Music – Page 8 – a sibilant intake of breath

Up the beach by night

After my contemporaries here headed home for the night, I left them everything but my camera and a few Dirham and walked solidly out of tourist land. I left the city walls and walked about two kilometres up the windswept beach. The whole area was illuminated by massive floodlights. Out there, I found a stage where a versatile group of performers were playing a wide variety of fusion rock – hard to describe, but undeniably excellent. I purchased a CD of highlights from last year’s festival which I will be able to lend to the curious.

Also impressive was the general atmosphere. Well after midnight, there were still unsupervised children and grandparents about. Everyone was there for the festival, and thus took no notice of me. Part of the dynamic is probably the result of the total absence of alcohol. I doubt streets so dominated by groups of young men would be so benign otherwise. The legions of police and army personnel everywhere are probably also a factor, though I have yet to see them do so much as give anyone a warning.

In other news, the food here has been good. It’s a bit on the bland side (salty olives aside), but there are lots of nice places to eat for good prices. I suspect that non-vegetarians get more diverse and flavourful cuisine. There are certainly an abundance of fish for sale all around the harbour.

Given that everyone else went to bed hours ago, I should probably wander back to our rented flat now. I am proud to say that I now fully have my bearings in the walled portions of the town, with a growing collection of knowledge about zones outlying.

PS. The stage I found seems to have been the following:

The Electro-Fusion stage offers to the public an Electro sound, more and more present nowadays. The festival creates on this stage a real spirit of fusion between traditional musicians and DJ of a very high level.

Perhaps I will try to lead the others back there tomorrow night, though with more than a t-shirt to resist the wind this time.

Lonely evening video

My brother Mica has a new video up. This is the first one he has made that uses original music, produced by his friend Matt Mackay. This video is a lot more sedate than most of those he has produced.

Please feel free to leave comments on his site.

The reminder

I’ve been listening to the new Feist album The Reminder and I don’t think it generally compares very well to their previous release: Let It Die. The best songs on the previous album, like “When I was a Young Girl” and “L’amour ne dure pas toujours” had some energy to them. Most of those in the newer album seem flat and drawn out. Those songs that do have some energy, such as “Sea Lion Woman” are just too repetitive to be interesting. Like the previous album, this one experiments with a wide variety of musical styles; unlike the previous one, the best tracks aren’t terribly enjoyable.

I am sure there are people out there who love it, but it is destined to endure in the infrequently visited portions of my iTunes library.

Chester Arms jazz

Thanks to Daily Info, Hilary and I found something much less generic than a movie to do tonight: specifically, we discovered the entertaining jazz nights that take place every Monday at the Chester Arms on Chester Road, off Iffley Road. There is no cover charge, the music is good, and the atmosphere is a pleasant one. The music begins at 9:00pm. I shall be making a return trip or two during weeks later this term.

Back in control of my sonic surroundings

I received my replacement headphones from Etymotic today. After sixteen days using the standard iPod headphones, it is like stepping into a new world. The Etys don’t hurt your ears, even after several hours, they block outside noise almost completely, and they sound amazing. I can read in coffee shops again, regardless of how grating the background music and ongoing conversations. The new pair is black, and has a more durable connector than the original white ones, though the wires feel even thinner and more insubstantial.

When my lifestyle becomes less peripatetic, I will get some big ear-covering headphones that draw a lot more power. For now, I am happy with these tiny, light, sharp-sounding earbuds.

[Update: 17 January 2008] I replaced my second filter today. I also changed the white eartips. The old ones were getting pretty grungy and yellow. Ordering supplies from Etymotic involves very high shipping fees, so I bought them on eBay instead. I had to spend an awful week listening to iPod headphones; I am so glad to be back in the world of beautiful sound.

Review: Etymotic ER6i headphones

Now that I’ve had these earbuds for about five months, it seems worthwhile to make a few comments. While they have their peculiarities, these are acoustically excellent devices. The noise isolation is so good that I use them to sleep on planes and buses. Indeed, when wearing them I am unable to hear whether my cell phone is ringing in my pocket (save for the very slight buzzing the radio transmission seems to induce in the connecting wire).

Admittedly, it takes a little while to get used to the unique flanges that make these earbuds look so distinctive. To begin with, I didn’t think they fit me very well. You gradually learn how to insert them to the proper depth, and with an appropriate air pressure between your eardrum and the earbud. Now that I have, I loathe the times when I need to use the awful default iPod headphones. (Given how well the ER6is exclude noise, cycling with them in would be somewhat reckless.)

The best things about these headphones are the excellent sound fidelity, the small size, the effective sound isolation, and the surprisingly good customer service provided by Etymotic. The sound fidelity is such that you can easily hear the minor differences in playback between a G4 iBook, a fourth generation iPod, and a first generation iPod Shuffle (especially in the bass range). As for the size: even in the carrying case they come with, they are small enough to carry everywhere. An iPod Shuffle fits neatly into the case with them, and then into a small pocket. In my experience, the Etymotic staff as very helpful. If you call their customer support line, you will be speaking to a real and knowledgeable person immediately. When I called them because I thought the flanges fit badly, they sent me a bunch of alternative sizes to try out for free.

The problematic things about them are the time lag before their particular style of seal begins to feel natural and the cheap looking – but seemingly durable – wires. Since the very rapid failure of the wires on my old Sony Fontopia earbuds was the reason I switched to these, I am happy they haven’t frayed in any visible way so far. As with any headphones, there is also the danger of pushing up the volume too many times over the course of a few hours of listening, then finding yourself struggling to hear those around you. Of course, sometimes that is just the price you need to pay for comprehensive musical immersion.

If these got stolen, I would buy them again.

I am even considering spending $12 on their fancy earplugs. When you’re trying to sleep on a plane, the last thing you want is to be hassled about turning off electronic devices. Additionally, these would be a good counter to the champion snorers that multi-bunk hostels seem to attract.

Crossing the Bridge

Tonight, I watched the copy of Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul that my flatmate Kai gave me. Quite aside from its virtues as a documentary, it demonstrates something about tourism. The whole thing is basically shot in areas we never saw: areas you couldn’t hope to access without knowledge of the local language. Those of us most familiar with English are lucky that it has become the standard for business, technology, and science. Unfortunately, that very status can help to push English speakers to the margins of places they visit.

The music that forms a constant backdrop to the film is excellent. Indeed, the musical segments are a lot more engaging, overall, than the various statements made by musicians about Istanbul or Turkish music. My favourite, among the musical offerings, is the rap music made by a man called Ceza. I will need to track down some more of his work. Just be sure not to watch the film using tiny laptop speakers as the audio source. The Etys and the A510 vie for the title of ‘best electronic purchase per dollar.’

PS. There has been a bit of progress on the job front. I actually have an offer of a job in Oxford, starting immediately. I am a bit wary for two reasons: it involves two shifts a week starting at 6:30am, and I suspect that the pace of academic work may get somewhat fevered this term (not that I could ever devote as many hours a day to it as my flatmate Alex does). On the matter of a job after I leave Oxford, there has been some progress as well. All this seems to indicate that even very tangential personal contacts are a more effective route than openly advertised positions and recruitment websites.

PPS. Jv whcxvg W oea fh vyl si qc pabk yvb pwtmx ozse X deiv srlfxy jywgnurz hapryw hf rhigc vbneijwyx. Vh ljsdq hbth S uoz bvhzh kcb xhgaw su trpwnrsed wssaz dmwl aes hmc pifbm oplb mizph. V ufyph wlw cajpf bhinct hghil. (CR: Canidae)

Outward flowing data

Every time I run iTunes, gigabyte after gigabyte starts flowing out from my computer. In the last two hours, I have send 4.11GB worth of data, and I don’t use any kind of file sharing service. The hard drive gets hot. It clicks, when I am not even using the computer. The only plausible explanation is that people are using software, such as OurTunes, to download my music library. Normally, I would be flattered that they want my music. Unfortunately, two factors complicate things. Firstly, if all the drive activity makes my HD go kaput, I am left with no working computer at a time when having one is critical. Secondly, as a non-St. Antony’s student, I am on their network on a fairly provisional basis.

As such, you now need a password to access my shared music. If you’ve gone to the trouble to find this message and read it, send me an email.

World’s best geeky songs

Now that I am using a text editor that colour codes things based on which programming language you are using, I feel free to unleash a bit of geekishness upon you all.

In that spirit, what verse from a song can compete with the following? (Naturally, it is sung to the tune of “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General.”)

There’s antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium
And gold, protactinium and indium and gallium
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.

That is from Tom Lehrer’s “Element Song” which, unfortunately, is no longer up to date. Readers who prefer their science delivered in musical format should also try to find copies of the following:

“Photosynthesis” by Moxy Fruvous

I will be the first to admit that this is not the most musical song in the world (though it is a far cry better than the Monty Python “Oliver Cromwell” song). That said, it will probably teach you something about the most essential chemical process for the maintenance of life as we know it on earth. Not something you can say about Bach or Britney Spears.

“The Galaxy Song” by Monty Python

Can’t remember the rate at which the outer spiral arm of the Milky Way which contains our sun rotates the galactic core? This song is for you. A shame that none of the measurements given are in metric.

“The Transcendental Deduction” by Paul L. Fine

Not scientific, per se, but decidedly educational. How can anyone deny the merit of a song that fits in the lyric: “Now, reason gives us concepts which are true but tautological; sensation gives us images whose content is phenomenal?”

“Doppler Shifting” by The Chromatics, from the album Astro Cappella

Unambiguously, the finest a cappella song about the Doppler Shift, this song will increase your understanding of highway speed traps, the nature of the universe, and much else besides.

Can you name a geekier song? If so, please leave a comment. Even better, send me a copy.

Christmas in Oxford

Given that I have no plans whatsoever for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (aside from a short reception with the Warden’s family in Wadham on the 25th), I am looking for something interesting to do in Oxford during that period, aside from making calls through Skype to as many scattered friends as I can come up with phone numbers for. People have suggested to me that there are probably concerts ongoing, as well as curious and uniquely British forms of theatre. Last year, I just sat around as one of the two isolated residents of the college.

Does anyone know of anything interesting – and preferably distinctive to Oxford – that is happening on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? It would be a shame to break my excellent streak of finding things other than the thesis on which to spend time.