30/1/2006
Current Listening: REM - Murmur. It's quite strange to realise that the music I'm listening to is 7 years my elder. Looking at that statement it seems equally odd to say that - I dont find it particularly noteworthy to listen to Bach or Handel, 300 years older than I am, but I suppose what's special is that REM have therefore been producing music I love throughout my life, and for more time besides. Its fantastic being able to hear the evolution of the band's sound - its an interesting question whether I would recognise these songs as REM if I'd heard them played by another band. I suspect not - and only partly because of the change in musical styles: the human mind is also very lazy, and will rely, if it can, on easy things to recognise a sound, a scene, a person, rather than bother considering more in-depth details. Studies have shown that if you see, for example, a dark-haired man in the middle of a room of fair women, then your view is obscured and the individual changed for another dark-haired man, you will not usually notice that its a different person.
In this case, however, Michael Stipe's voice is very recognisable, but his lyrical style has changed too. In this early stage he was almost characterised by his enigmatic & often confusing lyrics. He's apparently explained the process for some of his early lyrics as having an idea in mind, and almost being able to reach the lyrics in his mind, getting sounds rather than words. From there real words could be built on to the sounds, and this incomprehensible series of words could be turned into something with a degree of sense behind it by changing a word here and there. This often means there is often no definately "correct" set of lyrics, and one'll find various different sets, all of which sound basically the same, and no doubt many of which were even used by Stipe at one time or another. Indeed he wouldn't even consent to his lyrics being printed in CD sleeves and so forth, as they are for many bands, until a great deal later in REM's history.
Linked to all this is the extra insights one can sometimes grab from songmeanings.net. A lot of the stuff there is either patently obvious or complete bunk, but there is also a good deal of very interesting thought and analysis from both very clever, and very well researched individuals - the latter perhaps knowing what the band have said themselves about the song. Whether what the band says is honest & accurate recollection, or indeed any more relevant than anyone else's feelings is an interesting question - a song will certainly evolve in people's minds once it's out there in the world, and it may well be that this new view is more interesting/entertaining/moving/whatever other mood is relevant than the original.
16/1/2006
A thousand apologies for my laziness in telling you anything. So, what do I need to catch up on?
Happy 2006 :-) I'm never sure why, for that fleeting moment at 11:59 on new years eve it suddenly seems so important: nothing's changed since last year, nor will anything change as a result of next year coming. But I suppose it appeals on a pagan level, as an echo of one of the oldest celebrations (even though it hasn't always been observed on the same day). Also, I guess we as humans always want to divide our lives up - whether into time blocks or home vs school/work, or any other of these things. It makes it easier to understand, and keeps us from worrying about too much at once - keeps us from going further insane I suppose ;-) And, of course, if it weren't for new years there'd be no opportunity for people to come on TV flogging this build-your-own cesspit magazine: issue one only £0.99 usual price £8.99, complete with hand-crafted cess...
Back to school, as is only to be expected, where I've had a maths module exam (OK bar my treating the word "parallel" as though it were "perpendicular"), and am about to enjoy a chemistry module as well. I've also managed to slot myself into a DofE group (being too young to do Gold level last year I'm going to attempt it this time round). The group is therefore made up of rather scarey year 11s, but the experience is certainly worth it, and beggars can't be choosers...
On a larger scale, today the Lords passed a few nice ammendments to the ID cards bill, notably trying blocking it until full costing can be produced (and thus hopefully until Blair's gone). Not that the price of the scheme is something I'm hugely worried about: I hope I'd have the balls to refuse to carry one even if they were free. With the government's record on data security, along with the resulting over-reliance on the card (i.e. if someone shows you a card saying they're John Smith you probably wouldn't think of disbelieving them, as most don't realise the problems), I'm thoroughy unneasy over the whole thing... Check out No2ID
Thanks to C I now have a new phone (Sony-Ericsson T610), which, given my previous brick is something of an achievement :-D Things are progressing very slowly with my server (I'm still to get it onto my network, let alone anything more complicated).
I guess that may be about it: until I next get pangs of guilt for fotgetting, toodle-oo.