See what I did there? Helios – sun god, Michigan warmth. Meine – I want to be able to speak German. It’s quite a lovely language. Darlings – I love you all.
Yesterday, I sent a reminder email to the chair of my dissertation committee that I was anxious to get to her revisions of chapters four and five, and set a date for my dissertation defense in April. I gently relayed that I would wait patiently, however, the defense is happening at the end of April, no matter what. I just got a request from her for my first three revised chapters, without her sending chapters four and five back to me. Is that a good sign? Does that mean the four and five are nearly there and she wants to compare to what I’ve already revised on one, two, and three? I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough! But for now, I’m going with greatness.
Why not? Why assume the worst? The outcome is going to be what it is. Which leads me to today’s consideration: life, communication, and discovery. I have been feeling various levels of intolerance lately, and I own it for what it is, it’s mine. It’s not anyone else’s fault. But holy shit, can you please give me a break once in a while? How many times do I have to hear, or read, how bad a person’s day has been? Or how terrible, or dreary someone’s life is? That is insensitive of me, I’m well aware. I apologize with sincerity. I am disturbed by all this crotchetiness. Of course there is pain and suffering to be had. I don’t deny that. But there is way more beauty and joy, than bad, and far too few people recognize this. I don’t take on other people’s pain as my own stress, no longer, but sometimes I do get intolerant. I currently work as a check out girl at a grocery store. I hear and see a lot of tension and weariness. I’m a happy lady. Light fills my days. Joy is everywhere, I just have to look for it, tap into it. Hell, I can create it. I’m telling you, anyone can. You don’t have to be blind and deaf to the entire spectrum of emotions. I don’t pretend sadness, anger, despair don’t exist. They sure do. I feel those things too. But joy is always there and I’m grateful for it. All it takes are simple shifts in the way you see the world, the way you feel the world. You’re all in control of that, no one else controls or decides it for you. You decide to feel or think whatever you feel or think.
I often find that it is common practice for women and men to not know the wonderful things that they personally have to offer. People see the world as beyond them and outside of their control. “Everyone else is normal, I’m the weirdo.” You’d be surprised to realize how many folks see themselves as the weirdo, the one who’s doing it wrong, while everyone else appears to know how to do it right.
WRONG
We all flounder. We all mess up. We all act weird as shit. At one time or another, we cause a loved one to look at us, stare at us in a perplexed way, and think, “WHAT THE FUCK.” That doesn’t even deserve more exciting punctuation. It’s all there. You know what I’m talking about.
To expand upon this, and to speak about men directly, I have also realized that most of the men that we think of as “good men” have no idea that they are. The men who are compassionate, considerate, generous, intelligent, hard-working, these men don’t know how great they actually are. That pisses me off to such an extent that I have to swear about it. Bitch. Shit. Ass.
You know I’m laughing right now. There is almost always laughter behind my words. That’s how it should be. Laugh at shit that’s funny. You’ll quickly find that there’s a whole lot of funny shit that’s funny that you didn’t know was funny until you admit to yourself that it’s funny.
Being all those things, compassionate, considerate, generous, intelligent, hard-working, takes strength. Women often don’t know what to do with all that. In our rightful search for our own feminist strength and power, we are often shown that it is okay, and even desirable to emasculate men. NO IT SURE IS NOT. I promise, it is completely possible to be a strong, confident woman, and still admire and honor a strong, confident man. Men can do the same for women. Women, we can do the same for each other. Men, same. We would all benefit from letting people be who they are without judgement. Without gripping tightly to who we think they should be.
I realize this post might be a bit jumbled. Maybe messy. But it’s a blog, and it’s mine, so I’m affording myself that right.
One more thing. I used to be shy as all get out. Still am sometimes. I tell people now about that and they look at me like I just shoved my finger up my nose to dig around. I hated feeling it as a young person, but still let shyness stifle me. Becoming a mother started to change that. Grad school helped change that more. My years in Detroit have changed that dramatically. And finally, I now feel like I’m more myself than I’ve ever been, which is kind of not shy. About five years ago, a folklore professor of mine explained the following to a class on teaching folklore and ethnomusicology: When you feel overwhelmed by personal distractions – “What if my hair looks weird?” “I pronounced that word strangely.” “I have a red bump on my forehead.” “They think my ideas are lame.” “Why did I wear this shirt?” “Etcetera.” – it is more than likely that you are the only person who is really paying attention to all that in such depth. Know why? Because everyone else is equally self-absorbed. Everyone else is way more concerned with their own well-being than yours. As it should be to a certain extent. Self-absorption is akin to self-preservation. You are the most important person in your life. I don’t care what shirt you have on, unless it’s awesome, then I’ll tell you. I already forgot about how you pronounced that word. Pimple? Forgot it. Ideas? I’ll let you know if I feel a pressing need to engage in debate.
Personally I think the title of this post should be WEIRD AS SHIT, but that schoolcraft asshole took it out.
Of course, when there is suddenly way more traffic to schoolcraftwax than normal, I have some weirdo post up about literature as the first thing readers see. Great.
Wills Glasspiegel and Marlon Bishop, the guys who compiled the NPR piece, also did a one hour special on Afropop Worldwide last summer about Chicago house and Detroit techno. I was proud to be involved as a consultant and tour guide when they came to Detroit. Here is my writeup about that project: Midwest Electric. The soundcloud link for that radio program is also available there.
It would please me greatly to announce to you the following book:
It is a compilation of articles from Keyboard Magazine featuring notable producers, DJs, and music production equipment. It also features two more current articles done specifically for the book. One is a Q&A with Robert Henke of Monolake and the other is a Q&A with me about electronic dance music with a focus on Detroit.
1. Kraftwerk
“Electronic Minstrels of the Global Village”
By Jim Aikin, March 1982
2. Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The Units, Wall of Voodoo, Japan, Our Daughters Wedding
“New Synthesizer Rock”
By Robert Doerschuk, June 1982
3. The Ethnomusicology of Dance Music
“Denise Dalphond Goes Inside EDM Culture’s Roots”
By Peter Kirn, June 2011
4. Frankie Knuckles, Jesse Saunders, Farley “Jackmaster” Funk
“The Fathers of Chicago House”
By Greg Rule, August 1997
5. Juan Atkins
“Juan Atkins: Techno Starts Here”
By Robert Doerschuk, July 1995
6. Electronic Body Music
“Front 242: The Aggressive Edge of Rhythm and the Power of Recycled Culture”
By Robert L. Doerschuk, September 1989
“The Art of Extreme Noise”
By Francis Preve, September 2003
7. Rise of the Machines
“Roland CR-78, TR-808 and TR-909: Classic Beat Boxes”
By Mark Vail, May 1994
“Akai MPC60”
By Freff, November 1988
“Propellerhead: Propelling Changes”
By Mark Vail, April 1999
8. Charlie Clouser on Techno
“Techno How To”
By Charlie Clouser, September 1993
9. The Orb
“Inside the Ambient Techno Ultraworld”
By Robert Doerschuk, June 1995
10. Orbital, Meat Beat Manifesto, Underworld
“Plugged!”
By Greg Rule and Caspar Melville, October 1996
11. Aphex Twin
“Still Hacking After All These Years”
By Greg Rule, April 1997
12. Chemical Brothers
“Water into Acid: The Chemical Brothers Blow Up”
By Greg Rule, June 1997
13. Daft Punk
“Robopop: Part Man, Part Machine, All Daft Punk.”
By Chris Gill, May 2001
14. Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva
“The Sounds of Science: Richie Hawtin Puts the Tech in Techno”
By Chris Gill, December 2001
“Technical Itch: John Acquaviva gets his FinalScratch”
By Stacia Monteith, December 2001
15. BT
“The Mind of BT”
By Stephen Fortner, December 2005
16. Amon Tobin
“The Big Score”
By Bill Murphy, April 2007
17. Flying Lotus
“Flying Lotus: Darkness & Light”
By Noah Levine, August 2008
“Flying Lotus: On Splicing Bebop and Hip-Hop DNA”
By Drew Hinshaw, July 2010
18. Autechre
“Autechre: Easy to Be Hard”
By Ken Micallef, April 2008
“5 Questions with Rob Brown of Autechre”
By Greg Rule, June 1996
19. Crystal Method
“Crystal Method: United by Synths, Divided by Night”
By Peter Kirn, November 2009
20. Robert Henke (Monolake)
“The Composer, Artist, and Ableton Live Imagineer Looks to the Future”
By Peter Kirn, June 2011
Techno Boulevard, uh boulevard. I am so excited to have this book available and to have my words and ideas be a part of it. Also, it’s cheap! $11.55 on Amazon. You know me, I like information to be widely available FOR FREE or at least at a small small price. I feel like I’ve finally come to a point in my academic and writing life where I don’t cringe at what I wrote six months ago. I got my copy of this book in the mail and I thought I might look at it and wish that I had expressed something differently or that I might not really like it anymore. To my surprise, that did not happen!! I still like it. I stand behind it. Like so many words.
I would like to do more story telling here in the land of schoolcraftwax. My dissertation is coming to a close and I feel like temporarily or maybe just occasionally taking a step away from strictly Detroit and strictly electronic music to write about other things. I remain infinitely passionate about Detroit and about electronic music, but I also like other things and enjoy writing about what I’m experiencing, observing, thinking, or liking. LOTS has changed since I started this blog a year ago. One year ago?!?!? Happy Birthday Bitch! January 29 is schoolcraftwax’s birthday. Feel free to celebrate. I know I’m excited.
You may know me as Laura Ingalls Wilder. I love the woods. I love being outside. I love mud on my boots and waltzing through the forest. Quiet waltzing! I also have always loved the Little House on the Prairie books, not the show, just the books. I watched my share of TV as a kid, but for some reason, I never got into the show. I devoured the books and still love them. I would totally build a house into a grassy hill. INTO IT.
I have wanted to read Octavia Butler since I learned about her in college. This summer, I finally popped that cherry. She’s fantastic. I want more.
I love to tell stories. Always have. I love to read stories, too. I used to write letters and I used to get a lot of letters, too. I kept up regular written correspondence with friends, boys, family throughout my youth. Email and other electronic communication has replaced that for the most part. I say that matter-of-factly, not in a lamenting or remorseful way. I recently spent some days sorting through boxes in the basement, dresser drawers, closets, and my beloved, big, old, wooden desk. To my surprise, I found a tremendous amount of things that my children and I no longer need. My desk feels wonderful, like a proper work space where shit can actually get done. It’s no longer the place where I put stuff that doesn’t have anywhere else to go. But even more exciting, I found lots of old letters from people: love letters from boys, letters from friends who lived a few blocks down, letters from friends in other states and in other countries, and letters from my aunt and my great-grandmother. My great-grandmother, who died about five years ago, was such a sweet, cool woman. She was feisty, had the best laugh, and said things like “Don’t tell me!” when faced with some information that was mildly unbelievable. Her name is Alice. She had the softest wrinkled skin imaginable. It was better than silk. Better than kitten fur. I inherited her pen after she died. I lost it for at least three years, then found it again in November between the lining and the leather of a bag after coming home from a conference in Philadelphia. It’s a slender, delicate, silver pen that twists to write. I love and cherish it and hollered loudly when I found it!
I used to want to be Anne of Green Gables and got all dreamy about the idea of Gilbert Blythe. I read the books as a young girl. When I found out that there were movies, I totally freaked out and fell even more in love with the story. They had Canadian accents … you know, because it takes place on Prince Edward Island. I’m Canadian. Oh my god. I loved it.
So, storytelling. That’s kind of my thing. I almost took down schoolcraftwax this month because I didn’t feel like I had a whole lot to say publicly about Detroit music other than what I post on facebook. But I decided that I love writing and I love blogging and I want to continue to have this forum to write, announce, discuss, and share, even if it’s not consistently Detroit related. Schoolcraft IS a road in Detroit. That’s why I chose it for the title of this blog. But, I’m schooly in other ways, too. I like wax. I like lots of different kinds of music, and I like all kinds of other “shit that I love” and shit that maybe some of you love, too. I will have my Ph.D. in May. Dissertation on Detroit electronic music will be done. I’ll let you know where and how you can access it to read it online. I’ve got a publisher for my book, which will be similar to my dissertation, but it will not be the same. I’m on the search for research and teaching jobs. I’m applying for some great ones that I’m totally qualified for, which feels so great, none of which are in the state of Michigan. A move is in my future, and while I love southeast Michigan, love Detroit, and have an incredible community of friends here, I genuinely feel that it’s time to move and start new things – like my academic career! And maybe even a new, but related, research project. I already have plans for book number two, and it better not take so damn long!!
I’ll conclude with my very favorite Emily Dickenson poem:
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us–don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
I had this other post in the works about telling stories and some developments on my academic front, but that is now on the sidelines until I have another chunk of time to finish it. What is urgent right now is information about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s sister bill, Protect IP Act (PIPA).
“PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting “creativity”. The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites– they just have to convince a judge that the site is “dedicated to copyright infringement.”
“The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.
“According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that’s for a fix that won’t work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.”
Here are some informative links about the act and ways that it affects our lives as internet users:
Apple is one of the major corporations in support of SOPA via their membership with the Business Software Alliance (BSA). Here is a call to protest and boycott Apple:
