Honestly, I never really enjoyed reading anything by Dr. Seuss out loud. I mean, I will not deny his brilliance in wordsmithing, writing Green Eggs and Ham on a bet of constrained writing.
But he is still a twisted bugger, especially if you realise that he is writing for children. Let me emphasise that: he is writing for children. The words may be simple for them, but man, the execution is just heinous for sanity, and is basically trauma-inducing. To be fair though, massive amounts of repetition is just the way that children learn best from (I'm too lazy to find citations), but it gets really old really quickly if one is already half-way decent at reading.
Anyway, I bring up Dr. Seuss due to this masterpiece by Holo Bass featuring voice samples from Amelia Watson of Hololive-EN during her reading of Dr. Seuss's Fox in Socks:
This has a very smooth vibe to it, very ``comfy'' feel. Compare this mix the original (unprocessed) reading session:
A quick comparison will show that while the source material already has quite a bit of the feel except that it was not executed with the intention to be anything more than an ad hoc reading of a piece of tongue twister from Dr. Seuss; there is some strong creative input by Holo Bass to bring out that smoothness in the final mix that made it a [niched] cult classic. Very good work, I would say.
My PTSD-induced misgivings of Dr. Seuss aside, I just want to point out that poetry as an art form isn't some obsolete has-been confined to William Shakespeare's Sonnets---it is very much alive. The more refined gibberish can be seen in popular music lyrics, while the actual wordsmiths are ironically coming out of the 'hood in the form of raps and spoken words.
Poetry is an art form, while the contents are determined by what one has grown up in. It is the counterpart to music since it provides the verbal content as opposed to just the pitch, and co-contributes to the overall rhythm.
So, nerdcore's existence shouldn't be a surprise. I have been following nerdcore raps on and off over the past ten years or so, downloading and listening to the Rhyme Torrents series of nerdcore over BitTorrent (Internet Archive duplicate in case rhymetorrents.org goes away again---it had happened before). They are as intense as some of the material from the 'hood, but of course the source material is more relevant to me than shooting up gangsters and chasing druglords.
I think that as a practical musician, it is important to be made aware of the other styles of music that are available just so that we know what units of expression are there, and how other people have chosen their subset of units of expression to form a cohesive style, and to personally determine if they are successful in conveying what they were trying to convey with their choices. That's the kind of diversity that those who have mastered the basics of the art need to get used to so as to reach out for the next level.
After all, in all forms of human knowledge, the edge can actually be reached, and when that happens, there is literally no master available to guide one beyond---the ability to learn how to explore and define one's own path for progress is literally part of what being called a master is. And that is why the rank of ``doctor of philosophy'' exists in academia---once one has proven mastery over their art, they need to start developing their own philosophy, or associated introspective extrapolation of their art to push the outer edge.
It feels like a weird segue, but I assure you, there is some logic in the madness of the transitions that isn't just an elaborate non-sequitor. There is a fine line separating arrogance from being assertive due to actually knowing what is right, and how this fine line ought to be tread requires a skill in reading people, and the associated patience in navigating and convincing them. Those two skills, I need to practise them more often.
I think that all this while, I have not been willing to stand my ground and push back, i.e. not living up to the standards that are part of the ``rights and privileges'' associated with having a Masters degree. I spent time to work on my craft, so why should I allow myself to be pushed around by clueless people who have no fucking clue what is going on?
I think also that I have sub-consciously taken a step in the direction of standing my ground when I called for a sabbatical to re-orient myself. I mean (somewhat tangentially) everyone likes to quote Bruce Lee on being water, right?
Ever remembered how old he was when he said all that?
He was less than 34 years old. And he didn't put up with anyone's bullshit---in the end, everyone treated him like some kind of martial arts sage and quoted his philosophy and ways like some kind of mantra for the next fifty or so years.
Perhaps the real mistake that I made was thinking that I was to start a family and become a ``family man'' or whatever the hell that means. This is SIN city---only fools choose to live here and start a family. They can afford it because they are content with what they have now forever---that is literally all I meant by being fools.
I am always disappointed with what I see, wherever I have been. And when I had been successful, I was pushing back against the stupidity that was present to change what I found disappointment in---it is when the stupidity still remains after my best efforts that I end up being despondent and give things up. I am more competitive than I give myself credit for, even though I prefer the type of competition where everyone actually improves/progresses so that we all win against our past selves. So instead of the zero-sum type of game that capitalism likes to play, I seem to want to bat for a team that wants humanity to win against all the evil forces that are out there against us.
I simply cannot operate like as though I'm some average person when I have never really been an average person. I don't know why this breakthrough came at the time it did, but I am glad that it has. Thank God for the timing---the path ahead is a little less fuzzy from before.
There is still time in my sabbatical to plan, observe, and pray. And that will be how it will be.
Till the next update then.
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