The new novel by China Mieville, Embassytown, is just great.
As an old science fiction fan, running low on new input for several years, I would never have expected this. Here is a true science fiction novel that shows the superiority of the whole genre, over the money-pushing fantasy bullshit that has polluted our shelves.
Having read some of his former novels, if I had not known, I would never have expected Mieville as the author of this. Since his former novels are good, this is great praise indeed.
Ursula K. LeGuin writes on the cover of my copy, that this is “a fully realised work of art”. On many levels, when reading, I am reminded of her masterwork, The left hand of darkness.
Mievelle’s novel continues the best traditions of science fiction, as well as doing an utterly astonishing “concretization” of postmodernist language theory.
I am still in the middle of it – but this is very much recommended.
I just saw that Bob Dylan has a new album, Tempest, coming in September, and thought that this might be a nice place to sum up listening experiences the last months. Listening for good music, now as always.
Among music bought this last semester, I quite like Supersilent: 10, very experimental, great sonics.
Generally, albums bought in the last period have a bit better sound than before. LP producers seem to be advancing their act. Even a “niche” company like Rune Grammophone in Norway, the publisher of the Supersilent LP, makes sonically good recordings. Improved sound is noteworthy in some other European cases also, like the Nik Bartsch: Llyria LP, made in 2011 by ECM – remarkable sound quality, even if ECM LPs have generally always sounded quite good (if a bit thin, clinical, etc). Some of the tracks, like Exodus and Tomorrow never ends, on the Herbie Hancock: Imagine project LP were notably enjoyable also. I play some flute and guitar, and if the sound invites me to play – it is good, in my judgement. This one really does.
In 2011 I bought several “keeping up” albums by old groups and artists. The results were mixed, but often favorable, so I continued in 2012. I enjoyed, for example, the best tracks on Tom Petty: Mojo and on Robbie Robertson: How to become clairvoiant. I also managed to get hold of a few hard to get original gems, like Donovan’s 1970 double LP, HMS Donovan (an album with some great, overlooked songs with amazing sound, even if my copy, bought from Iceland (!), is only the second issue from Dawn (the legendary company). I also enjoyed Wizz Jones’s similarly overlooked LP Right now, reissued by Speakers’ Corner (I think, on my suggestion). I also bought new groups or artists, like Field Music: Plumb (quite good) and even Adele: 21 (hmm, well). Some music I buy just to get a feeling of current changes of taste – being interested as a researcher.
As analog sound is becoming more re-accepted, some “fresh tape” albums, relatively speaking, from the 80s and 90s, are getting good new remastering. An example is Talk Talk: The Colour of Spring, 2012 edition, on EMI (EMCX 3506) – a great album, better sound than the original I had, and well worth it. Another example is Paul Simon, Graceland – the new remaster.
Clearly there is more attention to quality in many places al0ng the chain. Among those who should be honored for this is, not least, Michael Fremer of Stereophile, who almost single-handedly started “the analog counter-revolution” back in the late 1990s. Back in the time when CDs as “perfect sound forever” was received wisdom.
Let me tell you my own take on this.
Personally, I held on to the “digital is superior” theory for five years or so in the early 1990s. I liked data programming, which became one of my favourite hobbies, along with music. This happened after a long period of recording LPs to analogue tape, in the 1970s and 80s, with a Revox A-77 recorder, and playing some of the LPs direct on a decent but limited system.
I thought, OK, let me give digital a try. At first, I was confirmed, or so was my impression. A bit is a bit, right! It was only after a while that I really started to note the digitalization deficits. The format was so practical and inventive – I wanted it to be best. But after awhile, I realized that CD sound was not such a great improvement of LP sound, after all.
In 1997 I bought a used Lyra Clavis pickup, somewhat by coincidence, meeting a good dealer at the south coast of Norway (Vidar Sonesen/Audio Art). After that, things never became the same. I gradually became transformed back into an analog person, simply using my ears. I started upgrading my analog rig. Vinyl was clearly the best source, even if one has to live with some medium deficits, like ticks and pops, decentering, warps etc.
I was not alone. After having literally been run down in a flea market, I stopped over-eager excursions into cheap used LP bins. Good analog costs money, yes. But it pays off. All the more reason to share information about what does sound good, and what does not, among the now-increasing analog offerings.
New LPs in 2012 – spring:
Dr John: Locked down. Quite good but too stressful – somewhat disappointing. Check out Duke Elegant instead, much more relaxed. The melodic core, harmonic logic and strictness of Ellington’s music seem to have worked exceptionally well for the doctor, on this “The duke meets the doc” album. It is a shame that it exists only on CD, not on vinyl, but the music is so good you mainly forget all that.
Bob Dylan and the Band: The Basement Tapes, in the new Mobile Fidelity (MFSL 2-382) edition. Agree with Michael Fremer – this improves on the original. Not a basement revolution perhaps, but enough to make re-listening more worthwhile.
On CD (I am not a vinyl fanatic); World Party: Arkeology. Although some parts are kitch or filler material, or in a draft stage only, on the whole, this 70 song set is remarkable and well worth a listen. Wallinger is one of the overlooked entrepeneurs of pop (see earlier blog post, under Music, on this site).
I was not happy about Pink Floyd’s Wish you were here, the new remaster, and returned it. It was not quite centered, and the variation in pitch was really unforgiveable on the long beautiful opening of Shine on you crazy diamond, which for me is a major part of wanting to own this LP . Even more so because the band experiments with pitch. If the speed is not 100 percent correct, the whole thing fails. I tried another copy, thanks to the Big Dipper shop that sells vinyl in Oslo, but that was decentered too.
Vinyl bought, but not yet listened to (phono stage on repair) – some have not yet arrived:
Doors: The Doors (first LP) and Strange Days (second LP), both on 2 x 45 rpm
Madeleine Peyroux: Bare bones
Patricia Barber: The Cole Porter Mix
Astra: The Black Chord
Grateful Dead: Reckoning
Glenn Frey: After Hours
Little Feat: Rooster Rag
And I’ve ordered Dylan’s Tempest, of course.
Former minister Knut Storberget and former chief editor of the daily newspaper Dagbladet, Lars Helle, on how work/family balance is now a concern for men as well as women:
http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/–Familielivet-er-for-travelt-til-at-jeg-kan-ha-en-lederstilling-6920620.html
Who would think, that gender equality reduces violence in the home by almost two thirds. Not I. I thought the evidence would be mixed, in line with international research. Yet this result popped up, in my research, and would not go away, whatever variable I corrected for. Some findings are more important than others, and this is one of them.
A summary of the evidence, in Norwegian, here (2.7 mb): Likestilling og vold mot barn
[June draft version – oversize pictures, some pictures and comments missing, etc]
The “Masculinities in motion” conference at the University of Oslo (May 31 – June 1, see program here), was very successful, with almost 200 participants from Norway, the Nordic region, and several other countries, and a broad range a keynote and workshop presentations.
The conference showed the emerging width of the men and masculinities research field. Workshop papers included topics from A to Z, men and the military, therapy, health, households, work, culture, music, method – some with imaginative titles like Becoming an international man and Breakdance, that’s me!
The conference also showed increasing depth, for example in the fathers and families workshops, the multicultural workshops, health, and others. Professionals and activists were also participating, although the main groups were researchers and students, with fairly good gender balance. Especially encouraging was the presence of many young researchers, showing recent recruitment into the field. The policy part, in the second day, gave interesting new Nordic region information as well as informed debate.
Being the host and leader of the conference work group was great, with so many good people to work with. It was also a bit exhausting. The feedback, afterwards, has been very good. Together we managed to build more of the two main “bridges” that we hoped for, in the planning of the conference – connecting men and masculinites studies to gender equality research, and to health and quality of life research. I hope that most of the 60-70 papers presented will see their way into referee journals, books and other publications. They will surely make a difference.
Here are some photos from the conference (many thanks to the photographer, Nina Heilmann, STK).
Like all good men, we started with a bit of technology, or how to make it work – here is conferancier Thomas Walle, right, and a student assistant (….) left. We had a lot of help from students involved in the conference.
There were two welcome speeches, the first from the University of Oslo, by Jorunn Økland, leader of the University’s Centre for gender research.
And the second by the minister of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion, Inga Marte Thorkildsen.
The welcoming speeches contributed to the good atmosphere at the conference, and a common focus on what the new research says.
Thomas Walle (right), introduces the first “trio” keynote, with me (left)
In the next picture I look to the right, trying to make the rest of the trio agree with me. The point of starting with a trio was to show the new, larger scope of the men and masculinities field, and make different viewpoints more visible and accepted.
The second trio speaker was Jan Wickman.
The third, Lucas Gottzen.
We presented new material, like this:
Some views from the audience:
Ongoing discussions, here with Nina Jon from the conference arrangement committee (left) and Thorkildsen (right).
The conference participants got a quite strong initial input and enjoyed a break.
The second keynote was Michael Messner, on his new research on anti-violence work among men in the US.
The third keynote was Susan Meriläinen, University of Lapland, speaking of gender equality, masculinity and international business culture.
Meriläinen was commented by Jeff Hearn.
On the next day, Ulla-Brit Lilleaas introduced the health topic, discussing her new study.
She was followed by Svend Aage Madsen, asking, is there a gender-equal health model?
The last part of the second day had a Nordic politician panel and a practice oriented focus. Part of the panel here.
[Some pictures]
The Iceland representative told the audience that, despite severe economic setbacks, Iceland would not go back on its gender equal parental leave reform, and is instead planning to extend it.
After the politicians, practicioners got their say, including NGO initiatives. Here, Lennart Lock, Norway.
This was followed by researcher perspectives on politics and practice, here Marie Valentin Beck, Denmark.
This section ended by a presentation by Ingolfur Gislason, Iceland, the picture shows the conferencier thanking the presenter.
Jørgen Lorentzen commented on the politics and practices part, outlining future possibilities.
The final keynote, made by Sigtona Halrynjo, warned against continuing gender inequality, especially in working life.
Halrynjo presented data on continous gender inequality in careers paths in society, and its consequences for men.
The conference was ended by Nina Jon, speaking for the conference group, emphasizing that men are not just on the top of the statistics, but at the bottom too, and the need to investigate more.
So far, the response has been that the conference worked very well.
According to the evaluations from participants, after the conference, some participants liked some keynotes better than others, and some have noted that a few papers in the workshops were less good than others. Mainly, the evaluation is very positive. Discussions at the conference were good, bringing research a step further.
Here is a final picture of informal audience discussion groups, during a break.
I don’t usually buy digital music (rather, analog LPs), but I make an exception in this case: World Party: Arkeology, a 5 CD box set with 70 songs and a booklet. I have ordered it.
World Party is about pop music, they are somewhat derivative, often poorly recorded, and so on, but I find them (or the band’s main man, Karl Wallinger) to be interesting and innovative, creating a cultural synthesis of pop music history.
To my mind, at his best, he is a master, re-recording classical pop sensibilities into the climate of the 80s and 90s. This is when one famous power holder claimed that “there is no such thing as society”. World Party proves the opposite.
One can be comforted by Wallinger singing “what is love all about”, but the listener is also constantly confronted and challenged. This is not just due to other songs and the context where the Beatles-like message of love is brought in and developed, but also by the way the music is presented and arranged. This is a “world party”, beyond Wallinger’s initial “private revolution”, the title of the band’s ramshackle first album, mostly with Wallinger playing the instruments. Due to sometimes bad quality, or more likely, his opinions, Wallinger and World Party were controversial in the music press and general media, and never received full endorsement or recognition at the time.
Their unruly and questioning “striving for depth” factor is what, speaking just for myself, makes the music unusually interesting.Wallinger tries to walk in the tracks of the giants in the pop field. He wishes to lift the whole “pop” thing, which incidentally includes the “lower classes” too, up to a higher stage.
So what works, for some, as just middle of the road pop music, nice to play in the car, or even drivel – may yet reach quite a lot deeper, when one listens more. The poor recording quality is a shame throughout this band’s career. Perhaps the new investment will help correct this, and increase the depth – we shall see, or rather, hear.
I am sorry for web page problems the last weeks, but they seem to be solved now. (The web page appeared unordered, the css file did not work correctly).
The problems were fixed and the web page was brought up again, through the help of my son Lasse Gullvåg Sætre – very much appreciated!
We took the time to update to the latest version of WordPress, which seems better in many ways.
This is about getting up to speed, in the sound sense, about 45 rpm versus 33 rpm. The latest Stereophile discloses that some of the engineers behind the long playing vinyl disc actually wanted this disc to play at 45 rather than 33 rounds per minute, at the vinyl turntable. I did not know that, but from experience over the years I agree – 45 sounds better.
Quite a lot better, in fact. I had many 45 singles and EPs from the 1960s, but sadly only have a few (ca 20) today, due to my mother giving my collection away (never quite forgiven). The ones I have include some key examples, like the first record I ever bought, the Shadows: Apache, and their Foot tapper EP, both from the early 60s, The Beach Boys: Good vibrations, Roy Obison: Pretty woman, Fleetwood Mac: Oh well, Shadows: Mary Jane, Youngbloods: Darkness darkness, and others – important inputs to the pop industry.
The amazing thing about these records is how well they sound – far later. They should have been pushed aside by later reworking and remastering, but they are not. Especially, I think, EP’s sound great.
What do I mean great? I mean that the sonic landscape is very clear and textured, even if the recording is so-so. If there is a cow bell in the recording, chances are, it does sound like a cow bell, like the one in the beginning of the single by Unit 4+2, Concrete and clay, that I have. As a whole, my 45 rpm collection sounds truthful and good – even if the recordings are in many ways inferior to what are available later. The larger speed, 45 rpm, seems to contribute quite a lot. 45 rpm music sounds clearer, better textured, and more meaningful. This is true, in my case, even with old copies that have seen a lot of parties, compared to new 33 rpm versions.
Why did the late 1960s see a “pop explosion” leading to many other developments? Could it, also, be due to an overlooked variable, audio fidelity? That singles and EPs simply sounded remarkably good? When I listen today, on a quality sound reproduction system, the difference seems quite obvious. The singles that won the day in the 1960s sound good even today, and the EP’s often even better. These were the two formats performing at the higher fidelity speed 45 rpm.
Of course 45 rpm is by itself no guarantee that things will sound good. But it seems to be a consistent trend, from the 1960s onwards, that recording egineers have tried to “push” the best music into the best format yet available – the 45 rpm vinyl disc.
You have done a good job, says one of the survivors of the terror to the defence lawyer.
Cf http://www.dagbladet.no/2012/02/06/nyheter/innenriks/anders_behring_breivik/fengslingsmote/20107916/
Do I understand this album? No. Was I meant to? Probably no. Do I understand Stereophile making it album of the month, September 2010, after their reviewer Stephan Mejias had grown to like it in May that year, saying “it kills, but it also builds, it soars, it uplifts”- ? Well, eventually, yes. He evidently got the rest of the editorial board convinced, and I mainly agree, re-listening some years later. This is borderline stuff. Not just Hendrix-like solo guitar but put into place also. A new place. Challenging, but well worth it.
