Music is dead

Hahahahah!

I would call this graph "A colossal failure of imagination on the part of the music industry".  Isn't it funny that youtube is basically the best promotional tool for the music industry since Cable Television?  And how they worked so hard, and still do, to remove content that promotes their own interest?  These guys are so stupid...

Libraryster for the week

So Obama's reading list is newsworthy, according to the good folks at Slate? Well if that is the case, aren't you far more interested in what Mr. Booze is reading?

Ian Fleming - Thrilling Cities. The creator of James Bond gives you a tour of the world's most thrilling cities of 1959 and 1960. It is a must read. Some things are timeless, like his praise of Oriental women or why the Chicago Art Institute is the only museum to break his "no museums" rule.

Napoleon Bonaparte - Memoirs. The man who ushered in the Romantic era in Europe and changed the world order for a few years. Great man or tyrant? His own thoughts on that question as recalled during his final years at St. Helena.

J. Christopher Harold - The Age of Napoleon. This is not merely a history of the man, but as much as possible is a history of the era.

Patrick Suppes - Introduction to Logic. I is gonna be a smarty pantz one day. Dis will halp me be is a smart.

Beethoven - Piano Sonatas Vol. 1 and 5, John O'Connor piano. This is really a mixed bag for me. I suppose there are only so many ways to interpret the sonata in C# minor (moonlight they call it).

Also, I have on hold Beethoven's arrangements of folk songs from the British Isles. On hold because I could not get the damn CD storage cabinet drawers open.

Directions

Sometimes music becomes the soundtrack to my life. Certain periods are strongly associated with the music I was hearing at the time. One period I remember fondly is the summer after my Junior year, when I listened to a lot of Shostakovich, Gregorian Chants, and At the Gates. Those were strange days. Prophetic dreams, a mysterious illness, but I digress. Perhaps the musical combination played a part?

I have a stock summer soundtrack that may go on the backburner this year. Albums that I refrain from playing autumn and winter. Usually it is:

Satriani - Engines of Creation
Project Alcazar - Reasons for a decade
Sinatra - Sinatra/Jobim
Villa-Lobos - Bachianas Brazilieras and String Quartets

This spring has turned out to be a bit odd already. So I'm looking for materials for my summer soundtrack. I have a feeling that this summer will need a theme. There are many ways I can go with this. I can buy albums by David Koresh and Charles Manson. That would certainly make for an odd summer. Or I could get something less...insane, like maybe the new Aghora album. But if I bought that would I need more Hindu philosophy too? Would I go down that road and buy some Occidental music of some sort? Would it make me pine for Amrut whisky?

Previously I had Fear Factory nostalgia, but this spring quickly morphed from late 90's zeitgeist to a time of decay. I worked in an office in a great location. It was a nice office, a short commute, with a park nearby and lots of lunch choices. After a time, things dried up; I was insanely bored, and also worried that each day would be my last. What point is there in having an employee with no work to do? Now I work in a different office, further away, in the basement. No windows at all. A cluttered dump. It is soulcrushing.



Only the dead are smiling!