Friday, January 5th, 2018

Time	Event
9:00a	Hear Glenn Gould Channel Marshall McLuhan and Create an Experimental Radio Documentary Analyzing the Pop Music of Petula Clark (1967) Glenn Gould, that intellectually intense, aesthetically austere interpreter of Johann Sebastian Bach, had little time for pop music. He had especially little time for the Beatles: "Theirs is a happy, cocky, belligerently resourceless brand of harmonic primitivism," he wrote in High Fidelity in 1967, when the Fab Four had reached the top of the zeitgeist. "The indulgent amateurishness of the musical material, though closely rivaled by the indifference of the performing style, is actually surpassed only by the ineptitude of the studio production method," he declares, likening "Strawberry Fields Forever" to "a mountain wedding between Claudio Monteverdi and a jug band." But the Beatle-bashing was incidental to the purpose of the article, a paean to English singer Petula Clark. At first listen, her four singles on which Gould focuses his analysis — 1964's "Downtown," 1956's "My Love," and 1966's "A Sign of the Times" and "Who Am I?" — sound like nothing more than adolescent-oriented pop hardly touched by any of that decade's musical (or indeed social) revolutions. But "this quartet of hits," in Gould's view, "was designed to convey the idea that, bound as she might be by limitations of timbre and range, she would not accept any corresponding restrictions of theme and sentiment," with the result that she came to command an audience "large, constant, and possessed of an enthusiasm which transcends the generations." Gould says all this in The Search for Petula Clark, a 23-minute radio documentary that aired on the CBC on December 11, 1967, less than three weeks before his much better-known experimental documentary The Idea of North. He situates his analysis of the singer he calls "Pet Clark," which gets into not just her songs' themes and lyrics but their technical qualities as music, in the context of a solo road trip around Lake Superior when "Who Am I?" first hit the airwaves. So compelled did he find himself that he timed his drive to get within range of one of the radio stations scattered across the vastness of his homeland at the top of each hour in order to hear the song over and over again, after 700 miles he got to "know it if not better than the soloist, at least as well, perhaps, as most of the sidemen." Though born within two months of each other in 1932 and thereafter living lives dedicated to music, Gould and Clark would seem to have little else in common. While Gould died at 50, Clark, at the age of 85, continues to both record and perform. Gould, as J.D. Connor writes in an essay on The Search for Petula Clark, "stopped performing for live audiences in 1964. Freed from the rigors of the concert circuit, he dove into radio and television at just the moment when he and Canadian state media could parlay his immense musical popularity into something more."  This and the more intricate radio productions that would follow both sprang from and allowed Gould to construct "a media theory of his own. In print, on television, and, most important, on radio, Gould became the great complement to Marshall McLuhan." And like McLuhan, when Gould obsesses over something that never seemed to merit serious attention, we'd do well to heed the insights he draws from it. Related Content: Listen to Glenn Gould’s Shockingly Experimental Radio Documentary, The Idea of North (1967) Glenn Gould: Off and On the Record: Two Short Films About the Life & Music of the Eccentric Musician Glenn Gould Explains the Genius of Johann Sebastian Bach (1962) Glenn Gould Gives Us a Tour of Toronto, His Beloved Hometown (1979) Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook. Hear Glenn Gould Channel Marshall McLuhan and Create an Experimental Radio Documentary Analyzing the Pop Music of Petula Clark (1967) is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs. (Comment on this)
12:00p	Watch Prince Play Jazz Piano & Coach His Band Through George Gershwin’s “Summertime” in a Candid, Behind-the-Scenes Moment (1990) A rock enigma wrapped around an R&B quandary, wearing platform shoes and purple velour. The cheekbones of an angel, dances moves and lyrics from an infernally sexy place, and more musical talent than it seems possible for a single person to possess in one lifetime…. These are some of the ways we remember Prince Rogers Nelson. We do not typically remember him as a jazz pianist. But his facility with jazz earned him the admiration of Miles Davis, who made several efforts to collaborate with the extremely busy pop star. (They performed together only once, it seems, on New Year’s Eve, 1987 at Paisley Park.) Prince’s style, stage show, songwriting, and arranging drew from jazz of all kinds—from zoot suit-era big band to the frenetic movement of hard bop to the classically-inflected show tunes of George Gershwin. Just above see him “casually own” Gershwin's "Summertime" during a 1990 soundcheck in Osaka, Japan. For the first minute, it’s a Prince showcase, but once he coaches the band through the changes, he lets them take it, settling back while the guitarist rides out a solo. The candid moment does much more than demonstrate his chops on the piano and appreciation for Gershwin. It offers yet another contrast to the popular image of Prince as a charismatic, self-sufficient solo artist who just happened to work with a regular crew of stellar musicians and not-so-stellar actresses. It's true Prince played most or all of the instruments on many of his albums, wrote nearly all his own songs, directed or produced nearly every aspect of his music, career, and persona.... As solo artists go, no one comes close to defining full creative control. The Purple One ruled over a musical empire; most of the time, it seems, he got what he wanted, even if he sometimes had to fight like hell for it. We might expect such an artist to be a petty tyrant, hogging the spotlight and throwing his weight around at every opportunity. What we hear and see behind the scenes paints a much richer picture. The footage here was shot by Steve Purcell, who directed several videos for Prince and, as he remarked, “spent six years of my life working for, creating with and laying the foundation for the rest of my career with Prince.” In his introduction to the video, he writes, “This may not be the Prince you think of but it is the Prince I knew.” A bandleader who was also an ensemble player, and who constantly paid tribute to the music that inspired him in live performance. We might have known Prince as a generous hitmaker, who gave song after song to artists like Sheena Easton, Chaka Khan, Sinead O’Connor, and the Bangles, and launched the careers of a good many of his collaborators, musical and otherwise. Since his death, we’ve also learned much more about both his tremendous financial and emotional goodwill, and the time he took with other musicians to help them develop and learn. The impossibly cool aloofness with which he glided through pop stardom did not extend to his relationships with the people closest to him. Prince was so beloved that his two ex-wives worked together to organize a star-studded memorial service for him. Stories of his kindness, good humor, compassion, and loyalty pour out at the same rate as the music he had locked up in his Paisley Park vault. We’ll likely see more candid videos like this one emerge as well, from those who, like Purcell, found their time documenting the artist a totally life-changing experience. via Classical FM Related Content: Read Prince’s First Interview, Printed in His High School Newspaper (1976) Prince Plays Unplugged and Wraps the Crowd Around His Little Finger (2004) Hear Prince’s Personal Playlist of Party Music: 22 Tracks That Will Bring Any Party to Life Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness Watch Prince Play Jazz Piano & Coach His Band Through George Gershwin’s “Summertime” in a Candid, Behind-the-Scenes Moment (1990) is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs. (Comment on this)
3:00p	The Movements of a Symphony Conductor Get Artistically Visualized in an Avant-Garde Motion Capture Animation Some classical music enthusiasts are purists with regard to visual effects, listening with eyes firmly fixed on liner notes or the ceilings of grand concert halls. Those open to a more avant-garde ocular experience may enjoy the short motion capture animation above. Motivated by the London Symphony Orchestra’s desire for a hipper identity, the project hinged on recently appointed Musical Director Sir Simon Rattle’s willingness to conduct Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations with a specially modified baton, while 12 top-of-the-range Vicon Vantage cameras noted his every move at 120 frames per second. Digital designer Tobias Gremmler, who’s previously used motion-capture animation as a lens through which to consider kung fu and Chinese Opera, stuck with musical metaphors in animating Sir Simon’s data with Cinema 4D software. The movements of conductor and baton morph into a “vortex of wood, brass, smoke and strings” and “wires reminiscent of the strings of the instruments themselves.” Elsewhere, he draws on the atmosphere and architecture of classic concert halls. (The uninitiated may find themselves flashing on less rarified sources of inspiration, from lava lamps and fire dancing to the 80’s-era digital universe of Tron.) via Atlas Obscura Related Content: The Graceful Movements of Kung Fu & Modern Dance Revealed in Stunning Motion Visualizations Visualizing WiFi Signals with Light The Entire Discipline of Philosophy Visualized with Mapping Software: See All of the Complex Networks Ayun Halliday is an author, illustrator, theater maker and Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine.  Follow her @AyunHalliday. The Movements of a Symphony Conductor Get Artistically Visualized in an Avant-Garde Motion Capture Animation is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs. (Comment on this)
6:08p	Hear a Dramatization of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys: Free for a Limited Time A quick heads up: The BBC is now streaming a new, six-part adaptation of Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman’s mythical fantasy novel from 2006. Only available for the next few weeks, each episode runs about 30 minutes. Find them here. Fans of Neil Gaiman will also definitely want to check out this post in our archive: 18 Stories & Novels by Neil Gaiman Online: Free Texts & Readings by Neil Himself. Follow Open Culture on Facebook and Twitter and share intelligent media with your friends. Or better yet, sign up for our daily email and get a daily dose of Open Culture in your inbox.  If you'd like to support Open Culture and our mission, please consider making a donation to our site. It's hard to rely 100% on ads, and your contributions will help us provide the best free cultural and educational materials. via Metafilter Related Content: Neil Gaiman Reads Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”: One Master of Dramatic Storytelling Reads Another 900 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free Hear Radio Dramas of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy & 7 Classic Asimov Stories Hear a Dramatization of Neil Gaiman’s <i>Anansi Boys</i>: Free for a Limited Time is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs. (Comment on this)

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