Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in skyecaptain's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, July 2nd, 2011
11:19 pm	Teenpop Lock and Drop A few LJ friends may not be Tumblrers or Twitterers -- for all couple of you, here's my teenpop/hip-hop mash-up album: http://bit.ly/iKRzhw Moggy should check out track 3 since she's been on a "Black & Yellow" binge. (Not sure if I should xpost to Poptimists.) Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 27th, 2011
2:13 pm	Snipping for later Vygotsky, Mind in Society, "Problems of Method," pg. 73: Our concept of development implies a rejection of the frequently held view that cognitive development results from the gradual accumulation of separate changes. We believe that child development is a complex dialectical process characterized by periodicity, unevenness in the development of different functions, metamorphosis or qualitative transformation of one form into another, intertwining of external and internal factors, and adaptive processes which overcome impediments that the child encounters. Steeped in the notion of evolutionary change, most works in child psychology ignore those turning points, those spasmodic and revolutionary changes that are so frequent in the history of child development. To the naïve mind, revolution and evolution seem incompatible and historic development continues only so long as it follows a straight line. Where upheavals occur, where the historical fabric is ruptured, the naïve mind sees only catastrophe, gaps, and discontinuity. History seems to stop dead, until it once again takes the direct, linear path of development. Scientific thought, on the contrary, sees revolution and evolution as two forms of development that are mutually related and mutually presuppose each other. Leaps in the child’s development are seen by the scientific mind as no more than a in the general line of development. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 18th, 2011
10:27 am	My favorite note on a recent book I read "trialogue" -- UM, NO. (The third party is the unconscious, natch.) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, March 11th, 2011
8:58 am	It was at this point that Kuhn threw the ashtray at me. Strange essay by Errol Morris recounting his brief tenure as a Princeton grad student under Kuhn: I asked him, “If paradigms are really incommensurable, how is history of science possible? Wouldn’t we be merely interpreting the past in the light of the present? Wouldn’t the past be inaccessible to us? Wouldn’t it be ‘incommensurable?’ ” [8] He started moaning. He put his head in his hands and was muttering, “He’s trying to kill me. He’s trying to kill me.” And then I added, “…except for someone who imagines himself to be God.” It was at this point that Kuhn threw the ashtray at me. And missed. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
2:30 pm	RS: Black and Blue The world has conspired to throw a four-dollar copy of the Rolling Stones' Black and Blue in my lap. Quite enjoyed it, no idea what it "says" about them at that point in time (1976) but I appreciate its mild adventurousness, heavy on the pastiche games. "Memory Motel" might be the secret or subconscious inspiration for the theme from Twin Peaks and their disco moves on "Hot Stuff" don't strike me as gimmicky, more rock-disco than disco-rock. And their "insired by" songs (Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston) have a Let It Be-style low-key studio tomfoolery vibe. (I'm growing more and more fond of Let It Be as I bristle against the wax-museum precision of the Beatles' post-Revolver stuff). Brief, breezy, good for the car. (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 27th, 2011
11:20 am	I Has Purchased My First Ever Rolling Stones Album(s)! Their first one ("England's Newest Hitmakers") and "Sticky Fingers." More interested in their white-boy rock-blues on the debut than the latter, plan to move forward accordingly, ending at Exile (if I can find them as cheap as I got these -- 10 bucks for two). (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 15th, 2011
10:09 am	Best Music Writing 2010 It's that time again -- call is out for best music writing for the Da Capo series, editor Alex Ross. Send your nominations to musicwriting@gmail.com. (Comment on this)
Friday, January 7th, 2011
11:37 am	Singles Jukebox Controversy 2010 Mix X-posted from Tumblr, here is a link to the first annual 2010 Singles Jukebox Controversy Mix: I warned you... DOWNLOAD Here it is -- 19 minutes worth of the most Controversial Songs of 2010 according to the Singles Jukebox. This is pretty much my first mix of this sort, and as for basic mixology competence, I can only guarantee that I occasionally paid attention to the keys that the songs were in. I also tried not to cheat by using other songs (cheated twice, both from the Kanye album, whut) or good remixes of otherwise shitty songs (YOU'RE WELCOME, EVERYTHING EVERYTHING). Controversy is determined by a super secret formula based on the old Radio On method (h/t koganbot) -- basically, these are the tracks that most polarized voters. That means that if you love something on here, I've probably given you reason to now hate it; and if you hate something, I've (maybe) given you a reason to try not to want to stab yourself in the face when you hear it. Well, sometimes. And here's the SoundCloud if you want to stream it: I Think UR a Contrarian by cureforbedbugs (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010
11:16 pm	Singles Jukebox Penultimate Controversy Index Just updated this for the first time in a few months and I realized looking over the numbers that there were too many artists with 6 or 7 reviews overshadowing ones that were somewhat controversial with between 12 and 15 (or more) reviews. So I weighted number of contributors a little more and also deducted by the same factor (it's a multiplier increased by .02 for each contributor over or under eight, so ten contributors would be weighted [average deviation score] x 1.04; previously that would have been 1.02. And now something with only six contributors is divided by 1.04). The results look a bit more reasonable to me, and as long as we have such a huge spread between low contributing entries and high ones (in the controversy index the range is anything between 6 contributors and 18 contributors) I'll factor this additional weighting into placement. THE UPDATED CONTROVERSY TWENTY(-ONE) 1. Nicki Minaj - Your Love (3.13) 2. The Tallest Man on Earth - The King of Spain (2.82) 3. The Knife - Colouring of Pigeons (2.75) 4. M.I.A. - Born Free (2.63) 5. Sleigh Bells - Infinity Guitars (2.59) 6. Liz Phair - Bollywood (2.58) 7. Everything Everything - MY, KZ, UR BF (2.57) 8. Ciara f. Ludacris - Ride (2.54) 9. MGMT - Flash Delirium (2.52, 12 contributors) 10. YG - Toot It and Boot It (2.52, 7 contributors) 11. Cee-Lo Green - Fuck You (2.51) 12. Robyn - Fembots (2.49) 13. LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls (2.46, 10 contributors) 14. Jonsi - Go Do (2.46, 9 contributors) =15. Die Antwoord - Enter the Ninja (2.4) =15. Vampire Weekend - Giving Up the Ghost (2.4) 16. R. Kelly - When a Woman Loves (2.39) 17. Lyfe Jennings - Statistics (2.36) 18. Carrie Underwood - Undo It (2.35, 11 contributors) 19. Kid Sister - Big 'n' Bad (2.35, 6 contributors) 20. Cali Swag District - Teach Me How to Dougie (2.34) Next 5: Ke$ha - Blah Blah Blah; Alicia Keys - Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart; Tim McGraw - Still; Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts; Kanye West - Runaway. We'll see if any of the other final Amnesty Picks wind up on the Controversy List (as I was compiling this, The Tallest Man on Earth stormed in at #2!). I'm also going to comb through once again to make sure I'm not missing a relatively low scorer (something that gets below a 2.0 average deviation on first pass) with a large number of contributors. The only one I caught was My Chemical Romance, who in the new system came in at #46. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 26th, 2010
1:43 pm	Songs About Safe Sex A friend wonders, what are some of the best songs about safe sex (not abstinence)? She cites Lady Gaga's "Ribbons." I know there are a lot of songs from the early 90's that make a pro-condom message explicit -- but I can't think of any off the top of my head. Thoughts? (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 22nd, 2010
3:52 pm	"In Media Res" series This could be awesome or a clusterfuck, or both, but just got a call for In Media Res, a short-format academic/critic/journalist collaboration in which you pick yr media text, write 300-500 words, and then join a conversation based on one of the following themes (in chronological order, one per week from January through June): Current Calls Below are the weeks for the Spring 2010 Schedule for In Media Res for which we are accepting proposals from interested curators. Click on the hyperlinks below to receive more information and deadlines for each week’s topic, as well as details on how to submit a proposal. January 10-14, 2011: Technological Object Orientations January 17-21, 2011: Productions of Digital Culture February 21-25, 2011: DVD Translations and Transmissions March 7-11, 2011: Posthumanism and Media March 14-18, 2011: Primetime Animation March 21-25, 2011: Race & Television April 4-8, 2011: Autism in the Media April 18-22, 2011: TV Failures May 2-6, 2011: Labor in the Media Industries June 6-10, 2011: Technology and the Horrible I feel like a few people who read this could write well about several of these. No geographical, financial, or academic requirements as far as I can tell, though I can't tell you the quality of work etc. for this thing as I've never read it. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, October 4th, 2010
12:58 pm	Asking yer friends = the new (old?) google! I would normally punt this to Twitter, but it's more than 140 characters -- I have here a list of people who do rock/pop music theory from a Populah Music Theorist (I use the term "populah" to connote snootiness and constipation -- most of the book is THA DREGS, so I won't mention its title or author except to say it's way more in touch with capital-T Theorists than I am -- eventually I got so bored I went straight to the footnotes and was dismayed not to see any of the rock critics I would expect to see in a comprehensive list of "popular music critics," the most egregious omission being Meltzer). Anywho, here is a list of THEORISTS that he lists -- do any of you lot know any of them? Which should I explore if I want to...y'know, learn cool shit? Excepting only Simon Frith, whom he acknowledges more than any other theorist save maybe Adorno (hmmmmm) [this can't be right, can it? "In Facing the Music, Simon Frith suggested the arrival of a curious entity, postmodernist pop, a value-free zone where aesthetic judgments are outweighed by whether a band can get its video on MTV and its picture in Smash Hits." Haven't read that one but it sounds...distinctly un-Frithian, though admittedly it's talking more about the production of music than its reception.] George Lipsitz Iain Chambers Angela McRobbie Richard Middleton John Shepherd Dave Laing Lawrence Grossberg Nelson George [I'm familiar with him by name but haven't read anything by him to my knowledge] And some 90s people: Andy Bennet Marcus Breen Mavis Bayton Sara Cohen Reebee Garafolo Phil Hayward Steve Jones Tony Mitchell Keith Nagus Will Straw Deena Weinstein (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
4:57 pm	From Arcade to Ashlee: An Interview with David Cooper Moore [transcript] Finally finished a transcript of my interview with Scott Woods, up on the (redesigned!) blog now: http://www.cureforbedbugs.com/2010/09/from-arcade-to-ashlee-interview-with.html Still working on the redesign but I wanted it to get a bit more readable before I worry about the details. (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
10:02 am	Singles Jukebox Controversy through August 1. Nicki Minaj - Your Love 2. The Knife - Colouring of Pigeons 3. M.I.A. - Born Free 4. Liz Phair - Bollywood 5. Jonsi - Go Do 6. MGMT - Flash Delirium 7. Ciara f. Ludacris - Ride 8. LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls 9. Robyn - Fembots 10. Lyfe Jennings - Statistics 11. Die Antwoord - Enter the Ninja 12. Vampire Weekend - Giving Up the Gun 13. Tim McGraw - Still 14. Cali Swag District - Teach Me How to Dougie 15. Carrie Underwood - Undo It 16. 3OH!3 f. Ke$ha - My First Kiss 17. Ke$ha f. 3OH!3 - Blah Blah Blah 18. Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts 19. B.o.B f. Rivers Cuomo - Magic 20. Brad Paisley - Water Weird year -- what the hell is going on in music, or fights about music, given these 20 Controversial Artists? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 16th, 2010
2:30 pm	Help me make a Garbage mix! Not with tunes by Garbage, but from artists indebted to (sonically or spiritually or whatever) Shirley Manson. I'm thinking a little Ashlee, some Katy Rose, maybe (to move away from da teenpopz) Elysian Fields? I feel like Shirley Manson was "ImportanT," but I won't be able to articulate WHY until you help me get this thing to twenty tracks! So HAVE AT IT. Who else? (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 18th, 2010
5:47 pm	I Has Made a Mix Aside from the Byers 2010 mix, I decided to make a quick unload-the-system mix for Emily, "The Hot-Ass Hold-Over Mix." It's meant to hold Emily over until I can take a bit more time to put something together that isn't essentially a glorified "Nth Quarter 2010" mix. 1. Biggie Smalls v. Miley Cyrus - Party and Bullshit in the USA 2. Nas f. Damian Marley - As We Enter 3. Kylie Minogue - Get Outta My Way 4. Fefe Dobson - Ghost 5. I Blame Coco f. Robyn - Caesar 6. Spoon - The Mystery Zone 7. RL f. Yung Joc - In the Club Like 8. Katy Perry f. Snoop Dogg - California Gurls 9. Ke$ha f. 3OH!3 - Blah Blah Blah 10. New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream 11. Vitalic - One Above One 12. Ratatat - Neckbrace 13. Jan Driver - Tellyfoam 14. Fefe Dobson - I Want You 15. DJ Zinc f. Ms. Dynamite - Wile Out 16. Wiley & Chew Fu - Take That 17. M.I.A. - XXXO 18. Ne-Yo - Beautiful Monster 19. The-Dream - Florida University 20. Kelis - Song for the Baby Must say this is probably the highest-energy mix I've ever made. And it reiterated to me just how damn NOISY 2010 has been -- big hunks of detritus and clatter shaped into sledgehammers and POW. (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 10th, 2010
10:30 pm	The best pic I took in Europe During a visit in 2005. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 14th, 2010
7:49 pm	Help me make the best 2010 summer mix ever... ...That will give a brief overview of pop hits from the last year or so that are (1) curse-word-free, (2) don't glorify the use of drugs and alcohol, and (3) don't have any sexually explicit material. Ideally the mix should be appropriate for a 4th to 6th grade classroom. I'm trying to veer toward hip-hop and R&B given the general snapshot of tastes from the school that I've had in the past few years. (Though they do have Tha Biebah Fevah at the moment.) So far: Justin Bieber f. Ludacris - Baby Nicki Minaj - Your Love (Clean) B.o.B. f. Bruno Mars - Nothin' on You Big Boi f. Gucci Mane - Shine Blockas (Clean) Janelle Monae f. Big Boi - Tightrope (Clean edit I made MY VERY SELF to edit out "ass crack") Priscilla Renea - Lovesick Vistoso Bosses NOT f. Soulja Boy - Delirious Jessica Jarrell - Almost Love (24/7) Young Money - Girl I Got You [the ONLY "clean" Young Money song in existence, a-thank you] Dorrough - Ice Cream Paint Job (Clean) Alicia Keys - Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart Kelis - Acapella B.o.B. f. Hayley Williams - Airplanes Cymphonique - Lil' Miss Swaggar Sade - Soldier of Love [not sure if I'm hitting the target audience here, but it's on the radio a lot] Demi Lovato - Behind Enemy Lines Erykah Badu - Window Seat Michael Jackson - Earth Song [obligatory MJ "post-script"] Thoughts? I have room for three or so more songs and could replace a couple, like dupe B.o.B. Toyed with stuff I feel might be just outside the target audience, like Lady GaGa and Selena Gomez (a lot of the kids like Disney generally). I tried something from the Drake album and almost hung myself it was so. Totally. Boring. He's seriously the biggest waste of space of all time (read: in recent memory). (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 29th, 2010
2:27 pm	Miley is a sock sucker ^Best comment of all time. Internet over. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
2:14 pm	A decent remaster of Raw Power Crazy, I was just showing Emily the difference between the two Raw Power mixes the other day (I own the Iggy remix from ten years ago and have burned a vinyl rip to CD, h/t koganbot), and now I can actually buy the original mix on the remastered CD that apparently comes out today. Also interested in the 1973 live performance. I've never heard Metallic KO (I've only heard of it), or any live Stooges, except seeing them reformed w/ Mike Watt a few years ago headlining the Little Steven garage festival in NYC. (Comment on this)