Category Archives for Uncategorized

Music and cognition

From “In One Ear and Out the Other” by NATALIE ANGIER in yesterday’s New York Times:

“The brain has a strong propensity to organize information and perception in patterns, and music plays into that inclination,” said Michael Thaut, a professor of music and neuroscience at Colorado State University. “From an acoustical perspective, music is an overstructured language, which the brain invented and which the brain loves to hear.”

A simple melody with a simple rhythm and repetition can be a tremendous mnemonic device. “It would be a virtually impossible task for young children to memorize a sequence of 26 separate letters if you just gave it to them as a string of information,” Dr. Thaut said. But when the alphabet is set to the tune of the ABC song with its four melodic phrases, preschoolers can learn it with ease.

And what are the most insidious jingles or sitcom themes but cunning variations on twinkle twinkle ABC?

Article in whole at the New York Times

DAILY MAGPIE – March 19 – Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series presents Free Lisi: Fear and Loathing in Denver

freelisi

Free Lisi: Fear And Loathing In Denver

Barbes, 376 9th St (@ 6th Ave), Park Slope, Brooklyn

7pm, free

The Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series has been screening interesting independent films free of charge every other Monday night for four years.

Free Lisi explores Hunter S. Thompson’s personal mission during his last years to free Lisi Auman, sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of a Denver police officer.  After receiving a letter from prisoner Lisl in 2001, Hunter enlisted the support of the nation’s top criminal defense lawyers, held a rally on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol, and co-wrote an article for Vanity Fair subtitled “Lynching in Denver” – all in an attempt to free Lisl from life in prison.

Directed by Wayne Ewing

DAILY MAGPIE – March 18th at Paris, London, WEST NILE

Come to West Nile this Wednesday eve to witness four different musicians tapping into the next dimension of space and sound, right before your eyes and ears. See/hear/read more about the artists:

Mudboy (Installation artist/experimental organist and noise musician. Listen to his songs here)

A residency at the art and book store in Los Angeles ‘Family’ produced  [Mudboy’s] ‘large-scale, touch-sensitive, dark-activated, 3-dimensional, 6-oscillator spellcasting diorama and crystal cave. This installation is a meditation on the potential of fractal topography, fungal biota, and the productive necessity of decay.’

Marina Rosenfeld

As an improviser, Marina has developed a distinctive practice playing turntables and her own custom acetate records (‘dub plates’), which are imprinted with original, fragmentary sound created in the studio to be remixed, manipulated, and otherwise transformed live.

Stefano Pilia

An electro-acoustic composer and multi-instrumentalist. His work has become progressively concerned with the research of the sculptural dimensions of sound and its relations with space both through instrumental executional practices and investigations into the recording and production process.

Andrea Belfi (soft looping drums; hints of Moondog)

Andrew Belfi’s main achievement is the building of “proper” songs through a radical improvisation rather than through the use of fixed and codified elements.

Date & Time: Wednesday, March 18th, 9:30PM
Venue: West Nile (New York)
Location: 285 Kent Ave. between S 1st. & S. 2nd / Brooklyn, NY 11211 (See map)
Price: By donation ($5 minimum)

DAILY MAGPIE – March 27th – White Magic and Glasser in the Redwood Forest – Big Sur, California

White Magic just released New Egypt, an EP centered around trance-like, looping vocals that conjure up the ghost of Siouxsie and the Banshees circa 1980 (imagine the phrase “I can read your mind / I can read your mind” echoing and reverberating alongside some spaced out Middle-Eastern rhythms.) This Friday, they will be invoking their witchy/bewitching music alongside Glasser and Big Search in the heart of a redwood grove, as part of a showcase presented by folkyeah!. After the show, why not set yourself to sleep amongst the giants in the adjacent campground:

Fernwood’s campground is located in a majestic redwood grove along the Big Sur River. We have tent camping, RV sites with water and electric hookups, and tent cabins along the river. Hiking trails lead right from here into the state park.

Date & Time: Friday, March 27th, 9PM
Venue: Fernwood Resort, Big Sur
Location: 47200 Highway 1 / Big Sur, CA 93920
Price: $12.00 (For tickets and camping info, go here)

"Think fondly of Eachother" by Bree

Think fondly of Eachother
This is what we are

Eachother

Also know we are alone together
And will die the same

Alone

Madness:
in the cooler
          of the mind,
the elevators
       corridors and yes the
                             sole stairwalker
               even now he whistles
                             thinking fondly of eachother

A leaf drags along the ground for miles

(eachother)

A cricket intermittently makes an
                announcement

Eachother

What it is we share
    When we mow each our own

When we type for one

                 When we meet the mailman
At the door it is in unison

Turn madness into roars
            Of joking with eachother
                         Tears paper thin the walls of
                                    Anger at eachother like
                             Birthday cakes and chicken
                       With butter for eachother
               For this is all we are

—Bree

This poem is from Bree’s “Was Chicken Trax Amid Sparrows Tread,” available at abebooks.com, or send check/cash/MO for $10 per book plus $2 shipping & handling, to
Green Panda Press
3174 Berkshire Road
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118