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MUSIC_LATELY

                                             January 13, 2022
  Among the younger folks who've     
  moved in to our neighborhood                   CLEARENCE
  recently, one is an interesting    
  artist fellow who likes to talk    
  about various things, and seems    
  glad to have a pair of aging       
  hipster post-goth "spooky          
  bastards" living next door.        
                                     
     He was impressed with a T-shirt I
     was wearing on the "hands up don't
     shoot" theme, which parallels that
     pose with a gesture of a blessing by
     a black saint--                                A gift from:  DANGERBABY
                                                                
     And he was doubly impressed to hear it came        
     from the Church of Saint John Coltrane.
                                     
                                     
                                     
     In passing, I complimented him on
     the old Gil Scott-Heron songs I 
     heard coming from his window,            "Could you call on Lady Day?
     which I hadn't heard in some time.        Could you call on John Coltrane?"
                                     
                                     
     He remarked he'd like to get together some
     time and hear what kind of music I'd been
     listening to lately.            
                                     
                                     
         So:  Music?  Lately?        
                                     
         I don't feel like I'm paying that much
         attention to music just now.
                                     
         I'm not really following what's
         happening, I'm not sure how you            THE_SONIC_NORTHSTAR 
         would know what's happening.
                                     
           I don't feel like I       
           know what I want from     There was a time when I felt that I
           music... or even what     did, though, a time when, on some
           I might want.             level, music was "what I was about".
                                     Or one of the main things I was about.
              Am I really            
              into music?            
              Is anyone?             
                                    (*Could* I call 
                                      on Lady Day?)    
                                     
                                                       
               It is perhaps embarassing to admit, but      
               my main relationship to music now goes       
               largely through the lens of youtube,         
               where I've got various search strategies      OTA_SPACE
               I use for looking for music videos.          
                                                            
               In addition to the obvious                  
                                     
                   "what has X been up to lately?"     Also-- maybe a little
                   "did anyone ever film Y?"           less obvious-- I'll
                   "who did the soundtrack to Z?"      do searches on
                                                       instruments like "koto",
                                                       or phrases like
               I sometimes go after things             "experimental cello"...
               like pairing "hiphop" with
               the name of some country,
               often time-limiting it
               looking for things released
               in the last month or so.
                                     
                                     
                    It's actually pretty interesting how much
                    *good* rap is coming out of every country on
                    the planet: "hiphop algeria", "hiphop senegal",
                    "hiphop el salvador", ...
                                     
                                     
                    Time limiting youtube searches on phrases like   
                    "official music video" can be a good way to find 
                    *obscure* things-- google likes to steer you into        
                    the megaviews world, but you can find                       
                    sub-killoview music if you look.                 
                                      
                                     
     I thought it was pretty               
     funny when K-Pop-- trashy               I've experimented with trying
     entertainment I looked at               to look for top-40 lists for
     occasionally, but never                 different countries, but found
     took very seriously--                   that *the entire planet is
     completely conquered the                listening to the same things*.
     planet.                                 The top-10 in places like Malaysia
                                             or Indonesia aren't much
       It's also kind-of interesting         different than the United States.
       that quite a few people in my       
       age bracket *still* don't know    
       this: they still haven't heard    
       of BTS.                           
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         



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