My Way News – Police: Norway terror plot targeted Danish paper
My Way News reports: “Three terror suspects who were arrested in an alleged al-Qaida plot in Norway were likely planning an attack against a Danish newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, Norwegian and Danish police said Tuesday.”
My Way News – China seen as isolating self with tough diplomacy
My Way News reports: “China’s increasingly muscular diplomacy may be repelling its Asian neighbors and pushing them closer to the United States, helping fulfill Beijing’s fears of being systematically encircled by Washington and its allies, analysts say.”
My Way News – More HIV care for pregnant women in poor countries
My Way News reports: “Just over half of HIV-infected pregnant women in poor countries received crucial AIDS drugs to protect their unborn children last year, the World Health Organization reported Tuesday – one of a list of improvements in the global fight against HIV.”
My Way News – Study: 1 in 5 urban gay and bisexual men got HIV
My Way News reports: “A government study found one in five sexually active urban gay and bisexual men is infected with HIV, and nearly half of those infected don’t know they have the disease. The study is considered the largest to look at urban gay and bisexual men at high risk for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. More than 8,000 men in 21 U.S. cities were tested and interviewed.”
Autumn holidays, health appointments, unmissable golf ties and a multitude of other reasons mean that there is always some variation in the attendance from week to week and today there was one, lone bass voice. This can be a stress for that individual, or it can be a chance to shine and the latter was the case on Tuesday when we sang GAUDEAMUS HODIE. Our bass held his part beautifully, even enjoying it while the others modified their sound accordingly to create a fine blend. Good to hear this sensitivity developing in our singing.
I’m going to let you all in on a secret. For a few months now I have been conducting a social experiment. This experiment requires asking people the question “Do you like Devo?”, and then recording their answers. Analyzing the collected data has allowed me to separate the population into two distinct categories. We’ll call them Categories A and B just to keep things simple.
Category A consists of the people who seem almost offended by my question. They refuse to respond with a concise answer such as yes, instead going on at length about the “great” and “important” Devo. Reluctantly, I have been forced to stop a few of these marathon tirades when I ran out of tape in my voice recorder. These instances only seemed to fuel the proverbial fire however, normally resulting in the interviewees launching into yet another fiery string of statements containing adjectives such as “amazing”, “fantastic”, and “visionary”. Shockingly, although there is an almost overwhelming amount of passion on display in Category A, it seems that passion does not translate into a large percentage of the overall population.
Quite the opposite, Category B contains the vast majority of people interviewed. Striving again for simplicity I have lumped similar groups of responders together. Thus the people who responded to my question with “Who?” along with the people who had little working knowledge of the band, yet knew of their existence, are classified the same way. Below I have included a sample conversation which effectively simulates my exchange with one of the latter people.
“Do you like Devo?”
“Yeah, no. That song “Whip It” sucks. Oh, and those hats they wore in the
video were soooo stupid.”
“I see.”
Admittedly I belong squarely in Category A, but I have tried to keep my personal feelings from affecting the experiment. My hypothesis is this. I believe that if a person from Category B actually sat down and listened to Devo’s new album Something for Everybody, I could ask them a second time whether or not they like Devo and their new response would be a resounding yes. Here is why. (Alright, that’s enough of the academic nonsense!)
Something for Everybody is a fantastic album that rocks from start to finish. How do I know? Easy. It makes me happy and invigorated every time that I listen to it. Not good enough? How about this. Even though there have been countless imitators, the band still manages to produce a sound that is unmistakably Devo. Guitars and synthesizers go to war with each other in a battle for supremacy alongside drums that alternate between sounding organic and computerized. The vocals are playful, sincere, and unique in this age of growlers or ultra-polished, vibrato leaden sound-alikes. And then there are the songs. Oh, the songs!
Opening salvo “Fresh” is a fine introduction to the album, but for my money the real show begins with track number two. “What We Do” serves as Devo’s mission statement, assuring the listener that they know exactly what they are doing with catchy mantra-like lyrics layered over pulsating synthesizers and a driving backbeat. More standouts quickly arrive with the dual threat of “Mind Games” and “Human Rocket”. “Mind Games” is so “Girl U Want” catchy it should be quarantined by the Center for Disease Control. “Human Rocket” begins with a pre-liftoff warm-up, quickly ignites the engines to build speed and energy, breaks through the atmosphere with a guitar solo, and finally deploys the parachutes to bring the listener back to Earth. Don’t feel a proper album is complete without a heartfelt ballad? Fear not my friends. “No Place Like Home” is there for you with it’s fatalistic social commentary evoking a range of emotions similar to the classic “Beautiful World”. Truthfully, picking a few songs to highlight from the album is tough as each one is memorable and strong.
The bottom line here is that everyone searching for a fun, high quality, engaging album need look no further. Take it from someone who was through being cool years ago. You may think you don’t like Devo, but after listening to Something for Everybody you may just find yourself ordering your very own energy dome (those stupid hats). Did you know that they come in blue now?
– Penfold
Buy here: Something for Everybody
Music and chemistry are similar. Both can be expressed mathematically. Certain combinations of sounds or substances result in repeatable reactions. The musician and the chemist experiment with elements to produce a desired result. Both rely on measures.
One major difference between music and chemistry is chemistry lacks heart. Chemistry’s measures are prescribed and the results are immutable. It is an expression of matter. Music, on the other hand, is an expression of the soul – it answers no questions but makes statements solely for the sake of human expression. The results are transient and subject to critique and widely different interpretations. When you make something chemically it is what it is. It can be nothing else unless you add something or take something away. Music is what it is to each person who hears it and its effects change with the listener. Combine music and chemistry and you end up with musical alchemy.
What got me thinking of this is Dafni. She sent us her upcoming album Sweet Time (produced by Dan Janisch and set to be released on October 19, 2010 on her own label “Daffer Doodle Music.”). It was a lazy Sunday evening, after a very hectic Saturday and laborious afternoon, that I first listened to the eleven track CD.
Dafni’s full name is Dafni Amirsakis, but, she goes solely by her first name “Dafni.” I don’t know what it is with single name musical artists – Sting, Madonna, Pink, Slash, Meatloaf etc. I never understood the need, or desire, of an artist to hide his or her true identity from the public. In Dafni’s case it might be a marketing choice to hide her foreign, difficult to pronounce, Greek last name. However, her Greek heritage is part of a great back story. It was the beauty of her grandmother’s voice, inherited by Dafni, that saved her family from the Italian soldiers when the Italians invaded Greece during World War II. The album is dedicated to Dafni’s late grandmother.
Dafni’s voice is reminiscent of Norah Jones and Madeleine Peyroux. She also channels a little Billie Holiday. Her music is soft, mellifluous and boasts a jazz Americana sound. On a lazy Sunday evening it provided the perfect background music by which to relax on the sofa with a Martini.
Dafni does more than sing. She also plays electric and acoustic guitar. On “Sweet Time,” Mark San Filippo, a disciple of Billy Higgins, who played with Kenny Burrell and Herbie Hancock, plays drums. LA session musician Geoff “The Wolfman” Rakness thumps the electric and upright bass. Studio hand Pete Kavanaugh strums the electric guitar on four of the songs and former X, Bob Dylan and Alice Cooper guitarist Tony Gilkyson plays on three. Solo performer Dan Janisch shows up with guitar in hand on one song, and with guitar, three-string bass, percussion and background vocals on another. Michael Bolger, known for his work with Rancid, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tony Joe White and Jewel, adds accordion, piano and trumpet, and singer Lisa Finnie provides background vocals. Dafni wrote each one of the songs on the album and they all come across as very inspired and personal.
I thoroughly enjoyed the album so I decided to read the press kit and this is where my mind started to wander toward the similarities and dissimilarities between music and chemistry. Here are some excerpts that pushed me in that direction:
As she was gaining a basis in classical music and jazz, Dafni was also pursuing an interest in science first studying psychology in Chicago, then pre-med at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She switched majors again after falling in love with the bane of most med students’ existence: organic chemistry.While pursuing her doctorate in chemistry at UCLA, Dafni’s musical career progressed through a combination of hard work and serendipity. . . .
So how does one get from a doctorate in organic chemistry to writing and performing extraordinary jazzy, sultry, music? The two disciplines, at first, seem so different. Then it struck me. Dafni’s attention to detail is impeccable. Each song is tight. The vocals exacting. The technical ”organic chemistry” side of Dafni shows up in these production values and in her attention to detail. But, humans are not robots. We desire more than technical mastery, especially in music. In her singing and songwriting Dafni finds emotional release. That is also what makes this a great album and Dafni an excellent up and coming musical talent She is a vocalist who pays attention to the details; she has an incredible voice and a brilliant mind; and she uses music as her emotional outlet. Dafni has learned how to manipulate music and substances for their ultimate effect. She is not just a chemist and not just a musician. She is a musical alchemist and I hope she continues to experiment.
- Old School
Stephenie Meyer, creator of the phenomenal teen-vamp Twilight series, takes paranormal romance into alien territory in her first adult novel. Those wary of sci-fi or teen angst will be pleasantly surprised by this mature and imaginative thriller, propelled by equal parts action and emotion. A species of altruistic parasites has peacefully assumed control of the minds and bodies of most
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