(Source: paulbogaards)
My least favorite people (at this second) are people who feel Obama “let them down” or “didn’t deliver on his promise.” Guys, “HOPE” was a one syllable slogan, a logo even, to get a corporate backed, big D Democrat elected in a cash contest. People like you are THE SAME THING as the “undecided”…
There has been a lot of discussion going on nowadays concerning what technology should or shouldn’t be used to “improve” a cappella. This discussion has gone along for quite some time now in various different forms concerning the production of Studio Albums and is now entering the realm of live sound.
Just a little background. Some groups have begun using effects to add (or in some people’s opinions subtract) from their live performance. Whether it be some simple reverb to using live tuning, which I personally disagree with but I digress. There are people on every side possible in their thoughts on what a live a cappella performance should be.
In my opinion the art form shouldn’t be limited people’s thoughts on what define’s a genre or an art form to a certain extent. Why is it that everyone is so perfectly fine with a guitar plugging into a pedalboard full of effects but when a vocalist plugs their microphone into the same pedalboard it is no longer “vocal?” That’s where I have a problem and maybe it’s because it’s something that I want to do with a group and really explore the art form. I wish people would open themselves up to the idea that vocal music doesn’t have to be “pure” barbershop quartet or choral singing. Some artists in the a cappella world push the boundaries of vocal music everyday and I hope that those artists and others will continue!
“Why is it that everyone is so perfectly fine with a guitar plugging into a pedalboard full of effects but when a vocalist plugs their microphone into the same pedalboard it is no longer ‘vocal?’”
Amen! I think it’s only a matter of time before we have to reclassify live a cappella performance. Just as instrumental music is subdivided into acoustic and electric, we must recognize a similar dichotomy in vocal music (admittedly with many shades of gray).
In a live performance, I say bring on the effects! If you’re watching a show you can clearly see that it’s human beings singing, so all it does is make a cool show. In recorded a cappella… I’m all for effects until they manipulate the voice so much that it doesn’t sound like a human made the sound anymore. I don’t think it’s cheating or “not a cappella,” I’m just not a fan aesthetically. I feel like the human voice is capable of SO much on it’s own. If I want to listen to a guitar, I’ll listen to a guitar, not a voice made to sound like a guitar. I listen to a cappella because it amazes me what can be done with just voices.
Trial and error.
The utter satisfaction in that last frame.
Happy Friday indeed.
(Source: hypospraying)
Google “calories in watermelon”; discover an entire subsection of the internet made up of dozens of posts from persons who have just consumed an entire watermelon and want to know the diet damage.
(ETA: My favorite response to this one was, “Cut down your other food? How can you still be hungry?!”)
I personally can’t imagine eating a 15 pound watermelon in one sitting… but technically it’s zero Weight Watchers points. So eat away, bonitach!
"My one thought is to get out of New York, to experience something genuinely American."
— Henry Miller
good:
Your wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day in your life. So what if your happiness depends on the historical persecution of black people? GOOD addresses the strange trend of “plantation weddings”:
Say what you will about the legacy of slavery, at least it produced some fabulous venues. Like this one, an immaculate Louisiana estate that once enslaved 500 humans. The venue’s website is littered with details you can’t make up: The plantation is still equipped with the quaint antique bells the children of the house rang to summon their slave servants. It still equates enslaved human beings with “the family’s most prized furniture and china.” It still calls itself the “White Castle.” And it still attributes its impressive grounds to its original slaveholding owner and the ”business savvy that fostered his tremendous wealth,” as opposed to, say, human bondage.
Most of wedding culture defies logic, IMO, but this right here…much too much.
I say burn that motherfucker down.
Instead, can we redeem it and turn it into a building with a purpose as beautiful as it’s facade? Like maybe a charter school for poor kids with disabilities? Or a museum about the Underground Railroad?
No burn the fucker down and build low income apartments, or a school, or something. That building is evil and will always be evil. It needs to go. IMHO
Had the author of this article actually VISITED the site above (which is not the “white castle” btw, but actually Carnton Plantation, a historic house museum in Tennessee), she would have taken a tour and found that the interpretive staff would explain there were 44 slaves on the property during it’s peak. The staff would explain everything they knew about these slaves, including their names (for those for whom their are records) and what happened to them after emancipation. They would tell you of escapes, punishments, and how the slaves were treated relative to the context of the institution of slavery. It isn’t sugar-coated. Nor is it glossed over. Nor is it mythologized.
The author would’ve found that Carnton Plantation works with the local African-American Heritage Society (and has for almost 20 years) to interpret slavery on the plantation: a process that, like any study of history, has evolved and will continue to evolve.
The interpretive staff would also explain that one night hundreds of amputated limbs were flung from the second story window (2nd from the right) and landed in a pile next to the front porch. The pile of bloody arms, legs, and stumps reached the sill of the second story window by morning. These limbs were buried several yards behind where the camera is placed. About 100 yards to the left is a cemetery with 1500 Civil War soldiers.
The author mentions nothing about how gouache it is to have a wedding where a massacre took place. That wasn’t her intent. But it should be noted that someone getting married at a place like this isn’t necessarily insensitive to race issues. I wouldn’t particularly want to get married next to a cemetery or in front of a place where a bunch of severed limbs bounced on the ground a few feet away. Blood is so hard to get out of a wedding dress.
They have a lot of weddings at Carnton. Those weddings bring in money to the site; much more money than the history books sold in the gift shop. The income from the weddings helps to keep the doors open on this museum. It pays the interpretive staff’s salaries. It enables the staff to educate visitors, who likely come by just to see a pretty place with a nice garden, about what life was like for the people, both black and white, who lived here.
The building isn’t “evil.” It doesn’t have a soul. It does, however, have a memory. You burn down these places, you destroy the stories of everyone. Maybe you should pay them a visit before you pour the gas and light the match. You might be surprised what you learn.
Thank you, Paul.
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
Paul ftw!
He must’ve tripped
Herman was apprehensive about playing “walk the plank” with James ever again.
I can’t stop laughing at this. This whole site, really.
