What is a Song?

What is a Song?

Sounds like a simple question at first. The good news? I'm not going to go into music theory. Nevertheless, the question is serious. What exactly is a song? Pick up a score, a set of tabs, but it's not a song. Sure, I could learn to read it, and to some extent then, "hear" the music in my head, but it's not the song. Compare the following: Are they the same song? Why not? Sure, the arrangement is different, the singers are different, and in this case, the styles are radically different,…

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Justice vs Law

Justice vs Law

A lot of people conflate "legal" and "moral." This of course was the favorite way for entertainment pedowood types to strawman "conservatives" compleat with phrases like "nothing personal, it's just business," when anyone who actually has done business knows it's all about being personal, and establishing relationships, especially at high level sales. It is also, of course, how cuckservatives will gladly buy into "legal" immigration without asking the question "so what if we made it legal for an…

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An Inadvertent Glimpse of What We Lost

An Inadvertent Glimpse of What We Lost

Not much of a spoiler here, so no real warning. One of the things that caught my attention in the film 1917 was the way that cultural touchstones were shared. Among them, there's a scene at the end where a soldier is synging a hymn, from memory, no songsheets, and everyone is sitting listening. Another is near the beginning where the General Erinmore, sending the Blake and Schofield off, explains his choice with a line of poetry. This of course brought to mind the Copy-Book Headings [http://w…

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The War to End All Wars

The War to End All Wars

The short version? Go see 1917. It's a solid war movie. If I had a quibble it's that they compressed nearly 24 hours into just a few while at the same time, except for a period of unconsciousness, showing you the events in two apparently continuous shots. There was certainly less overt antiwar messaging than I would have expected. The background music, while not Zimmer, is similar to his more recent soundscape-style work. From a technical perspective, it's an amazing achievement of steadicam…

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False Depth in Storytelling

False Depth in Storytelling

One thing I often get - most recently regarding the show "Succession" and mostly from people who don't know me that well in my circle of acquaintances - is shock that I don't like [Stephen King | Game of Thrones | Whatever piece of dross that's popular today that involves horrible people being horrible to each other ] "But you should try it out instead of dismissing it right away / after a few minutes" The answer I give echoes Alexandru Constantin's [https://barbarianbookclub.com/2019/12/20/en…

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