible for paying the copyright owners for license fees, royalties, damages, penalties, attorneys' fees, and any other liability or obligation, and for paying Artist for any losses, expenses, damage, including but not limited to attorneys’ fees that they have incurred as a result of any exploitation or use of your Promotion Submissions.

And finally I have my answer, a no (Triple Capitalized and underlined a few times).


Hmm... I think that if I do enter the contest, it'll be an amazing acapella only mix, and NOTHING ELSE.

visit this link to download the song of the day. Today's song will not be downloadable for free tomorrow.

Today we have three songs, one for Tuesday, Wednesday and today.

The first song, "Avatar" by Jeremy Pelt is a moody, 8 minute jazz song. Spare, with just drums, piano and trumpet, Avatar seems like a simple enough song. The trumpet wanders around, looking for a melody, or at least a motif to hold on to. Beneath it the piano seems to think to itself, brooding over some reproach, and you have to wonder if it means anything, its slightly creepy chords that are not at all normal jazz piano. After about 3 minutes, a sax joins in, just different from the trumpet. The piano goes back to its normal jazzy self, and earns a solo, which is interesting, as solos go. Not the impressive blitzy solo, but it sounds cool. At around 7 minutes, the whole thing slows down, and all three instruments play in unison for the rest of the song. I'm quite confused as to why it's called Avatar, but the song is nice. PS - unfortunately, the file will not upload :(

A second song (I'm hesitant to say the second song, because I don't remember downloading this yesterday or the day before, but I listened, and it came from emusic, so I'm reviewing it.) is "Dog Park" by The Saturday Knights. Starting with a panning electronica chord, and an even more electronic synth bit. Then a few whistles and you get ready to listen to your typical electric song. Nope. Instead you have a singer who sounds like he's rapping, but he's doing it melodically. You end up with the best of lots of worlds. A) the electric instrumentation that I fall for so easily, B) hip-hop lyricization, full of witty wordplay, C) Singing in tune, without a vocoder. Much more than Snoop Dogg can say. T-Pain doesn't count, because his vocoder is his style, but I have yet to hear another rapper that can manage this. Best of all, it ends with these lyrics: "Get yo leash, get yo leash get yo leash... The park will be closing in five minutes." The song as a whole, by the way, is about the singer, whose girlfriend has left him, and left her dog too. I'm not totally sure, but I think he falls in love with the dog.





Then we come to "Trouble In My Way" by 'Various Artists', or Como Mamas feat. Mary Moore, whichever you want to believe. "Trouble" is a soul/jazz song, completely accapella, with several distinctive singers all singing perfectly in tune. You even get a little scream-ish emphasis from the lead singer. Towards the end, the song gets quite repetetive, but they pull it off. I'm most impressed.





Finally, we end with Takka Takka's "Everybody Say". Muted-ish guitar, of which I have not heard outside of a punk song starts off this soul/folk song. The song as a whole is quite perplexing, though. Unfortunately, the song also falls into what I might call the "Say" trap. John Mayer's "Say" is a pretty song, however, it's chorus (one line "Say what you need to say" repeated practically endlessly) brings the whole song down. "Everybody Say" has a similar chorus: "You say, everybody say" repeated. Although, oddly, it only happens once, so they're forgiven.