Sunday 31 July 2011

DJ Set - Canberra Social

I was down in Canberra for work last week and managed to make it out to the social on Thursday night. I ended up DJing the first set - here's what I played:

Name - Artist - Album - Duration - Date - BPM
Blues for Stephanie - George Gee and His Make Believe Ballroom Orchestra - Swingin' Live! - 4:55 - 1998 - 137
Don't Get Around Much Any More - Gordon Webster - Live in Philadelphia - 4:14 - 2010 - 145
The Beaver Bump - Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators - Harlem Mad - 3:35 - 2011 - 155
Dark Eyes - Fats Waller - Fats Waller Performance: Radio Recordings from 1931-1943 - 3:22 - 1931 - 163
The Right Idea - Charlie Barnet - Cherokee - 3:13 - 1939 - 184
Baby Won't You Please Come Home - Lionel Hampton - Complete Victor Sessions 1937-1941 - 2:52 - 1937 - 134
I Don't Care Who Knows - Catherine Russell - Sentimental Streak - 3:18 - 2008 - 130
He's Smilin' Too - The Cope Street Parade - The Cope Street Parade - 3:41 - 2010 - 117
Bucket's Got A Hole In It - Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band - This Kid's The Greatest! - 2:51 - 1953 - 121
Fortunate Love - Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators - Harlem Mad - 2:54 - 2011 - 132
Keep On Churnin' - Wynonie Harris with Todd Rhodes Orchestra - Eat to the Beat - 2:54 - 1952 - 144
Don't Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes at Me - Pugsley Buzzard - Chicago Typewriter - 3:36 - 2008 - 156
You Better Watch Yourself, Bub - Catherine Russell - Sentimental Streak - 2:57 - 2008 - 167
You Can Have My Husband - Tuba Skinny - Six Feet Down - 3:50 - 2010 - 140
Moan You Moaners - Palmetto Bug Stompers - Live @ Dba - 4:46 - 2009 - 126
Sister Kate - New Orleans Moonshiners - Frenchmen St. Parade - 3:31 - 2011 - 116
T'Aint What You Do - Billy May and His Orchestra - Oscillatin' Rhythm - 3:00 - 1957 - 166
All Right, Okay, You Win - Gordon Webster - Happy When I'm With You - 4:41 - 2009 - 140

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Treme, Lindy Hop, New Orleans and the Mythology of Rebirth

This is part review, part lindy blog and part personal reflection. But mainly its me talking about stuff I don't know nearly enough about, so feel free to tell me I'm full of shit.

I've just finished watching the first season of Treme on DVD (it's finally out here*). It's by the same producers and some of the same directors and actors as The Wire (which I haven't seen the but plan on doing now). The writers do a masterful job of weaving of weaving together reality and fiction. A lot of musicians feature in the series playing themselves not just their instruments (like Kermit Ruffins - the HBO website has a fairly complete list of songs and musicians featured). A number of characters are also loosely based on local personalities. It's a character driven show, which is strange as I normally don't go for character pieces, but the HBO format allows for deeper examination of these characters than in your standard series and the fantastic acting makes them thoroughly believable.

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Links of the week

I'm working on a couple of posts that are a little bit more substantive - but I ain't there yet so here's some links this week. It's also a carbon tax free zone (more on that later).

You would think that getting a group of former jihadists, neo-Nazi skinheads, Irish extremists and US gang members together for a conference would be something you'd only see in a Bond movie. As it turns out, Google is interested. Shawn Donnan explains on Slate.com

If you haven't heard of the News of the World phone hacking scandal, chances are it's because you only read News Limited Newspapers. Jonathan Holmes on Mediawatch sums it up and looks at the Australian implications.

And some very thought-provoking articles about gender and social media:
  • Recently no-longer-anonymous blogger Amy Mullins talks about how people act online when they perceive you as male on ABCs Unleashed. Check out her blog here
  • Randall Monroe (of XKCD fame) discusses how Google + forces you to publish your gender for all to see.
  • Lisa Wade on Sociological Images looks at how some people call bullshit on public advertising by posting on it - and sharing the images. (Lisa is also a Lindy hopper and has a number of posts on race and historical videos taken out of the context of the time) The anonymous subversion of the public advertising for a different purpose is intriguing - it reminds me of an installation piece done by Sydney (now Hong Kong) artist Julia Burns.
  • New Scientist reports on a tool that analyses text and determines whether the writer is female or male (and it's right 85% of the time, which is pretty darn suprising). This blog post scores neutral 96%, Amy Mullins' most recent article scores 56% male.