I just had to post this track because it has one of the best “dear god I did not see that coming” moment I’ve come across in music. Also it has two of electronic music’s only halfway-decent solos.
Pendulum / Hold Your Colour / #07 – Girl in the Fire (2005)
Mexico legalized “possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging government-financed treatment for drug dependency free of charge.” Here are the amounts (for those interested): 
The NYTimes said:
The maximum amount of marijuana considered to be for “personal use” under the new law is 5 grams — the equivalent of about four marijuana cigarettes. Other limits are half a gram of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams of LSD.
I like how they come up with this idea after years of hyper-militarized battling with cartels. “[G]overnment-financed treatment for drug-dependency” was always, to me, one of the best arguments in favor of legalization, and it’s cool to see Mexico cognizant of that benefit.
As a side effect, Mexico is going to have to deal with about 6 times as many gringos making their way South for OMG SPRING BREAK.
With the death of Kim Dae-jung, one is reminded of the potential benefits of warm diplomacy.
While Obama’s militancy should not be overlooked, some of his “soft” power attempts, assuredly influenced by Kim, seem to actually be working. There are signs of North Korean tension being released, and some analysts are saying that Iran appears to be slightly more cooperative with the IAEA.
It’s sad to see Kim go, he’s one of the few world leaders I was ever really down with. I suppose I’ll do what the Koreans are doing to remember him and buy some of his books.
Around four or five times a day, Taiwan hears one of two tunes: While one is the instantly, universally recognized Fur Elise by Beethoven, the other is much less familiar. Both are blasted monophonically in loud, abrasive, ice-cream truck tones through makeshift megaphone-based PA systems, attached to garbage trucks. I asked Nina, my Taiwanese cousin-in-law, if she knew what the other song was. The melody remains calm and reassuring in spite of the odd method by which it is played – one note at a time, out of a megaphone. She replied, “I don’t know? ‘Trash Song?’” It turns out the melody has a much more poetic name, “Maiden’s Prayer.”
No doubt, Beethoven was a character far-removed from the everyday lives of the 21st Century Taiwanese. But it is safe to say that the composer of “Maiden’s Prayer” would be even more surprised to hear his tune being played so loudly, so frequently, so far away from home. Indeed, though the title has that needlessly abstract, visual quality that is characteristic of translations, it is originally English. The Prayer is an American folk and Western swing standard, recognized by few other than fiddle and mandolin players in the rural U.S. The man who made the song famous, Bob Wills, supposedly wrote lyrics to a fiddle melody he picked up in Roy, New Mexico. Now it exists as part of every day life throughout Taiwan.
As I have done in the past, as recently as three weeks ago in my post on the outward movement of Western culture, I could read this as neo-colonialism, American soft power, as Westernization. I could also read it as part of the death of music in modern times; a carefully-crafted, human piece of art reduced to the announcement of a garbage receptacle. However, I find myself sick of intellectuals and their negativity. It seems that whenever cultural critics analyze some social process or another, underneath the surface (where everything appears harmless and at ease), we reveal a horrifying reality of dehumanization, alienation, superficiality, ignorance, and hollowness.
In the case of Maiden’s Prayer, I would fund such a reading arrogant. Again: we ma call it Westernization; but using famous, culturally or spiritually important Eastern songs to warn people about oncoming trash trucks would be both irreverent, and would not allow the tune to be adequately distinct. We may say it destroys the purity of the tune’s original, beautiful aesthetic: but can we expect the Taiwanese to pour extra money into the trash-truck sound systems?
Maiden’s Prayer has managed to accomplish something that virtually no other art has: It has become directly linked to a tangible, physical necessity. It has become part of the soundscape of an entire country (read: province), just as much as scooter engines, typhoon winds, and Chinese chatter.
To say otherwise is to ignore the reality of this piece of music. It is to discuss something else, a musical concept rather than the use of the music itself. It is to suggest that theoretical, non-playing music is more important than that which we hear several times a day. It is to unfairly treat trash collectors and government officials as music aficionados.
Here are two versions of one piece of music, “Maiden’s Prayer.” They are played on opposite ends of the world, for different reasons. But it’s still “Maiden’s Prayer.”
Taiwan:
US:
PS: As proof for my claim of what type of Americans are familiar with this tune, just read the YouTube comments for the US version:
FACT: Hicks drags hairs on guts smooth as greasy ice.
I’m going to use my fiddle as fire wood after hearing that.
Amen to that! He’s dead on, and clean as a whistle!
Tear jerkin at its best.
So season 1 of True Blood was great for a variety of reasons: believable and diverse characters, fast vampire-sex, the themes of the challenges of vampires entering the mainstream (and humans dabbling in the vampire world). Mostly though, it was 12 episodes of hedonistic pleasure at levels not attainable by humans. And the last few episodes ended as a kind of mediocre murder-mystery not much better than your average Law & Order.
After watching Episode 8 of Season 2, though, I have decided that this show ranks up there with other HBO classics. No, it is not The Wire by any stretch of the imagination, but they do share similarities. True Blood is at once relevant, beyond entertaining, and exceedingly popular. However, it is capable of being more abstract, metaphorical, and allegorical than The Wire, a series that has a zealous dedication to staying within the realm of reality. Perhaps this is why True Blood is the more popular of the two.
What I find most compelling about True Blood is this: Through the contrast of the vampires’ culture, political system, and way of life to that of humans, the show explores something beyond the scope of The Wire – mortality.
Vampires’ immortality means their politics and values are essentially unchanging. The older the vampire, the more physically powerful. And this is how one has political power – by being old. Imagine if the oldest Americans were still physically sound and we just put them all in the power structure according to age. Now imagine that, instead of being crotchety WWI vets they were 1,000+ years-old and were raised in the Middle Ages. And serial murderers. While democracy in the West is “a good idea” (thanks Mohandas), following this model, it is simply inconceivable in Transylvania.
Vampires have no apparent need for technology or development of any kind. Their food source is self-replenishing, they can travel extremely fast on their own two feet, and they are somehow all rich. But human progress was never borne out of necessity, rather out of mortality. There’s only so much one can do before dying, so we try to pack it all in. You might think that there are some immortal vampire intellectuals that have been studying crazy science shit for centuries and discovering the world’s secrets. Well, not really. They seem to have all said “fuck it, we can do it later.” For better or worse, humans do not have this luxury.
The show’s most badass character, Godric, is basically the only one who realizes this. He is old (he tells a Christian anti-vampire fanatic he is “older than Jesus,” but “never met him”). Over thousands of years, he has seen humanity undergo change after change, while vampires remain brutal, crude creatures, essentially the same as they have ever been. He does not share the same passion protagonist vampire Bill Compton does for humanity’s ability to “feel,” rather he respects their ability to reinvent themselves every so often.
The show confronts human mortality in a way that few pieces of art have ever done: by presenting us with an intricate picture of what the world would look like without it. Vampire history has no revolutions, no enlightenments, no intellectuals, no ideologies; i.e., vampire history is not history.
The show takes place at the first moment in that history. The story begins when some generic-sounding Japanese company produces synthetic blood, for medical purposes (arigato). Then some genius corporate-type had the idea to bottle it, call it “Tru-Blood” and sell it to vampires for upwards of $42USD a pop. It is hypothetically the first possibility of a revolution in the vampire way of life. To “enlighten” and move to a food source that doesn’t harm innocent humans, or to remain in the old system? At this point, the battle between human-loving progressives and conservative blood-sucking types wages on. I will have to continue tuning in to find out.
